SPOTLIGHT: Linda Kaplan Thaler

The Grit Behind the Greatness: Linda Kaplan Thaler on Resilience, Kindness and Success

Written by Katrina Machetta

When Linda Kaplan Thaler turned in one of her first assignments at J. Walter Thompson, she was convinced she had written the best five-second Kodak announcements for Kmart stores imaginable.

Her boss, Ruth Downing Karp, had a different assessment: They were terrible.

The copy ran longer than five seconds and, more importantly, failed to tell customers where they could actually find the Kodak film. With the client arriving in half an hour, Kaplan Thaler had little time to dwell on the criticism. She simply went back to work.

As she walked out of the office to rewrite the assignment, Karp stopped her with an unexpected prediction: One day, Kaplan Thaler would have her own advertising agency.

It wasn’t because of the work she had just submitted. It was because of how she responded when that work failed.

“She said, ‘I saw somebody who was very resilient because you didn’t dissolve into a puddle on the floor when I criticized that your work was no good,’” Kaplan Thaler recalls. “This business is all about stamina, grit and getting up and doing it over and over again.”

Decades later, Karp’s prediction proved remarkably prescient.

Kaplan Thaler went on to become one of advertising’s most recognizable creative forces, helping create campaigns that became fixtures of American culture, from the Aflac duck to Clairol Herbal Essences’ “Yes, Yes, Yes” campaign. She founded the Kaplan Thaler Group in 1997 and grew it to more than $1 billion in media billings before its 2012 merger with Publicis New York. Along the way, she became an Advertising Hall of Famer, bestselling author and recipient of NYWICI’s Matrix Award.

Yet when Kaplan Thaler reflects on what propelled that career, she doesn’t begin with creativity or talent. She begins with grit.

The Talent of Getting Back Up

Kaplan Thaler defines grit as “guts, resilience, initiative and tenacity,” qualities she believes can matter more over the course of a career than credentials or natural ability.

“I am going to put my money on the person in this room who is going to get up every time they’re knocked down,” she says of the advice she gives young professionals. “They’re going to keep getting up, getting up and getting up.”

That philosophy shaped the way she approached her own work.

Early in her career, Kaplan Thaler worked for James Patterson, long before he became one of the world’s most successful authors. When given an assignment, she rarely returned with only what had been requested. She would stay up working and arrive with the requested script alongside several alternatives she believed were even stronger.

“I never stopped trying to be the best writer I could possibly be, the funniest writer I could, the most emotional writer I could ever be,” she says. “It wasn’t because I was more talented than somebody else. I just worked so damn hard on everything.”

For Kaplan Thaler, preparation and persistence aren’t the less glamorous companions to talent. They are often what allow talent to become meaningful.

Building a Culture Where Everyone Wins

The lessons that shaped Kaplan Thaler’s leadership began long before she ran an agency.

When she was about seven years old, she visited her father’s office and watched him offer his assistant, Betty, a cup of coffee. Confused, Kaplan Thaler asked why he was getting coffee for his secretary rather than the other way around.

His answer stayed with her.

“The people who are your support staff enable you to do your jobs better than you ever thought possible,” she remembers him telling her. “So my job is to make sure that Betty has coffee or anything else that is going to make her life easier.”

Years later, she carried that philosophy into the Kaplan Thaler Group.

Respect wasn’t dependent on a person’s title. Mistreating an assistant, messenger or junior employee could be taken more seriously than making a professional mistake. And when the agency won an account, the victory didn’t belong only to the few people who made the pitch.

“The messenger, the assistant, the graphic designer, the producer—everybody was part of it,” Kaplan Thaler says. “Everybody felt like when we won something, they all won it.”

It was a leadership model rooted in kindness rather than intimidation. While some doubted whether that approach could succeed in the intensely competitive advertising industry, Kaplan Thaler says it helped create extraordinary loyalty as the agency rapidly grew.

Today, some of the employees she once managed have become leaders themselves. Hearing that they have carried those values into their own organizations, she says, remains one of the most meaningful parts of her legacy.

Redefining What It Means to Win

One of Kaplan Thaler’s most enduring leadership lessons came from an unlikely teacher: her young son, Michael.

A gifted chess player, Michael was competing for the first-grade title when his opponent forgot to press his chess clock. Had Michael stayed silent, the other child would have run out of time and Michael would have won.

Instead, he alerted his opponent to the mistake. The other boy went on to win.

Afterward, Kaplan Thaler told her son how proud she was but pointed out that he could have won had he said nothing.

His response was simple: “Oh, Mommy, that’s not really winning.”

The phrase followed her into the business world.

When she later founded her agency, Kaplan Thaler made clear that winning an account by lying, maligning a competitor or behaving dishonestly would never qualify as success.

“Sometimes our biggest lessons are from the smallest teachers,” she says.

Thirty Seconds of Wisdom

Kaplan Thaler is now distilling those lessons into her latest chapter.

Her first solo book, My Life in 30 Seconds, draws from the people, challenges and unexpected moments that shaped her career. The format is fitting for someone who spent decades mastering the art of communicating an idea within the length of a television commercial.

Some lessons came from advertising icons and cultural figures. Working with Stevie Wonder, for example, taught Kaplan Thaler that even when something feels perfect, there is value in going back and asking how it could become better.

Others came from bosses, colleagues, family members and moments that seemed ordinary until years later.

Together, they point toward a definition of success that has less to do with a flawless ascent than with how someone works, responds to failure and treats the people around them.

For young women entering communications at a moment when industries, technologies and career paths are constantly changing, Kaplan Thaler’s message is reassuringly timeless: You don’t need to begin as the smartest or most naturally gifted person in the room.

You need to be willing to prepare, keep learning and get back up.

After all, the assignment Kaplan Thaler’s first boss called terrible wasn’t evidence that she wouldn’t succeed. Her willingness to rewrite it was evidence that she would.

For Kaplan Thaler, sharing those lessons doesn’t end with the book. She looks forward to speaking about My Life in 30 Seconds with organizations and audiences interested in the stories and lessons behind it—and she welcomes hearing from readers.

Readers can learn more about Linda Kaplan Thaler, connect with her or inquire about speaking engagements through her website. My Life in 30 Seconds is also available on Amazon.