The Most Underrated Success Story on Steemit!

"In my opinion, Welcome Wagon is the most underrated success story on Steemit" - @shadowspub

As I heard those words last week, it overwhelmed me with pride for our project, love for our family, and determination for the future! In the 4 months since the time that the Welcome Wagon was born in a Witness Chat, hosted by @shadowspub - things have evolved for the better!

Simply put, it's an individualized mentoring program that prepares Steemians for their journey, balancing their potential and ambition with the realities of a crypto-fueled platform. Over a seven day period, each new recruit is taught the fundamentals of Steemit through personal attention of a 3-SteemPeer (mentor) team. Though our initial plan was to create a one-on-one mentoring experience, we've found that the three-on-one ratio is much more conducive to the all-day support that we wanted to offer.

Though it does differ from recruit to recruit, here is a general overview of the subjects that we cover during our Training Week. It might look intensive, and to be fair - it is! However, our SteemPeers do an incredible job of balancing training with team building and fun.

• Day 1: Welcome and Introduction. Goals on Steemit? Who I am, who are you? What's your passion?
• Day 2: More about Steemit goals, Commenting, commenting commenting!
• Day 3: Posting, Copyright, Voting Power, Voting Slider
• Day 4: The Value of Voice, PYPT, other Discord promotion/ topic shows
• Day 5: Witnesses and Steem, Steem Currencies, Blockchain Basics, etc.
• Day 6: Tags, Finding your Niche, Community & Discords
• Day 7: Steemauto, Steemconnect, SmartSteem & bidbots? etc.
• Day 8+: Recap, Last questions, Next steps

Our initial intention was to train, equip, and set our recruits free into the communities of their choice. We never wanted them to feel that they were obligated to stay and "support" our project long-term. As a matter of fact, many of our recruits continued to ask us how they could pay us back. Our answer then, and now - is this: "Continue to produce great content, engage with other Steemians and support quality and genuine posts. When you help Steemit to thrive, you enhance our home. That is the "payment" that makes us all thrive." We fully expected them to leave "home" and go out and experience the Steemiverse. Instead, much to our delight, most have decided to stay and be a part of the Welcome Wagon vision. So, yes - we have Day 8 and beyond. It's a continual circle where we learn from one another, and excel together.

Our desire to impact the platform by increasing the retention rate through training and equipping new Steemians is a labor of love. All of our staff has a deep desire and vested interest to see Steemit thrive and go "to the moon and beyond". In order to best do that, we believe it takes a village. Joining our curation trail, writing meaningful comments, giving upvotes to our recruits and Grads, delegating SP - these are all amazing ways that you can be a part of the Welcome Wagon vision! We've even had creative ideas - people like @plushzilla offering to do a Bingo game for us to spread the word! (That idea was SUPER successful, by the way!) We love supporting Steemit, and we love to feel Steemit supporting us!

As we continue to grow, it is our absolute commitment to grow in a way that allows us to keep our strong sense of commitment to one another and to Steemit. It's my personal desire to grow slowly, so that we are able to have a strong, solid foundations. We hope to continue to build new partnerships and further develop current relationships with witnesses like @enginewitty and @c0ff33a / @derangedvisions; with community leaders like @ethandsmith, @shadowspub, and @calumam, and with fellow Steemians who just want to catch some of the fire with us!

Thank you so much for reading. I hope it's been a worthwhile investment of your time!

~@dreemsteem, for the Welcome Wagon

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^{This banner created by @enginewitty}

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^{This gif created by the wonderfully artistic @liberty-minded}

^{Wagon Wheels and Welcome Wagon logo designed by the amazing @penderis}

Branches and Roots, edited by @dreemsteem