KO Your Brand

Katrina Owens (00:00.524)
What's up guys, welcome back to another episode of KO Your Brand. This is a quick hit. This is pulling punches, short, actionable insights and takeaways. And I honestly have been sitting here for like 10 minutes thinking to myself, what the hell am I gonna make this episode about? There are so many topics, but I think there's just so much.

So what I figured I would dive into today, this is a question I actually just got from one of my clients. So I figured, why not share it here with all of you? Because if I'm gonna answer this question in an email, I might as well get my thoughts out because this is something that I actually get asked a lot. Because when it comes to growing a personal brand and using your personal brand as your business, there's all these different thoughts about

whether or not you should be using your name. Okay? So I'm going to tell you a little bit about my journey first. When I started my business, I actually didn't think I would have a personal brand. I always envisioned myself as Katrina Owens, the founder of Knockout Marketing Directive was the name of my agency. And it actually is still the name of my company. It's what I do all of my work under as Katrina Owens, what all my coaching programs and everything is technically run under.

But as I grew my personal brand, I realized that my name was becoming more well known than the name of my company. And this is super common. And I think, especially if you're a service provider or a consultant or something where you are the one delivering the service, this is where things can get a little bit fuzzy. Interestingly enough for me,

I mean, I'm pretty much doing everything I've ever wanted, which is feeling famous for being myself as Katrina Owens. So it was really important for me to make this shift from using Knockout Directive as like the thing to really building the brand awareness for my name, which has felt honestly quite easy.

Katrina Owens (02:22.924)
I mean, for me, that has meant changing my Instagram handle from Knockout Directive to Katrina Owens PR. Fun fact, Katrina Owens PR was actually my Instagram handle back when I was in my undergrad in university like 10 years ago. And actually, it was funny when I did change it. One of my best friends like from childhood was like, I didn't even know that you had changed it to something else to begin with. my company or my Instagram was actually under my company name.

at Knockout Directive for quite a long time, up until I realized that I got to a point where people weren't really gonna know what Knockout Directive was anymore. People know me as Katrina Owens, as a coach, as a speaker, as a podcaster. So it was time to phase out of really using that business name as a front-facing piece of my business. And this is obviously like a very

like deeply personal choice, by the way. And I don't think that there's a one size fits all answer, but all I can give you is really my experience and what I'm going to provide to my client when it comes to advice. Obviously you're going, if you are a Canadian business owner or if you're in the U S I, I know that the, technical terms are a little bit different, but here in Canada, if you are having a business that's like a legal entity on its own, it's called having a corporation.

so you incorporate. So I've always been incorporated. I was never a sole proprietor. I always had my business as a separate entity from me, which is not something I'm really gonna go in deep on this podcast, but it is an important conversation. I actually, we had a conversation on this in the Fame Ready Entrepreneur Program. So being an incorporated business is really a non-negotiable for me. It's way better when it comes to building wealth for yourself.

But obviously at the same time, you've got to be prepared to make a larger investment into incorporating, paying additional fees to like have corporate taxes filed, which is like $2,500 a year. There's like an annual fee that you pay to the government, all of that stuff. I know the state says something similar. I think like it's similar to having like an S-Corp, I think. Don't quote me on that one. This is not what this podcast is about. But for me,

Katrina Owens (04:46.921)
Regardless, if you're going to make your company name like Katrina Owens Media Inc. or something like that, always incorporate. But you get to decide what that structure is really going to look like for you. And here's the thing. People think that if they use their name as their company name, that's going to prevent them from like bringing on employees or having this like big business feel that obviously you get when you like

start building a big business, like a Coca-Cola, for example. But here's the thing. I mean, you can still have a team. You can still have all of that stuff. We are in the era of the personal brand. So I don't think it's like wrong to decide I'm just going to make a name for myself quite literally. I mean, this could even be quite naive. But when I think about people like Layla and Alex Hormozi,

I know that they have like a company. I have no idea what their company is called. I know them. Same with like a Cody Sanchez. I know who she is. I have no idea what her company is actually called. Do you see what I mean? So you can grow like an extremely profitable personal brand and build so much wealth for yourself under your own name if that's what you really want.

So for my client that's asking me in my inbox right now, he is someone who is very early into his personal brand. We've just put together his personal brand strategy, and now he's wondering if he should be incorporating under a different name or his name. And this is the advice that I'm gonna give him. It's all up to personal preference. If he really views himself as one day being a founder that maybe isn't so much the public face of his business, and he wants to build brand awareness for something else,

I'm all for that. But honestly, if he is someone and this is something that he's going to have to decide, if at the end of the day, he really wants to build a name for himself and be a speaker and highly sought after, I'm going to say that that business name probably isn't going to matter so much. So yeah, he can incorporate under a name and obviously use something, but it really comes up, goes down, really comes up and goes down. Heather, maybe just...

Katrina Owens (07:08.503)
Cut that part. It really comes down to you deciding like what the ultimate dreamy dream is. And you know, back in the day when I started my business, I really didn't see me as Katrina Owens, feeling famous, being well known for myself. That was my own like mental block that I had. And I wish I had someone back then that told me that it was a possibility for myself because I would have done things differently. I would have actually just set up like

Katrina Owens Media Inc. or something like that, because now I'm in the process of kind of rebranding some things and it's exactly that, a process. It takes money, takes, you know, money and energy and thought process and a strategy to start to flip things into a different name, at least a public-facing name. So that's what I want you to consider today. If you are thinking about growing something that's bigger and beyond you,

For sure, you can be a personal brand and have something else, a separate entity at the exact same time, but just know that as those two things grow, your personal brand and whatever company you own, those are actually going to become two separate brands at some point. So that's one thing to consider. And let's just use the example of Coca-Cola here. If I'm Katrina Owens and I was the founder of Coca-Cola,

I mean, I drink enough of it, so I might as well be. I would be growing my personal brand as Katrina Owens, but also growing the brand of Coca-Cola. And if you are very early on into your journey, that's going to feel very hard. Growing two separate brands at once, even if they intertwine, you've got to make sure you have the mental resources, very clearly defined strategy on how those two things are different.

how they show up differently. Yeah, there will be crossover, but they need to be separate entities. So that's something to consider as well. So if you came into this episode with questions, you're probably leaving with even more. But this is honestly the kind of work that I do with my one-on-one clients specifically. So if you're like, okay, I have this really big dream of growing my brand as a personal brand and as a founder, but I also wanna grow the brand of something else.

Katrina Owens (09:32.435)
you really need a custom strategy. You need someone like me to understand your goals and to understand what you're trying to grow so you can ensure there's separate social media strategies, separate branding, but that there are still nods towards one another so people still recognize you as the founder of whatever the thing is that you're growing. Am I making sense right now? This might've just been a stream of consciousness.

Let me know, send me a DM if you have questions on this topic. I think we've only like scratched the surface on this one. So you might need to dive into a long form episode in the future, but really interesting conversation, especially for like a higher level business owner who is looking to kind of build a high performing business, grow a larger team and scale. This is something that each and every one of you should be considering. So.

Send me a note if you like this podcast. My personal Instagram is at Katrine Owens PR. The podcast Instagram is KO your brand. Please write and review this podcast everywhere you listen to podcasts and I'll see you next week. Bye guys.