Eat My Words - The Kitchen Sink

Spoon Me mobbed with hundreds of teens

I told you Spoon Me was popular!

With this ring, I thee spoon.

I spent a fun weekend in Salt Lake City, where I was a guest at the wedding of my good pal and Spoon Me founder, Ryan Combe. Great to finally meet Ryan in person, as well as his business partner, David Jaynes, who was one of the key decision makers in choosing the Spoon Me name, which of course was created by Eat My Words. I met so many nice Spoon Me peeps including the infamous Bub and Craig, as well as some of the key franchise owners including David and Ryan's dads. Ryan and his stunning bride, Alicia, are the international poster children for spooning. (And yes, Spoon Me frozen yogurt was served at the wedding.) Check out these photos from the reception... dig those sexy blue stiletto  heels, Alicia!

 

Tweet My Words (before someone nabs your name)

Hurry and register your name on Twitter before someone else hijacks it and tweets your words. It's free to sign up and takes all of 17 seconds. Even if you don't have the foggiest idea of what Twitter is or how you could possibly use it to get business, do yourself an enormous favor and secure your brand name (and personal name) on Twitter right now before someone else takes it. You can figure out how to use it later. Unlike domain names, Twitter names (e.g. eatmywords, spoonme, ihaveabean, monalisastyle, fusionlaw, halogenguides) don't cost a dime and are snap to get. I was a Twitterphobe until we got a client, Cha Chang, who "tweeted" a question about needing a naming firm and got a "tweet" back from one of her "followers," who referred her to Eat My Words. Cha-Ching! Since then, I've used Twitter a few times a week to blast out 140-character-or-less business updates, links to blog posts, and informal surveys. You can do the same and more... tweet special offers, ask your customers for feedback, and let them know about new products. Here's how some of our clients are using Twitter to engage their customers. Click on their name to see their Twitter page and postings... 

Spoon Me "Tweet your favorite Spoon Me combo!"

I Have a Bean "We have a lease! We hope to be roasting by the week of May 9th"

Solemate "Solemate is now #4 for Movers and Shakers on Kindle!"

Fusion Law "Cal-COBRA Employers Get a Break http://tinyurl.com/dbrcoe"

Eat My Dust "On beautiful days and nights like these, don't forget 2 open the windows and shut the A/C (or heat) to save energy and increase air quality."

Please let us know when you sign up. And be sure to follow us at eatmywords.

To learn how B2B marketers are using Twitter, read this excellent article.  

We wrote the book on naming books.

Imagine our surprise when we looked on Amazon a few weeks ago and saw that the book we titled Solemate was ranked #29 on their best seller list and #1 under books on "Depression." (Nothing depressing about that!) Author Lauren Mackler came to Eat My Words at the eleventh hour, needing an arresting book title for her new book about "mastering the art of aloneness." Our team tackled the assignment, submitting catchy titles including, Dancing With Myself, Table For One, and Good Enough for Garbo.  The winning title, "Solemate" says it all. And readers clearly love it. Babs on Amazon gave it five stars and said, "...who can resist that clever title."

A best-seller in the UK as well, Solemate is about mastering the art of aloneness. But it's not about being alone. It's a book for people who want to enhance the quality of their lives by improving their relationships with themselves and with others. Download an excerpt or order the book here.

Eat My Dust cleans up in Big Success Business Contest

Congratulations to Eat My Words' client Russ Goldin of Eat My Dust™ who is one of five finalists in the Comcast Big Success Business Pitch, taking place this Thursday night at the Westin in San Francisco. As you may know, Eat My Dust is the first green commercial janitorial company in Northern California with fundamentally different approach to cleaning. They utilize a science-based cleaning system that removes up to five times more dirt and pollutants than traditional housekeeping. They are competitively priced and 100% sustainable for both the environment and the cleaning worker.

THE CONTEST DIRT
The 5 entrepreneurs will compete in front of a live audience and a panel of distinguished judges consisting of seasoned entrepreneurs and angel investors. The winner will receive a grand prize of being featured by the local CBS news in an exclusive 5-minute interview. Judges include:

• Kevin Hartz- limited partner of Sequoia Capital, seed investor of Paypal, and co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite
• Christine Comaford-Lynch- angel investor of Google, former VC and bestselling author
• Mark O’Leary – regional vice president of Comcast Business Class
• Amy Errett – Former CEO of Olivia.com and Venture Capitalist with Maveron 

Thursday, March 26th
6:15 – 8:30 p.m
Westin San Francisco Market Street
50 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Purchase Tickets Here

We hope to see you there and help Eat My Dust sweep the competition!

Shut Up & Spoon Me - Now Available Online

It seemed as if Hell would freeze over in frozen yogurt before this happened, but after months of anticipation, Spoon Me loot is finally for sale online. Now you can buy your own "Shut Up and Spoon Me" t-shirt and stop trying to steal mine. As most of you know (because we talk about it every chance we get), Eat My Words named Spoon Me, which has become the hottest frozen yogurt franchise on the planet. 

Spoon Me has turned their name into cold hard cash by slapping it on everything from bumper stickers to booty shorts.  We love making our clients rich and are proud to be the only naming firm that monetizes names through merchandise. (How many t-shirts do you think Spoon Me would have sold if they stuck with their original name, Zenyo?)

Check out the Spoon Me store to see all of the stylish fashions.

Spoon Me a healthy, green yogurt shop

Spoon Me franchise owner Carolee Millet, left, and Spoon Me founder and CEO Ryan Combe inside the new Sandy location. The interior is eco-friendly and the yogurt had no artificial ingredients.

Spoon Me a healthy, green yogurt shop

By Lesley Mitchell

The Salt Lake Tribune

09/16/2008 

SANDY, UTAH - You won't find the typical vanilla, chocolate or strawberry flavors at the Spoon Me frozen yogurt shop.

    In their places are more mysterious flavors - acai (berry from Brazil), green tea or "natural."

    The Utah-based chain, with locations in Sandy, downtown Salt Lake City, Provo and St. George, is among a number of companies popping up nationwide that aim to provide a hip alternative to the frozen yogurt-shop concept that soared in the '80s, only to fizzle somewhat in recent years.

    "There's definitely a growing trend toward a healthier dessert product," said Spoon Me co-founder Ryan Combe.

    Aside from Spoon Me, there are other stores with trendy frozen yogurt concepts opening up, including Red Mango, which has three Utah locations. Spoon Me, founded by Utah natives Combe and David Jaynes, is trying to set itself apart from competitors in a number of ways.

    "I wanted to create something more marketable" than the other offerings, Combe said. "And I wanted something more responsible" in terms of the environment and community.

    The chain uses as many environmentally friendly products as possible in its stores, from spoons made out of corn starch to highly biodegradable cups to hold the yogurt. Virtually everything that goes into the stores, from the paint and light fixtures to the toilets in the restrooms, are designed to be easy on the

environment.

    Although Combe, 26, said he hasn't spent a lot of time working in the restaurant industry, he does have the pedigree: He said his uncle was involved in the Arctic Circle hamburger chain and his cousins run the Warrens and Dylan's fast-food chains in Utah.

    But he's also trying something vastly different, especially for conservative Utah. Marketing phrases such as "Go on, Spoon Me. You know you want it," and "If you love me, spoon me," say it all.

    Combe said he was living in California "surfing a lot" when he and Jaynes, 32, then a vice president for Lehman Brothers in California, decided to become entrepreneurs.

    The pair, with a third partner, Utah orthopedic surgeon Wayne Mortensen, opened the first Spoon Me in downtown Salt Lake City in October. The Sandy location, the first franchise and one owned by Combe's aunt, Carolee Millet, opened in June.

    The Provo location, which is corporate owned, opened its doors in July, with a store owned by another franchisee opening in St. George at the end of August. Spoon Me's yogurt product is different enough to put off some fans of the traditional sugar-laden varieties of the past. Its three varieties are a bit tart and for the uninitiated may seem a bit more like sorbet than frozen yogurt.

    But there is apparently plenty of demand for the concept. Existing stores are doing well, Combe said, and franchisees are planning several additional locations.

    The next location, this one also company owned, is scheduled to open at the end of the month on the Arizona State University campus in Tempe. Additional locations, all franchises, are planned for Ogden, Orem and American Fork, as well as Austin, Texas, and Las Vegas.

    Spoon Me stocks the three flavors of frozen yogurt and numerous toppings of fruit or nuts for health-conscious customers, and Fruit Pebbles, Nilla Wafers and Oreo toppings for those who want more sinful alternatives.

    Prices range from $2.50 for the smallest size of "Natural" yogurt without a topping to $6.75 for the largest Green Tea or Acai-flavored cup with three toppings.

    On a recent weekday afternoon, south valley resident Angie Davidson brought her mother, in town from Seattle, in for her first taste of Spoon Me.

    Davidson said she has been in the shop a few times since it's opened.

    "I told her she just had to come taste this," Angie Davidson said.

    Her mother, Bobbie Zavala, gave it a thumbs up. "It's a totally different taste. It's very, very good."

Frigid, Mixin' Vixens Stuff a Sock In It

If you guessed that Frigid, Mixin' Vixens, and Stuff a Sock In It are all cool brand names created by Eat My Words, congratulations! Bonus points if you figured out that Frigid is the name of a gourmet ice cream store, Mixin' Vixens is an all-women bartender service, and Stuff a Sock In It is a laundromat. When you see or hear an "Eat My Words name," you'll never ask what it means, how to pronounce it, or "What were they smoking?!" Our super-likable names make powerful emotional connections, build instant brand affinity, and make our clients rich. Yes, rich. We are the only naming firm that monetizes names. For instance, we turned the name Frigid into cold hard cash for our client by creating a t-shirt for them that says, "Not tonight dear, I have an ice cream headache." Ca-ching! Our Stuff a Sock In It client will be slapping their new logo on laundry bags, t-shirts, and other merchandise geared at their college kid customers. Ca-ching!

Of course, the client who is monetizing the bejesus out of their Eat My Words name is Spoon Me, the frozen yogurt store that is one of the hottest franchises in the country. They are selling Spoon Me pajamas, booty shorts, underwear, baby clothes, stickers, buttons and of course t-shirts with slogans we created like "Shut Up and Spoon Me." Ca-ching! Ca-ching! Ca-ching! 

Would someone buy a t-shirt with your company or product name on it and pay you to advertise your brand? To see if your name has potential, take the Eat My Words SMILE & SCRATCH Test, which was recently featured in The Wall Street Journal.

Have Your Cake and Invest It Too

Our 2007 "Client of the Year," Cake,  is the subject of a gushing write up in today's TechCrunch.  It also introduces us to the latest Cake name extension Cakedex. 

If you get a chance, also stop by and take a nibble at The Slice, Cake's weekly video market wrap-up.  It's kind of like a smarter, hipper financial Ren & Stimpy.

Here is the TechCrunch article in its entirety -or if you have really good eyesight, you can read it below:

Spoon Me licks the competition with eco-friendly stores

It was only a year ago that Eat My Words named Spoon Me, and now it's the coolest frozen yogurt franchise on the planet.

Here is some recent press from the Daily Herald, which also includes a video of founder, Ryan Combe. (For the record, the word "cuddle," makes us cringe.) 

Sunday, 24 August 2008

'Spoon Me' frozen yogurt shop looks to cuddle environment
by Ace Stryker

At Spoon Me, you can always chew on the silverware if your frozen yogurt hasn't filled you up.

"We don't recommend people eat our spoons, but people eat 'em," said Craig Jaynes, partner and manager of the new store that opened July 24 on Provo's Bulldog Boulevard.

It's not every day that a restaurant operator can view so cavalierly the consumption of his hardware without inviting serious litigation -- let alone the store's trash bags, which Jaynes suggested are also edible. That's because both products are made from corn derivatives. It's part of a larger effort on the part of the fledgling company's leadership to go "green;" from floor to ceiling, nearly everything in Spoon Me is designed to be easy on the environment.

"Yeah, you could eat a trash bag, I guess -- if you wanted to get crazy," said Ryan Combe, the company's founder and CEO.

Spoon Me started out with a vision by Combe and Jaynes's older brother, David, to capitalize on the popular frozen treat market while treating the earth as well as their customers.

"That's really what we're lacking today in America in business," Combe said. "We kind of went in blindly. We said, 'We'll be the ones that will kind of bite the bullet on it."

The first store opened in Salt Lake City last October. Then one in Sandy followed, and Provo's new location made it a trio. But the train doesn't stop rolling there: Combe and crew are opening another location in St. George on Thursday, and there are others in development in Las Vegas; Phoenix; and Austin, Texas. Combe said he plans to open one or two stores a month for the foreseeable future.

"We're proving that you can be successful doing little things," he said.

Walking into a Spoon Me shop, there isn't much that immediately screams environmentalism. A simple menu advertises the all-natural goodness of the product, but that's just the beginning.

Eco-friendly paint adorns the walls. The indoor and outdoor lights were chosen because they demand less energy. The same is true of special breakers installed in back that power the yogurt machines.

Employees wear shirts made of recycled linen and other green materials. The cleaning supplies might have been borrowed from under Mother Nature's kitchen sink.

"We really wanted to be a progressive company and do more than other people," Combe said. "

By no means do we want to be unique in this aspect."

In fact, Combe said he hopes his enterprise will inspire other businesses to pick up the same torch. He predicted that in five years, thanks to growing consumer awareness, eco-friendly commerce will be the norm rather than the exception.

That would make Spoon Me's day-to-day operations easier, Combe admitted. He said he battled conventional wisdom in the industry when he dreamt up the idea and still pays a 25 to 50 percent premium on green supplies.

"The convenience aspect of it is frustrating," he said. "If we run out of forks, we can't just run to Costco and get more."

But, he insists, the move is worth it. Knowing that spoons and bowls from a couple's date won't still be rotting in landfills when their great-grandchildren have passed is tough to put a price on, he said.

"In as little as 90 days, the remnants of your date will not exist anymore," he said. "I can go home at night and say, 'At least I'm doing my part.' "

The third leg of Spoon Me's mission, complementing its focus on the customer and the earth, is making a difference in the community. Each month, every location picks a local cause and puts a bowl on the counter for donations -- this month, Provo's store is raising funds for the Provo High School cheerleaders. Combe said his stores have raised as much as $1,000 a month to return to the community.

"That's why I think people have gravitated toward us," he said.

Both Combe and Jaynes expressed ambition in expanding Spoon Me to become a national, maybe even a global, name. At the rate they're going, it might not be too long before people everywhere are eating their silverware. "We want to spoon everyone," Jaynes said. "We're gonna spoon the world."