Communication is a part of life that none of us can avoid.

When reflecting on my time on Steemit, and how it has affected my daily communication skills, there are many aspects that I can point to. The first is how to best engage other users on the platform. Steemit is like other social media sites in that you still must be social if you want to succeed financially. Sifting through posts on Steemit each day takes time and effort, and reading and responding to blogs is no different.

In conjunction with @dobartim's "Steemit Ultimate Challenge 8 Weeks" Initiative, I've decided to share my thoughts on how Steemit has affected my communication skills since becoming active last year. Here they are, so I hope you enjoy hearing about my journey:

Interactions With Others

When I first embarked on my Steemit journey back in July of 2017, I knew very little about digital currencies, and even less about how to communicate on an entire platform based on one. Slowly but surely I was able to find my way, thanks to the comments given to me by veteran users. They showed me the importance of responding to specific things in someone else's blog in order to show them that you took the time to thoughtfully consider their blog post.

This is where Steemit revolutionized my online communication skills for the first time. I learned about how to build relationships on a site where many users are only concerned with landing large upvotes. Once I mastered these skills, it changed the way I looked at every single comment that I'd make. All of my comments are also immortalized on the blockchain. This means it's even more important to consider what I say, since it will forever be associated with my account.

I have also been able to establish a Discord server for the purpose of encouraging such interactions. In December, I helped launch The STEEM Engine, a community dedicated to engagement among its members and rewarding quality content. Through this community, I have honed my communication skills even further, as I've had to collaborate with a leadership team and mentor other users into their roles. Communicating with a group has its challenges, so this experience has taught me the importance of being transparent as a leader, while still encouraging others to succeed.

I've been able to build and maintain many relationships on Steemit thanks to these communication skills I learned early on. The relationships I've built help account for my financial success on the platform, so whenever I encourage new users, this is one of the first things I tell them.

Explaining Steemit to New Users

Several months on Steemit have also taught me how to effectively communicate reasonable goals and aspirations that new members should have. It's hard to communicate to someone how much work it can be to become successful. Then you have to be able to define what successful means here on Steemit. This requires you to be able to show other users how financial success only comes after relational success on Steemit. Sure by throwing up posts all the time you might land a few high value votes here and there, but success lies in creating quality content and engaging others on their blogs.

To this end, I created a post that I still refer new users to about how to format their posts to polish the looks. It's been a fantastic asset and has helped many users learn things that they didn't know before.

In addition to communicating these core concepts, I've also learned how to most effectively explain all of the terminology associated with Steemit to users of all notoriety. All of the aspects of Steemit can be overwhelming to new users, especially if they aren't familiar with digital currencies at all. They must immediately learn about public and private keys, the blockchain, rewards, payouts, wallets, voting power, STEEM, SBDs, STEEM Power, witnesses, and the list goes on. Not only have I learned about all of these things myself since joining Steemit, but now I find that I'm able to describe all of these terms in detail to new users who need help. It's a great pleasure to help someone get started on their Steemit journey, and without my experiences on the blockchain, I would have no idea how to communicate these concepts.

Not only have I been able to help users online with these concepts, but I've been able to better explain Steemit and digital currencies to friends and family members in conversations at events, dinners, church, and family functions. I enjoy being able to effectively explain digital currencies to those who have never heard of them or are skeptical of them because of how the mainstream media portrays them. Such communication skills would never exist without my personal experiences on the blockchain.

The Financial Importance of Blockchain Technology

My time on Steemit has helped me learn much about digital currencies, how they operate, and how they can be useful. Recently, I used Steemit to help raise money for some projects in my wife's elementary classroom. It was incredible to see how other users rallied around the cause and helped support the initiatives. In the end, we raised $425 for books and creative seating options for the classroom, and this experience has made it easier for me to communicate how important the blockchain can be financially.

My wife and I have had the opportunity to talk to other people about Steemit thanks to this initiative, and it's been great to say that all of the funds came from Steemit and were made possible by donations from users across the globe. I have very much enjoyed these conversations, because it brings things into perspective. The blockchain can be used to send financial assistance almost anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. Before Steemit, I had no idea how to communicate the utility of a blockchain-based financial system.

Verbal Communication

Given that Steemit exists online, one may not immediately think that it could help improve verbal communication skills. However, I will argue that Steemit has greatly enhanced mine.

First, I joined a Discord community called The Steemit Ramble, which is a project of Steemian @ShadowsPub. Not long ago, the Ramble began hosting a session called "Pimp Your Post Thursday," (PYPT) where users entered a voice channel and proceeded to give a verbal blurb about a post they wanted to promote. I've had the opportunity to present many times during this segment, and I often get questions about my posts that I have to answer. It's a fun exercise in speaking in front of others, and I've greatly enjoyed using the segment as an opportunity to advance my personal communication skills.

After enjoying verbal curation in the PYPT segment, I decided to venture out and begin an independent verbal curation project. After helping form the Discord community, The STEEM Engine, I decided to begin curating content from that group in the form of podcasts. Now, I produce two podcasts each week, in which I write and read a curation blurb about each post and edit them together to form a continuous podcast. It's been one of my favorite and most successful series of posts since I began my activity on Steemit last year. I have enjoyed it tremendously, and it has made me consider every aspect of the words I say and how they will be received by others.

The podcast, entitled, The STEEM Engine Express, also introduced me to DSound, a project aimed at being a decentralized hub for audio, which is based on the STEEM blockchain. Thanks to the use of this service, I have been able to encourage other verbal communicators (podcasters, musicians, and writers) to share their content on the platform in order to increase the amount of verbal content across Steemit. A small opportunity to share others' posts has brought me to this point, where I am extremely grateful for the opportunities I have to communicate with others.

Communicating my Thoughts and Interests

I would be remiss to neglect the mention of blog posts that I share which aren't related to Steemit or the posts of other users. Steemit has taught me how to more effectively communicate my ideas and interests with other users. Every so often, I'll share my thoughts on a current event, or on a recent trip or experience that I've had, and Steemit has helped me learn how to better share these thoughts and experiences with others. Some examples of these types of posts are:

• Thrift Store Treasures: Music, Books, and an Unexpected Surprise!
• A Cold Sunday Hike to a Frozen Waterfall and
• Finding Music and Videos for Commercial Use: My Process for The STEEM Engine Express

In all of these blogs, I was communicating an experience or skill with others on the blog. This has been very valuable to me, because I've received great feedback from others on the explanations and presentations. My skills as a blogger have sharpened since joining Steemit, and they get better and better with each new post.

I've also stopped many times along my Steemit journey to evaluate my progress and reflect on the things that I've done so far. I consider this post to be of similar variety, however, sharing those posts has been helpful to me along the way. Here are some examples of my previous reflection posts:

• 501st Post: Thank Yous and Looking Ahead
• 1000 Posts + 500 Followers: A Look Back on my Steemit Journey

I hope to continue this trend in the future in order to further reflect on my Steemit journey.

Final Thoughts

In each of my blogs, I end with a segment called "Final Thoughts," where I summarize my last few musings about a subject before ending the post. This blog was created as an entry into @dobartim's "Steemit Ultimate Challenge 8 Weeks" Initiative, where he is challenging users to write out how Steemit has affected their communication skills. This has been a great post to reflect on my Steemit journey thus far, and I'm hoping that many other people take the time to enter the challenge. Thanks to @dobartim for hosting the competition.

When you consider your time on Steemit as a learning experience, great things can happen. I am looking forward to my continued involvement with Discord communities, as well as producing more of my podcasts. Every interaction, every post I've read, every upvote, and every comment on Steemit have helped improve my life, communication-wise and in many other ways. I appreciate the opportunity to share these thoughts with you all, so I hope you'll continue to support my blog, as I look forward to supporting yours.