Help young people lead themselves before the world asks them to lead others.
As a youth motivational speaker and keynote speaker, Ton Nguyen has spent more than 20 years helping students and young adults think critically, communicate honestly, and take responsibility for their choices. His interactive keynotes for high school assemblies, student leadership days, retreats, and youth conferences go beyond the lecture—helping youth explore leadership, purpose, identity, belonging, communication, and the experiences shaping who they are becoming.
Based in Seattle & Dallas–Fort Worth · Available nationwide
How Ton Connects with Young People
Experience Ton's energy, warmth, and approach to working with young people.
Signature experiences for young people
Each experience can be adapted to the age, setting, event length, and needs of the people in the room.
Identity, Culture & Belonging
Culture, Family, and the Tension Between Worlds
For young people navigating culture, family expectations, identity, belonging, and the tension between who they have been taught to be and who they are becoming.
Explore This Experience →Lead Yourself First
Identity, Responsibility, and Self-Leadership
Build identity, confidence, personal responsibility, and the ability to lead yourself before leading others.
Explore This Experience →Pressure, Choices & What Comes Next
Critical Thinking, Resilience, and Decision-Making
Think clearly, navigate pressure, respond to setbacks, and make more thoughtful decisions.
Explore This Experience →Same Goal. Different Language.
Communication, Trust, and Understanding Across Generations
Help young people and the adults who care about them understand why messages get lost and communicate in ways the other person can actually hear.
Explore This Experience →FROM THE ROOM
What educators, event organizers, and young people notice.
Two perspectives. The same result: young people feel engaged, encouraged, and seen.
“Ton has an incredible ability to energize a room, connect with his audience, and leave people feeling motivated to take action. His presentations are engaging, meaningful, and driven by the enthusiasm he brings to every experience...”
Celeste R.
Associate Director, Workforce Snohomish
“Ton came to our school and helped us really think about who we are and where we are headed. He has so much energy, and I can tell he really cares about us as students and as people...”
Lindsey W.
Junior, Mariner High School
IDENTITY · CULTURE · BELONGING
Conversations that make room for where we come from
Ton's own Vietnamese-American story shapes the way he facilitates conversations around identity, culture, family, and belonging. For many young people, questions of purpose and leadership are deeply connected to where they come from, what their families expect, and the different worlds they may be learning to navigate.
Ton creates interactive experiences that give young people room to explore those questions together—not by telling them what their identity should mean, but by helping them reflect on their own stories, hear the experiences of others, and better understand how culture shapes the way they see themselves and one another.
These experiences can be adapted for Vietnamese-American, Southeast Asian, AANHPI, first-generation, multicultural, and broader youth and young-adult communities.
Sometimes young people and adults care about the same thing—and still hear something completely different.
Young people may feel judged, dismissed, controlled, or misunderstood. Parents, educators, mentors, and youth leaders may feel that their concern is being ignored or interpreted as criticism.
Ton helps both sides slow down and understand what the other has actually been trying to communicate.
He creates experiences where young people can speak honestly while also helping the adults who care about them listen differently, ask better questions, and continue the conversation after the event.
Ton is not there to speak for young people or against adults. He helps create the conditions for both to hear one another more clearly.
What do your young people need help navigating right now?
Tell Ton about the people in the room, the pressures they are facing, and what you hope they will leave thinking, discussing, or doing differently.