Taking the W

5 months. 20 google doc pages. 110 slides. 3 videos. It all comes down to the 10-minute pitch in front of 8 judges who want to be impressed.

April 25th my copywriter Caleb and I found out that we will be presenting our One Club/TOMS pitch at the 2017 One Show Young Ones Client Pitch Competition (it’s a mouthful). Both of us completely forgot that we applied, because we didn’t place as finalists in the main Young Ones competition. We were only given a week to make a cohesive deck to stun the judges.

This felt like the real #adlife alumni tell you about. Real problem-solving, fast turn-around and high expectations. And of course, the part when you feel prouder than ever of representing your school, right after they say, “University of Oregon, come on up!”

And then you wait. I took a 2-hour walk around Little Italy and Nolita, anxious, and trying to not think about the outcome. It’s a weird state when you have a flashback to when you started working, to how you overcame the creative blocks, and how you first showed complete pieces to your peers.

Finally, there’s the “moment of truth”. When you get the news and it doesn’t even hit you till about an hour later. The “congrats”, “smiley emojis” and ad people you never met adding you on LinkedIn. It goes from 0 to 100 too quickly and you don’t know how to react, but smile, shake hands, and blame the success on your partner.

I can’t complain.

Stacy Yurishcheva, 05/09/2017