My High Level Wisdom about Working with Millennials

Helping Fortune 1000 firms and other organizations target millennials with their email marketing is a big focus of ours at OMI. Whether it’s to sell to them, hire them or build brand trust with them, businesses want to be top of mind with this important audience. And why not? Millennials are one of the largest generations in history. They have surpassed baby boomers in size and are now moving into their prime spending years.

 

While a lion’s share of marketers today are focused on growing their market share with millennials, other business leaders, such as Christopher Williams, are seeking to help those aged 25-35 reach their full potential. Christopher recently launched High Level Wisdom, a new podcast series dedicated to providing millennials with the insights, stories and wisdom needed to become the next CEOs and leaders in America and around the world.

Last week I was honored to be interviewed by Christopher for one of his initial High Level Wisdom podcasts. Here are the key takeaways from our discussion:

• What it takes to succeed as a business owner: Succeeding in business is not about earning as much money as possible, but more about desire, drive and, most importantly, passion to succeed and best serving your customers. More than any other generation, millennials understand this important truth.

 

• The difference between baby boomers and millennials: Baby boomers most often worked hard and essentially did what they were told to do. Millennials, on the other hand, learn things – especially technology -- very quickly. They want to understand how things work and are more concerned with work-life balance than material possessions. Millennials are also more philanthropic and less jaded than many baby boomers.

 

• Motivating millennials: For baby boomers in the early stages of their careers, corporate America’s biggest motivator was fear – fear of losing your job or not being successful. But fear is not an effective motivator for millennials. Millennials are, however, less patient in their career paths, and look for promotions much sooner than previous generations would. Although some millennials may be more concerned with building their LinkedIn profiles, at the end of the day they want to become as successful as possible in their careers.

 

• Communicating with millennials: Over half of all employees are now millennials, and if today’s baby boomer executives don’t take the younger generation’s preferences into consideration, it will become a business disadvantage. For example, as a baby boomer, I often have to catch myself from telling millennials about how difficult life and business used to be.

 

• Working with millennials: It’s in the best interest of business leaders to embrace millennials and work as transparently as possible with them to win their trust. Keep in mind that their fresh perspective and desire to understand the whole process of a business can work in your favor. In addition, millennials view work life as an extension of their home lives. One benefit of this is a healthier work environment – one that enables us to have more fun!

 

You can listen to the complete podcast here. Let me know what you think. And keep an eye out for future podcasts from High Level Wisdom. Christopher has big plans and an important mission. After all, it won’t be long before millennials will be the top decision makers in government, business and more. We need to support them every way we can as they prepare to lead us into the future.

 

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Outward Media’s accurate, targeted email data can help you achieve better email marketing ROI, and convert more prospects into customers. Ask us how. Also, take a look at our complimentary new e-book on building a successful B2B email marketing database.