Creatives: forget your insecurity and remember you’re awesome
It’s hard to be creative when you’re doubting your own abilities, so keeping positive is the most important thing creatives can do in the face of adversity, writes Siobhan Fitzgerald
You’re stuck. There’s a brief in front of you demanding answers, but the only thing you can conjure up is panic.
Answers flit past your conscious but they’re not the ones you’re looking for: pulling the fire alarm, feigning pneumonia, falling and knocking yourself unconscious to create a diversion from the fact that you’re about to be found out.
I think it was an episode of “Louis” when a character – a writer on a show – said, “The reason I’m good is because I don’t think I am.”
Siobhan, as someone who experiences an acute case of imposter syndrome every time I’m handed a brief, I really appreciated this article.
PS. Gabberish is f**cking fantastic and something the industry has been crying out for.
‘Creatives: forget your insecurity and remember you’re awesome’.
That headline says it all –
-why ‘creatives’ think they and they alone are the font of all knowledge
-why creatives are obsessed with awards [please tell me I’m awesome]
I started as a copywriter without any ad school training or a book. Just a totally unprovable sense of self belief that I knew if i was just given chance, I could make it.
I didn’t have the audacity to even think I was awesome.
But I gambled on myself by asking for a starting paying that was 60% above their last grad hire.
‘I know if I come in cheap, you’ll just put me on small ads and BTL stuff’, I told the ECD. ‘But if I cost more, I know you’ll work the shit out of me to get your money’s worth.’
In 10 months, I won a commendation for Young Writer of the Year at the local gongs. ( I wasn’t awesome enough to beat another who had 3 years of work, despite the rules of a cut off of two years).Had 13 commercials by my 12 month. Won an award with every art director (regardless of vintage) in the creative department and with real clients (without even a scam).
Paranoia and confidence are two sides of the same coin.
Too much of one paralyses action.
Too much of the other makes you a dick to peers.
Stay positive but grounded.
Being a creative is the best job in the world.
But once it starts to feel like a job and you feel you’re struggling, it’s time to make a career change.