Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com and it's guest time on the show and I'm very pleased this morning to have with me the Founder, President, and CEO of T3. T3 is the largest, independent advertising agency wholly owned by a woman in the country and this founder that I'm talking about is Gay Gaddis. Gay, welcome to the BusinessMakers Show.

Gay: Thank you for having me today.

Russ: You bet. Let's start with you telling us about T3.

Gay: T3 is a company of new innovations and ideas. We are categorized as an advertising agency because that's the industry that we fall in, however, we think of ourselves as a marketing think tank and that's what T3 stands for, The Think Tank – T3. We look at the world in a little different way then I think the typical ad agency. You go to an ad agency, usually something like an ad-like object will come out of it.

Russ: Right.

Gay: and sometimes you come to T3 and it's more of a solution that maybe is not an ad and so, we've had a history of doing things a little out of the box, I guess and always looking at what's next that drove us into the digital era faster than most of our competitors and we keep thinking about what's next, what's next.

Russ: Well, speaking of your history, I know that you're probably nearing your twenty year birthday, right?

Gay: Yes, March 1st, we will be twenty years old.

Russ: Okay

Gay: Which is an interesting milestone. I had no idea when I started the company in '89, what I'd be doing twenty years, I was just trying to survive! Those first few months, it was all about just trying to keep the business going and doing a job for our clients, and one thing led to another and here we are twenty years later.

Russ: Okay, and it's probably pretty rare that you've maintained your independence that entire time, right? Most of those that enter this space, get consumed by the giants?

Gay: Absolutely and we saw a trend a few years ago where the holding company model was starting to take over most agencies and there's two reasons for that. 1 is that a lot of entrepreneurs in the advertising industry are really more creative types than business managers and so they're really not capable of running a long term business. They get to a point, they're kind of what am I going to do next? And they say I've got to get my money out of this, so they cash out and they'll sell. Lots of them are unhappy when they do that, I've talked to many many people. But our motto has really been more of a built-to-last mentality and we are growing up business development people inside of T3 that can take leadership at some point and God-willing, I may be around when I'm 85, I'm not planning on retiring any time soon.

Russ: Okay, cool. Well, built-to-last, you already have, but kind of roll back for us. Take us back to the beginning, 1989. What motivated you to take this step?

Gay: Actually, I was mad. Two things happened, built this motto that I thought was going to be the advertising agency of the future and this was of course in 1989 and we had just come through a very very hard and we're in the middle of a terrible economic downturn.

Russ: and this is actually before you started T3?

Gay: Yes, the downturn's stock market really took the hit in '97 and we just languished in a very difficult economic time. Not different from where we are today, actually, it's worse today because it's a worldwide crisis.

Russ: and you were with another agency at this time, correct?

Gay: Yes, I was and had developed a business motto that I thought was going to be, it sounds very simple, but it was really combing the art and science of the business. A lot of agencies back in those days were more about creativity, winning awards, and art shows and I believe you had to do that, you had to intrigue people, but at the same time, you had to get results. And so, I walked in, presented this plan that I had worked on to our advisory group and everyone was nodding their head and was very excited about let's kind of rethink our model. The president came in to me the next day and said "You know, I been thinking about this, Gay and I'm not going to support your business model. I'm not behind you." I was angry, I was hurt, humiliated, really unhappy. I was just fuming in my office and so I sat there for about 45 minutes and then I marched back down to speak with him and I said "well, I guess if I can't do this here, I'm going to do this someplace else." I had no idea where that someplace else was. I spoke before I thought, but I knew I could do it and I started off with two other employees in this little office and cashed in a $16,000 IRA, that's all the money I had and started this little business and with a passion and with a belief that we could really make a difference.

Russ: What was the original idea that caused you to have all this courage to take some risks? I mean, did it evolve around really providing a solution, as opposed to an ad?

Gay: Yes and from the very beginning, we were always kind of doing things that weren't always advertising solution and I was very motivated to make sure that we got resolves for our clients because I couldn't afford to lose them. You know, I was in survivor mode.

Russ: Okay, that's is so cool. We're going to back with more with Gay Gaddis, Founder, President, and CEO of T3 after this. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.

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Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com and continuing on with Gay Gaddis, the Founder, President, and CEO of T3. Well, Gay it sounds like you sort of dove off the deep end and started this company with a completely different approach. In fact, one thing that I'm aware of along the way is rather than the normal ad agency commission billing system, you decided to completely change that as well. Share that with our audience.

Gay: Well, when we changed our name to T3 or The Think Tank, it really made us pause and made us think about our whole billing structure because we were saying that when you come to T3, our marketing think tank, you can get a solution and it may not be an ad or it may not be about running media and some of the things that the industry was based on which was commissions and so, we decided we wanted to be paid for thinking, for just ideas and we didn't necessarily want to have to place media just to get our money or production fees, so, we said we're just going to have fee for service basis like attorneys or CPA's and our clients at first, had to be educated because since at first, I wasn't getting commissions, our fee structure went up some, but they eventually really loved it and we were kind of a pioneer in this, really. The industry has followed along the way. There's still agencies that do charge commissions, but we feel like it gives us an honest, playing field with our clients because I can recommend anything and it's not based on well, did we run five million dollars worth of media in this for me to get my money.

Russ: So, it just seem to be real logical that approach and you're saying now that other agencies are following your model?

Gay: Yes. Clients really started the movement after we did that said we're not going to pay them commissions anymore and so the industry has kind of really gone in that direction. Again, there's some agencies that are still on a commission basis, but we believe that it's a more honest forthright way to do business, such as to say we don't have an extra grind as to what the solution is as we just want to be paid for great thinking.

Russ: Now here you are, still independent, but quite large. I mean, you have like, what 200 employees today?

Gay: Yes and we're in the top 20 independent agencies in the country. We believe it's our real hallmark of who we are. It allows us to make decisions based on client need and not so much the holding company model would force us into. So, if a client needs us to ramp up or if we need to scale the business or make decisions that are not necessarily always good for holding company, we can do that and I think our clients really appreciate it that we only work for them.

Russ: Okay, but you still compete against the big boys, right?

Gay: Yes, every day.

Russ: Okay. You've had just some huge clients, but I know that you probably had something quite extraordinary happen with your original large client. Share that with our listeners.

Gay: We had a very interesting opportunity a few years in the business to get a project from Dell and Dell was fairly small back then and relative to where they are today so were we, but we got our foot in the door and one thing led to another and we really became a major part of Dell's agency roster and we're there for 16 years. They were a great paying client that took us into the digital world before most agencies would have been there and now that's a real core strength of who we are. So, I thank Dell for all those years and it was a great relationship until they wanted to change their agency model this past year and we had to part ways.

Russ: Okay and along that way, I think you had to make a serious decision because you could have chosen to continue on, correct?

Gay: Yes, we could have. There was a move to actually consolidate and we were asked to be a part of that, but decided we didn't want to lose our independence.

Russ: Well, that independence must really be important to who you are?

Gay: Yes and also being woman, I'm just also very important and if I had sold, we would have lost that status. I've never gotten a piece of business because woman-owned, but I will say that a lot of our major clients have very serious up hard adversity programs and every dollar that goes to T3 does count in their supplier diversity efforts and when they are trying to meet government and contract obligations, then they can count those dollars in T3 as part of their program. So, I didn't want to lose that also that the reason, but I just felt like that was one other thing that held us from selling the business.

Russ: Cool. We're going to be back with more with Gay Gaddis, President, CEO, and Founder of T3 after this. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at the businessmakers.com

[Aflac Commercial]

Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at the businessmakers.com and continuing on with Gay Gaddis, Founder, President, and CEO of T3, the largest independent advertising agency, wholly owned by a woman in the country. Well, Gay tell us about the future, what's the future look like for T3?

Gay: We are very excited about the future because we have never been more connected as a planet in the history of time and so our business is really about that connectivity, about creating on-going conversations for our clients, customers and we're so excited about what technology is allowing us to do. So, it's a great time to be in our space, it's also very difficult. This company was born out of adversity in the late ‘80s and we're in a very trying economic time right now, but we feel like with our kind of cost effective and very strong, strategic nature and what we bring to our clients, we're going to help them navigate thru these tough times and come out in a better place than they were before because it's forcing us and our clients to be smarter and better than ever and helping them to develop marketing programs that are really, again, getting results, cost-effective, and also, intriguing their consumer or their customers.

Russ: Well, it's so interesting talking about marketing in 2008, I really appreciate you sharing all that, but also, you are an extraordinary entrepreneur and so before I let you go, let's say we have a young, aspiring, woman entrepreneur out there, what advice would you give her?

Gay: Leap sometimes and don't calculate too much where you're going. You can make your plans all day long, but if you have the vision and you have the passion, then go for it and go with your gut because you're going to have to trust your gut. There's no one that's going to write the game plan out for you and have everything detailed. I get tickled at the Texas Longhorns and their motto that yours just keep the chains moving. You know, just keep the chains moving in our direction so, you have to just go out there every day. You got to be resilient, you got to take risks, and course, calculated risks, but it's all about really your belief in what you're doing and just get that confidence going and you know, put on your game face and get out there and make it happen.

Russ: Gay, I really appreciate you giving us some time here on the BusinessMakers Show.

Gay: Thank you, it's been a pleasure.

Russ: You bet. We've been speaking with Gay Gaddis, Founder, President, and CEO of T3 and you've been listening to the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at the businessmakers.com.