I knew what trademarks were. I have an MBA. This wasn’t some completely foreign concept that I had never heard of.
The truth is simpler than that: I didn’t do the due diligence I should have done when I chose the name.
For about a year and a half, I was doing business publicly as WealthWise Live. I built the social media account from zero to almost 1,000 followers, hosted conversations, put on events, recorded interviews, built relationships, and attached more and more work to that name.
As time went on, I eventually ran into a trademark issue that meant I needed to move away from it.
Was it frustrating? Absolutely. But more than anything, it taught me how seriously I need to treat a name before I build around it.
I should’ve checked earlier
When you’re excited about starting something, there are a hundred things competing for your attention. You’re thinking about the idea, the logo, the website, what you’re going to post, who you’re going to reach out to, and how you’re actually going to get people to care.
Trademark research wasn’t high enough on my list.
I checked whether I could operate the business. I checked usernames. I checked domains. What I didn’t do thoroughly enough was research where the name was already being used, whether it had been trademarked, and whether my use could eventually create a conflict.
That’s the part I would change.
Registering a business, buying a domain, or getting a social media handle isn’t the same thing as clearing a brand name for trademark purposes. They’re different questions, and I treated them too much like they were the same.
The longer you wait, the harder it is to change
If I had caught the issue when the account had 20 followers, I probably would’ve changed the name in a day and kept moving.
It’s different after a year and a half.
By then, the name was attached to videos, events, interviews, graphics, emails, relationships, and an audience I had spent real time building. The difficult part wasn’t coming up with another logo. It was accepting that something I had invested in had to change because I hadn’t handled an important piece of the groundwork early enough.
That’s a lesson I won’t forget.
The work didn’t disappear
The good thing is that the name was never the whole business.
The people I met are still the people I met. The conversations still happened. The events still happened. I still learned how to host, interview, market, build relationships, test ideas, and grow something from nothing.
So the challenge didn’t stop anything. It just forced the next version.
That version is MKé Exchange.
The name is partly inspired by my own name, which helps make it more distinct, but the word Exchange is what really captures what I want the platform to be. An exchange of hope, conversation, ideas, and connections. You should encounter the platform and leave with something you didn’t have before — a perspective, a relationship, an idea, a little more clarity, maybe even a new opportunity.
That’s bigger than the name I started with.
What I’d tell another entrepreneur
Before you spend a year building around a name, do the boring work.
Search it. Look at the USPTO database. Look at how similar businesses are using the name. Look beyond whether the Instagram handle or domain is available. And if you’re building something you expect to become valuable, get professional guidance when you need it.
I knew trademarks mattered. I just didn’t give that part of the business the attention it deserved soon enough.
Now I will.
And in the meantime, the work continues.
This article shares my personal experience and isn’t legal advice.