By: Stella Orange
As we round the bend into the final straightaway on creating our own website (www.lasperegrinas.org), it’s the perfect time to be taking stock. So let’s pause from our pursuit of forward motion, shall we, and sit down on this log over here, for snacks and hydration, yes?
Back in the spring of 2017, when Sarah, Rebecca, and I were mapping out exactly how we would merge our three very different businesses into one, we decided that strategically, we needed to baby step our communities and lists through the process. It was a practical decision, really. We wanted to make sure that people who knew us as individuals would be able to recognize that we were now a third of our new venture.
So we decided to publicly call ourselves Orange, Liston, & Dew. We wanted to make our route from solo business owners to cofounder trio visible. And we wanted those of you who knew us from past work to follow the party over here.
Around this time, the three of us held one of our first business planning meetings in Canada, in Rebecca’s living room. What happens in Canada stays in Canada, but by the time we left, we’d decided on the beaver as our subversive and pun-tastic mascot, and named our two-day business workshop, tongue planted firmly in cheek, BeaverCon.
And yet, behind the scenes, we filed our corporate registration under the name Las Peregrinas.
One of the things we do around here is build businesses differently. And we don’t just do that for our clients – we do it in our own practice of business, too. So for us, the reveal of this name was a question of time. We needed the public-facing name of Orange, Liston, & Dew to serve as a bridge, connecting who we were as individuals to what our company would eventually become.
Now that we are here, going on three years in business together, and more than thirty years of business total, it’s time to let slip that veil.
For those of you who will delight in some horribly inaccurate space metaphors: we have reached escape velocity, and like a rocket letting go of its empty fuel tank, we’re letting that sucker go.
We’re on our way.
So we’re not changing our business name, really. Nor are we ‘going through a transition,’ that generic-to-the-point-of-meaningless phrase that I live to write into obsolescence. We have already been through our transition (longtime readers of the Stella Orange blog will recall the eight or so months I wrote posts from the metaphoric liquid butterfly goo of my own becoming). We have already had our coming out party. We have already done our own work of letting go of how it used to be so that we can rise up into what we are creating.
Which is great, because we’ve got client work to do! In fact, many of our clients are going through transitions, refinements, and metamorphoses of their own. It’s our turn to walk alongside them as they experience, discern, and act from their own ‘becoming.’ (Thanks, Michelle Obama!).
So all that said, it’s still quite breathtaking, to see Las Peregrinas roll out into the world. Finally! We’ve held it between us, quietly, for what seems like so long… and it’s my hope that, as we claim this name publicly, you’ll come to see us as our clients see us. As one client said to us last week: “It’s like everything you have seen and written is me and what I do with my clients. I’m just having a moment over here. It feels so good. I need to acknowledge that I see what you have done and are doing for me, and it is just amazing.”
We’ll see you on the road.
Stella is cofounder and copywriter at Las Peregrinas, a creative and consulting agency. As our resident word nerd, she writes copy and points out the stories everyone is living and telling through their work. She is also fun at parties.
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