Attract, Recruit, Retain, and Manage Gen Z for your Driving Workforce

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Steve Kessler: Good morning. Welcome everybody to the Infinit-I Workforce Solutions

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Steve Kessler: Fast Forward Webinar Series.

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Steve Kessler: Appreciate y’all taking some time to join us today. I know it’s a little difficult to find time in this

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Steve Kessler: crazy business about trucking. But thank you all for joining.

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Steve Kessler: We have an interesting program. It’s very interesting to me, and I think you all will love the information. Today’s program is about recruiting, retaining, and managing Gen Z.

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Steve Kessler: For your workforce generations all kind of operate a little bit differently. So it’s important to know this one, the most recent generation, I believe that

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Steve Kessler: some of the Gen. C. Folks are now old enough to have a commercial CDL. So, we’re excited to get some information about generation Z. Today.

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Steve Kessler: Couple of housekeeping things everybody that’s logged in is muted so we can’t hear you. So, if you have

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Steve Kessler: comments or questions, there’s a chat box there that you can put your question into.

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Steve Kessler: You can also use a. QA. Box down there. We can see those on this side, and we’ll try to take those questions pretty much toward the end of the presentation and try to get those questions answered for you.

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Steve Kessler: I’m also joined today by Mark Ray. Those of you that have joined our webinars in the past. Know Mark pretty well. Mark’s a veteran in the industry.

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Steve Kessler: and I’m sure, Mark, you’ve been involved in a lot of recruiting and a lot of training in your life. I got some comments before we introduced Lindsey.

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Mark Rhea: No, I’m very much looking forward to today’s webinar Lindsey, I’m going to say, is an industry champion

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Mark Rhea: representing the commercial trucking industry and specializing in introducing Gen Z. And entry level employees and making sure they understand that driving a big truck is a very, very good profession. So, thank you for all the work you’ve done.

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Mark Rhea: promoting that for our industry, Lindsay.

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Lindsey Trent: Hey? It’s my pleasure. I love what I do every day.

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Steve Kessler: Great. Well, let me introduce Lindsey. Lindsey Trent

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Steve Kessler: is the co-founder and president of the next generation in trucking association.

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Steve Kessler: That’s a nonprofit trade Association with the mission to promote trucking as a positive career field and create trucking programs while encouraging training and employment of young people in the trucking industry

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Steve Kessler: and connecting them to training and employment opportunities.

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Steve Kessler: Lindsey is passionate about introducing young people to trucking and the opportunities it can provide.

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Steve Kessler: leading her to revolutionize the industry by launching education and industry partnerships

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Steve Kessler: that aid in creating a skilled, diverse, and equitable workforce

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Steve Kessler: Lindsey serves on the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Trucking Association and several school advisory boards, including Fairdale High School, where she helps start their Diesel technician program.

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Steve Kessler: Lindsey is a graduate of Purdue University, and resides in Louisville, Kentucky.

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Steve Kessler: with her husband and 2 kids, where she enjoys working out golfing, traveling, reading, and spending time with her family.

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Steve Kessler: So, without any further delay, Lindsey, I’ll turn it over to you.

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Lindsey Trent: Hey? I am thankful to be on the call today and talking about one of my favorite things.

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Lindsey Trent: 2 things I want to say is, thank you, because vertical alliance is a part of the act, one group and act one just decided to be a champion sponsor of next. Gen. So we’re happy to partner with you in that.

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Lindsey Trent: And second of all, I got into trucking 12 years ago, and one of the 1st things I did as a part of my role was to go through all the safety videos. That you all have. If a new driver is to start orientation at a new company. I went through all of those, and it taught me a lot about trucks and trucking and all sorts of intricacies in

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Lindsey Trent: being a professional driver. So, I highly recommend going through those videos, if you’re

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Lindsey Trent: new to the industry.

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Lindsey Trent: So today, what we’re going to talk about is Gen Z. And how to recruit, retain, and to manage them what they’re looking for. And why is this important? Well, it’s important, because by 2030

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Lindsey Trent: Gen Z. Is going to make up 30% of the workforce. And so today, Gen Zer. Is probably 1213 years old all the way up to 26 years old. So, it is likely that if you’re hiring people to come work for you, you’re hiring a Gen Z. Or if you’re marketing to them. Hey, these are some things that we need to be saying, because this is what is attractive to Gen Z.

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Lindsey Trent: And why is this important.

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Lindsey Trent: It’s important because

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Lindsey Trent: we have a driver shortage. Right? 70% of everything is brought to us by truck. If I look around my room

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Lindsey Trent: most everything was brought to me by a truck.

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Lindsey Trent: and we learned the harsh realities of this during Covid, when grocery stores did not have things and on the shelves, and people started learning that without trucks we, as a nation, cannot survive.

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Lindsey Trent: So, it’s important to know that freight is going to continue to grow by 2030. It’s going to grow 25%

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Lindsey Trent: and compounding. That is that there’s a shortage. Right? We’ve got a shortage of technicians.

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Lindsey Trent: There’s a statistic, and that is that there’s a hundred 77,000 new Diesel technicians needed by in between the years 2022 and 2026

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Lindsey Trent: and the Ata says that we’re 160,000 drivers short, and that’s going to continue to grow as more baby boomers retire as freight grows. So, what are we going to do to attract Gen Z. To the trucking industry?

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Lindsey Trent: But 1st of all, I just want to take a step back and give you a quick introduction of who I am and who next Gen. Is, and what we do.

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Lindsey Trent: And so, I’ve been in trucking 12 years, and I literally knew nothing when I got into it. But I wanted to get back into a sales role. And so, I started working for a driver staffing company, and I loved what I did every day, because one day I’d you know, be at a granite company that ships granite, I’d be at a food distributor the next day, then I’d be at a trucking company that hauls auto parts.

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Lindsey Trent: It was touching every industry being by being in one industry, and I love that the people are down to earth.

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Lindsey Trent: But learning the industry and the problems we always talked about, the driver shortage the aging workforce young people not getting into the industry, and I. So, I did driver staffing 6 years, and I worked for Ryder for 4 years. Well, we were short technicians.

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Lindsey Trent: And we needed technicians in all these markets. And so, we started developing this idea of creating a trade association, calling it the next generation in trucking association and really putting an emphasis on education. And so that’s what we’re here to do. We are here to promote trucking as a positive career field.

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Lindsey Trent: And we’re here to create partnerships with high schools, community college career technical education centers and really try to help schools start programs. A lot of schools around the country are starting plumbing programs, culinary cosmetology. Why can’t they start a supply chain program? Why can’t they start commercial driving or mechanic diesel mechanics? And so that’s what we’re here to do is we’re here to work with schools.

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Lindsey Trent: Put it out there that we need programs in the supply chain and help them get those started and then bridge that gap between industry and education. And so, here’s some fun things that we get to do. In a couple of months, we’ll be at. It’s in October. So just next month, where’s where does time go right? We’ll be at the future farmers of America, their National Convention. And last year do you know how many students came to this convention?

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Lindsey Trent: It’s in Indianapolis every year?

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Lindsey Trent: 72,000.

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Lindsey Trent: So, it’s huge. We’ve got a huge booth where we have a driver simulator. You can see it in the pictures. We’ve got VR headsets. You can see the pictures. You can change the oil on a truck, change the tire of a truck with these VR headsets.

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Lindsey Trent: We’ve got some national tank truck carrier, grand champion, the grand champion driver and some of the finalists there talking to students. It is a fun filled 3 days action packed talking to students. So, we do a lot of things like that. So, career branding. But we’re also at a lot of like education conventions talking to the school counselors across the country, talking to

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Lindsey Trent: the educators and administrators and really helping them to be aware about the trucking industry, because we are seeing a trend of people not wanting to go to college. And we want to provide opportunities where they know. Hey, this is a great career field that they can get into. So, what we’re doing is starting programs in these verticals supply chain and logistics, medium and heavy duty truck technician and commercial driving.

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Lindsey Trent: And so, here’s some more fun things.

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Lindsey Trent: this picture up there is a donated truck to one of the high school programs where we’ve helped them start their commercial driver training program. So, a high School Senior gets their CDL while they’re in high school.

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Lindsey Trent: and we had a student. That year he switched high schools so he could go get a free CDL at another high school in the county. So, we are getting these programs started across the country. Our co-founder is Dave Dein. He started this high school training program.

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Lindsey Trent: so, he started it. This is his 8th year teaching it. And we’re trying to replicate his program across the country, and a side note. Dave

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Lindsey Trent: has been named California’s CTE. Teacher of the year. So, for all the whole State of California of all the career technical education programs, whether it’s welding or plumbing or automotive technology Dave has won for California.

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Lindsey Trent: Then he went on to win region 5. So, you know 5 different States are up against each other. He won that region. And now in December we will be up on stage for him to hopefully win national CTE teacher of the year, and we’re hopeful in that that it will push for this initiative that we have to spotlight the trucking industry spotlight training programs for

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Lindsey Trent: for the younger generation to get these young people into our great career fields.

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Lindsey Trent: So, let’s get into the meat of the presentation. And on a side note. Hey? You can follow us on all social media platforms. Connect with me on LinkedIn. Love to chat more with you about what we do.

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Lindsey Trent: But from here on out, we’re going to talk about Gen Z. So, Gen Z. They were born in 1996, between 96 and 2,012.

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Lindsey Trent: And so, what are they looking for when they are searching for a job? So, say they know what they want to do. But now they’ve got to research what company they want to go work for. And so, we’re going to talk about a few of these things. Your website, videos, glass door. What is a glass door? Social media? Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and giving back and sustainability.

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Lindsey Trent: And these are some of the things that they’re going to be researching when they’re out there. Looking for what company they should go work for

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Lindsey Trent: and we’re going to talk a little bit, too, about what Gen Z. Is attracted to in the trucking industry and some messaging behind that that you can put out there, because maybe they’re just exploring a career path. But they want to look at your company and watch videos. And what message can you give them? Right? So

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Lindsey Trent: mountain truck lines do an amazing job if you want to go, look at a company that showcases their drivers and

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Lindsey Trent: they have a social ambassador program where they identify drivers that would like to be a social ambassador for their company. They might pay them a little bit extra per month, but with that they’ve got a set number of videos that they must post and tag mountain truck lines. And these videos can be really anything about, you know, technical aspects of a truck

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Lindsey Trent: a day in the life of a driver. Hey, this is my delivery. How do you tarp? So, its very story focused right? This is who I am. I am a professional driver, and I want to show you what I do. And this is the company I work for. And so, considering starting a program. A social media ambassador program for your company

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Lindsey Trent: is a great way to start telling the stories of your people. And why is it important?

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Lindsey Trent: On average. Gen Z. Watches 3 h of videos a day.

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Lindsey Trent: So, they’re on their phone. And if you have kids, if you have grandkids that they’re in this age range. You know, this is a correct statistic, right? They’re on TikTok. They’re scrolling through videos. They’re watching them. And so, we need to tell the stories of our employees

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Lindsey Trent: on our website on our social media platforms. And we need to try to compound that and put that messaging out there. We want young people to know all about the trucking industry, about careers, about what we do.

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Lindsey Trent: I have a funny story. So, I have, you know, been trucking. And now starting this organization, the next generation and trucking association I mean my family.

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Lindsey Trent: They know what they do. They come to the Mid America truck show every year. They, you know, my daughter went to women and trucking with me. They were at it with me, and we were my daughter and me. This was several years ago and cause she’s now 14. But we were driving down the road, and she said, oh, Mom, look! That’s a reefer truck, and I said, how do you know that? And she said, Oh, tick, Tock!

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Lindsey Trent: So, because of me, she’s followed some people on TikTok, and she sees what they do with their truck. They talk about the loads they haul, how they must clean the truck after they deliver. And so, it is something that is happening out there. These kids are watching these videos. So, if you can get some of them posted, I highly recommend starting

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Lindsey Trent: posting on Instagram and LinkedIn, and all those things.

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Lindsey Trent: Tell the stories on your website. There are 2 different ways on your website that you need to be talking to drivers, one.

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Lindsey Trent: the drivers that work for you. They might need to have their own landing page. But 2 new drivers, people who are exploring your company. Where can they go on your website to just learn about your company

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Lindsey Trent: and make it easy for them to see who you are to read about you, to watch videos to hear stories of who you are and highlight your people. Women in trucking. They say this. It’s all about telling the story, right? That’s what you want to do is tell the story of your employers, your employees, where they’ve been, where they’re at today, and how you’ve helped them get there. It, and it doesn’t have to be. Fancy right.

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Lindsey Trent: Take out the phone and just go for it. Don’t make it perfect.

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Lindsey Trent: Just let them be out there telling their story. And that will go

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Lindsey Trent: strides for you. Get you far. So of course, social media. Gen, Z. When there’s researching jobs, they are looking on LinkedIn. So don’t just always assume that it’s for the older professional, because Gen Z. When they go to look and re and research companies. They’re going to be looking at LinkedIn. Of course, Facebook. That’s for us older generation. But

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Lindsey Trent: there’s 60% of Jen’s ears are on Instagram. Of course, TikTok, if you can start putting videos and having content on TikTok.

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Lindsey Trent: that would be great. If you say I have nothing on social media, then just start one place right. Don’t overwhelm yourself and say, hey, I’ve got to start everything but start in one place and do it well and decide what you’re going to do and start getting a following. Get all your employees to follow you.

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Lindsey Trent: incentivize your employees to make posts about your company and ask them to share

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Lindsey Trent: posts that you make. Ask them to comment. So, start developing a plan to get your employees engaged in your social media and sharing to their network of people. And this is going to be very attractive to Gen Z. When they go and look and see the stories of their people that they’re reading about the company that they work for.

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Lindsey Trent: Here’s another one that some people aren’t aware of, and that’s glass door. So here’s a company on glass door that has and if you don’t know what glass Door is, it’s basically kind of a review of companies. So, you can go in and you can

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Lindsey Trent: you can get your profile. So, if you’re put your company in there and take your profile and then start doing things with it. It’s free.

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Lindsey Trent: You can put. Have your employees’ put reviews on there. You can put salaries on there. There are interviews, and then it talks about. There are photos, there’s benefits.

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Lindsey Trent: And I think this is interesting that you can see here is this, you know, CEO, approve of the CEO. 72% would recommend it to a friend. So, they’re doing a great job of staying on glass door and being interactive with people on Glassdoor. And then here’s another company. This is a great company, but they’ve never claimed their profile.

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Lindsey Trent: People are still posting about the company on Glassdoor, but they’ve never gone on there and officially claimed their profile and started writing things up there. Right? So

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Lindsey Trent: if you haven’t claimed your Glassdoor profile, do that today. And interact with the reviews on there. Put some photos on there.

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Lindsey Trent: ask your employees to go in there and review you, and to give their honest opinion about your company hopefully. If they’ve been an employee of yours for a long time. They’ll have favorable reviews of you and this company, I mean, they have favorable reviews. Look 100 would recommend to a friend, but they’ve never claimed it on glass door. So go in there and make sure you’ve got that on glass door.

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Lindsey Trent: and that you’re actively engaging with it.

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Lindsey Trent: Another thing, that Gen Z. Is very

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Lindsey Trent: receptive of is that a

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Lindsey Trent: diversity, equity, inclusion, initiatives? Why is that? Well, this generation. Gen Z. Is the most diverse generation that we’ve ever had.

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Lindsey Trent: And so, they’re. It’s very important to them.

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Lindsey Trent: And they want to see diversity as a focal point on your website and your social media and highlight your diverse population of employees. They want to see people like them that are employed by you, and so make sure that you are putting efforts into having a diverse and inclusive workforce.

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Lindsey Trent: Another thing that Gen Z. Is really interested in giving back. They don’t want to just work for somebody. That’s all about making money, and, you know, getting the man rich right? They want to pay it forward. They want to say, hey, I’m going to work for a company, whether it’s a big company or a small company.

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Lindsey Trent: I want to see what I’m doing to contribute to this company and help them, and how they’re helping the community. It’s not just about the bottom dollar anymore. It’s about a bigger than themselves thing. It’s bigger than ourselves, right? What can we do to help those around us? The world needs help. What am I going to do as a part of my career, as a part of my job to give back to the community.

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Lindsey Trent: So, make sure, when you are messaging who you are as a company, that you highlight what you’re doing, even if in your mind it’s something as simple as, hey, we are going on a cancer walk this weekend. The company is a part of that, hey. Highlight that make sure that you are any little thing that you’re doing. You’re highlighting that you’re giving back to your community.

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Lindsey Trent: Another important thing is sustainability. Right? They hear this repeatedly. They’re learning, you know, green technology. They want to have a cleaner world. And what are you doing as a company to build sustainability into your culture?

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Lindsey Trent: Maybe it’s a recycling program. And you know to you that doesn’t seem like a big deal. But hey, put it out there. We care about the environment. We have recycling at our facilities. We have. That’s an electric truck. I’m in Louisville, Kentucky. That truck is in Louisville, Kentucky. We’ve got 6 of those in Louisville, Kentucky. There are electric trucks

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Lindsey Trent: and highlight that if you have an electric fleet or anything that you’re doing to help make the world help makes trucking more sustainable. What are those things that you’re doing as a company, because Gen Z. Really cares about the earth.

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Lindsey Trent: and they want to work for a company that cares about the earth as well. So, if you message all of that out there. Then you are going to be appealing to Gen Z. As a generation.

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Lindsey Trent: In fact, I was meeting with a company yesterday, and they said to me, oh, we just planted. We have a new facility. We just planted a hundred 50 trees around our facility.

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Lindsey Trent: and something like that is important to be sharing. I mean, it might seem to you like a minor thing, but to somebody that’s looking for that that is important, hey? And who doesn’t want to have cleaner air and beautify our working environment? Right?

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Lindsey Trent: So how can you retain Gen Zer’s?

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Lindsey Trent: what they’re wanting in a company?

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Lindsey Trent: They’re wanting a career pathway like, what are you doing to

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Lindsey Trent: to develop them? They want flexibility. They want to be a part of a company culture that’s bigger than them. They want

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Lindsey Trent: to be paid well compensated well, and they want continuing education.

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Lindsey Trent: So, we’re going to look at those now

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Lindsey Trent: trucking. I’m telling you I would go into a room of safety professionals.

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Lindsey Trent: And I ask, hey, how many of you started off as drivers raise your hand, and I would say, 3 fourths of the room usually raise their hand.

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Lindsey Trent: You talk to operation managers, recruiters. They started out a lot of times as drivers. There are so many different pathways. Forklift operator. They are in their CDL. And

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Lindsey Trent: the CDL driver becomes an operations manager. There are just so many ways to get into trucking and then build up your career from there.

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Lindsey Trent: And so, we need to highlight the stories of the people that work for your company now where they started, where they are today. And we need to highlight how we can invest in people and take them to where they want to be. So, Gen Z. They want to be invested in it.

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Lindsey Trent: They want to go and work for a company that cares about them, that wants to invest in them as a person, as a as their career path unfolds. And so, they’re going to look for companies that are offering career paths and ways that they can better themselves.

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Lindsey Trent: Here’s a great example. At Performance Food Group is

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Lindsey Trent: started out as a you know; a warehouse person goes into management super supervision. And now where he’s at. And when you want to go and work for somebody that’s been there for 18 years, and a lot of different roles, and obviously cares about what he does, cares about the company, cares about his job, cares about the people that works for him. And so

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Lindsey Trent: if I’m reading this, I’m thinking that company wants to invest in me. And other people have worked here for many years. So maybe this is something that I can do.

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Lindsey Trent: So, tell them that story on your website, on your pictures sharing it through social media. That is important. Another thing that is very attractive to Gen Z is a different job that trucking has. I mean, right here, performance food group, a food distributor

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Lindsey Trent: those jobs are a little bit more physical or a flatbed company. Maybe somebody wants to travel the world and see what the country is like, and travel with their pet. Right?

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Lindsey Trent: Talk about all the different opportunities that you offer at your company.

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Lindsey Trent: hey? I must give a plug for Infinit-I services. Right? You all have your investing. You’re working with companies to invest in their employees. And

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Lindsey Trent: I did your training. I know what it’s like. I learned a lot from it, and I became better because of it, and so make sure you have a robust training platform to continuously educate your employees, I mean, do you want to say anything about this? And why companies Steve or Mark should have

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Lindsey Trent: continuing education for their employees.

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Mark Rhea: Lindsey, I’m going to say, for the Gen Z. It’s kind of an expectation that they have ongoing training. Is that being a fair statement.

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Lindsey Trent: Absolutely. Yes.

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Steve Kessler: Yeah. And I would, I would add to that.

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Steve Kessler: you know, one of us

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Steve Kessler: our primary focus is frequent and consistent training for people to develop the appropriate behaviors for whatever they’re working at or whether they’re trying to get to.

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Steve Kessler: It must be an ongoing process. We’ve made it very easy. It’s very fitting with a smartphone app where they can consume videos and take the training wherever they are with their phone. So, I think it really fits the Gen Z. Profile.

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Steve Kessler: And I also should mention, maybe this is a good place to do it. You know, some of the young folks from this generation coming into the industry will have to complete the entry level driver training

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Steve Kessler: which we also offer on this platform. So, the theory portion that you need to take to qualify to get your commercial license

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Steve Kessler: is available through this platform also.

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Steve Kessler: So, I think there are plenty of opportunities here, obviously, for the that generation to get good quality training. I can do it in a way, it’s convenient and familiar with them, and to help them kind of get started in this business. So

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Steve Kessler: thank you for the kind words, Lindsey. Appreciate that.

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Lindsey Trent: Yeah. And it’s right, I mean, we’ve got to make sure we’ve developed training programs for our employees. And where can we help them better themselves, which is also going to help us right? It’s going to help us to have a safer fleet. And all those things we want is are what we want, and that’s to get home at the end of the day. Safe? Another way is, you know, apprenticeship programs.

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Lindsey Trent: Fast port. They have apprenticeship programs that you can utilize through the Department of Labor. They’ll make it easy for you and do the reporting. They’ve got Diesel tech

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Lindsey Trent: apprenticeship programs commercial driving programs. And so if you’ve ever considered doing an apprenticeship program, it helps with retention. I think it’s like something like 90% of people who go through an apprenticeship program

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Lindsey Trent: are there still one year later? So, what can you do to develop your employees and put them through an apprenticeship program and that, you know, finishing program. And maybe they’re new drivers. But you’re going to help train them to get them standardized to how you, as an employee, want to have your drivers. And so, I highly recommend an apprenticeship program

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Lindsey Trent: and if you are not familiar with the safe driver apprenticeship pilot program. There is something going on right now that 18- to 20-year-olds can cross state lines if they’re with an approved carrier. And so, if you have thought about getting into the safe driver apprenticeship pilot program. Now is the time to do it. We need the data to say, hey, are 18- to 20-year-olds, just as safe as somebody who is

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Lindsey Trent: 21 years old and can cross state lines. And so, the apprentices that are in this program now are telling us going to be giving us the data to say, hey, maybe in a few years from now, 18 year olds are going to be able to drive across State lines 18 year olds can get their CDL, but they have to haul intra state freight inside the State. And so, this program allows for

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Lindsey Trent: 18-year-olds to cross State lines and for them to be developed. But the big thing is, is, are they as safe as, say, a 24-year-old that gets their CDL

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Lindsey Trent: Apprenticeships are amazing. I met this student driver. He literally had just gotten a CDL. I was at a conference.

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Lindsey Trent: and he came up to me. He was a part of the wait staff at the conference, and he was so proud he came up to me and he said, Hey.

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Lindsey Trent: I just want you to know. I got my CDL. And in 2 weeks I’m starting my 1st trucking job.

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Lindsey Trent: And this gentleman he was out of New Orleans. He was 21 years old.

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Lindsey Trent: and he was really excited about his future.

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Lindsey Trent: so, he stayed home. A lot of his friends went off to college, and so we had an interesting conversation. A lot of his friends were starting to come back

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Lindsey Trent: from college. They had all this student loan debt, whereas he got he researched. He got a CDL. Had it paid for through the workforce. We owe him funding so he didn’t have to pay anything for it.

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Lindsey Trent: and I was like, well, why are you? Tell me? Why? Why are you excited like that? What makes you want to be a driver, and he said he was excited to see the country he was from, New Orleans, and the only few times he left was when there was a hurricane.

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Lindsey Trent: so, he was excited to see the world. He was excited because he was going to work for a flatbed company, so he was excited about getting a little bit of exercise and having movement while also being independent. So

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Lindsey Trent: you know, we know truck drivers are making a lot of their own decisions. They’re independent. They are their own boss on the road, making those decisions based on the company they work for based on their customer. But it is an app, an independent job. And the last thing he said is that he also wanted to get off his mama’s couch, and we know that you can have financial independence

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Lindsey Trent: as a professional driver, and that is attractive to Gen Z. His friends are coming home with all this student loan debt, and he was getting ready to start his career debt free, ready to get out on his own and see the world. And those are attractive things to Gen Z. So, sell that message to them and open their eyes to a new world.

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Lindsey Trent: Another thing that that Gen Z. Is really you know focused on is that flexibility? I think this is a hard one for trucking. It can be right. So, dot foods, they have a training schedule or a traditional schedule like, Hey, you’re on 5 days a week you’re off too. Then they have the schedule you’re on 4 days. You’re off 4 days. You’re on 4 days off 4 days.

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Lindsey Trent: and they have it scheduled throughout the year. So, you know exactly the days you’re off. You can schedule vacations around it. Maybe you can offer more time off.

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Lindsey Trent: and, you know, condense their work hours and provide more time off. So, kind of thinking about what you can do. I was talking to a room of ready mix

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Lindsey Trent: safety professionals.

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Lindsey Trent: and

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Lindsey Trent: we were discussing like, hey, what can you do? And they were like. Well, we couldn’t provide very much flexibility a lot of it 6 days a week what we do, but they were able to find a time where they could get their drivers 2 days off work in a row. So, you know, maybe you’re off Tuesday or Wednesday. Maybe it’s not the weekend, or maybe it’s Sunday. Monday. So, thinking outside the box are their ways that you can be flexible.

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Lindsey Trent: I talked with the shop once, and they so they created this flex schedule, where you can come in anytime between 7 Am. And 7 Pm. Now you must let your manager know but that your hours. You can start at 7, and then leave at 3, or maybe you can start at 10 and leave at 6.

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Lindsey Trent: But this will help. If you have dentist appointments or have a play, you want to see your child in the school play, and what they found when they gave the autonomy to the technician to kind of create the schedule based on what their needs were. The productivity went up for the technicians, which I thought was very interesting, so they felt a little bit of ownership of their job, and it increased their productivity because of

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Lindsey Trent: them creating their own schedule. Now, of course the schedule had to be, you know, approved by their supervisor, but

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Lindsey Trent: being flexible is something that we all need to explore. What can we do to be more flexible for the future generation.

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Lindsey Trent: And I and I have to say this, you know my 1st job right at a college and I was so excited to get this job. I had 0 vacation days the 1st year. And I was like, Okay, with that. Right? I’m like, hey, I’m just excited to have this job, and the second year I had 5 vacation days.

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Lindsey Trent: but nowadays I mean, they expect time off. They need mental health days and personal days and vacation days. So, we need to make sure we’re aligning our policies to what their expectations are. Otherwise, it’s going to be a little bit harder to attract them. If you have 0 vacation days, not like when I was coming out of college and my 1st job I was. I was fine with it.

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Lindsey Trent: you know. Another thing that’s important to Gen Z. Is company culture. Do you have a pet policy? Can they go and see the world with their pet.

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Lindsey Trent: Do you celebrate the milestones of your employees? Maybe it’s a safe driver, you know. Safe miles. Maybe. Are you celebrating? Truck driver appreciation week. And what are all the things you’re doing and being able to promote that on social media

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Lindsey Trent: promoting it on your website? Do you offer truck, touch a truck events. Where families come on site, and you have a family day at your facilities.

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Lindsey Trent: There is a lot of things that you can do to build your company culture and in company culture it, I mean, it needs to be genuine right? Because you care about your people, and you want to recognize them. Because without them what you do doesn’t work right. You’ve got to have them, and so make it a great place to work and explore all the different things that you can do

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Lindsey Trent: to make where you work better. What are you doing to promote company culture and to build up the employees and make sure that you are putting that as a huge focus.

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Lindsey Trent: Here’s a young man I met.

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Lindsey Trent: and he’s a technician, and he went right out to work for a big company. Being a technician, he didn’t like it right. He was a number. He didn’t feel like they cared about him, and he just kind of felt like he got lost in this shuffle.

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Lindsey Trent: Well, then, he went and worked for a local dealership. That’s a big dealership, but it’s still local and he felt like they cared about him. They knew his family.

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Lindsey Trent: If he was sick or needed a day off, they would work with him. He felt more like a person and not a number, and he told me that he wishes. When he was in school. Studying to be a Diesel mechanic. He was in high school setting to be a Diesel mechanic. He wishes that he had people from that company come and talk to him and

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Lindsey Trent: tell him about what to look for in a company. And so, if you have employees and you have school programs. Why don’t you let them go and talk to the students? And that’s going to be a huge promotion of your company and what your culture is. So, make sure that you are

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Lindsey Trent: working with your local schools to reach young people so that they know about opportunities in their area, and then make sure they know what you value as an employer. So, they can see if that aligns with what they want for their future.

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Lindsey Trent: Pay and benefits is always an important thing. Be straightforward with your pay and with your benefits. Don’t make them guess on how much they might make, and what they’re going to. I I mean, this is like, you know how much you’re going to make you pretty much know your hours. You know your benefits, package.

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Lindsey Trent: if you can be as straightforward as possible.

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Lindsey Trent: Gen Z. Is going to appreciate that they don’t want to interview for a company where they have no idea what the starting salary is. Going to be and maybe you have milestones where you know they’ve worked for you for 6 months for a year. What are those milestones? How are they going to increase in their pay because they’ve increased in in their skill level with you so pay and benefits

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Lindsey Trent: is a big factor for Gen Z. And retaining them

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Lindsey Trent: and don’t over promise and under. Deliver under promise and over. Deliver right?

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Lindsey Trent: So now you’ve attracted them. You’ve retained them. How do you manage them? I mean, this could be hard.

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Lindsey Trent: This could be a hard thing. And I think over the next years as we get more Gen Zer’s in the workplace, we’re really going to start learning how to manage gen, Z, but from our research today, right? Look at this picture. They’re all looking at their phones. So, we know that they’re going to come in with a phone in their hand.

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Lindsey Trent: I watched a like a meme recently. And it was this kid trying to call. And he wasn’t a kid. I mean, I’m telling you. He was probably in his early twenties, but he was with his mom, and he was trying to make a dentist appointment, and he hardly could talk on the phone, he said, “What do I say? Like, I want to make a den, I want to make an appointment. I and yeah, your next available is great. But he didn’t even know what to say. So

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Lindsey Trent: we might have some training things that we’re going to have to do to put Gen Z. Up to speed where you know, we didn’t have cell phones when we were growing up. And we didn’t text. So, it was phone conversations. It was face to face conversations. So, what are things that we can do to understand where they’re coming from.

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Lindsey Trent: and take them to where we want them to be, and that might be a lot of training and hand holding in something as simple as how do you have a phone conversation? My son, who’s 12. No, he’s 13 now. But he was answering the phone, and he didn’t say Hello, he would just answer it.

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Lindsey Trent: And we were like, Hello, like they just

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Lindsey Trent: they just don’t know like you answer the phone. And you say Hello, or you know, Hey, Lindsey? Here, how can I help you? But they don’t know this, so we might have to really kind of take a step back and see where they’re at to get them where we want them to be so. Something that Gen Z. Like they’re all about collaborating and communication communicating in their way. So

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Lindsey Trent: there are all these apps nowadays that you can have project management and base camp. You. You have teams. You have slack. I mean, a lot of companies have internal messaging systems. So, what can you do as a company to have internal communication systems that will? That Gen Z. Can

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Lindsey Trent: relate to, right? So, these are some very important things.

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Lindsey Trent: We need to have open communication. We need to collaborate with Gen Z. And we need to bring them into the picture like we want their opinion. You might be 60 years old and think this 20-year-old does not have any information for me that I can learn from. But maybe they do. What can you do to bring them in and collaborate with you

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Lindsey Trent: so interestingly about Gen Z. Is that they want to be independent and autonomous.

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Lindsey Trent: So, they want all of that. But they also want collaboration, and they want communication and teamwork, so giving them space, giving them training and a job to do.

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Lindsey Trent: allowing that space, but making sure you’re collaborating, and you’re staying connected with them, and you’re allowing for them to bring their opinions into the mix of things. I met this young lady who, at 18 got her CDL. Knew she wanted to drive.

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Lindsey Trent: and what was interesting was that she? Felt like a lot of the older drivers talked down to her, and she did not like that. She wanted to be a part of the team, and she wanted her opinion to matter, and so the more you can bring young people into the fold, mentor them instead of saying, oh, well, you don’t have anything to give.

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Lindsey Trent: They do. They have things that they want to give, they want to give back. They want to be a part of the mission. And so, what can you do to uphold them and help make them what they say, what they do matters? And so that is going to be important as we move forward.

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Lindsey Trent: work, life balance, right? What are you doing to help Gen Z. With that work life balance?

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Lindsey Trent: They expect that right? Like I told you, I had 0 vacation days, my 1st year, my 1st professional job. Well, that’s not going to fly anymore. Today, 81%

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Lindsey Trent: of employees say, flexibility is going to be important in choosing where they work and continuing to work for that company, so you might have to, you know, re-look at your policies and say, Do I provide work, life, balance for my employees? Am I, you know, providing opportunities for them to take a break from sitting behind the will or sitting behind the desk. What am I doing? How can I allow this work life balance?

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Lindsey Trent: melon truck lines? Interestingly, they had a policy where, if you wanted to take your time off while you were making a delivery, you could. So, there was somebody he wanted to go to Niagara Falls like he had to make a delivery near Niagara Falls, and he always wanted to see Niagara Falls.

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Lindsey Trent: and so, instead of taking his load back home and taking his break there, he took his break at Niagara Falls, where he got to go hiking and fishing and check out the Niagara Falls, and so maybe that is something that you can do to provide work, life balance for your employees, for your drivers. So, thinking outside the box, getting together with a group of other employees and saying, I know we don’t have the greatest amount of flexibility. But what can we do to

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Lindsey Trent: provide some work life balance. That’s going to be important and go a long way.

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Lindsey Trent: Hey? We’ve got to embrace technology, right?

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Lindsey Trent: We’ve said Gen Z. They were literally born with a phone in their hand or an iPad. Oftentimes I have a picture of my daughter at 2 years old, with an iPad, and she knew exactly how to swipe and to get into it and do all this stuff. They were born with this, and so when they come to work for a company. They expect

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Lindsey Trent: technology to be a part of their job. So, we talked about Infinit-I, right? They’ve got their training on the phone, that technology is important to gen Z, do you have platforms that they’re your TMS system?

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Lindsey Trent: Can they access TMS on their phone? Do they have tablets in the truck. It is important to consider what you’re doing and to bring technology into your company. The other thing, though that is important, is just because Gen Z. Was born with a phone in their hand doesn’t mean they automatically understand how to work this technology. Make sure you train them.

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Lindsey Trent: They’ll probably pick it up quickly. But you do need to train them in how to utilize the technology, so don’t think well, they’re young, they’ll be fine. No.

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Lindsey Trent: make sure you take them through, train them on it, and then they will probably be some of your best cheerleaders on the technology and hopefully training the older generation.

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Lindsey Trent: and inside the truck, right? I mean, you’ve got lane mitigation and collision avoidance. Make sure that you are training them on all the technology in the truck. Show them what kind of technology you have and what they can have when they come and work for you. What kind of truck that they can get.

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Lindsey Trent: That’s going to be impressive to them. They’re going to be excited to work in a truck that has all this amazing technology. And we are getting more and more technology every day. And it is getting fancy, and you know, last thing

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Lindsey Trent: because we’re getting ready to open it up to questions, and hopefully, we have a few questions. Are what mental health needs. So, I mean, when we were younger. And now we expect

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Lindsey Trent: health care benefits, right?

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Lindsey Trent: Well, this generation they are going to be expecting some mental health benefits, whether it’s you know, personal days, or they have access to psych psychological appointments, therapist appointments.

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Lindsey Trent: What are you going to do to provide those mental health needs for them? I’m excited to say that we are

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Lindsey Trent: getting ready. We just got a grant from the trucking Carriers Foundation and from Pilot Foundation. And we are creating a health and wellness video series. For drivers.

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Lindsey Trent: So this is going to teach you, hey? How do you get into a truck? Stop and make healthy decisions? How do you exercise when you’re with your truck? We know that your food choices, your exercise choices, those all help with your mental health. But this these programs are also going to say, hey?

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Lindsey Trent: The breath, you know, breathing techniques.

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Lindsey Trent: on the road. Different ways to help with their mental health. And we’ll we hope that you’ll be able to access this free

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Lindsey Trent: through your LMS platforms. So, we’ll have to talk about that with Infinit-I. But we’re really excited about that. But Gen Z. It’s not taboo. Mental health is not taboo to them like it was to us. You know, Gen. X. And baby boomers, right? They talk about it openly. They expect it as a part of their benefit package. So, start to think today like, what are you doing now

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Lindsey Trent: to provide mental health needs, and to

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Lindsey Trent: provide that for your employees. So, with all, if you utilize this messaging, you are going to start to attract Gen Z. And maintain them.

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Lindsey Trent: And I must tell you something interesting that Mike Rose said. He said that for every 5 baby boomers that are retiring today there’s only 2 skilled workers from the younger generation to backfill their place.

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Lindsey Trent: So, with what we are doing is very important. We have got to partner with local schools and be in the community and promote trucking as a positive career field to continue our mission, which is delivering products and making the world a better place, right?

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Steve Kessler: Absolutely

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Steve Kessler: very good.

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Steve Kessler: Lindsey, this is a really good information, a lot of stuff that I was not aware of being a baby boomer. I need to catch up a little bit on some of the younger generation, the newer generations. But a couple of things. You mentioned flexibility, and I think there are probably a lot of companies sitting out there having heard what you said. You know, we’re going to have to change quite a few things

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Steve Kessler: that we that we do. And I think everybody has seen this coming. We know there’s going to be a shortage of drivers. I think companies are going to have to rethink how they arrange routes and do things like that. But you know, to continue in business, we’re going to have to be flexible and make changes. One question I have.

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Steve Kessler: you know there are still quite a few companies out there. I call them long haul over the road where the drivers are gone 2, 3 weeks at a time, and they live in a sleeper and do that. Is there a negative feeling among the Gen Zer’s about that kind of a position.

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Steve Kessler: Well, I think there’s some that would embrace that.

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Lindsey Trent: Yeah, I think.

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Lindsey Trent: that’s a great question.

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Lindsey Trent: Gen Zer’s are into gaming, right? What if they could go over the road and still have access to all their friends because they’ve got the headsets and they’re playing games on their break.

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Lindsey Trent: And so, we need to kind of think outside the box on things like that that Gen Zer’s. They might not want to be an over the road driver forever. But there is a time that it will fit within their lifestyle, and that they can see the country and still be connected to their friends and family through technology and through gaming.

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Lindsey Trent: and so, providing opportunities for young people to see. Hey, you can gain while you’re on the road, I mean, I think that’s a great selling point.

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Lindsey Trent: So, I think that another thing that I know a lot of companies are doing are doing relays, right? So instead of going out and back, you’re out

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Lindsey Trent: and somebody else is out. You meet halfway, and then you go back, right? So, you’re home every night. So, trying to see are their other opportunities and ways that we can shorten our routes. And maybe there’s nothing but trying to find other ways to attract people. If it’s a pet policy, if it’s a a spouse policy.

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Lindsey Trent: I mean, it’s trying to, you know. Make it all work.

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Steve Kessler: Absolutely. And you know, I guess I asked the question because I don’t want companies out there that have that sort of a business model to think, well, there’s no way I can attract

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Steve Kessler: people from this generation with, unless I change everything. But it sounds as though with proper accommodations that would still be a viable opportunity for a Gen Z. Or to take sort of these long times away from home. Some I know a lot of drivers prefer that they’re independent. They love autonomy and doing their own thing. So, I appreciate that information.

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Steve Kessler: a lot of our clients out there, and companies that we’re familiar with use mentors, you know, a veteran person that can share some time with the new driver, do they? Gen Z. Folks embrace that sort of an idea, even though it might not be a Gen Z. Mentor.

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Lindsey Trent: Absolutely they do. And there is something that I did find interesting, though. And there is a certain age gap if the Mentee and the mentor are certain. If they have a certain age gap.

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Lindsey Trent: the mentor really needs to try a lot harder and communicate a lot more to relate to the younger person. So maybe if you can have you know a closer age gap. But if you don’t just know that you must try harder and work harder at communicating, because

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Lindsey Trent: cause. There are some differences there. But having a mentor program is a great way to build that relatability and build that connection between employees.

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Steve Kessler: Very good, very good. I know we’re getting close to our time limit. One thing I did want to comment on you. You mentioned here toward the end. About affording, you know, mental health, and you know, appreciating that and promoting that

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Steve Kessler: I must tell you everyone we have

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Steve Kessler: content recently put there. We call it driving well.

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Steve Kessler: right? Which talks about

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Steve Kessler: anxiety

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Steve Kessler: depression. You know. Mark and I have talked about this, and I was kind of

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Steve Kessler: curious of how that content would be accepted, and almost immediately, Lindsey.

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Steve Kessler: it was one of the most assigned content pieces of content in the system.

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Steve Kessler: and I think

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Steve Kessler: you know the Gen Zer’s will grab it quickly, but I think, given an opportunity. There are a lot of other people out there that aren’t that comfortable talking about it. But they certainly might want to learn a little bit more, get some advice through a video

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Steve Kessler: platform. So, I just wanted to throw that out. There. That’s right.

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Lindsey Trent: Great. Thank you for doing that.

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Steve Kessler: Recognize the value and the importance of.

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Steve Kessler: because the job can be quite stressful.

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Lindsey Trent: Yeah.

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Steve Kessler: Deadlines and find a place to park, and all the issues that truck drivers run into. I think you must support that, and I would think the Gen Zer’s.

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Lindsey Trent: Yeah, just dealing with all the other drivers on the road. I mean.

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Steve Kessler: Yeah.

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Lindsey Trent: All the cars on the road are.

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Steve Kessler: Exactly.

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Lindsey Trent: Day in and day out.

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Steve Kessler: One thing I want to do, and Lindsey, thank you very much. I’m going to pop a little poll up here on the screen.

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Steve Kessler: We

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Steve Kessler: obviously are in the in the training business

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Steve Kessler: for anybody out there. That’s not a current client. If you’d like to understand a little bit more about our Infinit-I system.

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Steve Kessler: feel free to answer yes or no. There. And we do provide the entry, level driver training content, the theory portion. We are registered providers with FMCSA. For that.

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Steve Kessler: So, if anybody has an interest in in any of those things, feel free to indicate that here on the poll.

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Steve Kessler: But having said that, Lindsay, I very much enjoyed your presentation, I think it was it was it was a real eye opener.

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Steve Kessler: I believe, for folks out there that are considering Gen Z. Mark, did you have a comment.

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Mark Rhea: Yeah. One. I got a couple of good questions, but one of them is particular about owner operators and entrepreneurial aspirations of gen Z, is that

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Mark Rhea: comment on that, or.

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Lindsey Trent: Yeah, that’s great. They’re very entrepreneurial. And so

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Lindsey Trent: selling. And I probably should have mentioned that with the crew pass they are a very entrepreneurial generation, and they want to know and a lot of them don’t know that you can own your own truck and so providing them opportunities to be become an owner operator is very important, and I think that we’re going to attract a lot of Gen Zer’s because of them being able to own and operate their own small business while on the road.

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Mark Rhea: So, a career path that leads to an owner operator is.

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Lindsey Trent: Cute.

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Mark Rhea: Attractive to the gen Z and the other question, of course, was time management skills. And I don’t know if you have something specific on time management or not. But

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Mark Rhea: that’s obviously something that

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Mark Rhea: our Gen Zer’s need to work on.

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Lindsey Trent: Absolutely, I agree, and we probably should create some curriculum for that, shouldn’t we?

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Steve Kessler: Yes.

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Lindsey Trent: I don’t think I should write it, though I’m not that great.

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Mark Rhea: I know. I know we’re running out of time, but I’d like all the participants to send a thank you note through Chat or to Lindsey for what she does.

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Mark Rhea: introducing our industry to the Gen Z. Population that’s out there. You obviously have spent a lot of time and effort on that, and we appreciate it very much.

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Lindsey Trent: Thank you. Well, I appreciate it. And you can visit our website. Nextgen trucking.org. Follow us on LinkedIn or follow me on LinkedIn Lindsey Trent. I’d love to connect with you all.

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Mark Rhea: And before one last question, and I know there’s a lot of people out here that say, oh, this all sounds good, but my people that I want to hire need help in getting a CDL.

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Mark Rhea: or is next Gen. A resource for at least a referral, or how I can connect

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Mark Rhea: some individuals to obtaining a CDL.

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Lindsey Trent: Yeah, I mean, we work with a lot of employers that hire new entrants into the industry so we can surely connect them there and we are. You know, we work with a lot of schools that are training CDL drivers and can help find funding for those drivers, too.

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Mark Rhea: Perfect.

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Steve Kessler: Very good.

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Lindsey Trent: Questions.

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Steve Kessler: Lindsey. We’re going to conclude the program. Thank you very much. Outstanding information. I’m sure if any of you have further questions reach out to Lindsey or Dave on the contact information here on the screen. And Lindsey, I’m going to look forward to having you on again when the next generation comes along. So, we can understand.

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Mark Rhea: How.

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Steve Kessler: Comes after Gen Z.

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Lindsey Trent: That sounds great. I’ll be glad, too.

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Steve Kessler: We enjoyed a great program. Thank you all for joining us today.

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Lindsey Trent: To get to.

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Steve Kessler: The next program.

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Steve Kessler: Thank you.