in the ad world, and the real world, a lot can happen quickly - in a meeting, at a client dinner, before a pitch etc. one thing you can always rely on is yourself.
when doubt starts to creep in for whatever reason, it's easy to lose sight of yourself. you begin to second guess what you were about to say or how you've phrased your notes. don't. if you aren't convinced of something, neither will others be.
before i started in advertising, a few years ago, i worked a stint for the toronto film festival. sounds glamourous, yes. that's what i thought at first when i accepted a 2-day weekend blitz job as a 'model' for smashbox, getting made-over and then handing out samples of makeup primer at king and spadina. not that glamourous.
before the pre-promo makeover began, i had a gut feeling that it'd end badly. makeup artists see my face as a blank canvas, not an already mapped territory marked with no-fly zones.
upon my return, she noticed immediately that i had wiped her work off. she took great offence. "that's not the look we were going for," she barked at me. apparently she was now a 'we' - actually believable since she was about 100 pounds heavier than i was.
adrenaline pumped through my veins and, the normally non-confrontational me, took a stand. i casually said, and with more attitude than i probably should have had, that i know my style and it didn't look good on me.
stick to your guns. even if you are telling someone else their job, if it's affecting you, you can say something when you know you are right.
how do you know you are right? because you feel it in your core. it hits you with a mixture of adrenaline and confidence. if you can't draw on it, just answer this. do you something about what you're doing? of course you do. now do it.
