July 23, 2025 • 25 mins
Curiosity isn't just for kids! In our new episode, Gramps Jeffrey of babyboomer.org and I explore how staying curious fuels business success and personal growth at any age. Don't miss this inspiring conversation! 🔍 #SmallBusiness #Curiosity #GrampsJeffrey
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Episode Transcript
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(00:10):
Welcome to the Water Troughwhere we can't make you drink,
but we will make you think.
My name is Ed Draws to the SmallBusiness Doctor, and I'm really
excited you chose to join mehere as we discuss topics that
are important for small businessfolks just like you.
If you're looking for ideas,inspiration, and possibility,
you've come to the right place.
Join us as we take steps to helpyou create the healthy business
that you've all.
Always wanted.
Ed Drozda (00:44):
Welcome back to The Water Trough folks, this is Ed
Drozda, The Small BusinessDoctor.
Today I'm joined by GrampsJeffrey, the pen name for Mark
Joseph, whose first book, theSecrets of Retailing, How to
Beat Walmart was written to helpentrepreneurs and small
businesses compete against thebig guys.
Gramps Jeffrey's children'sbook, I Don't Want to Turn
Three, explores what goesthrough a toddler's mind that
(01:07):
parents are so desperate tounderstand.
It's based on the trueexperiences he has had with his
six grandchildren by his threemillennial daughters.
Gramps is the co-founder of anew site, www.baby boomer.org,
which pulls together news andresources for the baby boomer
community.
The one thing baby boomers havein common is a connected, shared
(01:29):
experience.
Our generation has interest inmany things, chief among them
giving back and the legacy thatwe'll leave behind.
Gramps and his wife Kathy, livein Scottsdale, Arizona, where
two of his grandchildren alsolive.
He has two more in Austin,Texas, and two in Orlando,
Florida as well.
Mark, welcome to the show.
Gramps Jeffrey (01:50):
I appreciate the invitation.
Thanks for inviting me.
Ed Drozda (01:53):
It is a pleasure to have you here.
I'm grateful for thisopportunity, and I would like to
get started by posing thequestion to you; how is it that
you're able to get into theheads of three-year-olds?
That must have been quite aninteresting experience for you.
Gramps Jeffrey (02:09):
Well, I had the experience because I wrote this
book during COVID, and one timeI had all six of the grandkids
here for about six weeks.
So I had a chance to really getinto who they are and what they
do, you know?
And all six kids had completelydifferent personalities.
But the one thing that they didhave in common was a sense of
curiosity.
When you think about it as wegrow older, we all need to have
(02:32):
that curiosity sense.
Even as we get into the babyboomer ages, keep being curious,
and that's one thing I learnedfrom them.
I also learned how excited theyget when they do accomplish
something.
Watching them grow year to yearand interact with each other is
really the basis for this book,'cause it's a true story.
What goes through a toddler'smind?
When does a toddler reallyunderstand the difference
(02:53):
between me and us?
So this book explores how myfamily finds all of that out.
Ed Drozda (03:00):
Very cool, and go down the curiosity path.
You mentioned that for children,obviously this is probably the
hallmark childhood, and it issomething that's valuable to us
even today as baby boomers, butmany of us have lost our sense
of curiosity.
What is your perspective oncuriosity and success in
(03:20):
business?
Gramps Jeffrey (03:21):
I think that it goes back to when we learn how
to read books to our kids.
The greatest thing that we asgrandparents or parents can do
is sit down and read tochildren.
Read to'em every night if youcan.
There's all kinds of benefits ofreading to children, which we
take into our life today.
It's all part of that curiosityyou talk about.
(03:43):
The most important thing that Isee in it is that when you read
to a child, it requires them tolisten.
Now you and I both know that aswe've grown older listening
skills is the number one skillwe have.
You as a podcaster have tolisten to your people that
you're interviewing, so you canadd in intelligent questions.
(04:05):
I have to listen to ourcustomers on our side of baby
boomer.org to make sure thatwe've got the best content for
them.
So it all starts when you're alittle kid.
And you as a parent orgrandparent reading books to
kids can instill this listeningskill to them.
This is a skill, much like thecuriosity skill that they're
gonna have for the rest of theirlives, and it'll help drive
(04:28):
their lives.
Another reason why we should bereading books to kids when
they're little like this is forcognitive and language
development.
There's plenty of words in thesebooks I don't understand.
I gotta go look'em up.
But there's other words that youcan sit there and explain to
these kids.
So make sure you're reading tokids and let'em be curious about
these books.
And the last reason you shouldread to'em is attention span.
(04:50):
When you're 2, 3, 4 years old,you're running all over the
yard.
But if you can get'em in yourlap for 20 minutes, helps
develop concentration andself-discipline, and again, as
we know as adults, this is whatyou need to be successful in
life.
Ed Drozda (05:07):
Indeed there's a lot of fundamental development.
Well, fundamental development ofcourse, is the basis of
childhood and that is the basisof future development in life.
So the curiosity is somethingthat we take with us throughout
our lives; we start at a youngage, and as you say, you're
inspiring that curiosity,feeding it by reading to, which
(05:28):
is a great way to instill thenotion of curiosity.
As we get older we forget whatit was like to be a child, to
have that wide-eyed wondermentabout what is new and unique.
We lose that sense of excitementthat we once took for granted,
because that's just the way itwas.
Right.
And here we are today again,people like yourself and myself,
(05:50):
we're baby boomers.
We've been around for a littlewhile, post World War II babies,
and we are moving on to a stagewhere the loss of that
wonderment is effectively a lossto us.
In my opinion, I think we'velost that spark, not necessarily
all of us, but I think there wasa tendency to have lost that
(06:12):
spark.
How do we reignite that?
With your proximity to thesegrandkids, and of course they're
growing every day, how do wereignite that spark in us old
folks?
Gramps Jeffrey (06:24):
We gotta realize that we're not really old, we're
just getting aged.
And so we can do the same thingsthat we did when we were
younger, but maybe not playpickleball as fast as we want
to, or throw the ball as hard,but we can still do that.
Okay?
So don't lose sight that we havea whole bunch of life left to
(06:44):
live.
One of the reasons that wecreated baby boomer.org is
because the one thing that babyboomers do have in common is the
shared, connected experiencesthat we all grew up with.
You touched upon it; we weregrowing up as baby boomers, much
like I'm seeing what mygrandkids are growing up through
(07:05):
their young age and they'rehaving different experiences.
We were there for the Kennedy'sassassinations.
We were there for Martin LutherKing when he died.
We were there for landing on themoon.
We were there when birth controlbecame widespread.
That was our generation; we hadto go through Vietnam as well as
Kent State.
We all experienced this.
At the same time, we have thingsthat we really have in common.
(07:27):
The music.
Think about it.
You had Elvis, the Beach Boys,Beatles, Three Dog Knight
Association, Supremes, weexperienced all that.
We had the movies, landlines.
That's how we communicated witheach other.
We didn't have cell phones.
We only grew up with threetelevision stations.
So we got all this informationas a group together.
We learned all this together,and that's what's so unique
(07:50):
about our generation.
We were molded together.
Ed Drozda (07:53):
We were molded together and we have certainly
banded together.
I guess like other generationsbefore us, although I get the
sense, maybe because I am a babyboomer, that we're a bit more
bonded than other generationssince us, and maybe again, it's
just a selfish interpretationbecause I went through it.
As time goes on the populationof baby boomers will age out,
(08:18):
which is a nice way of sayingthat we will no longer walk the
face of this earth, but we willhave another place somewhere.
There's a Woodstock in the skyfor all of us, and I know we're
headed there, so, we'll be fine.
But having said that, as thesebaby boomers, are we looked upon
as the elderly?
Are we looked upon as the wise?
(08:40):
Are we looked upon as folks whohave things to offer those who
are younger than us?
Which do you think?
Gramps Jeffrey (08:48):
That's an interesting question because it
varies with how you have arelationship with your children
and your grandchildren.
Mm-hmm.
Some of them think that we'revery wise.
Some of them think, hey you guysreally spoiled the earth, we
gotta rebuild it.
But don't lose sight that out ofthe 70 million baby boomers,
(09:11):
there are still 12 million babyboomers who still own
businesses.
Mm-hmm.
They are driving the economy.
It's hard to believe that 12million businesses are still
owned by baby boomers.
So they do influence, they domentor others.
They do understand what we'redoing,'cause when you think
about that, that represents 60%of all small business owners in
(09:33):
the us.
Yeah.
And there's gonna be majorchanges.
I mean, you're right, we'regonna die.
So what are we gonna do withthese businesses that we own?
Are we gonna be passing'em on?
Are we gonna be selling them?
Are they gonna disappear?
Our generation is expected totransfer 30 trillion dollars in
inheritance.
That's the largest wealthtransfer in the history of the
(09:55):
United States.
So how are we gonna do that?
Are we gonna do it because ofthe legacy we wanna leave?
We gonna do it because our kidsdeserve it?
That's another question thisgeneration has to deal with.
All of this has to do with thequestion you ask: how do they
look at us?
Do they look at us, hey, there'sthe bank.
See you later.
Those are all heavy questionsthat we all need to think about.
Ed Drozda (10:18):
I think that's fascinating.
By the way, I had not heard that60% of businesses today are
actually boomer run businesses.
It's quite amazing.
I'd have to say that as ageneration, we've done pretty
well for ourselves.
Now, we had more time toaccomplish this too.
In all fairness to those thatcame after us, we've had more
time to put those thingstogether.
(10:38):
But I do think that puts us inthe position of being
tremendously influential, notelderly, but definitely wise,
and that we have, I would say, aresponsibility to share our
wisdom with others who areyounger than us, who are moving
along into the same spaces thatwe occupy
Gramps Jeffrey (10:58):
Interesting that you bring that up because think
about entrepreneurship and beingan entrepreneur.
What do you do if you wanna bean entrepreneur?
You gotta realize that if youwanna open up your own business,
and that goes back to curiosity,it goes back to wanting to lead,
it goes back to wanting toshare, but you're gonna realize
that 20% of new businesses failin the first year.
(11:20):
50% fail in five years.
So you gotta say what causesthese businesses to fail?
And one of the things I suggestto all these younger people that
wanna open businesses is bounceideas off of the baby boomer
generation'cause they've gonethrough it.
We've got a lot of knowledge.
We have learned from ourmistakes.
(11:40):
Now ask yourself, why dobusinesses fail?
Well, 42% of small businessesfail because there's no market
for their product or services.
You may have developed the bestsliced bread in the world, but
if nobody wants to buy it,you've made a mistake.
And that's why most businessesfail.
You didn't do your research, youdidn't find out exactly is there
(12:03):
a market for my great idea.
29% of businesses fail becausethey don't have enough capital
when they're building theirbusiness.
If you're an entrepreneur andyou wanna open a business,
you've gotta say to yourself, Ineed six months of cash as if I
had no sales.
Mm-hmm.
So that's another reason whythese businesses fail; there's
not enough money to sustain thebusiness.
(12:25):
23% of small businesses failbecause they fail to communicate
and they don't build a team.
If you think you're the bestentrepreneur in the world, you
gotta be able to communicate.
You gotta be able to tell peoplewhat you think.
And then at the same time, nobusiness can run by itself.
You need other people to helpyou.
(12:46):
So you've gotta be able to builda team of people that trust you.
Those are all traits that ifyou're new to the
entrepreneurial world, ask oneof these 12 million baby
boomers, how'd you do it?
Why are you still around?
How can you mentor me to make mybusiness successful?
So I'm not part of that 50% thatfail in the first five years?
(13:07):
So that's one resource thatothers can use our generation
for.
Ed Drozda (13:11):
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Regarding entrepreneurs andcommunication, it is a
discussion in and of itself.
Entrepreneurs, broadly speaking,are folks that are accustomed to
a certain degree ofindependence, and I'm not
suggesting that they'recompletely enfolded upon
themselves, but that there'sdefinitely an ambition to be a
(13:35):
self succeeding type of aperson.
That said, the importance ofcommunication is often lost or
is not well cultivated in thatenvironment.
There is a challenge in manycases because there's a sense of
ownership and pride about thething that I've developed, my
concept, my product, my service,whatever it might be, and
(13:58):
letting go of that and sharingthat with other people is often
a challenge.
What kind of advice would yougive to the young entrepreneur
in that regard.
About the necessity forcommunication and how it might
be a challenge for them?
Gramps Jeffrey (14:15):
Going back to a kid sitting on my lap and before
you even read the book to them,you should ask them, what do you
think's gonna happen in thisbook?
Okay.
That's what an entrepreneurshould be asking?
What do I think's really gonnahappen if I could bring up this
concept?
Once you start reading to thechildren you gotta ask them, who
are the characters in this book?
(14:37):
Where is the setting in thisbook?
Yeah.
So again, as an entrepreneur,you gotta be curious, you gotta
be asking these kinds ofquestions.
Then you ask the little kid,does anything sound familiar to
you in this book?
Which really opens up lots oftalk.
Same thing with an entrepreneur.
Yeah.
And then after reading the bookto these kids, you need to say
(15:00):
to them, what is your favoritepart?
Why is that your favorite part?
These are all questions that weshould be asking ourselves, as
we are developing concepts toopen up businesses and to become
entrepreneurs.
Keep that curiosity alive.
Ed Drozda (15:17):
That's really cool.
What I'm hearing you say it'staking mentorship to a
significantly deeper level thanmentorships often go.
It's really asking people to goback to the very basics, what
brought you here?
Why are you here?
What was your inspiration to behere in the first place, and now
that you're here, does it lookthe same as you thought it was
gonna be when you got here?
(15:37):
You're asking very basicquestions that people sometimes
are inclined to say, oh, that'stoo simplistic, it doesn't
matter.
When we both know, oh yeah, itmatters completely.
Gramps Jeffrey (15:49):
Yeah, it's what you do on the ground.
It's the basics that you takecare of first in order to build
a successful career orsuccessful business.
You can't skip over thosethings.
You really need the time to askyourself those curiosity
questions.
Ed Drozda (16:06):
Absolutely.
I think that's a great lessonfor people of any age, for sure.
Again, we may have had more timeto sort through these things.
We have had more opportunity tobe exposed to the shortcomings
if we don't do this.
But I think that it is really,really important to drive home
(16:28):
for younger people who reallyare faced with so many competing
elements, so much frustrationbecause the speed of things is
so fast, things are soaccelerated.
They often don't have the timeto step back and just go, wait a
minute, I didn't think aboutthat.
At least be aware.
Gramps Jeffrey (16:46):
Absolutely.
You hit right on it.
Be aware.
Ed Drozda (16:50):
And that is the crux of everything, isn't it?
First, to be aware.
Gramps Jeffrey (16:54):
Oh, you need to be aware of your surroundings.
Be aware of where you want togo.
When you think about yourtravels through life, the only
reason that we that are in ourfifties, sixties, seventies, and
eighties may have a little moreinformation is because we've
made more mistakes.
We have learned from thosemistakes and it's up to us to
(17:16):
communicate to the youngergenerations.
That's our legacy.
When you think about it, nomatter how much money you've
made, when you die what do youleave behind?
They're gonna inherit it, sothey'll forget about that.
But what is your real legacy,because you can't take any of
this money with you.
What are you leaving behind toyour kids and your grandkids?
That's what you've always gottakeep in mind.
(17:37):
What can I pass on that I havelearned by my mistakes so that
they don't make the samemistakes?
Now whether they listen to you,that's a different story, but at
least you should be able toshare that with them.
And that's the kind ofrelationship as we grow older,
we need to have with our kidsand grandkids.
No matter all the potential wemay have had over the years,
(18:01):
keep in mind that's our legacy.
We want this generation to bebetter than we are.
I'm telling you, these kids thatare one to 10 years old today,
they are gonna be the greatestgeneration this country or this
world has ever seen,'cause whenyou think about it, as soon as
they come out of the wombthey've got a cell phone,
they're on the internet.
They've got all kinds oftechnology given to them.
(18:23):
I didn't get onto the internettill I was 40 years old, so they
are so far ahead.
Of any of us.
So we as parents andgrandparents need to make sure
that we are adding to that,again, they're gonna be much
smarter than we ever were, butwe still gotta teach'em to go
outside and play.
We still have to teach'em how totalk to each other.
(18:44):
That's part of our legacy too,is what can we do to really grow
these kids outside of all thiselectronic stuff that they will
be and are much better than weever were.
Ed Drozda (18:57):
So baby boomer.org, your site.
I'm curious if you have thingsset up in such a way that baby
boomers are in a position to bementors to business people.
Is this part of your plan?
Gramps Jeffrey (19:13):
We've got on our site, 492 different topic
departments.
So our topic departments go fromtravel to health, to business,
to playing pickleball, tomovies, music, and everything
that we as a generation havebeen exposed to and we wanna
(19:36):
learn more on.
If you think about, just in ourbusiness selection, it's
different today than it was acouple years ago because AI is
an influence.
If any of your listeners in thebusiness world embraced AI, you
have got to be able tounderstand AI and use AI.
(19:56):
It is the greatesttransformation in our lives.
It may even be greater than theintroduction of the internet.
It is going to influence all ofus and how we run our
businesses.
So if you're a small businessowner, you have to make sure
that you understand how to useit, because it can help you very
quickly.
(20:17):
If you think about it as we weregrowing up and growing older in
our early business career, wedid all the research.
And now that the Internet isdoing most of our research, now
you got AI who's gonna be evenbetter than that is.
I encourage if anyone'slistening that has given second
thoughts to AI, you gotta getinvolved.
If you want to be the success oftomorrow, you have to make it as
(20:39):
part of your plan.
Ed Drozda (20:42):
I agree that AI is definitely going to be part of
the plan because basically ifyou don't keep up you'll fall
behind.
Everybody else will be doing itand they'll have access to
information that you will nothave access to.
So it's very, very important.
But at the same time, I thinkit's also important for us to
realize that gathering all thisinformation does not substitute
(21:05):
for our ability to process thisinformation.
AI can help with that, but Ibelieve that it's important that
we don't lose sight of our rolein processing that information.
Gramps Jeffrey (21:17):
You're absolutely right.
It's the human input that's thelast steps to being successful.
30 years ago we gatheredinformation, then we made
decisions.
Same thing as now, gatherinformation to make your
decisions.
The AI just helps you possiblymake better decisions and helps
you avoid some more mistakesthat you would've made.
Ed Drozda (21:38):
Absolutely.
Consider all the informationthat is out there and AI has the
ability to bring these thingstogether, process them in such a
way as to present them in arelatively cogent fashion, yes,
there's definitely an advantagethere.
I believe, and I am concernedthat there's the risk that some
(21:58):
folks will think that it is anend all, be all, take it as it
is, and that which it provideswithout giving it that
interpretation, withoutproviding that human
interpretation and processing.
So I think for me, it's acautionary tale.
The information is valuable,it's important, but it does not
excuse me from theresponsibilities that I have to
(22:19):
make sure that it's used wiselyand effectively.
Gramps Jeffrey (22:22):
Yeah, what you're saying is technology is
there to help us achieve ourgoals.
Ed Drozda (22:28):
To help us, correct.
Not to achieve them for us, butto help us achieve those goals,
absolutely.
So we are getting to the end ofour time here, and in the
interest of that, I would liketo ask you if you have anything
in particular before we go thatyou'd like to leave us with?
Gramps Jeffrey (22:47):
The theme of my children's book, and again, it
reflects on all of our ages, thetheme is at what age do you
begin to take responsibility foryour actions?
Is it three years old?
Is it 32 years old, is it 63years old?
Plenty of my contemporariesstill don't take responsibility
for their actions.
Step back and think about that.
(23:09):
We are here to improve thisworld.
One of the things that mygrandfather always told me when
we went camping, he said, makesure you leave the campsite
better than you found it.
And that's what we really needto do.
What are we doing to make thecampsite better than we found
(23:29):
it?
That's what we should all beasking ourselves.
Ed Drozda (23:32):
Very good.
Well, I appreciate that.
Mark, I want to thank you fortaking the time to be with me
today.
I appreciate this conversation.
I look forward to learning moreabout baby boomer.org myself.
As a little plug tobabyboomer.org, I am also
featuring my podcast on yoursite for which I'm grateful.
(23:53):
Thank you for that.
I want to thank Mark Joseph,also known as Gramps Jeffrey
being my guest today.
Gramps, it was a pleasure towork with you.
Gramps Jeffrey (24:03):
Thank you again for inviting me.
Ed Drozda (24:05):
And thank you.
This is Ed Drozda, The SmallBusiness Doctor, and until we
meet again, I wanna wish you ahealthy business.
Welcome to the Water Troughwhere we can't make you drink,
but we will make you think.
My name is Ed Draws to the SmallBusiness Doctor, and I'm really
excited you chose to join mehere as we discuss topics that
are important for small businessfolks just like you.
If you're looking for ideas,inspiration, and possibility,
you've come to the right place.
Join us as we take steps to helpyou create the healthy business
that you've all.
Always wanted.
Ed Drozda (00:44):
Welcome back to The Water Trough folks, this is Ed
Drozda, The Small BusinessDoctor.
Today I'm joined by GrampsJeffrey, the pen name for Mark
Joseph, whose first book, theSecrets of Retailing, How to
Beat Walmart was written to helpentrepreneurs and small
businesses compete against thebig guys.
Gramps Jeffrey's children'sbook, I Don't Want to Turn
Three, explores what goesthrough a toddler's mind that
(01:07):
parents are so desperate tounderstand.
It's based on the trueexperiences he has had with his
six grandchildren by his threemillennial daughters.
Gramps is the co-founder of anew site, www.baby boomer.org,
which pulls together news andresources for the baby boomer
community.
The one thing baby boomers havein common is a connected, shared
(01:29):
experience.
Our generation has interest inmany things, chief among them
giving back and the legacy thatwe'll leave behind.
Gramps and his wife Kathy, livein Scottsdale, Arizona, where
two of his grandchildren alsolive.
He has two more in Austin,Texas, and two in Orlando,
Florida as well.
Mark, welcome to the show.
Gramps Jeffrey (01:50):
I appreciate the invitation.
Thanks for inviting me.
Ed Drozda (01:53):
It is a pleasure to have you here.
I'm grateful for thisopportunity, and I would like to
get started by posing thequestion to you; how is it that
you're able to get into theheads of three-year-olds?
That must have been quite aninteresting experience for you.
Gramps Jeffrey (02:09):
Well, I had the experience because I wrote this
book during COVID, and one timeI had all six of the grandkids
here for about six weeks.
So I had a chance to really getinto who they are and what they
do, you know?
And all six kids had completelydifferent personalities.
But the one thing that they didhave in common was a sense of
curiosity.
When you think about it as wegrow older, we all need to have
(02:32):
that curiosity sense.
Even as we get into the babyboomer ages, keep being curious,
and that's one thing I learnedfrom them.
I also learned how excited theyget when they do accomplish
something.
Watching them grow year to yearand interact with each other is
really the basis for this book,'cause it's a true story.
What goes through a toddler'smind?
When does a toddler reallyunderstand the difference
(02:53):
between me and us?
So this book explores how myfamily finds all of that out.
Ed Drozda (03:00):
Very cool, and go down the curiosity path.
You mentioned that for children,obviously this is probably the
hallmark childhood, and it issomething that's valuable to us
even today as baby boomers, butmany of us have lost our sense
of curiosity.
What is your perspective oncuriosity and success in
(03:20):
business?
Gramps Jeffrey (03:21):
I think that it goes back to when we learn how
to read books to our kids.
The greatest thing that we asgrandparents or parents can do
is sit down and read tochildren.
Read to'em every night if youcan.
There's all kinds of benefits ofreading to children, which we
take into our life today.
It's all part of that curiosityyou talk about.
(03:43):
The most important thing that Isee in it is that when you read
to a child, it requires them tolisten.
Now you and I both know that aswe've grown older listening
skills is the number one skillwe have.
You as a podcaster have tolisten to your people that
you're interviewing, so you canadd in intelligent questions.
(04:05):
I have to listen to ourcustomers on our side of baby
boomer.org to make sure thatwe've got the best content for
them.
So it all starts when you're alittle kid.
And you as a parent orgrandparent reading books to
kids can instill this listeningskill to them.
This is a skill, much like thecuriosity skill that they're
gonna have for the rest of theirlives, and it'll help drive
(04:28):
their lives.
Another reason why we should bereading books to kids when
they're little like this is forcognitive and language
development.
There's plenty of words in thesebooks I don't understand.
I gotta go look'em up.
But there's other words that youcan sit there and explain to
these kids.
So make sure you're reading tokids and let'em be curious about
these books.
And the last reason you shouldread to'em is attention span.
(04:50):
When you're 2, 3, 4 years old,you're running all over the
yard.
But if you can get'em in yourlap for 20 minutes, helps
develop concentration andself-discipline, and again, as
we know as adults, this is whatyou need to be successful in
life.
Ed Drozda (05:07):
Indeed there's a lot of fundamental development.
Well, fundamental development ofcourse, is the basis of
childhood and that is the basisof future development in life.
So the curiosity is somethingthat we take with us throughout
our lives; we start at a youngage, and as you say, you're
inspiring that curiosity,feeding it by reading to, which
(05:28):
is a great way to instill thenotion of curiosity.
As we get older we forget whatit was like to be a child, to
have that wide-eyed wondermentabout what is new and unique.
We lose that sense of excitementthat we once took for granted,
because that's just the way itwas.
Right.
And here we are today again,people like yourself and myself,
(05:50):
we're baby boomers.
We've been around for a littlewhile, post World War II babies,
and we are moving on to a stagewhere the loss of that
wonderment is effectively a lossto us.
In my opinion, I think we'velost that spark, not necessarily
all of us, but I think there wasa tendency to have lost that
(06:12):
spark.
How do we reignite that?
With your proximity to thesegrandkids, and of course they're
growing every day, how do wereignite that spark in us old
folks?
Gramps Jeffrey (06:24):
We gotta realize that we're not really old, we're
just getting aged.
And so we can do the same thingsthat we did when we were
younger, but maybe not playpickleball as fast as we want
to, or throw the ball as hard,but we can still do that.
Okay?
So don't lose sight that we havea whole bunch of life left to
(06:44):
live.
One of the reasons that wecreated baby boomer.org is
because the one thing that babyboomers do have in common is the
shared, connected experiencesthat we all grew up with.
You touched upon it; we weregrowing up as baby boomers, much
like I'm seeing what mygrandkids are growing up through
(07:05):
their young age and they'rehaving different experiences.
We were there for the Kennedy'sassassinations.
We were there for Martin LutherKing when he died.
We were there for landing on themoon.
We were there when birth controlbecame widespread.
That was our generation; we hadto go through Vietnam as well as
Kent State.
We all experienced this.
At the same time, we have thingsthat we really have in common.
(07:27):
The music.
Think about it.
You had Elvis, the Beach Boys,Beatles, Three Dog Knight
Association, Supremes, weexperienced all that.
We had the movies, landlines.
That's how we communicated witheach other.
We didn't have cell phones.
We only grew up with threetelevision stations.
So we got all this informationas a group together.
We learned all this together,and that's what's so unique
(07:50):
about our generation.
We were molded together.
Ed Drozda (07:53):
We were molded together and we have certainly
banded together.
I guess like other generationsbefore us, although I get the
sense, maybe because I am a babyboomer, that we're a bit more
bonded than other generationssince us, and maybe again, it's
just a selfish interpretationbecause I went through it.
As time goes on the populationof baby boomers will age out,
(08:18):
which is a nice way of sayingthat we will no longer walk the
face of this earth, but we willhave another place somewhere.
There's a Woodstock in the skyfor all of us, and I know we're
headed there, so, we'll be fine.
But having said that, as thesebaby boomers, are we looked upon
as the elderly?
Are we looked upon as the wise?
(08:40):
Are we looked upon as folks whohave things to offer those who
are younger than us?
Which do you think?
Gramps Jeffrey (08:48):
That's an interesting question because it
varies with how you have arelationship with your children
and your grandchildren.
Mm-hmm.
Some of them think that we'revery wise.
Some of them think, hey you guysreally spoiled the earth, we
gotta rebuild it.
But don't lose sight that out ofthe 70 million baby boomers,
(09:11):
there are still 12 million babyboomers who still own
businesses.
Mm-hmm.
They are driving the economy.
It's hard to believe that 12million businesses are still
owned by baby boomers.
So they do influence, they domentor others.
They do understand what we'redoing,'cause when you think
about that, that represents 60%of all small business owners in
(09:33):
the us.
Yeah.
And there's gonna be majorchanges.
I mean, you're right, we'regonna die.
So what are we gonna do withthese businesses that we own?
Are we gonna be passing'em on?
Are we gonna be selling them?
Are they gonna disappear?
Our generation is expected totransfer 30 trillion dollars in
inheritance.
That's the largest wealthtransfer in the history of the
(09:55):
United States.
So how are we gonna do that?
Are we gonna do it because ofthe legacy we wanna leave?
We gonna do it because our kidsdeserve it?
That's another question thisgeneration has to deal with.
All of this has to do with thequestion you ask: how do they
look at us?
Do they look at us, hey, there'sthe bank.
See you later.
Those are all heavy questionsthat we all need to think about.
Ed Drozda (10:18):
I think that's fascinating.
By the way, I had not heard that60% of businesses today are
actually boomer run businesses.
It's quite amazing.
I'd have to say that as ageneration, we've done pretty
well for ourselves.
Now, we had more time toaccomplish this too.
In all fairness to those thatcame after us, we've had more
time to put those thingstogether.
(10:38):
But I do think that puts us inthe position of being
tremendously influential, notelderly, but definitely wise,
and that we have, I would say, aresponsibility to share our
wisdom with others who areyounger than us, who are moving
along into the same spaces thatwe occupy
Gramps Jeffrey (10:58):
Interesting that you bring that up because think
about entrepreneurship and beingan entrepreneur.
What do you do if you wanna bean entrepreneur?
You gotta realize that if youwanna open up your own business,
and that goes back to curiosity,it goes back to wanting to lead,
it goes back to wanting toshare, but you're gonna realize
that 20% of new businesses failin the first year.
(11:20):
50% fail in five years.
So you gotta say what causesthese businesses to fail?
And one of the things I suggestto all these younger people that
wanna open businesses is bounceideas off of the baby boomer
generation'cause they've gonethrough it.
We've got a lot of knowledge.
We have learned from ourmistakes.
(11:40):
Now ask yourself, why dobusinesses fail?
Well, 42% of small businessesfail because there's no market
for their product or services.
You may have developed the bestsliced bread in the world, but
if nobody wants to buy it,you've made a mistake.
And that's why most businessesfail.
You didn't do your research, youdidn't find out exactly is there
(12:03):
a market for my great idea.
29% of businesses fail becausethey don't have enough capital
when they're building theirbusiness.
If you're an entrepreneur andyou wanna open a business,
you've gotta say to yourself, Ineed six months of cash as if I
had no sales.
Mm-hmm.
So that's another reason whythese businesses fail; there's
not enough money to sustain thebusiness.
(12:25):
23% of small businesses failbecause they fail to communicate
and they don't build a team.
If you think you're the bestentrepreneur in the world, you
gotta be able to communicate.
You gotta be able to tell peoplewhat you think.
And then at the same time, nobusiness can run by itself.
You need other people to helpyou.
(12:46):
So you've gotta be able to builda team of people that trust you.
Those are all traits that ifyou're new to the
entrepreneurial world, ask oneof these 12 million baby
boomers, how'd you do it?
Why are you still around?
How can you mentor me to make mybusiness successful?
So I'm not part of that 50% thatfail in the first five years?
(13:07):
So that's one resource thatothers can use our generation
for.
Ed Drozda (13:11):
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Regarding entrepreneurs andcommunication, it is a
discussion in and of itself.
Entrepreneurs, broadly speaking,are folks that are accustomed to
a certain degree ofindependence, and I'm not
suggesting that they'recompletely enfolded upon
themselves, but that there'sdefinitely an ambition to be a
(13:35):
self succeeding type of aperson.
That said, the importance ofcommunication is often lost or
is not well cultivated in thatenvironment.
There is a challenge in manycases because there's a sense of
ownership and pride about thething that I've developed, my
concept, my product, my service,whatever it might be, and
(13:58):
letting go of that and sharingthat with other people is often
a challenge.
What kind of advice would yougive to the young entrepreneur
in that regard.
About the necessity forcommunication and how it might
be a challenge for them?
Gramps Jeffrey (14:15):
Going back to a kid sitting on my lap and before
you even read the book to them,you should ask them, what do you
think's gonna happen in thisbook?
Okay.
That's what an entrepreneurshould be asking?
What do I think's really gonnahappen if I could bring up this
concept?
Once you start reading to thechildren you gotta ask them, who
are the characters in this book?
(14:37):
Where is the setting in thisbook?
Yeah.
So again, as an entrepreneur,you gotta be curious, you gotta
be asking these kinds ofquestions.
Then you ask the little kid,does anything sound familiar to
you in this book?
Which really opens up lots oftalk.
Same thing with an entrepreneur.
Yeah.
And then after reading the bookto these kids, you need to say
(15:00):
to them, what is your favoritepart?
Why is that your favorite part?
These are all questions that weshould be asking ourselves, as
we are developing concepts toopen up businesses and to become
entrepreneurs.
Keep that curiosity alive.
Ed Drozda (15:17):
That's really cool.
What I'm hearing you say it'staking mentorship to a
significantly deeper level thanmentorships often go.
It's really asking people to goback to the very basics, what
brought you here?
Why are you here?
What was your inspiration to behere in the first place, and now
that you're here, does it lookthe same as you thought it was
gonna be when you got here?
(15:37):
You're asking very basicquestions that people sometimes
are inclined to say, oh, that'stoo simplistic, it doesn't
matter.
When we both know, oh yeah, itmatters completely.
Gramps Jeffrey (15:49):
Yeah, it's what you do on the ground.
It's the basics that you takecare of first in order to build
a successful career orsuccessful business.
You can't skip over thosethings.
You really need the time to askyourself those curiosity
questions.
Ed Drozda (16:06):
Absolutely.
I think that's a great lessonfor people of any age, for sure.
Again, we may have had more timeto sort through these things.
We have had more opportunity tobe exposed to the shortcomings
if we don't do this.
But I think that it is really,really important to drive home
(16:28):
for younger people who reallyare faced with so many competing
elements, so much frustrationbecause the speed of things is
so fast, things are soaccelerated.
They often don't have the timeto step back and just go, wait a
minute, I didn't think aboutthat.
At least be aware.
Gramps Jeffrey (16:46):
Absolutely.
You hit right on it.
Be aware.
Ed Drozda (16:50):
And that is the crux of everything, isn't it?
First, to be aware.
Gramps Jeffrey (16:54):
Oh, you need to be aware of your surroundings.
Be aware of where you want togo.
When you think about yourtravels through life, the only
reason that we that are in ourfifties, sixties, seventies, and
eighties may have a little moreinformation is because we've
made more mistakes.
We have learned from thosemistakes and it's up to us to
(17:16):
communicate to the youngergenerations.
That's our legacy.
When you think about it, nomatter how much money you've
made, when you die what do youleave behind?
They're gonna inherit it, sothey'll forget about that.
But what is your real legacy,because you can't take any of
this money with you.
What are you leaving behind toyour kids and your grandkids?
That's what you've always gottakeep in mind.
(17:37):
What can I pass on that I havelearned by my mistakes so that
they don't make the samemistakes?
Now whether they listen to you,that's a different story, but at
least you should be able toshare that with them.
And that's the kind ofrelationship as we grow older,
we need to have with our kidsand grandkids.
No matter all the potential wemay have had over the years,
(18:01):
keep in mind that's our legacy.
We want this generation to bebetter than we are.
I'm telling you, these kids thatare one to 10 years old today,
they are gonna be the greatestgeneration this country or this
world has ever seen,'cause whenyou think about it, as soon as
they come out of the wombthey've got a cell phone,
they're on the internet.
They've got all kinds oftechnology given to them.
(18:23):
I didn't get onto the internettill I was 40 years old, so they
are so far ahead.
Of any of us.
So we as parents andgrandparents need to make sure
that we are adding to that,again, they're gonna be much
smarter than we ever were, butwe still gotta teach'em to go
outside and play.
We still have to teach'em how totalk to each other.
(18:44):
That's part of our legacy too,is what can we do to really grow
these kids outside of all thiselectronic stuff that they will
be and are much better than weever were.
Ed Drozda (18:57):
So baby boomer.org, your site.
I'm curious if you have thingsset up in such a way that baby
boomers are in a position to bementors to business people.
Is this part of your plan?
Gramps Jeffrey (19:13):
We've got on our site, 492 different topic
departments.
So our topic departments go fromtravel to health, to business,
to playing pickleball, tomovies, music, and everything
that we as a generation havebeen exposed to and we wanna
(19:36):
learn more on.
If you think about, just in ourbusiness selection, it's
different today than it was acouple years ago because AI is
an influence.
If any of your listeners in thebusiness world embraced AI, you
have got to be able tounderstand AI and use AI.
(19:56):
It is the greatesttransformation in our lives.
It may even be greater than theintroduction of the internet.
It is going to influence all ofus and how we run our
businesses.
So if you're a small businessowner, you have to make sure
that you understand how to useit, because it can help you very
quickly.
(20:17):
If you think about it as we weregrowing up and growing older in
our early business career, wedid all the research.
And now that the Internet isdoing most of our research, now
you got AI who's gonna be evenbetter than that is.
I encourage if anyone'slistening that has given second
thoughts to AI, you gotta getinvolved.
If you want to be the success oftomorrow, you have to make it as
(20:39):
part of your plan.
Ed Drozda (20:42):
I agree that AI is definitely going to be part of
the plan because basically ifyou don't keep up you'll fall
behind.
Everybody else will be doing itand they'll have access to
information that you will nothave access to.
So it's very, very important.
But at the same time, I thinkit's also important for us to
realize that gathering all thisinformation does not substitute
(21:05):
for our ability to process thisinformation.
AI can help with that, but Ibelieve that it's important that
we don't lose sight of our rolein processing that information.
Gramps Jeffrey (21:17):
You're absolutely right.
It's the human input that's thelast steps to being successful.
30 years ago we gatheredinformation, then we made
decisions.
Same thing as now, gatherinformation to make your
decisions.
The AI just helps you possiblymake better decisions and helps
you avoid some more mistakesthat you would've made.
Ed Drozda (21:38):
Absolutely.
Consider all the informationthat is out there and AI has the
ability to bring these thingstogether, process them in such a
way as to present them in arelatively cogent fashion, yes,
there's definitely an advantagethere.
I believe, and I am concernedthat there's the risk that some
(21:58):
folks will think that it is anend all, be all, take it as it
is, and that which it provideswithout giving it that
interpretation, withoutproviding that human
interpretation and processing.
So I think for me, it's acautionary tale.
The information is valuable,it's important, but it does not
excuse me from theresponsibilities that I have to
(22:19):
make sure that it's used wiselyand effectively.
Gramps Jeffrey (22:22):
Yeah, what you're saying is technology is
there to help us achieve ourgoals.
Ed Drozda (22:28):
To help us, correct.
Not to achieve them for us, butto help us achieve those goals,
absolutely.
So we are getting to the end ofour time here, and in the
interest of that, I would liketo ask you if you have anything
in particular before we go thatyou'd like to leave us with?
Gramps Jeffrey (22:47):
The theme of my children's book, and again, it
reflects on all of our ages, thetheme is at what age do you
begin to take responsibility foryour actions?
Is it three years old?
Is it 32 years old, is it 63years old?
Plenty of my contemporariesstill don't take responsibility
for their actions.
Step back and think about that.
(23:09):
We are here to improve thisworld.
One of the things that mygrandfather always told me when
we went camping, he said, makesure you leave the campsite
better than you found it.
And that's what we really needto do.
What are we doing to make thecampsite better than we found
(23:29):
it?
That's what we should all beasking ourselves.
Ed Drozda (23:32):
Very good.
Well, I appreciate that.
Mark, I want to thank you fortaking the time to be with me
today.
I appreciate this conversation.
I look forward to learning moreabout baby boomer.org myself.
As a little plug tobabyboomer.org, I am also
featuring my podcast on yoursite for which I'm grateful.
(23:53):
Thank you for that.
I want to thank Mark Joseph,also known as Gramps Jeffrey
being my guest today.
Gramps, it was a pleasure towork with you.
Gramps Jeffrey (24:03):
Thank you again for inviting me.
Ed Drozda (24:05):
And thank you.
This is Ed Drozda, The SmallBusiness Doctor, and until we
meet again, I wanna wish you ahealthy business.
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