I Won an Award and It Made Me Think A Lot About Awards!

Gosh who knew it would be so complicated in my brain! Here are some of those thoughts and I'd love to hear yours.

I won an award and it made me think all sorts of complicated things about awards (and about myself.)

Before I say anything more, I want to say that I’m really grateful for winning this award!

However knowing myself, I wouldn’t feel right putting that ‘success’ out there without also sharing some honest feelings too.

So I’m sharing a bit here about my experience, how I think confidence, self belief and being a women come into play with awards and a bit about if to enter and which to choose.

I would also REALLY love to hear your thoughts on this because I feel like it’s a big topic.

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My Award

For context, the award that I want was the Creative Business award at the Tonbridge business awards, local (to me) awards which were set up last year. It is actually a really lovely way to celebrate all sorts of different businesses in our community and is free to enter. (We just have to pay for a ticket to the award ceremony which includes a £15 donation split between 3 local charities.)

The support I’ve had from people congratulating me and saying how well deserved it is has meant a lot more to me than the award self which I really hope doesn’t sound ungrateful but has shown me perhaps what’s important to me.

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I’m not sure how I feel about awards.

I think if things are free to enter they’re a fantastic PR. A way to get yourself out there, be seen by a different audience and obviously maybe even win which is always a boost and again, more publicity.

If you have to pay to enter, that’s where it gets a bit complicated. I appreciate there are costs that come with setting up and hosting awards, so I don’t want to disrespect those choices. But if you’re having to pay to be a part of it then that brings in peoples different situations backgrounds and affordability which really feels like it’s not a level playing field. If the entry is expensive it becomes elitist and feels like a paid for victory (reminds me of something like paying to be in a magazine so say you’ve been in it, so paid advertising rather than PR).

I’ve definitely heard of people exploiting businesses and individuals through awards and it just being a money making opportunity. I am definitely not trying to scaremonger, but just be vigilant of these kind of things.

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Confidence and Self Belief.

Last year I entered the same awards and the organiser told me that I was very close, but I hadn’t included enough detail in my application. I nearly didn’t enter this year, but when I decided to after being prompted, I thought I would actually have to try and sell myself a bit and I decoded it was a good way to practice doing that.

As women, we are not notoriously good at playing down our achievements and I really believe that we need to change that narrative.

I understand that people have reservations about looking like they’re showing off or feeling big headed. This is where you can speak to my friend Nicky Denson-Elliott who will talk to you all all about internalised misogyny.

I think we need to practice getting better at this, shouting about our achievements and really being confident and proud of what we do.

I think for me, some of this is practising sitting with that feeling of being proud of something and accepting it. Maybe saying it out loud, to other people and to myself. I’ve definitely been one to downplay things a lot in my life or quickly rebuff a compliment with some kind of perceived failure or mistake. However I am practicing getting better at this and even noticing you’re doing it is a start.

We are often uncomfortable with women who celebrate themselves. We analyse it a lot less from men. For women this might be called big headed or full of herself, yet for men it is likely to be referred to as confident and strong. Back to internalised misogyny again. So I think we also need to practice questioning any feelings that arise about other people too and embracing this celebration of self.

We as women make ourselves smaller in so many ways and I am determined not to pass that onto my daughter.

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Entering Awards (as a woman)

When it comes to awards, the confidence and self belief often means we don’t even enter awards.

I had a number of conversations with people who said they don’t enter awards because they know they would never win. *aaarggggg*

Firstly if you tell yourself you’ll never win you will never win, secondly if you don’t enter you definitely will not win. (Unless its nominated by others but that’s a different thing)

I was talking to an illustrator pal about awards and we touched on a particular set of industry awards. She was saying about how there have been obvious patterns with who wins and particularly in one category where a female hasn’t won the award for 7 years, despite it being a female dominated sector, and how people had started calling that out.

She had also heard of people who just don’t bother to enter now because it felt a bit predetermined so they were making a point. We agreed that it should actually be the men who keep winning or being pushed to the front that should be making the point or speaking up and that women not entering is not the answer. But I totally get why you would feel that way and it’s a frustrating and unfair situation.

In general we know that women are less likely to put themselves forward for promotion, ask for higher salaries and all of these gender gaps. When it comes to awards, I can see how this all filters through and the self belief and playing small has a huge part to play.

So can we just remember that we should be entering awards for reasons other than to win (see below) but also if the worry about not winning is what’s holding you back then please PLEASE just enter!!!

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Why Would You Enter Awards as a Business?

I can call myself an award winning business now right?…..

Because I won a local business award that 99.9% of the country have never heard of. (I won’t be doing this unless I have to for some reason!!)

People do enter awards literally to call themselves award winning. Why not, good for you. But also I’m not sure if it then becomes a little bit empty because it’s fairly easy to attribute some kind of award somewhere to your business (we could start our own awards next week and then win them!).

Sometimes it’s ego driven, and I don’t always mean that’s negative. If it helps you build confidence then that’s great.

What’s the prize? Is there a prize (or is it a certificate and a trophy) and what is that potential reward worth to you?

Of course there will be a level of trust and respect that comes with winning awards.

HOWEVER I think it is not all about winning.

Entering awards gets eyes on your business. Eyes of other people entering, people looking at or attending the awards and also, the judges. Now the judges might be a key part, if you want to put yourself on the radar of someone you know is judging then that’s perfect. You could be really strategic with this if you wanted to or even use it as an introduction to reach out to them in the future.

Either way I think there is a lot more to awards than just winning AND because people win an award, it doesn’t mean they are feeling at their peak of success, you never know what’s going on behind the scenes!

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Which to Enter?

I’m sorry but I don’t know the answer! I have entered a free local awards twice because I was badgered a bit!

If you’re considering entering awards, I would think about why. Does it mean a lot to you if you win, is it a strategic business decision, do you just want to throw your hat into the ring for the hell of it?

Awards usually take a bit of time to enter, so ask yourself if it’s worth that.

Look at the judges, who have won in the past and things like that.

Is there anyone in your industry who has entered and you could chat about it (community over competition and all that)

This is all much easier if it’s free to enter, it gets more high pressure the more you are paying for an entry fee.

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A (Sort of )Conclusion

As I’m sure you can tell, I think it’s all felt a bit complicated in my brain and I didn’t want to put a post out about winning an award without sharing some more thoughts. There is probably more I’ll think of but it’s inspired lots of conversation and is definitely linked to my recent post about ‘do you believe in luck?’.

I’m not planning on entering any awards any time soon, but could be persuaded if you spot some good ones with a good prize! Instagram competitions, I’m all over those, awards, we’ll see!

As I said at the start I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this because there is a lot to it and I’m so interested in what you think too.

Do you enter awards? Would you enter awards? Does confidence or self belief come into it for you or is it more about the awards themselves?

I would be really fascinated to hear your thoughts if you would like to share them and you can pop a comment below or send me a message if you’d rather keep it private.

Here we are the Creative Business Awards winner (yay me) and runners up (basically institutions in our town who I am not sure how I came ahead of but will celebrate that!