R306 – 5 Steps to Naming with Brad Flowers
The How of Business - How to start, run, grow and exit a small business.
Henry Lopez, Levante Business Group
4.7 • 522 Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A framework for creating a business or product name using a proven five-step process that removes guesswork and drives better branding decisions, with Brad Flowers.
Show Notes Page: https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/r306-5-steps-to-naming/
Naming your business (or product or service) doesn't have to be a frustrating or purely creative guessing game. It can be a structured, repeatable process that leads to better outcomes.
In this episode, Henry Lopez chats with Brad Flowers, co-founder of Bullhorn and author of The Naming Book, about how small business owners can move from a blank page to a strong, effective business or product name.
Brad shares the five-step framework he developed after realizing that most naming advice either tells stories or opinions but doesn't actually help you generate names. Henry and Brad explore how to establish clear criteria, generate a large volume of ideas, and evaluate those ideas without getting stuck.
A key takeaway is that creativity isn't about waiting for inspiration, it's about having a process.
As Brad explains, "the only way to continuously produce high results in a creative field is to have a rigorous process."
They also discuss common mistakes, including overthinking too early, relying too much on outside opinions, and limiting ideas before fully exploring them. If you're launching a business, product, or service - or even considering a rebrand - this episode will give you a practical path forward.
The 5 steps to creating brand and product names that sell:
1) Establishing Criteria
2) Brainstorming
3) Compiling Names
4) Expanding Your Knowledge
5) Deciding on the Final Name
This episode is hosted by Henry Lopez. The How of Business podcast focuses on helping you start, run, grow and exit your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, small business coaching, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the How of Business with your host, Henry Lopez, the podcast that helps you start, |
| 0:05.9 | run, and grow your small business. And now, here is your host. Welcome to this episode of the |
| 0:11.4 | How of Business. My guest today is Brad Flowers. Brad, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me. |
| 0:16.9 | I'm really excited to talk. So Brad Flowers is the co-founder of Bullhorn, and Bullhorn is an agency |
| 0:22.4 | that builds, as they describe it, confident brands with language and design. Brad leads specifically |
| 0:28.7 | naming and language generation at Bullhorn. He has a degree in English literature, which, as he says, |
| 0:35.2 | he finds was more useful than he expected. Brad's also an |
| 0:38.8 | avid bicyclist. Brad lives in Lexington, Kentucky with his wife and his two kids. So once again, |
| 0:44.7 | Brad Flowers, welcome to the show. Thank you. All right. So literature, and what did you think |
| 0:51.3 | you were going to do with that degree at the time? Right. |
| 0:59.3 | Well, I always assumed I would teach because I didn't, I'd love to read and I just didn't know that there were any other jobs that that was useful for. |
| 1:03.4 | So the kind of the journey started off. |
| 1:06.3 | I graduated. |
| 1:07.8 | And as I was applying, I wanted to take a little bit of time off. My wife was going to, |
| 1:12.1 | was going back to school. And so as I was applying to graduate schools, I had this kind of terrible |
| 1:16.6 | realization that I didn't really like to teach. And for someone who just assumed they would teach, |
| 1:22.3 | that's kind of tough. Yeah. And so that was a time when I got a job at a local bike shop and we moved here to Lexington. |
| 1:29.3 | And while I was there, I had some interesting insights. One was that I, surprisingly enough, |
| 1:34.2 | I was really interested in business. And that had never really crossed my mind that I would ever be |
| 1:38.9 | an entrepreneur or be interested in business at all. And I ended up managing the shop for four |
| 1:43.9 | years. And I was interested managing the shop for four years. And I was |
| 1:45.6 | interested in the business side in general, but specifically I became interested in marketing and |
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