The Hive Onboarding Experience: Lessons Learned and Challenges Faced

I owe a lot of appreciation to God for using Hive to bless my life today, as truth is my life as this moment is being powered by Hive and most of the things I own today were bought from my earnings from Hive. Hive has supported me in many ways even down to my daily feeding, and for this reason it has become a part of me.

When people get close to me or stay around me more frequently than normal, it is practically impossible for them not to encounter Hive as my daily activities emcopasses Hive. There is no single day, I don't do Hive, and it doesn't have to be writing post. I am always here, as my heart is here.

A lot of people have come to Hive through me, and when I mean a lot, not in small amounts. I have brought in and mentored hundreds of people and encountered the way different people see Hive and how they relate to it from the beginner's point of view.

With this onboarding experience, I have learned a lot and a lot of wins where people who I bring to Hive successfully transition into a full-time Hiver, as you see of @olujay, @lizizoo, @obaro, @ksam, @mayorkeys and many more (sorry if I didn't mention your name) but at the same time, I have more people who didn't stay. The number of people who were not successful in seeing Hive for what it is, is greater than those that those that did, which I have also learned why.

At some points in my life, I was fully focused at onboarding and preaching Hive. I really wanted people to experience Hive like how I did and I still do but the truth is, I don't have that same energy to do so and the reason is:

"Being an onboarder is stressful"

If you have been one, then you would probably know what I mean, especially when you have onboarded over a few number of people. To reduce this stress, I don't onboard people anyhow unless "I like you", I would probably stress a little more in getting you to notice Hive but if not, it may take you to convince me that you are a good fit for Hive as "Hive is not for everybody".

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WHAT I LOOK AT BEFORE BRINGING SOMEONE TO HIVE

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With the experience of how stressful it is to be a mentor and onboarder, I try to examine people before I bring them to Hive. One of the things I look at is:

What value or skill does this person have that can give him/her an unfair advantage?

Most people here on Hive found it easy because they had value to provide in their posts. They had a skill, be it knitting, singing, writing stories or poems, or playing musical instruments. These skills can easily bring you to having a community to quickly belong to, a community that would support you as you grow. This way, they would find it easy to relate to people of the same skill set, make friends, and then build relationships on Hive.

Although this may not always work, I have onboarded people with skills and talents whom I believed would get to transition fully, but they ended up not becoming the story I had imagined.

The second thing I look at is:

The Character: would this person follow my every instruction without disobeying every rule given?

One experience I have as an onboarder is that not everyone will follow your instructions, even though you say, Don't do this. There would still be a lot of people doing just that exact thing you have said not to. I have encountered people plagiarising even after I have said it over and over again. You would not want to meet these category of people; they would give you a lot of stress.

The third thing I look at is:

The Reason and the Interest: Why are you joining Hive? What is your purpose, and what exactly do you aim to gain?

I am aware that money is the number one reason why we are all in Hive in the first place, but the truth is, Hive is way beyond just the money, and for this reason, if your centre focus remains on the money alone, you will lose focus on the money or may not even get the money you seek.

When it gets to this point for a newbie, where they don't seem to earn as much as they see others do, the interest decreases. It is normal because what you primarily seek, you do not get. There really has to be a reason for joining Hive aside from the money, as this would be a driving force not to give up.

One last thing I look at is:

Are you joining Hive as an Investor or a Content Creator

At this moment, I am looking towards attracting people to invest in Hive. This is my primary focus. If a friend chooses to come as a content creator, then I will examine them based on what I have listed above because, truly, I don't have the time to waste on people who don't end up staying long-term on Hive.

But for people who are willing to invest, I would only just explain how Hive can be beneficial and safe to secure their funds and the opportunities that Hive offers.

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WHAT YOU NEED MOST AS AN ONBOARDER

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What of the things that I have learned about being an onboarder is patience. I can say I am quite a patient person, and I always give people space and time when I see they need it, and at the same time, I try to remind them of their Hive account.

I know that they come from the Web2 space and also know how difficult the transition can be. I always do my best to walk along the growth process.

If you are an onboarder, what is the biggest lesson you have learned so far?