Reaching out to solve problems

In my third week, the marketing team was working on publishing a report of a Q&A with a set director for a up and coming tv show. In the report we used an image  from the set of a billboard from the 1930’s promoting train travel on the west coast. The deadline for when our report was supposed to be published was coming up and we hadn’t yet gotten permission/rights to post the image in our article. The photographer who took the picture of the billboard was not responding so we had to problem solve. Instead we decided to contact a local plant who had the creative image of the billboard and see if we could get permission to use the image. As the deadline to publish was getting closer, I emailed and reached out to the general manager of the plant and was able to get the permission to use the image. While this particular instance was not a serious one, it is an example of the importance of reaching  out to your network in order to solve problems and get things done. So far in my experience as an intern at the OAAA, I have learned the importance of not being afraid to reach out and speak up especially in situations where your input can help/ contribute to the overall success/ project even if it is minuscule. Also being an intern has taught me that it is fine to not understand or know something right away and when you don’t to ask for help or for further clarification. I have been working on multiple projects so far at the OAAA and on many of them I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing but I asked for help and everyone on the team was more than happy to assist. Being able to do so shows leadership in a way that I didn’t expect. It shows your ability to know when you need help, are wrong, or are out of you league to do by yourself. At times its intimidating to say that you don’t know something or need help but in doing so you are improving your ability to learn new skills and achieve success.