Why “Headlight Strategies?”

Sometimes the universe just gives you a gift. She just lays it right there in front of you as plain as day. All you have to do is be open to receiving and accepting it.

Such is the case with how my business name “Headlight Strategies” came to be.

While I was working at the Iowa Lottery I held weekly 1-on-1 meetings with my team members. It was their normal practice to send me a list of their agenda items a day or two prior to our meeting so that I would be prepared. One morning I was prepping for a meeting with the Director of Marketing and Advertising and noticed an item on his list that really intrigued me. He had written, “Talk to Teri about Headlight”.

Why on earth would those five words catch my eye? We had been researching various digital providers. Think CRM, web, mobile, digital aggregators, etc.
Many of these companies had one-word names like Blaze, Forge, Onward, Optimism – you get it.

So, I was very excited to hear all about Headlight. I wondered if they were a digital agency, a web developer, a strategy company, what??

When the time came for the meeting I immediately jumped to that topic. Who, I asked, is Headlight? Tell me all about them. Who are they, where are they, what do they do, are they digital marketers, web developers, what did they present?

He looked at me dumbfounded and his response stunned me. I mean really stunned me. It was not at all what I was expecting, but it turned out to be such a gift.

“Well,” he said slowly, “Headlight is an apparatus on the front of my truck that helps me see where I am going. Without it I would be driving in the dark. My headlight is burned out so I wrote that note to remind myself to tell you I would be out for a bit today getting my headlight fixed so that I can see where I’m going.”

 “So, the headlight illuminates your path ahead.” I replied, “It shows you the right way to go, right?”

We both sat with that for a minute and then came to the same place. I don’t recall who said it first, (ok it was me,) but we both agreed that “Headlight” would be a very cool name for a strategic marketing company.  

I mean, really… you can’t drive without it, right? Well, you could, but that would be dangerous.

So, there you have it. That’s the story of how Headlight Strategies got its name.

Headlight – illuminating the path ahead.