Well Its Been One Year! What a Journey

My Family..

Before I get started remembering my first year on @steemit, I want to thank my Wife and my Kids. They have been my WHY and my REASON for pushing so hard to try to be somebody on this amazing platform! Through thick and thin they have been my source of strength and inspiration to be a better husband, father and human.

Here we go!

It all started June 17th of 2017, I was doing my rounds on YouTube and I stumbled upon a video talking about Steemit. Myself being a social media butterfly was fascinated in the prospects of this young platform (steemit).

I've been into crypto since 2012, so a blogging platform that you can earn cryptocurrency for doing stuff you do for free really intrigued me. Not to mention being burned by hackers stealing most of my bitcoin early on and "Big Vern" running off with my 100,000 XRP. These events really showed me the hard leasons of crypto and Steemit was there with tons of ways to protect user accounts. I think not only the social aspect but the security aspect is what really drew me in.

I started like everyone else, not knowing what the F... I was doing. I spent weeks reading white papers and watching every YouTube video I could find (This was before @dtube videos). I've always been a heads down, learn learn learn kinda guy so this part I enjoyed, though the Steemit learning curve is NUTS!

I loved the process of learning so much I even started my own Youtube series which till this very day is one of my highest viewed and engaged vidoes:

I brought other friends here, they quickly left lol. (I wish they stayed and ate dirt like I did). At this point I didn't know about the #introduceyourself hashtag. (I found out about that weeks later)

I didn't find any success till I made fun games like: Steemit RPG, Steemit Fortune Cookie and Steemit Magic 8 Ball.

Then I hit a wall...

I didn't discover my true potential here till I stated to comment and talk to other steemians. The very first people who really showed me the way was @brianphobos and @rulesforrebels. These guys I looked up to because of there amazing accounts and how they engaged their community. So go follow them and thank you guys!

My fist whale vote was from @jerrybanfield, I'll never forgot that. Love him or hate him, he had an impact on me and its something i'll never forget.

The Steemit Minute

This was the thing that really put me over on Steemit! Not only do I get to talk about the Steemit News, I get so showcase some of my favorite DTube videos and fellow steemians! Not to mention bringing New Steemians to others Every Day!

Community

Community was something I wish I was told about on day one. (Someone most likely did but was still trying to figure out what the hell powering down meant). I'm a true self made person and very independent, not to mention a little of an introvert. So reaching out to others and joining a community was never my thing.

Thats till I met people like: @dnews @alphasteem @captainbob @sergiomendes @waybeyondpadthai @humanearland @myndnowcountless @dontstopmenow @goldmatters and others who were doing amazing work on Discord! Finding Discord was seriously the best thing I ever could of done.

Speaking of which Discord was one of the things that got me in touch with @steemcafe who invited me to the Creators Conference in Las Vegas. Where I spoke about @dtube and Steemit in front of a couple dozen people. I've never spoke in public before, so I was super scared and nervous. I learned a lot about my self and from one person who will go nameless, how to treat other people with respect. The bottem line was I met a lot of great people there at the event (mentioned below) and it really lit a fire under me to: DO BETTER, BE BETTER.

Click the image to see my speech, I was nervous AF.

@steemcafe @dtubestars @opc @larrymorrison @joepate47 @thehoneys @eventspeaker @kenmelendez @happymoneyman @prettynicevideo @coruscate @hyperfundit @rhondak @scottshots @elsiekjay @dnews @adamkokesh @instructor2121 @josephsavage @katysavage

Huge Respect & Love to DTube (@dtube)

I cannot thank enough @heimindanger and the crew over there at @dtube for all the amazing upvotes and support. Not to mention they saw in me potential by making me a Dtube Moderator on their discord channel: https://discord.gg/SfBPTD3

Also all the upvotes they have given me and other people over the year. For myself I have been able to pay bills, feed my family and help others in my own community from these upvotes and support.

HUGE HUGS TO ADRIAN!

Lastly... STEEM MONSTERS! (@steemmonsters)

Thank you to @aggroed and @yabapmatt for creating such an amazing virtual trading card game on the Steem Blockchain and graciously welcoming me to be a part of it as the Steem Monsters Director of Social Media.

This is a huge honor to be a part of something so amazing and fun. Not to mention we JUST STARTED!

Special shout out to: @isaria @clove71 and all the cool people over there holding down the discord!

Thank you!

Final Thoughts on a Year!

The journey is what you make it. I ate dirt for months and tried a million things before I found ANY success here. BUT I wouldn't of made it without YOU!

I Love You all, Thank you.