If you’ve ever been curious as to why I named my company “Spots of Joy”, or if you are just wanting to know details around the name, the read on! A couple of years ago when I decided to go the route of self-publishing for my children’s book, Meet Faith – The Story of a Deaf Dalmatian, I had to decide if I’d publish under my name, or as a company. Now, I’m not going to go into the details of this decision, but I decided to go with using a company name (mostly to keep the book separate from personal finances). So when I thought about names, I thought about the reason for writing my book. As you could probably guess, that reason is Faith (my deaf Dalmatian if you’re just now tuning in). The first thing that came to mind when I thought about her was how happy she was. I immediately feel in love with “The Happy Dalmatian”. It just felt fitting, had a nice ring to it and seemed to encompass Faith.
Now, if you’ve ever gone through the process of choosing something like a business name, you probably know one of the first things you should do, aside from registering it is to see if it’s available and if anyone else is using it. I like to start with Google. When I did this, I didn’t find anything, however, the other piece to include is looking at available URLs or domain names. And, as you may guess, it was taken. There wasn’t anything set up yet, but it wasn’t available. Now, I could have gone with a .net, or an abbreviation or other creative way of making it work. But I didn’t like that I found a website that looked like it was getting started. Not only did I really want the true URL, “thehappydalmatian.com”, but I didn’t want to potentially be competing with another startup. (By the way, I just looked and whomever had it obviously gave up whatever endeavors they were one as that URL is now available! Oh well, no regrets here!)
With that, I decided to keep brainstorming. When I’d think of other ideas, I kept coming back to “The Happy Dalmatian” – I couldn’t get it out of my head! So then I thought, “why do I like that so much?” And I realized it was the happy piece. I knew how happy Faith really was and felt like I needed to share that. So I started thinking about other names that could portray her happiness. The other piece I looped in was how a year or two prior I started focusing on finding joy everyday. I even have a little journal where I can write moments of joy everyday, and while I don’t use it everyday, it is a part of my daily routine. Right after I turn off my light for bed, I think of at least 3 good things that happened that day. (I highly recommend making this part of your routine!)
So I started playing with ideas that would encompass Faith’s and my positive outlook on life, and of course thought about all those spots she had. And then it hit me – “maybe she got all that happiness from her spots!” (I also happen to have a lot of “spots” – they’re moles, but hey, maybe I’m on to something here 😉 ). Now, while I don’t really believe her happiness came from those spots, I just love the idea of thinking of it like that. So I came up with “Spots of Joy”. It brought Faith into it – not literally by using “Dalmatian”, but the “spots” definitely hit the mark. And I felt it also tied in that thought of finding joy everyday. The fact of life is that somedays are going to suck. Sometimes really bad things can happen, and yes, we tend to feel like that day was awful. But I do believe that it’s helpful for our brains to find little spots of joy, even on the darkest of days. Your moment of joy doesn’t have to be some big thing like winning the lottery – it can be something as simple as “the moon was really pretty” or “I enjoyed snuggling with my dog.”
Once I came up with the name, I did all the research and then created the LLC and bought the domain name. And I’m so happy with the name I chose. I love incorporating my inspiration – Faith – with it all and I love that it focuses on the good things. I hope that with my company I can portray this message of finding joy in everyday life. If your day was “the best day ever!” then consider reflecting back on it to really appreciate it. And if your day was “the worst day ever” or maybe just really “blah”, try to find even a tiny sliver of joy – if you look, it’s always there. And if all else fails, take a look at some of my Faith videos on Instagram and maybe one will give you that tiny bit of joy.
