Pre-S: This is part of a "watch me build it" series, where I'm detailing in real-time a massive re-brand in my business. If you don't want to get this series, click here to opt out but remain on my regular email list.

🪡 Watch Me Build It, Week 2

Why Selvedge Works?

Last week, I told you that I’m rebranding my entire business to (hopefully) better package the myriad projects I'm involved in.

Today, I want to share how I chose the new name.

For nearly two years, the word amplify has lived rent-free in my brain.

It means to make something louder, and I *love* the idea of upping the volume on those of us who have always been told we're "too much."

Sadly, when I looked for available .com domains using amplify, I came up short.

I was bummed, and I was stuck.

Out of ideas, I did what I often do these days. I turned to ChatGPT for help.

Yes, I used ChatGPT to name my business.

So exactly how did I go from no ideas to a new name? It started with this simple prompt: "Give me name ideas. I love amplify but the domain isn't available."

Then began our back and forth of looking for other words that I both liked and had available domain variations.

With each new round of ideas, I let ChatGPT know which words spoke to me so it could continue to zone in on something that would work.

It kept trying, and I kept searching for domains. After a few more exchanges, I was a little frustrated but not ready to give up. I realized maybe I need to give ChatGPT more to go on, so I asked it this:

That led to another, lengthy series of exchanges with more word ideas that either didn't resonate or weren't available.

And seriously, there were soooo many attempts that I'm not sharing.

Eventually, I tried a new prompt: "What about something threaded, woven?"

That's when I saw it for the first time...selvedge.

When I asked for some variations on that word, the first it offered was Selvedge Works, saying "Feels like a studio, a workshop, a place of careful building."

I felt the yes in my bones and ✨ cha ching ✨ the .com was available!

What the hell does selvedge mean?

My mom is a seamstress so I knew that selvedge is the finished edge of a fabric—the reinforced margin that keeps everything else from unraveling.

Re-read that bold part. Doesn't it give you chills?

Selvedge is the part that most people never see because it's cut away and discarded. But without it, everything falls apart.

Y'all, that’s the heart of my business. The people I serve, the work I do ... my why.

All of the seemingly disparate aspects of my business circle around this one central theme...helping the people who capitalism cuts out.

The ones working at the edge of systems never built for them.
The ones holding it all together while being told they don’t matter.

We are the margin. We are the discarded. We are the strength. We are the selvedge. And we work, baby (both in that we are functional and effective, ie "get to work" and "that works!").

Selvedge Works felt so perfect that I couldn't wait to start talking about it. And that's when I knew I was ready to make this change in my business, and share about it in this series.