I try to imagine what it was like when i first started. this game is heavily overwhelming at first so i push mentees onto a singular path so they can get focus. i give them quests with rewards. That has helped me more than anything. Get to level 3 by hunting and i will upgrade your sword to level 10... get to level 10 and i will put a metal on it. So on and so forth. i give them jobs chopping trees around my cities, and explain why. i tell them to sell it, and pay them for their time, or supply with more chop gloves.
i dont mention any auxillary aspects of the game early on. i put them on rails and wait for their own curiosity to beg the question. this helps with the overwhelming nature of the incredibly high learning curve of this game.
i havnt been able to play as much lately so i have not been accepting any new mentees,

i want to turn it on and let the noobs flow... but i can't put enough time in right now for it to be worth it for them.
What annoys me most, is that we dont have stronger tools as mentors. upon achieving my wax on hat... i would love for the ability to place mentees inside of official quests, or (mega pipedream) have some kind of tools to dungeon master them through situations and created quests when i supply the reward.
Honestly, i would like that ability for kingdoms to... some kind of tools to set up quests and fun events where a reward is supplied. i sort of do that now, but something more official that requires less of a suspension of disbelief would be awesome.