Cowgirl Power

by Gay Gaddis

  When his CEO asked to see the print campaign before it was shipped off to publications, our client was afraid that the CEO might kill it because it was so bold. He hid the artwork in his red Corvette and sped out of the office parking lot, not to be seen again for several days. The CEO saw the campaign for the first time when the ads were published in the trade magazines, when it was much too late to object. It was more than disruptive in the industry, and my client became both famous and infamous as a marketer who knew no fear. He is a dear friend to this day.

  Think about your organization and how it treats ideas. Being a champion for ideas, and championing healthy, passionate, high-functioning teams with passion for what they do is a powerful role for cowgirls to take on.

  Cowgirls Nudge People into Their Best Roles

  Ideas provide an amazing pathway to power. Cowgirls respect how different people contribute to an idea’s success in radically different ways because they understand that ideas need support to come to life. This sixth sense, this intuition, is the “secret sauce” that holds teams together.

  These contributions can be radically different from each other. Cowgirls know that some people are great at developing amazing new ideas. For others, their power comes from nurturing ideas out of other people and then fiercely protecting them from being shot down too. Others contribute by smashing two seemingly unrelated ideas together into something entirely new. Some find their power by waiting until all the ideas are collected and then leading the team through a thoughtful evaluation process to pick the very best one. Some excel at going out and selling the idea. And others contribute by sending out the bill for the idea and collecting the money. Very different talents, but all critical to producing the best work.

  I was talking to our youngest son, Sam, about women’s intuition the other day. He totally agreed with me and told me a story about running a marketing meeting and having a woman on the team slip him a note that someone in the meeting was crying. Sam said, “I had no idea.” They stopped, addressed the issue, and moved on, but without the female staffer pointing out the problem, Sam would not have even noticed. Sam has many talents, but being a big “feeler” is not one of them.

  Walk Away When You Can

  “Leave it” is a traditional command for herding dogs. I never understood this terminology until we started hanging out with Henry and our Border Collies. For them, this command means that the job is over. They can be frantically herding sheep or goats and if you say “Leave it,” they will calmly turn and walk away from the excitement of herding. For me, it means, walk away, take a break, and give yourself time to get a fresh perspective. Border Collies teach us a lot about being focused, but stopping the pursuit for a bit to regroup is an important skill as well.

  When time permits, we like to generate ideas and maybe group them into big buckets and then walk away from them for at least a day. This step tempers the excitement and gives both the head and the gut a chance to mull things over.

  Ideas without Execution Are Just Words on a Page

  We cherish good ideas because of their potential power, but without the ability to execute them, they languish as just ideas. Only when an idea is well executed does it become powerful, even brilliant. Ideas are lofty things. They know no bounds. They float around on the wind currents like dreams. Until they are sold.

  Suddenly those big white fluffy ideas have budgets, deadlines, technical specifications, strategic implications, legal implications and compliance issues, and have to work flawlessly on millions of big and little screens. In our business, this is where dreams intersect with reality. And cowgirls are often the ones that pull it all together and make it work.

  At T3, our first responsibility is to do no harm to the idea. If you do not fiercely protect it, it will get pushed and shoved around and, when it is finally complete, you won’t even recognize it. Ideas must be protected at every step along the way.

  We have always excelled at execution. Our company is built to support big companies that need high-end marketing solutions. We are built for big, ongoing programs. We have developed systems, processes, checklists, technical expertise, and infrastructure to do work on a massive scale. When a project moves into execution mode, we run it very much like a software company does with bug tracking software: agile development methods and project management teams that watch it every step of the way. It is one very well-oiled machine, and it is awesome to see it work every single day. Our clients consistently tell us how well we do at getting the work done. We literally release new work every day.

  As we do the work we hold ourselves to two standards. First, is it as innovative as it can be? Have we pushed the envelope? Have we looked for unexpected connections? Second, does it have humanity? Does the work speak to people emotionally, does it inspire people, make them laugh, or challenge their thinking?

  Every person at T3 understands both of these standards. If during the execution process anyone feels we are missing either one, they are obligated to raise their hand and express their concerns. The cardinal sin at T3 is if you do not raise the red flag the moment you see something going awry. We can fix almost anything if we catch it early on.

  When a big job is finally launched, we celebrate—with our clients, with our staff, and with our partners. We have a Slack channel called “#proudofthis” where all new work is immediately shared with everyone in the company. People are recognized and thanked. And each time a job is launched, our people raise the bar and create higher expectations for themselves.

  Be sure to celebrate the good work you do. Recognize the skill, hard work, and team effort when something good happens. Cowgirls know that a thank-you goes a long way. And when things don’t go well, cowgirls look it square in the eye. If we lose, how can we learn from it and win the next time?

  Have Fun with Creative Ideas

  One time I was talking to a really smart CEO who had a successful tech start-up. We talked about business for a while, but then he asked me a rather interesting question. Apparently, he had admired a strong, beautiful, successful woman from afar for quite some time. Turns out they had a mutual friend, so he had attempted to use the name of that friend and sent the woman an e-mail as an introduction. It was a plain and simple e-mail about how he would like to invite her to have lunch or a drink.

  He sent that e-mail and waited, and waited. A few weeks had gone by and he got no response from her. He was stumped but determined, and asked me how in the world he could get her to talk to him.

  The next afternoon I drove out to the ranch and posed this question to my husband, Lee. So, as we always do when we get a request, we started brainstorming creative ideas on how this guy could break through. After all, being in the advertising business, that is what we do. Help clients break through the clutter and get results.

  In about an hour, we crafted an e-mail for my CEO friend to send the woman he was interested in. Leaving it up to him to put together the final wording, based on his own preferences, the e-mail went something like this:

  Hello,

  I have been wanting to ask you some burning questions.

  1. How many angels can fit on the head of a pin?

  2. Have you ever killed a deer?

  3. When was the last time you ate at Dan’s Hamburgers?

  He continued with a list of at least twenty of these questions and then closed with:

  It is apparent that we have a lot to talk about. So, please meet me for lunch on [date] at [you pick the place].

  He sent it, and guess what? He got a fast response and a date. He was blown away. The whole point of this is that you should try to take a creative approach in everything you do. Go try this on something you think is mundane today!

  It is OK to Have Ideas

  When I speak about many of these concepts to various groups, a question I frequently get is from people who do not feel like their organization is open to new ideas. My first response is always, “Well, that just sucks!” It usually takes the negative spin off the quest
ion and lets me respond with a better answer.

  I tell my audience that if you find yourself in one of those situations, be a cowgirl, blaze the trail, and teach idea making. I ask them to think of themselves as members of British naval intelligence in World War II. Members of MI5 were masters at deception. They ran Operation Mincemeat, where they put a corpse ashore on the Spanish coastline with clues planted in pockets that were designed to mislead German intelligence. It was crazy, bold, and completely unorthodox. It worked and, just perhaps, helped win the war.

  Brace yourself, because you are going to need that kind of courage and creative energy if you are going to open your company to ideas. Go change the culture, but never tell anyone what you are doing. If you are working in a low-idea culture, your idea about ideas won’t be very well received. Go get a small whiteboard and a pile of sticky notes and start putting a few ideas up on the wall. You have baited the trap, now just wait.

  Someone will ask you what you are doing. You respond by saying, “I’m just trying to figure out which of these choices is best. What do you think?” Boom! You have set the hook. Go slow. Be patient. If they accuse you of promoting ideas, deny it! Never admit to anything.

  Painting Career Delayed by Thirty-Eight Years

  Remember, success is never a straight line. Here is a story that started when I was two years old and my mom handed me a paintbrush. It played out over the next fifty-eight years. It happened because I built buckets and buckets of goodwill along the way that enabled so many connections to happen. You never know what magic and miracles are in store, if you value your network and do interesting things.

  It continues with my relationship with my wonderful high school art teacher Carolyn Hayes. She was a real cowgirl and a great artist, but also an even greater teacher. She helped me push and explore my artistic abilities and introduced students in our small town of Liberty, Texas, to the likes of Van Gogh, Chagall, Monet, Rembrandt, and modern artists like Jackson Pollock and Alexander Calder. I was intrigued by their techniques and explored with my paintbrush and drawing pencils. Carolyn was the reason I decided to major in art in college. My art was featured at local banks and businesses with blue ribbons hanging on my work. A shot of confidence to be sure.

  Yes, Carolyn was a cowgirl. Not only did she have a lifelong love affair with horses, but she was always honest in her critique of my work. Never pulled punches. She was my horse trainer, but in art, if I needed to work harder on something or rethink an approach, she gave it to me in straight-shooting language. I took it because I wanted to improve.

  In 2006, a couple of years after I joined C200, I had the opportunity to go with some other members of the group on a State Department trip to the Middle East. Five of us met several days before the conference in Egypt just to see the sights. We all became fast friends, but one person in particular, Marcy Maguire, who was also a C200 member, became one of my best friends. Eight years later, that friendship led to an invitation that would change my life.

  In 2014, I returned to my roots as an art major and began painting again. I explored a lot of different styles from realistic to abstract. I painted only outside in the elements at our ranch. My work was all over the place, but I felt like it had promise. Lee told me that he was glad I was enjoying painting again, but that I was never going to make one thin dime from my paintings—and that was OK.

  That same year, Marcy invited me to a Harvard Business School night at the Curator Gallery in New York, owned by Ann Moore, the former chairman and CEO of Time Inc. I had met Ann Moore years before when she gave a speech, and we became acquaintances through C200. I reconnected with Ann and learned that she had bought the gallery because of her passion for art, and it was going to be act 2 of her career. Remember, it is never too late to reinvent yourself.

  Also that night, I met one of Ann’s friends and popular curator, Rebecca Michelman. I was bold enough (yet a bit afraid) to ask Rebecca to look at my paintings and showed her a few pictures. She said, “All I can tell you is to keep painting and exploring techniques.” Several months later, she volunteered to come to our ranch in Texas, where I was doing all of my painting, and to critique my work.

  She and her husband and children came and spent a wonderful weekend with us. Finally, when the kids were happily engaged in the swimming pool, she took a serious look at the work. She quickly began eliminating paintings, being brutally honest with me about what she thought. This went on for a couple of hours and she had eliminated almost everything, but there were two or three paintings left. These were abstract paintings of big dramatic Texas sunsets and sunrises, painted with sweeping horizontal mixes of color. “This is it. Paint like this and we’ll do a show in New York,” she told me.

  I worked my butt off painting for almost a year, always outside (en plein air) at the ranch. Sometimes I bundled up and worked in freezing weather, sometimes it was hotter than nine kinds of hell. But I brushed the sweat off of my face and painted with determination and passion. It was a huge undertaking and I finished over fifty paintings in my “spare time” in the style Rebecca championed. My faithful dogs and loyal companions were always at my side.

  So in April 2016, I ended up with a monthlong one-woman show at the Curator Gallery in New York. It has to be one of the most exciting things that ever happened to me! So many friends and colleagues visited during the thirty days of the show, and we sold paintings. Ann Moore told a group who visited the gallery a couple of weeks after the opening, “Those rowdy Texans came and just ravaged the show!” We broke all the gallery sales records.

  I was a bit intimidated by the entire process. My curator, and the media for starters. However, one person in particular got my goat. She handled public relations for the gallery. Cool as a cucumber, svelte and attractive, she gave off a knowing air that had me on my guard. I got to know her, and found she is a lovely, caring mother and now a friend. She just knew things about getting PR for an art show that I knew nothing about. She taught me a lot.

  No one was more proud of me than my high school art teacher, Carolyn. When I opened the show in NYC, I sent her a text message. She was thrilled and so encouraging. I also asked her what she was working on and she simply said: “A sculpture of my horse.” She was one of those people who sometimes magically appear in our lives providing the right influence at the right time.

  I continue to have exhibits and sell my paintings. When I got my first check for my art, I called Lee and told him he had to eat crow. I made more than one dime as an artist.

  Success is not a straight line.

  Lessons Learned: Cowgirls Know a Good Idea When They See One

  Young ideas need to be protected and nurtured. Let them mature before you judge them. Give them time while you watch the changes in circumstances. Like a gangly little foal matures into a magnificent horse, good ideas have a way of rising to the top.

  But a good idea is only that. Great execution is what pumps life into these ideas. Without detailed and relentless follow-through, ideas will languish and never see the light of day. They will never reach their potential to change lives and situations.

  While you are ideating about yourself and your life, never forget to reinvent yourself. Do it over and over again. It is never too late, and it will make you both happy and interesting. Trust me on this one!

  Alice Sisty doing a Roman Stand

  (Accession Number 79.026.2901 © Dickinson Research Center, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)

  Chapter 10

  Cowgirls Are Fearless Leaders

  Alice Sisty was destined for a career as a teacher. After one year of study, she went out west to a dude ranch and fell in love with a horse named Spot-Tail. She didn’t want to leave him in Nevada, so a plan evolved where she could keep the horse if she rode him from Reno to New York on a bet. She won the bet.

  The ride brought her a great deal of attention, and soon after she decided to be a rodeo rider and forget that teacher’s training. This classic photo of
Alice performing her “Roman Jump,” standing on two horses jumping over a car, just screams fearlessness.

  Alice was five-foot-two and barely 105 pounds with her show gear on. Did anything make her tremble in her size 4 boots? Not much. She attempted incredibly dangerous stunts and succeeded over and over. She won high points in such events as bronc, steer, and relay riding, winning all-around champion of cowgirls in Madison Square Garden in 1932, making her a leader of her peers.

  After marrying Milt Hinkle, the head of the rodeo, she was asked if she was ready to settle down. This was Alice’s reply: “I should say not. I’m happily married, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t be if I had to give up my saddle for a kitchen range and a washing machine.” I had to laugh at this. The only thing this fearless leader feared was getting stuck with the household chores!17

  Alice Sisty was daring, bold, and a leader.

  Cowgirls openly embrace leadership because of the way they have been taught. They view leadership as an opportunity to help people, to move them in the right direction. Cowgirls see leadership as an opportunity and responsibility to pass on the values that they have been given. They understand how to empower and inspire people in ways only a cowgirl can do.

  When we think of leadership, we immediately think top down. We think of strong individuals. We think command and control. We think of leadership as always framed in masculine terms. But when you ask both men and women what kind of a leader they would prefer to work for, you get more feminine words. Words like “compassionate,” “organized,” and “honest.”18 When was the last time you heard a male leader described as compassionate, organized, and honest?