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 Hive account@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 Hive account@steemspeak to learn the platform better. I received a warm welcome from Hive account@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 Hive account@berniesanders Hive account@smooth Hive account@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 Hive account@openledger Hive account@bitshares. Yes I blogged about it and through my post, I was able to get help from Hive account@mrwang and Hive account@virtualgrowth on getting all of my steem and associated fees returned. That was when I learned about and started using Hive account@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 Hive account@xtdnrymompreneur into joining steemit. Shortly after that, I received a steem.chat message from Hive account@papa-pepper saying that he, Hive account@mama-pepper, and the Hive account@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 Hive account@instructor2121 who gave us our own double dose of southern hospitality. Hive account@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 Hive account@richardcrill and started the Houston Steem Meetup. I've been able to host Hive account@sirlunchthehost. I've been able to meet Hive account@ned and Hive account@andrarchy. I got interviewed by Hive account@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 Hive account@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 Hive account@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

STEEMIT IS THE SHIT!