Many months ago, I heard from a fellow liberty-loving friend about something called Steemit. That friend's name is Jeff Berwick -- @dollarvigilante -- and he was making his Introductory article on Steemit.com that day. An intro post that went on to make him over $15,000 USD. To which myself, and other mutual friends of ours responded with: "WHAT THE HELL?! WHAT IS STEEMIT?!"

Jeff now has either the largest, or one of the largest followings on Steemit, and makes his Dollar Vigilante posts here first. How could he not, for a platform that trebuchet'd a pile of thousands at him simply for the equivalent of posting "Sup, I'm Jeff Berwick!"

Cue the crypto-music, boys!

A lot of us friends of his got word of this amazing concept of a platform and came hauling ass over to it-- those of us who are already passionate content creators that is. We were rather inspired by the notion (seeing an instant monetary reward for your value-adding content production will do that, I promise). My first several articles made me a few thousand FRNs (Federal Reserve Notes), and while a lot of changes and shifts in my life made me decide to take a break from writing, I knew I'd be back. Here I am.

_*

When Steemit blew up big in the community of friends and content creators who surround the ideas of true liberty (voluntaryists/anarchists), it got a lot of skepticism, and rightfully so. No matter how great any idea, humans understand that not all other humans are noble or have the best of intentions. So--as with anything new on a market--it came on the scene receiving great scrutiny and approach avoidance.

While I understood the doubt and questions, a lot of unfounded fear and accusation came with it. Today I'm here to say... it's pretty obvious the skepticism of the CONCEPT behind Steemit was fairly unfounded, or at least... it was wrong in some of its assumptions and fears. Steemit is still a work in progress, as anything like this is, but the concept appears to have real promise, and unlike what a lot of woeful predictions said -- Steemit DID NOT just IMMEDIATELY crash and burn. Nor did it reveal itself to be a scam.

Here it is still, in itss second year, and still growing and changing the lives of people --in a significant way-- all over the world. Just like myself and many others said it would.

Land, You Say? Yep, And I'm Only 30!

The article title you see here says something true about what Steemit lead to for my life. Because of what Steemit did for me in 2016, I was able to start investing in crypto-currency on the exchanges. I turned that money into more money, as investing will often do, and then I wrote a lot of articles in a short amount of time for this platform, that grew my Steem Power (community influence). My Steem Power sat and appreciated as the value of Steem went up, and when I wasn't writing, I remembered that I could power down and receive payments out of my own investment. Steem Power Downs made it so that I have had an income, a reward for my value created over several months, and that income has been here while I wasn't writing anything for awhile. I put in hours and hours of effort writing for Steemit, far fewer hours than a typical 9-5 job, and all were FUN hours of my time spent doing what I love. Those minimal hours of fun, doing something I'm passionate about, have yielded me more reward in a shorter amount of time than a lot of J-O-Bs I have had in the past ("rat race" jobs, as some call them).

Combine the writing on Steemit I did for months along with housekeeping, landscaping jobs, and other chore/project work for friends or family, and some delivery courier driving for Postmates...

I've begun living the life I've wanted to live for awhile now -- which is simply, one where I control my time and have the time for what matters most to me: my son, friends, family and helping to spread the ideas of true human love and freedom in the world around me, at whatever pace I can manage that.

At age 30 I have bought a couple acres of land with Bitcoin, and that Bitcoin was converted over time from -- you guessed it -- Steem and Steem Dollars. My writing paid for that, basically. The community of Steemit creators who follow my content and support me were the compensation for that writing. I could not have dreamed up a better way to accomplish my goals than that, and now I'm shopping for a travel trailer that my SUV will pull behind it, so I can live the minimalist lifestyle for awhile that I'd dreamed of.

_*

{Side note: My sister said to me months ago, without knowing my plans yet -- "You are so the type I could see living out of a mobile home or travel trailer, camping and hanging out in nature around the west." I said "Guess what I've been planning, actually?"}

Seminars, Traveling, Some Podcasting and Now Back To Writing Too!

First of all, I want to thank @dantheman Dan Larimer and @ned Ned Scott, and all the developers, witnesses, and content creators who all comprise the Steemit community. I extend my gratitude for what you've created for the world and continued to evolve this into, as well as a special thanks to those who have regularly engaged with me as fellow creators and supported me. I hope to see many years to come on this platform, or the crypto-children and grandchildren of the Steemit platform, and I look forward to all the neat content creators and artists I will learn from and befriend along the way. In 2016, 2017 and 2018 I will probably have done more traveling than ever before and it's all thanks to those who find value in what I offer and produce and so compensate me for that.

~Candles In The Dark~

So what's my focus been in 2017? So glad you asked, haha! My darling love, Larken Rose (www.larkenrose.com), is an author, documentarian, speaker and project designer/programmer/creator of his WIP "The Mirror". He and I have started and been planning freedom-minded seminars across the U.S. we have titled "Candles In The Dark".

The seminar is geared specifically towards those who believe in the principles of self-ownership and true liberty, and so have left behind Statism, but who now struggle with how to communicate and spread the idea effectively among friends and family. Our seminar (Larken's brain child, but I helped design it and assist with it as well) is focused on helping liberty lovers spread the ideas, since we realized that the faster way to a freer world is to help free others around us. In order to do that, we have to be effective communicators and listeners.

Larken prefers a more blunt approach in the social media world and writes for Steemit here (@larkenrose), with a very strong voice... but our seminars are specifically designed to address the one-on-one in-person conversations that happen all the time. Many people struggle with their day-to-day conversations about liberty and self-ownership, so that's where we want to help. The seminars take an approach very different from the communication styles that are often effective in the internet social media format; they are based on disarming others through empathetic speaking, while still asking questions that stir up critical thought.

~

Using what Larken has learned from 20 years of speaking, debating and writing, combined with borrowing from the Socratic approach, we created a 2-day seminar that breaks down into basics the way to have the right conversational approach that will have people really listening, rather than putting up guards and becoming defensive. It's focused on how to get around psychological walls that often get put up when people converse-- simply because we're human, and it's what we tend to do.

A lot of people say "Can you come do a seminar where I live?" We wish we could do them anywhere! So, here's the deal:

We're trying to schedule seminars in places where there is enough demand that enough tickets will sell to cover the cost of putting one on. The seminars include a lunch both days and note packet Larken put together himself that succinctly summarizes the main points of the seminar.

Additionally, these are not the typical seminars where one just shuts up and listens. It's intended for engagement, so Larken and I are always open to questions and discussion happens throughout all the sessions on both days.

Here is a photo taken from the Redlands, California seminar, the second day, with a Voluntaryist and fellow discussion participant (not necessarily an anarchist) who was invited in for a 15 minute chat about liberty in front of the group!:

Our goal is that at minimum we can break even in the time and cost it takes to put them on, we're content enough with that, even if it's a tad stressful that way. The ideas matter to us most, and helping spread freedom makes us all more free!

If you want to message either of us about an event in your area, feel free to, but before doing so please consider how many fellow liberty lovers you know who would attend, since it requires a demand!

If you're a Voluntaryist/Anarchist who wants to know more about the seminar, or you want to purchase tickets for either the Washington seminar coming up in August, or the Denver one in September, go here:

August (Washington Seminar): http://www.larkenrose.com/store/seminars-events/2278-candles-in-the-dark-mardsville-aug-12-13.html

September (Denver Seminar): http://www.larkenrose.com/store/seminars-events/2277-candles-in-the-dark-redlands-sept-16-17.html

The Best Part About CITD Seminars

I think the neatest thing about the seminar has been that on the 2nd day of the seminar, at the end, any attendee may bring in a friend-- in particular, one who hasn't yet left statism behind or thought about these ideas yet-- for a short 15 minute discussion in front of the group.

There is zero pressure to debate or argue, just have a brief discussion, and the friend who is brought in gets paid $50 cash for giving the group 15 minutes of their time. Seriously!

We've had several people (of varied political ideologies, not yet Voluntaryists) show up for the 15 minutes, both at the Phoenix and California seminars. All the individuals invited in by their anarchist/voluntaryist friends engaged in civil, fun, thoughtful discussion, and that led to some valuable learning among the groups at both seminars.

The feedback has been amazing on both the seminars done thus far, and now that I've seen what it can do, I believe in it even more than when Larken and I were first hatching the idea back in February! Fleshing out an idea will often do that!

{Quick note to my friends and community: The hardest part of planning CITD seminars has been social media promotion, since Larken and I happen to know for a fact that Facebook has suppression algorithms that make sure lots of posts people put up are not seen by their audiences as much. If anyone wants to help out with that, please contact either of us, even just a little bit of promotion in the areas where the seminars are being planned would be extremely helpful! You wouldn't have to do so for free, either!}

That's a wrap!

So now you're caught up ( if you were following me before) and hopefully inspired by what Steemit has done for myself as well as others.

I have several friends in this community who went from unemployed to a six figure income in one year because of Steemit. I have a lot of friends who leveled-up, so to speak, in life--many did so in major ways. This is all thanks to a platform that lets people freely express their value and be compensated for that value in a decentralized way without a middle man or government(thief) "middle man".

VIVA LA STEEMIT! VIVA LA CRYPTO! VIVA LA DECENTRALIZATION!

{Next up, you'll probably see an anti-political post related to people un-ironically celebrating "freedom" in the U.S. Empire on something that still gets called "Independence Day". Yeesh! }