We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful TK Owens. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with TK below.
TK, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
I was always told that it was smart to have multiple streams of income. Although I had a full-time job making great money, people were still asking me to host weddings and events on the side. I will have people asking me to speak at events and I will host events and participate for free. Therefore, I wanted to become a professional speaker and make a career out of it. The first step I took was researching other speakers. I would study their deliverance and find other speakers that had the same interest as me in empowering women. I’ve always been a cheerleader and love helping others to achieve anything they wanted to accomplish. So, when I found out people were making money from speaking engagements and travelling all around the world empowering people, I decided to invest in my Gog-given gift of gab. During my research, I came across an amazing speaker, John Maxwell and would listen to his seminars and found out that he became a multi-millionaire as an author and speaker. I was so impressed with his work and found out that he created a leadership and coaching certification program. When my husband learned that a course was coming in town, we decided to invest in the program and we both became certified leadership coaches and speakers. This was a vital step in the process because I wanted to have the credentials and credibility to succeed. Next, I decided to turn my idea to execution by creating my own consulting business, TKO Consulting, LLC providing speaking, coaching and consulting services. Once I started to make a name for myself as motivational speaker, things have been great. I also provide consulting services helping people start their own businesses to help turn their dreams to reality. It’s truly a process, but rewarding. You just have to have the will, passion and drive to get started.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
TK Owens serves as the CEO and Founder of TKO Consulting LLC, providing speaking, coaching and consulting services. Through all her accomplishments and achievements, modestly, TK wants to be known for her positive spirit and kind heart. So much so, TK aspires to become an internationally known motivational speaker to help others learn how to live a positive and purposeful life. Her most recent accomplishment was becoming Amazon’s #1 Best-Selling Author and writing her first book, Plan the Life You Want, to help people achieve their goals. She is a Producer, Director and Co-star in her very own podcast and talk show called, Talk Miami. She also serves as a Co-Host to Jazz in The Heights alongside Hot 105 FM‘s James T. Thomas. TK has plans to open her very own Performing Arts Center for at-risk youth, teaching them the importance of dance, music, drama and art. She loves to inspire others and is known as a positive, energetic and loving person with a “larger than life” personality.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In 2019 my father passed away due to complications from a stroke. His death really hit me hard because I was such a daddy’s girl and he had recently walked me down the isle and gave me to my husband in marriage. It was an unexpected loss to lose my father after the happiest night of my life. My father passed away 12 days prior to my birthday and I had to make a difficult decision to have his funeral and lay him to rest on my birthday. You talk about finding your strength! I truly believe although death is hard to accept, it is also a celebration of life. So, I chose to celebrate two lives; my birthday and his rest day. After losing my father three months later, an unknown virus changed the world forever. The Coronovirus (COVID) put the entire world on pause and a lot of businesses shut down and people were losing their jobs. Even though I did not want to lose my job; surprisingly, I was like thousands of other Americans during 2020 and was laid-off due to budget cuts. It seemed as though I could not get a break. It was unexpected loss after unexpected loss. But, thanks to me creating my own business and creating another stream of income, I was able to provide consulting advice to others and started to receive more speaking requests during a time when people needed to be inspired. Not only did I get creative to speak to organizations virtually, I decided to look at my vision board and accomplish a long term dream of mine. I had nothing but time since the entire world was stuck in the house, I began to write. It took me to go through a challenging time, to pull myself out of a dark place by doing something that I always wanted to do. My resilience and tenacity allowed me to not only become an author, but to become one of Amazon’s Best-Selling Authors. My book, Plan The Life You Want was dedicated to my late father Julius S. Pratt, Jr.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Personally, the book “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Noman Vincent Peale changed my personal viewpoint on life. Positive thinking has allowed me to always see the good in everything; including challenging times. The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts and a positive mindset allows us to have a heart of gratitude even in the midst of downfalls. I rather live my life being happy and strive to have a positive attitude instead of always been been mean and depressed. If we learn to focus on the good, good will happen. If you continue to focus on the bad, you will always feel bad. Positivity is a choice. It’s a daily practice that I have used in both my personal and professional life.
Professionally, the book “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz is how I would describe my leadership style. The book is broken up into an exploration of four agreements: “Be impeccable with your words”, Do not take anything personally”, “Do not make assumptions”, and “Always do your best”. I apply these daily principles within my team environment. It has truly helped me grow as a leader and it has helped those that I mentor advance in their professional careers.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tkoconsultingllc.com
- Instagram: @tkowens7
- Facebook: @tkowens
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/tkowens76a674