What’s in a name? How about, “A LOT.”
Cash and Joy is a great name. It’s probably the reason you’re here, right? You need cash and you know you deserve joy. My name frames my vision. It’s my calling card. If people want fulfillment and happiness while making money doing what they love? They come here.
My own cash and joy closely follows. (Yessss.)
Sometimes a name is something so memorable and unforgettable that the world shifts and makes way for it. Quick game: You want a pair of high-quality running shoes. What name comes to mind? Five bucks says Nike was what your mind’s eye reached for. And that’s why people buy Nike shoes. For the name.
A name is an intensely powerful thing. It’s also a personal thing. Something that doesn’t need to be plucked from the sky but instead can be engineered for maximum effectiveness and shine potential.
And that is where I come in. Together, we take all your magnificence and create a name that frames that ultimate vision you have for your business. We’ll create the beginnings of a brand that people are gonna want to pay you for.
How does it work?
It’s a personalized process that is all about giving your message the TLC it needs to take your idea to the next level. It’s both intense and invigorating. (Kind of like a spa treatment for your brand. Except better.)
Why?
Because I’m a freaking genius with words. I’m a wordsmith, a player with language. I love words and how they taste and combining them into alliteration and puns and layering them with extra meaning.
But I know that clarity is more important than cleverness. Some wordy people get wayyyy too smart for your good – they get tangled in a mesh of verbiage and produce clever gibberish. I won’t do that – the name is always ultimately a tool to help you connect with your ideal audience, and I will never lose sight of that.
Because I’m a big-picture gal. I won’t just say, “Oh, so your thing needs a name/let’s figure out a name/now get out.” I regularly create revolutions of amazingness in the field that you’ve requested a name in. I won’t hesitate to investigate why you’re creating this thing, whether it’s your best work, and whether you should be doing it at all. (I’ve had a few clients now where through this process they’ve come to realise that the reason they were so damn stuck on coming up with a name was because they didn’t really want to be doing the service in the first place. So they abandoned it and we talked about much cooler work instead.)
Because I’m a pattern-spotter. One of my super-powers is bringing together a lot of pieces – your best audience, your offering, your strengths, your personality, your values – and seeing the patterns that underlie them. As one of my clients put it, “You can’t read the label from inside the jar.” I regularly get called a genius, when what I’m really doing is taking all the amazing information in your head, filtering, and reorganising it.
Oh, and because I’m going to save you from weeks (or months) of stuckitude. If you are oh-so-ready to start your exciting new website but you don’t have a name for it yet? There’s nothing you can do until you have it. If you have a new service or product and you’re not happy with the name? You’re not going to promote it. If you need business cards for the upcoming conference but you’re missing key words? You can’t print them now and then crayon in the name later. (Well, I suppose you could. But it would still suck.) Instead, spend one hour with me and get thrillaciously undeadlocked – you’ll be able to rock and roll by the end of the day.
Ready to start rocking your name?
1. You click on the big button below and pay $197.
2. You’ll get the mind-mining questions necessary for targeting your name to your right people.
Curious? Here are the questions:
- Who do you want to attract? Don’t give me demographics! Tell me about their personalities: what sense of humour they have, what they value, what they aspire to.
- Who do you want to dissuade? Who would tire you out to work with?
- What’s the thing that needs a name?
- What’s the biggest benefit of your thing?
3. You book a 60-minute session. There will almost always be a time in the next day that suits you. (Which is awesome, because I know you’re ready to get cracking!)
4. We’ll have a earth-shifting chat and pinpoint the headline of the unnamed thing. Remember: I always choose clarity over cleverness, because that matters in naming. You’ll get the clarity of vision right away… but your name will probably be clever too.
I’ll give you at least 5 potential ideas for names during our talk. Probably many, many more. (Many.)
5. I email you the list of names and the recording of our call. So many other insights will spark up duing this process that you’ll need to be able to listen to the call again to catch them all!
You play around with them, try ‘em on and see how they fit. You’ll say them aloud and figure out which one feels the best. The one that feels like you.
6. If we’re not… quite… there yet (Which happens rarely, but does happen. This is an intensely personal process, and what sounds good now might feel wrong tomorrow) then we talk again and refine until you’re bursting with excitement.
And then, you’re done!
Not only do you have a list of fantastic names for your thing, but you also find it a squillion times easier to tell people about it now you know the core.
Still not 100% convinced? Here’s what some of my wonderful clients had to say about the Kickass Naming Service.
Tricia Karp from SpokenYou.com
Interestingly, this was one of the times when I didn’t end up naming anything at all…
In just one hour over Skype with Catherine, we ditched an old business that didn’t get me fired up, and poured some magic over my new business that does. Catherine is sharp, fast, and cuts to the core with warmth and an infectious sense of fun. She knows her stuff. Her brand of magnificence is just what I needed to keep me high and happening. Something tells me I’ve found my marketing maven. I’ll be back for more. For sure.
…and she has.
Terry from ADDConsults.com
Terry and I talked about her business, her services, why her marketing wasn’t converting, AND three taglines in the space of just over an hour. Her summary?
How can I thank you? You’ve allowed me to “come out of the box” and be fearless. My head is spinning with all the possibilities. Life is short, and it’s time to jump in. Hell. If it doesn’t work, I can always become more conservative. But for now, I feel like flying.
THANK YOU. You are amazing!
Ming-Zhu Hii from ThePublicStudio.com
You have to do your art. The gorgeous Ming-Zhu and I talked about how to summarise the urgency and importance of the work she’s doing to help free up the inner artist in her audience.
She described it like this:
You have rocked every single fricken particle of my business!!!
Be prepared to have your mind blown, yo heart filled & life competely changed for the total-and-utter-awesome.
I don’t know how to say this w/out sounding like a d’bag but it was THE most spiritual biznizz experience EVAH.
I love my job.
Linda Eaves from DontGoHomeWithHim.com
We actually built an entire new business through naming it. Here’s Linda’s description:
Best money ever spent. Since I booked time with Catherine for a kick ass naming session I’m beyond excited!
In an hour I was transformed from aspiring schizophrenic – because I seemed to have so many interests, to finding the exquisite silver tie that binds them all together. Why didn’t I see it before?
For the first time in two years (the beginning of my online entrepreneurial round the world trip) I know THE why that will serve my customers well and keep me inspired and grounded on all my projects.
Hooray!
Sparky Firepants
Fresh, on-target illustration for fun people – that was a tagline for the ever-delightful Sparky Firepants as he took his website in a new direction.
He then proclaimed on Twitter: “You are whip-smart, insightful, and fantastic. 45 minutes on the phone saved me weeks of noodling about.” Why thank you!
Sinclair from SelfActivator.com
Ooh, and after a kick-ass chat with Sinclair from Self Activator, she emailed me a testimonial. (I didn’t even ask. She’s so sweet.)
Catherine is all kinds of genius, and has the gift of simplifying difficult concepts to create great results.
This tagline service of hers is no exception. I’ve been to tagline school (not kidding – it was expensive). I know all the rules, and Catherine’s taglines meet those criteria and excel past them.
Generating taglines is a mysterious business, but not with the divine Ms. Caine. No hoopla, no mystery, just BAM. Tagline you love. She gets it because she listens well, and she keeps it simple. Thank God for her.
Now my only challenge is updating the visual aspects of my site so they’re worthy of implementing my new tagline!
(Isn’t she wonderful?)
Iain from TenMoreClients.com
Iain and I chat very regularly about our businesses and mutual love of Baldur’s Gate, and I worked with him to name two things:
Why is my networking NOT working? – his (awesome) free course about how to do networking well.
Attract your ideal clients through marketing and self-development – the tagline for the Ten More Clients website. I really loved this one, because until we went through the tagline process Iain hadn’t brought the element of self-development into the website at all, even though it was very important to him personally and in the work he does with his clients. The lightbulb was audible when I suggested we incorporate that into his tagline.
LaVonne from The Complete Flake
The Stuckbuster Sessions – LaVonne’s energising productivity sessions for readers of The Complete Flake. She was 90% of the way toward having the answer herself – her first suggestion was BlockBusters, which didn’t quite work because of the association with the video rental chain – she just needed help in finding an alternative that worked. The alliteration was a pleasant bonus.
Mary from Prison of Should
During a consulting call, Mary and I were talking about a new website she wanted to start. The purpose was to help people break out of conformity and be their bestest selves, and I suggested PrisonofShould.com as a name. Mary laughed for five straight minutes, and the ideas starting bursting out of her. Finding that metaphor gave her website a new structure and focus and power.
It’s time to sing it out loud!
Are you ready to have an energising conversation about your thing and come out with clarity and a name?
