The short answer is that “Steve Thomas” is such an unbelievably common name that I needed a way to distinguish myself…so “I’m just ST.”
The long answer goes like this:
My mom named me one of the most common names in the English-speaking world.
That might be a slight exaggeration but at times it feels like it’s true. It’s startling the number of guys my age named “Steve.” Crazy, but there were 7 Steve’s in my 2nd grade class and 2 were “Steve T’s.” That’ll give a boy an identity crisis for sure. Good grief, I even have a cousin my age named Stephen Thomas (my legal name is “Steven” with a “v” not a “ph” but still).
Right out of college I worked in an old-school office that actually had secretaries and did letters and memos on paper (weird but true). Anyway, as the young guy I didn’t have a secretary or administrative assistant like all the real execs (and believe me it was all men executives and women secretaries). So I wrote my own letters (there were guys who actually dictated documents—it was like Mad Men).
One of the weird things that was done in those days was that when a letter or memo was dictated and then typed by someone else, at the very bottom of the page would be something like: “XX/yy.” The “X’s” were the upper case initials of who the letter was from and the “Y’s” were the lower case initials of who had actually produced the document (the secretary). Because I was doing everything myself I would just put “st” at the end of my documents.
It was my little message “to the man” that I didn’t have any help getting things done.
And I kept ending emails and docs with “st” whereever I worked.
And then when Hoots and I began working together, get this, there were 3 “Steve’s” in that ad agency. But I was still signing off in emails with “ST” (who wants to be “Steve T”? Not me).
And then when Oneicity began, the team began calling me “ST” since that’s what I was listed in notes, calendar items and signoffs.
One day I heard myself telling someone on the phone, “I’m just ST” as a way of explaining a note they saw in some meeting notes.
And the URL was available….and ImJustST.com happened. (“JustST” wasn’t available for a good price).
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