What’s in a name?
When I decided to start my consulting business, I wanted to focus on just the work I loved — helping leaders lead well, helping groups get things done together, and helping implement change successfully. I was taking a three-month break before starting up the new business, and one of the few business-related things to do during the three months was figure out what to name my new business. I knew I didn’t want to use my name as the business name — I wanted it to be bigger than me. I also wanted to avoid trendy, business-speak names. During my break, I took surfing lessons at a surf camp for women in Hawaii (that was awesome!) and I spent a lot of time in the water. One day while I was surfing I thought of my dad’s nickname for me, which is Red Fish — only he says it all one word, like Redfish. When I was a little girl, he even made up a little song he’d sing to me about being a red fish. I KNEW I wanted to name my business RedFish right then — that it would make me smile every time I said it or saw it because my dad is so special to me. One of my friends went to a lot of trouble to show me that that name has nothing to do with the work I do. She was really concerned that it would sound like I wasn’t serious and that people wouldn’t accept it, but it just felt so right to me that I went ahead and did it anyway! I get a great reaction to the name from new clients. And even more importantly, it made my dad really happy – and it still makes me smile whenever I say it: “I’m Karen May, and my company is RedFish Consulting.” I want to live up to all the name means to me.