KO (00:04.954)
Welcome back to Fame Ready, the podcast to show you that anything is possible, including fame. I'm your host, Top Personal Branding and PR expert Katrina Owens. And welcome back to another week, you guys. If you're watching on YouTube, Dexter is sitting dead center on my lap. So if you want your French Bulldog fill, great reason to subscribe on YouTube to watch us chat about our next episode or all of the

Juicy content that we're gonna dive into today. minutes before this, I caught our other dog Gypsy eating Dexter's breakfast downstairs. So, you know, it's just like another day. The dramatics here in the in the Owens household. And I say it's the Owens household because literally on like every single piece of admin that comes to this house.

Gabriel is often listed as Gabriel Owens because I do all of the paperwork. That's not his last name. And he would never take my last name. But it's always funny that everybody else thinks that that's it. It has a nice ring to it, I think, but don't tell him. He wouldn't love that. He would hate that we're having this conversation right now. But what I want to dive into today is a conversation that keeps coming up in like everything that I do.

So any podcasts that I guest on, panel opportunity, even me like networking at events, I'm always asked this question about personal branding and AI. Like what happens to a personal brand with the rise of AI? And I'm always assuming that when people are asking that question, it's because we know that AI clones are a thing, that people

Are you know falsifying their lives through AI generated images or videos or even falsifying how they look, which you know back in the day was just called Photoshop. So that one's not new. But I think people are asking this AI question because they they genuinely wonder like, what is the point of investing in a personal brand if it's not going to matter in a couple of years?

KO (02:22.764)
And that's why I actually love personal branding so much. Because to me, I actually think it is one of the main marketing strategies, because that's what personal branding is, a strategy. to me, it's one that's going to stand the test of time. Because if we live in a world where everything is AI generated, then how do we start to decipher what's real and what's not?

And at the end of the day, it comes down to who have you met in real life? And I think that's the biggest point of confusion, right? We think that personal branding exists online in our online presence, but that is just half of it. The other half is you as a human in person, connecting with people at events, speaking on stages, building real relationships. So I think that's what we forget because so often we like distill.

AI down, or we distill personal branding down to social media content. But really, social media content is just one tactic within your larger personal branding strategy. So what I wanted to chat about today is well, how do you safeguard your personal brand against the rise of AI? And how do you actually use your personal brand as an insurance policy against AI when maybe your competitors or people around you are actually using

AI as a tool to either enhance or falsify or you know generate a life and a personal brand that actually isn't true. Which is dark, right? But this I mean, you know what's interesting? Because we talk about this as being like a new development of AI, but for years, since we've had social media, there have been people, countless people, you know, thousands, millions.

Who show up a certain way online and then live a completely different life behind the scenes. So AI doesn't really change that, right? Like to me, it just amplifies a problem that already exists. But if you are a personal brand, you have the ability to start to form a very, very human connection with your audience. And that human connection is what's going to take you so much further than.

KO (04:48.844)
The people who are just using their AI clones to like talk about their expertise on the internet. And that's actually one of the biggest things that I see right now with people who think they've built their quote unquote personal brand, but there's a lack of human element to it. And I think I talked about this on a recent episode where we've gone so far into the like wanting to be an expert, an authority.

A thought leader that we can fall into this trap of creating content that's all like a talking head, you talking at the camera about, I don't know, your expertise, your frameworks, what you believe in in your industry. And that content is really, really important, but it cannot be your entire feed. And if it is, that might be why you're starting to suffer from a lack of engagement. Because to be honest,

People are not following you at this point to like learn tips and tricks. They're not. Social media content is meant to be storytelling. It's meant to form a connection. The tips and the tricks come when maybe someone listens to your podcast or reads your book. But if you really want to engage someone, you've got to get them on board with your story. And your story as a human, from the day you were born up until now, has nuance, has

plot lines that connect to people who want to be in your orbit. So how do you start to like weave this in? a really great example because I think even I have fallen into this trap before where I'm like, it's all authority building. I want to tell people like how I can help them. I want to show that I'm an expert. You can fall into that trap, but that kind of starts to get really boring after a while, right? And so how do we change this?

Well, one of the main ways we can start to differentiate our personal brand against AI and you know, really start to show people how human we are is to document the human experience. And my gosh, I have been doing this in a way that I simply cannot believe I was ready to do. But for those of you, I'm not sure I've even talked about it on the podcast before, but it's possible. So I

KO (07:14.694)
take singing lessons. I started taking singing lessons back in October, actually at the last Big Brand Energy event. I basically was like, I'm feeling called to like find my singing voice and learn to sing and really embrace that. And so I did. And I have to tell you guys, when I first started taking singing lessons, I was terrified at the thought of singing out loud.

In front of anybody. But I remember my very first lesson with my coach. I was so nervous. And he he is so wonderful. But he basically asked me, What do you think is your biggest block when it comes to learning to sing? And I looked at him and I said, The fact that at some point in these lessons, I'm going to have to sing in front of you. Because that's how terrified I was. That's how not confident I was. That was how much I didn't want to like be bad at something or be a beginner.

And that was back in October. And my singing lessons are like such a joyous part of my week. Like there is, it's hard to compete with the level of like joy, happiness, connection that I feel in those lessons. So a couple of weeks ago, I like went to my lesson and you know, content creator influencer Katrina always has her tripod, mini mics, everything in in her bag. So I got to my singing lesson and I was not looking cute.

Okay, so my Fridays in the evenings, I'll go to my personal trainer first. So I go to my personal trainer, and then I spend about an hour in a coffee shop, just like doing emails, wrapping up things for the week. And then I will go to my singing lesson because they're kind of in the same neighborhood. So that's my Friday evening routine. And it's the way I kind of like reset myself and and get into like a different flow and you know, do stuff that is not work related. And so

A couple weeks ago I go to my my singing lesson and I'm not looking cute. My hair is in this like messy, like pulled back, half, half up, half down situation, wearing like leggings and a baggy sweater. And I tell my vocal coach, I am going to start recording our lessons. And he's like, Great. It's like so many people do. it's not weird. And I'm like, yeah, I don't know what I'm gonna do with the content yet, but like I think it's important. And I very quickly learned as soon as I took the content that I wanted to share it.

KO (09:44.063)
And it's not like I wanted to share it because I think that I have this incredible voice or that I want to show off. I actually like don't enjoy the sound of my singing voice at this point in time, which I hear is very normal. But I started sharing. So so now by the time this episode comes out, I'll have shared three different videos, posts, content of me at these lessons. And they get a ton of engagement.

People love to watch them, they get a ton of views, people respond to them. Sometimes people are like, my gosh, you sound so good. And I'm like, that's crazy. sometimes people try to give me tips and tricks. And this is just an aside. I think one of the best things that you can do when someone's like sharing something like vulnerably that they've been working on is like not try to like give people tips and tricks. Like, so for example.

one time one of the videos I had posted. So my singing lessons are like pretty casual and I just like record them and we it's usually like me and I'm sitting in one chair and then my vocal coach is sitting at the piano and we're like sitting, okay, because this is like also not like not me, like at my next level yet. And so someone was like, if you stand up and sing it'll be so much easier. And I'm like

Okay, that's not like that doesn't make me feel good. not that, you know, I did mentally prepare myself to get like some trolls who are like, this is terrible, or like, what are you doing? But I I didn't get, I haven't gotten any of those, thank God. But you do get these people who like want to give you like tips. And I'm just like, okay, maybe not. Like, you know, I love that there are experts out there, but like this is my own journey. And that is exactly why I'm sharing it.

Because this is a journey. And I do think that I will make singing part of my career. I mean, my ultimate dream is obviously to start a band one day, open for the Arkels, have a fun little music career, whatever that looks like. That's like a very like fun and expansive dream for me. Obviously, we're we're far away from that right now, but my hope and

KO (12:07.742)
kind of point of documenting this growth journey is that, you know, one day when I inevitably have the singing career or have had some achievements in that space, people will be able to look back on this very publicly documented growth. And this is something that I think a lot of more established business owners, personal brands start to forget. Because there comes a point when, you know, you've kind of like done the scrappy thing, you've like built the brand, you've done all that.

It's it's more polished now. You know, you have the money, your your your nervous system is like more regulated. And so you don't feel like you need to share the like scrappy side of things. So instead of sharing whatever you're going through now, because at any stage in business, I don't care how old you are, how much money you make, how long you've had your businesses for, how much experience you have, it doesn't matter.

You're always going to be facing challenges in your business. But for some reason, when people get to a certain point, they like start to clamp down on what they share. And they're like, no, like whatever I'm facing behind the scenes is going to make me look less professional, less credible, blah, blah, blah. But we are not put on this earth to be perfect humans. Okay. And I say this as a recovering per recovering perfectionist. You're put on this earth to have a human experience. And as AI

Stands at the forefront with these clones who are like perfectly filtered, contoured versions of ourselves. What is going to be the difference between you and that? It's your human experience, the growth, the not being bad at singing, learning to sing, one day being good. Like those are all things that robots and AI will never experience in the same way that we do as humans.

So that's my very, very long way of saying like show people the growth. Stop hiding the growth behind the scenes because you know, you're embarrassed or you feel like it it means something about you. You know, I I had I was working with this one client recently, and to me, that was the thing in the way of all of the the success that I think she could have had when it came to speaking engagements and brand partnerships. Like,

KO (14:33.454)
There was a lack of connection. And we're so moving away online from this perfectly polished influencer culture where the reels and the feeds are aesthetic and curated. And I think the reason why is because that does feel to some of us fake. And I think the more authentic and truthful that we are, the more we open ourselves up to opportunities where people want to work with us because they see the connection. So

Showing the growth journey is like a really, really big part of that. The second way to kind of safeguard your personal brand against AI is to go meet people in person. And I know you're so effing sick of hearing me with this take, but it's true. Someone asked me, I was on a pretty significant podcast at some point over the last couple of months, and the host asked me this question: like, you know, what.

What can people do? And I was like, I know it just sounds so basic, but AI can't go out and meet people in person in a human body yet. But like at this point, yeah, like when we start networking with robots, we'll have a different conversation. But for now, the people that are going to remember you, refer you, hire you, work with you are the ones that you meet with.

in person. And I have a really, really beautiful, beautiful example of this because someone I had met so briefly at an event, a chamber of commerce event, a couple months ago, she, I don't know, we like really met so briefly, didn't really have a chance to chat, but we connected on LinkedIn afterwards. I told her about Big Brain Energy. She was like, I so want to come to this. She moved her day around. She bought her ticket. And then last week she was at

an event somewhere else that I was not at. But I guess there was a woman there that I don't know, was looking for some form of connection or community. And this person who has become such a great cheerleader of me and my work was like, you need to go to this event and sent her the link to Big Brain Energy. This person literally bought her ticket on the spot and she signed up for a discovery call with me. And I think we forget that that's how the best kind of business is done.

KO (16:59.15)
Personal referrals, people having an existing relationship with you where they trust you, they trust your expertise, they they really, really cheerlead you for other people. As social media gets more noisy, more crowded, those personal referrals are going to be so much more crucial. And I know it it kind of sounds old school, right? Because doesn't it feel like we've, we've

kind of come full circle where if I think about my grandfather who has passed away now, Rip, Rip Opa. he passed away before I really like became a business owner, which is too bad because I think he would think what I'm doing is really fabulous. but I know he's watching. yeah, I so my Opa, he

Had a construction company in Kitchener, Waterloo. And basically, when he immigrated to Canada from Germany, he started this company. And he really was the man who was like involved in Chamber of Commerce, involved in Rotary Club, was involved in all of these different things, the German Business Association, all of these different clubs and associations, he was a part of. And that is really how he became a leader in the community and grew his business, was because he was recognized and well known.

Literally among people. He built an incredibly successful business that was such a legacy for my family without social media, without even ever having a website. And it's funny because obviously now, like as personal brands, social media is important. Having a website is important because that online presence, like, we can't discount how crucial it is in the personal brand building experience. But when it comes to really becoming like

A well-known thought leader, a respected individual in your industry, you've got to be in person with people. That builds a type of credibility, a type of like brand authority that cannot be built online. And I've talked about this in previous episodes, but it goes back to this concept of local brand awareness and why that's important. If you wanna be seen as like a global icon, global personal brand, you've you've got to build that.

KO (19:22.048)
In a smaller community first. The easiest way to do that is in your local community. because if if you are just this kind of anomaly online, no one has ever actually spent in-person time with you, those connections are not as strong, they're not as real, they're just not as solid as if you are someone who, you know, frequently goes to events, meets people in person, goes for coff coffee with people in person. So

That's something that I just want you to think about because it's like it almost feels like we've gotten we've come full circle and have gotten a little bit old school, but I do think everything happens in cycles. We went so far into the like digital Zoom online space during COVID that now we're seeing this big pullback from that where it's like, okay, the people we trust the most are the ones we've seen in human form and who've had the chance to talk to and

like experience in person. So just to recap the kind of two points that we've hit on so far, if we're looking at our personal brand as like an insurance policy against AI, how how do we do this? What does that look like? The first is really showing your growth, whatever stage of business you're in. So sharing that online through your personal brand presence on social media. What does that growth look like? What challenges are you facing right now? And not the like watered down

version, but like the real and raw, like show the growth. The second is like getting out there in person, connecting with people, and really like letting people experience you as a human, not just online. And then that brings me to my final point. The the third piece of this is this is actually where PR becomes really, really important. Because I think we kind of got to this place where traditional media has

I mean, I was gonna say it harshly and then I'm like, maybe I shouldn't say it that harsh. And I'm like, no, but it is true. Traditional media is not what it once was. So like the publications we used to read and like really, you know, put a lot of emphasis on the television shows, like the news segments, even like if I think about radio, like those

KO (21:41.455)
Traditional media outlets used to be such an important piece of authority and credibility building back then. And if we see this like in-person human experience thing coming full circle, I actually think that we're seeing that too with the rise of PR. my gosh, what a cool. This is my brain working like in real time, because I did not think that this was going to be my third point. But what I mean by that is.

On the internet now, there are countless blogs, online publications. You know, everybody has a podcast. Everybody can like create a TV show if they want to. And so if that's true, how do we start to differentiate what media is credible, authoritative, top tier versus what isn't? And I actually think that this is where traditional media kind of comes back around because I work with a lot of personal brands who like stay in.

Personal brand building safety. They go on the podcasts that are easily accept accessible to them. They you know, do some blog swaps or they pitch themselves to the easy publications. But there comes a point in your personal brand building journey, if you want to be seen as like a leader in your industry, those traditional media pieces actually start to become really, really important. And this is why I don't think PR is actually going anywhere. It's just changed so much. So

I honestly think that all of these like publications that we used to hold in such high regard, like, you know, if I just talk about the industry that I'm in or what people covet the most, like Vogue, People Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Women's Health Magazine, you know, like the magazines that are still like on the shelf in the drugstore, in the grocery store, like they're not going anywhere. And yeah, there are

millions of online publications you can easily pitch yourself to. Like let's just say there's things like Canvas Rebel or Bold Journey, where you can simply pitch, you get emailed and interviewed, complete it, send it back. But those are two different types of publications. And one, unfortunately, carries a lot more weight and respect and recognition than the other. And I think, you know, media has become so

KO (24:06.088)
noisy that there is still this quiet authority and recognition that comes from traditional media publications. and so I think like as people go on to build their their personal branch, not forgetting about why going on TV, even though quote unquote people don't watch TV anymore, if you can go on TV, have a short interview and repurpose that content into social media content

That's still gonna go so much further in building your authority and recognition than probably guesting on like five very mediocre podcasts. Sorry, I just think that there is so much authority and credibility that comes through that type of content. Because while media is becoming so accessible, or not even becoming it is, media is so accessible to literally everybody. What differentiates

Like what media is more effective or least or less effective. And it really is. Well, what are the brands, the titles that we've respected forever that have long legacies? And I think it's using those types of opportunities to start to rise above maybe all of your competitors who are really on the like podcast guesting blog swaps train. Interesting, right?

And what's really interesting also note is so many of these publications, the traditional media publications, I should say, have an anti-AI stance, right? Because journalism needs to be protected. Obviously, people are not going to be allowing AI clones on TV. So there really is this like sacred element of traditional media that I think is going to start to be even more important.

As AI dominates the online space. So that's something to really, really think about. And when I think about the Fame Ready Entrepreneur Program, which is in an incredibly exciting period of time as we're about to welcome so many new members during the month of June, this is where you get to learn how to build your personal brand using traditional media, using podcasting, using speaking engagements. And so many previous clients have gone on to.

KO (26:27.308)
Secure TEDx stages, land massive brand partnerships, create their own highly engaged communities outside the world of AI without having to worry about robots taking anything from them. If anything, the women inside the Fame Ready Entrepreneur Program have built incredible personal brands that will stand the test of time. And I would absolutely love for you to be a part of it. So head to the link in show notes to find out more about the Fame Ready Entrepreneur Program.

If you're coming to Big Brand Energy Live, which when this episode comes out is a week away and you have a couple more days to scoop up your ticket, you can use code FAMEREDEY save $50 off. Everybody at Big Brand Energy Live will have the opportunity to join Fame Ready at an amazing price because the price is going up this summer. And you'll also have the opportunity to

get some extra bonuses that I'm I'm including just for the women in the room. So head to the link in the show notes to learn more about that. But I really hope you love this episode. I know it's a little bit different than some of the conversations that we've had previously, but I do think understanding that your personal brand is one of the like best insurance policies against AI is is what's really going to motivate you to make it a priority as you

tackle your business building for the rest of 2026. So with that, I will see you all next week. Please, if you love this episode, please rate, review, wherever you listen to podcasts, send me a DM at Katrina Owens PR if you love this episode. And I'll talk to you all next week. Okay. Toodos.