Raquel Borras, host of Raq the Boat and Women Who Shred, talks with Alayna Gardner about bridging the generational gap, fostering accountability, and bringing a spirit of fun to the workplace.

The Power of Vulnerability

Vulnerability is as simple as sharing your story—the one underneath all your professionalism and propriety. For Raquel, sharing her story on LinkedIn was a big step, but it gave her a new power to make deeper connections. As far as marketing is concerned, the action is on social media. And on social media, you need to foster real emotional connections with your audience and your network. Vulnerability is a must.

Intergenerational Accountability

Alayna can’t stand when people blame Millennials for buying too much avocado toast. Unfortunately, it’s a thing. “You guys can’t buy a house because you buy too much avocado toast.” Blah blah blah. It’s ridiculous. It’s not true. It wasn’t true ten years ago when that bizarre stereotype began.

Moreover, Raquel is a big proponent of accountability. For the generation that raised Millennials and the generation that is now raising Gen-Z, there’s a huge lack of responsibility. Gen-Z and Millennials didn’t invent phones, the internet, or social media. Other generations did. But somehow young people get blamed for all the negative consequences of those inventions.

Bringing Fun to the Workplace

Raquel’s title on LinkedIn is “Queen of Goofiness.” Far from eschewing professional titles, Raquel knows that a silly made-up title will have a lot more power to resonate than VP of Whatever. Corporate structure matters, and so do professionalism and job titles, but they aren’t what create person-to-person connections. Silliness does. Authenticity does. Vulnerability does.

And it’s about time we recognize where the real power to connect with people is.

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