Blaze Founder & CEO, Justin Lyons, welcomes Eric Zoberman.  In addition to being a proud parent of two young children, Eric’s life experience includes working for President Barack Obama in 3 key roles between 2007 and 2012.   As an intern for then Senator Obama, Eric had the privilege of receiving direct one-on-one leadership from our future president.   In 2008, Eric transplanted to rural Iowa to become a Field Director for the Obama Presidential Campaign.  He built from scratch a team of passionate volunteers who helped deliver Obama’s key Iowa win over Senator McCain. In 2012, Eric was the National Youth Vote Director for  President Obama’s campaign against Mitt Romney.  In this role, he was responsible with implementing the campaign’s outreach message to young Americans aged 18-29. In the episode, Eric and Justin discuss these experiences in the context of how our youth and their needs have evolved since 2007; especially with the rise of social media. Eric is concerned with what young people consider validating. How they are measuring their success on a day to day basis.  He is concerned with validation metrics such as likes and followers are in direct competition with more meaningful validations such as grades and lasting relationships.