Hello again! As someone who has spent a fair amount of their life explaining…yes my name is Candy…no it isn’t Candice…yes it is spelt with a C and a Y…no my parents aren’t American…thank you for saying you like it…(and one hilarious time I had to say it with a pretend American accent to the parents of a child at the New York summer camp I worked at as they just kept repeating CON-DEHH??) you might wonder why I gave my business such an unusual name. I thought a blog post on this would be the ideal place to share its origins.
Naming a business is a real challenge, probably second only to naming your children. I didn’t see the business being named after me as it felt limiting for growth plus, I was fighting hard on imposter syndrome when I quit my job, so this wasn’t where my head was at. I love brand identities and wanted to create something from the ground up which could outgrow me personally in the future. I looked at words which linked to the topic and I looked at words which were amalgams of my children’s names. My friends and colleagues were brought in to come up with ideas, and my husband even came up with some great concepts and designs but nothing fit. All the names I kind of liked were taken – companies house name search was almost every tab open on my phone.
The problem is, every time a new idea came up, I would practice answering the phone…and like that scene from the Wedding Singer, where Drew Barrymore introduces herself in the mirror as “Mrs. Julia Guglia” I found myself not crying but cringing. When would I get it?
In the end, the name “Sojourner” came from several places. During lockdown in 2020, after buying the kids a Disney+ package and on the recommendation of a friend I watched the musical Hamilton. I then because obsessed with Hamilton ~ if you listened to the songs you would be too, trust me. In fact, the minute you finish reading, please go watch it. Anyway…according to Spotify, I am in the top 1% of listeners to the soundtrack in 2020. I know, a weird thing to brag about…but me being me, I then like to immerse myself in something I’m learning about and enjoying, I research anything and everything about the people involved and their back stories and then what was happening around that time.
With my reading, I happened upon the story of Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree 1797 – 1883) who I had never heard of before. I found her story inspiring; she was a women’s rights activist and abolitionist who was the first black enslaved woman to recover her son by taking a white man (the child’s enslaver) to court. Not only was she seemingly fearless, but she then became an outspoken supporter of women’s rights with her famous “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech meaning so much even today in the pursuit of equal rights something I believe in strongly.
Looking at other definitions of the word Sojourner, I loved that its meaning had many similarities in my new world of consultancy. Its definition as “a person who resides temporarily in a place” this to me is the role of the consultant: to stay a while but not create dependency. I also found this fantastic example of the words in use: “the serious sojourner will seek out opportunities to give their time, talent and resources for the benefit of others” which is exactly why I created the business.
I received feedback from some friends that the word Sojourner doesn’t roll off the tongue…but that’s ok. My name has always been a point of conversation and I hope that I can have similar discussions about my business name too.
Once I started working with Erika at Hollywood Agency, I felt the brand identity was starting to come into its own. Erika did an amazing job of translating all my thoughts about the Sojourner brand into a beautiful logo and colour palette. Working with Erika was also a nod to the lady who inspired the name – women supporting women – something I’m very passionate about.
I also love the fact the word Sojourner includes the word “our” and when I write I often talk about “we”. Today Sojourner is me…but not for long, as I too have grand plans for growth. I see a team of Sojourners in the future, as passionate about great learning and supporting businesses to grow as I am. If you think that might be you in the future just shout!
So, I hope you have found the story of my business name interesting – I also hope I’ve convinced you to go watch Hamilton! Drop me a line below to tell me your thoughts or tell me what you would like to read about next?
