Earlier this month we started the new creator community on Discord. We have big plans for it, lots of ideas swirling around. We want to go FAR with it. We want to help people, we want to grow, we want to support as many as we can. We have BIG aspirations for it!
Several months ago I felt disappointed and let down by the communities I was already in. I felt ostracized and hurt. Being a creator can be isolating, even lonely sometimes. Having a community of similar-minded colleagues is incredibly important to me. So, in a way, the decision to start this new one was… well, it was in part selfish. I simply wanted a welcoming place that I could turn to when I got yet another crappy comment on reddit. Or when yet another pirated dump contained years of my work. I wanted a place I could turn to where I didn’t feel harassed because I am “woke”, or a woman, or because I have PTSD that can be difficult to deal with sometimes.
And then about half way through this process, I started having a small voice in the back of my brain. That voice whispered awful things to me. “Who the hell do you think you are? Why do you think all of these big names in the industry would ever take you seriously? You are nothing in the grand scheme of things. You are too small to make it happen.”
As time went on, this voice only grew louder. In fact, it became so loud, it was hard to ignore. And then I came across a video by one of my favorite YouTubers that was called “Do It Scared”. In that video, Jess (the YouTuber) talked about how scary it was for her to start all of her new endeavors. Eventually, however, she said something that stuck with me: “Imposters don’t have imposter syndrome”.
2 days later we launched Rising Tide.
And more than one hundred people joined on the first day.
Every day the community continues to grow. It is incredibly active, and it seems, we are well on our way of achieving all of those “crazy” ideas and goals.
So my point to all of this is: don’t believe the lie that your brain tells you when it says that you can’t do something great. You are going to have the moments of doubt, no matter how “successful” you are -ignore them. Just do the thing, even if you are scared. Do the thing, even if that little voice is screaming at you. Ignore the lies of the imposter in your brain.
And we’ll be right there, by your side, doing our best to help you along the way.
Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash