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A Look at Today’s “Lost Generation” – Are We Repeating History?

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Last week, I completed the 10 part series of why Millennials should strongly consider being entrepreneurs sometime during their career. I strongly believe those who lead this movement are going to be the leaders of not only their own businesses, but the next generation as a whole.

In part 6 of the series, I touched briefly on how many believe that Millennials are the today’s Lost Generation. However, I didn’t spend much time actually defining what the means.

We’ve seen the problem we have today before. In fact, the last generation which was actually referred to the Lost Generation was the generation that came of age during World War 1. In a story involving Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, a garage owner referring to a young mechanic called those who had been through the war as une génération perdue – translating as “a lost generation”. Furthermore he added, “That is what you are. That’s what you all are… all of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation.”

Looking back we can understand why he might have said this. The events surrounding the war led to young people realizing that life was going to be rough for them. This belief was backed by many promising young lives being lost as casualties in the war itself. So, of course those who survived are going to be potentially depressed and not care as much about their career and place in life. Obviously, there was probably a lot of undiagnosed PTSD going around.

Furthermore, the world that they learned about from their parents didn’t exist anymore. So naturally they questioned the principles of their parents’ generation. Combine this all together and you get a lack of certainty, direction, and purpose. This led many to search for deeper meanings and truths. Finally leading many American artists and writers to Europe as “wanderers of culture”. Hemingway and Stein were a part of this group.

It sounds to me that the phrase “Lost Generation” was more of truthful description back then. While the comment the shop owner said was probably meant to be an insult, it actually had a lot of truthfulness to it.

The Past Can Help Predict the Future:

In Strauss and Howe’s Generational Theory, there is a noticeable cycle of eras spanning roughly 20 years called turnings. These turnings are caused by generational events which define the turning’s mood.

According to many out there (especially this subreddit on reddit.com), there are a lot of similarities of the Millennials to the Lost Generation. We’ve both had a war to fight which wasn’t really ours to fight. (Both, many would say, were started for questionable reasons as well.) We’ve both also had to come to terms with a world we weren’t programmed since birth for. The list goes on. To many out there, it’s not a great time to live in.

Young adults everywhere are questioning the whole “Get good grades, go to college, and get a good job to support a happy family” plan. And it makes perfect sense in why they’re doing that. For one, the jobs aren’t there which you need a degree for. And frankly, the end result didn’t really happen for our parents half the time. So why follow their plan if we see it not working?

So yeah, Millennials could be seen as the New Lost Generation. Sure. There’s definitely a case for that.

However, if you really look at the Generational Theory, you’d see that Strauss and Howe believe that Generation X was the most recent Nomad Generation (which is what the Lost Generation was) – not the Millennials. In that same vein of the thought, the GI Generation (aka the Greatest Generation) were those that came after the Lost Generation and took the world by the horns.  This group is who they compare Millennials to. People remember them. Generally we don’t remember the Lost Generation.

Interesting, huh?

Going from Good to Great

So, the summary is this. We are kind of a mixed generation. There are those of us who are caught up in the “I’m a victim of the times I live in” mentality. Those that are Lost. And then there’s those of us who want to be Great. We realize the world could be better, yes, and we’re driven to make it that way again.

So the question is… which one are you? If you consider yourself part of the Great, what are you going to do to make this world better then how you found it? Below let’s talk about what you’re doing and how you’re paying it forward.

Millennials as Entrepreneurs, Part 10 of 10: Where To Get Started

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In the end, as I mentioned in the last part, the decision is yours to make in whether or not being an entrepreneur is right for you.

 

A few good questions that I’d recommend asking yourself can be found in this article:

 

  • Are you comfortable with uncertainty?
  • Are you willing to put off good for the great (even though the great isn’t guaranteed?)
  • Can you wear multiple hats when needed?
  • Can you deal with a daily emotional roller coaster?
  • Can you stay committed to building a successful business even though there will be plenty of barriers set before you?

 

If you answer yes to all of these, then you’re good to go. If you realize that life is not a practice run, I don’t see how you can’t say no. Everyone deserves an adventure in their life to find out what they’re made of.

 

Personally believe that we only live life once and we should all at least try going solo once. Maybe it works out, maybe it doesn’t and it’s a big learning experience. Either way, at least you’d know.

 

Figure Out Your Type of Business

 

As we’ve explored, there’s plenty of business opportunities out there. Which one will work best for you? The main thing that I want you to think about is that there’s really no true offline business anymore. I mean, you can be, but you’ll be doing yourself a major disservice.

 

Even if you decide to go towards starting say… a daycare, for example, you should probably be adding some sort of online element. Parents would love to check up on the activities that are going on with their kids and what adventures they’re going on from day to day. Heck, if you get something like a GoPro, then perhaps you can strap one on to them from time to time and see what they see? Or heck, start writing a blog about tips and tricks to correspond with what they did during the day (This is just me thinking out loud.) Can you imagine how many customers/kids this daycare would get vs those that didn’t?

 

Educate Yourself, Leaders are Learners

 

Remember, as a business owner you need to be a leader. One thing I learned out of being in LTD was that Leaders are Readers. However, you don’t need to actually read books. You need to be learning. Whether or not you’re learning from audio books or listening to podcasts, or watching educational videos, you need to be learning regularly.

 

The best thing you can do is not look at it as a chore, but as part of your strategy. Start utilizing a filing method (Evernote or something similar would be useful) so that when you have say a post or doing something new, you can fall back on that information. That fresh perspective on the topic will make you look good to your customers.

 

Affiliate – Find a Community that Supports Your Decision

 

Another thing that will help is affiliation. Learn about your potential community before you dive into it. There’s different ways you can do that. You can mingle with potential customers, or you can mingle with other like minded people who are in charge of their own startup. Both have huge benefits in being involved with!

 

B2C Groups – Going to groups that have potential clients is a great way to figure out what products you need to develop. For example, if you’re wanting to start that daycare, find out from other parents what kinds of things they do or don’t like about daycares that are available to their kids. You can ask these parents individually or host an event. Either way, you’ll be getting valuable information that will give you a leg up on your competition.

 

B2B Groups – In Indianapolis, I like to think we have a huge tech startup community. Obviously, not as big as certain places on the west and east coast, but still something pretty strong. I think a big part of that is Verge and the The Speak Easy.

 

As I’ve seen these groups grow up, the party has just gotten bigger and bigger. Groups like these support tech startups – which is huge in Indy. However, there’s groups like Fizzle.co that support online businesses.

 

If you’re wondering if there’s a nearby group interested in what you’re wanting to do, check out meetup.com – you’d be surprised on what’s on there. If there’s nothing there, then perhaps you should start a group? Here’s a recent SPI podcast that illustrates how important masterminds are. Perhaps a good place to find people to be part of your mastermind might be reddit?

 

Next Step? Take Action.

 

If starting a business is something that you want to do, start as soon as you can. Is there something you need to get trained in first? Assuming that you’ve talked to people in that field and that you really want to be a part of, that might be your first step.

 

If there’s no special training required, perhaps your next step is to start looking into hosting your site. Or if you want to start in the real world, perhaps your next step is figuring out how you can start finding customers.

 

Whatever it might be, it’s time to start your adventure.

Millennials as Entrepreneurs, Part 9 of 10: A Generational Decision

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“The choices we make today are going to have impact on at least two generations after us. That means our kids and our grandkids.” – Campbell Haigh at an LTD Rally in 2007

 

I’m not sure about you, but that kind of frightens me a bit. As of right now, I don’t have kids (they’re in the not too distant future), but you know, I want to be a good example for them. Personally, with all of the political stuff that we’ve been through as of late with more people getting on welfare and believing that society owes them… I’m somewhat worried about my kids getting an influence from that thinking.

 

However, I realize that I can’t protect them from that fully, and potentially one of the biggest things they can see me do is struggle to get New Inceptions to what it has the potential to be in the future.

 

History is Written by Winners – How Will You Impact History?

 

Perhaps the business that you start will only be known about by your family in the future. Or, like Steve Jobs, your name will go down in infamy. That’s luck of the draw.

 

But really, as we’ve eluded to, you have to be a leader to get due credit – bad or good.

 

Something I also heard from the rally I quoted at the start of this section was this: A majority of people who are on their deathbed always wonder about their legacy. If they are going to be remembered. What could they have done differently?

 

This is something else that has driven me to make a mark in the sand. I don’t want to live the rest of my life wondering “What If?”. What if I had actually taken the time to start something? What would I have done? Where would I have gone? What would my family had been able to experience?

 

I know that if I do nothing, then nothing will happen. I know that if I work for someone else, they’ll get most of the credit for what I’ve done. We, as people, have the need to be recognized. At what level varies from person to person. I want to be remembered as someone who did something during a time that I could have chosen to mail it in with so many of our generation or do nothing. What’s the opposite of caring? No, it’s not hating. It’s indifference.

 

I’m simply suggesting that you do what Brendon Burchard talks about all the time: Live, Love, Matter. And personally, I don’t think there’s any better way of doing just that than by being an Entrepreneur.

 

Making the Big Choice

 

As I’ve been trying to make the case for as many Millennials to start their own business in this series, I realize that it’s going to be an individual choice for everyone. For me, it’s never really been a question on whether or not I’d go down this path, but when.

 

Personally, I’ve always kind of struggled with authority and even my the most influential people in my life have always asked when I was going to start my own thing. I guess my main problem was that I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do as a business. It wasn’t until I found fizzle.co that I felt that I had the backing and the proper check points in place to start.

 

So that’s one of the things that I would recommend is that if you’re looking to start something, see if you can’t seek insight into that world from people who are already there.

 

Another thing that kind of kept me back was wondering if I knew all I should about whatever it was that I was going to build NI on. Probably just like you, I don’t necessarily feel that I’ve accomplished much. However, when I ask others if I’ve been successful, they say that I have. In fact, they’ve even pointed out a few products that I can make right away.

 

Your hurdles might be completely different. Maybe they’re financial hurdles. Maybe they’re time issues. Everyone will have different things to get through. However, you need to make the choice. It’s either yes or no. And you need to live with and accept that choice.

 

Again, personally, I think it’s much easier to accept a choice when at the end you can at least say you HONESTLY tried.

 

You’re Unique: Share Your Voice, Your Passion, Yourself

 

You’ll probably have the same question as I did. What have I achieved? What do I know? How can I add value to others? The simple truth is that we’re all different – each of us has a story. Even someone that does car maintenance will do it differently compared to another mechanic. Does he see it as something that “needs to be right”? Or does he see it more as an art form? Does he work on cars for historical significance? Or is tinkering simply his passion?

 

When you think of your skill sets, what makes you different? When other people see something as a task… how do you see it? Perhaps it is something like car maintenance. Perhaps it’s something so niche and focused that many people will instantly see you as the expert because before you came, there was nothing.

 

Either way, your individual take and expertise is needed!

 

So below, I’d like you to think of and share at least 5 things that you believe is no big deal that you could 1.) be able to teach others to do or 2.) be able to do for them.

 

What passion and interests do you have that you could share with others and add value to their lives?

 

Millennials as Entrepreneurs, Part 8 of 10: Leading is An Ideal Goal for Us

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In part 1 we discussed some statistics about what Millennials want in the work place. I’ll share them again:

 

  • 64% of them say it’s a priority for them to make the world a better place.
  • 72% would like to be their own boss. But if they do have to work for a boss, 79% of them would want that boss to serve more as a coach or mentor.
  • 88% prefer a collaborative work-culture rather than a competitive one.
  • 74% want flexible work schedules.

 

Look at that second number. 72% of us want to be our own boss. To do that, we have to run our own business. And to do that, need to have some sort of leadership skills.

 

The World is Full of Followers who want to Lead

 

In the 6th installment of this series, I talked about The Prussian Education System contributing to why Millennials are Lost. How it has been used to create a population of soldiers who follow the oligarchy of the Progressive Movement that originally installed it. They want and continue to want followers.

 

The other contributing part to the Lost Generation can be found in part 1, when we saw how Millennials generally want a lot out of life.

 

The catch is that these two ideas contradict each other. One of them is going to have to yield to the other.

 

So far it seems it seems that many of us don’t know which to choose. In fact, many of us are even pushing back our internal clocks to have more time to develop “Me”. It seems like a whole lot of confusion. Do we invest in a job that might have the conditions we’re used to or do we invest in ourselves and create that atmosphere for ourselves?

 

Leaders Get The Credit Through Failure

 

If there’s one thing that we’ve learned from our role models growing up is that leaders get the credit. From our coaches in high school, to athletes in the pros, to politicians, and award winning actors, we see that those who succeed get the most credit. It is almost intolerable for us to be unsuccessful. We have grown up most of our life believing that we CANNOT and MUST NOT fail.

 

The problem with this is that we now have a generation of people who don’t really know that failing is a part of learning. That we can’t really learn something until we’ve tried to apply knowledge and screw up.

 

Many of us have not heard of all the failures that successful people have had before they were successful. However, it’s true.

 

As it’s suggested then, we need get out there and fail quicker! Otherwise, the alternative is taking a seat and job hopping in the new economy – something that personally I don’t want to do. I’d prefer security.

 

Leadership is Something Learned

 

Leadership for most of us is appealing and scary at the same time. We know that if we want things to go our way, that we must appeal to others to follow our plan. If we’re successful with spreading the idea, then we find ourself leading. At the same time we know leadership can be lost as quickly as it can be gained if we’re not careful with our followers. So we need to learn how to lead with purpose.

 

A big key in being a leader is actually studying it. Seeing what other people have done successfully before us and actually studying those actions. We can do that through case studies, or the hard way through personal experience OR we can cheat and read books by authors like John Maxwell.

 

Once you have successfully gained influence of others and can wield it successfully, then you are on the path of being a true leader. But just like anything else in the self development world, it’s something that you’ll need to continue to study.

 

Leading By Example

 

In the comments below, I’d love to hear about your experiences at being a leader. Whether you’ve had success or have failed at it, let us know below. Also, if you did fail, what did you take away from the experience?

 

Next week, in part 9, we’ll discuss making the big choice. Those that succeed in building a business will be the ready made leaders after 2020. Will you be a leader or a follower? We’re in a perfect place in history to make our collective mark for other generations to follow!

Millennials as Entrepreneurs: Part 4 of 10 – Growing up as Tech Natives

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Have you ever been with family or older friends and someone says they need help with their phone? You’re like “Sure. I’ll look at it.” and you help them figure out whatever their problem was without hardly thinking about it? Not to mention the next thing you know you’re now their personal tech support?

 

This has happened to me plenty of times. Personally, I love helping when I can with tech. I’ve always been a natural at it – even before it was considered normal. Back then I was labeled a geek of sorts, but it’s totally acceptable today.

 

The Rise of Social Media and Texting

 

Back when I was entering college, social media and texting didn’t exist as it does today. We were using AIM and ICQ as our messengers and texting ran up your cell phone bill like no tomorrow.

 

The first Social Media platform that I was aware of, wasn’t really even a social media platform persay. It was collection of member pages based around message boards, personal blogs, and funny videos (which were based on video game characters). You might have heard about it – Rooster Teeth.

 

Today, while it might not be up there with Facebook, they’re doing pretty well in their own way. When I started watching their videos back in 2001-2002, (and when they were known as Cock Bite – there’s a trivia answer for you!) I along with a whole bunch of other Halo players flocked to their site where they hosted their Red Vs Blue series. It was hilarious. But it was also signs of what was to come.

 

Since then, they have added on several side communities and series (Rage Quit is hilarious – if you can take the swearing!).

 

I used RT regularly until Facebook started becoming the behemoth that we know it as today. The longer I stayed at RT, the more I realized that I was being surrounded more and more by fans of the company. They weren’t using it as a tool like I was. No, they were fanatics about it. So much so that they even went to conventions that the company puts together.

 

I don’t think I could ever be that big into something now that I didn’t have ownership in. 🙂

 

 

I think this story kinda holds true for a lot of other Millennials. While I never used them, Xanga, Tumblr, and LiveJournal are a few blog sites that lots of people flocked to early on but now have been replaced by today’s big names.

 

The Current Kings of Social Media

 

In marketing, there’s a handful of social media sites that need to be considered when building a brand. Obviously, you have Facebook. Then there’s Twitter and LinkedIn. Next you’d see sites like YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest.

 

Unlike the previous generation of social media sites, one can see the current top sites as tools that fill an inherent need to socialize. Typically people use them because their friends do.

 

When Facebook added the ability to let anyone into the site in 2006, not to those just in colleges, numbers shot through the roof. As of 2013, the count for Facebook users was considered to be half of all online users.

 

As tech savvy Millennials, we’ve been able to use these sites as they’ve evolved. Due to that fact alone, we’ve been able to keep up with the latest abilities that each site has given us.

 

On Facebook, marketing tools really shot up when apps came online. After apps, we had Pages. Now it’s less Pages and more shareable content. It’s always changing.

 

As millennials, we’re used to technology always changing. So really, we have the upper hand when it comes to these platforms. They’re part of who we are and how we communicate.

 

However, as we’ve seen, this comes at a cost as we depend more and more on the newest of technology.

 

In with the New, Out with the Old

 

In 2014, pretty much half of all internet users were using the web through the use of smart phones or a tablet. Personally, I think it’s by design. Companies know that their potential customers like to be on the go. If they can get themselves in front of their audience as they are on the go, then they’re going to get a higher ROI than if their audience saw their ad at home.

 

The cost of acquiring these new mobile devices has been a constant distraction. Even though people have as much time as ever, they feel that they’re life is faster paced.

 

Why? Because the distractions are constantly giving them a to do list. See this, laugh at that. Poke that button.

 

People are spending less and less time creating.

In this new world, if you have enough will power to create, you can build an audience and therefore a business.

 

Building Will Power

 

In the comments below, let me know about some of your tricks in keeping your technology induced distractions down. If you’re having problems with distractions, let me know too! I’d be glad to help you come up with a plan to keep them from influencing you!

 

Also, stay tuned for next week’s post in which we’ll be exploring the changing economy and why Millennials are in the right spot to make their mark on it.

 

Millennials as Entrepreneurs Part 3 of 10: Business Opportunities Galore!

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Business opportunities are everywhere for us. With the internet opening up the whole world for commerce in the 90’s, many of us have just grown up with it as being there. Personally, I think I just ordered a few items offline before I made the jump. And man, when I did, it was so easy to keep doing.

 

I remember one of the first things I ordered was a movie poster for one of the Ace Ventura movies. It’s still somewhere, rolled up… collecting dust. When I ordered that, I was totally into whatever Jim Carrey was in. Heck, one of my first CD’s I ever bought was the soundtrack to Dumb and Dumber. So when I found out that I could order this poster, I sent in my money order to some random place and 3-4 weeks later I got my order.

 

Many of you will never know that pain. I don’t even think I could put up with it myself anymore.

 

The 21 Jump Street Epiphany

When I finally got to see this movie, it totally rocked me in how it portrays the difference in high school from when I went to what it’s like now.

 

When I went, there were definite cliques, yes. At most schools, jocks weren’t band kids or geeks. However, they were the popular ones. It was simple. (At my high school, they did intermingle a bit – but I write that up to class size and my class being a Gen X and Y hybrid.)

 

In a particular scene in the movie, however, it shows just how much that is changed. Ha, I felt Jenko’s pain. I mean, I recognized him as cool, but the kids didn’t. The kids in fact thought of him as an out of place dinosaur.

 

I realized it was a whole new world. It’s no longer cool to not be a geek about something. Even jocks are geeks about sports. Look at Andrew Luck! There are so many types of people in the Millennial culture. Because of just that, there are plenty so many business opportunities.

 

 

Mike Rowe and the Blue Collar Revival

 

If you think that all business opportunities have to be online, that’s because we’re in a digital age. However, one of the shows that I loved watching as I was going through college was Dirty Jobs starring Mike Rowe as the host. As I was watching the show, it occurred to me that a large portion of the people he shadowed were business owners.

 

Yes, they were all dirty jobs, but as the theme song says, someone has to do it.

 

Since the show, Mike has started a foundation called Mike Rowe Works where the main focus is to educate people in the need of trade workers. He continuously states that college shouldn’t be the destination for everyone. And to be honest, I don’t think it needs to be with all the types of people that are out there.

 

Currently, as it is, college is a one size fits all model. Sure, you have different majors, but everyone that goes through it is going to come out being ready for a white collar job. (It also takes creativity out of most students… but that’s for another post.)

 

If you’re passion and interests lie in the real world and/or you’re a little more of a tech immigrant than most Millennials, consider listening to Mike.

 

Tech is Our Friend

Obviously, most businesses right now are being started online. A good reason for this is because it gives you unlimited potential for customers. Another is that there is lower overhead compared to that of a Real Life Business.

 

There are many ways to do an online business. You can take advantage of companies that already exist and have a virtual store with eBay and Amazon. You can build your own website from scratch and sell virtual products. You can also make SaaS Products for individuals. Or heck, you can just run a site that points to places where people can buy things and get a finder’s fee (affiliate marketing).

 

Here’s the fun thing about all of those: you don’t need a degree and you can be yourself each and every day. In fact, it’s preferred (unless you’re a complete asshat!). Remember, there’s too many kinds of people out there not to be yourself. It takes too much energy to fake it!

 

There’s So Many Choices!

 

In the comments below, quickly let me know your thoughts on what kind of businesses you might be thinking of starting. Give me up to 10 possibilities. The more you list, the more you can eliminate for sure later! (Believe me, this is really important. You don’t want to be constantly thinking What If when you’re building your business!)
Also don’t forget that they don’t have to strictly be online! If you want to be an independent vet, author or speaker, say so!

 

In next week’s edition of the series, I’ll be diving deeper into Technology and how it has offered a distinct advantage for Millennials.

 

Millennials as Entrepreneurs Part 2 of 10: The Power of the Trend Setter

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The world of the Millennial is already upon us. It’s really ours for the taking. Those who have realized this have already started doing so.

 

Just look at Chelsea Krost. I didn’t even know she existed until a week or so ago. And what does she do? She talks about the characteristics of Millennials as a whole. Yeah, there’s plenty of us who do this – but wow – she’s been on shows like Good Morning America, Today, and Tyra. I mean, for a person in their early 20’s, she’s doing great!

 

As it was eluded to in the last post, there are some that will really have a hard time coming to terms of our demands as a generation. Millennials have a completely different value structure than those that came before us.

 

However, we’re here and we’re creating a lot of change early in our career.

 

Case in Point? Look at Today’s Fashion

 

Have you ever actually paid attention to what people are wearing? Like, just looking at what they wear? Is it new? Is it old? Is it something new to look old?

 

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably thought about it at least once in your life and laughed and said, “I wouldn’t be caught dead in that!”. And even then we question whether or not we’re behind in fashion.

 

Personally, I’ve found myself thinking this more and more. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that it’s almost not worth bothering about what you wear.

 

If you look at what makes Millennial fashion unique… you might think of all kinds of different things. Let’s look at glasses, for example. It would seem that predominant style is thick black frames. However, thin seems to be still in as well. Or heck, you might even see something from the 60’s (You know the ones with the little corners with gems or designs peaking out of the corners? Yeah, I’ve seen those around too!).

 

Or heck, let’s look at pants. Who would have EVER thought that leggings would come back as hard as they have. Oh man. If you were to tell my early college self that those would be coming back, I would have thought you came to the future with Marty McFly.

 

And now, not only are high school and college kids wearing them – but their parents who probably wore them originally in the 80’s and 90’s are wearing them again – even after the originally said “Never again!”. Lol.
We’re setting the trend.

Other Successful Industries Have Started Catering to Us

 

The Baby Boomers, obviously, were the last generation to set the trend. As discussed in the last post, much of what we do today is based on their principles and values. That’s not bad, but it’s not necessarily great either. I would like to believe I have a work ethic similar to what Baby Boomers would expect everyone to have. However, at the same time, I think much of what’s wrong with Washington is that those in power want to keep the lifestyle they’re accustom to and they’ll gladly take money from lobbyists to do so. (Check out Generation Zero about this.)

 

Millennials – we’re not like that so much. There’s so much of a difference between Baby Boomers and Millennials that I believe right around 2020 – there’s going to be a HUGE shift how everything is run.

 

Many Industries have already seen the writing on the wall and are totally skipping over Gen Xers and their tastes and going straight to us. A big part of that is because we’re larger than the Gen Xers as a demographic. However, we also have more disposable income as a whole. Most Gen Xers are already in midlife and have to worry about putting houses over their families’ heads. There’s other reasons why they haven’t been counted, and you can refer to this column here for that info.

 

To survive, major conglomerates will have to change their tune. For example, today, Comcast sells things for convenience. The larger a bundle you have, the more you’ll save for more channels. This caters to the Baby Boomer audience. For the most part, they don’t want to mess with the technology to get their entertainment fix.

 

On the other hand, if you see what’s been trending in popularity, it’s all about On Demand. Whether that comes from Comcast is up to them. Why? Because us tech savvy Millennials are, (as we explored last post) all about “Me!”. We don’t care if we get our entertainment fix is from Netflix, Roku, Apple TV, etc.

 

Think about it. Do you think there are more cord cutters in the Millennials or the Baby Boomers? Comcast sticks to simple and possibly outdated tech for the Boomers (who really needs a landline?). At the same time they’re transitioning to On Demand for Millennials. That being said, they better work on that price structure a little more to keep us around!

 

 

Mind The Gap

 

So really, rather or not companies would like to complain about how much we’re different than X’ers and Boomers is not the point. The point is, again, we’re setting the trend. They can’t help but figure out what keeps our interests if they want to survive the big change.

 

But they’re at a disadvantage. Why? They have to higher millennial consultants, like Chelsea, to tell them how Millennials minds work. You and I, on the other hand… we have the upper hand. We are millennials.

 

So, in the comments below. I want to know about what kind of trends you’re starting with your friends and other people you have some influence with. Something as simple as a new app you’re using or a new website you’re following that you’ve shared. Then, I want you to think on whether or not they think of you as the source of particular new things in their life.

 

If you can do that simple exercise, you know that you’re adding value to someone. You are a trend setter.

 

Also, stay tuned for next week’s post in which we’ll be exploring the reasoning on how there are so many types of potential business out there.