What’s in a Name?

When it’s McKeating, there’s a lot in your name.

The blog’s been quiet recently, which is odd for a content marketing company.  Yes, I know.  But, that’s because I’ve been quite busy writing for other companies and my younger brother was in town this past week.  He is a newly minted Doctor and this was the only two weeks he’ll have off from now until…well sometime in the new year.  We were thrilled to be able to spend time with him and celebrate his recent engagement to his long time girlfriend, who is also a marketer! Where am I going with this? What does this have to do with the McKeating name?

Joe is not just following in our grandfather’s footsteps as a doctor, he is the spitting image of Philip J. McKeating and he’s becoming more and more like our namesake every day.  Prepping to meet someone at the hospital one day, he showed me his suit, and then pulled something out of his jacket pocket that stopped me in my tracks and brought a tear to my eye.

He pulled out a pad of paper; a simple pad of paper. It stoked memories and instantly I realized what it was.  The top of the pad says “From the Desk of Dr. P.J. McKeating”.   This seemingly innocuous pad of paper is a relic from when my grandfather was practicing medicine in Oakland.  And here it is, now in the hands of another McKeating in medicine.  It was all too much.  It was like having the man standing before me once again, but in a way I never got to know him.

Happy tears welled up in the corners of my eyes and I had to snap a picture.  It’s hard, even for a wordsmith to convey what naming my company after a man who we lost when I was young means.

He taught us that family is everything and that how you treat people is more important than the work you do for them – even if that work means curing them of sickness or alleviating their pain.

Something not many people know about the man is that he would never refuse to treat someone based on religion, ethnicity, or ability to pay.

Everyone was equal and important.  Helping those who need it, rather than those who can pay big bucks for it is something that I’ve definitely carried into McKeating Solutions.  And I’m proud of it.

Taking on the family name means carrying forward and bearing the responsibility of values like integrity, honest, and trust.