Writing Is Part of Our Brand: Issue #17

We are writers. We love to write.

As many of you know, my husband and I started a new company about a year ago that actually was an extension of our previous businesses. The name, TeamOwens313 Global Creative Community was new, but the “TeamOwens313” part was not new. TeamOwens313 has been around for about fifteen years! The Owenses as a “team” and as a “brand” has been around since 1998!

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

The year was 1988 when I first met the man who would become my husband ten years later, and then eventually my business partner. He was a journalist and editorial opinion writer for the Ann Arbor News and although I was working in corporate sales at the time, I was previously an English teacher and college instructor.

We had a lot in common from the beginning, and the time we got married in 1998, we knew it was love, including our love of the English language.

We also both love reading and we literally have hundreds of books, both print and digital. The last time we moved, we hired two big burly moving men. To them, the heavy appliances and rooms full of furniture weren’t a problem.

However, when they saw all the boxes and boxes of books and notebooks full of various writing projects, one of them almost burst into tears, saying: “Lady, do you know how many books you have?” Actually, we don’t know. We stopped counting ages ago.

Because we both love writing and reading, and also because writing and reading are part of our professional experiences, it was inevitable that we would start businesses that primarily involved writing and reading. It was also inevitable that our business would involve our name and that writing would be an integral part of our overall brand.

We thought of the name “TeamOwens313” in 2007 because we’re a team, we’re the Owenses, and the area code for Detroit is 313. Oka-a-aay… Hey, we were new at this business-naming stuff. As listed on our very first business card, we started with a WordPress blog.

By June 2008, I was ready to launch my first writing and editing business under our umbrella company name. Because “TeamOwens313” by itself didn’t let people know what we did, I decided to name my first company “Writing It Right For You.” Hubby came up with our first tagline: “It Matters How You Say It!” I did a lot of writing, editing, and business coaching through that company for several years.

Even though Writing It Right For You has transformed over the years into one of our future companies, we still sometimes use that tagline. The company name and tagline incorporated our love of words in the English language.

A few years later, because many of my editing clients who were independent writers asked me to edit their manuscripts didn’t know what to do next, we started our second company, “Detroit Ink Publishing.” Over the next several years, I edited, formatted, published over 300 books for my clients, and helped them to learn how to market their books successfully.

A few years after that, because we worked with so many creative professionals, I started my third company, “Your Business Your Brand Creatively.” I coached scores of clients who were great at their creative arts but needed help turning their art into a business.?

Finally, in 2021, we put all of our experiences, expertise, and previous companies into our new company: TeamOwens313 Global Creative Community . The “Global” part of the name is included because we’ve worked with people all over the world. The “Creative” part is obvious: we primarily work with creative professionals. And the “Community” part? Again, hubby came up with that part of the name. One of the most important things we do with all the parts of our company is to build a community of creative and solo professionals like us.

The paid members of our Community receive exclusive access to our weekly blog posts, weekly podcast episodes, and weekly group coaching sessions. Of course, I also write articles in this LinkedIn newsletter 2-5 times a week.?

We are also both published authors. I write nonfiction business-type books, and hubby writes fiction books. We both also write for corporations, publications, and other creative-focused organizations.?

But we realized that as writers, we have even more to say; ideas and thoughts that don’t necessarily fit into our businesses because they are more political and thought-provoking.

So we started a newsletter on Substack called “We Are Speaking .” Through our newsletter we speak on American History and Culture, Government, Education, and Politics from a Black perspective. People can opt for free or paid subscription models.

So, through all of the things we do individually and together, we are writers and writing is part of our brand. We are excited about the growth of everything we do.

We've come a long way and we've learned so much, but we are still writers and we still love to write. "TeamOwens313" since 1998!