The Super Age
What is the super age? In this episode of Incorporating Superpowers, host Justin Recla welcomes Bradley Schurman the author of the book The Super Age: Decoding our Demographic Destiny. The world’s population is aging rapidly and society needs to adapt. Bradley and his organization work with businesses to help them navigate this new landscape so they can continue to evolve and grow their bottom line as the world continues to get older. Tune in to learn the super age insight on resiliency and innovation.
Justin Recla:
Welcome back to Incorporating Superpowers. Today, we are going to be examining what my guest calls, or refers to as, The Super Age. My guest today is Bradley Schurman. He’s the author of The Super Age: Decoding Our Demographic Destiny. And folks, you are in for a treat today, because if you’ve been paying attention, things aren’t what they used to be. And I’m not just talking about COVID and the pandemic, but I’m just talking about the world that we live in generally. Bradley, welcome to the show.
Bradley Schurman:
Thanks for having me today.
Justin Recla:
This is good stuff. I have been reading through your site. We talked briefly before the show. To sum it up for me, before we dive down the rabbit hole on the back end of this conversation, what is the Super Age?
Bradley Schurman:
The Super Age, as a company, is a global research and advisory firm that is helping businesses understand this seismic demographic shift that’s underway. And for your listeners, The Super Age is a period in time where one out of five people for the first time in history will be over the age of 65. This is due to the confluence of declining birth rates, precipitous in some cases, and a pretty radical extension of life, meaning that we’re living longer on average. It brings to the fore, a completely different reality for businesses and one that they’ve never had to experience before in our history. It’s a pretty dynamic time for them, but they have to lean into it to get the most out of it.
Justin Recla:
I absolutely love that you’re out there doing this work because we see this and we’ve talked to our clients and the people in our community that, they see these shifts going on. There’s this huge middle space between the 65-plus-year-olds and the millennials. We’ve all felt it, we’ve all heard the jokes and so forth, but it’s so much bigger than just age. What is the overwhelming theme here that business owners need to look at how to navigate this new Super Age?
Bradley Schurman:
Well, perhaps the biggest theme, and perhaps I hope the biggest takeaway, is that the world we’re living in is not the world that we grew up in. We saw our parents or our grandparents isn’t the way we see ourselves. There are new emerging life stages that are happening because of this extension of human life. And in fact, perhaps maybe the most dynamic and interesting consumer group is one that we would’ve considered as retirees just a few years ago. They exist somewhere between adulthood and traditional retirement. We call them The Middle Plus. Other words would call them Super Ager’s or the New Mid, or perhaps even Modern Elders, but they’re an active consumer group. They’re working longer, they’re engaged in their own health and wellbeing, they’re active consumers, and they’re inquisitive. And on the whole, they’re physically, mentally, and cognitively stronger than the generation before them.
Justin Recla:
This conversation right here, folks, is one that we need to examine even further. And Bradley, I got to ask, well, actually I want to pause. First and foremost, folks, on the backside of this conversation, we are going to examine this concept of The Super Age and how you can leverage it, how you should be talking about this within your organization so you can reach those that need to hear your message in that, to look for those that fall in that Super Age space and what that means for your business and how you can involve your business. But before we do that, Bradley, where can people go find more information about you?
Bradley Schurman:
You can find me at thesuperage.com, of course, on all major social media channels. And of course, you can get the book on Amazon, Barnes, and Noble, or your local retailers.
Justin Recla:
Fantastic. Folks, stick with us. When we get back, we’re going to dive down this rabbit hole even more because this is an area that I know a lot of you are watching. I know a lot of you are seeing and even experiencing, and you’re not too sure what that means for your business and how to navigate this new Super Age moving forward. Stay with us. We’ll be right back.
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