We recently connected with Lovelace Cook and have shared our conversation below.

Lovelace, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s talk about innovation. What’s the most innovative thing you’ve done in your career?

Years ago I launched a small sales promotion & marketing communications business in New York City and was incredibly fortunate when I landed CBS as a client. One sales promotion project I created was for their Primetime Animation Programming to sell advertising spots. I envisioned a colorful promotion that had a vastly different look from their traditional buttoned-down promotion packages. I engaged freelancers—an artist, Marvel Comics illustrator Joey Cavalieri, and a copywriter—to produce a sales kit with Snoopy dancing across piano keys on the front and a comic book with their marketing statistics. It was fun, bold, and wildly successful—their inventory of ad spots sold out.

Lovelace, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As a life-long creative, I came to an awful awareness several years ago. I felt as if I’d lost the woman who loved adventure and dared to challenge herself. I had sung and played blues guitar in Charlottesville, VA. I’d gone to New York City to work with publishing and television. I had landed work on a Warner Brothers movie and moved to Los Angeles where I studied screenwriting at UCLA and the American Film Institute. Perhaps I’m more of a fools-rush-in kind of person. I’ve been willing to take risks most of my life and felt that if something didn’t work (I didn’t call it failure), I figured something else would.

In 2011, I asked myself where the adventurous woman I’d been had disappeared. I knew that I was the only person who could find her again. So I asked the universe to help me get out of the rut my life had become. Perhaps I should have been more specific because the universe delivered a curveball. I learned it’s never too late for love or a rite of passage. When I was eligible for social security, I traveled through India like a twenty-year-old on a gap year with an Englishman who loved wild camping. Over several years, we spent time in Cornwall, U.K., returned to India, and traveled through Southeast Asia. While the Englishman is no longer a part of my life, the misadventures became the book I published in 2023—MEET ME IN MUMBAI.

I am an on-call disaster worker—a public information officer for the Office of Disaster Assistance. In 2019, I was working in Mississippi, driving to different locations, and listening to Joanna Penn’s podcast about podcasting. I hatched a plan then to brand myself, taking into consideration the book I was writing. I decided I needed a podcast, but I didn’t know where to begin. During the pandemic, I took Seth Godin’s AKIMBO podcasting courses, and I learned how to do audio recording and editing. I launched my podcast BOLLYWOOD AND BOOKS about literature I discovered while traveling through India. I created it, in part, to gain listeners and build an audience before publishing MEET ME IN MUMBAI. The podcast led to interviews and opportunities to speak at writing conferences and moderate a panel of Pan-Asian authors. I continue to use my marketing experience to promote myself, my podcast, and my book. As a later-in-life podcaster and author, I am proud of my accomplishments. I hope I can be an example to others that it’s never too late to learn something new and stretch beyond one’s comfort zone.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

In the past four years, I’ve learned more than I could have imagined through the wit and wisdom of Steven Pressfield. His books, weekly newsletter, and YouTube videos are full of gems that drive my thinking. For example, Pressfield’s book THE WAR OF ART about resistance and how it blocks us as creatives or entrepreneurs is a goldmine. I studied Seth Godin’s book THE PRACTICE with a group we call “The Idea Club.” Pressfield wrote, “THE PRACTICE is a user’s manual for finding your calling and an alchemist’s handbook for pursuing your dream.” More recently, I discovered clinical psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula through her podcasts and YouTube channel. Dr. Ramani is a wonderful resource for guidance about healing from narcissistic relationships. I’ve bought her books SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO (2015) and IT’S NOT YOU (2024) for friends after devouring them.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In my career transition from marketing business owner in New York City to screenwriting in Los Angeles, I had to lose my business—not through mistakes on my part, but world events—a stock market crash and a war in the Middle East. What I did defined who I was and losing it all allowed me to discover that who I was wasn’t what I did. I left NYC with my tail between my legs and started doing temp work to survive. I had spoken with a literary agent who, after reading some of my short stories, suggested I try my hand at screenplay treatments. Since I knew nothing about writing screenplays, I saved money and traveled to hear Robert McKee talk about his book STORY STRUCTURE. Through persistence and badgering film producer Peter MacGregor-Scott, I made my way onto a Warner Brothers production as an assistant to the screenwriter. Things went well and I met a lot of people in the film industry. I made my way to Los Angeles by way of film work in New Orleans—but not before having to sell my beautiful 1919 L-4 Gibson archtop guitar, my Nikon photography equipment, and…well, you get the picture, I’m sure. I did temp jobs in Los Angeles, one of which was on the Sony Music Campus for the launch of the first PlayStation. Doing temp work allowed me to take night classes at UCLA and the American Film Institute. I’ve learned transitions are bloody, but I’ve also learned to pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again more than once in life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lovelacecook.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovelace.cook/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lovelace.cook
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lovelacecook/
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@lovelacecook

Image Credits
Author photo by Stephen Savage.