Today in class, we got the opportunity to present our month-long ideas in a final one-minute web video. I felt as if it was the time to showcase our little baby that we had been working on for awhile now. As we sat in class, I knew my group and I were thinking: "Is there more we could have done?" "What if we included more peripheral cues?" "Will the audience feel the emotion we attempted to evoke in them?" A million and one questions come flooding in as the time comes to present. How do we know if your idea is the best idea?
I believe people fear sharing their ideas because of rejection. Human beings are terrified of being rejected. It could be rejection from a romantic interest or rejection from a job interview. Humans do not like to hear that there is something out there that is better than us. That is where the fear comes from. I have a real life example that pertains to my PR/Marketing internship over the summer in Boston, MA. Over the course of the summer, myself and three other interns had a project. We were given one of their clients (The University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business) and then told to do a promotional campaign for them. We were also told that the last day of my internship we had to present our campaign pitch to the CEO and the other executives. Yes, I was nervous. (Now that I think about it, having my Campaign Planning and Management class before my internship would have been a lot of help!) The reason I was so nervous is because I was terrified to get rejected of our ideas by the CEO, Joan Schneider. She is a Public Relations and Integrated Marketing Communications guru!
The presentation day came and I could not think straight. Obviously they had to schedule the presentation at the end of the day, which made me even more nervous as the day progressed. Once the presentation concluded and my palms stopped sweating, Joan looked at us and said: "This is brilliant." Who would've thought?! This is the reason why I should not fear my creative ideas because confidence can result in the best ideas I've ever thought of. However, if I were to have been rejected, I cannot lose sight on the fact that the BIG idea comes from the generate of millions of smaller ideas. Throughout my entire career I am going to develop my best, most creative ideas, but, at the same time, I will come up with some lame ones, too.
I believe as I get older and more confident in my creative work I won't be scared to share my ideas to others. As long as I can confidently explain the vision in my head, then others will follow along with me. After developing and filming a web video for Oreos, I realized how difficult it is to get what is going on in my head into a video/commercial. The ultimate goal is for others to see the vision that I see, which is another fear in sharing my ideas.
It seems as if I chose the industry that is all about sharing ideas and being creative. If I am afraid to share my ideas, how will I succeed? Confidence is key. Professor Spotts showed my class different visuals provided by creative from ad agencies. What I took from that is that little ideas ultimately develop the big idea. It is important not be to discouraged by the failure of the smaller ideas because they only lead to the big idea, which will be the best idea.
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