Margie Bowles, PhD

I attribute my success to professionalism and really having respect for the client, understanding what they're trying to achieve and putting yourself in their shoes. I think that's incredibly important. The advice I've given to so many clients is that companies always want to talk about how great they are, how great their product is or their services, but your customer base out there only cares about what's in it for them. So you have to put yourself in their shoes. As marketing writers, we had to find that balance between reaching out to customers and drawing them in with something that was meaningful to them, but then also satisfying our clients' needs and desires to raise the bar on their products or service. Bridging that gap was really critical. I also believe in the art of listening, not just hearing things, but body language and word choice, trying to get beneath the surface. That was one reason why my company did so well. I never hired straight-out-of-school junior writers. I always wanted to hire writers that had experience because I needed to know that they could go in there and listen the right way. It wasn't about their writing, it was about what the client needed.

The best career advice I ever received was probably from my mom as I was thinking about going to college. I wanted to major in art, and she said, 'Margie, artists don't make any money.' I thought, okay, but I really want to go into art. Then I discovered advertising design and followed that niche. Eventually, I showed my portfolio to an agency creative director, and I had not only designed all the ads in my portfolio but had written the headlines and whatever in them. He said, 'Well, you know, we really love your book, but right now we don't need an art director, we need a writer. Would you be willing to join us as a writer?' I said sure, and that's when I realized what I should have been doing all my life. I found my niche, thanks to somebody else.

For women, I would say put the job first, not the relationships, because that can get a little sticky sometimes. I also think it's important to understand the difference between working environments. I once told a young gal who was leaving our agency to go work at some big corporate company that when you work in an ad agency or a design studio, everybody's working together to make the client look good. But when you're working for a corporation, which I have, everybody's trying to make themselves look good, and they will throw you under the bus in a New York minute. So you have to be aware of that and understand there's a lot of political stuff going on in the corporate world, depending on the company. It's not universal, but in an agency or a studio, I do believe it is universal that everybody is working really hard to make the client look good, because that's where they know their future jobs are coming from, the recommendations or additional projects in the future.

I think for me, the challenge is staying connected. Being kind of an introvert by nature, I know that I have to be the one a lot of times who just reaches out and stays in touch. If nothing else, just to maintain friendships. It's not necessarily to get more work, but in addition to doing freelance work for the gal, my employee who bought my company, I still get calls from former clients that I've known for decades. That's wonderful. Those are the kind of relationships we were really fortunate to be able to create and maintain over the years. So I think the opportunity is just staying connected, but that's also the challenge, being the one to make sure that happens.

In my work, I think there's a couple of things. One, of course, is professionalism and really having respect for the client, understanding what they're trying to achieve and putting yourself in their shoes. I think that's incredibly important. Companies always want to talk about how great they are, but your customer base only cares about what's in it for them, so you have to put yourself in their shoes. As marketing writers, we had to find that balance between reaching out to customers and drawing them in with something meaningful to them, while also satisfying our clients' needs and desires to raise the bar on their products or service. Bridging that gap was really critical. For my personal values, I think it's just being true to yourself, understanding that nobody's perfect, not even you. But there are certain things that you do value, and honesty, loyalty, and empathy, I think in my personal life, those are the three biggies.