Steem Basic Income

Steem Basic Income is a voluntary social experiment to bring a crowd-funded basic income to as many Steemians as possible. Members join by sponsoring others into the program. Steem Basic Income is delivered through providing regular upvotes to member content.

Welcome to @steembasicincome's seventeenth member interview!

To provide more interaction within Steem Basic Income (SBI), we are continuing our interviews with prominent members of SBI! We hope to bring a greater sense of community, get to know our members, and gain a better understanding of why Steemians are choosing to be a part of SBI.

_{Graphic by @katysavage}

Writer Intro: @wesphilbin

Greetings, again fellow Steemians, I am @wesphilbin. This will be my eighth interview for the Steem Basic Income group. I have interviewed the following Steemians:
@eturnerx
@ecoinstant
@jonnyla08
@rishi556
@tattoodjay
@mariannewest
@solominer
@r2cornell

Subject Intro: @freedompoint

You might know him as The Yeti or by his Steem name @freedompoint... either way, I was excited he said yes, when I asked him if he was interested in doing an SBI interview...

_{Image Credit @katysavage}

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"Inner Blocks is about quality self reliant content measured by personal experience. First hand accounts of your own personal adventure. Whatever you are doing that helps you to become the best version of yourself. "

The above statement, is from the "Inner Blocks Discord Group" ... it is part of the "Who We Are" statement, and I must say... I not only love this description, but also... I too, am a member of their Discord community. Along with his wife @freedomtowrite, or Stacy D... they have a great vibe going on the blockchain... let's jump on in and talk with The Yeti...

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@wesphilbin: Appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule, to hop on the interview-wagon brother! I know the awesome you, but would you mind telling our readers, a litle bit about the awesome you?

@freedompoint: Hey! I am freedompoint, I am The Yeti. I am a disciple of Jesus, a husband, a dad, and a nomad. I actively create content that is meant for inspiration and to provoke thought. I like to dive into ideas that will challenge your foundation and may even make you nervous. I prefer to spend time splitting apart the universe and thinking about the bigger picture. I am the co-founder with my bride Stacie D, @freedomtowrite, of a wonderful community called Inner Blocks, that is being built to show love and support for individuals around the world. To support amazing first hand content, and encourage them to live their best life and build themselves one block at a time. I love to live life. I believe that there is so much more that we can be doing than just what we do everyday. Instead of focusing on the tragedies that we always see on the news or social media, and being drawn toward the negative...I choose to look for the light. To see the world through a different lens. To know that our reality is only what we allow it to be. I stay physically active with different activities including yoga and working as a farm hand in Northern Michigan. I also may be the largest vegan you know, I mean 6'5 270 lbs. I love to create things as often as I can. I love working with steel, clay, and soon wood! I believe that I can live a life that loves, supports and encourages others without expecting anything in return... That's a little bit about me.

@wesphilbin: You know... I love to hear about couples, working together to create positive energy... whether in our real lives or our interactions on the blockchain. I have to say I am glad that I met you; together you both shine with so much positive energy... and I must say I am glad to be in your community. So I am curious... what was it that brought you to the blockchain? I know you are involved with homesteading but was there something in particular that drew you here?

@freedompoint: What brought me to the blockchain. Well, a few years ago Stacie D and I started a homestead in Southern Missouri. It was an overgrown piece of land with a busted down little cabin on it. We ended up cutting a bunch of trees and tearing down the cabin and starting everything fresh. We built our own house by ourselves. I built the house using manual saws, hammer and nails. We really gained a lot of experience there and wanted to share it with other people. We felt that we should start some sort of site for our homestead, but Facebook seemed to be the best option. So we started to make posts, share pictures, and teach people everything that we were learning. From there we were talking with some neighbors that were also homesteading, and they told us all about how they were making videos for their homestead and loading them to YouTube. So, it took a little bit of learning, but we started to make homesteading videos on YouTube. After we were doing that for a while we noticed that the channel was a little crowded. We were making videos about homesteading, but I was also making videos called Mystic Yeti's Morning Coffee. I really enjoyed making videos and sharing my thoughts. While we were trying to sort out what direction to take our YouTube Channel, one of those other homesteaders said "hey, have you heard of Steemit?!" We answered with a solid no, and then they went on to tell us about how their friends had started using it and were actually earning, unlike on YouTube. It wasn't long after that we started to dabble a bit and get a Steem account and start to load our YouTube videos onto Steem. After we got onboard, that crap caught like a wild fire! We were writing blogs, sharing pictures, making videos, the sky was the limit. That was in October of 2017, and we are still here posting 1 to 2 posts a day 6 days a week!

@wesphilbin: I know there have been a lot of people who have started adding their DTube videos with YouTube videos... as I mentioned to you, I started my journey on the blockchain June of 2017... M.S. had it's way, and I had to "un-plug" for awhile... but I would say you must be living right! 1 to 2 posts a day, combined with everything you do each day, is something to be proud of! So things started to take off for you... blogs, videos, photo's... where did Steem Basic Income come into play? Was this something you already knew about, or did you hear it "through the grapevine?"

@freedompoint: Where did I hear about SBI and what got me into it? Well, honestly it trickled in. I started to hear about it more and more as it was rolling out. The people around me were beginning to talk about it and how amazing it was. That was when STEEM and SBD was up... like way up. It was and is an amazing idea... I love the work that @josephsavage and @katysavage are putting into it. I think that it is going to be a major part of the Steem ecosystem in the future. It really took off in September of 2018 when Stacie D and I visited Toronto for a Steemcreators Conference. We got to meet and hang out with Joseph and Katy and their sweet baby. They were such interesting people, and so driven. I loved listening to Joseph talk about SBI. When he was up at the front of the room, you could tell he loved it, and was very passionate.

How SBI plays a part in my initiatives? That is a bit more tricky. As far as my personal account @freedompoint, I try to support many people. I have bought my fair amount of SBI for people haha. When it comes to Inner Blocks, Stacie D really jumped in with the SBI. We came together on the idea of doing contests and getting more people involved. This is important especially when people are a little more discouraged with the down prices. We want to get people active and motivated to create content. This is a double edged thing. The sweet thing about SBI is when you get one for someone else, it also gets one for you. This will be huge for Inner Blocks in the future. I am sure that there are going to be many more ways to utilize SBI as the community evolves.

"We chose a name that would have several meanings...Inner Blocks.... We believed that we could expand on our previous concept and include many more topics and ideas. We put the focus onto people as individuals, and the many things that make them who they are. Not just one thing defines us, but we are built from many ideas, or hobbies, or interests...those are the blocks that build us".

_{@freedompoint}

@wesphilbin: You touched on one of the great things about the Steem Basic Income initiative... though you can't sponsor yourself, when you sponsor another Steemian you technically are gaining a SBI unit! So the mindset of "helping other's helps you" really is exemplified. As you know, I have been with the Inner Blocks community for a short time, but love the vibe being sent out... there are many familiar names there, and the numbers keep on growing... you have created a good thing here my friend! Tell me a little about your journey here; what compelled you to start this movement.... what drew you to 'Inner Blocks'...?

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_{Image created by @freedomtowrite}

"The idea behind the radio show is to keep an ongoing connection between the people and the project. To help to keep people knowing who the creators of the project are, and why they are doing it."

_{You can catch the Inner Block Radio Show at The Ramble Radio}

@freedompoint: A little about my journey here, what compelled us to start this movement, what drew us to 'Inner Blocks'...

Since we started using Steem in 2017, we have loved the whole ecosystem. We loved that I could grow to create more videos and Stacie D could write stories. It has been the most versatile platform we have ever been a part of. In our early days here STEEM and SBD was up about 10 dollars. That was huge for us. We were just homesteaders, in the woods, with little income. We knew that whatever we could do here was always going to be worth our effort. We even relied on STEEM as our full time income for a while. That is easy... no bills... no need for money. We have kept that mindset. So in the spring of 2018 we were invited to a meetup in Nashville, Tennessee. We didn't know what to expect... @jonny-clearwater was hosting a meetup and was filming his show 'Hots or Shots'.

We were invited by @steemcafe to be his guest there. It was for a weeklong meeting and then a meet up on the Saturday at the end. We were invited to come out a day early to meet everyone that was there. That was the first time meeting other Steem users. We met creators, we met top witnesses, we met investors etc. It was a game changer that changed how we saw the entire platform. From that time forward, we were not just 'content creators', but we learned how to utilize the information we had gained for our benefit. So we did. We partnered with @steemcafe to create a homesteading community that had amazing ideas and vision, unfortunately that vision fell apart professionally, but Stacie and I were still very excited and had a vision of our own. Before we left that other community we made sure that we had direction and resources.

We chose a name that would have several meanings... Inner Blocks... We believed that we could expand on our previous concept and include many more topics and ideas. We put the focus onto people as individuals, and the many things that make them who they are. Not just one thing defines us, but we are build from many ideas, or hobbies, or interests...those are the blocks that build us. Not only did the name reflect individuals, but also that we are functioning on a BLOCKchain, or when you meditate and the energy cannot flow sometimes there is an inner blockage. So when you think about the name Inner Blocks, we would like to think that it is a little deeper than just what you see. We started this project with a bang. We hit the ground running with the support of @jasonbu. He got the Inner Blocks front end up and going, and shared a vision for what it could be. We knew what was coming. We knew the changes that were coming to Steem and what was happening to the communities inside. We understood that the Steem Blockchain was being built for businesses and that the "little guy" was not going to have the same place that they once did. We knew that there was going to be a lot of hard work disappear. We wanted to create a place that would showcase great communities and great content. That is still the goal today. We are still building everyday. The front end is up and fully functional, and we are making great changes to prepare for our SMT.

@wesphilbin: Wow... you have quite a bit going on my friend... like so many other's I have interacted with, and with each of the members I have interviewed in the past, there is a continous mantra... Community... You have given our readers a great deal to learn from, and myself... much to work on! All kidding aside, before I let you get back to your daily duties... would there be any future plans in store? Anything you have envisioned for the Inner Blocks community?

@freedompoint: Future plans for Inner Blocks... oh boy, I'll try to stay on track. There are so many ideas that it is hard to really put it in a straight line just yet. We have several different ideas, but instead of building something then having people use it, we would rather build what people want. Kind of working it out as we go.

With that being said, there are several amazing things. First we are still developing the Inner Blocks front end. I am sure you all have heard us talking about it. It is currently up and running at https://www.theinnerblocks.com. We are making new changes all the time to this front end until we feel that it is "ready to go". Once it is "ready to go" we are going to roll it over to www.innerblocks.com. This will line everything up with the new name and vision for Inner Blocks. When we do the roll over we are going to be hosting a contest to increase front end use and it will include us giving away a 2018 Steem Silver Round!!

_{Image created by @freedomtowrite}

@freedompoint: Beyond the front end, Stacie D and I are planning to actually create a physical world entity for Inner Blocks. So it will be a functioning real world entity. We would like to be able to impact individuals experiences both in the digital space and the real world... so we are working through all the aspects of creating a corporation, and even trademarking the logo. We are certainly going to look into merchandise and other use cases for our token...