Dear Millennials....from Generation X

I had someone sit on my lap once on the subway because they were so enchanted with their phone. When they didn’t acknowledge it I knew this wasn’t going to be the last time this is going to happen to me…..

I was in my late 30’s wondering why I was carrying on about the next generation like my grandfather did on how Mom used to be a ‘dirty hippy’. I literally started to sound like Walter Matthau ranting about millennials like they were neighbourhood kids but not because they were making excessive noise or tearing up the neighbourhood but because they always had their face buried in some sort of digital device and called it working.

Look I’m not going to lie the phrase “God damn Millennials” has left my mouth many times, but that was before I acknowledged my frustration wasn’t with them it was because they represent a generation when everything changed. I literally felt like I was starting to figure out how we did business in the big world and what I worked so hard to become well versed in quickly changed to the way we used to do business.  

In the 90’s filling out college applications was next to an impossible task for me, one minute they are telling us to get a Red Seal trade and apprenticeships and the next they are telling us to get involved in ANYTHING TO DO WITH COMPUTERS. I didn’t even know how to pick a girlfriend let alone what I am going to do for the rest of my life! So those applications went out with white knuckles and a Hail Mary. But as it turns out, for as many people there is to create and design today’s infrastructure and gadgets there is a same number of people needed to build and fix the machines that make them into tangible items. I just wish I had this Coach Carter enlightenment back then, I really thought I was going to have to play Red Rover at some point in my career because I chose the wrong path.

Being a Generation X baby I was born a few years before the millennial babies grabbed the baton (and Wi-Fi password), I can definitely understand and relate with this generation but I do feel the separation. They just operate different and downright impress me and inspire me daily because the professional millennials come with this work ethic that I know a lot of Gen X’s seem to lack. I work with a couple millennials and they outpace me at certain things but in turn have this endless capacity to take the time to show me or just flat out get me up to speed (usually in the digital stuff).

Everything changed in the business world that I liked to think I was gaining some sort of tenured mastery; even my business wardrobe isn’t just shirts and ties with suit jackets, it now incorporates jeans, vests and a bro jacket. However I refuse to sign onto the dress shoes and no socks look, there is still some old school left in me but I am clearly doing my best to adapt.

Millennial Marketing:

My coming of age happened in the 90’s which I like to call the ‘decade of dial-up’, so when a trend hit our town or the coolest new thing was out on the market you could visibly see the fad move in……cause it would be everywhere. Now due to our connected world millions of people can be a fan of something or be wearing a hot new item but its fragmented all over the world, we are no longer sardine sales markets thanks to the power of the web. So marketing goes where the eyes are…..on our phones and the on the most trafficked sites, individuality is what makes the purchase and three days later there is a knock at the door with your new prized possession. We are no longer forced to go to the mall and see what’s hanging on the mannequin to determine what’s in style anymore.

Millennial Money:

There is a YouTuber named Kong that has millions of views from his videos of being awkward and talking to pretty girls on how to pick up pretty girls (genius). He is now worth millions because he is a YouTuber named Kong and still awkward but it’s not because he got a lucky break, it’s because he figured out what makes people click on a thumbnail and titled the videos right. There is a formula that makes us absorb content on YouTube and he cracked the code. Now makes his money teaching others this code, and probably still working on the pretty girls.

The money is not just in views, the real money is in the sponsorship deals because you have that many views - Tubers can share their analytics on who the exact audience is and where they are, which is half the battle for companies looking to advertise. Now everybody wants to be a vlogger and YouTuber because they want either the popularity or the ‘easy money’ or both but clearly don’t see the business aspect to it. Let’s face it everyone loves validation that’s how the Instagram duck face came to be a real thing (thanks Kim). Either way it takes time to accomplish this level of status like anything else in life, I hear so many people bitch and moan how “Millennials” have the YouTube market cornered which is not the case. These kids (which I am comfortable saying because they call me sir) have been sitting in their rooms and friends’ houses doing stupid shit, recording it and uploading it for years……don’t act surprised when someone gets good at something they’ve doing for a long time. 

Once you get the formula paired with the right content…..look out.

Funnels – The video where you see a young guy get out of a Lamborghini and walk into his crib talking about changing your life, we’ve all seen it. This online entrepreneur business is a real thing, with the right setup and automated landing pages you can literally make money while you sleep. With the right phrasing coupled with a well edited two minute video on Facebook you can get a good number of people to buy something while you sit there a binge watch your fav Netflix show waking up the next day to see all kinds of money in your PayPal account. There is a billion people on Facebook even if you got 0.001% to buy $50 of product or service from you it’s a mere $50,000,000. (I had to check the math three times on this, clearly there is a point here).

Millennials even work different. Next time you go into Starbucks and see a bunch of twenty somethings all sitting around the table with a laptop open, phone in their hand and pen behind their ear focussed on everything but what’s going on around them…….look a little closer……they are working (quality of life and lots of frappes). Working remotely and communal office spaces are a growing trend, they listened to all of us bitch for years about cubical spaces and being treated like ‘sheeple’ so of course they aren’t going to pursue that dream and shame on us for not breaking that trend before them.

Adapt or get left behind

My digital presence and the quality of work I started to publish online only improved because I started to seek counsel from those that are successful at it themselves and guess who they were? If I didn’t go down this footpath that millennials have blazed for us I wouldn’t be getting the reach I was before…..you wouldn’t be reading this. I decided it was time to adapt to the environment I want to be part of but also stand out in, I’ve done nothing but learn new things, meet new upcoming professionals while multiplying my reach.

For decades there was always been a generational torch passing of wealth and job promotions. You went to school, found an entry level job - eager and green, climbed the ranks at a pace that was a slow as the commute into that job. With that journey came experience, skill development, and a status where you finally earned a voice to lead others and for many that followed this formula success and wealth came with it. Nowadays you are seeing this boom of millennials becoming overnight sensations, bountiful success and all with less life/work experience and definitely not with the same level of merit badges their predecessors have sown into their career sash. The whole thing seems ass-backwards, and unfair to those standing there empty handed or just finished fastening one of our failure badges on. It’s like they figured out this mystical loophole of success with minimal effort, the likes of content creators, app developers, and product reviewers to Instagram celebs all the same. The ironic part of it all is that they are doing it with technology we desired or helped develop…..so here comes the 2018 version of “You got it made. I had to walk 3 miles to school” rant, but when we were kids we did it with Velcro shoes on.

Do you remember the days when you were a hero because you could hook up the VCR to the TV for your parents or grandparents? Getting weeks of accolades because you knew how to get the infamous flashing “12:00” to stop - Everyone in the family room looked at me like I had mythical powers when I did this but it wasn’t to show off it was because it was driving me crazy while trying to watch Return of the Jedi. There was no on-demand with our legendary floor model Zenith television which was wood panelled and gave a mood changing static shock if you touched the screen as it powered down.

For those that are reading this from the wall mounted TV generation you got off lucky. You haven’t lived until you carried one of these floor model bastards down a flight of stairs with your cousin and the whole family watching you like you’re carrying the Ark of the Covenant.

So I’ll say it….. Instagram, Twitter, YouTube etc. is my version of the flashing VCR. I haven’t fully mastered them or leverage them to make money……yet. It’s an age of self-taught skills. There is no diploma course in YouTube or Facebook advertising and it doesn’t make sense to start one because by the time you graduate everything will just change again, and when it does I’ll be standing there ready to learn. 

I will know when that time will be among us, I’ll be in a line at Starbucks listening to Millennials bitch about Gen Z’s and the value of cryptocurrency or did I miss that conversation while taking a selfie?

Ryan Kerr

Ryan is also a fundraiser at Renascent Foundation - www.renascent.ca