What’s a funDiva?

The true story about how I got my nickname

My nickname is funDiva and occasionally people ask me what’s a funDiva? Here’s the answer.

fd iconBack in 2002ish, I was ready to create my own web page, rather than continue using the pre-made overview sites I had been using, and just redirecting my domain to them. I already owned ChristyHoffman.com but since there are many ways to spell both christy and hoffman, I thought I’d better come up with something shorter and easier.

I have always been a happy extroverted person so I started with the keywords of happy, happiness, fun, smile, stuff like that. And then I was looking for a word that would describe that I was an individual like guru, master, gal, etc. I’m particular and demanding so diva was a great choice on that list.

I wrote them all out in a spiral notebook* and started combining and checking them in domain lookups.

I actually did not buy funDiva.com right when I had discovered it, I waited a few days. Back then I don’t think there was such the domain kiting that goes on today, including the suspicion I have that some domain search spinning sites actually track your searches and kite the names based on lookups.

In retrospect, it’s one of the most phenomenal choices that I happened to luck in to, it’s a really great name, it’s short, memorable and really describes my personality well.

However I have to wonder sometimes if I have grown to be more of a funDiva as a result of having the name and branding myself as such. Hmm. OK so I made up the name funDiva, but did I make up the personality to go with it?

Based on this ingenious happenstance, I refer to myself as a branding expert, but you have to pair my really great domain/image with the fact that I have shamelessly marketed myself as funDiva. Even when I’m just a guest on conference calls I always introduce myself as “funDiva Christy Hoffman from Las Vegas.” You can easily follow the funDiva trail online as I register everywhere as funDiva or funDivaChristy. (My SEO greatly lacks for fun diva as two words or christy hoffman, but I’ve never bothered to fix it. Paul, yes you pMcTosh – what do I do thats fast, and do I care now if I am moving my blog/site to self hosted WP next week?)

I was livid with facebook for removing the funDiva part of my name, they get their undies in a bundle over such the wrong things, I can’t be funDiva Christy Hoffman, but you allow tens of thousands of crappy spammy apps?

Aren’t you delighted you asked?!

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*I have notebooks, I love notebooks, I have them dating back to 1998 that I can find this instant, and now I’m inspired to dig for the rest and organize them. I would love to find the one containing April 2003 so I can get to my original notes about my domain spinning for funDiva. It has really changed my life.

One of my favorite authors Steve Chandler reports this great quote about notebooks by one of my favorite directors: “Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino says the spiral notebook is the most high-tech invention of our lifetime because you can take it anywhere, you don’t need an electrical outlet or batteries, and you can write anything in it.” [From Reinventing Yourself: How to Become the Person You’ve Always Wanted to Be, Steve Chandler, page 185,
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