Two Year Anniversary of my first show on MSP Waves & How Steem Has Impacted My Life

Totally by chance I was looking through the old videos on my YouTube account.

Scrolling right back to the beginning I discovered that my very first solo show on MSP Waves was exactly two years ago.

After joining @globocop on his Saturday evening show for several weeks as a guest host I finally plucked up the courage and decided to fly solo with the first episode of 'Pennsif's Alternative Lifestyle Show' on Friday 26 January 2018.

My guests on that first show were...

• @RedRica, from the UK, who was talking about homeschooling
• @GeordiePrepper, one of the top preppers in the UK
• @Halcyondaze, from the USA, who runs Epic Gardening and had the impressive goal to teach 10,000,000 people how to grow their own food
• @TheBugIQ, from Canada, who spoke about his varied interests including music, photography and developing products for homesteaders and bushcrafters.

Alas none of these Steemians have been active on Steem for a while, although it was great to see @GeordiePrepper pop up with a "I'm coming back" post just a few days ago.

It would be great to see the others return as well some time soon.

@RedRica had been very active on the blockchain particularly organising regular London Steem Meetups until the sad and sudden death last August of @rod.crisafulli, a close friend and a well loved member of the London Steem Community.

Kevin, @Halcyondaze, now concentrates on his Epic Gardening YouTube channel putting out high quality gardening videos for his almost 200,000 subscribers. I would like to persuade Kevin to come and share his content on Steem again.

I know @TheBugIQ went off to Whaleshares but I am not sure what he is doing now.

@globocop who was joint Station Manager when I did this first show left MSP Waves and Steem some months back, but @r0nd0n the other joint Manager and stalwart of MSP is still going strong.

This first show launched an 18 month MSP hosting career that produced over 100 shows under a number of different titles and formats.

As well as the Alternative Lifestyle Show, I also did My Life In 8 Songs, Here Comes The News, 60 Minutes of Steem, DO and Tribe Talk.

The pinnacle of my MSP career, and what I am most proud of, would be the special State of Steem Forums that I initiated after Steem had hit the low point late in 2018 after Steemit Inc had to make 70% of their staff redundant. The forums were put on to provide a focal point for the community to come together and discuss ways forward.

I still clearly remember the buzz and thrill of the first Forum when almost 200 people crammed into the MSP Waves audience channel.

All my shows have very much been about talking with members of the Steem Community. I would commonly have at least three, and often many more, Steemians on every show to talk about their life, their projects and what they were doing on Steem.

This very much is what made doing the shows so special for me. I have had the great honour to interview somewhere approaching 500 Steemians on the shows ranging from @ned, the co-founder of Steem, @elipowell and most of the current Steemit Inc staff, many of the top witnesses, the leaders of most of the apps and projects on Steem, as well as wide array of the general folk of Steem.

Through these interviews I have got to know so many people on Steem, and learnt so much about the blockchain, its projects and its community.

It was the State of Steem Forums that in fact gave birth to the Steem News that I produce, and which is now approaching its 250th edition.

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When I joined Steem in June 2017 I quickly got involved in helping set up the homesteading community. That occupied my first few months on the platform and it was that community that spurred me towards the original concept for the Alternative Lifestyle Show on MSP Waves.

Along the way I also founded the A Dollar A Day project that raised over US$5000 in 6 months for charitable groups on Steem.

I thoroughly enjoyed both these activities, both in their achievements and in the people I met through them.

Both these activities also taught me new skills that I did not have previously. I had never been involved in organising a global community of any sort before, and I had certainly never had any experience of setting up a charitable fundraising organisation.

In terms of my personal growth these were both of considerable significance, but it was the MSP shows that really have been the zenith of my Steem experience.

I had never done any sort of radio show presenting before Steem, and when I joined I never dreamed I would.

But I am so glad I got involved with MSP Waves and started making shows. I gained so much - skills, confidence, friendships, connections and an all round wider understanding of the world.

Alas at the moment because of personal circumstances I am not able to be on air in the evenings, nor make the regular weekly commitment needed to do the shows. But I do hope soon I will be in a position to restart hosting shows on MSP again.

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Thank you @r0nd0n and MSP Waves, thank you @theycallmedan for this 'impact' initiative, and thank you Steem for these opportunities of a lifetime.

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In case you would like to listen to that first show again here it is...