The video explores the remarkable attributes and contributions of Generation Z, highlighting their technological adeptness and entrepreneurial spirit. From launching startups in high school to creating campaigns that address social issues, Gen Z is portrayed as a generation of innovators eager to make a societal impact. The speaker shares personal experiences with Gen Z students and discusses their influence in various fields, including media and marketing.

The presentation counters common stereotypes about Gen Z, emphasizing their drive and purpose-driven mindset. The speaker refutes claims that Gen Z is lazy, instead showcasing them as transformers and change agents. Furthermore, the video identifies Gen Z's diverse and inclusive nature, pointing out their preference for purpose over profit, which attracts them to companies with strong corporate cultures that emphasize belonging and inclusion.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. wherewithal [ˈwer.wɪ.ðɔːl] - (noun) - The necessary means (especially financial means) for a specific purpose. - Synonyms: (means, resources, capabilities)

And they had the wherewithal to realize that a lot of people were losing their jobs in April and May in 2020.

2. bullish [ˈbʊlɪʃ] - (adjective) - Optimistic or confident about the future. - Synonyms: (optimistic, positive, hopeful)

That's why I'm so bullish on Gen Z.

3. leverage [ˈlɛv.ər.ɪdʒ] - (verb) - Use something to its maximum advantage. - Synonyms: (utilize, harness, employ)

Lean on what I call your ZEOs.

4. invoke [ɪnˈvoʊk] - (verb) - Call upon or refer to for support or inspiration. - Synonyms: (summon, cite, appeal)

Lean on what I call your ZEOs.

5. nuance [ˈnjuː.ɑːns] - (noun) - A subtle difference or distinction in expression, meaning, or response. - Synonyms: (subtlety, fine distinction, variation)

It's a nuance, but it's an important one.

6. lexicon [ˈlɛksɪˌkɒn] - (noun) - The vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge. - Synonyms: (vocabulary, language, glossary)

Gen Z has their own language, they have their own lexicon.

7. comprise [kəmˈprajz] - (verb) - Consist of; be made up of. - Synonyms: (consist, make up, encompass)

By 2030, 30% or more of the workplace will be comprised of Gen Z ers.

8. incubator [ˈɪŋkjubeɪtər] - (noun) - An environment or a platform for the care, growth, and development of new ideas or businesses. - Synonyms: (hatchery, nursery, breeding ground)

Three major brands have launched nationwide Gen Z incubators.

9. engagement [ɪnˈɡeɪdʒ.mənt] - (noun) - Involvement or commitment to interactive participation. - Synonyms: (participation, involvement, commitment)

Not push marketing, but engagement

10. foster [ˈfɒs.tər] - (verb) - Encourage or promote the development of something. - Synonyms: (encourage, promote, cultivate)

They foster communities of shared passions and clubs on campus.

Introducing Gen Z - The New Transformers - Mark Beal - TEDxCapeMay

Generation Z, the first generation that swiped before they wiped. Think about that. Think about that for a moment. The first generation at swiped before they wiped. I know there's some Gen Zers out there. Hopefully you're agreeing with that, right? They've held technology in the palm of their hands since the age of 1, 2 and 3. No other generation can make that claim. They are tech savvy, they are digital smart.

A couple years ago I got invited to guest speak at a STEM high school in Ewing Township, New Jersey. I was introduced that day to a ninth grader who in eighth grade, from the palm of his hand, launched a greeting card company because he thought the greeting card companies charged us too much for greeting cards. I would agree with that. Right? 8th grader launched a greeting card company from the palm of his hand.

Around that same time, I got a LinkedIn invitation and a connection with a sophomore in high school in Southern California. Jason emailed me and said, I just launched a startup 501c3 charitable organization with a purpose. I realize there's other students in my area who can't afford athletic equipment and so I've decided as a 16 year old to launch a 501c3 charitable organization from my phone. He's now a sophomore at UCAL Berkeley.

In just around April of 2020, I met two college students here in New Jersey, Alex and Jesse. And they had the wherewithal to realize that a lot of people were losing their jobs in April and May in 2020. And they understood that many people now that they lost their jobs, they may not even be able to afford to put food on their family's table at night. Two Gen Zers in college, well, they could have looked at that and said, well that's too big a problem for us. Somebody else bigger than us has to take care of that.

But instead they ideated like a Madison Avenue ad agency and they came up with a campaign called Making Lemonade, a virtual lemonade stand. And it didn't stop there. They mobilized 125 to 150 Gen Z college students across America to socialize the campaign, to amplify the campaign. And about eight weeks later, they cut a check for 130, 30 thousand dollars and donated that to charities who are helping people who are facing issues around hunger. $130,000, eight weeks, two Gen Z years right here in New Jersey. That's pretty impressive. That's why I'm so bullish on Gen Z.

Now. Some will tell you that Gen Z's lazy. Some people will tell you Gen Z'S entitled. Some people will tell you that Gen Z is reluctant to work. They don't want to work. I'm not one of those people. Gen Zers are transformers. They're change agents, they are innovators, they're an unprecedented generation of entrepreneurs. They are the new horizon.

I have the fortune and the privilege each and every week to teach, connect and collaborate with Gen Z students at Rutgers University in the School of Communication and Information. I teach them about public relations and marketing. They teach me about what content, news and information is catching their attention on the media channels that they consume. They teach me about what brands are effectively engaging them through innovative marketing. And they also teach me about what qualities they're looking for in future employers. Right? So media, marketing, the workplace. We're going to come back to those three pillars in a few minutes, but let's level set on a few things about Gen Z and we'll have a little bit of fun.

Gen Z has their own language, they have their own lexicon. Gen Z is in a room, right? They have their own language, they have their own lexicon, right? If I go to class tomorrow at Rutgers looking like this, with this beautiful tie and this beautiful jacket, I'm going to walk into the classroom and I know for a fact one of my students will kind of look me up and down, say, nice fit, professor, nice fit, right? And that's a compliment. Nice outfit, nice style, looking good, right? So they have their own language or they have their own lexicon.

So today I'm spilling the tea on Gen Z, right? I'm sharing information and insights about that generation that was born between 1997 and 2012. And if you like what you hear, I invite you later to slide into my dm. Some of you like say, what's going on here? I invite you later to connect with me on LinkedIn or connect with me on Instagram. Let's find ways to collaborate on your great ideas, right? Passion projects, all those things the way I do each and every day with Gen Zers. So first, they have their own language in lexicon.

If you're a brand, you're marketing to Gen Z. Don't look at an old marketer like me and tell me, you know, think I know how to use that language effectively. Lean on what I call your Z E Os. You're 21, 22, 23, 24 year old interns and full timers. They know better than anybody how to speak to Gen Z, how to communicate with Gen Z, how to create content that's engaging to Gen Z. They know that better than anybody, right? I was in marketing for 30 years. I'm not the expert when it comes to Gen Z, it's the Z, E O's. It's their Gen Z peers who know it best.

Number two, as we talked about in the introduction, Gen Z was born starting in 1997, according to Pew Research Center. We'll go out with that about 15 years to 2012. So your oldest Gen Z' Ers this year turned 27. They're no longer just in school, right? 27. They're as many as three, four, five years into their careers. They've gone from the new kids on the block at work to directors, managers. They've been promoted several times, right? And if we go to the other end of the spectrum, youngest Gen Z'ers turn 12 this year. So we've got Gen Zers in middle school, high school, college, and every year for the next decade, millions upon millions of Gen Zers are transitioning from school, whether they go to college or not, to their careers. So the workplace, the workforce, every single year, millions of Gen Zers joining the workforce. Right? And that's what we've got to get ready for and understand this generation better.

Number three, Gen Z is the most diverse, the most inclusive generation. They wear that as a badge of honor, a badge of pride. They join communities of shared passions and clubs on campus where there is that diversion and inclusion, right? They want to work for companies that have corporate cultures that are truly diverse and inclusive, where they welcome diversity of thought, diversity of background, diversity of experience. And there's a word now, the B word, which a lot of Fortune 100 companies are focused on. Not just DEI but DEIB belong. They want to belong. They don't want to be a cog in the machine. They actually want to belong to that company. They want to belong to that group. Right? And then the last point. Gen Z is the purpose generation. They want to contribute to better communities, better society, a better world. And they want to go work one day for companies that are focused on that purpose, right? Not just profit, but purpose, right? How do I go? I want to work for a company that's purposeful.

I just had one of my former students return to guest lecture on Thursday. She just changed jobs after being four years in the workforce. She goes, I didn't feel I was. I had enough purpose in what I did every day. And now she's in a new job in marketing. And she said, I've never felt more purposeful in my life. I am doing what I want to do in marketing and public relations. But at the end of the day, I feel like I'm contributing to a better world through this purposeful job.

So we talked a little bit earlier about media marketing and the workplace. Media Generation Z's media consumption is unprecedented. They don't consume mom and dad's media, right? They don't open up this thing called a newspaper. They don't sit in front of this box called a television set. No, they don't. They don't sit on the couch and watch Good Morning America or the Today show or the Six O' Clock News. Their big three are TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Right? Channels that didn't even exist 20 years ago. But they are like I was when I was their age, media junkies. They consume a lot of content. They're also a generation of content creators, right?

So if you're a media company, you need to understand how do we engage this audience? Because they're not tuning into traditional abc, CBS and NBC, but they are consuming a lot of media. So if I worked with one of the big networks or the cable networks, I would be thinking about how do I engage this generation and now, and of course, over the next 10 to 15 years, because they're not tuning in.

At the super bowl earlier this year in Las Vegas, Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, held his State of the NFL press conference early in the week. And there was a journalist in a room just like this. And a journalist raised his hand and said, why are you putting more football games and more playoff games on streaming networks like Peacock? And Roger Goodell turned to him and said, because that's where our potential future fans are consuming content. They're not watching the networks.

And he goes, we're going to put more games on Peacock. And in fact, this Christmas, there's going to be two games for the first time ever on Netflix. He said, if we have any shot at engaging Generation Z and converting them to fans of the NFL, we've got to go to where they're consuming media. They're not going to come to us. That's a powerful message, not just for media companies, but for brands as well.

Number two, marketing. There was a great headline in advertising age a few years ago, powerful headline. Gen Z doesn't want to buy your brand, they want to join your brand. Historically, if you think about it from a marketer's perspective, right? It's always been a transactional relationship.

Those of us who are, like me, a Gen Xer, right? Brands marketed, advertised and pushed promotions to Us with one goal. Get us to buy it. Buy their product, buy their service. That was it. Transactional. Well, Gen Z is disrupting that. They're not looking for transactional, they're looking for transformational. They want you to earn their business. They want you to invite them into the brand, be part of the brand.

There's three major brands out there who I won't name, who you all know that have launched nationwide Gen Z incubators over the past five, six years doing exactly that, inviting Gen Z into the boardroom. Let's connect and collaborate on your great ideas for the future. That's where brands have to go now and in the future. That's where marketing has to go. Not push marketing, but engagement. It's a nuance, but it's an important one.

Third point, the workplace. By 2030, 30% or more of the workplace will be comprised of Gen Z ers. So if you work for a company with 1,000 employees, 300 or more will have been born starting in 1997, right? As kind of Gen Xers like me start to, you know, start to leave and enjoy retirement. 30% or more. We're talking five years from now.

Well, employers, HR, CEOs and others, they need to understand this generation. I just recently did an interview with Fortune magazine which came out a few days ago, and the reporter had the same question. You know, I hear these Gen zers. They don't want to work, they're lazy. I said stop right there. Stop right there. You have to understand two key pillars as it relates to the workplace.

First, older generations. And I'm pointing at me, not anyone in the audience. Older generations, right? We live to work. We live to get up every morning and we go to work to that thing called an office. They still exist, I think. I think they exist. And we used to go there for 12, 13, 14 hours a day. And we loved it. We thrived on it. And oh, by the way, we did on Saturday too, sometimes, and Sunday. That's not the mentality of this generation.

They work to live. That's actually what we should all be doing. They work to earn a salary, to go enjoy life, to travel the world, to pursue their passions. That's the healthier way to do it. Slight nuance there, but a major one. They do not live to work. They do not live to get on a bus like I did for 30 years and go to the big city and get to your office at 8:30 in the morning and be there until 8:30 a night. They work to live.

Second, Gen Z works Smarter, not harder. Again, pointing at me. As an older Gen Xer, we used to value how many hours you spent in the office. Right. I'm sure most of us remember this, right? First one in, last one to leave, give that person a bonus. Well, what did they do for the 12 hours they were there? Were they sleeping? Were they napping? It's not about how many hours you're in the office, it's about what are you doing with the hours you're putting towards your work. Right.

So Gen Z works smarter, not harder. Going back to that original point about being the first generation that swiped before they wipe. They're using the latest technology, the latest platforms to figure out innovative ways to accomplish the mission, to complete the task. Right. One last point about the workplace. Millennials right now comprise the largest generation in the workplace.

They brought in this idea of work life balance in the early 2000s, 2004, 2005. Right? They ushered it in because Gen Xers like me didn't even know that wasn't even in our vocabulary. Work life balance, what's that? They ushered that in. They forced employers to start thinking about this idea of work life balance.

Well, Gen Z has taken the baton and they've taken it to the next level. They're now inspiring and informing employers about mental health. Right. You've got now innovative employers who are actually giving an innovative benefit. Mental health days. Right. I believe that in less than a decade, Gen Z will get the credit as the generation that made mental health a public discussion, a public dialogue, and no longer taboo. And you're going to see more and more employers every year focused on mental health. So work life balance to the next level.

So media, marketing, the workplace and even beyond that. I'm hearing something in the distance right now. It's a train whistle. I don't know if you can hear it. I hear it. That's the Gen Z train. It's leaving the station right now.

We've got two choices, especially if you're in media marketing and especially if you're an employer, you've got two choices. One of those choices, to stand on the sidelines and wave to that train as it goes by. And the result of that will be your business. You'll be out of business in 10 years. You will no longer be relevant and you will fail.

The other choice, which I'm about to do, and please join me, I invite you to join me, is to jump on that train, connect and collaborate with this next generation of transformers and innovators and entrepreneurs. And the sky is the limit. Success will be the result for years to come. Loyalty from Gen Z consumers for years to come. Choice is real easy. I'm gonna let you make your decision. I know which I'm doing. I'm jumping on that train. Thank you very much. It was great.

EDUCATION, INNOVATION, GENERATION Z, MARKETING, TECHNOLOGY, DIVERSITY, TEDX TALKS