Gaining Confidence as a Marketing Student
By: Jessica Hochanadel
No matter who you are, confidence is a quality you either possess or desire. Temporary feelings of inadequacy simply make us human! It is a myth that people are just born with confidence, it’s not something predetermined by our genes. Confidence is an attribute within us that we have the power to reshape repeatedly throughout our lives. This blog will focus on how I have been able to increase self-confidence as a marketing student, and how increasing your own confidence will benefit you professionally.
Three Steps to Build Confidence
1. Banish Negative Self-Talk.
We are often our own toughest critics. Think about how you deliver criticism to a colleague and compare that to how you deliver criticism to yourself. I would be willing to bet one sounds a lot nicer than the other. I am going to admit this step is difficult, but it really does pay off.
2. Learn.
You cannot be confident in something you are not knowledgeable about. Gaining knowledge can be done through research, talking to colleagues, listening to podcasts, watching informative videos, and most importantly going to class! As I get further into the marketing program my fear of the unknown has continually decreased. After taking Marketing 381 and 382 is when I truly started to feel good about my marketing abilities. The knowledge I learned from those classes really pushed me to want to learn more, which is when I started supplementing my learning with some of the resources I listed above. Fear is often what gets in between me and my confidence. These fears are things like not knowing how to perform a task, not knowing what questions to ask, or simply not understanding something. Learning as much as I can about marketing has helped me combat these fears!
3. Practice the Things You are Not Confident Doing.
You have heard it a million times, practice makes perfect. Well, in the case of increasing confidence we are striving for comfortability and progress rather than unobtainable perfection. The annual SMA Case Competition is a great way to practice your marketing skills in a setting outside of the classroom! The Case Competition provides students with the opportunity to put what they have been learning to the test and get feedback from real world professionals. The more familiar we are with certain tasks and goals the more confident we will feel.
How Confidence Will Help You in The Workplace
In the professional world, self-confidence is crucial. It affects the way we communicate, how we go about performing tasks, and what risks we are willing to take. According to Charlie Houpert, the author of “Charisma on Command”, confidence not only makes us feel good but also gives us the ability to create tangible improvements in our lives. Confidence will help you in the workplace is by improving your performance quality. Many studies have proven that how you feel does have an influence on how you perform. Confidence will also make you more willing to learn from failures rather than avoiding them. Having the ability to learn and grow from their failures will make you more valuable for your employer as you will continue to improve.
Another aspect in which confidence will benefit you in the workplace is how vocal you are about concerns or ideas. Speaking up is an important skill to possess in the workplace. Vocalizing your opinion or asking a question whether it be in a meeting or an interview will benefit your career. Having confidence in the workplace will allow you to communicate more effectively.
The steps listed above will help you build your confidence, they really helped me! Once you are truly confident in yourself and abilities you will see the world in a more optimistic light. Good luck!