Day 9 Transcript
NOTE: Today’s transcript is followed by an AI prompt that can be used with your AI provider of choice. Just copy and paste it into ChatGPT or Perplexity and it will help you answer today’s questions for your specific side hustle… the way a human teaching assistant would help you in an Ivy League university. If you’re eager for more on today’s topic, I’ve included a Secret Dessert Course at the very end — a bonus section that isn’t directly covered in today’s video but has a lot of value practical, hands-on value. That dessert also comes with its own AI prompt.
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Part 1: Pick a Name & Secure Your Domain
Your hustle’s name isn’t just what people are going to call it. It’s a trigger to a feeling-- the feeling you want to leave behind, the promise you make every time someone hears it.
Welcome to week 2, Day 9 of starting your side hustle! We’re taking 28 Days-- 28 small steps-- to build a business that’s meaningful, impactful, and profitable. Today’s focus is on how to secure a domain name worthy of your hustle. And that’s in the context of us NOT living in 2005– 20 years ago– which was the last time single-word .com domains were generally affordable. We’ll also cover how to get all the social media handles you’re going to need– within a similar context– this time 2015– 10 years ago– when it was easy to get the same username across multiple platforms.
The questions we want to answer:
1. What name will make your hustle easy to find, remember, and trust?
2. How can your domain name and social media handles reinforce your brand story and amplify your mission?
Obey the Blue Squirrel. I think he’s pooping a nut. It doesn’t matter. Quizzy’s two questions are always there to help narrow your focus. You’re building the exact muscle that’ll get you momentum without spreading yourself too thin.
Ok. We’re talking naming so I was originally going to use the example of Elodin– master namer– if you know, you know– but that would have lost too many of you. So instead… for some real life inspiration… and not the kind you think you’re going to get: let’s talk about Stewart Butterfield, the founder of Slack. I love this example because the word Slack has fuck-all to do with work or chats or business… or at least it didn’t. When Stewart and his team pivoted from their failed gaming startup to building a workplace chat tool, they knew– like we all intuitively know– that their new name had to be simple, memorable, and instantly signaling clarity. After brainstorming hundreds of options, they landed on ‘Slack.’ And this is the most important part: The domain was available– and by that I mean they paid $60K for it… where I personally think the right price should be about $15… not 60K. It was 2013 so they also easily secured matching social handles. And all the fawning business literature on the matter will say things like “That consistency and clarity continues to make Slack easy to find and trust, helping it spread rapidly through word of mouth.” And while I don’t need to tell you that Slack’s become a staple in workplaces worldwide… it was a narcissistic, bullshit spend. Marketers will die on this hill, but they’re not bootstrappers. Slack could just as easily have been named an infinite number of other equally-meaningless names. Did you know for instance that Yaqo.com is currently for sale? Reduced to…. $27,399. It’s a steal, really. The point here is twofold– 1) that, yes, the right name and digital identity can help turn a tool into a movement; and 2) if someone offers to sell you revolution.com for the cost of a hard-working employee for your hustle, invest in the employee instead.
Ok. I’m going to assume– because you’re consuming this content on the most addictive social media platform out there– that you’re a digital sophisticate. You might not be able to teach a class on the nuances of branding or digital strategy, but it's the river you swim in daily. You probably know what it means to get a domain name– you might have to google how… but it’s not gonna stump ya. As for having consistent social media handles, if my grandparents can do it, you can do it… maybe not as good as Nana or Pop Pop… but well enough that I have nothing to teach you.
The why on both domain name and social media handles is also easy: your hustle needs to be discoverable. But even the word discoverable isn’t right. Your domain name will never be your brand’s first impression because no one’s out there typing random domain names into their browser hoping to discover you. Your domain name is where people go once they’ve heard of you. So you don’t need to invest big bucks in getting a one-word domain address. It doesn’t have to be a nonsense word– like Etsy or Kodak or Synergy or Yaqo. It can be anything that affirms your brand message.
For instance, if I wanted to sell this series I could look for any stupid little sentence from the transcripts of this series– like… Studies show you only work 3 hours a day on your corporate day job— what if the other 5 built your future?” I could buy the domain TheOther5.com. It's available. And it has my story built into it. I could totally make that into an ad campaign. Build your future with TheOther5.com. Cost of domain: $11.99.
The point is that all the work you did last week on your why and your what… all the work you did yesterday on your brand identity… you’re already sitting on your domain name. You just don’t know it yet. Because your hustle tells a story. And there are probably 2 or 3 great lines in that story that would be a respectable domain name. You just need to read your own story with that lens.
Your domain name– like your hustle– needs to signal credibility, memorability… maybe even some professionalism. Like a dinosaur with a jet. But here’s the real insight: the best domain names don’t describe what you do—they evoke why you do it. They’re short enough to be memorable, unique enough to stand out, and intuitive enough to be typed without error.
LiquidDeath.com. No troll ever thought of parking that domain. And it doesn’t just tell you what they sell—it invites you into their crazy. They could have spent $30M on water.com. Worth every penny… said no one ever.
Liquid Death also nails it with their social media handles– @LiquidDeath across platforms– and they adapt their tone to each medium. On TikTok, they lean into absurdist humor; on Instagram, they emphasize edgy visuals; on Twitter, they engage in witty banter. Their handle– as perfect as it is– almost doesn’t matter because their content is so consistent… so platform-native… so perfect for each platform.
Ok. Take a moment and try to answer the Day 9 questions for your hustle without AI and before you listen to the next section-- the 28-Day Ivy League MBA. I personally think it's useful to try to answer questions without AI first, but if you'd rather do that: The AI teaching assistant prompt will drop with today's case study... in a couple of hours. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out Lunch Break Millionaire Day Zero... or go over to superserious.com where I’m posting daily transcripts. The AI prompts are there too. That's it. Hustle smarter.
Part 2: 💼 Protect Your Digital Brand: Today's Ivy League MBA Skill
Day 9, Part 2 of Lunch Break Millionaire– where we turn whatever you're eating for lunch into an Ivy League MBA degree. It’s Tuesday– perfect for Tacos… like yesterday was– but I’m going to recommend going full-on NY food cart today-- an authentic halal chicken shawarma. And do you know which food cart in New York City has THE original halal chicken shawarma? No one does! Why? Because they never picked up Today's Ivy League MBA Skill: brand asset protection.
In 2025, your domain name and social handles are your storefront, your handshake, your reputation… all rolled into one. If you want people to find you, trust you, and remember you, you’ve got to lock down your digital real estate before you do anything else. This isn’t just about “getting the dot-com.” It’s about making sure your name, your story, your mission… show up the same way everywhere your audience looks for you.
So, let’s make this real. Imagine you come up with the perfect name for your hustle—something that feels right, that you’re excited about, that you know people will remember. You go to register the domain and… it’s taken. (I guarantee you it will be!) Or worse, you grab the domain but @yourhustlename is gone on Instagram, TikTok, so now you’re juggling weird underscores and numbers and your brand looks like a knockoff. That’s a trust killer. Consistency is what makes you look legit from day one. If your audience can’t find you in one search, they’ll move on to someone else.
This is where the MBA skill comes in: brand asset protection. It means you’re not just picking a name you love—you’re making sure you can own it everywhere. That means checking domain availability, grabbing all the major social handles, and even thinking a step ahead: do a quick trademark search to make sure you’re not stepping on anyone’s toes. You want to avoid the nightmare of building a brand for months, only to get a cease-and-desist letter or have to rebrand because someone else owns your name in another industry.
Now, let’s tie this back to today’s questions. When you’re asking, “What name will make your hustle easy to find, remember, and trust?”—you’re really asking, “Can I own this name everywhere my audience hangs out?” And when you ask, “How can your domain name and social handles reinforce your brand story and amplify your mission?”—you’re thinking about how every digital touchpoint tells the same story. If your name is different on every platform, your story gets muddled. But if you’re @yourhustlename everywhere, your brand feels bigger, more professional, way more memorable.
Take a sec and do a full sweep for your top name choices. Don’t just check the domain—check Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, even the weird platforms you don’t think you’ll use yet. There are free tools out there that let you search all the major platforms at once. If your first choice is gone, don’t settle for a Frankenstein handle with random dashes and numbers. Either rethink the name or get creative with a modifier that still feels on-brand. And if you find a name that’s available everywhere, grab it—even if you’re not ready to use every platform yet. That’s how you protect your digital turf.
Keep telling yourself, the brands that last aren’t just clever—they’re consistent. They make it easy for people to find them, trust them, and talk about them. Locking down your name and handles is the first real act of brand protection you’ll ever do, and it’s one of the most important. That’s how you hustle smarter.
Part 3: Learn from My Naming Adventures: The 28-Day Case Study
This is Day 9, Part 3 of Lunch Break Millionaire. This is the segment where we #BuildinPublic– where I answer the daily questions every hustle should– using the MBA skills we just learned– and showing my work– sharing how I’m building my hustle from scratch-no filters, just the real journey. You don't need to actually like or subscribe. I'm not doing this for the clicks. But if you’re leveling up from other creators you follow or know, introduce us. I want to learn from them and help them level up, too. We all deserve better than just making rich people richer.
Ok. So I bought a domain name for my latest hustle. Metatorial.com. Spent a whopping $200 for it. I’m not sure I actually need it because I already have superserious.com and it gets decent traffic because of my blogs. But I bought metatorial because it feels like my product’s name. If you haven’t seen the demo video, go watch it. I’ve linked to it in the post summary.
One way of describing the product I’ve built is that it lets you editorialize everyone else’s content. So if you’re a creator, your content gets more eyes on it by getting seamlessly integrated into every popular site out there… but not just random content on those sites… cool related content; complementary content. So if you’re a creator, your content follows your follower’s digital habits– where they go, what they read. On all those other sites, your content becomes a meta editorial– metatorial.
I’m pretty sure that’s way too clever for its own good.
To be fair, I wanted to call the product Amplify– it was my second choice– and every AI chatbot on the planet loved Amplify as a name– but they all loved it because there are already a ton of products on the market called Amplify.
It’s one of those common product names every company uses… like Pulse, Nexus, Spark, Catalyst, Athena… Amplify. According to AI, each one of these great names conveys action, innovation, simplicity— “qualities that resonate with both consumers and businesses.” Another quote: “They strike the perfect balance between branding power and adaptability.“
Oooh! So much better than my first choice: CheeseFart.
Joking aside, my real first choice for the product’s name: Muahaha.
I am so not kidding. Muahaha– as a company name, as a product name– reflects everything I stand for: playfulness, independence, a finger in your eye, ownership, freedom from exploitative algorithms. It’s direct, memorable, and tied to my purpose.
As for social media handles, the exercise made me think of this Botticelli.
If you know you know. Look… I’m not sure I need a new social media handle that’s distinct from my current channel. At least not until we’re large enough to hire a social media manager. And by then, the social media landscape will be fundamentally different. Plus, muahaha is already taken. I could go with BeTheAlgo on a couple of platforms but the squeeze ain’t worth the juice. So I’m going to stick with educating squirrels.
I’m still glad I did today’s exercise. The process wasn’t just administrative—it was deeply clarifying. You should definitely do it. It’ll force you to articulate your hustle in its simplest terms—to distill your mission into a few words that could fit in a URL or handle. And that clarity will brighten that guiding light we started to build last week.
The exercise will also drive home the idea that branding isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s about meaning. A good domain name and consistent handles tell people who you are before they even click. They create trust, signal professionalism, and set the tone for everything that follows.
And a lot has to follow… if you plan to hustle smarter.
Prompt #1 - Claim Your Name – Pick a Name & Secure Your Domain
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Prompt #1 - Claim Your Name – Pick a Name & Secure Your Domain ○
Today, you’ll choose a business name that stands out, check if it’s available, and grab your digital real estate before someone else does. You’ll be guided by the writings and frameworks of Ivy League faculty whose research is foundational in branding, digital strategy, and intellectual property:
- **Professor Americus Reed II, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania:** Leading expert on brand identity and the psychology of naming.
- **Professor David Bell, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania:** Specialist in digital marketing and online presence.
- **Professor Guhan Subramanian, Harvard Law School & Harvard Business School:** Authority on business law and trademark basics for founders.
**What Today’s Coaching Will Help You With:**
You’ll brainstorm a memorable, meaningful business name, check for conflicts, and secure your domain and social handles-protecting your brand from day one.
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### Step 1: Reflection Questions
Please answer these questions in a few sentences each:
1. **What three words or feelings do you want your business name to evoke for your target audience?**
- Think about the emotions, values, or imagery you want your brand to trigger.
2. **Is your name simple to say, easy to spell, and memorable?**
- Try saying it out loud and writing it down. Would a friend remember it a week later?
3. **Have you checked if the .com (or relevant) domain and social handles are available?**
- Search for your top 2–3 name ideas on domain registrars and major social platforms.
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### Step 2: MBA Skill – Digital Brand Protection
Today’s MBA lesson is about protecting your digital brand from day one:
- **Domain Search:** Use a tool like Namecheap or GoDaddy to check if your preferred domain is available. If not, try variations or shorter versions.
- **Social Handle Search:** Check Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn for available handles.
- **Trademark Check:** Do a quick search on the USPTO’s TESS database (or your country’s trademark office) to see if your name is already registered in your industry.
- **Decision:** If your top choice is taken, don’t get stuck-pick the next best that’s available everywhere you need it.
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### Step 3: Coaching & Action Plan
After you reply, I will use the writings of Professors Reed, Bell, and Subramanian to:
- Help you refine your name for maximum memorability and emotional impact.
- Guide you in making smart decisions if your first choice isn’t available.
- Suggest ways to secure your domain and social handles before you announce your business.
- Offer practical tips for avoiding legal headaches and building a brand that’s easy to find and hard to forget.
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**How to use this prompt:**
- Respond with your answers to the reflection questions and your top 2–3 name ideas.
- I’ll help you refine your name, check for conflicts, and suggest next steps for securing your digital brand.
- Remember: A great name is your first impression-make it count, and protect it early.
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Ready? Share your name ideas and findings below. Let’s hustle smarter, one lunch break at a time!
Secret Dessert Course
Before you get too attached to that perfect business name or logo, let’s make sure you’re not stepping on someone else’s toes. This next AI prompt lets you do a trademark and legal check walkthrough. Worth the pain because it’s all about protecting your hustle from costly surprises down the road.
The good news is that it’ll be done step-by-step. And you’ll quickly find out if your dream name is already taken or dangerously close to someone else’s trademark.
Just copy and paste this prompt into your favorite AI assistant to enjoy Day 9’s dessert course.
Prompt #2 - Run Trademark and Legal Checks
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Prompt #2 - Run Trademark and Legal Checks ○
Today’s focus: protecting your business from costly rebrands and legal headaches by running a trademark and legal check before you launch. This concise, step-by-step experience will guide you through searching for trademark conflicts using official databases (USPTO, WIPO), with links and expert tips. You’ll be coached by Ivy League legal experts in intellectual property and entrepreneurship:
- **Professor Guhan Subramanian, Harvard Law School & Harvard Business School:** Authority on business law and legal risk management.
- **Professor John C. Coffee Jr., Columbia Law School:** Expert in corporate law and trademark compliance.
- **Professor Amy D. Sepinwall, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania:** Specialist in business ethics and legal best practices for founders.
**What Today’s Coaching Will Help You With:**
You’ll get a concise, interactive checklist for checking trademark conflicts, including links to essential databases, guidance on what to look for, and common pitfalls to avoid-so you can move forward with confidence.
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### Step 1: Tell Us About Your Brand
Please answer:
1. Your proposed business name, product name, or logo.
2. The main goods/services you’ll offer.
3. Your target market (region/country).
4. (Optional) Any similar names you’re worried about.
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### Step 2: Trademark & Legal Check Walkthrough
After you reply, I will use the writings of your Ivy League coaching panel to:
**A. Search for Conflicts**
- Guide you to search the [USPTO Trademark Database (TESS)](https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search/federal-trademark-searching) for federally registered and pending trademarks in the U.S.
- Show you how to use the [WIPO Global Brand Database](https://www3.wipo.int/branddb/en/) for international checks.
- Advise you to check state trademark databases and business registries for additional conflicts.
- Recommend searching the internet and domain registries for unregistered (common-law) use.
**B. What to Look For**
- Is any mark confusingly similar in look, sound, or meaning to yours-especially for related goods/services?
- Are any similar marks “live” (active) and in the same or related industry?
- Are there common-law uses you found via search engines, social media, or directories?
**C. Document Your Findings**
- Keep screenshots, links, and notes of any potential conflicts for your records.
- If you find a potential issue, consult a trademark attorney before proceeding.
**D. Avoid Common Pitfalls**
- Don’t just check for exact matches-look for similar-sounding or looking names/logos.
- Remember: Even unregistered (common-law) trademarks can cause legal trouble.
- Consider international checks if you plan to expand or sell online.
**E. Next Steps**
- If clear, consider registering your trademark with the [USPTO](https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/apply) or [WIPO](https://www.wipo.int/madrid/en/).
- If conflicts exist, brainstorm new names or consult an attorney for risk assessment.
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**How to use this prompt:**
- Respond with your brand details above.
- Your coaching panel will return a personalized, step-by-step checklist with links and guidance.
- You’ll leave with a clear action plan to protect your brand and avoid legal headaches.