KO Your Brand

Katrina Owens (00:00.91)
What's up guys? Welcome back to another episode of KO Your Brand. This is a quick hit. This is pulling punches. I'm your host Katrina Owens, top personal branding and public relations expert. Today, I want to unpack a very interesting term that a friend of mine taught me last week. I was having lunch with a really old friend of mine who I met, God, 11 or 12 years ago now.

His name is Dr. Laurence Lowe. He is pretty well known in the public health space. I don't think he listens to my podcast, we met, I have to give you guys the story about how we met because it really is like such a long lasting relationship. We met back when I was a university student doing my undergrad.

In my last year of my undergrad, I was accepted to do a trip to the Dominican Republic where I effectively wrote a research paper under Dr. Lawrence about the effects of voluntourism on the Dominican communities. Kind of a big deal.

So anyways, I went down to the Dominican and got to do all of this research. We actually went into some of the villages and I actually did qualitative research, like interviewing community members with the help of a translator on how they view a lot of these tourist groups that come down to build homes or run different.

volunteer programs that essentially are designed to help or support the communities, but our research was to understand like if this was actually the case or by coming into these communities and performing this type of work, are we hindering the community's ability to develop? Big question, right? So what I ended up doing is I actually have

Katrina Owens (02:18.38)
He published, should I link it in the show notes? That would be a flex. I actually published a research paper with Dr. Lawrence. I presented it like in Denver, like years ago at a public health conference. Like this is a whole side of me that I do not talk about at all. But that's how Dr. Lawrence and I became like close is because I did this research under him.

I contributed to this paper and really was one of the people that helped get this published paper across the line. And we've just stayed in touch ever since then. He comes to Vancouver for work sometimes. So anytime he's out here, I will meet up with him and we'll have a drink or have coffee or whatever. We've been doing this for literal years, which is really cool. So he was coming to town. So we had lunch and this was our first time getting to like catch up in like a one-on-one.

situation for a very long time because like Lawrence is popular, okay? And he is actually a true extrovert. So like he is a master at bringing together like random groups of people who all get to know each other and have a great time. But this time he was like, why don't we catch up one-on-one? Cause I want to hear all about your business. So I had the opportunity to have lunch and kind of share more about my business with him.

He works in the public health space, but he also does quite a few different creative endeavors, which is really cool. And that's what we were really bonding on. And it was really interesting because I went into that lunch feeling a bit frustrated. And that frustration was coming from a place of feeling like, well, I am so grateful for my life here in Vancouver.

Well, I love my friends, I love my community, I love what I've created. It's starting to feel a bit small. And I think I had been feeling this smallness for a while now. I thought that my discomfort or like not loving, didn't...

Katrina Owens (04:44.142)
It was hard because I was like, do I just not enjoy living here because it rains all the time? And because I want to be where there's like eternal sunshine and warmth. I think that's part of it. But as I was chatting with Lawrence and Lawrence actually lived in Vancouver for quite a while back in the day. So I was sharing this all with him because he lives in Toronto now. And, and he was like, yeah, I think the weather is part of it. And he's like, but I think for you, you're also feeling

this sense of smallness because you don't want to be BC big. You want to be big. And I had never heard the term BC big before. So I have to give him full credit. But him sharing that word with me made me realize that some of the tension or frustration I'm feeling about where I live is coming from this desire to want to be known and have an impact far greater than like this isolated bubble we seem to live in.

in Vancouver, Canada. And don't get me wrong, Vancouver, Canada is an absolutely gorgeous place to live, the mountains, the ocean, the scenery. But when it comes to growing a business like the one that I am, I'm finding that the opportunities that I'm looking for and the big thinkers that I want to be surrounded by are just not here.

And I think it's because I've grown so fast. I don't really like to use the word quantum leap, but let's use it just because that's a great description for what I have done in the past year. I've truly quantum leaped. And while I have great friends and mentors and there are people that are along for the ride, there are people that I can sense are not coming with me. And that's okay.

Not everyone is meant to go on the type of journey that I'm on, but I need to find more of the people that are. And the thing is, those people don't live here. I have to find out where they live. I'm guessing when it comes to like a Canadian city, maybe Toronto. I'm from Ontario originally. Living in Toronto doesn't really thrill me to be totally honest. Los Angeles.

Katrina Owens (07:08.406)
New York City. I don't know. I know I named some American cities. I know people have feelings on that, but I just I just got to be realistic, guys. Is it London, England? Maybe. Although it does rain and is quite gloomy there most of the year, so I feel like that's not not the one. So I don't know. That's kind of where what I'm stuck on these days is feeling this.

kind of tension between me and my external environment. And it's interesting because when I, there was a conversation I had with one of my mentors at some point, and she had asked me why I was scared of success. And I was like, I'm not, like I'm really not, give it to me. But I do think,

that one of the fears that a lot of us have when it comes to being more successful or making more money or that sort of thing is that our old life is actually not going to feel the same anymore. And I actually saw this quote on the internet like yesterday, which is, the cost of your new life is your old one. And I was like, Because

We have to be okay with when we make really big changes and shifts and we change as people. Like I am not the same person that I was a year ago. I'm not even sure I'm the same person that I was six months ago. Because I have like done so much deep inner work to feel different and I really do. But that means that a lot of the outside world, a lot of the people, a lot of the things and structures that once served me, no longer serve this version of me.

And that has actually put a lot of like pressure and tension around some relationships that I have. And I'm the one that has to unfortunately say this isn't working for me anymore. And that probably means disappointing some people. Probably means not everyone's gonna love me. And those are things as a recovering people pleaser that are hard for me to accept. But hey.

Katrina Owens (09:25.526)
If that's the cost of getting absolutely everything I've ever dreamed of, unfortunately that is what's going to have to shift. Because here's the thing about growing a personal brand using public relations and effectively feeling famous for your work. Not everyone's gonna do it. Not everyone is going to make the bold choice to walk this path, to take risks, to bet on themselves. So if you're one of the people that do,

imagine, like we can only imagine how much we are going to accomplish. And one of the reasons why we are viewed as these people that are risk takers, as visionaries, as innovators, is because not everyone is willing to take the same sort of risk or make the same sort of changes that we are. And that's powerful stuff.

So that's what I wanted to pull some punches on today, you guys. I feel like I could talk much longer about this particular topic, but honestly, I don't have the fully formed idea around it yet. I knew into this journey of shedding old structures, of shedding old relationships, it's all a new experience for me right now. But as soon as I heard the term BC bag, I was like, yeah, I don't wanna be BC bag. I'm taking this thing international.

And so that's what I wanted to share with you guys today, because if you're feeling the same way, if you're feeling some tension around certain relationships that maybe just aren't working for you anymore, I'm totally there and I'm with you and I'm navigating it with you. And so hopefully in a couple of months, I'll be able to come back with a longer form episode that maybe gives you some like tangible takeaways and tips and tricks. Right now I don't have those, but I do have resonance. I do.

feel what you're going through and I'm here for it. And if you aren't quite there yet and you're like, is this is something that's going to happen to me? I mean, if you're listening to this podcast, it's probably because you're ready to make some big shifts in your life. So I'm just preparing you for one of the trials and tribulations that might be in your future. So that's it for me today, you guys. If you like this episode, please rate and review everywhere you listen to podcasts. If this resonated,

Katrina Owens (11:43.496)
If you really are feeling a type of way right now, just know I'm here for you. Send me a DM at Katrine Owens PR and we can commiserate together and share a little bit more over there. So see you guys next week and have an amazing weekend. Bye.