Connection Across Generations: 4 Shifts to Engage Next-Gen Talent

Seven years ago, I had the courage to face my fear of public speaking for the first time. I don't know if I'd have ever done it on my own, but I was in a group session and the host selected me as volunteer storyteller #3. My hands were shaky, my legs heavy as lead, as I approached the park bench we were using as a makeshift stage. A few minutes in, every fearful speakers' worst nightmare happened: they started laughing. "Just keep going," I told myself. "The sooner this is over the sooner you can run and hide." Another minute goes by and collectively, the audience gasps. As I looked out onto the crowd in that moment, the air was unlike any I'd ever felt. I was like an orchestra conductor, my words guiding their emotions. They weren't laughing at me, I realized, they were laughing with me. As my story concluded, I stepped down and the crowd pulled me into a group hug. "This?! This was the scary thing I'd been afraid of all my life?!"

That day, I faced my biggest fear and discovered my life's greatest passion. The energy and tether of connection felt from a captivated crowd was like nothing I'd ever experienced. It was the best feeling in the world and I became determined to experience more of it.

12 months to the day, I stepped on stage at Mindvalley University Pula as the mainstage speaker. And as proud as I was of myself for making it that far, nothing compared to the feeling at the end, where I led the audience through a guided meditation for courage and invited them to take the leap, face their fear of public speaking, and step into their next chapter of greatness. 40 people were courageous enough to approach the stage, hearts pounding, hands shaking, legs heavy as lead. That day, they liberated themselves from the chains of fear, and one went on to be an award-winning speaker. Helping others communicate confidently and to step into who they are meant to be is the most rewarding feeling in the world, and doing it at a large-scale that day remains my proudest career moment.

1. Shared understanding 

2. Strategically positioned credibility 

3. Addressing objections before they’re spoken

4. Captivating and strategic story-weaving 

5. Personal stories that end with universal truths

6. Vulnerability & humor

I’m fortunate that my younger self was courageous enough to sell my house and everything I owned to live across 35 countries as a digital nomad. This experience gave me my biggest education relating to connection and community. 

What I learned is that there are certain human truths that connect us all. I’ve spoken in front of audiences with as many as 10+ countries represented, and the same “formula” of first-person storytelling plus a universal truth still lands. The lessons I talk about aren’t surface level, they’re deep and human.

If you find yourself leaning on facts and information more than personal experience, you’re preventing your audience from feeling a meaningful connection with you. Use statistics to support your stories. 

Opening with information will glue them to their phones while you speak instead of gluing them to you. Audiences connect through emotion, not information.

Tell stories about yourself, tell stories about others, use facts to back those findings up. There is an art to strategic story weaving, and when done correctly, your audience will tell you they felt like you were speaking directly to them, that they felt like the only person in the room.