My Story

My marketing career began at age six.

My first grade teacher, Mrs. Darling (her real name), had just handed each student a coloring book page with line drawings of wooden chairs. Her only instructions: color them.

The rest of the class started to color right away. But I paused.

First I wanted to understand the story of this chair. I worshipped stories. I knew that if I was going to do this chair justice, the way I colored it in had bring its story to life.

So I gave the chair a story: This was a chair that was so special, so bright, that the color could nearly burst forth from it and touch you. From my fresh box of Crayolas I selected a bright magenta. I ignored the lines and began engulfing the chair outline in a massive circle of rich pink with spiky magenta flares bursting from it.

I was feeling very pleased with my results when Mrs. Darling peered over my shoulder. Without a word she took away my creation and replaced it with a fresh page of uncolored chairs. “Do it neatly,” she said crisply and walked away.

I left school that day convinced of two things. First, that it was impossible to communicate anything without a story. And second, that I would need to find teachers who were willing to support my creative risks.

In my journey from first grader to marketing consultant, I found those mentors and learned the tools for building story-based communications. I learned from Oprah while launching her magazine to ask the questions and not just talk about yourself. Seth Godin taught me that meaningful marketing empathetically solves a problem for your audience. I learned from David Ogilvy that the most important creative choice is to respect your consumer.