Hi Kubbyelizabeth! =D I have a good answer for you question, "who do you seek advise from and how?" This answer is a DJ'd from a 14 hour audio program entitled, "Your Wish Is Your Command", which I highly recommend. I intend to blog post about this, but here's the thumbnail sketch of what my colleagues and I call 'The Foundation':

WHO DO YOU LISTEN TO? | Listen to people who have or have become what you want.
TEACHABILITY INDEX | What's your willing to learn? AND What's your willing to accept change? (Be willing to GIVE UP SOMETHING, specifically your time, money, and energy to learn how to Steemit)
TRAINING BALANCE SCALE | Focus 99.9% of your time on the WHY and .01% on the HOW. (The WHY consists of your attitudes, motivations, thoughts, desires, intentions and dreams)
THE 4 STEPS OF PROCESSING NEW INFORMATION | a) You Don't Know What You Don't Know b) Now You Know That You Don't Know It c) Conscious Competence, which is applying IT repetitively until you're.. d) UNCONSCIOUSLY Competent, where you do it Automatically, like tying a shoelace. ;) (Your 'mentors' like Sweets can only take you up to steps 1 and 2. Conscious Competence, step 3, is YOUR/ OUR job and is the step that will lead to measurable wealth)
MASTER THE BASICS | Master the first 4 basics. ("Mastering the Basics is a Basic")

Without going into too much detail, I hope you get the jist of HOW TO GET COUNCIL from those who have what you want like Sweets.. In fact, I'll include a little more detail above in parentheses ( ).

For your second Q's: "Private message, friends, random 3rd party unbiased strangers?" The blunt answer is a) BOOKS b) AUDIO PROGRAMS c) SEMINARS/ Live events d) 1-on-1 mentorship/apprenticeship (It's a combo of over-the-phone, texts, and face to face interactions & typically your 'mentors' will directly or indirectly refer/ point you in the right direction to someone you can listen to.)

If you care to learn more, here's where this data stems from: (a YouTube Playlist of "Your Wish Is Your Command")

I studied this elite and essoteric information 5 years ago and still today continue to use it today. If I can distill into 1 or 2 sentences, I'd say, "YOU CAN BE, DO, & HAVE ANYTHING YOU DESIRE", and "There is NOTHING more important than YOU FEEL GOOD and KEEP FEELING BETTER

Bye for now. :) Hope it helps a lil. - @denni, the crypto-vlogger

PS. I can go into depth if needed. ;)

PPS. This is probably my longest Steemit post so far. I'm proud of myself! :)