Find Calm Here
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Online Community Strategy and Marketing
for Startups, Nonprofits, and Associations
Move Past Impostor Syndrome By Discovering Your Superpower: WOO (Winning others over)
In a world that tells society constantly about what we should want, need, or have, it’s time to change the dialogue.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that “wanting” doesn’t get me to where I want to go or to what I like to have because as soon as I “get” something, there’s another”carrot” that is dangling in front of me. This time of year, there are a lot of “carrots” for us to be distracted by, and I know that as I’m writing this, it might not be the best time, but it IS the best time for ME to write.
Here’s what I mean: I decided to write about impostor syndrome in mid-November when I started to have clarity around the difficulties I’ve been experiencing while writing the book Creator to Community Builder.
A good friend talked with me last week and told me to “sit with it” and think about what I want in my life and what I want to write. This led me to share my experiences earlier this year in learning about my strengths through YouMap® and becoming certified as a YouMap Coach. I intend not to get you to buy my coaching program but to share my experience.
This series: Move Past Impostor Syndrome by Discovering Your Superpower,” is really for me to work through (in public) the values, experiences, and challenges that I’ve faced, which have led me to become a community builder. This will also be a part of the book I’m writing, and it would be an excellent opportunity to learn about myself while writing about it. This isn’t new; I’ve been doing this on my blog, Capture My Best Life at DebSchell.com, for over ten years. As I write today, on Saturday, November 19th, the weekend before the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, I recognize that you might be out shopping, putting up a tree, or spending time with family and friends. I hope you enjoy this post; if you have taken the time to read this, I am thankful to you.
I shared in the last article that I worked with a YouMap® Coach in 2022 to go through the program, which includes four pillars: strengths, values, preferred skills, and interests. The key to the program is working with a coach to help you review the assessment, align them with the current struggles and challenges, and set a plan of action!
This article will share with you the strength that I call the “Community Builder,” but it’s also called Woo-Winning Others Over.
Before I share what makes me an incredible problem-solver and how that can sometimes lead to burnout, let me tell you how I can help you!
After working with a coach, I became certified in this program. If you are reading this and want support, please get in touch with me, and let’s chat! I’d love to help you find the work you love and feel a sense of confidence, enthusiasm, and joy for what you’ll be doing in 2023.
WOO (Winning Others Over)
This strength is about influencing others and meeting the challenge of “winning others over” in any situation. I enjoy “breaking the ice” when meeting new people, interacting with friends, and even at conferences. I’m the first person to raise my hand and ask questions, converse with someone in line at a grocery store, or sign up to volunteer.
On my YouMap® profile, it’s listed as a passenger, meaning that I adapt to situations when the need or level of urgency is set. I might step in, but I also know when not to be the “ice breaker” or leader in a scenario so that I can elevate others. This works well in community building because I have learned to elevate others by offering them to step up and lead, speak, or share with others.
On the Clifton Strengths Podcast episode How to Improve Your Wellbeing with Woo, Jaclynn Robinson says those who have Woo in their top strengths “have a way of making people feel warm and welcome. So if they need a boost to their wellbeing… you have that ability to infuse this warm, welcoming, happy feeling that gets them energized again. So many folks are experiencing social isolation and looking for ways to create camaraderie on the team again or build connections. And Woo is just great at that.”
How Woo can be applied
No wonder I’ve been interested in building community because it’s what I do well in person and online. So much of this impostor syndrome I’ve been experiencing is more about my “audience” or lack of an audience. I’ve been thinking so much about the difference between an audience and a community.
An “audience” is a group of people who are interested in what it is you are doing but who you do not have a direct connection with.
The fact that I have Woo in my Top 5 results from years of effort going beyond my comfort zone and putting myself out into the world. My direct experience with this was in the early days of reporting for me back in 2009.
I worked at a weekly newspaper in a small town that is only well-known globally due to a significant crisis, Three Mile Island. Part of my job was to ask police officers, fire officials, and local politicians about challenging topics such as the management of the police department, the response to a local fatality, or the direct actions of board members who must show up and to listen to the residents of a community.
This brings me back to thinking about my mission as a journalist, which was to “give the community members a voice” and inform them about current events. The responsibility of a press member is to hold a high value on balanced news with validated sources. Exciting publications in niche subjects create this by offering others who may not have had a voice to be now heard.
I started my community in 2020 because of the many communities I’ve been a part of that helped me transform my life. One such community, Location Indie (which I write about here), helped me quit my 9-5 job and become location-independent. The same members of that community supported me and were the “founding members” within. my community when Find Calm Here first launched in 2020. The community concept and strategy have changed over the past few years, until closing the community in September, but the mission was always to help others “find calm in daily life.”
How I convey this to others:
“Find Calm Here values intentional community design for purpose-driven community leaders who want to offer a place for their ideal members to be seen, heard, and valued. We believe in the concept of an ecosystem, in that each individual has life experiences to contribute to an online community that is highly valuable for all.”
Stay tuned for the next in this series, and please share this with a friend if you feel it might benefit them.
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Creator to Community Builder offers time-saving tips for struggling entrepreneurs to establish and scale online communities, enhancing business growth and client connections. This companion workbook provides a quick overview of the book with actionable steps to help you build an online community and business faster and with less stress so you can find calm.
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