2 Weeks Of Greatness

Wow, I haven't updated in quite a bit...but for good reason.

I feel a shift at work and I'm pushing for it. More responsibility - check, new role - getting there, redefining how I get work - it's all kind of moving around.

I've wanted this for a while on my own account but I didn't think much about getting in to this role simply by helping one of the other planners out. So there was too much work on one of our clients going down all at once - it's called '09 Planning - and I was in the right place, asking for the right things, at the right time.

Before I knew it, an entire brand was handed over to me, research on another brand was conducted, and I was full-on planner in an instant. I reviewed client direction, did some searching on the target, and wrote a brief. That in itself was wonderful and I was appreciative of the experience. My brief was received very well as written, and only minor adjustments were made before I got to brief creatives.

Okay, so my first brief writing experiences weren't great. I was very disappointed but what could I do? The time was over and had left the building. But all of the sudden I got to redeem my "first" experiences by doing a creative briefing all on my own. Now that was a first that went very well and renewed my faith in my abilities as a planner. I had a great first briefing experience! Woo!

So I got to write a whole brief, do a briefing - wow, thank you! Wait, there's more??

Planning for the next year is like a sped-up version of what we do all year long. It goes from client briefing, to research on the target and creative brief, then the briefing, creative development and internal review, and a final presentation deck. But they're big, broad overarching communications platforms that will direct the work done for next year. Oh, did I mention this all occurs within about a 2-week period? Yeah, crazy!

So my last two weeks have been packed solid with meetings, brainstorms, conference calls, researching, idea formation, strategic feedback, and deck writing. I have not stopped since 3 Friday's ago when I was sitting in a fellow planner's office talking about wanting more responsibility and more opportunities to do plannerly work.

And here I am on the other side just so thankful that I got the opportunity to work on such a cool project. I learned so much about what I should do at certain times in the process as a planner, but also got to put that learning to the test as I was at that instant also supposed to do what I was learning.

The other great thing about this whole experience was that I was working for a team that LOVES having a planner. And they were extra excited because they got the help of TWO planners during this process. They wanted me to be involved, they invited me to every meeting, they valued my feedback and considered it a very important part of what we were doing. I was asked questions, people looked to me for the important solutions, and I became a planner.

I know I talk a lot about not quite feeling like a planner, having moments where I kinda feel like a planner, and I've been told that I am a planner, but I needed to see it to believe it and I also needed to be able to live it. And I was. :) So it's official - I'm a planner.

Going forward, I will be this same planner. My tasks will change but I should come at it with that same confidence every time. That's part of what I was lacking.

I will stress the importance of becoming more involved and I intend on that happening.

It's a new day, the emergence of a new role, and I'm very excited about the possibilities.