by Gay Gaddis
Go make a good deal, cowgirl.
Understand How the Money Works
You absolutely must understand the financial basics of your organization. Not understanding them will make you crazy. It’s like trying to play a game without knowing the rules. I made a point early in my career to reach out to Bill Lacy and ask him to teach me the basics of the advertising business. I mastered them and built the biggest book of business in the firm.
For years after I started my own business and we computerized our financial system, I kept my own little set of books on yellow pads just like Bill Lacy taught me. When our accounting team ran each month’s financial statement, they were always amazed how close my yellow pad numbers were.
There is not a week that goes by that I don’t have a meeting with our financial people. I always have a pulse on billings, profitability, projections, and collections. And, of course, how much cash is in the bank. Our T3 financial meetings take place on Friday afternoons as we wrap up another week. One Friday, I walked in the kitchen door at the ranch with a big grin on my face, and told my husband the company’s cash balance. He said, “Maybe it is time to take the money and run off to Mexico.” We haven’t yet.
That knowledge drives my short-term gut decisions. All jokes aside, if things are looking good, I’m pretty quick to approve a new hire. If it is a little soft, we may kick that decision down the road. In either case, it is a fast decision based on years and years of financial knowledge. Cowgirls always know their numbers, whether it is their latest time barrel racing or their Q1 profit or loss. In fact, cowgirls live by the numbers.
A funny story: My husband started his career in the broadcasting business. He ran a radio station, and his credit policy was “cash in advance for politicians, preachers, and mobile home dealers.” We all laugh and say that policy is still in effect today.
Don’t Tolerate Financial Mediocrity
I frequently meet female entrepreneurs who have tried to bootstrap their companies and far too often they confide in me that they have not paid themselves, sometimes for several years. They feel a need to appear to be more successful than they really are by paying their employees, but not themselves. My reaction is usually not good, probably because my mother also tried to appear more affluent than she really was almost all of her life.
Do not do this. Not paying yourself means you are not facing reality and that you are babying the business. Make a profit. If you cannot run in the black, then cut something out and make a profit, even if it is small in some years. Force yourself to make smart financial decisions quickly to ensure a profit. Do not allow your ego to drive you into financial mediocrity.
The same principle applies if you work for a company. You should receive a salary that is commensurate with the contribution you make. If you are engaged and productive and deserve a pay raise and a promotion, ask for it, but always be there with stats and numbers and results you have achieved.
We did a lot of work years ago in the area of pharmaceutical research where millions of dollars were spent on clinical research trials. They lived by one mantra, “fail fast.” That meant that if a research project was going to fail, it was far better to do so early. Failing late in a trial meant tens of millions of dollars down the drain. When you have to cut your losses, you do it as soon as you can. Hanging on and not paying yourself is simply extending misery. I’m sure it has worked for some people. But I have much higher expectations of return on investments in both time and money.
Do not be afraid to apply a little creativity to finances. My accounting department has a long-standing policy of sending fresh-baked cookies to our clients’ accounts payable team. A nice warm cookie has a way of putting your invoice on the top of the stack as one of the first to get paid.
Be a Big Character
My father proclaimed there were more “characters per square inch” in Liberty, Texas, than any other place on earth. For example, there was “old man McGuire,” who sat on his porch in the evening where he would pass on the wisdom of the ages to us kids. If I would say it was too hot, he would say, “Well, if it ain’t cockroaches, it’s bedbugs.”
Guy Devore, the local grocer, had a famous trick of leaving a broom, package of cigarettes, or other items by the cash register. Without a blink, he would ring one of them up with a customer’s other items. If you asked why, he would just say, “Oh, I thought it was yours.”
The local jeweler was named Mr. Swindle.
Opal Hamilton, wife of the hardware store owner, wore a large picture frame hat, a mink stole, and white gloves to town every day well into her nineties.
Doc Griffin still made house calls.
When you become a powerful person, people pay attention. They talk about you and tell stories about you. That’s just what people do. So think about those stories that your employees and colleagues tell behind your back and will never tell you about. If you provide them with good material, their stories about you will tend to be more complimentary and positive. A funny story about a character is always more interesting than something snarky.
I attended a big wedding in Dallas recently, and after the ceremony, the festivities moved out to the Dallas Country Club (of course). I was with a friend and we came to the church in an Uber. We just needed a quick ride to the country club. I saw a big black Rolls-Royce go by, and I stopped and knocked on the window and asked if we could bum a ride. The driver looked a little shocked, but graciously agreed. When we got to the country club, another friend saw us drive up and said, “My God, Gay, do you know who was driving that car?” He told me that it was one of the wealthiest men in the United States, who rarely left home without a security detail. So I laughed and told everyone that I’d bummed a ride from a billionaire! My friends could not believe I had the gall.
We were in the Hamptons a few years ago at a media event and went out to dinner with our hosts. When we went into the restaurant, I saw Larry David sitting in a booth on the far side of the room and thought that was cool. We had a nice dinner and, as we started to leave, I saw that he was still there. My husband said, “Gay, don’t do it.” But I did and he watched in horror as I scooted up to Larry, sat down next to him in the booth, and said, “I never interrupt people like this, but my daughter loves you. Would you sign a napkin for her?” He replied, “Well, you did interrupt me, so what’s her name?”
I admire characters. Texans like Herb Kelleher, Ann Richards, and Molly Ivins. Great people like Teddy Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. People talk about leaders. Stories become legendary. Give them some good material, a combination of awe-inspiring and funny is good. Be impulsive. Be a character.
Do Unexpected, Crazy Things
Part of being a character is doing unexpected, crazy things, and I have done my share of them. Again, opportunities come at you in strange ways if you put yourself out there. When you get opportunities to get out of your comfort zone, take them. Being bold and a little crazy empowers you.
I’ve been on a coast guard cutter in the Falkland Islands.
I’ve climbed the almost 14,000-foot-high Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia in the middle of the night.
I’ve ridden in those giant dump trucks in coal mines in Wyoming.
I have walked the Great Wall of China.
I witnessed a pride of lions in Botswana stalk, kill, and eat a Cape buffalo. It took two hours.
I attended a dinner in Latvia hosted by then-president Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga.
I’ve driven a train—a private train, I might add.
I once had a nice drink of Scotch served with ice from a million-year-old glacier in South America.
I scratched the belly of an elephant seal sunning on a beach.
I sang the French national anthem (“La Marseillaise”) with drunk, off-duty gendarmerie on New Year’s Eve in a café in Saint Martin.
I swam to the edge of Victoria Falls in Africa, hung on for dear life, and felt a huge adrenaline rush!
Sure gives you a few good conversation starters. And it
makes for good stories about you. Find your own path to becoming an interesting character.
Nothing Is More Powerful Than Trust
Cowgirls win their horses’ trust gradually, step by step. It takes time. It takes determination. It takes lots and lots of goodwill. If I have learned one thing in life, it is that building trust is the single most powerful thing you can do. If you earn someone’s trust, you do it one step at a time until it forms a long-standing bond.
While climbing the enormous sand dunes in Namibia, I recall the voice of our guide. He said, “Step by step. Slow by slow.” As I conjured every ounce of patience and strength I had, I eventually looked back and I had climbed the dune. It takes patience, extreme focus, and determination.
My business is built on trust. Our clients bet their careers that we will help them win. If we fail, they fail because they chose us. I failed a few times, but not many. When I did, I always raised my hand and took full responsibility for it. Sometimes I had to put my money where my mouth was, but I always tried to do the right thing.
Our obsession on winning client trust led us to many long-term client relationships—Dell was with us for over sixteen years. They trusted us to do what we said we would do, and we trusted them. That does not mean everything was easy, or a proverbial day at the beach. It did mean that problems could usually be resolved because everyone was working together in good faith. Both parties sought to find win-win resolutions.
Mutual trust speeds things up. When you have worked with someone for years and she tells you a project has been fully proofread, you simply accept her word for it. You don’t need to check it for yourself. If we quote a price for a project for a long-standing client, they simply accept it because they know we will price it fairly for both parties.
An important caveat about trust: sometimes two parties trust each other too much. I have seen this happen when deadlines are short or a project’s complexity spirals out of control. Sometimes, you get complacent that the other guy will save your ass one more time. I don’t mind trying to save someone’s ass, but when I move into ass-saving mode, it is my responsibility to let everyone know that risk has gone way up and ask the question, “Do you really need it that fast?” If the answer is yes, then we both must affirmatively acknowledge that together we are taking on more risk than normal. We have made that mistake more than once with the best of intentions. We teach our teams not to allow it.
Sometimes, years of trust can be compromised by a harsh word, terse e-mail, or an inappropriate text message. When this happens, apologize profusely, and if you have a legitimate concern, discuss it face-to-face and take responsibility. Try like hell to work things out and restore trust.
I remember my first trip to Corpus Christi after winning the Spohn Hospital account when I was introduced to the hospital CEO, Sister Kathleen Coughlin. Sister was very gracious to me and we had a good visit, talking about several pressing marketing projects to be addressed. When I got up to leave, she took my hand and said, “Remember, no money, no mission.” I remember thinking what a smart woman she was; she had just made me feel responsible for the financial success of her heartfelt mission. She met me where I was, and I was hooked for life.
She could be alternately sweet, tough, demanding, and unpredictable. In the days before e-mail, she wielded voicemail like a sword, often leaving scathing messages for her staff in the middle of the night. She was a little unorthodox, but no one questioned her dedication toward her mission. I loved her dearly. Sister Kathleen was a cowgirl.
Stop for a moment and think about who trusts you blindly.
Who do you trust? Go thank them.
Sometimes You Have to Push Yourself
As athletes know, sometimes it is in the last ten yards of a run or exercise that you have to dig down deep and find that last burst of energy to carry you through. Cowgirls know this implicitly.
Recently, on the last day of an adventure-filled and physically challenging trip to Africa, I fell and broke my kneecap in half. I didn’t know what I had actually done to my knee, but I did know I had to buck up and make the thirty-two-hour door-to-door trip home to Texas. With the help of wheelchairs and attentive British Airways flight attendants who diligently packed my knee in ice, I made it home. (Oh, and I did have a few gin and tonics along the way!)
However, my inspiration to keep going was one of my cowgirl heroines in this book, Fox Hastings. I kept thinking how Fox had broken her ribs in a rodeo but kept going and never quit, as if nothing had happened. She must have been in pain, as I was, but she kept a smile on her face, and the show went on. She said she could not let management and her fans down.
Many times in my life, my Rough Riders would tell me I was pushing myself too hard—to the point of sheer exhaustion. I can remember in my personal and business life sprinting the metaphorical last ten yards drawing on every bit of courage and energy I could muster. But, once again, like Fox, I realized that people were counting on me. Family, employees, and clients. I simply did not want to let them down. So, in those times when I felt like I was hanging on by a thread, I tightened the girth and kept going.
The amazing thing about this is that you will many times miss out on the greatest things in your life and career if you don’t push yourself past what you think you’ve got in you. Try it. You cannot sustain it every day, but the day will come when you need to reach out far and grab the prize. When others fail and fall behind, they will marvel at your courage. It is a great confidence builder and will set you apart from the herd!
Your Gut Is Smarter Than Your Head
I have been fortunate to have had many life experiences. Each experience is a lesson learned that gets filed away in your mind. Lesson upon lesson ultimately presents itself as gut feelings—instincts that help you navigate life. As those lessons become richer and more diverse, the better your instincts become. Your confidence builds, your character grows, and fear of failure diminishes.
Through the years we have had promising clients who were not performing up to our profitability standards. Sometimes we resigned them. But often, when we had a gut instinct that we could not only turn them around, but make them home runs, we loosened our standards and took a chance that we could make it work long-term. Those were always gut decisions. I remember clients that we nurtured for several years, making slow but steady progress. We were wrong about a couple of them, but most of those clients developed into major pieces of business for us.
One day I got a call from one of my account executives, who worked with Midland Memorial Hospital in Midland, Texas—one of our clients. She had just heard on the radio that an eighteen-month-old baby, named Jessica McClure, fell into a well in Midland and was stuck twenty-two feet belowground. We knew that if the baby survived, she would end up at Midland Memorial Hospital. We immediately called our client to see if we could help but the phone lines were jammed. We decided that our only option was to hop on the next plane to Midland.
Our account executive was on-site in less than four hours. I would have gone as well, but I had a baby at home so I worked the phones from Austin. We did not wait to ask for permission from our client because we could not even find her; the two of us made the decision based on our gut instincts. Our client had a tiny staff and the look of relief on her face when my account executive arrived told the whole story. This was in the early days of CNN and “Jessica in the well” became a huge national television story. We were contracted to do advertising work for the hospital, not public relations. But our team, supported by writers and creative teams in Austin, worked with our client to manage the hospital newsroom and field interview requests from all over the world as rescue personnel tried to dig a parallel shaft to rescue Jessica. Some fifty-eight hours later they pulled her to safety on worldwide live television.
We stayed on the story from Midland and Austin for about a week fielding questions and wrapping up details. We never sent them a bill for any of our time or expenses. But we won the lifelong loyalty and trust from our client
s, the hospital CEO, and the board of directors. It was simply the right thing to do. Almost thirty years later, if I need a reference for a new client, my call to Midland always gets returned within an hour or less.
Overall, I have had a great time in my business career, but I have also made some mistakes. A few really big ones. They almost all come down to decisions about who to hire or accept as a client. My last mistake was a doozy. I let someone into our company when my gut said no but my head insisted it was the logical thing to do. I learned my lesson, one more time, the hard way.
I can always tell when I do not like the choices before me, because I watch myself resisting making a decision. When we moved into our new Austin offices on Lamar Boulevard a few years ago, I hated all of the choices I saw for modular office furniture. It was too cube-like. I procrastinated and would not decide. Finally, Lee and our facilities manager started prototyping furniture we could build ourselves. It took a few iterations, but they got it right and I said yes the moment I saw it, and it has worked great.
Pay attention. Your gut is the unconscious network of all of your life experiences. It is everything you have learned about people, about success and failure. It does not explain itself; it presents no logical argument. You cannot run a search on it. Yet to ignore it almost always is a mistake. In fact, I cannot recall a time when my gut was wrong.
If you want to be powerful, when your gut and your head disagree, tell your head to shut up! Ride with your gut, especially the older you get. You will be right more often than not.