As a Creative Director & Brand Strategist with dozens of branding and marketing projects at a time, my job is, in many ways, to be an idea machine.

Every day, it’s up to me to come up with business names, content ideas, slogans, business strategies, creative directions, copy, and more often with high stakes.

Most of the time, when I'm able to succeed in delivering solid ideas for my clients, it isn't because of on-the-spot creative inspiration. Instead, the single best tool I have in generating the right ideas at the right time is probably the simplest tool at my disposal -- keeping brainstorming lists.

I maintain dozens of lists that I constantly adding to as new thoughts and ideas come to mind throughout each day.  These lists are categorized by context, so it's easy for me to find what I need when I need it.  Some examples of lists I use are: well-designed websites, beautiful packaging, vendors, social media content ideas, and brands I love.

This allows me to (1) effortlessly collect ideas, (2) save mental bandwidth because I don't need to remember these ideas anymore, and (3) save time by knowing where to look for this information in the future. 

This habit has proven to be enormously helpful in many ways, including when I'm naming new businesses. Naming a business can be an enormously difficult and time-consuming exercise. In fact, numerous multi-million dollar agencies like this focus solely on it. Yet, more frequently than I’d expect, I’ve been able to select the perfect business name for a client simply by looking at my Business Name List.

I maintain this list in Google Sheets, and I add to it whenever I hear a word or phrase that conjures up emotions, tells a story, or sounds pleasant. Then, when I’m working on a project for a new brand, I take a few minutes to scan over the list and see if any names have relevance to my client’s business. Over the last year, I helped name over 12 businesses and products simply by consulting my list. These include Humbl, Uncool, and In Good Taste Wines.

Sometimes, none of these names will work for the project. However, even in these cases, having the list can still be very helpful. I often start our naming discussions with our clients by asking them what they like and don't like about each of these names to help us define what we do want in the perfect name and to help get our creative juices flowing.