Episode 910 – Best Of – Who Is Gen Z and How Do They Spend $600 Billion a Year with Kathleen Hessert and Krista Jasso

Kathleen Hessert, who was an early adopter in the sports and entertainment industries. The former broadcast journalist has spent a professional lifetime connecting dots that others don’t even see. Whether as one of the first female broadcast news anchors, and female pit reporter for ESPN, or founding a media training company for college and pro sports, she sees a need and delivers. In 2015, Kathleen recognized emoji as a new visual language and launched Popemoji to help the Catholic Church better engage young people.

Kathleen has a proven track record of identifying trends in the making. Well before most knew what a tweet was, she recognized and harnessed the power and influence of social media as a new communication channel and in 2007, launched NBA great, Shaquille O’Neal on Twitter helping take the now global platform mainstream. Kathleen spent three decades helping sports brands from media giants ESPN, and Fox Sports to world-renowned celebrities like P.Diddy, NFL’s Peyton Manning and Olympians build their reputations and fan bases.

When the marketplace was still fixated on the peculiarities of Millennials, Kathleen migrated to what’s NEXT- Generation Z. Used to working with young athletes, she turned to teens to build WeRGenZ from the grassroots up. Today she helps brands understand the future through today’s youth and amplifying voices of the generation. She’s a much sought-after public speaker, and consultant wowing audiences with insights derived from her original research and thousands of members of the WeRGenZ Teen Think Tank.