Gay Gaddis interview

"One day I’m in a boardroom. The next, I’m driving an excavator on my ranch, covered in dirt ... Leadership is shifting in a way that’s aligned to women’s natural strengths." Gay Gaddis
In these unprecedented times, we need more than the same old strategies and leadership approaches. We need leadership with extra strength and tenacity. We need strategies with an extra kick. We need a cowgirl who can kick ass! More specifically, we need the extraordinary strategic and leadership abilities of Gay Gaddis, founder of T3 (The Think Tank), one of the largest advertising agencies in America with offices nationwide. She's a cowgirl who knows how to scale.
In addition to being a visionary and successful businesswoman, Gay Gaddis is a published author, natural public speaker, and talented artist.
Ms. Gaddis is author of Cowgirl Power: How to Kick Ass in Business and Life, which tells her life story, shares how she succeeded in tough situations (typical of cowgirls!), and gives invaluable lessons of empowerment for men and women alike. Watching her talk in past interviews and in public speaking events is mesmerizing. She is sharp, strong, straightforward, relatable, caring, beautiful. Also beautiful are her amazing sunset paintings, which sold like hotcakes in her first show in New York City. Not bad for a cowgirl from Liberty, Texas.
As most of you know, for more than the last ten years, we at Sonshi have been focused on promoting Sun Tzu's Art of War to women. We even acquired the domain name ♀️.com. Sun Tzu's strategic and leadership principles are not only powerful but also fitting and helpful for bold and empowered women. Anybody who knows anything about cowgirls Annie Oakley and Fox Hastings would know that. Likewise, cowgirl Gay Gaddis embodies Sun Tzu's principles to a T. For example, her emphasis on competency, effectiveness, and the "right and wrong ways to do things or you could put your life at risk or others" is classic Sun Tzu. You can buy a reputable modern translation of Sun Tzu's Art of War -or- you can buy her book, Cowgirl Power. Do something different this time and lasso her book.
What an honor and privilege to interview Gay Gaddis. Below is our interview with her. Enjoy!
In these unprecedented times, we need more than the same old strategies and leadership approaches. We need leadership with extra strength and tenacity. We need strategies with an extra kick. We need a cowgirl who can kick ass! More specifically, we need the extraordinary strategic and leadership abilities of Gay Gaddis, founder of T3 (The Think Tank), one of the largest advertising agencies in America with offices nationwide. She's a cowgirl who knows how to scale.
In addition to being a visionary and successful businesswoman, Gay Gaddis is a published author, natural public speaker, and talented artist.
Ms. Gaddis is author of Cowgirl Power: How to Kick Ass in Business and Life, which tells her life story, shares how she succeeded in tough situations (typical of cowgirls!), and gives invaluable lessons of empowerment for men and women alike. Watching her talk in past interviews and in public speaking events is mesmerizing. She is sharp, strong, straightforward, relatable, caring, beautiful. Also beautiful are her amazing sunset paintings, which sold like hotcakes in her first show in New York City. Not bad for a cowgirl from Liberty, Texas.
As most of you know, for more than the last ten years, we at Sonshi have been focused on promoting Sun Tzu's Art of War to women. We even acquired the domain name ♀️.com. Sun Tzu's strategic and leadership principles are not only powerful but also fitting and helpful for bold and empowered women. Anybody who knows anything about cowgirls Annie Oakley and Fox Hastings would know that. Likewise, cowgirl Gay Gaddis embodies Sun Tzu's principles to a T. For example, her emphasis on competency, effectiveness, and the "right and wrong ways to do things or you could put your life at risk or others" is classic Sun Tzu. You can buy a reputable modern translation of Sun Tzu's Art of War -or- you can buy her book, Cowgirl Power. Do something different this time and lasso her book.
What an honor and privilege to interview Gay Gaddis. Below is our interview with her. Enjoy!
Sonshi: You grew up in Liberty, Texas. Your godfather who grew rice first taught you how to be a cowgirl. Later you learned about Annie Oakley and also other cowgirls like Fox Hastings and Tad Lucas. What were the key principles you gathered from cowgirls early in your life that made you who are you today?
Gaddis: One of the early lessons that I learned growing up around horses and out in the country is that you need to learn the right way to do things. There’s only one way to deal with a horse properly. There’s sort of a pre-flight check list you have to know when saddling up a horse and my godfather was pretty strict in doing it right. Early on, I learned that there are right and wrong ways to do things or you could put your life at risk or others. There’s dangerous equipment on a ranch or farm and everyone, especially kids, need to learn how to do things correctly or you could endanger yourself or put others in danger. And this is before helmets and seat belts, so rules were absolutely necessary as a way of survival. And I grew up around tough women – working the land and competing in rodeos. In those environments, you see people as they are.
And there’s a lot of great lessons from the fearless cowgirls I talk about in my book, Cowgirl Power: How to Kick Ass in Business and Life.
Annie Oakley was self-sufficient early her life. People know her story through the Broadway show “Annie Get Your Gun” but the real story is about survival. Annie learned to shoot to eat. She practiced and practiced, so she hit the target correctly, the first time. Annie teaches us that you have to put in the time and practice to get good at something. She did it out of necessity – she wanted to kill her dinner in one shot, so she wouldn’t wound the animal and so she wouldn’t waste a bullet. Shooting turned out to be her business, but when it started it was about survival.
Fox Hastings was one of the toughest cowgirls in town – that’s including men and women. She literally wrestled steers to the ground, which took courage and strength. She performed with three broken ribs once, because she was booked for a show and didn’t want to let anyone down. So, she persevered and followed through no matter what and nothing stopped her.
Sonshi: Your book, Cowgirl Power: How to Kick Ass in Business and Life (published by Center Street, owned by Hachette) has such a great title! We love it! We expected nothing less from the founder of T3, the largest woman-owned independent advertising agency in America. Not bad for a $16,000 start up. You and your team truly do "kick-ass work for clients who want to kick ass." Why did you decide to write this book and who do you think would benefit most from the book?
Gaddis: When I started T3 in 1989, the country was in a bad recession and like Annie Oakley, the early days at T3 were about survival. Then, once it became clear that we were going to survive, I came up with our mission to do “Kick ass work for clients who want to kick ass”. Saying “clients who want to kick ass” became very profound over the years, because it determined the kind of client we wanted. We pursued clients who wanted to be innovative and push the envelope. That created a culture of innovative that attracted top talent as employees. We proved this innovation early working for Dell computer corporation. We were a fairly small agency managing internet marketing that have never been done before. That pushed us – it became our engine for innovation. The more we pushed and strived to do what had never been done before, the more records we broke and awards we won. People would ask me “what will T3 do next?” and I would say “T3 is following customers and the customer experience has no limits”. By 2017, the Forrester Wave™, a global marketing authority, named us one of the top innovation agencies in the world. We were being celebrated alongside major agencies around the globe.
Around this time, I looked back and realized that we accomplished a ton and we learned a lot along the way. That’s when I decided to write Cowgirl Power.
When you write a book, you need to establish a target audience as part of your marketing efforts needed to secure a book publisher. So, I originally wrote Cowgirl Power for women ages 20-35 years old. This was an audience that I knew well and knew faced many obstacles no matter their path. As a business woman, mother or as a wife, women are often not offered or go for as many choices in life. I felt like I was living proof that you can have it all with hard work and life skills that I learned along the way. I saw women struggling. Men were passing them in their careers, as women had children and I wanted to let women know that having children doesn’t mean you’re out of the market. If women “stayed in the game” in some way (taking side projects, being part of networking organizations, joining a board, etc.) while they had a family, they could have it all. There’s not a right or wrong path to take, but there is a path that’s right for you and women don’t always hear this as a young woman.
However, as I traveled the world promoting my book, I quickly learned that it’s not just a book for women, but it’s an entrepreneur’s story for both men and women. Older and younger women came to me to share their personal stories. Men of all ages stopped me or wrote me letters about the practical business advice they gained by reading the book. The content is evergreen and appeals to many audiences.
Sonshi: Something else that's incredible is the workforce innovation you pioneered: the T3 and Under program, where your employees can bring their newborn babies to the office to improve their transition into daycare. Just so our readers could appreciate what kind of a trailblazer you are, at least a couple of your recent T3 interns were among the first newborns brought into T3! Tell us more about the program, and please share with us your thoughts regarding the top concerns of working mothers today.
Gaddis: I started the “T3 and Under” program over 25 years ago – and it was ingenuity meets necessity. We were knee deep in Dell work and four female employees told me they were pregnant at once. I was obviously happy for them, but nervous about continuing the pace of business. So, we had this idea. Just bring the babies to the office after maturity leave for up to 9 months. Nobody had heard of anything like this, but four brave women gave it a try and it worked.
Since then, over 100 children have gone through the “T3 and Under” program. It created a different culture in the company. It told employees that we cared about them. It showed that we support each other – everyone helped with this program. Dads, moms and non-parents helped each other with the little ones in the office. Employees have said it was a game changer for them. It was a grand experiment that I believe whole heartedly worked wonders. We’ve seen many of those kids go on to be successful young adults. Some were even selected to be interns many years later and without favoritism they rose to the top of the other intern candidates who applied. Now we have read articles and studies showing that it is important for brain development to be raised around complex language. Children who grow up in a professional environment in their early development can be positively impacted in life. I’ve been on The Today Show talking about this program and I’ve worked with other organizations to share our experience with the program. Family friendly employee policies and programs help retain staff, build internal loyalty and gives your employees the tools to thrive. It’s not that difficult to do and there’s so much to gain. Clients enjoyed it as well – they’d pick up a baby when they’d come in for meetings. We never skipped a beat in a fast-paced work environment. Parents became so loyal to the company that they always got their work done and met deadlines.
Sonshi: One of the common themes of your leadership style seems to be your focus on caretaking -- taking good care of your employees who take good care of your company's clients. The US Marine Corps believes in this principle. Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, also believed in this principle. He not only cared about his soldiers' well-being but even the well-being of captured enemy's soldiers. We believe it's an inherent trait of effective leaders to have empathy because accurate assessment of reality isn't possible without that trait. What are your thoughts on this topic of leadership?
Gaddis: I’ve spent time with the military and great appreciation for what they do and their training. We call it “we’ve got your back” and our employees really do take care of each other. We’re all different and we all tackle challenges in a different way. You take care of each other, because it can be rough out there. You create a team based on caring, respect and togetherness. And those are traits of cowgirls. It goes back to the family farm. Everyone has their tasks and they all chip in. In business it’s not just a work place – everyone is contributing. Just like being in the military, a sniper is no more valuable than a cook. They all come together for the greater good of the team. They take care of each other. It’s the same in business. In fact, for years we never put titles on business cards. We didn’t care about titles. We all had to pitch in and contribute our unique skills to complete a shared task. I am not a fan of organizational charts. Yes, there needs to be clear definition and direction on teams, but we didn’t spend too much time on status levels, because we each person’s job had a purpose and no more important than the next one.
And while we’re all on the same team, everyone does need to know their strengths, skill set and work style. Once you know this, you can surround yourself with people who shore up your weaknesses. That way you can focus on what you know best and they can focus on what they do best. The earlier you learn about yourself and your unique skills, the better you can serve a team.
Sonshi: You strive to create a place for creative people to thrive, especially since you are a creative person yourself. For example, you are a painter. The main subjects you paint are Texan sunsets from your Double Heart ranch. The paintings are simply breathtaking. It's no wonder your works were rated as the Top 10 showings in New York City. Texas Monthly named you among the Top 10 Artists to collect. Your first showing sold 22 pieces in a day and a half. Is there a connection between your work as an advertising executive and your work as a painter?
Gaddis: Yes, I was trained to be an artist. Fine Arts was my undergraduate degree at the University of Texas. My journey through the fine arts training determined the way I shaped my company. In art, you work very hard. It took time, training and discipline. I spent a lot of time trying to perfect my skills. You also learned how to take criticism. As an art student, you are amongst your peers and receive critiques on your work. It’s the way it’s done. Classmates and teachers didn’t critique you to tear you down, they did this to make you a better artist. Learning this skill in taking criticism helped me in business. If a client gave hard feedback, you listened and learned. An informed critique is one of the most valuable things you get as a leader. Today as I continue to work on my art skills, I’m still getting critiqued. Every challenge makes me better. Being an artist, you don’t have to have everyone love your work. But I take cues from people who do view my work at shows or online. I do hear positive feedback, which is validating to me. It’s been a gift to me to find the time to paint. While I still owned T3, I had to carve out time to paint and now I’m lucky to have more time to paint when I want.
Sonshi: If you can go back in time when you first started out in your career, what kind of advice would you give yourself? The reason why we ask this question is to frame it in a way that would help young working women today.
Gaddis: I was very successful in High School and college and I was on the track to be a leader. So, it was very upsetting and confusing when I was fired from my first job. I didn’t understand why. By my third position, I learned why I wasn’t successful in the first job. It was the first time I took a personality assessment. It hit me that my first job was an introverted environment and I’m an extrovert. I learned that I needed to work with a collaborative team. My first job was sitting in a cubicle isolated and that didn’t foster my skills. It taught me forever that I need to know myself. It also taught me how to work with other personality types and how to build teams that are successful. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) was the assessment tool I used, but there are others. At T3, we used MBTI to develop teams that excelled in collaboration and diverse thinking. Once we learned the benefits in team building, we used this tool to help us present concepts to clients with different personality types.
So, in the beginning I didn’t know myself, so I encourage young women and men coming up in business to get to know themselves and their work styles. The more you know, the better you can craft your environment to thrive.
Sonshi: What are your current or near future projects you are working on? Tell us more about it!
Gaddis: I’ll continue on being a rancher, artist and writer, but my biggest focus is on how to build better leaders. Leveraging the 30+ years of business experience and the principles in my book Cowgirl Power, I am starting a mentorship program to help develop high powered leaders. Leaders that lead with purpose, dedication and devotion. The future is uncertain and the next generation of leaders will be facing unprecedented challenges. Our leaders will need to be prepared. I will be teaching creative thinking across multiple disciplines. This will help these young minds develop new ways to tackle problems and solve larger issues. I’ve done some mentoring over the years, but now I have time to focus on this program that will provide young minds with a deep understanding of themselves, their skills and how to shape their future as well as how to influence the world around them.
[End of interview]
Editor's Note: We can't emphasize enough how men and women alike will benefit greatly from Ms. Gaddis. Learn more at GayGaddis.com.
Gaddis: One of the early lessons that I learned growing up around horses and out in the country is that you need to learn the right way to do things. There’s only one way to deal with a horse properly. There’s sort of a pre-flight check list you have to know when saddling up a horse and my godfather was pretty strict in doing it right. Early on, I learned that there are right and wrong ways to do things or you could put your life at risk or others. There’s dangerous equipment on a ranch or farm and everyone, especially kids, need to learn how to do things correctly or you could endanger yourself or put others in danger. And this is before helmets and seat belts, so rules were absolutely necessary as a way of survival. And I grew up around tough women – working the land and competing in rodeos. In those environments, you see people as they are.
And there’s a lot of great lessons from the fearless cowgirls I talk about in my book, Cowgirl Power: How to Kick Ass in Business and Life.
Annie Oakley was self-sufficient early her life. People know her story through the Broadway show “Annie Get Your Gun” but the real story is about survival. Annie learned to shoot to eat. She practiced and practiced, so she hit the target correctly, the first time. Annie teaches us that you have to put in the time and practice to get good at something. She did it out of necessity – she wanted to kill her dinner in one shot, so she wouldn’t wound the animal and so she wouldn’t waste a bullet. Shooting turned out to be her business, but when it started it was about survival.
Fox Hastings was one of the toughest cowgirls in town – that’s including men and women. She literally wrestled steers to the ground, which took courage and strength. She performed with three broken ribs once, because she was booked for a show and didn’t want to let anyone down. So, she persevered and followed through no matter what and nothing stopped her.
Sonshi: Your book, Cowgirl Power: How to Kick Ass in Business and Life (published by Center Street, owned by Hachette) has such a great title! We love it! We expected nothing less from the founder of T3, the largest woman-owned independent advertising agency in America. Not bad for a $16,000 start up. You and your team truly do "kick-ass work for clients who want to kick ass." Why did you decide to write this book and who do you think would benefit most from the book?
Gaddis: When I started T3 in 1989, the country was in a bad recession and like Annie Oakley, the early days at T3 were about survival. Then, once it became clear that we were going to survive, I came up with our mission to do “Kick ass work for clients who want to kick ass”. Saying “clients who want to kick ass” became very profound over the years, because it determined the kind of client we wanted. We pursued clients who wanted to be innovative and push the envelope. That created a culture of innovative that attracted top talent as employees. We proved this innovation early working for Dell computer corporation. We were a fairly small agency managing internet marketing that have never been done before. That pushed us – it became our engine for innovation. The more we pushed and strived to do what had never been done before, the more records we broke and awards we won. People would ask me “what will T3 do next?” and I would say “T3 is following customers and the customer experience has no limits”. By 2017, the Forrester Wave™, a global marketing authority, named us one of the top innovation agencies in the world. We were being celebrated alongside major agencies around the globe.
Around this time, I looked back and realized that we accomplished a ton and we learned a lot along the way. That’s when I decided to write Cowgirl Power.
When you write a book, you need to establish a target audience as part of your marketing efforts needed to secure a book publisher. So, I originally wrote Cowgirl Power for women ages 20-35 years old. This was an audience that I knew well and knew faced many obstacles no matter their path. As a business woman, mother or as a wife, women are often not offered or go for as many choices in life. I felt like I was living proof that you can have it all with hard work and life skills that I learned along the way. I saw women struggling. Men were passing them in their careers, as women had children and I wanted to let women know that having children doesn’t mean you’re out of the market. If women “stayed in the game” in some way (taking side projects, being part of networking organizations, joining a board, etc.) while they had a family, they could have it all. There’s not a right or wrong path to take, but there is a path that’s right for you and women don’t always hear this as a young woman.
However, as I traveled the world promoting my book, I quickly learned that it’s not just a book for women, but it’s an entrepreneur’s story for both men and women. Older and younger women came to me to share their personal stories. Men of all ages stopped me or wrote me letters about the practical business advice they gained by reading the book. The content is evergreen and appeals to many audiences.
Sonshi: Something else that's incredible is the workforce innovation you pioneered: the T3 and Under program, where your employees can bring their newborn babies to the office to improve their transition into daycare. Just so our readers could appreciate what kind of a trailblazer you are, at least a couple of your recent T3 interns were among the first newborns brought into T3! Tell us more about the program, and please share with us your thoughts regarding the top concerns of working mothers today.
Gaddis: I started the “T3 and Under” program over 25 years ago – and it was ingenuity meets necessity. We were knee deep in Dell work and four female employees told me they were pregnant at once. I was obviously happy for them, but nervous about continuing the pace of business. So, we had this idea. Just bring the babies to the office after maturity leave for up to 9 months. Nobody had heard of anything like this, but four brave women gave it a try and it worked.
Since then, over 100 children have gone through the “T3 and Under” program. It created a different culture in the company. It told employees that we cared about them. It showed that we support each other – everyone helped with this program. Dads, moms and non-parents helped each other with the little ones in the office. Employees have said it was a game changer for them. It was a grand experiment that I believe whole heartedly worked wonders. We’ve seen many of those kids go on to be successful young adults. Some were even selected to be interns many years later and without favoritism they rose to the top of the other intern candidates who applied. Now we have read articles and studies showing that it is important for brain development to be raised around complex language. Children who grow up in a professional environment in their early development can be positively impacted in life. I’ve been on The Today Show talking about this program and I’ve worked with other organizations to share our experience with the program. Family friendly employee policies and programs help retain staff, build internal loyalty and gives your employees the tools to thrive. It’s not that difficult to do and there’s so much to gain. Clients enjoyed it as well – they’d pick up a baby when they’d come in for meetings. We never skipped a beat in a fast-paced work environment. Parents became so loyal to the company that they always got their work done and met deadlines.
Sonshi: One of the common themes of your leadership style seems to be your focus on caretaking -- taking good care of your employees who take good care of your company's clients. The US Marine Corps believes in this principle. Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, also believed in this principle. He not only cared about his soldiers' well-being but even the well-being of captured enemy's soldiers. We believe it's an inherent trait of effective leaders to have empathy because accurate assessment of reality isn't possible without that trait. What are your thoughts on this topic of leadership?
Gaddis: I’ve spent time with the military and great appreciation for what they do and their training. We call it “we’ve got your back” and our employees really do take care of each other. We’re all different and we all tackle challenges in a different way. You take care of each other, because it can be rough out there. You create a team based on caring, respect and togetherness. And those are traits of cowgirls. It goes back to the family farm. Everyone has their tasks and they all chip in. In business it’s not just a work place – everyone is contributing. Just like being in the military, a sniper is no more valuable than a cook. They all come together for the greater good of the team. They take care of each other. It’s the same in business. In fact, for years we never put titles on business cards. We didn’t care about titles. We all had to pitch in and contribute our unique skills to complete a shared task. I am not a fan of organizational charts. Yes, there needs to be clear definition and direction on teams, but we didn’t spend too much time on status levels, because we each person’s job had a purpose and no more important than the next one.
And while we’re all on the same team, everyone does need to know their strengths, skill set and work style. Once you know this, you can surround yourself with people who shore up your weaknesses. That way you can focus on what you know best and they can focus on what they do best. The earlier you learn about yourself and your unique skills, the better you can serve a team.
Sonshi: You strive to create a place for creative people to thrive, especially since you are a creative person yourself. For example, you are a painter. The main subjects you paint are Texan sunsets from your Double Heart ranch. The paintings are simply breathtaking. It's no wonder your works were rated as the Top 10 showings in New York City. Texas Monthly named you among the Top 10 Artists to collect. Your first showing sold 22 pieces in a day and a half. Is there a connection between your work as an advertising executive and your work as a painter?
Gaddis: Yes, I was trained to be an artist. Fine Arts was my undergraduate degree at the University of Texas. My journey through the fine arts training determined the way I shaped my company. In art, you work very hard. It took time, training and discipline. I spent a lot of time trying to perfect my skills. You also learned how to take criticism. As an art student, you are amongst your peers and receive critiques on your work. It’s the way it’s done. Classmates and teachers didn’t critique you to tear you down, they did this to make you a better artist. Learning this skill in taking criticism helped me in business. If a client gave hard feedback, you listened and learned. An informed critique is one of the most valuable things you get as a leader. Today as I continue to work on my art skills, I’m still getting critiqued. Every challenge makes me better. Being an artist, you don’t have to have everyone love your work. But I take cues from people who do view my work at shows or online. I do hear positive feedback, which is validating to me. It’s been a gift to me to find the time to paint. While I still owned T3, I had to carve out time to paint and now I’m lucky to have more time to paint when I want.
Sonshi: If you can go back in time when you first started out in your career, what kind of advice would you give yourself? The reason why we ask this question is to frame it in a way that would help young working women today.
Gaddis: I was very successful in High School and college and I was on the track to be a leader. So, it was very upsetting and confusing when I was fired from my first job. I didn’t understand why. By my third position, I learned why I wasn’t successful in the first job. It was the first time I took a personality assessment. It hit me that my first job was an introverted environment and I’m an extrovert. I learned that I needed to work with a collaborative team. My first job was sitting in a cubicle isolated and that didn’t foster my skills. It taught me forever that I need to know myself. It also taught me how to work with other personality types and how to build teams that are successful. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) was the assessment tool I used, but there are others. At T3, we used MBTI to develop teams that excelled in collaboration and diverse thinking. Once we learned the benefits in team building, we used this tool to help us present concepts to clients with different personality types.
So, in the beginning I didn’t know myself, so I encourage young women and men coming up in business to get to know themselves and their work styles. The more you know, the better you can craft your environment to thrive.
Sonshi: What are your current or near future projects you are working on? Tell us more about it!
Gaddis: I’ll continue on being a rancher, artist and writer, but my biggest focus is on how to build better leaders. Leveraging the 30+ years of business experience and the principles in my book Cowgirl Power, I am starting a mentorship program to help develop high powered leaders. Leaders that lead with purpose, dedication and devotion. The future is uncertain and the next generation of leaders will be facing unprecedented challenges. Our leaders will need to be prepared. I will be teaching creative thinking across multiple disciplines. This will help these young minds develop new ways to tackle problems and solve larger issues. I’ve done some mentoring over the years, but now I have time to focus on this program that will provide young minds with a deep understanding of themselves, their skills and how to shape their future as well as how to influence the world around them.
[End of interview]
Editor's Note: We can't emphasize enough how men and women alike will benefit greatly from Ms. Gaddis. Learn more at GayGaddis.com.