Today marks 365 days of my life on Steemit. When I first joined, my goal was just to find a place to share my love for aviation, vr, and my entrepreneurial pursuits. The day that I joined steemit, I had just made a video with Google Tiltbrush that I shared on my introduction post.
I thought this video was the coolest thing ever, but as you can see I was welcomed with little fanfare lol. After a few un-formatted posts, I found steemit to be quite daunting. I decided to stop "trying" to make a good post and just share a story about how my day had went. On this day, I took my 6 year old to iFly because he had been begging me and accusing me of breaking promises lol. With all the anticipation, he hated his experience.
That post and the associated videos garnered a relevant comment from @papa-pepper. What I learned from that post was that I was not trying to create content for steemit, I was just sharing what we did that day. I learned that being genuine and not trying to be something I wasn't would work for me on steemit. Sure, some people are successful with accounts that portray something other than who they are, but that was not going to work for me. I expereienced a few successful posts after that and reached out to a friend of mine named Derrick Lewis (UFC HEAVYWEIGHT) and tried to get him on steemit.
Let me start by telling you that I had no idea how to explain it and I failed lol. That effort did get me an invite to Discord where I started using @steemspeak to learn the platform better. I received a warm welcome from @instructor2121 who offered me some advice on how to tell others about steemit. I would go as far as to describe him as a Steemvangelist. The story really just gets better from here. I continued to post on a consistent schedule and engage users both on and offline. I showed you my love of Firearms, Meat, and TEXAS during that period.
Great Flagging War of 2017
I decided to take a well needed break from steemit for about 2 months during the Great Flagging War of 2017. My wife was pregnant and I needed to prepare for our homebirth therefore timing was impeccable. This was a time when @berniesanders @smooth @htooms and several others were automatically counter-upvoting and flagging to balance the rewards pool. Needless to say, I survived this war which makes me a Steemit Vet. (don't forget to thank me for my service)
An Xtrodinary Return
When I returned, I sent 1386 steem to the wrong account in @openledger @bitshares. Yes I blogged about it and through my post, I was able to get help from @mrwang and @virtualgrowth on getting all of my steem and associated fees returned. That was when I learned about and started using @blocktrades to exchange my steem.
I also decided to share the homebirth experience of our 4th child. That steemit post was shared far beyond the platform. My story was shared digitally throughout the homebirth community and I was asked to come and tell it on a few occasions. That was proof to me that steemit was indeed serving it's purpose for my family and I.
Texas Size Surprise
A few month's after the birth of our 4th co-pilot. I was able to talk @xtdnrymompreneur into joining steemit. Shortly after that, I received a steem.chat message from @papa-pepper saying that he, @mama-pepper, and the @little-peppers would be coming to God's country... I mean Texas. We offered them a place to stay and our families meshed so well together that you would never believe that we were meeting in person for the first time. We ate bugs together. It's a shame if you missed it.
Steemvangelizing
After our time with the peppers, we went on a roadtrip from Texas to NYC. The goal was to offset some of the trip by blogging. I met up with @instructor2121 who gave us our own double dose of southern hospitality. @dougkarr hosted us for a day in NYC. The entire time I blogged about our trip, my wife was sharing on other social media platforms. Our family and friends were perplexed with the idea that we could earn while posting. When we returned to Houston, I had signed about 30 people up for steemit. I paid rent with my Steem and Steem Dollar Payouts atleast 10 times. I started attending the Austin Steem Meetup by @richardcrill and started the Houston Steem Meetup. I've been able to host @sirlunchthehost. I've been able to meet @ned and @andrarchy. I got interviewed by @jemimah. Through steemit I have been able to embrace volunteerism, a sense of selflessness when helping others, and different sources of income. I have been able to get back into radio Crypto Talk Live albeit web streamed and not terrestrial. I have been able to integrate steem and other cryptos into my existing businesses. I have been able to start new businesses like @steemgiftcards that utilize the steem block chain and cryptocurrency.
Moving Forward
I intend to execute several projects that make crypto less intimidating to the average person. I had a conversation with @ned and he expressed that crypto should stay crypto. As a business owner, I respectfully disagree. I believe that the more steem and steem dollars circulate, the more value it has. Cryptocurrency already has bitcoin as a store of a value. We can debate about these things all day. One thing that isn't up for debate
Great post thanks for doing it. Let's work to get "Steemvangelizing" into the next edition of the dictionary. Go steem
Yes indeed. We can start by having it next to HODL lol
Man that was a great account of your year! I am approaching a year in May. May the next year be a great experience! I am glad to have Steem-met you.
Absolutely, i see a great future for all of us.
I totally forgot to mention @tecnosgirl who donated SBD to our baseball team. We used it to reserve our team a batting cage for the season.
Happy anniversary!!! I've learned so much from you, @lindseylambz, and @richardcrill. You are all a big part of the reason I joined and why I've been sticking around. Can't wait to see what you come up with next!
Good job!
Really impressive! I am just a month older here and I have seen many newbies who are in a stage of quitting it as they say we are not being supported. I tell them you need to make your hold first by interacting others. As you said Steemit is a shit, I would say it is a holy shit! :D
HAHA, I like that comment
You have been doing great on here.. Thanks for your service, you worth where you are today . Higher you I pray
This is a great post. Really like how you've said things changed for you as soon as you stopped trying to keep Steemit happy with any kind of content and just started to tell your story. I'm brand new to Steemit so i'll pay very close attention to what you did. Keep rocking it!
Yeah keeping it simple and keeping it real is what I say.
I forgot to wish you a, Happy Anniversary! :D
Thnk you sir
Really impressive! I am just 7 month older here but I was sleeping not working hard like you my friend !! haha keep working hard and I wish you happy anniversary
hope we hear more from you
I went through my "sleeping" phase. I say just keep it up and it will start to pay off
This is awesome! THat's quite a story in a year's time! To much continued success!
Absolutely,
Maybe this year we can make it up to The Ozarks.
Wow, nice journey so far.
Steemit, connecting people
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by xtrodinarypilot from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
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Thank YOU for your service ; )
Highly rEsteemed!
LOVE IT!
Congratulations to you! I have been here for about 18 months. Your story is encouraging. Thank you for being here. Hope to meet up with you too down the road. Cheers!
We will definately facilitate that.
That was one year real fast! My one year is coming up soon too. Crazy. When I met you on here I was so small, I thought you were a whale. LOL
Now you are outgrowing me lol
Not true LOL
Hi @xtrodinarypilot, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.
Join us on Thursdays for Pimp Your Post Thursday at 11am EST or 7PM EST in the Steemit Ramble Discord or:
If you’d like to nominate someone’s post just visit the Steemit Ramble Discord
^-^ this is awesome, I'm really happy for you :) it makes my heart jump to read such stories, about how steemit affects your "real" life so positively!
Good