We are always looking to learn more, be it new mediums to storytell in, or new audiences to engage with. One of those learners, who I have known for more than a quarter of a century, is Mark Beal
For a majority of that time, although he was at Fordham with us prior, Mark has served as a marketer at Taylor, one of the nation’s leading consumer public relations agencies, developing and executing marketing and public relations campaigns for category leading companies and brands around such major sports and entertainment platforms as the Olympic Games, Super Bowl, World Series, US Open Tennis and The Rolling Stones.
His quest to learn has also taken him to the academic world, teaching in the School of Communication at Rutgers University in New Brunswick where he has designed and taught 300 and 400 level courses including Media, Marketing and Communication; Leadership in Groups & Organizations; Principles of Public Relations; and Message Design for Public Relations.
It was the students who Mark works with who inspired him to write his first book, 101 Lessons They Never Taught You In College, which was published in 2017 and his second book, 101 Lessons They Never Taught You In High School About Going To College, which was published in 2018. Mark just authored and published his third book, Decoding Gen Z: 101 Lessons Generation Z Will Teach Corporate America, Marketers & Media.
He also has gone the podcast route, with a series 101 Lessons in Leadership. In each podcast episode, Mark interviews a leader and delves into the mentors who inspired them as well as the lessons in leadership and life that they share with their current followers. The podcast episodes can be listened to for free by simply going to www.101lessonspodcast.com.
We wanted to catch up with Mark to talk about the lessons learned along the way…
Your career helping build Taylor has been quite amazing, whats the impetus for being an author these days?
I started teaching one course at Rutgers University in 2013. Since then, I have taught more than 1,000 students in 300 and 400-level public relations and marketing courses. Consistently throughout the semester and during the summer, students seek my advice and counsel about networking, internships, resume development, conducting interviews and ultimately, securing that first job after graduation. I realized that there was such demand for this information from college students nationwide that I was motivated to write my first book, 101 Lessons They Never Taught You In College, which prepares students for the transition from college to a career. Since that first book, the students inspired me to write two more books, 101 Lessons They Never Taught You In High School About Going To College, and my newest book, Decoding Gen Z: 101 Lessons Generation Z Will Teach Corporate America, Marketers & Media. All the books are available on my author page on Amazon.
The Communications agency business isn’t usually the most forthcoming with sharing industry information especially in the tight budgeted and very fluid world we are in now. Any worry that you are giving away company secrets or best practices?
Not at all. The insights I gathered from Gen Zers in my new book are something that we all need to know and learn as Gen Z will become the primary audience segment for many stakeholders including employers, marketers and media over the next several years. For my new Decoding Gen Z book, I gathered surveys and studies of Gen Zers that were conducted over the past few years and then I vetted those findings with more than 60 Gen Zers nationwide from age 13-23, from high school freshman to those who just graduated college and joined the workforce. I conducted in-depth interviews with each Gen Zer about their social media habits, media consumption, how they want to be marketed to and what they are seeking in an employer.
On to the books, the college/first job experience can be very daunting, what’s the first thing that you realized people, especially parents, are missing when going through the experience for the first time?
While great focus is placed, especially by parents, on helping their children get accepted into a certain university and then determining financial aid as well as the first year course schedule, there is very little attention being paid to the transition from college to a career. I have found that most students don’t know who to turn to. I believe every university should offer a required course focused on preparing for the transition to a career, and students should take that course no later than second semester of sophomore year. I highlight in my second book, that networking should begin the first day freshmen step on campus and students should be interning no later than the summer between freshman and sophomore year. Instead, too many students are getting to senior year and approaching graduation and do not have a sense of what they need to do to secure that first job after college and they are also lacking the internship experience to be competitive.
What was the biggest surprise from the work you have done around Gen Z?
They have had technology at their fingertips since a very early age so they prioritize speed, efficiency and immediacy in everything they do – work, shopping, socializing and consuming content. They are taking a completely different approach to the workplace, media and marketing than any generation before them. For example, the nine-to-five workplace mentality just does not exist with Gen Zers. They believe that with technology they can work from any place at any time 24/7 and be highly effective. They see commuting for an hour or more to a job as a waste of time and I agree with them even thought I commuted for more than five hours a day on a bus for 25 years.
What are the skills that have changed the most, and what are the ones that still shine through, for this generation vs. others?
I like to describe Gen Z by saying they are digital natives, tech-smart, entrepreneurial-spirited, community-minded, socially conscious and purpose-driven. They excel at the skills that have changed the most – utilizing technology, leveraging social media channels and effectively producing and distributing content. The skills that still shine through like effectively writing for business and being able to articulate a sales pitch or a point-of-view one-on-one or to a group are the areas where they need to continue to improve. Those skills will always be critical no matter how much technology evolves.
If you want someone to take away two things from reading the latest book, what would they be?
First, if you are a marketer, advertiser, public relations practitioner at an agency or on the corporate and brand side, and you have not started to shift your focus to truly understanding how to engage Gen Z, you need to start now. Your competition is already immersing themselves in Gen Z. Second, if you are an employer who annually hires college graduates, get ready for the biggest transformation at the workplace of all-time. Instead of resisting, listen to Gen Z and learn how to evolve as more and more Gen Zers join your company and have the ability to make your business more efficient and effective.
You teach at Rutgers, what’s the biggest challenge you see for young people looking to enter the workforce today, and what’s the biggest opportunity?
I will start with the biggest opportunity. College students are more fluent in technology, apps, social media and sharable content than any executive over the age of 30. They need to use that to their advantage and demonstrate it when they interview for jobs. Once they start their new job, they need to deliver value by leveraging their knowledge and insights in these critical areas. One of the biggest challenges is that there is more competition than ever for jobs and internships so they need to become strategic when it comes to networking, leveraging contacts and securing as much experience as they can outside the classroom.
As a father, and scary as it may seem, a grandfather, whats the one thing that you have learned recently being around a younger generation of people?
As I write in lesson 101 in my new book, Decoding Gen Z, the younger generation will change the world. I write in my final thoughts in the book that the younger generation, “will not only change the world, but they will transform technology, communications, media, social media, digital media, content, the workplace, corporations, society, norms, culture and mindsets.”
What does a younger person, be it a milennial, a Gen X or a Gen Z person, need to learn from those who have been there?
There are a number of things in business they need to learn that stand the test of time – never burn a bridge; work hard and be nice; never stop learning and evolving; be a giver not a taker; you can always be a better writer and a better presenter no matter how much you excel at each; there is no “I” in team; collaboration is critical to success; and always surround yourself with people who are smarter, more strategic and more creative than yourself. Those are just a few of the important lessons they need to learn from their mentors.
Who are some of the people that you are still learning from, and why?
I don’t mean to take the easy way out, but my Gen Z students. They share with me on a daily basis what’s trending in tech, apps, social media, content and pop culture. They inform me which brands effectively market to them and which don’t. Each and every day, I engage and collaborate with the greatest focus group of all, college students ages 18-23. Marketers would love to have that type of unrestricted access to Gen Zers, a generation that will be the primary focus of brand marketers for the next 15-20 years.
As someone deep into a career in storytelling, how valuable is that skill today in any aspect of business?
Every time I help students prepare for internship or job interviews, we dedicate the majority of our time to the storytelling aspect. They need to tell a story that is more engaging and more compelling than every other candidate. So, they need to develop their story well before the interview and determine what elements of their past experience are most relevant and most compelling to tell in the short time they have to market themselves in an interview. It is the same for any agency competing for business. The agency that is the most compelling storyteller will win the account. You can take that all the way to the brand level. The brand that markets with the most compelling storytelling through its owned, earned and paid media channels will create the greatest engagement with consumers.
Whats the biggest concern you have for the people now entering into the workforce, or college, for that matter?
They need to continue to understand the incredible value of what I call H.I., Human Interaction. While technology may have created an incredible shift in society in how we conduct business, individuals still win jobs by being the most effective at conducting face-face interviews, and business is won by being the most impactful in presenting face-to-face and the most productive networking and collaboration is done in-person. If a student today can not conduct an engaging in-person conversation or present a compelling case one-on-one, they are going to be at a disadvantage.
Lastly, Taylor is still a very progressive and evolving business. Looking forward, where do you see the Strategic Communications industry going in say, five years?
First, research, data and insights are going to continue to play a more critical role in setting the foundation for the creation and execution of marketing campaigns. Second, measuring business impact for every dollar invested in a marketing initiative is going to become mandatory, if it is not already. It will be imperative that marketers determine how to measure the investment made in everything from sharable content and event activations to influencer engagement and earned media to demonstrate how each contributes to driving positive business impact as part of an integrated marketing approach.
