Katrina Owens (00:01.122)
Hello, my famous friends and welcome to Fame Ready, the podcast to show entrepreneurs that anything is possible. If you're watching on YouTube or like the social media content, you're gonna see that I'm experimenting with a little bit of a new angle here. Okay, we've got some greenery behind me. I've been told that that's gonna help like break up the shot, but I don't know if it's just gonna look like I have a tree coming out of my head.

And I'm feeling a little bit discombobulated because this is my first time sitting down to record in what has felt like weeks. yeah, the studio, you cannot see it. This is like the one clean corner, okay, that I have. Because it's chaos in here otherwise. We've got like signage, we've got pillows, we've got balloons that I had to take out of here. And I just like.

don't fully feel like I have my bearings, but we're getting back into the swing of podcast episodes. I mean, you wouldn't have even noticed because past Katrina has done such a good job of like batch recording to making sure we never miss an episode. But now I'm back into like, okay, we got to build the bank back up. It really like took advantage of the fact that I did so much previous hard work to be able to like take a few weeks off of recording. But now we're back.

And it's, yeah, the past couple of weeks, I mean, have just been a whirlwind. And I wasn't sure like what I was gonna talk about in this episode because there's so many different things that I think I need to recap and cover. Last week I was in Los Angeles for Adobe Max as a Adobe Acrobat partner. The week before that I hosted Big Brand Energy Sessions, my own event in Abbotsford, BC. The week before that I was at Nice Girl Funeral in Toronto. Before that,

I was in Madison, Wisconsin, so you see the list goes on and on. And I want to get to recapping all of those things, but I don't think I've had the opportunity to reflect on the stories and the moments that have come out of those opportunities yet. And because we're edging on what's about to be the end of 2025, almost said 2024, I wanted to do a really important episode because...

Katrina Owens (02:18.732)
There's so much to celebrate. mean, the past month has been like an incredible whirlwind, so many amazing results, relationships, moments, but none of this would have been possible if I hadn't made this like very big commitment to myself and my personal brand 12 months ago. So on October 31st, 2024,

is when I had this like come to Jesus moment with my mentors where we were like, okay, my revenue was down. I wasn't signing new clients. Things were not flowing. I was not happy. I didn't love running an agency. And that was the moment I've talked about this in previous episodes. So we're not even going to unpack it that much right now just for the sake of like getting to the point. But my mentors and I had basically come to the conclusion that for the next year is however long it takes.

I was only going to focus on selling two things, my personal branding and PR coaching. So kind of one thing, because they do go together. But I sell it in a one-on-one format and in a group format, and I do nothing else. And this isn't to say that I don't have other revenue streams, because over the past couple of months, I've been really, really blessed to be able to open up new revenue streams in my business for brand partnerships, speaking revenue, event revenue.

and whatever else is coming my way. That's pretty cool. But all of those things have happened because I have this very, very clear personal brand. And I can tell that because it's coming to the end of the year and people are starting to plan out their 2026, the personal brand is coming back to the forefront. And I'm starting to see, and if you're listening to this episode and feeling like maybe I'm talking about you, I might be. Don't worry. I will not drop your name.

But there are some really big mistakes I see business owners making when it comes to growing their personal brand. it almost like, do you remember when everyone was sharing these like Little Miss memes on Instagram? That's kind of what I envisioned this episode to be. There's like all these like Little Misses versions of business owners.

Katrina Owens (04:39.66)
when it comes to building a personal brand and the mistakes that I see. And what's really fascinating now is as we close out this year, I now have a full like, I guess that's a, is that a 180 or 360? You know, a full calendar year view of people who I admire, adore, think they do great work, but Jesus Christ, they have been talking about building a personal brand for months, if not years.

Maybe they've booked multiple calls with me. They're always sliding into my DMs. I see them signing up for all of my offers, but they never decide to move forward. And I see you. And this episode is for you because I'm sick of your shit. I'm sick of your shit. Just like you're probably sick of your shit because now another year has gone by and you're like, damn, I'm still not speaking on as many stages as I want to. Maybe I, maybe you didn't book any at all.

Maybe you have seen the work that I've been able to do with brands and you wanted on that. Or maybe you're like, I didn't make an investment last year. And now the price of whatever program you were interested in has gone up. That what happens people like the prices are never gonna come down. Okay, not in this economy. So this episode is for you.

If you're really freaking frustrated with yourself, if you're like, why am I here yet again? It is November. We're about to head into the holiday season. And I feel like I have not made the headway on my personal brands that I had really envisioned for myself. This is for you. This is where I'm going to give you the tough coaching love. Like if you've ever wanted to join the Fame Ready Entrepreneur program, this is actually a great way to get some like kind of mock coaching, I guess, because what I've done

I've called out a bunch of different types of people that I see when it comes to personal branding to call you out on your habits so you can recognize what's coming up for you and getting in your way of actually building the dreamy personal brand that you've been wanting to have, thinking about, putting in the back of your mind, maybe telling yourself it's not possible, not realistic, whatever it is, this is where we're gonna break it all down. And so if you fit into one of these several categories,

Katrina Owens (07:03.744)
It's not a coincidence because I basically, I'm gonna tell you the behind the scenes of how I created this list. I was thinking about very specific people who might have been circling me for the past year. Or maybe there are people that I know need my help. Ooh, did I write that one down? Let me see. Okay, that falls into a category. So I'm just.

reading my notes because I really like dove deep on this one. This is why I was like, we're not recapping anything today. Nice Girl Funeral, Adobe Max, all those things can wait. Big brand energy sessions. Who gives a shit? Right now, I need you to give a shit about you and your personal brand. And yes, I could sit here and recap all of the amazing stuff that I've done in the past four weeks. But that's not going to make a difference to you if you're not willing to take your personal brand as serious as I am. So this is the come to Jesus moment. I'm in kind of my tough love era. If you haven't

noticed. I am just sick and tired of seeing talented business owners continue to put off this work. And it's just because you've developed some really, really bad habits. if you've ever been curious about what it's like to be coached by me, either one-on-one or inside the Fame Ready Entrepreneur program, this is a great way to get a taste for that. So I'm really excited. Let's dive in. Okay, so I'm calling this

the habits that are holding you back from building a personal brand. And actually, you know, I love to like task Heather with the like marketing tactics. So Heather, I think what would be really fun. You know what I'm talking about when we say when we say the like little miss, it was like, little miss this or like, you know, little miss. I don't know. I'm sure I did one back in the day, actually.

Should I just find it? Maybe I'll just find it. So like, Heather, you know what I'm talking about. It was a really popular meme. And I think what would be so funny, and you don't need to cut this part out because I think this is important for people to actually understand how you and I work together on this creative process. So what would be so funny for the get fame ready Instagram channel is if we actually did these like little miss caricatures. When was that popular?

Katrina Owens (09:29.388)
I it was a long time ago, and you know I hid it behind a brand aesthetic photo because that's what I did back then for sure.

Katrina Owens (09:42.028)
I don't know if I'm going to be able to find it right now. It was definitely like a photo.

Katrina Owens (09:53.294)
How long ago was that? Like what year? There's gotta be something that tells us like, this is when this type of meme was popular. So you can scroll back to your feed to find it. Anyways, okay. That was just a quick scroll of my feed. I'm gonna get distracted. Heather, just Google little miss memes. And then I think it'd be fun to like do a post that like talks about each one. So let's just get into it because I...

I think now we've like conjured up the excitement. People are dying to know if I'm talking about them. So let's just get into it. So these are the habits that are holding you back from building your personal brand. And if you want to start speaking on more stages, if you want to get on top podcasts, be recognized as the go-to in your space, land dreamy brand deals without having to have millions of followers. You got to get over your shit. let's dive into to number one, little miss, non-committal.

Little miss, non-committal. Yep, you know who you are. You are the person who knows that this is your next step. Okay? Maybe you are someone who has come to every single webinar I've ever hosted. You are someone who maybe has even done discovery calls with me. Maybe you even listen to this podcast religiously and you think to yourself, this is what I've got to do.

You, my friend, are little miss non-committal and this is, you're just delaying what could be so great for you right now because you're like, I'm going to wait until I have more time. Spoiler alert, you're never going to have more time. If you're a business owner, you're growing and scaling a business, you are never going to have more time. Your personal brand is what's going to give you the time. Okay? Your personal brand is what's going to enable you to lift your prices because you have created brand authority for yourself.

Maybe you have all of these different revenue streams like I now do where you don't have to spend all your time coaching. Like, little miss, non-committal, you need to commit. You're either building a personal brand or you're never going to do it. And I would hate for you to choose the latter because that's a mistake. Your personal brand is going to become your most important asset ever. If you ever decide to exit whatever business that you're building.

Katrina Owens (12:15.19)
If you do want to create other revenue streams that go beyond whatever service or product you're offering, you need your personal brand to be able to transition into these other things. So if you're non-committal because you say you don't have enough time, you've got to make time. You must have a block in your business where you're not scaling efficiently. Maybe you are not delegating enough. Maybe you're not charging enough for your services and it's leaving you time poor. And that is going to continue to be a hindrance, okay?

If you're non-committal because you say you don't have the money, put on your big girl pants and invest in your personal brand like it's a real damn business, okay? I cannot wait. I am like patiently waiting for my bookkeeper, Brittany. Shout out at Well Kept Bookkeeping. If you need a Canadian bookkeeper, free advertising for you, Brittany. I got you, If you want to grow a personal brand as psychotically rapidly

That's two adjectives in once, but you know, as psychotically as I did this year where literally everything is just dominoes on top of each other. And you know what? I'm taking a little like easy November, December holiday season to like be festive and relax. But I've already mapped out my first six months of 2026 and it's even more incredible than what's just been done in 2025. And I'm honestly thrilled.

I could not be more excited, but it's because of all of the money, the cold hard cash I invested into my business to grow it to this point. And I know it's scary to like maybe put something on a credit card or to carry a balance or, you know, any of these things with money to invest not knowing if there's actually going to be a return. It's scary. I know I've been scared this entire year.

But I didn't let the fear stop me from building the personal brand that I really, really wanted for myself. And I will continue to live by that. And it's been so cool to now, like I'm really in the like receiving, reaping the rewards of all of my success right now. And it's been very cool to be able to pay down a lot of these investments that I had made earlier on in the year. And for so long, like I, there was a moment, was about four weeks ago actually.

Katrina Owens (14:36.93)
when I thought to myself, should I just transfer this really big lump sum of money out of my personal savings to just pay off everything in my business? And I was kind of sitting on that idea. And obviously, I didn't do it right away because there was going to be tax consequences and the whole lot. And I was like, we should talk to professionals before we make a decision like that. And I just kind of thought to myself,

let's just see what happens. Because I was putting the cart before the horse because I was thinking about all of this in a moment of fear because I was like, what if my event doesn't net the results that I want to? What if I lose money on the event? What if, what if, what if? And so I was going worst case scenario, literally contemplating draining an account to just like pay off everything and be like at a nice flat, like ground zero, basically zero balance, ground zero.

And I didn't do it. And because of the epic results I have created over the last couple of weeks, I have just been like every single week paying down all of these different balances, know, just like chipping away at everything. And it's been really fun for me to like experience that because I was like, I'm so glad I just held on. Because here's the thing, most of us don't need, at least if you're listening to this podcast, I'm, you know,

I'm just going to disclaimer this because I'm making the wholehearted assumption that the main demographic that listens to this podcast are business owners who make a certain amount of revenue every single year who are comfortable making investments in their business. I'm making a lot of assumptions about the listenership. So if you don't agree with this next statement, the statement isn't for you. But this is what I say to the women, the business owners that I coach and people that come across me. Most of us don't need to make $200 tomorrow.

you know, to like, put food on the table, feed our families, pay our bills. Like, most of us can delay receiving some money, not forever, but for like a couple days or a couple weeks. And that's just what I had to remind myself. I kept having this conversation with others. I would literally say the thing. And like, maybe it's not 200. I would use the example of like, most of us don't need to make $1,500 tomorrow to be able to like,

Katrina Owens (16:59.96)
continue to live the lives that we're making or we're living, right? You can disagree with that if you want to, but I stand by it based on who my audience is. And I think some of us, our nervous system starts to collapse and we think that we do, but we don't. And if you can just hold the vision and hold the line and just know like you made these investments, they're going to pay off. It's probably not gonna be tomorrow in a week.

Maybe it's in a month, maybe in six months. But if you can just hold the line and hold the vision, you are going to see so much more success. So a little miss non-committal, if this is you, if you're the one who's like gone back and forth because maybe you're making time a thing or you're making money a thing or whatever other excuse, you're letting interfere with your commitment to building your personal brand, you need to pick a lane. You're either going to make the incredibly

gratifying commitment to grow your personal brand and you're going to do that now. Okay, coming into 2026, this is the perfect time or you're not. And if you choose not to, I wholeheartedly believe you probably never will because you're going to let the same excuses, regardless of how your circumstances change. I think you'll continue to make the same excuses for yourself. So that's you. Okay. Are we having fun yet? I kind of am.

On to the next one. This is kind of like clearing for me, by the way, because this is just like, I'm sick of seeing this stuff, you guys. I'm sick of having these conversations. I'm sick of seeing talented people hide their talents behind closed doors. Okay? So the next one, little miss inconsistency. Ooh. What do I even say to you, little miss inconsistency? You are the one who, maybe you've even worked with me before.

or maybe you've consumed some of my content and maybe you spend a couple of weeks going all in on your personal brand. You're showing up consistently on social media. Maybe you've made a couple of investments into your business and then you let it fall off and you just go dark. You go dark for a couple of weeks or a couple of months and then you do the thing. You do this thing that I just hate to see where you come back online and you're like, I'm back you guys. Did you miss me? And we like announced that we're back.

Katrina Owens (19:23.084)
And we really don't need to do that, and I would encourage you not to do that. There are times when I go quiet on social media for a couple days. I don't make an announcement when I return, because now we're just drawing the attention to the fact that I've been offline for a couple days, and you don't owe an explanation to anybody about that.

But what it does show is it draws attention to your inconsistency. I'm sure, like I actually have like a running like list of people who I see do this over and over again. And obviously if you're someone that I've worked with before, like you're top of mind, you're top of mind because I'm like, girl, if you would just like be so consistent and like maybe don't put so much pressure on yourself to like create five pieces of content per week.

Maybe all you can manage is one or two pieces of content and that's the consistency that's right for you. I would rather see you consistently do that, consistently pitch yourself to podcasts, consistently speak at events instead of going all in for a couple months, being really, really visible and then doing nothing at all. Because when you come back after this like period of invisibility, it's gonna be so much harder to regain momentum.

I'm a big believer in maintaining a certain level of visibility all the time. And you know what's really interesting is to most people, visibility isn't me just consistently sharing things about myself. I had this really cool conversation yesterday with someone who was doing a VIP session with me. She said that I have this sense of like, I'm kind of elusive, kind of mysterious when it comes to my personal brand, and that is a strategy, okay? I don't share like,

all at once and then nothing at all. Like there is a very, like in my brain, I have a box of the things that I share and talk about and everything else that's not in that like mental box doesn't get shared and talked about. And it's great because it makes it really easy for me to create content without distracting my audience with like things that they don't need to care about. And so sometimes I think our inconsistency can come from like, if we have chaos in our lives, like if you're someone who

Katrina Owens (21:36.738)
Maybe you have some drama in your relationship or in your family. Like, that's something that you also have to work on as an adult. Sorry, hard truth, it just is. But if you're letting that, like, you know, there are people that I feel like are always kind of showing up and talking about feeling sick over and over again, or like feeling burnt out. And it's this burnout conversation over and over again. I'm like, how many times are you to come on here and tell me that you're burnt out or starting over?

and expect me to feel a certain way when really I just see it as you being inconsistent. If you're a business owner, you have a responsibility to be consistent in your business. So a little miss inconsistency. I really want you to look at that and think about what is a sustainable strategy for you to start to implement for yourself. So you can always have a certain level of visibility that brings in great opportunities, allows you to receive opportunities, but also create them for yourself.

Being visible doesn't mean being at 150 % all the time. Being visible means like choosing the percentage of visibility that feels right for you and holding it regardless of what week is, regardless of the season, regardless of what you're going through personally, because your personal brand is not your personal life. You got to treat your personal brand like a business. And when you start doing that, that's how you're going to be able to hold more consistency because now you're taking responsibility for the business component, okay?

That's actually really beautiful segue, by the way, into the third one. This one doesn't sound as great, but like Little Miss treating it like a hobby, okay? Your personal brand needs to be a real business with a strategy, with tactics, with investments. It's not a side project. So this is what I see all the time, people. And here's the thing, like I work with mostly service providers, coaches, consultants. So...

I will see people who treat their personal brand as separate from this consultancy when it's like, your personal brand is the consultancy. Your personal brand is your coaching programs. So the more that you can actually integrate the pieces together, which is something I'm really great at doing, the more that you're going to see really great success in being consistent and people viewing it as a real business that you do.

Katrina Owens (24:01.586)
I really believe the reason why I've been able to secure like amazing brand partnerships is because I am always treating my personal brand like a business. So these brands see me even though I don't have the hundreds of thousands of followers that you know, other creators might have or influencers might have, they see how serious I actually treat my personal brand.

And they respect that enough to say, okay, we want to work with you because we see what you're doing. And it's a real business. It's not me kind of working on this off the side of my desk. Like I got to share yesterday on this VIP call that I did with a client. I shared with her how much I've made from brand partnerships and so much fell off her chair. And I was kind of surprised because I was like, well, wouldn't you think if I was working with these big brands, like I think I would have ballparked that that's the number, but I guess not.

So I just want to tell you, whatever you think, when you see someone working with a major brand, whatever you think they're getting paid, it's more than that. Let's just leave it at that. But that's what's really cool about that is that's what's possible for you too, right? If you're willing to stop treating your personal brands like this side hobby or the side hustle and actually like treat it as the main business, God, that's going to get you so much further.

I think what's really funny is like this total misconception. I see this all the time where people are like, I don't invest the money into the strategy, into the personal brand assets because I think I need to spend money like on a VA or my systems. like, I'm kind of like invest in the things that make your personal brand as visible as possible. And that's what's going to be able to help you.

afford some of these more operational things in your business. The personal brand strategy is the freaking foundation, okay? So if you don't have one, if you don't know exactly like who you are and what you stand for, if you don't know like how to create social media content that talks about you and your work consistently and you don't know how to do it well, you're not ready for anything else.

Katrina Owens (26:17.868)
I was on a discovery called Today with someone where I basically said she kept wanting to like jump to the part where I help her with public relations. And this is someone who is not even close to being ready for PR. She needs the personal brand foundation. She needs to know what it looks like to show up on social media. And I'm so convicted in my process that I said, look, I don't tell anyone that they're ready for public relations until the personal brand is in place and there's a strong foundation there because I don't believe that

You you going on podcasts or speaking on stages is going to be worth your time until you have your foundation in place. And it's so interesting as I talk about this, obviously I alluded to this earlier, there are people that have inspired each and every one of these bad habits. And so there was someone in mind that, I mean, I love you if you feel like I'm speaking to you right now, I am. She's someone who has invested in some like pretty big things with me in the past, but

actually won't invest in like the basics because she thinks she has them already. She thinks she knows what her personal brand is. And, you we worked together at a time when I don't think I was as convicted in my process. And so I probably let people like decide like what they wanted to work on when, whereas now like, if I'm your coach, I'm...

you are going to work on the things that I think are most reasonable, most effective for you to work on right now when it comes to your personal brand and PR. But her and I had actually worked on like a signature talk, signature workshop kind of thing, because I let her tell me that she had her personal brand figured out. But when I look at her content, there's no personal brand in sight. And this signature talk that we had worked on over a year ago,

I don't know that she's ever had the chance to use it or share it. It probably just lives in a file in a Google Drive. And that's a shame because I think that if you're just willing to like learn how to ride a bike first, then you can like do the sexy shit, right? Like if you can ride a bike, know, once you know how to ride a bike, then you can like pop a wheelie or like go down a ramp or like go mountain biking.

Katrina Owens (28:39.096)
but you've got to do the basics first. And that at this point in my coaching business is my level of conviction on that. I don't let people skip steps. I just don't. So if you are treating your business like a hobby, I would really encourage you to start looking at it. Like this is a legitimate business that could make you a ton of money if you just let it. If you just let yourself invest the time, energy and money into like,

treating it like the really big juicy business it could be. my God, it's going to go so much further than like you trying to just work on your content or like work on pitching off the side of your desk. So that's the third one.

Moving on, two more. Little Miss Distraction. Ooh, this almost could be like Little Miss treats it like a hobby, but Little Miss Distraction, you are the person who has like shiny object syndrome. So when you have shiny object syndrome, it means you are like, you know that there are some fundamentals in your business that you've got to figure out, but

you let yourself get distracted by things that the industry or good marketing tells you to get distracted by. So I have a really great example. And I'm so curious. like here, this is my play to each and every single one of you that's listening to this, because if you're someone who's listening to this and you're like, I'm pretty sure Katrina is talking about me right now, send me a message. Send me a message and tell me and tell me which one you think you were. And I'll give you some personalized advice on like how

I think you need to like fix it, for lack of a better word. And if I'm not talking about you and you send me a message, I'll just be straight up and say, I'm not talking about you, but clearly you've got some things to work out, which is also gonna be a great moment for you, right? Okay, because now you're gonna know exactly where you fit and what you've got to tackle. Okay, so little miss distraction.

Katrina Owens (30:44.904)
You are the person who is like, yes, I want to work on my personal brand. Yes, I understand what the process is. I understand the value I'm all in. But you know what? I'm to go take a course on AI. For what? Tell me what the course on AI is going to do if you don't have your personal brand foundation in place and you run a consultancy and you want to speak on more stages. I'm all for like AI. I don't actually even think you need to

take a course to learn about it. I think there are a lot of programs out there that are really good with messaging, that are really good at selling you that you need something. Maybe that's what I'm doing right now too, but at the same time, I'm like, God, AI is what's going to enhance your personal brand. I hey, I was just at Adobe Max in Los Angeles on behalf of Adobe Acrobat, and the whole conversation was around AI.

doesn't replace human connection. And to me, that just reinforced the work that I do. Because your personal brand is always going to be that human touch point, the root of authenticity, the human behind your business. So if you're going to prioritize AI over really being rooted and what you're known for as the go-to, what you stand for, all of that, I actually think that you're doing yourself a disservice. And also...

This is like one thing we should just really like lean into understanding. changes so fast. I'm going to highly encourage anyone considering to take any course pertaining to AI to just don't spend your money on a course or a coach. Though we love them, we love a coach. I know that there are great AI coaches out there, but by the time you are done, whatever AI course you've just taken, you're probably going to need another one.

So now look what you've just gotten yourself into, because it just changes so fast. Whereas like, you know, the fundamentals of personal branding are really like they're rooted in traditional marketing foundations, right? So like differentiation, unique position, your messaging, like that stuff actually doesn't change. Once you have a handle on that, then you can like let everything else be layered on top, but like little miss distraction, just stop. Stop getting distracted by like,

Katrina Owens (33:10.338)
the shiny, sexy things that people put in front of you and prioritize the strategy, the roots that are really going to help you build this personal brand based business for like the months and the years to come. So if you're someone who's like, my God, have like, I've done like

you know, I've purchased like six different courses, I don't finish most of them, I don't implement anything, then stop taking a mother effing course and hire a coach that's gonna hold you accountable to actually bringing your personal brand strategy to life. I promise it's gonna take you so much further. And then you know what? You can hire the team, you can build the team that can take these courses on your behalf because I actually don't think as the CEO of your business, you should be like getting bogged down in the weeds of like,

all of these like extra things. That's a conversation for a different day. We should do like a how to be the CEO of your personal brand episode. Let's log that as an idea. So I think that would be really important for some of you too. Okay, last one. Okay, number five, Little Miss Ego. my God, Little Miss Ego. She's the one I can relate to the most.

You're just not wanting to start because you feel like if the opportunities aren't big enough, you're going to feel embarrassed because you have this chip on your shoulder where you feel for whatever reason it might be that you don't, you're not someone who needs to speak for free. Maybe you're someone who thinks you should be secure in brand deals already. Maybe you're someone who feels like you should be getting a traditional book deal over self publishing. All of those different.

things on your ego telling you, creating excuses for you, why you are avoiding building your personal brand using public relations because when you start, so the really interesting part about all of these little misses, all of these like habits that I've noticed,

Katrina Owens (35:17.826)
they generally occur around people who are either brand new into building a personal brand or they've reached a like kind of like level of stagnancy. So maybe you built a really juicy personal brand up to a certain point, but you're not getting asked to speak on stage. Like, you know, there are people out there who have hundreds of thousands of followers and never get asked to speak. that's a personal brand problem. Hiring a publicist or an agency isn't going to fix that because if you have a platform like that and you're showing up consistently talking about your unique

expertise, you're going to get asked to speak on a stage. So we have to look at why you're not. And usually it's the ego. It is the ego who maybe you have actually been asked to speak at an event or like someone has like given you an opportunity to build up that part of your business and you've declined it because you felt like the audience wasn't big enough or maybe you felt like you should be getting paid for.

an experience when like you have no formal speaking experience. You know, I dropped the example of a book. There's a lot of people out there who are like, I want a traditional book deal because like, based on history and based on this old school publishing industry that feels like the option that would like feed your ego. Whereas like you could make far more money impact success by publishing a bestselling book yourself.

You know, I love to talk about that. So yeah, our ego distracts us from so much. You guys know I talk a lot about this in my keynote presentations. Like the very first speaking gig I ever got was to an audience of 200 people, downtown Vancouver, pretty sexy. And then I didn't end up receiving any clients from that speaking gig. Sure, I picked up some followers, but like...

I didn't have a clear personal brand, so that speaking engagement didn't grow my business in any way, okay? It also didn't lead to other opportunities in the way that speaking engagements should. You should be a referable speaker where if you speak at one event, someone sees you there and they're like, hey, I'd love to invite you to speak at mine, right? So those are just things to consider. The ego ruins so much, it really gets in the way of so much.

Katrina Owens (37:39.2)
So that's just the last one I really want to keep in mind because the little miss ego, she really shows up for the business owners who are further along. Or maybe you're someone who has years of experience doing what you're doing, but you don't have an online presence at all. And that's ego too, because you're like, I don't want to learn this new way of like building a business in the era of social media, because now I have to film video and you feel.

like you're lacking knowledge and experience. And I mean, you are, but if you want to build a personal brand in the year 2026, that's something you've got to get comfortable with. So checking when a little miss ego is blocking you from actually doing the work that you need to do to bring you to your next level, which is unique to you. Yeah, that's my last one.

And I'm just keeping an eye on the time because I have to run to a Zoom call in just about 10 minutes here. I might just leave it at that because I feel like we've really broken down. Like I was coming in hot on this episode, right? Like I'm here to just show you what I have been seeing, what I have been hearing, what I see. Because I'm always out there on social media identifying what people are doing, especially if you are someone who has ever

been a client of mine or booked a discovery call or if we've ever been chatted in the DMs, you are on my radar. I'm watching and I know you need me or you need something. And I'm waiting for you to realize that for yourself. And this episode was to just kind of mirror back all of the things I've been seeing across the board. So if you're feeling really, really seen and called out,

freaking good. You needed to hear it. And that's what this episode was all about because we're about to enter a whole new year. You have another 12 months ahead of you to build a really famous feeling personal brand, but it's not going to come without hard work. It's not going to come without investing in yourself. And it's not going to come without acknowledging where you are being resistant to the process. So thanks so much for tuning in.

Katrina Owens (39:58.698)
Like I said, if you are feeling like I just talked about you or used you as an example, send me a message. Let's talk about it because I've got some additional follow up thoughts. You can find me at Katrina Owens PR. You can find the Instagram at Get Fame Ready. You know, if you want to learn more about the Fame Ready entrepreneur program, which I referenced earlier in this episode, I'll link that in the show notes too. We are running a Black Friday promo and the price is going to go up after

the end of November 2025. So make sure you're jumping in if that's a program that you want to do because you're like, okay, I'm ready, Katrina, I'm done being a baby. I'm done being Little Miss Boohoo. I'm ready to have my most famous year yet. I want it for you. So let's do it. Okay, I will see y'all next week. Toodles.