I truly believe that life is a step-by-step process. When we realize this and ACCEPT it, that’s when true growth begin. I’m only one very small step ahead of you, but sometimes I still take a step backwards and question daily if I’m really putting forth my true potential when I bundle together up all my life experiences and knowledge from my past. Shoot, I may never truly define who I am, but I can answer one question if asked, “Are you happy with who you are right now?” The answer is, “Yes.” If I continue to put that question first, then all the other questions that I can’t answer “yes” to don’t bother me as much. So perhahps that’s another question we should consider asking others. Do I have the best business name? Well, I have a hyphen in it when I don’t want one…..but it’s as close as I could get….for now. Will I get the name I want without the hyphen? I sure as heck am going to try! One more stop to that final goal (that could possibly change next year….).

You see, both of us suffer from the same thing – we have many talents. Like Paul, I didn’t want to find a domain name that would “corner me” or prohibit me from being creative and branching out with anything new or different. I too have gotten up in the wee hours of the morning with a great name idea only to find .com was taken, then slide back into bed hoping to wake up the next night at 2:30 in the morning again with another one. Not! But that seems to be the best time my brain slows down enough to actually think. (I inherited this from my dad.)

I had a little different strategy that I put into motion. You desire a name –> concept –> website. I had a concept –> needed a name –> then a website. I’m curious whether altering the order may help you complete your goal? I’ll bet you have a concept of what you want to do–it appears that a path has been laid out for you and you are following it (trust in the fact that you ARE being directed). It sounds like Paul did something similar to what I did too. I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down all the words of things I knew I can successfully do–and enjoy doing. From that list I spent many weeks figuring out how to combine those words, skills and talents together (God knows we have to be diversified in today’s economy!) so I could be diversified but have a specific goal (concept). That was the most difficult step. Goal? How do I set one goal when I enjoy doing a hundred diferent things?

From that list of skills, I grabbed the words that defined them (name)…..thus came the name Final Touch Designs. Not a real “catchy” name; it doesn’t define exactly what I do (and want to do), but offers the flexibility and freedom to take my talents and skills into a different direction if a different path is laid out for me. The end result, less frustrations, less rushing to find answers that just aren’t there…yet, and more time to relax and enjoy the here and now.

So my question for the Cobbler is this, “Are your children happy”? If so, let them run around barefoot for awhile longer. As long as we are intact mentally and emotionally (yes, that means we can even be very warped), then everything else WILL fall into place. As long as we also continue to re-evaluate ourselves and our goals, we will continue to keep moving forward and not let ourselves, our lives, or our businesses become stagnent and boring.

That’s my answer and I’m stickin’ with it…..
Cathy

Regarding a domain name, you have way more experience than I do, but I thought I would share my story on how I have started to build my personal brand.

My process was to take a bunch of words that fit what I do and find a contraction that looks like it could be real word if you looked it up. (Customer Experience) Experience + Ideate = Experiate. Voila. Did it just come to me? No. It was more like doodling, throwing words and parts of words on paper until I had about seven or eight of them I liked. Then I told myself I was going to go down the list and the first one available would be it.

The irony thing was that I thought of it in a meeting dicussing the customer experience at retail, and wasn’t paying any attention to the meeting.

I may have gotten a little lucky with the name, but by no means did I want it to dictate exactly who I am and what I do. I didn’t want a domain name that cornered me. (I could easily take the tag line off my site and still relate to shopper marketing insights instead of on a screen.)

When people ask me what I do, I tell them I speak to 100 million people a month. That gets their attention, and it gives me leeway to customize my elevator speech to them, instead of saying, “I work at Best Buy.” Is it who I am? Not really, but it’s certainly catchy and breaks the ice.

I felt strongly that the domain was only a medium for communication, but would not the communication itself. Brands are built by the customers, not the owners.

I think in Savannah, “what do you do” and and “what are drinking” are pretty much the same thing.

The only place I’ve ever visited where the first question was NOT ‘what do you do’ is Savannah GA. There the first thing people ask is ‘what are you drinking?’ ;-) Cheers!