Kate Adams: 4 larger-than-life lessons from soap operas
Kate Adams spends her days dissecting digital communications to find a better way to tell brand stories and connect with customers. Full bio
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found herself in quite the pickle.
she married sweet Cord Roberts
Tina loved his money
Tina was pregnant with his baby.
but thinking Cord didn't love her
but he was too late.
and sent over a waterfall.
archaeologist named Kate,
ran into the church holding a baby.
introduced a love story
can be exaggerated, larger than life,
you find that exaggeration fun,
melodramatic or unsophisticated.
their lessons are small or nonexistent.
we can learn from soap operas,
are as big and adventurous
from the bus stop in second grade
of Luke and Laura's wedding,
in "General Hospital" history.
how much I loved my eight years
on "As the World Turns."
to be on soap operas.
with as much intensity,
and find salvation unexpectedly,
we can flip the script,
from these characters
with soap opera lesson one:
was daytime's version of Scarlett O'Hara,
perhaps Erica's most famous scene
or we can stand and fight.
knows this better than most.
the Erica Kane of Silicon Valley.
launched the company
but Tim chose to fight.
and racked up six figures in personal debt
he stood in front of his employees
to sacrifice their salaries,
two million dollars,
whatever is in front of you,
and drop the superiority complex.
of need or fallibility.
as we might like to think.
of "The Bold and the Beautiful"
with the riffraff from the valley,
valley girl Brooke knew it.
of epic fighting,
ourselves vulnerable
for our actions
the CEO of Starbucks.
honesty, and ideas in return.
to be right or safe all the time.
and boring equals fired.
to grow and change.
is played by one person yesterday
have played the same key role
in the character's life and personality.
an essential nugget of Carly in there,
adapted to whomever was playing her.
in our own lives,
around our feet and stay in that spot,
from nursing student to hotel owner,
she got married, moved to France,
culinary school a shot.
revolutionized the way America cooks.
to initiate change in our lives,
and we don't get a heads up.
the air is gone,
for soap opera lesson four:
Stefano DiMera died of a stroke,
plunged into the harbor,
with a brain tumor.
off a catwalk to his death.
meet the big finale.
"As The World Turns," in December 2009,
right into the mountain.
in the middle of a huge recession
were struggling to find work,
and the Brooklyn apartment,
the final episode air,
was not the only fatality.
and living on the second floor
to make anyone feel dead inside.
I had ever learned about soap operas.
and refuse to surrender,
a lot of times across many states.
my mindset, and my circumstances,
resilient, like Stefano,
what looks like an ending,
survived that waterfall,
a cliffhanger hanging,
before the show went off the air in 2012.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Kate Adams - Digital storytellerKate Adams spends her days dissecting digital communications to find a better way to tell brand stories and connect with customers.
Why you should listen
Kate Adams is an advocate of iteration -- testing, learning and refining at each step, both professionally and personally.
Starting in television news and moving to event production, daytime drama and digital marketing, storytelling has always been the common thread. Each job taught her more about the creation and cultivation of story and brand -- and how we use that story arc to build our own journeys.
After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BA in journalism and mass communication, she was the assistant casting director at the Emmy-winning soap opera "As the World Turns" for eight years. She joined the UPS digital communications team in 2011 and is now part of the analytics team for BAMTech, a video-streaming company.
Kate Adams | Speaker | TED.com