IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, TRY, TRY, TRY, TRY, TRY, TRY, TRY AGAIN.

This is for anyone who has ever wanted something really bad, only to get rejected. This is for anyone who is contemplating giving up. This is the story of how to battle rejection and keep pursuing your dreams …no matter what.

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

From the time I graduated from E.C.U. in 1984, I always wanted to work at The Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia. I had seen their work in “Communication Arts” and other award shows and I loved everything they did. They have since become the largest, most-awarded agency in the southeast. They are best known for their smart, humorous work for brands like Geico, Wal-Mart, JFK Library, UPS, Wrangler, Mercedes and more.

In 1988, while working in Atlanta, I finally got up the nerve to send my portfolio to The Martin Agency. After a few weeks, I was excited to see a reply letter in my mailbox. As I ripped open the envelope and began reading, my emotions quickly turned from excitement to embarrassment. It was a rejection letter, with a stinging critique of my work.

It started with a positive statement saying they’d received my book. Unfortunately, that was quickly followed with the word “unfortunately.” After that came the obligatory, “your timing isn’t great.” Then, I read words that would haunt me for quite a while:

“Your ads are a little too self-conscious in a design sense”

“I think you can do more with your craft”

“The puns are pretty awful”

Now, if you haven’t heard, creative people are some of the most insecure people on the planet. And this letter definitely didn’t help. I could have easily been crushed by it.

But, whenever a person faces rejection, they have 2 choices. We can let it deflate us. Or motivate us.

Take Edison, for example. He made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

Have you ever been rejected or turned down? Did you give up after the first try? Are you going to let rejection FOOL YOU (into quitting)? Or FUEL YOU (into action)?

I took the rejection letter as a challenge. The Martin Agency has high standards. I needed to work harder to raise my game if I ever hoped to get my foot in the door there.

So, spurred by rejection, I continued to work on my book and send it to The Martin Agency whenever I could get up the nerve.

Each time I would send it, I would get a rejection letter. But each letter fueled my competitive fire. Getting hired at The Martin Agency had become my life’s mission. So, I kept trying. Year after year …for 7 years straight! I even saved the letters.

Here are just a few of the reasons Martin gave for not hiring me:

“unfortunately, I’ve blown my budget”

“we’re fully staffed”

“we recently hired three new art directors”

“we currently don’t have a position that would be suitable for you”

Had I become a stalker? Did I want a date with a very attractive ad agency and she wasn’t giving me the time of day? I kept writing her year after year, “I like you, do you like me?” She kept checking the “No” box.

And, as if the rejection letters weren’t bad enough, it was about to get worse. In 1992, I was working at Team One in LA. I remember my copywriter partner, Ron Huey, walking into my office and informing me that he had taken a job at another agency. “What agency?” I asked. “The Martin Agency,” he replied. While I was happy for him, it felt like I’d just taken a dagger to the heart. The agency I had been courting for years was now dating my best friend!

At this point, I would’ve had every right to stop my silly, futile pursuit. But, I didn’t.

After taking a 2-year stint as creative director at a small North Carolina agency in 1993, I decided to send my book up to The Martin Agency …again. My ol’ buddy, Ron, who was ACD on Mercedes, got me in the door to interview. I just knew that the stars had aligned and they would offer me the job on the spot.

But, it didn’t happen. Once again, I was told that my “timing just wasn’t right.” My romantic novel about how to court an ad agency was quickly becoming science fiction.

All was not lost, however. In 1995, Ron got me in the door to freelance at The Martin Agency on Mercedes. Afterwards, I freelanced at various agencies around the country like Rubin Postaer, Merkley and TBWA-Chiat/Day.

Little did I know that the tide was about to turn for me. It was at Chiat, in 1996, that I got the opportunity to join some brilliant people and help create some of the best work of my career. It was the kind of work that gets noticed and wins awards. The kind that magazine editors write about and people talk about at the water cooler …even the water cooler at The Martin Agency!

Almost overnight, I was no longer looked at as the dorky kid with tape on his glasses. I was suddenly transformed into a studly super-jock George Clooney look-a-like rock star with washboard abs.

The next thing I know, I’m sitting in Mike Hughes’ office. He and John Adams are offering me a full-time job …and a key to the executive toilet …and a foot massage …and a company Mercedes. Okay, maybe it wasn’t quite like that. But, it seemed like that in my mind.

I remember thinking, The Martin Agency wouldn’t go out on a date with me for 7 years …and now they want to marry me!

Just a few days after meeting with Mike and John, I received a letter from The Martin Agency. Would today be the day? Or would this just be another cruel rejection notice to be tossed in the stack with all the others? To this day, there are no words that can describe the elation I felt as I opened that envelope and read the following sentence:

“Dear John,

“I am pleased to confirm The Martin Agency’s offer of employment to you as a V.P., Associate Creative Director beginning March 17, 1997.”

In one fell swoop, all of the rejection letters seemed to melt away. Everything became crystal clear. Everything had been leading up to this moment. For once, my timing was not only right; it was aligned with the precision of the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute in Geneva.

Do I regret experiencing 7 years of rejection? 7 years of heartache? 7 years of failure? Of course not. As with Edison, it wasn’t 7 years of failure. It was simply a job application that required 7 steps.

What step are you on? Step 1? Step 2? Step 7? Let me know if this inspires you to take the next one. Or, if you have your own story of overcoming difficult obstacles, let me know.

Epilogue:

David Oakley and I opened an office of The Martin Agency together in Charlotte, NC in 1997. We ran it for 3 years, winning several clients and tons of awards. We would fly to Richmond every 3 weeks or so for meetings and presentations. During our tenure, we learned from some of the most intelligent, creative and caring people on the planet. Oakley and I took what we learned in those years and started our own agency, BooneOakley, in 2000. We’ve been in business for over 11 years. Our mission is to create an agency that people dream of working at.

WE FIVE ELVISES

I'm reading a fantastic book called "The Art of The Pitch" by Peter Coughter. Peter is a professor at the prestigious VCU Brandcenter in Richmond, Virginia. He is also a veteran pitch master who trains advertising managers at great ad agencies around the world like Crispin, Goodby, Dentsu, BBDO and many others.

As I got about half-way through Peter's book, I had a flashback. I remembered a time when I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Peter in action. Before BooneOakley, myself and David Oakley were manning a Charlotte outpost of The Martin Agency, the southeast's largest and most-awarded ad agency.

We had somehow managed to weasel our way into a pitch for the Charlotte Hornets account. For 11 years, the Hornets had witnessed sellout crowds. But, after their owner George Shinn went to court for sexually assaulting a former Hornets cheerleader, fan support began to dwindle. Our job wasn't to pass judgement. Our job was to win the account and win the fans back.

Peter was flown down to Charlotte to help us put together a winning pitch. He was the perfect guy for the job. First, he was a presentation guru. But, on top of that, he stood about 6' 7" and was a former basketball player at Princeton. So he not only talked the talk, he walked the walk and could speak from experience.

While Peter was coming up with a winning strategy and presentation, David and I were coming up with several creative campaign ideas. But there's only one that I actually remember. Probably because it was completely insane.

You see, the idea was to personify the names of the opposing teams. For instance, imagine Chicken McNuggets on the court playing basketball. A basketball shoe comes into frame and crushes one of the nuggets. Type comes on the screen: "Hornets vs. The Nuggets."

Another commercial, entitled "Hornets vs. Pacers," featured AMC Pacers sputtering around and dripping oil on the court. A third spot in the campaign opened with several Santa Clauses shooting hoops. It was for, you guessed it, "Hornets vs. The Knicks."

To bring the campaign to life for the pitch, we reached out to a local production company to see if they would shoot one of the spots for us. To our amazement, Susan Cody, the executive producer of Bridge Productions, agreed to shoot it on spec and started making a flurry of phone calls.

The next thing I know, we're in a high school gymnasium with a production crew and lighting equipment. Then, right on cue, our opposing team runs out onto the court.

It's not one ...not two ...but five guys dressed as Elvis! They have the sequined flare pants, the white leather boots, the lambchop sideburns. One of them was known as the "Thai Elvis." They start dribbling basketballs, passing, shooting and (with a help of a ladder) even dunking. They go through a series of warm-up drills, just like an NBA team would before a game. And, of course, after each shot they do a classic Elvis pose. The opposing team's name?

"The Kings."

I don't know what the other agencies presented in their pitches. But I guarantee they didn't present anything like this. And, after the presentation, while the client was deliberating, we sent one of the Elvis Impersonators over to their office with a bouquet of roses. He sang "It's Now Or Never."

Needless to say, we won the account.

But we couldn't have done it without the help of Peter, Susan, Elvis, Elvis, Elvis, Elvis and Elvis.

DON'T JUMP!

While anxiously awaiting to find out if we won the account we just pitched, I'm reminded of some of our early efforts at pitching. Usually the pitches that I felt we did horribly at, we won. And the ones I thought were "in the bag," well ...they weren't. It's so hard to predict. There are so many variables. So many unknowns. And, at best, it's subjective. Even when we win.

One of our very first pitches, 10+ years ago, was for TNT in Atlanta. We were less than a year old, with 3 employees (including the 2 founders) and we were pitching against some of the best agencies in the country, including Goodby Silverstein & Partners. TNT had decided to reprogram their station to be all about "Drama". So, David Oakley and I decided to give the most dramatic presentation of our lives.

First, we decided to turn the conference room on the 6th floor at Turner Broadcasting into a living room ...because that's where people watch TV. So we ordered six La-Z-boy recliners from a local furniture rental store. We also brought in 4' x 8' sheets of wood paneling to cover the walls. Oh, and I disassembled my daughter's trampoline and threw it in the van, too (but more about that later.)

As in every pitch, something is guaranteed to go wrong. And it did. Right when we arrived at TNT's Atlanta headquarters, we were excited to see the rented recliners arrive. But the excitement turned to panic when we realized the recliners were in boxes ...unassembled! With the help of 2 student volunteers, David Oakley, Adam Roth and myself scrambled to assemble 6 recliners faster than robots on an assembly line. The only difference is, robots don't sweat.

As the TNT clients filed into our makeshift, wood-paneled "living room", they sat in cushy recliners and we served them popcorn to begin our presentation. And present, we did. With passion and enthusiasm. Things were starting to go well and we were on a roll.

Our presentation was all about how they should "own" drama. Everything they do should be done in a dramatic way. But, right when were were about to unveil our big idea, there was a commotion outside. We ran over to the window and looked down. The clients got out of their comfy recliners and joined us by the window. They couldn't believe what they saw.

Down below on the sidewalk, 3 firemen were holding a safety net. The fire chief was looking up and yelling through a bullhorn, "Don't jump! Sir, step away from the ledge! Do NOT jump!!!

What was going on? Right in the middle of our presentation about drama, it looked as if someone was going to jump off the roof of the 12-story TBS building.

"Sir! Step back! Do not jump!!!", the bullhorn continued to blare.

As we all had our faces glued to the window, the unthinkable happened. A human body flew past us at 100-mph. We couldn't believe what we had seen. Startled, we all looked down. To our amazement and relief, the firemen had caught the body in their safety net.

After what seemed like an eternity, the client whispered, "What just happened?"

Without missing a beat, we simply replied, "TNT needs to be just as dramatic as that."

The clients' eyes lit up. "You guys were in on this, weren't you?"

"Yep. We set the whole thing up", we replied. "One of our art directors, Adam Roth, threw a blow-up doll off the roof. The firemen are student volunteers from a local ad school. Oh, and the safety net is my daughter's trampoline."

They laughed, probably more out of relief than actually thinking it was funny. And, after the presentation ended, we thought for sure we had won.

But we didn't.

Goodby did.

As bold as our presentation was, theirs was, apparently, even bolder. They presented an idea where TNT would announce their new positioning by shutting the station down for an entire day. They would go dark for a full 24 hours! Then, after getting everyone's attention, they would come back on air as a whole new station.

And, thus, the "We Know Drama" tagline was born. And it's still in use today.

Every time I see it, I think of the day we gave the most dramatic pitch of our lives. It's something that I'll never forget. And, I'm pretty sure they won't either.

BALL FOUR

Our agency just finished pitching an important account. For many days, we put our heart and soul into the pitch and I am really proud of our efforts. We did our best and now we're just hoping that the client will choose us. It's hard to know exactly what the client is looking for in a pitch because creativity is so subjective. As we're waiting on pins and needles to get the call from the client to find out if we've won or not, I received an email from a good friend of mine, Michael Folino, who freelanced on the pitch. It really put things in perspective for me. Here it is:

Hey, John,

My favorite book of all time is BALL FOUR. It's the journal of a once great...now mediocre knuckleball pitcher in 1969.

He talks about his old pitching coach, Johnny Sain (a Southerner). And Sain had a saying called, "The cool of the evening."

It's the feeling you have when you pitched a good game.
It didn't matter if you won or lost. Just the satisfaction of a job well done.

Give me a shout when you can. Would love to hear more about it.

But for now, enjoy the cool of the evening, John.

--Michael

Thanks, Michael, for the timely email. We did pitch a good game. It was a job well done. And regardless of the outcome, we will enjoy "the cool of the evening."