What do you do if your confidence is holding you back from taking creative risks in media production?

Basically, you need to embrace the uncertainty and move forward. One way that has helped me through the decades is to make sure that I have all of the information necessary to ensure the creative will work. This is not just making sure you have the right tech needed for your approach, along with the right crew. You must also understand your project, your audience, and what you want them to think, feel, and what to act on. Failure can be reduced if your prep and understanding is complete. This will give you confidence that you are proposing creative that is not right, not appropriate, etc., but creative that will have the results and impact that you envisioned . Embrace change and experiences, but you must do your work first.

"When I was 10 years old, my art teacher told me that I would never be an artist. For some reason, I accepted her opinion as my truth. However, when I turned 45, I decided to take a painting class. Even though I still had that idea in the back of my mind, my first painting turned out to be so beautiful that I was shocked to win first place in the class. The point of my story is that all of the blockages are in our minds, and only we can overcome them by taking action and jumping into the deep end."

Grow some balls (again), lay out your vision in a way that is convincing to the check writers, your client and your production team. Then (if I were in a position such as yours), I would compare the "wow" factor of your "risky" alternative to the one currently in the shooting script. If you are calling the shots in the field and answering to executive producers, you should have already earned their confidence, let alone your own convictions in your work. Take it from someone like me who didn't really get a true shot at a real career in production- the only risk is failure. Yes men never truly fly. If you are scared to fail, I don't know who's duck you kissed to get to where you are, but you shouldn't be making calls.

Learn. New skills, new ways of seeing and communicating. Learn from those who you admire, and whose work inspires you. You will fail the day you stop learning and listening. Make a flowchart of your own process, identify the shortcomings, seek help, and fill those gaps. Don't be the same person you were yesterday, especially not as a media professional.

Some people will say never give up, but there comes a point when you do have to just throw in the towel, but don’t do so until you have made every attempt to succeed. Especially if it’s a project that you find extremely important. Focus on the importance of the finished work.

Learner's mindset for life. Feedback can still be useful even when it isn't from a supportive community. Always find productive and applicable entrances into feedback, (even if you have to find the third door hidden around the back corner past the gate in the alley.)

Again, imo these bullet points make little sense to anyone who is really experienced in video production. There are clients who are open to new ideas and there are many who are not. The key is to understand which type of client you are dealing with and how far you can push them to accept something new, some may require a more out of the box type approach than others. It also depends from the specific project and product as well as how much money and time are available to venture into some new territory and have the time and budget to see it through with a backup plan in case it doesn’t work. In the end one should test some new ideas before hand and then find a way to adapt them in a real life situation.

One thing I found helpful when I didnt feel so confident was taking smaller tasks each day and gradually increasing my reach until my confidence was built. Its ok if you are not sure at the beginning but rather than quitting, try doing those things you feel conpetent in and gradually try out those things that scare you. Its okay to fail but if you do, try again until you master your craft.

Risk taking requires tough mindset; self created comfort zones often blurs the thought process; so my suggestion would be to keep trying with risk calculations set right at the begining; imagine all the outcomes of your decision and then proceed; if you have already imagined all the outcomes, it would be far easier for you to face them when they appear;