Week Eight of my Creator Journey: We Can All Eat!

“Am I my brother's keeper? Yes I am.”

~ Nino Brown

I grew up in a house with two younger brothers. When we were young, my mother forbade us from fighting outside the house. We could do whatever we wanted to do inside. But on the playground she instructed us to join together, and that was non-negotiable. If I came home and told her my brother got beat up, she would turn to me with a droll look on her face and ask if I jumped in to help. The consequences if I didn't were worse for me than my brother, even if he started the fight. (He often did *sigh*) My mother believed in the power of unity, sticking together and having my brother's back. Like Nino Brown, she believed wholeheartedly that I WAS my brother's keeper.

It's no wonder that growing up, I became obsessed with comic books just like my brothers. So at a young age I became immersed in both DC and Marvel. My younger brother to this day loves both equally, as do I! (Blasphemy, I know! ??) And one thing that was evident in those comic books was the power of teamwork. Superman was powerful. But what if he teamed up with Batman, Aquaman, Wonderwoman and Flash? That brought a whole new level of power.

And, of course, Marvel brought the ultimate team with the Avengers! The examples in the comic book universe abound with characters who are uniquely qualified alone but know they are so much more powerful if they team up with other heroes who are just as powerful or even more so. That makes them literally unstoppable. Well... Unless Thanos shows up. But we won't worry about that right now! ??

So, as I reflect on week eight of my journey in the Creator Accelerator Program, I'm thinking about the power of the collab. Creators have a unique ability to reach more people, diversify the audience and gain a vast amount of knowledge just from working TOGETHER. Frankly, I think there is something about these types of endeavor, especially on social media that make people get very greedy and selfish. There is this sense that we are all competing with each other. Some people really believe that if they help you or amplify you, it will dull their shine. This flawed philosophy comes from so many places.

Some of it is people coming from a sense of lack in their own upbringing or current environment and translating that into the spaces they inhabit both personal and professional. Some of it is a Capitalistic society that propagates the rat race mentality that we are all in a competition against each other. There's a weird notion that you have to step on people on the way to the top in order to get ahead. Social media also feeds us this BS hero story that people have to get out here and make it on their own. And we see so many examples of the lone hero both in mainstream media, sports, music, movies and the like.

But the reality is that it's super challenging to make it in any endeavor without help. Most of us can't honestly say we didn't have at least one person to give us advice, point us in the right direction, coach us, give us an opportunity or whatever. Maybe we didn't have a consistent mentor in our lives. I haven't. But I've had so many people help me along in my journey called life. It's unreal how many, even in the past couple years.

I also know without a shadow of a doubt that there is no lack in the world. I come from a philosophy that the universe is unlimited, abundant and will provide everything I need. Even though I grew up with limited means, I don't believe the world itself is limited. There are almost 8 billion people around the globe. That's an unimaginable amount of opportunity for EVERYBODY. And, working together actually makes it easier because we can pool our resources, ideas, and potential. We might be getting it alone, but when we get together we can capitalize on additional opportunities we weren't even aware of. Maybe we were aware of them, but didn't know how to tap into them. Once we get together, like Puff Daddy said, we can ALL eat! And we can get FULL as well. Nummm Nummmm Nummmm!!! ??

That's been a great takeaway for me this past week. Creators have the ability to power up like Voltron. We're killing it separately, but together we're UNSTOPPABLE. I've met and collaborated with some amazing Creators. I've talked to people across the LinkedIn platform that I never would have known. I've done LinkedIn Lives, Audio Events, and had podcast chats with people that I never would have met #IRL. But now that I know them we can share in this journey of being a Creator. We can share strategies. We can share knowledge on how to navigate being a Creator - what to charge, resources, and pitfalls. That makes us ALL stronger, and I'm ready to power up so I can EAT!! *Baaaaad Boooysssss, come out and plaaaaaaaay!!*