Cre8or • \krē-ˈā-tər \ • noun
A person or thing that brings (something) new into existence.
👋 Welcome to the 375 Cre8ors reading this newsletter.

🧠 This weeks big idea is…

Community building through empathy

⏱️Time to read: 4 minutes

(This weeks op-ed is written by our chief of staff @amagicbeing)

Community only thrives on relationships, and relationships are built on empathy. You wouldn't befriend someone who doesn't care about you and your wellbeing, would you? If you answered yes then you probably have ulterior motives or sorry, you're a sociopath. But for real, empathy is the connection between person to person, and it's important to allow it to flow to the people that you're building something with.

Empathy is my superpower, sometimes to a fault if you ask my therapist, but regardless it's a power that I use for good. As a leader, it's scary to be able to balance every single one of your team members emotions, but it's necessary. Treating everyone on the same "get it done" basis is not the way to succeed.

When I first became a team lead, I didn't realize the nuances that make everyone feel validated, heard, and seen for the creative individuals they are. Instead, I thought that all I had to do was tell everyone their tasks and a date I needed it done, and they would succeed. This is extremely incorrect, and the way I found out was by checking in on one of my team members for the first time.

I led the meeting as usual, it was short but I noticed she felt distant in the call, barely spoke, and no camera on. I was a little concerned. I went back and forth in my head: should i call, i don't want to disturb her, it could be personal, she might not want to share, why would she tell me, maybe nothing is even wrong… but ultimately, I couldn't shake it. So I called.

“Hey, I wanted to check in, you seemed off today, is everything okay?” and for the next hour, she confided in me and let herself cry. Shared that since this is her first job, the more work she did, the more she felt she wasn't good enough. She questioned if she was meeting our standards because she is extremely hard on herself. She wanted to work as a teammate but felt difficult for her because she’s an only child and didn't know where to start. She was letting it all out, so I didn't interrupt.

I’ll admit my first thought was uh oh, is this too personal for me to be delving into? But I listened. When I felt it was time for me to talk- I validated her feelings, her emotion, and her tears. I led with empathy and told her everything that I would have wanted to hear if I felt the way she did. I told her that there is no shame in crying, we see that she is a hard worker, passionate about what she does, and that her emotion comes through in her work and that's why we value her.

She paused and the words she spoke I will never forget “I am so glad you called to check in, thank you.” That's what stuck. I realized that it's never too personal to share how you feel or allow others to do the same, it's essential. If you want to achieve success as a team, your teammates need to feel valued and heard.

It's funny to think about it now because of course I still have to assign tasks and deadlines to my team. But I've learnt to lay the most important part of the foundation first, the simple fact that I care.

I’m not writing this to share how amazing I am and that my superpower slays the house down boots - even though it does and I am. I’m writing this to share the wealth of empathy. To bring it to our relationships, and our community. To create is to express, and that requires holding empathy for yourself in such a way that allows it to flow into your work. It's a powerful thing and should be brought to everything you do.

Which is why I'm spreading it to you, my unique reader, I care about how you feel - whether you feel antisocial, or feel a tingle in your soul when someone reacts with a heart to something you shared on spaces. I’m excited to include you in the building process because I value your ideas.

That's why we're doing this- writing this newsletter, having these daily spaces, bringing you into our slack… because we care about you, what you think and how you feel matters, and I’m excited to hear about it.

So please share how you feel with us. Join the Cre8ors slack and tell me about the last time you laughed so hard you cried. I’m here for it all. But most importantly, I’m here for you.

Kindly,

Katee

@amagicbeing

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📊 Quick Question

📌 Major milestones

This week, Cre8ors spent 1765 minutes on Spaces - that’s almost 30 hours! We built friendships, discussed market events and most importantly… allowed our creativity to go wild!

Quite a few Cre8ors decided that it’s time to kick the ass of their fear of public speaking. They got onto Twitter Spaces, Discord Stages and with the support of other speakers, promised that they will come on to speak more often!

The most important task of this week was to cre8 together with the community - it was a success! We started creating a storyline for Cre8ors - live on Spaces, together with everyone! Evil corporations named “Everything Corp.”, black and white city and a bunch of other interesting ideas were developed!

👟 Next-steps

We want to get to know you better. Fill out this community survey and let us know what you’re thinking. Drop your wallet in the form to start receiving participation awards. If you fill it out you’ll snag one - stack them up! 🧬

🤝 Favors/Asks

Show us your Cre8ors DNA on our pinned tweet and win 3 participation NFT’s!

🗣 Shoutouts

Angeliki’s IRL S/O to Cre8ors (country roads)

Fanart:

Banger by Junior:

Banger by Trav:

On Wednesday we had a gaming session on Discord Stages where we played Smash Carts and City Guesser:

Shoutout to our Smashcart tournament winners Nektarios555, Trav and Chringo!

Shoutout to Lola_me7733 for joining us on Discord stages, playing with us and being the oracle helping us beat the City Guesser game!

until next time,

the Cre8or