From Profit to Purpose: How PR Veteran Mark Beal Became Gen Z's Career Champion

From profit-driven executive to purpose-driven educator: Mark Beal's transformation story reveals how 30 years of PR expertise became a mission to shape the next generation of communication leaders. Join us for an enlightening conversation about career evolution, Gen Z insights, and the power of turning experience into impact.

Guest Bio:

Mark Beal is a distinguished public relations veteran turned professor of practice at Rutgers University's School of Communications and Information. With nearly three decades of experience developing campaigns for iconic events like The Olympic Games and Super Bowl, Mark has authored seven books on Gen Z and career development. His latest works, including "Z.E.O." and "Win the Job and Thrive in a Multi-Generational Workplace," showcase his unique perspective on the evolving workplace landscape.

Content Sample:

- The game-changing lesson that transformed his approach to new business pitching

- Revolutionary insights about Gen Z's "work to live" philosophy

- Compelling perspective on the future of hybrid work environments

Key Takeaways:

[03:00] - Never stop learning: The cornerstone of career longevity

[12:00] - The power of thorough research in winning opportunities

[26:00] - Understanding Gen Z's transformative impact on workplace culture

[37:00] - The shift from profit-focused to purpose-driven career evolution

Memorable Quotes:

"Gen Z works to live, they don't live to work - and I think they actually have it right."

"Your network is your net worth."

"We went from this focus on profit to purpose, and that's become my superpower."

Suggestions:

Ready to dive deeper into workplace evolution and career development? Connect with Mark on LinkedIn and check out his latest book "Z.E.O." https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-beal-ma-a24338a/

This insightful session was hosted by Jolie Downs with Paradigm, a voice in career evolution and growth. You can connect with Jolie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joliedowns/

For more transformative career insights, subscribe to Career Wanderlust on your favorite podcast platform. If you enjoy learning from others, please give us a like, subscribe, and share with a friend.

If you are looking to add talent to your public relations, marketing, communications, sales, or business development team with the best talent, and quickly, check us out at paradigmstaffing.com.

Ending Note:

What's your perspective on the evolving workplace? Are you embracing the "work to live" philosophy? Share your thoughts and join us next time for more career insights and transformative conversations.

#CareerDevelopment #GenZ #WorkplaceEvolution #Leadership #FutureOfWork #Career #CareerAdvice #Communications 

Transcript

Mark Beal Transcript 

Jolie Downs: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Career Wanderlust podcast, your compass for new career horizons. Today we are talking with Mark Beal. For nearly 30 years, Mark Beal has served as public relations practitioner and marketer for one of the nation's leading consumer public relations agencies, developing and executing marketing and public relations campaigns for leading companies and brands such as The Olympic Games, Super Bowl, World Series, U.

S. Open Tennis, and the Rolling Stones. Amazing. Today, Mark collaborates with Gen Z as a full time professor of practice communication in Rutgers University's School of Communications and Information. It was Mark Rutgers students who inspired him to author his first book in 2017, 101 Lessons They Never Taught You in College.

which provides tips to college students preparing for their transition to a career. Media and readers nationwide responded so positively to the book that Mark [00:01:00] authored 101 Lessons They Never Taught You in High School About Going to College, which was published in 2018. Now, Mark didn't stop there.

Mark's book, Decoding Gen Z 101 Lessons Generation Z Will Teach Corporate America, Marketers and Media, was published in 2018. This also captured the attention of media, marketers, and employees nationwide as Gen Zers were starting to become a focus for those corporations and brands in 2020. Mark then co authored Engaging Gen Z with Harvard University student Michael Pankowski.

Then in 2022, Mark authored Gen Z Graduates to Adulthood, and his latest book, Z. E. O., was published in 2023 as more Gen Zers have transitioned from college to their career. Now the Gen Z books have led to invitations from conferences, corporations, brands, agencies, universities, industry associations, and pro sports leagues and teams for Mark to deliver keynote speeches featuring his Gen Z insights.

Now, Mark has also [00:02:00] co authored Career in Transition and Win the Job and Thrive in a Multi Generational Workplace in 2024. Truly amazing. And I'm really excited to learn more about this, Mark. Thank you for joining us on the Career Wanderlust podcast. 

Mark Beal: Jolie, thanks for having me. I think this is great.

I love the content of your podcast. I love the value it delivers to all those. Who, uh, who listened to it and view it. And I, I watched a bunch of episodes and I'm excited to be here. 

Jolie Downs: Oh, I am. I am too. I mean, really you have excelled in your career and the fact that you had this , amazing career on the agency side, now you're taking everything you've learned.

You're teaching those students at Rutgers University. I love how you're passing on that knowledge and information and then, and then writing all of these books. I mean, this is no small feat, , so, there's so many different questions I can ask, but I'd love to know, is there anything that's helped carry you through all of these different transitions or has it, have you found that there's been specific advice that's helped you at different times throughout your career?

Mark Beal: Yeah, [00:03:00] I think along the way there's different advice. It's been more relevant along the way, but I think if, if I look at again, 30 plus years first in the agency side now at Rutgers university, You know, the idea of just never stop learning, right? We, we all every day want to evolve and transform and grow.

And right. Once we stopped learning, we kind of going backwards. Right. So that, so whether, so whether you're entry level or you're 30 years in, or you're a new professor, like I was a few years ago, we started at Rutgers. You always want to, again, never stop learning. There's always, you know, learn, evolve, grow, transform all those kinds of things.

So I think that's one that kind of covers. The entire, you know, my entire career, but I've have, you know, each semester I bring in about 50 or so guest speakers. So these are leaders in advertising, marketing, public relations to all my courses, each semester about 50. And so lately each one always shares their advice right at the end of their presentation.

So we hear things like, you know, never stop networking, which completely agree with that as well. Completely agree. Your network is your net [00:04:00] worth. You'll hear that a lot as well from a lot of folks too, you know. But one that I've been using a lot, actually using a lot, sharing a lot lately, is from one of my favorite original series, Ted Lasso.

And there's a famous scene, there's a famous Ted Lasso scene where he's challenged to a game of darts by the billionaire owner of the football team, the soccer team. And, he plays them in darts and Ted's about to win at the end. And he turns to him and he said, you know, if you were curious, you would have asked questions you would have asked like, Ted, have you ever played darts before?

And of course, Ted's response is yes. Ever since I was, you know, seven or eight years old. So. I always love the idea of consistently be curious and ask questions. And 

Jolie Downs: I 

Mark Beal: say that to my students all the time, but all of us, right? So whether that's a guest speaker comes into the classroom, like take advantage of that person being in your classroom.

After everyone else leaves, go up to them and shake their hand and ask questions. Or, you know, even at social settings, you know, a family barbecue, some social setting. Well, there's someone, probably more than one, but there's someone in that room who it'd be great to meet, great to [00:05:00] learn more about, great connect, great to network, all those kinds of things.

So. Consistently be curious and ask questions no matter what stage of your career you're in, because I always say those, the answers to those questions open doors to potentially new opportunities. And so that's a, that's one that I've been sharing a lot with my students lately.

Consistently be curious and ask questions. 

Jolie Downs: Absolutely. It's the best advice to be successful with networking, right? I mean, that's how you're able to talk to other people is just being curious. I guess, especially for people who are introverted or have difficulty doing this. It's stop worrying about what you're going to say and just get curious about the person, you know?

I mean, you just start asking questions. And 

Mark Beal: you know this, we both know this. People love talking about themselves. Yes, they do. When you ask these questions, it's not like no one wants it. to answer. They want to share, they want to give, they want to share their career and their success and just their, their human interests side of things.

Yeah, I start every class or every semester. I start each class pretty simple with my students. They just say, hey, share your passions. You know, what do you love? Um, and then I always say, what kind of experience do you have across, you know, media, marketing, all those kinds of [00:06:00] things. And if I never asked those questions.

On the first day of class and I continue to ask them throughout the semester, but like right now I've got you know a senior one of my seniors. She writes for sports illustrated to me. That's pretty darn impressive She covers the new york giants for sports. She's a senior And while she may not think that's impressive, I think it's pretty impressive but more equally important like that's something like if I don't ask I don't know i've got another student who's a junior Who's a recording artist, has an agent, he's a singer songwriter, and every Thursday or so he gets on a plane and goes flies to, this past weekend he was in Gainesville, and he's performing concerts, and he's back in class on Monday morning, I mean again, if you don't ask, you don't know, but these are all, we all have stories, we all have interesting backgrounds, and it's fascinating to learn, and then figure out, okay, how can we collaborate together, what can we do together.

Jolie Downs: That's fascinating. I love it. And I love that you're bringing in all those guest speakers for your students to learn from all of these experts. I mean, that's incredibly invaluable and sets them up for that continuous learning. [00:07:00] Because don't you agree that I mean, the continuous learning, that's what keeps us young, right?

That's what keeps us youthful. I mean, The, youth of spirit, if you will, I'm curious, what do you do for yourself to keep learning? 

Mark Beal: Well, I'm a, you know, dating back to my days in university. I'm what we call a media junkie. I mean, I consume media all the time. I'm reading, I'm watching TED Talks, I'm on a daily basis reading a dozen or more newsletters across marketing, advertising, sports business, sponsorship, you name it.

I take all that in what I do actually in all my courses, which is interesting. We just did this, was it just yesterday? We spent about the first 20 minutes going through what I call real time, real world marketing. Now again, I'm teaching primarily some sophomores, but mostly juniors, seniors and grad students in, you know, public relations and marketing courses.

What I'm sharing is real time news in, you know, marketing, public relations, advertising. So, yesterday, for example, we talked about the fact that, one, Netflix, for the first time ever, will broadcast two [00:08:00] NFL games this Christmas day. But the big announcement over the weekend was that Beyonce is going to perform at one of those games.

I bring that into the classroom, one, because we should have our ear to the ground on what's just happening in culture, pop culture, society, news and information, especially if you're a, any kind of marketing communication suit, you shouldn't, you know, so I want to bring that in the classroom to again, be aware of this and then equally important.

What are your thoughts on this? What's your reaction to this? And so I want to listen and hear what they have to say about, this news, this campaign. So, a real good example, one of the other news items yesterday was that Coca Cola is using AI, used AI, excuse me, to produce their latest holiday television ad.

Well, I didn't know what the reaction would be, but we probably spent easily 10 minutes on the students, you know, critically analyzing it and talking about the pros and cons, probably more cons and pros. But the point was, it was a robust discussion of the students were really into, but again, if you don't bring that to them in the classroom and [00:09:00] don't even open up a dialogue.

Um, there's no chance to, again, have that conversation. 

Jolie Downs: Yeah. I'm curious. What was their 

Mark Beal: analysis of it? What did they think of it? Well, their analysis, yeah, was really fascinating. I mean, we could have probably spent the hour and 20 minutes just on that one topic. The thought was, you know, Christmas, well, we'll call it holiday time.

Holiday time, right, is supposed to be family and warm and, getting together and all those things. And for years, Coca Cola did that incredibly well with their kind of iconic advertising. But using AI for the 2024 ad, it's much more techie. It's much more, it doesn't feel like the human heartbeat.

And so they, they were incredibly critical of it. And as I brought up articles and stories, there's a lot of criticism around it. So they were forming that opinion on their own, but it was interesting because it aligned with a lot of the criticism right now about, you know, they. They've kind of taken the heart or the warm, fuzzy out of the holiday season through AI.

But the students also said, there's a right time for AI. There's a, you know, but not, [00:10:00] maybe not for this particular, 

Jolie Downs: you 

Mark Beal: know, holiday advertising that they, again, are known so, so well for over the years. This just didn't hit the mark. 

Jolie Downs: I agree. I, I, that's what I'm finding. I mean, AI is amazing and there's so much you can do with it, but there is, the humans have to put the soul into it, if you will.

And if it's all AI, that soul, that heart, like you're saying, it's lacking. There's just, it's not super obvious right away, but it's, it's when you experience the whole thing together that you can just really feel it. Oh, you're right. I love what you 

Mark Beal: said there. I'm not, I'm smiling and nodding as you go through.

I've, I've spoken at several conferences where I knew the agenda was heavy AI and nothing, again, nothing wrong with that, right? Uh, but I knew that speakers coming up are heavy AI and maybe I was the first speaker. And so I said, you're gonna hear a lot about AI today, but we can't forget that one other thing, H I human interaction.

It doesn't matter how advanced we get, how tech we get, how innovative we get, there's still human interaction, right? When you go in for a job interview, ultimately, ultimately, you're going to probably [00:11:00] be interviewed by humans, right? The first interview may not be, the first interview may not be, and eventually you're going to actually have to, you know, be interviewed by other humans.

And so I said that, you know, don't forget the importance of this thing called what I call HI, human interaction. 

Jolie Downs: Yes. I completely agree. I completely agree. This is really interesting. Now, I, I can only imagine how many stories you have in your career, and I'm wondering if you could share with us one or two, whatever you feel comfortable with, but something that was impactful that happened to you in your own career that other people could benefit from hearing about.

Mark Beal: Oh, absolutely. I will share a story, won't name names, I'll share a story. Early on in my career, probably two, three years into my career again, on the agency side and public relations and marketing, I was honored that, you know, the CEO and other leaders of the organization invited me to join them for a new business pitch.

Never been on a new business pitch. My role is probably just to carry everyone's bags, but they invited me. I was like, wow, this is great. You know, and again, they were leading the charge. I was there probably just more as the young [00:12:00] executive and, had a bit part in it, but I'd never been on a new business pitch.

Where we were going to compete against other agencies and one agency would win the business based on, right. So we make the trip to Florida and we presented to CEO, CEO of a company that was kind of a recreational sports, company. And before we even sat down or as we sat down, I think it was the CEO who turned to us and just basically said, so did you test drive the product?

And the honest answer was, no, we didn't. Again, he said, well, you can, you can leave now. Oh, no, no, no. This was something that preparing for two, three weeks. And again, this was first time I'd ever experienced as well. That turned into the probably the most valuable, one of the most valuable lessons in my career ever, because eventually I led the new business efforts for our agency for over 20 years.

And, that was that lesson. I never made that, never made that mistake. And so what I always went [00:13:00] overboard was research, research, research, research, research. And so. If we were going to pitch a fast food restaurant chain, we, meaning me and the team, we would go almost live in that fast food restaurant chain for two to three weeks, every day, every other day on weekends, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and live it, learn it, get to know the customers, get to know that, know everything.

So we went to that pitch, no other agency would have more information and knowledge or experience. And we would even perhaps know as much as the executives who work their day to day. And so. Whether it's fast food, automotive, you name it. The approach was, research will win this, we will win based on the research we conduct.

And the research isn't just simply googling things. In this case, it's going out and test driving. And when I say test driving, you know, again, trying drinking, eating, driving, whatever the product or service was. And that proved to be a key, key element to success when I, you know, throughout the two thousands, 2010, 2015.[00:14:00]

And, but I go back to that first ever, you know, pitch that I was invited to. And we didn't test drive and that was a major mistake. And I said, never again, never again, will we walked into a fact, not only will we test drive, we will do have done so much research about the company, the brand, the consumer, you know, everything that again, we will win this.

And so very valuable. And I do equate, I always draw a parallel between pitching new business. And again, just about every business you're in, you're pitching or getting new business, whatever business you're in. But I do equate it to attempting to win the job because ultimately when you apply for that job and when you interview for that job, you are competing against 10, 15, 20, you know, whatever the pool is.

And ultimately they're selecting one, maybe two, but one who beats everybody else out, one person wins that job. And so, not to plug, but in, when the job and thrive in a multi generational workplace, a key part of this is. Research, research, research, research, um, the [00:15:00] company, the competition, um, those who are going to interview, know where they went to school, know where they've worked, know everything about them, listen to the fact.

I love that we're doing this. I always tell my students. Somewhere, somehow, they've conducted a podcast somewhere, or some interview. Listen to that podcast, pull a quote or two from that podcast, because I bet you the only interview, the only candidate they'll interview actually went to that extent, but that is what will get you noticed.

So, um, so anyway, I draw a big parallel between competing for business and competing for the job. 

Jolie Downs: Such, such good advice. And that's great advice for interviewing too. I mean, that's great advice for so many different things. And, I don't know if you realize this, But that's actually what Pixar did, at least in the earlier, earlier days.

I don't know if they still do that, but when they first started, so ratatouille, everyone went to France, you know, cars, they all drove route 66 or whatever, so fully immersive. I think it's brilliant. And I love that. [00:16:00] That difficult situation that story that could have been, a down if you will, in someone's story was actually because this is the beauty, right?

When we take the time to learn from our mistakes and we just any kind of mistake or failure can actually be the launching pad for our greatest success. If we just take the time to learn, learn from the experience of it. 

Mark Beal: Well, I'm gonna bring a full circle to your point. We'll say 20 years later.

Yeah. That same company under new leadership, under new CEOs, under new CMOs reached out to us because they weren't aware of, you know, what we had done 20 years ago. 

Jolie Downs: Okay. Love this. And 

Mark Beal: they invited us to compete with about 20 agencies for a new product they were putting out on the road. And, by then we had already immersed ourselves in this research with other brands.

And so. We went in and won that. It wasn't even close. It wasn't even close. And, so again, you know, we can all learn, right? We all, we all have failures. We all have lessons. We can learn and apply those to, you know, the next opportunity. 

Jolie Downs: Yeah. I agree that research, research, it's like, it's one of those things that float to the top.

Are there any other key? [00:17:00] for people who are dealing with new business development, because I know, look, there's a lot of people who have moved into those roles, right? Who it's new to. Is there any other key things that float to the top when it's dealing with new business that you can share? 

Mark Beal: To me, it's, you know, I always say, and I just had a lecture about this last week in my class to my students.

There's two ways to approach new business. One is reactive, which is wait for the phone to ring and wait for someone to say, Hey, we want to work with you. And that's not the approach. The other is strategic prospecting. And so. What we did and what I tell my students, and it's the same approach I tell them as they're starting to look for jobs if they're graduating either December or next May, is research and identify kind of your 20 top prospects, right?

Companies I want to work for, or in the new business case, companies where we have experience that would be relevant, and start to strategically prospect those. Meaning. Who knows who on the inside? How can I get a informational or a cup of coffee interview? How can I start to make way my way in there? From a new business perspective again, I won't name names, but a large global company that we all know, was one of those [00:18:00] 20 I had on the list.

And I said, why are we working with this this company? We have experience that would be relevant. And through again, things like phone calls and leveraging your network, which we could talk about for a long time to leveraging your connections. Oh, yeah, there's someone at their headquarters who basically is in procurement that manages the agency relationships.

That's the person, that person's the gatekeeper, you need to get to that person. So I did reach out to that person called or emailed them at the time and said, I understand you are the you know, procurement gatekeeper for PR agencies and others. Yes, I am. We would love to get on a future RFP.

Well, I don't know anything about you. But if you're going to be in my market soon I would take a meeting to learn about you. I said, well, I'll be there next week. Of course I wasn't planning on being there next week, but we'll be there next week, got in there and got the meeting. I guess impressively enough, they invited us to an RFP within a week or two.

We won it. They invite us to another one. We won it. So the point was though, we strategically identified that company as a prospect, and then we worked channels on, okay, who on the inside do we, who do we have to get to? There's somebody. There may be two or three, but [00:19:00] there's somebody. And so I think it's the same with job search.

Identify companies that you want to work, right? Whether those are corporations, nonprofits, agencies, it doesn't matter what it is, and then it's, okay, who knows who they're right. And there's some logical ways to start that could be just. You know, alumni of the same school where you, you attend, things like that.

Jolie Downs: A hundred percent. I just gave a talk on this last night, myself, the strategy that you're saying it's what I call the long game strategy, right? It's the, it's the identifying what your ideals are and making those connections, regardless if there's an opening, regardless if they're hiring, but letting them know, Hey, this is where I would love to work.

I would love to work with you. Here's why. Here's the value I can bring and then keep connecting. And I think, I mean, 

Mark Beal: we've heard this. I love that you call it that. You know, it's, I always say you're either a hunter or a farmer. I I'm a farmer. I want to plant those seeds. I want to grow those seeds.

I want to grow those relationships. Not that the hunter doesn't periodically, you know, I guess. [00:20:00] But the farmer is building relationships that aren't just about getting the business, it's about building relationships that hopefully will be mutually beneficial for many, many years to come. Exactly. I agree.

That ties into that kind of long game 

Jolie Downs: approach. Yep. So, tell me more about challenges because we all face challenges in our positions. I'm curious, what's a big challenge that you faced?

How did you overcome it? 

Mark Beal: Well, I think that, you know, to your point, first is, nothing is linear anymore. There are going to be on ramps, there are going to be off ramps, there's going to be obstacles, there's going to be challenges, there's going to be step back, you know?

So, it's not like we're all on this path and we're on the super highway to, to success, right? So, I think first is just the mindset and embrace the idea that there are going to be challenges, there are going to be obstacles, there's going to be bad days. Whether that's in the job search, whether that's while you're actually in the job, there's going to be, you know, not everything is moving full speed ahead and all those great.

So I think part is just the mindset of there are challenges. Embrace the challenge as opposed to, I don't want to deal with the challenge. I can't handle the challenge. I can [00:21:00] embrace it. I would say, again, 30 years on the agency side, and I kind of say this half kiddingly, but clients, you know, clients are never satisfied.

And there's always a challenge with clients as far as just they're always looking. And I think that it's what drives most of us in that business is they always are looking for what's next, what's better, what's more. Right. And so that's, that's a challenge and you've got to embrace that of, you know, Hey, clients never satisfied.

What can we deliver next to them? How can we do better for them? What, you know, and so that's, that's a challenge that, you could look at it in two ways. You're like, I can't stand this client. Or you can be like, okay, you know, they're pushing us. Let's see if we can respond. Let's see how we can dial it up.

Let's see how we can be smarter, more strategic, more creative, all those things. So that to me was like a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly thing with clients, because you are under a lot of pressure to. Deliver and then deliver more and then deliver more. 

Jolie Downs: Yeah. Well, it's, it's a winning mindset to have that.

It's flipping, it's flipping the script on it. Right. Instead of being like, okay, this is, this is a challenge that I can't, like you said, I can't deal with this. So I don't want to, okay, well, how can I make this? How can I, how can I [00:22:00] use this to make me better? Or how can I, I use this situation to make it the best thing that happened to me.

So 

Mark Beal: I think it's the mindset, just. We're going to have challenges now and forever, personally, professionally, you name it. But, instead of running away, just embrace, immerse yourself in it and, come out the other side smarter, stronger, better for it. 

Jolie Downs: Yeah. Yeah. It's really, it really is. 

It makes me realize it's that, that, that personal, professional, it intertwines here, if you will. It's that, it's that acceptance of, okay, so if you're having a professional challenge, you just, it's okay, except this is where I am, I am, okay, now what do I do about it? How can I grow from here? How can I do better?

Where do we go? Yeah, that's why, that's 

Mark Beal: why it's funny. It's interesting. When I see anyone I know post on LinkedIn, hey, just want to let you know, I just got let go, you know, just a general post to their network, which I think, yeah, by the way, it's a smart thing to do. I reach out to them within seconds, within seconds.

Yeah, I just saw your post. How can I help you? Why don't we hop on a Zoom call as early as today? And the point there [00:23:00] is, not that I'm gonna get them the next job tomorrow, but the point is, when you're by yourself and you've got that challenge of, I just lost my job, and you're sitting in a room, it's so much easier to be able to bounce it off someone, collaborate with someone, strategize with someone.

Kind of just talk through it with someone. If you don't have someone to talk through it, it's really challenging. So we can, when you can, again, and so part of that is just being a good listener. Part of that is offering just help and assistance and good things will result from it. 

Jolie Downs: That's a gift you're giving them.

It's absolutely true. They need that, that, the sounding board during that time too. We all do, we all do, all of 

Mark Beal: us. Even if we're just trying to solve a business challenge, you know, we just, we need other, you know, diversity of thought, diversity of background, diversity of experience. Things will start to click.

Light bulbs will go off and things will click. But for those who've lost, you know, who've been laid off and now they're in the search again, it's, it's, it's a big challenge. And so it's to be able to come and help them and collaborate in any way they need, whatever that might be. It's just, you know, even if it's making a connection or two or three at their

[00:24:00] target company. So, 

Jolie Downs: yeah, I like to remind them that, that every person I've worked with that has gone through this challenge has found something that has made them immensely happy. There, there's always the light at the end, but I know that a lot of times that, that traveling can be very difficult.

It doesn't always help in the moment. 

Mark Beal: I, I've been saying that a lot lately. I say, I know this is easy for me to say, you're in the position, you're the one waking up every day. Not in the, not in a role, right? But it will work out. All will be very good. All will turn out very positive, but you are on a rollercoaster ride right now.

You know, you could be a low day tomorrow. It could be a great day the next day, but just keep that positive mindset that it will all turn out well. 

Jolie Downs: Absolutely. And make the most of your time that you can. So now you've written a lot of books about Gen Z. I mean, clearly you are a bit of an expert, if you will, on the Gen Z in the workplace.

I'm curious because I've noticed that when you talk to a lot of [00:25:00] people, even if you, for example, when I talk to people in my thriving after 40 podcast, or if I'm talking to people in this crew on this podcast, a lot of times the messages, even though these are different conversations, different topics, these messages are often.

Similar. I kind of called them golden threads, right? And I'm curious if you found some golden threads that have popped up through your various books and if you could share some of those. Yeah, I mean, I 

Mark Beal: think between the Gen Z books and then, you know, the career and transition, the win the job and thrive in a multi generational workplace.

Right now, we're Probably going to release another book in a few weeks, just don't have the exact date, called Conquering Job Transition, in which Frank Kovacs, my co author on the previous two career books, went out and got 25 folks at different stages in their career to share their story, their career journey, their, their obstacles, their challenges, and all that.

So we have those 25 contributors. That should be coming out hopefully by sometime in early December. I always get the question about, Gen Z. And I think every generation has faced [00:26:00]this as millennials arrived at the workplace, you know, Oh, they're lazy. They don't want to work. They're this or that.

Well, bottom line is in all generations, we have folks who may be lazy. And we have folks who aren't lazy. So I'm not, I don't buy that argument. 

Jolie Downs: I agree. And 

Mark Beal: we all work a little bit. I bring out all the time. And I especially say this, I just was asked by about, I forget how many CEOs, but a couple of weeks ago, I presented to a bunch of CEOs, all from different industries about Gen Z.

And when I bring up a couple of slides, one of the slides very simply says, and I can point at myself as the older generation, by the way, and I can say older generations, we live to work. We woke, we woke up five, six, seven days a week to actually go to work and we were excited by it. And not only did we do that, we spent all day at work and then we got a nap and we did it again, right?

That was a mentality. Gen Z doesn't do that. Gen Z works to live. They work to earn a salary, to experience life, to travel, to pursue their passion. to pursue their side hustles. It's a, it may seem like a, a slight nuance, but it's a major philosophy, a completely different approach. [00:27:00] And I think they actually have it right.

I don't think we have, I think they work to live, not live to work. And then the other is, and again, I didn't come up with these. The other is, you know, Gen Z works smarter, not harder. I do agree with that. I think older generations like us, we probably worked harder, maybe not smarter. So We measured value by how many hours we went into that thing prior to 2020.

We called an office. You know, we used to go to this thing. We got on a train or a bus, went to an office, which we don't do as much anymore. Now I actually prefer how it works today. Where Gen Z works smarter, not harder. What that means is, you know, they'll say, well. Is there technology? Is there a more efficient way to get this done?

Is there a way to solve this business challenge and maybe not have to sit here for 14 hours today at the office? And so that's another. So those are a couple of threads that have found my way into the different books, both the career books and the Gen Z book. But the other thing too, that you brought up, I'll make it real quick is, you know, 2020 was really interesting because not only did we have this incredible transformation in the workplace, right?

We went overnight from being in office at least five days a week. Right. to working remotely from [00:28:00] home, right? And no one was trained or taught how to do that. And now, here we are four years later, five years later, and you know, the bulk of those guest speakers come in my classroom. Some are never going to an office, some are going once a week, some are going twice a week.

Maybe I've heard of someone going three days a week, but that's rare. I haven't heard that too often. So we're not, you know, we're not back five days a week. But 2020 was also kind of when the oldest Gen Zers were joining the workforce. So there was a convergence of this. You know, milestone occurrence of the pandemic happening and transforming the workplace.

And all of a sudden this new generation, the new kid on the block was just showing up at the same time. And it's, and that new, that new, you know, that new kid on the block, the gen zero may never even went into the office, right? They didn't have the traditional orientation. They didn't have the traditional face to face meetings.

Everything was done by zoom because there was no office to go into. So it's really interesting when they arrived at the workplace, because it just so happened to be. As the pandemic arrived or in 2020 and 2021. So really interesting stuff. [00:29:00]

Jolie Downs: Oh, it's fascinating. And, and, and, and incredibly true. I think it's, I think it's very interesting.

The mindset, right? And I think you nailed it. It's the, work smarter, not harder, and I applaud that completely. It's and I think it's really a generational thing of a belief system, right? Like it was a belief system that was ingrained in people way back then that in order to successful, you had to work hard and that that belief system just isn't true.

And we've we've been, you know, we've been learning that in the younger generation. knows that to be true. They don't have to learn it because they've grown up knowing that to be true. And so 

Mark Beal: headlines that came out recently that I've shared in some of my recent presentations, I put them on the same slide and I'm not saying someone is right or someone is wrong.

But you know, Amazon, the big statement January 1st, everyone's back in the office five days a week. Um, they're gonna lose a lot of people. 

Jolie Downs: A 

Mark Beal: day or two later, Spotify, our employees are not children. We will continue WFA work from anywhere. And I love that two, well, two completely different companies, [00:30:00] two different industries, I get all that, but two different mindsets.

And those both came from higher up, like CEO level. And I loved it. And so I share that all the time, and I even share with my students, I say, you know, As you go out and interview for jobs, you need to interview the company, the corporation, what is their policies, what is their culture, what is their approach to remote hybrid in person work, because I think that's going to be really important for you, you know, as a, as a 22, 23 year old young executive and will be important for the next 30, 40 years.

And when you pose those two up against each other, that's two completely different philosophies. You must be in here five days a week or else. Your adults, we know you can get the job done from Spotify. You don't need to come in at all. Keep doing what you're doing. I love that approach. 

Jolie Downs: I can tell you, it makes a very big difference in the talent you get as well.

Just as an FYI to 

Mark Beal: the company. I'm not restricted to the talent that lives within 30, minutes of my office. One of the other, I think, great things that came out of the pandemic, and again, in kind of my little world, we'll call it agency world. [00:31:00] There are a lot of agencies that went completely remote.

They gave up the rent. They gave up the office. And so now I've got an agency, that I am familiar with on the West Coast, and they've employed several of my students who live in New Jersey. That never would have happened in 2019, because you had to have lived where the office was in Northern California.

Now they can in essence, the best, you know, the best, the best talent around the country, maybe even around the world, because we're not relying solely on an office building. 

Jolie Downs: Yep. It's amazing. And it's one of the great benefits of the pandemic. It proved that this works and it's proven I mean, it's nice the hybrid, I think the hybrid is a great way. Really, I think the winning companies are going to have hybrid models with the ability to hire remote for the best talent that they want. So they'll have those kinds of smaller offices where people can kind of come in and flow and connect, but also offer the remote for the best talent that they can find for certain roles.

I think that's the winning model at this point in time. 

Mark Beal: Completely agree with you. Even this one agency I mentioned, it's not a large agency. I don't know how [00:32:00] many employees, let's just say they have 50. So it's not huge, but, they make it a point quarterly that all the employees get together somewhere in this country and so they bring everyone together and so they're paying for your travel.

So to your point, they're fully remote, but they're creating those experiences and those opportunities to collaborate face to face. It goes back to, you know, HI. , the idea, every once in a while, I do want to collaborate face to face, whether that's once a week, twice a week, or once a quarter, whatever it might be, but there's, there's great benefit to that too.

Definitely. Definitely. 

Jolie Downs: So before you go, I am curious because you mentioned that you're, you, you love information and you're, you're always consuming information and, and this is something I talk about a lot. Because, Regardless, if we're actively consuming information, I just feel like it's always coming at us and we're being fed information all the time.

And I think it's very important that we proactively feed our minds in positive ways. And I'm curious if there's anything that you have read, watched or listened to that has impacted your life in a positive way. that could help others. 

Mark Beal: I won't get specific because I do [00:33:00] consume a lot of information, right?

I mean, I'm on LinkedIn all day long, just reading thought leadership from, I just, in fact, I just commented on one of my students posts and that's, you know, that's a student who's not even in her career yet. And I thought it was tremendous thought leadership. And I said, this is incredibly inspiring. And it was, um, I just three, four weeks ago delivered a TED talk.

I delivered a TED talk at TEDx Kate May. But the point of that is I can't get enough of watching Ted Talks. Like I can, I can watch just about any Ted Talk and it's going to inspire me and for me in some way. So that's just like a better word.

That's just the genre, I guess, of content, right? Those inspirational motivational speeches. I'll just click on YouTube and I'll watch one or more and it'll just inspire me. Like it'll just motivate me. It'll get me going. So. Yeah, that's a source. As I mentioned, it varies for all of us depending on what industry you're in, but I, I consume easily 12, 14, 15 newsletters a day.

I'm a big fan of daily newsletters. So for me, [00:34:00] that would be, you know, again, kind of marketing, sponsorship, advertising, you know, ad age, ad week, sports business journal, morning consult, who's a research agency research firm. Well, I love, I love, they used to have the greatest 8 30 AM newsletter. And I don't know why they got rid of it about a year ago, but it was, it captured everything that happened in the past 24 hours in.

news, entertainment, sports, sponsorship, marketing, advertising. And it was my must. It was usually I read a bunch of stuff before 8 30, because I'm usually up at five. But it was a key. It was one of my key must reads every day, like my day. Once I read that, I felt like, okay, I'm informed. I know what's going on.

Interesting campaign from this group. Interesting sponsorship here. So, it's just consuming again, depending on the industry you're in, depending on where you work. It's what are those relevant , newsletters, what are those relevant trade media that, you should read just to keep staying informed.

And then I think the, although, although the piece of that is just, as I mentioned earlier, just being kind of culturally relevant. Like you and I may not like the same [00:35:00] music, but I just want to be aware of what's trending in music, what's trending in sports, what's happening in movies, films, TV, and all that.

So I, I, you know, I also think that's kind of really important too. Yesterday, one of my students. I get to class almost an hour before it because I just want to be ready and I want to have, and so four of my students were together, so I sat down with them 20 minutes before class. Hey, what's, what's the latest?

What's the greatest? I just got tickets for this great concert that's in September and I said, who? And she gave me a name. I didn't, I didn't know. And I said, this is why I love teaching. You guys teach me stuff every day that I'm not aware of. I'd never heard of this person in my life, but I said, now I'm going to go on Spotify and listen to this artist.

So it's, it's things like that too, just to be again, culturally aware of what's happening. 

Jolie Downs: I bet those students keep you incredibly culturally aware. 

Mark Beal: They do. And I say that all the time. I said it when I delivered the TEDx couple of weeks ago, I said, I teach them about marketing and public relations.

They teach me about what's trending, what's relevant, what's happening in pop culture. And I embrace that fully. I want to know all that. 

Jolie Downs: Yeah. Is there [00:36:00] anything happening in pop culture we should know about right now? Just learned recently from your students. I'm curious. 

Mark Beal: Well, I think the biggest, maybe not pop culture, but I'd say the biggest thing is, Is, you know, this generation, Gen Z followed by Gen Alpha, you know, they do not consume news and content the way millennials, Xers, boomers did.

Right. They don't sit in front of this thing we call a TV set. There is no must see TV, you know, the eight o'clock tonight or the Grammys. I'm going to say they don't know. That's not the, so all I say all the time, especially the media companies and those companies that advertise on major medias. If you're, if this is a priority for you, this generation or Gen Alpha will be, you need to really completely, you know, innovate the way you're reaching them and engaging them.

So there's brands like Duolingo, which by the way, just love that brand and Gen Zers love that brand. But everything they do is on the channels that Gen Z consumes. They make learning language fun across TikTok, across Instagram, you know, across YouTube. They're not running ads on CBS, NBC and [00:37:00] ABC. So I know that's not necessarily trending, but it's just the point of their media consumption is unprecedented and it's not going to change.

They're not going to wake up when they turn 30 and say, I'm going to watch the six o'clock news time. It's just not part of their routine. 

Jolie Downs: Yeah, no. And you have to keep that in mind, especially communications. And public relations, marketing, they need to know Yeah. And be thinking about that. Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. So I mean, this is, this has been an incredible conversation. So many golden nuggets. Before you go, I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask you one final question. I, I believe that we are all born with certain superpowers, and then I believe that through time we develop superpowers, through life. Right. I'm curious, what's a superpower you've developed and how has it served you in life?

Mark Beal: Well, I think to your point, you know, and I say this all the time, and I, I say it seriously. You know, for the 1st 30 years of my career, my focus was on things like winning new business, getting new clients, serving those helping grow those accounts. So I think that word is very selfish, right? It was very just how do we get more business?

How do we grow the business? All those things. And so [00:38:00] as I transitioned to be a professor, and it wasn't like there was a moment where I drew a line in the sand. So this is it. But I feel like I went from this focus on what I'll call profit to purpose. And so for now, and for the next 30 years, my purpose is to really help not just my students, but, you know, the next generation secured internships, secure that job, you know, in the last 24 hours I've had.

Zoom meetings with a student who graduated two or three years ago and is happy with their job, but they're ready for the next thing. So I'm helping them. I'm a graduate student who is about to graduate and doesn't have a job yet. People in different stages of their career. And so my purpose now is how do I leverage all that I've done, my contacts.

Just everything and how do I leverage that for the benefit of those who are now, you know Either out of work or graduating in December or May or any of that so I just call that kind of purpose and I didn't really I didn't have that purpose for the first 30 years that because again Doing what I was doing for first years.

It was very focused on again agency world now That I'm [00:39:00] teaching and connecting and collaborating daily in the classroom with, you know, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and graduate students, the purpose is now how can I help you? What can I do to help you? How can I help you get from where you are now to where you want to be?

And so that's really become the purpose. So I don't know if purpose is a superpower, but I'm making it a superpower. 

Jolie Downs: I love it so much. Honestly, I just was like, yes, purpose is a superpower because it purpose is, a key part of having a fulfilling life and purpose is something that we can all develop over time.

It is not something we're born with. But it's something that we can develop and grow and each and every person listening can do that for themselves. And it can be their own personal superpower. So thank you for sharing that. I love it. Oh, thank you for asking. 

Mark Beal: Great question, by the way. I love that question.

Jolie Downs: Mark. This has been fantastic. Thank you for joining us on the career. Wanderlust podcast. 

Mark Beal: Thank you, Jolie. I loved it. And again, I love what you're doing with this podcast. I'm inspired when I watch the episodes. So thank you. 

Jolie Downs: Thank you. Thank you for joining us on the Career [00:40:00] Wanderlust Podcast. If you find value in learning from others, give us a like and subscribe.

If you're looking to grow your communications, marketing, public relations, or sales and biz dev team with the best talent and quickly, check us out at ParadigmStaffing. com and submit a request. We are wishing you a most successful and fulfilling career. Until next time.