This week, we start covering Generation Z research that we have found interesting, and we’re kicking off a 3 part series on this topic because it’s the next generation business owners need to be ready for AND we just love learning all about what the future will look like in the world. You are not going to want to miss this series as the next two episodes will also be connecting with a world renown Ted Talk speaker and Generational Researcher, Haydn Shaw. Let’s do this!
Welcome to Business Talk Sister Gawk! I’m Bekkah! And I’m Ruthie! And today’s episode title is “Gen Z Unpacked” and our topic today, well, Ruthie and I are going to be discussing based on some of the research that we’ve done. We are also hoping and planning to have a generational researcher come and talk with us about this in this Gen Z series because we think that it’d be super fun to do. We’re hoping that we don’t get ghosted! Fingers crossed!
Ruthie: He’s really cool and we’re really excited to get to talk with him but he’s very busy.
Bekkah: Yeah so we wanted to give you a little look next week because if we have it, it’s going to be next week all right so Ruthie is going to explain a little bit about Gen Z because I think maybe some people have maybe heard different terms or not really sure what that is.
Ruthie: Yeah so just based on a lot of the research that I’ve been doing people have different age ranges that they will say like falls under the Gen Z category. Pretty consistently I’ve seen some people say from 1995 to 2010. I just listened to GaryVee’s podcast and the episode title was “Marketing to Gen-Z | MARKETING For The Now #3” was the episode that I listened to. They did a whole series on that which was really good and really, really informative but their subset that they used for their research was from 1997 to 2012 so it’s kind of a two-year shift but pretty consistently –
Who Are the People Born in Generation Z?
Bekkah: People born in those years, right?
Ruthie: That would be like the Gen Z generation, yeah and so that’d be ages 8 to 23 so that’s kind of what is encapsulated in Gen Z right now. Just for some statistics of the US population, they make up about 25 percent of the US population they are 150 million strong and their spending power is about 150 billion dollars.
They are major influencers of households which we’ll talk about later. They are in the US 52% White, 14% Black, 25% Hispanic, 6% Asian were kind of some of the numbers that it broke down into. Then yeah we’ll definitely get into more of those characteristics, but those are kind of some general information to start with about Gen Z *bum bum ba bow*
Bekkah: Okay, so the thing that I wanted to point out about this and for me I’m not a person that when somebody says numbers like that I can just be like, “Hmm let me digest that.”
Ruthie: Conceptualized instantly!
Bekkah: I can’t visualize it so what she’s saying is basically – and this is some of the information that I researched as well it’s like Gen Z is basically going to be the biggest generation as the Boomers start slowly dying off. I mean it’s kind of sad but –
Ruthie: Yeah, I almost said, “RIP” but I was like, “That might be a little insensitive.” Anyways.
Bekkah: Because Millennials there’s not as many as Gen Z and I’ve even seen some data that says in the next couple like a certain number of years it’s going to be like 33% of the US population is Gen Z. Which is a lot of people like 33% that’s like just about one-third of the whole us population!
Ruthie: Look at you! Math!
Bekkah: Staaahp, stop anyways!
Ruthie: 33% some might say it’s exactly one-third of the US population!
Bekkah: No, 0.333, 0.3333. Anyways! Okay, so what I thought was really cool about Gen Z is that they’re actually the most diverse, ethnically generation that’s been so far.
Ruthie: In the US specifically.
Bekkah: When Ruthie hit all of those stats it was really fast but that’s a lot of diversity in one generation. A lot of the things that people are seeing within those perspectives of people from Gen Z they take their cultural identity really seriously. I think that’s a good thing because when when you don’t know your cultural identity like “Where did my parents grow up?” “What did their parents do?”
You don’t understand how you were raised influences your world view and like if more people know, “Oh, these are the influences that have been a part of my life and the cultural backgrounds that have like touched how I see the world,” if you if someone can easily explain that to you about their life and you can explain that to them about your life you can then see, “Oh, this is why we’re not jiving. This is why you’re seeing something completely different than I’m seeing because our value systems are completely different.” Right? so I think that’s a really good thing. Anyways, sorry, go ahead nerd away!
Ruthie: *Laughs* Yeah, I guess like just some other things that I had written down that I thought was really interesting and I didn’t do it a ton of comparison between Millennial and Gen Z but just in terms of marketing and how to kind of market, we’re going to be doing an episode about blogging specifically so I was thinking that’s kind of my mindset that I was thinking about. Because I thought the episode was going to be how to blog for Gen Z. But! –
Bekkah: Two different episodes.
What Are The Differences Between Gen Z and Millennials?
Ruthie: Anyways, such is life. Anyways! The difference kind of that most people have been saying about Millennials versus Gen Z is that Millennials kind of have this more idealistic really want to have content that speaks to values and what can your product do to – how can they get behind a cause is kind of more what I see with Millennials.
Whereas, Gen Z is a lot more pragmatic and realistic, a lot more grounded and they’re into realism and they want convenience over loyalty. I did a lot of research on brand loyalty. Compared to other generations before they’re far less brand loyal. I found in one article that said 81% of Gen Zers will leave a brand that they love if they find one that is a higher quality and then later in the article they talked a lot about convenience.
That’s something that they like. I mean this is the online generation you know they’ve grown up in social media and like that’s their native platform is social media. So like anything that they can get at convenience is what they’re gonna move towards as opposed to being really loyal to a cause, they’re like, “What can I get easily?”
Bekkah: Okay, no, yeah I definitely saw that! What I found really interesting was the really lean hard into quality which I really didn’t – I wasn’t expecting.
Ruthie: Same.
Bekkah: I totally identify with that, though. I mean even though I’m what people would call a “cusper” which is basically when you’re born right between generational shifts. I’m like right in between Millennials – like just leaving Millennials into Gen Z right. I kind of go back and forth with who I identify with in a lot of ways, but I totally think quality all the time. I think Joel does!
Ruthie: Joel’s Bekkah’s husband.
Bekkah: Oh my word!
Ruthie: Researcher to the very core of his being.
Bekkah: Okay, we’re gonna come back to the gawk and I’m gonna tell you about this yeah.
How to Communicate With Gen Z
Ruthie: One thing that I also was finding is that because Gen Z is so into being real they can spot a hard sell and oust it like that! Like they want to know that people are genuine and that they actually want to help you. One thing that I wrote down that Gary Vee is kind of pretty well known for is like he says, “Give, give, give, then ask.”
You’re constantly in a state of like being real, giving of your own knowledge, giving of your own experiences, or whatever like just giving and then you can put yourself in a position to ask. That’s something – so my brother Aaron is very much – he finds it very disrespectful to give advice if you don’t have a relationship built with that person. He’s like, “Who are you to tell me what to do?” Which, you know, anyways it is what it is – but like but I just think about that a lot.
Bekkah: Especially for somebody who loves to give opinions.
Ruthie: Yeah, it’s a real struggle, but it’s been I’ve learned a lot because of him saying that. And I’ve seen that a lot in my friends who are his age is that it’s not received well to give advice unless you have a formed relationship with that person. You’re giving, giving, giving and then you can speak into that person’s life but yeah okay I’ll hit a pause here. Go ahead.
Bekkah: Yeah, well, I think I’m gonna go back to this too because I’ve seen this in so many ways. First of all, genuineness is super important right but what I have seen in Gen Z and there’s a lot of different – first of all, there are like not actually that many books out there. I’m just gonna tell you that because Gen Z has been around for a really long time and so researchers that are collecting their data they’re still trying to. They’re still waiting a lot of times to release that information because you’re still going – like a lot of Gen Z is going through formative years still. Plus it’s like totally illegal to gather data like people under 13. Anyways, that’s part of the reason why we’re not seeing a ton but what I will say about older Gen Z that I’ve seen consistently as well as read about is that if you can show them, if they can say, “This is my dream,” and you’re like, “Yeah, let me show you how to get after that,” or like, “Here are some options for you if you wanted to do that, I think you can do it.” They just light up! They get really excited about that because if somebody’s saying like, “I might not do the work for you, but I happen to know a couple people that maybe do that. If you’re ever really looking seriously into getting in that field or whatever I’m gonna connect you with those people so you can ask them questions.” They just get so stoked that you’re invested in them. Go ahead.
Ruthie: I think another thing that I was finding too is that this Gen Z specifically more than any other generation I would say is finding themselves in a position of power and influence way earlier in life than any generation before them. Like that was something consistently that I thought was really cool is that they have a really – even though they’re very pragmatic and practical and like and they’re gonna be really real is they have this profound sense of hope and like excitement and like can get really into things and stuff and they want that encouragement well, it’s just like anybody but specifically they have the characteristic of being very hopeful.
Bekkah: Which is like the inverse of Gen X.
Ruthie: *laughs like a dork* Yeah, but I think that one of those reasons like what Bekkah was saying is that they’ve been presented for our whole existence as like, “You can do whatever you want.” and so when you give them that like to just say, “Hey, like how can I get you where you want to go? Like what are you excited about? What are you passionate about?” Then it’s just opening up that door of what they’ve been always told that’s like, “You can do whatever you want.”
The Biggest Struggle Gen Z Is Facing With Careers
Bekkah: Yeah, well, which actually like segues really well into another point that I was gonna make. For the record, I don’t have – well, okay, this is hard data. It’s not my data but I’m seeing it in Gen Z and so I want to talk about it because I really do think it’s a huge thing! And the more I’ve talked about it with people in Gen Z, “I’ve been noticing this. Do you think that’s true of Gen Z?” and then that person in Gen Z will be like, “Yeah, I totally identify with that!” Okay, so there’s this article and I’m pretty sure it’s written by the American Psychological Association. It’s actually from 2004, so really a long time ago but it’s called “The Tyranny of Choice” and it’s so good. By the way, one of our previous podcast guests referred this article to us, because we were kind of talking about what’s happening with Gen Z and like why is it that they have there’s a lot of data out there saying, “Oh, a lot of people have anxiety and fear or depression.” And what is that coming from? Obviously, there are probably a lot of reasons behind that and we can see maybe even in the Social Dilemma some stuff with the influence of social media on their lives but this I think –
Ruthie: The Social Dilemma is a documentary on Netflix in case you didn’t know.
Bekkah: Thank you for clarifying. Some people might not. Okay, so this was really interesting. I’m gonna just read this quote from here. “David G. Myers of Hope College and Robert E. Lane of Yale University revealed that increased choice and increased have in fact been accompanied by decreased well-being in the US and most other affluent societies.” That’s huge! This is – I’m going to unpack what this means. They’re basically studying how domestic product has doubled in the past 30 years from then to 2004, right? And they talk about how because – and really to what Ruthie’s point was before and she said it and I didn’t even know she was going to say those things that they have the most choice control, personal autonomy like all these different things of any generation and they’re really hopeful. But the thing with that is the more choices that you have and this article really talks a lot about it, it actually decreases your well-being. Because there’s a huge, what it appears to be, a huge opportunity cost for choosing one thing.
Ruthie: Like one thing over another, you mean?
Bekkah: Yeah, so so many young people get so fearful like, “I don’t know what I want to do with the rest of my life! What if I go into something and I realize that’s not what I want to do. Oh my goodness! Because something else could come up in the meantime that could be better and I have lost that opportunity and that’s opportunity cost.” So this article kind of breaks it down into two different kinds of people. There are maximizers and satisfiers. Satisfiers actually live a way healthier life overall because it’s good enough. They’re like the 80% people. They’re like, “Meh, I didn’t do it perfectly but you know I did it! It’s fine! It’s good enough for my needs, right?”
Ruthie: Bringing it to 80% and then calling it good.
Bekkah: Yeah, right. And then there are maximizers. And you know who I’m talking about. They’re the people who like look at the cost per ounce at the grocery store. So they can get the cheapest deal.
Ruthie: I can’t relate. I don’t even know what you’re talking about. It’s not me at all. *laughs because of how awkward I made that…*
Bekkah: Yeah, it totally is you, you dork.
Ruthie: And you’re the 80%.
Bekkah: I know.
Ruthei: You’re like, “I’ll whip it together and get it done!” and I’m like, “Okay, but like – okay but like – it’s not perfect! I’m fine, it’s fine.”
The Danger of Gen Z Becoming Maximizers
Bekkah: Yeah, okay so I totally get this. Ruthie and I totally get this personally. When you’re a maximizer if you do something and you’re like, “I think this is the best choice for me. This is like I’ve researched all the options this is what I want and I pick it and I’m confident in it.” But then all of a sudden something new gets introduced. Maybe it’s a new job, maybe it’s a new car, or a new model of the iPhone. Whatever it is suddenly there’s just like insane regret and disappointment that happens because you feel like you’ve failed yourself. A lot of people because of that have fear of making a choice to begin with and then anxiety after they’ve made a choice, worried that they could have done something better if they would have just waited long enough.
Ruthie: Yikes! Oh my word! It’s like you’re prying into my soul!
Bekkah: *laughes because she knows she’s dead on* Yeah, so what I just thought was crazy about this article is they’re like there’s actually data that they’re talking about that’s like, “Yeah, literally maximizers live a way more depressing and anxiety-filled life.”
Ruthie: Okay okay…
Bekkah: Because they’re thinking about that! But here we’re seeing a whole generation thinking, “Wow! I can change the world. I have so much opportunity at my feet!” But, if you’re a maximizer, that all of a sudden is a fear-gripping freeze of “I don’t want to do anything. I’m not going to take any risk and I’m going to stay where I’m at.”
Ruthie: I think, one thing that I was actually thinking about today – this is just a little self-reflection of my life. I was thinking about how when – right now I’m in a stage of transition and it’s not just like, “I can do whatever I want!” It’s now I’m mourning this season of life that I’m leaving. It’s like I can do anything but you have to overcome that stage of moving out of one stage into another and into this new opportunity. You’re leaving all these other opportunities behind you. So it’s like, “Did I?” and then there’s this constant sense of, “Did I do enough in this stage?” or like, “Am I really ready to move on?” and like and there are all those pieces that go into it. So it’s not just you can pick up and jump into the next thing.
But that’s something that Bekkah and I talk about all the time. When you’re young it makes the most sense to take the most risks and try things and fail, and try things and fail, but then when there are so many opportunities to fail at or to succeed at maybe would be a better way of saying that. If you’re currently in a place where you feel like you’re succeeding, stepping into that next point of potential success you have to go through that barrier of mourning what you’re leaving behind. And that was just something I was thinking about today.
Bekkah: Well, and I think a lot of times too because there’s so much opportunity at your feet it’s also really frustrating if you don’t have immediate gratification in success. So that’s frustrating. And I can totally identify with that, but that’s what’s so interesting about Gen Z. I think – I predict – that we’re gonna see a lot of small business owners start out as entrepreneurs. Well, I mean like side hustles, right? We’re already seeing a growth in side hustle, but I think that there are gonna be some people that jump into it too soon because they’re going to say, “I don’t want to go to college. I’m just going to start a business from scratch.” And probably they’re going to do it while they’re still living with their parents so that’s good because they have that little safety net but they’re going to try it and they’re going to fail and they’re going to be like, “Ah! That was horrible!” And that’s an okay thing!
How Gen Z Views Education
Ruthie: I’ve seen like people say this is the gig generation or we’re in like this phase of gigs where people just have all these side hustles and things like that and I think, Bekkah, I know you’ve said this so many different times that literally there’s an entire generation of business owners that are just coming up and starting their own businesses without any form of mentorship and any form of guidance because this is something this generation, Gen Z, has a very high value of education, but they also understand that you can get education in a wide variety of different ways. They really value that.
Ruthie: One thing that I was seeing is that people are saying that this will be the most educated generation but that it’s not necessarily exclusively through college. Anyway, people have a more understanding of like getting information from all these other ways and not necessarily the traditional ways, but what we’re seeing is like all these people kind of just stumbling into business and then having to figure all of that out. If you’re listening to this and you are Gen Z thinking about, with that in mind, how can you set yourself up for success by finding those people who have done that before. And if you are not Gen Z and you’re listening to this how can you find people to mentored? If everyone’s succeeding then everyone’s succeeding you know so like how can you invest in the people around you so that you can increase the economy as a whole and finding those people to mentor?
How Gen Z Sees Their Parents
Ruthie: Then, also, okay, yeah actually the one thing that I was saying too is that now when you ask a lot of Gen Z’s who they look up to disproportionately they will say their parents. Whereas, like generations before them would talk about like celebrities or sportspeople or whatever like famous people and things like that but because they value being real so much and they value transparency one thing I was thinking about too with Covid there’s a greater sense of grace now for trial and error than there ever has been. Because everybody’s like, “Oh, yeah. It’s COVID. Things don’t work out, whatever,” but trying things now is like it just feeds into that sense of valuing real. They value transparency so if you’re doing a Facebook Live or something and you mess up like people have more grace for that now than they ever have before. I feel like, I just thought that was really interesting that Gen Z looks up to their parents a lot because of that sense of they’re real to them. They’re not this unrelatable person that they’ve never met before.
Bekkah: Also you guys are going to hate me for this right now –
Ruthie: What an intro!
Bekkah: Because I’m not going to cite this –
Ruthie: “Prepare to hate me.”
Bekkah: I would hate me because I didn’t cite it, because I looked it up a while ago and I didn’t bookmark it, but I did read this statistic recently that said 80% of Gen Z will make a significant life change based on the influence of a Youtuber.
Ruthie: I think you sent me that.
Bekkah: I was like, “Mind blown!” and a little terrified. Okay, thank you. Put in the blog post. Yeah okay, so I’m gonna go into a couple of other things that I wanted to cover really quick and then we should probably get to our gawk. One of the things that I found really interesting is that financial stability is super important to Gen Z. Psychology Today wrote an article that said, “The average Gen Z student begins financial planning at age 13.”
Ruthie: That’s what we like to hear!
Bekkah: Ruthie’s like, “Proud of you! I’m proud of you!” and two-thirds of Gen Z students say, “Financial stability is more important than a job that makes them happy.” Which I totally think is because they watch their older siblings struggle with student loans debt. And the recession that their parents went through in 2008.
Ruthie: Yeah, and I think like – sorry, did you have more that you wanted to say about that?
Bekkah: No, go ahead.
Where Businesses Need to Pay Attention to Gen Z
Ruthie: One thing that I thought was so vital and I think if you’re a business owner like pay attention to this because right now there is this huge shift going on where Gen Z is becoming the mobilizers and the influencers in the family unit.
Bekkah: Wow!
Ruthie: Yeah!
Bekkah: *with a surprising amount of enthusiasm* I didn’t even know that!
Ruthie: That is there’s this movement where they’re becoming the ones to say, “Hey, Dad, check this out or this.” They talked about like specifically there’s this quote that she read about how there is one person that filled out their information and sent it in about how she was finding all this information about racism and then bringing it up to her dad and saying like, “Dad, I know that you grew up with these things or believing these different things, but this is what I’m finding and I’d love for you to like look into this,” or whatever and like in being that conduit of information to other people because they see the value of education and being though that voice of influence which I thought was really really cool. Then also they like brands like Amazon and Google and Walmart, whereas Millennials are like all for the little guys because they want to have a cause.
Ruthie: Gen Z has a higher tolerance and appreciation for institutions and corporations because of that sense of convenience and accessibility. They understand that the world changers are those huge companies and so they have a higher appreciation for them and recognize that like if you want to bring about change you have to get to a point of success like that to do it.I don’t know there’s a difference in mentality. Whereas, Millennials kind of hate institutions and corporations and they’re like, “Down with the big man!” or whatever and like whereas they’re like, “Yeah, no, maybe we should influence the big man to change!” because that’s where they’re seeing change happening which is cool.
Bekkah: Which is funny because we’ve totally talked about that before where we’re like, “You don’t realize, if you’re really mad at a company then buy a whole bunch of their stock!” Then you you get your voting rights and you’re like, “I’m gonna vote for what I want in this and I’m showing up to the meeting! Thank you very much!”
Ruthie: “You can’t stop me from that shareholder meeting! I’m gonna bring my food. I’ll bring my kid!”
Bekkah: “Because it’s on Zoom!” No, yeah, anyway. So “53%”, this is from Workplace Intelligence “prefer in-person communication over tools like instant messaging and video conferencing.” Okay, this is the last point that I’m going to make on this because we are totally running over in time but here’s why I think that is the case. How many people have they seen in the news get taken out of context in a recording or a video clip?
Ruthie: 6, at least.
Bekkah: Tons of people. Oh, okay. Thank you, thank you, because you’re the only person that’s like really listening right now.
Ruthie: Is it rhetorical? I don’t know! There was a pause. I felt like I should insert, sorry.
Bekkah: No, but so many people have somebody screen shotted that, somebody took this, whatever, they shared it, all this stuff. There’s like a really big risk to being visible digitally. They know context is everything and so face-to-face communication allows you to see whether you’re being sarcastic, or if that was supposed to be a joke. Anyways, I do think that that’s part of it. They’re looking for that face-to-face interaction because they’ve lived their entire lives on social media and they want to go have real experiences.
Ruthie: I found that I actually really, really enjoy generational research but just things that brands can do or businesses can do I had a couple different things to try like just as takeaways is to help champion what people are passionate about and giving them that hope. Then specifically with all the things that have been going on with COVID and there’s so many different milestones that people have been missing out on, giving Gen Z an opportunity to – a space to engage in that milestone. Or meeting them in that or teaching them something that they should have learned in that milestone or whatever. Providing value on those specific things that they want and that they missed out on. Trying to look for the those specific opportunities is something that you could do as a business. Which I thought was interesting.
If you enjoyed this episode, that means you have a similar sense of humor to ours! In that case, you should share it with a friend so they also can appreciate your sense of humor and ours. You can send it on Spotify, it’s episode 78.
