The power of being yourself
“The most important thing for us to do is be ourselves, connect with the talent, and stay in the moment.”
This is a sentence I said to my co-producer the day before we went on set for a seven-day project interviewing high-level athletes. Looking back at this, I can’t imagine a better job than one that requires me to be myself and stay in the moment.
But it wasn’t always like this.
Looking back even further, I can remember a time when the opposite was true. I would take a deep breath before freelance meetings and say to myself, just fake it til you make it. If they ask you to do something you don’t know how to do, you can figure it out later. Just tell them you can do it. Don’t lose this client. Don’t screw this up.
If those last few sentences made you sweat, imagine how sweaty I was, pretending to know things I didn’t just to win business. My creative freelance journey had plenty of pitfalls, and you can read more about those here if you like. But the important thing for you to understand is that I wouldn’t have made it to this point of “being myself” if I hadn’t met Chadwick.
Chadwick is a producer, director, and owner of the creative agency West. He makes great work, and has hired me for a few projects. But before he ever hired me, I sent him a cold email asking to buy him lunch. I was working for a friend at another small production company, and I wanted to know how we could grow our business. I asked Chadwick all sorts of questions over a burger and a beer about the things I should say to win business. He told me the best piece of advice I’ve ever heard.
“You just need to be yourself. If you’re not being yourself, you’re not coming across well, and you’re not having fun.”
This hit deep. All this time, I was searching for the right thing to say so I wouldn’t be discovered as an imposter. Chadwick didn’t give me any lines to recite. He gave me the confidence I needed to become the best version of myself. He showed me that if I couldn’t make it in this industry by being myself, I shouldn’t be in this industry at all.
So I tried it. I tried being myself. I made all the dumb little jokes that I always wanted to in client meetings. I treated vendors with understanding and compassion. I connected with talent not as a “cool producer” but as myself. As Reese Hopper. Guess what happened? My clients laughed at my dumb jokes. My vendors went the extra mile to make sure my projects stayed under budget. The talent looked me in the eye, and went deep in interviews for me.
And the most important thing? I’m having more fun now than I ever did before.
Never underestimate the power of being yourself. If your industry won’t let you be yourself then get out of that industry. It’s not a worthy trade off. But before you leave, just give it a try. Try being yourself. I’m willing to bet that your industry will accept you for who you are. Because a confident, self-assured, happy person is always accepted.
