Albuquerque Journal

One-On-One with Deborah Johnson
By Autumn Gray, Assistant Business Editor

There's really no way to talk with Debbie Johnson, CEO of ad agency Rick Johnson & Company, without getting a little of the Rick.
      
 This is a cosmic pairing, and it might be bad juju for a reporter to separate them even for these purposes.
       
Both were born on June 24, though he's eight years her senior. They grew up on the same street, went to the same schools (Monte Vista Elementary, Jefferson Middle, Highland High School and UNM) and ended up in the same profession, which is how they finally met.
     
  “We actually didn't know each other until adulthood ,” said Debbie, who, to her distaste, was named after actress Debbie Reynolds.
       
“Although I grew up on Wellesley south of Lomas, and he grew up on Wellesley north of Lomas, and so he swears that when I was a Girl Scout, or Brownie, 7 or so, I threw him a bird, or flipped him off, because he used to do little adolescent boy catcalls to girls in uniform, and I used to ride home on my bike in my Brownie uniform. I think I remember him lighting my father's pampas grass on fire because we lived close enough, and in those days, those were childhood pranks. So we just feel like we crossed paths all the way.”
      
 And then there was unity
       
Their company, now 31 years old, was begun by Rick; Debbie came on in 1979 after working for another local ad agency, and after freelance writing for the Associated Press, and after teaching high school seniors. (“It was weird because I was close to their age — 21 — and they were all bigger than I was.”)
      
 The couple have nurtured RJC into the largest ad agency in the state, with capitalized billings of $26 million, 35 employees (more if you count the dogs that come in on Dog Fridays), 1,500 local, national and international awards, and clients spanning five states.
      
 Debbie, who has recently taken on more of the daily operations, talked with the Journal in her company's Northeast Heights office, where colorful Southwest-style furniture and whimsical art makes the conference room feel like a home.
       
       Q: Have you ever considered changing the name of the company to reflect the partnership, your leadership at RJC?
       A: Yes, we have had many, many discussions over the years about changing the name of the company, initiated mostly by Rick, and occasionally by clients or other managers. We have gone back and forth a dozen times, ... but, somewhere along the line we both feel that name stopped being the name of one individual and became the brand of the company. When a brand is rooted and established like that, we would never advise a client to monkey with it, so we followed our own professional advice and left it alone. And, there is also the obvious brand confusion violation that would have ended us in court if it were Johnson and Johnson. ... But today it is a moot point because the company is so much more than the two of us. We have had a true management team in place for over a decade, and they run the agency, and all the work we do is reflective of all the talented people on staff.
       
       Q: How has technology influenced your business?
       A: Over 20 years ago, in a lot of ways, it wasn't more fun, but in a lot of ways it was great fun to make TV commercials because you had to think of stuff. Nowadays, technology lets you do anything. With Photoshop and digital and animation and computers, you can move a mountain. You can do anything you want to do digitally, and 20 years ago you couldn't do that. We wad a lot of fun in the early years — for instance with Wellborn Paint, when they were a company here, a local company, to show paint flowing out of cans. It sounds like it would be easy but the mess we made.
       
       Q: Is there any one campaign or milestone you're particularly proud of?
       A: Being a trailblazer of sorts for businesswomen, in that I have had a few 'firsts' (among a three-page list of varied community work and professional awards). I was the first woman to chair the boards of Albuquerque Economic Development, the UNM Robert O. Anderson Schools of Management Foundation, the statewide Better Business Bureau and the Central New Mexico Komen Foundation. I was also the first female chairman of the board for 55-year-old Worldwide Partners, Inc., (the world's oldest and largest international agency network).
       
       Q: That's quite an honor. What was that like?
       A: It was in the early 90s. When I was elected chairman, the first meeting was in Seoul Korea that I presided over. The Korean Financial Times came to do a story. The translator asked me: “Why are there no men in your organization?” And I said, 'I'm sorry, I don't understand the question. It's full of men. There are plenty of men in the organization.” And they go back to their Korean and he turns back to me and says, “Well the reporter assumes that because you're the chairman, there must not be any men.” It was foreign to them that an international organization would actually elect a woman to be in that position. ... Travel is one of the best ways to learn things.
       
       Q: Have you done a lot of it?
       A: I grew up in a middle class family, and I didn't see the ocean until I was 16 (when she and her family drove across the desert on a family trip to San Diego), and I didn't go to Europe until I was 30. Since then I've been very, very fortunate because we've been all over the world. To this day, I love the ocean. There's something about a body of water that's inexplicably therapeutic. It's interesting — we've lived in houses with and without pools and we don't have a pool now. And I don't miss the swimming in it, but I really miss the looking at it.
       
       Q: You've lived in New Mexico your whole life. Did you ever think about leaving?
       A: Quite a few times. But you know the things that keep you here are the quality of life that you can't find in other places. We could all make more money somewhere else and we could all be in bigger businesses or bigger metropolitan areas but then you couldn't park in front of your building or in your garage for that matter.
       
       Q: What do you think the most defining point in your life has been?
       A: There was some point in my life, but I can't tell you exactly what it was that I realized that I could be more courageous. I was chicken and would never have gone to Europe by myself or even with a girlfriend. At some point along the way, I thought, you know you can do that, and I guess I've not been afraid ever since then to try new things. One of the things we've fantasized about is teaching a class in Italy or something.
       
       Q: A lot of couples could not live and work together so many years and still have those sorts of dreams. Do you ever get sick of each other?
       A: No. Occasionally we give each other a little space but not very often.