How to Connect To Your Audience Through Shared Experiences Like Grief

Have you ever found yourself in a position where you knew you had something to say about a topic (like grief?), but the topic was so raw and so vulnerable you couldn't wrap your head around how to say it well?

Troy Sandidge, of Find Troy, recently found himself in that type of situation. Troy is an award-winning growth strategist who transforms emerging businesses into sustainable and scalable enterprises by creating strategies, systems, and solutions that scale revenue rapidly for businesses looking to expand their growth potential.

I can tell you from experience that he is an incredible speaker and really knows his stuff. Troy knows how to deliver a talk that will inspire people to implement and make positive changes in their business and personal lives.

Tackling hard topics

Not every topic is straightforward and strictly business related. Grief and major life changes like moving into an assisted living facility can wreak havoc on a person and their family. Being able to talk about these topics is less than easy (ask me how I know). Troy was tasked with addressing these and other topics in front of a group of strangers who desperately needed to hear that they were not alone in their fear, uncertainty, and grief. 

In a happy moment of the fates bringing people together right at the right moment, I messaged Troy on the exact day he was trying to find the right way to approach these difficult subjects. If you’ve been following along since the Fall of 2015 you know that I have been writing on these topics for a hot minute. You also know there are a lot of articles to choose from. Being who I am, I immediately offered to help fill in with some articles I had written that I thought could help him find his way to the words he wanted to share.

Spoiler alert: It worked!

Troy put together an incredible presentation that spoke to and connected with his audience so well that he ended up having raw and emotional one-on-one conversations that led to healing and clarity for everyone involved.

“It's one thing to get on stage and present to people on how to utilize digital marketing and social media to grow and enhance your business, it's an entirely different animal and stakes involved when you are charged to present about dealing with grief, death, life-altering, and life-changing scenarios, and so on.

One is a detour or path in life, the other is the entire highway of life itself. Imagine going from a smooth quick-pace highway as your life to a back road full of potholes and unevenness with no lights and it's hard to see?”

~ Troy Sandidge

I had the opportunity to chat with Troy about his experiences and what it was like talking about tough topics with strangers.

Here is an overview of what we chatted about

• Speaking in front of strangers about grief, lifelong pain, and uncertainty
• Using resources like the Legacy Recorder to reframe your thoughts and deliver an epic live experience
• Connecting with an audience through raw emotion and real-life problems like death and pain
• Riding the emotional rollercoaster that happens after conversations with strangers about grief

You can watch the full interview in the Facebook video at the top of this article.

Looking for ways to learn how to talk about grief and other painful topics with the people you love? Here are a few places to start. This is also an abbreviation of the “list” that Troy and I mention a few times in the video.

• Restoring Human Dignity: How We Do This through Engaged Conversations – This article covers a number of things that revolve around the topics discussed
• Coping with loss – Article 1 & Article 2
• Getting people to talk
• What to do when death happens
• Volunteers
• Express yourself