Three Trends that Will Transform Your Connections
LAUREN COOK, FOUNDER
August marks the three year anniversary of launching Connecting Our Stories. It also coincides with our busiest month of client work yet! Instead of gushing about what the past three years have meant to us, we’re going to share the three biggest trends we’re seeing among clients now so you may benefit.
#1: The Need to Listen
Every project we’ve worked on in 2026 has had some form of listening/research/interviewing/data collection as an essential early step. And if it wasn’t originally part of the project, we’ve recommended adding it. There are just too many ways to communicate, engage, and tell your story these days to not confirm where and how your audience really wants to connect with you. As a mission-driven organization, you say you exist to serve people, but are you deeply in tune with your people’s motivations and aspirations?
#2: Slow Down to Go Deeper
It doesn’t even take that much time–maybe a 90-minute brainstorm–to reach some “ah-has” that can change the way you work and communicate. We’ve become so solutions-focused in our fast-paced work that we sometimes blow past chances to excavate something more meaningful–an opportunity that wasn’t obvious, a creative campaign that AI could never generate, or a reflection that rang so true you could feel it in your body. These don’t come in distracted conversations or surface-level analyses. We must actively create space, time, and opportunities to go deeper.
#3: They Really Want to Know You
We’ve said it to client after client in the past three years: share your authentic stories. Your followers, supporters, and volunteers may know all about what you do, but do they know who you are? When they do, engagement will grow and connections will deepen. Every single person in your organization is a “thought leader” because everyone has stories, lived experiences, wisdom, and ideas to share. Some may be profound and touching; some may be mundane and funny; all are relatable in some way. And connecting with your audience from a place of genuine humanity will not only build your public followers, it will strengthen internal relationships as well.
It is not mere coincidence these trends align perfectly with our internal motto (by poet Mary Oliver): “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” These simple, yet profound instructions are the recipe for deeper connections in our work and lives.
Thank you for supporting Connecting Our Stories for three years. It has been a wild and blessed ride. Speaking of wild and blessed, have you tuned into the COS Podcast yet? Episode 18 dropped yesterday–our lively conversation with the Austin legend Joy Diaz.
We are grateful for every opportunity we have to model our own advice–listen well, go deeper, and share who we are. It’s not always the easy path, but it’s the one that leads to genuine connection in our work and lives–the COS definition of success!