If you’re a coach, author, therapist, or speaker stepping into a bigger public chapter, you’ll inevitably face one of the most important brand questions of your career:
“Should my brand be my NAME… or the name of my book/program/framework?”
It’s a question I hear constantly and the answer shapes everything from your website structure to your SEO, your long-term brand identity, and your future visibility.
Let’s break it down clearly, strategically, and with zero fluff.
Why Your Name Is (Almost Always) the Best Brand
If your work centers around you — your expertise, your voice, your teachings, your books, your methodology — then your brand needs to center around you too.
A name-based brand supports:
- books (current & future)
- speaking & media
- workshops
- courses
- your intellectual property
- evolving frameworks
- pivots, expansions, reinventions
- long-term thought leadership
Your program or book title is a chapter.
Your name is the library.
But What If My Name Is Hard to Spell?
Ahh yes — the question nearly everyone asks.
And here’s the truth (and the part no one tells you):
Spelling doesn’t matter in 2025.
Not even a little.
Here’s why:
1. People don’t type URLs anymore — they click.
99% of traffic comes from:
- links in emails
- links in social posts
- Google results
- bios
- speaker pages
- podcast descriptions
No one is sitting there typing “jennariemersma dot com.”
They simply tap.
2. Autocomplete + autofill do the work for you.
Browsers, email clients, search engines — they all store and predict names.
Once someone interacts with you one time, your name becomes an autofill shortcut forever.
3. Search engines correct spelling errors automatically.
Type “Brene Brown.”
Google says, “Showing results for Brené Brown.”
Type “Ester Perrel.”
Google: “Did you mean Esther Perel?”
Your name becomes a search term — and you own your entire first page.
4. Hard-to-spell names are often more memorable.
Try forgetting:
- Brené Brown
- Iyanla Vanzant
- Eckhart Tolle
- Ram Dass
- Bessel van der Kolk
Unique names become brands in themselves.