Unveiling Our Skincare Brand Name: The Final Three

0:00So the shortlist for the name of our skincare range is... The final three. The Businessmen, sponsored by BT Business.

0:10Joel Dommett:Welcome back to The Businessmen with me, Ben Shephard, and him, Joel Dommett. Before we get going, don't forget to subscribe on YouTube and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. What have we got coming up today, Joel? Oh, we've got a pretty big ep today, Ben Shephard. we're going to be talking about the all important survey again and what we've been doing to drum up lots of results for that I've been getting dirty Ben as always and this is going to be really interesting we're going to talk about names hopefully by the end of this episode we'll have the three names that you guys will be able to decide on and how we got to those three names did a big workshop very exciting The Businessmen sponsored by BT Business You never amaze me, Ben, at how you're able to put a shirt over a shirt.

0:59If I am nothing, if not good at layering. Look at you. You've got denim, straight into denim. You look like you're straight out of Yellowstone. That's the look. Oh, don't point your guns at me. Straight out of your holster, man.

1:12Joel Dommett:If you can't carry off the Texas tuxedo, then you ain't living. You look fantastic. So we're all back at work. 2026 very much underway. How has the start of the year been? It's been good, thank you, Ben. I've cut my hair shorter. I still think I'm having a bit of a crisis of age. I think I'm 40 now, and I thought it was going to happen when I was 40. I was like, oh, it's going to be fine. I feel like, you know, I'm not. You're doing all right. Yeah, that's good. You've got a lovely wife. You've got children. And I've had, I just feel like I'm in an absolute midlife crisis. Yeah, you've gone quite early for the midlife crisis.

1:54Quite early. Depends on. No one knows where midlife is, depending on, because no one knows when they're going to die. That's the problem. Yes, good point. If it's just around the corner. It's quite bleak. You might be late.

2:03Joel Dommett:Yeah. Infamous is the gossip show that's smart. We talk about Tyra Banks and bringing down Top Model. We talk about Jenna Jameson and how she dominated the 90s. You know, she's horny and she's in charge. She just was very smart about marketing herself. We talk about celebrities who maybe shouldn't be celebrities, like the Beckham guy. Brooklyn is their first kid. He's had a little bit of the Nepo baby curse. We investigate orgasm cults. A woman's erotic power can unlock many other powers in her life. And, of course, we discuss people who have gotten into lots of trouble. My name is Molly McLaughlin.

2:43I am one of Jen Shaw's many victims. She was defrauding the elderly and her tagline was the only thing I'm guilty of is being shamazing.

2:57Joel Dommett:Listen to Infamous, the gossip show that's smart. The show's called Infamous. Yeah, true. If I die this year, midlife is when I was 20. Interesting way to start. Can we just have a little moment though? because if you are slap bang in the middle of midlife crisis, going for a little French crop I don't think is too bad. Do you like my French crop? I like your French crop and I think it's a nice way of dealing with it. I am getting my varicose veins done this week. Exciting. And so I'm getting that done on Thursday. So you're having it removed? Yeah, I'm having them removed. And I've had them for years.

3:33Like five years I've been there and I'm just like, I sort of always hid my ankles. whenever I sort of take it when I wear shorts I feel weird about it so I don't really know what happens with it I think I've got a big vein that they have to cut out and then they've got smaller ones that they're going to sort of they're able to laser out but I just thought you know but this is what it's sort of part of this whole thing of feeling like I need to better myself I feel like I'm trying to get things sorted my skincare regime I'm really enjoying I'm enjoying skincare at the moment. I feel like I've really dialed in, having this little bit of extra knowledge that I've been sort of trying different things, trying different regimes, and I'm really enjoying the thing, enjoying using my LED mask.

4:24Yes, as am I, that you gave me for my birthday. Sensational. It makes a real difference, I think.

4:29Joel Dommett:I have to put my glasses on the outside of me. I did send you a picture, didn't I? Yeah. I should post that. because I can't see anything. They're lying in bed with the LED mask and my glasses on. That's middle age. That is it. That is middle age. You ain't there yet. Full steam ahead with businessmen, with our mad business. There's loads coming up in today's episode, but we're going to talk about the survey, but we're also, later on, going to talk about the fact that we have brought it down to three names. We had a workshop, didn't we? We had a workshop. We actually did a workshop. We actually did some work.

5:07We did do some work. And it was revolutionary. We've got three names now in the pot for you guys, hopefully, to decide upon. We'll talk about our favorites and what happened in that workshop later on. But first of all, let's talk about the survey that we keep on talking about. And hopefully it's not feeling too boring, but it's so important what we're trying to do. I don't think it's any secret that the survey has been difficult more of a challenge than we thought it's been a huge challenge turns out people don't like surveys well they like starting and looking at them not necessarily completing them loads of people clicking on it and going like oh yeah words and then they go off and watch watch the Kardashians yeah yeah yeah which is totally understandable

5:57Joel Dommett:Nikki Chapman made a really good point she said people are time poor. Why do they need to give you your time to submit the survey, to look at the survey and complete the survey, incentivize them. So we have the incentives. We'll talk about what those incentives are. We've taken that advice, I think, and I think it's really important to sort of not just talk to these business experts, but actually listen to them. Sometimes you can talk to them and then just kind of go, okay, that was a great episode. I think really important to look back and go like, she said incentivize, let's do that. Yeah. Hopefully they are prizes that do incentivize as well.

6:32Oh, yeah. DMs of me topless. Or you can choose not to receive them as well. That's also fine. They are. It needs to be consensual. So just to let you know where we're at numbers wise. So we're wanting 10 ,000. That's what we need to be the biggest male skincare survey in the country, albeit the world.

6:55Joel Dommett:Yes, and regardless, that is still our ultimate goal. Yeah. We are going to keep going with the survey and we want to get to 10 ,000. And I'm sort of pretty confident we will get there eventually. I really think we'll get there. I really do. Where are we now? Right now, we're just about to hit 2 ,000. There are strings that are pulling us, as ever, behind the scenes as part of all of this business venture. our business development director, Russ, who has been on the podcast a few times, has an update for us on where we are as we stand at the start of 2026 with the surveys. How many surveys and who is ahead since we've started making this competition?

7:35OK, this is good.

7:36Joel Dommett:Let's see what Russ has to share. Hey, Ben. Hey, Joel. Right. The latest numbers are in and the person who has sent the most respondents to complete the surveys so far is Ben. Ben you've managed 579, Joel you've managed 327 which means Joel you're currently in line to get the body piercing and the people have spoken and they want that to be your nipple so if i were you i'd get the area prepped or get cracking and get more people filling out that survey interesting 500 and something for me 529 300 and something 370 something for you close it is it is close so as things stand we are chasing what we've sort of moved it on so i have to say i'm quite relieved that i'm out in front because i think i've been working it quite hard harder than you've been working yeah i've been putting on my stories but probably needs to sort of push it a little bit harder if i'm to do so you're a couple hundred behind me we still want everyone to do it um and what have you been doing some dirty stuff So I've done an extra little push on Patreon.

8:58Okay. A P.O.P., as we call it. I did a little push on Patreon. Where did you push on Patreon? Oh, I push on Patreon. I can push on Patreon whenever I want, Ben. How do you? I don't need to ask you. Okay.

9:08Joel Dommett:I don't even know how to push on Patreon. Oh, you need to start pushing on Patreon, man, because that is, that's where it's at now. Those Patreons. Are you a Patreoner or you're a Patron? Patron. The Patrons on Patreon. What I'm trying to say is I've been playing dirty, Ben. Your Dirty Tricks campaign. and try and get my nipple pierced. And you know, like, there's the problem with, you don't want dirtiness around piercings because that's when they go septic. Keep that area clean. As Russ said, prep it. Come on. So look, you've done your dirty little Patreon plea, your POP. And we want to try and keep up the competitive spirit because I think it appeals to both our natures.

9:44Joel Dommett:So the production team is setting us a weekly challenge as well. So we'll be able to chart how our engagement with whoever we're talking to to get them to complete the survey goes. And we're going to have a running total. In the board, we're going to get a leaderboard here in the studio on the whiteboard there, which hasn't been used since day one. No. Other than the guests signing it. We're going to lead a board to keep studio feedback week in week out as to who's going where. The first challenge, Joel. Nice. For you and for me, away from your dirty little POPs. Yeah. What we've got to try and do, we've got to get one of our celebrity friends.

10:22Joel Dommett:to put the survey on their socials. Oh my God. So it's basically who can get the most famous person to put something on their socials to make them do the survey? To make their followers hopefully do the survey. Okay, this is great. And if, so if we both get a celebrity friend to do it, then it comes down to who has the most followers as to who gets the point. And we're going to have a running tally. I think you're going to have the most famous friend. A running tally. That's not true at all. No, it is true because, you know, You weren't with Anton Deck. You know why I know? Yeah, I weren't with Anton Deck.

10:55They don't reply to my texts. You know? You're in a WhatsApp group with Davina McCall. Yeah, that is true. I could maybe ask Davina McCall. I'm going to ask her first. Okay, yeah, that's true. Let's ask her that. This is how I know you're going to have a better person. I turned up to this morning yesterday, when I was on Lorraine, and Gordon Ramsay's there. Ben's just talking to him like he's an absolute best friend. And I'm like, oh my God, this man's so famous. like Ben's like yeah yeah how are you man oh yeah it's a family oh my god oh my god he knows so many famous people you're just acting all cool like you're the coolest guy but yeah I think you went a little bit quiet I mean I was just stood there and then you two were just talking to each other and I was just stood there I was like how the fuck do I get out of this conversation I am absolutely I'm like a handbag I'm like I can't walk away you're in my dressing room we were as well

11:49Joel Dommett:yeah I'm just like, oh no. We were in your dressing room because he walked past. That's absolutely right. Oh, no. Neither of them looked at me for about four minutes. He's such a lovely guy. He is a lovely guy. Such a lovely guy. He's so famous. I was just like, oh my God. He's so scary as on telly as well. Yeah, exactly. And he's someone who's grown businesses into this massive thing. It's an unbelievable massive thing. I can't get 300 people to fill our survey.

12:19Joel Dommett:I've forgotten that gosh that's what happens that was only two days ago and I've already forgotten that's mad well yes so my mate Gordon's gonna do it so your mate Gordon's gonna do it no no no so we've got to try and find a celebrity friend that we can ask to post about the survey if we can it's a good shout here's the interesting thing though as we know people can be very very territorial about their social media right ask it it's not as simple as just going oh you know blah blah blah will you do this for us Yeah, of course they will. People are like, no, no, no. We use their social media strategically, professionally, to integrate with their followers and stuff like that.

12:59Joel Dommett:This isn't as easy. It's hard. Like if someone asked me to do that, I'd be like, how am I going to do this? How am I going to get out of it? Yeah. I think we need to give an incentive to our listeners and our followers. I think what we need to do to slightly pivot this, but also ramp it up. not more I think we need to say by February 14th okay Valentine's month and you know so you know where we are to tell you in real terms that's about a month and a half away right yes it is just looking at it now in a month and a half's time we need to have 5 ,000 submissions survey submissions and if we hit if we hit those 5 ,000 one of us is getting pierced Whoever has had the least submissions gets pierced.

13:50Joel Dommett:Exactly. Part of the body pierced that the people submitting the survey have chosen. So I think we put a number on it. So it gives the people an incentive to sign up. Yeah. Is that okay? Are we okay to pivot? It's still happening. Business is about pivoting. It is. That's one of the things that we've learned along this journey. Yeah. You have to pivot along the way. So what we're saying is we need at least 5 ,000 surveys. If we get to 5 ,000 surveys by February the 14th, the day of love, whoever has the least number of surveys will be being pierced. I think that's fantastic. I think that is absolutely fantastic.

14:27Joel Dommett:There's a look of glee. I'm quite happy for you to say you will do this. I will be getting a glee. No, I'm actually, I'm very excited because I just love the idea. If it is a nipple, whatever, right? Imagine Ben Shepard having a nipple piercing and no one really knowing that he's on this morning next to Kat Dealey talking to like, you know, talking to Keir Starmer whilst having a nipple piercing. You know? Yeah. That is gold. Only we would know. I mean, it literally will be gold. The followers of the podcast, those that adhere to the survey, it takes you six minutes. you can win a load of Amazon vouchers you get tickets to Joel's gigs you can come and see us record a podcast if by February the 14th we have 5 ,000 completed surveys whoever has the least number of surveys will have part of their body pierced oh my lord so that's the situation with the survey we will put the links up as ever and we would love you to do it like we said it doesn't take more than six minutes if you start it just go through it it's multiple choice and it's quite fun Ben, shall we get to the crux of this episode?

15:42Joel Dommett:I have a really good mate of mine who is a big Liverpool fan and he's been following the podcast and he has said to me over and over again in his accent, his sort of slightly Scouse accent, for heaven's sake, how many weeks have you been doing this and you still haven't got a name for this business yet? Ben, this podcast has been on for absolutely ages. Richard, you still haven't got a name, man. His name's Richard Matthias. I love the fact, Rich, you don't sound like that, but I really enjoyed that. Richard Matthias. But he's been going, please, come on. What's the name going to be? I know. So here's the thing.

16:19We're doing it.

16:19Joel Dommett:We've been banding around names. We've talked about the importance of this. We had SJN talking about the importance of names, all those bits. We did a workshop just before Christmas, didn't we? Yes. Which was all about trying to come up with the names, a short list of three names that we think would be great names for our brand. It was brilliant, wasn't it? It was a really great experience. It was really interesting. So we heard... Susan Galbraith was a housewife in Mayfield, Kentucky. But after a murder in town, Susan took it upon herself to find witnesses who could point to a killer. She thought she was going to be a hero.

16:57But that's not what happened. The lies, a lot of lies. What were Susan's real motives? She wasn't in it to help them find the killer. Why then did the cops take her seriously? It was known that she was getting funds from them. Susan's son is wrestling with his mother's legacy to this day. I mean, my mom was, I use the word diabolical. And perhaps the biggest question of all is, did she help convict an innocent man? I do feel like that they got the wrong people. From Sony Music Entertainment and Message Heard, this is My Mother's Lies. Coming April 1st to The Binge, search for it wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today.

17:39Subscribers to The Binge can listen to all episodes all at once, ad-free. All of us, so Russ was there, me, you were there, Pete was there.

17:50Joel Dommett:Yeah, Pete Malarkey, who is our marketing director. He has worked in the beauty and retail industry for his entire life. Amazing experience. Yes. Has worked at the highest level in some of the big high street retailers and high street beauty brands. So it was fascinating to get his insight. He was there. Ash was there as well, who has popped up on the podcast in the past. He's our commercial director and has had a hand in the sort of the running and the organization of all sorts of brands, digital brands, media brands, and has been integral to the creation of all of this. Yeah, it was great to just all get together and sort of know where all of our heads were at.

18:29with it all really because the name defines so much of what you think this brand is and obviously whether we think we're all aligned or not it's um it's sort of really spoke to to me of whether we were all going down the same path or not with the name so one of the things that

18:46Joel Dommett:that russ who is our business development director he ran the session brilliantly uh he loves stuff like this he's done it for years yeah he was in his apps he really was element oh my god there was a pig who was swilling in oh my god but it was brilliant because it was really it felt really creative and really exciting he gave us five rules didn't he um that each of these names had to adhere to yeah um let's let's remind everybody let's tell you what those five rules were these are five rules that we can work with so the name must sound natural spoken by you guys i think that's a given no explanation allowed so a lot of people have names where you go oh and why is it called that and then you have to give that whole thing and sometimes that's a good thing to have a story behind it but i think if that story is not really simple and and clear then it's not really it's not really worth the the name that it came from in the first place is it going to age well i think the issue with that is we want this to be simple clear and effective we've got a name that we can't explain really simply exactly it's like the one thing of skincare it's also going to be memorable and simple isn't it you're right the more complex the story it just erodes yeah yeah that's right um is it going to age well so it might be relevant now it might be trendy now but it might not be trendy in 10 years so we just need to bear that in mind with the three that we end up picking as well um it must feel at home in a bathroom or in a gym bag.

20:15So I guess what I'm trying to say by that is like, you know, wherever you put it, it needs to feel like it's got a place. And the thing that I personally hate is that anything that tries too hard, it is for me is a no. So anything that kind of needs a little bit of, oh, it's funny because, or it's this because, no. And I think we will feel that because I think we're all quite discerning and have relatively good taste.

20:42Joel Dommett:So what we thought would be really interesting was if we put parts of the workshop up on Patreon, so you can see all of us working through the ideas, what it all was sort of set about. But we will post this. I'm just holding up. For those of you listening on a podcast rather than watching YouTube, this is the framework for the 90-minute session that we did that was led by Russ. Everything that we did and went through to get down to those three names that we've talked about, we'll make sure you get all the detail from that because this was integral to us, wasn't it? It was really interesting. Hopefully what we're doing is interesting to you if you are setting up a business of your own and you can take things like this session that we did to the naming and implement that into your own business and helping you come up with a name for your business.

21:28Joel Dommett:I think the interesting thing as well is lots of our listeners, Joel, who have their own businesses and have started their own business will have been through a process similar to this. or maybe if you're sitting at home and you've got an idea for a business, you've got a few names kicking around, hopefully there'll be some sort of help and guidance that you can get from what we went through. Because not suggesting me and you have the experience for this, but certainly Pete, Ash and Russ have the experience of being involved with the naming and launch of really big brands and the importance of getting the name right.

21:57Joel Dommett:And these principles really, really helped us, didn't they? So as you say, we had to kill the bad ideas. we had to set them up into the five territories these are the ones that russ gave us founders and heritage sport and performance modern masculinity attitude and wit showbiz roots we pinned the names that we really liked and then we sort of had to write a sort of single sentence about what it was that we liked about them and then we sort of started building outwards on the names and I'm going to cut to the important bit which is when we managed to reduce it down to the shortlist of three names.

22:39Joel Dommett:Three names that we have come up with after an hour and a half that was quite at times it was quite uh tense. It was quite tense because it felt like people were really putting their heart out there going like this is what I really believe in and then other people would go like there was a few ones like like Russ really loved the idea of this one called man and boy like he loved that idea he loved the sort of the familiarity of it the heritage generational and every time he sort of gave it you could see that everyone was like and but it was great to hear why he thought that and we i think each of us had a name like that where we were like i really think this and then everyone else would go like there was something that i had that was um it was grit like i came with grit and i was like what do you think about grit feels masculine it feels interesting it feels like you know there's something there and rightly so everyone came back and went i don't think it feels like a skincare company it feels like too harsh yes you don't want to put grit on your face it's an exfoliant isn't it a particular thing yes necessarily the overarching brand and we each had sort of things that were sort of torn apart by everyone else and in a wonderful way it was a really great i really came away from the session very very upbeat i think the highs of it are it's really exciting to be in that creative process the lows of it is just the expectation you know we don't you don't want to get it wrong you really don't want to get it wrong and and that that that sort of responsibility feels really really tangible we've talked about this for a really long time we've been doing the podcast for a number of months now.