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January 29, 2025 33 mins

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How do shared experiences shape a generation? What role do grandparents play in the lives of their families? And how can Baby Boomers leave a lasting legacy for future generations?

In this episode, Caleb Richardson sits down with Marc Joseph, (aka “Gramps”) the visionary founder of BabyBoomer.org. Together, they delve into the mission of the platform and the unique journey of the Baby Boomer generation, highlighting how their shared history has shaped their outlook on life, family, and community.

The conversation touches on the evolving role of technology in communication, the enduring importance of grandparenting, and the timeless values of love and family in raising children. Marc passionately advocates for Baby Boomers to remain active, share their hard-earned wisdom, and inspire younger generations.

Whether you're a Baby Boomer yourself, or part of a younger generation eager to learn from their insights, this episode is packed with meaningful lessons and powerful takeaways. Tune in to hear Marc’s advice on staying engaged, leaving a meaningful legacy, and what’s next for BabyBoomer.org as it continues to connect and empower a generation.

Takeaways

  • Baby Boomers share a unique set of experiences that connect them.
  • The mission of BabyBoomer.org is to provide resources for Baby Boomers.
  • 30% of Baby Boomers are not involved in their grandchildren's lives.
  • Teaching children how to think is crucial for their development.
  • Reading to grandchildren fosters bonding and listening skills.
  • Technology has changed the way Baby Boomers communicate.
  • Baby Boomers own a significant number of businesses in the U.S.
  • The importance of family and love is paramount in parenting.
  • Leaving a legacy is about sharing wisdom with younger generations.
  • Engagement with the community is essential for Baby Boomers.

Timestamp to navigate through the episode:
02:58 The Mission of BabyBoomer.org
05:58 Shared Experiences of Baby Boomers
09:02 The Role of Grandparents in Modern Families
11:51 Teaching the Next Generation
14:56 The Impact of Technology on Baby Boomers
18:04 Legacy and Wisdom of the Baby Boomer Generation
21:12 Reflections on Growing Up as a Baby Boomer
23:59 The Importance of Family and Love
26:58 Challenges and Opportunities for Baby Boomers
29:59 Advice for Aging Well
31:47 Future Initiatives of BabyBoomer.org

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
How do shared experiences shape a generation,
what role do grandparents playin the lives of their families,
and how can baby boomers leave alasting legacy for future
generations?
In this episode, I sit downwith Mark Joseph aka Gramps, the
visionary founder ofbabyboomerorg, and together we
dive into the mission of theplatform and the unique journey
of the baby boomer generation,highlighting how they have a

(00:21):
shared history that have shapedtheir outlook on life, their
family and community.
The conversation touches onevolving the role of technology
and communications, the enduringimportance of grandparenting
and the timeless value of loveand family in raising children.
Mark passionately advocates forbaby boomers to remain active,
share their heart and wisdom andinspire the younger generations
.
So, whether you're a babyboomer yourself, part of the

(00:42):
younger generation, eager tolearn from their insights, or
you're simply someone that'sinterested in the art of aging
gracefully, this episode ispacked with meaningful lessons
and powerful takeaways.
Tune in to hear Mark's advice ofstaying engaged, leaving a
meaningful legacy.
And what's next forbabyboomerorg as it continues to
connect and empower ageneration.
First, mark, thank you so muchfor taking the time, um, and I

(01:13):
really like the mission thatyou're building at babyboomerorg
, so I'd love to kind of talkabout that mission first.
So what is the mission and whatinspired you to create
babyboomerorg?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
well, as you well know I appreciate you inviting
me to uh to your show is thebaby boomer generation is as
diverse as any generation beforeand after it.
I mean, whether it's inpolitics, religion, ideas you
just see it now going on in ourcountry.
You know it's very diverse.
In common that many of theseother generations don't is this

(01:46):
shared and connected experience,because when we were growing up
there were three televisionstations and we all had
landlines.
So, yeah, that's how we got allof our information.
So we've got this cohesivegeneration just grew up on the
same stuff.
You know that's how we grew up.
Yeah, you know we were there forthe kennedy assassinations.
You know our generationexperienced Martin Luther King
assassination.
Martin Luther King wasyesterday, so we appreciate that

(02:09):
.
Landing on the moon.
We were there for that when wewere growing up.
Birth control became verywidespread in the baby boomer
generation.
Vietnam Vietnam was adefinition of our generation.
We had riots in the streets inthe late 60s but we had all this
great music.
I mean, when you think about it, elvis, beach Boys, the Beatles

(02:32):
, the Three Dog Nine,association Supremes we had all
this wonderful music that bringsus as a generation together.
We had all those great moviesButch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kids, all the Jaws, all thoseBill River movies, really,
animal House, star Wars, theGodfather all these shared
experiences brought us together.
So we decided to build thissite, not only to share all

(02:56):
these wonderful things we didwhen we were growing up, but to
be talking about what we'redoing now.
I mean, we've got the areas forhow to play pickleball, you
know, retirement travel,investments and all that kind of
stuff, and so what we're doingnow and then we're also have a
big part of the site on what'sgoing to happen to us in the
future Alzheimer's and dementia.

(03:17):
I know you've had some seriouspodcasts on those subjects.
You know we've got major, majorinformation about that.
So we decided to pull this alltogether.
Myself and three other babyboomers got together and how it
really started was I had writtena children's book.

(03:39):
It's called I Don't Want toTurn Three.
I think it skipped, yeah that'ssweet.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
I don't want to turn three, I'm getting skipped.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, that's sweet.
And as I was promoting the bookand going around talking about
the book and what would be therole of parents and grandparents
, it became very apparent to methat our generation, the baby
boomer generation, was notinvolved in the raising of the
grandkids.
30% of us, 30% of baby boomers,are just not involved.

(04:12):
There's all kinds of reasonsfor that.
One of the reasons could be iswe don't like to spouse our kid
Mary, so we don't get involved.
That could be one reason for it.
You know, we, we, we give ourkids unsolicited advice.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
No, way yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
You raised me, I'm going to you, know you raised me
.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
I'm going to be a great parent.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
You go do your thing.
So there's all kinds of reasons.
You know that we're not.
You know we undermine our, our,our parent, our kids authority
when they come to play with us.
We may show, uh, you know,favorites uh of all these
grandkids, you know.
Yeah, now I have my favorite.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Well, at least you're yeah at least you're willing to
say I didn't even call my wife.
It is an interesting like uhtopic.
I haven't even told my wifethat's funny, but uh, I was
actually uh listening to thisguy talking about how it's
almost medicinal for seniors tohave interaction with their
grandkids, like even proximity,if they, like you know, live in

(05:15):
the same town and they like seeeach other at walmart.
It's like so reassuring.
So it is an interesting thing Ididn't realize happening with
baby boomers compared to othergenerations of like involvement
of grandkids with theirgrandparents, with their
grandkids.
That's very intriguing to me.
I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah.
So that's one of the reasons westarted the site is we wanted a
place where the 30% ofgrandparents who really don't
care much about the grandkidscan gather, get information.
I mean because it's so importantfor us to be involved in the
raising of this newestgeneration.
And, when you think about it,these kids that are from zero to

(05:53):
10 years old are going to bethe smartest generation this
country has ever produced.
I mean, you think about it assoon as they come out of the
womb they're on the internet.
They got their cell phones,they've got all this electronic
stuff that we never had.
I mean, they're going to be somuch smarter than us.
But we, as grandparents, havegot to get involved with them to
get teaching things outside ofthe cell phone, outside of the

(06:16):
internet.
You know how to go out and play, how to get involved, how to
communicate, how to haverelationships.
So that's why we, as thisgeneration, has got to get
involved with the youngestgeneration, because we've got to
round them out, because, again,they're they're going to be
much smarter than we ever were.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
It is an interesting like how you mentioned baby
boomers.
You had so many universalexperiences because there were
only so many options at the time, and I think that's something
that the younger generation canpull from.
The baby boomer generation isthat the diversity among young
people, not just of likepolitical or socioeconomic or

(06:52):
anything, but the diversity ofinterest because the entire
world is available to them.
So you have people in like theMidwest that are obsessed with
like Korean pop.
That wouldn't have neverhappened like 60 years ago,
because they have every aspectof the world available and so
kind of having that re-centeringor grounding or finding some
sort of combined experience forthese younger generations,

(07:16):
rather than everybody being ontheir own kind of separate line
or journey, surrounded by peopletheir age that have zero common
interest because they're theyhave everything available.
So you have one person that'slike obsessed with football, one
person that's obsessed withlike anime, and it's just like
no congruence kind of.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Well, when you think about, the role of parents and
grandparents is to teachchildren how to think, not what
to think.
They're going to learn what tothink later on in life.
We have to teach them how tothink, how to keep an open mind.
And if you think about it andagain, it's because I'm a kid's
author and so I'm prejudiced atthis but we need to teach them,

(08:03):
we need to get them involved inthe reading of books.
You know, they've got theirinternet.
Let's get them involved in thereading of the books and you
think about that.
You know, and just picture as agrandparent I got my little
grandkids, say, three, four,five, six years old, and so you
decide I'm going to sit downthere and read a book with them.
It only takes 20 minutes, it'snot like it's some major event.

(08:23):
But if you think about just theaction of reading a book with a
kid sitting on your lap, allthe different benefits.
One of the benefits is thebonding.
It gives you a chance to reallyspend time with your child
outside of the noise ofeverything else your grandchild.
So you should be reading booksto your grandchildren just for

(08:44):
the bonding Get closer to them.
Another reason that you shouldbe reading books to your
grandkids is it supportslistening skills.
Now you and I both know, as wehave grown older, that listening
skills is our number one skill.
You, as a podcaster, you've gotto listen.
You've got to listen.
Yeah, you know what you'redoing, so you ask the right

(09:06):
questions.
You know, or find the rightpeople.
You know I have to listen topeople that we are dealing with
to make sure our site is betterthan it was yesterday, and so
the listening skills that wehave to have, you know.
This teaches them.
If you just sit down 20 minutesa day or night and read a book
to a child, it teaches them howto listen and that's a skill
that's going to really pay offfor them down the road.
Another reason we should bereading books to children is it

(09:29):
helps with the cognitive andlanguage development when
they're real little two, three,four, five, six years old.
There's plenty of these wordsin these books that they don't
understand because you can'texplain it to them.
Let them get involved with that.
There's a lot of words in thesebooks I don't understand.
I got to go look up.
So learning the experience foreveryone.
And then you know the attentionspan when you're two, three,

(09:49):
four years old.
You're bouncing off the wallall day long.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, I've got a three-year-old, so you know what
I'm talking about looks perfectfor you.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
I don't want to turn three, so you know you get.
You give them a concentration,self-discipline.
So I would highly recommendthat anyone in your audience
take that time, be thatgrandparent, be that parent who
actually reads books to yourkids, because they're not
getting a lot of that Once theyget on the internet and in their
phones.
They're not getting that.
But balance what they'relearning there with how you can
balance them and teach them,because, again, it's our job is

(10:25):
to teach them how to think, notwhat to think yeah, what are
some.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
So what aspect of the baby boomer era do you think
you you suggest to people thatthey want to impart or rub off
on their, the younger generationon how to think?
What unique insight comes fromit?

Speaker 2 (10:45):
you the the best thing to thinking about how to
think is that you want people toto go after their passions.
Okay, you know, one of thethings and I think baby boomers
kind of realize this is they'regetting there in their 60s and
70s is they may have had allthese great passions when they
were kids and now, but they hadto go to work.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
You know they had to make a living.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, and now it's a chance for us, as baby boomers,
to explore our passions, whetheryou want to be a writer, or you
want to have a hobby, or youwant to be a woodworker, if you
want to be a teacher.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
So that's what we need to impart onto all these
younger generations is, asyou're learning and exploring
don't be afraid to go after yourpassion, because that's what's

(11:45):
going to make you who you aretoday.
Yeah, I think that technologyhas definitely made it where you
can kind of do those two thingsin tandem, where you can
provide for your family and andstart a career, but also, like
the side hustle culture of todaywhere, like everybody has, so
many people can explore passion,start a blog, research
something, do school at night,like so many other things that
make it so they can do thosethings in tandem.
What other ways do you thinktechnology has maybe impacted

(12:08):
that baby boomer generation?

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Because it has, like I said, it's impacted the
younger generation in so manyways attention span connection,
like real connection, person toperson, irl, in real life
connection, um, and I think thatthat does have an impact on
baby boomers, but maybe there'ssome positive impacts that
you've noticed as well well, youknow, life is so different than
it was 20 years ago yeah, wedidn't have our little cell

(12:33):
phones that we use and we areeducated, and so, whereas it
also gives us a chance tocommunicate better because now
you can, you can call or, mainly, text, as I'm learning from my
kids, yeah, they prefer Texas itgets you a chance to be the
communicate.
You know, what's interesting iswe kind of build our site to

(12:55):
talk about what you're justtalking about.
You know, when you go to oursite, you'll see that we have
748 contributors to the site.
In other words, the way it'sbuilt is that we have gotten a
hold of many, many of the bestexperts in the country to
contribute their content to oursite.
So our site becomes a brand newsite every day, because the

(13:19):
latest podcasts are uploaded,the latest articles, the latest
blogs, but everything that is isrelevant to that, and so,
within, you know, with these 748contributors from all over the
country that are, you know,adding content to the site, you
know we've been able to createso far 379 different departments
.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
You know we have a department.
You talked about being anentrepreneur, being a solo.
You know doing your own thing.
We have departments for that.
You know we've got thedepartments for the dementia and
for Alzheimer's and Parkinson'sand all that.
We've got those departments.
So we've been able to pulltogether all these different
departments and all these kindsof interests.

(14:00):
And the reason we're so diverseis when you step back and think
about it.
Even though the baby boomergeneration is getting older.
There are still 12 millionbusinesses that are owned by
baby boomers.
Yeah, that's insane.
Yeah, those are 12 millionbusinesses all throughout this
country, in every small town,every big town.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
That's almost 50% of all.
Isn't there like 30 millionbusinesses in the US, or
something like that?
So it's literally like 50% areowned by your generation, which
is, yeah, you know, and they'vegot to pass it on.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Eventually, yeah, we're dying, so we got to pass
it on.
So some goes on to their kids,some gets sold.
So we with 12 millionbusinesses still owned by baby
boomers.
We have a tremendous part ofour site devoted to marketing
and social media and LinkedInand everything that you need to

(14:54):
build your business.
We even have an area for exit.
In other words, how are yougoing to start your business?
What are you going to do withthat?
So, but when you think about it, so we've got all these
different departments that we'vecreated for our generation, and
and so we've got 150,000 pageson the site.
We've got 132,000 differentpodcast episodes on the site.

(15:17):
We got hundreds of books on thesite, and so we built this to
to to share with our generation.
But what we found is where wethought only the baby boomers
would be coming to the site.
It's really their kids andtheir grandkids, because they're
just trying to understand.
Who are these baby boomers?
Yeah, it's driving them, yeah,so so that's what's so fun about

(15:39):
this site.
It's a it's information thatchanges every day.
It's all the latest informationfor our generation, but you
know a lot of them you're not ababy boomer, you're contributing
yeah yeahso it is part of you know, this
whole experience of as we'regrowing older.
How can we share with what wehave?
Because, in reality, the job ofbaby boomers today is to help

(16:04):
educate the younger generations.
And you know, as you get older,each decade, you get smarter,
because you make a lot moremistakes and you can learn from
them.
A lot more mistakes and you canlearn from them.
And if we can take the time asthe older generation to spend

(16:26):
time with your generation, withour grandkids generation, you
know and teach them to help themmake less mistakes than us, and
that's great because, when youthink about it, you can't take
anything with you when you'regone.
You're gone, you can't takeyour money, you can't take any.
You know what do you leavebehind?
What's your legacy?
What, what, what are peoplegoing to remember you?

Speaker 1 (16:45):
yeah, they need to remember us for helping the
other younger generations bebetter than we ever were yeah,
that's a, a crusade or a hillthat I'm that I'll die on um,
where it is the, the baby boomergeneration, and then the
generations, uh, before you.
They're like their role is tomake it right.

(17:07):
You guys climbed, your parentsand your grandparents, and now
it's like cement that, thatlevel that you've created, or
that platform that you've gottento, so that way the next
generations can grow off of it.
It was an interesting thingthat I talk about all the time.
So Eric Erickson is apsychoanalyst and he basically
he created the psychosocialdevelopment of human beings.

(17:28):
So, like every phase of life,there's something that drives
you or makes you feel motivatedor purposeful.
And, just like you nailed itwith baby boomers or seniors,
older adults, what makes themfeel the most valuable is like
giving, giving all of theirwisdom, giving their insights,

(17:49):
teaching, imparting their legacy, cause really, that's like you
said, you can't take anythingwith you, so you want to, and
I'm everybody's on this journeywhere it's like, when you take
your last breath, you wantsomething that'll outlast you
and the only thing that reallywill is the lessons that you've
lived.
Even like investments or assetsor money, only last a couple of

(18:09):
generations before somebodysquabbles it, so squanders it.
So, yeah, I think it'ssomething that is so
underappreciated but with onboth sides, among older adults
and younger people of like thatis how one we get incredible
fulfillment, at least in my, inthe, all the experience that
I've had and within, like mycompany and everything, sitting

(18:32):
down and listening to thestories of vietnam and the riots
and and uh, the assassinationsand the political movements and
all of those things that youjust even if you were like a
regular run of the mill guy thatwent to work nine to five and
but you were there the newsarticles that everything that
you experienced is somethingthat learning about it from you,

(18:57):
rather than a textbook injunior high or like elementary,
like these kids are now, youknow all that stuff happened 60
years ago, so they're learningabout it in school, but it's so
much more impactful and umlasting to have it come from an
older person that lived it andideally it's a grandparent.
But if you don't have grandkidsor, like you said, maybe you

(19:19):
don't care for them as much likesome younger person you know.
Go and volunteer at the foodbank alongside a 21 year old
volunteer and talk about yourlife and I think it it's
mutually beneficial andenlightening in my opinion, but
yeah, what's interesting is thatyou kind of brought up is I go
back and I think about myparents.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Okay, my parents' generation grew up in the Great
Depression and then World War II.
It was a very disciplinedgeneration.
It was really the start of thebuilding of America, the suburbs
and so forth.
But they were quite disciplinedbecause they had to go through
all these hardships.
I mean, we haven't had to dealwith a depression like they had

(19:58):
to, we haven't had to deal witha World War II like they had to,
and so that kind of formedtheir generation and it was a
very disciplined, greatgeneration.
But the way they raised us,discipline-wise, was a lot
different than what you wereraised.
I mean, they were disciplined.
My dad, my mom, would say wait,wait until your dad gets home

(20:20):
and he would chase me around thekitchen table with a bell.
That's how they disciplined us.
We learned from that and Idon't think we did that to this
next generation.
But the discipline has changedand it's evolved and we've all
learned from the generations,and probably the discipline of
today's kids, much better thanwhen we were growing up.
And things change.

(20:40):
You talked about electronics.
We didn't have electronics, youknow, we had our three radios,
our three television stations,and so we didn't have our own
remotes like we have today.
I was my dad's remote.
He'd say, son, go change thechannel.
That was the remote of when Iwas growing up.
Yeah, that's funny.
So it really has evolved and Ithink it's evolved for the

(21:02):
better.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, I love that, um , this podcast has been flying.
I want to talk about some kindof fun side of being a baby
boomer, um, while I have you, umso looking back on your time, a
lot of those shared experiencesthat we touched on at the
beginning.
If you could relive one momentfrom your time as a baby boomer,
like growing up, um, all thosedecades, what would it be and
why would you want to relivethat time specifically?

Speaker 2 (21:29):
I think high school was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Yeah, what decade was that?

Speaker 2 (21:34):
This was back in the late sixties.
That's awesome, that's so cool.
Yeah, it was.
It was, uh, you know, yourwhole life evolved around it.
Evolved around the sports orthe band or the drama, the
dramatics, or you know that itwas very relatable and I grew up
in a small town so the wholetown was into it.

(21:56):
Yeah, and then once you gothere and go to college or move
on your own, you don't have thatsame feeling.
So, and I think that's why, ifyou look at the uh, you know the
reunions, I mean my generationis doing their 50 year reunion,
55 year reunion, 60 year.
You know high school and a lotof people show up is because it

(22:18):
was a time when you wereyourself and there wasn't a lot
of pressure on you and youdidn't have to.
You know it, it was, it wastrue growing up.
Yeah, I hope kids are gettingthat same experience.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, each generation drawing like I said, kind of
drawing that line, Cause I so Igraduated in 2017, so just a
couple of decades apart.
But, um, it's fun to think that, yeah, the same idea, where it
was like the experience of highschool and having that proximity
.
You're in the same age group,you're all on this, everybody's

(22:50):
in the same curriculum,Everybody's on the same path.
It's just something that's hardto relive and it's something
that it's a cool thing that wecan connect generation to
generation, like thosefundamental early memories of
life.
Even though the circumstancesor like the, the trends of the
time are different, the concept,or like the feelings I think

(23:13):
are can have a lot of kind of um, similarities, Um, what is so?
We talked a little bit aboutgrandkids and how you have a
secret favorite grandkid, Justkidding.
What's your favorite memorywith your grandchildren?
And then how would you saybeing a grandfather and kind of,
getting to this stage of yourlife has influenced your

(23:33):
perspective on life?

Speaker 2 (23:36):
My book I Don't Want to Turn Three is a true story.
Look, I don't want to turn.
Three is a true story.
It's about my six grandkids.
That's awesome.
And there was one of them wasturning three and he was kind of
a real devil.
He was stealing all his othergrandkids' toys and they finally
discovered it.
The oldest grandchild, who wasrunning a campaign in her school

(24:01):
about giving to the homeless,talked to all the other kids
into giving all the presents,all the kids to stuff, to the
homeless kids.
Oh wow.
But so it's a true story and soit's been fun to watch these
kids because they're all in it.
Again, everything's based onpictures I've taken of the kids
and then we had an artist go inand make it into it, so they are

(24:27):
all part of it, so they kind ofthey call it their book, yeah,
and so every once in a while,like you know, during the
holiday season, I saw the oldestgrandchild grab a couple of the
younger ones and they wentunderneath my desk for some
reason and they're reading thebook to each other.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
That's me I did that.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
That's me.
So if you talk about memories,that's what will stick with me.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah, I love that there was a study done about I
can't remember the sample size,but they talked to people that
were in their later years, somepeople literally on their
deathbed, some people retiringand losing that 40 to 60 hour a
week employment that gave thempurpose for so many decades, and

(25:16):
they were asking what was themost important thing or what do
you regret?
And a lot of the time it wasthings like that, like I didn't
make enough memories during myworking years or, like you know,
those are the things thatactually have mattered.
When they talk about it,they're not like oh my gosh, we
crushed last quarter.
We crushed the quarter back in1994.

(25:36):
It was unreal.
Like that's not what they'retalking about.
Um, so that is really cool.
And then something else I wantedto touch on.
You talked about, like you said, your so my grandpa's from, I
think it's the silent generationor something.
He was right on the tail end ofthe great depression is when he
was born.
So yeah, he prides himself.
I'm a Scottish penny pincherand like, so disciplined, um, so

(26:00):
how was your upbringing kind ofbeing raised by that generation
?
How did it shape the way youview parenting and
grandparenting in today's world?
I think it's admirable where,generation to generation,
there's things that, like I said, we learned.
You know, chasing your kidaround the house with a belt to
cause fear isn't probably thebest way to grow love and

(26:20):
discipline, and so it'sadmirable that every generation
learns and makes changes.
So that way you know me, with athree-year-old that sometimes I
wish I could chase around thehouse with a belt I'm correcting
differently.
So how would you say that yourupbringing shaped the way that
you view parenting and then,specifically, grandparenting,

(26:40):
now that you get to get to just,uh, rent out the kids and
return them to the parents atthe end, when I was growing up,
there was a lot of love in myfamily, and when I say that is,
we live in a small town and mymother's brothers lived in a big
town but, every weekend wewould either go to their town or
they come to our, and we wouldalways be together.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
So it was a family experience, even though they all
were very disciplined.
I mean, I had a lot of greatcousins, but you could see that
the parents were on top of themto watch them, make sure they
didn't get out of line.
So if I was to grab anythingthat I learned from my parents
and my family is it's importantto show love, and in today's

(27:25):
world we don't do that.
That's awesome Single parents,divorces, all kinds of reasons
but among everything else, whatyou got to show is that the
child is included, is loved, isappreciated.
You know because, again, youknow, it's part of teaching them

(27:46):
how to think, you know if theysee around you that there's a
lot of respect and love amongthe peers and family.
They're going to take that on,whether they know it or not.
It's going to be being brededin them whether they know it or
not.
It's going to be being breadedin them whether they know it or
not.
So I think that's probably thegreatest thing that I learned
from my parents generation isthey're very tight-knit, you

(28:07):
know, and again, going throughall that stuff they had to go
through, I think that's one ofthe reasons they were so
tight-knit.
Yeah, you know, they saw that.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
You know we got to live for today because you never
know what tomorrow's going tobring yeah, I love that lesson,
um Living with love, kind ofleading with love, and then,
like I said, that tight knitcommunity of family I think is
so valuable.
I actually grew up on my greatgrandpa or something bought a
bunch of property and then hepartialed it out to his kids.

(28:36):
So I grew up with a bunch ofcousins and second cousins on my
street and it was that tightknit like potlucks very
regularly.
Um, so it is cool to see kindof those crossovers.
Like you said, it's like we'reon different parts of the world
or different parts of thecountry, but like the experience
because it was led by mygrandpa, you know same similar

(28:57):
experiences because they're ofthe same generation.
But we're coming close on time.
What do you see as some of thebiggest challenges and
opportunities that baby boomersare facing in the coming years
as you guys continue to age andinfluence the younger generation
?

Speaker 2 (29:13):
I think one of the things that we've got to stay on
top of is technology.
Okay, our generation, althoughyou know you think about it,
we've grown accustomed to it,but but you know, it is our way
of communicating with everybodyelse, whether we want to or not.
Yeah, like it or we don't likeit, so, so our biggest challenge

(29:35):
is to make sure that we'restaying up.
You know that we're part of theFacebook community.
As long as it's around, we gotto be part of all that kind of
stuff and so, again, it's nothow we grew up.
I mean, I didn't get onto thecomputer until I was 40 years
old.
That's crazy.
It's a whole different world.

(29:56):
Yeah, and it's the evolution ofthis country and the evolution
of the generations.
So we have just got to makesure that we make the effort.
You know, as you think about it, as people grow older, you
assume they want the youngerpeople to come to them.
We got to reach out to them.
You know, that's how we'regoing to be isolated if we're

(30:18):
not out there reaching out andnot just depending on everybody
else to come to us, and sothat's what we have to do we
have to make sure we share ourexperiences, leave our legacy
and keep communicating.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
I love that.
What's one piece of adviceyou'd give the younger
generation about aging?
Well, I loved your lesson onleading with love, but
specifically on how to age, what, what advice do you have for
people like me?

Speaker 2 (30:47):
It goes back to when, when I was growing up and my my
dad used to take me camping.
That's awesome.
One thing that he said to methat has been with me forever is
leave the campsite better thanyou found it.
Okay.
So, if we can interpret that,because it's not just for

(31:09):
camping leave the campsitebetter than you found it.
That's my advice for everybodythat is listening is try to
improve upon where you are today, not only for yourself, but
those around you and the youngergenerations.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Love that.
Are there any upcoming kind ofprojects or initiative for
babyboomerorg that you'reexcited about or want to
announce?
Talk about, oh, we're growing.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
We want everybody to get involved.
Again, even though we're calledbabyboomerorg, you don't have
to be a babyboomer to come ontoour site.
I would encourage everyone tojoin us because this year we're
going to be creating sharedcommunities.
So if you like certain things,if you're a pickleball player,
we'll have a whole area for that.

(31:57):
You become.
Talk to people Because, again,when I was growing up, most of
my relatives were around where Iam, where, now that I'm older
and my kids are growing up,they're all over the country, so
it's a different kind of thing.
It's not like you're down thestreet and you can talk to
people and be part of that, youknow.
So we're going to be creatinglots of communities within our
community for people with thewith the like same interests to

(32:21):
to get together and talk and toto really share their
experiences.
So I encourage everyonelistening just come on, join us.
You know, it's free, just joinus.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Awesome, I love that last shout out when can I buy?
I don't want to turn three, Iwant to buy it.
Read it to my boy, go right to.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
Amazoncom.
It's the easiest way to do it,or you can come to, but that's
probably the fastest way to doit Awesome.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
And then I know you're on LinkedIn.
If anybody wanted to talk toyou or somebody on your team
about being a contributor forbabyboomerorg, who should they
reach out?

Speaker 2 (32:54):
to yeah.
Go to Gramps JeffreyG-R-A-M-P-S-J-E-F-F-R-E-Y at
gmailcom.
Perfect, okay.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Okay, well, thanks so much, mark, and it was really a
great conversation.
I just really have enjoyed thelast half hour talking to you.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
You got it.
I appreciate the invitation.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Thanks.
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