Today I was looking for some business people to connect with and noticed an inordinate amount of businesses titled with only the owner’s name. Joe Shmo Consulting and so forth.

Back in the day when I owned a talent agency, everyone and their mother went by their own name. I found it dumb. But, I needed a name for my company apparently.

One day while I was at the beach with a friend, I told them my issue. So, we began batting names back and forth until I blurted out “oh, whatever!”. And a name was born, the Whatever Talent Agency. And, I can’t tell you how much fun I had with this name. “Who’s calling?” to which I’d joyfully reply “Lesley, from Whatever”. How many, “errrm, what” replies do you think I got? Too many to count.

There was not a time that I ever considered the Lesley Lotto Talent Agency.

Before the pandemic, I was considering changing the name of my news network because Remote News Service sounded so bland. But after 13 years, could I? Should I? I was about to re-do my entire website, so what about a branding change too?

And then a pandemic.

My website was being built in March of 2020. And everyone had to go Remote. And so the name stands, because it’s a solid name.

What’s your name?