As social media started being a thing in 2008, I managed to get the custom URL of ChadLawson on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, etc. But I was unable to get chadlawson.com as it was (and is) in use by a pianist in New York.
Over the years, I would get erroneously tagged in a photo or post. Often along the lines of,
"@ChadLawson is really rockin' the keyboard tonight!"
And I'd reply with,
"Thanks, but I think you mean @ChadLawsonPiano. He's far more talented and I use a very different keyboard."
More often than not, the other Chad Lawson would like or respond as well.
One Sunday morning I got a DM from him that he had just filmed a segment for a morning news show, so I should be prepared for a few more false tags. And it happened and it was no big deal.
The artist formerly known as @ChadLawsonPiano was always gracious and polite through the whole thing.
But then a couple years ago I was working with a client and my phone kept buzzing. I was getting tagged and DM'd and tagged and DM'd from another another Chad Lawson. This one was a photographer. And he'd been DM'ing me asking me to give up my Twitter handle since I wasn't (publicly) doing much with it. And that might have been fine but he was b*tching about me (while tagging me) that I wasn't responding to him.
All within a 20 minute window.
While I was trying to be focused on a client.
So I replied to him that I wasn't giving it up and, if I did, @ChadLawsonPiano had right of first refusal.
A few months later in 2020, I started thinking about that encounter. I realized I really wasn't using "Chad Lawson" as my personal brand. My brand(s) were the various projects I was working on at any given moment.
So I contacted @ChadLawsonPiano (and his agent) and began the process of transferring the brand name to him.
Now I had to come up with a new one.
Well... I am a geek. And I've always considered myself 'quixotic' (big fan of "Man of LaMancha",BTW), so the choice was clear.
I am GeekQuixotic.
Nice to meet you.