What do we name it?

 

Week 2

 

 

     With any idea one of the first things that comes to your mind is what are we going to name it. I thought a lot about it over the weekend while working around the lodge. One of the things I do outside of duck hunting is helping others with their marketing of their own businesses, but coming up with a name for this software was proving to be difficult for me. Usually I spout off catchy marketable names when I know what a business owner is trying to accomplish with his business.

 

     A few factors you have to think about in choosing a name in this Internet age is being able to buy the domain you want for your product. So when choosing a name that has to factor in. A name that is already being used will confuse users and is not good for business. That is why there is google and yahoo. They are both catchy, short, and were easy for the buyers of the domains to purchase and easy for users to remember. The second is how hard it is to win the battle on Google and other search engines with your product and product name. Internet drives sales, so it is important to have the right name on the Internet. Third, will users remember your name? It has to be short and sweet or catchy and bold. Since most single word domains are long gone these days, catchy and bold is the next best route.

 

     The three keywords that kept coming to my mind was "Wild", "Call", and "Blow". I thought of wild for wild game, call for calls, and blow because it is the action you do with a game call. So I came inside and wrote these words down on three separate pieces of paper. I listed all the phrases and words that could possibly fit with these three words. The first thing I noticed when I put the papers on my desk was call and wild went together. 

 

     The first name I came up with was "Call of The Wild". I researched it in depth and found:

                 1. The name was trademarked and would be difficult to use.

                 2. The domain was already taken.

                 3. I read it many times. It just wasn't catchy enough. It could go different ways.

                 4. I didn't think a user after hearing it once could remember it.

 

      I did not completely take it off the board though. It was a choice, but I knew I had to come up with other names. I slept on it that night and came back to my desk when I awoke. I do my best thinking in the morning with my coffee. I thought of what the goal of the software would be for a user. It is to teach hunters to be better callers. The action is to blow a game call into a computer or phone. The return action of the software is to make that caller better. I thought of my guides and them being professional callers. I thought of the software making users as good a caller as my pro guides.

 

      I wrote the phrases "Blow Like A Pro" and "Blow Like The Pros". My thoughts on these:

                 1. They were catchy and bold.

                 2. They were available to buy in my domain search.  

                 3. I think users could easily remember them.

                 4. The only downside is in mixed company they could be taken the wrong way. 

          

 

So at the end of the day I had three names to think about. I knew with prayer and in depth discussions with my partner Troy we would make the right decision.

 



Is it Breathing?

 

Week 1

      Is it really a good idea? Will people use it? Is there something else already out there like it? These were all questions running through my mind. I arose early and prayed on it and on day 2 after staying up most of the night researching this new idea. What I found, even though I really didn't know what to search for at the time, was there was very little with the type of technology I was thinking of. I saw there were karaoke games out there that judged people singing, but the system was not very detailed. I saw there were speech recognition system out there. I saw there were language teaching tools out there. I researched teaching wild game calling techniques. I saw where companies were teaching with Cd's and cassettes. I saw great hunters that had you tube videos wanting to help others learn how to call. I saw that there were apps and software that had animal sounds and you just practiced with those sounds. It was just like practicing with the sounds on the Cd's.

 

     Sound comparison is a fairly new technology that has not been pursued by many. What I found is that it is very costly and frustrating to do something in this field. That didn't stop my pursuit of bringing my idea to life.

 

      The things I wanted to accomplish with software or app was I wanted a user to be able listen to a sound and then try to replicate that sound into the computer or phone. Just like with a calling contest, I wanted the software to be the judge of how well they did. I wanted the software to give them a score and also allow them to listen to the sounds side by side to give them a feedback on their tone and cadence. My thinking on the software in these first few days was really just for duck hunting. I never even considered, in my mind, the other types of wild game calls people use that were out there until I made one very important phone call during this first week.

 

     Troy Ruiz, a great friend, master hunter, was one of the first people that I called when I was researching the idea. I met Troy years ago while filming a couple of duck hunts with Primos. We kept in touch after that and talked often. I trusted Troy to hold my secret until it was time to release it. After telling him my idea there was silence on the other end. Troy told me that Easter Sunday around the same time I was giving duck calling lessons and birthing the idea in my mind. He had been praying for a way to reach hunters and educate them through technology. I asked why he was praying about that. He said during his day at work he couldn't garner any one's attention because they were glued to their smart phones.

 

     Troy, thought it was a great idea and wanted to walk with me through the process. Troy had spent years teaching people about hunting and calling through seminars across the country. In my mind, I couldn't think of a better friend and partner to join my team. Troy spent years helping Primos bring different products to the hunting marketplace. His wisdom would help tremendously. He was the first to bring up intellectual protection of the idea. He is actually the one as I stated above that got me to thinking outside the box of just the software working for ducks. Wheels really started spinning after this talk. The week ended with a general plans being listed out and to do list for the next week. Looking back on all my notes now from that first week, it is amazing how this all has evolved into a gorilla later on when it only started  as a little spider monkey.



Birth Of An Idea

   

     I think one of the great things about the United States is I have the freedom to be innovative and bring ideas to life and take them to the marketplace. As an American, I can choose to work hard and passionately on a product or a cause and be successful. For years I have worked hard in the hunting industry, as a hunting guide business owner, and I have been successful while other in the same business have come and gone. How many times have you heard somebody say, "I thought about that years ago, but I didn't pursue it because it would cost to much money, take to much time, or I didn't know enough about the details to make it happen."? All of these were heavy factors in my own decision in bringing my idea to life.

     I told you earlier I was in the outdoor recreation business. I take people duck hunting that don't have the know how or the resources to do it themselves. Most days I have better time than the hunters themselves. Each day I learn new things and I get to teach old and new things to my clients as we hunt and hang out around the lodge. The number one question asked to myself and my guides by clients is, " Can you teach me to blow a duck call like you?". So in the past, I have sat around the lodge numerous hours working with hunters teaching them the rights and wrongs of blowing a duck call. It can be a tedious and detailed process that usually ends with caller getting frustrated and saying they will buy a tape or CD to help them.

     The birth of  an idea happened this Easter with my family. My young nephew, who is a big hunter, asked if I could help him with his calling. I told him sure and he got his calls out of his truck and the lessons began. They didn't last long though. His girlfriend  tweeted him, facebooked him, or text him. He could not keep any kind of focus from that point on. His attention was with his phone and no longer listening to me about cadences and tones. I grew frustrated with my tech inclined nephew, but frustration breathed life into a great idea. I thought to myself, if we are going to teach the next generation to blow wild game calls it is gonna have to be through some type of software or phone app. Attention spans are short these days with the tech culture we live in. The wheels started spinning in my mind and I decided to return home that afternoon to start my investigation online if there was a product already that did this or if there were similar products out there.