On my recent trip to New England I spent a few days on Nantucket. I had seen the pictures for years about what it was like, but I wasn’t prepared for just how picturesque and quaint it is. Cobblestone streets, historic homes on every street, and that postcard look that everyone knows when you see it. That grey clapboard siding and white trim on the houses. Meandering between tall grasses along the winding country roads that no matter which direction you pick you’ll up on a beautiful picture-perfect beach.
And I noticed something else there that I did not know about. Every house on Nantucket has a name. No matter the size, it seems that every house is either named after a whale boat captain or has a name that gives you an idea of the history of the house.
For example, here are some names that I remember….
- Seascape
- For William
- Queequeg
- Cliff Walk
- The Jared Coffin House
I found myself looking for the name on each house. Some of them I couldn’t even pronounce and a few made me chuckle. Like the one named “Four is enough”. There were 4 houses on the property and based on the house prices that I saw, I can see how he would think that 4 was enough! And a few names confused me and made me wonder why exactly that name had been chosen. And of course, I started thinking about my own name. And by that, what I really mean is… what do people see as ‘my name’ when they think about me? What is the story that defines me?
What I discovered on that little island is that the name defines the character of the house, and often tells a story. So what do people think about when they think about me? And I would ask you the same question… what would your ‘name’ be? Would it be ‘quality’? Would it be ‘Caring’? Perhaps your name would be ‘awesome customer service’. Or maybe it’s ‘never finishes what he starts’ or ‘you don’t want to do business with them’.
Whatever your ‘name’ is, I can assure you that your customers already know. But the question is, do you?
