1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,960 Hey friends, welcome to this episode of the pool party. 2 00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:05,520 Today we are talking about choosing a name 3 00:00:05,520 --> 00:00:09,400 and that is a name for your product, business or service. 4 00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:11,480 If you're an artist and you're trying to come up 5 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:15,040 with an artist's name, this is also extremely helpful. 6 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:18,960 A lot of artists come up with alternative personas 7 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:20,760 or what do you call it? 8 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:24,280 Alter egos in order to better embrace their art. 9 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:26,520 And there are a few things that I would suggest 10 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:28,620 you consider when you pick your name, 11 00:00:28,620 --> 00:00:30,800 just for the sake of longevity 12 00:00:30,800 --> 00:00:34,560 and then also fitting into this larger context of branding, 13 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:36,880 which ultimately I've described as a way 14 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:39,520 to easily communicate with your artists, 15 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:41,320 any people you might work with 16 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:43,720 and then also communicating your mission 17 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:45,160 and values to yourself. 18 00:00:45,160 --> 00:00:47,800 Unifying and aligning all of these elements 19 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:51,360 are what I've found help good brands last 20 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:53,720 and also good elements of brands. 21 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:55,400 Of course you can always change them 22 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:57,600 but consistency is key 23 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:00,280 and the longer you can be consistent, 24 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:03,220 the better for you and your story. 25 00:01:03,220 --> 00:01:05,960 All right, so let's go ahead and dive into choosing a name. 26 00:01:05,960 --> 00:01:07,880 I'm going to give you a quick outline 27 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:10,040 of the components we will talk about today. 28 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:13,460 We wanna consider uniqueness, the length of the name, 29 00:01:13,460 --> 00:01:17,200 if there's a.com or at handle available 30 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:19,200 and this is incredibly helpful 31 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:21,800 in the age of promoting yourself online. 32 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:25,360 Then we're going to discuss values and audience. 33 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:27,320 Towards the end, I'm also going to recommend 34 00:01:27,320 --> 00:01:30,200 some ways that you can brainstorm for your name 35 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:32,720 and then a bit of an exercise 36 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:35,440 for seeing if your name sticks. 37 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:38,520 So there'll be a few questions for journaling at the end 38 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:41,840 but let's go ahead and dive into the first facet 39 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:43,240 of choosing a name. 40 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:47,040 And this section is going to be on considering uniqueness, 41 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:49,400 conciseness or length of the name 42 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:52,760 and then we'll go ahead and get into checking online domains 43 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:55,220 and handles to validate your name. 44 00:01:55,220 --> 00:01:57,640 So first of all, when choosing a name, 45 00:01:57,640 --> 00:01:59,320 you wanna make sure that it's unique. 46 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:03,340 And typically I would say that the most important aspect 47 00:02:03,340 --> 00:02:07,000 of branding is making sure that it's specific and concise 48 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:09,560 and with your names, you wanna do the same 49 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:12,440 but there are so many different registered brands 50 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:14,960 out there these days, so many different artists 51 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:18,720 that sometimes you see people using similar names 52 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:22,800 and that ultimately can be not a great thing for you 53 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:24,520 when you're trying to stand out 54 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:27,800 or let's say someone is discussing your brand 55 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:30,120 and then it reminds them of something else 56 00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:32,160 or it's really hard to really trigger people 57 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:35,920 that you're talking about your brand and not something else. 58 00:02:35,920 --> 00:02:38,920 So with this, I would also recommend not choosing something 59 00:02:38,920 --> 00:02:40,660 that's a little bit too weird. 60 00:02:40,660 --> 00:02:44,140 I'm gonna make an example that I think can be easy. 61 00:02:44,140 --> 00:02:46,160 If you are a peanut butter brand, 62 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:50,060 you probably wouldn't decide to name yourself Skippy or Jif 63 00:02:50,060 --> 00:02:51,760 because there are already brands out there 64 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:53,620 that are named Skippy and Jif. 65 00:02:53,620 --> 00:02:56,360 They have brand legacy, they've been around for years 66 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:59,240 and on top of the fact that you might just legally 67 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:01,720 not be able to take their name, 68 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:03,760 it would do you a huge disservice 69 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:07,000 to create a spinoff brand and name it Skippy or Jif 70 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,280 because if someone were to Google those brands, 71 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:10,480 your brand wouldn't come up. 72 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:12,300 You just don't have enough content online 73 00:03:12,300 --> 00:03:14,800 and the two legacy brands with those names 74 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:16,320 would dominate the internet. 75 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:18,240 So you wanna choose a name that is unique 76 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:19,880 but with this, you also wanna make sure 77 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:22,560 that the name isn't too out there. 78 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:24,960 So if you were to tell your name to someone, 79 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:27,240 would they be able to spell it easily? 80 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:30,760 Is this like a name that is seen somewhere else? 81 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:33,680 So we wanna keep these names short still 82 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:35,440 and I would say aim for, 83 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:37,880 so we wanna keep our names short. 84 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:40,920 We don't wanna make them more than 10 letters long. 85 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:42,600 You can even have compound names 86 00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:44,220 and that helps a lot these days 87 00:03:44,220 --> 00:03:47,760 because you can't always pick a three letter name 88 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:49,200 and a lot of people love that 89 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:52,120 because short names are easy to Google, 90 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:53,480 they're easy to search up, 91 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:55,440 but that's just something to consider 92 00:03:55,440 --> 00:03:57,560 before we start to brainstorm. 93 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:00,160 So that goes with being short and concise 94 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:02,040 and again, you can choose names 95 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:04,480 that are multiple words long. 96 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:06,520 Sometimes you might even take your nickname 97 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:08,360 and tack another word on there. 98 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:10,100 So if I'm thinking of artists, 99 00:04:10,100 --> 00:04:14,360 one artist that comes to mind is Megan Thee Stallion. 100 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:17,420 So that is a unique name, but it's quite long. 101 00:04:17,420 --> 00:04:19,760 This might be a little bit different for musicians. 102 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:21,120 I think a musician's stage name 103 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:24,200 sometimes have multiple letters, words, 104 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:26,320 they can be longer, but for example, 105 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:29,160 if you are a startup or a brand 106 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:30,440 that is creating new products, 107 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:32,760 you might wanna consider just really keeping it short 108 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:34,860 and rememberable and also make sure 109 00:04:34,860 --> 00:04:36,680 that you're not overlapping too much 110 00:04:36,680 --> 00:04:39,320 with other people in the same space as you. 111 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:41,960 I see this a lot with tech startups where people try, 112 00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:44,320 they come up with names that already exist 113 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:46,080 or they heard it somewhere already 114 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:47,840 and that's also not great 115 00:04:47,840 --> 00:04:50,360 because it does the same thing that I mentioned before 116 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:53,000 where it might sound cool, but if it already exists, 117 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:56,240 that other brands already has content out there, 118 00:04:56,240 --> 00:04:58,160 they already have legacy on the name 119 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:01,320 and I would say that's not gonna be great for you or them 120 00:05:01,320 --> 00:05:04,200 and it's gonna introduce unnecessary competition. 121 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:06,320 All right, so now that we've gotten to the space 122 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:08,800 of talking about other people 123 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:11,880 and the uniqueness and competitiveness of a name, 124 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:14,560 we wanna see if maybe there's a.com available 125 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:15,380 for your name. 126 00:05:15,380 --> 00:05:16,920 So this is another way to consider 127 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:20,040 whether your brand name, your business name, 128 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:23,000 your artist name is going to be a great choice. 129 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:24,480 You can just type in your name. 130 00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:28,280 We will use the same example again, meganthestalian.com 131 00:05:28,280 --> 00:05:31,160 and I'm going to assume that meganthestalian.com 132 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:32,240 is already taken, 133 00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:34,160 so you would not wanna name yourself that. 134 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:36,400 So you wanna make sure that you can at least get 135 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:41,000 like a.com, a.co, an org and these types of URL 136 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:45,200 and domain ends are going to be ranked higher in SEO. 137 00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:48,080 I would say stay away from like.xyzs 138 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:51,000 or things that are different and unique as dots 139 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:53,000 because there's a lot of different like dot domains 140 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:56,200 these days and sometimes like the downside 141 00:05:56,200 --> 00:06:00,680 to choosing the domain URLs is that your email, 142 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:03,120 if you were to create an email from this website 143 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:05,200 would get straight sent to spam 144 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:07,800 and then the other thing too is it, I don't know, 145 00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:10,880 being a little bit too out there and unique with your domain 146 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:13,280 isn't going to be exactly helpful. 147 00:06:13,280 --> 00:06:15,240 It introduces more uncertainty 148 00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:18,400 and I would just say stick with the.coms, the.orgs, 149 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:20,960 especially if you're an organization or a company 150 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:24,760 and if you're an artist, yeah, stick to a.com, it's simple. 151 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:26,720 You don't need to be a company to have a.com 152 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:28,800 but it'll definitely make sure 153 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:30,280 that you don't get sent to spam 154 00:06:30,280 --> 00:06:33,240 if you ever create an email with a.com domain. 155 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:34,760 Okay, all right, so on top of this, 156 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:37,680 we also wanna see if the handle or the username 157 00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:41,720 is available on websites like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok. 158 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:44,640 You might not be using these websites to promote right away 159 00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:47,000 but if you ever wanted to, let's say, 160 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:48,960 get on these platforms, we wanna make sure 161 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:52,040 that your name isn't like another popular name 162 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:53,600 on one of these sites. 163 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:55,360 For example, if you're creating a TikTok, 164 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:57,320 you would not wanna call yourself MrBeast. 165 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:00,680 MrBeast already has the real estate on that name 166 00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:03,760 and so it would be great, not great for you 167 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:05,160 to choose that as a name. 168 00:07:05,160 --> 00:07:07,360 Again, that goes along with that topic of uniqueness 169 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:09,600 but I think you get where I'm going at here now. 170 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:13,160 We wanna make sure that in this overlap of being online 171 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:15,520 and of being able to talk about your brand, 172 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,800 not only is it easy to describe who you are 173 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:20,800 and if it ever came up in conversation, 174 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:23,520 people would know that you're talking about your company, 175 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:25,480 your brand and not someone else's 176 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:27,560 and then if you were to Google your brand online, 177 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:29,920 your brand would come up with these keywords 178 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:32,360 instead of someone else's who has already been creating 179 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:34,760 in this space for a really long time. 180 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:38,440 All right, so let's go back to the topic of values 181 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:40,400 and I want you to think about now 182 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:43,000 if your name reflects your values. 183 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:46,560 Ideally, when you choose a name for your product, service 184 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:50,640 or artist persona, it should give you some idea 185 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:54,040 of what you're trying to represent with what you do. 186 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:56,720 Megan the salient, for example, I think is a great name 187 00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:00,520 because it suggests some sort of power, some strength, 188 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:02,640 some majestic quality to it. 189 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:05,360 Megan the salient, I remember her talking about 190 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:07,120 how she chose her name on a blog 191 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:09,440 and she also mentioned this because she's tall. 192 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:12,520 She is a bit taller and salients are very tall 193 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:13,880 and they have a presence to them. 194 00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:16,080 So I think that works for her stage presence. 195 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:17,480 The same thing goes for you. 196 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:19,040 When you think about your name, 197 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:21,080 think about your values, what you represent 198 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,760 and if there are any qualities you refer to 199 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:27,800 or any values of that nature that you think about 200 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:29,680 when you create your work. 201 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:32,160 For me, my artist name is Jules Poole 202 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:35,480 and one of the reason why I chose that name 203 00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:38,360 is because to me, thoughts pool 204 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:41,560 and I think when you think of the loanal space of thought 205 00:08:41,560 --> 00:08:45,000 and meditation, it's nice to reflect next to a pool 206 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:47,720 and Jules Poole's also rhymes quite nicely. 207 00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:50,240 So that's why I chose that as my artist name. 208 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:53,840 So those are some examples and ultimately want that name 209 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:55,880 to reflect back to some sort of value, 210 00:08:55,880 --> 00:08:59,880 if anything to remind you of why you do what you do. 211 00:08:59,880 --> 00:09:02,480 And then later on, you can tell that brand story 212 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:04,560 to your audience and then it'll just tie 213 00:09:04,560 --> 00:09:07,520 into your brand story and your values that much further. 214 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:11,760 So now third question, does it connect with your audience? 215 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:13,560 So this name, we wanna make sure 216 00:09:13,560 --> 00:09:15,200 that it sticks with your audience. 217 00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:17,840 This is something we could have probably figured out sooner 218 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:21,120 rather than later if discussing your brands 219 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:22,960 seems to make sense to people. 220 00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:26,000 You can tell usually if you're discussing your company, 221 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:28,920 your brands, your artist name with folks and if it sticks 222 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:31,080 and that is usually a good sign. 223 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:34,120 I wouldn't say choose your name solely on the reaction 224 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:37,240 of other people trying to get a certain reaction 225 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:40,440 but if it connects to others and you consider these people 226 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:42,680 to be like your soul art community 227 00:09:42,680 --> 00:09:45,160 or people you wanna work with and that's a good sign. 228 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:47,800 All right, so that is the first section 229 00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:49,600 of considering your name. 230 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:52,480 We wanna make sure that it's unique, short and concise 231 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:57,320 if we can use it for a.com or a handle on social media. 232 00:09:57,320 --> 00:10:01,040 And then choosing your name should use some value, 233 00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:03,360 brand values and if you wanna know more 234 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:05,000 about how to choose brand values, 235 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:08,720 you can listen to the podcast on how to select brand values 236 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:11,680 and ultimately if all of these things are aligned, 237 00:10:11,680 --> 00:10:13,720 it should really connect back with your audience 238 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:16,320 but that's always a great question to ask in the end. 239 00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:18,840 Does your name connect with your audience? 240 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:22,200 Next up, we wanna talk about ways to brainstorm your name. 241 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:25,160 So names, we're gonna talk about naming 242 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:28,400 in the context of English and whatever name 243 00:10:28,400 --> 00:10:30,320 that you want to have, you could have it 244 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:33,480 in a different language as well but just with linguistics, 245 00:10:33,480 --> 00:10:37,360 we can do a brain dump and create a word cloud of names 246 00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:39,840 by writing them down and that's the other thing too. 247 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:41,560 I would suggest choosing a name 248 00:10:41,560 --> 00:10:43,840 that you could actually pronounce and write out 249 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:45,640 in letters that you can type out. 250 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:47,440 I've seen some artists names out there 251 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:49,640 that are actually symbolic and are made 252 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:53,960 with symbols and emojis and while that is creative, 253 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:56,800 I think it makes this work really hard to search 254 00:10:56,800 --> 00:10:58,520 and maybe that is the intention. 255 00:10:58,520 --> 00:11:00,080 Maybe some of these names I've seen 256 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,280 that are created with emojis are actually 257 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:05,200 even more alternative personas of artists 258 00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:08,880 but if you're trying to be recognizable and searchable, 259 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:10,880 I would suggest using plain letters 260 00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:12,880 and a keyboard to write your name. 261 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:15,760 So with that, let's go ahead and do our brain dump. 262 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:19,400 Take a piece of paper and just write out different words 263 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:23,800 that symbolize or relate to whatever your brand is. 264 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:25,640 I'm going to go ahead and use the example 265 00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:28,960 of that peanut butter again because it's pretty tangible 266 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:32,440 but peanut butter, some words that come up yummy, 267 00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:36,480 sticky, gooey, smooth, soft, crunchy 268 00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:38,200 and these are delving into different types 269 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:41,280 of peanut butter now so maybe we get even more specific. 270 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:44,960 If you're an artist, let's say that you are a guitarist, 271 00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:47,920 maybe strings, we can get down to the materials, 272 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:51,360 guitars made out of wood and then if you think of wood, 273 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:53,600 what kind of wood, maybe it's, 274 00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:57,320 I don't know what kind of wood that guitars are made of 275 00:11:57,320 --> 00:12:01,400 but let's say for example, it's echinacea or eucalyptus 276 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:04,800 and I think these can be things that connect back to you 277 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:07,200 but don't think about that for now with your brain dump, 278 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:09,440 just get all the words on a piece of paper. 279 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:11,040 And then the next thing I want you to do 280 00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:13,200 is take a art walk. 281 00:12:13,200 --> 00:12:15,800 So go ahead and take a walk and look at the words 282 00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:18,560 that you've written down and see if any of them connect 283 00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:21,600 to you if you wanna combine any of the words together. 284 00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:24,200 And the reason why I recommend walking while you do this 285 00:12:24,200 --> 00:12:26,240 is because it puts you in your body 286 00:12:26,240 --> 00:12:29,200 and you might even say the words out loud 287 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:31,600 just so that you can get a sense 288 00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:33,960 for how they roll off your tongue if you like that 289 00:12:33,960 --> 00:12:36,600 and you can start writing down different combinations 290 00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:39,600 of these words together and from there, 291 00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:42,160 you have a sense of different combinations 292 00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:43,480 for names you wanna choose. 293 00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:45,900 From this brain dump to then taking a walk, 294 00:12:45,900 --> 00:12:50,600 I would probably select five to 10 combinations or names 295 00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:54,520 and from there, you can run these names up against the tests 296 00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:58,720 that we discussed earlier, being unique, short and concise. 297 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:02,720 And if the name is available through a domain address 298 00:13:02,720 --> 00:13:04,440 or if the handle is available, 299 00:13:04,440 --> 00:13:07,000 then next what you wanna do is sit on it. 300 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:08,320 Just sit on it for a week. 301 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:11,600 See if any one of them stands out to you 302 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:15,560 but give yourself time and space to digest 303 00:13:15,560 --> 00:13:18,240 and see if it sticks with you in the long run. 304 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:20,040 And I would suggest giving it time 305 00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:22,720 because if you decide to change the name, 306 00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:23,920 everything that you've created 307 00:13:23,920 --> 00:13:25,040 for your branding materials, 308 00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:26,480 you're going to have to change it. 309 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:28,560 It creates way more work in the end 310 00:13:28,560 --> 00:13:31,320 and again, that's just wasted time I think 311 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:32,800 and then wasted creative effort 312 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:36,640 that you could spend on actually creating your work. 313 00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:37,860 This is just a name, right? 314 00:13:37,860 --> 00:13:39,500 This is just a branding package. 315 00:13:39,500 --> 00:13:40,960 It's not the work itself. 316 00:13:40,960 --> 00:13:43,640 It's just one of those things that makes you feel confident. 317 00:13:43,640 --> 00:13:47,460 So another thing you do is ask a trusted second party 318 00:13:47,460 --> 00:13:48,560 what they think of the name 319 00:13:48,560 --> 00:13:50,940 and usually I would suggest asking someone 320 00:13:50,940 --> 00:13:53,560 who actually works in the space that you do. 321 00:13:53,560 --> 00:13:57,040 You wouldn't ask a pianist for example, 322 00:13:57,040 --> 00:13:59,080 what to name your peanut butter company. 323 00:13:59,080 --> 00:14:00,640 It just doesn't really make sense 324 00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:02,480 and they'll probably tell you what they like 325 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:04,080 based upon other values 326 00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:05,880 rather than what they could see 327 00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:07,480 being successful in the space. 328 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:11,080 Ask a trusted second party but don't involve everyone. 329 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:13,120 One thing I see people do sometimes 330 00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:14,520 when they're trying to come up with a name 331 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:16,440 is they ask every single person 332 00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:18,480 they come across what they think about the name 333 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:20,280 and ultimately what I think happens 334 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:24,560 is this leads to some sort of analysis paralysis in decision. 335 00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:25,720 You involve everyone. 336 00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:27,560 There's too many cooks in the kitchen 337 00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:30,220 and what it shows to me is that you're not confident 338 00:14:30,220 --> 00:14:31,320 about your choice. 339 00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:34,120 Again, you need to make the decision yourself 340 00:14:34,120 --> 00:14:37,120 and that decision needs to come from a place of confidence 341 00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:39,760 that reflects back to values that you chose 342 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:41,080 and predetermined yourself. 343 00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:43,120 And if you forego that choice, 344 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:47,040 the likelihood of you changing your name is quite high. 345 00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:50,040 Again, thereby defeating the whole point of a brand. 346 00:14:50,040 --> 00:14:52,600 So we don't need to get into why you shouldn't do that 347 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:55,920 but try to keep the process close to your chest. 348 00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:57,240 Ask someone you trust 349 00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:00,040 but ultimately make the decision yourself. 350 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:02,640 All right, now we're getting towards the end of our podcast. 351 00:15:02,640 --> 00:15:06,240 There are two more questions I want you to ask yourself 352 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:10,500 as you choose a name and decide to nail it down. 353 00:15:10,500 --> 00:15:13,960 This first question, how might your name be confusing? 354 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:16,200 I know we went through this creative process 355 00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:19,400 of choosing a name and ways of brainstorming 356 00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:21,040 but there are still a lot of ways 357 00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:23,360 that sometimes names can be confusing 358 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:26,120 and you might wanna ask your trusted second party 359 00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:28,520 if there are any ways this name might be confusing 360 00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:29,720 just to brainstorm. 361 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:31,880 And then secondly, you wanna figure out 362 00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:35,200 if there are any ways to easily eliminate this confusion. 363 00:15:35,200 --> 00:15:37,120 Sometimes there are confusing elements 364 00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:40,080 that come up in naming that could be solved 365 00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:41,360 with visual elements. 366 00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:43,880 For example, my name is Jules Pools 367 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:46,920 but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm a pool company, right? 368 00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:50,800 But I do have visual elements on my Instagram 369 00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:53,560 and also 10 years worth of a portfolio 370 00:15:53,560 --> 00:15:56,960 to show that I'm an artist and that is on my website. 371 00:15:56,960 --> 00:15:58,080 And I do a variety of things 372 00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:00,940 that actually do not involve pools at all. 373 00:16:00,940 --> 00:16:04,520 And so I find that this work and this body of work 374 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:08,120 outweighs any confusion there might be with my artist name. 375 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:11,080 And that is ultimately a decision I made early on 376 00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:12,520 that I would just create work. 377 00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:15,880 And when you looked at my portfolio or my Instagram 378 00:16:15,880 --> 00:16:19,840 you would understand what work I do just by my output. 379 00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:21,880 So I think that's another thing to consider too. 380 00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:25,840 Don't let your name be the sole definer of what you do. 381 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:28,040 Let the output of what you do 382 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:30,960 also help bolster that name, okay? 383 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:32,800 So these things flow into each other. 384 00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:35,360 And I do believe that sometimes people forget this 385 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:36,680 when they are on branding. 386 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:38,680 And I think that branding is something 387 00:16:38,680 --> 00:16:41,380 that you should be able to nail down relatively quickly 388 00:16:41,380 --> 00:16:43,200 through a branding process. 389 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:44,800 It needs to stick and resonate with you 390 00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:47,520 but you should not be changing your branding every month 391 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:49,640 especially as a company or an artist. 392 00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:50,840 Maybe think about your branding 393 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:53,760 in terms of changing it every two to three years. 394 00:16:53,760 --> 00:16:56,200 And if you've been around for a long time, don't change it. 395 00:16:56,200 --> 00:16:57,440 Change your body of work. 396 00:16:57,440 --> 00:16:59,120 Find other ways to express yourself. 397 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:01,240 But if you're constantly changing the name 398 00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:04,480 I think the likelihood of consistency and recognizability 399 00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:07,440 will go down in the eyes of other people. 400 00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:09,100 And honestly, that is important 401 00:17:09,100 --> 00:17:11,640 because ultimately you should cater to your audience 402 00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:13,120 and try to build a fan base. 403 00:17:13,120 --> 00:17:16,040 So we wanna be less confusing to your fan base, 404 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:17,200 to your customers. 405 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:20,280 And the best way to do that is just to make some decisions. 406 00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:22,280 All right, so this has been the episode 407 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:24,320 of the pool party, how to choose your name. 408 00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:27,360 We talked about a few things today including uniqueness, 409 00:17:27,360 --> 00:17:29,180 choosing a short and concise name 410 00:17:29,180 --> 00:17:32,360 and ways to see if this name is available online. 411 00:17:32,360 --> 00:17:34,400 We again talked about seeing if your name 412 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:37,280 reflects your values, if it connects with your audience 413 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:40,160 and then a few ways to brainstorm your name 414 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:42,720 by taking a walk, doing a brain dump 415 00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:45,080 and then selecting a few pairs of names 416 00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:47,880 in order to see if any of those stick. 417 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:51,200 Ultimately, I say give yourself time, but not too much time. 418 00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:53,040 Take about a week, see if it sits. 419 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:56,400 Ask a trusted second party, but don't involve everyone. 420 00:17:56,400 --> 00:17:58,560 We don't want too many cooks in the kitchen. 421 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:01,000 And then if there are ways that your name might be confusing, 422 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:02,400 don't let that stop you. 423 00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:05,180 Just make work that defines who you are. 424 00:18:05,180 --> 00:18:06,640 And a name is just a name. 425 00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:10,400 Ultimately, you get to decide what you do just by doing it. 426 00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:13,120 So make sure that you give yourself the opportunity 427 00:18:13,120 --> 00:18:16,120 to do it by nailing down your brand name 428 00:18:16,120 --> 00:18:18,840 and moving on, running with it, being confident. 429 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:21,080 All right, this has been a special episode 430 00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:23,640 on branding and naming in the pool party. 431 00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:26,400 If you like this episode, there are two other episodes 432 00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:29,080 available on selecting brand values 433 00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:32,960 and branding one-on-one, effective facets of branding. 434 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:34,960 So go ahead and listen to those episodes. 435 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:36,600 If you need more help with branding, 436 00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:39,400 you can look me up at JuliaEspiro.me. 437 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:43,680 That's J-U-L-I-A-E-S-P-E-R-O dot. 438 00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:46,160 That's a period, M-E, JuliaEspiro.me. 439 00:18:46,160 --> 00:19:09,800 Thank you and I'll talk to you next week.