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In today's Brain Storm! Business Podcast we will discuss Generation Y, and how they will change life as we know it as both Employees and Clients.

They are spoiled, self-centered, covered in tatoos, piercings and electronics. They are high maintenance, but luckily also high performers - when they want to be. A lot of them live at home, or at least see their parents once a week. This is our future.

They are a result of baby boomers rejecting their parents' traditionalism, and attempt to instill free thought, free expression, and self-esteem into their children.

They wanted it, they got it. If Gen Y-ers don't like a job, they quit, since the worst that can happen is that they go back and live at home. That would be the equivalent to a death sentence in my day and age (20 years ago), but now, it's accepted. Parents even encourage it, or so I'm told - possibly out of left-over guilt for working while they were a kid, and making up for it now?

They are accepted as they are, for the most part, since 64 million boomers are expected to retire at the end of the decade.

That leaves a huge employment gap, and if a Gen Y-er is proficient enough, leaves a lot of bargaining room for the kid. However, corporations aren't waiting to bargain - they are preparing ahead of time to woo and court and cajole the Gen Y-ers...AND THEIR PARENTS. Yes, their parents, who may or may not attend the interview or meeting with their child!

Things definitely are different today - my parents told me clearly that putting me through college discharged any obligation they had for me hence forth.

I must admit, I am raising definite Gen Y-ers. However, as much as I couldn't imagine turning my children away if they needed a place to go, I WANT my children to be independent enough to live on their own and learn the skills to do it successfully. The longer they live at home, the longer the realities of life get postponed.

Maybe it's just a return to the 50s with the extended family?

Whatever it is, it is WEIRD to me, but makes total sense in the scheme of things. So let's talk about what we can learn about this generation that will be working for us and buying from us. Let's understand them, so we can come along side them. Just don't ask me to get a tatoo. (smile)

Penny Haynes, 1st Podcast Publishing & Online Community Magazines

P.S. Sorry for the lapse in podcasts - been swamped, and will be at the National Association of Women Business Owners conference next weekend, so I may lapse then as well. Just a heads up. Thanks for being patient with me!

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In today's Brain Storm! Business Podcast, we will discuss two issues: NBC's move to digital media and Tunica, Mississippi's stubborn hold on poverty, despite riches from their casinos.

NBC has seen the light and has started utilizing multiple broadcasting "channels", from previews and regular posting, to iTunes and delivery to cell phones. They have recognized that they need to place themselves (and their advertisers) wherever the potential customers go - so that means increasing their broadcasting streams.

The future of broadcasting will include story-telling by the viewers.

They only mention voting as a method of interaction, but I realize that the most popular form of interaction will be allowing the viewers to literally tell THEIR story as a part of the television story. Television hasn't figured out how to do it yet, but podcasting has - hence its popularity. That is what we are counting on for Online Community Magazines, since the entire concept is based on the community "telling their stories" by having their own column, radio or tv show online.

Then we visit Tunica, MS with Fortune, as they review what has happened to Tunica since it was the poster child for the most poverty-ridden place in the US.

They are proof that money doesn't buy you happiness. I just wonder, is it because they don't know the rules of spending? Casinos came in and brought in more than enough jobs and money - and yet 25% of the residents remain below the poverty level, and the schools produce substandard results.

Greedy land developers should be smacked in the head - hard.

Do you know that in Tunica, there are no homes in the price range of the people that work there? That is shameful. The developers build houses out of their price range, and sell to people who can pay more for a second or retirement residence. The people have to move farther away to find a home, so the taxes go to another county or city. That's not exactly brilliance on the part of the community leaders, if you ask me.

So listen in to today's business podcast, and find out the lessons we can apply to our own businesses.

Penny Haynes, 1st Podcast Publishing & Online Community Magazines.com

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In today's Brain Storm! Business Podcast, we review DayJet's brilliantly innovative way of preparing to do business, and their solution that can be described by way of a Total Soccer analogy.

Reading this article in Fast Company's May 2007 issue was like going through mental calisthenics. The beauty of what DayJet is doing is based on simple logic regarding how they approach problem-solving. Everyone spends all their time trying to find the one perfect solution to an issue - DayJet works on finding multiple possibilities that they can revert to any any moment.

What do DayJet and Total Soccer have to do with one another?

In Total Soccer, the emphasis is not on running a straight line for the goal. That may be the most straight forward way to win at soccer, but you have a little hindrance to that plan - it's called the other team. So the approach that proved very strenuous, but very effective, was the Total Soccer method: Have multiple options to implement at any moment.

How have Expedia and Orbitz affected their plans?

I love the fact that they calculated into their marketing strategy the need for a 5 second online response time for people making reservations. That is the period people are accustomed to waiting when they use these popular reservation services. Since a single, more perfect response would take 30 seconds, they decided to go the "best guess" route, and pick from one of multiple possibilities in order to meet that very small window of time.

DayJet is not stealing anyone's clients - they are creating an entirely new business market.

Their main competition is not the large airlines, it is the people who drive 18 hours across Florida to go to an appointment. They expect to convert as much as 80% of salesmen that normally drive to DayJet air taxi customers.

There's a lot more to be learned, so listen in and be amazed at the beauty of their business ideas and strategies.

You can also check out the new Online Community Magazines that is supposed to go live this week. Our server is up, AroundCherokeeCounty.com is supposed to be moved over this weekend. And the programmers are installing my last brainstorm module - a built in referral program that calculates any payouts for the owners. If you know of anyone who might want to run an online magazine in their local community, let me know - you can get $500 for it!

Penny Haynes, 1st Podcast Publishing & Online Community Magazines