The Most Important Thing Advertising Taught Me Was Figure-It-Out-itive-ness

My first week in advertising, Steve Erich asked me to track the relative daily temperature in Germany over the past three years and overlay it with ice cream sales.

I smiled cheerfully and said, “OK Steve!”

I then walked back to my desk having absolutely no idea where to begin finding that information. This was 2006, long before ChatGPT could save you from your own confidence.

So I figured it out.

It took me a while. Longer than it would take today. But that assignment gave me confidence that maybe I could figure out the next thing too.

Which happened to be setting up a 1-800 number for a CPG limited-time-offer campaign.

Which led to the next thing.
And the next thing after that.

That’s the real skill advertising gave me: figure-it-out-itive-ness.

Not expertise. Not certainty. Not having the answer immediately.

Just the confidence that even if I didn’t know how to do something yet, I could probably learn.

Twenty years later, that same mindset is giving me the confidence to figure out how to publish and promote a book.

I quickly realized the road to publishing this book, like everything else interesting in life, is not a straight line.

It’s not one workstream. It’s 47.

I’ve been reconnecting with so many people from earlier chapters of my career.

Ashley Schein, an old friend from my CP+B days, used to write country songs with me for fun. She’s a real writer. She edited my book and gave me the confidence to keep pushing it forward.

When it came time for author headshots, I realized I needed photos with the book for press, except I didn’t actually have a printed proof yet.

So I called Guy at Color Correct USA, who helped me figure that one out too. In the process, he somehow remembered my last order from a Burger King shoot in 2009. A deeply charming and oddly specific flashback.

I’m becoming a self-publisher.
Starting an LLC with help from my lawyer husband.
Building an author website.
Creating a multichannel sales strategy using OnPress, IngramSpark, Shopify, and Lulu.
Developing an e-commerce plan.
Event planning.
Writing press releases, articles, and sell sheets.
Focus-grouping with 4-year-olds.
Doing so much cold calling. Truly. So much cold calling.
Building shot lists and rehearsing talking heads.
Triple bidding stuffed animal vendors.
Figuring out most of it with a baby on my hip.

And a few months ago, I realized the idea I had was bigger than a children’s book.

It’s bringing me all the way back to my journalism school days and sparking a community storytelling series I’m currently developing.

Which means I’m once again using the skills I know just enough about to be dangerous:
tripods, microphones, shoot schedules, interview prep, content lists.

Some things I thought I’d figure out myself, like InDesign, I’ve also had the wisdom to outsource.

And that has actually upped my ante on the figure-it-out-itive-ness.

Thanks to my supportive husband, I’ve been able to invest in talented people in my community and hometown. Which means I’m not just figuring out how to build this thing, I’m figuring out how to build it collaboratively.

Looking back, that ice cream sales spreadsheet probably was about the data. Steve genuinely needed the data.

But it was also the first time someone handed me a problem I had no idea how to solve and trusted me to figure it out anyway.

So Steve, thank you for giving me what felt at the time like an impossible task, and for being patient while I figured it out.

And the truth is, I still haven’t figured this all out yet.

The book launches in September. I’m still learning. Still troubleshooting. Still cold calling. Still rewriting plans as I go.

But maybe that’s the fun stuff.

The real value was never just finding the answer.

It was becoming the kind of person who believes they can figure it out.