Who am I

I am Jean Wandimi a self-appointed Steemit Ambassador in Kenya and I want to be an official ambassador. I joined Steemit in October 2017 and I became serious in December 2017. I have been actively involved in the platform for 2 months.

Life Before Steemit

I was an active WordPress supporter in Kenya because I have a successful wine & travel blog which was based on the Wordpress platform. I have been a blogger and digital marketer since 2013 and I have done a lot of promotional work. I have been in leadership positions, I am a self starter and I know how to take initiative. I was involved in promoting WordPress but I made the switch to blogging on Steemit. I did this because my content could reach more people and I could get paid for it.

Giving a wordpress presentation on tips for personal and corporate blogging

To be very honest, originally, I came to Steemit to make money but I slowly discovered the amazing community. It is bigger than the money. It is about community. I cannot count the number of discord voice chats/ calls I have had with amazing people. We have laughed, talked, encouraged each other with people I have never met. Just yesterday, I was chatting with @steve1122 and we spoke about grand ideas for Steemit in Africa. I never thought I would have such deep and profound conversations with people I have never met. Steemit has done that for me. I hope everyone gets to experience that!

I discovered how people create not just groups but communities with common interests. I was impressed by what Nigerians were doing in Steemit and I decided to use this as motivation to set up our own community in Kenya. I created the first official Meetup in Kenya and only 6 people showed up. We did not lose faith and I created a Discord group. I messaged other Kenyans on Steemit and we began building the Steemit in Kenya community.

I can not take all the credit as I have had tremendous help from the Kenyan team. We are all part of building this community. Some worthy mentions are @mutitum @deniskj @cmbugua and @wachera who have all been actively involved and instrumental in making this platform grow. We also have @sylviam and @stbrians who joined us recently but are very interested in and active in the community.

An example of the call-to-action post I use for social media ads and Steemit posts

Humble Beginnings

Team Steemit in Kenya is only two months old and we have 34 members so far! Team Steemit in Kenya is growing. We may not be many in numbers at the moment but we plan to keep on adding more members through different outreach efforts.

How We Have Promoted Steemit

We are still in the initial stages of mobilizing people to join the team and we have successfully had three meetups. During these, we have made a lot of headway in terms of strategy and our first outreach project commences in February 3rd. We plan to invite people for a hiking session where we will wear Steemit t-shirts and bring in new members.
Read about Meetup 1 here
Read about Meetup 2 here
Read about Meetup 3 here

Speaking of Steemit tshirts. So @mutitum and I had the task of printing t-shirts. After reviewing different prices, we decided to get handy and do it ourselves. (sort of) We went to downtown Nairobi to get out sample t-shirts printed and let's say, they turned out fine. See more here

Why I Promote Steemit

I even wrote about Amazing Adjustments That Have Happened To My Life Since I Found Steemit.
I promote it because it has changed my life in these ways;

1. Improving my writing skills
   Try writing a 1000 words post every day for 2 months and edit it yourself... See how amazing a writer you become. On Steemit, I have been writing so many posts some which are still unpublished and I have improved my writing. I have also come across phenomenal posts that challenge and inspire me to do better. I can't wait to see how much I improve by December. My typing speed has also increased. I am sure it would do the same for others

2. The Phenomenal community
   I am so happy for all my communities including Steemit in Kenya. It's nice to be part of such a great group. I have made genuine connections. I have had moving and interesting conversations from people I met on Steemit. Join team Kenya here https://discord.gg/n6A438 I am also part of many discord groups like African Discord Server, Air Clinic and Steemit Bloggers

3. The Earnings
   I still remember how excited I was when I made my first withdrawal. I almost screamed. I hope other people can also make money.

4. Empowered me
   The unemployment rate in our country is high. I did have a job before Steemit but I have found that now, I am more skewed towards working n this platform. I can't begin to imagine how it would empower the youth in my country Kenya and Africa at large.

How I joined Steemit

Excerpt from another promo-steem post I wrote.

I am always on Youtube watching travel vlogs because I love traveling so much. Travelling is an expensive activity so sometimes, I would rather travel on my couch. One of the travel vlogs I watch are @thelifeofjord. I love how he takes his photos and how he tells his stories in an unpretentious way and I followed him on all social media. I came across his post about Steemit on twitter. I decided to check it out and I went through a few tutorials. I signed up and my account was approved a few days later.
I did not post anything and gave myself time to learn about the platform. I do not consider myself an early adopter and I do not blame myself for taking time. I had bookmarked a video by @jerrybanfield and I came across it again. That was my 2nd sign to get on the platform. After that, I have never looked back. I showed up everyday writing posts and talking to people.

How I navigated Steemit

Steemit was like a full time job. I had just come to Kenya from a long blogger's reporting trip at the Western Cape of South Africa. I am a wine blogger and as you can imagine, I had been having the time of my life. Coming back, I had used some money and I needed to make money fast. I write for publications and online websites and if you have been a writer you know that payments do not always come immediately. I was torn between writing more or joining this platform that I wasn't sure about and I chose the latter. I took a leap of faith and decided to start writing, learning and navigating these Steemstreets. In a month, I had made some money. However, I was discouraged because some of my earlier posts made no money.

I met so many amazing people who helped me through my journey and some are @greenrun @japfiv @collinz @deniskj @mutitum @cmbugua @choogirl @carlgnash @dante31

Future Plans as a Steem Ambassador

I hope to continue making more genuine connections, adding value, improving my writing and spreading the word about Steemit. The sky is the limit. I also look forward to bringing more people in Kenya on Steemit. I plan to use this to show the Kenyan youth how to earn money. As a content creator, I plan to show other content creators that they can actually get paid for their content, connect with a global audience and liaise with people.

I plan to bring more people from Africa and to grow a strong community not just in my country but in Africa.
Onwards and Upwards.

So I hope I can become a Steemit Ambassador because I will shamelessly promote this platform. I am very creative and I will come up with great campaigns that convert. At the end of the day, the goal is just to bring people to this amazing platform that has changed my life in the hope that it changes theirs.