Not Your Parents' Economy- Pathways For Millennials?

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Richard Helppie

Hello, welcome to The Common Bridge, I'm your host, Richard Helppie. Today our guest is Sam Caudle. We're going to be talking about generational issues. The Common Bridge, of course, available free on most podcast outlets. And please do join us at substack.com for much richer content and fiercely nonpartisan discussion. Sam, welcome. I appreciate you spending some time with us this morning.

Sam Caudle

Thanks Rich, for having me. I'm honored.

Richard Helppie

Every generation since the beginning of time has faced challenges. Responsible generations, of course, have tried to make things better for the next generation. And frankly, every generation has screwed things up because part of the human condition is [that] the solutions for today's issues are often the problems for the next. We're going to be talking to a successful guy - I believe, from the millennial generation, if we want to put labels on that - Sam Caudle.

Sam Caudle

Yeah, very much from the millennial generation.

Richard Helppie

So Sam, our audience likes to know a little bit about the people coming on the show. So if you don't mind, what were your early days, like? Where did you grow up and what were some of your early experiences?

Sam Caudle

So I grew up in a rural Oklahoma town - Cushing, Oklahoma - of round 9,000 people, with a lot of family around, being able to walk or ride my bike to my grandparents, my cousins; it was a big part of life. We had some acreage as well so I grew up exploring the woods; that was kind of my safe place as a kid. Very early in my childhood, I got into very competitive gymnastics and that kind of started to shape my worldview very early. So just seeing [that] if I put an effort into something that I like, that I enjoy, that I'm curious about, I will often have rewards. Growing up in a small conservative town, hard work is the way out and that's the way out for everyone; that's the common sentiment. And so I knew that and for a long time didn't know where to direct that hard work and I've been finding new ways ever since.

Sam Caudle

Were you able to go to college or further your education beyond high school?

Sam Caudle

Right when I finished high school, I went and did an internship with a ministry, just because that was something that I was passionate about at the time. So I moved to Kansas City and did that. Then a couple years later moved to Colorado Springs, started working for a big non-profit out there. They eventually paid for me to go to school. So I proposed that to them, as I was kind of moving around in different roles there and they paid for me to go to school. So I have an undergrad in business with an emphasis in finance.

Richard Helppie

And so you were with that not-for-profit for some period of time, I understand.

Richard Helppie

I was there for ten years. I actually quit three times in the midst of that ten years and came back and it seemed to to work; came back in a different phase of life and having stepped away and grown some, [then] come back and that seemed to work really well.

Richard Helppie

And now you're living in Florida.

Sam Caudle

We're in the Tampa, Florida area.

Richard Helppie

Wonderful. And we're going to talk a lot about your business today. I don't expect you to be the spokesperson for your generation any more than I'm a spokesperson for my generation (Sam Caudle: Sure.) but there's a difference. I think every generation has strived for a good solid, middle class standard of living; homeownership would be part of that, adequate food, transportation, security in old age, healthcare and the like, education for children. Every generation has had to strive. Every generation has had opportunities. Every generation has had challenges. You can't go back to the beginning of time - I suppose we could but I don't think we'd find much different. The World War II generation, they and their parents faced the Great Depression. They faced aggressive enemies in Japan and in the Axis powers, they returned to build a middle class in America and I think, did a terrific job with that. Baby Boomers, which I am part of, we kind of grew up in a Golden Age; the economy in the United States was booming. The United States had the only modern factories on the planet. Consumers had money in their pocket from working during the war years but couldn't spend it because of rationing. And we as Boomers were the beneficiaries of the schools and hospitals and roads and infrastructure that were built. It was some very, very good times. Then around 1980 we start having the international competition chipping into the automotive industry and that social contract for Baby Boomers to have a middle class standard of living was at risk, just like every generation. In each generation people have strived and people have succeeded. When I came out of high school, Sam - which was a long time ago - if I had a high school diploma and a decent work ethic, I could go to the Ford plant or the General Motors plant or Chrysler, get a union job, and have a great middle class standard of living in exchange for some hard work. Did you have that opportunity as a member of the millennial generation?

Sam Caudle

In a very different way; I think if I would have...looking at a lot of my peers that I went to high school with - that work for a lot of the major oil companies now, that have offices in the town I grew up in - they are welders or safety inspectors and they make a good, good middle class living. In Oklahoma middle class living means you have toys; you have the boat, and you have the ATV and those kinds of things, and that you're not worried. You're not worried about money. In a very different way something that happened in my generation - I was just talking to a friend yesterday - we had this shift where we started to care about what impact we made. Do you remember that? About ten years ago, the accusation toward the millennials is all they care about is changing the world, they don't care about money. And I feel like that's kind of disappeared. Maybe as the millennials have gotten a little older they've just maybe focused on themselves a little bit more. But I feel like still achieving whatever middle class standard that the millennials have, is different; there's a different path for everyone and it doesn't exist in the same way. You're completely right, there's not a clear path for me or any of my peers.

Richard Helppie

Life is much more complicated, I believe, (Sam Caudle: It is.) for your generation, than it was for mine. Although, we were schooled - like the World War II generation and by the World War II generation - to have faith, faith in something bigger than yourself, generally a religious faith. We were schooled to contribute to your community, which we did, there were lots of civic organizations, lots of ways to contribute, to help those in need, to help those that might be handicapped, to help those who might be discriminated against. So there was service there. And at the same time, I think it was a simpler time until we started running into the 1980s in terms of how to execute that social contract to get money in exchange for our labors. We were just at the beginning, where that split between the physical labor and knowledge workers was just beginning with the advent of the major computers.

Sam Caudle

My father, who's 63 this year, I grew up seeing him work hard. I think of my dad, I think of - as a kid seeing him sweat through leather gloves - I think of hard work. But still he was going in, putting on a tie and selling insurance, and going to Lions Club meetings every Tuesday for lunch. He was kind of that stereotypical person you're talking about that was engaged in those kinds of ways. And he's always encouraged me; don't do it like me, follow your gut, follow your curiosity, there's a more fun way to do this.