And there you have it folks, my brand new last name for 2013: Jason HeadsetsDotCom. Technically I’m not changing it until January 1, 2013, but let’s be honest, I’m terrible at waiting for things. I thought it might be fun to take you guys along with me through the craziness that was my first day as Mr. HeadsetsDotCom.
For the sake of this post, I’d say my day officially began at 12:00am when the bidding ended.
12:00am – After a frenzy of eBay style bidding in the last hour of the auction, the final bid of $45,500 comes in from Headsets.com, and I can finally stop frantically refreshing BuyMyLastName.com. I change the website to show a “Bidding Ended” graphic (thanks Connor), update my Facebook timeline photo, send out a tweet, and take a deep breath. I yell downstairs to my girlfriend, Caroline, and tell her the final bid, probably squealing like a little girl in the process.
12:30am – I have requests from a few media outlets to send the final bid price, bidding name, and a recap of the end of the auction. I email back and forth with the Headsets.com team, and they let me know how excited they are to be the winners. They also pass along a few bullet points about their company. At this time I also think it’s a fun idea to update my email signature with my new last name. Hah, I told you I’m bad at waiting for things.
1:00am – I finish up the important emails, chat with a few friends on Facebook, text message my Mom, and get snuggled into bed. I don’t fall asleep for at least an hour, no matter how hard I try. Hey, it’s not every day you sell your name and successfully execute a crazy marketing stunt.
6:15am – My dog Plaxico promptly wakes us up daily to eat at this time, but usually I go back to sleep after he gets fed. Not today, though. He’s the perfect alarm clock, as I have a 7:22am live announcement interview with Fox & Friends. I let Plaxico out, wipe his feet, feed him, get dressed, and decide it’s smart to print off the Headsets.com logo and bring it with me to Spectrum Films (video production studio in Jacksonville). I hop in the car with a bottle of water, an apple, plus my new last name on a fancy 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper, and I head to the studio.
7:15am – I arrive at the studio, and send out a few tweets reminding people that I’ll be on TV making the announcement. Graham (from Spectrum Films) and I chat about how I’ll never get used to having a man put makeup on my face. He’s a nice guy and all, it just feels weird.
7:22am – Live interview with Fox & Friends (recorded here). The photo above is taken right after the interview, and I share it on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to announce my new name: Jason HeadsetsDotCom!
8:00am – I get back home, knowing I have an email inbox full of questions, interview requests, and congratulations. I chip away at emails, arrange call times for later in the day, and update BuyMyLastName.com with the announcement image (thanks again Connor). I briefly look at Facebook and Twitter, see a bunch of people who woke up early to watch me, and smile. You guys have no idea how much your comments mean to me, each and every one.
9:00am – My phone buzzes and reminds me that I have a meeting with a local Jacksonville company to chat marketing. Caroline and I hop in the car and my phone rings. I take a call from a ’212′ number which happens to be CNN, and they want the update on BuyMyLastName. I rattle off the companies who were the last to bid, give them the final price, probably spout off a corny joke about headsets, and finish up the call. We finish up our meeting (which went well, thanks for asking), and we head back home.
10:30am – Back at my desk, I answer emails from HLNtv to do a 4pm follow up call, Fox Business to setup a live interview for 5:45pm (link), Fox News for a Skype interview at 12:50pm, First Coast News for an evening news interview (link), CNBC for a feature story (link), CNN again for some more details (link), AdWeek for an updated story (link), and a bunch of others! **If you sent me an email today and I didn’t respond, don’t worry, I’ll get to it!**
11:45am – I have an “Oh Shit!” moment when I realize I didn’t setup the BuyMyLastName bank account to accept the wire transfer for the down payment of the final bid. Whoops! Such is the life of an entrepreneur and small business owner. I rush over to my bank and sit down with Susan. I bring nothing. Whoops again. Luckily Susan is super helpful and even sits on hold for 30 minutes with me when I have to call the IRS to recover the tax ID number I didn’t know and never set up. While on hold, I see an email come in from my college roommate who happens to be a lawyer in Jacksonville and is helping me take care of the legal name change stuff. He lets me know I need $48.25 (exactly) for the county court to take my fingerprints, which is great timing because I happen to be at my bank. We finally get someone from the IRS on the phone, they’re moderately helpful, and just in time, I rush home to talk to Fox News on Skype.
12:50pm – Live Skype interview with Fox News. Huge thank you to Caroline’s friend, Mary Quinn O’Connor, who did an early story on BuyMyLastName and got her people interested in continuing to talk to me. I finish the interview, with plenty of plugs given to Headsets.com of course, and get back to my emails. While answering interview questions and confirming bid prices, I get a few funny text messages of people who’ve updated me in their phone address books as “Jason HeadsetsDotCom.” I giggle.
At some point I eat lunch. It’s probably something like cookies and a banana. I really have no clue.
2:00pm – I run back over to the bank to sign all my paperwork and get my $48.25. Susan is awesome (again), everything is waiting for me when I walk in. I sign a few papers, and then I think about what my Jason HeadsetsDotCom signature might look like. I take a few minutes and practice drawing a large “J” with an ear next to it that has a headset on it. It looks odd and takes too long. The jury is still out on what my new signature will look like, but that’s a fun little part of this journey I didn’t think about until today.
3:15pm – I talk to news anchor extraordinaire Lewis Turner of First Coast News (Jacksonville). It’s the 5th story he’s done about my crazy antics, and they’ve all been awesome. He uses some futuristic phone-recording technology and asks me a few questions about how everything finished and what the next year might hold for me. While on the phone with him, I see an email come in from Fox 30 (Jacksonville) asking me to be on their morning show. I finish my call with Lewis, confirm the Fox30 interview, and my phone rings again. This call is just the lovely folks at my UPS Store telling me I have perishable food in my UPS box. Not super exciting, but I think to myself whatever it is will be delicious. (*Update* It was chocolate covered peanuts from an IWYS client, and they were delicious.)
4:00pm – HLNtv calls me for our live follow up interview. They use an “Unknown” number when calling, which always weirds me out. Doesn’t it feel like you’re going to get in trouble when that number pops up? The interview is great, full of some fresh questions which I can’t recall (sorry), and they give some great plugs to Headsets.com.
4:15pm – Back to the email inbox, I exchange a few emails with the fun folks from Headsets.com. I pass along my fancy wire transfer info and BOOM, 25% of the final bid price is in the shiny new business account of BuyMyLastName. I also receive a really nice email from Cheerful Givers congratulating me and thanking me in advance (10% of $45k goes to them) for helping over 450 kids get birthday presents! WAHOO!
4:40pm – My phone buzzes and tells me it’s time go back to Spectrum Studios to have Graham load me up with makeup again and get ready for my Money with Melissa Francis interview. On the drive to the studio, I notice a lot of traffic going the other way (ugh). I remember why I love working from home.
5:40pm – The interview goes really well, even though Melissa isn’t actually the anchor for the day. I spend the nice long segment staring into a camera lens with bright lights shining in my face. During the interview, my phone nearly vibrates my pants off. I have a voicemail from my friend, Caron, who’s helping me get some more local Jacksonville press, and my longtime friend Drew leaves a message congratulating me about my name. It makes me realize how little we all call each other to talk about things, even if it’s something as crazy as changing your name. Don’t get me wrong, I love emails, FB messages, tweets, and text messages, it’s just crazy how little we use the PHONE part of our phones.
6:00pm – I’m in my car, heading back home, and the traffic is way worse. Like, Atlanta or LA bad (which never happens in Jacksonville). I decide to get off the highway and grab some food. As I type this I realize I probably ate 700 calories today. Oops! I have a great phone convo (it is possible) with my friend Bryan about my new last name and another biz idea I’ve been toying with.
6:30pm – I eat a burrito bowl at Chipotle by myself. It sounds sad, but honestly, it was really nice to just take a break from talking and staring at my inbox. Let it be known I did call my sister who lives right around the corner from Chipotle and she was busy. While eating, I setup a Google Alert for “HeadsetsDotCom” and answer a bunch of tweets. (Dang it, I now realize I forgot to check-in on foursquare. Oh well, I’ll get that salsa badge next time.)
7:00pm – Back in the car I decide to play it safe and go the long way home, assuming the traffic is still bad. No dice. There’s obviously a huge accident, and now I have to go the long LONG way home (at least a 45 minute drive). I get about half way home, I’m sitting at a stoplight, and my car beeps. WTF? **Transmission Error – driving will be limited** pops up. Yikes. I own a BMW, and that’s never an error you want to see. Did I mention the traffic was bad in Jacksonville? I throw on my hazards, try to turn the car on and off.. beep.. **Check Engine Error – car in safe drive mode** pops up. Grrrrrreat. Meanwhile, cars are going around me, and of course no one offers to help (why would they?) I throw the car in neutral, hop out, it starts raining, and I’m pushing my 4,000+ pound car on a busy highway to get it on a side street. UGH.
8:00pm – The tow truck arrives. I have the standard conversation with a tow truck guy. Him: “How’s it going?” Me: “My car is broken.” Him: “Sorry to hear that.” Me: “Thanks.” My loving girlfriend comes to the rescue with her friend Staci (Hi Staci!) She pays the tow truck guy, Mike, and I feel kind of like a mob boss watching her hand him a wad of $20s. The three of us resume the long LONG route home in her car, while my car heads to the BMW dealership (thanks in advance Jeremy).
9:00pm – We arrive home and I immediately eat a cookie. What can I say? I’m a stress eater. I decide not to look at my phone or computer for a while and turn on Thursday night football. My phone buzzes a ton. CNN’s Twitter account tweets this. I quote the tweet, and grab a screenshot for Facebook. A handful of emails come in inquiring about IWearYourShirt services (COOL!), and I make a note to get to those tomorrow.
11:00pm – After watching some NFL and NBA while chatting with a few people on Facebook, I decide to write this blog post. Still a little bummed out about my car, I quickly realize my day was ridiculously awesome and I decide to worry about the car later.
11:22pm – I realize I’ve been sidetracked by Charles Barkley and NBA basketball for 20 minutes.
11:28pm – I proofread this post. It’s really long, the grammar is terrible, and I realize I’m awful at keeping verb tenses. My grammar-conscious girlfriend offers to fix it.
11:54pm – Don (owner of my favorite restaurant TacoLu) sends me a text with my updated v-card that says “Jason HeadsetsDotCom / T-Shirt Guy” – Hah!
11:56pm – Blog post finished. First day as Jason HeadsetsDotCom is in the books.
Thanks again for all the support, everyone! I couldn’t have done this without you. I’m excited to see how 2013 goes with this new name, and I’ll be capturing the entire name change process on video (which should be fun).
Jason HeadsetsDotCom (formerly Sadler)