We were lucky to catch up with Elijah Rhea recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Elijah, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.
At this point, it wouldn’t be too far off to say that many of us are multihyphenates. Juggling the responsibilities and expectations of the different roles we play as artists, creatives, professionals, and leaders in numerous spaces. Due to this tug and pull, this balancing act, I can imagine that I’m surely not the only one who often feels drained from the lack of belongingness in work. Acting as a higher education professional, a photographer, a podcaster and an event host, I often never really identify with any of these titles and instead write it all of as “I dabble in this” to limit my own expectations. So when I hear imposter syndrome, I can justify it as never really being in the space to begin with. But after a conversation with a colleague of mine, I recognized the importance of my voice and perspective in each of these rooms, viewing them as all parts of one, unified whole.
I am constantly working to overcome the self imposed doubt of imposter syndrome, but I would say the anchor that grounds me is reflection. Reflecting on my efforts to create community, no matter the room. I’ve built a community at the university that pays my bills, the nightlife space that affirms my creativity and the speakers and podcasters who validate my voice. Those moments when I get to intersect all of these groups are what anchor me in the reflective realization that I belong. That sense of belonging comes from these communities actively pushing me to speak out loud all of the things I have been able to create, support and accomplish. Imposter syndrome only sets in when we work in silos, and those silos bring about thoughts of anxiety and uncertainty. But in all the work I do as an event host, curator, artists, speaker and educator, community is a necessity to ground me in guided reflection of, not just my own but, my communities success.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My words are often stuck when I’m asked “what do I do” because when in the weeds, it can feel like I’m all over the place. As a creative, I host an event called “Love On Wax” which is a vinyl centered party giving space for people to actively engage with music, past and present, through analog and vinyl culture. Through “Love On Wax”, I’ve been able to offer space for DJ’s who’ve never been able to engage with spinning on wax to learn and grow their skill set while sharing the music they might not get to share when working their own party centric events. I’ve also been able to partner with a good friend to host an event titled “Off The Record” where we critically engage with DJ’s as purveyors of culture and not just sound selectors through interviews and carefully curated vinyl DJ sets. As an educator, I work for Temple University in support of the efforts of diverse educator recruitment and retention. My professional background has been so rooted in education, I owe all of my creative and personal growth to my trajectory as an educator and hope to open up pathways for other young people to have that same growth. With education being my background and career foundation, I’ve also been blessed to speak on podcasts and panels around accountability and critique in the nightlife and other cultural spaces.
With this in mind, and projecting for the remainder of this year, I have been working to combine both of these spaces so that academia and nightlife interact in a more concise way. Our artists, DJ’s and other creatives truly are the stakeholders in culture; and culture is what drives community, activism and change. In order for us to really enact change, I have been thinking about what an academic cultural space can look like for all of these worlds to collide.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Community building, self-reflection and consistency. All three of these have been necessities to my growth and continued success. And though sometimes I may waiver, it’s important I hold myself accountable while still giving a little grace. My advice would be that it is okay to tell yourself it’s okay, but you have to be reflective enough to know that, though you may fall short sometimes, you still need to keep moving. Those moments where you feel like you can’t move, that’s where the community you’ve cultivated can give you that extra push. Because trust that those moments will come, and when they do, you have to remain consistent to keep pushing. Every profession has its ups and downs, and those that find success can reflect on their strides, consistently get back on course and have people around them to help the difficult trek forward.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
For quite some time I have been trying to build a team. My greatest challenge is always asking for help, it takes a level of vulnerability that I struggle with. When building a team, you need to be vulnerable enough to share your vision with people and hope that they too find some level of interest and willingness to invest their time and energy. Asking people for help means that, in some capacity, you have to admit to yourself that you can’t do it all. That’s okay, but it is definitely a challenge. I already spoke a bit about community, and once again, it is something that would greatly help overcome this challenge. Leaning into support of like minded yet varied perspective people is a necessity to growth and scaling, so here we are being vulnerable and building a team.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @WeLoveOnWax and @Mr_McScruff
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elijah-rhea-612422195
Image Credits
Cody Jones Rashiid Marcell
