There are so many ways to grow on Steemit, but like you said, most of the takes time. To grow on Steemit, you need to be known. One of the fastest ways to grow on Steemit is by making valuable posts as well as comments. Commenting heartfelt comments on other peoples's post will leave them with a good impression about you and they will love to check up on you. Also, you could invest in STEEM, people tend to flock around those who have more Steem Power and after joining Steemit for just 2 days with a huge Steem Power, you'll be amazed at how well known you've become. Promoting your posts with bidbots is another known way to grow faster on the Steem platform.

Cheers