I don't exactly guard my personal brand jealously.
Practically speaking, there's usually enough work in and around the communication business for everybody who's either good or reliable, and plenty of work for anyone who's both.
And besides, my brand is kind of unique. Not a lot of other people do the odd combination of communi-journalistic-curmudgeonly-adventure-writing that I do.
And any who might compete with me definitely don't trust their audiences's sense of humor sufficiently to refer to themselves, in the third-person, by their asinine junior-high nickname.
And so it was a slow uphill flow from amusement to mild consternation when Writing Boots reader Rueben Bronee alerted me to another Midwestern communication pundit … also named David Murray … who also calls himself "The Murr."
For real. The Other David Murray goes by "DaveMurr" on Twitter, his YouTube channel is "MurrTV" and his website, located at themurr.com, is called: "The Way of TheMurr."
He claims to write about "Life and Social Media Through A Different Perspective."
Different from "The Real Murr," that's for sure.
"… I look at things like this through the perspective of what I am – an artist," wrote The Other Murr after losing his day job recently. "That may sound completely pompous. But I have recently come to terms with what I am at my core. And as an artist, I have the desire to create. … Create what? Opportunities. Realities. Possibilities. And not only for myself, but for those who are part of my professional and social circles. Things change, and with change comes new beginnings."
I'm sure The Other Murr really is all about creating opportunities, realities and possibilities for himself and everyone he knows. I'm equally sure he didn't know about The Real Murr when he began setting up his online persona. (For all know, he can prove he publicly referred to himself as The Murr before I did; the first reference I can easily find of my own self-Murr-tilation is in the lead of this blog item from a year ago, although I know I've been publicly calling myself The Murr longer than that—and I've happily answered to Murrman, Murr-Murr and Murrdog. I am an asshole, what can I say?)
No, this is the Stockholm and the Andrea Doria. A stupid accident involving two ships colliding in the fog.
But maybe, too, it's my chocolate and his peanut butter.
Maybe God put The Other Murr here for a reason. Maybe The Real Murr and The Other Murr are destined to have a dialog someday. "The Two Sides of Murr."
I'll send this post to The Other Murr and invite him to respond.
For all I know he'll roar back and accuse me of stealing his brand, and ask me to cease and de-Murr.
Though he doesn't seem like the Murr-derous type.
The whole incident has me in mind of a story my dad loved to tell, of standing on a hotel balcony on the beach in Florida.
A small boy was walking down the beach, a hundred yards away from the hotel, and another boy, on a balcony below my dad, was calling out to him.
"Joe! Joe! Joe!"
The kid on the beach looked, and then continued on. The kid below kept yelling to him.
"Joe!"
Finally the kid on the beach had enough, and dramatically stopped walking and turned and yelled back at the kid on the balcony:
"Can't you see, I'm some other kid?"
***
Postscript: The Other Murr responds on themurr.com.
There is only one David Murray. Others may use his name, but there is only one real one.
Hello David!
Glad to meet a fellow Murr. Here is me roaring back… well kind of, it’s early and I haven’t had my coffee yet…
I’m not too surprised there is another David Murray here on the social web, and looking back when I decided to do what I do for a living, I remember coming across your name on twitter. Or more appropriately, I remember that there were a lot of David Murray’s on twitter. The only option at the time was DaveMurr and the rest spun from that.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It’s interesting to play in this personal brand playground. I’m more of a spectator than a participant.
Have no fear, I will not request that you de-Murr. That would be very un-Murr of me. Perhaps we should combine forces and come up with our own Murrmoirs.
Hope our paths cross soon. Take care!
Oh, I see what you’re doing. Taking the friendly tack, eh? Well, two can play that game.
But I’m Murr-ious:
But how did you get from “DaveMurr” to “The Murr.”
“The Murr,” it has always struck me, is something that could only come from the mind of a seventh-grader (which I think it did–from my best friend in seventh grade, Richard Nouza).
Do you have a seventh-grader in your life?
Looking back my nick name in middle school was Chico, and in high school I was upgraded to Bruce Lee Roy. Both were never serious candidates for my “personal brand”.
The murr came I believe because I couldn’t register David Murray as a domain at the time… this was before I knew what I was doing. It stuck and people seemed to like it, and like peanut butter, I stayed with it.
I’ve got a query to into Richard Nouza and I’m sure he’ll clear this whole thing up … and you can go on to a happy and productive blogging life at Chico.com.
This is the most entertaining thing I’ve encountered all day! Maybe you guys should consider a Murrger?
Don, you are The Best.
So, the other Murr said:
“… I look at things like this through the perspective of what I am – an artist. That may sound completely pompous. But I have recently come to terms with what I am at my core. And as an artist, I have the desire to create. … Create what? Opportunities. Realities. Possibilities. And not only for myself, but for those who are part of my professional and social circles.”
Had the “other Murr” emerged in 2005, he’d be on the social-media banquet circuit today making $10,000 a speech. And he’d likely have 2-3 books out in print — all full of grammatical errors, of course.
OK, that’s unfair. This other guy looks like he can actually write! Must be a Murr thing!
Don – I love the Murrger idea. Murr Murr and Associates.
Bill – in 2005 I was playing bass guitar in a jam band. I had no idea what the heck a blog was let alone grammatical errors.
Good fun.
So this is for MY Murr (who will swoon at the way I’ve started this sentence)… Why not consider a Canadian approach, and swing both ways? Le Murr?
Now you’re calling me a lemur?
Jennifer – actually, David [our Murr] should be thrilled with how you started your sentence because it proves that you CAN, in fact, start off with “So,” and still be brief!
Oh, wait – actually, I think it was ME who said you could do this, and David said it doesn’t happen. Ok – never mind!
Damn you, Ridley!
I said that when people ANSWER A QUESTION starting with the word “so,” the chances are good that they are taking the long way to the answer.
So. There.
“So. There.” Geez Louise, David. Scout could do better than THAT in terms of a come back.
Think maybe it’s time for another video starring our little thespian?! [To be clear, I’m talkin’ ’bout Scout here!!]
I’m psychic. I used to call The Murr, “murmur” … clearly I sensed there was a second Murr somewhere out there. I only stopped the practice because I didn’t want to bring on a heart condition.
Now picturing the Murrs as those little mice in the movie, An American Tail. Every time you hear the word “someone” just replace it with “somemurr” … it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRjb8sMjYu8
Can I offer a name in case you form a band and tour? Echo and the Murraymen. Just a thought.
Two “Murrs”? God help us all.
As I attempt to harken back to 7th grade (must I?), I believe “The Murr” was born in my backyard during a wiffle ball game in which I was doing a poor Joe Garagiola/Tony Kubek impersonation while aiming to strike you out with a split fingered pitch.
Thanks for stoking some old memories, buddy.
“‘The Murr'” was born in my backyard” is a disturbing phrase taken out of context, especially in it’s literal sense. And YES to wiffle ball…our ‘hood in Cuyahoga Falls had an entire league with tournament play every summer. We would have kicked your Hudson tushies.
EVERYBODY kicked our Hudson tushies.
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我在这里啊！明天就去旅游啦！哈哈哈…… 我在: