Transcript:

Ben Smith:

Ben Smith:

Hello everybody. Welcome to The Retirement Success in Maine Podcast. My name is Ben Smith. And allow me to introduce my co-host, the crab cake and lobster roll to my fried clams, Curtis Worcester and Austin Minor. How are you guys doing today?

Curtis Worcester:

All right, doing well, Ben. How are you?

Ben Smith:

Good, good. It's summer, right?

Curtis Worcester:

That's right.

Ben Smith:

Maine, summer, seafood. Right?

Curtis Worcester:

I like it.

Ben Smith:

And actually, I know we're recording here. It's obviously when we release, it's going to be past this, but it's Father's Day weekend, so I'm going to be a good son and I got to bring out some seafood to dad for the weekend.

Curtis Worcester:

All right.

Ben Smith:

So that's our, we're doing a little Father's Day feast here happening.

Curtis Worcester:

Nice. I like it.

Austin Minor:

Excellent.

Ben Smith:

Well, obviously we're doing another episode here today, episode 85.

Curtis Worcester:

That's right.

Ben Smith:

So we're definitely getting advanced in terms of numbers, which is great. And as many of you know, we always deep dive into many retirement topics, including the opportunities and challenges that many of us face. But what about the people themselves that are retiring? So if you zoom out and look at some themes here and shared experiences that shape our worldviews, what differs from one generation from another?

What about the baby boomer generation? What makes them unique from previous generations that have gone through retirement? Why do flippant statements such as, "OK, boomer," come about, and how do we turn that around? So this is exactly what this show is about. Turning, "OK, boomer," into, "Thank you, boomer." I

Curtis Worcester:

I like it. And as everyone knows, we love to bring in guests who are kind of experts in the areas we're talking about. So today's guest is an accomplished, highly instrumental and ambitious top executive leader, with 30 years of experience in delivering fiscal, strategic and operations leadership in challenging situations. Our guest is skillful in launching sales and marketing programs, generating record setting revenues with expertise and presentation, negotiation and communication skills, as well as adept at analyzing market and competitive conditions, and laying out a product vision that is differentiated and delivers unique value based on customer demands.

Ben Smith:

Ooh, brief.

Curtis Worcester:

Our guest also wrote a children's book, titled, I Don't Want to Turn 3. That book explores what goes through a toddler's mind that parents are so desperate to understand. It's based on the true experiences he had with his six grandchildren that were born to each to his three millennial daughters. He goes by the pen name of Gramps Jeffrey, whose first book, The Secrets of Retailing: How to Beat Walmart, was written to help entrepreneurs and small businesses compete against the big guys.

Arianna Huffington read his book and asked him to contribute to the Huffington Post. He has written over a hundred articles about small businesses, education, and the homeless, and several other nonprofit topics dear to all of us. Our guest is also a co-founder of the website, babyboomer.org, that was built expressly to be a baby boomers' most trusted and ultimate source for news, information and community. The mission of the site is to, one, bring baby boomers together to improve their quality of life. Two, using baby boomers to help younger generations. Third, we have to help baby boomers pay it forward as knowledgeable elders.

And last but not least, our fourth mission here is to change baby boomer perception from, "OK, boomer," to, "Thanks, boomer." So we cannot take credit for our show title here. That is clearly where we got that from. So our guest and his lovely wife, Cathy, currently live in Scottsdale, Arizona, where two of his grandchildren live. Two more grandchildren live in Austin, Texas, and two other grandchildren live in Orlando, Florida. So with that, please join me in a warm welcome of Marc Joseph to the Retirement Success in Maine Podcast. Marc, thank you so, so much for coming on our show today.

Marc Joseph:

Thanks for inviting me. I'm looking forward to this.

Ben Smith:

Yeah, we are too. Marc, there's lots of things to get into around generational things, and so we want to, obviously we'll dig into that a bit. But we always want to start with you and kind of... Obviously Austin did a little bit of a read here. But we'd love to hear a little bit about your upbringing in terms of where you're from and what did you do for your professional career.

Marc Joseph:

Well, I'm from a small town in Ohio. I grew up a happy guy. I went to a school in Ohio, it got very cold up there. So I moved to-

Ben Smith:

We know cold.

Marc Joseph:

You know cold. I live here in Scottsdale, Arizona. It's been 107 today.

Ben Smith:

That's hot. We don't know hot.

Austin Minor:

That is very hot.

Marc Joseph:

But it's a dry heat, so it's not too bad. So I decided to go into retailing. And so for my early part of my career I was with chain stores and department store business and the off-price business. I was there when the Dollar stores came about. And so that's how I started my early career. And I also went into manufacturing. Then I decided to become an entrepreneur, because my parents were entrepreneurs. And I said, "I'll probably go back to my roots."

So I've started three businesses. One of them I took public, and that one became the premier business to a business site on the internet where we sold in case quantity of small businesses all around the world, shipped into all 50 states, around 40 foreign countries. Our customer base were the moms and the pops where survivor thriving is changed. And that really was why I wrote my first book. My first book was called, The Secrets of Retailing: How to Beat Walmart.

And I wrote this book because I was getting 30 phone calls a week on, "What do we do? We're entrepreneurs or small businesses, how do we really succeed?" So it's 15 chapters, and each chapter addresses something different about opening your own business. One of them is about how you hire people and others about how you find products. Where do you find your location? How do you market yourself, both on the internet and traditionally.

And then the last chapter, the 15th chapter, is exit strategy, "What do you do? How do you get rid of it, and what's your next step?" So that's what I did. And then the good, old hit of us all, was the COVID-19. So the pandemic hit. And so that's when I had a chance to really take a look at my six grandkids. And I had all six of them here for about six weeks during the pandemic. And so I had a chance really to see, and that's why I wrote my children's book, I Don't Want to Turn 3. And it's a true story about my six grandkids. All the pictures are pictures I took that I sent to a illustrator to kind of make them cartoonish. And that's where that came from.

Ben Smith:

That's awesome. Very cool.

Marc Joseph:

And then over the last year or so, we have started the company, babyboomer.org, to bring together baby boomers. And so that's my life in a nutshell.

Austin Minor:

That's awesome. Wow. Well that is a very concise way of putting it too. It sounds like you've done a lot. So how did you end up settling in Scottsdale, Arizona, was it just the 107 degree temperature that got you there, or were there other reasons involved?

Marc Joseph:

Well, at the time, and I've been here 25 years, but at the time I was, back 25 years ago, I was senior vice president of merchandising and marketing for a chain of bookstores, called Crown Bookstores. I don't know if you all are familiar with that. But I was there when we took them from being the small little bookstores to the big, massive stores that they were. We had our national convention out here in Scottsdale, and it was the middle of winter. And on the third day we were out here, I called my wife and I said, "We're moving out here, I got to live here." And I haven't moved. And here I am.

Ben Smith:

I love that.

Austin Minor:

Very nice.

Ben Smith:

I love that. So on the kind of diagonal opposite end of the country, we have us up here in Maine in our Retirement Success in Maine show. Just kind of a general question again, just to kind of ease into it. We like to ask all of our guests, do you have any connections to the state of Maine?

Marc Joseph:

Well. Maine, we were there, my wife and I were there just last summer, because we wanted to complete our bucket list. Our bucket list was to visit all 50 states.

Curtis Worcester:

I love that.

Marc Joseph:

And Maine was the last one. So we went up to Maine, we were there for a while, went to Bangor, a great city you have.

Curtis Worcester:

All right. I love that.

Marc Joseph:

We spent a lot of time in Maine, and ate everything you talked about for Father's Day. So that was great. That was great. So that's been my latest connection to Maine.

Curtis Worcester:

I love that. That's awesome.

Ben Smith:

Yeah, I mean, talk about getting a flavor of our state there. Just spending some time and vacationing. That's fantastic. Well, Marc, we'd like to, of course, the episode we're going to talk about today is turning, "OK, boomer, to, "Thanks, boomer." Right? So generations, so we're going to want to talk about generations here a little bit and the baby boomer generation.

So we always want to start with definitions. So we're always using the same language together. And our listeners out there, we're not having preconceived notions of what we're talking about. So it'd be helpful to define the baby boomer generation. How should we define the baby boomer generation and what are some shared experiences that have shaped this groups' worlds views?

Marc Joseph:

Well, baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. So it's 18 years. It's a couple of decades of baby boomers. They're between the ages of 57, 58, 75 and 76 now. And so those are the ages we're talking about. There are 76.4 million baby boomers in the USA today. They hold-

Ben Smith:

That's a big number.

Marc Joseph:

And this is what you guys are related to. They hold 51% of all the wealth. This generation, these two decades of generation hold 51% of the wealth. They have 70% of the disposable income in the U.S. today. They spend 548 billion. That's with a B, a billion dollars a year, this generation. They spend more than any other generation, and they have spent more per transaction. So they buy more.

Their net worth is $70 trillion. They hold $20 trillion in stocks and mutual funds. The average baby boomer spends $63,000 a year. So that's kind of who the generation is, and the impact that they're having, and will have for a while. Because when you think about it, when they die off, that's a lot of money going back to the younger generations, when that all happens.

Ben Smith:

That's right.

Marc Joseph:

But if you really want to define the baby boomer generation, it's a generation as diverse as any other generation before and after it. They're very diverse in politics as you all well know, or diversity of religion, diversity of ideas. It's a hugely diverse generation. But the one thing that baby boomers have in common is a connected, shared experience. And this happened because when we were growing up, there were only three television stations, and we all had landlines. That's how we got our information.

So it really is a gelled information, the generation has done together. When you think about it, we all lived through the Kennedy assassinations, and Martin Luther King's assassination. We were there for the landing of the moon as a shared experience. Our generations, when birth control really became widespread, and it happened during the baby boomer generation. Vietnam, we had to live with Vietnam and riots in the street.

The thing that if you talk to baby boomers, one thing that brings us all together is music. I mean, Elvis, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Three Dog Night, The Supremes, The Association, all of these groups. We all listened to the same thing, we all grew up with the same thing. Music brought us all together. Movies brought us all together. When you think about the movies of our generation, Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, Jaws, a lot of the Spielberg movies. Animal House, Star Wars, The Godfather, these are all shared experiences that we have, and that's what brings our generation together.

Austin Minor:

Oh, that's great. And so on that same note, so when we look at today's society, there's obviously some schisms that have really polarized parts of our national fabric. And so you just started getting into this, but if you had to summarize or highlight the most important things, what are some things you would say that boomers today, and perhaps in the future share and agree upon?

Marc Joseph:

Well, I think as you get older, you actually do get wiser. And so as each decade comes along, and the reason you get smarter is you make a lot more mistakes. So you learn from those mistakes. So as we get older, we get a little bit smarter. And I think what we realize as a generation, we have got to pass on what we have learned to the next generation, and to the generation beyond that. I think that's one thing that baby boomers are finally coming to realization.

"What is our legacy? What are we going to do to make the next generations better than we are?" Because when you think about it, I personally believe that this latest, greatest generation, kids from one to 10 years old are going to be the best thing this country has ever produced. The reason being is, as soon as they come out of the womb, they're on the internet, they all got iPhones, they've got their laptops.

These kids... I talk to my three or four or five-year-old grandkids, they know more than I do. When I step back and think, "I didn't get on the internet til I was 40 years old." Here you got kids as soon as they're born, they're on the internet. So we've got the greatest generation that this country's ever produced, starting to become of age. And it's important for my generation to balance that, to make sure that we're passing on things that we have learned from the mistakes we have made.

We as a generation need to get balance, what they're learning with technology. Technology is great. Technology teaches children, that's where they can go for answers and so forth. But it's up to us to round that out and bring all the information that we have learned over the years and spread that on. I think that's the obligation of the baby boomer generation, is we've got to teach everyone what we know, so they don't have to make the same mistakes.

Ben Smith:

And we're talking to a few guests right now coming up, and it seems to be a theme in terms of boomers, is that it's like this seems to be the first generation that has the most ability to explore, not only backwards, so ancestry.com, where do we come from? We can go really far back, more than we've ever been able to, and see where all of the roots go. But also from ascending it forward, as you're saying about educating the next generation.

You have now all this technology that, in our own words, in our personalities, is to be able to share these messages into the future by doing things like what we are right now, YouTube and sending messages. And I'm your grandson, Marc, and I can say, "Geez, I want to go see what Gramps said about living as a boomer, as he was a certain age." They in the future can go kind of see your world experience, and what you were saying at that time.

That seems to be a first generation thing that we... Obviously, people are good at, they did it by books. They were doing a little bit by, obviously in VHS before, but now just a more robust experience. So I don't know, just an observation that I'm having here is just backwards, forwards. It seems like boomers are embracing that more than any other generation.

Marc Joseph:

That's one reason we started babyboomer.org, is because we wanted to be able to share with our baby boomers all the experiences we went through. In other words, there's great music and there's great movies and so forth. But we also need to offer resources for baby boomers, for retirement, for financing, for travel, all those things that we want to do, because the baby boomer generation today seems to act younger than our parents. We seem to have a lot more energy. So we're out there doing a lot more stuff.

But we also put it together because there's all these new challenges that we're up against, all the technological challenges. You talk to baby boomers, there's a lot. We didn't live it like you guys have. So it's a little more complicated for us. So we got to have all that on our side. And all these health issues we're going through, whether it's Alzheimer's or dementia or Parkinson's, we want to be a resource that any people can come to that can find information to help them. So that's what you talk about, that's one of the reasons we did start babyboomer.org.

Curtis Worcester:

That's fantastic. I think it's really awesome that you're starting that and rolling with that. And I want to kind of pivot a little bit here, Marc. And so I have kind of a two-part question. So I think there's a dismissive attitude towards the baby boomer generation, primarily probably brought on by younger generations. But we have this, it's kind of gained popularity with the catchphrase, "OK, boomer," right? I think we've all kind of heard that. Can you just talk about why you think that's there? Why is there that dismissive attitude towards the baby boomer generation?

Marc Joseph:

I think the baby boomer generation's a very selfish generation. When I say that, is that when we were growing up in our 20s and 30s and 40s, our idea was, "What are we going to do to get ahead?" What are we going to do to really be more successful than our parents? And then obviously create success so that we can pass it on to our kids. And so we became, I think, a very selfish generation.

And one of the things that's very sad about the baby boomer generation is, if you take a look at the divorce rate in this country, between 1900 and 1930, 1.1 people out of a thousand in the U.S. got divorced. In the 1970s, it was four out of a thousand. In the 1980s, it was five out of a thousand. Now, that's the prime years of the baby boomers, when we got married and so forth.

Now luckily today, it's dropped down to 2.3 out of a thousand that are getting divorced. So I think, I'm hoping that our children learn from the mistakes of the baby boomers, and kind of figure out how to do better in relationships, how do they do better in growing families and so forth. So that's one of the things that I think has caused the feeling of the baby boomer generation is, it's been pretty selfish. And that's just a statistical way of explaining why it's been so selfish.

Curtis Worcester:

Yeah, no, and I'm glad you brought that example, because it gives kind of some real numbers there. Just a follow-up, do you think that kind of attitude of the younger generations being dismissive towards the older generation, do you think that's just how people feel, right? Is this any different than how the baby boomers treated maybe their elders, or is it specifically kind of us to the baby boomers?

Marc Joseph:

No, I think it's happened all along. But keep in mind that the baby boomers are living longer than elders. My grandparents, all of them died in their 60s, except for one. And that's what happened during that generation. And then it became 70s and 80s. Now you've got these baby boomers living longer.

So younger kids in the other generations get to see them more, get to see who they are, what their flaws are, but what also could be how they can help younger kids get even better by learning from them. So I think that's one of the... I think every generation have used that. And I think when it's your guys' time, your kids are going to say the same thing.

Curtis Worcester:

Exactly.

Marc Joseph:

And so it all comes back to, what do you want to leave behind? You guys, you're into money, you're into investments, you're into resources, but when you die, you don't take that with you.

Curtis Worcester:

Right.

Marc Joseph:

So what is it that you're going to leave behind? Is it going to be a lot of money for your kids? Is it going to be how you taught your kids? What is going to be your legacy? And I think every generation has to deal with that.

Ben Smith:

And Marc, I think you're bringing on a pretty important concept, right? Because I don't think the human trait here is that we're used to being as old as we are right now, as a group lived as long as we are today. And that's getting more and more. But with that, as you're saying about babyboomer.org saying, well geez, we're now having to work on being healthier, and there's conditions and diseases and things that are cropping up because of us being older than we ever have before.

But I want to ask another question here about, we actually had a guest on, Jess Maurer, who is the director of the Maine Council on Aging. And she was bringing up this concept of ageism that our society today adopts ageist attitudes. And again, she was defining ageism as this, we have certain stereotypes or beliefs about people that are older, that they're less capable, that they're less intelligent, that they are, to your point, maybe there's a selfish thing.

Whatever the stereotype is, there's attitudes towards that generation, and them not being as capable. So I guess the question we want to ask is, baby boomers as a group, as a generation, what is baby boomers... What are you doing today as a generation to battle the ageist attitude that many people and companies have?

Marc Joseph:

Don't lose sight that there are 12 million businesses today still owned by baby boomers. And when you step back and think about that, 12 million businesses, that means the baby boomers, people in their 60s, 70s, 80s, they're still involved. They haven't given up on the idea that, "I'm too old to do this." They are still involved. So you got to kind of put that in perspective, is, if you've got this whole generation where you've got 12 million businesses still owned, that means they're going to work every day or every other day. They're employing lots of people.

That is just a sign that this generation just doesn't want to go away quietly. I mean, the thing about this generation, let's blame Pickleball. Can you picture... I can't picture my parents going out there and playing Pickleball. But you've got all these baby boomers out there playing Pickleball. So you got to put it into perspective as you still got 12 million businesses owned by baby boomers, they're functioning and they're doing that.

And you got lots of baby boomers that are sitting back and saying, "What am I going to give back?" They're volunteering, they're helping out. So the ageism comes maybe from the younger generation, because the baby boomers don't look at themselves as old. They look at themselves as they're going to be productive until they go away.

Ben Smith:

And Marc, I'll add to that too is, I think from a age perspective is, look, I think this is maybe the first generation, and I think it's a good thing. You brought up the point about maybe being a selfish generation. Well, that's a really great thing from a, "Hey, what is my purpose? Why am I here?" These questions are being asked, versus maybe the previous generation retiring, getting done and maybe not knowing what they want to do and not having a purpose, and just maybe they're more apt to stay at home.

I think this generation is being a lot more active. I think they are, "Hey, if I want to be physically fit and I want to be healthy, I got to stay healthy and let's go do something fun," which is maybe more youthful too, "Pickleball or whatever I'm doing, there's a purpose for it, as in addition to just enjoying myself today, but staying physically fit and active is going to allow me to live longer and probably have a better quality of life for longer as I'm in retirement too." Right?

Marc Joseph:

Well, I looked at my parents when they were my age, and I said, "Boy, they look old." They're old people. Now that I'm there, I feel young. I don't feel old. So it's all in your perspective. And so I think that's one of the reasons why you see so many baby boomers still so active.

Ben Smith:

Gotcha.

Austin Minor:

So Marc, a different way of thinking. We talked kind of about, or you were saying how baby boomers are a selfish generation sometimes, but one way that they're certainly not selfish, and I know we work with many clients today that define themselves as the sandwich generation, where they're caring for aging parents, but also supporting their own adult children, and or grandchildren. So why is this term new, and why do you think it's fallen on the boomer generation to take on this role?

Marc Joseph:

Again, our parents are living longer than their parents did. So now we're looking at parents in their 80s and 90s, and some in the 100s, that just weren't around 30, 40 years ago. So that has created this particular generation. And second is, the economy has forced many of our kids not be as successful as they'd hope to be.

So now, think how many of these kids are living with their parents. So it is a real sandwich kind of a generation, because it's up to the individuals to take care of their families. The government's not going to come in and do that for them. And it's very much like, when you talk about Asia, that's how that whole culture is all about. They take care of their parents. So now it's up to us to the same thing.

Austin Minor:

Okay. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And I know you've certainly adopted that concept as a pride point of your life and spending time with your grandchildren, including writing your children's book, I Don't Want to Turn 3. So what inspired you to write the book? Can you talk about that for a minute?

Marc Joseph:

Yeah, sure. Living the past couple of years, because of the pandemic caused by COVID-19 in isolation, except for being able to be with my family, gave me a special time to watch and interact with my grandkids. And I got to tell you what a trip that was, because all six of these kids have completely different personalities. But the one thing they do have in common is a sense of curiosity, and how excited they get when they do accomplish something. Watching them grow year to year, and how they interact with each other is really the basis for this book.

What goes through a toddler's mind the parents are so desperate to understand? When does a toddler really understand the difference between me and us? This book kind of explores how a whole family finds this out together. Because as a baby boomer trying to understand how the world has evolved since I was three years old, it is also part of the story. My parents didn't have cell phones, they didn't have the internet, they didn't have cable TV, they didn't have remotes.

So I was my dad's remote. He said, "Son, go change the channel." I was the remote at the time. My parents' definition of discipline is quite different than the discipline of parents today. Is today's world a better place for children to grow up with? I'll let your listeners kind of answer that, as you figure out how you were treated versus how we're treating our kids today. So that's kind of the reason I wrote this book.

Curtis Worcester:

That's great. And for everyone listening, we are going to have links in our show notes to both the books, but specifically this one. I'm interested in reading it myself, honestly, even though it's a children's book, just hearing you speak about it, clearly it's something you're so passionate about. So I look forward to checking that out.

I want to keep going here again on the topic of the three of our experiences with our clients, specifically in the baby boomer generation. We hear a lot from them kind of frustration with the direction that society's going, whether it's the country, our society in general, the younger generation, which to us we all talk about.

It's kind of interesting because we think the baby boomer generation was introduced probably to some of the biggest societal changes globally, more than any other generation. So do you think that this kind of feeling of looking back at society is kind of a symptom of every generation that gets older and has a new generation, getting ready to take over, or is it specific to the baby boomer generation there?

Marc Joseph:

You've got the tools today to go in and find all this stuff out. So in other words, when we were growing up, there wasn't social media. Just think about social media, how that influences and changes our opinions every day, if you're into that kind of stuff. So I think that has a lot to do with it. The information, I don't want to say information overload, but there's so much stuff out there for you to look at and think about, that it causes a lot of these issues. And again, when we were growing up, we didn't have any of that kind of stuff, it was more of a harmonious time. So I think that has a lot to do with it. And I think if we had the same social media, we'd probably be going after our parents the same way. Right?

Curtis Worcester:

Yeah, I agree with that. And it's probably going to happen to us. Like if we look at our generation, like you said earlier, our kids and grandkids are going to do the same thing to us now because all that information is out there now. So I agree with that.

Ben Smith:

And Marc, I was just doing some research on that topic on the side, of the concept being moral decline, is that generation before us is, or the generations after us are not as maybe morally strong as what we feel. And to what Curtis said is, I almost think about this, thinking about the '70s and the '60s, is to talk about music and the banding together around kind of peace and love.

And I could see where maybe here's a generation before that fought World War II and said, "Geez, look at this group of people that are just protesting a war, and they're protesting civil rights and all of these things that we fought for our country to come together, and it's coming apart."

I don't know, I could see where there's things that we look forward to and go, based on our worldview, that there's kind of some decline morally, which what I'm hearing you saying is, a little easy to kind of say, but maybe that's just something of age.

Marc Joseph:

Well, what's interesting about what you're talking about is, my parents and that generation, they're known as the greatest generation. So when you think about it, they grew up in the middle of a depression and then they went off and fought in World War II, and they saved democracy. They saved the world.

Ben Smith:

They sure did.

Marc Joseph:

So when they came back, they were a very disciplined generation, because the world made them that way. We kind of talked about it a little bit earlier, but I was thinking about discipline. I mean, when I was a little kid growing up, my mom would say, "Wait till your dad gets home." And he'd come home and he'd pull out his belt and he would chase us around the dining room table. That was discipline at the time. In fact, and he had this fraternity paddle that he used on us, my brother, Larry and I.

And so, one night when they were gone, we went into his closet and we took the fraternity paddle. And it was in late fall in Ohio, and there was a lot of leaves on the ground, and we buried the paddle in the middle of the leaves, and then it snowed the next night and covered it all up. And we went back that spring to see if the paddle was there, and it was gone. So it was a miracle to us, and it was kind of like... Now, I never really chased my kids around the dining room table because I learned from that.

That's how you learn. You learn that that's not the discipline you do. And I think my kids even learn from us, and they discipline their kids even better than we ever did. Now their kids are going to time out, so they can't be with their friends and participate. So I think that's part of the evolution you're talking about. But that aside, that generation that went through World War II, they really were the greatest generation.

Ben Smith:

Yeah. I think we all have, again, family members that we know or friends or community members where, geez, you hear their story of what they had to go through. And even your point about, first of all, depression, where no one had food, they didn't have any money, and they had to get through it and ration as much as they could, to then go to a global war where eradication of the world as we know it was at stake. Geez, huge things, right? And we're all built of course on that foundation.

So I have lot of gratitude for that. But I want to ask a question kind of back to baby boomers here for a second, Marc. Obviously we're talking about babyboomer.org. So I'd love to hear about your genesis there, about your thought to start the site with your co-creators. How is it going regarding traffic and content, and what are some future plans for the site as the generation continues to age, what's the evolution here?

Marc Joseph:

Well the reason we started the site, and I myself started with three other baby boomers, so it's four of us involved. But as I was out promoting my book and going through what baby boomers, we were and so forth. It became very apparent to me that not enough grandparents were involved in helping to raise this greatest generation. They're, in fact, 30% of the baby boomer generation are referred to as remote. In other words, they're not involved in the raising of their grandkids at all.

They may show up for a birthday party or see them at Christmas, but that's it. The generation has said to themselves, "I raised some great kids, let them go raise their grandkids, and I'm going to go play Pickleball." So that's really what started this whole thought process is, we've got to pull together information to help bring back this generation to get more involved in everything that we're doing.

And so that is the idea of why we started babyboomer.org, and it just evolved. It's less than a year old. I mean, it just started last September. And so we now have close to a thousand different experts on our site, and contributors on our site that know the best about different things. So for instance, every day, whatever new blogs or podcasts or articles that were written by our experts that they automatically go to the site, they go to the top of the site, and everybody sees some of this new thought process.

So every day the site changes. It's just the newest information that we have from thought leaders. And a bunch of them are baby boomers, but there's also some from your generation that are experts in aging, and they're on our site also, or they're experts in Alzheimer's, they're on our site also. And so that's how this whole thing evolved, and that's where we are today.

Ben Smith:

And Marc, I appreciate it too, because we were working together when we first met and did our introduction. And so our show is now on your site as well. So again, thank you for allowing us to contribute to the website as well through our podcast.

Marc Joseph:

Oh, wow, you're going to teach baby boomers what to do with retirement money.

Ben Smith:

Exactly. That's right.

Marc Joseph:

That's fantastic.

Austin Minor:

So Marc, kind of getting back to some more specifics that the boomer generation is facing. So the boomer generation is expected to live longer than any previous generation. So what characteristics of your generation do you think makes them uniquely positioned to tackle challenges, such as living longer, the previous generations didn't face?

Marc Joseph:

Well, you brought it up earlier when you said, this generation, we were the ones that were rioting in the streets, fighting against Vietnam. We were the ones who were really involved in all kinds of politics. I mean, look at who the presidents have been, baby boomers for the last, what? Four or five presidents. So that's what we've got. We've got all of that experience that we now need to pass on, and that really is our legacy. How do we teach others from our mistakes to be a better generation of leaders? Because it's time for the next generation to take over this country, and let the baby boomers go have fun. So that's really what we need to be doing.

Curtis Worcester:

I like that. And you teed up my next question, Marc. So we've reached kind of the end of our conversation, and your kind of segue here of letting the younger generation take over so the boomers can go have fun. One question that I love to ask, I know Ben and Austin enjoy hearing me ask it on every episode. So obviously the name of our show here, right? Retirement Success in Maine Podcast, we love to ask all of our guests, how are you, Marc, going to find your personal retirement success?

Marc Joseph:

My personal retirement success is, what is the legacy that I leave? What is it that I can pass on? What's kind of fun about my book is, all six grandkids are involved in it now. They call it the family book. And you got the older ones reading it to the younger ones. That's one of the legacies that I want to leave. One of the things I do in my spare time is, I'm a substitute teacher at the local high school and the middle school, so that I can give something back to my community.

But I think that's what I think all of us need to know. When we're gone, what is it that they're going to be remembered for? And that's why it's important for us to share these experiences, pass on the experiences. And hopefully, you guys are on the babyboomer.org, someone's going to learn something from one of your podcasts. That's a legacy. That's what we want. If we can touch one person or two people with information that makes them better, and makes them want to help others in their community, so that their community gets stronger, that's what it's all about.

Curtis Worcester:

That's fantastic.

Ben Smith:

Love that. Marc, thank you so much for coming on our show. Really, the pleasure is all ours. I know we learned a lot today. I know our listeners did too. We will have, obviously, we'll link babyboomer.org on our show notes, we'll have a link to both books, the, I Don't Want to Turn 3. So perhaps some of our listeners out there can buy that book, and they can read that to their grandkids.

Curtis Worcester:

That's right.

Ben Smith:

But also there's, I think we got some entrepreneurs and business owners in the midst too, which we've kind of covered in a few shows. So maybe they might check out Secrets of Retailing and How to Beat Walmart. So that's something else. We'll put those two links in there as well. But thank you so much for coming on our show and sharing some of your knowledge around turning, "OK, boomer," to, "Thanks, boomer."

Marc Joseph:

I appreciate you inviting me. Thanks.

Ben Smith:

Have a great day, Marc.

Austin Minor:

Thanks, Marc.

Curtis Worcester:

All right, so obviously a really good conversation there with Marc Joseph, right? Talking about turning this, "OK, boomer," attitude into, "Thanks, boomer." And Marc had some good perspective there for us. Obviously his kind of living as a sandwich generation that we brought up, spent a lot of time with his grandkids, wrote the books. Again, a really great conversation, a lot of perspective there from Mark, who's in the baby boomer generation himself.

Kind of as we always do with all of our shows, we will have a website here with some resources. I know Ben just kind of listed those off for everyone. A couple books from Marc's website, baby boomer.org. So if you go to our website, which is blog.guidancepointllc.com/85.

Again, we're episode 85. You'll, again, find our transcript, a link to our video, those resources for Marc. But as always, thank you so much for tuning in. Again, a fun conversation for us. We have some really good ones lined up that we're excited to share down the road. But thank you as always for your listenership, and we will catch you next time.