J + K = WOJ Series |Why WOJ|
It took us longer to come up with a company name than it did to make the decision to pursue photography. It's the same amount of responsibility and stress as naming a child!!! A company name is VITAL to the success of a business. (Click the link to read a great short article on why your business name is important to success). The name of a company has to be something that is strong, catchy, easy to remember, informative, efficient and easy to spell. Go ahead, take a second to think of your own company name for your current hobby or interest... It's WAY harder than it sounds.
Most photographers use their name for their business, mainly to keep it simple. It's easier to remember a company when it's named after a person versus a fictitious company name that could have multiple variations to it. For example: Capturing the Moment Photography could be misinterpreted as Moments Captured Photography. This simple mistake could easily lead you to someone else's website.
At first, we considered just using our names: Jerico & Kristina .. but to us that just didn't sound right. Jerico & Kristina sounded like we had a joint Facebook page.
It wasn't clear that we are photographers. We NEEDED it to be clear that we are NOW pursing photography as a business since this was a huge move and most of our friends didn't know it was something we even considered.
We wrestled with quite a few fictitious names like Moments Captured, Capturing the Moment, and many others that I can't even remember because they were so cheesy. Just like everyone, we wanted the company name to incorporate our values and to be unique. We found ourselves constantly going to our closest friends for advice and taking polls on what names were liked the most. Oddly enough, "Walls of Jerico Photography" never came up.
"Walls of Jerico" was, and still is, Jerico's personal instagram account name since 2011. A few friends had asked us why "Walls of Jerico Photography" wasn't on the list of possible names. We just looked at each other and shrugged. That name never crossed our minds. To us, it was so simple and over used, something that we have seen for over 5 years now. I mean, it was JUST his Instagram account name. He's had it for so long, before instagram was even offered to Android!!! (He used to upload pictures onto Instagram from his iPod).
We didn't realize that people thought that was such a creative and unique name.
Growing up, Jerico didn't like his name because it sounded different then any of the other kids. No other kid in the class, in the SCHOOL, shared his name and as a kid, you just want to fit in. No kid wants a name no one can pronounce or a name that can easily be made fun of. Jerico got tired of hearing, "Oh your name is Jerico! Do you like Chris Jericho (the wrestler)?!?" Especially since, he DIDN'T like Chris Jericho!
Jerico actually envied his brother's name, "KEVIN"
As he got older, he got more and more compliments on his name and realized it was something to be proud of. He understood he had a name that people remembered because it was so different, he wasn't average. As an adult that's exactly what you want.. you DON'T want to be average, you DON'T want to run an AVERAGE company, you don't want to have an AVERAGE life. It's beneficial to stand out and be unique! That way, people remember you.
Once our friends told us their favorite was "Walls of Jerico Photography" we didn't hesitate any longer. We use WOJ as an acronym for Walls Of Jerico. A lot of people say it's easy to remember whether they reference the Bible story, the wrestler, or the band.
To us, Walls of Jerico translates to something like this:
Our lives are like a wall - we are all building our own wall, ONE brick at a time. Each brick represents people in our lives, opportunities, goals, moments. We can't have a wall with only a few bricks, we constantly have to keep adding them and connecting them as perfectly as possible. For us, it's the journey that matters: laying those bricks, meeting new people, serving our community, connecting people with each other! When we look back at our wall, what initially seemed like a daunting task and nearly impossible, we now see proof that we ARE capable of achieving anything we want as long as we put in the work and stay focused.
Ladies & gentlemen, MAKE IT A GREAT DAY! Enjoy your weekend with your friends & family! Take a few extra seconds to think about what you are thankful for.
Kristina & Jerico