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[Music]

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Welcome to the Executive Connect.

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Today, we're joined with Gay Gattis, an entrepreneur, a best-selling offer, a leadership coach,

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and a celebrated artist. Gay's journey from founding the largest women-owned independent

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digital ad agency in the United States to empowering the next generation of leaders

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is truly inspired. Welcome, Gay. Thank you so much. It's great to be with you today.

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I always like to start off to talk about your journey into your field. So what inspired you

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to start T3 and how did you grow it to be the largest women-owned independent agency in the United

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States? Well, it took step by step. It didn't happen overnight. I started as an art major

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at the University of Texas and I went into the advertising business because in those days,

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we had to draw everything and I could draw. And so I was an art director. I was in the public

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relations, advertising, and even management consulting business before I started my own agency.

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So I had, you know, some years behind me before I launched off and took off to do my own thing.

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But I started my own company in 1989 and Austin was a very sleepy little town

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when I started the agency. There wasn't a lot going on here. And so it was kind of a risky,

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very risky thing to do, but the university and everyone was kind of behind me and I just kind of

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launched off and did this. It took many, many years so to perfect what we wanted to do. But we always

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had this mantra from the very beginning. And it was kick ass work for clients who want to kick ass.

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And that defined what we wanted to do. So we were experimenting with new things. When you said

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digital agency, of course, when I started the agency, we weren't digital because that wasn't even

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part of our language. We were traditional advertising agency. But early on started shifting into any

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new mediums that we could think of or get our hands on. So when the internet became a viable option

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for marketing, we jumped into it with all fours and literally made that kind of our special area,

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which allowed us then later, as we grew along the way, to get into a lot of Fortune 100 companies.

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Because they were just beginning to figure out that they needed to maybe do some email marketing

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or so online advertising or how are they going to create a website. So we were very early in all that.

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And then one thing led to another. We ended up being at the top of almost 265 people. So it was a

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pretty big agency with offices around the country. And like I said, great fortune 100 clients.

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That's fantastic. Leading an agency for 30 years is no small fee. What were some of the key

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leadership principles that guided you through your journey and building T3? Yeah, leadership is the

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key of everything to me. And now in my life is what I focus on most. But you learned so much. And I believe

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that a lot of leaders were leaders as children. And we talk about superpowers. And what were you good at

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as a child? I took on leadership roles from the time I was a little girl, really. And then all the way

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through school and high school and college. And I was always kind of the one who would stand up and say,

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okay, I'll take that on or I will lead that charge or I will do it. So you learn a lot of hard lessons

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along the way. And I learned in high school, actually, that I didn't learn how to bring people

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along sometimes. I would just say, this is the way we're going to do it. And that was a tough lesson

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for me to learn at that age because people did it, but they were begrudged and they didn't like it

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and then they hated me. So it's like I kind of realized that it's all about building a strong team.

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And the team has to shore up your weaknesses. So I knew at one point what my real strengths were.

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And I focused on those and then I built people around me. They were so good that could

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shore up my weaknesses. But the thing that was most important, I think, is just to show up every day,

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being present, really giving people hope and energy, a vision, where are we going? And even if we

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didn't know where we were going, giving them an open opportunity to help create that,

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being genuine and authentic, and other words are ever used. But this is true. Very transparent.

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Most all the time, there were certain things you couldn't tell everybody in the agency. But a lot of

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things that we just needed to make sure people understood where we were going and what we were doing

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and why certain things happened. And so very, very open with the staff. I had walked the halls

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every day. I was, and I loved having people around me. I don't know how everyone works today in this

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hybrid model because for me, this spontaneity of being in an agency where everyone was, you know,

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throwing ideas off each other and meeting each other in the hall with a cup of coffee and saying,

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hey, do you think about this? And, you know, it's just those things you can't create any other way

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than just being there. And I worked hard. You know, I felt like my example of

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rolling at my slaves and working as hard as anybody else or harder was important. And so I tried to

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lay by example. I love that. That's, so there's so many good nuggets of wisdom in that. And one of

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the things is building a culture that people want to show up to work. They want to feel safe to share

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their ideas. They want to, you know, be comfortable, you know, not agreeing and working together in

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collaborative. I think you're spot on when people understand what they need to come up to do. They do

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it, right? They're all in when they're clear and they understand. And the other thing I love that you

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mentioned was you found people that weren't exactly like you that were other that other skill sets.

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So maybe some of your weaknesses you found employees that could show up like you said, those weaknesses.

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So I love it. I'm a really big fan of your book, Cal Girl Power, how to kick ass and business in

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life. I read it twice. I think it's great. Can you share maybe some of your top lessons and

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leadership from that book that you can share with our listeners? Yeah, one of the things I like to say

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is that a lot of us are planners, you know, all of us want to kind of set goals, you know, you know,

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plan it's kind of part of our culture to, you know, really say, all right, this is what I want to

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accomplish at this point. And so I'm going to do here. So that's great. And we have to. We have to

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set financial goals. We have to all those things are very, very important and I'm off for it. But I have a

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saying that the path to success is not a straight line. And I've found that to be so true in my life.

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What happens is we're marching along and we think we're hitting all the the goals and all the steps

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and then something hits you in the side of the head. I call it a pinball machine and knocks you

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around. I call it, you know, this life thing happens, you know, and we're, we can't predict it. I

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mean, the pandemic, a death in the family, a change in where you have to do your business. I mean,

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so many things family changes. It just happens to us and you can't predict it and you can't affect

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it and you can't control it. And that's the other thing that's so hard for people and leadership

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roles. I think the toughest thing for a later is realizing sometimes you cannot control something.

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I mean, as much as you can fix everything you can, you can take all the steps, you can try to

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mitigate an issue or problems. Stay ahead of it. But there are times when it's just not in your

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control and you have to be strong enough to realize that and say, okay, how are we going to keep moving?

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So when I say the path to success is not a straight line, there are things out of your control.

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There are things are going to happen to you. But every time I've gotten knocked off the path,

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and I have many times in my career in life, when I finally step back on the path, I find that the path

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is a little different and maybe better than the one that I had envisioned. And so it's interesting how

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the toughest things that can happen to us and sometimes they're good things, but they still

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knock you off the path. But you get back and you have a new perspective or a new way of doing things.

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And so I don't love the path knocked off, but when you get there, you go back and you continue on

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and things can become a lot more interesting or new knowledge that you never had, that you wouldn't

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have had. Had you not been thrown off that success path that you thought you were just hitting it all

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and doing great? That's fantastic. I want to talk a little bit about, you know, you're such a strong

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advocate for women in business and you've started the Women Who Means Business Program at the University

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of Austin, Texas. I want to talk a little bit about what motivated you to start that program and

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really pay it forward to women in the Austin and really across the United States.

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I started off, you know, making public speeches sometimes to women's groups, you know, many years ago.

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And then one day I was invited to do the keynote for a huge event in Tampa and it was a chamber event

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and there were like a thousand people there and it was targeted to women, but there were men and

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women there. And when I got off the stage, immediately everyone was coming up and okay, we left

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your story, all that. Do you have a book? And I said, well, no, I don't have a book. And they said,

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you need to write one. Your story needs to be told because there's not that many women who started

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a business from the ground up. I mean, and I looked at the statistics. I mean, what I was able to do

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is very rare. And I know that now, you know, at the time, you're just in it just with them, you know,

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putting on the harness every day and just going for it and growing and, you know, and doing the right

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thing and trying to, you know, grow business and that's what I did and help our clients. But I finally

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realized this is a, this is a story that needs to be told. So I decided that I would write the book.

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And then that opened up the whole concept really for me. And I'd always kind of worked on women's

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issues. I mean, I'm a woman. I've been a woman in business, you know, many years. So I wrote the book

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and then I started targeting women's groups because it was targeted to women, capital power,

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and so women's book. But man like it too. But it's still very much about empowering women and

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helping them to understand that the real key is that you've got the power inside already. You know,

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it's there. You just have to understand it, tap it, understand your strengths and then move forward

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with that. So I started touching so many women's groups in my book tours and in speeches. And I realized

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it. There was so much to be done. And then the pandemic came along. COVID hit and I started reading the

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news about how women were dropping out, you know, and we were losing some of these key women in

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leadership roles because it just got to be too much because let's be honest. I mean, a lot of times

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women have responsibility of their children, sometimes their parents have a lot of things in the

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household or a lot of things in life. Along with their work, with their business. And so women were

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saying, I don't need, if you didn't need to do it, you dropped out and said, I'm not going to handle

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this anymore. So I said, we got to stop this. We got to stop the bleeding. And so I proposed this

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program to the University of Texas at President of the University and we put it over at McCombs Business

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School in executive ed and we're starting our fifth cohort this fall. And let's say you will kind

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of maybe know this and she were there, but we've had tremendous success from the program. We are

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saying women do exactly what we want to do. And it's not for the undergrads and grad students or

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even the ones out a few years. It's for women 10, 15, 20 years into their careers, already in leadership

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roles. But how do you catapult them to be absolutely at the top of their game? And we're saying it over

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and over that women are getting there. I mean, they're taking those tough roles, taking on P&L

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responsibilities. I'd never taken on. We had women wrote to us and said, I'm maybe into Korea with my

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family. I'm taking over all operations for my company in Korea. She wouldn't have done that. She

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said she wouldn't have. It would have been too big of a risk. So we're trying to teach confidence

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in how to take risks and being a later means risk-taking. And some people don't have an appetite

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for that. But you've got to do that if you're ever going to get ahead. So I'm very excited about

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what we're doing there. When it continues to spread as much as I can, maybe do another book someday.

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But it's really all about, you know, how do we empower people to go out and do the best they can be

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and be leaders and not just there, but really taking on the tough roles? Yeah, absolutely. And I think

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you hit on it. One of the things that I love to do about the program is it gives women the opportunity

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to connect with women as well. A lot of times in leadership roles and tech and civil engineering,

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there's a lot of engineering women I know that went through the program. Their peers were really men.

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And we, like you mentioned, have different, you know, nature, nurture responsibilities with children

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and a family and making decisions. So I think it's really giving women their practical steps to

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develop themselves, have confidence in themselves to do it and then to actually do it because someone's

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holding them accountable because now we're all watching, right? And so I want to talk a little bit

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about those practical steps that women can take to really develop their super power, their personal

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power, whatever those steps may be so they can actually advance their career. Any, like nuggets,

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a wisdom from that? Yeah, you have to be able to dream. That's one of the big things that gets

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robbed from us sometimes as we get older and, you know, I reread a book called, you know, The Last

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Lecture that came out in 2008 by Carnegie Mellon professor who was dying at cancer and he had to

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do his last lecture and he decided to do it about what happened with his childhood dreams and how

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so many of them had come to pass. And it's a really beautiful book about harnessing your dreams and

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really making this come true. So I have this exercise in the book called the the dreams and reality

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exercise and that's where I really invite people to step back and really dream again because if we

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don't dream and we can't envision you won't take the steps to get there and it's a really wonderful

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thing. It's hard to do sometimes. We're so, you know, encumbered by the reality side that you say,

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oh, I don't know if I can't do that. It's too hard or I don't want to tackle that. It costs too much

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money. I'll never raise that. I'll never be able to get a team around that. And so I'm in the middle

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of reimagining some dreams right now for myself and it's a scary thing, you know, I know, I know,

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but I'm excited about it because it's things that I really want to accomplish and then I can talk

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about time lining your life where you put all these things out of what we're, we're going to be

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here, here, and here. And some of the things we kind of can expect, you know, maybe a child goes

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off to college that year or, you know, maybe that's when I'm going to, you know, we've decided we're

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going to have a vacation home at this point. And you know, there's just things you can put on a big

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sticky board timeline and start to piece it together on where your life's going. And you put those

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dreams in there and it changes things where you say, okay, what do I have to do right now or within

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the next year or that dream's not going to ever be a reality. And so I'm just really kind of back in

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my dreams and reality mode again. And I think it's something I'd bite everyone to do because you

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have to take a little time and sometimes I say, and I do this, I live on a ranch part of the time in

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Texas. And I like to take a big quilt and throw it on the ground and look up in the sky and watch

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the clouds go by and just kind of think about, well, what else do I want to do? You know, what's next?

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What would really thrill me and what would help other people if I did it or what would delight other

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people or what would make someone else's life enrich and at the same time enrich my mind because I

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don't think you, I don't truly believe that you get all the blessings back when you give away.

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I mean, I'm a real believer in that and I think it's true. So I think about what can I do there?

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What's going to make a difference? So I'm kind of back in the dreams and reality mode again and it's

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fun and I'd bite everyone to really just say, okay, I'm going to take time to do that. Write it down.

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And if it's not for right now and then maybe bring in some other people, they're important in your

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life that, could they help you? Is that something they see as a reality or something that they see

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could literally happen? And you know, when I started my company was like that. I had to convince a small,

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little handful of people to come join me in this very risky venture and leave their jobs. You know,

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they had other jobs when they hired them and she's just a handful of people, but you know, I had to

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sell them my dream. I had to say, this is where I see this going and they did. And so that's how

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the little things happen. Happened small sometimes and then it turns into bigger and bigger and bigger.

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And so again, now we're in cohort five of the women who need business program and that means it

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every time. We only take 40 first class, but that's 40 people. So now we're in 200, you know, people

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that will somehow be affected and I can just see them like lights out there, you know, affecting other

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people, bringing other people along or really making an impact and a difference. So it's all kind of

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as a way of twinkling all around you. Yeah, absolutely. And I love what you said. What I heard is

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a couple of key things that you mentioned. One was, you know, not letting life pass you by. Like your

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friend that, you know, mentioned that he had to give a speech or people that let life pass. So I

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wish I would have done that. I wish I could have done that. But like you were saying, you know,

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laying that blanket out outside and having a moment just to dream, like, what would my life look like

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if I did this thing or I did that thing or I achieved this goal or, you know, what do I want my

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life to look like in 10 years? So I think that's a key, key, you know, piece of wisdom there is a lot

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of times we're so reactionary in our world today that we're, you know, getting the kids up, getting

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them to school, getting to work, doing our job, coming home, cooking, whatever your life looks like

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we're all reacting to the day without a real plan. Like you mentioned, so laying down five, 10, 20 years,

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what does my life look like? You know, you don't know, right? Until you get 20 years later and you think,

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oh, man, I wish I would have taken that trip or I wish I wouldn't have tried to do these things.

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Yeah, I mean, we don't know, the life is so tenuous in many ways and, you know, you kind of get to a point,

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me where I'm saying, well, how many years do I really have? If I'm lucky, who knows? Or if I'm blessed,

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who knows if they're good years, but you have no time to waste is how I feel about it, you know? And I

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know we have to deal with the dirty socks and the laundry and all that stuff like you said. I mean,

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that's just life and, you know, my husband used to say, there's peanut butter smeared all over the

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back seat of the car who's going to clean that up. I mean, you know, just things like that, just life

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stopped, you know, we have to deal with that, but you can't take your eye off the big things because

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that's where you really, that's where you achieve and that's where again, you can get back so much,

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you know, one of the reasons that I, I mean, I wanted to make money, of course, but you know, you can

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make money at certain segments of a, a, a cycle of a business and you can make a lot of money with

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50 people. I mean, seriously, I need had to do it, but then we get bigger and bigger and one of the

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reasons that I kept growing the company was we wanted to do more for our clients. We knew we could help

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them and the other thing was I was employing more people and that was risky. I mean, of course, I had a

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big payroll, but it made me feel really good when I go home at night to think, you know what, 260 people

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got a paycheck today is because I continue to make this work and I'm pushing hard. I'm growing

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the business and I make it work. So that was a very gratifying thing to me to know that, gosh, you know,

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you created jobs and that was, and again, and where people enjoyed practicing their craft and

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it could trust each other and had a really good environment and culture where they wanted to be.

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And so it was just, it was very gratifying. I mean, it's just one of the best things I've ever done.

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Yeah, that's fantastic. All the life's you've changed, right? Yeah, I think you've changed so many

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lives and like you said, paid it forward and those people pay it forward and it just becomes this big

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bright shiny light like you mentioned. One thing I admire about you is your creative side, right? You're

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not only, you know, a business woman, but you're a very creative woman and so I want to talk a little

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bit about creativity and how creativity can really help you develop yourself as a leader and

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really your journey in this world. Well, fortunately, my mother, my father died when I was young. So my

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mother didn't oppose that I was going to be an art major at the University of Texas and I probably,

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you know, you think back, you say, well, I certainly could have majored in something else where I could

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have gotten out right away and had a business career made money. But I love the art side of my life. I

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was always very creative from the time I was a little girl and from drawing, painting, you know, all the

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things I did, but just creative thinking, you know, I learned to think of new things and come up with ideas

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and lead people into things and we would have like in high school, we had these things called hall

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competition. So all the four grades in my high school would decorate their hall, everyone had a

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hall, the senior hall, freshmen, we'd decorate our hall and we'd compete and we'd got the prize.

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Well, I was always when you came up with the concept of what it was going to be and so I always come up

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with the concept and everybody in the class would come up and we would work and work and work on all

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the details to pull it together and we won every year. I mean, it was just kind of a fun thing,

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but I've always had creative thinking in my in my wheelhouse. It's what I do. So that made for

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a good fit for me in the conceptual advertising marketing business because that's kind of what we

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do. You know, it's coming up with things that are never thought of before or that you can really kind

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of, how do you do something that's going to get the attention of the audience? And so I love that.

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I mean, it was just how I was put together and fortunately, you know, I did have enough

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experiences before I started my business and I did go back to business school at night. I have to

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tell you after I graduated, I said, I had in him one business class and I felt like I didn't

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understand the language of business. And so I never finished my MBA because I had a child and

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it anyway, I couldn't do it, but I have so many business classes under my belt and that really

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helped me when I started my business because, you know, and I'd also worked for a management consulting

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for and those guys all had their MBAs from Harvard and they taught me a lot. So I fortunate things

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along the way, but all of those required that I stepped down and did something that wasn't

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necessarily what you would have thought, you know, and so I always say when everybody's

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ziggs, sometimes you have to zag because, you know, just because everything's going this way,

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why don't you try something else? And I always would try to do that. I still do. And you have to put

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yourself in situations where things are going to happen, you know, if you're just kind of be

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mounting that you haven't accomplished this or this isn't happening or you haven't accomplished

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this for your family, get yourself, you know, put your, I always say put yourself out there.

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That's part of my book and you got to, you know, force yourself sometimes even if you're an

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introvert to get into situations and you mentioned something really important about the Women

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Him in Business Program. The network that you develop is so incredibly important and we love it

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that women could find and that's why we had women older, a little bit older, you know, not the younger

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friends because we wanted women who had already experienced leadership roles already been out there

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and could relate and be peers. And so I've been fortunate enough to have some women's organizations

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like the Committee of 200, C200, Lynn Eder who teaches a Women Him in Business Program with me and I

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met through that. And it gave me a strong sense of other successful women. And when I kept seeing it

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and I could ask questions and we could, you know, hold each other's hands through the good and the bad and,

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you know, it just really, really made a huge difference in my career. And I was fortunate enough to be

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invited to be in that group many years ago and I'm still a member but it helped me

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so much, you know, through the years to have that network and I cannot say how important that is.

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And sometimes you start small. I mean, you know, when I first started networking and doing things

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at my world was a lot smaller and then it kind of grew and grew and grew. But you've got to take those

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first steps to get out and meet people and you never know which you're going to find out,

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which you're going to learn or how you can help each other. Yeah, and I've always been told my your net worth,

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or your net work is your net, what your net worth is. And it's not just, that doesn't just mean about

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money. It's not just about money. It's, you know, maybe you, you are going through something challenging

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in your life and it's the first time you've navigated it and you know somebody else who's been

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through it and having, like you mentioned, relationships and people you can call that I've been

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through some tough things in life. And having somebody that you can bounce ideas off really is worth

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all the, all the money, all the T and China that they say, but it's really worth it in your spot on

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having relationships and a network and somebody to call is, is really key, is really key. And I know

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you mentioned a little bit about, you know, the leaders today having to navigate, you know, working

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from home, right? That's something that we've not had an navigate, managers and leaders haven't had

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to manage teams across the world behind a computer. So I want to talk a little bit about the current

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trends in leadership and what is most crucial from your perspective for leaders today? Well, one of

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the things that I learned from one of my C200 members during the pandemic and she said that they

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learned a lot on how to deal with people in these environments, you know, in virtual environments.

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But she said sometimes I would start the meeting instead of just jumping into the agenda with

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letting everyone just kind of tell something that was going on in their life, you know, and maybe it

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was during the pandemic. So it was a little, you know, different, but just kind of learning people as

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human beings. And that's what was so valuable to me in running my business is I knew everybody in

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the company. I knew a lot about them really. I asked and we had families bring their kids in and we had

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all kinds of, you know, events and things where I got to know the people as who they were and what

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things they were interested in outside of T3 and their work because I always said that's so important.

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I want you out there doing things if you've got a volunteer thing you're working on and you need to

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take off tomorrow afternoon, go do it or, you know, you want to understand who people are. And then

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they're not just another talking head on the screen or another BP of sales or whatever they become

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a person to you. And then you kind of kind of understand how they're wired up and how what's going

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to help motivate them and what can you do for them that's going to give them, you know, that extra,

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you know, to keep going. And so it's very, very important, I think even in a virtual environment to take

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the time to get to know your staff and hopefully do some things with them in person now, you know,

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go out for a picnic, you know, do something, get out brainstorm, go sit somewhere, you know,

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just having that time together where you're not specifically dealing with one task, you know,

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or that task of the day, just opening up to the what ifs and how are you doing. And that's goes a

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long way. Yeah, I would agree. I think that's a great piece of advice is know who you're working with.

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Don't just be so mission focused on a task that you lose sight of people in the process. And I

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think the real great leaders I've had in my life, they they knew a little bit more about me than

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what my title or my role was. And so I was willing to work harder for them, right? When they saw me,

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they understood me, they valued me, and they they made time to just talk to me. And so I would

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absolutely agree with you. You talked a little bit about it at the beginning of our going back to

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school, to get some business education to learn more. And so first of all, I think that's a really

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great point. Know your skills, know what you're you're good at like you were saying and know what

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you need to work on and then do the work. I think one of my favorite words is resiliency. It's been

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a lifelong favorite word and adaptability. I think the world's changing so so much so quick that we

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really have to be resilient and adapt to what's coming at us every day. So I want to talk

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a little bit about cultivating resiliency and adaptability in today's world and just get your

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perspective and on how to cultivate these skillsets to be a better leader.

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I'd go back to my childhood again. You know, I had parents and people around me. I grew up in a small

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town. It was very like a fish ball. You know what everybody was doing and it was very open. And so

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I watched people with tremendous struggles, you know, and I knew what was going on. And I would always

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say, well, if they can get through that, surely I can get through what I'm doing today. And it was

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just very I just would watch people. I just I just and then see how they reacted and how they

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came through that and the words of wisdom they had. And so that was kind of my basis really of,

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you know, trying to keep going, you know, and I just have this can-do attitude my whole life

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that was instilled in me and my parents. I mean, you know, it's like you can do it. You can do it.

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And I know so many people grow up and have very discouraging households and they are not

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empowered. They're not, you know, encouraged. They're not thought they were wonderful. And so that's

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already a tough load you carry, you know, to begin with. But being able to just say, how can I,

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again, I'm going to go back to this. If I'm strong enough to get through this and I can do this,

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and if I can just push one more inch farther, who will I help? What kind of difference

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am I going to make? And it really does keep you going, you know, when you think you've done something

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that helps somebody or really made a difference someplace. It's very exciting when it happens. So,

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you know, it keeps me going. I also, you know, grew up, I've been a rancher for my whole life too,

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and, you know, still do that. And there's a lot of reality in the country, I call it. And,

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so three realities this week. I mean, we had a scunt spray my dog, which is not fun. And then we had a

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coral snake that was crawling around the swimming pool and they're highly poisonous. And then

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there was a baby rabbit that was caught by one of my dogs and I was, I hope it, I don't know what

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happened anyway, but that's just reality. I mean, that's just what happens out there. And, you know,

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we had a fire not too far from us, not on my property, but not too far. And that was a very scary thing.

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And so, well, I've just kind of, and the country is you never know what's going to happen. I mean,

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you can't predict when the snake is going to come by. You know, it's just, you know, it's just,

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it's just different than living in the city and you just have to roll with it in some ways and

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know that, okay, whatever the problem is today, we're going to try to deal with it the best we can't.

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And I think that's given me a lot of resilience, you know, I've just grown up in that environment.

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But if you haven't, you know, it's just everybody has their own issues and whatever environment they have

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or whatever company they're in or whatever. And it's just saying there's got to be a way around this.

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I can do it. If I can't, I'll figure it out or I have to move on. And when I said you can't control

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everything, you can't. But you can, you can control how you feel about it. And that's a very important

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lesson. You don't have to play the negative videos over and over and you're hit, turn them off, you know,

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the ones that I can't do it or someone criticize me or, you know, this have turned off those videos

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because they don't help you or anybody else to keep playing them in your head. They only push you back.

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So I really, I think we have to be strong mentally too. It's not just the, you know, strength that

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oof, but it's a mental strength and perseverance that really gets you through.

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Yeah, I love that. I think that's great advice is, you know, being able to tackle things as they come

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and not thinking things are happening at you, they're happening for you. Like you said at the beginning,

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some of these challenging things you went through, some of some of the most beautiful things were

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on the other side of that challenge. And so I think just like you said, getting the negative out of your

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head and really going back to what you, you know, also said was getting a plan together. And,

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you know, if it sets you back a year, you know, get back on the Elrwork Road and go after that five-year

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plan because there are going to be setbacks. There's nothing, none of us get out of life without having

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some setbacks and some struggles and some changes. So it's really having that attitude, like you were

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saying, to be positive and to just say, hey, I need to, you know, handle the dog with the, you know,

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with the skunk and clean them up and make sure you have a great recipe for what you wash a dog who's

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been skunk. I've had dog skunked as we call it many times and so I found this was the humane

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society actually came out with a special thing you mix up to rub on the dog. I mean, I want to

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share that this moment, but yeah, I mean, you have to learn these things. So when you know things like

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this can happen, you also have to have your toolkit ready to, okay, what do I do? And I have,

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what do you do in this night's coming? What do you do in this happens? And you just kind of have,

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you get prepared as much as you can, you can't be prepared for everything, but you know, you just kind

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of say, all right, I know I've been through that and how am I going to handle it just like with anything.

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Great. And then or know who to call, right? Right? Like he said, like if if my dog got hit with

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a skunk, you know, being able to call you and say, hey, what do I do? I got to get to this,

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you know, events. I'm going to leave the dog outside or I'm going to have somebody come over and

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take care of them. And so I think it's just finding a plan on how to attack things and that's right.

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So many good pieces of advice that you shared. One, another thing I admire about you is how you

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straddle so many different, you know, passions, hobbies, you're an accomplished author, you have,

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you know, taught some college classes, you've run businesses, you're into the art, you know,

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art and painting and, you know, paying it forward and nonprofits, you straddle so many different,

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you know, passions, hobbies, businesses. And I know branding is really important these days. And

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typically we're either, you know, branded by our job or branded by our family. And so I want to talk a

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little bit about how you've been able to take all of the things you love and are passionate about.

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And really brand yourself in a way that, you know, you're giving to the world and you're giving

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to gay and you're making the world a better place. So I know that was a lot in, you know, two sentences,

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two long sentences, which is kind of your insights on straddling so many different things and so

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many different passions and really keeping the mission focused if you could share some insights on that.

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Yeah, I do straddle a lot of different things and partly it's because honestly I get bored very easily

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and I'm just going to say that I like to have different things going on because to me,

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being involved in one thing feeds the other. And so when I will learn by getting out of just my

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little silo and jumping over here to do this and as you said, I'm a painter, I was trained as a painter

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and artist in college but I didn't really get to passionately do that until a few years ago and I've

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been successful with it. You know, I have a mom gallery. I've been shown in New York and Santa

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Bay and Houston. I mean, I have a nice following, you know, and it's been great to paint. I love to

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paint. I painted the ranch because see, that's all part of my brand because I feel like when I

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told you I grew up on ranches and farms, I am in my heart, a country girl. And I, you know, I understand

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nature in the country and say when I paint, I'm painting the skies that I see at our ranch

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and sometimes some landscape but they're really abstract most of the time. But it's all kind of this

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what I've taken every day. So being aware of who you are and being very consistent with them,

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that is part of the brand. It's just like we would build a brand for a client. You would, you know,

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Coca-Cola would not put red in their logo tomorrow. I mean, that would be terrible. I mean,

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you know, here I've read on, I look out Coca-Cola red today. But, you know, it's just the simplicity

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being very consistent with who you are, what you say, how you dress, where you show up, the actions

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you take, all those things and being not necessarily predictable, but being, again, using this word

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genuine, you know, it's just who is it that you are and you stick with it and you just do it over and

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over and over because people can't remember too many things. It's really true. And so again, when we

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would build brands for big companies or, you know, whatever, we had to make sure that the customer

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experience was that they knew who you were and sometimes we would come up with a campaign or we

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come up with an idea and we say, well, that's off brand, you know, that doesn't make sense.

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The customer is not going to recognize that that's pizza hut. The customer is not going to recognize

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that that is that all state sending me that? That's not like all state. And so you want to

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educate, entertain and surprise, but you don't want to be off brand. So think about yourself as this

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brand that, you know, when I show up, it's always me. You know, I'm not trying to be anybody else. I'm

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not trying to act in a different way. I don't try to change my accent. I have this East Texas accent

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to help with it. It means how it sounds. And it's me. And so, you know, it's just kind of my colors that

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I use in my logo and my website and typebaces and just everything that we do when we communicate

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should be consistent. Now you can rebrand, you know, and kind of shift some, but basically it's

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got to be something that is true to you. And finding that and who you are, you know, I'm kind of known

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to be a bit of a fashionista and I have to live up to that. Yeah, I really do. It's like work for me,

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sometimes I'm playing like my clothes and I'm going to be wearing for events and I'm, you know,

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I'm creative with that. I don't just put by the out bed at the store where it was used. I put with it.

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No, no, no, I've got, you know, I have this little piece from Target and this thing about it at

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the thrift store and this thing that was Chanel, you know, it's just all these things I put together,

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but it takes work. But to me, it's not putting together a creative puzzle, but when I show up some

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flies, usually people say, Oh, I love that out bed or where did you get that purse or where it

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was. And it's because I curate my clothes and that's just kind of who I am. Just part of my brand.

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So all these things I'm saying is that it doesn't matter if you just wear a t-shirt and blue jeans

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every day that's you. That's you. And you know what? Let's be consistent with that and let your look.

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And I've, you know, known a lot of people who just wear a jacket, t-shirt and jeans and that's their

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look and they look great. So, uh, stuch is close. It's everything. But it's more about how you treat people,

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how you act and how you show up. And that's what where the brand really is. And, uh, and being

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consistently you is the key. Yeah, I agree. I think that spot on gay. I want to, I'm going to call

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them gay as Zoms. Any other kind of, as we close that we covered so much fantastic information,

422
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anything that we miss that you want to share with our listeners before we close that?

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Yeah, you know, I have this. I want you all to look up something.

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There's a poem that was written by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. It's called the puzzle.

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And it, it really stemmed. I found this thing because I'm, listen to my dad a lot as a child and

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it, even though he died when I was 13, he used to say meet people where they are. And he explained that

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to me with that man. And so that's another part of this whole network thing. I meet people everywhere

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ago. And that's another reason why I'm mixing it up and being in different venues and different

429
00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:05,280
kinds of audiences is fine because I meet a lot of different people. I try to get to know them.

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And that becomes a valuable part of your network. But there's a puzzle poem, like I said.

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And basically what it says is that all of us are carrying around pieces to someone else's puzzle.

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And we don't know.

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[ Silence ]

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It's going to really change their life or help them or entertain them or say to them that they

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didn't have it. It's like, I'll just send their success, this missing piece to them came together.

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And because they met you, they're more whole. And I just think that's a really great

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piece of advice and really invites us again to go out and really understand people. Talk to them.

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Like I said earlier, is a leader? Who are they? And what can you do for them? So it's, and also,

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there's one last thing. There's this concept of reciprocity that I think is a really important concept.

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And that is that if I do something for you, then you'll maybe do something for me. And that's how it

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works. It's this gift-tank thing. I don't expect it necessarily. You know, I'm not waiting for you to

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come do something for me. But I bet down the road, if I have been helpful to you, someday I could call

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on you or you might find something that you'd like to bring to me. And that's a beautiful exchange.

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You know, when we can do that. And so a lot of times I go, "What in the world am I talking to all

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these people or are taking time to do that?" And then low in the hole, it just turns around. And within,

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you know, a year, two, three, sometimes five, sometimes that comes right back to me. And I call

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those buckets of goodwill. You don't expect them, but they just come to you. So it's a really nice

448
00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:05,920
thing to think about life that way that it's really full circle. Yeah, absolutely. Those were

449
00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:14,400
fantastic. So read that poem and follow gay, connect with gay. She's got fabulous books, fabulous

450
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:20,640
program at UT. Oh, and I have a newsletter too that you can follow. Yeah. Got on my website gaygattas.com.

451
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And I have a newsletter that's free. It comes out every other week. And I write Little Pearls of

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Wisdom. They're short, sweet, and to the point. But they're just kind of little things that I think

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are important lessons. And sometimes funny and entertaining, but yeah, you're invited to check that out.

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Thank you so much for sharing today and sharing your time and your wisdom with our listeners.

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That's the Executive Connect podcast.

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you

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