Go Go Imposter Gadget

Happy weekend friends 💖 

Welcome to Create Your Rainbow - a newsletter to help unleash your community's creativity. 🌈

In this newsletter, I share thoughts, insights, and musings. You’ll also get the latest weekly Cloud Scouts updates. I share behind-the-scenes with Inner Colors members!

What The Hell Am I Doing?

In the web3 space, we put a lot of focus on the ‘why’ of it all. Why do you create, why do you develop, why do you write, why are you bringing people together? You get the idea.

This week I’ve had a lingering question of ‘what’ am I even doing? Not that I’m doubting myself (maybe it’s just imposter syndrome… more on this later), but I do think it’s good and healthy to occasionally challenge ourselves to figure out what value we’re actually creating that contributes to the ‘why’ of it all.

It’s not my job to say what is and isn’t uninspired because I cannot completely put myself in someone’s shoes or know their true intentions. It is only my aim to serve as a voice for and with others who wish to speak their truths. My role is as facilitator and collaborator in all spaces I inhabit.

In Service Of Internet Dwellers

I see the internet as an experiment, an experience, a place to find belonging where comfort meets nonsense. Since the moment I first logged on to a chatroom, I had this pull to find other people and learn about them. To play with others in a digital playground. The Internet has always felt like home. A place where I could search for an escape because I didn’t have it in person and lead others to joy.

I immerse myself in online spaces to connect with the version of myself lost to time. The blonde kid who would dance and fearlessly entertain. The kid who wore a snoopy satchel to school and ran home to swing in the front lawn. I can’t get that person back, but I can make her happy and proud.

As users of the internet increasingly move their creative efforts and experiences from the online to a more human-connected onchain playground, it is my mission to bring a sense of playful skill development and experimentation from in-person service to a global online community all at once.

I am not a religious person (any longer), but I feel a call to service. I intend to bring into web3 the type of mutual aid that can only be enabled by creatively using new protocols layered onto a new and more equitable internet.

In Cloud Scouts, we enable skill development and growth through our merit badges and events. Our members, or Scouts, earn these badges by demonstrating proficiency in various skills. Each badge not only enhances a Scout’s standing and rank within our community but also serves as a tangible signal of their knowledge and experience in community building and emerging disciplines. Thus, the more merit badges a scout earns, the stronger their testament of expertise and commitment to the community.

We are in the final stages of planning our first three merit badge programs, which are 2-day events in collaboration with partners and hosted by Scouts who hold our token owned by over 120 unique members to date. This drives value to our partners while providing creative learning experiences to Scouts in attendance.

We instill a notion of continual service to the communities we collectively engage with and to one another. Helping others when they hold out their hand in need and deciding together where to commit time and energy to do the best for fellow Scouts.

What Of Imposter Syndrome?

As I’ve recently been investing more time in discussions and events held in communities I genuinely see value in for myself, like RADAR and Boys Club, I’ve felt this bubbling imposter syndrome. I can, at times, get caught up in being intimidated by these spaces and their members. However, it is important that I recognize the limitless opportunities for growth through learning from them and with them.

In the web3 and emerging tech spaces, often I’m surrounded by people who have multiple degrees, have worked in startups their entire careers, or have gained experiences far beyond my own. This can sometimes lead to feeling like an imposter for those who have not achieved such things.

I combat this feeling through these concepts:

• Self-awareness in order to detach from the pressures of the space.

• There are infinite possibilities and outcomes in any given situation, and the perception of being an imposter is only one of them.

• Placing too much importance on my personal image or the opinions of others on my abilities only fuels imposter syndrome.

• Everyone goes through waves of success, so celebrating small victories reaffirms competency.

• Remembering and always acting in alignment with my true self in all actions I take leads to a decrease in these feelings instead of trying to fit into a mold. Compliance is not the answer.

I once thought any measure of success I found was due to luck, but when I realized that it was, in fact, due to hard work and earned potential, this altered how I view success at all. I believe this is an act of self-love vital for finding a balanced state.

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