Video taking off 105x its usual first day

From interviewing Michael Jordan to caring for her mother: GeVonna Fassett at TEDxSIUC

Her talk argues that caregiving is "leadership practiced under pressure," even when a résumé records it as an empty gap.

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TEDx Talks Story of October 12, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 52,798 views a day, 105 times a normal first day on this channel (502).

How caregiving makes you a better leader | GeVonna Fassett | TEDxSIUC

GeVonna Fassett's talk opens with a photo of her at work as a sports reporter, interviewing Michael Jordan. Within a minute the story has moved to her childhood home, where she went to give her brother a break and learned that her father had weeks to live. After his death, she says, "That was when I became a full-time caregiver to my mother who had Alzheimer's."

The rest of "How caregiving makes you a better leader | GeVonna Fassett | TEDxSIUC," filmed in March at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, makes the case that those years were not a pause. Fassett walks through the daily judgment calls: managing her mother's memory loss and grief, choosing in one moment that "protecting her peace mattered more than setting the record straight," and reworking her mother's diet, which led her to become a certified raw food instructor. She also started an Alzheimer's awareness outreach program in her mother's honor.

She borrows a line from Rosalynn Carter, the former first lady who long championed caregivers, about the four kinds of people in the world: those who have been caregivers, those who are, those who will be and those who will need one. Then she turns to the job market, where she found that résumés treat caregiving as a blank. "Caregiving wasn't the problem; it's how narrowly we defined leadership," she says. Fassett has since finished a master's degree and plans to study elder law.

The talk passed 41,000 views in its first 15 hours, where a new TEDx upload usually collects a few hundred in a whole day. Its comments arrived about six times faster than usual, many from people caring for a parent now or recalling the years they did, and describing the patience and advocacy the work demanded.

It follows Jeff Randolph's Dungeons & Dragons talk on the same channel, making two leadership lessons in a row from places a job title rarely mentions. Fassett's closing words put it plainly: "Caregiver is still the most important job I ever had."

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What viewers say

Congratulations, GeVonna! You captured the essence of caregiving so beautifully and thoughtfully. As a former caregiver for my mother, I can certainly attest to the ways that experience strengthened my leadership skills. Caregiving taught me invaluable lessons in patience, compassion, resilience, decision-making, and advocacy. Those lessons have stayed with me long after my caregiving journey ended. Above all, caring for my mother was the most important and meaningful job of my life. Thank you for shining a light on the profound connection between caregiving and leadership. Well done!
@paulinewilliams7245See it on YouTube
This is so relatable and inspiring ✨
@new-youtube7See it on YouTube
Thank you for this! Caring for mom now.
@karenhabiger5846See it on YouTube

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