I just got home driving from Amsterdam to Rotterdam after visiting Steemfest. I literary just walked in the door. Got greeted by my sleepy dog that was happy to see me. I walked upstairs where my girlfriend was already sleeping (she works in the early morning). I kissed her forehead and wished her goodnight anyway. I went downstairs and poured myself a nice glass of whiskey and I’m enjoying the Steemfest high I’m still on. I want to write a little about my Steemfest experience.
Saturday Morning
I arrived at Steemfest Saturday morning. I walked to the Tobacco Theatre from the central station. I was too early and nobody was there yet except for a few people. One of them was wearing strange tulip pants. I decided to get a coffee. When I wanted to pay, the lady said it was for free. If you are a normal person this is nice, if you are Dutch, this is the jackpot! Free coffee.
I drank my coffee and didn’t know what to do. I asked strange tulip pants guy what the plan was. He looked up and I recognized him instantly. It was @roelandp. I voted for him as a witness. He was clearly very busy and said that I could register as soon as everybody arrived. I left him to it.
Not long after the first people were arriving. As luck would have it @ezzy and @rea from London would be the first to walk through the door. We instantly hit it off asking each other allot of questions. Where you from? What you blog about? How did you discover Steemit? It felt so good. It felt like home. We talked for about 15 minutes before they had to get rid of their coats or register. I’m not sure. I would spend allot more time with them over the rest of the weekend. They are the most amazing people.
I missed Friday night so I was so happy to realize that it was easy to talk to new people here in the Tobacco Theatre. After being self-employed for 8 years I do allot better-approaching people but it’s not something that comes naturally to me. I decided to talk some more people.
I ran into a group from Belarus. I talked to @grumlin and he told me they funded most of their trip with Steemit posts. I did read their posts about it but didn’t know they managed to do it. That’s awesome and shows what Steemit can do. They thought me how to say nice to meet you in Russian. приятно познакомиться. (I do hope this says nice to meet you, I don’t read Russian). I wished them a very good time at Steemfest.
Steemfest was to begin and we entered the big hall. I sat down next to a guy name @andrarchy. He’s from New York. I already encountered 3 nationalities in 60 minutes! It was crazy! As an American from New York he, of course, assumed I knew him but I had to admit I didn’t. (I do follow you now can’t wait to see the videos from Steemfest, sorry about that). We talked about crypto and our interested in Steemit. It was great.
Roeland and Ned gave speeches next and I decided to stay for @heiditravels because I was interested in her way of life and how she got into crypto and Steemit. She gave a fantastic presentation. It's absolutely worth a watch. I hope she will get to see more of the world with money earned on Steemit.
The presentation given by @Neilstrauss was next and it was for me one of the best. If you have time I highly recommend you watch it. But if you don’t have time. The one thing I loved about the presentation was him saying:
“Nobody cares about what you write, what you think, what you say.” (make them care)
Brilliant. He made me realize that if you look at it that way it gives you enormous freedom to write what you want without the stress to succeed. He made other very good points as well, I wrote them all down, but this one was the best for me.
That’s it for now. My whiskey is gone, it’s getting late and tomorrow I have to work. I miss Steemfest so much already. I met so many more interesting people I will write about later. It was such a privilege to be there. I think I'm going to be down for a while after being on a high.
I can’t thank the organizers enough. Thank you!
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