I'm on a quest of finding good people that I feel connected with, who are also engaged members on #Steemit.

When I initially heard of this platform and saw the money some of the posts were generating, believe you me, I had dollar signs in my eyes. They were blinding me!
All I could think about was how to get a whale's attention so they could fatten up my wallet. I rarely thought of them as people. Sounds pretty shitty, right? Well, it is.

I did some reflection and asked myself questions on the who, what, why, and how of my place in Steemit.

WHO

Who brings value to me?
Who do I have things in common with?
Who can I learn from?
Who can I mentor?
Who do I serve?

WHAT

What am I doing here?
What do I like to create?
What are my goals?
What do I bring to this platform?

WHY

Why am I here?
Why am I following these people?
Why are they following me?
Why should I keep trying?

HOW

How am I going to find good people to follow?
How will they be able to find me?
How do I engage with Steem strangers?

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As I enter into my seventh week here, I've shed my newbie label and have been in the process of rebuilding my tribe. I began with shedding the dollar sign blinders from my eyes and started looking for people.
That meant unfollowing the whales, the flashy get rich quick people, and the inactive, unresponsive follows. With the exception of people I've communicated with, I was an equal opportunity unfollower. There was nothing personal about it.
I shed over 100 people.

Going back to the Who, What, Why and How
I know who I am as a writer, but I've found that my connections are helping me expand my creative wings. Without their support and encouragement, I might never have picked up a pen to draw anything! And now I crave a new project and challenge. I might have kept digital currency in the back of my consciousness, but now I crave to educate myself on it.
I need to surround myself with people who will guide me to the next level of my personal evolution!

It is also in my nature to help people. If something is within my wheelhouse then I will help, coach, teach, and be of service. What's the point of learning something if you aren't going to pass on your knowledge to the next batch of hatchlings?

I've set several milestones for myself and pleased to announce that my life and Steemit compliment each other nicely.

But I'm not forgetting the bottom line either. While everything I've mentioned previously is a bit pie in the sky, I'm here to earn money too. Speaking realistically, I've had to work hard for everything I've ever had, and building a reputation and following here is no exception. I don't want to be a comet. I want to be the sun.

My strategy for finding engaged people

I'm trying something new to find "my people" and it is an experiment in progress.
I've been visiting Steemwhales.com on a regular basis to see how my progress compares to others. It's been a thrill to see a steady climb in the ranks. And then it hit me!

I could be using that site to find quality people!

Here are the 2 things I'm looking at:

• Reputation My current rep is 55.8 so I've been scrolling through reputation scores between 50 - 65.
• Engagement My post count is nearly 700 so I'm looking for people who post regularly enough to be considered on par with my activities. Their post numbers indicate activity and consistency.

From the list, I visit their profile page to see what kind of content they're sharing. If I find the majority of their titles interesting, I hit the follow button.

The next step

Now that I have new people that I'm following, I'll keep an eye on my feed and engage them. If they check me out and find that we're cosmic twins, all the better! That's what I would consider organic growth with substantial connections.

THE GOLDEN RULE: Treat others as you would like to be treated.

Personally, I like to leave a well-thought comment to compliment my upvote and prove that I read their content. A comment means so much more to me than a simple, sterile upvote. Don't get me wrong! Those upvotes are earners and I appreciate all of them, but when someone takes a moment of their precious time to scribble out a quick note, it's like putting on my favorite sweater. I get all warm and fuzzy. With good feelings like that, I know I'm not the only one who empathizes.
Admittedly, I am guilty of following a few people who always seem to make a shit ton of money on a post so I can get in on the curation action, but the majority of my people are just doing their thing - for love and money.

Final thoughts

I would recommend that you all take stock of your who, what, why and how.
Are you creating for love, money, or both?
Are you compromising yourself in a bid for attention?
Are you following people for the wrong reasons?

Take a moment to consider what motivates and brings you joy. It's got to be deeper than your wallet to build solid relationships here because when all is said and done, Steemit is, at its core, a social media platform and community is what will make it -and you- thrive.

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Meredith Loughran blogs at ScribblingBandits.com | Follow her on Twitter & SnapChat or LinkedIn

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