Word Count: 750 - Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes
I get asked a lot how I came up with the name, BlueSkyMorning. So here goes.
Back in 1998, when @Home first introduced high-speed internet cable access to the community where I lived (Buena Park, California), I was all over it. I had gotten so frustrated with dial-up that I even paid the $50 installation fee instead of waiting for the free installation offer I knew would be coming.
Then, @Home became part of a national scandal (kind of like Enron) and was picked up by Comcast. Eventually, Comcast was picked up by someone else, but by then I had made the switch to my own domain. Prior to registering my own domain, however, I had had at least five different e-mail addresses: two in North Bend, Oregon—harborside.net and ucinet.com; and three in Buena Park—worldwidewebinc.com, @home.net, and comcast.net. I even think I had Earthlink and Juno accounts for a while.
During the Comcast era, I decided that I never wanted to change my e-mail address again, and so I embarked on a search to find the “perfect” domain for myself. First criterion—it had to be something anyone could spell without asking “How do you spell that?” Second—it had to be easy to pronounce and hear so that no one would say “Eh? What did you say?” Third—it had to create a visual in people’s minds so that they would remember me. And finally, it had to be something I could live with forever.
Yeah, I know. Forever is a long time. But really, what I mean is: when you check in with a word or phrase that is used to describe you and/or what you stand for, you know that you have found the right one when your instinctual response to the word or phrase is always “YES!” and never “ick.” I knew that in order for me to always be able to say “YES,” I needed something that captured my essence—something I wouldn’t outgrow. It is the act of outgrowing or moving on that causes me to say “ick” to things that seem so perfect at the time I first embrace them.
I played around with lots of ideas over the next three months before coming up with BlueSkyMorning. At that moment, I knew I had found it—it was love at first thought. However, because I have a propensity for falling quickly in (and out) of love with ideas, I spent the next couple of months waiting to see if I would outgrow it. In other words, I kept checking it for the “ick” factor. That was ten years ago and I am glad to say that I still say “YES!”
But why do I say “YES?” Because it is impossible for me to think of a blue sky morning without thinking positive future thoughts and without feeling positive future energy all through my mind and body. It is this emphasis on the positive and on the future that is my essence. Everything I believe and all that I stand for can be embodied in the phrase BlueSkyMorning.
Interestingly, however, BlueSkyMorning was never intended as a business name. In fact, I didn’t even have a website for the first five or six years. It was strictly for e-mail purposes. When I started my consulting business in 2005, my business cards read: Wendy Kincade, Business Consulting & Training – E-mail wendy@blueskymorning.com. But when I tried to sign up for things (meetings, parties, chamber events), the registration people didn’t know how to complete their forms—they had a field called “Company Name,” and damn it, they needed something to put in it. Some tried using “Business Consulting & Training.” Others figured it out and used my name. But somewhere along the way (I had a website by then) someone assumed that if my domain and website were blueskymorning, then blueskymorning must be my company name. They entered it into their company name field and the rest is history.
Side Note 1: It took me a while to get used to using my essence as my company name (another long story), but eventually I did. Obviously.
Side Note 2: Blue has always been my favorite color; I have always dreamt of having the power of flight; I like the limitlessness of the sky; and while I have never been a morning person, I like light and the quality of it during the first hours of the day.
