What’s In A Name?

What's in a name? I had someone all upside down because I use my original real name on the internet.. It's my father's last name, an everyone knows it yadda yadda. Can't have anyone spoiling his name. First of all, in the scheme of things: Most of the world, doesn't even know who the hell my father was. So it's MY name I'm putting out there.

"Well I'll just have Facebook remove it"

Ya gonna go over the astrologer Dana Haynes too. Tell her she can't post her astrology stuff cause you didn't approve it? How about the author Dana Haynes? There is one out there. He writes fiction. Never read it, but he's taking up my name on Google search results when you search for the artist an it's annoying to me. Mainly because I'd like my art to be found, but he's got a budget for Adwords I don't have right now. Shows up more then any of us. There is also some tv personality out west that goes by Dana Haynes. Guess they should just go tell them they can't use the name Haynes, because someone died who once carried it.

What's in a name anyway?

I follow a guy named GaryVee on social media. He is branding his name. His parents ran a family business he helped blow over the top on the internet. I like him because I have a few things in common with him. One, the industry that he was in, my family was too. His was a liquor store, mine a tavern. Both he & I have been around since the early days on the internet following the trends. Busting butt on it. The difference between him & I is I had a divorce in there an lost my momentum.

You disappear on the internet pretty quickly if you don't keep hounding it.

Like him, I had spent time building a family business I didn't own an wasn't going to get credit for. It's your parents. I might have been Vice President of it on paper but just like him: It wasn't getting me anywhere. An if it did it would only be at the death of someone you love. Which doesn't feel so great. An I wanted to do art anyway if I had a choice where I was going to put my extra time and energy in. The thing I like about him so much is he got the internet was just as much a reality as “real life”. An when I talk about people I use to hang out with online or respect: He's the kind I was drawn to. The creatives that mixed business & the internet. That saw how important the internet was going to become. Who where interested in branding on it: Not just creating a website an leaving it sit out in open air an hopes someone visits it. Who weren't interested in get rich schemes, who saw the actual work you had to put in. Understood it. An interested in where it was heading.

I had my niche, to practice with: Daycare Providers & Moms.

It's what my life revolved around a lot at the time, so it was good practice on how to get up there to the top. An it took a lot of work to stay in the top ten. Discipline. I didn't have a full time marketing budget or anyone else but me to do the work. A few signed on to volunteer to write occasionally an that was about it. The ended up going into online teaching because it was starting to pay a little. Most couldn't afford those early days of really making a website work. Or the effort it takes keep one fresh: An keep on branding. Let alone have a budget to keep programming.

I just had to keep learning, an following the wave to stay on top.

It all came to a end, right about the time I was figuring out how to actually make it produce a income. My computer crashed for one. Which has messed me up several times, but I was getting a divorce. My husband at the time, an countless others around me just couldn't see why I thought this was so dang important. The most people used computers for at the time was bookkeeping. But there where other artist online, who just like me where learning to draw on theirs. Others learning how to build websites. Few where into all aspects of it like I was.

I was getting noticed so much a local Marketing Company contacted me.

They wanted to “interview” me. They said they where a publishing company an just getting into building websites: Would I be interested? Getting divorced of course I was. I went & got grilled basically about this or that topic. I was pretty much told afterwords, we like what your doing but you don't have a degree in it so please come back after you get one. An it was very much came across as “we are the real world”, the “authority” on this, you are not. What they had was something that was dying: Publishing & a hardware geek telling. They didn't undersand the internet. They just understood how to profit off people who knew they needed a website. They didn't have what I had. The ability to actually have people visit the websites. My self doubt, an listening to others tell me the “internet wasn't the real world” lead me back to college. I shouldn't have listened to them. I should have stayed on course an continued doing what I had been. It was working. Had I continued I'd have a site worth tons of money today.

I let people around me sabotage me.

They didn't, an a lot of them still don't understand the internet. They have a old school business model of how things work, an it's like pulling teeth to even get some to use their little computer phones correctly. When they finally did get it on it, I suddenly got attacked a lot in real life. Omg, she's saying this, she's doing that. No, I won't make a myspace page, or a Facebook page. She's a bad parent! I'm going to take her to court, an try to take away her son. I'm going to take her to court an have the judge stop her on Facebook. Even though everything I was doing was actually exactly what I should be doing. I had to deal with someone walking into court with a 100 pages of my facebook feed printed out. With them going on about how crazy I was, an how I was sabotaging them. The judge threw it out: basically stating all he sees me staying on it: Is leave me alone.

It's a fact, recorded down at the Winnebago Court house.

Literally trying to take away my free speech. It's the same people that always have sabotage me in real life, an my grandmother. So I pretty much ignore them as much as I can. But it's a little hard to ignore when they are calling police on you with false accusations, harassing you in court, through courts and the system. I've had police called, the health dept, dcfs an all kinds of stuff done to me all in the name of trying to shut me up. It's all on record. Documented.

An it's why I left the internet, an went an worked in a another town completely.

Then they called me “paranoid”. It's not paranoia if its really happening to you. They told everyone I had mental issues, tried to have me locked up in a mental ward an that I'm bipolar. When I was actually going through a breast cancer scare an pretty much starving cause I was too exhausted to work. They got away with taking my child away from me because I was too broke & sick to fight them off any longer. All sorts of dirty tricks pulled. An a lot of money lost combating it.

That's how real the internet is. An it's how real a bully is.

I suffer from PSTD from what happened before I was 13, an what happened after my grandmother & dad passed. I've had clinical depression from it. A normal reaction to BULLSHIT. In fact the first time I didn't go along with the program at 21, one of these people who was behind this tried to say I was crazy back then. So, I went to the a shrink. Told him all I had been through up to that point in my life. An that's exactly what he said: Your not crazy. Any normal person would be depressed having gone through what you have. Myself, I'm going back to what it is I do: Art. An I really don't give a rats ass if a few select few who bullied me back then or over the years don't like it. They where the major ones saying “the internet” isn't real. Scared of the technology to begin with. They don't understand it, aren't very good at it or the art of it. They are just running around with phones, thinking they are experts now since everyone uses one. Deep down bullies live in fear an try to push that on to others.

And the internet is competitive enough without having one of these bullies bothering you. Block them. Get a restraining order if you have to.

I am if one more thing happens to me.

Most people doing that won't have an major significance on the internet. They have little in real life. An if they do have some kind of influence, It won't last without them putting in the work I originally was talking about anyway. Few are willing to go the mile it takes to really be a “influencer” or successful on the internet. I had a 51% influencer rate back before I stepped out to deal with these bullies. Don't even waste your time with them. They are nothing but making themselves an obstacle to your success.

Much like that little marketing company did me. They knew a little bit, but not a lot. They knew a one side, but not all of it. Promoting even a small business on here is a lot of work to brand it. To really be successful on it, you have to be on about ten platforms at one time. But if you are an artist, not only do you have to do your art, sell it in real life, run a website, be on ten social sites at once but every art website on it there is.

It's a shit ton of work. It’s not just about Likes.

You don't have time to get side tracked by a bully who's jealous, insecure or doesn't understand what your doing. The art world is pretty competitive to begin with. You really have to stand out to sell art in the first place let alone on the internet. You really have to work the internet to stay alive in real world sales too. You can no longer just sell in the “real world”. You have to be in the “internet world” too. It's becoming “the world”. Just like Gary Vee says, I've said.

You can not rely on one or the other an make it.

Internet sales for artist are growing by 40%. But it's less then 1% of artist who actually make sales on the internet. I am one of those 1% who actually made sales. I've watched a whole art industry (photography) take a nose dive in “real life” because they just didn't have a strong internet presence. They can't compete with the internet photographers. An that was with them having some of the best locations in the “real world”. They are being forced to step up their game, include the internet or get out of the business.


I am a actual successful artist on the internet an in real life.

I'm telling you, I don't even know if I want to put in the effort required to “make it” with the health problems I have going on. I'm tired a lot, but I also don't want to give up because I know what's just around the corner an can be a guide. I'm going to listen to my gut on this, not someone else's who doesn't know what they are talking about. An isn't supportive.
I've been right to many times in the past for me to question it.

My dad made fun of me, few years before he passed because I said I wanted to go into tattoo. Asked me what the hell would I want to do that for? Well because it's an artform an I want my own businesses doing just art for a change. Not all this hassle. He was all, no no no: Whatcha need is to go into publishing. Print. Open us a newspaper.

See?

My dad, thought old school business. An not a lot about art. I was right: years later tattoo exploded. Publishing was/is loosing money. I should have listened to MY GUT. Instead of getting caught up in his approval or not. I'm going to listen to guru's that have been on this thing as long as I have that actually know what they are talking about. Those are the types I've missed. But I would advise you to be cautionary about even that: A lot are self professed guru's that haven't really put in the work. An not really going to teach you all aspects of something you need to know.

Just like there are a lot of self professed photographers running around these days. They've never worked in studio. Don't know sales. Don't understand branding. They haven't invested in software. They aren't good with enhancements. Don't know Photoshop or Lightroom or even much about a camera. Let alone much about the internet. Yet they got a social media account an think they are going to be the next Anne Grddes. It took her decades to build that kind of portfolio & income.

It doesn't happen over night.

You can claim to be whatever you want to, but it’s the real work involved that makes one an expert. Even on the internet, unlike what so many want to believe: You have to put in the work.


I've got so much work out there, I can't even keep track of it anymore. I've worked at companies, I can't even show a quarter of my work. But get this?

A bully will sit around an tell you: You never worked. Don't listen to them.

Art is WORK. Even if you aren’t earning a big paycheck.

It just doesn't feel like work to most of us because we enjoy the work. I've put my share of 18 hour days on it. An that's the other reason I like Gary Vee: suggest if your interested in making a name for yourself, your business or company you listen to him. He's done the work in real life. He gets the internet because he has done it successfully. Most of what he say's can be applied to any business. He's very matter of fact about it. An gets what's going on. But if your not willing to put in the work, or handing it off to someone else you probably won't get very far.

A digital footprint on the internet doesn't last very long. Followers stop following if you have poor marketing. An the likes get less an less if you don’t have a sense of humor. An it really doesn’t work if your marketing to the wrong audience for your business. Or not being authentic. Fake doesn’t fly so well. An things disappear.

Things I worked on 21 years ago, can't be found. Poof gone. Just like in real life, it's hard to get your name out there, let alone remembered. Everyone remembers Nike, but few know the founders full name. Few, remember my dad's: Let alone knew him. Even fewer my Papa's who gave him, then me the last name to begin with. I don't sit around an think up ways to shame it. An I'm pretty sure the people that have the exact same name as me could care less what I’m doing. I really don’t pay them that much attention, nor them me.

My goal, an I'm sure theirs is for it to be found & remembered. We all just kinda go at it differently. For different reasons. They are doing themselves, not me. An I dont sit around telling them they can’t use their own name. It’s just a concedence we have the same name anyway. It’s what each of us chooses to make of our own identies that matters anway.

It's human nature to want people to remember your name while you are alive, an gone. But it's even bigger deal to an artist. Sometimes our name is what sells a piece of art.

We brand it.

Cause we all want to be like Dali. Not only great at the art we do but successful.

So I don't really get in a huff over someone having the same name as mine. Or last name. My name's my name. I can do whatever I want with it. They can do whatever they want with theirs. So no amount of bullying is probably going to stop any one of us from using our names. An if you are, you probably need to rethinking what your doing. People have a right to be who they are. Those 3-4 people with the same name as mine: I don't have any right to go stepping on their toes, any more then they do mine. An wonder why anyone would.

Don't like astrology, don't read her site.
Don't like his book, don't buy another one.
Don't like my art don't buy it, use it or unsubscribe.

Get over the fact I intend to leave a BIG footprint when I leave this world. I wish some would stop asking me or trying to get me to stop being who I really am just because they have a expensive phones. I'm an artist, an it's usually a goal of most artist to leave a footprint before they leave this world. No matter what their gene. I’m not stepping on your little corner of the world. Nor have I. I'm not gonna disappear, just because the bully finally showed up to my world. It's not my fault you didn't get it. You could have had a big asset on your side.

I've had a lot of time to work on building my brand. MY NAME.
An it's what happens with artist. We need our names recognized.

An most don’t care who the other Haynes are if they are looking for a specific one.

Believe it or not I'm doing exactly what I should be. Managing, writing, drawing, painting, photography, programming, branding, media, promotion, sales & the internet. An others serious about it should give Gary Vee a listen. They aren't just “good idea's” They are the right ones to compete into today's market. I'll help brand him cause he knows what he's talking about. An he's gone through the old schoolers call him crazy too.

So what's in a name anyway? Plenty.

It seems okay for some to drag yours through the mud but god forbid you speak up when they do.

Me dad use to say your word –name-- should be is as good as gold.

Mine will be if God gives me enough time on this earth to do all the work I want to do. An that isn't taking away from my father, or my grandfather. An I don't go around asking those that have the same name as mine to shine less so I feel better about myself. If I want people to remember me, I have to work. My name isn’t going to be remembered because of my uncles, fathers, mothers or some stranger I don't know. Mine. This name is the one I was given by my father that most people know me by: I'm sticking with it lol

I've got too much work invested in being me.
I don't have time to be someone else.

Dana Renee Haynes