No Name Negativity

In this podcast episode, Ashley Elliott and Mike Carr discuss the importance of being an advocate for names rather than a critic, explaining that focusing on what's wrong with a name can lead to a negative mindset and hinder the naming process. Instead, they suggest wearing an advocate hat and discussing the potential and possibilities of names. By approaching the conversation with positivity, names can gain traction and be viewed in the right context. They also emphasize the importance of knowing the direction to head in when providing feedback on names, rather than just focusing on what to avoid.  

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 0:36 Advocacy vs. Criticism
• 1:25 Setting a Positive Tone
• 2:42 Effective Feedback
• 4:58 Context Matters

Transcript

Ashley Elliott (00:10): 

All right. Welcome to naming in an AI Age. Today we're on site, on location, in person for the first of our podcast, and we're super excited about it. But today we're really going to talk about the importance of being an advocate for names versus being a critic. So Mike, why don't you tell me your journey with the last almost 40 years of name pitches, positivity versus negativity, and what you've learned through 

Mike Carr (00:36): 

That? Great question. And so the most natural way to think about names is to talk about what's wrong with the name, and that's the least productive, but it's easy to be the critic, right? And it's easy to say, I want to talk first about what I don't like about all these names here. The problem with that is as soon as you open the lid of Pandora's box to thinking negatively and critically, the ball gets rolling down the wrong side of the hill. And so what happens is someone will say a negative thing or a concern about one name, and then someone else will play the game of one upsmanship and say something bad about another name. And now everyone's thinking about why won't this name work? Why won't that name work? And before you know it, all the names are gone. So that is not the way for a successful naming outcome in our experience. 

Ashley Elliott (01:25): 

So how do you navigate that on a call? I mean, we are remote in a lot of our calls, so how do you set up the call and the expectations of that? What have you done to work? 

Mike Carr (01:35): 

Right, so the thing that we try to do right off the bat is ask everyone to wear their advocate hat as opposed to their critic hat. So we take the negative off the table, which drives people crazy. They want to talk about what they don't like. We don't want to do that. So we say you can't say anything bad about any name we give you. Instead, we want you to think about maybe the 1, 2, 3 names. Just have some possibilities, talk about what might work, talk about how this name does have some potential. And what happens is you'll end up talking one another end into names that not everybody was excited about right off the bat. So the conversation starts with everyone being the advocate, not the critic. That's the mindset. People talk one another into names that maybe not everybody liked that much. So at the end, when we do open the meeting up the criticism and we're critical thinking that's the best time to do it, because these names, which are like these infant babies, right? They're very fragile. They've had a chance to gain some traction, and people started thinking about the names the right way, which is really helpful. 

Ashley Elliott (02:42): 

So I'm curious from a nrss perspective, what actually helps the most? Is it knowing what they like about certain parts of names, or is it knowing what they don't like about certain parts of names we ideate based on their feedback? So how does that, which one do you feel like is most beneficial? 

Mike Carr (02:55): 

It's always more helpful to know the direction to head in than direction not to head in. So if we know, hey, we're hitting stride with this theme, we're hitting stride with this style of name, we're hitting stride with a particular length or sound or cadence or whatever it might be, that helps us a lot. We'll talk about all the things you don't want, but we can't really ideate. We really can't create new ideas around all the things you don't want. What helps us a whole lot more are the things that might work for 

Ashley Elliott (03:25): 

You. That's a good way to, I think about it. I think sometimes we say, avoid this and avoid this, but really what are we leaning into? Because we're creating new names that need to be from ideas that do want us to go down and navigate, 

Mike Carr (03:37): 

Right? And the last thing I wanted to leave everyone with on this particular episode is when you start thinking negatively about any name you come up with things that you would not normally ever think of when the names presented in context. So let's take some of the most famous brands, some of the most well-known names in the world like Coca-Cola. So Coca-Cola is the number one soft drink in the world. If you had never seen that name before and someone were to ask you what's wrong with this name, you might say, well, where's the chocolate? Right? Coca-Cola, it begins with Coca, the root for cocoa. But no one ever says that because the names presented in the right context. The same is true of McDonald's. Old McDonald's had a farm, EIO. Why would you name a hamburger joint after a children's nursery rhyme? Well, no one again ever brings that up. So the context, the story you wrap around the name really helps eliminate this idea of, well, what could be wrong with this name? Because the best names often have the most glaring weaknesses. And again, if you start thinking about what could be wrong with the name, you'll throw out your best name candidates before they have any chance at all to gain any track. 

Ashley Elliott (04:58): 

Well, thank you for your insights and your naming wisdom, these naming nuggets of wisdom. We appreciate it and thanks for joining us this week, and we'll see you next time. See you guys. Bye bye.