It all started with @HiveTrending one #HiveChat last month, when he explained that he chooses one wanna-be Dolphin and puts them on 100% upvote every day until they reach their goal. And then chooses another one.
Cool idea.
And so I did that too. My first little hatchling 
My main account, 
What I've noticed though is that my voting power isn't always used fully, if not everyone on that particular curation trail posts consistently. I don't want to add more autovotes, cos there ARE days when everyone DOES post and the VP drops to around the 80% level.
Me? I try to not let my VP get much below 85% so that I start each day with being reasonably close to 98-100%.
My habit has been to pop over to my Following Feed at the end of each evening and "use up" any 'spare' VP before I switch off. But timezones are quirky and people post at all kinds of odd times and so I feel like my vote is sometimes going to people I LIKE and ENJOY but perhaps don't really need it anymore to succeed on Hive. Sure, it brings me curation rewards but it doesn't help grow a new community person very much. I'm not perhaps as effective as I could be.
It was through a discussion with 
So what I am doing now is creating a LIST of newish accounts - people who have a good daily posting habit and I'm seeing them engage well. I don't necessarily want to follow them, in the sense that their content maybe doesn't personally enthral me, but I want them to thrive on Hive. Because when that vulnerable lowest 20% of the Hive community starts to do well, it attracts & motivates newbies far more quickly than if a consistent earner moves from 25,000 to 26,000 HP.
In my travels around the Hive and as I also curate the 
ANYtime my VP is higher than it needs to be at the end of the day, I open that list and fling out some upvotes and encouraging comments. It leaves me feeling good at the end of the day too. Targeting my votes repeatedly and consistently to 10 or 12 chosen likely to succeed & growing fast accounts makes more sense than dropping occassional votes randomly on people who might give up tomorrow.
It's easy, doesn't take much time or energy, optimizes my own curation rewards and supports some new Hivers with big dreams who have already demonstrated their commitment.
The faster & more effectively we group together to create more Dolphins, the healthier the Hive governance system becomes (more people with bigger stakes & bigger voices) and the easier onboarding gets too. Over time.
Not sure where to find the List function on PeakD?
When you want to add someone to your list, you simply to to their profile, click on Actions, and then Add to List. No Lists yet? It will prompt you to create the List then and there. Takes 10 seconds, if that.
SMART INVESTORS & successful people know that it's these little habits that make a BIG difference, over time.
Imagine if 1,000 people each gave out those extra 5 votes every day to the really committed people reaching high who are likely to succeed.... that would be quite an impact over time, as those people reach their Dolphin status & become community leaders & curators, just as
This, my friends, is a far more reliable growth strategy for Hive than endlessly waiting for sleeping bulls and chasing "mass adoption". @LeoFinance hasn't waited for bulls and is reaching a point (even while the bear slumbers on) where painstaking strategy and incremental investment have started to gain momentum.
