Dashboard: The Good News About Gen Z

[Music] welcome to another 21 hats dashboard I'm Lauren Feldman I'm here with Gene marks to talk about the things we think business owners should be following this week welcome Jean hello Lauren how are you I'm great great to have you here as always uh Gan as usual you've been writing and talking about stuff that matters to business owners this week I want to start by talking about the economy like like everyone else and we've talked about this before I I've kind of been expecting this recession to hit for quite some time um and was the recession right I mean it's not like I want it but they keep promising but then you know I as time went on I began to think well you know maybe not maybe there won't be a recession and then we had that January jobs report with half a million jobs created and and at that point I said that that's it I'm I'm done looking for a recession but oddly enough in the weeks since then I've been hearing from quite few business owners small business owners that they've started to have to lay a few people off um no particular region or industry uh but pretty widespread across the country U of course it's you know the people IAL it's much too small a sample to be statistically meaningful but it's not too small to justify asking a question on a podcast um I'm wondering what are you hearing from your clients is it just me or you hearing this too no I can tell you exactly what I'm hearing and what I'm seeing because you know up until you know a month ago I was running around the country you know speaking to you know business groups and associations and different Industries all over you know the country and you know what I found is yet another example of uh the impact of the pandemic because the p the pandemic like [ __ ] everything up you know like supply chain you know you know inflation went up so much the first six months and then dropped the last six months you know it just threw a lot of economic stuff out of whack because the world was out of whack and in country people were saying like well you know is there a recession is there's a recession the answer is it depends it depended on it just kind of depends on what industry you're in like the tech industry is in a recession right now I mean housing yeah housing and construction is in a recession right now manufacturing when you look at like the you know the Institute of Supply managers purchasing managers index manufacturing right now is is in negative growth in in this country it is also experiencing recessionary times some fin Cal Services firms like mortgage firms that are you know connected to uh real estate they've been in a recession so you know meanwhile Services industry have been like crushing it travel has been recovering um half a million jobs yeah half aill and you know a lot of them are in retail and they're in restaurants because they've been having a strong recovery as well so it just it depends you can't just say like is America in a recession it kind of depends but here's what I do what what does concern me well actually first before I tell you what concerns me um I will just to speak to you your experience of people laying people off I've actually seen a couple of my clients do the same thing but you know what they're doing is they're copycatting Corporate America because a lot of the big corporations are are using a recession quote unquote as a cover to trim the fat you know they've had lots of extra and excess employees that they've over hired over the past couple years and um you know the first ones to go with those quiet quitters and those other morons who are talking out about their you know complaining about their employers or [ __ ] on their companies on social media they're out um and and even Facebook for example top to bottom is looking at unless you're producing or generating return on investment you're going to be out as well they announced uh it's you so a lot of companies are doing that I think small some of my smaller clients are doing the same I had a client that just laid off 30 people they have a Workforce about 150 because they just took hard look at and they're like you know these 30 people are just not very productive and they weren't working in you know really profitable product lines for us so you know we're just gonna get rid of them you know there people it's like it's we're cutting the fat so you know I've seen that I've seen that you could do that at any time but somehow when everybody else is laying people off or not everybody but when there are a lot of layoffs it feels a little bit it's like raising your prices it's a lot easier to raise your prices during an inflationary period 100% and you've got a good story to tell because you're like oh it's a recession you know that's why I mean it's not like we're doing going bad but it's a recession so you know we just have to take those kinds of precautions the one that what's worrying me right now and and I don't think it's it's nothing like a panic or a catastrophic thing but um I'm looking at the numbers of consumer spending consumer wealth uh credit card debt is skyrocketing uh all that household wealth that was built up during the pandemic is coming down precipitously um and you know I and it wages are not keeping up with inflation so so I'm concerned that there will be some you know significant drop offs in demand and spending and in the end Lauren everything every one of my clients do and every small business does in the end it ends up in the hands of the consumer somewhere so if the consumer it's you know slows down their spending and their buying that's just going to have an impact on the economy across the board and that I can see that happening sometime this year this is not 20 you know 2009 where we have like a housing bubble or you know something like that but would not surprise me to see that kind of a Slowdown sometime this year I think it's it's frustrating for a lot of businesses who it's it's kind of been stop and go for a while people who are trying to decide whether whether to invest in something whether to hire more people it you know their numbers look pretty good but they they turn on the TV and all they hear about is higher interest rates inflation uh possible recession um and it it just adds to the the confusion are you seeing that among your clients yeah I mean I've seen that every year that I've been in business okay you know it's never a certainty there's no guarantees it's always you're always taking a risk and a gamble when you're hiring you know people yeah it's funny when you look back in retrospect it all looks crystal clear right exactly right but you know forward it's always uncertain I mean if there is any word that I have heard more of in the past 20 5 years is uncertainty you know and you think yourself well things are so certain it wouldn't be so hard to run a business you know everything is always uncertain and people are taking bets on on on things all the time and trying to some are paying off and some you know some don't pay off I you know I think to me it's a confidence thing um you they talk about the 11 million jobs that are open right now and that a lot of small businesses are still hiring and looking for people um because I do think that when I just speaking on behalf of my clients you know if you find a good person to do something um they people look very business owners clients I have look very um um what's the word for uh black and white at um at prospective employees and be like I I don't care what that person costs I can make money if I have this person working for me you know because this person's really good so whatever the economy is doing I you know I I want that good person to be part of this company and and business owners Smart Ones that I know uh they'll pay for talent they really will if they know they can make money off them well especially coming through a period of a labor shortage like we have correct correct correct so they're out there and you know we're never going to have the end of uh these labor shortage issues these are always going to go on for a while unless they fix immigration which is not going to happen anytime soon so it's just something we're gonna have to deal with all right next topic uh you did a podcast recently in which you talked about speaking of hiring uh a survey that attempted to determine what gen Z values most in a job and the answer apparently uh is not the actual job tell us about that well it's the people right you know it's it's it's funny about gen Z workers people have this um weird view about them first of all just taking a step back there was another survey that I'm doing another podcast on it'll sometime the next week or so it'll be out but it was a survey spoiler alert that um all those people that were part of the Great resignation um are now there's now the Great regret there's like this well not all of them but yeah not all of them but a huge amount of people in this survey um said that they made a mistake they should have stayed at their job and the biggest demographic that that said that were Jers interesting um and the geners are maybe we'll talk about that more in detail you know another week but you know the geners I mean these are young people you know right I mean you and I have kids that are in their 20s so we know you know they're morons when they're that age we get that at least my kids are so you know when they're that you know they they make mistakes but there's one thing that you know people don't realize about that generation is they as much as they like the flexibility they they want people around them you know what I mean like they want to come in the office they you know they like being you know managed they like having social they like having uh an office culture um you know I mean gen Z people really want that and they need it particularly that age you know well one thing that's been said about them a lot is that they they're also looking for meaning they want to do something that that matters to them is that part of this yeah it's it's it's all part of that because it's part of the culture of what they're doing you know what I mean like they they like the you know working for someplace and making some money but they want to feel like they're with a group of people and they're working for an organization that they enjoy being with that uh they like coming to work but then also that they're doing something that's actually you know providing some value and you know it's funny that's that's the challenge that's the pitch that every small business has to deal with because the bottom line is is that what we do is boring stuff do you know what I mean I mean you know we're selling paper and film and gaskets and you know you know architectural services it's got you know me for example I know I'm my company sells CRM software and you're like where's the meaning in that but there is meaning in all this boring stuff you know I mean we are you know every small business is not only providing livelihoods for people but they're providing their little C the wheel that helps the world be a better place and and I and I say that I mean I'm I'm not like not like I take myself too seriously but when I do talk with people about my business I'm like all right so we sell CRM software but it helps it's a tool that helps our clients make more money so that they can retire and they can employ more people and they can grow and be happy and have a nice you know life you know and they can do that through increased sales and they get increased sales by having good CRM software and that you know makes me feel a little bit better about what we do in other words you don't have to work for some social justice Warrior company that's you know changing the universe because they're green or you know saving the environment or whatever it doesn't have to be that it can you know every company has meaning and I think if you're looking for a gen Z worker you have to make sure that you're providing that meaning to them and also a nice good workplace to be I think that's a really good point Have You tailored your uh job description to try to tap into that no maybe I should you know I think there's something to sell there you what you just described is a very different life than going to work for Salesforce or something like that really funny that you say that long because I I just hired a guy back in December and it's been a disaster he an employee and uh I'm gonna have to let him go next week okay just for many different reasons and that's a whole other conversation we can have happy to have at another point in time time um but I've got a backup like I hired him over somebody it was like neck and neck and I went back to the orig the second choice person um to talk to them who they were great and that person is actually going to be coming on board my second you know that that I over you know passed over back in December is still available and when I was talking to this second person on the phone just yesterday I was giving him the whole meaning thing just like I was saying like you know the value that we provide and that because he was a younger guy um which was one of my reservations and I and I found myself saying that it wasn't in my job description and the fact that you bring that up is 100% right I need I should have that in my job description more um I think we as business owners all have to look at ourselves in the mirror and say listen what we do really does have meaning it is making the world a better place it's not sexy or exciting but it is if if we didn't do what we do you know other people would suffer you know and and you know you know I think that's an important thing to get out when you're recruiting new people as well that what we do is is important um to the world interesting that's a really great situation to a great anecdote to describe exactly what we were talking about I I will be eager to hear more about that when when you're ready to talk about it well I know you you always like to bring this stuff you love to hear all this gossipy no I like to hear when people are figuring things out that's how I would put it and you know we all make mistakes and it's great to learn from them or it's even better to learn from somebody else's mistake and that's that's what we it's hard to cut it's I mean that's again it's another conversation for another day but man this employ I went through a whole you know process to find this person I interviewed like 12 people chose this guy and uh and it was a bust and here I'm 58 years old Lauren I'm still [ __ ] up I still don't know how to hire the right person it's incred you you feel like such a failure well nobody gets it right every time do you think you made a mistake oh I totally made a mistake I mean you should have known better it was yeah I mean I guess I I don't know look it back because it can go wrong for you know even if you do everything right yeah you know in the end when you're hiring somebody it's you know you go through all the 80 to 90% of the stuff is you know the ritual that you do but then there's the 10 to 15% that's just you're taking a you know a shot a leap of faith sure and unfortunately I took that leaf and fell right on my face so um so that's that's just stinks and it stinks for everybody because you know I have a small company you introduce a new person it's like not clicking and the other employees are like you know who is this guy and why the hell did Gina hire him and you know what I mean it's not good well dealing with it quickly is good so yeah you got to pull the and and I had to say that to a few of the other people I hope you guys don't mind you know think I'm being too harsh but you know we I got a business to run we can't you know you can see the writing on the wall here we got to make a move you know yep all right last topic uh we've talked about this quite a bit but I want to come back to chat GPT you wrote recently wrote a piece uh listing the myths of chat GPT um one of which I was particularly struck by which the myth that it will replace Google um I is it you know I'm not sure anybody really thought it was going to replace Google but there is a lot of talk that it could completely change search is that what you're referring to yeah I first of all I um I have so much I'm GNA be writing about chat gbt again because um I you know what I think it is is like I'm watching chat GPT um there's the the pros and cons when you look at it with big Tech um it is it's gonna it's completely going to disrupt search you know I mean we know that already I mean it is a um it's it already on Bing there is a new release of of Microsoft Bing that's out just for in limited for certain audience to test but it's like no longer do you have that single line you know search line it's like a big you know message box that you search you can type in like you know whatever you want and it will give you results in web pages and it will give you results in like conversational AI uh because it's using chat gpt's you know underlying technology to do that so it's really G to have a huge impact on search and and Google then just you know last week introduced their their competitor called Bard um so that's going to be out there and Microsoft back to them they're already incorporating it in teams so you can buy a pre Premium Edition of teams and um and as you're using it it will transcribe your meeting and organize files and videos fromall automatically based on the conversation of your meeting with action items and everything like that that's chat which is great so is it going to be hugely disruptive yes but you know what if you think about it even though there's been like some talk about startups with chat gbt who we who we hearing about we're hearing about Microsoft we're hearing about Google because it's once again it's [ __ ] big well and the startup um I forget the name of the company that created uh chat GPT AI well they're yeah but do you know who they're funded by Microsoft they're funded by yeah Microsoft and Elon Musk and and and Google I mean you the these companies are um big Tech controls still Som this is why Congress is investigating and wants to break up Google because Google is like something like like something like 93% of search goes on with Google and you're like oh chat GPT is going to change all that I'm like I don't know I mean Google seems to be right on top of it and if they're not Microsoft will be on top of it so is that any better you know what I mean so you know having said that it is gonna have some big impact well I wonder what that impact will be for business owners um in particularly I I saw this question raised actually was raised by uh someone on the uh our podcast uh Sarah seagull who asked the question um what about all the people who've been investing in SEO so that they will Turn Up In traditional searches are they going to decide they wasted all that money when chat GPT takes over search yeah well first of all they've already wasted all their money investing in SEO the whole system is rigged and we know that right I mean you're some small business investing in SEO and then you're what you're going up against Proctor and Gamble and J&J and you know right yeah so that's besides the point it's going to change the whole model for SEO there's there's no doubt about it it and what are we going to do about it we're going to have to we're going to have to adapt to it and change and you know whatever I mean Google and Microsoft if they're going to lead in this I mean again this could resuscitate Microsoft's search business you know with Bing um you know if they take the lead in this they're going to have their own ways of billing us for doing searches using conversational AI that will provide absolutely no return on investment for us like it does now and be controlled by the major corporations in this world but I'm sure it'll be fine CU it's not a monopoly or anything right uh or anything I have you know I went to some conference it was it was right before covid and it was done by like this well-known search firm and it was this big conference they had all these big speakers that came up who were like the uh did I ever tell you about this that were like the they were in charge of content and search for their companies they big agencies big you know Fortune 500 firms these are like the people that and they were sharing what they knew you know what I mean for the audience about getting found online and how to succeed and whatever and they didn't know [ __ ] every single one of these people were like well we're just trying to figure out what Google wants so we're trying this and we're trying that we're trying the other and I don't know and then we spend a bunch of money and Google tells me that a bunch of people clicked on it but it's weird because you know there's nobody came to my website you know what I mean so it's like this whole [ __ ] up world that you know and these are the big companies that are investing in it and they're clueless about it so none of that's going to change when chat gbt matures into some type of search engine product that we're going to be using it's going to be the same stuff just as confusing yep just as confusing and just as rigged against small businesses um there's no doubt about that all right um that happy note let me ask view of the world uh aside from your weekly piece on chat G are you working on anything else we should know about yeah what am I working on this week I have a bunch of stuff I'm going to oh I'm going to write for the inquire about the um World Trade Center which is a network of World Trade Centers around the country uh that provide unbelievable free services for businesses looking to do work overseas um I'm going to write for the guardian about a survey that came out that said that uh a bunch of small business owners are saying that Washington isn't doing enough for them and my position is going to be stop [ __ ] complaining already with Washington you want them to do more for you stop it already so I'm going to talk talk about that um and then I'm also going to work on uh I got some some tax advice I want to give an entrepreneur some tax numbers that we all need to be aware of and I'm going to go back to chat GPT for Forbes because I've been making a list I've got like 30 or 40 specific individual uses for chat GPT in your business like a list of them you can use it to do these things right now yes so I'm going to list them out so you can actually start doing that I suspect we will talk about that in the future yeah that's right and then I've got let me see my I I my prescription for ad ader roll needs to be refilled so I'll be all set by Monday to get working on all of those on all of those Fe all right Gan marks is a CPA who writes weekly on small business for the guardian the hill the Philadelphia inquire the Washington Times the Chicago Daily Herald Forbes an entrepreneur you know the Daily Herald in Chicago you can here I'm on ABC radio's eye on the world with John Bachelor Jean host two small business podcasts with paychecks Corporation and the Hartford thank you Jean thank you Lauren and before we go I do I just do want to say I want to want to be the Daily Herald was founded in 1871 just want you to know that yeah it is it is one of the oldest papers in the country and it's one of the three papers in Chicago of course the Tribune the sometimes why have I only heard of the other two because you just don't get out enough that's the reason why snob you've worked in the New York Times so you don't want to know anything else right Jean thank you very much always a pleasure we will see you again soon look forward to it take care