Houston Steemit Meetup Oct. 13, 2017 TAKEAWAYS....Better late than ...

Last Friday I traveled out to Houston for the First Steemit Houston Meetup...

For me, this was a Must Attend event, come hell or highwater, as we say in Texas. So, even when my better half was suddenly called away on a business trip, and then I had a pregnancy low blood pressure near fainting episode, and I was having trouble locating a babysitter for my other two children ... I still found a way to make it there.

Many thanks to Hive account@xtrodinarypilot for organizing and publicizing this meetup!

Additional thanks and hugs to Hive account@xtdnrymompreneur for helping to solve my babysitter issue, and reducing the Houston traffic driving stress by taxi'ing me to and from the meetup.

I even got to watch her finish up this amazing cake ... even though I didn't stay late enough to taste it :(

So, I've had ample time to ponder and reflect on all of the information that was presented during the meetup. Here are the major points I took away...

You Are A Brand

This is a key point I've already recognized after making a study of successful Steemit users. I was already on a continual quest to further define our Steemit account brand. I've even written a couple of blogs on the subject ...

Getting Started: Why to Look Before You Leap
Part 2: Creating Your Steemit Contextual Identity
If You Could Be Anyone...Part 3

So, when this subject was discussed at length during the meetup, it just further underlined and validated what I already knew about this community. Hive account@sirlunchthehost summarized it the best for me. Being a professional entertainer, he understands the importance of portraying a character. He explained that every human being has a vice whether it be drugs, alcohol, sex, food ... and even entertainment and amusements. For some in the crypto-community, Steemit "characters" (read users) are their vices. And they will continue to "feed" (read upvote, follow, resteem) their favorite characters in order to keep them active and creating more content, which in turn continues to entertain them.

Think of it this way... Back in Renaissance Italy wealthy families such as The Medici's would employ various artists such as painters, musicians, sculptors etc. to produce works of art solely for their family's private entertainment. To me, this is a modern, tech society version of that.

Steemit Is A Social Media, SOCIALIZE

A key phrase keeps popping up throughout my life, and it's so relevant in a wide variety of applications so I'll share it with you.

You get out what you put in.

In other words, you have to give to receive. Get involved, follow other users, comment, upvote, and resteem. Actually read blogs of the users you follow. Become known for making genuine, relevant comments that actually contribute something worthwhile. If you are just making posts, but not supporting other users, and you're sitting around complaining that none of your posts are getting upvoted, well just take a split second to really think about why that is.

Something else that was discussed by a couple of speakers, including Hive account@mrwang, was the added benefits of using Steemit chat and Dischord channels to personally interact with other Steemit users. This is something I intend to incorporate into my overall strategy.

You Don't Have To Be A Tech Guru...But It Helps

Hive account@instructor2121 spent a good amount of time explaining the basic in's and out's of the Steemit interface, the purpose of Steemit, and how to best navigate the website. Then we dove a little deeper into the various other programs that are also on the Steemit blockchain. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were also discussed on a fingernail scratch level. I must admit, this is something that I am a little ignorant about, and it's becoming more and more apparent that I need to learn more and more about. I'm not sure why it's so confusing to me, but it just is. Many, many gracious thanks to Hive account@instructor2121 and his family for traveling out to Texas for this event! I'm sorry I didn't have much time to chat during the meetup, but hopefully Houston treated you well.

Well, I did not intend to make this recap of the Houston Steemit Meetup a novel, but here it is! As it tends to happen, I just started typing, and pages of text fell out on the screen. It truly was a great event, and I cannot wait for next one. Hopefully, Steemit Houston and Steemit Texas will continue to grow and network into an awesome, supportive community.