KO Your Brand

Katrina Owens (00:01.326)
Welcome back to another episode of KO Your Brand. I'm your host, Katrina Owens, and this is the podcast for fame ready entrepreneurs. And I am so excited to be diving into this week's episode because it's a little bit personal. It's a little bit business. And I feel like that's the best of both worlds that we really love these days, especially when it comes to personal brands. So that's what I'm hoping to share more of with you in each and every episode.

But today you're gonna get the juice. Okay, today I'm going to be sharing all of the behind the scenes details of my launch party for this podcast. So I'm going to recap it for you, whether or not you were there, you're gonna find this interesting. And then after that, I'm going to help you strategize whether or not you should be hosting a launch event for your next launch.

For lack of a better word. So if you're launching a podcast and offer Maybe a new brand whatever that that upcoming project it is to you that you're thinking to yourself Should I be making this a bigger deal? Should I be getting people excited about what's in store? I'm gonna help you decide whether or not that that's Worth it a worthwhile time and financial investment for you

And speaking of finances, I'm also gonna give you the hard and fast results of my event because you know me, I don't gatekeep, okay? I love to lift the veil on all things personal branding and public relations. And I would not be holding true to that philosophy if I wasn't actually sharing with you some of the details of, you know, what was the actual ROI of this event?

so far. I mean it's only been 48 hours since the event. I wanted to record this pretty quick after the event so I could dive into my feelings, some of the raw emotions, you know, even just a lot of the memories that tend to fade pretty quickly after something's done. I wanted to make sure that we were capturing that but I couldn't do it yesterday which was the day after the event because I was tired. So...

Katrina Owens (02:16.655)
That's the roadmap. That's where we're headed today. So let's dive in.

Katrina Owens (02:32.654)
Heather, if you're ever wondering what the fuck I'm doing when I'm literally waving at the camera, this camera is like motion sensor and I can't figure out how to turn it off, but when you wave your hand a certain way, it like goes up and down. So that's why I'm always like doing hand signals. Anyways, I gotta figure out how to turn that off. So anyways, cut this part out, but like I just wanted to like, I don't think I told you that before, so I didn't want you to think I was like actually like insane.

Okay, so let's dive into everything Launch and Learn. That was the name of the launch event that I hosted in honor of this podcast. So I want to get into the origin story for this podcast launch event first, because it's quite interesting. Because this wasn't something that I just dreamed up a couple of months ago, a year ago.

Almost a year ago to the day, I had decided that I was going to A launch this podcast. We talked a little bit about that in one of the beginning episodes. But I also thought to myself, and I remember saying this out loud to my friend Tacy, I said, I should have a launch party. And she was like, hell yeah. And I'm not like a big party girl.

I mean like in my younger years mm-hmm. Yeah, you know what that's like, but I don't like have birthday parties for myself this at this point I don't like really make a big deal or big splash about Christmas or holidays My family lives on the East Coast so I don't go to a lot of like family parties or parties in general I mean ever since I became a business owner

That's when I really started to go to more and more events. So parties, it's kind of a new beast for me again. And I love this journey for me. when I was originally coming up with the idea for this launch party, was when this event was actually, or it was when this podcast, should say, was event was the, got that. When I.

Katrina Owens (04:55.626)
was initially launching this podcast in October, I had the idea of launching it in tandem with a party, so hosting a launch party for the podcast back at that point, but it was not the idea that you all kind of saw unfold on social media, if you follow me on social media, which I'm guessing you do, but if you don't, please go follow me now, but if you don't, the...

I originally wanted to host a launch party that was more like a celebration. So the launch party in my original vision was a way for like my close friends and family to come together to celebrate. I had played with the idea of hosting it at like a golf simulator. You're gonna learn this about me pretty quick. I'm big into golf, I'm a golf gal. So I kind of thought about hosting it.

somewhere like that and it was going to be on my birthday. So it really was going to be like celebration vibes. So obviously you know the backstory of how I didn't end up going forward with that podcast launch in October. And here we are now, it's March. Actually, when you're listening to this, actually April. So it's April and...

When I started to put this podcast back on my to-do list, I was like, okay, I'm going to do the launch party. But it's not just going to be a celebration. It needs to provide value to the people that come. Because I don't want to just have a party for the sake of having a party. I want to be able to create excitement around the podcast and give people a taste.

of what they can expect when they listen to the podcast. I was really inspired by, you know, big podcasters like the Lady Gang, The Toast, Giggly Squad, obviously celebrity driven podcasts, but those women are often having live podcasts and going on tour, hosting their podcasts in different cities. Wouldn't that be fucking cool? Put it on the vision board. So I...

Katrina Owens (07:14.688)
decided that that's the direction that I wanted to go with this. I never hosted an entrepreneur event by the way. I do host women's golf events through my one of my other businesses, Women with Drive, but I'll talk more about that on a pre on an upcoming episode if you guys are interested in learning more about women's golf and why it's so important to growing your your business if you're a female entrepreneur. But for all intents and purposes, let's just

Let's just focus on why this event was so kind of nerve-wracking. When I do women's golf events, it does not matter if the event portion where there's networking and food and socializing, if that part kind of sucks, it doesn't matter because there's golf.

So like even if people don't have a good time during the networking portion even if the food is bad or the vibes are off all of the women are still gonna go play golf and have a good time so I don't really worry about those events because it just is what it is but this was the first event that I was hosting all on my own I do have a business partner in women with drive shout out Ashley So it's

It's easier to do things when you have a partner, when you have a buddy helping you along the way. But this was something that I knew I needed to do by myself, for lack of a better word. And it's not like I was actually doing it by myself. I have a great team in place that was supporting me through the entire thing. But the event was about me. Like, let's just like acknowledge the elephant in the room. The event was about me. And that is a very vulnerable place to be.

because now I'm selling an event, selling, I'm selling tickets to an event where people are going to come celebrate me. So I knew I needed to add maximum value for those attendees. So they would A, have a great time, you know, excited to buy their ticket, also like want to share about it with their friends and invite others and tell others.

Katrina Owens (09:32.552)
And obviously at the end of the day, the event is meant to drive success to this podcast and my business. So there was a lot riding on this event to be totally honest. So let's talk a little bit about how I designed this event to be not just about me, which I know I just said like the event was about me, but here's the thing I had to make it seem like it wasn't. So here's how I did it. I called it a launch and learn.

I did not call it a launch party because a launch party gives like, okay, you're going to come eat, drink and celebrate me. Launch and learn means I'm going to teach you something and yeah, we're also going to celebrate. So what I did was I created the event so there were actually multiple education sessions throughout the day where I would teach on different parts of PR for personal branding.

So people could get a taste for what it is like to like work with me or what the experience is like in my programs, but they also walk away with something. So even if some of these, these people that attended decide not to, you know, join my programs eventually or work with me in any way, they still came away with something. They learned something new. Maybe they were inspired. Maybe they made a new connection. So that was the other important thing. Initially, when I was doing it as more of

a launch party, I pictured like me, my friends who aren't necessarily entrepreneurs, they're partners, that kind of vibe, okay? More like a friends and family event.

But that was not going to have the same impact that having an all female entrepreneur event was going to have. And honestly, I didn't market this event just to female entrepreneurs, by the way, like men obviously were invited. None came. Gabriel, my partner, was the only man there and he had to be there. So not a man in sight.

Katrina Owens (11:42.922)
apart from him and that's okay. My audience is mostly female. The majority of my clients are female, although there are male clients that I do work with as well. And I don't work exclusively with females also, by the way. I think I just have pretty intense feminine energy, if you haven't noticed. So I think that's why. So anyways, once I made it a female entrepreneur event, I knew I have an amazing community of women. I know so many

amazing, powerful, inspiring female entrepreneurs. Once I targeted that event concept to that audience, I knew at the end of the day, people were going to get more than enough from just connecting and mingling and networking with each other. So that was another check mark for me. And so if you weren't there, maybe you haven't watched some of the content yet or seen it, highly suggest you go check it out on Instagram.

But I really made sure that there were a lot of finer details involved in this event. So I ended up renting a big K.O. marquee letters as the kind of the centerpiece photo op for the event. And I originally wasn't going to do that. I have to give credit where credit's due. Tacey, my very good friend.

supports me and a lot of my business initiatives from a place of just being a friend. It's a good friend. She was the one that actually said you need to get a big KO and she was totally right because that made the event look fucking legit. Like when I look back at content, I was like, yeah, the letters really brought the whole room together. And I mean, the podcast is called KO your brand. So it really makes sense to just like put a big KO in there. But the amount of like,

photos, videos, content that I saw floating around with those letters in it, really like, it really sealed the deal for me. I mean, you can even see it on my mic leg right now, the KO. So I had that. I also had great food, shout out Kits and Crates, which made these amazing little cupcake toppers. If you are familiar with the KO your brand, visual.

Katrina Owens (14:04.55)
brand identity. There's a lot of different icons that we use like lightning bolts and little like pow pow. A little like sparks I guess, twinkle emojis like we incorporate a lot of those little icons into our brand. So I had cupcake toppers made of those and I also collaborated with a local candle company, the Sixth Cent Candle.

and she had made some amazing branded candles for me. So every single guest got to take home this very luxe candle as a gift. Okay, I'm a big candle girl. You know I'm gonna light a candle every single night, every rainy day. I can never have enough. And so I really felt like, what an amazing takeaway. Like put my logo on that candle. Everyone gets to take one home and whether they're like in the bath or like.

you know, having a cozy night in, or maybe they're sitting at their desk working with it. Like they're going to see my logo on that candle. Very beautiful candle, by the way, non-toxic, locally made and think that that's awesome. So that was really important for me too, to have that takeaway. So just so you're familiar, the format of the event started at 11 a.m. or doors opened at 11 a.m. It was really important for me that we didn't just kind of let people trickle in one by one.

when we opened the doors at 11, there was already a crowd of women standing outside. And that's really like what made the very first kind of moments of the event powerful. I actually kind of snuck away in those first few moments because I didn't want that initial networking session to be about me. I really wanted all of the women that were there to...

enter the space, take it all in, grab a drink and start networking with each other. I didn't want to be a distraction. So if you were at the event, you might have noticed that I wasn't in the room when y'all were getting started and that was intentional. by the time I, so I had snuck away to the bathroom to like do my, to touch up my makeup and touch up my hair and stuff.

Katrina Owens (16:24.462)
So by the time I got back upstairs, it was bumping. People were chatting. People actually didn't really care about me by the time I got up there. So that was also like pretty cool. And I could sense that community was already being made. So I had networking from 11 to 1130. And then we did a perfect your elevator pitch workshop session. So once all of the women took their seats, I...

took them through a very short exercise on how to refine your elevator pitch, have a formula for it, something that I teach on in my community and a lot of my resources. But for me, very big part of creating a famous personal brand is having a strong elevator pitch and knowing when you walk into a room and you're meeting people for the first time, you know exactly what you're going to say to everybody.

everybody that you meet to introduce them to you and your brand. So to me it was really important to show the women in the room that I wanted them to come away with something and regardless of where you are at in your personal brand journey, maybe you don't feel quite ready for public relations yet, but wherever you're at in your personal brand and business, you've got to have that elevator pitch nailed.

And one of my gifts is really helping people find the language and the messaging and the clarity around their unique position to be able to share that. So that's why I started with that session. I had a couple different women share just with the entire room. I was able to do kind of some live coaching on that element too. And then we had lunch. So I didn't keep people seated for too long. I have been at events before where the lunch is really late in the day.

like so my event started at 11. I didn't want to have lunch after all the sessions at the very end because I didn't want people like thinking about how hungry they were because that's my tendency. As soon as I'm hungry, now I'm distracted. So we did like one session, then I got all the women up again. They went, had lunch, mingled again, turned the music up. So it was like really keeping the energy up.

Katrina Owens (18:45.998)
And that's one of the biggest compliments that I've received in DMs and in comments was just like the energy and the vibes in the room. And I really think it's because I didn't keep people seated for so long. We did that first introduction welcome elevator pitch session. It was probably like half an hour to like, oh, we were pretty on time. I was going to say it probably was like 45 minutes, but it was probably more half an hour. And then by noon it was like, okay, we're all eating lunch.

So we got to have lunch, have another drink, relax, chat. And then at 12 45, so I gave 45 minutes to everybody to like sit and have lunch. Then they were coming back to sit down for the rest of the sessions. The two remaining sessions that I did was the big brand energy debrief, which was me literally sharing my entrepreneurial journey, my story, which I will share on an episode of.

on an upcoming episode, but I had never shared my story in full length like that before. If you're someone who's been following me for a while, obviously you've seen different snippets or maybe you've even heard me talk about it in different ways on other people's podcasts, but I had always thought that people would rather hear somebody speak on tangible, actionable things.

I didn't think that there was so much value in sharing my own story up until a couple weeks ago. It wasn't until I attended the Rich Girl Conference in Orlando and really used that opportunity to study all of the speakers and how they spoke and, you know, which ones resonated me with the most, which speakers am I still like obsessed with following so closely? It was really

the ones that shared their story, not the ones that were like, this is how you like maximize this marketing effort. It was the ones that were like, this was the mindset flip or hey, I've been where you've been. So I knew at this point that my story was actually going to be one of the most pivotal parts of this event. And I never shared it in full detail anywhere before. So I had the opportunity to share it with.

Katrina Owens (21:09.474)
these women. And there were women in the room who had never met me before or didn't really know me before coming. So it did give me a chance to like put everybody on like a level playing field where everybody knew everything about me, right? So we did the big brand energy debrief and then that session flowed into the final session, which was a PR action planning.

So I basically educated the audience like, okay, this was my journey. This is how I got to where I am today using public relations. If you want to achieve what I've achieved, here are the different ways that you can do that. Here's what public relations does for your business, brand awareness, authority. Here are the different opportunities you should be looking for. And then I went into a pitch, obviously, for one of my programs.

Funnily enough, I actually had a woman who came to the event and at lunch she said, I came to this event hoping that you were gonna sell your program. So I thought that was really interesting because we often feel shy about the selling part. We're like, God, now I have to sell. But a really great like mindset flip that someone had actually shared with me probably about a year ago was whenever you go into a webinar,

or an event or something where you have to do a pitch, come from the place of like, there are people here that want to know more about my service offering and that's why they're here. And if you tell yourself that and really like hone in on that, it makes it much easier to sell because you're coming from a place of like, there are people here that wanna know this information and I must give it to them. So it was really interesting that that participant had said that to me because

that really gave me permission to sell. I wasn't feeling weird about it beforehand, honestly. I was really just excited. I'd never really sold from the stage before. So this was my first try at it, and I'm gonna share the results a little bit later on in this episode, but the results made it all worth it. Just let me tell you that much. So hopefully you'll stay tuned to the end.

Katrina Owens (23:29.838)
And then after that, I did not want to end on a pitch. So what I had ended up doing was creating a closed eye visualization. So I had all the women close their eyes at the end. I took them through a very short visualization where they could really visualize that next level of their personal brand and what that meant to them. That's how we kind of sealed in all of the information and knowledge that I had shared that day.

and then we mingled at the end. Women didn't stay for too long. I ended my bit at 1.45. So by two-ish, people were starting to trickle out, say their goodbyes, but people were not in a hurry to leave, which was also really beautiful. that's the event. That was the layout of the day. If you didn't make it, you missed out.

Honestly, you missed out. Everybody had such an amazing time. But just know that I've been bitten by the event bug and I know this will not be the last one I do. So stay tuned. I'm not going to do them very often. I want them to be like a bit exclusive, a bit like, you know.

You never know when you're gonna see the next one coming. But the thing is, I also gotta give myself more time to plan the next one. You guys will die when you hear this, but I planned that event in just two months. Like, I started planning that event in January 2025, and then the event took place at the end of March, but I was traveling for most of January. So actually Heather, my social media assistant, also edits this podcast.

She was also like responsible for like the event vibes, the dress code. She's a very talented stylist and designer. Heather started working on the general planning, researching, that sort of thing back in January while I was traveling. Then when I got home in February, Heather started traveling. So I took over and actually started to book things, put the promotional plan in place, build out the budget and all of that. So it was very fast.

Katrina Owens (25:50.082)
So things I would do in the future would, I'd give myself a longer runway, much longer. would probably start planning six months in advance just because I wanna make things bigger and better. I want to give myself more time to sell tickets. One of the things that I had done early on was like a save the date. So I basically had put out like an email to all of my community to tell them,

hey, this event is happening on March 28th. I think I did the save the date literally one month to the day exactly. So that was my hope that people would know an event was coming so that they would mark their calendar and then they wouldn't be like so shocked and surprised when I announced the event. I think that maybe helped a little bit.

But what I also didn't take into account because I'm actually, like I'm not a mom, but it was spring break. So a lot of people had mentioned to me that they couldn't come because it was spring break and they didn't have childcare or whatnot. So good for me to remember too. I honestly had no idea. That's not like, know, spring break isn't something that happens in my world. So.

I wasn't prepared for that either, but shout out to all the moms that did come, because there were also a significant amount of them that made the time and got the childcare lined up and all of that. So that felt really amazing to me too. Okay, so that's the recap. That was the Launch and Learn. Let's dive into why. Why? Why did I do this? Why did I put myself through the emotional turmoil? And the answer is,

Big Brand Energy. And I have not spoken about Big Brand Energy on this podcast yet. Big Brand Energy is a philosophy that I live by. It is the philosophy that if you treat yourself like a big business, even when you feel small, you will get bigger so much faster. And so when I say you treat yourself like a big business, it means, you know, making financial investments that might feel a bit stretchy. It means,

Katrina Owens (28:10.242)
having the launch event, it means knowing that you need to do these bigger things. You need to channel this big energy, change your mindset, shift your beliefs and how you see yourself to get to that next level. Public relations is something that people often think is just for celebrities and big businesses, and that's because celebrities and big businesses move differently.

You're not seeing like these celebrities who are like launching podcasts every single day of the week. They're just, they're not just like launching a podcast. Like they're making a big deal about it. Yeah. They're having the party. They're going on tours. They're doing all of these different things. And sure, you could say, well, they've got a larger budget, but the event I just hosted cost about 2000 to 22, $2,500.

to run. So yes, a financial investment for sure, but 150 % worth it. And the ROI has been like exponentially that and we'll talk about that towards the end of the episode. if you want to be big, you got to do big things. So for me, when I decided to, you know, launched this podcast and, and finally like get on with it.

I knew I had to make it a big deal. And by making the podcast a big deal also holds yourself accountable, right? There are business owners that launch podcasts every single day of the freaking week. And some of them, most of them, I should have looked up the statistic. I don't have my phone here, but I should have looked up the statistic ahead of time. But there's a podcast stat that says of only a very small percentage of

of podcasts actually make it past like 10 episodes. And that's embarrassing. Okay, because why are we going through all this work of understanding how to record, getting the tech set up, all of these different things that we do, and then not following through? I just don't relate to that. I've always been someone who follows through with my projects, I do what I say I was going to do and I don't give up. So

Katrina Owens (30:32.858)
I knew by having a launch event that really gives me zero opportunity to not continue on with this thing. I can't just record 10 episodes then never do it again. I had a fucking launch party. Like the podcast needs to remain a big deal. And for me it is because I said it on episode one, seven figure podcast. And if you want a seven figure podcast you want to do seven figure things, which is.

holding yourself accountable to recording, carrying on this project, even if some weeks, some episodes don't perform well, even if the growth is slow, all of those things are really important and that's big brand energy. So big brand energy is this thing I always come back to whenever I'm trying to figure out what is the best course of action here, I can ask myself, well, what would big brand energy do? And that makes the answer pretty clear. So for me,

I mean, you know, I'm all about being famous, feeling famous, all of those things. You got to make big moves if you want to feel that way. So that was the why. That was why I had to do that. So with that why comes a bit of an emotional journey. I did not believe for a very long time that I could actually host a sold out event. I initially...

didn't think that even if I hosted the event for free, didn't think people would come. But then once I decided I need to charge for this, I had to work on my own mindset to work myself up to a place where I could say, yes, people will spend $130 to $150 per ticket to come to my event because they're receiving this much value.

It was important for me to charge a ticket price because I am a high value woman.

Katrina Owens (32:34.616)
That's it. The services that I offer are not inexpensive. I do strive to make public relations and personal branding information accessible to everyone that is the point of this podcast. But for me, if you're gonna get in a room with me and if you're gonna get someone on one time with me, and if you're going to hear me speak, you are going to have to put some skin in the game. So I still price the event relatively,

affordable from my perspective. I'm sure there are people that will not agree with me, they were, launched the tickets at $135 plus tax. And then after the pre-launch, they were 150. And then I had offered some different affiliates, promo code for some different groups I was in to appeal to different audiences.

That was because I wanted to be able to provide as much value as I could at this event through the food, through the decor, through the content, the gift that people got to take home with them. And I was not about to be out of pocket for that because I'm a business woman. So for me, selling out the event and receiving ticket sales,

was not just like an ego thing, it was a business thing. I had different milestones I had to meet to at first, okay, cover all the expenses of the event and then make a profit to at least cover the time that I had spent planning this event and also speaking. Because for me, when I do speaking engagements these days, I'll still do a free speaking engagement for the right organization or the right event, but

I do charge for them as well. So I needed to be able to pay myself for hosting this event. Yes, because I am a business woman and business women pay themselves. Maybe you have feelings about that. Maybe you're thinking, so you could have priced it more affordably to make it accessible to more people and like had sacrificed that part. Nope. We actually talked a lot about this at my event. You you know your value.

Katrina Owens (34:53.1)
and you stand by that. And I guarantee the next event that I host, the ticket price will be a little bit higher because I will be providing even more value. And I know that my business is going to change quite significantly between now and then in like the most incredible way possible. So there becomes a larger point of entry to be able to get in a room with a business owner like me.

That's just the long and the short of it. And I really hope that you can go on a mindset journey that helps you kind of cultivate that mindset as well, because it's a very powerful thing. But let's be real for a sec, okay? When I launched this event, I did a pre-launch. So I had told you already, I did a save the date. After that save the date, I then, so actually with that save the date, I set up a,

email, like lead capture, so people could be the first to find out. So I ended up growing a wait list of between 40 to 50 people just off of that save the date promo. So I was thinking I initially wanted to, I needed 15 people to register for the event to be able to make make back like my investment. So to cover all the expenses.

And then I needed to double that to be able to earn my profit. So 30 spots total. I strategically told people that there are only 20 spots when I launched. So I expected when I launched the event to the wait list that it was just gonna sell out. Cause I kept saying there are 40 people on this wait list and only 20 spots. So like when this event.

launches at 9 a.m. on whatever day it was supposed to go live, you better get your ticket. You want to know how many people bought their ticket in the first 48 hours of the pre-launch, the VIP pre-launch? Just one. One fucking person. So I went from having this like

Katrina Owens (37:08.654)
Ooh, 40 people, we're about to do a sellout, we're Taylor Swift at the Aris tour, we're selling it out, baby. No. my God, no. And that was really hard for me, because I started to panic and question myself whether or not that was the right choice. But I had a choice in that moment to continue to be in my woe is me state, or I could just decide.

that I am the type of woman that sells out an event. I'm going to market the shit out of this thing. I'm going to think about all of the ways I can market this thing and I'm going to sell this thing out, which I eventually did. But I wanted to tell you that detail of the one person buying the ticket at the launch just because, you know, I have no doubt that someone else is gonna experience that too. So I need you to know that even I, even I.

experience moments like that. I visualized the event every single night. I mean, I was not sleeping very well after I launched the event. So for the past month, I've not really been sleeping very well. I basically would like visualize the event, the full room, my presentation, all of that. would literally like

visualize it before bed because I have been doing a lot of research and listening to podcasts and books on obviously the power of manifestation and I know that visualization is a big part of that. So for me, really putting myself in that room before the event happened helped me see myself as the woman that sells out events. So a lot of visualizations there.

And the one thing that's really important to remember just tangibly, people are really last minute when it comes to events. I can't relate because I am type A. If I'm doing something or going to something, I know and I follow my gut and I buy my ticket because I don't want to miss out. So I can't relate to being someone who decides like two days in advance or like a week in advance that they're going to something.

Katrina Owens (39:34.06)
And I realized that I am not like everybody. Most of my tickets sold in the two weeks leading up to the event. So next time I will not panic. Sure, I will give myself a much longer runway to sell tickets, especially if it's going to be a bigger and better event. But I am not going to panic as much if ticket sales are slow in the beginning.

And I say this because I know a lot of other people that host events as well. And I know that they experienced this too. So I wanted to be transparent on that because yeah, that ticket sales process is as an emotional journey. Okay, so we're getting close to the wrap up here. I want to just share some of the hard and fast results from my event. So you can decide if this is going to be the right.

the right call for you. So what did I experience results wise from the event? Okay, so in the 24 hours after the event, I have made, and this number is still motion, but I have $5,000 in additional revenue. So that is not profit from the event. This is actually like people buying into the program that I pitched. I have made

$5,000 in additional sales within the first 24 hours of the event. I have an email funnel set up for all of the attendees. So that is still in motion to encourage more and more sales over the next two more days. So from a marketing perspective, obviously I have something set up on the backend so I can continue to convert people into my program. I also booked three one-on-one discovery calls with women at the event. So,

I had pitched a group program, but some women want to know if A, that's the right choice for them and learn more about my one-on-one program, which I do offer as well. So I have three calls booked this week to talk them through all of my service offerings. So they will either convert into my group program or into my one-on-one program, which is around $10,000 over six months.

Katrina Owens (41:54.222)
I had a 50 % profit margin on the event. So that is advice that I read on threads actually. And I don't know if that's true, but when I was planning the event, I saw a thread that said, event host, do you know that your profit margin on the event should be 50 %? I didn't fact check it. I was just like, that sounds like a good profit margin and that sounds doable. And so that's what I gave myself and I achieved that.

I've probably gained over 50 new followers on Instagram over the last two days since the event. So many people were sharing content from my event on their stories, tagging me, all of the things. I have to say, my community really like went hard on the FOMO. I got so many messages from people who were saying that they wished they could come, that it looked amazing.

I had a comment from someone I did not know saying that they want to be put on the email list for the next one. So I'm onto something here, right? So yeah, really saw some social hype, but honestly that was by design. I had told Heather, my social media assistant, that her duty was to create FOMO during the event. So I literally gave her my phone so she could post stories live on my channel as well as take a bunch of content. So.

Mission accomplished on that front. So yeah, I really, share all these results because I want to show you that this wasn't like just an event. Like it wasn't just a launch party. It was actually a very profitable visibility strategy. So when we talk about growing our personal brand using public relations and I tell you, yes, you can make money in doing fun shit. Exhibit A, okay?

things every day. You can have a party and it can make you a ton of money. So I'm really excited. Once I have like all of the results, I'll give you another update because like I said, the, the sales sequence is still in motion. So I'll probably have a better idea by the end of this week, what those results really look like. Okay. So before we wrap up, I just want to walk you through a couple of things to consider if you're thinking about hosting a launch event yourself.

Katrina Owens (44:17.538)
because I just know, I know my clients, I know my community. When I do something, it inspires others to do things too. But here are some things I really want you to think about when or if you are considering a launch party. So the first thing I want you to ask yourself is, what am I launching and why does it deserve a party?

So if I take it back to the Launch and Learn for KO your brand, for me, I wanted to build an engaged community of listeners before the podcast even launched. I wanted to give people a chance to meet me, to experience my energy and to give them buy-in to my podcast. Because if you can say, hey, I celebrated the launch of this podcast with Katrina.

I bet, and you guys will have to tell me because I'm sure there are a lot of you listening to this that did come to the party, you now feel a deeper emotional connection to me in this work. So you'll want to listen to it. You feel connected to me. So really important. If you're launching something, maybe it's a book. A lot of people in my community write books and do launch parties. If you want people to have a connection to that book, probably a great thing to consider. Other thing to keep in mind.

is who should be in that room? Is it clients, collaborators, is it the media? So really, going back to the beginning of this podcast, when I told you I initially thought about doing a launch party with my friends, that would not have resulted in as much revenue or maybe any revenue as this particular event, right? So really decide who is gonna be in that room.

and who the target audience for that event is. Make sure you budget. So events, I did this event very affordably. Okay, like I really crunched the numbers beforehand. I budgeted every single line item. I tried to cut costs wherever I could. Obviously there were a lot of other like cute little branded things I was thinking about getting, but.

Katrina Owens (46:40.012)
I just didn't want to blow the budget. So I was super intentional about, you know, what the gift was, what that I was giving away. And I ended up giving or ended up getting, I should say, some sponsors as well. So I had Olay cocktails as our alcoholic drink sponsor, and then Edna's mocktails as our mocktail sponsor. So two Canadian brands.

even like locally based brands that were really excited to collaborate with me on this project and they provided all of the beverages to me at no cost. So that was really amazing. There were tons of beverages left over. So attendees even got to like go home with some, which I thought was really cool. Next time I will definitely bring on more sponsors. So if you're listening to this and you're like, Katrina, hey girl, I'd love to sponsor a future event.

me or hey you know if you want to sponsor this podcast that's also an opportunity too right? Okay cool the vibe so I can't believe I haven't even talked about this yet there was a dress code vibe for the event so we were going for like a sporty chic dress code because that's I mean I'm sure you're listening to this so you've seen the branding for this podcast it's sporty I'm a pretty like kind of I would describe my style as a bit sporty

as well, so for me it was really representing that part of me. I didn't want the dress code to make people feel excluded, so I included a lot of language that was like, this is just for inspiration, don't feel like you have to follow the dress code, just wear what makes you feel comfortable, because dress codes can be intimidating for some people, and I do think someone actually said this particular dress code was intimidating. But for me,

Putting on a killer outfit is actually such an important part of my confidence. And I love when there's a dress code because I love putting together an outfit. For me, it's like one of my avenues for creativity. So I would just say, give it a vibe, put together a dress code so people know what to expect. For me, if there's no dress code but it's an event, I'm always gonna go like business casual stylish.

Katrina Owens (49:03.67)
I mean, for me, I can never go back to a corporate wardrobe. I love like a crop top or wear a short skirt sometimes, shorts, that sort of thing. I am probably a little less conservative on the outfit front. So if you really want people to be formal or follow dress code or be super professional and polished, like please tell people.

Make sure you're offering value to the attendees and make sure that's communicated to them. So for me, I really made the workshops the star of the show. So I tried not to position the event as a party. It was a learning experience. And I think that was super clear. I would say almost half of the people that attended, I actually didn't know before the event. So I think having that focus on the value and the education.

really played a big role in attracting a new audience to me. And then most importantly, make sure you have a launch strategy for how you're going to maximize the potential of the event. So if you're providing all this different value, you're walking people through your expertise, make sure there's a pitch in there. So whether it's for like a paid program or even a free resource, so you can capture attendee information, make sure there's something that you can actually use to measure the success of the event.

and then make sure that you're actually creating assets to follow up with the attendees. So I had a very special exclusive offer for all of the attendees there. There was a QR code that they could scan in the moment and sign up, but I strategically had an email already set up and scheduled to go out an hour after the event with the details about the offer and...

you know, the link to buy and everything. And I had three people buy from that very first email that went out an hour after the event. And then that sequence will continue to have emails go out over the next couple of days to that audience. So, the other important thing is, you know, capitalize on, the social media front too. Now I have this brand new audience of all these people that have started following me that didn't know me beforehand. So tomorrow is Monday. I'm recording this on a Sunday.

Katrina Owens (51:22.438)
So tomorrow on Monday, I actually have a real a talking head reel that's super professional that just introduces people to me and my philosophy on public relations. So I'm going to post that so people can get a feel for who I am and what I do if they're not familiar yet. Okay, this is a long one, you guys. So that just about wraps up today's episode, but

Really, I hope you enjoyed listening to all of the behind the scenes. really hope you know, obviously I'm big on value. I'm a high value woman. I really wanted to give you like all of the inside scoop on this event and how impactful it has been for my business because it really was wasn't just a party was a business tool, which how lucky am I that my business tools and my tactics got to be this fun but

You don't have to have a massive audience to have this kind of impact. You just need to be clear, put a strategy together and start small. I'm confident that my next event will be double in size. I already said to myself, okay, I did 30 guests this time around. Next time I'm going for 60. So that's what you can expect. But that means, you know, if you're doubling the audience, you got to double the budget. It means doubling the profit margins, all of that, right? So that means I'm going to be looking for sponsors.

I'm gonna be taking all of my learnings away from this event and using them to make the next one bigger and better. One thing before I go, because this episode is gonna come out in just, I'm just doing the math on my head on when this is gonna come out. This episode is coming out early April, so there is still time to register for one of the women in my community.

In my international community, Taylor Smith is hosting an amazing event called the Power Table Live in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. It's April 23rd and 24th, and it's going to be an amazing event for, I believe, over 75 female entrepreneurs from across North America. I unfortunately can't make it this time around because I have a conflict, but I already told her, send me the save the date for the next year because I'm putting it in the calendar. But because I have an international audience,

Katrina Owens (53:42.818)
and I do have quite a big audience in Florida, I just wanted to let you know if you're looking to get in a room like the one that I just described, you've got to go to Taylor's event. I cannot say enough good things about going to international events. mean, even if you're already based in the US and you want to do a little quick trip to Florida, it's easier to get there when you're already living in the US right now. Flights out of Canada are...

Oh, expensive and hard, but we're making it work. I have tons of US travel booked in the next couple months and I know it's a weird political time, but for me, this is such an important part of growing my international personal brand, which I'll talk a little bit more about in future episodes. But back to my original point, if you want to go to the power table live, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, you can use code Katrina for $50 off.

any of the tickets, VIP or general admission. I think there's some VIP tickets left. I will include that information in the show notes, but I met Taylor in person at the Rich Girl Cult Conference in Orlando last month. A, going to that conference in Orlando literally changed my life. It re-inspired me, me dream bigger. It helped me actually understand how I was going to pitch at this event. And I got to meet Taylor, who is now a great friend of mine and I'm looking forward to collaborating with

her more in the future too. Okay, so with that, if you are looking for wares to dream bigger about your business, and if you are thinking to yourself, hmm, does my personal brand need a launch party? Do I have a project in the works that needs a launch party? I highly recommend booking a one-on-one discovery call with me to learn more about my group.

and one-on-one program options so you can book a free discovery call. I'll put that link in the show notes, but what we will do on that 30 minute call, no obligation for you to buy, but you can tell me a little bit more about where you're at in your brand, some of the ideas that you might have, any issues that maybe you're struggling with, we'll walk through all of those and I'll be able to give you the best course of action. So before you start getting the wheels spinning too fast on whether or not you should be running an event like this, let me...

Katrina Owens (55:58.922)
in on the vision and let me help you make that decision. Okay. That is it from me. my God. We're almost at an hour. That is my longest episode to date, but I had so much to say. I really hope that you enjoyed this podcast. Please rate, review, subscribe, anywhere you listen to podcasts or anywhere you watch podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, I'm there.

Please follow me at knockout directive on Instagram at KO your brand on Instagram. And I will see you all very soon.