HATTIE: From her Miami headquarters with satellite offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Detroit and New York, Tere's 70-person team works to craft the precise message that will speak the language of its target market.

HATTIE: In 1973, Tere opened her own ad agency with the encouragement of friends who loaned her office space and a typewriter. Today, she owns this building and will handle $80 million in billings for a list of blue chip companies, including American Airlines, Ford Motor Company and S.C. Johnson, maker of Windex, Ziploc, Pledge and many other consumer products.

TERESA: First, my husband started a small business of his own which really didn't go very well. So one day, he said to me, `I think that you should look for a job'--I had secretarial skills--`because we have to declare bankruptcy.' And as a typical, obedient Cuban wife, I looked for secretarial opportunities in the classifieds. The first attempt I made was an insurance agency. Believe it or not, they did not hire me because I was Cuban. The second job I went to was an advertising agency. And I didn't know anything about advertising. I didn't even know how to use an electric typewriter because I had learned on a manual. And the person that interviewed me--everything he asked me--he would say, `Do you know anything about advertising?' And my answer would be, `I don't know, but I'll learn,' and so forth. And every time he--`I don't know, but I'll learn.' So that was a Friday. And Monday morning, I get the call that I got the job. And then I asked later on--Mr. Gilmore, who was my boss, Al Gilmore--I said, `Why did you hire me?' He said, `Because I have never met a more honest answer in interviewing any person, because you did not try to fool me. You know, you were straightforward and said, "I don't know, but I will learn."'

HATTIE: Did he go on to say, `I want to hire people who want to learn'?

TERESA: Yes. When I told my husband and my father that I was going to start my own business, they both told me, `You'll never make it because you're a Cuban and you're a woman.' And that's precisely where I saw the opportunity because I figured I'm a woman, I'm 34-years-old. I am the primary target for any kind of advertising, you know. Women 25 to 49--that's the target for anything.