From AIM to Abambyh: The Brand That Became a Business — Alison's Transformation Story, Part Two
In her youth, back when AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was a common tool for digital communication, Alison's username was cheerbaby810.
She also had an email address that included the word "baby". As she matured into a pre-teen, she felt that she'd outgrown using "baby" as an identifier and wanted an alternative with which to define herself. Choosing a username for her online presence was daunting, and she considered it carefully. It felt important to make a choice that was personal and creative, and that she would feel comfortable retaining for some time.
"Baby" still invoked feelings of nostalgia, so she decided to incorporate it into her new username, disguising it with her initials, AMH. Thus she settled on: AbaMbyH. Of course she had no idea at the time that this moniker would turn into a lifelong personal and professional branded identifier.
Abambyh became Alison's AIM username. Then her email address. Then her username for other apps. Eventually the name took over. (At one point during a family dinner with aunts, uncles, and cousins, the group began asking about it, "What is Abambyh!?" They would try to pronounce it. She just kept saying, "It's not a word!")
For more than twenty years of having the username, Alison never pronounced it aloud. Other people tried to sound it out, but she herself never gave it an official pronunciation until the day the actual business was born. She simply spelled it out every time: "A-B-A-M-B-Y-H".
Decades after having rebranded herself, Alison was alone in a hostel on Ometepe, an island in Nicaragua (she was soon to move on to Costa Rica). Throughout her journeys, she'd spent time in Airbnbs, villas, hostels, hotels. Back at home, she had a house rented to long-term tenants and her own four Airbnbs up and running in separate areas of another house, with few to no vacancies at any point.
While there on this island, brainstorming what to name her coaching business and what she wanted for it, she had two visions of the future, one right after the other:
She would name her coaching/consulting business Abambyh Business Coaching.
There was never a moment of doubt or uncertainty in this. As soon as it popped into her head, within seconds of having put her mind to thinking of a name for her coaching business, she thought, "YES. This is it." She loved that it had already been her personal brand for years, that she could expand this extension of herself. She loved the origins of the name. And she loved that this was a part of her much younger self that she could carry into her adult life and be proud of. She made the decision to have all three words as the official business name because of the monogram ABC, initials for a business name that was partially derived from initials in the first place.
As is her usual mode of operation, Alison immediately acted on the decision, going online and making it official.
Abambyh would become bigger than Alison — it would be so much more than just herself (as her personal brand) and her newfound business (ABC). Abambyh would branch out. In that moment, having had the experience of staying in so many towns, so many countries, and so many environments, she designed a dream villa that she would one day own and operate.
Bayron, whom she was dating at the time, was immediately on board with the whole plan. He was excited about Abambyh Business Coaching (playing a large role in encouraging Alison to take this "side coaching gig" more seriously) and even accompanied her to look at a few hotel/villa locations in Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
On the subject of names and words and their importance in our stories, have you read the blog post about the Abambyh team's email addresses? If not, here's a synopsis of that post, which details how Alison captured the power of suggestion and incorporated the Law of Attraction in something as simple as an email address:
Alison decided early on in her business development that the email addresses for herself and her team would be more than just names or titles in front of a domain name. She wanted the addresses to be meaningful, to invoke a response. As someone with a strong conviction that our thoughts have power over our lives, that our mindset dictates our path, she was determined to ensure that the email addresses for Abambyh Business Coaching correspondence would have a positive effect on both the recipients and the senders.
Accordingly, Alison requested that her team members choose a word to precede "@abambyhbusiness.com" in their email address. Specifically, she urged them to find a word that painted a picture of what they wanted for themselves, for the business, and for its clients.
The care taken in choosing that word was an excellent experience for the team members. They had to take the time to envision what they were working toward, and choosing a word to encapsulate that meant they would be reminded of that aspiration every time they saw their email address.
Before she asked it of her team, Alison had long known what her own word would be. The word that spoke to her dreams for herself and for everyone who came to her asking for help. Alison's word was "Success".
By now it was clear to her that "success" doesn't have to mean the same thing for everyone, that it's both a general term and a highly personal goal. Every time she sees "success@abambyhbusiness.com", every time her newsletter goes out, Alison remembers what success now means to her, and what she wants for the clients of Abambyh Business Coaching.
Join us next time for another installment in the story of Abambyh Business Coaching!
Written by: Tina Harmuth