9 Things I Learned About Business and Marketing in 38 Years in the World Of “Mad Men”

My AA degree in commercial art — what they called it before “graphic design” — gave me entrée into my first advertising job in the art department of a boutique ad agency in Los Angeles.

Typical of the “Mad Men” era, in the 60s ad agency art departments were called, “the bull pen” because commercial artists were men.

I suspect I was hired because “women work cheaper.” But that’s another story…

Three years later I moved to Las Vegas where I subsequently spent 38 years in advertising, marketing, and public relations.

It was all quite a learning experience, to say the least.

Here are my seven most important business takeaways from 38 years in the world of “Mad Men.”

Lesson # 1 — Keep your overhead low

If you are an entrepreneur, there will be abundant times and there will be lean and mean times.

No matter how much news you watch, how connected you are in your community, and how much you rely on your lawyers and accountants, no one can predict when your abundance of clients will come and when a pool of new clients will dry up.