E95: The Power of Naming Yourself – How to Own Your Identity and Brand with Confidence

In this episode of The Positive Voice, we’re diving into the power of naming yourself and how defining your identity can shape how the world sees you. If you’ve ever felt stuck in labels that no longer serve you, it’s time to take control and intentionally shape your personal and professional brand.

What do Muhammad Ali and successful entrepreneurs have in common? They declared who they were before the world recognized them. Muhammad Ali didn’t wait for someone to call him the greatest—he named himself that, and the world followed. The same principle applies to your business, career, and personal growth.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• How your identity shapes your success
• Why the labels you give yourself impact how others perceive you
• How to align your branding and messaging with your future goals
• The importance of affirmations, vision mapping, and inspired action
• Practical steps to redefine your title, brand, or personal identity

Your Action Steps:

1. Identify one title or belief about yourself that you’ve been repeating—consciously or unconsciously. Is it serving you?
2. Create three affirmations that align with the identity you want to step into.
3. Drop a comment with your new title or identity so we can celebrate and reinforce it together.

The world will eventually reflect what you consistently declare about yourself. So, what will you start calling yourself today?

🔗 Stay Connected:
📩 Join the Kitchen Table Dreams community: www.coachchefkim.com/email
📣 Apply for Kitchen to Calling Mastermind: www.teachmehowtobake.com/coaching

If you found value in this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share. Let’s redefine success—starting with the words we use.

Transcript

Kimberly Houston (00:01.144)
Hey friends, welcome to this month's Lunch and Learn. So one of the things that I want to talk about this month is the power of naming yourself. So here's something that has been happening. I am a person who goes through reinvention after reinvention of themself, right? So pre-pandemic, my brand was Chef Kimihoo and that came from my children creating my Twitter handle.

And so my name is Kimberly, I'm East Houston and I was a chef. And so we created my Twitter handle. It was Chef Kim, I, H-O-U, so Chef Kimihoo, right? And so everything that I created had Kimihoo in it some way. So we had like kitty cakes by Kimihoo. We had Who's Caking, like Houston, Who's Caking. That was a thing. Chef Kimihoo was the brand. It was a blog.

at one point. And then post pandemic after I was injured and really felt like my identity was wrapped up in Chef Kimmy Who, I moved away from that and became Kimberly. And so through that, then it was Chef Kim and then it became Coach Chef Kim when I went to school to become a Transformational Life Coach. And now that I've moved into like business strategist,

someone who is very well educated, multiple degrees, right? Like when I went into the PhD program and all those things, I was like, well, I don't know if these other brands that I've created are going to serve me anymore. And so I started feeling that itch again that I need to adjust my branding. The problem with that is, is that I'm really, really attached to CCK. I'm really attached to Coach Chef Kim. And so...

I'm still on the fence, right? The only thing I would rename myself to is my actual name, which is Kimberly Houston. And so as I was going through things that I could talk about, things to bring up, here's something I wanted to bring up.

Kimberly Houston (02:16.514)
The question is this, who called Muhammad Ali the greatest of all times? That was the question. Who named Muhammad Ali the greatest of all times? And as I went through my research, he called himself that. No one named him the greatest of all times. He named himself the greatest of all times. Muhammad Ali wrote a poem.

at the top of his career, declaring himself the greatest of all times. And this took me down a rabbit hole that if you know me, you know, right? What do you mean you affirmed yourself to say that you were the greatest of all times? And because you said it all the time, everybody else started to say it too. And the reality is, that if you look blow for blow, literally there are other boxers who may have been.

better than Muhammad Ali, but it didn't matter because he said, I am the greatest of all times. And so now we all just say he's the greatest of all times, but no one calls him that. He called himself that. And so that speaks into the power of you speaking life into yourself. Right. And so

I was like, okay, there is something here. We're going to break this down. So hopefully you're tracking with me. If you are tracking with me, let me know down in the comments. Let me know you're tracking. Just put the word tracking. All right. So you all know that as an, am an alignment coach. And so everything that I do is kind of following very, very specific framework. And so I'm going to break down how you change the way you view yourself so that

other people will adjust the way that they view you as well. All right. So we're to start with authentic awareness. So name yourself with intention. When you were thinking about branding, when you are thinking about how you want to show up in this world, what you call yourself needs to be in alignment with your highest good. Okay. So define your core identity. What labels are you giving yourself intentionally or unintentionally? I was listening to a podcast last week where

Kimberly Houston (04:32.422)
I was listening to Ashley Kirkwood podcast and she said there are a lot of people who lie about who they are because if someone asks you how are things going in business and you minimize how things are actually going, she was like you're lying to them about who you are as a business owner and I was like, girl you not wrong, right? So you can be intentionally and unintentionally

portraying yourself in a way that you don't actually want to. So when people ask you, how are things going in business, you need to stand flat-footed and be like, girl, things are going great. Things are going wonderful, right? As opposed to trying to downplay or minimize who you are. So that's the first one. Make sure you define your core identity. The things that you are calling yourself, are they empowering or limiting?

and you should be able to feel that in your body. Things that are empowering, you your shoulders are back, your chest is square, you are able to talk about yourself very confidently to things that are limiting, your posture probably slumps, your shoulders come forward, you don't really feel that great, adjust that. The second part is uncover your true desires. If you had to declare something about yourself today, what would it be?

Are you claiming the person you actually want to be? And as someone who grew up in the church, who went through purity culture, who understands this whole messaging around women are supposed to show up in a particular way, that minority women are supposed to show up in a particular way, you you must be twice as good to get half as much, all of that, right? Those are limiting beliefs that people told us.

Now, is it true? Yeah, because that's why the 92 % are like literally the most educated in the world because that's what we were told. That's how we were raised and that's how we show up. But here's what I want you to know. At some point that can go from being empowering to being limiting because if the only thing you do is just get degree after degree after degree and you don't do anything with them and so the only thing you die with is a degree but you don't die with a legacy, then that's where we have a problem, right?

Kimberly Houston (06:57.27)
So uncover your true desires. Who do you actually want to be? What do you really want? And you need to make sure that everything that you do, everything you call yourself, everything you say about yourself, everything you say about your business is aligned to that thing. Okay. And then audit your alignment. As we deal with authentic awareness, you want to make sure that the words coming out of your mouth are aligned with the vision you have for yourself. If not, then you need to figure out what needs to shift. It may be that you need to do a friendship audit.

are the people who have access to you, people who need their access revoked. If you can't pick up the phone, I'll call them at 4 a.m., friends. If you can't pick up your phone at 4 a.m. and call your friend and they're gonna give you their time, there's something wrong, they're gonna be available for you, then you might need to check your friendship list. If you are around people who do not have the same goals as you, who do not have their eyes set on improving themselves, continuously learning and doing those things going in the same direction as you, you probably need to do a friendship.

So my call to action for you is this, what's the one title, identity, or belief about yourself that you've been repeating consciously or unconsciously? Just pick one and then answer the question, is it serving me? If the answer is no, then adjust it. So number two for inspired action, I want you to begin speaking things into existence. Your words have power. Your words have power. I don't care what your religious affiliation is.

I don't care if you're agnostic. don't care. The reality is that words have power. And here's what I want you to know. The universe only knows one word and that word is yes. The universe only knows yes. So if you say, I am wealthy, the universe says yes. If you say, I have everything I need, the universe says yes. If you say, I have my heart's desires, the universe says yes. If you say, I am broke, the universe says yes. If you say,

I don't have these things that I want, the universe also says yes. It doesn't understand the not part. If you say, I don't want whatever, the universe doesn't understand the not, all it's going to get is I want. You have to begin to speak in the affirmative, in the positive, that's why they're called positive affirmations. You must speak in the positive in order for the universe to give you what you want.

Kimberly Houston (09:27.564)
I want you to craft a vision roadmap as you were speaking things into existence. And so the same way that Muhammad Ali called himself the greatest, what is your version of that declaration? Who are you? We call these I am statements. So I am XYZ. I am a keynote speaker. I am a highly sought after, well paid keynote speaker. I am a highly sought after, well rested, six figure per speech.

Keynote speaker you see how those things keep becoming refined the more you say it You need to craft a vision roadmap for yourself and begin speaking it out of your mouth Second set of mind habits I cannot say that I am a keynote speaker a highly sought-after keynote speaker a well-rested highly sought-after six figure per speech keynote speaker if number one I never show up and speak if number two I never decide I'm gonna post this on

YouTube so that I can grow my audience and grow my engagement and grow my reach. I can't say that if I'm not going to put myself in positions where I can be found to be a speaker making that type of money. You have to do things that are aligned with whatever is coming out of your mouth. So when I look at my to-do list, I'm looking at that to-do list to see if the things that are on my to-do list are going to help me get to where I'm trying to go. And if the answer is no, then it's going to come up.

And then follow the three to one rule. I want you to create three affirmations that support your new identity. Two actions that prove you are becoming this person and then one success that you celebrate each week to reinforce this shift in your life. So write down a new empowering way to describe yourself and say it out loud every day this week because your words have power. All right?

And then lastly, in my framework under abundance mindset, I want you to reclaim your name and own it. So teach people how you see yourself by the way you show up. Teach people what to call you. When I went from Chef Kimmyhoo to Coach Chef Kim, it was literally me changing my social media name to Coach Chef Kim. Me changing the blog from ChefKimmyhoo.com to CoachChefKim.com. If you typed in Chef Kimmyhoo,

Kimberly Houston (11:51.54)
it all forced you to go to Coach Chef Kim. If I go down the route of changing from Coach Chef Kim and just move into Kimberly Houston, everything will send you to that point, right? And so you have to tell people what to call you. This came up in a conversation with a young lady because people get her name wrong all the time, right? And so if people say your name wrong all the time, I remember when my son went through this.

I don't know what people thought they saw when they saw my child's last name, but they were adding letters and we were like, that's, that's not what that says on that paper. Right. And so instead, just because a whole lot of people say your name wrong, doesn't mean it's right. It doesn't mean it's right. And I remember us going through the process of me saying, no, tell these people how to your name. Every time they say it wrong, say your name correctly.

That is your birthright, literally. It's for people to say your name correctly. So if people call you things you don't want to be called, immediately stop them and adjust it. Immediately. I don't care if you've been letting people call you Pookie or Ray Ray or whatever your whole life, the next time they do it, you say my name is, and then you say your name. And the more you do it, the more comfortable you're going to be with it. And then people will begin to call you.

what you want to be called. This is going to help you reframe negative beliefs when we take it out of the context of just your name. Okay? So if you've been calling yourself a home baker, if you've been calling yourself just getting started, if you've been calling yourself something smaller than what you are from today for it, as you watch this video or listen to this podcast, I want you to remove that. I want you to own your title.

I am XYZ. Not I'm becoming, not I want to be, not I'm just, ain't no just. I want you to take up space and be all the things. All right? I want you to practice gratitude daily. Here's the thing that people miss about a gratitude practice. Being grateful for things in your life. Like I am great. I chase joy. That's how I pretty much.

Kimberly Houston (14:14.292)
go for gratitude on a daily basis, I chase joy. I'm intentionally looking for moments of happiness, intentionally looking for moments of joy. That could be on a long car ride. We could see a bunny hopping across the road. They happened last night. We're intentionally seeking out moments of joy. And the reason I'm doing that is because there's an energetic shift that is happening when you are seeking joy. When you are

in the energy of gratefulness, of gratitude, of love, of acceptance, of appreciation. When you're in the energy of that, that's a very different energy than when you are just like, mean, I don't really know. That's a whole different energy than when you're like, no, I am this.

I am this, I am grateful for this. I'm so glad to have met you today. Right? Like that is an instant energy boost, energy shift. And so having a daily gratitude practice is going to help you adjust your energy. And then lastly, visualize your success. Take a little bit of time every day to daydream about who you're becoming. It makes it a lot easier for you to continue on when you do this. It is so much easier.

for you to accomplish the things you want to accomplish when you can see where you're going, right? Sometimes we can't see the entirety of where we're going to go. We're going on a road trip in a couple of weeks. And I know the destination. I know what it's going to look like when I get there. I have Googled the place that we're going. I can see the mountains. I can see the pubs in the area. I can see the architecture.

I can see the walking trails from our Airbnb to where we're going. I can see all of these things on the internet. I can see it. I know where I'm going. But the journey to get there is one where I've got to leave where I live to get to where I'm going, and it's on the other side of the United States. I have absolutely no idea all the things that we may or may not encounter on that journey.

Kimberly Houston (16:22.53)
but I know where I'm going and the same thing needs to happen when you think about where you're going in business and in life.

My final takeaway for you today is simply this. The world will eventually reflect what you consistently declare about yourself, good or bad. You are going to see that reflected back to you. Start saying things before it's obvious. One of my favorite sayings is it's only crazy till it happens. And it is. It's only crazy until it happens. Every new invention was crazy until it wasn't.

Right? Muhammad Ali did not wait for the world to call him great. He went ahead and did that himself. And you have the same authority and power in your own voice to be able to do the same thing. So here's my question for you as we end this lunch and learn episode, what will you start calling yourself today that aligns with the future that you're stepping into? If you're watching this on YouTube, drop it down below so that I

can call you what you want to be called. And if you're listening to this on the podcast, I would love for you to still drop it below or tag us on social media and let us know this is who I am. Create an I am post. One, it serves as an introduction to the people who follow you on social media. So if they've been calling you something that you don't want them to call, let them know who you are. And two, tag me in that so that I too can support you on this journey.