I’m wearing a t-shirt today that was a gift from Deepika Ross. Deepika is an artist and illustrator and regular source of inspiration. She’s the kind of collaborator that is so good and so fast that it’s like getting caught in a creative riptide from which you don’t want to be rescued.

When I met Dee she was a creative director with Madison Avenue credentials and some big-name clients in her portfolio. I was the vice president of marketing for the global leader in aviation and aerospace education and not one to be easily swayed by a t-shirt or coffee mug. She could have sent me the standard e-mail with a link to her portfolio which was, by any standard, great. Perhaps I would have opened it and spent a few minutes. Perhaps not. Either way, it’s harder to ignore a large elegant envelope in your inbox that clearly didn’t come from Amazon. And, when out pops some soft cotton stuff that could double as sleepwear, you might as well take a minute to read the handwritten note.

Dee actually sent me a few t-shirts, all with concepts she thought might appeal to young people interested in aviation. She didn’t ask me for a meeting or send me a PowerPoint with her best ideas. She put them on the shirts. Each had an original illustration and a saying like ‘Inner Space’ or ‘But, It is Rocket Science’ or ‘Explorers Wanted.’ Her note said she’d been thinking about our recent conversation and decided to take a trip to the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. (by the way, she lives in New York). It had inspired her to sketch a few things and she put them on some t-shirts. My brain did a ‘wow, that’s a lot of mojo.’ OK, you’ve got my attention.

Fast forward a few calls, one RFP, an onsite visit, a few tight deadlines and an even tighter budget. Deepika had still not landed us as a big client. Getting consensus on such things in higher education is a bit like passing an omnibus spending package in Congress. You have to experience it to understand it. But, when the inevitable holiday weekend boomerang came at me for a full-page ad and I needed the superpower rocket boosters to Mars and back with my creative staff on vacation, whom did I call? Right – the one who sent me the t-shirts.

We spent a long weekend on the phone and emailing and I said things – Oh, and one more thing, can you please get all three campus names in there without using any of the logos so I won’t offend anyone? And, for God’s sake, please don’t use an airplane – we already own that space. Put us in space, outer space. Oh, and can I have it by noon please? She nailed it. And, then we hired her to create a major publication for a department that needed some new messaging and materials. She nailed that, too.

So, the lesson for me is if you are going to send a t-shirt, your execution and timing better be flawless. Don’t skimp on the packaging either. Shoot for a Friday afternoon and worry about the thread count. That t-shirt might very well still get worn three years later during a global pandemic reminding the person you are still out there. Or, it might just be hanging on the person’s office door reminding them that their own good ideas need some mojo, too.

I love this t-shirt. It reminds to be a little more Deepika-ish in everything I do.

It also reminds me that extra effort can and will make all of us – GO PLACES.