My first 99 days Steemit

My first 99 days on @Steemit

Today I will reach the auspicious mile-stone of 1008 followers! This is a a holy number, so I went to go check the age of my account, and saw it was at the beautiful age of 99 days old. So In honor of the last time my account will be in double digit days on #Steemit, I decided to make this post about my little journey here.

Digital mixed media by Giovani Zanolino

How did I get here?

At the time I came across Steemit, it was through an announcement by the photographer @vonwong on facebook. He said something along the lines that he believed in the blockchain and was encouraging his 300.000 followers to join, after a week he realized the task was maybe too daunting and hasn't posted since. I'm still here though, and very happy about it!

I had come into a (relative to my previous bankroll) spot of money due to getting a very large commission as the Chief artist for the AFAS Experience Center in the Netherlands https://www.afasexperiencecenter.nl/ I will post more about this project in the future.

Blew up my bankroll!

As these things tend to go sometimes, I managed to blow up my bankroll, I lost a lot of it in some bad investments... I bought an old truck that cost a fortune in repairs, I funded a weed farm that went bust (got screwed by my confidant). I then lost a bunch of it due to day-trading with a lack of experience and taste for risk. My solution to make it back, was by putting my math skills to use, I committed myself to poker... A series of life changing bad beats later, left me with a maxed out credit card, waking up one morning thinking, "What the fuck happened?"

Mixed media piece by Giovani Zanolino

Around this time I came into contact with Steem, not only was I intrigued by a platform that offered crypto incentives for content and participation, but I came to notice a whole community of alternative thinkers. People generously sharing their experience and knowledge via this platform. The more I learned about it, the more I got hooked!

Humble beginnings

My first posts received a modest few cents, but I started connecting with some people. The more that I browsed the content, the more I learned about the depth of this blockchain. After the first 7 days I started to receive those few cents of up-votes in my wallet. I noticed the use of Voting-bots and started bidding to get a ROI. I'll admit, it was a hard choice, previous to this platform, I refused to pay any money to promote myself, but in this case I felt like I wanted to progress and grow as fast as possible. I'm after a growth in SP! I have been attaining this growth in part due to the bots, so I'm happy that the value made through them is going back into the blockchain. I haven't cashed out anything and I don't plan to do so any time soon either!

Digital mixed media made by Giovani Zanolino

Find content you connect with

The first weeks and months I was really searching for content that I clicked with. After getting to know the writer, their blogs and their personality, I would interact with the ones I liked through their comments section. I'm glad to say I came across many more Steemians willing to answer and engage with genuine comments, than those who ignored me. Many where super kind and helpful. Some would give me regular up-votes on my comments, and some even on my posts! I think this is one of the primary goals you should have here, to find the Steemians that you want to surround yourself with! Not only will you gain lot's of useful information and inspiration, but you will fine-tune your own art by learning from them. I've really come to know and enjoy the contributions of many solid characters here on Steemit.

After a while some of the connections were quite strong. I started to engage more and more with their funny, sophisticated, well written, artistic and interesting content. As relationships develop, you start to have real human connection! As the personal rapports evolve, it only get's more intricate and meaningful as we go. I must say that these connections have been amongst the most rewarding aspects of Steem to me! In short, the LOVE that we share with one-another here, is really something to be cherished.

Digital mixed media by Giovani Zanolino

What's my goal?

Art is my thing and sharing my artworks with the world is my primary goal. I noticed however,that most viewers aren't interested in just an image. They like to share the experience and want to have the input of the artist when it comes to viewing the Artworks. I've been trying to learn how to more eloquently translate my visuals into words. That in itself, has been a great @Steemit reward for me. Trying to blog about my Artworks has pushed me to communicate more. This is an attribute which many artists struggle with and is often the reason why they choose to express themselves visually in the first place. I do encourage all artists to use this opportunity to sharpen your communications skills, it will be highly beneficial for you!

I kept promoting my Art here, and gratefully, started receiving some super encouraging feedback from persons I respect. I got a few lucky breaks (2 big up-votes from @Randowhale) which gave me some SBD's to works with. I hadn't been so fortunate to be curated by any large accounts, till Slothicorn started doing me solids a few weeks back! That I must mention, felt like a real accomplishment to me! I respect their curation and I'm a very big fan of their initiative! My first big break here came about a month ago though, it was when @SurfYogi contacted me, that my mission would here became a lot clearer.

The Game-changer

Digital mixed media portrait of @SurfYogi made by Giovani Zanolino

SurfYogi and @ArtzOne

@Surfyogi had an epiphany to start an @ArtzOne community. This community aimed at curating and supporting deserving artists on the Steemit platform. He did the same for the west-african Community under the name @WAfrica. I was invited on board as an art curator and I shared Yogi's vision for @ArtzOne, we had some talks and he entrusted me to be the engine of the operation for now! I saw an opportunity to be able to help support a lot of artists, these chances are few and far between, so I gratefully accepted this challenge! Having gone through the struggle of being an upcoming artist myself, I went into beast-mode, working my butt off to turn this vision a reality. All hard working artists and creatives deserve to make a living, and all art lovers deserve to get their dose of high quality, this account aims at satisfying that need!

Digital mixed media by Giovani Zanolino

Just bought my first Lamborghini

Just kidding, my growth has been pretty modest compared to others, but I didn't invest a lot of moolah like some accounts. I have worked hard as AF for 4 months though. I also received a 306 SBD transfer for an art-sale which I will pump into SP. The rest of my value was all based on charity and sweat equity! I must say it's nowhere near enough to live from in my country Curaçao, but the aim is to grow rather than to cash out. When passion takes over, which has always been the principal guide of my decisions, money doesn't really matter, and the time spent doesn't feel like work. I'm happy to have found that same drive for what I'm doing here, as I have for my Art and Surfing, so it's really turning into a game-changer and a Love-story

Digital mixed media by Giovani Zanolino

Love what you do

Passion is very rewarding indeed, it helps one to grow at an accelerated rate! I am truly grateful to have found Steemit and look forward to our future here together. It's been a wild ride till now and I can't wait to see how this all unfolds! May we be prepared for what's coming, and be the change we want to see!

Giovani @ArtZanolino Selfie

You who is reading this, thank you for being on this journey with me, my artworks and blog don't mean anything without you!

Some of my tribe members:

@ArtzOne @DerangedVision @EdPrivat @Eloh-Projects @GandhiBaba @GotMeens @Grandpooba @In2itiveart @Littlescribe @Manouche @Nonamesleftouse @Occupywallets @Ofildutemps @Plop-Into-Milk @Sanddrift @Sandrina.Life @Sift666 @Surfyogi @TheOMGbrand @Wafrica @Web-Gnar @WheelLife