Are you chasing Steemit success? I'm here to help you on your quest. I need your attention, my dear guest, this is a guide to get you to your best. One more thing, on which you can bet but If you don't believe right now, don't fret! Let's put it to the test. This recipe guarantees success. Follow along your way to the best Steemit yet!

(Look! I'm a Steemit Wave!)

Let me ask you, have you been connecting with people on here or are you following the upvote4upvote/follow4follow trend taking over?

This community offers us a unique possibility to connect with people on a truly authentic, loving level with the added benefit of being able to support their creative ventures.

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Let me share an incredible example with you before I give my suggestions/outlook which I hope you'll take to heart to be able to help you navigate your way through these waters.

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Someone made a post thanking me (ME!) yesterday:

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There I was, having an unusually rough day, quite grumpy from a little real life turbulence and so, I decided to log in to Steemit and see what was going on there.

Imagine my delight when I opened my page to find a whole post dedicated to a recipe I made one day! Completely blown away, I started shaking with happiness! Suddenly, my bad mood was floating out of me like steam, drifting away and replaced with a rainbow of love and sunshine from my new California-based, happy-go-lucky, bubbly, wonderful, loving, beautiful friend Hive account@sunshine247!

When I clicked on the link she posted, I had no idea what I was in for. At the time, I knew she was actively trying to find the exotic ingredients my recipe called for, but I honestly didn't think she would try so hard to make it happen- her commitment was beyond impressive! After several stores, she managed to locate the elusive dragonfruit that she was missing to make the pink in my smoothie happen. Now everything was set to go, she just needed her 'grandbabies' to come over to make them together.

Let me tell you what happened next....

Those beautiful little angels spent the day at their grandmomma's house, making these beautiful smoothies and decided to share the entire experience with me! Their grandmamma even took photos of the whole process! I was knocked right out of my socks.

Whenever I create a recipe, I zone out and get into this state you might all know as "flow."

Generally, it's advisable not to try to talk to me when I am working like a little fairy in there because my mind works a mile a minute and I am channeling creativity from somewhere unknown to me... letting it course through my blood, into my heart and out through my hands. This process is very freeing to me, it makes me feel alive in a way that I can't put words to.

When I use my passion to create food, a love inside me grows so infinitely that I glow with happiness. That is why I love sharing it with you.

I am realistic, and I know that many recipes I share although appreciated for their tummy-tempting ingredients or finger-licking photos, do not actually get made. It's all part of the food blog world. I know you have your own things going on, I know you don't have all the time in the world and I realize food might not be your passion. However, I get an amazing sense of love and satisfaction by sharing my love-food with you anyway!

What makes my heart shine:

• the fact that Hive account@sunshine247 made this smoothie is one thing. It brings me a new level of heart palpitations to know that she liked my recipe enough to make it and took her time to do so!
• She went out of her way on many occasions to get the necessary ingredients!
• She made this recipe into a fun exercise for her grandbabies to take part in!
• She then, made a whole post about it to share with me!
  AWWW, in case you can't tell, I am just so over-the-moon that this was able to happen!

As far as Steemit is concerned:

This post was being written from the heart with no expectation as to how it was going to go but I think it's a great segway into the idea of relationships on here.

Sure, we can have a ton of followers, we can upvote until we have no more SP but in the end, what are we left with? Even if we get a high dollar amount, does that mean anything
if we aren't engaging authentically?

My opinion on that is 'no'. Back when I first joined here, I was being convinced to spend all of my time running around the various tabs, trying to spread some sort of seed of myself for others to come find me. I quickly got tired and discouraged. Everyone was asking me to follow them, to upvote them, but with no context behind it. Just a simple "you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back" approach and let me tell you, it left me feeling pretty empty, uneasy and downright low.

I was fortunate to meet many people in the beginning who were "teaching me the ropes" of how to play this follow4follow game, but I knew right away that wasn't the game for me. See, if I had over 100 upvotes or something ridiculous like that, but no comments, I would feel so sad. What was all of my effort for? Was anyone even appreciating the time I took to put my post together? I am pretty darn inefficient at this whole posting blogs thing. It's all new territory to me and each post I write takes me hours. I have never taken less than 2 hours to post something and generally, it's more like 4-6 hours with some of my advice pieces taking me days at a time. Anyways, that kind of effort and commitment to me, are worthy of some sort of interaction.

Interacting on Steemit:

(Do you think he wants to kiss me, or is he feeling forced?)

How can you find people to relate to? People who are following you because they like your content, not because of how much money the posts receives?

This part is hard because I know in today's social-media world, we value and judge ourselves and each other based on numbers. Numbers of followers, numbers of upvotes and here, how much a post is worth.

I watched my followers grow at an exponential rate within my first month. People were contacting me asking for my secret but the truth was, I didn't have any secret. I was spending my entire days on here, reading articles that interested me, commenting meaningful, heartfelt sentiments, creating love-filled, creative content and everything else just came with it.

I started to get caught up in how to keep up with it all. My comments are from the heart (every comment I get on my posts, I always make a serious effort to come back to and write a real response, no copied and pasted junk, a response to a comment even if it's just a few words I am responding to.) I have been criticized for this as well, people telling me not to waste so much time since many of those comments go unanswered anyway.

The point is, I began being choosey about who I followed because I actively try to keep up with those I follow... as in I actually interact with them and care about their content! I have developed real friendships with these beautiful souls as we go back and forth, commenting and sharing with each other, supporting one another's posts. This is the key to the connection.

Quick tips from my heart:

• I comment authentically. I don't comment to comment. What is the expectation from that behavior anyway? I comment if I enjoy/like or feel drawn to what I have read or genuinely want to support it.
• I look for pieces, titles, tags that correlate to my interests and read those! I can't support everyone and everything, however if I like you, I will support you and give you love with no expectation for anything in return.
• I follow people who either engage me with their work or engage with me! I want to have a group of people who I can actually connect with, follow, learn about and grow with. Many people I have been corresponding with since I started on here have become true friends to me. This is priceless to me.
• I get involved with groups I believe in and try to support and help build/grow those communities. I will list a few at the bottom here for your reference. Groups are a great way to meet people with similar interests as you.
• Finally, this one is really important= I remove expectations from my interaction on here. This is a volatile place where nothing is certain and I can't cling onto anything because I can't know what to expect. Maybe a post will do well, maybe it won't but I just put my heart into it and offer it to you, sharing what I feel I want to share and leave it at that and am thankful for whatever comes my way!

Groups trying to help people come together:

Obviously there are many of these on here as the space grows and more and more opportunities are being created but there are a couple of groups I would like to suggest to you because I have found some truly, authentic and loving relationships from them.

LFN: Looking For Niche (Join the Discord channel here:)

My first love affair on Steemit. Looking for Niche was started by one of my Steemit besties, Hive account@rawbinhutt. I met Hive account@rawbinhutt on the LFN Discord chatroom shortly after I joined. I was looking for community and wanted to meet people sharing my interests so his group seemed perfect. Of course, it proved right away to be an excellent community because I met many new friends quickly using whalebot, the group's tool for finding others with the same interests as you! How cool right? So, I ended up connecting with 'health', 'fitness', 'food', 'vegan', 'motivation', 'inspiration' and probably a lot more as I was hungry to begin my new friendships ;) What was the best surprise of all though, was how Hive account@rawbinhutt and I clicked and figured out how similar we were and how we had many of the same goals here. We talk to each other all of the time and he's generously made me a community advocate over in the LFN community so I can help facilitate similar experiences for others. I am thrilled to be a part of this match-making community and hope you'll take a look at it- you never know who you'll find!

MAP: Minnow Accelerator Project (Check out Hive account@accelerator)

MAP came to me through a referral on Discord. One day someone messaged me and asked me if they could use my photos as part of a project to use strictly Steemit art. Loving the idea, I accepted right away and found myself in a new friendship with Hive account@inquiringtimes. While we were working on another project together through this connection, he invited me to join Hive account@rycharde and his new group MAP. MAP is kind of similar to Curie if you will, in the way that content is nominated and chosen for curation and support. Hive account@rycharde chooses 6 new authors each 'round' to compete for a chance to win 200 delegated SP for the week. Yes, this is a great contest but the beauty behind it is that he made a private group for the chosen authors. The authors chosen have to display quality content to be chosen and so, now there is a beautiful community with great content creators, all in the same room quickly becoming friends as they support each other through found similar interests. For my group, we had 3 of us right away click instantaneously and I know there's more of that going around. Check out Hive account@accelerator for more info on the group!

The ecotrain: (Here is the link to the posts from ecotrain:)

A new passenger on the ecotrain, I was asked by Hive account@eco-alex to join this environmentally friendly venture which of course is right up my alley. A group of individuals with varying interests and topics but all focusing on the same, positive content from a supportive community. Here's a bit from eco-alex himself on the mission: "The ecotrain is a small and supportive community. One of the best things about ecotrain is that we are really engaged with each other. We are all genuinely interested and engaged with each others' posts. Therefore, we always have a backbone of support and interest in what we post." Finding this community has lead me to new friendships I likely never would have found on my own and I have already learned so much from the people in this amazing group!

The Unmentionables: (Discord channel here:)

I want to mention the Unmentionables because, it was here, through a link that one of my favorite Steemians shared with me, that I found some new friendships that are going to manifest in real life at a meetup in KL. This group was formed as a support network for people who were struggling being seen on Steemit. In my experience with the group, I haven't seen the follow4follow, upvote4upvote mentality here, instead what I have seen is everyone genuinely trying to work together to pull each other up. The definition of a minnow. I find it refreshing and inspiring and love the group that is showing what real connections can create in this world.

My Own Contest/Group Initiative: # veganwednesday: (Find out how to join the fun and connect with us here:)

This is a contest I began last week with a small prize pool from my personal account at stake. My goal with this tag and contest is to bring together a group of people who care about what they put in their mouths. The term 'vegan' here is a place holder as the contest is not restrictive to any one type of diet or group of people. Instead what it is, is a defined category I chose based on a diet I identify with (though it is not exclusive to my dietary preferences) and I encourage those participating to think about, talk about and engage with others about their food choices as we discuss what vegan means to them, expressed in whatever capacity they see fit so long as it remains positive. Although this is only the first week rolling, I am happy to receive several entries from Steemians I have a former relationship with as well as new friends in the making. This is the kind of initiative I was so excited to start! We can continue creating and sharing these as they are a great way to meet each other!

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Now, because this started off as a thank you letter to my pal Hive account@sunshine247 and has turned into a "What Can Steemit Do For YOU" article, I am going to start to cut this off leaving you with some friendly reminders in case you didn't read the whole thing.

(It's OK, I am not offended, I know I wrote a long one this time!)

TLDR; (too long, didn't read: Heart, you're going on too long... tell us what we want to know!)

What if we change how we look at Steemit from "what can steemit do for you?" to "what can I do for Steemit?"

I have said this before and I'll repeat myself again because I think it's going to be the tipping point between if we use this platform for good or if we let it be our ruin. I don't view Steemit as a job. If I do (which sometimes happens when I get too immersed in it) then everything feels like a chore, like I have to do it, an obligation and that doesn't end up with very positive results. I had originally tried to confine myself and set a schedule with expectations but it made this unenjoyable and my content suffered.

However, on the contrary, when I look at Steemit for fun, "I wanted to write this anyway" or "I wanted to read this post because it interested me" or "I really wanted to compete in this contest" then I feel 100% good about spending my time here (for example, making this amazing icecream on a whim to enter Steemit Culinary Challenge hosted by Hive account@woman-onthe-wing last minute which by the way, is another amazing group to get involved in, I have really enjoyed participating in the growing community over there and love the relationships I have been able to make!)

When that positive, motivated, inspired perspective gets skewed by "I need to respond to this" or "I have to read so-and-so's post" or "I need to get this post out 'in time'" then I start to feel stress and disharmony which has never worked out well for me.

Let's wrap this novel up:

In closing because I know this can be continued in a follow up somewhere down the line, I am seeing real benefits and positive experiences from this platform and I wish for it to continue this way. I hope that we can continue fostering this amazing relationships. I have met people on here from all over the world now (many of which, I genuinely intend on visiting at some point) and I am hoping to continue to meet and connect with more of you! I hope you'll take this little tale to heart and try to find your own relationships here. You really just never know what could be out there waiting for you!

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Sending you love today and everyday. Thank you to all of you who have blessed my life with your connection and thank you for supporting me, being here, believing in me and sharing your hearts with me.

Together you've helped me:

• Overcome/manage my fear of flying
• Feel encouraged to sing and express myself musically
• Enter @stellabelle's contest to go to Steemfest Lisbon by singing an original Steemit tune!
• Feel motivated to continue on my path of health and fitness
• Share delicious goodies/treats/meals/recipes, constantly improving my culinary skills
• Raise money for the Bali dog shelter
• Get up close and personal with insecties and critters that used to scare me (thanks @papa-pepper!)
• Push through my writer's block and fear and finally put my stories out there!

And soooo much more! All in only 2 months of activity.
I wish only to offer the same back.

Let's make Steemit great together, this is an incredible opportunity afforded to each and everyone of us on here. The blockchain is a playground of new possibilities! :)

I hope you have found my experience helpful to your own user-experience and that some of these groups mentioned bring you new friends, relationships and in the end, success from whatever it is you are after!

PS: Just as I was about to post this puppy, I got a private message on Discord from someone who had read one of my posts on diets, telling me the steps she had taken this week for her family's health! I just love how this is able to happen!

XO,
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