How Nike’s Famous Slogan Helped Me Get My First Byline

My first regular byline resulted from a Nike-inspired decision to Just Do It, sweaty palms, queasy stomach, dry mouth, and all. That slogan never meant anything to me until that day. My goal was to get a single humor piece into the local weekly paper.

It was the early 90’s and I was working as a temp for the paper. I was designing ads not writing articles. The paper’s office was located in a small converted house. Writers were crammed into the converted garage. The graphics group, all two of us, were in the old dining room. The salespeople were on top of each other in one of the bedrooms and the Editor had his own bedroom, or rather office. There was also a freelance photographer, a receptionist/circulation manager, and a distribution crew.

All in all, there were maybe 20 people in close quarters, and like any close-quarters situation, there was a hierarchy. As a temp, I was mostly oblivious to the hierarchy. As a wannabe writer, I was fully aware. Editor on top then writers then everyone else.

By this point, I had published one article in a local magazine called Bend of the River. The article was about my husband’s Grandmother. She had worked as a welder on the United States Coast Guard Icebreaker, the Mackinaw, during WWII.

My Mackinaw article was not a humorous piece. It was a heavily researched piece, so heavily researched that I ended up temporarily stymied by the sheer volume of my notes. It was a classic case of research ADD. Eventually, I got it under control and submitted an article that got accepted quickly and was barely edited. I made $35 and was on Cloud Nine.

In the midst of my Mackinaw stymie, I let off some steam with my first humorous piece. ATMs were making their way into daily life and required a thing called a PIN. At the time PINs and passwords were “randomly selected” and arrived in the mail in an easily identifiable top-secret mailer.

The whole thing seemed absurd to me. I wrote up my take on PINs and passwords. Out of nowhere, the Nike slogan, Just Do It, got stuck on repeat in my mind. After several days, with my newfound Nike-inspired confidence, I strolled into the Editor’s office and dropped my two double-spaced pages onto his desk.

He, of course, wasn’t there.

The next day he called me into his office.

“Can you do this once a week?” he asked.

“Of course,” I replied hoping my shaky voice didn’t betray my newfound confidence.

“Ok, let’s see how it goes.”

And that was it.

Suddenly I found myself a humor columnist for a weekly paper with a circulation of about 35,000. I wrote that column into the late 2000s. Much to my surprise I developed a fan base and was frequently recognized at Wendy’s drive-thru. The big-time doesn’t get much bigger than Wendy’s drive-thru.

My stint as a humor columnist would’ve never happened if I hadn’t decided to let Nike’s famous slogan, Just Do It, inspire me all those years ago. Thanks Nike.

I carry a warm spot in my heart for that editor. He barely knew my name when he gave me the opportunity for a weekly byline. He was the first person to consider me a real writer. I am forever grateful.