More Than a Name
Coming Up With a Personal Brand
At my 35 (almost 36) I feel like I am arriving bit late to this ‘building a personal brand’ game. It’s not that I don’t understand the concept, but it’s more that my personal brand per-se has always been me. A bit over a decade ago I started photographing and filming weddings and I gave the business my name. It continued like that even after I married Sunny, she partnered with me, and the business started growing. “Robert Oberg” was simple enough, easy to connect with, and the work itself has always been so close and personal - first to me, then to both of us.
I have always had a wide range of very diverse interests, but only in the last few years I’ve been trying to put this side of me out there a bit more. I have a couple of online classes on Skillshare, I have some content up on Youtube, and I intend to continue sharing more of whatever I can come up with. I am at a point where I feel the need to give all of this some shape or structure. Because of that I believe the best option is not to depend on any social media or teaching platform, but to find a direct connection with the people who are interested in what I do.
I want to share with you how I came up with “A Fading Thought.”
Before thinking of a newsletter/blog, I was only thinking of a website with a ‘sign up to receive updates’ kind of message. Skillshare, Youtube, Udemy, and whatever else out there may be great, but if there’s a change on a platform or you accidentally break any rule you can loose all your audience from a day to another. Honestly, I don’t have a lot to loose, which is why I thought it was a great time for this move.
The first thing was trying to come with a domain name. I found a lot of domain name generators, but out of everything, Namer.ai quickly became a favorite. I’d just type in some keywords and it would give me some interesting and usable results that didn’t feel cheesy or generic. At this point I was just trying some keywords like ‘creative, inspiration, teaching’... you know, the usual. Whatever new idea I had I’d also double check it at NameCheap.com, just to see if a .com was an available.
I can’t believe it’s become so hard to come up with a domain name that is not taken. I spent days. Literally entire days trying to think of something. I found THIS VERY HELPFUL BLOG POST which gave me some more ideas to try. Other than the ideas listed there, I must tell you that if you are using real/everyday English-language words it’s a bit easier to find something available if you have at least three words. Even if one of them is ‘a’ or ‘the.’
Some of the names that came out of the AI generator were: ImagineAndStuff, AlwaysThings, ThHappyHappens, WhatIsMyWay, MadLearnings, MysterySmart, EyeForThought, GetAMind, AllOfTheWhy, GetSeeing.
All of these were catchy, easy to remember, and available, but they just lacked a ‘something special’ in my eyes.
And then this one came out: WhenIsWhy.
It was around this time that I found about Substack. I realized I was following several RSS feeds from people I enjoy reading and I didn’t even know they were all pointing here. So I started looking around, researching about newsletters and the platform, seeing how the writers and people who publish here interact with their readers, and then a revelation just hit me: I needed not only a domain, but a brand. I realized that while I had a solid brand for my wedding work, I needed something like that for everything else that is me. Which is super hard. It’s super hard because one of the principles of branding has to do with audience, and usually you want to target a specific group with a specific interest. But for me it is the other way around, I have so many interests that do not necessarily connect with one another and what I want is a big umbrella that can cover it all.
I was very interested in WhenIsWhy when I saw that it available as a .com domain. I talked about it with Sunny and she also thought it was great. I bounced ideas with her and tried to figure out why we both felt this way about it. We came to the conclusion that it was great because it could be about anything, and at the same time it had this element of identity, time, and purpose that I loved. Since I was already thinking more in terms of brand and not only a domain name, I decided to ran it through NameCheckr a VERY useful site to check username availability on social media. Honestly, I don’t care much about social media but I think that having a place in Twitter, Youtube, and IG is important. WhenIsWhy was not available in half of those.
Even though I ended up giving up that idea, now I had a bit of inspiration and started thinking about concepts that could be reflected in a name. Specifically I started thinking about concepts I could relate to, even if metaphorically or in abstraction. I am interested in ‘time,’ for example. I love the things or moments that are short-lived but full of value. So I thought of RegardingTimes, TimePerhaps, and AllTheWinters.
I like to think. I like to ask questions. I like finding the why of things. Sometimes I overthink everything, in case you haven’t noticed. Then I thought that maybe, instead of ‘time’ I could bring in this other personal trait. So I went through names like, AMysteryThinker, AHopefulThinker, ACrazyThinker, and ThinkOfAJourney.
I was exhausted. I remember laying in bed and asking Sunny what she thought of KiwiPencil or AMindfulBoy. She just cracked up in laughter and I realized I would never be able to use that to introduce myself to anybody. “Hi, I’m Robert, follow me at A Mindful Boy.”
I also realized it was time to take a break.
As it often happens, the best ideas come to my mind when I’m not looking for them. It’s like I just have to give my brain some ingredients to prepare a meal for me while I’m out. It’s like saying, “I just need it ready by tomorrow” and forgetting about it. And yes... it’s not as simple as it sounds, but at the same time it is.
I knew my interest for the fugacious and ephemeral were there. I knew my personal traits and all the failed attempts were also there. At some point during the next day I had “A Fading Thought” for just a second, and I was able to catch it.
If you liked this you may also enjoy some content I have up on my YT Channel! I don’t hang around social media a lot, but when I do I’m on IG or Twitter. You can also check out some of my online classes, listen to my music, or in case you haven’t already, subscribe to my weekly newsletter. Thank you for reading!