I'm the kind of person who is pretty difficult to embarrass.
And yet, as I write this first post now, coming off of waiting for days for my Steemit username to get assigned, I'm finding it tricky to introduce myself.
Instead, I'm finding that the voice in my head is just chattering on and being a straight up jerk.
Maybe you shouldn't post anything. What do you even say in a first post? They say first impressions are so freaking important, especially in the working world. Everything you do is indexed on whatever you selected as your first words and how you first appeared to others. Everything.
You come off really strong and opinionated, you know that. Maybe you should have a look at what everyone else has posted for their first Introduce Yourself posts and get an idea of what other people are looking for. Maybe you should copy that.
Veronica, this whole Steemit thing is on the BLOCKCHAIN! Things you do there are never ever going to go away; it isn't like the normal internet, you can't even pretend to hide what you put on there!
This whole "talking to the voice in your head" concept is cheesy, Veronica. What are you even going to say?
Alright. So I'll go ahead and embarrass myself, make a first impression, and come off strongly. Here's me.
Steemit has been around for over a year and yet the early adopter Steemit gurus have established a lot of great content and best practices already. Clearly, there's a lot of wiggle room within all of that.
But us newbie minnows? I figured that there are probably others out there who are looking for a framework on what to do or say on this platform. And so, I decided to go Web 1.0 and curate the below "Get to know you" questions. I've also put them together on a separate post of mine for anyone who would like to copy and paste the questions and take the guesswork out of "what to say." Of course, I'd looove to see what other people's answers are. Enjoy!
1) So who even are you? I'm Veronica; I spent my childhood in a combination of New Jersey and London, and I went to university in Houston, Texas where I lived for 6 years. For the first three years out of college, I traveled around the globe for fun and for work as a management consultant, and I'm happy to have settled down in the San Francisco Bay Area to work in tech. I adore my family (dad/mom/teenage brother/two cats) who still live in New Jersey and I visit them whenever I can (in fact, that's where I am writing this now). Connecting with people is EVERYTHING to me, and for that reason, I love talking to strangers. I have to hold myself back from overscheduling my time to hang out with and catch up with friends. And yes, that includes you :)
2) What's your favorite goal that you're working toward? By the end of 2018, I'll be a certified hypnotherapist. I've been doing coursework and trainings for on the side for for the past year and a half. I promise that hypnosis isn't like the movie Get Out - it's pleasant, fun, and relaxing! Hypnosis is basically meditation with a goal, as my teacher would say. It's excellent for stress relief, breaking habits, healing past traumas, priming yourself for an excellent future, or whatever you may want to create in your life. It definitely feels like straight magic. I'll probably post a few hypnosis sessions on here for you, too! Just let me know what you might be interested in.
3) What are you struggling with these days? Lately, I've been thinking and writing a lot about the importance of being honest with yourself in order to have an authentic, successful career that leverages your strengths. My resume might be stacked right now with what are considered to be "brand names", but what others may see as a successful start to a career is actually giving me pause. I'm going to be going through some career shifts in the coming months and I'm excited to share what happens in real time, but I'm also scared to "remake" myself. I guess that's just what happens when you're in your 20s.
4) Say you were given a $10k budget to buy a gift for someone close to you. What would you buy, for whom, and why? I'd either buy a trip to the Himalayas for my dad and I (he loves traveling) or I'd get fancy swords for my little brother (he's a saber fencer). My mom always says she doesn't need any gifts and just wants more time with family.
5) Tell a story about your favorite candy. When my family lived in London, I would spend my entire allowance on candy bars from the corner store. As a reward to myself for finishing my homework, I probably bought 6 Flake chocolates per day. Very, very unhealthy, but the texture of those chocolates is divine.
6) What was your favorite TV show growing up? Pokemon and Digimon. Enough said.
7) What stereotype were you in high school? Who were you? Not sure if I fulfilled the stereotypes, but I was the band president and was involved in everything band-related. Marching band, wind ensemble, saxophone quartet (I played alto), jazz band, you name it. I wasn't actually all that good at the music part, though -- I just loved the friends and people I got to be with.
8) What's the strangest talent you have? I'm very good at rhyming, which comes in handy when rewriting song lyrics to make random goofy parodies. If you decide to go find my YouTube channel, you'll probably find some of those gloriously embarrassing remixes, including "Teach Me How to DiffE" and "The Analyst at Deloitte". Maybe I should learn how to freestyle rap...
9) Where and when did you have your first kiss? On a trampoline in 8th grade. Woo!
10) What is one thing that all (or most of) your love-interests have had in common? I'd say they were all very intelligent guys - that's important to me. My boyfriend of nearly 5 years is fun to brag about because he's very smart and works in a super cool job at Tesla.
11) If you could have any one superpower, which would you choose? Teleportation. When I was a management consultant, I was required to travel very frequently. Getting on a plane twice a week took a lot out of me. Teleportation would mean I'd get to bypass TSA and altitude changes entirely for all future travel endeavors.
Snapshot from the days when I'd travel every single week for work. I'm smiling, but trust me, I'm SO tired in this picture!!
12) Favorite vacation to date? I've gone to Brazil three times over the past three years (which is awesome): once for a wedding, once for the olympics, and once for the world cup). I'd go back again in a heartbeat. Rio de Janeiro and Jericoacoara are my favorites. Also, I'm conversational in Portuguese and it's easy to practice because Brazilians are the most friendly people in the world and they just sooo badly want you to have fun. If there's anyone reading here who'd like to chat in Portuguese with me, say so -- I'm always looking for opportunities to practice.
13) Next dream travel destination? Somewhere in Micronesia!
14) What are you looking forward to the most within the next month? The next year? Within the next month I'm looking forward to continuing to build on habits I've recently started in the name of getting my life in a more high-vibe place. For instance, I'll be writing more, a LOT more. I'm going to be posting on LinkedIn very often in the coming months and I'll cross post the writing here. (Steemit whales, please tell me asap if this is a good idea or a poor one.) As for the next year? I'm looking forward to next year becoming a year of mastery.
15) What's your #1 dream for your future? For some reason, this one is emotionally tough to write out in detail. Suffice it to say that I want to play a role in shaping the future of media. I don't quite know what that means because the future is hard to define, but that is my dream.
16)Tell me your "why" for life. I love to catalyze and experience huge shifts in perceptions :)
Am so stoked to be here, Steemit! It's a cool and innovative platform, and everyone here gets to be an early adopter. Thank you in advance for the welcome. (omg I'm about to press "Post"...!!)
And, if you feel so inclined, go ahead and answer the above 16 questions as well. If you do, post the link below so that we don't miss it!