I see your 'True Colours' shining through...

Ever meet someone and wonder "why do they act like that?" or "why can't they just be more like this?". Whether it's my parents, colleagues, or EX- boyfriends (especially this one) it is hard for me to fully understand people who behave differently than me. I think we get so stuck in our own ways that it is hard to understand other peoples' way of doing things.

After a short two hours with Doug from iLearn2, and the "True Colours" workshop, I could place those people in my life in one of four different colour groups. By understanding a person's colour, you can understand what makes them tick.

True Colours is a personality test which groups you into one of four colour groups. After you finish the test you are given a ranking of your colours from the most prominent to least prominent. We are all a combination of the four colours, they just appear in unique levels in each person.

I wasn't surprised when my test revealed I was orange. Oranges are driven by the need to show skill and are master negotiators. They also love attention... no, me?! I knew I belonged in orange, but there was one group I really envied, the golds. The golds were sparse in our class, however there is a lot I could learn from them. Golds are known to be very organized... definitely not one of my strong suits. I try to accomplish so much that organization takes a backseat, I  feel my time is better spent actually getting things done than planning how to do them. However, I think my sanity would benefit greatly if I could take a few lessons from golds.

My other oranges... I made them pose like the Real Housewives of Orange County.

Doug from iLearn2 did an excellent job of making the content engaging and easy to understand. The workshop was given to us at 8:30am and when we all arrived half asleep. Doug managed to wake us all up and keep us entertained with his outgoing personality and anecdotes.

It surprised me that the workshop really stuck with me. I've done other similar tests but they tend to seem useless and don't fully explain the complexities of personality. However, by giving you a ranking of colours instead of confining you into one single bin, it allows you to understand yourself and others in a more complete way. Many workshops leave you thinking for the day but by the next day you've completely forgotten what it was about. Our CCPR class still refers to the workshop and people's colours... two weeks later.

After the workshop I can see how peoples' colours affect how they work and live. Groups in class which are dominated by a certain colour, green for example, will act very differently than a group dominated by orange. In groups, I feel it is essential to have a variety of colours, each colour brings its own unique contributions to the table. As an orange with a low gold & green, I always want a gold and green in any of my professional or academic groups. Greens ensure they do things in the most efficient way possible and have the research to back up any of their decisions. Not bad as a team member right?

However, it won't always be possible to have a variety of colours in groups or teams. If you end up with a group with mainly one colour, the project and its tasks need to be tailored towards that colour's strengths. It also may be necessary to bring in outside help of other colours for small tasks. This makes having a network of many colours very important.

If our True Colours workshop was a movie, it would be a comedy. Not just a silly comedy that can make you laugh but nothing else, one that still makes you think. Not only did Doug make us laugh so hard we couldn't breathe (seriously), he taught us very useful ways of relating to others, something which isn't always the easiest. This movie would get two thumbs up in my books.

If you ever have the opportunity to take the "True Colours" workshop, embrace it completely. I know this totally sounds like a promotion but it's NOT. I was truly so impressed with the concept and presentation.

Your favourite ORANGE,

JS

All "True Colours" information taken from iLearn2 - http://www.ilearn2.com/

Why PR... and what is it?

People always ask what I'm taking in school. When I tell them public relations, a puzzled look comes over their faces. People have said "I'm not sure what that is..." or "what exactly does that entail?" As cheesy as this sounds, I can't help but smile while I explain it. 

In simple terms, PR is all about being the middleman, or in this case, middle(wo)man. You are the person relating your client to the public and vice versa. You are the person not only your client, but the public, turns to for honest and accurate information. People don't always have the most positive perceptions when it comes to PR, but I think they have a (typically) undeserved bad reputation. I fully accept the challenge to attempt to alter people's opinions about PR once I have a spot in the industry. 

I first heard about PR sitting in my first year journalism class, and my professor referred to it as the "dark side." When she went on to explain what PR was exactly, I thought that seemed much more appealing than journalism (oops... sorry to any journalists out there). That moment is stuck in my mind, I had a good feeling about this "dark side". 

Communications degree in hand,

I was ready for the next step.

Two years later, I dropped my journalism major to focus solely on communications. I took every class related to PR and had a feeling that it was something I would love to do and could do well. 

I love communicating: in my personal life, in school, at work, really wherever I am. My roommate once asked me if I ever stopped talking... the answer is no. I love meeting new people and hearing their stories. As a server, I'm constantly in contact with so many different types of people, it keeps things exciting. PR has the same kind of environment.

I'm also a social media junkie. Social media has become huge for PR, giving PR practitioners the ability to reach their audience directly on behalf of their clients, without the help of traditional media. Social media is something I've become very accustomed to using in my personal life but I could easily transfer those skills to a business environment. Currently, as well as in the future, social media will prove to be one of the most useful platforms for PR and I look forward to capitalizing on it for my clients. The only challenges I see facing the industry is maintaining PR as its own separate division. We are not advertising or marketing but a sector on its own.

As for my career in PR, I'm not exactly sure where I'm headed. The options of working in an agency or for a corporation each have their own benefits. I'm leaning towards working for a corporation and being their director of PR, or VP of communications. I know, I shoot high. As for what type of company, I would be thrilled to work in the health & beauty sector. But I'm not tied down to any one idea.

For now, I don't want to worry about that. My intensive CCPR (corporate communications + PR) program at Centennial College is enough to keep me busy. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into when I enrolled in the program, but I couldn't be any happier with my choice. Centennial was the clear choice after talking to a previous grad of the program who couldn't say enough amazing things about her experience. College is very different from the university setting, but I love that I am learning concrete practical skills instead of writing essays on topics I will never remember in a year. 

One of the lessons I've learned, especially during the past four years, is to trust your gut feeling. As I sat down in class on the first day I had the feeling that this was going to be one amazing year. Let's trust that. 

- JS

How did we get here?

Well... we need to start from the beginning. I was born and raised on the east coast. Halifax, N.S. to be precise. I always knew deep down that I would eventually leave the nest and venture out. A few weeks after I turned 18, I was on a flight straight to Ottawa with two suitcases in tow. I spent four years in Ottawa studying Communications at Carleton University. Four years flew by and I met some of the greatest people.

This brings us up to four weeks ago when I packed my life into a U-Haul (with lots of help of course... I'm only little) and moved to Toronto. Toronto was always in the plan. It was only a matter of time. Since four years of school apparently wasn't enough, I'm doing a post-grad program in corporate communications and public relations at Centennial college. If this sounds like complaining, it's not. The program is such a good fit and my classmates are one hell of a group of people.

Look at them! This was our Centennial corn roast, I know you're jealous your school didn't do this for your first week.

This blog is partly a school assignment and partly my own personal contributions. I think we'll just see how it turns out.

- JS