Hi there friends! My TEDx speech on the topic of the new Native Digital world aires on February 27, 2022. I wanted to share this speech with you in advance so you can be privy to the MAJOR chasm between the Native Digital + Native Analog worlds, and be equipped to talk about it. This is such an important topic. So here you go, a sneak peek at my TEDx speech.

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It’s one week before my wedding. With a look of determination, my mother accosts me in the church hallway. “Hannah…no no no no no. You cannot possibly wear a plastic wedding band. What are people going to say? They’re just going to think Michael doesn’t care about you.”

Hold a second… let me back-up. You see, my engagement ring was plastic. To my mom, it looked like a ring from a box of Cracker Jacks or an old-fashioned candy shop, right alongside licorice or pop rocks.

The truth is, Michael did care. In fact, he cared so much that he had painstakingly spent 4 months handcrafting the perfect ring for ME in AutoCad, then had it, along with an intricately designed box, 3D printed.

Yes, you heard that right. My engagement ring was 3D printed.

And better yet, it cost $20.

When Michael proposed it stirred up passion… for a business idea: What if, instead of a ring being just a physical symbol of our commitment, it could be immortalized? Jewelers could make the ring a virtual container of memories. At our wedding, guests could compose secret messages that uploaded into the ‘virtual ring’ and could only be accessed at our 1-year anniversary? Better yet, the AI would feed us tips to keep our marriage thriving - kinda like a relationship coach.

But none of these fascinating ideas occurred to my mom. All she knew: I had a plastic ring and Michael was a cheapskate.

And she’s not the only one. None of these Native Digital ideas have occurred to De Beers Jewelers either. Or most analog companies around the world today.

This is a perfect illustration of the true chasm between the native digital and native analog worlds. The clash of values. And the clash of two different categories of human.

You see…

You’ve got me: a native digital (Age 30 and Younger)

What a wedding band means: A symbol that should be immortalized into an experience; it carries no inherent value, and that should be as inexpensive and replaceable as possible.

My mom: a native analog (Age 35+).

What a wedding band means: To mom, my engagement and wedding ring represents permanence, lasting love, a hand-me-down from generation to generation.

And De Beers: a native analog company.

What a wedding band means: An iconic symbol of wealth they sell to their customers; 3 months salary should be spent on it.

As a native digital, physical objects mean very little. To my mom, they’re very meaningful. And native analog companies, like De Beers, are still selling to my mom. And as a result, they’re becoming irrelevant in the blink of an eye.

Why Me?

I’m a 24-year-old Gen Z CEO Advisor, and for the past 3 years, I’ve helped companies become relevant to the next generation of Native Digitals.

After graduating college at age 18 with my BS in International Business, I was thrust into corporate America but quickly exited (as many Gen Z’rs do) to build something of my own.

Helping businesses and parents transition into a Native Digital world is a deep passion of mine, because I’m the oldest of 7 children, I’m fired up about making the world a place my siblings can be the best versions of themselves.

In my Masterclasses, many of them ask this very scientific question…

“are my kids aliens?”

Why is Understanding this Chasm so Important?

The truth is, it’s nearly impossible to comprehend a native digital’s mindset if you aren’t one yourself and yet, understanding how to market to us, and employ us is critical for your business to survive.

This year, Native Digitals outnumbered Native Analogs for the first time and by 2025, 27% of all your employees will be Gen Z’rs.

For this reason, I believe that if you don’t have a Native Digital on your board of directors, your leadership team, or at least one you ask to pester you like a fly in your ear, your business will not be relevant in 15 years.

We can start changing that today by getting into the mind of a Native Digital.

Peter Analog VS. Sophia Digital

To do this, we’re going to follow the career journeys of two different people: Peter Analog and Sophia Digital.

They both have a similar goal: Reach a high-level marketing position in the car industry and make $500k/year.

Most of you are familiar with Peter Analog’s journey. At age 18, he attends the best college he can get into for a marketing degree and leaves with about $50k in student loans. He takes an internship, and after graduating, is offered an entry-level position at that company. Over time of paying his dues, he is promoted through the ranks until, hopefully, he reaches his career destination, then retires on his 401(k).

This might mean transferring mid-career to another company a few times. But ultimately, Peter Analog’s path resembles the “ladder” we’re all familiar with.

BUT, let’s now look at Sophia Digital’s journey, which instead of a ladder, looks a whole lot more like a jungle gym.

To get into her mind, let’s take a journey back in time.

Travel back to the end of the spring semester in your sophomore year of highschool. You’re 16-17 years old. What was on your mind?

Were you thinking about your career? Did your teacher hand out college applications, just before the summer season began?

In that same frame of teenage mind, I want you to now imagine that instead of living in that analog world, you are Sophia Digital, and instead of looking at the college application in your hands, you now have a cellphone.

You’re lounging in your school lunchroom. Yesterday, you watched a video of Daniel Isles who, at age 22, had just bought his 5th rental property. Right now, you’re scrolling through TikToks of Daniel Mac where he’s stopping billionaires on the street and asking “what do you do?” and those same billionaires are inviting him – a nobody – into their homes.

You see, you’ve explored a few colleges, filled out an application or two, but your heart just isn’t in it. The cost is high and worse, you’ve watched older millennials graduate with bachelors in marketing degrees and end up working as baristas. You think to yourself “there has to be a better way to get a job.”

You rise from the lunchroom with confidence and say to yourself: “I’m going to be a CMO in the car industry WITHOUT climbing the corporate ladder like my dad did. Time to go make that YouTube video!”

You strut down the road to your uncle’s car shop – he’s spent years building his business, but he’s failed to reach his dream of showing his collection around the world – too bad; his business was always seen as just a local gig.

You share his passion for collector cards, but decided to take a different path. 2 years ago, you started a YouTube channel that has built a sizable following of 50,000 subscribers. Car enthusiasts love your work!

This year, you get invited to The AMELIA ISLAND Concours d’Elegance - the most exclusive international car show of the year – to offer an enthusiasts’ perspective on racing, simply because of the reputation of your YouTube channel. You have connections in the luxury car industry many could only dream of, and you’re just sixteen!

Everywhere you look, there is a new frontier – a new digital horizon, a cutting-edge social age – and you have the power to shape it using the technology in your hands.

Native Digital Sophia’s Journey

Let’s recap Sophia Digital’s journey. At age 16, she decided to get her associate’s degree out of the way at a local community college – why not? Her YouTube channel is what she plans to stake her career on. She graduates with no debt, and after building a name for herself on YouTube for 6 years, a boutique auto manufacturer, Rivian, contacts her for an introduction to their CMO.

Sophia walks into the meeting and makes design suggestions based on analytics and research she’s conducted on her YouTube audience.

At the time, Rivian, Electric Adventure Vehicles, happens to be hiring for a new Director of Branding. Sophia is invited to interview and then, she’s hired for his expertise.

Now, Native Analog Peter must follow the directive of Native Digital Sophia’s design and visions.

Suddenly, 52-year-old Marketing Director, Peter Analog finds himself on equal footing with 23-year-old Sophia Digital. You have two people who had a similar vision, but ended up in radically similar places, at radically different ages, by taking radically different paths.

Vision of the Future

Now if you’re the parent of a 16-year-old you might be sitting here, on the edge of your seat, red in the face, and about to throw rotten tomatoes at me! Trust me, I hear you. My parents felt the same way you do right now!

You also might be thinking “well all that’s easy to say, but what companies are actually doing this? Who would put a 23-year-old in such a high position of influence and rank?”

And my response is, the companies who recognize that 62% of Gen Z doesn’t want to go to college, that their marketing skillset is in their blood, and that a Native Digital-controlled world already exists.

And the ones that aren’t adapting, well, Native Digitals will leave them to be influencers, gig workers, and real estate investors, because, well, 54% of us want to be entrepreneurs.

Here are a few examples of journeys like Sophia Digital – some of these Native Digitals have used the power of their own content to land dream jobs, while others have decided to stick with founding their own companies instead, based on the success of their endeavors:

• Jonathan Javier (24), landed his dream jobs at Cisco, Google, and Snap JUST by posting content online in his niche

• Stephanie Su (22), became the Lead Director at Superposition, an organization bridging the gender gap in STEM

• Caleb Guilliams (23) founded BetterWealth and is becoming The New Face of Finance. His firm has MILLIONS of AUM, and he is an international speaker + author.

None of these young people took the typical ladder path, nor did they rely on traditional job applications and career paths. Instead, they built paths of their own.

What Does It Look Like When It’s Working?

As you can see, there is a large chasm between the Analog and Digital perspectives to reach the same goal. But we must build a bridge if we’re going to shift to the Native Digital Future.

So if you’re a business owner, CEO, or HR executive, and you’re still marketing to and employing using the tactics of Peter Analog, it’s time to shift.

Let’s talk about what hiring with a Native Digital mindset looks like.

One of my clients, owned by a Boomer CEO, recognized this necessary shift from Analog to Digital, and he’s working tirelessly to prepare his company for a Native Digital future. Let me know you a couple of the changes he’s making in his data & tech consultancy firm.

Instead of hiring students out of college…

This CEO is becoming the university himself. He has founded an apprenticeship program, which selects high-potential high school students, and at the end of the program, gives them 6 figure salaries.

He’s seeking out the best & brightest talent EARLY and shaping them.

Instead of giving lip service to young people…

His head of HR is 22 + I’m on his advisory counsel

Rather than hiring just full-time consultants…

He is employing Native Digital gig workers, who have their own businesses and add expertise and value for his clients.

As a result, his firm is the category leader in the data consultancy world.

What Can YOU Do?

So, the big question:

What can you do to become relevant to native digitals?

If you’re a business owner, put a top-performing Native Digital on your leadership committee or even your board of directors.

If you manage Gen Z’rs, on that next strategic project you have, intentionally include a Native Digital.

If you’re a parent, encourage your kids to explore alternate, non-college paths, and if they say “mom, I want to be a YouTuber when I grow up!” don’t shut it down.

So I ask you, after being inside the mind of a Native Digital and gaining a glimpse of what it’s like to see through our eyes, what will change about the way you do business? The way you parent? The way you lead?

For my mom, she chose to accept that a ring didn’t matter all that much. What mattered more, is that she loved her daughter and son-in-law, and that meant embracing a new perspective. It also meant that I had to recognize the meaning this physical object had for her.

So, I did upgrade my ring for my mom. And I’ll have you know; it’s now made of silver and cost $50. And until De Beers uses my idea for a virtual ring, I’ll stick with this one.