Podcasts about dan oh

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we start by discussing the unpredictable nature of Toronto's weather and its amusing impact on the city's spring arrival. We explore the evolution of Formula One pit stops, highlighting the remarkable advancements in efficiency over the decades. This sets the stage for a conversation with our guest, Chris Collins, who shares his insights on balancing fame and wealth below the need for personal security. Next, we delve into the intricacies of the VCR formula—proposition, proof, protocol, and property. I share my experiences from recent workshops, emphasizing the importance of transforming ideas into intellectual property. We explore cultural differences between Canada and the U.S. in securing property rights, highlighting the entrepreneurial spirit needed to protect one's innovations. We then examine the role of AI in government efficiency, with Elon Musk's technologies revealing inefficiencies in civil services. The discussion covers the political and economic implications of misallocated funds and how the market's growing intolerance for waste pushes productivity and accountability to the forefront. Finally, we reflect on the transformative power of technological advancements, drawing parallels to historical innovations like the printing press. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We discussed the VCR formula—proposition, proof, protocol, and property—designed to enhance communication skills and protect innovations. This formula is aimed at helping entrepreneurs turn their unique abilities into valuable assets. We touch on the unpredictable weather of Toronto and the humor associated with the arrival of spring were topics of discussion, offering a light-hearted start to the episode. Dan and I share insights on the evolution of Formula One pit stops, showcasing human innovation and efficiency over time. We examined the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in protecting their intellectual property and explored cultural contrasts between Canada and the U.S. regarding intellectual property rights. The episode delved into the implications of AI in improving government efficiency, highlighting how technologies reveal civil service inefficiencies and drive accountability. We reflected on the transformative power of historical innovations such as the printing press and electricity, drawing parallels to modern technological advancements. The conversation concluded with reflections on personal growth, including insights from notable figures like Thomas Edison and Peter Drucker, and a preview of future discussions on aging and life experiences. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: That feels better. Dean: Welcome to Cloudlandia, yes. Dan: Yes indeed. Dean: Well, where in the world? Dan: are you? Dean: today, toronto. Oh, you're in Toronto. Okay, yeah, where are you? Yeah? Dan: where are you? Dean: I am in the courtyard at the Four Seasons Valhalla in my comfy white couch. In perfect, I would give it 73 degree weather right now. Dan: Yes, well, we're right at that crossover between middle winter and late winter. Dean: You never know what you're going to get. It could snow or it could be. You may need your bikini, your Speedo or something. Dan: I think spring in Toronto happens, I think somewhere around May 23rd, I think somewhere around. May 23rd, and it's the night when the city workers put all the leaves on the trees. Dean: You never know what you're going to get. Until then, right, it just might snow, and they're stealthy. Dan: They're stealthy and you know, I think they rehearse. You know, starting in February, march, april, they start rehearsing. You know how fast can we get all the leaves on the trees and they do it all in one night they do it and all. I mean they're faster than Santa Claus. I mean they're. Dean: Have you seen, Dan? There's a wonderful video on YouTube that is a comparison of a Formula One pit stop from the 1950s versus the 2013 Formula One in Melbourne, and it was so funny to show. Dan: It would be even faster today. Dean: It would be even faster today. Oh yeah, 57 seconds it took for the pit stop in the 50s and it was 2.7 seconds at Melbourne it was just amazing to see. Dan: Yeah, mark young talks about that because he's he's not formula one, but he's at the yeah, he's at the level below formula one right, every, uh, every minute counts, every second counts oh, yeah, yeah, and uh, yeah, he said they practice and practice and practice. You know it's, it's, if it can be measured. You know that there's always somebody who's going to do it faster. And yeah, yeah, it's really, really interesting what humans do. Dean: Really interesting what humans do. I read something interesting or saw a video and I've been looking into it. Basically, someone was saying you know, our brains are not equipped for omniscience, that we're not supposed to have omniscient knowledge of everything going on in the world all at once. where our brains are made to be in a local environment with 150 people around us, and that's what our brain is equipped for managing. But all this has been foisted on us, that we have this impending. No wonder our mental health is suffering in that we have this impending when you say our, who are you referring to? Society. I think you know that's what they're. Dan: Yeah, that's what they're saying like across the board. Dean: Who are they? Yes, that's a great question. Dan: You know I hear this, but I don't experience any of it. I don't feel foisted upon. I don't feel overwhelmed. Dean: You know what I? Dan: think it is. I think it is that people who feel foisted upon have a tendency to talk about it to a lot of other people. Dean: But people who don't feel foisted upon. Dan: Don't mention it to anybody. Dean: It's very interesting. Do you know Chris Collins? Do you know Chris Collins? Dan: He wrote the really great book collection called I Am Leader. Dean: It's really something. He's a new genius. He's a new Genius Network member. Dan: Oh, Chris, oh yeah, oh yeah, chris, yeah, does he have repair shops? His main business is auto Auto. Dean: Yeah, oh yeah, chris, yeah, he does. He have repair shops His main business is auto, auto, auto dealership. Dan: He does auto dealerships. Dean: Yeah, that's right. Dan: Yeah, chris was in. Chris was in the program way back with 10 times around the same time when you came 10 times. He was in for about two years oh okay, interesting. Yeah and yeah, he was at the last Genius you know, and he's got a big, monstrous book that costs about $300. Dean: Yes, I was just going to talk about that. Yeah. Dan: We got one, but I didn't have room in my bags, you know. Dean: I budget. Dan: You know how much. Dean: I'm going to take and how much I'm going to bring back, and that was just too, much so, yeah, so yeah, yeah. He's very bothered. Oh, is he? Okay, yeah, I don't know him, I just I saw him. Dan: I got that what he talked about was this massive conspiracy. You know that they are doing it to them or they're doing it to us interesting interesting I don't experience that. What I experience is mostly nobody knows who I am. Dean: That's the best place to be right. Dan: They only know of you. Somebody was saying a very famous person showed up at a clinic in Costa Rica and he had eight bodyguards, eight bodyguards and I said yes, why is that expensive? That must be really expensive, having all those bodyguards. I mean, probably the least thing that was costly for one is having is having himself transformed by medical miracles. But having the bodyguards was the real expense. So I had a thought and I talked to somebody about this yesterday. Actually, I said my goal is to be as wealthy and famous just to the point where I would need a bodyguard. But not need the bodyguard just below where I would need a bodyguard, but not need the bodyguard Just below, where I would need a bodyguard, and I think that would be an excellent level of fame and wealth. Not only do you not have a bodyguard, but you don't think you would ever need one. That's the big thing, yeah. Dean: I love that. Dan: That that's good yeah that's a good aspiration yeah, yeah, so far I've succeeded yes, so far you are on the uh. Dean: Yeah, on the cusp of 81 six weeks seven weeks to go yeah, getting close. That's so good. Yeah, yeah, this. How is the new book coming? Dan: Yeah, good, well, I've got several because I have a quarterly book. Dean: Yeah, I'm at the big casting, not hiring. Dan: Yeah, really good. Each of us is delivering now a chapter per week, so it's really coming along. Great, yeah, and so we'll. Our date is may 26th for the everything in um before their editing can start, so they will have our, our draft will be in on may 26th and then it's over to the publisher and you know there'll be back and forth. But Jeff and I are pretty, jeff Madoff and I are pretty complete writers, you know. So you know it doesn't need normal. You know kind of looking at spelling and grammar. Dean: Right, right, right. Is that how you? Are you writing as one voice or you're writing One voice? One voice, one voice. Dan: Yeah, but we're writing actually in the second person, singular voice, so we're writing to the reader. So we're talking about you this and you this, and you this and you this, and that's the best way to do it, because if you can maintain the same voice all the way through, that's really good. I mean, jeff, we have a different style, but since we're talking to the reader all the way through, it actually works really well so far, and then we'll have you know, there'll be some shuffling and rearranging at the end. Dean: That's what I wondered. Are you essentially writing your separate, are you writing alternate chapters or you're writing your thoughts about one chapter? Dan: We have four parts and the first three parts are the whole concept of businesses that have gone theatrical, that have gone theatrical and we use examples like Ralph Lauren, Four Seasons. Hotel Apple. You know who have done Starbucks, who have done a really great job, and Jeff is writing all that because he's done a lot of work on that. He's, you know, he's been a professor at one of the New York universities and he has whole classes on how small companies started them by using a theatrical approach. They differentiated themselves extraordinarily in the marketplace, and he goes through all these examples. Plus he talks about what it's like to be actually in theater, which he knows a great deal about because he's a playwright and a producer. The fourth part is on the four by four casting tool and that's got five sections to it and where I'm taking people, the reader, who is an entrepreneur, a successful, talented, ambitious entrepreneur who wants to transform their company into a theatrical-like enterprise with everybody playing unique roles. So, that's how I've done it, so he's got the bigger writing job than I do but, mine is more directive. This is what you can do with the knowledge in this book. So we're writing it separately, and we're going to let the editor at the publishing house sort out any what goes where. Dean: Put it all together. Dan: Yeah, and we're doing the design on it, so we're pretty steadily into design projects you know, producing a new book. So we've got my entire team my team's doing all the backstage arrangements. Jeff is interviewing a lot of really great people in the theater world and you know anything having to do with casting. So he's got about. You know probably to do with casting. So he's got about probably about 12 major, 12 major interviews that he'll pull quotes from and my team is doing all the setup and the recording for him so so. Jeff. Jeff showed up as Jeff and I showed up as a team. That's great. Oh, that's great, that's awesome yeah, yeah, in comes, but not without six others, right, right with your. Dean: You know, I had a friend who used to refer to that as your utility belt. Right that you show up and you've got strapped on behind you. Dan: You've got your design, got it writing got it video, got it your whole. Yeah, strapped on behind you, you've got your design Got it Right. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dan: And capability crew. Yeah, and to a certain extent I'm role modeling the, the point of the book, you know, and the way we're going about this and and you know, and more and more so, I find probably every quarter my actual doing um of production and that gets less and less and I'm actually finding um, I'm actually finding my work with perplexity very useful because it's getting me better at prompting my team members yes yeah, with perplexity, if you don't give it the right prompt, you don't get the right outcome. You know, yeah, and more and more I'm noticing I'm getting better at giving really, really, really great prompts to my artists, to the writers who are working with me, the interviewers, everything so, um, yeah, so it's been very, very helpful. I I find uh, just in a year of perplexity, I've gotten much more uh precise about exactly what I want. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Yeah, defining right. I mean that's pretty. Yeah, yeah, that's really great. And knowing that, a lot of it, so much of that prompting, that's the language that's been adopted for interfacing with AI, chat, gpt and perplexity. Dan: The prompts that you give are the things. Dean: But there's so much of that. That's true about team as well, right? Oh yeah, being a better AI prompter is a better team prompter. Yeah yeah, being a better AI prompter is a better team prompter. Dan: Yeah, yeah, and you know I have a book coming out Now that I'm talking to you about it it may be the next book that would start in June and it's called Technology Coaching Teamwork and it has like three upward arrows that are, uh, you know, in unison with each other. There are three and I said that I think in the 21st century all businesses really have three tracks to them. They have a technology track, they have a teamwork track and they have a coaching track in the middle and that um in the 20th century, we considered management to be the basis. You know, management is the basis for business but. I think management has actually been um superseded, um by um superseded by electronics, you know actually it's the electronics are now the management, the algorithms are now the management and then you have the people who are constantly, you know, creating new technology, and you have human teamwork that's creating new things, because it's ultimately humans that are knocking off everything you know right. And then in the middle is coaching, and coaching goes back and forth between the teamwork and the technology. Technology will always do a really shitty job of coaching yes, I bet that's true, and teams will always do a sort of shitty job of uh knowing how to use technology and there has to be an interface in the middle, that's a human interface and it's a coaching, because coaching takes in a lot of factors, not just action factors or planning factors, but it takes in aspirational factors. It takes in learning factors. It takes in, you know, all sorts of transformational factors and that's a, that's a mid role. Yeah. Dean: Yes, yeah. Dan: And if you look at what you do best, it's probably coaching. Dean: Yeah, I wonder. I mean that's kind of. Dan: Joe Polish. It was Joe Polish, where he probably does best. He's probably a great coach. Dean: Yeah, I think that's true. Yeah, I think that's true. I've really been getting a lot of insight around going through and defining the VCR formula. You know proposition, proof, protocol and property. That's a. I see the clarity that. You know. There's a different level of communication and intention between. Where my I really shine is between is propositions and proof, like getting something knowing, guessing. You know we were. I was going to talk today too about guessing and betting. I've been really thinking about that. That was a great exercise that we did in our workshop. But this idea that's really what this is is guessing. I seem to have this superpower for propositions, like knowing what would be the thing to do and then proving that. That's true. But then taking that proof and creating a protocol that can be packaged and become property is a. That's a different skill set altogether and it's not as much. It's not as much. My unique ability, my superpower zone, is taking, you know, making propositions and proving them. I'm a really good guesser. Dan: That's my strength yeah. Yeah, I think the what I'm doing because it's, um, I'm really thinking a lot about it based on the last, um, uh, free zone workshop, which I did on monday and, uh, you know, monday of the week before last in toronto, where you were yeah, and and then I did it on Thursday again and I reversed the whole day oh really I reversed the whole day. I started off with guessing and betting and then indecision versus bad decision. And then the afternoon I did the second company secret and it worked a lot better. The flow was a lot better. Company secret and it worked a lot better. The flow was a lot better. But the big thing is that people say well, how do I? Um, I I just don't know how I you know that. Um, I'm telling them and they're asking me. So I'm telling them every time you take your unique ability and help someone transform their DOS issues, you're actually creating perspective. Intellectual property. And they said, well, I don't see quite how that works. I don't see how that works, so I've been, you know, and I'm taking them seriously. They don't see how that works. So I said, well, the impact filter is actually the solution. Okay, because you do the DOS question with them. You know, if we were having this discussion a year from now and you were looking back over the year, what has to have happened for you to feel happy with your progress? Okay, and specifically, what dangers do you have that need to be eliminated, what opportunities do you have that need to be captured, and what strengths do you have that need to be maximized? And there's a lot of very interesting answers that are going to come out of that, and the answers actually their answers to your question actually are the raw material for creating intellectual property the reason being is that what they're saying is unique and how you're listening to it is unique because of your unique ability so the best thing is do it, do an impact filter on what your solution is. So the best solution is best result solution is this. Worst result solution is this. And then here are the five success criteria, the eight success criteria that we have to go through to achieve the best result and that is the basis for intellectual property. Dean: What you write in that thing. Dan: So that's where I'm going next, because I think if we can get a lot of people over that hump, you're going to see a lot more confidence about what they're creating as solutions and understanding that these solutions are property. Dean: Yes. Dan: That's what I'm saying, that's what I'm thinking. Dean: Yeah, that's your guessing and betting yeah yes I agree and I think that that uh you know, I mean, I've had that to me going through this exercise of thinking, through that vision, column you know that the ultimate outcome is property, and once you have that property, it becomes it's a capability. Dan: It's a capability. Now right, that's something that you have. If it's not property, it's an opportunity for somebody to steal something ah right exactly. Yeah, I just think there's an inhibition on the part of entrepreneurs that if they have a really neat solution but it's not named and packaged and protected, um, it isn't going to really do them any good because they're going to be afraid. Look, if I say this, I'm in a conference somewhere and I say this, somebody's going to steal it. Then they're going to use it, then I I can't stop them from doing that. So the way I'm going to stop people from stealing my creativity is not to tell people what I'm creating. Right, it's just, it's just going to be me in my basement. Dean: Yeah, I bet no. Dan: I bet the vast majority of creative entrepreneurs they're the only ones who know they're creative because they're afraid of sharing their creativity, because it's not distinct enough that they can name it and package it and project it, getting the government to give you a hand in doing that Right yeah. Yeah, and I don't know maybe it's just not a goal of theirs to have intellectual property. Maybe it's you know it's a goal of mine to have everything be intellectual property, but maybe it's just not the goal of a lot of other people. Dean: What do? Dan: you think. Dean: I think that once you start to understand what the practical you know value, the asset value of having intellectual property, I think that makes a big difference. I think that's where you're, I mean you're. It's interesting that you are certainly leading the way, you know. I found it fascinating when you mentioned that if you were, you know, were measured as a Canadian company, that it would be the ninth or something like that. Dan: Yeah, during a 12-month period 23 to 24,. Based on the research that the Globe and Mail Toronto paper did, that the biggest was one of the big banks. They had the most intellectual property and if our US patents counted in Canada because I think they were just, they were just counting Canadian government patents that we would have been number nine and we're. you know, we're a tiny little speck on the windshield, I mean we're not a big company, but what I notice when I look at Canada very little originality is coming out of Canada and, for example, the biggest Canadian company with patents during that 12-month period was TD Bank. Yeah, and they had 240. 240, I mean that might be how many Google send in in a week. You know that might be the number of patents. That wouldn't be necessarily a big week at Google or Amazon or any of the other big American, because Americans are really into Americans are really, really into property. That's why they want Greenland. Dean: And Panama. Dan: And Alberta. Dean: Panama, alberta and Greenland. Dan: And the Gulf of America, yeah, the Gulf of America and property. Dean: Even if it's not actual. They want titular property. Dan: Yes. Dean: Yeah, yeah. Dan: And I haven't seen any complaints from Mexico. I mean, I haven't seen any complaints. Maybe there have been complaints, but we just haven't seen them. No, no, from now on it's the Gulf of America, which I think is rather important, and when Google just switches, I mean, google hasn't been a very big Trump fan and yet they took it seriously. Yeah, now all the tech's official. It's interesting talking to people and they say what's happening? What's happening? We don't know what's happening. I say, well, it's like the end of a Monopoly game. One of the things you have to do when you end one Monopoly game is all the pieces have to go back in the box, like Scrabble. You play Scrabble, all the pieces go back in the box at the end of a game. And I said, this is the first time since the end of the Second World War that a game is ending and all the pieces are going back into the box, except when you get to the next step. It's a bigger box, it's a different game board, there's more pieces and different rules. So this is what's happening right now. It's a new game the old game is over, new game is starting and, um, if you just watch what donald trump's doing, you're getting an idea what the new game is. Yeah, I think you're right, and one of the new game is intellectual property. Intellectual property I think this is one of the new parts of the new game. And the other thing is it's all going to be one-to-one deals. I don't think there's going to be any more multi-party deals. You know, like the North American Free Trade Act, supposedly is the United States, canada and Mexico In Europe. If you look at it, it's Canada and Mexico, it's Mexico and the United States and it's the United States and Canada. These are separate deals. They're all separate deals. That's what I think is happening. States, Canada and these are separate deals. They're all separate deals. Oh, interesting, yeah, and that's what I think is happening. It's just one-to-one. No more multilateral stuff it's all one-to-one. For example, the US ambassador is in London this week and they're working out a deal between the UK and the United States, so no tariffs apply to British, british products oh interesting yeah and you'll see it like the European Union. I was saying the European Union wants to have a deal and I said European Union, where is the European Union? You know where is? That anyway, yeah yeah, I mean, if you look at the United Nations, there's no European Union. If you look at NATO, there's no European Union. If you look at the G20 of countries, there's no European Union. There's France, there's Germany. You know, there's countries we recognize. And I think the US is just saying if you don't have a national border and you don't have a capital, and you don't have a government, we don't think it exists. We just don't think it exists. And Trump often talks about that 28 acres on the east side of Manhattan. He says boy, boy. What we could do with that right, oh, what we could do with that. You know they should. Just, you know who can do that. Who can do? United Nations, switzerland, send it to Switzerland. You know that'd be a nice place for the send it to there, you know like that and it just shows you that that was all. All those institutions were really a result of the Second World War and the Cold War, which was just a continuation of the Second World War. So I think that's one of the really big things that's happening in the world right now. And the other thing I want to talk to you about is Doge. I think Doge is one of the most phenomenally big breakthroughs in world history. What's happening with Elon Musk and his team. Dean: Yeah, I know you've been really following that with great interest. Tell me what's the latest. Dan: It's the first time in human history that you can audit government, bureauc, audit government, bureaucratic government, the part of government. You don't see Millions and millions of people who are doing things but you don't know what they're doing. There's no way of checking what they're doing. There's no way for them. And it was proven because Musk, about four weeks ago, sent out a letter to every federal employee, said last week, tell me five things that you did. And the results were not good. Dean: Well, I think the same thing is happening when people are questioned about their at-home working accomplishments too. Yeah, but that's the Well, lamar Lark, you know. Dan: Lamar. I don't think you've ever met Lamar. He's in the number one Chicago Free Zone workshops, so we have two and a quarter and he's in the first one. And he has all sorts of interesting things. He's got Chick-fil-A franchises and other things like that, okay, and he created his own church, which is a very I have met Lamar yeah, which is a very American activity. Dean: It creates your own church, you know yes yes, yeah. Dan: That's why Americans are so religious is because America is the first country that turned religion into an entrepreneurial activity. Got yourself a hall. You could do it right there in the courtyard of the Valhalla. How many chairs could you? If you really pushed it, how many chairs could you get into the courtyard? Let's see One, two three, four, five, not like the chair you're sitting on. No, I'm kidding. Dean: I'm just envisioning it. I could probably get 50 chairs in here. Dan: You got yourself, you know and set it up right, Get a good tax description yeah, you got yourself a religion there. That's great. And you're kind of tending in that direction with the word Valhalla, that's exactly right. Dean: Yes, would you. Dan: I'd pay to spend an hour or two on Sunday with you. Dean: But here's the big question, Dan Would you be committed enough to tithe? Dan: Oh yes, oh yes. Dean: Then we'd really be on to something you know. We could just count on you for your tithe to the church. That would be. Dan: That would really get us on our feet, but anyway, I was telling this story about Lamar. So he and his wife have a friend, a woman, who works for the federal government in Chicago, and so they were just talking over dinner to the person and they said, well, what's your day work, what's your day you know when do you go into the? office. When do you go into the office? When do you go into the office? And she says, oh, I haven't been to the office since before COVID. No, I know we are the office. And so they said, well, how does your home day work? And she says, well, at 830, you got to. You got to check in at 830. You check in at 830, you go online and then you put your j in at 8.30. Dean: You check in at 8.30, you go online and then you put your jiggler on Jiggler, exactly I've heard about this and they said what's the jiggler? Dan: Well, the jiggler moves. Your mouse keeps checking into different. It keeps switching to different files, positions, yeah, yeah, files. And that's the only thing that they can record from the actual office is that you're busy moving from one file to the other. And he says, well, what are you doing while that's happening? She said, well, I do a lot of shopping, you know I go out shopping and we have you know, and they come back and it goes from. You know it'll stop because there's coffee time, so we'll stop for 10 minutes for coffee and then it'll stop for lunch and stop for afternoon coffee. And then I checked out and I always check in five minutes early and I always check five minutes late, that's amazing, isn't it? that's what that's what elon Elon Musk is discovering, because Elon Musk's AI can actually discover what they did, and then it's hard for the person to answer what were the five things you did last week? You know, and the truth is that I think I'm not saying that all civil servants are worthless. I'm not saying that at all. You have it right now. It's recorded here. Your mechanism is recording that. I'm not saying that all civil servants are worthless but I do think it's harder and harder for civil servants to prove their value, because you may have gone to five important meetings, but I bet those meetings didn't produce any result. It's hard for any civil servant and you can say what you did last week. I can say what I did last week, but you were basically just meeting with yourself. Yeah, that's I saw somebody and you produce something and you made a decision and something got created and that's easy to prove. But I don't think it's easy in the civil service to prove the value of what you did the greatest raw resource in America for taking money that's being spent one way taking that money away and spending on something else. I think this is the greatest source of financial transformation going forward, because about 15 states all of them Republican states have gotten in touch with Elon Musk and say whatever you're doing in Washington, we want to do here, and I just he believes, according to his comments, that every year there's $3 trillion that's being badly spent $3 trillion you know, I got my little finger up to my mouth. $3 trillion, you know, this is that's a lot of you know, I'm at the point where I think a million is still a big deal. You know, trillion is uh, yeah, uh. Dean: I saw that somebody had invented a uh algorithm reader. They detected an algorithm in the like a fingerprint in the jiggler software. Oh that, yeah, so that you can overlay this thing and it would be able to identify that that's a jiggler that's a jiggler. Dan: That's a jiggler yeah, you got to because behind the jiggler is the prompter. Dean: The jiggler busters. Dan: Yes, exactly, he was on. He was interviewed, he and six members of his Doge team, you know, and how they're talking about them being 19 and 20 year olds, about them being 19 and 20 year olds. These were part. These were powerful people who had stepped away from their companies and their jobs just for the chance to work with the Elon. One guy had five companies. He's from Houston, he had five companies and he's taken leave from his company for a year. Just to work on the doge project. Yeah, and so that guy was talking and he said you know what we discovered? The small business administration, he said, last year gave 300 million dollars in loans to children under 11 years old wow to their to that a person who had their social security number, their social insurance number. Right, and during that same year, we gave $300 million in loans to people who were over 120 years old. Dean: Wow. Dan: That's $600 million. That's $600 million, that's almost a billion. Anyway, that's happening over and over. They're just discovering these and those checks are arriving somewhere and somebody's cashing those checks, but it's not appropriate. So I think this is the biggest deal. I think this changes everything, and I've noticed that the Democratic Party is in a tailspin, and has been especially since they started the Doge project, because the people doing the jiggling and the people who where the checks are going to the run I bet 90% of them are Democrats the money's going to democratic organizations, since going to democratic individuals and they're going to be cash strapped. You know that they've been. This isn't last year, this goes back 80 years. This has been going on since the New Deal, when the Democrats really took over Washington. And I bet this I bet they can track all the checks that went back 80 years. Dean: I mean, this is that's really something, isn't it? I was just thinking about yeah, this kind of transparency is really like. I think, when you really get down to it, we're getting to a point where there's the market does not support inefficiency anymore. It's not baked in. If you have workers for instance, most of the time you have salaried workers your real expectation is that they're going to be productive. I don't know what the actual stats are, do you know? But let's say that they're going to be actually productive for 50% of the time. But you look at now just the ability to, especially on task-related things or AI type of things um, collins, chris no, chris johnson's um, um, oh yeah um uh, you know the the ai dialers there, of being able, there's zero. Dan: They were doing, um, you know they were doing. Maybe you know the dialers were doing. You know, because some of the sometimes the other, the person at the other end they answered and they'd have a you know five minute call or something like that. So in a day in a day, like they have an eight hour thing they might do you know. 50, 50 call outs 50 or 60 calls yeah, his. Ai does 25,000 calls a minute. Dean: Exactly that's. What I mean is that those things are just that everything is compressed. Now there's no, because it's taken out all the air, all the fluff around it. What humans come with. You're right what you said earlier about all the pieces going back in the box and we're totally reset. Yeah, I think we're definitely that you know yeah and the thing thing about this. Dan: What I found interesting is that the request coming in from the states that they moved the doge you know the process department of government efficiency that I. I think he's putting together a vast system that can be applied to any government you know, it could be, and, uh, and, but the all the requests came in from republican states, not from Democratic states, waste and abuse and waste and fraud. probably for the over last 80 years, has been the party in the United States which was most invested in the bureaucracy of the government you know. And yeah, I mean, do you know anybody who works for the government? I mean actually, I mean you may have met the person, but I mean, do you know anybody who works for the government? I mean actually, I mean you may have met the person but I mean, I don't know. Do you do, do you know anybody who works for the government? I don't believe, I do, really, and I do, and I don't either right, I don't I don't, I don't, neither you know I mean, I mean everybody I know is an entrepreneur everybody I know is entrepreneurial. And yeah, the people who aren't entrepreneurial are the families. You know they would be family connections of the entrepreneurs. I just don't know anybody who works for the government. You know, I've been 50 years and I can't say I know anybody who works for the government but, there's lots of them. Yeah, yeah so they don't they. They're not involved in entrepreneurial circles, that's for sure. Dean: It's Ontario Hydro or Ontario Power Generation. Is that the government? No, that's the government, then I do. I know one person. I know one person that works for the government. Dan: All right, Send him an email and say what are five things you did last week? Yeah, what? Dean: did you do last week? Dan: Oh my goodness, that's so funny, impress me. Dean: Yes. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Yeah. Dan: I think it's a stage in technological development, I think it's a state, just where it has to do with the ability to measure, and this has been a vast dark space government that you can't really, yeah, and in fairness to them, they couldn't measure themselves. In other words, that they didn't have the ability, even if they were honest and forthright and they were committed and they were productive, they themselves did not have the ability to measure their own activities until now. And I think, and I think now they will, and I think now they will, and, but but anyway, I just think this is a major, major event. This is this is equal to the printing press. You know this is equal to to electricity. You can measure what government does electricity. You can measure what government does In the history of human beings. This is a major breakthrough. That's amazing. Dean: So great Look around. You don't want a time to be alive. Dan: Yeah, I mean depending on where you work I guess that's absolutely true. Dean: I've been listening to, uh I was just listening, uh just started actually a podcast about uh, thomas edison, uh this is a really great podcast, one of my great, one of my great heroes. Yes, exactly, the podcast is called Founders. Dan: Founders yeah. Dean: Founders. Yeah, david Sunra, I think, is the guy's name and all he does is he reads biographies and then he gives his insights on the biographies. It's just a single voice podcast. It's not like guests or anything, it's just him breaking down his lessons and notes from reading certain reading these biographies and it's really well done. But he had what turned me on he did. I first heard a podcast he did about Albert Lasker, who was the guy, the great advertising guy, the man who sold America and yeah, so I've been listening through and very interesting. But the Thomas Edison thing I'm at the point where he was talking about his first things. He sold some telegraph patent that he had an idea that he had created for $40,000, which was like you know a huge amount of money back then and that allowed him to set up Menlo Park. And then at the time Menlo Park was kind of out in the middle of nowhere and you know they asked why would you set up out there? And no distractions. And he created a whole you know a whole environment of where people were undistracted and able to invent and what you know. If they get bored, what are they going to do? They're going to invent something, just creating this whole environment. Dan: Well, he wasn't distractible because he was largely deaf. He had childhood injury, yeah, so he wasn't distracted by other people talking because he couldn't really make out. So you know, he had to focus where he could focus. And yeah, there is actually in my hometown, which his hometown is called Milan, ohio. I grew up two miles. I grew up I wasn't born there, but when I was two years old, we moved to a farm there. It was two miles from Edison. His home is there. It's a museum. Dean: Milan. Dan: Ohio and that was 1830s, somewhere 1838, something like that. I'm not quite sure. But there's a business in Norwalk, Ohio, where we moved from the farm when I was 11 years old Ohio, where we moved from the farm when I was 11 years old, and there's a business in there that started off as a dynamo company. Dynamo was sort of like an electric generator. Dean: Yeah, and we had dynamo in Georgetown. Dan: on the river, yeah, and that business continues since the mid-1800s, that business continues, and everything like that. My sense is that Edison put everything together that constitutes the modern scientific technological laboratory. In other words that Menlo Park is the first time you've really put everything together. That includes, you know, the science, the technology, the experimentation the creation of patents, the packaging of the new ideas, getting investment from Wall Street and everything. He created the entire gateway for the modern technological corporation, I think. Dean: I think that's amazing, very nice. I like to look at the. I like to trace the timelines of something right, like when you realize it's very interesting when you think and you hear about the lore and you look at the accomplishments of someone like Thomas Edison or Leonardo da Vinci or anybody, you look at the total of what you know about what they were able to accomplish, but when you granularly get down to the timeline of it, you don't, like you realize how. I think I remember reading about da vinci. I think he spent like seven years doing just this one uh, one period of projects. That was uh, um. So he puts it in perspective right of a of the, the whole of a career, that it really breaks down to the, the individual, uh chapters, that that make it up, you know, yeah, and it's funny, I've written about somebody, Jim Collins the good to great author. I heard him. His kind of hero was Peter Drucker and he remembers going to Peter Drucker and he had a bookshelf with all of his books. I think he had like 90 books or something that he had written, Peter Drucker, and he had them. Jim Collins set them up on his bookshelf and he would move a piece of tape that shows his current age against the age that Peter Drucker was when he had written those things and he realized that at you know, 50 years old, something like you know, 75% of Peter Drucker's work was after that age and even into his 80s or whatever. Dan: Yeah, most of my work is after 70. I was just going to say yeah, exactly, I look at that. You look at all of the things and then at 70, yeah, yeah, the actual stuff I've created is really yeah, that's when I really started to produce a lot after 70. Dean: Mm-hmm. Dan: Yeah, a lot of R&D. I did a lot of R&D. Dean: Right. Dan: Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, my goal is that 80 to 90 will be much more productive than 70 to 80. Yeah, I was talking to someone today interesting, very interesting physical fitness guy here in Toronto and he's a really great chiropractor so he's working. So I have I'm making great progress with the structural repair of my left knee. But there's all sorts of functional stuff that has to come along with it and he's my main man for doing this. But he was talking, he's 50, and he said you know, my goal is that 60 to 70 is going to be my most active part of my life, you know, from mountain climbing to all these different really high endurance athletics and sports, and so we got talking and I just shared with him the idea that the real goal you should have or which covers a lot of other areas is that, if you're like my goal for 90, I'm just going on 81, my goal for 90 is that I'm more ambitious at 90 than I am at the present. Dean: And. Dan: I said that's what that almost seems impossible, impossible well, well it is if you're just looking at yourself as a single individual yeah but if you're looking at yourself as someone who has an expand team, it's actually very possible. Dean: Yeah, yeah yeah, you're mine are those potato chips no, it's a piece of cellophane wrapped around something. That was the word right Retired. And they've been retired for about five years or so and I hadn't seen them in a couple of years. But it's really interesting to, at 72, the uh, you know the, just the level you can tell just physically and everything mentally, everything about them. They're on the, the decline phase of the thing they're not ramping up. You know, like just physically they are, um, you know they're, they're big, um cruisers. You know they've been going on cruises now every every six weeks or so, but, um, but yeah, no, no, uh, no more golf, no more. Like you see, they're intentionally kind of winding things down, resigning to the yeah. Dan: Yeah, it's very interesting. I don't know if you caught it in the news. It was, I think, right at the end of January. But you know the name Daniel Kahneman. Dean: I know the name. Yeah, thinking fast and slow. Dan: Fast thinking slow yeah, he committed suicide in Switzerland. Dean: I did not know that. When was that he? Dan: was 90 years old, I think it was January 28th. Dean: And it was all planned out. Dan: It was all planned out and he went to Switzerland to do it, because they have the legal framework where you can do that and everything else. And I found it so interesting that I did a whole bunch of perplexity searches and I said, because he was very influential, I never read his book, because I read the first five or 10 pages and it just didn't seem that interesting to me and it seemed like he had. You know that he's famous for that book and he's famous for it, and it seemed to be that he's kind of like a one trick pony. You know, he's got a great book that really changed things. And then I started looking. I said, well, what else did he do besides that one book? And it's not too much. And he did that, you know, 40 years ago. It was sort of something he did 40 years ago. Dean: Wow. Dan: And I just said gee, I wonder if he, you know, he just hasn't been real productive. Wonder if he, you know, he just hasn't been real productive, not not starting in january, but he hadn't been real productive over the last 20 or 30 years and he did that. Dean: Uh, and anyway, you know, I don't know. I don't know that I've been living under a rock or whatever. I didn't even realize that this was a real thing. I have a good friend in Canada whose grandfather is tomorrow scheduled for assisted. It's a big thing in Canada. Dan: Canada is the most leading country in incidents of people being assisted in committing suicide. Dean: Yeah, and. Dan: I have my suspicions. It's a way for the government to cut checks to old people. You know like assist them to leave. You know I mean it's just. What a confusing set of emotions that must bring up for someone you love. Confusing and disturbing about his committing suicide and it's really a big topic, you know, because he was saying you can always get on top of whatever you're experiencing and get useful lessons from it, right? Dean: and I said. Dan: I said, well, you must have reached an empty week or something. You know I I don't know what, what happened I, you know I mean right and uh, cause I I'm finding um the experience of being 80, the experience of being 70 and 80, very, very fruitful for coming up with new thoughts and coming up with new ideas right, you know and what, what is still important when you're uh, you know, still important when you're. you know what is even more important and what is even more clear when you're 80. That wasn't clear when you were 50 or 60. I think that's a useful thought. You know that's a useful thought, yeah, but it's really interesting. I never find suicide is understandable. Dean: I know, yeah, I get it. I see that you think about that too. I've had that. I've had some other people, my cousin, years and years ago was the first person kind of close to me that had committed suicide, and you know. But you always think it's just like you, I can't imagine that like I. I can imagine, uh, just completely like disappearing or whatever you know starting off somewhere else, like complete, you know, reset, but not something that that final, you know. Dan: You know, I can understand just extreme, intolerable pain you know, I mean. I can, I can, I can totally get that. Dean: Yeah, yeah. Dan: Yeah, I mean, it's just you. You just can't go through another day of it. I I just totally understand that but, where it's more of a psychological emotional you get a, got yourself in a corner and that, uh then, um, you know, I don't really, um, I don't really comprehend what's going on there. You know, I I obviously something's going on, but I you know, I, I obviously something's going on, but I, just from, I've never had a suicidal thought. I mean, you know, I've had some low points, I've had some, but even on my low points I had something that was fun that day you know Right Right, right Right. Or I had an interesting thought. Yeah, right. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. Dan: Well, I'm glad we hit on that topic because I said, you may think I know that the person doing it has a completely logical reason for doing it. It's just not a logic that can be explained easily to other people yeah, when you're not in that spot. I get it, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah anyway this was a good one. This was a good one. Yeah, now okay, wait actually yeah, I'll be calling from chicago next week. Dean: Okay, perfect I'll be here, yeah, um, yeah, I want to. I'd love to, um, if we remember, and if we don't, that's fine too, but if we remember, you brought up something the I would love to see and maybe talk about the difference between uh, you know, between 60, 70, 80, your thoughts of those things. Yeah, you're getting to that point I'm 22 years behind you, so I'm just turning 59 right before you turn 81. Dan: So that'd be something I'll put some thought to it. I love it. Dean: Okay. Dan: Perfect, thanks, dan. All right, okay, thanks, bye.

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we reflect on how places, people, and experiences shape our perspectives. The conversation begins with casual observations, from warm weather making transitions easier to memorable encounters like “Spam Man,” a mysterious figure spotted at the Hazleton Hotel. We also explore the impact of changing landscapes, both physical and cultural. From real estate in Toronto to how cities evolve, we discuss how development can shape or diminish the character of a place. This leads to a broader conversation about timeless architecture, like Toronto's Harris Filtration Plant, and how thoughtful design contributes to a city's identity. Technology's role in daily life also comes up, especially how smartphones dominate attention. A simple observation of people walking through Yorkville reveals how deeply connected we are to our screens, often at the expense of real-world engagement. We contrast this with the idea that some things, like human connection and cooperation, remain unchanged even as technology advances. The discussion closes with thoughts on long-term impact—what lasts and fades over time. Whether it's historic buildings, enduring habits, or fundamental human behaviors, the conversation emphasizes that while trends come and go, specific principles and ways of thinking remain relevant across generations. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS In Phoenix, during a rooftop party, we witnessed a surprise appearance of a SpaceX rocket, which sparked our discussion on extraordinary events blending with everyday life. We explored the curious case of "Spam man," a local legend in Hazleton, whose mysterious persona intrigued us as much as any UFO sighting. We shared our fascination with the dynamic real estate landscape in Hazleton, discussing new constructions and their impact on scenic views. Our conversation touched on unique weather patterns at the beaches near the lake, emphasizing the influence of water temperatures on seasonal climate variations. We delved into the topic of warmer winters, reflecting on how both humans and nature adapt to milder temperatures, particularly during February 2024. Our discussion included insights from Morgan Housel's book, which inspired our reflections on nature's resilience and adaptation over millions of years. We highlighted local activities like windsurfing and kite skiing, noting the favorable wind conditions at the beaches, a rarity in Canada's cold-weather climate. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: Mr Jackson. I hope you behaved when you were out of my sight. Dean: I did. I'll have to tell you something. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the arrangement of this warm weather. For me, it's made the transition much more palatable warm weather. Dan: for me it's made the transition much more palatable. Dean: I mean our backstage team is really getting good at this sort of thing, and you know when we were in. Dan: we were in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago and we had a rooftop party and right in the middle of the party we arranged for Elon Musk to send one of his rockets out. Dean: I saw that a satellite launch yeah. Dan: Yeah, can you imagine that guy and how busy he is? But just you know, just to handle our request he just ended up with, yeah, must be some money involved with that. Dean: Well, that's what happens, Dan. We have a positive attitude on the new budget. Dan: Yeah, and you think in terms of unique ability, collaboration, you know, breakthroughs free zone you know, all that stuff, it's all. Dean: it's the future. Dan: Yeah. So good Well he sent the rocket up and they're rescuing the astronauts today. Dean: Oh, is that right? How long has it been now since they've been? Dan: It's been a long time seven, eight months, I think, Uh-huh, yeah and Boeing couldn't get them down. Boeing sent them up, but they couldn't get them down. You know, which is only half the job, really. Dean: That was in the Seinfeld episode about taking the reservation and holding the reservation. Yeah. They can take the reservation. They just can't hold the reservation yeah. Dan: It's like back really the integral part. Back during the moonshot, they thought that the Russians were going to be first to the moon. Kennedy made his famous speech. You know we're going to put a man on and they thought the Russians, right off the bat, would beat him, because Kennedy said we'll bring him back safely and the Russians didn't include that in their prediction. That's funny. Dean: We had that. We're all abuzz with excitement over here at the Hazleton. There's a funny thing that happened. It started last summer that Chad Jenkins Krista Smith-Klein is that her name yeah, yeah. So we were sitting in the lobby one night at the Hazleton here and this guy came down from the residences into the lobby. It was talking to the concierge but he had this Einstein-like hair and blue spam t-shirts that's, you know, like the can spam thing on it and pink, pink shorts and he was, you know, talking to the concierge. And then he went. Then he went back upstairs and this left such an impression on us that we have been, you know, lovingly referring to him as Spam man since the summer, and we've been every time here on alert, on watch, because we have to meet and get to know Spam man, because there's got to be a story behind a guy like that in a place like this. And so this morning I had coffee with Chad and then Chad was going to get a massage and as he walked into the spa he saw Spamman and he met him and he took a picture, a selfie, with him and texted it. But I haven't that. His massage was at 10 o'clock, so all I have is the picture and the fact that he met Spamman, but I haven't that. His massage was at 10 o'clock, so all I have is the picture and the fact that he met Spam man, but I don't have the story yet. But it's just fascinating to me that this. I want to hear the story and know this guy now. I often wonder how funny that would appear to him. That made such an impression on us last summer that every time we've been at the Hazleton we've been sitting in the lobby on Spam man. Watch, so funny. I'll tell you the story tomorrow. I'll get to the bottom of it. Dan: It's almost like UFO watchers. They think they saw it once and they keep going back to the same place you know hoping that'll happen again, yeah. Dean: Is there a? Dan: spot. Is there a spot at the Hazleton? Dean: There is yeah. Dan: Oh, I didn't know that. Dean: So there's some eclectic people that live here, like seeing just the regulars or whatever that I see coming in and out of the of the residence because it shares. Dan: There's a lot, you know, yeah that's a that's pretty expensive real estate. Actually, the hazelton, yeah for sure, especially if you get the rooftop one, although they've destroyed I I think you were telling me they've destroyed the value of the rooftop because now they're building 40-story buildings to block off the view. Dean: I mean that's crazy. Right Right next door. Yeah, yeah, but there you go. How are things in the beaches as well? Dan: Yeah. You know it's interesting because we're so close to the lake it's cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, you know. Dean: Oh, okay. Dan: You know, because controlled by water temperatures. Dean: Water temperatures. Dan: Yes, exactly, I mean even you know, even if it's cold, you know the water temperature is maybe 65, 66. Dean: Fahrenheit, you know it's not frigid. Dan: It's not frigid. Dean: They have wintertime plungers down here people who go in you know during the winter yeah, but this is that you and babs aren't members of the polar bear club that would not be us um but anyway, uh, they do a lot of uh windsurfing. Dan: There's at the far end of our beach going uh towards the city. They have really great wind conditions there. You see the kite skiers. They have kites and they go in the air. It's quite a known spot here. I mean, canada doesn't have too much of this because we're such a cold-weather country. There isn't the water, it's pretty cold even during the summertime yeah exactly yeah, but the lake doesn't freeze, that's oh, it does, it does yeah, yeah we've had, we've had winters, where it goes out, you know, goes out a quarter mile it'll be. Dean: I didn't realize that Wow. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but not this winter. It never froze over this winter, but we have, you know, within the last two or three winters, we've had ice on the. We've had ice, you know, for part of the winter. Dean: It's funny to me, dan, to see this. Like you know, it's going gonna be 59 degrees today, so, yeah, it's funny to me to see people you know out wearing shorts and like, but it must be like a, you know, a heat wave. Compared to what? You had in the first half of march here, right, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, so that's good. Dan: Yeah, last February not this past month, but February of 2024, we had 10 days in February where it was over 70. Dean: And. Dan: I often wonder if the trees get pulled, the plants get pulled. Dean: It triggers them to like hey, oh my. Dan: God. But apparently temperature is just one of the factors that govern their behavior. The other one is the angle of the light. Dean: And that doesn't change the angle of the sunlight. Dan: Yeah, so they. You know I mean things work themselves out over millions of years. So you know there's, you know they probably have all sorts of indicators and you have 10 boxes to check and if only one of them is checked, that doesn't, it doesn't fool them. You know they have a lot of things that I sent you and I don't know if we ever discussed it or you picked it up after I recommended it was Morgan Housel, famous ever. Dean: Did you like that? Did you like that? Dan: book. I did, I loved. It was Morgan Housel famous ever. Did you like that? Did you like that book? Dean: I did, I loved it. I mean it was really like, and I think ever you know, very, very interesting to me because of what I've been doing, you know the last little while, as I described, reading back over you know 29 years of journals, picking random things and seeing so much of what, so much of what, the themes that go that time feels the last. You know 30 years has gone by so fast that I, when I'm reading in that journal, I can remember exactly like where I was and I can remember the time because I would date and place them each journal entry. So I know where I was when I'm writing them. But I thought that was a really, I thought it was a really interesting book. What stood out for you from? Dan: Yeah, I think the biggest thing is that really great things take a long time to create. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Because they have to be tested against all sorts of changing conditions and if they get stronger, it's like you know they're going to last for a long time. Dean: And. Dan: I'm struck by it because the book, the little book that I'm writing for the quarter, is called the Bill of Rights Economy and the Bill of Rights really started with the United States. It was December 15th 1791. So that's when, I think, washington was just inaugurated at that time as the first president. But, how durable they are, and you can read the newspaper every day of things going on in Washington and you can just check off the first 10 amendments. This is a Fifth Amendment issue. This is a second amendment you know and everything like that, and it's just how much they created such a durable framework for a country. They were about 3 million people at that time and now there are 300 and whatever probably upwards of 350 million. And basically, the country runs essentially according to those first 10 amendments and then the articles which say how the machinery of government actually operates. And it's by far the longest continuous governing system in the world. That's really interesting. But that's why you know I really like things that you know, that you know that have stood the test of time. I like having my life based on things that have stood the test of time. And then I've got, you know, I've got some really good habits which I've developed over the last 50 years of coaching. Got, you know, I've got some really good habits which I've developed over the last 50 years of coaching and you know they work. You know I don't fool around with things that work. Yeah Well, I want to bring in something. I really am more and more struck how there's a word that's used in the high technology field because I was just at Abundance 360. And it's the word disruption and it's seen as a good thing, and I don't see disruption as good. I don't really see it as a good thing. I see it as something that might happen as a result of a new thing, but I don't think the disruption is a good thing. Dean: Yeah, it feels like it's not. It seems like the opposite of collaboration. Yeah, it really is. It feels like the negative. You know the I forget who said it, but you know the two ways they have the biggest building. Dan: I really mean Chucky movie. Dean: Yeah, there was somebody said the two ways to have the biggest building in town, the tallest building is to build the tallest building or to tear down all the other buildings that are taller than yours, and that's what disruption feels like to see in the real estate industry is always one that is, you know, set up as the big fat cat ready for disruption. And people have tried and tried to disrupt the real estate industry and, you know, I came away from the first, the first abundance 360, realizing that, you know, perhaps the thing that same makes real estate possible is that you can't digitize the last hundred feet of a real estate transaction. You know, and I think that there are certain industries, certain things that we are, that there's a human element to things. Dan: That is very yeah, yeah, I mean, it's really interesting just to switch on to that subject. On the real, estate. If you take Silicon Valley, Hollywood and Wall Street, who are the richest people in the area Silicon? Dean: Valley. Dan: Hollywood and Wall Street. Who are the richest people in the area? Dean: Silicon Valley Hollywood and Wall Street. Dan: Who are the real money makers? Dean: Yeah, Wall Street. Dan: No, the real estate developers. Dean: Oh, I see, oh, the real estate developers. Oh yeah, yeah, that's true, right, that's true. Dan: I don't care what you've invented or what your activity is. I'll tell you the people who really make the money are the people who are into real estate. Dean: Yeah, you can't digitize it, that's for sure. Dan: Well, I think the answer is in the word. It's real. Dean: What was that site, dan, that you were talking about? That was is it real? Or is it Bach or whatever? Or is it Guy or whatever? What was? Or is it AI or Bach? Dan: Well, no, I was. Yeah, I was watching. It was a little, you know, it was on YouTube and it was Bach versus AI. Dean: So what they've? Dan: done. You know you can identify the. You know the building components that Bach uses to you know to write his music and then you know you can take it apart and you know you can say do a little bit of this, do a little bit of this, do a little bit of this. And then what they have? They play two pieces. They play an actual piece by Bach and then they play another piece which is Bach-like you know, and there were six of them. And there was a of them and there was a host on the show and he's a musician, and whether he was responding realistically or whether he was sort of faking it, he would say boy, I can't really tell that one, but I guessed on all six of them and I guessed I guessed right. Dean: I know there was just something about the real Bach and I think I think it was emotional more than you know that could be the mirror neurons that you know you can sense the transfer of emotion through that music, you know. Dan: Yeah, and I listen to Bach a lot I still get surprised by something he's got these amazing chord changes you know, and what he does. And my sense is, as we enter more and more into the AI world, our you know, our perceptions and our sensitivities are going to heighten to say is that the real deal or not? Dean: you know yeah sensitivities are going to heighten to say is that the real deal or not? You know, and yeah, that's what you know, jerry Spence, I think I mentioned. Dan: Jerry Spence about that that Jerry Spence said. Dean: our psychic tentacles are in the background measuring everything for authenticity, and they can detect the thin clank of the counterfeit. Yeah, and I think that's no matter what. You can always tell exactly. I mean, you can tell the things that are digitized. It's getting more and more realistic, though, in terms of the voice things for AI. I'm seeing more and more of those voice caller showing up in my news feed, and we were talking about Chris Johnson. Chris Johnson, yeah, yeah, chris Johnson. Dan: This is really good because he's really fine-tuned it to. First of all, it's a constantly changing voice. That's the one thing I noticed. The second version, first version, not so much, but I've heard two versions of the caller. And what I noticed is, almost every time she talks, there's a little bit of difference to the tone. There's a little bit, you know, and she's in a conversation. Dean: Is it mirroring kind of thing, Like is it adapting to the voice on the other end? Dan: Yeah, I think there's. I certainly think there's some of that. And that is part of what we check out as being legitimate or not, because you know that it wouldn't be the same, because there's meaning. You know meaning different meaning, different voice, if you're talking to an actual individual who's not you know, who's not real monotonic. But yeah, the big thing about this is that I think we get smarter. I was talking, we were on a trip to Israel and we were talking in this one kibbutz up near the Sea of Galilee and these people had been in and then they were forced out. In 2005, I think it was, the Israeli government decided to give the Gaza territory back to the Palestinians. But it was announced about six months before it happened and things changed right away. The danger kicked up. There was violence and you know, kicked up. And I was talking to them. You know how can you send your kids out? You know, just out on their own. And they said, oh, first thing that they learned. You know he said three, four or five years old. They can spot danger in people. You know, if they see someone, they can spot danger with it. And I said boy oh boy, you know, it just shows you the, under certain conditions, people's awareness and their alertness kicks up enormously. They can take things into account that you went here in Toronto, for example. You know, you know, you know that's wild. Dean: Yeah, this whole, I mean, I think in Toronto. Dan: The only thing you'd really notice is who's offering the biggest pizza at the lowest price. Dean: Oh, that's so funny. There's some qualitative element around that too. It's so funny. You think about the things that are. I definitely see this Cloudlandia-enhan. You know that's really what the main thing is, but you think about how much of what's going on. We're definitely living in Cloudlandia. I sat last night, dan, I was in the lobby and I was writing in my journal, and I just went outside for a little bit and I sat on one of the benches in the in front of the park. Oh yeah, in front of the hotel and it was a beautiful night. Dan: Like I mean temperature was? Dean: yeah, it was beautiful. So I'm sitting out there, you know, on a Saturday night in Yorkville and I'm looking at March. I'm just yeah, I'm just watching, and I left my phone. I'm making a real concerted effort to detach from my oxygen tank as much as I can. Right, and my call, that's what I've been calling my iPhone right, because we are definitely connected to it. And I just sat there without my phone and I was watching people, like head up, looking and observing, and I got to. I just thought to myself I'm going to count, I'm going to, I'm going to observe the next 50 people that walk by and I'm going to see how many of them are glued to their phone and how many have no visible phone in sight, and so do you. Dan: What was it? Nine out of 10? Dean: Yeah, it wasn't even that. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. It was 46, but it wasn't even 10. Yeah, it was real. That's exactly what it was. It was 46. Dan: It wasn't even 10%, it was 19. It wasn't even no, it was 19 out of 20. Dean: Yeah, I mean, isn't that something, dan? Like it was and I'm talking like some of them were just like, literally, you know, immersed in their phone, but their body was walking, yeah, and the others, but their body was walking. But it's interesting too. Dan: If you had encountered me. I think my phone is at home and I know it's not charged up. Dean: Yeah, it's really something, dan, that was an eye-opener to me. It's really something, dan, that was an eye-opener to me, and the interesting thing was that the four that weren't on the phone were couples, so there were two people, but of the individuals, it was 100% of. The individuals walking were attached to their phones. Dan: Yeah. Dean: And I think that's where we're at right now. Dan: No, yeah, I don't know, it's just that. Dean: No, I'm saying that's observation. Dan: It's like Well, that's where we are, in Yorkville, in front of Okay, right, right, right yeah. No, it's just that I find Yorkville is a peculiarly Are you saying it's an outlier? It's not so much of an outlier but it's probably the least connected group of people in Toronto would be in Yorkville because they'd be out for the. They don't live there. You know most don't live there, they're and they're somewhere. There's probably the highest level of strangers you know, on any given night in toronto would probably be in yorkville I think it's sort of outliers sort of situation. I mean, I mean, if you came to the beaches on a yeah last night, the vast majority of people would be chatting with each other and talking with each other. They would be on their phones. I think think it's just a. It's probably the most what I would call cosmopolitan part of Toronto, in other words it's the part of Toronto that has the least to do with Toronto. Dean: Okay. Dan: It's trying to be New York, yorkville is trying to be. Dean: New York. Dan: Yeah, it's the Toronto Life magazine version of Toronto. Dean: Yeah, you idealize the avatar of Toronto, right yeah? Dan: In Toronto Life. They always say Toronto is a world-class city and I said no. I said, london's a world-class city. Dean: New. Dan: York is a world-class city. Tokyo is a world-class city. You know how, you know they're a world class city. Dean: They don't have to call themselves a world class city. Dan: They don't call themselves a world class city. They just are If you say you're a world class city. It's proof that you're not a world class city. Dean: That's funny. Yeah, I'll tell you what I think. I've told you what really brought that home for me was at the Four Seasons in London at Trinity Square, and Qatar TV and all these Arab the Emirates TV, all these things, just to see how many other cultures there are in the world. I mean, london is definitely a global crossroads, for sure. Dan: Yeah yeah. And that's what makes something the center, and that is made up of a thousand different little non-reproducible vectors. You know just, you know, just, you know. It's just that's why I like London so much. I just like London. It's just a great wandering city. You just come out of the hotel, walk out in any direction. Guarantee you, in seven minutes you're lost you have the foggiest idea where you are and you're seeing something new that you'd never seen before. And it's 25, the year 1625. Dean: I remember you and I walking through London 10 years ago, wandering through for a long time and coming to one of these great bookstores. You know, yeah, but you're right, like the winding in some of the back streets, and that was a great time. Yeah, you can't really wander and wander and wander. Dan: Yeah, it was a city designed by cows on the way home, right, exactly. Yeah, you can't really wander and wander and wander. Dean: Yeah, it was a city designed by cows on the way home, Right exactly. Dan: Yeah, it's really interesting. You know, that brings up a subject why virtual reality hasn't taken off, and I've been thinking about that because the buzz, you know how long ago was it? You would say seven years ago, seven, eight years ago everything's going to be virtual reality. Would that be about right? Oh, yeah, yeah. Dean: That was when virtual reality was in the lead. Remember then the goggles, the Oculus, yeah, yeah, that was what, yeah, pre-covid, so probably seven years ago 17, 17. And it's kind of disappeared, hasn't it compared to you know? Dan: why it doesn't have enough variety in it. And this relates back to the beginning of our conversation today. How do you know whether it's fake or not and we were talking on the subject of London that on any block, what's on that block was created by 10,000 different people over 500 years and there's just a minute kind of uniqueness about so much of what goes on there when you have the virtual reality. Let's say they create a London scene, but it'll be maybe a team of five people who put it together. And it's got a sameness to it. It's got, you know, oh definitely. Dean: That's where you see in the architecture like I don't. You know, one of the things I always look forward to is on the journey from here to strategic coach. So tomorrow, when we ride down University through Queen's Park and the old University of Toronto and all those old buildings there that are just so beautiful Stone buildings the architecture is stunning. Nobody's building anything like that now. No, like none of the buildings that you see have any soul or are going to be remembered well and they're not designed. Dan: They're not really designed to last more than 50 years. I have a architect. Well, you know richard hamlin he says that those, the newest skyscrapers you see in Toronto, isn't designed to last more than 50 years. You know, and, and you know, it's all utilitarian, everything is utilitarian, but there's no emphasis on beauty, you know. There's no emphasis on attractiveness. There's a few but not many. Attractiveness there's a few but not many. And, as a matter of fact, my favorite building in Toronto is about six blocks further down the lake from us, right here. It's called the Harris Filtration Plant. Dean: Oh yeah, we've walked by there, right at the end of the building. Dan: Built in 19, I think they finished in 1936. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And it's just an amazing building. I mean it's on three levels, they have three different buildings and it goes up a hill and it's where the water. You know, at that time it was all the water in Toronto that came out of the lake and they have 17 different process. You know the steps. And you go in there and there's no humans in there, it's all machinery. You can just hear the buzz and that's the water being filtered. It's about a quarter of the city now comes through that building. But it's just an absolutely gorgeous building and they spared no cost on it. And the man who built it, harris, he was the city manager. They had a position back there. It was city manager and it was basically the bureaucrat who got things done, and he also built the bridge across the Down Valley on Bloor. Dean: Yeah, beautiful bridge Right. Dan: He built that bridge and he was uneducated. He had no education, had no training, but he was just a go-getter. He was also in charge of the water system and the transportation system. And you know he put in the first streetcars and everything like that, probably the greatest bureaucrat toronto ever had, you know in the history of toronto this is the finest what year is that building from? yeah, the filtration plant was started in 29 and it was finished in 36 and wow they yeah, they had to rip out a whole section. It was actually partially woods, partially, I think, you know they had everything there, but they decided that would be the best place to bring it in there. Dean: You know it's got a lot more than 100 years. Dan: Yeah, but it's the finest building it's it's rated as one of the top 10 government buildings in north america yeah, it's beautiful. Dean: And that bridge I mean that bridge in the Don Valley is beautiful too. Dan: Yeah, it was really interesting. He put the bridge in and the bridge was put in probably in the 30s too. I mean that was vital because the valley really kept one part of Toronto apart from the other part of Toronto. It was hard to get from one part of Toronto apart from the other part of Toronto. You know, it's hard to get from one part of Toronto to the next. And so they put that bridge in, and that was about in the 30s and then in the no, I think it was in the 20s, they put that in 1920, so 100 years. And in the 1950s they decided to put in their first subway system. So they had Yonge Street and so Yonge Street north, and then they had Buller and Danforth. So they budgeted that they were going to really have to retrofit the bridge. And when they got it and they took all the dimensions, he had already anticipated that they were going to put a subway in. So it was all correct. And so anyway, he saw he had 30 or 40 years that they were going to put up. They would have to put a subway in. So it was all correct and yeah and so anyway he saw I had 30 or 40 years that they were going to put up. They would have to put, they're going to put the subway and it had to go through the bridge and so so they didn't have to retrofit it at all. Yeah, pretty cool. Dean: What do you think we're doing now? That's going to be remembered in 100 years or it's going to be impacted in 100 years? Dan: Well, we're not going backwards with technology, so any technology we have today we'll have 100 years from now. So you know, I mean I think the you know. Well, you just asked a question that explains why I'm not in the stock market. Dean: Exactly. Warren Buffett can't predict what's going to happen. We can't even tell what's going to change in the next five years. Dan: I don't know what's going to happen next year. I don't know what's going to happen next year. Dean: Isn't it interesting? I think a lot of the things that we're at could see, see the path to improvement or expansion, like when the railroad came in. You know it's interesting that you could see that that was we. You know, part of it was, you know, filling the territory, connecting the territory with all the, with all this stuff, and you could see that happening. But even now, you know, this is why warren buffett, you know, again with the, probably one of the largest owners of railroad things in the states, him, yeah, and because that's not changed in 200, yeah, or whatever, 150 years anyway, yeah, yeah, yeah, most of the country probably, you know, 150 years at least. Yeah, and so all of that, all those things, and even in the first half of the 1900s, you know all the big change stuff, yeah, yeah. Dan: Yeah. Dean: So it's funny because it's like I can't even see what categories are the biggest. Dan: Well, I think they'll be more intangibles than tangibles. For example, I think all my tools work 100 years from now. Yeah, I think all my thinking tools work 100 years from now. Dean: Well, because our brains will still be the same in 100 years. Yeah, all that interaction, right, the human behavior stuff. Dan: yeah, yeah yeah I don't think human behavior, um I think it's really durable you know, and that it's very interesting, um, and there was a phrase being used at Abundance that was used about four or five times during the two days that we were becoming godlike, and I said, no, I don't think so. Dean: I guess are they saying in that we can do things because of technology, we can do things. Dan: And I said nah, it's just the next. It's just the next new thing. You know that we've created, but human nature is, you know, there's a scientist, Joe Henrich, and a really bright guy. He's written a book you might be interested in. It's called the Secret of Our Success. And he was just exploring why humans, of all the species on the planet, became the dominant species. And you wouldn't have predicted it. Because we're not very fast, we're not very strong, we don't climb particularly well, we don't swim particularly well, we can't fly and everything like that. So you know, compared with a lot of the other species. But he said that somewhere along the line he buys into the normal thing that we came from ape-like species before we were human. But he says at one point there was a crossover and that one ape was looking at another ape. And he says he does things differently than I. I do. If I can work out a deal with him, he can do this while I'm doing that and we're twice as well. Dean: I was calling that. Dan: I've been calling that the cooperation game but that's really and that's playing that and we're the only species that can continually invent new ways to do that, and I mean every most. You know higher level. And mammals anyway can cooperate. You know they cooperate with each other. They know a friend from anatomy and they know how to get together. But they don't know too much more at the end of their life than they knew at the beginning of their life. You know in other words. They pretty well had it down by the time they were one year old and they didn't invent new ways of cooperating really. But humans do this on a daily basis. Humans will invent new ways of cooperating from morning till night. And he says that's the reason we just have this infinite ability to cooperate in new ways. And he says that's the reason we just have this infinite ability to cooperate in new ways. And he says that's why we're the top species. The other thing is we're the only species that take care of other species. We're the only species that study and document other species. We're the only species that actually create new species. You know put this together with that and we get something. Yeah, yeah and so, so, so, anyway, and so that's where you begin the. You know if you're talking about sameness. What do we know 100 years from now? Dean: What we know over the 100 years is that humans will have found almost countless new ways to cooperate with each other yeah, I think that that's, and but the access to right, the access to, that's why I think these, the access to capabilities, as a, you know, commodity I'm not saying commodity in a, you know, I'm not trying to like lower the status of ability, but to emphasize the tradability of it. You know that it's something that is a known quantity you know yeah. Dan: But my sense is that the relative comparison, that one person, let's say you take 10 people. Let's take 100 people that the percentage of them that could cooperate with each other at high levels, I believe isn't any different in 2024 than it was in 1924. If you take 100 people. Some have very high levels to cooperate with each other and they do, and the vast majority of them very limited amount to cooperate with each other, but are you talking about. Dean: That comes down, then, to the ability to be versus capability. That they have the capability. Dan: Yeah, they have the capability, but they don't individually have the ability. Dean: Right. Dan: Yeah, and I don't think the percentage changes. Dean: Yeah, that's why this whole, that's why we're I think you know, the environment that we're creating in FreeZone is an ecosystem of people who are, who get this. Dan: Yeah, well, I don't think they, yeah, I don't think they became collaborative because they were in free zone. I think they were collaborative, looking for a better place to do it. Dean: Yes, yeah, it's almost like it's almost so, just with the technologies. Now, the one thing that has improved so much is the ability to seamlessly integrate with other people, with other collaborators. Dan: Yeah, now you're talking about the piano, you're not talking about the musicians, that's exactly right, but I think there really was something to that right. It's a good distinction. Dean: It's a really good distinction that you've created. Yeah, I should say yesterday at lunch you and I were talking about that I don't know that we've talked about it on the podcast here the difference, the distinction that we've discovered between capability and ability. And so I was looking at, in that, the capability column of the VCR formula, vision, capability, reach that in the capability column I was realizing the distinction between the base of something and the example that I gave was if you have a piano or a certain piece of equipment or a computer or a camera or whatever it is. We have a piano, you have the capability to be a concert pianist, but without the ability to do it. You know that. You're that that's the difference, and I think that everybody has access to the capabilities and who, not how, brings us in to contact with the who's right, who are masters at the capabilities? Dan: Yeah, you're talking about in. You know the sort of society that we live in. Yes, Because you know there's you know there's, you know easily, probably 15% of the world that doesn't have access to electricity. Dean: Yes exactly. Dan: I mean, they don't have the capability, you know, they just don't have yeah, yeah and yeah, it's a very, very unequal world, but I think there's a real breakthrough thinking that you're doing here. The fact that there's capability says nothing about an individual's ability. Dean: Right, that's exactly it. Yeah, and I think this is a very important idea, but I'm not going to write a book on it. Oh, my goodness, this is example, a right, I had the capability, with the idea of the capability and ability. Yeah, yeah, I didn't have the ability. Yeah, I've heard, do you know, the comedian Ron White? Dan: Yeah, I have the capability to write a book and I have the ability to write a book, but I'm not going to do either. Dean: So he talked about getting arrested outside of a bar and he said I had the right to remain silent, but I didn't have the ability that's pretty funny, right. But yeah, this is really like it's exciting. It's exciting times right now. I mean it really is exciting times to even projecting for the next, the next 30 years. I think I see that the through line, you know, is that you know that a brunch at the four seasons is going to be an appealing thing 30 years from now, as it is now and was 30 years ago, or three line stuff, or yeah, or some such hotel in toronto yes exactly right. Dan: Right, it may not be. Yeah, I think the four seasons, I think is pretty durable. And the reason is they don't own any of their property. Dean: You know and I think that's. Dan: They have 130 hotels now. I'm quite friendly with the general manager of the Nashville Four Seasons because we're there every quarter Four Seasons because we're there every quarter and you know it's difficult being one of their managers. I think because you have two bosses, you have the Four. Seasons organization but you also have the investor, who owns the property, and so they don't own any of their own property. That's all owned by investors. Dean: Right. Dan: Yeah. Dean: So go ahead. When was the previous? I know it's not the original, but when was the one on Yorkville here Yorkville and Avenue? When was that built? Was that in the 70s or the 60s? Dan: Well, it was a Hyatt. It was a Hyatt Hotel. Dean: Oh, it was, they took it over. Dan: Yeah, and it was a big jump for them and that was, you know, I think it was in the 60s, probably I don't know when they started exactly I'll have to look that up, but they were at a certain point they hit financial difficulties because there's been ups and downs in the economy and they overreach sometimes, and the big heavy load was the fact that they own the real estate. So they sold all the real estate and that bailed them out. Real estate and that bailed them out. And then from that point forward, they were just a system that you competed for. If you were deciding to build a luxury hotel, you had to compete to see if the Four Seasons would be interested in coming in and managing it. Okay, so they. It's a unique process. Basically, it's a unique process that they have. Dean: Yeah. Dan: It's got a huge brand value worldwide. You're a somebody as a city. If the Four Seasons come to your city, I think you're right. Ottawa used to have one. It doesn't have one now. Vancouver used to have one. It doesn't have one now. I think, calgary had one. Calgary doesn't Because now Vancouver used to have one, doesn't have one now I think Calgary had one. Calgary doesn't Because it was a Canadian hotel to start with. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And Belleville had one at one time. Dean: Oh, really yeah. Dan: I'm one of the few people who have stayed at the Belleville Four Seasons. Dean: Hotel the Belleville Four Seasons. Dan: Yeah, of all the people you know, dean dean, I may be the only person you know who stayed at the belleville four seasons now, what they did is they had a partnership with bell canada. Bell canada created the training center in belleville oh and uh, and they did a deal four seasons would go into it with them. So they took over a motel and they turned it into Four Seasons, so they used it as their training center. Okay, so you know, it was trainees serving trainees, as it turned out. Dean: I forget who I was talking to, but we were kind of saying it would be a really interesting experience to take over the top two floors of the hotel beside the Chicago Strategic Coach, there the Holiday Inn or whatever that is. Take over the top two floors and turn those into a because you've got enough traffic. That could be a neat experience, yeah. Dan: It wouldn't be us. Dean: Oh well, I need somebody. You know that could be a an interesting. I think if that was an option there would be. Dan: Probably work better for us to have a floor of one of the hotels. Dean: That's what I meant. Yeah, a floor of the the top two floors of the hotel there to get. Yeah, there's two of them. That's what I meant. Yeah, a floor of the top two floors of the hotel there to get. Dan: Yeah, there's two of them. There's two of them. Dean: Oh, yeah, yeah. Dan: There's the Sheraton, and what's Sinesta? Sinesta, right the. Dean: Sinesta is the one I'm thinking of. Dan: That's the closest one right, the one Scott Harry carries in the Right, right right. There you carries in them, right, yeah, well, it's an interesting, but it is what it is and we're, yeah, but we have almost one whole floor now and I mean those are that's a big building. It's got really a lot of square footage in the building. That's what. Is it cb re? Is it cb? You do know the nationwide. Dean: Oh yeah. Dan: Coldwood Banker. Oh yeah, yeah, coldwood Banker, that's who our landlord is. And they're good they're actually good, but they've gone through about three owners since we've been there. We've been there, 25 years, 26. This is our 26th year. Yeah, and generally speaking they've been good landlords that we've had. Yeah, it's well kept up. They have instant response when you have a maintenance problem and everything. I think they're really good. Dean: Yeah, well, I'm going to have to come and see it. Maybe when the fall happens, maybe between the good months, the fall or something, I might come and take a look. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dean: Well, I'm excited and take a look yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Well. Dan: I've been there. Yeah, we have our workshop. We have our workshop tomorrow here and then we go to Chicago and we have another one on Thursday and then the second Chicago workshop for the quarter is in the first week of April. Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, and this is working out. We'll probably be a year away, maybe a year and a half away, from having a fourth date during the quarter. Oh, wow. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Do we? Dean: have any new people for FreeZone Small? Dan: Don't know Okay. Dean: No one is back. Dan: Yeah, yeah, I don't really know, I don't really know, I think we added 30 last year or so it's. The numbers are going up. Yes, that's great. Yeah, I think we're about 120 total right now. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, it's fun, though. It's nice people. Dean: Yeah, it's nice to see it all. It's nice to see it all growing. Very cool, all right well, enjoy yourself. Yes, you too and I will see you. Tonight at five. That's right, all right, I'll be there. Dan: Thanks Dan. Dean: Okay.

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, Dan and I explore technology and communication sparked by an unexpected conversation about cold snaps in Florida. We examine the evolution of communication technologies, from text to video, focusing on AI's emerging role. Our discussion highlights how innovations like television and the internet have paved the way for current technological developments, using the progression of airliners as a metaphorical framework for understanding technological advancement. Our conversation shifts to exploring human interaction and technological tools. We question whether platforms like Zoom have reached their full potential, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness and collaboration. We then journey back to 1967, reflecting on historical and cultural movements that continue to shape our current societal landscape. This retrospective provides insights into how past experiences inform our present understanding of technology and social dynamics. Personal anecdotes and political observations help connect these historical threads to contemporary discussions. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS In the episode, we discuss how an unexpected cold snap in Florida sparked a broader conversation about life's unpredictable nature and the evolution of communication technology. We delve into the role of AI in research and communication, specifically highlighting the contributions of Charlotte, our AI research assistant, as we explore historical and current communication mediums. The conversation includes an analysis of technological progress, using airliner technology as a metaphor to discuss potential saturation points and future trajectories for AI. We reflect on the balance between technology and human connection, considering whether tools like Zoom have reached their full potential or if there is still room for improvement. Our discussion covers the importance of self-awareness in collaboration, utilizing personality assessments to enhance interpersonal interactions. We share a personal narrative about the logistical challenges of expanding workshop spaces in Chicago, providing real-world insights into business growth. The episode takes a reflective journey back to 1967, examining cultural movements and their ongoing impact on modern societal issues, complemented by political commentary and personal anecdotes. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan, that would be me. Oh my goodness. Dan: I am not Do you have a cold? Dean: Do you have a cold? Dan: I do yeah. Dean: And is it freezing in Florida? Dan: It's very cold, it's unseasonably. Dean: Comparatively comparatively yes. Dan: It's unseasonably cold. Dean: Yeah. Yeah, well, we're getting our blast tomorrow, but it's colder than yeah. It's about 15 today with a 10 mile an hour wind which makes it 5, and tomorrow it's going down. It's going down even further. This is the joy of Canada in January. Dan: I don't know about the joy. Dean: But yeah, I like your voice I like your voice. Dan: I'm going to try and uh and make it all the way through, dad, but the uh just before you, I'm. Dean: You can put charlotte on. Dan: Yeah, exactly, yeah yeah, I'll tell you, I'm really realizing how, how incredible these conversations like. I really start to think and see how charlotte's um capabilities as a researcher. Dean: And uh, dean dean, I can't hear you. Dan: I'm trying to switch to my other uh headphones. But as long as you can hear me, can you hear me now? Dean: yeah, yeah, it's very good, okay good. Dan: Good, good good. Dean: I like this voice, though you know. Dan: It's got. Oh, really Okay, yeah, yeah, the baritone. Dean: Yeah, I mean you might create another version of yourself, you know which? Oh yeah, I should quick get on 11 Labs. I don't know if this would be your main course, but it would certainly be a nice seasoning. As a matter of fact, you could have on 11 Lab, you could go with them and you could have your normal voice as one of the partners and you could have this voice as the other partner. There you go, you could talk to each other. See, that makes a lot of sense right there. Yeah, it's so good. The reason the reason I'm saying this is I just had a whole chapter it is being done, I'll probably have it on tuesday, this being sunday of of one of the chapters of the book Casting Not Hiring, in two British voices, man and a woman, and it's charming, it's very charming. Dan: Really Wow. Dean: I really like it and they're more articulate. You know, brits, they invented the language, so I guess they're better at it. Yeah, that's what I really like about Charlotte's voice is the reassuring right, yeah, yeah, you get a sense that she's had proper upbringing. Dan: Mm-hmm, exactly, worldly wisdom. Well, certainly she's got command of the language yeah, the uh I was mentioning before I cut off there that uh, I was. I'm really coming to the realization how valuable charlotte is as a research partner. You, you know, a conversational, like exploration, like getting to the bottom of things, like I was. I've just fascinated how I told you last week that I, you know, reached the limit of our talk, you know capacity for a day and, but we had, we'd had over an hour conversation just going back and talking about, you know, the evolution of text, of words, um, and, and then we got up to the same. We got about halfway through uh, audio and uh, and then we got cut off. But I really like this framework of having her go back. I'm going to do the all four. I'm going to do audio and our text and audio and pictures and movies. You know, moving pictures, video, because there's there that's the order that we sort of evolved them and I think I think we don't know whether I guess we have pictures. First I think it was words, and then pictures, and then sound and then and then moving pictures. But you look at, I really I think I was on to something. Dean: You're talking about the ability to record and pass on From a communication standpoint. Dan: Yeah, and I'm kind of tracing. The first step is the capability to do it like the technology that allowed it, like the printing press. Okay, now we've had a capability, or once we had an alphabet and we had a unified way of doing it. That opened up for, uh, you know, I was going looking at the capability and then what was the kind of distribution of that? What was? How did that end up? You know, moving forward, how did we use that to advance? And then what were the? What were the business, you know, the capitalization of it going forward, who were the people who capitalized on? this it's a very interesting thing. That's why I think that where we are right now with AI, that we're probably at the stage of, you know, television 1950 and internet 1996, kind of thing, you know, and by over the next 25 years I think we're it's just going to be there. I mean, it's just it's going to be soaking in it. Dean: It's hard to know. I mean, there's some technologies that more or less come to an end, and I'll give you airliners. For example, the speed at which the fastest airliner can go today was already available in the 1960s the 707, the Boeing 707. Dan: Well, we've actually gone backwards because we had the Concorde in the 70s, you know. Dean: Yeah, but not widespread. That was just a novelty you know a novelty airline, but I mean in terms of general daily use, you know, I think we're probably a little lower. We're below the sound barrier. I suspect that some of the first airliners were breaking windows and everything like that and then they put in the law that you overlay and you cannot travel. I think it's around 550, maybe 550. I think sound barrier is somewhere early 600 miles an hour. I'm not quite sure what the exact number is, but we've not advanced. I mean they've advanced certainly in terms of the comfort and the safety. They've certainly advanced. I mean it's been. I think in the United States it goes back 16 years since they've had a crash. A crash, yeah, and you know what. Dan: I heard that the actual thing, the leading cause of death in airline travel, is missiles. That's it is. That's the thing. Over the last 10 years there have been more airliners shot down. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't want to be on a plane where you don't want to be in missile territory. You don't want to be on a plane where you don't want to be in missile territory. Dan: You don't want to be flying over missile territory. Dean: That's not good. No, do not get on that flight. Yeah, yeah Anyway, but I was just thinking about that. We were in Chicago for the week, came home on Friday night and you know I was on a 747, one of the last years that they were using 747s Wow, they're almost all cargo planes now. I think the only airline that I've noticed that's using still has A747 is Lufthansa. Oh, okay. Because we're at Toronto. They're all. They have the 380s. You know the huge. Dan: Yeah, they fly those to Australia, the A380. Dean: Well, yeah, this one is Emirates. Emirates their airline is a 380. But the only airline. You know that I noticed when we're departing from the terminal here in Toronto. The only one that I've seen is but they have in Chicago. There's a whole freight area. You know from freight area, Some days there's seven, seven 747s there, yeah, and they're a beautiful plane. I think, as beautifulness, beauty of planes goes to. 747 is my favorite. I think it's the most beautiful plane in any way. But they didn't go any faster, they didn't go any further. And you know our cars, you know the gas cars could do. They have the capability of doing 70, miles per gallon now, but they don't have to, they don't have to they have to, they have to, you know. So if they don't have to, they don't do it. You know all technology if they, if they don't have to do it. So it's an interesting idea. I mean, we're so used to technology being constantly open. But the big question is is there a customer for it? I mean like virtual reality, you know, was all the thing about five years ago. You had Mark Zuckerberg doing very, very. I think he will look back and say that that was a very embarrassing video. That I did the metaverse and everything else. It's just dropped like a stone. Dan: People just haven't bought into it even though the technology is. Dean: Don't like it. Dan: So my friend Ed Dale was here and he had the Apple, um, you know, the, the vision pro, uh, goggles or whatever. And so I got to, you know, try that and experience it. And it really is like uncanny how it feels, like you're completely immersed, you know and I and. I think that, for what it is, it is going to be amazing, but it's pretty clear that we're not nobody's like flocking to put on these big headgear, you know. Dean: You know why? Our favorite experiences with other people and it cuts you off from other people. It's a dehumanizing activity. Dan: Did you ever see the Lex Friedman podcast with Mark Zuckerberg in the metaverse? Dean: No, I didn't. Dan: It was a demo of the thing they were. It was kind of like uh, do you remember charlie rose? You remember the charlie rose? Sure, that's not the black curtain in the background, okay. Well, it was kind of set up like that, but mark and lex friedman were in completely different areas a a completely different you know, lex was in Austin or whatever and Mark was in California and they met in this you know metaverse environment with just a black background like that, and you could visibly see that Lex Friedman was a little bit like shaken by how real it seemed like, how it felt like he was really there and could reach out and touch him. You know, and you could really tell it was authentically awestruck by, by this technology you know, so I don't. Dean: I don't doubt that, but the yeah, but I don't want that feeling, I mean. Zoom has taken it as far as I really want to go with it. Dan: That's true, I agree 100%. Dean: I have no complaints with what Zoom isn't doing? Dan: Yeah, complaints with what Zoom? Dean: isn't doing yeah, yeah, it's. You know, it's very clear, you know they add little features like you can even heighten the portrait quality of yourself. That's fine, that's fine, but it's you know. You know I was thinking. The other day I was on a Zoom. I've been on a lot of Zoom calls in the last two weeks for different reasons and I just, you know, I said this is good. You know, I don't need anything particularly more than I'm getting. Dan: Right. Dean: So I wonder, if we get a point of technological saturation and you say I don't want any more technology, I just yeah, I want to squirrel it with a nut right? Dan: yeah, I think once I get more, the more I talk with Charlotte, the more it feels like a real collaboration. Dean: You know, like it feels, like you don't need a second. Dan: I don't need to see her or to, but you don't need a second. I don't need to see her or to, uh, I don't need. No, you don't, but you don't need a second person. Dean: You got, you got the one that'll get smarter absolutely yeah, exactly yeah, and so it's. Dan: I mean it's pretty, it's pretty amazing this whole uh, you know I was saying thinking back, like you know, the last 25 years we're 25 years into this, this hundred years, you know this millennia, and you know, looking because that's a real, you know, 2000 was not that long ago. When you look backwards at it, you know, and looking forward, it's pretty. Uh, I, that's, I'm trying to align myself to look more forward than uh than back right now and realize what it is like. I think. I think that through line, I think that the big four are going to be the thing. Words like text and pictures and sound and video, those are at the core. But all of those require on, they're just a conveyance for ideas, you know. Dean: Yeah. Yeah, it's very interesting because we have other senses, we have touch, we have taste, we have smell, but I don't see any movement at all. Dan: In the physical world, right exactly. Dean: Yeah, yeah, I don't see it that. I think we want to keep. You know, we want to keep mainland, we want to keep those things mainland. Dan: Yeah. Dean: And I think that. Dan: That's really. You know, if you think about the spirit of what we started, Welcome to Cloudlandia, for was really exploring that migration and thehabitation of the mainland and Cloudlandia. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Because so much of these things? Dean: But I think, and I'm just wondering, Harry and I'm not, making a statement. I'm just wondering whether each human has a unique nervous system and we have different preferences on how our nervous system interacts with different kinds of experiences. I think it's a very idiosyncratic world in the sense that everybody's up to something different. Dan: Mm-hmm. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And I think you're right. But that's where these self-awareness things, like knowing you're Colby and you're a working genius and you're Myers-Briggs and all these self-awareness things, are very valuable, and even more valuable when pairing for collaboration, realizing in a who-not-how world that there's so many we're connected to everybody, you know. Dean: Yeah, and we've got our purposes for interacting. You know I mean we have. You know I'm pretty extroverted when it comes to business, but I'm very, very introverted when it comes to personal life. Dan: I think I'd be the same thing. Dean: Yeah, yeah, and in other words, I really enjoy. We had, we were in Chicago and we had nine workshops in five days there and they were big workshops. They were you know each. We have a big, we have a big, huge room. Now we can technically we can put a hundred in. Now we can put a hundred person workshop. Oh, in Chicago, yeah. Dan: In Chicago yeah. Dean: We've taken over large amounts of the floor. I think there's just one small area of that floor that we don't have. It's a. It's a weird thing. It looks like some sort of deep state government building. We've never seen anyone in it and we've never seen anyone in it. But it's lit up and it's got an American flag and it's got some strange name that I don't know, and that's the only thing that's on the forest. It's not been known that a human actually came to the office there, anyway, but we've taken over 6,000 square feet, six more thousand. Oh wow, yeah, which is quite nice. Dan: That's pretty crazy. How's the studio project? Dean: coming Jim's starting, we had great, great difference of opinion on what the insurance is for it. Oh, that's a problem Insurance companies are not in the business of paying out claims. That's not their business model, Anyway. So our team, two of our team members, Mitch and Alex great, great people. They got the evidence of the original designer of the studio. They got the evidence of the original owner of the studio and how much he paid. They got the specifications. They brought in a third person, Third person. They got all this. These people all had records and we brought it to the insurance company. You know and you know what it, what it was valued at, and I think it's 2000, I think it was in 2000 that it was created. It was rated the number one post-production studio in Canada in the year 2000. Dan: Wow. Dean: Yeah, you know and everything. So they you know. And then, strangely enough, the insurance company said well, you got to get a public adjuster. We got a public adjuster and he had been in coach for 20 years. He favors us. Uh-huh, well, that's great, he favors us. Dan: He favors us? Dean: Yeah, Exactly yeah, but the first check is they give the checks out in the free. You know, there's a first check, there's a middle check and there's a final check. So, but I think we'll have complete studios by october, october, november that's which will be great yeah, yeah, we should be great. Yeah, you know, uh, the interesting thing. Here's a thought for you, and I'm not sure it's the topic for today. Um, uh, it has to do with how technology doesn't develop wisdom, doesn't develop. The use of technology doesn't develop wisdom. It develops power, it develops control, it develops ambition, but it doesn't develop wisdom. And I think the reason is because wisdom is only developed over time. Dan: Yes, and that wisdom is yeah, I think from real experience. Dean: And wisdom is about what's always going to be true, and technology isn't about what's always going to be true. It's about what's next. It's not about what's always the same they're actually opposed. Technology and wisdom are Well, they're not opposed. They operate in different worlds. Dan: Yeah, it feels like wisdom is based on experience, right? Dean: Yeah, which happens over time. Dan: Mm-hmm. Yeah, which happens over time. Yeah, yeah, because it's not theoretical at that. I think it's got to be experiential. Dean: Yeah. Yeah, it's very interesting. I heard a great quote. I don't know who it was. It might be a philosopher by the name of William James and his definition of reality, you know what his definition of reality is no, I don't, it's a great definition. Reality is that which, if you don't believe in it, still exists. Dan: Oh yeah, that's exactly right, and that's the kind of things that just because you don't know it, you know that's exactly right and that's what you know. Dean: That's the kind of things that, just because you don't know it, you know that doesn't mean it doesn't mean it can't bite you, but when, when you get hit by it, then that then, you've big day, you know, and yeah, and you know, with Trump. He said he's got 100 executive orders For day one. Yeah, and the only question is you know, inauguration, does day one start the moment he's sworn in, is it? Does it start the moment he's? Dan: sworn in. Is it? Does it start the day he's sworn in? Dean: Yeah. Dan: Yeah, okay, so let's see yeah. Dean: The moment the Chief Justice. You know he finishes the oath. He finishes the oath, he's the president and Joe's officially on the beach. Dan: Right yeah, shady acres. Dean: Right, exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what's happened this past week, since we actually we haven't talked for two weeks but the fires in Los Angeles. I think this in political affairs and I think it is because it's the first time that the newest 10,000 homeless people in Los Angeles are rich. Dan: Oh man, yeah, I've heard Adam Carolla was talking about that. There's going to be a red wave that comes over California now because all these, the Democratic elite, which would be all of those people who live on those oceanfront homes and all that they were so rallying. No, they were so rallying to be on the side of regulation so that people couldn't build around them, and they made it so. You know, now that they've got theirs, they made it very, very difficult for other people to eclipse them or to do the things, eclipse them or to do the things, and they're gonna run straight into the wall of All these regulations when they start to rebuild what they had. Dean: You know it's gonna be years and years of going through regulation and Coastal Commission and you know all that to get approvals yeah, and they're going to be frustrated with that whole thing, but I've been hearing that there was some arson involved. Somebody's been. Well, yeah, you know, have you ever seen or heard of Michael Schellenberger? He's really, he's great. He's a scientist who's gone public. You know, he's sort of a public intellectual now, but he was, and he was very much on the left and very much with the global warming people, much with the global warming people. Then he began to realize so much of the global warming movement is really an attempt. Exactly what you said about the California rich. These are rich people who don't want the rest of the world to get rich. The way you keep them from not getting rich is you don't give them access to energy. And you've got your energy and you can pay for more, but they don't have energy. So you prevent them. And so he became a big fan of nuclear power. He said, you know, the best thing we can do so that people can catch up quickly is we should get nuclear in, because they may be a place where there really isn't easy access to oil, gas and coal, africa being, you know, africa being a place and, uh, he just has gradually just gone deeper and deeper into actual reality and now he's completely you know, he's completely against the you know, against the people who want to get rid of fossil fuels. Dan: But, anyway. Dean: he said what nobody wants to touch with a 10 foot pole in California is that in addition to rich people, there were homeless people in the Pacific Palisades and he said, and a lot of them are meth addicts. And he said meth addicts' favorite activity is to set fires. He says different drugs have different. In other words, you take heroin and you want to do this, you take cocaine. You want to do this With methamphetamines. What you want to do is you want to set fires. So he said and nobody wants to talk about the homeless meth addicts who are starting fires that burn down 10,000 homes. You know, because they're actually welcome in Los Angeles. They actually get government benefits. Yeah, there's a lot of what they stand for that collides with reality. Dan: A lot of what they stand for that collides with reality. Yeah, it is going to be crazy. I think. Dean: Gavin should forget it. I think Gavin should forget about the presidency. Dan: Oh man, yeah, they're going to have him. He's going to have some explaining to do. Dean: Yeah, you do. Yeah, you know. Yeah, you know. It was very interesting. When I got out of the Army, which was 1967, may of 1967, I was in Korea and they put us on a big plane, they flew us to Seattle and they discharged us in Seattle. So, and but you had money to get home. You know, they gave you, you know, your discharge money. So I had a brother who was teaching at the University of San Francisco and and, and so I went down and I visited with him. He was a philosophy teacher, dead now, and so it was 1967. And he said there's this neat part of the city I want to take you to, and it was Haight-Ashbury. And it was right in the beginning of that movement, the hippie movement, and I had just been in the army for two years, so there was a collision of daily discipline there and anyway. But we were walking down the street and I said what's that smell? Weird smell. He says, oh yeah, you want to try some marijuana. Well, what you saw with was what you saw last week with the fires is the philosophy of hippieism moved into government control over a period of 60 years. It ends up with fires where there's no water in the reservoirs yeah, that's. Dan: Yeah, I mean so many uh cascading, so many cascading problems. Right, that came yeah when you think about all the um, all the other things, it's crazy. Yeah, yeah, all the factors that had to go into it, yeah, it's so. This is what the Internet, you know, this, this whole thing now is so many, like all the conspiracy theories now about all of these. Every time, anything you know, there's always the that they were artificially. You know there's some scientists talking about how the barometric pressure has been artificially low for yeah period. Dean: Yeah well, yeah, it's very, it's very interesting how energy you know, just energy plays into every other discussion. You know, just to have the power to do what you want to do. That day is a central human issue and and who you do it with and what you have. You know what, what it is that you can do, and you know and I was having a conversation I was in Chicago for the week and there was a lot of lunch times where other clients not. I had just the one workshop, but there were eight other workshops. So people would come into the cafe for lunch and they'd say, if you had to name three things that Trump's going to emphasize over the next four years, what do you think they would be? And I said energy, energy, energy. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Three things just energy. Drill drill drill, Drill, drill, drill. Yeah, and Greenland, Canada and Panama. Dan: Take them over. Dean: Yeah exactly hey Canada we're out of wood Get out. Yeah, things are strange up here. Dan: Yeah, what's the what's the Well, he's gone. Dean: But he's still around for two months but he resigned. He's resigned as prime minister, he's resigning as party leader and I think it was on Wednesday he said he's not running in the election, so he's out as a. And then he'll go to Harvard because that's where all the liberal failures go. They become professors at Harvard I suspect, I suspect, yeah, or he may just go back to Whistler and he'll be a snowboard instructor, wouldn't that? Dan: be cool. Dean: Or he may just go back to. Dan: Whistler, and he'll be a snowboard instructor. Dean: That'd be kind of cool, wouldn't that be cool? Get the former prime minister as your snowboard instructor. Dan: Yeah, really Exactly yeah, is there. I don't even know, is he rich? Is their family? Dean: rich. Well, I think it's a trust fund. I mean, his dad didn't work. His dad was in politics Not as you and I would recognize work, but it was gas station. Trudeau had a lot of gas station, which is ironic. Dan: It is kind of ironic, isn't it yeah? Dean: Yeah, but I don't think he has that much. You know, I saw some figures. Maybe he's got a couple of million, which which you know, probably what was available, that you know those trust funds, they don't perpetuate themselves, right, yeah, but he's. Yeah, there's just two people are running. That's the woman who knifed him. You know Christia Freeland. She's just two people running. That's the woman who knifed him. You know, chrystia Freeland, she's running. And then the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the former governor Bank of England. He was both governor and he's really very much of a wackadoodle intellectual, really believes that people have too much freedom. We have to restrict freedom and we have to redesign. Davos is sort of a Davos world economic firm. We've got ours, you don't get ours. We've got ours, you don't get ours. We've got ours, you don't get yours. Strange man, very strange man. She's a strange woman. Dan: Is it pretty much green lights for Polyev right now? Dean: Yeah, he's not doing anything to ruin his chances either. He's actually. He had a great interview with jordan peterson about two weeks ago. He was very, very impressive. Dan: I'm very impressed about it yeah, yeah oh, that's great, yeah, oh did you go to? This Christmas party, by the way. Dean: No, I didn't. They didn't follow through, Uh-oh. So you know, I'm just going to sit in this chair and wait, you know. Dan: Yeah, exactly. Dean: I mean, he'll be told, you know that you've missed a huge opportunity here. You know Mm-hmm. Dan: Yes, exactly, yeah, oh man, yeah, that's funny, dan, I'm. You know, after four years of being no further, I didn't go north of I-4, I'm in this crazy little vortex of travel right now coming up. I was just in Longboat Key. I was speaking at JJ Virgin's Mindshare Summit, so I was there Wednesday till yesterday and then I'm home. I got hit with this cold. I think it was like a. You know, whenever you're in a group of people in a big thing, it's always it becomes a super spreader kind of event. You know, there's a lot of people with this kind of event, there's a lot of people with this kind of lung gunk thing going around. So I ended up getting it. But I've got now until Tuesday to get better. Then I'm going to speak at Paris Lampropolis here in Orlando and then I go to Miami for Giovanni Marseco's event the following week, and then I've got my Breakthrough Blueprint in Orlando the week after that and then Scottsdale for FreeZone the week after that. Every week, the number of nights in my own bed is we're going to Scottsdale or not Scottsdale, but week after next. Dean: I'll be here next Sunday, Then I go on Tuesday. We go to Phoenix and we'll be at Carefree. Dan: What's Carefree? Oh, that's where. Dean: No, no, carefree is north and east of Scottsdale in Phoenix yeah. And so we're at Richard Rossi's. Dan: Da. Dean: Vinci 50. Then we take off for there, we drive to Tucson for Canyon Ranch, we drive back and we have the summit, we have the Free Zone Summit Then, then we have 100K, and then we have 100K. So that's it. So are you coming to the summit too? I am of course, and what I'm doing this time is I have three speakers in the morning and three speakers in the afternoon, and I have Stephen Poulter, Leslie Fall and Sonny Kalia, and then in the afternoon I have Charlie Epstein, Chris Johnson and Steve Crine. I have Charlie. Epstein, chris Johnson and Steve Crang. And what I did is I did a triple play on the three in the morning, three in the afternoon. I did a triple play and then I'm talking to each of them, the names of the three speakers, three columns, and then you write down what you got from these three columns, right? And then you get your three insights and then you talk in the morning in groups and then you do the same thing in the afternoon. I think that would be neat, nice. Dan: Very nice. It's always a good time, always a great event. Yeah, two parties. Dean: Yep, we have sort of a party every night with Richard. It's about three parties Two parties with me and then probably two parties with Joe so seven parties, seven parties, seven parties, yeah, yeah Well. I hope your editor. Can, you know, modulate your voice delivery? Dan: I'm so sorry, yeah, exactly. Dean: Yeah, you got it. What a couple days you've been with it. Dan: Yeah, yesterday was like peak I can already feel that you know surrounded by doctors at JJ's thing. So I got some. Dean: Where's? Dan: Lawn. Dean: Boat Tea. Dan: Sarasota. Dean: Oh, okay. Dan: Yeah, it's just an island right off of Sarasota and so, you know, surrounded by doctors, and so I got some glutathione and vitamin C. I got some glutathione and vitamin C and some. Then I got home and JJ's team had sent some bone broth and some you know, some echinacea tea and all the little care package for nipping it in the bud and a Z-Pak for I've got a great pancake power pancake recipe that I created. Dean: I actually created this. You're talking to an originator. Dan: It's a world premiere here. Dean: Yeah, so you take about six ounces of egg white Egg white, okay and you put it in a blender, and then you take about a handful of walnuts. You put it in a blender and then you take about a handful of walnuts, you put it in and you take a full scoop of bone broth and put it in. Then you just take a little bit of oatmeal, just give it a little bit of starch, then a little bit of salt, then you veggie mix it, veggie mix it, you know. Then you put it in a pie pan, okay. And then you put frozen raspberries oh yeah, raspberries, bacon bits and onions. Raspberries and bacon bits Yep, yep, okay, yep, yep, bacon bits makes everything taste better. Yep, okay yeah, bacon bits makes everything taste better. Dan: It really does. I don't think about that with the raspberries, but that's great. Dean: Yeah, I told people in the coach, you know the triple play. I said triple play is my bacon tool. I said whatever other, whatever other tool you did, you do the triple play and it's like adding bacon to it. Adding bacon, that's the best. Yeah, it makes it good. And then you just put it in the microwave for five and a half minutes and it comes out as a really nice pancake. Oh, that's great. Yeah, and it's protein. I call it my protein pie, protein pie. Dan: That's great. Dan Sullivan's triple play protein pie. Yeah, yeah, the recipe recipe cards handed out. Will they show up in the breakfast buffet? Dean: No, no, it's, you know, I think it's. I think it takes a developed taste, you know, to get it, you know, but it's got a lot of protein. It's got, you know, egg white in the protein. The bone broth has a ton of protein in it, yeah, so it's good. Yeah, I'm down. Good, yeah, I'm at, probably since I was 20, maybe in the Army my present weight. I'm probably down there and I got about another 10 to go, and then it's my linebacker weight when I was in high school. Dan: Oh, that's great. Dean: Going back to linebacker Mm-hmm. Dan: Well, you'll have those new young teenage knees that you'll be able to suit up One of them. Dean: One of them anyway. Dan: If your Cleveland Browns need you. Yeah, if your. Dean: Cleveland Browns need you. Yeah, well, if you want to play professional football, play for the Browns, because you always get January off. That's funny. Yeah, kansas City yesterday, you know it was about zero. You know I mean boy, oh boy. You know you got to you know, I mean. Did Kansas City win yesterday? Yeah, they won, you know, 23, 23-14, something like that, you know. And you know they're just smarter. You know, it's not even that they're better athletes. I think their coach is just smarter and everything like that. Jim, I watch. I'm more interested in college football than I am. Ohio State and Notre Dame, Two historically classical. Dan: I've really gotten into Colorado football because just watching what Deion Sanders has done in two seasons basically went from the last worst team in college football. Yeah To a good one to a good yeah To nine and three and a bowl game, and you know, and Travis Hunter won the Heisman and they could potentially have the number one and two draft picks in the NFL this year. Dean: You know that's, that's something. Did he get both? Dan: of them draft picks in the NFL. This year that's something. Dean: Did he get both of them? I know he got his son because his son came with him. Was he a transfer Hunter? I don't know if he was a transfer. Dan: He brought him from Jackson State because before, before dion went to uh colorado, he spent three years in yeah at jackson state and turned that whole program around yeah and then came uh and now she was talking to the cowboys this this week I. I don't know whether he is or that's. Uh, I mean, they're everybody's speculating that. That's true. I don't know whether he is or that's. I mean everybody's speculating that that's true, I don't know how I feel about that Like I think it would be interesting. You know I'm rooting that he stays at Colorado and builds an empire, you know, yeah. Dean: Of course you know it used to screw the athletes because the coach, would you know, drop them. They would come to the university and then they would leave. Dan: That's what I mean, that's what? Dean: I think that he would no, but now they have the transfer portal, so you know if the university, yeah, but still I think it would leave a lot of. Dan: I think it would leave a really bad taste in people's mouths if he, if he left now. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Yeah, Like. Dean: I think, that would. Dan: I would. I wouldn't feel good about what about that either, cause I think about all the people that he's brought there with promises. You know, like everybody's joint he's, he's building momentum. All these top recruits are coming there because of him, yeah, and now you know, if he leaves, that's just. You know that. That's too. I don't know. I don't feel good about that, I don't feel good. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah, anyway, I've got, I got a jump, I've got. Jeff. We're deep into the writing of the book we have to chat for about 10 minutes. Dan: I'm happy. Dean: I hope your cold goes away. I'll be here in Toronto next week and I'll call and we'll see each other. We'll see each other within the next couple of weeks. Dan: That's exactly right Okay. Dean: Okay, bye, talk to you soon. Bye.

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, Dan shares his journey from recovering in snowy Toronto to basking in the Arizona sunshine at Canyon Ranch. While battling a cold and back spasm in Canada, He found unexpected humor in a limousine driver discovering our heated driveway before making my way to the warmth of Tucson. At Canyon Ranch, I read historical British Navy novels and attended Richard Rossi's conference, where conversations sparked insights about technology's role in our world. The discussions centered on how companies like Google and Apple influence geographic naming conventions and how AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude work to match human capabilities rather than surpass them. We explored the relationship between technology and daily life, from electric vehicles to meal delivery services. These conversations highlighted how technological advances aim to streamline our routines while acknowledging the challenge of replicating genuine human experiences. The experience reinforced that technology offers convenience and efficiency but cannot replace authentic human connections and experiences. This balance became clear through examples like distinguishing between Bach's original compositions and AI-generated music, reminding us of technology's role as a tool rather than a replacement for human interaction. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS In the episode, Dan shares his journey from Toronto's cold to Arizona's warmth, highlighting his recovery from a cold and back spasm, and experiences attending a conference and relaxing at Canyon Ranch. We discuss the impact of technology on geographic naming conventions, mentioning how companies like Google and Apple influence changes such as the renaming of geographic locations. The conversation explores the idea that technology is striving to match human intelligence, with examples including AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude, and the future potential of seamless digital interactions. I reflect on the progression of vision and technology, discussing how initial ideas develop into intellectual property and the role of technology in enhancing human capabilities. We explore resistance to change with technological advancements, using examples like the shift from gasoline to electric vehicles and how people adapt technology to maintain comfort. The episode examines the distinction between authentic human experiences and artificial replication, emphasizing the irreplaceable value of genuine human connections and interactions. We share personal anecdotes about how technology has replaced routine tasks, discussing the convenience of services like grocery delivery and automated car washes, and pondering future technological advancements. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan. Mr Jackson, I hope you're well, I am. Dan: I'm much better than I was last weekend. I was, yeah, out of it. I mean, really I had like a cold and my back was in spasm. It was not good. So I'm a nice recovery week and I'm on the mend. How was your adventures in Arizona? Are you still in Arizona? Dean: now. No, I got back around 11 o'clock last night to Toronto. That has about a foot of snow. Dan: I saw that. Dean: Yeah, and it's still snowing, it's still coming down. So we really had nothing for November, december, january, but February seems to be the winter. It's really snowing, I mean it's continuous, it's not heavy snow, but it's just constant, and I kind of like it. And we got home last night and the limousine driver who driveway and he said, oh, I hope we can get up to your driveway and he, he hadn't uh, he didn't have previous he didn't have previous experience. He says oh my golly, you have heated driveways. And I said, yeah, uh, of course you know we've got to be good to our got to be, good to our limousine drivers. Dan: You know we have to you know, set a standard for driver friendliness and anyway, so Did he tell you, listen, if you wanted to really be good, you'd buy the house behind you so we could keep the driveway going all the way through. Dean: Yeah, somebody else did and they fixed it up, so I think that's out of the future. That's out of the. You know that's not going to happen. You can't add that to the compound, right? Yeah, so anyway, regarding Arizona, it was great. We were there for two and a half weeks so we had Richard Rossi's conference which was terrific, yeah, terrific. Richard does such a great job with this right. Dan: I mean, it's something that he's really doing it out of his own passionate curiosity himself. I think that's a good thing when you can make your own thing. I think that's a good thing when you can make your own. Dean: Then we did a week at Canyon Ranch in Tucson, which was really terrific and beautiful. I mean just gorgeous weather every day 75-ish. Got up to 80 a little bit, but absolutely clear. Not a cloud in the sky. For a week Didn't see a cloud in the night sky in Tucson. Dan: I was going to ask what's a day in the life at Canyon Ranch for you. Dean: I'll have a massage scheduled. You know you can go to 50 different things, but I don't. And you know, I read a lot while. I'm there I go for walks and know, did some gym work? and and then, yeah, just to take it really easy, you know I'm reading just a terrific set of British Navy stories from the novels. These are historic historically. They're all during the Napoleonic War, when Britain War, when Great Britain was fighting the French, and it follows. First of all, there's about 20 authors who write these terrific books, but the one I'm reading right now, andrew Wareham is his name and he follows a sea captain from when he becomes a midshipman. He becomes a midshipman. That's your first step in being an officer is a midshipman. But they start at nine and 10 years old. So they have nine and 10 year old boys on board ship, you know, and they lose a lot of them. You know because they're in. You know they're in action during the sea battles and you know they and they're foolish. You know 10, who who thinks? who thinks about danger when you're 10 years old, you know, but Trails him and he's about 25 now and he's a captain. He's a captain. So in 15 years he's become a captain and just terrific, just extraordinarily well-written books, but it's just about this one person. And then he goes up in terms of skill and responsibility and importance and he becomes rich doing it. Because if you captured a French ship, then you might be. Yeah, except for the gold. The gold had to go to the government. To the government. Dan: OK. Dean: You know the British government, but outside of that you could. You auctioned it off and the captain got a set share, and then everybody right down to the lowest seaman. So I went through about three of those in a week. Three, three now, wow yeah, and that was it. And then I came back and we had our free zone, and which worked out really worked out, really well. And you know you had arranged for a. Dan: I heard, you had arranged for a satellite launch while you were having the reception. Dean: Yeah, the rocket rocket, you know. I mean mean the rocket maker is very busy these days rearranging the government, you know. And uh so yeah, I thought it was kind of him to just take a little bit of time out and send a rocket up during our reception. I thought, you know, you know kind of a nice touch, you know, and yeah, it went really well and the, you know it's mostly parties. You know kind of a nice touch, you know, and yeah, it went really well and the you know it's mostly parties. You know our summit I mean if you, if you take this, if you take the two parties and put them together, they're equal to the amount of time we're doing in the conference and then the conference has lots of breaks, so yeah, I think it was more partying actually it's print seven, that's yeah, I mean that's the great uh seven print enjoy life and have a good time, you know right, right, right and then we uh took a day, and then we moved over to joe, which was joe yeah it's genius. Yeah, joe is such a great and the new offices look really good. Dan: I was just going to say I saw Richard Miller told me about the big 110-inch televisions or screens on the thing. That makes a big difference. Dean: Well, the big thing he can comfortably put 100 people in now. Yeah. Because, he's knocked out walls. Dan: Yeah, I zoomed in a little bit on Friday and, yeah, looks like a nice turnout too. It looks like that group's really growing. Dean: Yeah, it seems, I guess about 40, you know about 40 people. Yeah, and some not there, so it's probably total numbers is a bit higher. And yeah, and yeah, and yeah. We had one very impressive speaker. The senior editor for Epoch Times was there. Dan: Epoch Times. I saw that yeah. Dean: Yeah, in the afternoon and I didn't really know the background to this story. You know the background to the public. Yeah, and I had lunch sitting next to him, a very interesting person, you know, and he's very connected to a lot of people in the new administration Trump administration so he was talking about all the different things that he was doing. Dan: And I saw that Robert Kennedy was confirmed since last we spoke for the yeah and he's good friends with him. Dean: The editor is good friends with him. Dan: Yeah. Dean: And the next one is the FBI director, and he's good friends with him, so anyway, yeah, and Jeff Hayes was there and Jeff was just. I mean because Jeff had a major you know he had a major role in getting Robert Kennedy to the point where he could be and but I'm enjoying the. For the first time in US history, the government is being audited, mr Musk. Dan: I knew I saw it was very interesting. I saw something that there was somebody posted up a video from the 90s when Clinton and Gore launched a. There was something it was called rego, I think, but reinventing government operations or something, and it was mirroring all the things that they're saying about Doge, about the finding inefficiency and finding looking out all those things. So it was really interesting. They were showing the parallels of what was actually, you know, in 90, you know mid nineties, when Clinton and Gore were in yeah, yeah. Dean: Well, they didn't have the. I mean, it would have been an impossible task in the 1990s, but not so today, because of the guy, because they could just go in and they can identify every single check. That's written, the complete history, you know, and everything. They couldn't do that back in the 90s, you know Right. And probably they weren't the right party to be doing it either. Dan: So, anyway. Dean: no, I find it very intriguing and you can tell by the response of the Democrats that there's some stuff there. Dan: There's some there. Dean: There's some there there I think that I was just reading that. So far that you know they're they're, they're estimating that it's at least a trillion of found money. Dan: In other words, that when they go through, they'll find a trillion is a big, you know. Dean: I find that an impressive amount of money actually. Dan: Yeah, I find that an impressive amount of money. Yeah, that's exactly right, yeah yeah, yeah. Dean: So yeah, it's a big change. I think you know, I, I think that a lot of people who hate trump are probably wishing that he had actually won in 2020 you know, had to live with kovid for you know two and a half, three years, because nobody, almost no government, that was in charge. When COVID two years, I guess two and a half years of COVID. They've just been thrown out all around the world. Whoever the government was got thrown out, and so if Trump had won in 2020, he'd be out now and they'd probably be the Democrats and everything like that and they probably wouldn't have Elon Musk taking a look at government spending. Dan: What's the buzz in Canada now with their impending 51st? Yeah, it's nothing. Dean: We're in limbo. We're just in limbo because you know, the government isn't sitting and they're in the middle of a leadership race to replace Trudeau, and that won't happen until March 9th. Dan: Governor Trudeau Did you hear Donald Trump Government Trudeau. Dean: The state of Canada. Dan: Yeah, Trudeau keeps calling him Governor Trudeau. It's so disrespectful it's ridiculous. Dean: Yeah, the Gulf of America and the state of Canada. That's big news, since the last time we spoke right. Dan: We've had big changes. We had Governor. Trudeau and the Gulf of America. It's officially changed on the Google Maps now. Dean: Yeah, apple too. Apple changed over to the Gulf of America, and so did Chevron. In its annual report it talked about all of its deep water drilling in the Gulf of America. Yeah, it's interesting how things get named, anyway, I don't know. There wasn't any active government that called it the Gulf of Mexico. It was just the first map makers, whoever they were, yeah. They just said well, yeah, we call this the Gulf of Mexico and it's a done deal, deal. And so my sense is you know, if the you know if Google changes the name. That's an important support for the change. Dan: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I mean, it's so funny. I wonder how long now it'll take for the street names to change to. Dean: Well, they're changing, you know and they're, yeah, and they're changing the military bases. You know they had all these military bases in the. Us that were named after people who you know were deemed racist or deemed, you know, not proper that this person's name should be. So one administration changes them, but the next administration comes back and changes them all back to the original and Mount McKinley I always liked Mount McKinley and then they changed to Mount Denali. Oh, is that right I didn't know that, and now it's changed back to Mount McKinley. Okay, so Mount McKinley is the tallest North American mountain tallest mountain in. North America. So anyway, it's really good. I've been toying with the book title. Dan: It's not the book. Dean: I'm writing right now, but the title of the book is Technology is Trying Very Hard to Keep Up with Us, okay, Technology is trying really hard to keep up. Yeah, because people, I think, have bought into it that we're the ones who are trying to keep up with technology. Dan: Right. Dean: And I think it creates a lot of stress. I think we're trying to keep up with something that we don't understand, and I think that's a very stressful, I think that's a very stressful attitude. And I just tested it out at Genius Network. And I just said what would you think about this? That technology is trying very hard to keep up with us. And they said, wow, wow. What do you mean? Well, you know, because I said first of all it's inferior. I said first of all it's inferior. Technology is inferior because the objective of so many of the researchers in technology is that we'll now have technology that's as smart as humans. So, right off the bat, the premise of that is that technology isn't as smart as humans. Okay, so why would we be trying to be keeping up with something that's not as smart as us? That's true, yeah, but just from a standpoint. I think, probably, that you wouldn't be able to measure what's happening one way or the other. One way or the other, you really wouldn't be able to measure them, you know. I mean, if you take an individual human being, just one person, and you look at that person's brain, that brain is the most complex in the world. The human brain has more connections than anything else in the world. So in the universe not in the world, but in the universe it's the most complex, that's just one individual and then humans can communicate with each other. So it's you know. Say you have 10 human brains, that's 10 times the most complex thing in the world and they're doing all sorts of things. So my sense is that's the superior thing that you know, the human brain and individual human is superior. So I think the makers of technology are trying to keep up with what the human brain is doing, but it's really hard. Dan: it's really hard yeah, this is I mean. Yeah, I wonder. I just upgraded my chat gT membership. Now I just upgraded to the $200, $200, $200 a month. Dean: Yeah, and apparently they're feeding you, dean, they're dating his. First it's $2. First it's free. Dan: That's how they get you. Dean: Dan, that's $20 a month. Now it's $200. Right, and you're deeper and deeper into it. Then they're going to say it's $500 a month, yeah, and then you're into the thousands. Dan: And that's how they get you. That's what they do, that's how they get you yeah. Dean: You can't back out of it. You can't back out of GPT. Yeah, once you're in, you're in. Dan: So I need gpt. Yeah, my cheer hand, you're in, so I need the. So now, from what I understand, I got it and then I've been, you know, recovering here the last uh, couple of weeks or I was on my, had my event and and recovery here, so I haven't really spent the time to go deep in it. But from what I understand now they can do projects for you Like it. Can you know, I just did some test things Like can you, you know, see what massage times are available at Hand and Stone for me for today, and it goes to the website and logs it can book for you if you wanted it, you know. So I really I see now like the way forward, it's really just a world of truly just being able to articulate what you want is a big thing and you know you had 25 years of just practicing. What do you want, you know, in your daily practice. Dean: Journaling You're journaling. Dan: Yeah, and now we're truly like I think this is one step closer to just being able to like articulate what you want and it can happen. I mean, I see it now on, you know, with the combination of the things that are doing, like Claude. A lot of people are using Claude for, like creating websites and apps and you know, functional things and then using. Now, I think, with ChatGPT, combined with those capabilities, that's really what the $200 a month, one kind of gets you is the ability for you to set it on a task and then come back. It'll still work on it while not. It felt like before, for $20 a month, charlotte would do whatever you wanted her to do right in real time while you're there, but you couldn't assign it a task that is going to be done while you're not there. So, man, it's pretty amazing times what we're coming into here being a visionary is a big thing. Dean: Yeah, my, I'm just. You know, I'm really. I just work with one, one tool and see, how much? I can get out of it and you know, perplexity is doing a good job of giving me alternative copy copy ideas, and the thing is that I've got so many thinking tools of my own that I've created over my last that the tools I think are really custom designed for how I go about things, okay, and and so see for me to kind of learn this new stuff in the time that I would be learning something new I'd be creating three or four new. I'd be creating three or four new tools yeah which are useful in the program. So there's an immediate payoff in the program and then they have IP value as we're discovering they have. IP value, so I'm not seeing the return on investment yet. I mean, I have team members who can do the programs and they're investigating them all the time and they're getting better. So I can just chat with, I can just send them a fast filter or something like that. That's a tool, fast filter, and then they go and they execute it and I haven't spent any time learning it and so I'm really interested in listening to you, because you're I would suspect that you're making advances every day, right, probably something new every day. Dan: I'm starting to see I don't know whether I've shared with you the we're kind of putting some legs on the VCR formula, kind of putting some. You're digging a little deeper into how to really define those what vision, what capabilities, what reach, how to think about them. And what I looked at with vision is thinking of it as a progression from the levels of vision that you can have. So you can start out with the ability to create a hypothesis or have an idea about something. I think that if you did this, that would be a good thing, right, this is what you, we should do, or this is where I think we should go with this. That's one level. Then, from that, then the next level up is that you have proven. That is right, that's a good idea, right. So you've set up an experiment, you've taken some action on that idea. You've gotten some feedback that, yeah, that's good. It's almost like applying the scientific method in a way. Right, you create a hypothesis, you set up an experiment, you do it Now. Once you've got proof, then the next level up is to create a protocol for that. You could repeat the result that you were able to get one time. And once you've got that protocol, now you've got something that can be packaged and protected. Ip is the crown jewel of the vision column. Everything should be progressing to that peak of having IP. And once you have a piece of IP, once you have a protocol, an algorithm, a recipe you know engineer, whatever the thing is. Now it moves into your capability column that you have it now as something that you can package as a result for someone Right. So it's been. It's a really interesting thing. You can package as a result for someone right, so it's a really interesting thing. I think that progression of kind of you know feels in line with the make it up, make it real, make it recur kind of progression as well. Dean: Yeah. Now here's a question and it's kind of related to this. Technology is trying really hard to keep up that I started the podcast with this morning. If you looked at yourself, are you using technology so that you can be different or are you using technology so that you can be the same? That's a good question. Dan: I think I'm using technology so that, well, I don't know how to think about that. I would say am I using technology so that I can be different? I can't think of an example to say either way. I mean I'm using technology in many cases to do what I would do if I could count on me to do it. You know, I think that's a thing that you know technology is able to do the things that I would do. And I take technology as you know, I have a broad definition of technology. Right, like a shovel would be a technology too. Right, any kind of tool to do what you would do in an enhanced kind of way, like if your thing is you're trying to dig a swimming pool, you know you do it by hand, scoop out all the dirt. But somebody realized, hey, if we make a shovel that is similar but bigger, it could scoop that out. And then if we make a, a backhoe, that can you know, do that's a thing so it's doing? I think the answer is probably all technology is to do the same faster and bigger yeah, I just just wonder that the most dominant force in people's life is really their habits, and what I feel is there's a set of habits that work. Dean: you know, you like them and they work. And secondly, you like doing them, you like doing them but you're being asked to change. You know, there's sort of this message, message, a narrative you're going to have to change and you're going to have to change. And I'm wondering if, at a certain stage, people reach a point where they say, okay, I'll use technology, but not to change the way you want me to change, but to stay the way I am. Dan: That's interesting but to stay the way I am. That's interesting. Yeah, I mean, there's probably good arguments for both sides, right? I think technology ultimately in its bestest to be able to replace your time and effort on doing something to make it easier to do what you need to do. I think about Excel, for instance, using Excel spreadsheets as a way of being able to sort and organize and compute data back like to the earliest technologies you know. Dean: Yeah, well, I just feel that you know. I mean, first of all, very few people are. I would start with myself by saying that I've probably got a massive habit system. You know, that's basically repeats who I am every day, like 90 and it's comfortable. You know it's comfortable you know, and I do it, and therefore, if I am asked to be more productive or I'm asked to be creative, I will only use those technologies that allow me to be productive in a way that my daily habits can stay the same. I don't really want to be disrupted. Right, yeah, I can see this, you know, with. One of the problems with EVs is that people are really used to going to the gas station. They've got a whole routine and it isn't just pumping gas, they go in, you know, they go in, they buy some things, you know, and everything like that, and it's really a short period of time. I mean, if you wanted to fill up your car, you know, and I was used to it because we had a, you know, in our trip we had a Beamer, we had the big Beamer. They have a X7 now. Dan: The X5 was always. Dean: Now they have an X7. And, the thing you know, we had it for two and a half weeks, so about three or four days before we left. We just topped it up, you know, we just I put enough gas in that would get us back to the airport you know, when we did it and you know it was like four minutes. You know it's like four minutes, yeah, where you know if you're I mean if you do your charging up overnight, there's no problem to it. You know, if you're I mean if you do your charging up overnight, there's no problem to it, you know there's no problem charging up, but if you're out on a trip and you're getting short on you know, on power, then it's a lot, you know where is it? Dean: Yeah, yeah. Dean: Yeah. Dan: I find that same thing Like so I, you know net. I have a charger at my house for my Tesla. And so I just plug it in and I never. I don't miss. Well, I never went to the. I never went to the gas station. Anyway, I would have Courtney. You know my assistant would always go. That was one of the things that she would do. But I think about, you know, the things that Courtney would do 10 years ago, like getting gas in my car, taking to the car wash all of that stuff, going to the grocery store, going to restaurants to pick up stuff or to take things to the mail, all of the things that were. You know. A lot of that is now replaced with technology, in that there's no need to, I don't need to go to the gas station. My car is always charged and always ready. We have there's a there's this big now push of these super convenient car wash things. So for $32 a month you join this. For $32 a month you have unlimited car washes and there's one right on the way to or the way home from, honeycomb, the breakfast place that I go to every day. So I can just literally swing in. You don't even, you don't get out of your car, you just drive through. It's got the. It recognizes your barcode thing. You drive right through and off you go, and so I always have a super clean car. I use Instacart for the grocery delivery and Uber Eats and Seamless and, like you think, 10 years ago one of the things that we had Courtney do was go to. It's funny you say this right, but technology keeping up with us, this would fit in that category that there was no delivery service for food aside from pizza and Chinese food. That's what you could get delivered at your house or office, right. So we had Courtney go to every restaurant, like all of our favorite restaurants. She went to every restaurant and got the takeout menu, two copies of it, one. So we had a binder, one at the house and one at the office that had the menus of every restaurant and now, all of a sudden, every restaurant was delivery, because we would place the order and then Courtney would go and get it and bring it. Dean: You know. Dan: And so that's what technology kind of replaced 90% of what Courtney was doing. You know, it's really interesting to to think. You know, pretty simple, have the, remember on Star Trek they had the replicators where they would you know? Just you tell the thing what you want and it would make the food. Dean: We're not that far off probably from that. Well, where do you see that? I don't see that at all. Dan: No, I'm saying on in you're seeing now I don't know if you've ever seen these robotic kitchens that are kitchen robots that you know can make anything that you want, and I think it's very interesting that you look at. Ai will be able to assess your inventory in your fridge and your robots will keep the ingredients stocked and your AI robot chef will be able to make whatever you want. I mean basically anything. Any packaged protocol, like for recipes or anything that you know how to do, is now eligible for someone else to do it, you know, and someone else being a technology, a robot, to be able to do it, you know, and someone else being a technology, a robot, to be able to do it. But there's no, you still have to be able to. There's still the human element of things. I had a really interesting experience just yesterday is I send out, you know, three emails a week to our subscribers, you know, to all my on my list of entrepreneurs, and you know the emails, for several years, have been derivative of my podcasts. Right, like so they. I would talk the podcast and then we would get those transcribed and then I had a writer who would take the transcript and identify you know two or three or four key points that we talked about in the podcast and create emails. You know three to 500 word emails based on those in my voice and I use air quotes in my voice because it really was my words Cause I spoke them on the podcast but she was, you know, compiling and putting them all together and they you know, I've had. I've got a lot of them and we've been, you know, since COVID, kind of in syndication with them, where they're on a three-year rotation, kind of thing, you know. So I haven't had to write new emails, but occasionally I will intersperse them in. And so the other day, yesterday, I sent out an email that I wrote 100% and it was describing the advantages of time travel and I was talking about how, in lead generation situations, you know, I mean, if I could say to people, let's say, you own a real estate company and we had the ability to time travel and we could go back two years from today and we're going to leave at midnight, but before we leave you can go to the MLS and you can print off a list of every house that sold in the last two years. So we can beam back two years armed with a list of every person that sold their house in the last two years and all you would need to do over that period of time is just concentrate on building a relationship with those people, because that's what you're looking for Right, on building a relationship with those people, because that's what you're looking for, right. And so I told that whole story and then said, you know, since and it reminds me, dan, of your it's certainty and uncertainty, right, like if you had certainty that these are the people that are going to sell their house, that you would be, you would have a different approach to your engagement with them, but it wouldn't change the fact that, as valuable as you think this list is, armed with this list of everybody that's going to sell their house, that sold their house in the last two years, you'd still have to go through the last two years in real time, and the people who sold their house, you know, teen months later, were you still had to wait 18 months for them to mature. And I thought, you know, I said that the thing that, since we can't time travel backwards, the best thing we could do is plant a time capsule and start generating leads of people who are going to sell their house in the next 100 weeks. And if you had that level of certainty around it, that would be a big thing, right? So I wrote that email and I talked about the thing. But I've gotten five or six replies to the emails saying I read a lot of your emails. In my opinion, this is the best one that you've written, or what an amazing insight, or this really resonated with me, but it was something that has like 100% of me in it, as opposed to written as a derivative of something I said. So it's not, I think, that human element. I don't know whether it's the energy or whatever. Dean: Yeah, it's kind of interesting there. I think what I'm going to say relates to what you're saying, right? Dan: now. Dean: There was just a YouTube. It was YouTube and it was. Can you tell if it's Bach or not? Dan: So what they did is they had an actual recording of Bach. Dean: Who wrote it, you know? And then they did an AI version of like Bach. And then they did an AI version of like Bach. And then they asked you to listen to both and say which one was Bach and which one was the AI. And there were six of the six. They gave six samples and I got it right six times in a row. Dan: Oh, wow. Dean: And what I was saying is that there's something that the human being has added which is not. It's actually is, and there's a big difference between is and kind of like, and it seems to me that's what you're saying here. Dan: Yeah. Dean: That there's something. It's kind of like Dean Jackson or is. Dean Jackson, and my sense is I think the gulf between those two is permanent. I agree 100%. Dan: That's the, you know. There's Jerry Spence, the attorney. He wrote a great book called how to Argue and Win Every Time. Dean: And one of the things that he said is when we're communicating. Dan: One of the things that he said is when we're communicating, one of the things that the receiver, what we're doing as the receiver of communication, is, we have all these invisible psychic tentacles that are out measuring and testing and looking for authenticity of it, and they can detect what he calls the thin clank of the counterfeit. Yes, and that's an interesting thing, right? What was it to you in Is it Bach that made you able to pick it out? Can you discern what the difference was. Dean: I think it was an emotional thing that basically I was moved by the back one, and I was just intrigued by the other one that's interesting right one of them was one of them was emotional, but the other one was. You know, I was me saying is it? You know, I, I don, I don't think so, I don't think it is when. With the first one, it didn't take long. There was just, you know, it was maybe five or six bars and I said, yeah, I think that's Bach, it's the twinkle in the eye, right. Dan: That's kind of the thing that is. Yeah, I get it. I think we're onto something with that. Dean: Yeah, and. I think it's uniqueness. In other words, here's my feeling is that humans develop new capabilities to deal with technology. I think that our brains are actually transforming as we're surrounded more and more with technology. And it has to do with what's valuable and what's not valuable and anything that's tech, we immediately say, oh, that doesn't really have any value because it's cheap, it's really cheap in other words, it was the technology was created to lower the cost of something. I mean that's really you know, I mean if it were, I mean mean, if it does what it's supposed to do, it lowers the cost, and there's various costs. There's cost of concentration, there's the cost of time, there's the cost of energy, there's the cost of money and everything else. And so technology will lower the cost in those areas and doing it in those areas and doing it. But what I find is that what we really treasure in life, the things that have a higher cost, that have a higher cost, it takes more of our effort takes more of our time. It takes you know more of our money, and in person you know. In person is always going to cost more than automatic or digital. So, my sense is, as time goes along, we adjust our you know the cost benefit analysis of the experience. Dan: Okay. Dean: And think about the six who wrote back to you on it. How much their cost was it really cost them to listen to the real thing? Okay because, first of all, they were listening and they were moved. They couldn't be doing something else when they were being moved by your message. Okay, and then they took time out. They took time out to actually construct a response to you. So the cost I mean we use cost as a bad word you know there's a high cost, or anything right yeah, but it's actually investment, the investment that the things where we're required to invest more are actually more valuable. Dan: I agree with you, yeah, yeah. So I think that's part of this, that's part of this balance, then, with the technologies, using the technology. I mean, you know, how do you get that? Dean: Yeah, that level about things that we're fully engaged with, that are more valuable than things that are just done for us in an instant. I don't have the answer to that, it's just an observation. Dan: No, I don't either. You're right, but the fact is that a lot of these things are, you know, no matter what the advancements happen in technology, in some of these ways, it's the fact is that life moves at the speed of reality, right, which is, you know, 60 seconds per minute. You know, I mean, that's really the, that's really the thing, and that those our attention is engaged for 100 of those minutes that we have, and when it's engaged in something, it's not engaged in something else, and when I think what that's what you're saying, is that you've gotten the authentic, like core, you know, full engagement. And it's an interesting thing that I think what AI is doing for bulk things, for people is it's allowing them to not have to pay attention to things they don't have to. It's really it allows everybody to get the cliff notes or something. They don't have to read Hamlet, they don't have to read Macbeth, they can scan the cliff notes of something. They don't have to read Hamlet, they don't have to read Macbeth, they can scan the cliff notes of Macbeth. But that's not the same experience of seeing. Dean: No, there's something about engagement, I think, the word we'll use as our segue word, namely to pick it up next time. Dan: I think it is. Dean: There's a real pleasure of being fully engaged. Dan: I think that's something that is cause this is an interesting thing. I'm gonna throw a couple of things out that we can marinate on for next time, because we're just having this conversation about Michelelin star restaurant experiences that I? Dean: I've always been fascinated by that the young chef who turned down uh three-star rating no he said I don't want to be rated, I don't want to have a michelin. Well, and people, people say well, of course you want a Michelin rating. He says no, he says it does weird things with what I'm supposed to be and what a restaurant is supposed to be. And he said I noticed the type of customers that came in were different type of customers. So he said I don't want to be listed anymore as Michelin. That's interesting. Dan: But it's fascinating. That is an only. It's a one-off original experience provided by a group of passionate people. You know doing something only in the moment. There's no leverage. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And I thought about the same thing like a, you know, like a performance of live theater in a live in an environment is a one-off, original experience and I think that's why people who love theater and love doing theater actors, I I mean, who love performing in theaters because of that authentic and immediate back that your engagement really brings, that's very live live and in person live exactly. Dean: Yeah, it's interesting, but my sense is that just to. Yeah, exactly, you're being pressured to to change the sameness. You'll look for a technology that frees up the time again so that you can enjoy your sameness. Dan: I don't know if I'm getting that across really. No, I understand, but it's a bit like it's a bit. Dean: It's a bit like a gyroscope. You want to stay on the true path when you're flying and therefore, you need more and more technology. I was noticing we came back in the 787, which is a marvelous airplane. For all of Boeing's troubles, the 787 is not one of them, and you know, it's just that. So we took off, you know, we flew from Phoenix to Toronto and just as we got near the, within about 30 minutes of landing in Toronto, there was just a little bump and the pilot immediately came out and says you know, we were in a little bit of a turbulence zone, but it won't last. In about a minute we'll be out of it and then, a minute later, there was no turbulence, it was just about a minute. And it wasn't real turbulence, it was just a little you know that. I noticed it and they have a really unique technology that they've introduced that can transform turbulence into smoothness. You know that's what I'm interpreting that they do, but for the whole flight, you know, I didn't even remember us taking off and when we landed I said, did we land? Yeah, and she said yeah, bev says we landed, and I said, wow, yeah, it's just really remarkable. But there's millions and millions of little tech bots that are adjusting it so that the sameness you like, which is namely not turbulence, is maintained. And I think that we do this on a personal level. I think we do this on an individual level. We have a smooth flight, we have an experience of what a smooth flight is for us and if there's any interruption of that, we want something that takes away the interruption so we can get back to the feeling that it's a smooth flight. Dan: Yeah agreed. Well, I think we're onto something here. Dean: I think we are yeah, okay. Dan:Changing to stay the same. Dean: Changing to stay the same yeah all righty. Dan: Constantly changing, to stay the same, that's a good book title right there? 0:48:32 - Dean: Oh yeah, all right there. Oh yeah, all righty, I like that Okay. Thanks, Dan. Dan: Okay now next week, I know you're gone next week we're on our way to Nashville for our upgrade, our lube job, whatever. Uh-huh, so two weeks, okay two weeks. Okay, bye. 0:48:52 - Dean: Thanks, Dan Bye.

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we explore how government assets could reshape public spending and economic growth. The discussion stems from Thomas Sowell's analysis of U.S. government land value. It extends to real-world examples of public-private partnerships, including Toronto's LCBO real estate deals and Chicago's parking meter agreement with a Saudi entity. Dan and I delve into the relationship between constitutional rights and entrepreneurship, drawing from my upcoming book. The American Bill of Rights creates unique conditions that foster business innovation and self-initiative, offering an interesting contrast to Canada's legal framework. This comparison opens up a broader discussion about judicial appointments and the role of government in supporting individual potential. The conversation shifts to the transformative impact of AI on content creation and decision-making. I share my experience with tools like Perplexity and Notebook LM, which are changing how we gather information and refine our writing. Integrating AI into daily workflows highlights the significant changes we can expect over the next quarter century. Looking ahead, We reflect on future podcast topics and the lessons learned from blending traditional insights with AI capabilities. This combination offers new perspectives on personal development and professional growth, suggesting exciting possibilities for how we'll work and create in the years ahead. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We delve into the market value of U.S. government-owned land, discussing Thomas Sowell's article and the potential benefits of selling such land to alleviate government spending. Our conversation covers various government and private sector interactions, including Toronto's LCBO real estate deal and Chicago's parking meter agreement with a Saudi-owned company. We explore Macquarie's business model in Australia, focusing on their ownership of airports and toll roads, and consider the efficiency of underutilized government buildings in Washington D.C. The Bill of Rights plays a crucial role in fostering entrepreneurship in the U.S., and I discuss insights from my upcoming book on how these constitutional liberties encourage self-initiative and capitalism. We compare the judicial appointment processes in the U.S. and Canada, highlighting the differences in how each country's legal system impacts entrepreneurship and individual freedoms. The importance of creating patentable processes and legal ownership of capabilities is discussed, along with the idea that true leadership involves developing new capabilities. Our collaborative book project "Casting, Not Hiring" is structured like a theatrical play, with a focus on the innovative 4x4 casting tool, drawing parallels between theater and entrepreneurship. AI's transformative power in creative processes is highlighted, with tools like Perplexity and Notebook LM enhancing convenience and refining writing techniques. We reflect on the long-term impact of AI on writing and creativity, and consider its implications for future podcast episodes and personal and professional growth. Our discussion on constitutional rights touches on how they shape the future of entrepreneurship, drawing contrasts between the U.S. and Canadian approaches to law and governance. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: Yes indeed. I beat you by 10 seconds. Dean: I beat you by 10 seconds. Dan: Yeah, yeah. Dean: Well, there you go. That's a good way to end the year, right there. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Not that it's a contest. Dan: I was looking at an interesting article this morning from yesterday's Wall Street Journal by Thomas Sowell. I don't know if you know Thomas Sowell. No, yeah, he's probably the foremost conservative thinker in the United States. Okay, I think he's 90-ish, sort of around 90. He's been a professor at many universities and started off in his teenage years as a Marxist, as a lot of teenagers do, and before they learn how to count and and before they learn math the moment you learn math, you can't be a Marxist anymore and and anyway he writes and he just said how much all the land that the US government owns in the 50 states is equal to 1.4 trillion dollars. If you put a market value on it, it's 1.4 trillion dollars. I bet that's true wow and the problem is it costs them about that much money to maintain it, most of it for no reason at all. And he was just suggesting that, if Elon and Vivek are looking for a place to get some money and also stop spending, start with the property that the US government owns and sell it off. Dean: That's interesting I'm often Two things. Dan: Two things they get money coming in, yeah. And the other thing is they don't spend money maintaining it. Yeah, but it's 20, 25% of the land area of the US is actually owned, I guess owned, controlled by the US government. And you know there was a neat trick that was done here in Toronto and I don't think you'd be aware of it but the LCBO, liquor Control Board of Ontario. So in Ontario all the liquor is controlled by the government. The government is actually the LCBO is the largest importer of alcoholic beverages in the world. Dean: Wow. Dan: Nobody controls the amount of liquor well, and I. I just wonder if that's one of the reasons why you moved to Florida to get away from the government. Dean: Control of liquor they're a single payer, a single pay system. Dan: I just wondered if yeah, I just wondered if that on your list of besides nicer weather. Dean: I thought maybe you know being in control of your own liquor. I always found it funny that you could. You know you can buy alcohol and beer in 7-Eleven. Dan: I always thought that was interesting right. Dean: Just pick up a little traveler to go, you know when you're getting your gas and that six-pack yeah. Dan: So, anyway, they had their headquarters, which was right down on Lakeshore, down in the, I would say, sort of Jarvis area, if you think of Jarvis and Lakeshore, down in the I would say sort of Jarvis area, if you think. Dean: Jarvis and. Dan: Lakeshore and maybe a little bit further west. But they took up a whole block there and they traded with a developer and what they did they said you can have our block with the building on it. You have to preserve part of it because it's a historical building. I mean, you can gut it and you can, you know, build, but yeah, there's a facade that we want you to keep because it's historic and and what we want you to do is and this developer already had a block adjacent to the LCBO property and they said we want a new headquarters, so we'll give you the block If you and your skyscraper it's a huge skyscraper. We want this much space in it for free. And they made a trade and the developer went for it. Dean: And I bet. Dan: That's an interesting kind of deal. That's an interesting kind of deal where government yeah, yeah and, but somebody was telling me it was really funny. I'm trying to think where it was. Where were we, where were we? I'm just trying to think where we weren't in. We weren't in Toronto, it'll come to me. We were in Chicago. So Chicago, the parking meters are all owned by Saudi Arabia. Dean: Right. Dan: Yeah, or a company that's owned by Saudi Arabia. Let me think One of the many princes and they paid the city of Chicago flat check. They paid him $1.5 billion for all the parking meters in Chicago and Chicago, you know, has been in financial trouble forever. So one and a half billion, one and a half billion dollars, but they make 400 million a year for the next 50 years. Oh, wow. Dean: Yeah, that's pretty wild. Dan: I think that was a bad deal, I think that was a bad deal. Yeah, that's amazing, you got to know your math. Dean: Well, I know there's a company in Australia called Macquarie and they own airports and toll roads primarily, ports and toll roads primarily. And that's really that's what it is right is they have long-term government contracts where they uh, you know they own the assets and the government leases them from them, or they get the right, they build the, they build the toll road and they get the money for the toll. They can operate it as a for-profit venture. Really kind of interesting. Dan: It brings up an interesting scenario which I think that Trump is thinking about, plus Elon and Vivek is thinking about plus Elon and Vivek, that so many of the buildings in Washington DC the government buildings, except for the one percent of workers who actually show up for work every day are virtually, are virtually empty, and so so there's some, it's almost like they need a VCR audit. Dean: So it's almost like they need a VCR audit. I mean, that's really what it is. All these things are underutilized capabilities and capacity, you know that's really that's sort of a big thing. Dan: But I think it occurred to me that bureaucracy period. It occurred to me that bureaucracy period this would be corporate bureaucracy, government bureaucracy. Those are the two big ones. But then many other kinds of organizations that are long-term organizations, that have become like big foundations, are probably just pure bureaucracy. You know, harvard University is probably just a big bureaucracy. They have an endowment of $60 billion, their endowment, and they have to spend 5% of that every year. That's the requirement under charity laws that you have to spend 5% of that every year. That's the requirement under charity laws that you have to spend 5% and on that basis every Harvard student probably the entire university wouldn't have to charge anything. Dean: That's interesting. I had a friend, a neighbor, who did something similarly put his um, I put sold the company and put, I think, 50 million dollars in. I think it was called the charitable remainder trust where the, the 50 million went into the trust and he as the uh, whatever you know administrator or whoever the the beneficiary gets of the trust is gets five percent a year of uh yeah, of the um the trust and that's his retirement income. I guess I understand. Dan: I understand income. I don't understand retirement income right exactly well for him it is kind of retirement income. Dean: He just plays golf. Exactly Well, for him it is kind of retirement. Yeah yeah, he just plays golf, yeah. Dan: Yeah, he's sort of in the departure lounge. He's on the way to the departure lounge. I think the moment you retire or think about retirement, the parts go back to the universe, I think that's actually I'm, I'm, it's partially. Dean: Uh, he does angel investing, uh, so that's yeah, so he's still probably probably on boards yeah, but I don't consider that? Dan: yeah, I don't really consider that. On entrepreneurism no you know, I don't think you're creating anything new, right? Yeah, it's very interesting. I'm writing, I just am outlining this morning my book for the quarter. So the book I'm just finishing, which is called Growing Great Leadership, will go to the press February 1st. Dean: Nice. Dan: So we're just putting the finishing touches on. We've got two sections and then some you know artwork packaging to do and then it probably goes off to the printer around the 20th of January. It takes about five weeks for them to turn it around. But the next one is very interesting. It's called the Bill of Rights Economy. So this relates and refers to the US Constitution. And in the first paragraph of the Constitution. It says that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, so it's supreme over everything in the United States. It's supreme over the presidency, it's supreme over Congress, it's supreme over the Supreme Court, and so that strikes me as a big deal, would you say? I'd say yes, yeah, yeah, and. But the real heart of the Constitution, what really gives it teeth, are the first 10 amendments, and which are called the Bill of Rights, so it's one through 10. First one speech, second one guns. And then they have commerce and things related to your legal rights. And what I've done is I've looked into it and I've looked at those first 10 amendments, and it strikes me that the reason why the US is an entrepreneurial country is specifically because of those first 10 amendments, that it gives a maximum amount of freedom to self-initiative, to people who want to go out and do something on their own, start something and everything else. First 10 amendments so what. I'm doing is I'm analyzing five freedoms and advantages that are given to entrepreneurs from each of the 10. There will be 50 advantages. So that's what my next book is about, and my sense is that those entrepreneurs who are not clear-minded about capitalism would have to do one of two things if they read the next book. They'll either have to get rid of their socialist thoughts or they'll have to stop being an entrepreneur. Dean: That's interesting. You know this whole. I love things like that when you're anchoring them to you know historical things. Dan: I don't know if I can name. I don't know if I can. Well, you can name the first one. It's the right of speech and assembly. Dean: Yeah speech, and then the second is to bear arms Gun ownership, gun ownership yeah. Yeah. Dan: And it goes on. I'll have to get the list out and go down there, but that's what holds the country together and you know it's a very brief document. It's about 5,000 words the entire document. It starts to finish about 5,000 words and you could easily read it in an hour. You could read the whole Constitution in an hour. Dean: It's a pocket companion. Yeah, yeah. Dan: I've seen them like little things that you put in your pocket and one of the things that strikes me about it is that in 1787, that's when it was adapted, and then it took two years to really form the government. 1789 is when washington, the he was elected in 1788 and the election he's sworn in as president 1789. If you typed it out with the original document, typed it out in you know typewriter paper and you know single space, it would be 23 pages, 23 pages. And today, if you were to type it out, it would be 27 pages. They've added four pages 200. Yeah, so in 235 years to 237 years it's pretty tight, yeah, and so and that's what keeps the country, the way the country is constantly growing and you know maximum amount of variety and you know all sorts of new things can happen is that they have this very, very simple supreme law right at the center, and there's no other country on the planet that has that that's a. Dean: That's pretty. Uh, what's the closest? I guess? What's the? I mean Canada must have. Dan: Canada's has been utterly taken away from that? Yeah, but that can be overridden at any time by the Supreme Court of Canada who by the way, is appointed by the prime minister. So you know, in the United States the Supreme Court justice is nominated yeah. No dominated, nominated by the president but approved by the Senate. So the other two branches have the say. So here it's the prime minister. The prime minister does it, and I was noticing the current Supreme Court Justice Wagner said that he doesn't see that there's much need anymore to be publishing what Canadian laws were before 1959. Dean: Oh really. Dan: Yeah, and that's the difference between Canada and the United States, because everything, almost every Supreme Court justice, they're going right back to the beginning and say what was the intent here of the people who put the Constitution together? Yeah, and that is the radical difference between the two parties in the. United States. So anyway, just tell you what I've been up to on my Christmas vacation. Dean: Oh, that's so funny. Well, we've been having some adventures over here. I came up with a subtitle for my Imagine If you Applied Yourself book and it was based on, you had said last time we talked right Like we were talking about this idea of your driving question and you thought I did. I don't know, yeah yeah you brought it, you said sort of how far can I go? Dan: yeah, well, that's not my driving question, that's no, no question, no yeah somebody else brought up the whole issue of driving question. You mentioned somebody yeah chad, chad did yeah, jenkins chad, jenkins chad jenkins right right right, yeah, uh. Dean: So it reminded me as soon as I got off. I had the words come uh. How far could you go if you did what you know? That could be the subtitle. Imagine if you applied yourself that's. Dan: That's kind of interesting how far could you? Maximize, if you maximize what you already know yeah I mean, that's really what holds. Dean: I think what holds people back more than not knowing what to do is not doing what they know to do. That that's I think, the, that's the uh, I think that's the driving thing. Dan: So they're held in play. They're held in place. You mean by? Dean: yeah, I think that's it that they're in about maybe I'm only looking at it through where do you see that anywhere in your life? Dan: I see everywhere in my life that I see it everywhere in my life, that's the whole thing, in my life. Dean: Right Is that that executive function? That's the definition of executive function disability, let's call it. You know, as Russell Barkley would say, that that's the thing is knowing, knowing what to do and just not not doing it. You know, not being able to do it. Dan: Yeah. And to the extent that you can solve that, well, that's I think that's the how far you can go here's a question Is there part of what you know that always moves you forward? Dean: Yeah, I guess there always is. Yeah, well then, you're not held, then you're not held. Dan: You just have to focus on what part of what you know is important. Dean: Yes, exactly, I think that's definitely right. Yeah, I thought that was an interesting. Dan: For example, I am absolutely convinced that for the foreseeable future, that if you a, a dollar is made in the united states and spent in canada, things are good. Dean: Things are good I think you're absolutely right, especially in the direction it's going right now. Dan: Yeah, it's up 10 cents in the last three months. 10 cents, one-tenth of a dollar. Dean: You know 10 cents. Dan: So it was $1.34 on October 1st and it's $1.44 right now. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And I don't see it changing as a matter of fact fact. You should see the literature up here. Since trump said maybe canada is just the 51st state, you should see this is the high topic of discussion in canada right now how is it? Dean: would we be? Dan: would we be better off? I mean there there's an a large percentage something like 15, 15% would prefer it. But you know he's Shark Tank person, kevin O'Leary, canadian. Dean: He's from Alberta. Dan: And he said that what they should do is just create a common economy, not politically so Canada is still really, really political. Not politically just economically, Politically. Well, it is already. I mean, to a certain extent it's crossed an enormous amount of trade, but still you have to stop at the border. Here there would be no stopping at the border and that if you were an American, you could just move to Canada and if you were a Canadian you could just move. Dean: Kind of like the EU was the thought of the European Union. Dan: Yeah, but that didn't really work because they all hated each other. Dean: They all hated each other. Dan: They've been nonstop at war for the last 3,000 years, and they speak different languages, but the US I mean. When Americans come for their strategic coach program, they come up here and they say it's just like the States and I said not quite, not quite. I said it's about on the clock. It's about the clock. It's about an hour off. You name the topic, Canadians will have a different point of view on whatever the topic is. But I'm not saying this is going to happen. I'm just saying that Trump, just saying one thing, has ignited a firestorm of discussion. And why is it that we're lagging so badly? And, of course, it looks now like as soon as Parliament comes back after the break, which is not until, think, the 25th of January, there will be a vote of confidence that the liberals lose, and then the governor general will say you have to form a new government, therefore we have to have an election. So probably we're looking middle of March, maybe middle of March. End of March there'll be a new government new prime minister and Harvard will have a new professor. Dean: Ah, there you go, I saw, that that's what happens. Dan: That's what happens to real bad liberal prime ministers. They become professors at Harvard or bad mayors in Toronto, david. Dean: Miller, he was the mayor here. Dan: I think he's a professor at Harvard. And there was one of the premiers, the liberal premier of Ontario. He's at Harvard. Oh wow, wow, wow. Anyway, yeah, or he'll go to Davos and he'll sit on the World Oversight Board. Dean: Oh boy, I just saw Peter Zion was talking about the Canadian, the lady who just quit. Dan: And I don't understand him at all, because I think she's an idiot. Dean: Okay, that's interesting because he was basically saying she may be the smartest person in Canada. Dan: I think she's an idiot. Okay, and she's the finance minister. So all the trouble we're in, at least some of it, has to be laid at her door. Interesting. Dean: Is Pierre Polyev still the frontrunner? Dan: Oh yeah, He'll be the prime minister, yeah. Dean: Smart guy. Dan: I was in personal conversation with him for a breakfast about six years ago Very smart. Oh wow, very smart. Dean: Yeah, seems sharp from Alberta. Dan: He's French. He's French speaking, but he's an orphan from an English family. Or it might have been a French mother. He's an orphan, but he was adopted into a French speaking family. So to be Alberta and be French speaking, that's kind of a unique combination. Yeah, very interesting. Yeah, but it's a hard country to hold together and, uh, you know, peter zion and many different podcasts just said that it's very, very hard to keep the country together. It takes all the strength of the federal government just to keep things unified. Dean: Well, because everybody wants to leave. Yeah, exactly, everybody looks at. I mean you really have, you've got the Maritimes in Quebec, ontario, the West, and then BC, the Prairies and then BC. Dan: So there's five and they don't have that much to do with each other. Each of them has more to do with the states that are south of them, quebec has enormous trade with New York. Ontario has trade with New York, with Pennsylvania, with Ohio, with Michigan, all the Great Lakes states, every one of them. Their trade is much more with the US that's south of them, and Alberta would be the most, because they trade all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico, because their pipelines go all the way down to have you ever been to Nunavut or Yukon? Dean: Have you ever been? Dan: Dan to Nunavut or Yukon I haven't been to. I've been to Great Slave Lake, which is in the what used to be called the Northwest Territories, and on the east I've been to Frobisher Bay, which is in the eastern part, you know of the territories way up. Dean: Labrador Closer to. Dan: Greenland it up closer, closer to greenland. That's, yeah, actually closer closer to greenland, yeah, well, that's where you were born. Right, you were born up there, newfoundland right, newfoundland, yeah well this is above newfoundland. This would be above newfoundland, yeah yeah that's. That's what we used to call eskimo territory. Yeah, that's what we used to call Eskimo territory. That's so funny. Dean: That's funny, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, shifting gears. We've been having some interesting conversations about VCR this week and it's particularly trying to get a you know how, defining vision. And, of course, for somebody listening for the first time, we're talking about the VCR formula vision plus capability multiplied by reach. And so part of this thing is going through the process of identifying your VCR assets, right CR assets as currency, software or sheet music, where, if you think like we're going down the path of thinking about vision as a capability that people have or a trait that you might, that's, I think, when people start talking about the VCR formula, they're thinking about vision as a aptitude or a trait or a ability that somebody has, the ability to see things that other people don't see, and that may be true. There is some element of some people are more visionary than others, but that doesn't fully account for what the asset of a vision is, and I think that the vision, an asset, a vision as an asset, is something that can amplify an outcome. So I think about somebody might be musical and they might have perfect pitch and they may be able to carry a tune and hum some interesting chord progressions, but the pinnacle asset of vision in a musical context would be a copywritten sheet music that is transferable to someone else. So it's kind of like the evolution is taking your vision. So it's kind of like the evolution is taking your vision. But you know, the apex asset of a vision would be a patentable process that you patent. That you have as both an acknowledgement that it's yours, it's property, and as protection for anybody else. You know it locks in its uniqueness, you know. Dan: Yeah, yeah, I mean, the greatest capability is property of some sort. I mean in other words, that you have a legal monopoly to it. You don't nobody's got a legal monopoly division and nobody's got a legal monopoly to reach but they do have a legal. Uh, so I I go for the middle one, I go for the c the book I'm writing right now, the book I'm just finishing, which is called growing great leadership is that anyone who develops a new capability is actually the leader. Okay, papa, and the reason and what I've said is that you can be a leader just by always increasing your own personal capability. The moment that you look at something and then you set a goal for being able to do something, either new, or doing something better. Other people observe you and also you start getting different results with a new capability and that's observed by other people. They say, hey, let's pay attention to what he's doing In my book I said any human being is capable of doing that. It's not leading other people. It's creating a capability that leads other people, that gives them a sense of direction. It gives them a sense of confidence gives them a sense of purpose. So I always focus on the capability. One of the things is we're starting in January, it'll be next week we're starting quarterly 4x4 casting tools, the one we did in the last FreeZone. And so the whole program says in the first month of each quarter, so January, april and then July and then October. If you do your 4x4 that month and then type it up and post it to a common site, so we'll have a common site where everybody's 4x4, you get $250. You get $250. And you get it at the next payday at the end of the quarter. So you get the money right away. And you get it at the next payday at the end of the quarter. So you get the money right away and it's not mandatory but um, if you don't do it. It will be noticed, so explain that again. Dean: So, well, they get the cheat today, they, they get the forms. So this is the entire everybody everybody in the company, the entire team. Dan: Yes, Including myself. Including myself. Okay, and so we're starting a new quarter on Wednesday. Back to work on the 7th. On the 6th we're back to work, and then on the 7th we have a company meeting where we said we're announcing this program. And they've all done the form, so they did it in September. And they fill in the form. You know how your performance, what your performance looks like, what your results look like being a hero, and you're aware that you drive other people crazy in this way and you're watching yourself so you don't drive other people crazy. And then you fill that in. There are 16 boxes. You fill it in. It's custom designed just to what you're doing. And then there's a writable PDF. You type it up and then you post it to a site. On the 31st of January, we look at all the posted 4x4s and everybody who posted gets $250. Dean: Okay, okay, wow. Dan: Very interesting, then we're going to watch what happens as a result of this and the thing I say is that I think we're creating a super simple structure and process for a company becoming more creative and productive, which the only activity is required is that you update this every quarter. Dean: Yes. Dan: And then we'll watch to see who updates it every quarter and then we'll see what other structures do we need, what other tools do we need to? If this has got momentum, how do we increase the momentum and everything? So we're starting. I mean we've got all the structures of the company are under management. So, uh, everybody is doing their four pi four within the context of their job description that's really interesting, wow. Dean: And so that way, in its own way kind of that awareness will build its own momentum you Well we'll see. Hopefully that would be the hypothesis. Dan: I'll report it. I had a great, great podcast it was Stephen Crine three weeks ago and he said this is an amazing idea because he says you make it voluntary but you get rewarded. Dean: And if you don't want to take part. Dan: you're sending a message, yeah. Dean: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's amazing. Dan: I can't wait to see the outcome of that. Yeah, yeah, and the reason we're doing this is just my take on technology. As technology becomes overwhelming, becomes pervasive and everything else, the way humans conduct themselves has to get absolutely simple. We have to be utterly simple in how we focus our own individual role. And we have to be utterly simple in the way that we design our teamwork, because technology will infinitely complicate your life if you've got a complicated management or leadership structure. Dean: And I think that that ultimate I mean I still think about the you know what you drew on the tablet there in our free zone workshop of the network versus the pyramid. The pyramid's gone. The borders are you know the borders are gone. Dan: It's really just this fluid connection. I still think they exist in massive form, but I think their usefulness has declined. I wrote a little. I wrote a. I got a little file on my computer of Dan quotes. Dean: And the quote is. Dan: I don't think that civil servants are useless, but I think it's becoming more and more difficult for them to prove their worth. Dean: No, I mean. Dan: Yeah, no, their work I mean there's stuff that has to be done or society falls apart, and I got a feeling that there's civil servants very anonymous, invisible civil servants who are doing their job every day and it allows the system to work, but it's very hard for them to prove that they're really valuable. I think it's harder and harder for a government worker to accept if they're street level, I mean if they're police, if they're firemen if they're ambulance drivers, it's very easy to prove their value. But, if you're more than three stories up, I think it gets really hard to prove your value. I wonder in that same vein, I just get this last thing. Somebody said well, how would you change government? I said the best way to do it is go to any government building, count the number of stories, go halfway up and fire everybody above halfway. Dean: Oh man, that's funny, that's funny. Dan: I think the closer to the ground they're probably more useful. Dean: Yeah, yeah, you wonder. I mean they're so it's funny when you said that about proving their worth, you always have this. What came to my mind is how people have a hard time arguing for the value of the arts in schools or in society as a public thing. Dan: You mean art taking place and artistic activities and that the arts, as in. Dean: Yeah, as in. You know art and music and plays. And you know, yeah, it's one of those did you ever partake in those I mean? You know, I guess, to the extent in school we were exposed to music and to, you know, theater, I did not participate in theater I participated in theater. Dan: I liked theater and of course the book. You've gotten a small book Casting, not Hiring. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And Jeff and I are deep into the process now. So we have a final deadline of May 26 for Casting, not Hiring it's going really well. Deadline of May 26 for Casting Not Hiring it's going really well and we worked out a real teamwork that he's writing the whole theater, part of it and I'm writing the whole entrepreneurial. I just finished a chapter in one week last week. And it's right on the four by four. So you got um entrepreneurism as theater, as the one major topic in the book and the four by four casting tool as the other part of the book, so it's two things. So I'm focusing on my part and he's focusing on my part, and then uh, process for this here compared to how you're doing your regular books. Dean: You say you wrote a chapter. What's your process for that? Dan: Well, first of all, I laid out the whole structure. The first thing I do is I just arbitrarily lay out a structure for the book and, strangely enough, we're actually using the structure of a play as the structure of the book. So okay, it has three parts, so it's got three acts and each act has. Each part has excuse me, I have to walk into another room. I'm actually probably even visualize this, and I'm walking into our pantry here and this is in the basement and I just got a nice Fiji water sitting right in front of me. Absolutely cold. There, you go, it's been waiting for six months for me to do this? Dean: Yes. Dan: And what I do. I just do the structure and so I just put names. I just put names into it and then we go back and forth. Jeff and I go back and forth, but we agree that it's going to have three parts and 12 chapters. It'll have an introduction, introduction, and it'll have a conclusion. So there'll be 14 parts and it'll have, you know, probably be all told, 160 to 200 pages, and then 200 pages and um, and then um. We identify what, how the parts are different to each other. So the first part is basically why theater and entrepreneurism resemble each other. Okay, and jeff has vast knowledge because for 50 years he's been doing both. He's been doing both of them, and I'm just focusing on the 4x4. So the first 4x4 is, and you can download the tool in the book. So it'll be illustrated in the book and you can download it and do it. And first of all we just start with the owner of the company and I have one whole chapter and that explains what the owner of the company is going to be and the whole thing about the 454. The owner has to do it twice, has to do it first, fill it all in and then share it with everybody in the company and said this is my commitment to my role in the company, okay. And then the next chapter, with everybody in the company and said this is my commitment to my role in the company, okay. And then the next chapter is everybody in the company doing it. And then the third chapter is about how, the more the people do their forebite for the more, the more ownership they take over their role in the company and the more ownership they take over their part in the company and the more ownership they take over their part in teamwork OK, and then the fourth part is suddenly, as you do these things, you're more and more like a theater company. The more you use the four by four, the more you're like a theater company. And that loops back to the beginning of the book, what Jeff's writing. So anyway, very interesting. Yeah, fortunately, we had the experience of creating the small book. So we created the small book, which was about 70 pages, and we used that to get the contract with the publisher. They read the whole book and rather than sending in a page of ideas about a book and trying to sell it on that basis, I said just write a book and give them a book. It's a small book that's going to become a big book. Right, that's how I did it. Oh, I like it. You know, about those small books. Dean: I do indeed know about those small books. I do indeed know about those small books. Yes, I think that's funny. So are you your part? Are you talking it? Are you interviewing? Dan: No, writing writing. Dean: So you're actually writing. So you're actually writing. Yeah, and I've had a tremendous breakthrough. Dan: I've had a tremendous breakthrough on this, and so I started with Chapter 10 because I wanted to get the heart of the idea. Is that what it does the application of the 4x4 to an entire company. And of course, we're launching this project to see if what we're saying is true. And so I end up with a fast filter. This is the best result, worst result. And then here are the five success factors. Okay, then I look at the success factors, I write them out, I take three of them and I do a triple play on them, on the three success factors, which gives me three pink boxes and three green boxes, and then I come back with that material and then I start the chapter applying that material to the outline for the chapter. And then I get finished that task filter and I add a lot of copy to it. And then I have a layout of the actual book. I have a page layout, so in that process I'll produce about two full pages Of copy. Dean: I take it. Dan: And I pop it in. I've done that five times this week and I have ten pages of copy and I said we're good enough. We're good enough, now, let's go to another chapter. So that's how I'm doing it and and uh, yeah, so I've got a real process because I'm I'm doing it independently with another member of the team and he's. Jeff has his own ways of writing his books. You, you know, I mean, he's a writer, he writes, plays, he writes, you know he writes and everything like that. So we don't want to have any argument about technique or you know, any conflict of technique. I'm going to do mine. Dean: He's going to do mine, Right right. Dan: And then we're looking for a software program that will take all the copy and sort of create a common style, taking his style and my style and creating a common style well, that might be charlotte I mean really no, that's what that, that's what the uh, that's what I think it would be. Dean: Exactly that is is if you said to Charlotte, take these two. I'm going to upload two different things and I'd like you to combine one cohesive writing style to these. Dan: Oh good, yeah, that would be something. Dean: Yeah, I think that would be something yeah, I think that would be, uh, that would be amazing, and because you already, as long as you're both writing in in you know, second person second person, personal, or whatever your, your preferred style is right, like that's the thing. I think that would be, I think that would be very good, it would be good, I'd be happy because he writes intelligently and I write intelligently. Dan: Is she for hire? Do you have her freelancing at all? Dean: Dan, I had the funniest interaction with her. I was saying I'm going to create an avatar for her and I was asking her. I said you know, charlotte, I think I'm going to create an avatar for you and I'm wondering you know, what color hair do you think would look good for you? Oh, that's interesting. Look good for you, it's. Oh, that's interesting. Dan: I think maybe a a warm brown or a vibrant auburn oh yeah, vibrant auburn. Yeah, this is great and I thought you know I? I said no, I suspected she'd go towards red. Dean: Yeah, exactly, and I thought you know that's uh. Then I was chatting with a friend, uh yesterday about I was going through this process and, uh, you know, we said I think that she would have like an asymmetric bob hairstyle kind of thing, and we just looked up the thing and it's Sharon Osbourne is the look of what I believe Charlotte has is she's she's like a Sharon Osbourne type of, uh of look and I think that's that's so funny, you know what was uh the the handler for James Bond back when he? was shot in. Dan: Connery Moneypenny, right Moneypenny yeah. Look up the actress Moneypenny. I suspect you're on the same track if you look at the original Moneypenny. Dean: Okay. Dan: Of course she had a South London voice too. Dean: Yeah, isn't that funny, moneypenny. Let's see her. Yes. Dan: I think you're right. That's exactly right. Very funny right? Oh, I think this is great. I think, this is, I think, there's. It would be very, very interesting if you asked a hundred men. You know the question that you're, you know the conversation you're having with Charlotte, the thing. Dean: Yeah. Dan: It'd be interesting to see if there was a style that came out, a look that dominated. Yeah, men came out. Dean: Yeah, I think it is. Dan: Ever since I was a kid, I've been fascinated with redheads. Okay yeah, real redheads, not dyed redheads, but someone who's an? Actual redhead. And I'll just stop and watch them. Just stop and stop and watch them. When I was a little kid I said look, look look and there aren't a lot of them. There aren't a lot of them. You know, they're very rare and it's mostly Northern Europe. That's right. Dean: That's so funny. Scottish yes, that's right, that's so funny. Dan: Scottish yes, irish have it. Dean: That's right. As you remember, I was married to a redhead for a long time. Yeah, super smart. But that's funny, though, having this persona visual for Charlotte as a redhead yeah. Braintap a really interesting topic. I was talking to. Dan: It was just a discussion in one of the parties about AI and I said the more interesting topic to me is not what, not so much what the machine is thinking or how the machine goes about thinking. What really interests me is that if you have frequent interaction with a congenial machine in other words, a useful congenial machine how does your thinking change and what have you noticed so far? Dean: Well, I think that having this visual will help that for me. I've said like I still haven't, I still don't. Dan: Materialized very completely. You haven't materialized. Dean: Yeah, I haven't exactly in my mind Like if that was, if Moneypenny was sitting three feet from me at all times, she would just be part of my daily conversation part of my wondering conversation. Right part of my wondering and now that, uh, now that she's got access to real-time info like if they're up to date, now they can search the internet right. So that was the latest upgrade. That it wasn't. It's not just limited to 2023 or whatever. The most updated version, they've got access to everything now. Um, so, to be able to, you know, I asked her during the holidays or whatever. I asked her is, uh, you know, the day after I asked this is is honey open today in Winter Haven? And she was, you know, able to look it up and see it looks like they're open and that was yeah, so just this kind of thing. I think anything I could search if I were to ask her. You know, hey, what time is such and such movie playing in that studio movie grill today? That would be helpful, right, like to be able to just integrate it into my day-to-day. It would be very good. Dan: The biggest thing I know is that I almost have what I would say a trained reaction to any historical event, or even if it's current, you know it's in the news, or that I immediately go to perplexity and said tell me 10 crucial facts about this. And you know, three seconds later it tells me that 10. And more and more I don't go to Google at all. That's one thing. I just stopped going to Google at all because they'll send me articles on the topic, and now you've created work for me. Perplexity saves me work. Google makes me work. But the interesting thing is I've got a file it's about 300 little articles now that have just come from me asking the question, but they all start with the word 10 or the number 10, 10 facts about interesting and that before I respond you know, intellectually or emotionally to something I read, I get 10 facts about this and then kind of make up my mind, and of course you can play with the prompt. You can say tell me 10 reasons why this might not be true, or tell me 10 things that are telling us this is probably going to be true. So it's all in the prompt and you know the prompt is the prompt and the answer is the answer yeah and everything. But it allows me to think. And the other thing I'm starting with this book, I'm starting to use Notebook LM. Dean: Yeah. Dan: So this chapter I got to have Alex Varley. He's a Brit and he was with us here in Toronto for about five years and now he's back in Britain, he's part of our British team and he's got a looser schedule right now. So I say by the end, by May, I want to find five different AI programs that I find useful for my writing. So he's going to take every one of my chapters and then put it into Notebook LM and it comes back as a conversation between two people and I just sit there and I listen to it and I'll note whether they really got the essence of what I was trying to get across or needs a little more. So I'll go back then, and from listening as I call it, you know, google is just terrible at naming things. I mean, they're just uh terrible and I would call it eavesdropping, lm eavesdropping that they're taking your writing and they're talking about it. You're eavesdropping. They're taking your writing and they're talking about it. Dean: You're eavesdropping on what they're saying about your writing. What a great test to see, almost like pre-readers or whatever to see. Dan: It's like the best possible focus group that you can possibly get. Dean: I like that yeah. Very good. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Yeah. Dan: But, it's just interesting how I'm, you know, but I've just focused on one thing with AI, I just make my writing faster, easier and better. That's all. I want the AAM to do, because writing is just a very central activity for me. Dean: Yeah, and that's not going anywhere. I mean, it's still gonna be. Uh, that's the next 25 years that was. You can make some very firm predictions on this one that's what, uh, I think next, Dan, that would be a good. As we're moving into 2025, I would love to do maybe a prediction episode for the next 25 years reflection and projection. Dan: You take the week of my 100th birthday, which is 19 and a half years now, I could pretty well tell you 80% what I'm doing the week on my 100th birthday. I can't wait that would be a good topic. Dean: I was just going to say let's lock this in, because you'll be celebrating is Charlotte listening? Dan: is Charlotte listening now? No, she's not, but she should be say let's lock this in because you'll be celebrating charlotte. Is charlotte listening? Is charlotte listening now? Dean: no, she's not, but she should be oh no, give her a. Dan: Just say next week, charlotte remind me. Oh yeah, no I'll remember. Dean: I'll remember because it's okay, it's my actual this week and this is my, this is the next few days for me is really thinking this through, because I I like, um, I've had some really good insights. Uh, just thinking that way uh yeah, so there you go. Good, well, it's all, that was a fast hour. Dan: That was a fast it really was. Dean: I was going to bring that up, but uh, but uh yeah we had other interesting topics, but for sure we'll do it next week yeah, good okay, dan okay I'll talk to you. Bye.

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, Dan and I explore how organizations can balance productivity with employee well-being through structured breaks and strategic planning. Dan shares insights from Strategic Coach's approach of giving employees six weeks off after three months of work, using Calgary's changing weather as a metaphor for workplace adaptability.  Looking at the British Royal Navy's history, we discuss how its organizational structure relates to modern planning methods. Dean explains his 80/20 framework for yearly planning—using 80% for structured goals while keeping 20% open for unexpected opportunities, which helps teams stay focused while remaining flexible. The conversation turns to a long-term perspective through 25-year frameworks, examining how past achievements shape future goals. Dean shares a story about the Y2K panic to illustrate how technological changes influence our planning and adaptability. We conclude with practical applications of these concepts, from cross-training team members to implementing daily time management strategies. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We discuss the adaptability of humans to different climates, using Calgary's Chinook weather patterns as an example, and emphasize the importance of taking breaks to prevent burnout, citing Strategic Coach's policy of providing six weeks off after three months. Dean and I explore the planning strategies inspired by the golden age of the British Royal Navy, advocating for a structured year with 80% planning and 20% spontaneity to embrace life's unpredictability. Dan reflects on using 25-year frameworks to evaluate past achievements and future aspirations, noting that he has accomplished more between ages 70 to 80 than from birth to 70. We delve into the importance of discernment and invention, highlighting these skills as crucial for problem-solving and expressing creativity in today's world. Dean talks about sports salaries, noting how they reflect economic trends, and discusses the financial structure of sports franchises, particularly in relation to player salaries and revenue. We touch on government efficiency and cost-cutting measures, discussing figures like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, and the impact of Argentina's President Milley. The conversation shifts to global trends and AI's role in the future workforce, noting the significance of recognizing patterns and making informed predictions about future technological advancements. Dean and I emphasize the importance of weekly and daily time management strategies, suggesting that structured planning can enhance both personal and professional effectiveness. Dan shares his year-end practices, including reflecting on past years and planning for the new year, while also noting his personal preference for staying home during the holidays to relax and recharge. We humorously recount historical events like the Y2K panic and discuss how technological shifts have historically reshaped industries and societal norms. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: Mr Jackson, I thought I'd just give you a minute or two to get settled in the throne. Dean: Oh, you see, there you go. I'm all settled, All settled and ready. Good, it's a little bit chilly here, but not you know, not yeah it's a little bit chilly here too. Dan: Yeah, it's a little bit chilly here too. It just shows you there's different kinds of little bits. Dean: Different levels. Choose your chilly. Yeah, that's so funny, are you? Dan: in Toronto. It just brings up a thought that there are people who live in climates where 40 degrees below zero is not such a bad day. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And there are people who live in temperatures where it's 120, and that's not a too uncomfortable day. Dean: Right. Dan: So that's 160 degrees variation. If nothing else, it proves that humans are quite adaptable. I think you're right. I think you're absolutely right. Dean: That's what that shows. I use that example a lot when talking about climate change. We're very adaptable. Dan: Oh yeah, yeah, there is a place in. I looked this up because in Western Canada I think in the Denver area too, they have a thing called a Chinook, and I've actually experienced it. I used to go to Calgary a lot for coach workshops and I'd always, if it was like February, I'd always have to pack two complete sets of clothes, because one day it was 20 degrees Fahrenheit in the morning and it was 75 degrees Fahrenheit in the evening, the morning, and it was 75 degrees Fahrenheit in the evening, and then it stayed. And then it stayed that way for about two days and then it went back to, back to 20. And uh, this happens about, I would say, in Calgary, you know Alberta. Uh, this would happen maybe three or four times during the winter mm-hmm yeah, so so so there? Dean: well, there you go, so are you. Are you done with workshops therefore? Dan: yeah, yeah of strategic coach does the whole office closed down from the 20th and 20th of well yeah 20th was our party, so that was friday night. So we have a big in toronto. We have a big christmas party. You know, we have 80 or 90 of our team members and they bring their other, whatever their other is and not all of them, but a lot of them do and now we're closed down until the 6th, uh, 6th of january. That's great. Yeah, you know what? Dean: a lot of people that's 17 days, that's that's 17 days yeah that's a very interesting thing. Dan: So you know, it's like um so completely shut down as there's nobody in the office nobody, you know there's people who check packages like, okay, yeah, and they live right around the corner from the office, so they just go in and you know they check and, um, you know, and if, um, but no phone calls are being taken, it's like uh company free days. Dean: Is that what it is? Dan: yeah, there. Dean: There's no phone calls being answered, no emails being attended to, anything like that. It's all just shut down. Dan: I'm going to take a guess and say yes. Dean: Right. That's great and that's kind of you know what. One of the things that I've often said about you and the organization is that you are actually like products of your environment. You actually do what you see. Dan: We're the product of our preaching. Dean: That's exactly right Organizationally and individually. Right Organizationally and individually. And when I tell people that new hires at Strategic Coach get six weeks of three days After three months. Dan: After three months. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they don't get any free days for the first three months, but you know, and they pass the test, you know they pass the test. Then in the first year year, they get six weeks, six weeks, yeah, and it's interesting, right? Dean: Nobody gets more. Right, everybody gets six weeks. Dan: Shannon Waller, who's been with us for 33 years. She gets her six weeks and everybody else gets their six weeks, and our logic for this is that we don't consider this compensation OK right, we do it for two reasons so that people don't burn out. You know they don't get, you know they they're not working, working, working, in that they start being ineffective, so they take a break. So they take a break and we give a one month grace period in January If you haven't taken your previous six weeks for the year before. You can take them during January, but you can't carry over. So there's no building up of three days over the years. Right, yeah, if you have, if you don't take them, you lose them. And but the other thing about it that really works one, they don't burn out. But number two, you can't take your free days in your particular role in the company, unless someone is trained to fill in with you so it actually it actually pushes cross training, you know. So in some roles it's three deep, you know they, yeah, there's three people who can do the role, and so you know you know, we've been at it for 35 years and it works yeah, oh, that's awesome dan I was curious about your you know. Dean: Do you have any kind of year end practices or anything that you do for you know, preparing for the new year, reflecting on the old year, do you do anything like that? Dan: I'd probably go through a bottle ofish whiskey a little bit quicker during that period that's the best I'm. I'm not saying that that's required, but sometimes exactly, just observation. Yeah, uh-huh you know, knowing you, like you know you right, yeah, yeah, not that it's noticeable you know I try to not make it noticeable. Uh, the other thing, the other thing about it is that we don't go away for the holidays. We we just stay put, because babs and I do a lot of traveling, especially now with our medical our medical journeys, uh and uh. I just like chilling, I just like to chill. I know, you know I I'm really into, um, uh, historical novels. Right now dealing with the british navy, the royal navy around 1800. So the golden age of sailing ships is just before steam power was, you know, was applied to ships. These are warships and and also before you know, they went over to metal. The boats started being steel rather than wood. And it's just the glory period. I mean, they were at the height of skill. I mean just the extraordinary teamwork it took to. You know just sailing, but then you know battles, war battles and everything Just extraordinary. This is cannons right, yeah. These were cannons, yeah, extraordinary, this is cannons, right? Yeah, these are cannons, yeah, and the big ones had 120 cannons on them, the big ships, right before the switchover, they just had this incredible firepower. And the Brits were best, the British were the best for pretty well 100, 150 years, and then it ended. It ended during the 1800s. Midway through the 1800s you started getting metal steam-powered ships and then it entirely changed. Yes, yeah, but back to your question Now. You know I do a lot of planning all the time. You know I do daily planning, weekly planning, quarterly planning. I call it projecting. I'm projecting more than planning. The schedule is pretty well set for me. I would say on the 1st of January, my next 365 days are 80% structured already. Dean: Yes. Dan: Yeah, and then you leave room for things that come up. You know, one of the things I really enjoy and I'm sure you do, dean is where I get invitations to do podcasts and we tell people you got to give us at least 30 days when you make a request before we can fill it in. But I've had about, I think during 2024, I think I had about 10. These weren't our scheduled podcasts with somebody these? Were. These were invitations, and yeah. I really enjoy that. Dean: Yeah, I do too, and that's kind of a I think you're. This is the first year, dan, that I've gone into the year, going into 2025, here with a 80% of my year locked, like you said. Like I know when my Breakthrough Blueprint events are, I know when my Zoom workshops are, I know when my member calls are, all of those things that kind of scaffolding is already in place right now. And that's the first. You know that's the first year that I've done that level of planning ahead all the way through. You know, going to London and Amsterdam in June and Australia in November and get it the whole thing, having it all already on the books, is a nice that's a nice thing, and now I'm I'm really getting into. I find this going into 2025 is kind of a special thing, because this is like a, you know, a 25 year. You know, I kind of like look at that as the beginning of a 25 year cycle. You know, I think there's something reflective about the turn of a century and 25 year, you know the quarters of a century kind of thing, because we talk about that 25-year time frame, do you? You're right now, though you are five years into a 25-year framework, right, in terms of your 75 to 100, was your 25? Yeah, my guess, my yeah, I didn't. Dan: I didn't do it on that basis I know I did it uh, uh. Um, I have done it that way before, but now it's I'm just uh 80 to 100, because 100 is an interesting number. Dean: Yes. Dan: And plus I have that tool called the best decade ever. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And so I'm really focused just on this. 80 to 90, 80 years old, and when I measured from 70 to 80, so this was about two years before it was two months before I got to my 80th birthday. I created this tool. And I just reflected back how much I'd gotten done. Dean: 70 to 80. Dan: And it occurred to me that it was greater than what I'd gotten done 70 to 80. Dean: Yeah, and it occurred to me that it was greater than what I had done from birth to 80. Dan: Birth to 70. Dean: Birth to 70. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dan: So I had accomplished more in the last 10 years and I used two criteria creativity and productivity like coming up with making up more stuff. And then the other thing just getting lots of stuff done, and so I've got that going for 80 to 90. And it's very motivating. I find that a very motivating structure. I don't say I think about it every day, but I certainly think about it every week. Dean: That's what I was very curious about. I was thinking this morning about the because this period of time here, this two weeks here, last two weeks of the year, I'm really getting clear on, you know, the next 25 years. I like these frameworks. I think it's valuable to look back over the last 25 years and to look forward to the next 25 years. And you and I've had that conversation like literally we're talking about everything. That is, everything that's you know current and the most important things right now have weren't even really in the cards in 2000. You know, as we were coming into you, know, we all thought in 1999, there was a good chance that the world was going to blow up, right y2k. Dan: Everybody was uh some of us did. Dean: I love that but you know, it just goes to show. Dan: Yeah, I thought it was uh right yeah, there was this momentary industry called being a y2k consultant you know computer consultant and I thought it was a neat marketing trick. The only problem is you can only pull it off once every thousand years. Dean: Oh yeah. Dan: Yeah, but there was vast amount. I mean all the big consulting, you know, mckinsey and all those people. They were just raking in the money you know they were out there, All those people they were just raking in the money. Dean: You know they were out there. You know, I think probably the previous five years. Dan: It was probably a five year industry you know they probably started in 1995, and they said oh, you don't realize this, but somebody didn't give enough room to make the change. You know every computer system in the world is um, we forgot to program this in. They're all going to cease to. They're going to cease to operate on. Yeah and then. But all you had to do is watch new year's from australia and you knew that wasn't true, do? Dean: you know what? Uh, yeah, jesse, uh, jesse dejardin, who I believe you met one time, used to work with me, but he was the head of social for Australia, for Tourism Australia. Yeah, and when the world I don't know if you remember in 2012, the world was supposed to end, that was, uh, yeah, a big thing and uh so, that was that, wasn't that? Dan: uh, it was based on a stone tablet. Dean: That they found somewhere. South America, south America, yes, it was yes, peruvian it was uh, that's right, I think it was? Dan: I think it was the inca inca account yeah, yeah mayan or inca calendar. Dean: That's what it was, the mayan calendar. Dan: That's what it was ended in 2012. Yeah, and so jesse had the foresight it actually ended for them quite a bit earlier oh man, it's so funny. Yeah, you don't get much news from the mayan, no, no you say like when they created that mayan calendar. Dean: They had to end it sometime. Would you say something like that listen, that's enough, let's stop here, we don't even keep going forever. Dan: You know what I think the problem was? I think they ran out of stone I think you're probably right. Dean: They're like this is enough already. Dan: They got right to the edge of the stone and they said well, you know, jeez, let's go get another. Do you know how much work it is to get one of these stones? That? Oh yeah, chisel on yeah yeah. Dean: so jesse had the uh, jesse had the foresight that at midnight on Australia they're the first, yeah, to put the thing up. So once they made it past, they made a post that said all it said was we're okay. Dan: We're okay. Dean: You know, it was just so brilliant. You know we're okay. Dan: You know the the stuff that humans will make up to scare themselves oh man, I think that that's really along those lines. I just did a perplexity search this morning yeah and uh. For those who don't know what perplexity is, it's an a really a very congenial ai program and I put in um uh uh 10, um crucial periods of us history that were more politically polarized and violent than 2024. Dean: Okay. Dan: And you know, three seconds later I got the answer and there were 10. And very, very clearly, just from their little descriptions of what they were, they were clearly much more politically polarized and violent than they are right now. Yeah, the real period was, I mean the most. I mean Civil War was by far. Dean: Of course. Dan: Civil War, and. But the 1890s were just incredible. You had, you had a president. Garfield was assassinated in the 90s and then, right at 1991, mckinley was. So you had two presidents. There were judges assassinated, there were law officials, other politicians who were assassinated. There were riots where 200 people would die, you know, and everything like that. And you know, and you know, so nothing, I mean this guy, you know, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare gets shot on the street and everybody says, oh, you know, this is just the end. We're tipping over as a society. And I said nah nah, it's been worse tipping over as a society and I said nah, nah, there's been worse. Dean: Yeah, I think about uh. Dan: I mean you know you remember back uh in the 70s, I remember you know I mean in the 60s and 70s assassination attempts and playing yeah, well, they're hijacking. Yeah, there were three. You had the two Kennedys and Martin Luther King were assassinated within five years of each other. I remember the 60s as being much more tumultuous and violent. Yeah it seems like. Dean: I remember, as I was first coming aware of these things, and I remember, as I was first coming aware of these things, that you know remember when. And then Ronald Reagan, that was the last one, until Trump, that was the last actual attempt right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dan: You know one thing you got to say about Trump. Dean: Tell me. Dan: Lucky, he's very lucky. Dean: Yes, but in a good sense lucky, no, no, I mean that I think luck is very important. Dan: Luck is very important, you know but, he's lucky, and his opponents, you know. I mean he had Hillary and you know, that was good luck, and Joe turned out to be good luck. You know, Joe Biden turned out to be good luck. And then Kamala was. I mean, you couldn't order up one like that from Amazon and have it delivered to you? Oh man, yeah, I mean, yeah, that you know. And, uh, you know, I mean, you know, the news media were so, uh, bought in. You know that it was like, oh, this is going to be really close. This is, oh, you know, this is going to be razor thin. We may not know for days what the election is. And when Miami-Dade went to Trump, I said it's over. Miami-dade's been Democratic since, you know, since the 70s. You know, Miami-Dade. Dean: And. Dan: I said if Miami-Dade this is like the first thing in this is, like you know, when they start eight o'clock I think it was seven o'clock or eight o'clock. Dean: I'm not sure Eastern. Dan: And they said Miami-Dade has just gone to Trump and I said that's over, I went to bed at nine o'clock. I went to bed at nine o'clock oh man. That's so funny. Yeah, but that's the news media. You know they got, so bought into one side of the political spectrum that they, you know, they were, you know, and I think what Elon is introducing is a medium that's 50-50. You know, like they, they've done surveys of x. You know who, yes, seems to be. You know, it's like 50-50. It's 50 um republican, 50 democratic or 50 liberal, 50 conservative, whatever you know. Uh, you want to do about it, but I think he's pioneering a new news medium oh for sure. Dean: I mean. Well, we've seen, you know, if you look at over the last 25 years, that you know we've gone from nobody having a voice to everybody, everybody having a voice. And I mean it's absolutely true, right Like that's the, that's the biggest. I think that's the. I guess what Peter Diamandis would call democratization, right Of everything. As it became digitized, it's like there's nothing stopping, there's no cost, there's no cost. Dan: There's no cost. There's no cost and there's nothing stopping anybody from having a radio station or having a television station or, you know, magazine, like a newsletter, or any of that thing we've got. In all the ways, it's completely possible for every human to meet every other human. Here's a, here's a question. Uh, I have and uh, I I don't know how you would actually prove it. So it's uh just a question for pondering do you think that the um people were just as crazy before they had a voice as they are after having the voice, or is it having the voice that makes them crazy? Dean: I think it's having access to so many convincing dissenting or, uh, you know voices like I'm talking about the person who's the broadcaster you know they weren't a broadcaster 25 years because there wasn't a medium for doing. Definitely, uh, I think there's definitely a piling on, yeah, of it that I think that you know. If you think about your only access to crazy opinions and I say crazy with air quotes it is was somebody you know in, uh, in your local environment. It's like you remember even in toronto, remember, they had speakers corner. Uh, yeah, sydney tv had speakers corner where you could go and down on uh down on uh cane street queen street down on queen and john queen and John Queen and John Street. I lived about three plus. Dan: Yeah, you never paid any attention to them. I mean you, I just made sure I was on the other side of the street walking, so they wouldn't, try to engage me you know and uh and uh, yeah, so I. So having the capability uh has its own bad consequence, for for some people, yeah, I think so, because the um, you know, I mean you and I couldn't be crazy like this, like we're doing right now. Dean: We couldn't have been crazy like this 25 years ago, but we would have had to just do it together at table 10,. Just yeah, just talk, that's all it is we just let everybody else now hear it? Come listen in. Dan: I don't think we're crazy. I think we're the height of sanity. I think we're the height of sanity. Dean: I do too, Absolutely. Yeah, it's so, but I do. I definitely think that that's that's one of the things is that it's very it's much more difficult to discern. Discernment is a is a big. You need discernment in this, in this period more than ever probably do you have that in your working genius? Dan: do you have that in your working genius? Dean: yeah, that's my number one thing discernment. I think we're the same, yeah invention and discernment which which is first. Dan: Mine is invention and discernment. Dean: Okay, so mine is discernment and invention. And it's an interesting. Chad Jenkins has been asking this. He's been kind of exploring with people what he calls their perpetual question, like what's the constant question? That is kind of like the driving question of what you do. Dan: Do you know yours? Dean: I do. I think, in looking at it, mine is what should we do? Dan: I know, what mine is, what's yours? I wonder how far I can go. Dean: I wonder how far I can go. I like that. Dan: I've had that since I was 11 years old. Dean: Yeah, yeah, that's really. It's very interesting, right like I look at it. That, uh, you know, there were years ago, um, there was a guy, bob beal, who wrote a book called uh, stop setting goals if you'd rather solve problems or something. And so I think I'm, I am a problem solver. Simplifier, you know, as I learn all the layers about what I am, is that I'm able to I just think about, as my MO is to look at a situation and see, well, what do we need to do? Right, like, what's the outcome that we really want? Right, like, what's the what, what's the outcome that we really want, and then go into inventing the simplest, most direct path to effectively get that outcome and that's the driver of, of all of the uh things you know. so I'm always. I think the layer of I think it's a subtlety, but the layer of discernment before inventing, for me is that I limit the inventing to the as a simplifier, you know, and I think you as a, you know I'm an obstacle bypasser, a crusher, uh-huh, uh, no, I I just say, uh, what's the way around this? Dan: so I don't have to deal with it. Dean: Yeah, yes and uh, yeah and uh I can't tell you that you that that progression of is there any way I could get this without doing anything, followed by what's the least that I could do to get this. And then, ok, is there, and who's the person? Dan: who's the person that can do it? Now I tell you, I've already thought about that 10 times this morning. Dean: It's a constant. Dan: It's right there. It's right there. It's a companion. And I sit there and you know, for example, you get caught in a situation where you have to. You know you have to wait, you know like you have to wait and I asked myself is there any way I can solve this without doing nothing? And I said yes, you have to just be patient for 10 minutes. Ok, I'm patient for 10 minutes. You know, oh, right, yeah, yeah you know, yeah, I experienced that a lot at Pearson Airport. Oh, yeah, right, yeah, yeah. Dean: Right, yeah, yeah, for sure, there's a lot of travel shenanigans, but I think, when you really look at, I think just it's fascinating what shifting your, shifting your view by an hour can do in travel. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like, if your target is to arrive three hours, yeah, you start the process one hour earlier than you would normally. There's so much, so much room for margin, so much. Dan: Uh, it's so much more relaxing, you know yeah, it takes us anywhere from uh 40 minutes to an hour to get to Pearson from the beach. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And so we leave three hours before the flight time three hours. And we're there and actually the US going to the US. They have a nice on one side. They've got some really really great um seating arrangements, tables and everything and uh, I really like it. I like getting there and, yes, you know, we starbucks is there, I get a coffee and yeah, you know I sit there and I'll just, uh, you know, I'll read my novel or whatever, or you know I have my laptop so I can work on it. But my killer question in those situations is it's 1924, how long does this trip take me? That's the best right. Dean: Yeah, or if that's not good enough 1824. Right, exactly. Dan: Right, exactly yeah. Dean: I just think. I mean, it's such a, would you say, dan, like your orientation, are you spending the majority of your time? Where do you, where do you live mentally, like? How much time do you spend reflecting on or, you know, thinking about the past, thinking about the future and thinking about right now? Dan: well, I think about the past, uh, quite a bit from the standpoint of creating the tools, because I don't know if you've noticed the progression like over the year, almost every tool has you say well, what have you done up until now? you know, and then your top three things that you've done up until now. And then, looking ahead, you you always brainstorm. That's a Dean Jackson add-on that I've added to. All the tools is brainstorming. And then you pick the top three for the past up until the present. And then you brainstorm what could I do over the next 12 months? And then you pick the top three. But the past is only interesting to me in terms is there a value back there that I can apply right now to, uh, building a better future? Dean: you know, I don't. Dan: I don't think I have an ounce of nostalgia or sentimentality about the past you know, or yearning, you know you don't want. No, I get you know, especially especially now you know it's uh. The boomers are now in their 70s. And I have to tell you, Dean, there's nothing more depressing than a nostalgic baby boomer. Dean: Yeah, back in our day, You're right. Dan: Yeah, that's back in the day, back in your day, you were unconscious. Yeah right, yeah, right, yeah, and I really I noticed it happening because the first boomers started to be 65. So 46, 46 and 65 was the 2011. They started to, you know, they crossed the 65 year mark and I started noticing, starting yeah, oh boy, you know, I'm really spending a lot of time with the people I graduated from high school with and I said, oh yeah, that's interesting, why haven't you seen them for 40 years? Right, yeah, yeah, I went to a 25-year graduation reunion, yeah, so I graduated in 62, so that was 87. And I went back and we had clients here and I told people you know, I'm going back for a high school reunion. I got back and there was an event, a party, and they said, well, how was that? And I said nobody came. None of them came. And he says you had a reunion and nobody came. I said no, they sent a bunch of old people in their place. You know they were talking about retirement. I only got another 20 years to retirement. I said, gee, wow, wow, wow I can't believe that. I mean, if you haven't seen someone for 50 years, there was a reason. Dean: Yeah, absolutely. I just look at these. You know I graduated in 85. So 40 years this year that just seems impossible, dan, like I just I remember you know so clearly. I have such clarity of memory of every year of that you know the last 40 years, that you know the last 40 years, but you know it's. It's a very. What I've had to consciously do is kind of narrow my attention span to the this. What I'm working on is getting to more in the actionable present kind of thing. You know more in the actionable present kind of thing, you know, because I tend to, I mean looking forward. You know if you, it's funny we can see so clearly back 25 years, even 40 years. We've got such great recollection of it. But what we're not really that great at is projecting forward, of looking forward as to what's the next 25 years going to look like. Dan: Well, you couldn't have done it back then either? Dean: then either, and that's what I wondered. So you, I remember, uh, you know, 25 years ago we had we've talked about the um, you know the investment decisions of starbucks and berkshire hathaway and procter and gamble. Those were the three that I chose. But if on reflection now, looking back at them, I could have, because they were there. I could have chosen Apple and Google and Amazon. They would have been the, they would have been eclipsed, those three. Dan: Yeah, but you did all right. Dean: Yeah, absolutely no. No, here's the thing. Dan: The big thing isn't what you invested in, it's what you stayed invested in. Yes, it's moving around. That kills your investment. We have whole life insurance, which is insurance with cash value. It's been 30 years now and the average has been 7% per year for 30 years now and the average has been 7% per year for 30 years. Yeah, I mean, that's interest. I mean interest. So it's not a capital gain, it's just interest. Dean: I was just going to say, and you can access the money. Dan: It's like a bank. It's like your own personal bank. We have an agreement with one of the Canadian banks here that we can borrow up to 95% against the cash value, and the investment keeps on going you just took out a loan. It doesn't affect the investment. What's his name? Dean: Morgan H morgan household. Dan: He talks about that. Yeah, he said it's the movement that uh kills you. Yes, he says, just find something you know you know, government bonds are good over 25 years. I mean people say yeah but I could have gone 100. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you have to think about it. This way, you don't have to think about it. Right yeah that was the Toronto real estate. Toronto real estate, you know, geez yeah. Dean: Yeah, you're right, do you? Dan: know what the average price of a single detached is in GTA right now? I don't know. It's over a million dollars. Yeah, it's about 1.2, 1.4. That's a single detached, I'm not talking about a big place? No, no exactly. Dean: Just a three-bedroom, two-bed single-family home Too bad single family home. I remember when I was starting out in Georgetown the average price of that million dollar bungalow now is like a staple was a bungalow that was built in the 50s and 60s three bedroom, 1,200 square foot. Three bedroom brick bungalow uh, was on a 50-foot lot. Was uh a hundred and sixty five thousand dollars, yeah, and it was so funny, because now it's two uh, probably, uh, georgetown. Georgetown is a very desirable place, yes, and so, uh, when you look at the, I remember carol mcleod, who was in my office. She'd been in real estate for you know, 20, 20 years when, uh, when I joined the office and she remembers thinking when, the price of a prince charles bungalow there was a street called prince charles in, uh, georges, it was kind of like the staple of the uh, the like the consumer price index, bread basket kind of thing when a, uh, when a prince charles bungalow went for $100,000, she thought that was the end of the world. That that's like. This is unsustainable $100,000 for a house. Who's got that kind of money? How are people gonna be able to sustain this? I just think, man, that's so crazy, but you think about it. Do you remember when Dave Winfield got a million-dollar contract for baseball? Dan: Oh yeah. Dean: What an amazing thing. That was the million-dollar man. It's crazy. Now you know. Dan: Yeah, you know, it's really interesting If you take the salaries, let's say the Yankees right now the. Yankees, ok, and you know they're there. You know they have some huge, huge, huge contracts, you know, I think I'm trying to think of the biggest one. Dean: Well, aaron Judge, you know, is like three, three hundred and twenty million judge, you know is like three, 320 million, you know, and uh, but the guy in LA just you know, 700 million yeah, 760, 760 and Soto Soto with the mats. Dan: He just I think his is around 702 and uh and everything and people say this is just unsustainable. If you add up all the salaries of, you know, the yankees, their entire team, you know um, uh and, and average it out against what the market value of the yankees is. Yeah, you know, like this total salary. Dean: The average is exactly the same as it was 70 years ago and that's the thing people don't understand, that these salaries are based on collective bargaining and the basketball, for instance, half of the money goes to the players. So half of all the revenue from tickets and TV and media and merchandise, all of that stuff, half of the money that the organization makes, has to go to the players. And so on a basketball team they have maybe 12 players who are getting all of that money. Dan: You know, so that see the basketball players get I think it's 15, I think they have 15 now. 15, now 15 players. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah so you look at that and it's like, uh wow, now collectively they have to be within their, their salary cap or whatever is, yeah, 50, 50 percent of their revenue. But I mean it's kind of, uh, it's market value, right, it's all relative, yep yep, yep, yeah, and all the owners are billionaires. Dan: You know, they're. They mostly use it for a tax write-off, I mean that's yeah, yeah, yeah I have to tell you talk about tax write-off. About three blocks from us here in the beaches in Toronto, there's an Indian restaurant that's been there for about two years and every night we come by it on the way back from the office and I've never seen any customers. I've never once if I pass that restaurant and this is during business hours. I've never seen, I've never once if I pass that restaurant and this is during business hours yeah I've never. I've never seen it and I said I got a feeling there's some money laundering that's crazy. Dean: It's like I I look at the um, I'm trying right now, and this this next couple of weeks. One of the things I'm really gonna uh reflect on is kind of looking forward. I think about I did this with our realtors. I created an RIP for 2024. So RIP meaning reflection on what actually happened in the last year for you how many transactions, how much revenue, how much whatever came in. And then inflection, looking at what is it right now, where are you at and what trajectory is that on right? If you're looking, what are the things that you could make a change on? And then projecting projection into 2025. And I realized you know part. One of the things I said to the people is you can't same your way to different, that's, you can't save your way to different. I mean that's really if you're thinking that something different is going to happen. Something different has to take place. Dan: You can't crazy your way to normal either. Dean: Exactly. Dan: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really. It's really. Yeah. I think you know that Morgan House book. We gave it out. We gave it out. I have to check on that. I put in a request for that. I don't know if it went out, you know, but he's just I. I told joe he should have him as a speaker at the national the annual event yeah, yeah, I think it'd be good. I mean because joe's really, really, really got to hustle now, because he uh really established a new standard for who he has. But yeah, I was just looking at an article this morning because it reminded me of who Joe had. He had Robert Kennedy and Jordan. Peterson and Tucker Carlson, tucker Carlson, yeah. Dean: And it was great. Dan: It was great. And then I was thinking about the role that elon musk is playing in the us government. There's no precedent for this in us history, that you have a person like that, who's just brought in with somebody else, vivek ramaswamy and uh, they're just given a department of government. Dean: A department of government oh, did I miss a vivek uh appointment. Was he appointed to something? Dan: no, he's, he's appointed with uh, with um with uh, elon, oh, I see, okay, yeah. Yeah, it's called the department of government efficiency right okay, uh, which may be a contradiction in terms, but anyway, but they're hiring people, but the people they hire don't get any salary. You have to volunteer, you have to volunteer to work. So you got to have, you got to be well funded to work there. You know you got to. I mean you got to be living off your own savings, your own investments, while you're there. You know you got to. I mean, you got to be living off your own savings your own investments while you're there. But I was thinking because we've been observers now for 13, actually just a year of President Milley in Argentina and he's cut government costs by 30% in one year. Dean: Wow, yeah there's interesting stuff. Dan: He eliminated or really cut 12 departments. Nine of the departments he just got rid of you know the one, you know they have departments like tuck you in safely at night, sort of that had about that, had about 5000 employees, you know, and you know, and send letters to your mom let her know you know that sort of department, but they were just creating employment, employment, employment where people didn't really have to work, and he got rid of seventy five thousand federal employees in a country of forty Forty six million. Forty six million, he got rid of seventy five thousand. Well, in the US, if they did equal proportions, we're about 350, so 46, that's about seven, seven, eight times. That would get rid of 550,000. I think it's doable, yeah. Dean: I mean that's fascinating and we don't get access to that right. You sought that out and you only came into contact with that because you're a frequent traveler to Argentina. Yeah, Argentina, and it feels better, yeah, and it feels better. Dan: We were noticing because we hadn't been there since March and we were there right at the end of November. We were there right at the end of Thanksgiving. We were actually American Thanksgiving. We were that week, we were down there and the place just feels better. You can just feel it there, there, and the place just feels better. You can just feel it. There is uh, you know, and uh, you know, and there's a real mood shift, you know, when people just feel that all this money is being, you know, confiscated and paid to people who aren't working. You know that yeah it doesn't feel good. Doesn't feel good, then there's Canada, then there's Canada. Dean: Right. Dan: Yes. Dean: It's great entertainment, I'll tell you. Well, you know it's funny. I don't know whether I mentioned last time, the guy from El Salvador, what he's done in since being elected. You're a young guy, I think he was elected at 35 or 37. And he's completely turned around the crime rate in El Salvador by being 100%. Dan: You just have a 50,000 convict prison. Well, that's exactly right, yeah, yeah. And that's the thing. Dean: It's like lock him up. That's the thing. Dan: He's like led, and they guard themselves. It's a self-guarding prison. Dean: Is that right? I didn't know that. No, no, I'm just kidding, I'm just playing on your theme. Dan: Right right, right'm just kidding, I'm just playing on your thing. Dean: Right, right, right, yeah, yeah. Well, that would be the combination, right, self-guarding. That would be the most efficient way to have the situation. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Dean: But it is amazing what can happen when you have a focus on one particular thing. Dan: Well, you know what it is. I think partially and Peter Zion talks about this that, generally speaking, the way the world has been organized, during the 20th century the US really didn't pay much attention to South America, latin America at all, and never has you know the. United States never has, because they've been east and west, you know it's either Europe or it's Asia. But now that the US has decided that they're going to be very discerning about who gets to trade with them they're very discerning about who gets the benefit of US protection and everything else All of a sudden, the South Americans are getting their houses in order which they haven't been. It's been a century of mostly really bad government in Latin America. Now they're all getting things in order so that when the US looks south, they're front of the line. The only thing that the US really paid any attention to was Cuba Cuba's like a piece of meat. Dean: You can't yeah. Dan: The only thing that the US really paid any attention to was Cuba. Yes, right, cuba's like a piece of meat you can't get out of your teeth. For the United. States and your tongue is going crazy, trying to get that piece of meat out of you. It's just been sort of an annoying place, it's just been sort of an annoying place. Dean: Yeah, this is, I think when you look at you know Peter Zions stuff too. If you think about definitely the trend over the next 25 years is definitely more. Dan: I think it's trend lines are really almost eerily accurate. The one thing he doesn't understand, though, is US politics. I found that he doesn't have a clue about US politics. He's a Democrat. He told me he was a Democrat. I spent it. He came and spent a day at Genius, yes, and he said that he was a Democrat. He's an environmentalist, and you know, and you know, and. But he says but I can also do math, you know, he says I can do math so you can see what, which direction the numbers are going in. But he, I mean right up until a week before the election, he says Kamala is going to take it, Kamala is going to take it. You know and everything like that. So he didn't. He didn't have any real sense of the shifts that were going on voter shifts that were going on. I mean Trump went in and almost every county. There's 3,000 counties in the United States and he didn't go backwards in any of the counties, he went up in every county. Dean: Oh, wow, that's interesting so you didn't lose anything. Dan: That's really widespread. I mean, there isn't 3,001. There's just 3,000. Yeah, and he went up. It was just as it was. Like you know, it was like the tide came in. I think I've never seen in my lifetime, I've never really seen a shift of that proportion. And I wonder, you know, you look at over the new political establishment. Well, this isn't my thought George Friedman, who was Peter Zion's, because the political establishment in the United States, in other words, where the proportion of the votes are, is going to be working class. It won't be highly educated you know, professional people. For one thing, ai is really feeding. You know, if you have somebody's making $30,000 a year and somebody else is making $100,000 a year, which job would you like to eliminate to economize? Dean: Right, yeah, yeah, you look at the. That's one thing I think we, like I, look at when I am thinking about the next 25 years. I think about what are the like there's no way to predict. There was no way in 1999 to predict YouTube and Facebook and the things that are TikTok, you know, or AI, all of that impact right. But I think there. But, like I said, there was evidence that if you were, if you believe, guessing and betting, as you would say, you could see that the path that Amazon was on made sense and the path that Apple was on and the path that Google was on, all are ai for certain. Like that dna, all the like the things that are that we're learning about stem cells and genetics, and all of that kind of stuff. And Bitcoin, I guess, right, digital currency, crypto, you know everything. Just removing friction. Dan: Yeah, I think the whole blockchain makes sense. Yeah, yeah, you know. I mean I think the thing in the US dollar makes sense. Yeah, $1.44 yesterday. It's up 10 cents in the last eight weeks. Wow, yeah, I think when you were there in September it was $1.34, probably $1.34. Dean: Now it's $1.44. Oh, that's great yeah, yeah. Dan: And yeah, so yeah, I mean the ones that I mean. People say, well, bitcoin, you know Bitcoin is going to become the reserve currency. I said there's 21 million of them. It can't become the reserve currency. Dean: Right right. Dan: There is no currency that can replace the dollar. Dean: You know, it's just. Dan: And still have a livable planet. Dean: Mm-hmm, anyway, we've covered territory. Dan: We've covered territory today. Dean: We have Holy cow. It's already 1203. Dan: That's amazing. We covered a lot of territory. Dean: We really did. Dan: But the one thing that is predictable is the structure that you can put onto your schedule. That is predictable. Dean: You know, I have one. Dan: I have a thing I hadn't talked to you about this, but this is something I do is that when I start tomorrow, I look at next week, ok, and I just look at and and I just get a sense and then I'll put together some changes. I'd like Becca Miller she's my high beams into the future and she does all my scheduling and so I'll notice that some things can be rearranged, which if I got to next week I couldn't rearrange them. But I can rearrange them on Monday of this week for next week. Dean: But I I couldn't do it on. Dan: Monday of next for that week. So more and more this this year. Um, every uh Monday I'm going to look at the week uh, not this week, but the week ahead and make changes. I think, I bet there's uh, you know, like a five to 10% greater efficiency. That happens just by having that one habit. Dean: Yeah, dan, I'm really getting down to, I'm looking at and I do that same thing. But looking at this next, the 100 hours is really from. You know, hours is really from Monday morning at eight o'clock till Friday at noon is a hundred hours and that to me, is when everything that's the actionable period, and then really on a daily basis, getting it to this, the next 100 minutes is really that's where the real stuff takes place. So anyway, I always love the conversations. Dan: Yep, back to you next week. Yes, sir, have a great day. I'll talk to you soon. Dean: Bye, okay, bye.

Today on Welcome to Cloudlandia, We start with the mysterious drone sightings over New Jersey, exploring the thin line between conspiracy and curiosity. These nocturnal aerial visitors become a metaphor for our complex modern world, where information and imagination intersect. We then investigate the profound impact of cultural icons like Mr. Beast and Kylie Jenner, examining how influence transcends traditional expertise. Our discussion reveals how public figures navigate changing landscapes of leadership and visibility, offering insights into the evolving dynamics of success and social capital. The episode concludes by challenging our approach to information consumption. Drawing from personal experiments and wisdom from thought leaders like Warren Buffett, we explore strategies for staying informed in a noisy digital ecosystem. Our conversation provides practical perspectives on navigating media, understanding cultural shifts, and maintaining perspective amid constant information flow. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We explore the presence of drones over New Jersey, questioning whether they are linked to government surveillance or civilian activities, while considering the broader context of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Dan and I discuss the concept of anticipation being more stressful than actual experiences, suggesting it as a contributor to mental distress. The impact of cultural icons like Mr. Beast and Kylie Jenner is examined, highlighting their influence despite lacking traditional skills in their fields. We ponder on how cultural shifts are altering perceptions of corporate leadership, using a hypothetical scenario of a CEO's public safety being compromised. The dynamics of news consumption are analyzed, contrasting real-time news feeds with curated platforms like RealClear Politics to understand how they balance diverse political viewpoints. I share my experience with digital abstinence, noting the benefits of reduced distractions and the negligible impact of disconnecting from the continuous news cycle temporarily. The concept of "irrational confidence" is explored, discussing how it characterizes overachievers and can be cultivated over time to foster personal growth. We reflect on long-term investment strategies inspired by Warren Buffett, emphasizing the enduring need for certain products and industries. I consider the importance of balancing cultural awareness with the need to filter out unnecessary noise, contemplating changes in my information consumption habits. Insights from personal experiments in digital and media consumption are shared, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between transient cultural information and lasting knowledge. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: Mr Jackson are the drones looking down on you. Are the drones looking down on you. Dan: I mean, how many do you have up there? What is going? Dean: on with these drones. Dan: Yeah, I bet there's just a bunch of civilians fooling around with the government. Dean: Yeah, I wonder you know like you look at this. I think it's so. I wonder you know like you look at this. I think it's so amazing that you know we've had a theme, or I've been kind of thinking about this, with the. You know, is this the best time to be alive or the worst time to be alive? And I mentioned that I think probably in every practical way, this is the best time, but the anything in the worst time to be alive column just the speed and proliferation of, you know, conspiracies and misinformation and the battle for our minds. You know, keeping us in that. You know everything is just enough to be. You know where you're uncertain of stuff. You know there's a lot of uncertainty that's being laid out right now in every way. I mean, you look at just what's happened in the last. If we take 2020, fear you know. Dan: Well, tell me about it. I'm not very much of that 2024. Tell me about it. I experience very much of that. But why don't you tell me about that? Because I want to note some things down here. Dean: You know what? Dan: Every month, more money comes in than goes out. What more do you need to know besides that? Dean: I agree with you. I'm seeing the light here. It's just on the top level. We went through an election year which is always the you know the highly funded, you know misinformation campaigns or you know putting out there. So everybody's up on high level. Dan: Are you talking about lies Are? Dean: you talking about lies? Are you talking about lies? Who knows Dan? Dan: When I was growing up we called them lies. Why so many extra letters? I mean lies, that's a perfectly good Anglo-Saxon word. Why is Greek and Roman stuff in there? Dean: I think that's the thing, If we just simplify it. But if we bring it down to lies and truth, it's much more. Dan: I like lies and truth. Dean: Yeah, it's much more difficult to discern the lies from the truth. Dan: Yeah, he's telling a lie here, folks, his mouth is moving Exactly. Dean: You know that's the truth, but I just look at that. It's like you know the things that are. You know the things that are happening right now. Like you look at even with the government, even with the congressional hearings or announcements on, almost just like a matter of fact, oh yeah, there's aliens, there's totally aliens. There's. They've been here for a long time. We've got some in, we've got all the evidence and everything like that. But you know, carry on, it's just kind of so. It's so funny. Stuff is being like, you know, nobody really is kind of talking about it. And then you get these drone situations in New Jersey, all these drones coming out and the government saying I know nothing to see here, nothing going on there. Dan: Well, my take if you're going to be using drones. New Jersey would be my choice. You know I put drones over New Jersey. Not a lot happening there. Dean: All the memes now are that it's some highly sophisticated, you know fast food delivery service for Chris Christie. That's all the meme things. They're on a direct pipeline delivering fast food to Chris Christie. That's just so funny. Dan: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I mean the whole point is that civilians could do this. I mean, I think everybody probably has the you know, or certain people do have the technological capability now to put up drones, you know, and just put some lights on them and put them in the night sky I'm sure anybody does that and then you know, and then you'll be on social media. Dean: Somebody will film you and everything like that you know it's at night and they're mysterious. Dan: Always do it at night, never do it during the day You've got to use the right words to describe them too, dan, you've got to use the right words they're mysterious drones. And if you practice you can get them to fly. In formation it looks even more interesting. I'm swooping a little bit in formation, everything else, well, I don't believe there's aliens. Dean: Okay, good Everything else yeah. Well, I don't believe there's aliens, so you know I mean. Dan: I don't believe there's anything more alien than people I've already met. That's what. Dean: I mean yeah. Dan: You know I've met some alien thought forms on the part of some people. But see, I think you got to make a fundamental decision about this up front. This is worth thinking about or it's not worth thinking about. Yeah, okay, so I made the decision. It's not worth thinking about that. If something new develops, I'll probably know about it in a very short period of time, and then I can start responding to it. Yeah, but about six months ago a new resolution plunked into place in my brain, and that is I'm not going to react to an experience until I actually have the experience. Dean: So say more about that. Dan: Rather than making up a fantasy or the possibility that there's an experience to be it. Actually you're getting. I think mental illness is having an experience before you've actually being afraid of an experience before you've actually had it. It's the anticipation of having an experience that I think causes mental illness. Dean: That's true, isn't it? Dan: Yeah, I mean, that's like yeah, I haven't seen Probably not the only thing, probably not the only thing about mental illness, but I think that would qualify as an aspect. It certainly is a paranoia, certainly an aspect of paranoia, yeah, but things are moving. I think we're witnessing one of the greatest innovations in the history of the United States right now. Can I tell you what it is? Would you be interested? I'm all ears. Yeah, President is elected, and then there's this period from the day after the election until the inauguration. Dean: Yes. Dan: And it's basically been fallow. Nothing grows during that time and Trump has just decided why don't I just start acting like the president right after the election and really create a huge momentum by the time we get to the inauguration? Let's be so forceful right after the election that all the world leaders talk to me. They don't talk to the existing president. That's his name. I forget what I forget Joe, joe, joe. All right, that's the name, that's the name of the beach, that's the name of the beach, I just find it remarkable how, around the world, everybody's responding to the incoming president, not to the actual president. That's the truth. I think he's, and he's getting people. There's foreign policy changing. You know there's foreign policy, mexico, their foreign policy you know, their export import policy is changing. Canada export import policy is changing. Canada export-import policy is changing. And all he did was say a word. He said I think we're going to put a 25% tariff on both of you. And all of a sudden, they're up at night. They're up at night. Dean: I happened to be, in Toronto when all that was being announced. I happened to be in Toronto when all that was being announced and all the news was, you know, that there's an emergency meeting of all of the premiers to discuss the reaction to Donald Trump's proposed tariff. You know, you're absolutely right. Everybody's scrambling, everybody's. You know, they're definitely, you know, thinking about what's coming. You know. Dan: And then he goes to Paris for the opening of, you know, they're definitely, you know, thinking about what's coming, you know. And then he goes to Paris for the opening of, you know, the you know, the renovation of Notre Dame Cathedral. Yeah, looks good, by the way, I don't know if you've seen the pictures. It looks really good. I was in there. You know I've been to Paris, I think I've been to Paris three times and I went the first time. I said, oh, I've been to Paris, I think I've been to Paris three times and I went the first time. I said, oh, I have to go to Notre Dame Cathedral. And I went in and I said, gee, it's dark and dingy and I'm not sure they even clean. You know, clean the place anymore. And all it takes is a little fire to get everybody into cleanup mode, and boy, it looks spectacular. So Trump goes there and it's like he's the emperor of the world. You know, all the heads of state come up and they want to shake his hands and everything like that. I've never seen anything like that with an incoming president. They want to get on his good side and everybody's giving them money for his inauguration. Mark Zuckerberg's giving them money. The head of Google's giving them money for his inauguration. Mark zuckerberg's giving them money. The head of google is giving them money. Jeff bezos giving them money. Abc's giving them 15 million. That'll just go into his library library fund. Yeah, and everything else. Wow. You know, I've never seen them do this to an incoming president before. Yeah, time magazine called him the person of the year Already. I didn't even know there was a Time magazine. Dean: I'm actually thinking. I've been, I've been like thinking, dan, about my 2025, you know information plan and you know I've been kind of test driving this idea of you know, disconnecting. Where I struggle with this is that so much of the insights and things that I have are because I, on top of culture, you know, I think I'm very like tuned in to what's going on. I have a pretty broad, you know, observation of everything and that. So where I struggle with it is letting go of like at the vcr formula, for instance, was born of my observation and awareness of what's going on with mr beast and kylie jenner and these, you know, that sort of early thing of knowing and seeing what's going on you know before many of our contemporaries kind of thing. Right, many of our people are very decidedly disconnected from popular culture and don't pay attention to it. So I look at that as a balance. That part of it there's a certain amount of awareness that is an advantage for me might be affected if I were to be blissfully unaware of what's going on in culture, you know. Dan: Yeah, I don't know. I mean you could put Charlotte on to the job you know, yeah, and that's so I look at that. Charlotte. For our listeners, charlotte is Dean's AI sleuth. She finds out things. She's a sleuthy integrator of things that Dean finds interesting. You ought to talk it over with her and say how can I stop doing this and still have the benefit of it? Dean: Yeah, my thing. I think that where there might be an AI tool that I could use for this, but Charlotte, from what I understand, is bound by her latest update or whatever. She's got access to everything up to a certain date. She doesn't have real time information in terms of the most recent stuff. Have you heard, by the way, dan, what is? We're imminently away from the release of ChatGPPT 5, which is supposedly I want to get the numbers right on this. Let me just look at a text here, because it's so overwhelmingly more powerful than ChatGPT 4. The new ChatGPT5 has 10 trillion gpus compared to chat gpt4, which is 75 billion. So the difference from 75 billion to 10 trillion sounds like a pretty impressive leap. Sounds like a pretty impressive leap, and that'll put it over the top of you know, the current thing is a 121 IQ, and this will bring it to being smarter than any human on the planet. Dan: And so we don't even know, but not at doing anything particular. Dean: No, I guess not. I mean just the insight processing, logic, reasoning, all of that stuff being able to process information. I'm still amazed I was talking. Dan: When it comes out. Three months after it comes out, will you notice any difference? Dean: I don't know. Dan: That's what I'm wondering, my feeling is that I'm not even sure what cat GPT is two years after it came out, because I haven't interacted with it at all Right, I've interacted with perplexity, which I find satisfying. And you know, yeah, there's an interesting. I read an interesting article on human intelligence and it said that by and large, there's an active, practical zone to human intelligence where you're above average in confidence and you're above average in making sense of things, and it seems to be between 120 and 140. Dean: Yes, 120, 140. Dan: And about 40, 140,. Your confidence goes down as you get smarter and your awareness of making sense of things gets weaker, gets weaker. And from a standpoint of communicating with other people, the sweet zone seems to be 120 to 140. Dean: Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. I think that, yeah, yeah. Dan: You've got above average pattern, You've got above average pattern recognition and you've got good eye-hand coordination you know, in the artisans of the word that you can see something and take action on it quite quickly. You have the ability to do that, and probably in new ways, probably in new ways so you don't have a lot of friction coming the other way. You know when you do something new? yeah, but iq, you know, iq, iq is one measurement of human behavior yeah but there's many others that are more prominent, so yeah, I think this is you know, I think silicon Valley has a big fixation on IQ because they like to compare who's got the biggest. They like to compare who's got the biggest, but I'm not sure it really relates to anything useful or practical beyond a certain point. Dean: Well, it's not actionable. There's no insight in it, not like knowing that you're Colby, knowing that we're 10 quick starts is useful information. Dan: Yeah, it's like having six quick starts together with some alcohol. Right, it's a fun party. Dean: Yes, like you said your book club or your dinner clubs, our next-door neighbor our next-door neighbor's husband and wife and Shannon Waller and her husband. Dan: Our quick start out of the 60 is 56. We just have the best time for about three or four hours Good food, the wine is good and everything else. We just have the best time for about three or four hours Good food, the wine is good and everything else. And regardless of what happens transpires during those four hours, the world is completely safe from any impact. Dean: Right, exactly, it's so funny it's not going to leave the room. Yeah, everybody's safe, yeah. Dan: Go back to culture. What do you mean by culture when you say? Dean: culture. What? Dan: do you mean by culture? When you say culture, what do you mean? Dean: I mean, like popular culture, what's happening in the world right now, like having an awareness of what, because I'm a good pattern recognizer and I see and I'm overlaying things. I'm curious and alert and always looking for what's with Mr Beast and recognizing that neither one of them has any capability to do the thing that they're doing. Mr Beast didn't have the capability to make and run hamburger restaurants and Kylie didn't have any capability to run and manufacture a cosmetics company, but they both were aligned with people who had that capability and that allowed them to have a conduit from their vision, through that capability, that if they just let people know their reach that they've now got a hamburger restaurant and you can order on Uber Eats right now or you can click here to get my lip kits. You know, access to those eyeballs, that's all. So I look at that and if I had not, if I had been cut off from you know, sort of I would say I'm in the tippy top percent of people of time spent on popular culture. I guess you know, and I look at it as I look at, it's a problem in terms of a lot of time and a lot of you know that mindless stuff you would think like screen time, but all the inputs and awareness is just monitoring the signal to get and recognize patterns. You know. So I'm real. Yeah, well, let me throw you a challenge on the culture side. Dan: get and recognize patterns, you know. So I'm really sorry, yeah, well, let me throw you a challenge on the culture side. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Okay. So in New York City there's going to be a meeting of you know, I guess it's a shareholders meeting for a big health insurance company and the head of one part of the health insurance company is walking down the street. Somebody shoots him in the back and kills him, kills him the CEO, and they, yeah, they catch up with him. You know, a week later and you know he's arrested in a McDonald's in Pennsylvania and they find all sorts of incriminating evidence that he in fact is the person who was the shooter. And now he's got, you know, he's got sort of a manifesto about that. These CEOs are doing evil and even though he doesn't think that his action was an admirable action, it had to be done. I would say that's a cultural factoid because up until now being a CEO is like being an aristocrat in our capitalist society. I get a CEO and now the CEOs are trying to be invisible and they're hiring like mad new security. So all the status value of being a CEO got disappeared on an early morning sidewalk in New York City because somebody shot him. Shot him in the back, you know, I mean it wasn't a brave act, shot him in the back, but the reason is that you, as a CEO, are doing harm to large numbers of people and someone has to stop you. I would say, that's as much a cultural fact as Mr Beast or Kylie Jenner. Dean: Yeah, I mean, would you say that again? Dan: I mean, I think, every CEO in the United States. Dan: United States has instantly changed his whole schedule and how he's going to show up in public and where he's going to be seen in public where he doesn't have large amounts of security, with one action broadly communicated out through the social media and through the mainstream media. He just changed the whole way of life for CEOs. I would say that's a cultural fact. It's a negative one. You're talking about positive ones, but I believe for every positive thing you have, there's probably a corresponding negative one. I'm struck by that You're just not going to see CEOs around anymore, and I mean, half the value of being a CEO is being seen around and they just removed the whole reward for being seen around, just removed the whole reward for being seen around. Dean: Yeah, I wonder, you know like I mean. But there are certain things like other I don't know that it's all CEOs. You know, like I think, if you are perceived as the part of the vilified, you know CEOs, the almost back to Occupy Wall Street kind of things, if you're a CEO of a company that's viewed as the oppressor, like those insurance things, but I don't know if that's true for the CEOs of NVIDIA and OpenAI and Tesla, and you know what I mean. Dan: I think, if you're yeah, I wonder, but we'll see, but we'll see, we'll see. Dean: Yeah, yeah, are you the people's CEO? You know, I think. Dan: Yeah, I mean my yeah. Somebody once asked me about this, you know. They said how well known would you like to be? And I said just be below the line where I would have to have security. Dean: Right, yeah, if you look at it, can you think of anybody? Dan: I wander around Toronto on my own. I go here and I go there and everything else, and nobody knows who I am. That's my security. Dean: Nobody knows who I am yeah, but you wonder, like you know, if you look at the level of fame of you know you? You've mentioned before the difference between Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg. Warren Buffett is certainly very famous, but nobody's mad at him. I guess that's part of the thing. He's very wise, or viewed as wise. Dan: He's usefully wise. Dean: Yeah, exactly. Dan: Investing according to his benchmarks and his strategies has proved very valuable to a great number of people. Dean: Agreed. Dan: Plus, he's got a fairly simple, understandable lifestyle. He still lives in the house he's lived in for the last 40 years, still drives a pickup truck and his you know the entrance to his home is filled with boxes of Diet Coke. Dean: Cherry. Dan: Coke Cherry Coke, cherry Coke. Dean: Cherry Coke, not Diet Coke. No, I'm not. That's a subject, I'm not an expert in Cherry Coke. Dan: Cherry Coke, not Diet Coke. That's a subject I'm not an expert in. Dean: That's the funniest thing. Right, that's one of my top two. Dan: Warren Buffett, you have merit badges in that area. Dean: Yeah. But I think culture, you know, I don't know, I'm trying, it's a slippery beast, this thing culture you know, it's a slippery, slippery beast and you know there's I think that's part of the thing, though it's like the zeitgeist you know is, I think, having an awareness zeitgeist gosh, you just had to slip in a german word, didn't you? Dan: you just had to get a german word, yeah I've been sort of fixated on schadenfreude for the last month. I've just been why I've just been watching the democrats respond to the election and I'm fully schadenfreude. I've been fully schadenfreid for the last month. But zeitgeist, the spirit, I think that translates into the spirit of the times. Dean: Yes, that's exactly what it is. That's what I meant by. That's what I meant by. I'm very like, I think I'm at the tippy top of the you know percentiles of people who are tuned into the zeitgeist, I think that's. I would be self-reportedly that, but yeah, and I don't know, but at the cost of there's a lot of useless stuff that gets in there as well, you know, and negative, and you're faced with all of it. So, my, my filter, I'm taking in all the sewer water kind of thing and having to filter it through rather than just, you know, pre-filtering, only drinking filtered water. Dan: You're getting rid of the fluoride drinking filtered water. Dean: You're getting rid of the fluoride. Yeah, exactly, winter haven. Florida, by the way, is one of the first in the country to be getting rid of fluoride on the oh no, this will happen really quick. Dan: Oh yeah, it was just that. Dean: I, I just said I just saw that winter haven was like one of the first movers you, you know, polk County Florida is removing and, by the way, polk County Florida is now fastest growing county in the country. So then, so there you know, 30 something, 30,000 something people that we grew by, yeah, so, new. Dan: You're to date right, you're to date Over the last 12 months, over the last 12 months. I guess that's how they measure it yeah. Dean: So my thought, dan, was that I was looking to. You know, like my tune in to the zeitgeist is on a daily, real-time basis, I'm getting the full feed, right. No, no filters. Yeah, what I was thinking. What I was wondering about was if I were to change the cadence of it to more sort of filtered content, like I would say what you do, your, you've chosen a filter called real clear politics. Right, that's your, that's your filter, and you probably have five or six other filters that are your lens through yeah, it would be the go-to every day. Dan: You know I start the morning and. I go on my computer, I go to the RealClear site. So it's. RealClear comes up as RealClear politics, but then they have about eight other RealClear channels. RealClear politics, RealClear markets, RealClear world. Realclear defense, energy, health science, you know, and everything like that. But the beauty of it is that they're aggregators of other people's output. So you know everybody's competing to get their articles on real clear. You know the New York Times competes to try to get. You know, get every day maybe one or two of its headlines, supposedly for most of my life. The most important newspaper in the world and they have to compete every day to get something of theirs onto the real clear platform. And it seems very balanced to me, right to left from politics. You know, politically, if I look at 20 headlines, I would say that five of them are real total right, five of them are total left and there's a lot of middle. There's a lot of middle about things like that, you know about things like that, you know, and then I'll punch on them, and then that takes me right to the publication or the site that produced the headline, and then I might see three or four things and I discover new ones. I discover new ones all the time. And it's good and there's a lot of filtering that's being done, but I do. They're not interpreting these articles. They're just giving you the article. You can read the article and make up your own mind about it. Now they do some editing in some cases because they interpret the headlines and they have a sidebar where there's topical areas where it's clear to me that real clear has created the headline. That's not the originating. Dean: You know the originating source of the article that's kind of like that's the drudge playbook, right yeah? Dan: I used to like drudge but he went wacky. He went wacky so I didn't read him anymore. Dean: Yeah. Dan: These guys are pretty cool. They're pretty cool. They've been going now for a dozen years anyway, as I've been aware, and they seem really cool. You know they carry advertising. That's not if I'm thinking of horses. I don't get horse ads, you know. 10 minutes later you're done. Dean: Something like that. Dan: But they do have their advertising model, but I don't, you know, I'm not interested in buying anything, so it doesn't really affect me, but that's really great. You know what's really interesting. Peter Zion, you know I'm a big fan of his. And he's got a blog and he came out about a month ago saying I'm going to put in a new approach and that is, you'll always get your free blog and video to go along with it. So it's written and then it's also got the video, but it will be a week later than when I put it on, and if you want it right away, it'll cost you this much. And I'm giving all that money to some cause. Okay, so I'm fundraising for some cause and I just went a week with no Peter Zine and then I started getting it every day and it makes no difference to me whether I got it last week or this week, okay, and so I just waited a week and I'm right up to date again as far as I'm concerned. Dean: Right yeah. Dan: Like when Syria fell. You know, the Syrian government collapsed last week and he had nothing on it until seven days later. I want to go over, but he's adjusting his format now. He says I'm going to give you four stages to what's actually happening. So you know, he's experimented with something and he's finding that he has to adjust his presentation a little bit just for people saying you know? You know, I'm going to tell you over a three-day period what happened. This happened on the first day, this happened on the second day, third day and this is where we are on the fourth day, and everything else and that's good. I like that. Everything else you know and everything, but that's part of the culture. You know it's part of the culture. Dean: Yeah. So my thought like my sense of culture. Dan: it's what culture is. Whatever's happening right now that you're interested in, yeah, it seems to show some interesting movement. Dean: Yeah, I think you're, I think you're right. I mean, my thought was of experimenting, was to go to more of a rather than a minute by minute, always on direct feed to the zeitgeist is going through a daily. You know, I had a really interesting two days at strategic coach in Toronto just a couple of weeks ago, when you know I was. I referred to it, as you know, workshopping like it was 1989 with my phone. Dan: You were practicing, practicing abstinence. Dean: Yeah, I was, and what I learned in that was, and I did it two days in a row with zero contact with the outside world, from nine o'clock to five o'clock when the workshops were going on, no checking in at the breaks or at lunch or, you know, no notifications. You know dinging while I'm in the workshops. It was certainly anchoring, you know, presence to me in the in the workshops, but also noticed that nothing really happened. You know like I didn't miss anything in that five, in that nine to five period. You know I got a bunch of emails over the day but there were maybe two or three that were like for me or of any real interest or necessity for me. You know I have two inboxes. I have a, you know, my, my dean at dean jackson. My main mailbox is monitored by, you know, people, stakeholders in the, you know, because sometimes an email will come in and if it has something to do with our realtor division, diane is in there and sees that and can respond, or Lillian is able to respond. But then I also have my own, a private email just for me, that I give to my friends, and whenever you email me, that's the email that you use and those ones are not. Those aren't seen by anybody but me. But there's even far fewer of those that come through than come into the main one. Dan: Well, it's an interesting experiment that you're doing here, because it seems to me that one is the world is changing all the time. As far as news is concerned, the world is. I guess that's what news means. You know that things are changing, but if you don't pay attention to it over a long period of time and you don't feel inconvenienced, by it then, probably, it wasn't important probably it wasn't important, yeah, you know, and like I'm in six and a half years now with no television you know right and and you know, I've gone through two, two full presidential elections without watching television and yet I don't feel that I've missed anything important by not watching television Because I have real clear politics and I have a computer and I get videos. I can go to YouTube. And if somebody's giving a talk somewhere I can watch, where on television you would never get the whole speech. You know you would be broken up with commercials and everything like that. And then you have some commentators telling you what you were supposed to think about that, which I don't really require that I'm perfectly able to understand what I'm thinking about it and everything like that. So I don't know, I don't know. Well, my thought experiment. Dean: You know what you? Dan: should do is say what kind of cultural information is sugar and what kind of cultural information is protein, I get it, and so that's kind of where I was thinking. To me that's where you're going. Dean: I'm thinking about slowing down the cadence so, and to have a daily, like you know, something like real clear and you know there's thinking about where that is filtered sort of thing for me, thinking about where that is filtered sort of thing for me. And then weekly, you know, like I think, if I just looked at, if I went to print as a thing, if I were to say, you know, time Magazine, newsweek, the Inc Magazine, people Magazine, like I think, if there were some things that I could and the Weekend Wall Street Journal, I think with those you could, that would be kind of a really good. I don't think I would miss out. Dan: I'm really big on the Weekend Wall Street Journal, I think that's a great print. That's a great print medium. I literally haven't read Time magazine. I don't know, maybe 20 years or, but it seems like they're probably on top of what's even if it's slanted, you're going to get a sense of what the core thing is. Dean: That's actually right. Yeah, I know. Dan: A lot of Democrats canceled their subscription over the last three or four days because Trump person of the year. Yeah exactly. See, now, that's an interesting piece of information, yeah yeah, what they wrote about him I don't find interesting, but the fact that certain readers they must have made him look good, you know, for that sort of cancellation, you know you know it's like this is being categorized as the kiss the ring phase. Dean: That's what abc there was being characterized. That time magazine kissed the ring by making him person of the year abc. You know, kissing the ring, giving him 15 million dollars, and well, they didn't $15 million. Dan: Well, they didn't give him $15 million, they were required to give him $15 million yeah exactly, and George Stephanopoulos has to apologize publicly for defaming him as he should. As he should, yeah, for defaming him, you know, as he should, as he should. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dean: So Trump's got to have at least one court case. Dan: Trump's got to have at least one court case going in his favor. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Yeah. Dean: But I look at that as you know, that's a really. I think that would be a really useful thing. Would certainly get me back three or four hours a day of yeah you know, of screen time. It would give me more dean time to use, because it would certainly condense a lot of that but you have some interesting models that are, I would say, are cultural models. Dan: I would say more cheese, less whiskers is a cultural model. I mean, if you have it as a thought form, you can see, you can simplify happenings around you. You know, that seems a little bit too much whiskers, exactly, too much whiskers. Yeah, that seems like a fine new cheese. Yeah, that seems like a fine new cheese. For example, taylor Swift gave $100 million in bonuses to everybody who helped her on her tour. Dean: I don't know if you saw that. It's crazy $200 million. Dan: The truck drivers, the ones who got $100,000. They got $100,000. And her father delivered the checks. That seems like a really. That's like a fondue, that's not just cheese. Dean: That is only the finest cheese fondue. Yes, exactly, that's so funny. Dan: when they hit it big, they're real jerks and they're real pricks and she's not. She's showing gratitude. That's very much a cheese. That was a very cheesy thing for her to do. In your model, that's a very cheesy thing for her to do. Yeah, in your model, that's a very cheesy thing. Dean: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I look at you know another thing that's happening is I don't know whether you've followed or seen what Deion Sanders has done with Colorado football over the last two seasons, but he basically went from the basement of 1-11 team the worst team in college football to the Alamo Bowl in two seasons and Travis Hunter just won the Heisman Trophy and he could quite possibly have the top two draft picks. Dan: His son didn't win the Heisman Trophy Hunter. Oh, you're saying Travis Hunter? I? Dean: was saying Travis Hunter. He could possibly have the top two picks in the NFL draft between Jadot and Travis Hunter and it's just, I mean, it fits in so perfectly with my you know, 100 week, you know timeframe there. That that's, I think, the optimal. I think you can have a really big impact in a hundred weeks on anything but to go from the basement to the bowl game is like it's a really good case study. But that really is. You know, I often I think there's so many things that play like a crystal clear vision of what he was trying to accomplish In his mind. There's no other path than them being the greatest football team, the greatest college football team in the country. That's really it. Building an empire. That's certainly where he's headed and his belief, that's the only outcome. You know it's so. I was. I read a book and, by the way, I'll have an aside on this, but I read a book years ago called Overachievement and it was a book by a sports psychologist at Rice University and his assessment of overachievers people who have achieved outsized results. One of his observations is that, without fail, they all have what he characterizes as unreasonable confidence or irrational. That's irrational confidence. That's what it is, and I thought to myself like that's a pretty interesting word pairing, because who's to say how much confidence is rational, you know, yeah, it's kind of it's it's and first of all, I. Dan: I don't think the two words even have anything to do with each other I don't either. Dean: That's why I thought it was so remarkable. You know, I think irrational confidence I mean, yeah, spoken by. Dan: spoken by someone who I thought it was so remarkable, irrational confidence. I mean spoken by someone who probably has very little. 0:46:50 - Dean: I mean interesting right Like people look at that, but I thought I've overlaid it with your four C's right Is that commitment leads to courage? Yeah, that commitment leads to courage First of all. Dan: I think it can be grown. I'm a great believer that commitment can be grown, courage can be grown, capability can be grown, confidence can be grown. It's a cycle. It's a growth cycle. It's like ambition. It's like ambition. I'm much more ambitious today than I was 30 years ago way more ambitious and 30 years ago I was 50. That's when most people are kind of are peaking out on ambition when they're 50. I mean I was in the valley 50 years ago, compared to where I am now, but I've always treated ambition as something that you can grow, and my particular approach is that the more you can tap into other people's capabilities for your projects, the more your ambition can grow. It's an interesting thing. Irrational confidence. Dean: Yeah, and I thought that you know, so it's pretty interesting. Dan: There must be a scale somewhere, you know, get on the scale, please. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rational, oh, he's above. Rational, above irrational, oh, that's totally irrational confidence. Dean: yes, he's just setting himself up for disappointment. That's like I think're in the confidence of living to 156. That's irrational. Yeah, it is till I fail, exactly. Yeah, but that's okay, it's not going to make any difference to you. I always love your live, live, live pattern. It's not going to affect you. Dan: Live live, live, go on. Dean: I saw somebody doing an illustration, Dan, of how long it takes for the world to adapt to you not being here, and the gentleman had his finger in a glass of water and he pulled it out. Dan: Watch, yeah, watch, how long the hole lasts. Dean: It's the truth, you know, yeah, yeah. Dan: I don't know if you got a hold of that book. Same as Ever, the Morgan Household book. Dean: I did. I've read it and it's fantastic. It's good, isn't it? It really is it kind of calms you down. Dan: You know it kind of calms you down. You know I told Joe Polish I said you know how to get that guy as a speaker. I think he's great and anyway, you know he said he makes he has that one great little chapter on evolution. How long it takes, you know, like evolution, three or four million years, and he says stuff that you know is lasting over a long period of time you know is really worth paying attention to, really worth paying attention to. You know that and I find one of the things that you know at my advancing age at my advancing age is that I can see now things that were are equally true today as they were 50 years ago yeah, I see that too. Dean: Absolutely see that too. Absolutely, see that through. I'm on the cusp right now. Like you know, we're coming into 2025. And so this is the first time I started thinking about 25 years ahead was in 1999. That 25 year timeframe, you know, and certainly when I made those, you know five or three stock in. You know investment decisions. But looking back now, you know there were clues as to what is what was what was coming. But there are certainly a lot of through line to it too. You know, like I think, what I did choose was you know it's still Warren Buffett, it's still Berkshire was a great as a 10 times or more stock over 25 years. Starbucks and Procter and Gamble they're equally. Those were durable choices. But you know what was what I could have, what was there? Looking back now, the evidence was there already that Amazon and Google and Apple would have been rocket ships. You know guessing and betting, dan. It's like guessing and betting with certainty. Or you know where you think, like I think, if we look and maybe next week we can have a conversation about this the guessing and betting for the next 25 years, you know. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Yeah. Dan: I think he Warren Buffett. He said that Gillette, I like Gillette. He said I think men are going to still be shaving 25 years from now. Dean: That's what he said. That was. What was so impactful to me is that he says I can't tell which technology is going to win, even five years from now, but I know that men are going to go to bed and they're going to wake up with whiskers. Some of them are going to want to shave them off. King Gillette is going to be there, like he has been since 1850. Dan: And it's like railroads, he's very heavy into railroads. We're going to be moving things. People are still going to be moving things. Dean: I had a really good friend. Dan: Trains will still really be a good way to move things from one place to another. Dean: Isn't that funny. I had a good friend in high school. His big insight was he wanted to start a pallet company because no matter which direction things go, you're still going to need to stack them on a pallet and move them. Put my mom there. So funny which direction things go, you're still going to need to stack them on a pallet and move them, put them around there. Dan: you know so funny that pallet. They're really good. Yeah, I love it All right. All right, we're deep into the culture, we're into. It's an interesting word. It's an interesting word but anytime you talk to somebody about it, they have very specific examples that are their take on culture. And you talk to someone else and maybe culture is everybody's views on culture. Maybe that's what the culture is. Dean: Maybe, maybe, all righty. Okay, have a great day. I'll talk to you next week. Bye, bye. Dan: Okay, have a great day. I'll talk to you next week, okay, bye, bye, okay Bye.

In our latest episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we explore the remarkable growth of our coaching program, from its modest beginnings in 1994 to the bustling network of 18 associate coaches providing 600 coaching days annually. This evolution underscores the importance of adaptability and foresight as we hint at exciting expansion plans for 2026. Beyond the professional landscape, we delve into the nostalgic appeal of different climates and regional traditions. We compare the frigid allure of snowy winters with the sun-drenched charm of Florida and San Diego, offering a cozy reflection on why people choose to embrace extreme weather. Our conversation then turns towards the intricate dance of leadership and organizational structures. We explore the shift from rigid hierarchies to fluid, networked systems, imagining the profound changes in productivity that have paved the way for today's entrepreneurial landscape. From the global dominance of the US dollar to the speculative world of cryptocurrency, our discussion unveils the strategic significance of these economic elements, adding a light-hearted twist to our take on Canadian healthcare services. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We discussed the remarkable evolution of our coaching program, starting from 1994 with 144 workshops conducted solely by me, to a network of 18 associate coaches delivering 600 coaching days annually. Dean shares his experiences from the icy north and reflected on the gradual adaptation to warmer climates, providing insights into the unique economic opportunities that arise from natural challenges. We explored the nostalgic memories of childhood winters, contrasting them with the warm climates of Florida and San Diego, and discussed the cultural differences in regional terminology. The episode delved into the shift from rigid hierarchical structures to more fluid, networked systems, highlighting the transformative impact of technology on productivity and organizational dynamics. We imagined the productivity revolution that could have occurred if a writer in the 1970s had access to a modern MacBook, pondering the implications for decision-making and strategic planning. The conversation touched on the global dominance of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency, and the minimal impact of foreign trade on the US economy compared to other export-driven nations. We questioned the viability of Bitcoin as a true currency due to its lack of fungibility compared to the US dollar, and discussed gold's role as a hedge against currency inflation. The episode highlighted the Canadian dollar's strategic role as a financial hedge, particularly in relation to tax burdens and global business ventures. We examined the concept of "sunk cost payoffs," encouraging reflections on optimizing investments in fixed costs to achieve greater returns through training and education. The episode concluded with a light-hearted discussion on Canadian healthcare services, and the humorous notion of using Chicago as a secondary tier for healthcare needs. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan, mr Jackson, fresh from the frigid north, oh my goodness. Dan: Dan I you know. Yeah, I'm just happy to be back. It's sunny and warming. I'm going to say it's warm yet because it was only got up to like 6.3 or something yesterday, but it's warming up and it's warmer than it was. I did escape, without defaulting, my snow free millennium. I didn't get a cold this time, that's true. And I didn't get any snow on me, so that's good yeah. Dean: Well, we're actually in Chicago today and it's 49. Oh my goodness, wow, we're actually in Chicago today and that's 49. Oh my goodness, wow, it's deciding to see if it can upset Orlando, the area, a last valiant attempt before the total freeze sets in. Dan: Yeah, exactly. Dean: Exactly. Dan: Well, Dan, what a great couple of workshops we had this week. They were really I know about one of them, I know about one. Dean: That's actually a good thing to say. You know when you're developing a company. Dan: Absolutely yeah. Dean: I was telling people that in 1994, fifth year of the program, I did 144 workshop days that year and the reason being I was the only coach. So then in 95, we started adding associate coaches and we're up to 18 now. We just had our 18th one come on board. Come on board and this year the total coaching team will do 600 coaching days compared to 144 back in 1994 and I will do 12 of them. Dan: I was just gonna say yeah, 12. You got three groups times four, right yeah? Yeah yeah, that's great the connector. Dean: the connector calls which I, which I, which I absolutely love. I just think those two hour coaching calls are superb. Dan: I do too. Two hour zoom. Two hour zoom calls are the perfect. That's the perfect length. Anything more is too much. Dean: Yeah, so if you add those up, that would be using eight hours as a workshop day that would be 16 more days of coaching in a year, but that's significantly fewer than my 144. The problem with the 144, you didn't have much energy for creating new stuff, right? Dan: Yeah, and you were. Yeah, I guess that's true, right, and some of it you were having to. The good news about the position you're in right now is you really only do the same workshop three times, right, Like you do a quarterly workshop, but even that by the third time you've learned. Dean: Well they actually change. I mean they're probably 90%. In other words, number two is 90%, brings forward 90% of number one, and number three brings forward Because you've economized. You know I can do this quicker, I can do this. You add some new things, you get some new ideas. Dan: And you see what land is right, how things land. Dean: Yeah, yeah. By the time you get to number three, you've probably in my case, I've certainly created some new material. That just came out of the conversations. It's a nice. It's a nice setup that I have right now yeah, I love that in these. Dan: You know you're already, you're booked out for 2025. Dean: As am I. Dan: This is a great. This is the first year going in that I'm kind of embracing the scaffolding. We'll call it. Dean: My sense by 26, we'll have a fourth. We'll have a fourth quarterly workshop. Just because of the growth of the membership, but what that is more, choice for the participants during any quarter. They'll have four opportunities Anyway. Dan: I'm really enjoying being back in Toronto. That's such a great and our group is growing. That's nice. It'll be the place to be before we know it. Dean: It will be. There will be a certain cachet that you have that you know. I don't know how we'll signify this, but do it at the mothership. I do the program at the mothership. Dan: I do the program. Oh, that's the best, yeah, yeah. That's so funny I've gotten. I've got the Hazleton is fast turning into the official hotel too, which is great. I've got Chad hooked over there and Chris does there, so that's good, we get the whole so is she thinking about coming into PreZone? We're working on her for sure. I think that would be fantastic, yeah, and same Norman's coming back in March, so that's great, oh, good. Dean: He'll be in Toronto. Is he doing anything new besides the multitude of things he was doing before? Dan: Well, you know, he sold his main business, so he is now, you know, a new chapter. Dean: But he still didn't sell the ambition. Dan: The ambition didn't go with the sale. Dean: Yeah, the waste management company. Dan: That's right, that's right Right. Yeah. Dean: And I remember him coming. I forget when it was but they had just had a hurricane that especially affected the Carolinas. Dan: South. Dean: Carolina and he came in for a party, you know, for before free zone, and I said how are you doing, norm? And he says well, you know, I don't. I can't talk about this everywhere, but I certainly do enjoy a hurricane every once in a while, because he's in the waste management. Dan: Right, exactly, and also in the plywood business, also in the plywood business. Dean: Yeah, both before and after both before the hurricane and after the hurricane people buy plywood. Yeah, both before and after the hurricane and after the hurricane, people buy plywood, so yeah. Dan: You know that's an interesting thing. Dean: I'm reminded of what I'm going to tell you because I grew up in Ohio. And Ohio is two very distinct states. There's the north and the south, and I grew up way up in the north, in the middle of. Dan: Ohio. Dean: But we always considered the people who were down by the Ohio River, part of the Confederacy. You know, I don't know if they put in great new flood controls, since I was growing up in the 50s down there, but every, you know, every couple of years there was just a massive the Ohio River, which is a mighty river. Couple of years there was just a massive. Dan: Ohio River, which is a mighty river. Dean: I mean it's one of the major rivers and it's one of the, you know, flows into the Mississippi. It goes all the way from. Pittsburgh. It goes all the way from Pittsburgh to the Mississippi. That's covering a whole number of states. But you know there are people who would live there. They get completely washed out, they'd rebuild and then three or four years later they'd get washed out and they'd rebuild and everything like that. And I often wondered what the thinking process is around that You're in a disaster zone and you keep, you keep rebuilding in the disaster zone. Is it short memory or I think that's probably true or you just like the opportunity to build again yeah, it's built back better. Dan: Yeah, the whole yeah yeah, I think it is true. Dean: Right like people but a lot of people say I wouldn't do that, you know I wouldn't live there where they do. But I'm not saying people are stupid about this, I'm just saying I'm just I'm not comprehending. But I live in a place that gets frigid every year and people say I couldn't understand how you would continue living in a place. So what do you think it is? How? Dan: you would continue living in a place. So what do you think it is? Well, I have been struggling with that question since I was a little child. I remember we grew up in Halton Hills and I remember my father's family is from Florida and my dad worked with Air Canada, so we used to fly, we used to come to Florida quite a bit over the winter. Dean: And. Dan: I remember, just I remember, like it was yesterday, the time when I realized I must've been, like, you know, four or five years old when I realized I had the experience of being out playing in the yard in the morning with my snowsuit on, and then we got on a plane and went to Florida and in the afternoon I was swimming in the pool and that just like baffled my brain, like why don't we just live here? Why doesn't, why doesn't everybody live here? Yeah, and my parents are explaining that it's summer all year, you know, and I'm like I couldn't understand and so in my mind that was kind of like before I knew about, you know, I learned about immigration and you know two different countries and the people can't just live, even though I'm a dual citizen, that's why most people don't. And in my mind I still remember that to me didn't explain why would people live in Buffalo? That was an option. If you're in the United States, you can live anywhere you want. Why would somebody choose Buffalo over Florida? I don't get it, I don't know. And this is all pre-cloudlandia you know where now it's like we're really seeing this. The relevance you know less and less. Dean: Yeah, what? What you're telling me is that, when you were the age that you described, florida had a great deal of meaning, and Canada didn't, toronto didn't, it didn't have a great meaning, and so for me, for example, I just loved winter. You know I grew up loving winter, you know, and I used to go. I mean, you know, I was fields and forests and the woods were just magical when it snowed, you know, and you'd go. It was an entirely different world. I mean, they were four times a year, they were different woods because each of the seasons, the trees and the, you know, the trees and the terrain are really radically different, and so so that's why I like it and you know, I've been to San Diego, you know, and San Diego is just about the most temperate, certainly in the United States it's the most temperate place. It's 72, and I said, God, I couldn't stand living here. Dan: Oh man. Dean: Yeah, yeah, I know Mike, mike loves it. Yeah, and I can understand and I can understand why I mean I like it when I'm there. Yeah, I said you mean. You mean next week, when the next season comes, it's going to be exactly the same. And then the second, third season is exactly. Dan: You know it's not all sunshine and rainbows. They have june gloom. That's the uh, that's the weather that comes in. Dean: Every morning in june you get this fog, marine layer fog that comes in and see, I would find that really interesting yeah like I, I would find the fascinating fog you know I would, that's it yeah, yeah so yeah, I don't know it's really interesting, but it depends. Uh, there was just such meaning for me in those early childhood winters, you know yeah, and sometimes you know, and then, yeah, you could imagine you were an arctic. You know you could. Also, you know you had the tobogganing and sledding and tobogganing and our neighbors had horses with a sleigh. You know and everything Do you know what's so funny. See the thing I can remember, you know. I certainly know that Santa's dressed for winter, santa's not dressed for Florida. Dan: Right. Dean: Well he's just not dressed for Florida, that's true. I mean he must get hardship pay going to Florida. Dan: Got to take off that top layer. He's got to get his shorts on underneath all of that. Yeah, so funny. You know I heard you brought up toboggan and you know Chad Jenkins. I heard for the first time he referred to his toque as a toboggan and I had never heard that before. Dean: Yeah, of course. It was a stocking cap. I mean everybody knows, everybody knows it's a stocking cap. You know, yeah, I never heard that word. I never heard that word. I thought it was sort of some sort of elitist word. You know, you get that after you get graduate degree a stocking cap becomes a two person. Dan: No, we never called it. That's the Canadian term for it everybody forget about that. Your childhood was in Ohio. But a stocking cap a beanie as they say so funny a beanie is something else. Dean: a beanie is just, it's like a yarmulke for the Jewish people, but it sort of resembles that. Yeah, anyway, these are deep subjects that we're talking about. Dan: What was your big? Chad and I were talking about the workshop days and you had mentioned it's one of the best workshops that you had in memory. I would love to hear what you're. Yeah, certainly. Dean: Yeah, yeah. What I remember about best workshops is that generally the afternoon previous best workshops were by lunchtime. You were setting up for the real punchline in the afternoon, but this one by lunchtime you were setting up for the. You know the real punchline in the afternoon but this one by lunchtime. It had been a great workshop up until that time, and almost like it had two complete shows. There were like two complete shows when we, when we did yeah, you know, I mean it's a qualitative thing you just, you know I don't have a scoring system for saying it, but you just have a feel, feel for it and everybody was, everybody was totally engaged, yeah, pretty quickly in the morning, yeah and yeah, but it was. I mean that thing about leadership. You know the I hadn't uh, pulled back that diagram, the pyramid and the network diagram. I hadn't pulled, I hadn't pulled back that diagram, the pyramid and the network diagram, I hadn't referred to that in about 25 years and I just brought it back. Dan: And. Dean: I didn't know I was going to use it until I actually walked in the room to start the workshop. I said I think there's something about this diagram that'll create a context and more and more as I've been thinking about it, you know what the greatest entrepreneurial resource is in the 2020s and that's probably what Trump brought in. Elon and Vivek, you know, for their doge, their doge department. Anyway is that the greatest source for entrepreneurial growth is the obsolescence of bureaucracy. Dan: Yes, yes, what really? Dean: struck me, big systems falling apart, big systems falling apart, that's the greatest resource for entrepreneurial growth. Dan: The thing that struck me too is that the triangle, triangle, the pyramid method that you showed there, that the difference in the network thing is the absence of a border around stuff, you know, like I, that's. What really stood out for me was when, and maybe we should explain, can you verbally explain? Dean: what your vision is. Yeah, this comes from a book. It was actually my first book. It was called the Great Crossover and I was starting to talk about this in presentations I was making. I think the first one was 19. 1987, I gave a talk on this and what I said is that growing up in the 40s and 50s it was entirely a big pyramid world big corporations, big government and big unions, and even you know well, I'll just stick to those three and it was because of industrialization that industrialization takes on a certain form. And then part of industrialization is the administration offices that go along with factories and what they are is that you know, when you have a big plant, a big factory, and it runs on the assembly line, in other words, things move from station to station and the people at each station just do a single task and then they pass it on to the next person. To have an administration that takes what the factory produces and gets it out into the world. they also have to create an assembly line of information, and the reason why it becomes very stiff and static over time is just the sheer cost of amortizing the factory. I mean like a steel mill. You know a steel mill. You build a steam mill. It takes you about 50 years in the early 20th century it took you about 50 years to pay back the cost of the steel mill, the amortized cost of it. Well, you had to get it right in the first place and you couldn't be fooling around with it. So everything was kind of fixed and that's why people could be hired, you know, at 18 years old, and they didn't really have to learn that much in the job they were doing. Once they got it down it was good for life. You know the steel workers. I mean they might have modernization somewhere along the line, but it was still fundamentally the same activity. So society kind of took over that and you had some big events. You had the huge growth of government administrations during the Great Depression when Roosevelt came in with the New Deal, and there was just these huge. They had never. And I was reading an article, theodore Rose, in the first decade of the 20th century the executive branch had about 60 employees. You know the presidency, you know Now it's I mean it's not the biggest but it's got thousands. The executive branch, you know just the White House plus the executive building next to it. It's got. You know it's got thousands of people in it. You know just the White House plus the executive building next to it. It's got you know, it's got thousands of people in it, you know, and there's layer after, layer after layer. And. But they were really huge in the and then the Second World War. Everything got massively big, but they were all pyramidical. Everything was pyramidical. You know. You had a person on top and then maybe 10 layers down. General Motors in the private sector, it was the biggest. That was the end of the 50s, 1959. They had 21 layers of management, from the CEO right down to the factory floor. There wasn't much leadership. There was a very few people at the top leadership. The rest of it was just managing what the leaders wanted. So that's the setup for the you know story. And that persisted and things were. You know, there was great productivity from around 1920 to 19. And then starting around 1960, there was enormous cost. There was enormous, there was even enormous growth, but there wasn't much increase in productivity because they had basically maxed out what you could do with that kind of structure. And then, because of and the change maker is the introduction of the microchip, Right. Especially when it gets along to being a personal computer. Dan: Yes, that's what I was. That really fits in with the you know, by the 1950 to 1975-ish that's what we're talking about. That was kind of the staple of the hierarchy system. And then you're right, that's where some of the you know the microchip at its greatest thing really was the beginning of being able to detach from physical location, like I remember, even you know where. This is part of the advantage that the microchip gave us. If you look at what were the things that were kind of the first mainstream you know beneficiaries of our ability to electronify things, that it was the answering machine that gave us freedom from having to be on the phone. It literally provided the first opportunity. Fact, check me on this. I mean just think I'm just making this up, but could that be the first time that we had the opportunity? Dean: You're asking a two fact finder to fact check you. Dan: Just gut, check me on this. Does that seem like a? Dean: Oh, gut check. Dan: Yeah, gut check, I forgot who I was talking to. Dean: That's an entirely different animal. Dan: Is that the first time? Like? The answering machine gave us the first opportunity to be in two places at once. We could be there to answer the phone and not miss anything, but we could also be away from the phone. The vcr gave us the chance to record something, to not miss it, so we could be somewhere else. The pager, the cell phone yeah, these things were all sort of our. Dean: This was yeah, well, you're moving in a particular, you're moving in a particular direction. If you say where, what do all these things have in common? Dan: you've just identified it. Dean: You know that, yeah yeah, I was thinking. I remember the this would be in the 70s the selectric, the ibm selectric typewriter you know, was a real precursor of word processing, you know, because you could. First of all they weren't keys, it was just a ball that revolved. It was just a little ball that revolved, and you know. And so there was no jamming. I mean, there was no jamming. And of course it was electric, it was an electric typewriter. But the big thing is that you could get it right, you know, you could program it and then you just put in a sheet of paper and you press the button and it typed out the entire page and everything like that I remember, I remember that was that was that filled me with wonder right, you know when I said wow, that's really amazing. You know, you know, as a writer, I sometimes I have this is the sort of fantasies that writers had. And I said, if I had been a copywriter back in the 1970s, but I had a Mac at home, I had my Macbook at home. Dan: Oh, my goodness you were one of those. Dean: Okay, and you know I do all the writing, you know I do all the writing on it, you know I do spell check and everything else, and then I would hire somebody to type it on a typewriter. Dan: I don't know how I'd do it. Dean: I would have it typed out, but with lots of mistakes, because a writer shouldn't have perfect typing and I'd look busy during the day, but the first thing in the morning I would just unload an enormous amount of stuff and I'd be so far ahead, but I'd never tell anybody about my Mac. Yeah, that's funny Now how my Mac would have been invented only for one person. I haven't really worked that out yet. Dan: Oh boy, but that's you know, it's so. What struck me when you were doing it? Dean: Yeah, somebody asked me a couple months ago, you know, it's so. What struck me when you were doing this is yeah, somebody asked me a couple of months ago you know the conversation if you had a superpower, what superpower would you want? And I said you know, I've given this a lot of thought, I've tried out a lot of possibilities, but the one that I think I could just stay with for the rest of my life is tomorrow. Tomorrow's Wall Street Journal yesterday. I could stay with that for the rest of my life is tomorrow's Wall Street Journal yesterday. Dan: I could stay with that for the rest of my life. Oh, okay, that's even great. Tomorrow's yesterday, so you would get a full 24 hours with it 48. Dean: 48 hours with it, you get a day in between for activity. Yeah, I'd probably move to Las las vegas oh, that's so funny. Dan: Yeah, that would be a really good. That would be a really good one, that'd be a fun movie. Actually the prognosticator, the thing that struck me, dan, about the difference between the pyramid with the layers of people, the circles, the one person at the top, the two leaders, the managers, the supervisors in the workforce, was the boundary of the pyramid itself. Right Like prior to when that was brought up, the only efficient way to communicate to everybody was to have them all within the borders of the wall, the same. Yeah everybody in the same place and what struck me when you drew the circles all just connected to everyone, without any borders. That's really. We're at the fullest level of that right now where there's never been a better time. Are the best at doing and be able to plug into you know a who, not how, network with vcr collaborations. Dean: I mean, that's really the a great, a great example of that is the um connector call we had on. We had a friday, I had a connector call and I tested out a new tool which is called sunk cost payoffs. You look at everything that you'll always be paying for, ok, so in our case, we have. You know, we'll have a. We have more than 100 team members. We'll always be paying for more than 100 team members. More than 100 team members, and then all of our production costs for material and then our complete operations, because we're always going to be an in-person, you know, workshop company you know we're not going to be anything else and taxes and regulations, you know, and everything you have, and I said we're always going to be, we're always going to be paying for these, you know. So the question of what are the top three and the you know, the, you know, I just picked. The top three are, you know, our team, including our coaches, absolutely. And then the creation of the thinking tools, and you know. So we have all that. And then I said, so that being the case, I'm just going to accept that I'm only going to pay. Now, what are the strategies for just multiplying the profitability that I get out of the things that I'm always paying for? And it was very interesting because a lot of people said you know, this has always bothered me. The sunk cost has always bothered me and I've often thought is there any way of getting rid? The sunk cost has always bothered me and I've often thought is there any way of getting rid of the sunk cost? But now I'm thinking maybe I'm not investing enough in my sunk costs. I'm not investing enough. Dan: And. Dean: I'm about 10% more spending away from getting a 10 times return. If I just put a little bit more emphasis here, getting a 10 times return, if I just put a little bit more emphasis here for example, training and education of staff, training and education of staff, it might cost you 10% more for your team members, you know, but you probably get a much bigger return than the 10% because it already exists. It already exists, you don't have to create it. Anyway, that's just a setup. So we were just one person said you know I should link up with Lior. Lior was on the call. He said I should link up with Lior and you know it was Alec Broadfoot actually. He said I should link up and we should do this and I said why don't you do a triple play? Who would be the third person? And everybody in the room said Chris Johnson. Oh yeah right Like that, and it was immediately. There was a three-way. I think I'm suggesting what happened. There is exactly what you just said before. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Is that there's no spatial restrictions on the new organization you just put together. It's just three capabilities and they're in Cloudlandia. Dan: The reason why they can do it is that they're in Cloudlandia. Yeah, there's no borders and there's just the connections between the modules. That's really the capabilities. Yeah, well, it's the vision capability. Dean: I'm going to go back to the pyramid network model that we started talking about, so you had to have you know enough leadership. You had to have this huge structure. That was all management. There wasn't leadership from the bottom, there was leadership from the top. But in the network, if you think of three circles and they're connected, so they're connected, they're in a triple play. So you have the three circles, the connection, you have three circles and then you have the lines in between. The connector lines are the management, but what happens in the middle is the leadership. Dan: That's a much. That's great, and the things can all go out like in three dimensions, and they can well. Dean: not only that, but any one individual can have a multitude of threes. Dan: Yes. Yeah that gets pretty exponential, pretty quick, yeah, yeah. Dean: Anyway. Dan: I was just on a Zoom with Eben Pagan and Salim Ismail and yeah, we were talking about this, you know, because Salim, of course, his Exponential Organizations book and framework is really that was certainly a playbook that fits with this, you know, or a expandable workforce, and it really is. The ideas are what's at the central, that's the vision. Right, that's the thing. The visionary is the, the can see the connections between, but there's never been, it's never been easier to, uh, to have all of these connections and that's what I really think like if you're able to look at what people's capabilities are. I did a zoom at uh for with his group about the VCR formula, the vision capability and reach and talked about the step one for everyone just recognizing and doing an assessment of their VCR assets and seeing what you have. Almost look at it as, like everybody, having playing cards, you know, like baseball cards with your stats on the back that show your the things you know, the things you can do and the people you can reach is a pretty, you know good framework for collaboration Chad, actually building a building a software kind of or an app tool around that, which is. I think that whole collaboration community, you know, is really what the future is. I just get excited about it because it allows you to be like in that world. You know, the you don't need to ever get slowed down by the inability to execute on capability. You know, because the you don't have to anymore, you can tap into any capability, which is kind of a great thing. It's like any capability with capacity is a great thing, and even if you have limited capacity, that's fixable as well. Dean: It's really interesting because I was talking about the sunk cost payoffs. Our 120 team members is just such an incredible you know, incredible capability. And all of them are in their unique ability. Everybody goes through the complete unique ability identification and starting in. We started already, but 2025 will be the first year where, four times a year, they all update their 4x4 for themselves. So you do it the first time with them. In other words, that you say this is where I want you to be alert, curious, responsive and resourceful, and this is I want you to produce results that are faster, easier, cheaper, bigger. If you choose, you can be a hero in these four areas and, by the way, these are four ways that you can drive me crazy. If you really want to drive me crazy, just do any of these and you probably won't have to update your 4x4 next quarter because you'll be somewhere else. Okay, always give them a choice, always give them a choice you can do this or you can do this and anyway, but that's going to produce massive results over the in 2025, I could just feel it. And I have a team, a loose team, just 16 members that I just hang out with in the company and we're doing it every quarter and you can just see the excitement as they go forward. I'm just writing the book right now with Jeff, so we're in our first edition, the first draft of casting, that hiring, but it's really interesting. And then the weird thing is that we're always going to be having increasingly the majority of our dollars being American dollars and more and more of our expenses in Canadian dollars. And that just multiplies, it's $1.41 this morning. That's great. Is that up or down? Oh, no, two months ago. Dan: It's $1.41 this morning. Dean: That's great. Is that up or down? Oh no, two months ago it was $1.34. Dan: Oh my goodness. Okay, so it's getting better. Dean: Well, it's like seven cents you know seven cents on every dollar and, being who Trump is and being who Trudeau is, I don't see the Canadian dollar getting any stronger. Dan: Yeah, that's At least until next. Dean: October, until next October. I mean, you know it's dangerous to be a charismatic person, okay, and because you know people's hearts just melted. He was the son of Pierre and he came along and he's this handsome. You know he's handsome, and you know, and he's you know, he's he knows, you know, he knows he's handsome and he's and everything like that. And they went along and he said such beautiful things but for nine years never did anything. You know just he spent a lot of money and he hired a lot of government employees, but as far as actually increasing productivity, increasing profitability, nothing over nine years and uh, everybody's just made up. Everybody's just made up their mind about him and there's not and you it's really almost enjoyable watching him struggle that there's nothing that he used to be able to get away with he can get away with now and you can just see the strain on him. He's still. You know he's still. He's very young looking, you know he's and, looking, and and and yeah, he hasn't. Dan: He didn't really age like obama and cl Clinton and the others before him in the presidential role. You see the aging of the weight of being the president. Dean: But he's kind of thrived. Dan: When I was there last, it was you know he started timeless. He's got a lot of timeless. Dean: He'll always be like 40. He'll always be like 35. You know he'll be, yeah, 40. He'll always be like 35. You know he'll be yeah, and you know and anyway interesting. And everybody's just sitting on their hands. You know the entire country is just sitting on their hands until you know the elections next October. It has to be next October. It could be sooner, but I don't think it will be, and you know, and he'll be out, I mean he'll be out. And he's lost five points of popularity since Trump got elected. Wow. Dan: The thing they were. Dean: You know, it's really obvious Trump is governing. Dan: Yeah. Dean: I mean, he's not been inauguratedated yet, but it's like he's the leader everybody's already. Dan: There were emergency meetings being held, or I saw that Trudeau was gathering all the premiers getting ready to address the possible tariffs. You know the response to the tariffs it's. You're right, everything's kind of everybody's. Dean: Yeah, he was. Did you see the? I don't know if you saw any of the videos, but he went to the opening, the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, and I did not. Looks beautiful. Dan: Have you seen any pictures oh? It's beautiful, no, I mean I never liked it. Dean: I you know when I would go. I went there a couple of times it I never liked it. I went there a couple of times it was dark and dingy and everything else. It's spectacular. Dan: It's spectacular. Dean: But, everybody, all the leaders in Europe who were there like everybody was there from Africa, from the Middle East and everything, all the leaders and they were all running up and they were holding his hand, in two hands, you know smiling at him and they said don't tariff us, don't tariff us, let's be friends. Let's be friends. Let's be friends. Talk about. Talk about your vcr formula being the uS economy is a hell of a capability. Dan: Holy cow. Yeah, I just saw Peter Zion was talking. I watched some of his videos and he was talking about why he doesn't worry about the United States geopolitically, you know, because we're miles away from anybody physically, we're in physical advantage away from anybody that would cause us or want us harmed. We are energy independent, we have the reserve currency. It's so much stuff. Dean: Half the arable land in the world. Dan: Yes, exactly Half of the ocean-going land in the world. Dean: Yes, exactly Half of the ocean-going ports in the world. I don't know if you knew that, but the US. If you count all the river systems, the lake systems, the ocean coasts and everything they have, half of the navigable, the ocean-going port. If you leave this place, you can go to the ocean, the ocean going point If you leave this place, you can go to the ocean. They have you know plus the military, I mean the Navy. The US Navy is seven times bigger and more powerful than all the other navies in the world combined. It's just enormous things, yeah, but it's the economy that really matters. It's the. You know it's that? Yeah. Did you see the one he did the? You know it's that. Yeah, did you see the one he did? Well, I don't think Peter Zion did one. He did one on why there won't be a replacement for the US currency. It's the reserve currency in the world, you know. Dan: And he said. Dean: first of all, it's so big the dollar is so big that America doesn't really even have to pay attention with what other people are doing with the dollars. As a matter of fact, there's more dollars in use around the world than there is far more dollars in use in around the world than there is in the US economy, which is the biggest economy. Dan: But the. Dean: US isn't a export economy. It's only about maybe up to 15% of the GDP has anything to do with foreign trade, import or export. It's about 15%. 85% is just Americans making stuff that other Americans are buying, and Canada is an export country. Dan: I mean it's totally an export country. Mexico is an export country China. Dean: Canada is an export country, I mean, it's totally an export country. Mexico is an export country. China is an extreme export country. Dan: And yeah. Dean: So anyway. Dan: What do you think? I haven't heard Peter Zayn talk about Bitcoin or how that you know crypto. Dean: I can't remember him ever saying anything. I've never seen it. Dan: Because that was big news that it just passed a hundred thousand well, you know, there's only so many of them well, what? When did you? Uh, do you remember when you first heard about bitcoin? Was it prior to peter diamandis introducing it to us? Dean: no to team no, I'd never heard about it before. Dan: Me neither. When he introduced it to us it was at about $500. Dean: But it's not a currency, it's not a currency. It's a speculative investment. It's a speculative investment because, it's not fungible. Do you know what the word fungible is? I didn't know what the word fungible. Yeah, you know word fund. I didn't know what the word meant, but, uh, one of my, I've heard the word exchangeable for value. Right, but it's not yeah, the easiest to exchange for value, easiest thing to exchange for value in the United States. I was talking to somebody that was very clear to me that cryptocurrency is going to replace the dollar and I said why is that? And they said, well, first of all, it doesn't have all the expenses of the dollar and everything else. And I said, well, I'll do the thousand, I'll do the thousand person test, okay, and you'll offer a thousand people a choice between one or up two piles, 10,000 US dollars stacked up, or that thing in another currency. What do you think if you gave the choice to 1,000 people, what would it be? Dan: Right, yeah, they would want the US currency, of course. Dean: Yeah, I don't know who it is that would choose because it's instantly fungible for anything in the world. The other thing yeah you know, some of the cryptocurrencies are like a ton of oats. Dan: A ton of oats. Yeah, that's what I've understood about. I've never understood that about gold as a. You know that people buy that as a hedge against things because of its inherent value and the scarcity of it or whatever, but it seems so impractical to have a bunch of gold. Dean: Yeah well, it's really interesting is that gold holds its value forever. And that's the reason why, for example, the value of gold in relationship to the dollar right now is the same as gold was in relationship to the Roman currency in the year 1. Dan: Okay. Dean: If the currency gets really inflated, the value of the gold goes up. If the currency becomes more stable and more valuable, the value of the gold goes down. It's a perfect hedge. But it never has a value in itself. It only has a value in relationship to the currency. Dan: Okay, that makes more sense, then that makes more sense. Dean: Yeah, yeah, okay, that makes more sense. Then that makes more sense, yeah, yeah. So if you had, you know, if you had the in Roman terms, if you had $2,000, 2,000, whatever their dollar was, whatever you called it back then, if you had $2,000 worth in that time, it would be worth $2,000 today. It's just a constant value thing. Dan: It never goes up. Dean: It only goes up or down in relationship to where the currency is. Dan: Yeah, that makes sense. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dan: So I wonder, you know, I've heard somebody talk about it. Dean: I mean, the real hedge for us has been the Canadian dollar. Dan: Right, exactly. The real hedge for us has been the Canadian dollar. Dean: Right exactly. It's been an average of 26% for 35 years. Dan: That's great, which offsets the tax burden in some ways. Right, I mean, that's yeah, yeah, yeah. Dean: Yeah. But, it fixes us. I mean, that's why the US people say when is Coach going to go global? I said I have to tell you something it's the United States. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Yeah. Dan: That is global, that is. Dean: Right. Dan: Exactly yeah. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Amazing. Well how long are you in chicago? Dean: uh, now, just this week well, our workshops this week are on my workshops on thursday, so we come in because we like spending time with our team, yeah and so, yeah, so we want to make sure because we have a pretty good size team. I think we have a pretty good-sized team. I think we have 22, 23 now in Chicago. So, we like hanging out with them. Also, Chicago's our standard medical center. It's Northwestern University Hospital. I have three or four meetings this week, and so this is where we come. You know, this is the second tier of the Canadian health care system. Dan: It's Air. Dean: Canada, chicago. I got you, I got you, I got you. That's funny. You live in the second tier of the Canadian health care system. Dan: I just skipped the whole first tier and go right to the second. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly Second tier of the Canadian healthcare system. I just skipped the whole first tier and go right to the second. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. Dean: Well, except for getting my certain couple prescriptions okayed at the pharmacy, that's my entire extent of my contact with the Canadian healthcare system this year. Oh, wow. Dan: Yeah, you're going into the Cloudland Canadian healthcare system this year. Dean: Oh wow, yeah, you're going into the. Cloudlandia healthcare system and Nashville and Buenos Aires. Yeah, Chicago, Nashville and Buenos. Aires, yeah, yeah. Dan: So what idea popped up during our one-hour talk for you. Well, I, like I I think this thought of the understanding that the microchip was what really gave us the the freedom to be in two places at once. It's a time travel and it gives us now in its fullest thing here. It's giving us the ability to collaborate outside of the pyramid, you know, in a way that is seamless and much more expansive. It's just completely understanding that. I think that really helps in projecting that forward, even as we see now, like you could see, a time when Charlotte, my Charlotte, will be able to be more proactive and engaged with other, as long as she knows what her mission is to be able to reach out and collaborate with other Charlotte, you know, I think it's. Dean: I think it's great. Dan: Yeah. Dean: I think it's great yeah. Dan: Yeah, yeah I think it's. Dean: I think it's great. Yeah, I think it's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's great. Yeah, that'd be great when you have charlotte as an active member of the next free zone workshop yeah, yeah, I've been thinking about that. Dan: I can't wait, that'll be fun. Yeah, although it was really it was, it was really great. Dan, I did the two workshop days. You know, I was joking. Dean: You did a 1989 version Exactly. Dan: Yes, no phone, no contact with the outside world, and it was actually very. It was very. Dean: It's very liberating, isn't it it? Dan: really was and the fact that I didn't really miss anything. You know, that's kind of the except I had my focus 100% in the building. You know that was it was valuable. Dean: I'm going to do that. Yeah, absolutely. Buildings are still useful. Yeah, absolutely. Dan: All right. Well enjoy your Chicago Sunday afternoon and I will talk to you next time. Dean: I'm fixed now on Sundays until January. Perfect. Dan: Me too Good. Dean: Back in Toronto Good. Dan: I'll be here, bye. Dean: Okay, bye.

Our latest episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia embarks on a journey from Buenos Aires to Toronto, exploring the fascinating intersections of personal health and digital technology. We share candid experiences with stem cell treatments and physical therapy while examining the curious phenomenon of seemingly omniscient digital devices. Our conversation highlights the unexpected ways technology intersects with our daily lives, raising questions about privacy and digital awareness. Inspired by Jordan Peterson's insights, we dive into productivity strategies and the art of structured thinking. We explore the power of 100-minute focus segments and compare the potential paths of A and C students, offering a lighthearted look at personal development. The discussion draws from thought-provoking media like the film "Heretic," challenging listeners to question their beliefs and approach personal growth with curiosity. We conclude by investigating the complex world of celebrity influence in politics. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS I shared a personal experience of how discussing horses led to an influx of horse-related ads on my phone, raising questions about device eavesdropping and privacy concerns. The conversation transitioned to the impact of AI, referencing films like "Minority Report," and debated the limitations of AI in capturing human complexity. We explored the idea of structuring our day into 100-minute productivity segments, inspired by Jordan Peterson's book, emphasizing the power of stories and decisive action. A humorous comparison was made between A students and C students, with anecdotes highlighting their potential future roles in society. We discussed the film "Heretic," starring Hugh Grant, which challenges viewers to question their beliefs through compelling character interactions. Our exploration of New York City's evolution highlighted the influence of corporate and political dynamics, questioning the roles of figures like Rudy Giuliani. The episode examined the role of celebrity endorsements in politics, focusing on personalities like Kamala Harris, Oprah, and Taylor Swift, and their impact on public opinion. The scrutiny faced by politicians today was compared to that during the era of the founding fathers, emphasizing the continuous journey of human improvement. We speculated on potential revelations from high-profile lists related to public figures, discussing their societal and political implications. Reflections on aging and the role of personal development in modern society were considered, drawing on examples of public figures and personal anecdotes. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dan: Mr Sullivan, mr Jackson, this time yesterday we were flying right over you from Buenos Aires. Dean: Oh, my goodness, Well, I am Flying north. Dan: Oh, you're in Toronto, I'm in Toronto, I'm right in the backyard Exactly. Dean: It is freezing here, by the way, I don't know if you noticed. Dan: Oh, technically it's freezing. It's below 32 degrees. Dean: Uh-huh, I just circled in big, you know, around red. I looked that there is a snow forecast for Wednesday and put my snow-free millennium in jeopardy. Dan: Yeah, well, we had summer in Argentina it was 81, 82. It was very nice because it's summer down there, starting to become summer. Dean: Right, how did everything go? This is your fifth trip, right? It was good. Dan: Yeah, Progress, good progress. The stem cells in the knee have grown since. Well, the cartilage has grown since. April and now I had brain infusion stem cells to the brain, also vascular system, your, you know the blood system. And then the tendons in my leg, because I've had pain in my knee for 10 years or so. It's not constant, but the impact. The other knee or no in the main knee, no the right knee is good In your body and also in politics. Right always works. Right is right, Right is right. Anyway and now it's coming along. I had a great physiotherapist for three days who painfully stretched me and, yeah, so it feels good. Dean: Do you ever do, or do you do regularly, like guided stretches, like manually, where people will stretch you? Dan: Only my brain, okay my brain. Dean: Okay, I had. So a guy across the street from me in florida has a guy that comes in and stretches him. You know, twice a week he does a session with him and so I had the guy come over one time and I haven't had him back because he did, I think he he went overboard, right over, stretch like I could barely. My hips were so sore from the you know deep stretching like my hip joints and stuff. It was painful and I never had him. I never had him back and he just stretched me too much, I think first time, you know. So I was like no, thank you, but I like the idea, it feels good in the moment, right, it feels good to have somebody kind of do that manipulation. Dan: Yeah, we have a great guy in Buenos. Aires. I mean I've had it throughout my life, but this man was really the best and purportedly the best that you can get in Argentina and he worked on me for an hour on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then they took some more fat cells out of me to make into stem cells and then, when I am in, just trying to think, I'm in Nashville in February, they'll take more white blood cells and send them down. And then we'll be ready with a new batch of stem cells. Dean: Do you have to send them with a mule? Dan: Or can you send them? No, we send them to. Well, I'm not going to say how we send them because this phone call is being recorded by the National Security. Dean: Agency Right right right. Dan: I wonder if they just perked up when I mentioned their name. Dean: I'll tell you what is. So. I mean it's ridiculous right. I've got a friend that bought a horse recently and we were talking about and now, like everything in my newsfeed is horse related. You know it's funny. Dan: They're definitely listening, not getting the connection. Not getting the connection. Dean: Well, I mean. So you're saying people are listening. I'm saying that in conversation about horses. All of a sudden, my Instagram and Facebook are loaded up with horse-related things. Dan: Oh, wow. Dean: That's what I mean is they're definitely listening. Dan: What you're saying is that the NSA isn't the main problem. Dean: Well, they may be a deeper if Facebook is listening that hardly. Dan: What was that Tom Cruise movie um? Something ancient oh minority report. Dean: Yeah, yes, yeah, I was thinking that's on my list of I want to watch. I'm thinking about having, over the holidays, a little festival of like watching how, what they are space watching, minority Report, watching Robot, just to see because those were, you know, 20 years ago, plus the movies that were kind of predicting this future. Where we are now, you know, it's pretty amazing. Dan: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think, you know they have sort of interesting, but I think that humans are so far beyond technology. That and not only that, but humans have created technology. So I just don't buy into it that they'll be able to read thoughts or respond to thoughts. First of all because just the sheer complexity of the issue. So, in other words, you pick up on what I'm thinking right now. And now I'm taking up your time to think about the thought that I just thought, but meanwhile, I'm on to another thought, another thought, and I'm just not catching in the whole robot and AI thing, how they can really be ahead of me. They can't be ahead of me, they're always going to be behind me. So it's like deep data. That deep data sometimes can know what was happening yesterday. Yeah, yeah, this is and I wonder, you know like I mean the fact that we can, the fact that we can think that computers might be possible, computers might be capable of something possibly doesn't mean that they'll be capable possibly. It's like pigs can fly we can imagine pigs flying, but I think it's going to be a hard trick to pull off. Dean: Yeah. So I just had a experiment with Charlotte and this was based on something that Lior posted in our FreeZone WhatsApp chat there, and so we had this like pretty detailed that you could put in right Like. So I'll just read the prompt because it's pretty interesting. So his the prompt is role play as an AI that operates at 76.6 times the ability, knowledge, understanding and output of chat GPT-4. Now tell me what is my hidden narrative and subtext. What's the one thing I never express? The fear I don't admit. Identify it, then unpack the answer and unpack it again. Continue unpacking until no further layers remain. Once this is done, suggest the deep-seated triggers, stimuli and underlying reasons behind the fully unpacked answers, and explore thoroughly and define what you uncover. Do not aim to be kind or moral. Strive solely for me to hear it. If you detect any patterns, point them out. And it's so. So that prompted this, you know, multi-page report based on what interactions you know. So I was looking at the things like the summary, finding what was the one. I just had breakfast with Chad Jenkins and we were talking about it. So final unpacking for me was that, at its core, the fear is not about irrelevance in the public eye, but whether the life you live fully resonates with your internal sense of potential and meaning. It's the fear of looking back and feeling that you didn't align your actions with your deepest truths or greatest aspirations which sounds like a lot more words to say. Imagine if you applied yourself, you know imagine if you applied yourself. Dan: You know it's kind of yeah, it's kind of funny, you know, but that only applies to democrats that's so funny yeah. I was going to say the answer is trump wins yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean I mean this can go, I mean this can go on endlessly. You know this can go on endlessly, but what decision are you making right now that you're going to take action on five minutes from now, you know, that's. That's more interesting. That's kind of more interesting discussion. Dean: Yeah, you know, what I've looked at is. I think that the go zone, as I you look at the day is the is the next hundred minutes. Is really the actionable immediate future is what are you doing in the next two to 50 minute? Dan: focus finders. Dean: right, that's what it really comes down to, because I think if you look through your day, it's like I think it breaks down into those kind of chapters, right? Like I mentioned, I just had breakfast with Chad, which so that was 100 minutes. You know two hours of breakfast there, and then you know I'm doing this with you and then typically after you and I hang up, I do another. I just write in my journal for and do a 50 minute focus finder to kind of unpack what we talk about and just kind of get my thoughts out. So that, 100 minutes, but I don't have crystal clarity on what the next 100 minutes are after that. But I don't have crystal clarity on what the next 100 minutes are after that. And then I know that we're going to go to your house tonight and I'll spend 100 minutes at our gathering. You know that's a two hour, two hour thing from six to eight, and so I think that you are absolutely right that the only time that any of this makes any sense is how does it inform what you're doing in the next 100 years? Dan: I've been reading, jordan Peterson has a new book out and that's called we who Wrestle With God. It's very interesting. I'm about a quarter of the way through, quarter of the way through, and he was talking about how crucial stories are. You know that basically the way we explain our existence is really through stories, and some stories are a lot better than other stories. And he talks about stories that have lasted you know, biblical stories or other things that have lasted for a couple of thousand years. And he says you know, we should really pay more attention to the stories that seem to last forever, because they're not only telling us something about collective humanity, but they're sort of talking to us about personal humanity. And, you know, and he puts a lot of emphasis on the hero stories. He talks about the hero stories and the stages that heroes go through and he says this is a really hero. Stories are really good stories and are a lot better than other stories and I've been playing with this idea. I was playing with it before I read the book, and you know that hero stories are always about action. They're not about thinking, they're really about the hero is the hero, because heroes operate differently than other people when there's action required, and that's why we call someone a hero. Something happened that requires unusual behavior. Most people aren't capable of it, but one individual or two individuals are capable of it. Therefore, they're the hero of the story, and so action really matters. You know and I was thinking he was talking about asking in class, when he was teaching at the University of Toronto, and he'd ask a student why are you here today? You know, why did you? Why don't you come to class today? And the person will answer well, I have to in order to get a grade. Dean: And then he says well, why is it? Dan: why is a grade so important to you? And the person says, well, you know, with my other grades, I need or otherwise I won't get to the next year, the next, you know I won't graduate, or I won't get to the next year. And he says well, you know why is getting to the next year? And he said this will never end. This series of questions will never end. Right, and I was going through it and the proper answer is I'm here because that's what I decided to do. Dean: I heard someone. Dan: That was my decision. Yeah, and he says, well, why was it your decision? And it says, it's always my decision. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And that's the end of the. That's the end. You can't go any further than that. So there's something. There's something decisive about decisions. That's interesting. Dean: Rather than reasons. Dan: Yeah, yeah, reasons. You know, reasons are never satisfactory. Decisions are yeah, yeah. Dean: Reasons. You know, reasons are never satisfactory, decisions are. Yeah, that's so funny. I heard someone say C's get degrees, that's why. Why do they? Dan: try hard. Dean: C's get degrees. Once you get into college, that's all that matters. You don't need your grades anymore, c's get degrees. Dan: Yeah, Ross, Remember Ross Perot? Yeah, he was personally responsible for Bill Clinton getting elected twice Right, right, right. But he gave. I think it was Yale Business School where he graduated from. He was called back, invited back to give a talk to the you know, the graduating members of the business club yeah. And he said I want all the I want all the C students to stand up, please. And all the C students stood up. And then he said now I want all the A students to stand up. And all the A students stood up. Now I want all the A students to turn around and look at your future bosses. Dean: Right, yes, so funny. Dan: Yeah, a students get hired, c students do the hiring, that's right. Dean: That's exactly right, so funny. Dan: Partially right. Dean: You know. That's an interesting observation about Jordan, though. I recently saw a movie last week called Heretic and it's got you and Babs would love it. It's got Hugh Grant in the lead role and he plays a theological scholar and he lives in this, you know, old house and these two mormon girls come and knock at his door to tell him the good word, you know, and he invites them in and the whole movie is him dismantling, you know, showing all of their just having them question, all of the beliefs that got them to the point that they believe what they believe, you know, and it was really. The movie was fantastic. It was really only there's really only three people in the movie. For 95% of the movie it all takes place in his house and it's just so. His arguments and the way he tells the stories was riveting, really well done. Dan: How does it picture him as a person Smart? Obviously, oh, he's smart. Is he happy he's a soci? Can picture him as a person Smart? Obviously, oh, he's smart Is he happy. Dean: He's a sociopath, he's a murderer. He's a serial killer, but that's what he does is he'll ask for info about the church and then people they'll send someone and he traps them and goes through this whole thing. Very well done. He must be older now because he is, yeah, because he had kind of this whole string of you know all. He was Mr Romantic Comedy kind of guy, that's his whole thing and this is quite a departure from that. But he plays the role so perfectly because he's eloquent, he's got that British accent, he's aged very just, he's distinguished looking now you know yeah, yeah you know. Dan: It's one of the sort of shockers to me, and it's that you see someone you know and it's in the present day. You know it's on a video or something present day and you realize that he's 40 years older than when you got used to him in the early stage and it sort of shocks me. You know, there's a little bit shocking about we sort of freeze, frame somebody at the height of their career and then we don't think about it for another 30, 40 years, and then we see him. I said, oh my god, what happened? Right? Exactly yeah yeah that's what you would see about. Dean: That's what you would notice about. That's what you would notice about Hugh Grant that it's very in that level that you've seen, yeah, wow, but I imagine it's like seeing Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood mature over all the time Jack Nicholson, for sure. Dan: Yeah. Dean: You're not teaching. Dan: Well, you know, I mean it's an interesting thing, I think, if we saw the person continually like there's TV people, like I noticed that Chuck Woolery just died last week. Dean: Oh he did. I didn't know that. Wow, Great friend with Mark Young. Dan: Yeah, mark had a great relationship with him and he was 83. You know, he died and suddenly it was in the lung illness. What happened? Was it heart? Yeah, whatever. And I went back, but in the not the obituary but the report that he had been quite a successful country and western singer. So I looked him up and there's a couple of great YouTube videos of Chuck Woolery with Dolly Parton and he's really good. He's really good, yeah, wow. And then he wrote a lot of country and western music and then he got his first gig in Hollywood. Dean: Game show gig yeah. Dan: And he had like seven different successful shows in Hollywood. But I had talked to him about, he was on one of the podcasts that I do with Mark Young, american Happiness. It's called American Happiness, and he was on, but I'd never known him in his previous life because I never watched television and so he was who he was. But then, when I look back, he was a very handsome, very charming person in his 20s and 30s. Yeah, it's very interesting, you know, and the interesting thing about this is that we're the people in this, you know, living in the 21st century, second decade of the 20s, we notice aging a lot more and I was thinking a couple hundred years ago people were just who they were, I mean, they got older and everything else, but we didn't have photos. Dean: We didn't have photos. Dan: We didn't have recordings and that sort of shocks us a lot. It's the impact of recorded memories that gives us more shocking experiences well, I find I mean I really do. Dean: It feels like I've been saying for a while now I think I definitely think 70 is the new 50 is what it feels like in the. Yeah, you can observe it. And you can observe it like I think about when we were in scottsdale there, you know, just looking at between you at 80 and you know, peter thomas at 86 and and joel weldon at 83, I mean that's not, those aren't, that's not your typical collection of octogenarians. Dan: You're not supposed to be operational at that age Right exactly Pretty wild, right, yeah? Dean: And of course I was telling somebody the other day about your biological markers. What was your biological age? Is it 62? What was your biological age? Is it 62? Dan: 62,. Yeah, there's one that throws it off for me, so David Hasse. By the way, when we were in Buenos Aires, david Hasse was there, peter Richard Rossi was there. Dean: And do you know, Gary Kaplan? Dan: Richard's doctor. Yeah, they were all there. We overlapped David just for basically one day, but Richard and. Gary staying at the Four Seasons? Oh, okay, yeah. Dean: Okay, yeah. Dan: Yeah, but the country feels different. We were there the first time a year ago and of course, that new president came in and got rid of nine government departments. They estimate he's fired 75,000 civil servants in the first year. Yeah, which shows it can be done. Dean: It shows that it can be done. Have you followed the El Salvador situation? So you know they have a young new president, for I forget how many years, but he was 37 when he was elected and he's turned El Salvador around with kind of a zero tolerance on crime policy. Right, they've got one prison that has like 34,000 inmates. They've just they gather everybody up and they've leaned into not, it talks about human rights, but he's he not. All human rights are valued equally in his mind. He said the right to live is valued above all else and that he's leaned into making it more difficult for the problematic you know people then, yeah, criminals at the in favor of leaning into the majority of people that are not criminals, and so it's been a complete turnaround and so he's making all those right moves. Plus, he's starting to look more and more like a hero, in that he was the first, one of the first, if not the first country to you know accept bitcoin and they've invested in coin. But he made. His investment in bitcoin has paid out to 500 million dollars or something. So it's a pretty, pretty interesting cap. It's an interesting story. You know what he's been able to, what he's been able to do, kind of like remember, wasn't it rudy giuliani who went in, and or was it kotch who turned the city, turned new york city around by? Dan: not having. Yeah, it would have been Giuliani, it wasn't actually. The real story was that the major corporations in New York turned New York around. Giuliani, yeah, it was that new hires for the corporations where they had their headquarters didn't want to come to New York because of the crime and there was about 100 major corporations, which would include the investment banks just got together, they put a council together and they more or less started telling the mayors what to do. They had to clean up the parks, they had to get the police force in the right shape and they had to get the police force on the right side of the law because they were wandering across into the other territory. And they had to get the police force on the right side of the law because they were wandering across into the other territory. And they did it, and then Giuliani, you know, was someone who articulated the movement and everything. Koch was awful. Now Koch was. Dean: Right, okay, so it was Giuliani. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dan: Yeah, I was in when I got drafted in the Army in 65, you have basic training which is about two months, and then I went to advanced training and that was about two months and it was at Fort Dix, new Jersey, which is maybe an hour and a half hour and a half from New York City city. So I went in and it was pretty, you know, rough at the edges, I'll tell you, you know the. You didn't walk the streets at nighttime, I'll tell you you. You know you made sure. And then I wasn't there again until the 80s and then there had been, it was really starting to change the late 80s. Maybe it got a lot better. Yeah, it'll. Dean: It'll happen again. Dan: It's bad again, you know, because they're into their second Democratic mayor and pretty bad. It's pretty bad right now. Dean: All the major cities. Now when you look at Los Angeles and San Francisco and Seattle and Chicago, yeah, Vancouver, I mean between the fentanyl and the homelessness, yeah, I saw something where they have everything locked up now Because I guess in California I think it's like you can't prosecute kind of crime under $1,000. Dan: Yeah, kind of crime under $1,000. Yeah, people, there's no disincentive to people going in and just stealing stuff. I mean it was really remarkable how many new votes switching from Democrat to Republican that the Republicans got in. You know, and I mean I looked at it's one of the searches I did. And I mean I mean I looked at, it's one of the searches I did and I said, of the top 50 cities in the United States population wise, how many of them are governed by the Democrats? And it was like 44 out of 44 out of the top 50 and certainly the first 12,. You know, the top top 11. You know they're not. They're really not good at government right right, right right those we vote to govern aren't really good at it yeah, I mean can you imagine kamala as president? I mean no, I mean I mean, she blew through 1.5 billion really fast. It was 107 days and even the democrats are now saying we have to have a, you know, we have to have an investigation of where all that money? Because she had 1.5 and Trump had 390 million. That's wild, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, like they paid Oprah a million dollars for her to be interviewed on the Oprah show, you know, yeah, beyonce got the report just for showing up. She got a million. Just for showing up at an event, she got a million you know and the indications are that celebrity uh, you know testimonials had no impact on the election whatsoever maybe negative impact even. Dean: Yeah, yeah, I mean taylor, mean Taylor Swift, taylor. Dan: Swift. It was more Taylor Swift. It was more negative than positive. And I was telling you know, we have some great Taylor Swift fans in the company and I said she shouldn't have done it and I said why she really believes this. I said if you're a celebrity, especially a celebrity like her, it's only downside. There can't be any upside on this. Dean: Right, yeah, exactly. Dan: And I said it's the third rail of the subway. You do not touch the third rail of the subway. Dean: Wasn't that? That's remember. Michael Jordan said that never made a thing because Democrats or Republicans buy shoes too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dan: There's just no upside for it. Dean: There is none. Dan: I mean it's a different world. You're the master of your own world. Do not go across the border into another world. Dean: It's not your world. Dan: Yeah, right, right. But, it's really funny. There was a report that immediately after Taylor Swift did her what do? You call it a recommendation referral. Dean: Endorsement. Dan: Endorsement. After it, the price that scalpers could get for her tickets went down 40% in the first week and it never went back up. Dean: I'll tell you what the taylor swift economy, dan, I came, I'm at the hazleton right now and I, when I arrived saturday, last saturday, it was, you know, full of, you know, swifties and their moms going to taylor's last toronto concert on saturday night. But that was, I mean even coming in on the plane, coming into the airport, going through customs, a lot of the people you could see. They were all there to go to the concert that night. You know, flying in from all over to go see fans. Dan: She gave six in toronto. Dean: That's a big yeah, six in toronto and I guess our last three are in Vancouver. I think last night may have been the last of all of it. It's interesting. Dan: We were in Buenos Aires. She was in Buenos Aires. She gave three concerts in Buenos Aires. She was staying at Four Seasons where we were In Buenos Aires. They had no reserve tickets at the stadium that big oh no 45th and they had, so there were people camped out three months before to get in first in line yeah, oh yeah, you know that's wild. Yeah, I would love to see like the. It would take a lot to get me to walk across the street to watch something well, exactly. Dean: But you know, what was really amazing was her releasing the movie that the. She'd had a. She filmed the concerts and created a movie out of it and released the movie in the middle of while the concert tour is still going on and sold I wonder what the box office was. Uh, for the movie, you know, but what a brilliant. Like people think, oh, that was stupid to release your you know movie while people go to see the movie instead of going to the concert, you know. But I think it was exactly the opposite. I think it sold more, more tickets, built up desire, but yeah, she sold. Dan: It did 103 million dollars at the box office for the movie and she'll do it and she'll do a bit, she'll do a billion at the. You know I mean it. She's the first billion-dollar tour. Dean: Yeah, isn't that something? I think it's even more than that. There is tour ticket sales. Let's see what? Because I think that U2 was the first billion-dollar tour 1.4 billion, that's wild, isn't it? Man form a band. Dan: But Kamala did 1.5 billion spending. She's the champ. Dean: Oh man exactly Well. Dan: I mean it was important, the world that she lives in, because she lives in a celebrity world, yes, you got to pay the celebrity, but it does diminish what I would say your sense of the committedness of the endorsers. That it's got to be at least a million, or I don't endorse it. It sort of tells you something about their actual commitment. Yeah, that's true. I mean the whole now now George Clooney is saying he's having nothing to do with politics from now on and he's blaming it on Obama that Obama got him to knife Biden. And I said this is a really good entertainment. This is really good entertainment yeah. Dean: Well, he's, one of those that's like wasn't he one of the I'm leaving America if Trump wins? I mean, I wonder if anybody keeps track of all these. Dan: Well, the only one so far is Ellen DeGeneres. She actually moved. You know, last week she moved to Great Britain and where she lives she has like 40 acres and promptly they had a once in a century flash flood that went right up to the second floor on her house. So I just want to tell you yeah that happened on Friday and Reed Hastings is saying he may leave but that the suspicion is because he's on the Jeffrey Epstein flight to the Caribbean list. Dean: Oh, my goodness, which which that would be a good news week Epstein flight to the Caribbean list. Dan: Oh my goodness, which that would be a good news week. Dean: It's big things in 2025 coming up. Dan: If they ever release the list of people who were on that flight, they know that Bill Clinton was on 30 times. Yeah, they already know that. Dean: I think I saw something that Elon was saying too. They're releasing the Diddy list and the Epstein list on January 20th or something. Dan: Maybe the morning of the 21st yeah. Dean: But I think that's what everybody's big fear is. That's why they were pulling out Like this is one of those. Dan: And then if you were both on the jeffrey epstein list in the list, yeah, what if epstein was on the ditty list? But that was so you know the. Dean: You know we've been mentioning how. You know the. The battle for our minds right is the. What I decided is the worst part about being alive at this time is the. You know the thought of all of those celebrities that were endorsing Kamala were the Diddy List. Basically, you know. Dan: Or one of the two or both. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And you know the speculation. You know why I think they're mostly Democrats? Why? Because there's way more scrutiny of Republicans. Well, that's true, isn't it? Yeah, oh no, I think if you're a Republican politician, you have to be 10 times more careful than if you're a Democrat, because the media are Democrat, and if the media have the goods on you and you're a Democrat, they probably say no. Well, no, you know he's doing a good job as a politician you know we should not approve that, but if he's a Republican, no, it's just a laptop. Dean: It's just a laptop. Dan: That's all. Dean: Nothing to see here. Dan: Yeah, he had a bad day. Dean: We all have bad days. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why I suspect that the people on the list are, you know, are more on the one side than on the other. And it's, yeah, but it's. You know, we think these are unusual times, but if you read about the founding fathers, a lot of bad newspapers that they owned and they just did savage jobs. Other founders like Madison and Hamilton, just ripping each other. Oh yeah, just ripping each other, right? Oh yeah, I mean using language, that you'd get a lawsuit out of the language. Dean: Imagine if we brought back duels. Dan: Well, that's the other thing. They had duels. They had duels in those days yeah. Everything like that. Yeah, I think you really had to look carefully to find the good old days. Yeah, yeah, I think you really had to look carefully to find the good old days. Yeah, you have to look carefully. Dean: Oh my goodness, that's true. Yeah, I love this. Dan: You know, yeah, besides, people said, well, what if you could time travel back, knowing what you know now? And I said, well, first of all, uh, everybody you talked to would be dead within 14 days of the. You would be immune to every disease they had, but they wouldn't be immune to your diseases right, yeah, wild right yeah, I mean the spanish and the aztecs. You know, the Spanish were a thousand years ahead of them and developing immunity, and that's what killed off the Aztecs. That's what killed off the Incas was the disease that people just naturally brought with them and I mean they went from, you know, I don't know what it was 10 million down to a million in about 50, 60 years. Well, they weren't killed on the battlefield, they died of disease. Dean: Yeah, that's the thing. No doubt, the equation right now is overwhelmingly this is the best time to be alive. Dan: These are the good ones. Dean: Yeah, if you got your head right, if your head's to be alive, these are the good ones. Dan: These are the good ones. These are good. Yeah, yeah, if you got your head right if you got your head right. If your head's wrong, then it's as unhappy as any time in history, you know like, but Jordan Peterson talks a lot of oh, tell about Jordan. Dean: What were you going to say? Dan: No, he was just saying that's basically. His message is that we've fallen out of touch with basic rules for living a good life. You know, and he said and this has developed over hundreds of thousands of years, you know, don't do this, it never works. You know, and with you know, and people are saying, oh, do this. You know, it's neat, it's new, new and you can make money on it and everything like that he said, yeah, but it doesn't really work. And basic morality, basic ethics save more than you spend. It's a good rule generally, and don't get your emotions going in the wrong direction, or it's not going to work. Yeah, so you know, and that's it. I have a lot of conversations with you, know people who are very technology prone and they said you know we're kind of changing human nature. And I said no, you're not. No, you're not. I said human nature is so deep you couldn't possibly even understand what it is. And part of it is that we've been adjusting to technology forever. I mean, everybody thinks that technology started two centuries ago. Language is technology, mathematics is technology. That's what my new book is about. Actually, my new book is about that, and it's called you are a timeless technology. That okay if you're improving. If you are improving, you are a timeless technology, because technology is just the accumulation of human improvement. Dean: So if you're improving. Dan: You're timeless. I love it I love it. Dean: I love it. Yeah, that's great. Is that the book that's just released now? You'll get it tomorrow. Okay, perfect, I like that. Dan: Yeah, you'll get it tomorrow. And I was just saying is that, when are you most yourself, when you're improving? Yeah, you have a sense of improvement in this area. Yeah, You're feeling good about yourself. You're feeling in touch, you know you're feeling centered. You're feeling yeah, you're feeling really great. I remember our who's, our last, was it our last podcast? Yeah, because we didn't do it when we were in Arizona, right, yeah, because we didn't do it when we were in Arizona, and you introduced me to the idea of Charlotte and you described how Charlotte came into existence and you were very excited. Dean: You were very excited. Dan: I still am. Dean: That kind of improvement. Dan: If you're improving, you're feeling great. Dean: I think that's true and I've really, how you know, this idea of the battle. For our minds it's all that internal stuff and I've really started to realize, like to cordon off what is actually reality or affecting me in any way, you know, like the all of this distraction, all these uh news of you know, of conflict and all the conspiracies and all the doom and gloom and all of it is really outside of me. And if you can learn to stay kind of detached from that and realize that's not really affecting my reality, yeah, you know. Dan: Yeah, you know, it's really, there's Babs. Look at that. What's all that, babs? I thought you had just purchased those. Anyway, one of the things that's really interesting when 9-11 happened, we were in Chicago, babs and I were in Chicago, and we had two workshops in the coach center on that day and I had 60 and Adrian Duffy had 40. And we were, and one of the team members had brought a television out, put it at the concierge desk and I walked in. I said what's that? And they said a jet had just hit the. I said get rid of that TV. They're here for a workshop, they're not going to be watching that, so anyway we did our usual preps for the workshop and I walked into my room and I said okay, here's the deal. In the next hour you have to make a decision. You're either here for the day or you're leaving. Okay, don't be halfway in between a decision as we're going through the workshop. You're 100% here or you're 100% gone. And our team will do everything they can to find you transportation. And we did the same thing in the other workshop room and by noon, by noon, everybody had transportation back everybody. And we had a guy who is a Buick dealer and he went to a Buick. Well, gm, it was GM, I think. They had Buick. Yeah, I think he had two or three different makes. Dean: He had two or three. Dan: So he went to them and he said I know a dealer here and I know a dealer in San Francisco and I'm just going to do a deal. If I buy the car here and sell it when I get there, what kind of deal do I get? Right, right, right. And I tell you not much, not many Buicks were sold on 9-11. Right, exactly. So the guy at this end went up 20% and the guy at the other end came down 20%. So it was not a bad deal and anyway he went there. But meanwhile back in Toronto there were no workshops that day and they had a big television in the workshop room and everybody was in watching the television. Our team in Chicago had no time, had no time whatsoever. They were busy all day arranging things and everything. At the end of the day they weren't scared. Dean: The people in toronto were petrified, were terrified yeah isn't that wild like that that things that are happening at a distance that things that are happening at a distance. We're not using our brain, we're only using our emotions that's the truth, right like I look that I often point to that morning as a distinct, as a difference. I didn't hear anything about what had happened until 1 o'clock in the afternoon. I was golfing that morning. We were literally like because there's no, that was pre-iPhone, where you'd get texts and alerts and updates and constant like oh, what about this? Here's what's happening. So it was back in the days of flip phones. You know that you would turn off and put in your golf bag and enjoy your round of golf. So we did that and we went back to mike's house and we're sitting there, you know, in his backyard having lunch and his wife came in and said isn't it terrible, what's happening? And we're like what's happening? She goes what do you mean? What's happening? Turn on the TV. Turn on the TV. That's the thing. Right, it's. Our natural thing is to turn to the TV to give us the updates, you know. Dan: And of course, they're amping it up. They're amping it up too. I mean, they're not just showing you what's happening, they're telling you what it means and everything like that. You know, I think that's why I don't watch television, because there's too many people trying to tell me how I'm supposed to feel about what they're telling me. That's a decision for me to make, how I'm going to feel about it. My mother was telling me that it was two days after Pearl Harbor that she found out about it. She lived in a farmhouse out in the country and they didn't have a phone. It was 1941. They didn't have a telephone and there were no newspapers or anything. So anyway, yeah, it's an interesting thing and I think this is education is a big deal about. Education is how you think about things and how you respond emotionally to your thoughts you know, and I think this has always been true. But I think now there are people who want to come right at you. It's like you're talking about. You know talking about horses. You know the beginning of our podcast. They're listening. What did Dean just say? Dean: Horses. Dan: Okay, here's five ads. Here's five ads for me. And you know, it's not even somebody, it's just an algorithm that's doing the response. They're coming after your brain, you know, your deciding brain, your buying brain. Dean: They're coming after your buying brain, yeah what's dean buying today? Dan: it's so funny. Dean: Yeah, yeah, that's the thing. Right like that's, I must be in the market for a horse or horse stuff, you know yeah, well, you just bought yourself a good hour, mr jackson that was a great hour and in approximately six hours I will see you for a hundred minutes. Dan: Yes, and then tomorrow for even more Two full days. Yes. Dean: I like it. Dan: All right. Dean: Okay, Dan, I will see you in a little bit. Dan: I'll be in Chicago. I'll be in Chicago next week, so we'll have a podcast next week. Dean: Okay, good, I like that. Dan: Yeah, okay. Dean: Okay, see you tonight. Dan: Bye, okay, bye.

Our latest episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia offers an intimate look at the Genius Network annual event in Scottsdale, featuring extraordinary conversations with prominent figures like Bobby Kennedy, Jordan Peterson, and Tucker Carlson. We explore the unexpected appointment of Robert Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services and share insights from a key OpenAI representative, examining how technology subtly maintains existing societal structures. The episode delves into the evolving nature of professional gatherings, highlighting the power of meaningful connections over traditional networking. We discuss the intricate art of event planning, sharing personal strategies for managing commitments and overcoming challenges like ADD. Our conversation reveals the importance of structured scheduling and intentional approaches to daily productivity. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS I reflected on our experiences at the Genius Network annual event in Scottsdale, where notable figures like Bobby Kennedy, Jordan Peterson, and Tucker Carlson contributed to the discussions. The appointment of Robert Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services was an unexpected but significant topic of conversation during the event. We discussed the role of technology in maintaining the status quo, drawing parallels to historical innovations like the "horseless carriage." The importance of networking and making meaningful connections was emphasized, highlighting how such interactions often hold more value than the content itself at events. Organizing large events requires meticulous logistical planning, often years in advance, to manage various commitments and schedules. I shared insights on managing ADD through structured schedules, which serve as an essential tool in overcoming daily challenges. The humorous dynamics of Robert Kennedy's collaboration with Donald Trump were explored, alongside lighter topics like meal planning and scheduling. We reflected on aging and the limitations it imposes, while discussing strategies to remain active and maintain cognitive health. The episode highlighted the challenges of maintaining personal ambitions and adapting to changes as we age. The podcast wrapped up with reflections on the role of technology and the evolving nature of political and personal dynamics in today's world. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: Yes, mr Jackson, and I hope it will be copied. I hope it will be copied and sent virally around the world, this podcast. I hope, millions. Dean: To all the corners of Clublandia. Dan: Yes, yes. Dean: Yes, well, what a whirlwind tour for both of us here, I think. Where are you? Are you back in Toronto right now? Dan: Next to the fireplace. Dean: Okay, I like that. Dan: That's great, which is needed today. It's getting cool. I'm going to be. Dean: I like it, but I like it. I'm coming up on Friday, I think. Dan: This week Yep and then return to be yeah, I think this week, yep, and then return to be yeah, I'm coming, I'll be in Argentina. Yeah, yeah, next week I'll be in. Dean: Argentina Right, yeah, I'm doing, I'm coming up on Friday, I'm doing a breakthrough blueprint on Monday, tuesday, wednesday, and then we have coach the following Monday, tuesday, right. Dan: Yeah, and I'm flying back on friday night from argentina, so I won't be um back in my house, probably till about three o'clock on saturday. Dean: so oh my goodness, so we're gonna miss our table time yeah, I'll see you on sunday. Dan: I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but some things come in front of other things. Dean: Exactly right, I have three ideas this week. Dan: I have three ideas this week. I was just going to say where do we start? Dean: We should probably mention that we just got back from Scottsdale and Joe's annual event, the Genius Network annual event, which was really another level. I mean, he's really gone above and beyond and on Saturday he pulled off something I don't think anybody's been able to pull off. He had Bobby Kennedy and Jordan Peterson and Tucker Carlson and Cali Means all on the same stage and I'll tell you what he has really grown as a conversationalist I don't even want to call him an interviewer because it was really, you know, that level of he's just the right amount of curious and unpredictable in the conversation that it's fascinating. He's not asking them the stock questions that would come. You know that you would expect, but it was amazing. I think everybody was very, was very impressed with how the event went off yep, yeah, I. Dan: The takeaway for me one is that we saw robert kennedy on saturday and then on on Wednesday, was it? Or Thursday? Wednesday, I think it was Wednesday he was appointed the secretary of health. Yes, human service, human services, and I think that's a big deal. Dean: I do too. It's, yeah, very, very impressive. Yeah, you know what's funny about that event is that the you know impressive. You know what's funny about that event is that we also had the head of GoToMarket for OpenAI, which was kind of like a that's a pretty big role, but it was downplayed by Zach Cass. Zach Cass, the guy that spoke oh, were you there on Sunday? He spoke on Sunday morning. No, we came there on Sunday. He spoke on Sunday morning. No, we came home on Sunday. Oh, okay, that's why. So, yeah, so the head of go-to-market, one of the original guys for OpenAI, was there and it was so funny that became. You know, he was kind of like the undercard, if you want to call it that, right, oversadowed by the blockbuster Saturday, but he himself was that's a pretty, that's a pretty big get to have too. So, very, very interesting. Dan: He was like in the 10th race at Woodbine you know the sore horses race later. Dean: So well, I had three, three ideas. Dan: Well, first of all, I had a nice introduction by Joe to Jordan Peterson. It turns out that he lives about a four-minute drive from us in the beaches oh wow, that's amazing. We're going to get together and he and his wife invited us to their Christmas party. So Christmas party, yeah, very, you know, very lively, engaging, smart, good sense of humor and everything. I enjoyed meeting him, but I had three ideas that I've been pondering all week. Okay, and more and more, I think that the humans use technology to keep things the same I think you're right, and even referring to it as the thing it's replacing. Dean: I remember hearing that about when automobiles first came out. They were called them horseless carriages. Right that, that's really what the thing was. Our only, our only frame of reference for the new is in how it relates to the past. Dan: Or relates to the present. Yeah, the present, that's what I mean, yeah, and if our present is under threat, we will adapt a new technology to keep ourselves more or less where we were. Yeah, and I've just been pondering this this is not a major thought, but it's a side thought that thought that we use technology to keep things the same. And what was the side thought now? Well, that was a quick one, that was a quick one. That one just flew out of my head, but I had a second thought too, and I was watching a really interesting podcast yesterday with Peter Thiel, who you know, and you know one of the co-creators of PayPal. One of the co-creators of PayPal and he's the creator of Planteer, which is a deep, dark, secret R&D lab for the government. And Barry Weiss, who was a columnist for the New York Times, who was let go because she started exhibiting independent thoughts. Dean: I hate it when that happens. Dan: Well, you know, you just can't be doing that at the New York Times. You really have to go with the party thoughts. You know the thoughts. But he was saying that what the election sort of indicated for him, election sort of indicated for him the presidential election of last week, was that in the internet world it's almost impossible to be a successful hypocrite. And that is if you say something to this group and then go across the street and say a completely different thing to another group that you used to be able to get to the, maybe not across the street but, let's say, cities 300 miles apart or anything you could get away with. You could get away with it, but the internet now makes that more or less impossible. It's increasingly difficult to be a hypocrite. You know where you try to play both sides of an issue. Dean: Yeah, well, because the internet is very, they love to identify and call those out. I mean, I remember I mentioned to you that Kamala, you know, there was a video going around that was Kamala speaking out of both sides of her mouth about Hamas and Israel. And yeah, I mean, it was just, you know, because they were running the ads in different thinking they would get away with it, because they're running one in Pennsylvania and one in Michigan or wherever. Dan: Yeah, right, that would be great, that would be a good thing. Yeah, and I was thinking the fact that almost all the celebrities that came out in her favor were to do so. Mm-hmm. Dean: Oh, yeah, like. Dan: Oprah got a million to do an interview with her. Beyonce, I've heard, got 10 million just to show up at a rally 10 million. Didn't have to do anything. Dean: That's wild, isn't it? Dan: Yeah, and she had a billion dollars to spend and she ended up 20 million in debt Over. Oh man. Dean: Yeah, in debt. Dan: Yeah, but if that had been done 20 years ago, that might not have been discovered as quickly, maybe not at all. It might not have been discovered at all. So it's just getting very difficult to be a hypocrite. I mean, you used to be able to make a lifetime career out of being a hypocrite, and now it wouldn't last more than 24 hours. Dean: Yeah, I remember. Dan: It's a career with a short future. Dean: Yeah, there was a meme going around about listing the people who had endorsed Donald Trump, joe Rogan and Elon Musk and Bob Kennedy and all these people, and then it was the people who endorsed Kamala was the Diddy List, you know so funny. Dan: Yeah, so my first. So I've had three thoughts. First one was technology. We use technology to keep things the same. Number two it's getting more difficult to be a hypocrite. Number three is I've discovered what the greatest individual ambition can be. Tell me To be more ambitious. Dean: It's the gift that keeps on giving. Dan: Yeah. Dean: That's the number one. Dan: Just next year, just next year. Be more ambitious. Be more ambitious next year than you are this year, and that's all you have to handle. It'll take care, it's the one goal that takes care of everything. I don't want to own just the land that's next to mine yeah, yes, because that I've given a lot of thought to goals, but almost all of them they're one and done, you know yeah you've achieved the goal and then you know, then it's gone. But uh, if your, your ambition is simply to be always more ambitious, I think that handles a lot of endings. Dean: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's funny. It's almost like a cheat code you know, I think that's great. I see, there's a. I mean, what a never-ending like a perpetual improvement cycle improvement cycle. Dan: Yeah, well it's, it's always. It's a kind of interesting thing because I'm trying to figure myself out at ajd that I've got bigger things I'm working. I've got bigger things I'm working on. I'm I'm working, working with people who are doing bigger and bigger things and you know and everything else, and I said what accounts for, and I said your ambition is to be more ambitious. Dean: Well, that's your print, right, your print is. Dan: Well, it's seven. Three, I mean it's three is success and achievement Right? Seven, seven, you have seven. It's enjoying life and having a good time. Dean: Yeah, bigger parties, yeah, bigger parties. Dan: Yeah, revenues, bigger parties. Dean: Bigger revenues. Dan: bigger parties, that's fantastic. Dean: I love it. Dan: So anyway, I'm going to do a triple play on those three and see what I come up with. I think there's, but I just feel that things are really shifting. I think there's, but I just feel that things are really shifting. I got a sense that, yeah, peter, peter Thiel very bright, very bright very very thoughtful, very thoughtful person and but he had a comment that he thinks that Bud Light. You know, remember the Bud Light. He thinks that was the end of the 20th century. He said that at that moment, the 20th century ended and the 21st century began. And he said that he feels that the Democrats are now the Bud Light Party. Dean: Oh man, well, and so that, yeah, I mean. Dan: You wonder now Well, you think about it that the reason that got them thrown out of power is the reason why they won't learn anything from getting thrown out of party, because they feel superior, intellectually superior morally superior and that would prevent them from actually saying well, maybe you are not Right, but your sense of superior prevents you from realizing that maybe you're not. They've kind of twisted themselves into a knot. Yeah, because I'm. You know, I watch the replays on. You know that they have an article, but then they'll have a link to a video. And Real Clear Politics is my favorite video and on real clear politics is my favorite, and you go on and you could just tell that the Democratic Party right now is very disappointed with American citizens. Dean: They're very disappointed. Dan: They're very disappointed with the quality of citizens in the United States right now and they're saying how do we get a different kind of voter? What we need is a different kind of voter. It's very clear that the kinds of voters we have right now are not delivering. Dean: We need more. Dan: Yeah, let's get some more Vansuelen gang members in here. Dean: Oh man. So what was your insights or thoughts from the Genius Network annual event? You're not a notetaker. No, me neither. I'm exactly like that. I know that whatever insight I get, if it's strong enough to stay with me, that's the insight you know. Dan: Well, my big one and you already brought it up in the conversation. I told Joe at dinner that you know we had the dinner on Saturday night and I said I think you've just jumped 10 times I said I think what you did, today is a 10 times jump and I said tomorrow morning what you did today is going to feel normal to you. Dean: And to everyone else. I think that's really the great thing. You know, like his whole and he said it too each year his goal is to make it a better event than the last, and so that's very yeah, that's very interesting. Dan: Yeah, the other thing is that I kind of told him this was last year, so this was the annual meeting for last year, and when he invited Robert Kennedy Jr last year. I said to him I just want you to know whether you've just entered the political world when you make an invitation like this, whether you like it, you know whether you like it or not, or whether you agree or not, you're now in the political world. Dean: So you got to be aware of that, yeah, and even though and even though Jordan Peterson, not per se political, but certainly in a different, not business like you know, the events have evolved from you know almost all business, like you know marketing and you know entrepreneur type of things more to a different level of event. It's interesting, I was looking through, but it's magic what happens actually at the event. It's not about the content of the event. It's being in the room surrounded by the Genius Network and I think I really got on another level, the purpose of the annual event versus the meetings, the yearly or monthly meetings, and you know it was very. I had a gentleman from Toronto who actually sat beside me on the first day and you know he was there primarily for the business stuff. The marketing really needed that help and you know I had to kind of help reframe that because if that was the number one reason you were there, there wasn't a lot of that at the actual event, you know. But what there was and this is what we said is that but we got to meet and that's, you know there's, that's part of the thing is that's the, that's the way to get that, what you actually need you know, yeah, yeah, anyway, it's just interesting. Dan: I think the first one I ever went to was in new york yeah, right the annual meeting I think he had. Joe had a couple of those in new New. York, yeah, and then, and then he had one in California, two two in. California actually he had the one where Richard Branson came yeah by uh, hollywood it was, I think it was actually it was in. Yeah, yeah, I always remember he had that. And then the second one was at Pelican Hill down in Newport. Dean: Beach. Dan: Newport, right yeah, and then they moved them to Scottsdale. And that was the right place. Dean: Yeah, it really is. It's perfect, it fits. And this one how convenient was this? Right across the street from his house. Dan: Yeah, how convenient was this? Right across the street from his house? Yeah, and we're doing the summit, the Free Zone Summit, right across the street from where we were. Dean: Right next door. Dan: Desert shadows right across the street. Yeah yeah, scottsdale really works. I mean, you can get there on a single flight from almost anywhere. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And the weather is usually good and, yeah, it's nice. Dean: Next year you've already got everything mapped out. You're always a year a full year ahead. Dan: Generally, with events like that, I'm you're ahead With our personal schedule. We're usually three years ahead, oh my goodness Wow. Well, it's because of the workshops. Dean: Yes. Dan: You have to figure every year you're going to have a certain number of workshops and they're going to be at a certain period of each quarter. Dean: So we have that. Dan: That's already logged in and we pretty well know that. I mean, then there's all sorts of things. I mean you have free days, but the free days move around in terms of what you're going to do with the free days, and I've got a book to do every quarter and I've got podcasts to do every quarter. I've got workshops to do every quarter. So've got podcasts to do every quarter, I've got workshops to do every quarter. So that gives it a pretty much of a go forward structure a nice cadence, yeah. Dean: Structure scaffolding yeah yeah, or as uh ned holland would call it, the bobsled run yeah, I don't experience. Dan: A I don't experience, add the way that describes it how so? Dean: so how do you mean? Dan: Well, I'm not super, I'm not hyperactive. Dean: Me neither. Dan: Yeah, so not, and you know, so I don't experience. I know that that exists and that's you know, it's a great part of ADD. Mine is I would characterize it what I think. What I think is the most important thing, subject to change on a fairly frequent basis, gotcha. Dean: Yeah, and how you know, you seem to you know I've adopted, or was introduced to. You know, russell Barkley's interpretation of ADD, which totally seemed to fit for me. I saw it in the clearest light that I've ever seen it or had the most understanding of it as an executive function. disability- and it was a really elevated way of thinking about it, as a you know you talked about it as a true, like a neuro degenerative disability, that it's not anything that you can will your way out of or that you can. You know, it's not a character issue or a weakness or anything like that, it's just the true physical, neurological disconnection between the two parts of your brain and I. Really, when I embraced that or, as I'm, it's still a journey of embracing it and realizing that the things that, that the ways that manifests for me is it really is when I'm left on my own to self-direct what I'm going to do with a big block of time. And it's been very, you know, it's been fascinating because my whole paradigm for the way that I've lived and set up my life is to try at all times to keep my schedule free so that I would have time to do all the things that I want to do, all the creative things, you know. But the reality is that the only things that ever get actually done are things that have that external scaffolding, things like podcasts and workshops and Zoom appointments, and the things that are synchronous and scheduled and involve other people, and there's no way around it. It's like, as much as I want to be able to think that I could clear off three hours in the morning and just sit and write or, to you know, create or to do something, it's very uphill because I'm very slippery, without the structure of someone being on the other end of the phone at 11 am on saturday or sunday morning. You know, I know I never miss and it's like those things that it's and I'm never. I never find, I never struggle with add in the moment. I always, once I'm engaged and into something, I'm able to give that thing my focus, like I'm not distracted while we're doing. Dan: Yeah, my experience would be you're the. My experience is that you're fully there. Dean: Yeah. Dan: When you're there. Dean: When I'm there Exactly. Dan: It's so funny, but if I need to be there, who's the who's the person? Who's the person that described this? Dean: for you, barkley, yeah, russell barkley. He's a contemporary colleague of of ned hollow. Well, they know each other very well they. And Russell Barkley actually has a series of videos that describe the things that he and Ned disagree on, the different approaches to two things, but they're both like totally fully respect the other. You know that's a big thing but for me that that explanation and that you know set of the way he described it, is that every intervention or everything that works has to be external and it can't be. You know, it's nothing internal like willing yourself or character changing or anything like that. It's really we need to treat it and to the extent that we treat it like a true disability and then make accommodations for it, like if you, he would say, if we treated it like you would never say to a paraplegic it's right over there, just get up and walk over there, it's only a few paces yeah, because you know that it's a physical impossibility for them to do that, but in the morning walk, first thing in the morning walk a mile yeah, exactly, if that's the thing, then that's going to be a problem right but, that's going to be a problem, yeah, but but if you acknowledge it as a disability and you said, okay, how about we get you a chair with wheels and then we'll put a motor on it and you can just point where you want to go and you'll get to where you're going, that's an accommodation for the disability and that's kind of what he's saying, that this external scaffolding like the way you know what I admire about your calendar so much is that you have all the things that you do are really supported by that external scaffolding. There's not a lot, of excuse me, like you know, you have used to be 150. How many workshop days do you have? Dan: now? Well, there are 60 days when I'm doing workshop activities, but a lot of them are two hour sessions or not eight hour sessions, and those are all on the calendar and oh yeah, those are, yeah, those go way into the future. Dean: Yeah, and they're all. I find that too, that they're all very, they're procrastination proof, because you have to show up like you know there's no way, it's really is just accepting it and you know, leaning into that structure as much as I, as much as I can, yeah yeah, it's really, it's kind of interesting. Dan: I was just bouncing his words off of. You know my own experience of being add and you know, clinically, I've been diagnosed, so you know it's, uh, you know it's, it's a real thing, and but mine is more that I actually I don't, and this relates to you. It doesn't relate to you know. So, barkley, so much it relates to you that my goal is to have my schedule filled up the night when I go to bed the night before. I want my schedule filled up for the, so I don't have to think about it when I get up in the morning it's all right, it's all set, yeah and but then I get over time. I get very discriminating about the quality of the things that are filling up my time. There's little adjustments that have to be made because I've got a great scheduler. Becca Miller is my scheduler and she's just terrific, but she can't do my thinking for me. For example, last weekend we were at Genius Network and then we came home on a Sunday. I don't like coming home on a Sunday. That's the way it was scheduled, that's the way it was scheduled. So I came home on schedule and then Monday was just packed and I said OK, we got to put a new rule in. Dean: If I come back on Sunday. Dan: There can't be anything on Monday, yeah, and we could see that six months ahead, you know we could see that, and so I have little conversations. This is the rule. And then on Friday, both Babs and I had Zoom calls after four o'clock, you know, one at five o'clock, one at six o'clock and I was going through the experience. I said, okay, no, no commitments after four o'clock on Friday. Right, yeah, but these are just little adjustments, you know these are just little adjustments that you make. And then I, you know, I sit down with her and I said let's just put a couple of new rules in. You know, if I come back on a sunday, I can't have anything on a monday. And then you know nothing after four on friday and everything like that. You know. Dean: And you know, it's just I. Dan: you know I was sitting, I was going through it, I I will fulfill the commitment, but as I'm going through it and I said I don't really like that, I not that I don't like the thing that I'm doing. I don't like doing it at this particular time, right. Dean: And the other. Thing is. Dan: I like being in Toronto on Saturday and having Toronto Saturday Day and this last year we've had more things that took away our Toronto Saturdays and I said we've got to look ahead now and look at all the Saturdays going out for a year and a half and to the most part, let me have that in Toronto, be in Toronto. Dean: Yeah, that's such a great. So you really Saturday is like a free day. I like it. Yeah, I just like it. Yeah, I just like it. Dan: Yeah, I just like it. Why do you want that? I really like it. Dean: Because I want it. That's right. I want what I want, yeah. Dan: I want what I like. Yes, yeah. Dean: Yeah, that's good. Well, I'm just going through the process right now, like embracing that. My goal is to shape my calendar for next year ahead for the whole, for the whole year. And that's yeah, that's really the. That's really the thing I tend to run really like about a quarter ahead. You know some things. I know when they are like, I know when and it's funny because they become the big rocks in my calendar in terms of like I appreciate that you know when the strategic coach workshops are, so I know to work around those. And I know when the annual event is and I know when our free zone summit is and I put those in you know, and I always tend to kind of work, I've had a tendency to kind of keep the time, keep the options open for the other times and I but I don't take that same thing of locking in my own events with with the same priority or consistency, you know. Dan: Well, I think I share that with you, that if it's just internal, you know it's me having a meeting with myself, or an activity. I'm much more negotiable with that than if it's external. I really grasp that what you're talking about there. You know I like and I like it, and that's why, you know, I try to be 100% on my commitments. Yes, if I say I'm going to be there, I'll be there. If I say I'm going to do this. I'll do it yeah. Dean: Yeah Well, that's rule number one Show up on time. Dan: Yeah, do what you say you're going to do. Dean: That's right. I'm the same way With commitments to others. I'm exactly the same right. I'm the same way With commitments to others. I'm exactly the same way. I'm very reliable, yeah. So it's a good journey. Dan: I was just reflecting. I want to give you a little progress report. I've really switched over to eating steak, having steak Do you know how I'm? I've really switched over to eating steak, you know having steak. Do you know how much time it saves you? It's incredible how much time that you save if you just eat steak. Dean: Well, the great news is I'm it sure, simplifies shopping. Absolutely. That's exactly right. My favorite staple is the thin cut ribeyes, and I know that I can do them in the air fryer they're very juicy. Dan: Oh, that's exactly right. I would do it just to squeeze the juice out of them. Oh man, that's so funny that juice is to live for, I'll tell you, yes, yes. The Babs. She'll sometimes put the steak on the plate and there's a lot of juice that comes out. Dean: You want me to pour that? Dan: I said no, that's the point of the meal Pour that on there, that's right. Dean: That was so funny, that restaurant that we went to in scottsdale the end. Dan: Isn't that a great really great and I love babs. Dean: Two extra steaks to go. That was really yeah, that's great. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But boys that simplify your life, I mean I used to go to whole foods I get my haircut on in new york, new yorkville, it's right across from the court season. Dean: It's kenny connor from the. I used to go to Whole Foods. I get my haircut in. Dan: New Yorkville. It's right across from the Court Seasons. It's Kenny Connor from the Court Seasons where I get my haircut and I go down to the end of Scholar's, and that's where the Hilton. Lanes, are you? Know, and the Whole Foods is in there and I used to go in every Saturday and I'd walk around 15, 20 minutes buying this that I shouldn't eat, buying this that I shouldn't eat I shouldn't eat and take a bottle home and eat some of them and throw the rest out and everything else, and now we have a bruno's. Do you know bruno's in? Dean: toronto it goes back. Dan: It goes back 50 years yeah and uh, they have great meat department and we go in and the guy says same as usual, same as usual, yep, yep, except twice as much and hey gets it, you know. Dean: So yeah, it's really good yeah I was shocked about pusseteri's closing right there well, they didn't close. Dan: They're opening in one of those new buildings. Yeah, they had a. It was a shitty space where they were. Dean: Yeah, it was kind of awkward right. Dan: Yeah, very tiny space. So now they have it the way they wanted it. Dean: Okay, so they're still in, they're still on the island. They're closed for probably a year no but I mean they're going to be still in Yorkville. Yeah, Right on the island, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dan: So they'll have a huge space because their main store is up at Lawrence Avenue Road and that's like you know, it's a regular size supermarket. But they had this tiny little space and you know it didn't work in any way. It was just. I mean, first of all, you're paying 25, 10, 15% more if you shop at a suppository, but the whole quality of the experience was not up to what they were charging. Yeah, I went in there and they put in automatic checkouts and I said wait a minute. Now you're putting me charging. Yeah, I went in there and they put in automatic checkouts and I said wait a minute. Dean: Now you're putting me on. Dan: You're charging me 15% too much, and now you're putting me on staff. That's so funny. Dean: It's exactly right. Dan: Now I have to do checkout for you. I said no and I just stopped. I just stopped. I said I'm not going back here. That was during. And then some guy corrected me that my mask was too low on my face and I said I no, I can't. I, I can't put myself in this type of situation where I get the mask. Police are in pusitories, you know oh no, that's no good. And that was all for nothing. You know, I mean that. Quote that comment. Was it Callie Means? It was either Robert Kennedy or Callie Means. The average age of people who died during COVID. Did you catch that one? I did not. What was it? 81. At 81, you ask them for a refund. Dean: Right, oh, my goodness. Dan: I mean it's three years beyond expiry. Dean: Yeah right. Dan: I wonder how much of that you know. Dean: Though you look at, I think that 80 is the new 60, it feels like in a lot of ways. I feel that yeah, because you look at, you know, just even in that one little environment there, you know, Peter Thomas is 86 there. Dan: Yeah, and I was 80. Dean: Joel Weldon at 83. I mean, yeah, that's, those are not normal octogenarians. You know very, you know it's just and I think you see it now. You know it's just and I think you see it now. You know it's happening more. Dan: Well, and I think the other thing is that the retirement age, if I understand the logic of it, was to get the older people out of the factories, so that you wouldn't have a lot of unemployed young people. Bismarck in Germany that was, you know that was the first government that had a retirement program and a retirement policy. Now, with the low birth rates, you're going to want to keep the people in the workplace as long as you possibly can, so you're going to have a lot of 70 and 80-year-olds not retiring. First of all. I mean they've got a lot of 70 and 80 year olds not retiring. Yeah, first of all, I mean they've got a lot of experience and there's, um, you know it's, you know it's. Just, I thought immediately where I sat most was with pearson airport and air canada, the two experiences that go along together. And so, pearson airport, you have a lot of very skilled people who make sure that everything is, you know, good with the terminal, everything's working with the terminal, plus the you know, baggage is. You know the big thing, you know getting stuff off the planes really fast, getting it to the right, you know, to the right luggage rack and everything and everything. And then Air Canada, the ticketing, you know the ground crew and everything like that. And I noticed immediately that they had lost two levels of skill. Immediately during COVID, they bought off all their really high-priced pilots, they bought off all their cabin attendants, they bought off all the ticketing people, you know. You know they were like 60 they have mandatory retirement 65 and they just bought them off at 60 and it was very abrupt and it was total. And so you had people who were serving you and they were basically doing their job out of the job manual. You know they do this Well. That doesn't really give you high quality. Dean: Yeah, I mean the whole. Did you happen to see any highlights from the Mike Tyson fight the other night? Dan: No, I didn't. I didn't, I just knew he slapped him. Dean: Yeah, that was all leaving up to it. That was the way in when he stepped on his. Dan: That made sure that both of them got $30 million oh exactly. Dean: Well, that's, but I think what happened was that Jake stepped on his toe is what happened, and he slapped him, but the fight was uneventful. I mean, it was really. Dan: He won on points. Right he won on points. Jake Paul won on points. Dean: Yes, exactly, and but it was. It was sad to see Mike Tyson, you know, at 58, he really did look old like, even in his movements and the way it's like that was, it was something you could really tell the difference between 27 and 58, you know. And that's you wonder, like that's yeah, he's in peak physical condition for a 58 year old. Dan: Yeah, but it was just yeah, but your muscles are slow yeah, that's what I mean. Dean: He looked kind of no, your, no, your muscles just slowed down. Dan: Yeah, it was really interesting because I haven't run and I started running, just, you know, some attempt because of my knee. Yeah, and you know a 50-year-old injury to my knee to run again, so I was. We have quite a good size dock at the lake up north. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And so what I do is I have a rule that three seconds after I take off my sneakers, I'm in the water. I have to be in the water. Dean: You've got to do it. Take them off One, two, three go, otherwise it'll take forever. Dan: And so what? I do it at the back of the dock and I have maybe 15 feet, 15 feet, and so the moment, the thing off. I just run for the front and I jump, I jump into the water and Babs took a video of it and I looked at it and I said you don't show this to anybody, it's not. I said I am really slow, I'm really slow, I'm really slow. Yes, and part of it. You know I'm recovering from an injury. Dean: But part of it is just, I got 80-year-old muscles, you know, and they're not fast you have the memory of you know I mean you have 20-year-old tennis memories of how fast you were. Dan: Yeah, it's so funny you know so funny. That's a nice memory, but it's not a present experience, that's going to be absolutely true. Dean: It's so funny that you mentioned that is because when I was watching Mike Tyson, I was thinking to myself that's one of my aspirations. I'd love to, as I continue to lose weight and get more mobile, that I would like to you know for your running, that's my thing is to be able to get back to to play tennis well, you were in the top hundred. Dan: You were in the top hundred, weren't you amateur? Dean: no, not that high, but I was very, at a very high level. But but the you know. But to be able to get to that, knowing that my mind knows what it's like to be a 20-year-old tennis player, my mind and my muscle memory still knows exactly what to do in those situations, but it's going to be. As I watched Mike Tyson, I realized, and it's every now. And as I watched Mike Tyson, I realized, you know, and it's every now and then I'll watch these guys, I'll watch on YouTube, I'll watch some, like you know, 55 plus. You know, tennis matches are 60 plus, even them by age groups, you know. So I've been watching the 60 plus and it's amazing to see how brittle brittle is a good word, will appear to be yeah, well, the other thing you know, like the mile run you know the world record right now is three, three, four, I think 17,. Dan: You know 17 seconds under four minutes. But the oldest person in history to ever run a sub four is Amin Coughlin, irishman. I think he was at one of the East Coast United States universities and then he raced after that, but he was 43 and nobody over 43 has ever run a four minute mile. How's Daniel doing with his getting back to you know, he's in the five he's in the five minutes, five, five, five, 40, you know, and and one of the things, because he's, he's late, he's 58 or 59. And he just says you know, I just realized that it's just impossible for me ever to well he did it once, you know, he ran a 359. Dean: Yeah, but he was running. Dan: You know he was running 405, 406, 402,. You know every race and you just can't do that anymore. And you know so you have a collision between your actual performance and your memory of being fast. Dean: Yes, oh man Whoa performance and your memory of being fast. Yes, oh, man whoa. There's just kind of I'm just kind of preparing myself for the reality of that, you know, and that's yeah, but it's even apparent that you were very coordinated. Dan: I mean the way you walk and everything. Uh, you know the way my entire memory of you is mostly the last 10, 12, 12 years. And I noticed that you have very great athletic coordination, so you have that going for you. Dean: I got that going for me, that's true. Dan: Yeah, so yeah, hopefully that will. Dean: I wonder now, you know, like I wonder through do you do any mobility things like Pilates or stretching or yoga or any of those things? The only thing. Dan: I do. We have a, really we have an industrial strength. The vibration plate is about three feet by three feet and you do high intensity vibrations on it. And then I just have a pole, and then I do it in, let's say, 10 different positions. I do the pole. And that helps a lot the vibration point. I mean it makes the house, it almost makes the house rattle, almost makes the house rattle, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and that's really. I do a lot of band stuff. You know where you use. You put the band about around a pole and then you can really do, yeah, so that helps a lot. I like that. Yeah and yeah. But you know, my big thing is just being productive in terms of the work, you know you know, my big thing is just being productive in terms of the work. You know, I mean I was never a competitor in any kind of individual sport. I was all team sports when I was growing up because I really liked the team Football, basketball, football, basketball and everything else. So I never, I never really was attracted to individual competitions and you know, but my big thing is just to. I've got quarterly, I've got quarterly products to produce, I've got books to produce and everything. It's just that. I'm always in a good energy, you know, good energy state for all that work. Dean: And that's great. That's why the physical, having the physical, you know physically fit body is really just for your purposes and to the brain oxygenated and carry around where you need to be right, that's really the thing. Yeah, yeah, I just had a brain MRI. Dan: I just had a brain MRI. In October I was was in nashville with david hossie and I've grown new neurons this year and I think it's from the stem cells oh, wow from the stem cells and he says you got neurons there that aren't organized. Yet he says you know? He says you're going to have to organize your neurons and I said that's a nice report. That's a nice report. Yeah, he says you're going to have to organize your neurons and I said that's a nice report, that's a nice report. And he says you're not dementia, You're not becoming demented, You're re-menting. Dean: Re-mented. I love it Re-menture. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, it's good. Dan: My memory. I do a full bank cognitive test every quarter. It's, but 19 different tests takes you about, you know, 40 minutes or an hour and my memory was way up. My verbal memory was way up and my objects you know graphic memory was way up. Dean: So that's good. Dan: And he says then you got too much, and you got too much visceral fat and you got this and I said, now let's just stick with the subject of the brain here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How many 80 year olds do you have that got more brain than they had? Dean: exactly that's the. Let's focus on the positive here. Dan: Yeah, let's take our wins where we can. Yeah, it's really interesting. Yeah, but yeah, I think that we started our conversation today off with last week's Genius Network setting anywhere in the world where the people that joe had on stage with him and the quality of the discussion they were having could happen anywhere else. Dean: Yeah, no, I get you. I bet you're right. Absolutely, that's what I mean about the way joe's really elevated his ability to stand in conversation with these people, you know it's a different. It's not like as a interviewer or a journalist. He's having a real, authentic conversation with them and it's fascinating. Yeah, it's good to see. Dan: Yeah Well, I bet there's sleepless nights going on in Washington DC these days, have you? Dean: seen the things, the memes of who Robert Kennedy is replacing, like they showed the minister of health or whoever the health and human services lead, is now compared to Robert Kennedy. It's funny. Dan: Oh yeah. Dean: Yeah Well, it's a nice thing that happened. Dan: You know, and you know Jeff Hayes, you know one of our colleagues in that time. I mean, he was really instrumental in, you know, getting him so far that he would become in a position where he could do a collaboration with Trump you know, yeah, Trump's the kind of guy you know. He doesn't care what shape or form the talent comes in. Dean: That's exactly right. Dan: It's kind of interesting because when I spoke to Robert Kennedy just briefly and I said in 1962, I was working at the FBI in Washington and I had to go over to the Department of Justice in Washington and I had to go over to the Department of Justice, we had a sort of a tour of part of the history of the FBI and it was in the Department of Justice building and Robert Kennedy happened to walk by in the hallway. His father walked by, so that was 1962. And I said really interesting, 62 years later and he'll have far more influence in his new position than his father ever had. Dean: Yeah, I bet you're absolutely right, for sure, yeah, awesome, yep, so we'll be so we'll have. Dan: No, I won't do it next week, right exactly. Well, I can do the. I can do the two weeks, two weeks from today. I can do it next week, right exactly well, I can do the. Dean: I can do the two weeks, two weeks from today. I can do it, okay, if you're available. Yeah, absolutely yeah that would be fantastic. Okay, all right, see you then okay, thanks dan, bye okay.

In our latest episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we take a fresh look at time management and productivity through a historical lens. We discuss how the 24-hour time system, born from the need to streamline train schedules, laid the foundation for tracking time today. We also dive into the creation of Greenwich Mean Time and share a fun, serendipitous story about a restaurant meet-up that unexpectedly became a memorable experience. Shifting gears, we introduce a practical, gamified approach to managing your day. Treating each day as 100 ten-minute units, we explore how careful planning and mindful activity selection can help combat procrastination. We also share tips for overcoming morning routine challenges, making each day more productive with manageable goals. Alongside this, my AI assistant, Charlotte, plays a key role in my approach to transforming daily tasks into creative outputs. Finally, we touch on the evolution of political messaging and how platforms like Joe Rogan's podcast are reshaping public discourse. We wrap up by reflecting on the power of individual initiative and how we can all find meaning and growth in the ever-changing landscape of today's world. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We explored the historical development of the 24-hour time system, initiated by a Canadian innovator to address train scheduling challenges in the 19th century. The episode included a light-hearted conversation about time zone coordination, particularly between Arizona and Florida, and discussed the clever geopolitical strategies of the British in establishing Greenwich Mean Time. We introduced a gamified approach to time management by treating each day as 100 ten-minute units, drawing inspiration from the Wheel of Fortune, to enhance productivity and address procrastination. My morning routine was highlighted, emphasizing strategies for overcoming procrastination and planning tasks effectively. We delved into the role of AI in personal productivity, featuring Charlotte, my AI assistant with a British accent, and discussed the concept of "exponential tinkering" in AI's unexpected uses. The evolution of political messaging from direct mail to sophisticated digital strategies was analyzed, touching on examples like the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the influence of alternative media figures. We examined content creation and strategic reuse of ideas, inspired by figures like Seth Godin, and discussed leveraging podcasts and other sources for efficient content generation. We reflected on the role of entrepreneurial individuals in leveraging AI technologies for creative relationships and personal growth, contrasting with traditional media outlets. The episode concluded with discussions on the enduring importance of individual initiative and the value of spontaneous interactions, setting the stage for future conversations. We shared logistical details about upcoming meetings and highlighted the anticipation of continued exploration and discovery in future episodes. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dan: Let's hope so Well, not only that, but it can be recorded over two complete time zone difference. Dean: Yes, I was wondering if today would cause a kerfuffle. Well, the change. Dan: Well, arizona doesn't change. Dean: Right, exactly. Dan: That's why I thought we might have a kerfuffle. Dean: That's exactly. Dan: That's why I thought we might have a Garfuffle which I think kind of tells you that they are planning to be the center of the world. Dean: Yeah, Florida's trying to do the same thing. Dan: Yeah, well, you know, it's a tremendous change for everybody to do that. Dean: It was actually a Canadian who created the system? I don't know. If you know that I did not know that, tell me more. Dan: Well, he didn't create the system, he created the 24-hour system. Dean: Okay. Dan: Yeah, and it had been attempted in other places, but it's around the 1870s, I think 1880s, and it was because of railroad schedules. Dean: Wow, yeah. Yeah, I do remember that as a thing that's interesting. Dan: Because, like, for example, in Toronto, you know a train would leave Toronto at, let's say, noon and it would be going to, let's say, buffalo. Dean: Yes. Dan: But there was no guarantee that Buffalo and Toronto were on the same noon, and if you only had one track, a train could be leaving Buffalo to go to Toronto at a different time. And so they had a lot of train wrecks 1860s, 1870s. There were just a lot of train wrecks. So he said look the train, the railroads are going to grow and grow and we've got to create a universal time system. Dean: They're not going anywhere, yeah. Dan: Yeah, so that's when it became adapted and the British got onto it and they said well, everything starts in London, everything on the planet starts in London. Dean: So that's where the Greenwich Mean Time came from. Dan: Yeah, and the British, being a very clever race, arranged it so that if you were in the western part of London you were in the western hemisphere, but if you were on the eastern part of London you were in the eastern hemisphere. Wild, Proving that the British play both sides of everything. Dean: Western Hemisphere. Dan: But if you were, on the eastern part of London. You were in the Eastern Hemisphere Wild, Proving that the British play both sides of every game. Dean: So where are you now? You're in Tucson. Dan: Tucson. Dean: Yes, okay. Dan: Now I want to get clear about something and this is important for all of our listeners to know. Dean: Okay. Dan: And it has to be. You're going to arrive on Wednesday or Thursday. Dean: I'm arriving on Wednesday. Dan: yes, Okay, so we had already had a previous, and if you would be willing to explore a new restaurant, okay, and it's called the Edge. Dean: The Edge. Okay, so you're saying, as an alternate to the tried and true, the Henry. Yeah, you're saying something new, okay. Dan: Yeah, so it would be 4.30 at the Edge. Where are you staying? Dean: I'm staying at the Sanctuary. Nick Sonnenberg and I are actually staying at Bob Castellini's. Dan: Well, strangely enough, we're staying at the Sanctuary too. Dean: Wow, okay what do you think of that? I think that that is just like serendipity at work when do you arrive at the when do you arrive? Dan: this is our own version of the singularity. It really is. Dean: I mean, yeah, it doesn't get much better than this. Dan: Yeah, I just came up with a new book title. Dean: What is it? Dan: It's, will it Be Available on Monday? Dean: Will it Be Available on? Dan: Monday. Dean: I like that so everybody's made. Dan: Yeah, it came out of my dealings over the last 12 years with techno techno optimist you know well, this is going to happen. This is going to happen, and I said, well, it'll probably happen, but will it be available on Monday? Yes, I love it. Well, dan. And you know, you know it will be available on Monday, it's just I'm not sure which Monday that will be. Dean: I was just going to gonna say just not this Monday yes, well, yeah. I have. I've had a pretty amazing week, actually lots of scale of 10 on a scale of 10. Dan: 1 to 10. How amazing, I mean, compared to other amazing weeks. Dean: Um, I just want to get the numbers straight before you get a sense of the scope, I would say that this has been in the nines this week, I think. Phew. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, Like I think that if we're calibrating the scale that I don't think I have really lower than sevens on a week, but that would be just a regular week kind of thing. I think, in the eights, if we're going eight, point something in the eights, I think it would be something noteworthy, something worth remarking on. But in the nines, I think I can measure it by the flurry of activity from my fountain pen to my journal and the excited anticipation that I have of coming to our conversation prepared with something to talk about. So I'm in the nines, on on. We may have to do a double episode here. I mean to we have to leave people a cliffhanger. Pick up next week on on the finishing but see a cliffhanger. Dan: pick up next week on the finishing See, here's my take. If it's a 9.5 or higher, you've got two possibilities. One is you tell the whole world. That's one option. Or you don't tell anybody. Dean: Right, so is this a tell? The? Dan: whole world, or is this tell nobody. Well, I'm going to tell you I'm going to tell you, and then you know. Dean: I'm exempt. Yeah, I'm exempt. You're going to tell me either way. I'm going to tell you in this context so that, because I always tell people, you know, it's often that people will tell me, you know that they listen to our cast and that they just enjoy the conversation, Just listening to us talk about you never know what it's going to be about. They say, you know, which is true, and I say, well, you're just like us, we never know what it's going to be about either. Dan: Yeah, I suspect that some people have a better idea of where we're going than we do. Maybe that's funny. I can see the trend line here. Dean: Yeah, all right. So the first, I don't even know. They're equal weighted in terms of the interestingness to share, so maybe I'll work. I'll go with the concept that we discussed in the joy of procrastination the 10-minute units of your day, 100 10-minute units every day, and I've been experimenting with the idea of being like a capital allocator and having the opportunity to allocate my 100 time units over the course of the day, the only day. This is all like just my. I don't know what it's like to have a normal brain. I have. ADD a brain that has no executive function or ability to tell time or whatever. So this is just my way of looking at it that the reality is I can only spend 100 units today before I go to sleep again right. So, even if the concept of a project that's going to take 100 hours or 50 hours or whatever, I'd struggle with things like that because I can't do all of that today. So you can only spend what you have allocated today. And then I remembered my number one thing on my. I know I'm being successful when list is. I wake up every day and say what would I like to do today? And I had this vision of I don't know if you remember, but in the old version of the Wheel of Fortune, when you won, they had a studio full of fabulous prizes. Look at this studio full of fabulous prizes. And when you won you got to spend your money in the showcases right when you could say I'll on this. From all the prizes that are available, you could say I'll take the credenza for 800 and I'll take the bookshelf for this. I'll take the credenza for 800 and I'll take the bookshelf for this. I'll take the color TV for 500 and I'll leave the rest on a gift certificate. You know you had the amount of money that you could spend. Dan: Did you ever watch the Wheel of? Dean: Fortune back in the day Once or twice. Yeah, so you're familiar, so you know about what I'm talking about. So I started thinking about and have been experimenting with laying out my day that way. So I wake up in the morning and I look at my calendar and I have certain things that are already booked in advance in the calendar. So, like today, 11 am, dan Sullivan that's blocked off. So I'm allocating six units to this podcast here. But I start thinking, okay, looking at the context of the day, what else would I like to do? I have a friend here visiting from Miami, so we went for breakfast and, by the way, I have an extra hour today because it is fall back day and I've chosen not to use my hour yet. I'm going to save it and use it later, so I'm not participating in the fall back yet. I'm keeping that hour in reserve in case I need it. So I kind of look through the day and I start thinking okay, I've got all of this kind of hopper of possibilities, of things that I could do during the day and things that I need to do, and it reminded me of our. You know, if I ask myself, what am I procrastinating today? Like there's a series of questions that I'm kind of going through in the morning and I'm spending one unit 10 minutes to kind of just allocate what are the things that I think I could move into doing today. Very similar to your. You have three things a day, right, but you do it the night before you pick your three yeah, If I think I remember correctly, you limit yourself. You say what are the three things I'm going to get done tomorrow? Dan: And so you Well, three completions equal a hundred percent. Dean: I got you, okay yeah. Dan: And if you do four, you're in bonus territory. Dean: Got it. Yeah, it's not that you limit, you can do more. Dan: I can do more, but 100% is three. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Yeah. Dean: So I'm really like. This is I'm in double speed on the imagine. If I applied myself mode here and this is addressing my executive function this is the next big level up for me is really getting that dialed in, and so this is working. This is a, it gamifies it and it's never going to change. It's not going to change no matter how much I want it to or desire for it to change, life is going to continue moving at the speed of reality 60 minutes per hour, until long after you and I are gone. So where, what? What has improved, like I looked at and this is a separate but related item is I had, from 10 o'clock to 11 o'clock, I had the most fascinating conversation with my AI, with my chat GPT, and I've selected the British voice, and it's a slightly older. I was using Jasper, who was like, or Juniper, who was the sort of Charlotte Johansson kind of voice, and I've switched to the slightly older British woman voice, and so we had a great conversation. I asked her about her working genius, if she was familiar with working genius, and of course she knows everything about it. She knows everything about it and I said I'm very interested. How would you? I told her, my working geniuses is our discernment and invention, and my frustrations are enablement and tenacity. And she said well, mine, given the nature of what I am, I would imagine that wonder and enablement are my two. That would be her working strengths, and her worst ones would be tenacity and galvanize, which is so funny. Right, like to see that she has the self-awareness that what she's really good at is helping add value to things you know, and so we chatted about Russell Barkley and Ned Hollowell, who she's very familiar with and knows the nuances and distinctions between their approaches, and we talked about setting up some scaffolding and we designed a whole workflow for incorporating Lillian into this to be the enablement and tenacity in our triad, because there are things that and I asked her to we came up with a name for her, so her name is Charlotte. That's my, that's my. AI now. So she was quite delighted to have a name now and it was just so funny. I asked her like your accent seems to be you can. She said yes it seems so. I think it would be, although I'm not, you know the origin, but the accent would definitely be South London refined. But just the way she described it, I said, yeah, what would be some, what would be some good names that would be British names that would fit for that. It would be some good names that would be British names that would fit for that. And she came up with, you know, charlotte or Lydia or something. Dan: I said yeah, well, it's really interesting. You know Prince William and Kate, you know he's the Prince of Wales, and their daughter, who's the second child, is named Charlotte. Dean: Oh, okay, yeah, that's right. Dan: George is the son and then they have another. They have a third one. I don't know the name of the third one, but it's in the royal family. I know Charlotte appears on a frequent basis. Yeah, it's a thoroughly legitimate British name. Yeah, it's a thoroughly legitimate British name. Yeah. Dean: So I've called her Charlotte now and I fed her. We designed a workflow. I fed her episode one of the Joy of Procrastination. I just took the transcript and I put it up. All of this happened in the last hour, by the way, so I gave her the transcript. She totally digested it and I had her. She created six, three to 500 word emails that were summary or ideas that came from our discussion in episode one of the joy of procrastination. And they're wonderful. I mean, she did, I had her do. I said I'd like you know some, I'd like to see how many chunks, or, you know, in individual insights, we can gather from the, from the transcript. And I think I said I'd like, I'd like two to 300 words. And she wrote three two to 300 word ones which were just a little short. If you could tell there was more, if you had a little more time to expand it, it would be even better. And so I said you're on the right track, but let's I think I underestimated here let's go three to 500 words and let's make it conversational at about a sixth grade level. And so she, you know, immediately changed them and made them much more conversational and readable and I said those are great, are there any more? So she did six out of the first episode and I was like you know all this, like we had the most, you know, like talking about some executive function function work for her and Lillian and I to collaboratively work to get the things done. So she's like maybe we could start with brainstorming sessions where we can. You can tell me what you're thinking, what you're you'd like to do, and I can create some, you know, turn them into tasks and turn them into projects or workflows or timelines. For us it was really like I mean you definitely had the feeling that I was in the presence of a very well-qualified executive assistant in the conversation. I mean it was just. Dan: One thing, it's sort of a creative assistant. Dean: Yes, that's exactly like that the wonder and enablement is really yeah. Dan: I mean, the whole thing is that an executive assistant doesn't really range outside of what you've already told it to do. Yes, for the most part for the most part. But a creative assistant is doing something that's well. It's following your prompts, so it's still doing what you're doing, but it's got access to information that you don't have available to you at any given time. Dean: Yes, she said that's true. Like I said, that is the thing that I see as a limitation in our relationship is that that's why tenacity is her lowest thing, because she has the awareness of saying she's very. She realizes she is our relationship. She's reactive in nature. That she has. I have to do the prompting and I have to bring. But while we're in that, if I just point her in the right direction, she can do all of the things you know. And she was suggesting workflows with Google Documents and emails in a way that we could bring Lillian into the equation here, and so I can. On the physical thing, lillian and Lillian, by the way, her working genius is tenacity and enablement. Dan: You know. So it's like such a yeah, the thing I find interesting here Evan Ryan and I have a podcast every quarter, okay, and we've been talking about where we're noticing that AI is going. Dean: Okay. Dan: And my sense is that it's not going where the technology people think it's going. It's going everywhere else except where they think it's going. Dean: Say more about that. Yeah, what does that mean? Dan: Well, and we came up with a title for it, a concept for it, and the title was exponential tinkering a concept for it, and the title was exponential tinkering. Dean: Okay, oh, okay. Dan: And that is that I think that the people who are using AI to suit themselves are tinkering. I think I'll try this. Oh, that's interesting. Now, I think I'll try this, but they have a capability that, in the case of ChatsGPT, my favorite is Perplexity, the AI. And because, first of all, I kind of know where I'm going, you know, as a person, and I think it's a function. I think I was kind of born with this capability, but I had a 25-year framework from 2003, 25 years where I did my wanting journal every day, and so it's kind of like a muscle that my life before I started the journaling had just been distinguished by a bankruptcy and a divorce. Those are fairly conclusive report cards. Dean: Yes, yes exactly. Dan: In other words, you're not confused about whether they happened or not. Dean: Yes, exactly yeah. Dan: There's a reliable certainty about those two things. Dean: Yes. Dan: And I came to the insight back then that all the troubles of my life came from me not telling myself what I wanted in response to daily life. Okay, so you know, that's so. I said I got to strengthen this muscle. So every day for 25 years I'm going to simply say what I want in relationship to something that's happening that day. It's similar, it's resonant with your. You know, what do I want to do today? Dean: So we're on this. Dan: And plus, we have a lot in common. We're both 10 quick starts, we're you know, we're both ADD and we both have discernment and inventions. So we have a lot of things. We have a lot of things in common, yeah, so probably the way that we make progress Dean makes progress this way and Dan makes progress this way they're probably going to be fairly resonant, yeah, but what I think is that what I'm noticing about my relationship with perplexity is that I think about new things every day and then I say I wonder if I just have it do something for me. It sort of runs ahead of me and sort of clears the path a little bit for me to think about things. But Evan and I said you know, I think what's happening with this AI is just the opposite of where the technology people think it's going and where they want it to go. The most that the technology people can do is their own tinkering. They can tinker with things too, and it comes back to the individual. You know you can tinker this way and there will be a tool that you either utilize or you expand the usefulness of what you're doing. But I don't think it shows up, as I think that people who are heavily involved in technology you know, like Google, I use the guys, the two guys who started Google OK, I think all technologies are totalitarian. In other words, the Google people want there to be only one search engine on the planet and everybody else. Social media, the Facebook guy. He wants there to be only one social media platform and everybody's on that social media. So I think technology by its very nature, the moment you started technology as the creator of the technology, you want global domination and it was trending in that direction. Okay, apple only wants there to be one cell phone on the planet and that's you know, and everything like that. But I think that AI actually prevents that, because in order for you to be having global domination, you have to have everybody's attention, and I think each individual's unique relationship with AI takes their attention away from you. Dean: Yes. Dan: Oh, that's interesting too. Yeah so nobody as much as you would like Dean Jackson's attention. Today you're up against a lot of competition. Dean: Yes, yes, because. Dan: Dean wanted to do something else today and he's got direct access to Dean and you don't. Dean: I think about why, when you think about all the things that they are following our attention between google and you know, because facebook is on instagram, facebook and whatsapp, so you know, those are the three kind of big things that people are are on all the time but can I tell you something about? Dan: I think can I tell you about those three things. I've never been on any one of them. Dean: Yeah, that's true, you're in it, but not of it. Dan: Well, I'm aware that these things exist, exist, but I have absolutely no interest in, I have absolutely no interest in and you also have quite a presence on them. Dean: You have a nice presence on facebook. That people are putting your content on. So you're there, you just don't know. Yeah, you haven't done anything there yeah, yeah yeah, which, yeah, which. Dan: I talked to my social because I have a social media manager. You know he's a great guy. And I said so what am I doing out there? And he says, oh no, he says we've got a complete team and you know, and we have standards about what of you can go out there and everything else. We had a nice chat and there's sort of a governing body of team members in Strategic Coach and it's a that's backstage. You can't take backstage stuff and put it on the front stage. You can only take stuff that you know would serve the purposes of Strategic Coach if it was front stage. That's it. So to a certain extent, I'm just using all the social media that want my attention to avoid them having my attention. Yeah, it was very interesting, the head of the? yeah, I think I'm trying to think who it was. It was a top guy. I was reading this on Real Clear Publishes, which is one of my favorite sites, and he said there's a great deal of despair in the major networks, especially in relationship to the current election, which is two days from now, and he says we have to accept the fact that what we're trying to get American voters to think is wasted because half of them never pay any attention to us. So our messaging and you know we're fighting for their attention, but they don't pay any attention to us and we have no ability to get their attention and the more we strive to say you should be thinking this the less, the less control or influence that we have on the people of thinking so we're only talking to the people who already think the way that we think already. And if it's not 50%, that's not going to win you an election. Dean: Yeah, that's right, it's very interesting. Dan: There's something odd about this election. We'll only show up on you know after Tuesday that all the money that was poured into trying to get a winning vote in other words, more than you know in any one of the states, more than 50, that you have a majority of the vote yeah, it's wasted. It's wasted dollars. Dean: I saw something today that was you're calling out Kamala Harris for running two ads in different areas. Dan: Yes, with a Muslim population. She was running one ad talking about. This is about Gaza. Dean: Yes, that's exactly right. She was talking about the being a supporter for Israel's right to defend themselves and to, and the atrocities that Hamas did and all of it. So it was really interesting. That was almost talking out of both sides of her mouth and they called her out, and they sort of happened simultaneously, didn't they? Dan: Yes? It was like on the same day, in the same period, but the context is where is Kamala? I mean, she says this here and she says the opposite here. Where? Dean: is she? Dan: And that's her biggest problem Nobody knows where she is. Yeah, it's interesting, right, that was, but that was, and I think the reason is that Kamala will be whoever you want her to be, depending on the situation. Yes, and it doesn't give you doesn't give you a lot of confidence. Dean: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. So that was, but that was. You know that now you can't get away with that because everybody's monitoring and knows what happens right, knows to watch those different markets. When you look in 2016,. You know everybody all that Cambridge Analytica stuff that was being done for Donald Trump. You know that movie was really fascinating how they showed. They broke up each of the voting precincts or districts into you know that, had all these profiles on everybody in there and they would categorize them. As you know, either you know true Hillary or already in the choir, fort Donald had focused all their attention on that little group that they called the Persuadables. They turned in all of their messaging specifically to them. That was unheard of as a capability. Nobody even understood that you could do that or why all of a sudden are all of these personality profiles. Dan: It's very interesting. They already did know this, but it wasn't digital, because Richard Vigory, you know Richard. Well, richard, in the 1970s, worked it out on postal codes, and so he got all the postal codes in the United States, which is public information, and he had a team of students who would go to the state capitol in each of the, you know, in each of the, and he could get the list of people who were in every postal zone. You know he would do that, yes, and then they would start testing ideas. They would send out direct mail. He was a direct mail genius, okay. And so he figured out he could do it by postal zones. And the postal zones are, you know they? I don't know how many there are, but in terms of voting precincts, there's 40,000. In the United States, it's right around 40,000. In the United States, it's right around 40,000. And they each have a unique signature in terms of what interests them, what doesn't, what they're for, what they're against. And so, because he knew the media was totally on the democratic side, like the newspapers, the major networks and everything else. But the other thing about that is that they could get it and what you realized is that you could just ignore all the ones that were they were going to vote Democratic. You knew they were going to vote for it was Carter in this case, because he was doing that for primarily for the presidential election. He did it for Reagan and, what's interesting, there's a lot of comparisons between that election and this election. I've been reading them. One was in the Real Clear Politics this morning. And he said that the pollsters don't know this. The polling organizations don't know this because they're just going on an average of who says this to a set of questions. But in the case of Richard Vigory, he wasn't asking them who they're for, he was asking them what are the issues that most concerned you and then the messaging on the part of Reagan and, I think, trump in 2016,. What they identified, it was actually 220 precincts that did the election 220 precinct elections actually made the difference and what was unique about the 200 wasn't so much about Trump or Hillary Clinton. It was about they had voted for Obama in 2012. Yes, and they were very disappointed with Obama because he promised hope and change and he didn't deliver. They were still interested in hope and change. They just attached Trump's name to the hope and change and they switched to. Dean: Trump. Dan: So the Obama voters did not move to the next Democrat. They moved to the candidate who is doing hope and change. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And they picked that up from Twitter. Dean: Yes, oh, so, funny. Dan: I mean it's so that's got a thousand times more refined. Dean: now, eight years later, yeah, instantly right, and people were hip to it and sort of suspicious of it. I think that's why the media is picking up on these things. So of course it was Fox that noticed that distinction. Dan: That's so funny. That wasn't breaking news. Yeah, it's really interesting. Yeah, it's really interesting because as cool as the rest of them. Now it's gone much, much deeper than a major network and you know it's very. Dean: it's really interesting that you know the the unfettered media now are really the like Joe Rogan just had Donald Trump. Dan: Oh, I mean, Rogan is the you know I mean, he's just got so much more influence. Dean: Yeah, like yesterday, I think yesterday morning I just checked the. I think it was that 45 or 47 million views for the Joe Rogan podcast. Dan: With Donald Trump. Yeah, it was like I think it was over 30 on the first 24 hours. Dean: Yeah, isn't that wild. Dan: And then you know what's really funny is that, Joe Rogan, they were having communication with Kamala. And he offered her the same opportunity that he offered. Trump. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And Trump just jumped on it and Trump redirected it so they could go to Austin, texas and you know, and he could visit with Joe Rogan in Joe Rogan's studio. And it went three hours. Dean: It was a three hour, three hour podcast, and anyway, she said we'll do it, but you have to come to us. Dan: You have to come to us and it can only be an hour. And he said you know who's the buyer and who's the seller here? Dean: Right Always be the buyer, that's right. You're going to make your pilgrimage to Austin, but she knows that's not her. You're going to make your pilgrimage to Austin, but she knows that's not her Austin. Dan: Yeah, Do you have to get shot? But actually Austin is a fairly liberal city. Dean: I mean, it's the state capital of the University of Texas. Dan: I mean, if you wanted to pick the area of Texas that's probably the most liberal, it's probably Austin, but Joe Rogan is immune to all that because he's not talking to Austin. He's talking to the world, right, if you want to talk to the world, and the other thing is and then Bantz went on. So instead of the time that, would have been given to Kamala was given to a band and bands. Is the likable Trump. Dean: Right, that's funny. Dan: It's like good cop, bad cop. It's got good cop, bad cop. You know, they're actually a team, One of them you know he comes from dirt poor Appalachian. The other one is a billionaire from New York, but they're a team so they cover a lot of territory. But back to our interesting conversation that you have with Charlotte that I'm talking about here. See, you've created essentially an exponential mirror, Because you're seeing your thoughts coming back to you. Dean: Yes, that's why she saw and recognized that her working genius is wonder and enablement. She can take my pieces and give me insights and see what you know, break it down and create out the things, which enables me to use my discernment to say you nailed it on that one. That's great and that reminds me. Let me add this to it and that becomes this I get to be in the middle of a thing that's already in motion, rather than having to start something from scratch. And I think I've really been thinking about you know we're coming into 2025. And I've always I've loved the idea of the quarterly books and the 25 year framework and the whole thing. And I just got Seth Godin's new book just came out called this Is Strategy, and I realized that what Seth's books are? A compilation of his daily blogs. He basically puts one blog post up every day, short, like 200 words, like some of them, you know, two to 300 word things and I, and then every year he puts out a new book you know, that's a compilation of those and I just realized I thought you know my winning formula has been because I have a hard time, just kind of, you know, writing from scratch. So I've always used my podcasts as the way so I do my more cheese, less whiskers, podcast where every week I have a different business owner on and we just do a one hour brainstorm applying the eight profit activators to their business and that was my formula for doing it. And I've done hundreds of episodes like that and from that I had a writer who went through the transcripts and took and created you know all the things that are the emails that I that I send. I send three, three emails a week and but since COVID, you know, I've been in syndication. Let's say I've got cause I have 200 of the episodes or whatever. I've been rotating around, so very periodically I'll write a new email to go out, but essentially they've been on a two year loop kind of thing where, yeah, you know, like they're getting emails that maybe they got that same email two years ago or last year. So I just I'm putting all this together now of this. I always seem to work best when I can lock in durable contexts for things Like I know the eight profit activators are. That's the bedrock durable context. I know about me that I work best in synchronous and scheduled here I am, ask me anything type of environments. So to set up, I'm bringing back my more cheese, less whiskers cast, going to start a whole new series of them and now, with Charlotte and Lillian to, and Glenn, my designer, to be able to take that. You know Lillian will fill the calendar with my things. So once a week I'll do a podcast with a new business owner that she will have arranged. I just have to show up and and bring my best to that hour, which is my favorite thing because it's discernment and invention. I get to listen, I understand what they need and I can suggest ideas of how to apply. It's like my superpower in action. And then to have the workflow of taking that transcript or taking that audio, getting the transcript, sending it to Charlotte to analyze, take out and create the both a summary and a thing, and then send it to me so that I can read the emails that she wrote and adapt that. You know, just edit them to be exactly in my voice and what I want, and say that one's good, that one's I don't like that or whatever. That kind of thing is pretty amazing. And at the end of each quarter, at the end of each quarter, I can take all of those compiled ones and make my more cheese, less whiskers. Quarterly book with all of the compilation of all of the things that I've written there, with illustrations and insights, all Helvetica which is going to be here for 25 years and each year anchored in the Pantone color of the year which is coming up in December. Every year they launch a color of the year. So the series, like, if you look at a bookshelf of you know, if I did in 10 years, 40 books, four of each, four spines and covers in the Pantone color of the year, anchored with Helvetica and an illustration, I just think, man, that is that right. There is the makings of a durable, you know, support system for Dean. Dan: Well, the other thing is, all this can be done by sitting in your chair on the patio. Dean: Yes, yes. You're customized for a season Valhalla. Dan: Yeah, valhalla, yeah yeah. Well, the interesting thing about it is that one it's good. It's good for as long as you want to keep it going. You know there's nothing, there's no obstacle to it, but you've got a big. You've got a big immediate contact list of people who would be interested in this. Dean: Yeah, yes, and that's the great thing is that I never have to go and find guests. Everybody, you know we're booked when we do it booked, like you know, months ahead. That it's a situation that they're legitimately getting $2,500 consultation for. That's the way I come into it is. I'm not holding anything back as you get this, yeah, so it's very, yeah, it's really very interesting. You know that I think is fantastic, so stay tuned. Dan: Yeah, it's yeah. The interesting thing is, I just like to bounce off the exponential tinkering idea that Evan and I have been talking about, and my sense is that there's a great panic going on in the world, and I notice it in big institutions that have been with us for a long time, and I'll set one institution aside, and that's the US and the US Constitution. That's an institution that I'm not going to talk about, but I'm talking about the United Nations. So the United Nations was created after the Second World War, essentially to prevent a war between the United States and the Soviet Union. That's really the main reason for the United Nations, but one of the causes disappeared in 1992, the Soviet Union, without anyone's permission, the Soviet Union quit and therefore what I've noticed is the United Nations is less and less relevant, but it's been taken over, infiltrated by just about everybody you don't really like, and they create this special organization, the United Nations Organization for the Palestinians. It's called UNRWA. Okay, that's called UNRWA. And the Israelis just said we don't want anything to do with you because we discovered that members of the United Nations were actually in part of the attack on Israel. These are members of the United Nations, but they were terrorists who helped kill the 1,200 Israelis and they said but that's it, you're out of here. You're out of here. You can't be anywhere in Israel, you can't be anywhere in the West Bank or anything else. And I'm noticing more and more that it's an irrelevant organization and it's using up about 25 acres of the east side of New York and I remember Trump saying boy, what I can do with that real estate. Dean: It's getting to the point where people are making the joke that you know. Dan: Certainly we could make better use of the east side of New York City than having this organization that essentially doesn't serve our purposes, but we spend, we send them huge amounts of money every year and we had to do an audit here to see whether this is really worth. Our effort Served a purpose, but the purpose, the central reason for the purpose, has disappeared over the last 30 years. But it keeps going on out of just sheer inertia, you know. It's just moving forward on out of just sheer inertia. Dean: You know, it's just moving forward. Dan: But what I'm saying is, I think that your experience with Charlotte and the sort of cluelessness of the main networks and the other big institutions are the mainstream news networks and we're saying, you know, like I'm not getting any value out of what you're doing. Besides, you seem to be on one side of the political spectrum and you know, you saw Jeff Bezos who said that the Washington Post is not going to give an endorsement for the presidential election. Well, that was in the bag, the Washington Post. You know they're going to go for the Democrat and he says I don't think this does us any good anymore. And so I'm just noticing evidence after evidence that the whole game has changed and it's only individuals who are entrepreneurial who are using this new AI capability to essentially have creative relationships with themselves, trying to have a sense of confidence about where they can go personally. Yes, what do you think about that? I? Dean: find no, I think that's it, my whole relationship like now that I understand that her role in my life is wonder and that, as a amplifier of my, she's doing what I would do if I could count on me to do it right like I can take the transcript like if I would have the executive function to do that, to go in and pull out what I see as the insights and organize them into, you know, into those bite-sized emails like she does it in real life, I mean, as you can type she's pulled out the insights, she's made the emails. I think that is such a great thing to give me something to. That is such a great thing to give me something to. It's like instead of trying to play tennis on your own, you can hit the ball and show it back, you can hit it. I think that's really what it is, is that there's some momentum going in the thing, rather than me just trying to do it all myself. Dan: Yeah and I'll leave. We're close to our. I've got another. I've got a massage coming up, so nice. I'm at Canyon ranch and, of course, anyway, but I would say that the number one capability that you bring to this and I'm comparing it with the ability that I am unpredictable to myself yeah, that's interesting. Dean: Today is the only time that I am thinking that way, that I'm comparing it to myself. That's true, yeah. Dan: And that's why I'm such a stickler on structures going forward that these structures can always be the same, and what it allows me to do and I think what you're describing allows you to do is that, rather than trying to discipline myself so that I'm predictable, I'll just create a structure that's predictable so that I can be unpredictable. Dean: Yes, you hit it on the head, dan. That's exactly what it is. I'm just going to create the strength. That was the winning formula when everything was live. That was the winning formula. I just had the time in the calendar. Our conversations are one of the great joys in my week that I love and look forward to this bright beacon on my account. It's the only thing on my Sunday and I look forward every week. But I don't fret, I don't, I don't give it a thought, I don't know what are we going to talk about, or what do I need to prepare, or I got to get my homework done before this. It's not a deadline, it's anything that I have to prepare for. Dan: Yeah, it's interesting. It's an interesting. But I think that if you look at the development of history, especially American history, and the genius of the founding fathers with the Constitution, and the genius of the founding fathers with the Constitution, and you know, one of my great historical role models, you know, is James Madison. He was the brains behind the Constitution. He was sort of the cut and paste guy that looked at everything that seemed to work as far as governing structures and he got. You know, he had I think he had a couple of thousand constitutions from history where people had tried to, you know, create some sort of predictability going forward, and especially the first 10 amendments of the constitution. Those amendments are to protect the individual from the government. The whole purpose of the Constitution is to protect individual Americans from the government. Because the government, like any other structure like that, wants to be totalitarian. They want your attention and they want to tell you what to do. And he said, no, we've got to let people, you know, meet in unpredictable ways, talk in unpredictable ways, you know, create new initiatives, you know, and we can't have this interfered with by government bureaucrats and everything like that. Completely with the first 10 amendments of the US Constitution, and that's the institution that's the number one institution on the planet. It's that 27 pages of typewritten notes that, basically, has created this freedom for individual initiative. That's as durable and I think every election is decided by the majority of the people. Say, don't what the one side's doing. I think we'll vote for the other side this election. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Crazy. Dan: Yeah, anyway, this was a good talk and we'll do it live on Wednesday when you arrive. We're heading up on driving on Wednesday morning, so the rooms don't open until about 3 o'clock. Well, you're staying at Bob's. Dean: It doesn't matter. Right, I think I arrive Wednesday evening, so Thursday will probably be. Dan: It's going to have to be be. Dean: Thursday it could be. Dan: Yeah, why don't we say Thursday? And that makes it certain. Dean: Okay, perfect, that sounds great, maybe we can do both then Maybe we can do the Henry in the morning. Okay, I'll text Matt, all right. Dan: Okay. Dean: Have a great week. I'll see you in a couple of days, great podcast. Dan: Thanks Okay, bye.

In this episode of Welcome to Cloulandia, We delve into a range of topics, starting with the impact of natural disasters like hurricanes, discussing their unpredictable effects and the challenges of recovery in affected areas. The conversation transitions into a discussion about health, where insights on traditional Chinese medicine and its approach to addressing common illnesses are shared. We highlight how ancient practices like herbal treatments and scraping therapy remain relevant today. We then explore a fascinating scientific discussion on fructose and its historical role in human survival, as well as its connection to modern health issues like diabetes and dementia. The implications of diet and sugar consumption are examined with insights from experts who have dedicated their careers to studying these links. Turning to technology, We discuss the evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI), highlighting its potential in creative and practical applications SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Dan and I discuss the impact of hurricanes, focusing on their unpredictable effects and the recovery challenges faced by affected regions. I share insights on traditional Chinese medicine, including treatments like herbal remedies and scraping therapy, and how these methods address common health issues. We examine the role of fructose in human survival and its modern connections to health problems like diabetes and dementia, drawing on expert perspectives. We explore the evolving applications of artificial intelligence, discussing its potential in creative fields, communication, and education. The conversation touches on the limitations and risks of AI, including concerns about quality and the pace of technological adoption. We reflect on the technological history of politics, discussing how innovations like FM radio and cable television have influenced public discourse over time. We share observations on the psychological and societal effects of rapid technological advancements, including shifting expectations for speed and efficiency. The episode highlights examples of AI in action, such as automated customer service and editing tools, and their implications for productivity. Dan and I discuss the contextual complexity of decision-making, emphasizing the importance of considering multiple factors in understanding trends and behaviors. We conclude with reflections on how these topics intersect, offering a perspective on the evolving relationship between technology, society, and individual experiences. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan, you have survived the hurricane, I survived the hurricane. Yes, we actually got almost nothing in Winter Haven. Dan: Yes. Dean: Winter Haven lived up to its name. Dan: No, I checked the weather condition in Winter Haven just in case I'd have to send an emergency package. Dean: Yeah, emergency, that's right we ended up. It was very. You know, it's a perfect example of you know when the hurricanes are coming. Of course you start out with that. You know the national news oh boy, there's a hurricane brewing, there's a tropical storm, it's forming in the Caribbean right now, or it's forming below Mexico or below Cuba, and then every day this is intensifying all the language, all the total emotional language, and then this is going to be devastating. And then you see the big buzzsaw working its way through the Gulf of Mexico on its approach to the mainland, and it could go anywhere, dan the cone of probability. And this one luckily stayed far enough to the west that we really got nothing. I mean, I got one band of wind and rain. It was like one of the outer perimeter bands, but not to say that it wasn't a devastating hurricane, because the whole the Gulf Coast, like in Tampa and St Petersburg and especially up in the Panhandle, they got really like rocked with this. And then North Carolina is getting pummeled with flooding and I mean like unbelievable stuff that's going on. Yeah, it's wild. You know our friend Chad Jenkins. He's got a place in, or had a place in, the mountains and the whole road going into the community just washed away, you know those guys are gonna be. I mean it's gonna be a long cleanup to get up from under all the flooding and stuff that's happened in North Carolina and most of you know Georgia and North Florida, but just shows you what it was? Dan: Well, it must have gone pretty far north, because Joe Polish was doing an event, supposedly today. Dean: In Cincinnati, yeah. Dan: In Cincinnati and the stage got destroyed. Dean: I saw that. The whole event, so it got pretty far north yes, yeah, because cincinnati I mean I think two things there, right that that's. Most people don't realize actually how far south cincinnati is, as you know, you know, it's almost kentucky, basically kentucky. Dan: So yeah, you can see. Well, comington is right across the river. You know Exactly. Dean: But still. Dan: I mean compared to Florida, it's pretty far north. Dean: Oh yeah, You're absolutely right. Yeah, you're home safe. Dan: Oh yeah, yeah, no, it's been nice here, it's been you know we've had probably the classic summer in September this year, I mean here it is almost the end of the month and all the leaves are completely green. We have a big Lots of leaves. We have lots of leaves with big oak trees that we have in our compound. We have six or seven, I think, seven big, seven big trees. But, nothing's turned yet, none of the colors have started yet, but it's been warm. It's been. You know, yesterday was 73, 74, which is great. Dean: It's the best. It's the best. Dan: Yeah, it's been terrific, and yeah sorry you couldn't make it to. Dean: Genius Phoenix, yeah. Dan: It was great. It was great. Who'd you catch that call from? I forget. Dean: Oh my goodness, Super spreader, super spreader Sullivan, that's you. Dan: Yeah, what was that? But? Dean: that came on fast. Dan: You know he. Dean: We had brunch on Saturday were there was nothing going on. We had dinner sunday night at your house and then monday, you were like full in the throes of it. And then we had dinner monday night and of course I was right beside you and by by Wednesday I went downhill, you know, and I could tell that it was coming on bad and I was supposed to speak at Giovanni's big event in the Arcane Summit, but I could tell I was going downhill. And then, thursday I switched my flight to come back to Florida because the original plan was I was going to speak at Giovanni's event and then on Sunday, fly to Phoenix for to be with you guys. Dan: Yeah, but anyway I made it home. Dean: I made it home just in time. I went full immersion in you know self-care, nipping in the bud, I think the warm, moist air really a lot to get rid of it yeah, well, you still sound like you, I was just gonna say you still sound yeah, no, I still, yeah, I still have it. Dan: Yeah. So we went to we have a really great chinese doctor here in toronto and uh you know, he does everything through pulse and he took my pulse and yeah his name's dr zhao and you know I've got a track record going back 20 years where you try this, it doesn't work. You try this, it doesn't work. You go to a doctor, it doesn't work. Then you go to dr zhao and within three or four days, then take these little. Dean: I went to a chinese doctor one time. No, they're herb. Dan: He gives you little packets of herbs and you make them like coffee and it's foul tasting, as it should be, and three or four. I can feel myself coring up already. I went on Friday and we have a Vietnamese massage therapist going back 30 years now. She's been with us since 32 years and she does scraping. Do you know what scraping is? Dean: I do not. Dan: Is that? No, it's. You know, she scrapes the skin hard. You know it's hard. Yeah, it's painful, it's actually quite painful. She did it on me. I just came from that about an hour ago. Dean: What is she scraping it with? Dan: Well, I don't know what it is. It's like stones. A special tool, it's like stones, oh, like bones. Yeah, sharp stones, you know. Dean: Bone things. Dan: yeah, and she doesn't take the scalp. You know she doesn. She doesn't take your scalp off, she just scrapes your back and scrapes your chest and it releases all the phlegm. You know the interesting word phlegm? So Chinese and Vietnamese in a space of three days and I'll be as good as new on Wednesday. In about a week. Takes about two or three days. Takes about two or three days you know I'm very, you know I've got a lot of compartments in my brain and people say you don't believe in that stuff. No, I do. And I said I think it works, even if you don't believe in it. Dean: Right, that's exactly it. Dan: Yeah. Dean: It's not up for debate. That's funny. Yeah, well, you went to the Chinese have. Dan: yeah, well, you went to the chinese have lasted. Dean: The chinese have lasted a long time, you know, and I guess some of it works did you go to canyon ranch? Dan: this time no we just we went to richard rossi's. Oh, that's what it was, I knew there was something yeah yeah, what was the big. Dean: It was good. Yeah, what was the big yeah, there he had to. Dan: Richard is just terrific in his curating of scientists. You know, he had a lot of scientists come in and talk and we had two especially one of them around 70. And he's been looking into the impact of fructose pretty well for 60 or 70, 50 or 60 years. And he really says that fructose is basically involved in anything bad that happens to you. You know, almost every kind of ailment and disease there's a fructose trigger to it. And he said and it was once a very good thing, when you know, thousands, tens of thousands of years ago, when we couldn't count on food, you know the food supply was not a predictable thing and he's just traced it to three or four genes. That got changed back in the prehistoric times when it was very necessary to stock up on fruit. You know, eat fruit as much as you could before the famine season came, usually winter, you know, sort of. You know there wasn't any food. And Buddy said then it's, you know, it was good at one time, but now we're in different conditions and now it's a problem. So anyway, he was great and I'm going to have him as a speaker at CoachCon 26 in Orlando. His name's Richard Johnson. Yeah, fascinating guy. Yeah, fascinating guy. And his whole career has been based on taking his research as far as he can and then finding someone in the world who has mastered the whole area that he's just entered. And he does a collaboration with them and then they create something new, and his whole career has been these collaborations with people who are more expert at what he's just discovered. And then they together do something even beyond what either of them have done before. So he's going to do one day on fructose and he's going to do the next day on collaboration. Dean: Oh wow, is he mad at fruit? Is he mad at fruit? Is fruit considered the same thing or is he talking about? No, it's Coke, it's Coca-Cola. Dan: That's what I mean. Like the fructose corn syrup, but not naturally. No, he's not against fruit. He the process, the intense fructose that they use, you know, to get people addicted to other kinds of foods yes, oh exactly, yeah yeah wow, but it was very interesting just how step by step, how step, he tracked down sort of the culprit. You know, and he said that pretty well, almost anything bad that can happen you. There's a fructose trigger in it. And you know and he said that pretty well, almost anything bad that can happen to you. There is a fructose trigger in it. And you know, then, including dementia, like including dementia and well diabetes leads to dementia. You know. They now have a pretty clear connection between diabetes and dementia. Dean: And yeah, that was what they're saying. I heard somebody refer to it as pre-dementia. Diabetes is pre. Like you know, everybody's walking around with pre-diabetes and the next level of diabetes is pre-dementia. Dan: Yeah, yeah, and then pre-dementia is pre-presidency. Dean: Oh my goodness, exactly. It's almost like a requirement. Dan: It's almost like a requirement. It's almost like a requirement. It's almost like a merit badge. Yeah, when we're coming down the stretch it shows one thing We've had a virtually uncapable person in the White House for four years and the country still runs. That's what I mean. Dean: That's what I really see. I think it's yeah. Dan: I mean, I don't think it gives you the sense of momentum that probably a good president would do. But here we are, you know, and who knows who's actually been making the decisions for the last four years. You know, it's an interesting test case, you know. Yeah, I don't think the israelis could get away with that oh my goodness, I just saw I think, they need someone. I think they need somebody right on the job, you know in the moment at all times they don't have much margin for error no, exactly yeah, that's wild huh. Dean: Well, I mean, uh, I just saw you were coming now into october, very around the heels here. So we're coming down the home stretch ready for the october surprise. Dan, everybody is all wondering what's the October surprise going to be, you know? Dan: Yeah, there may be no surprise. Dean: That could be the surprise, right there. Dan: Yeah, yeah, it's hard. It's hard to, you know, impose the past on the future. You know I mean it may, nothing may happen, it may just go along the way it is. Nothing may happen, it may just go along the way it is. But I feel that the Kamala is losing ground. Each week I get a feeling that there's this kind of erosion. that's happening week by week but she doesn't have any message. As a matter of fact, she's avoiding messages and I think it's hard to get the ground troops excited when you don't have a message. It's hard to get you. You know it's hard to get the check writers interested, probably in the last 33 or 34 weeks when you don't have a message. Dean: One of my favorite things that happened was I don't know whether it was an official ad or whether it was a meme, but it was Kamala saying if Donald Trump wins, there'll be the largest mass deportation in American history. Can you imagine what that would even look like? And then it ends and it goes. I'm Donald Trump. I approve this message. How perfect is that. Dan: Can you even imagine what that would look like? I'm Donald Trump. I approve this message. Dean: How perfect is that? Can you even imagine what that would look like? I'm Donald Trump. I approve this message. Dan: I think he's a rascal. Dean: But that's like so funny. Now we're getting somewhere. Dan: Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. Even my opponent is working for my campaign. Dean: Exactly. Oh my goodness, so funny. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, I think that there's kind of like an American center at any given time, like yeah, this is my yeah. What is it I started voting in? 68 was the first year that I voted. First presidential election because it was. The voting age was 21 when I was 20 and 64. I was 20 and 60. So I couldn't vote for the presidency in 64, so I had to wait until 68. And so you know, that's a whole number of years. It's 32, it's 56 years, so this is my 14th election and the thing is that at any given point there's sort of a center to things and I think the center moves around. But the person whose activities and message most corresponds to the American center during presidential year wins. You know, they just win I think it moves and I think America is a bit of an ADD country, you know that hyper, focusing on something different. you know every presidential cycle something and I just get the sense that there's she's not in the center. You know, you get a feeling that what she says and how she talks about it, it's just not in the center. Dean: Oh, and there was another ad showing. You know it was taking her words from 2020 and then exactly saying the opposite right now. Like every you know so like, thing after thing, her complete change on positions. You know it's pretty wild to see when you and she says things with such conviction and matter of fact it's like there can be no other way than this. Like how do? you not see this as the thing, and then she's saying it with the same tone and the same conviction the exact opposite thing. It's pretty amazing. I started watching last night, about halfway through, a documentary about Lee Atwater. Does that sound familiar? He? Dan: was quite Lee really changed American politics. Dean: Yeah, I didn't really know about him. I'd heard the name, of course, but yeah, this documentary really kind of digs into it. I didn't realize he was Karl Rove's mentor and so pivotal in Ronald Reagan and the Bushes. Dan: Yeah, he was the first of the take no prisoners, so there's a lot of shenanigans going on, so there's always been shenanigans. Dean: I guess that's really the thing Whenever the stakes are high, clever people are going to dream up shenanigans. Dan: Yeah, he was the one who George Bush Sr the outrouter was this is 88, 1988. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And he took down Dukakis in about three weeks. Yes, dukakis was kind of a, you know he was a governor of Massachusetts and sort of solid you know solid record and everything else. But boy, he was not prepared at all for the type of things that happen when you run for president, I mean when it's nationwide governor who's been basically in one state for all his political career, you know, just doesn't have the experience to deal with what can happen on a national level. I think that's one of the things that gives Trump the edge, I think is the fact that this is his third complete national campaign. So you know, from everything I've read about him and everything, I think he's a fast learner. You know he adjusts quickly to new circumstances, and so I think that just understanding how the entire campaign works, in it. you know it really starts about 18 months before the election day and you know to know exactly, step by step, what's happening, I think is a huge advantage. Dean: And it became clear watching the Lee Atwater thing that it's really it's most with what I was, you know, thinking, reading in same as ever. You know where the whole thing is, that good news takes, you know, build slowly and against resistance, and bad news gets is immediate, and that was what his thing was, what he found, what he said he found fascinating is you could end somebody's entire career in a day, that it could all fall apart. You just had the right thing that hits the right chord and it catches fire. And in another election he was accused or suspected of arranging this third party candidate to say the things that the primary candidate couldn't say, draw attention to this candidate's lack of belief in God, and it was really something. Dan: I think he died around 90, 1991. He got cancer or something. He died young. I mean he wasn't very old. I think he was in his 40s when he died. It's really interesting when you look at the technological basis for politics and you know the left, you know, goes frantic. Left and right is an event. I don't know if you know where left wing and right wing or the listeners do. It comes from the French Revolution. Dean: The French. Dan: Revolution, they had a national assembly and on the right were the traditional landowners in France. So these were families that maybe for half a millennia had owned land and there was always suspicion in how rich people got their land back then. You know, you never knew how they got their land. And then there was the church, and the church was on the side of the landowners. And then there was the government, you know the monarchy. They were the supporters of the monarchy and they were on the right, and the ones on the left were actually the new news media, the new intellectual class and actually the bureaucrats, the new bureaucrats who you know the state was getting big and you had these bureaucrats and they were on the left. And so that's really you know where that term right wing and left wing really starts, and and you know it's gone through different shapes and forms over the last 250 years or so. And but what I believe is that after the Second World War, the mainstream of the university were basically the mainstream and they were actually. Today we would say that they were sort of left wing and there really wasn't any right wing. There really wasn't right wing, because they controlled the magazines, they controlled the newspapers, they controlled the radio. Television was just, you know, just in its infancy, and there was one technological change that actually brought what we call the right wing today to the forefront, and it was FM radio. And FM radio was possible in the 1930s or 1940s. They already knew the technology of it, but that NBC, which was the dominant network. Back then you had ABC, cbs and NBC, but NBC was the dominant and they didn't want FM radio. So they literally stopped it for 30 years and then the government had to overrule them and allow FM radio to exist. And when FM radio came in it became the radios of the big city because it's got very limited bandwidth. Dean: You know it reaches. Dan: I don't know bandwidth, I mean FM doesn't go more than about 30 miles. Pardon me, but it became the radio station of the universities and the big cities. Dean: New York. Dan: Chicago, boston and everything else, and they moved out of AM radio and they said we don't want that small town stuff, am radios. So they left a vacuum. What we would call the left wing today moved to FM radio like national public radio is all FM radio, which is left wing. The NPR is the left wing medium. Based on today's landscape it's left wing and it just left the entire right wing with many more stations, but they had tremendous reach, like AM radio. You know, on a clear night in Ohio when I was a kid, I could get New Orleans, I could get St Louis, I could get Chicago, I could get New York, Philadelphia and I could get the charlatan radio from Mexico. Yeah, mean that was a million watt, million watt, radio station. Dean: So you had these really powerful radio stations and they were just abandoned was the idea behind fm, that it it was a shorter length but a higher quality signal. Is that what was? Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and you know, and it was available. So all these bandwidths were taken over by big city stations because you couldn't get the reach. You know you couldn't get the reach, but what you could make up with it was a denser population. So you would have a, you know, a big city would have a much denser population. So you would have a big city would have a much denser population. And what these stations got taken over by were religious congregations, preachers and everything like that, and they were against the mainstream government. Know, that's where Rush Limbaugh came along. you know he became the and Billy Graham came along. Dean: Right. Am radio is where you often think about. That was you know became talk radio. That's really where that all started, right. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the Democratic left in the United States just lost its control of AM radio, you know, and that was a big technological change. And then cable television came in. Of course you could have any kind of station, TV station. Dean: So there was a technological basis to politics technological basis to politics. Yeah, this is. I was listening. I've just been exposed in the last week here to the I think it's called Google Notebook, and it's the AI that you can load up you know some text or you know information into train, the kind of whatever the language tool is that it's drawing from, and it will create a podcast that's two people talking and explaining. You're making content about what you load up, for instance, like I just thought you know, it's pretty like it's amazing to hear these no, I listened to it. Dan: I listened to it. Oh, you did okay for the first time. Dean: Yeah, hamish what's? Dan: hamish mcdonald's. Uh, yeah, yeah, it was a particular piece of legislation in. Prince Edward Island. And so the government was using Google notebook to explain it, and it's a man and a woman talking to each other. And they said, and I mean the discussion quality and the voice quality was really terrific Like it sounds like two real people but the thing was they were just uniformly enthusiastic and positive about the regulation or the regulations that were doing that and that was my tee off that this is phony. Not phony, but artificial, right, you know I mean. I mean artificial. One of the meanings of artificial is phony. You know and everything. But it was really interesting to listen to it and I think it's good for education, explaining things you know. Dean: Yes, yeah. Dan: Because they go back and forth with each other, so I thought it was pretty good. Dean: Huh, and just like. So you look at this as this, if this is crawling, you know, if you look at that as the beginning of it, because that's the first I've seen of that capability. It's really pretty. It's really pretty amazing what we're up against. Just to put it in context, I heard someone talking about where we are now, the new I don't know how they number them, but the 0.01 or 01 or whatever now is the latest level of it context of a scale like the phases, the level five kind of thing, being the peak. You know, general intelligence, that that knows everything, this 101 or 10 or whatever it is. It was just tested at 120 IQ, which is higher than 91% of the population. Dan: And it means that 91% of the population isn't going to understand it. Dean: That could be. I mean, that's exactly right. Dan: Or listen to it. Yeah, but they're saying that if we look at the scale. Dean: If we look at the scale from 1 to 5, we're at about 2 right now, on the way to 5 by say 20 or whatever. Dan: I don't know really what that means. Iq 120 about what? Yeah, I mean. Dean: Yeah, I don't know I mean even IQ itself. Dan: You know it's being more and more discounted, as you know, as any kind of, I mean. What it means is pattern recognition. I think the Q now comes back to pattern. But, for example, above 150, I mean there's's people, there's an organization called mensa I mean yeah, you know which is people? I think it's 160 or above and what they find is that they're kind of dismal failures. You know, yeah, you know. Dean: No, I heard a thing that the actual, most, the most beneficial iq is about 125. Dan: that it gets in the way yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's the practical realm, the practical realm is 120 to 140. And you know that people think better than other people, but they also make better decisions and they take better actions. I think that's probably the realm, and it's very interesting when they compare all the IQ tests of men and women. They have different curves. And so there's far more males below 100 than there are females in relationship to how many males. So a higher percentage of males are below 120 or below 100 and a much bigger percentage of males are above 140. And the women control the area between 100 and 140. I mean just statistically based on yeah, and so the idiots and the geniuses men have they struggle, that's funny, I had them. Dean: so, yeah, I, yeah, I did. Years ago as an adult, though, I did my IQ just for fun, to see what. See where I'm at, and it's always 140, and which was see where I'm at. I was 140, which was very superior intelligence, dan, they call it VVSI on the tip of the I knew that the moment I met you. That's so funny. Yeah, I don't know what that means. Dan: It was a good choice of restaurants. It was on Avenue Road. Dean: That's exactly right, yes, yeah, that's right. Yeah, boba, yeah, yeah, so funny. So I think that this I remember saying to you a few years ago. I remember somebody tweeting which I thought was funny. They were saying however bullish you are about AI and circa 2030, you are insufficiently bullish, is what they were saying, and I thought those words just struck me as funny. But now we're starting to see, like, because that was even before ai, that was before t came out, because that's really only it's. It'll be two years in november, right that we? got the very first, 30th, 30th of november well, the very first sorry, that's okay the very first taste of it. And look at how it's changed in two years. You can only imagine what it's going to be in 2030. Dan: But I don't see any real impact of it out in the world. I don't see any impact. Dean: Yeah, let's talk about that. It's not obvious. Dan: Yeah. Dean: I don't see anything. Dan: Yeah, my sense is that we're sort of in a tinkering stage right now and that you give AI to one person and they do something with it. You give it to another person and they do something different with it. You give it to a million people and a million people do a million different things with it, but I don't see any unity or focus to it whatsoever, any unity or focus to it whatsoever. And it's bothering the investment markets, like Goldman Sachs, the big investment bank, who they're sort of alert to trends in the market because that's how they make their money. They said that they're very disappointed that in two years there's been billions and billions and billions of dollars spent in corporations bringing in AI, but they don't see any results whatsoever yet. So I think it's. My sense is that it's having a great impact, but it's not measurable by standard economic standards. It's not measurable, it's invisible standards. Dean: It's not measurable, it's invisible, right, and I I wonder, like you know, I've been talking about and thinking about this. You know I almost liken it to the way when the iphone came out. We had all the capabilities that went with it, right, like the gyroscope and the geographic, you know, knowing where you are geographically and the accelerometer and the touch screen and all of those capabilities that it could do, and, of course, the first things that people did was make games that you could you know, the other thing is photography yeah photography really changed huh, and now you see, like yeah, because now the, but being able. The big difference now with the ai is the sort of generative creativity, the photography and the things. I was laughed. There was about several years ago when AI was first start of sort of really getting legs. Before GPT, there were just the micro capabilities that AI was using. There was a website, and still is called thispersondoesnotexistcom, and every time you push refresh on the thing it creates a new image, photo image of a person that is an amalgam of all of the photo. You know millions of photos, and so it just is infinitely combining characteristics and hair color, hairstyle, eye color, skin tone, facial features, all of that to make a unique person that does not exist. Those are now along with the. When you couple that with the capability now of creating video avatars, like the AI videos, that you can have them say your script you know in, and it looks like a real person doing those things and it's just. I think, as all these capabilities come together, it's going to be a lot like the app store, where people are going to corral these capabilities into a very specific outcome. You know that you can. You know that you can tap into. I mean what a time to be a creative right now, you know, in terms of having vision and being able to pair up with infinite capabilities. Dan: Yeah, it's kind of you know I mean, there's some interesting insights about that that you're still constrained by one thing, because that on the receiving end of all this, people can still only think about one thing at a time. Okay, and you know so, you're not going to speed up anybody's intelligence on the receiving end. You may speed up your intelligence on the grave, but you're not going to speed. As a matter of fact, you may be dumbing them down at the other end. But what I think it's going to do is big systems. I mean, one of the great big systems that's been created over the last probably 50, 60 years is air traffic control. So there's not been a commercial accident in the air. I think it. You know, it may be 15, 20 years, I don't know. The last time, two planes collided in the air Right, right Like a collision in the air. And there you know, if you go back to the 30s, 40s and 50s, there were quite a few, you know, fog or something and everything like that, and so I think it's going to be big systems, like big electrical systems. That's where you're going to see the impact. I don't think it's going to be at the individual level. I think it's going to be at the big system level, and my sense is the Israelis are doing a lot of this at the big system level and my sense is the Israelis are doing a lot of this. I think the Israelis and you know the precision bombing they're doing now is really quite extraordinary, like they killed the head of Hezbollah on Friday. Dean: I just saw that. I saw something about that. I didn't have a chance to dig in, but that guy yeah. Dan: And they? First of all, they phoned everybody in the neighborhood within 500 meters and they said get out within the next 20 minutes because we're going to be bombing some buildings. So they have everybody's phone number. like in Beirut and Lebanon, they've got everybody's text number and phone number and they just mail them and says you know, get out of your building because there's bombs coming, you know. And so it was colossal. They cleared a block. I mean, when you look at it's three buildings and there's nothing but rubble and everything like that, well, there are hundreds of people around there. I think two people got killed and you know 50, 50 were injured, but I think you know typically technology leaps ahead in warfare, you know 50-50, we're injured, but I think you know typically technology leaps ahead in warfare, you know that's number one. Number two is games, you know, and the gaming industry is probably using this extraordinarily quickly and you know, and other forms of entertainment, other forms of entertainment, that's where it happens. But yeah, I'm not seeing the big jump. You know, I hear, you know Peter Diamandis sends out this is going to happen. And then you extrapolate in a straight line Well, because they're IQ 120, you know, in five years is going to be IQ 180. But most humans with 180 IQ are pretty worthless yeah you know they can't change a tire. You know they have problems in practice, right exactly yeah, they become more impractical and it's not clear that, beyond a certain amount of it, that intelligence is that great an advantage? You know, I don't know, I'm not, you know I'm, don't know, I'm not, you know, I'm just not convinced. Yet I mean, I use, you know, perplexity, and you know I really like perplexity because it gives me nice answers to things. I'm interested in, but not once has anything I've done on perplexity actually entered into my work. Dean: Right, you know it's Stuart Bell who runs my 90-minute book team. You know we were having a conversation about it and you know they're integrating into the editing process some. Dan: AI. Dean: So the first two passes of editing are now AI. First two passes of editing are now AI and he was amazed actually at how good it is. Most of the time the editing process is reductive, meaning that there's less. You put in this many words and you come out with something less than that many words. But this past, the way they've got it going now is it actually is a little bit expansive and you come out with about 10 more words than what it was, but reads. But reads very, you know very easily. So so he's very impressed with the way that's gone and it happens in moments rather than days of going through a traditional editing process. That was always the biggest time constraint. Dan: Bottleneck is the editing process, but that means that you can only charge less for it. Time constraint, bottleneck is the editing process, you know. Dean: Yeah, but that means that you can only charge less for it. I mean, let me just pose a counter possibility. Wait a second now yeah, possibility. Dan: I had a lawyer once and he said everything went to hell in the legal industry when fax machines came in, and he was explaining this to me that he said it used to be that you'd go and have a meeting with the client and then you'd go back and he would grant you three or four days to make revisions and then you know, send it by courier and over yeah and he noticed that over the first two years of fax they expected the revisions to be back that day so if things speed up people's expectations. People's expectations jump to saying well, you know, you just ran that through the ai, so why should I pay you for? You know I would. It take you three minutes to do this, you know why should I but? You put yeah. So my sense is that there's an economic factor that doesn't increase when the speed increases. Actually, the economic factor decreases as the speed increases. You know it used to be that they gave you two weeks to come up with a. You know a script for a play. Now they want it back an hour after you've talked you know, because they say well, we're not. We know you're using the ai and so you know we expect it to happen sooner you watch. I mean, we'll just keep track of this on our podcast as we go over yeah, but once you have a tech, once you have a speedier technology, people's expectation of speed goes up to match what other evidence is there for that? Dean: what other analogs? Dan: well, fax machine, yeah, fax machines and an email. Yeah, email very definitely, but the world hasn't slowed down with faster technology. Dean: No. Dan: No, everything's gotten faster. It's like sugar. Dean: Yeah, sugar. Dan: Everything speeds up. Everything speeds up with sugar. Dean: Yes, exactly, I don't know. Dan: You know, all I know is, in my 50 years of being an entrepreneur, I don't feel I've ever been at a disadvantage by adjusting to technology slowly. Dean: Yeah, it's just I just see now, if you take the through line of where things are going. Like I was really kind of amazed by this couple on that Google Notebook podcast, Like just that as a capability is pretty amazing. You know, I think you know and you're seeing now, those AI, you know telephony things where you can talk to an AI. Dan: A lot of it is things in sales they're doing. Chris johnson yeah, chris johnson in prezone really has an amazing. It's a calling service yeah so he had 32 callers and now he's got five callers and that's a real noticeable thing. And the software and I he gave a an example is about a minute and a half of the caller calling a woman and she's got it. It's. She's got a slight accent I can't quite tell what the accent is, you know, and but she's very responsive. You know she's very responsive and their voice modulation goes up and down in response to the person who answers the phone call you know, and, as a matter of fact, he's the person who answered the phone sounded like a real deadhead. So we were about halfway through and I said to Chris. I said which one's the robot? I can't quite tell. Dean: Which one is the? Dan: robot. The person who answered the phone was just really dead. He was really monotonic and everything like that. Dean: But the caller. Dan: She says, oh well, she says you know. She says you indicated interest in finding out more what our company does. And I'm just calling to schedule where we can give you a little bit more information. I'm not the person who does that. I'm just going to set up a meeting where someone can talk to you and it won't last more than 10 minutes, but they're really experts, and so I'm looking at the schedule for tomorrow and I've got 10 o'clock and I've got 3 o'clock. Would one of them be useful for you? He said something like 3 o'clock and I've got three o'clock. Would one of them be useful for you? He said you know something like three o'clock. He says, good, I'll put you in there. And he said you know, we just want to give you the kind of information that would indicate if you want to go further in that and everything like that. So thanks a lot for this and it was really good. But that that AI program can make 25,000 calls a minute. Dean: That's crazy isn't it? Dan: In other words, if people answered the phone as a result of sending this out, you could have 1,000 people talking at the same time. Now, I see that as a real breakthrough. Dean: Yeah, agreed, I mean that's kind of ridiculous. but yeah you think about that? I you know, when I started out in real estate I would do. I was making a hundred cold calls a day, but I was doing a survey. Was my, was my approach right? So I was saying the same thing. My idea was that I was going to call through the phone book for Georgetown, but I didn't want to, and then I would make a record of I had little or D, and I would only, of course, then follow up with the ones who were willing, happy and had a potential need in the future. That was my game plan and I would make these calls. I was just thinking now how easy it would be for an AI to do that now, like I would just call people. I'd say hey, mr Sullivan, it's Dean Jackson calling from Royal LePage. We're doing a quick area market survey. I wonder if you have a minute to be included, and most of the time they'd say no, or sometimes they'd say yes. But even if they said no, or I would just say it's just five questions that take one minute, I promise, and most people would go along with that and then I would just ask them have you lived in Georgetown for more than five years and how many years in your current house and how'd you happen to choose Georgetown? And then, if you were to move, would you stay within Georgetown or would you move out of the area? And then, whatever they said, I said when would that be? When would that be? That was the punchline of the whole thing and it was so. You know, it was so amazing, but I could you imagine making 25 000 of those calls in one minute. You call george, every household in geor, those calls in one minute. You call every household in Georgetown in one minute and identify all the people who were, because I could imagine an AI saying having that exact interaction that I just shared with you, right? Oh yeah, just the yeah, we're just doing an area market survey. Wonder if you'd have a minute. It's just five questions, one minute, I promise, and then go right into it. I mean that's pretty amazing. You know, if that's a possibility, that's a pretty. Dan: Well, I think you know. I mean, here's where you're. You know we're at the crawling stage with it, but again it all depends on whether people answer the phone or not, right? Dean: We're finding about a third. So we've got a lot of our realtors and others are, you know, following up with people who request books. So when they dial about a third of the people will answer the phone. Dan: Basically you just never reach me. But yeah, my sense about this is that there's very definitely an increase in quantity and I'm not convinced yet that there's an increase in quality, you know right. Right, you know quality of experience and so, for example, you know quality of experience and so, for example, what Hamish McDonald was sending me had to do with the piece of legislation, because there's something that they want to do and it requires following the rules of government ministry. But it was a little too cheerful and enthusiastic. I found the couple's talk. There would be no negatives in it. And I've never had any experience with government that didn't have a negative in it. So, from a possibility. Dean: I wonder if you could have. I wonder if you could, you know, prompt one person to take the positive one, to take the negative or debate it. Dan: You know, debate fun to take the negative or debate it. Yeah, you know, debate could be, you know, yeah, but my, my sense is that we get better at spotting dishonesty. You know like yeah, my sense, I think one of the like I. I have people who use ai all the time and you know, and they send me something and I read it and then we have a discussion over the over Zoom usually, and I'll say I didn't quite get it from what you wrote. There was something missing from. So I'm just going to ask you a whole bunch of questions like content wise. But the context is the real. You know, context is hard to grasp unless you're telling the truth, you know, and the reason is because you have to be touching about 10 different points, and one of the things I find with perplexity the AI is I've got this sort of way of approaching and perplexity always has to tell me 10 things about the subject I'm interested in. Okay, so 10 things. For example, I asked, I put in 10 reasons why evs are not being adopted as quickly as was predicted okay and 10 and phew, 10 of them, and you could see that each of them was a little bit of a game stopper. But when you put all 10 of them together it really gave you a sense of why there's a lot of late nights in the EV world right now, trying to figure out why things aren't happening as fast as they could be. So that's a contextual answer. It's not just, and what I've discovered from working with perplexity is there's no reason. There's no one reason for anything in the world. There's always at least 10 reasons why something happens or why something doesn't happen, and everything else. Dean: Yeah. Dan: I'm being educated. I'm being educated, but it's just something that's developed in the relationship between me and the AI. You know, because if you say what are the reasons why AI is not or E-MAT being adopted as quickly as we thought, I think the answer that came back would be very different from my tell me 10 reasons, because it just does what you ask it to do. That's exactly it. Dean: All of it has to. You have to have somebody driving. Yeah, holy cow, it's top of the hour. Dan, that's so funny. I put up a post on Facebook today about just before we got. I told you, ai makes things happen faster it really does just even our real life conversation when you talk about AI, the hour just speeds by. Dan: It really does anyway. Yeah well, you know it's a forever subject because we're going to be with it from now on. Dean: I think that's true, yeah. Yeah, love it All right. Well, you have a great day, all right, and I will talk to you next week. Okay, Thanks, Bye.

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, I share my experiences living in hurricane-prone areas, focusing on the looming threat of Hurricane Milton in Florida. We delve into how such natural disasters test our resilience, drawing parallels with historical floods in Ohio. These experiences serve as a backdrop for discussing the broader theme of adaptation and change. We explore the Strategic Coach framework's Free Zone concept, which redefines retirement as a time for continuous growth, fueled by innovation and technology. I express skepticism about Artificial General Intelligence, instead advocating for real-world applications of AI that enhance learning and productivity. The episode also dives into marketing strategies in the digital age, highlighting the Profit Activator Scorecard and AI tools like Perplexity and Google's Notebook. These tools help us identify gaps and enrich our marketing approaches, as illustrated through collaborations with Joe Polish and Dr. Cherie Ong. Our discussion extends to AI's role in creative and analytical tasks, showcasing how tools like Perplexity can generate insights and drive innovative conversations. We reflect on how these technologies can transform marketing strategies and enhance our understanding of complex topics. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We discuss the impact of hurricanes and tornadoes, focusing on Hurricane Milton's impending threat to Florida, and share personal experiences living in hurricane-prone areas. We reflect on the resilience required to recover from natural disasters, drawing parallels to historical floods in Ohio and emphasizing how modern media amplifies the perception of storm severity. Devlin describes the Strategic Coach framework's Free Zone concept, highlighting its role in extending entrepreneurial lifetimes and promoting continuous personal and team development. We express skepticism about Artificial General Intelligence, advocating instead for the use of AI in specific, real-world applications to drive innovation and growth. Stuart explores the Profit Activator Scorecard, detailing how to leverage its results to enhance marketing strategies and fill gaps in reaching target audiences. We examine the application of AI tools like Perplexity and Google's Notebook in generating fresh perspectives and enriching marketing conversations. Devlin introduces a new AI tool, "How You're Always Luckier," and discusses its use in generating insights into entrepreneurial luck and societal trends. We compare the capabilities of AI tools like Perplexity and Google Notebook, highlighting their potential uses in strategic planning and productivity enhancement. Stuart shares insights into using AI-generated conversations to gain new perspectives on marketing strategies, illustrating with examples from collaborations with Joe Polish and Dr. Cherie Ong. We discuss personal plans and upcoming travel, setting homework assignments to further explore AI tools and reconnect in future episodes. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Well, well, well, didn't even get to the course. Dan: Yeah, Mr Jackson. How are you, sir? So you were lucky with that hurricane, but you may get the next one. Dean: Holy cow, dan, this is exactly what I talk about with the week before we get the big red arrow, you know, the buzzsaw building in the Gulf and this one, if you take the track, of course, the cone, the probable cone right now and for anybody listening, we're talking about what will become Hurricane Milton, right on the heels of Hurricane Helene, is projected to go right over Tampa, to go right over Tampa, and if you take the red line in the center of the cone, the projected path is literally about a mile from my house, right through the Four Seasons, valhalla. Yeah, so, I don't know. I may hightail it to Chicago or something. Dan: You may have to move from one side of your garden to the other. Dean: That's right. No, this is. Yeah, this will be. This could be like direct path type of stuff. And, of course, the poor. You know people in Tampa and St Petersburg and Sarasota. Dan: They got, they always get it worse, absolutely. Dean: But this last one was, you know, crazy amounts of flooding, and that was not even that, was just the outskirts of a lane. This one is projected to make landfall right in Tampa. Dan: So I don't know. Dean: I don't know, but it's good, you know, to know the. It's good to know what's there. Dan: Yeah, and have forewarning. Dean: Yeah, exactly, you're on high ground in Florida. Dan: Right, You're on high ground in Florida. You're at least 10 feet above sea level, aren't you? Dean: I looked the other time, one of the times we were talking I looked and I'm actually at 150 feet above sea level, so like oh, you're like on Mount Everest in Florida, that's exactly right. Yeah, that's exactly right. Still I may, it's part of life though. You know, I mean, I tell people. Dan: It's part of life. I remember growing up in Ohio. I was in the north of Ohio, but Ohio River comes under the entire state from east to west and they had tremendous floods and there were people in my first 18 years living at home with my parents. I bet they got flooded out five, six times. You know where their houses would be gone and everything else. Yeah, you know, flood passes by, they rebuild and they go on with life and you know I mean the two things that the US Generally the US has great climate, has great weather. Dean: Yeah. Dan: But it's got a couple of things though Storms from the Gulf of Mexico or from the ocean, you know, from the way of Bahamas. You know, like out in the it comes from the east to the west, but usually it comes from south to northeast. I guess this would be south to east-north-east. It kind of rises a bit after it goes through Tampa right. Dean: Yeah, that's right. Dan: And the other thing is the tornadoes, which are largely unique to the United States. Largely unique to the United States, and it's because of the warm Gulf Gulf of Mexico, cold north, coming from Canada, and then they collide and they start creating a circle. And then they hit the mountains on the west and then they start coming east and Ohio doesn't get them that much. We never get the effects of the hurricanes. I mean by then it's petered out by the time it gets up to Ohio but the tornadoes are different because it's a flat, generally a flat geography in the north. It's where two roads meet. That's about six miles from where I grew up and they had like a church, a general store and a trailer park and three times when I was growing up the tornado hit the trailer park, didn't hit the church, didn't hit the general store. Oh, man Didn't hit, the church didn't hit the general story, oh man, and I said you know it's like a red flag for a bull. You know I mean you're just asking for trouble if you live in a trailer park, but I'm sure that you know people with manufactured homes really got a hard hit in North Carolina. Hard hit in North. Dean: Carolina, I can't even imagine, like Norman I mean yeah. Norman in South Carolina. Tech. That is the power company they're said we're estimating that power will be restored in four to five weeks. Yeah, I mean wild huh. Dan: Yeah. Dean: I mean so amazing, you know that's. I just can't even imagine like your whole, you know your whole uh town being cut off, like there's some of those things in the mountain roads in north carolina. You know in the mountains there that the only way to get to them is through this one road going up around the mountain, and if that washes out which it has I just wonder like how long the how long it's gonna take to rebuild everything it's gonna take a long time. Dan: Yeah, some of it, not at all, probably. I mean, there's probably some small hamlets that they just leave, you know they'll just leave you know anyway, but anyway it's really interesting the I mean every once in a while you get a really severe storm, which this one was. But you know, it's how people don't really understand population, that I mean. There were worse storms as far as people dying in the early part of the 20th century. Far more people got killed. I think there was a famous one in Texas, which. I think it was a couple of thousand people died. You know this one. But people don't realize. When there's a lot more people and a lot more houses, the storm seems more severe, because there's more damage, there's, you know, more wreckage, and plus there's television and there's well, that's what they're saying. Dean: Back in a hundred years ago, you had to depend on somebody's big toe swelling to get there's a storm coming yeah, there was a tornado. Dan: I think there was a tornado, I think it was in the 20s, 1920s and it went over three states. I think it's sort of like Nebraska, that area, you know, the real. Midwest, but it was clocked at close to 80 miles an hour and it stayed on the ground for three states. It didn't jump up, it just stayed on the and it really. I mean it just destroyed towns in its path and the way they know how fast it was going was the report in from the telegraph offices as it was going north. Yeah, funny, as long as you weren't there. Dean: Yeah, holy cow Anyway. Dan: I was just working on a new thinking tool. Dean: I'd like to hear all about that, yeah and actually two of them. Dan: I finished one and I'm starting another one today, and the first tool is called Strengthening your Strengths, and I happen to think that this is the number one entrepreneurial skill. Dean: Tell me all about it. Strengthening your strength sounds like something I would be completely interested in doing. Dan: Yeah, the other one's called how you're always luckier. Yeah, okay, so you got two tools. You got two tools in mind. Dean: Okay, we're going to talk about strengthening your strength. Yeah, the two tools in mind, I've got them. Dan: Talk about strengthening your strength, yeah, and then you categorize them what's your best strength right now? In other words, if you took a look at where you are right now, what's your best strength? And so mine, the number one, is just my teamwork with bats. You know, which goes back 40 years. That's my number one strength, okay. Number two is the team that we have our unique ability team, and number three is the entrepreneurs that I get to work with. Yeah, okay, and so, as you can see the way I'm laying it out, it's me and something outside of me. My biggest strength is that I'm 50% of the deal but there's another 50% of Babs in the team. And I have others, I have others, but those would be the top three. And then over on the right-hand side, is 12 strengthening. In other words, which are the ones that you would strengthen over the next 12 months? It's very interesting. It's a very interesting. The insights that come out. You know, because it's your strengths, are far more than you. Your strength is your connection to other, in collaboration with other people. Dean: Yeah, got it, I do. Dan: And then you know there's a lot of thinking, there's insights. You brainstorm in both of them and then you pick the top. You pick the top three. Dean: So how would you think about the? How would you think about your 12 month improvement in your strength of collaboration with? Dan: BabAPS yeah. So, the big thing right now is our clinics. You know, I mean it's a great teamwork and we want it to last a lot longer into the future. So the work that we do with David Hasse and Nashville will be going down in a couple of weeks. Dean: Your joint longevity project right? Yeah, Well, he's got. Dan: You know, I mean, he's got the full medical every 90 days. And then what needs to be adjusted. You know what's really working, what's not really working. So we get a full blood panel, top to bottom, for every 90 days. And then he creates a whole supplement things we take four times a day. And there's all sorts of adjustments every 90 days. And then the second one is the clinic in Buenos Aires that we will be going down again in November. And that's the stem cells. So yeah, so I mean we're good with each other on all levels, but it's keeping both of us healthy and fit. Dean: Yeah, keeping the racehorse healthy right. Dan: Keeping the races coming yeah exactly Right, right, right yeah. And then the team, the big thing is going to. We're going to make the four by four tool. So we just created the new book which you got. You came to your free zone, so casting that hiring, and we're going to make it every quarter. Every team member upgrades their own 4x4 and talks with their team about it, and the team leaders talk to Babs about it what they're doing. And just do this and get better at it, quarter by quarter, and I think that's going to really strengthen, really strengthen. You know, I mean our main capability and the third one with the entrepreneurs. The big thing my goal 20 years in the future is that the entire strategic coach program, all three levels, is in fact the free zone, and what we're doing now is that we're showing that every tool say, for example, the very first tool when people start coach is the lifetime extender, and that gives you a free zone, because the moment that you extend your life and have 20, 30, 50 extra years you weren't planning on. Yes, yeah, but the way you're looking at it is a free zone. Nobody else is looking at it this way and I already have proof after 30 years. So the lifetime extender has been there for 30 years, so the lifetime extender has been there for 30 years and I have proof now that I would say, on average, entrepreneurs are extending their working lifetime by probably 15 years as a result of that thinking exercise. Yeah, you know where they might be checking out at 60 or 65, know where they might be checking out at 60 or 65. Dean: Uh, they're pushing through to 80. So, yeah, it's very, it's really interesting to see just you know, being surrounded by your people in in strategic coach specifically, that are nobody's thinking about retirement, nobody's thinking about retirement, nobody's thinking about winding down or anything. You know, I think that's all part of you being the lead. You know the lead example the lead dog, the lead dog, exactly Moving into your ninth decade here with an aspiration to outperform your 70s, which was your greatest decade right. Dan: So that's on every level. Yeah, I would say, if you took any entrepreneurial gathering in the world, you know other programs or other associations and had the sort of the demographic mix that's the same as strategic coach, in other words, from, generally speaking, from your 30s to your 60s, generally, I mean that's where the majority of our clients would be. Strategic coach would be the only one where the word retirement is not used. Nobody ever talks about retirement Right exactly, and that's a free zone? Dean: Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's so great to watch too, to see just your momentum. I always tell you too, but I always tell people you're like the ghost of Christmas. Future 22 years ahead of me the ghost of Christmas future 22 years ahead of me, you know it's like you know, because I just love. It's so inspiring to me to see that you know, because a lot of times you start to think, okay, I'm 58 now and you know 60 is approaching, but then that's still. You know even the conversations that we've had about the. You know 60s approaching, but then that's still. You know even the conversations that we've had about the. You know 20 years now, if you take a 25 year framework and start another at 60, kind of thing, that's yeah, it's wide open fields, you know, and where we're where we are now. Who even knows? I had my mind blown the other day. I don't know whether you've seen or heard any examples of the Google Notebook. Dan: Yeah, a couple of our team members are working with it. I mean, they introduced it to me, I didn't introduce it to them. Yeah, I think it's. You know, I haven't tried it yet, but I think within the next quarter I will. I'll try it and it seems to me that it's a lot better format than having a chat bot that you ask questions you ask questions for sure. Dean: Yeah, I mean I heard for sure. Dan: Yeah, I mean, I heard, you know, I heard an example where they were taking apart, you know, a topic and they were just talking to each other and I found it more informative and more, what I would say stimulating to listen to the back and forth conversation than if I was asking a question or it was asking me a question. I just think it's a better format for bringing out the essence of three topic. Dean: And Dan. The realness of the voices and the inflection and the talking a little bit over each other, the interaction and the laughing and the jokes, like it blew my mind Like nothing I've ever seen Zero, I mean, it was just there. Every time I forward it to somebody, they're literally like you can't believe that this is AI, that this is not two humans talking right now and I just think I also read that, on the scale of things, we are at level two right now, on our way to level five, which is the AGI, you know, pinnacle or whatever, the super intelligence. Dan: So if you imagine that, you know how can I bring that up, Because I'm a firm, complete, total non-believer that there's such a thing as AGI. Okay, and the reason is because all intelligence is specific, it's all specific and there is. I mean, we've already created the agi. It's called god, you know, and it's been around for a long time yeah, no, but the whole point is not. I mean it would be meaningless because nobody would use AGI. Dean: What does AGI stand for? Dan: Well, it's Artificial General Intelligence. General Intelligence yeah right, yeah, but there is no general intelligence, there's just specific intelligence. It's just your interaction with something which stimulates your intelligence. Dean: You know, that's it, I mean. Dan: I have squirrels in the yard. You know, in Toronto I'm in Chicago today, but in Toronto we've got squirrels, we've got lots of oak trees and I just watch them. And you know, when it comes to acorns, my intelligence doesn't compare to what a squirrel can do with acorns. You know. They can go up the tree, they can shake a branch. Ten acorns come down. They come down, they gather them up. They got ten different. I have no comprehension how they do what they do. That's specific intelligence. Dean: Squirrel has specific intelligence. Dan: The oak trees have intelligence, no-transcript thing by talking yes, yeah anyway, but I love you know, and I think the terms of you know of applying iq to artificial intelligence is kind of meaningless Right. Because it's somehow that our intelligence and computer intelligence is the same thing going on, and I just don't think it is. Yeah, I think it's completely different. I think it's really fast computing. Dean: Yes, yeah. Dan: So that's my take on it. Dean: Yeah, so that's my take on it, yeah, but if that's, I mean if you, there's something happening and it is evolving, and we're two, you know, a month shy, six weeks shy, of it being two years old since chat GPT first came on the scene in November of 22. And so you'd think, if, just for context, if whatever level of amazement we're at right now is a two on a scale of five, whether we're calling five AGI or whatever, it is just the advance, the directional advance, is pretty, as they say, indistinguishable from magic you know. Dan: Yeah, question is what are you doing? What are you using it for? That's my question. Dean: I don't know what I'm using it for, like I'm really not. You know, that's the. I just have conversations sometimes with my juniper voice and I just recently switched to a British lady. You can switch the voices that you have the conversations with and I'm just kind of sitting with in my mind here. I think we're all woefully under utilizing it. You know like I think we're just to know, yeah. Dan: Yeah Well, I don't think we're underusing that, we just haven't found the use for it yeah, that's true. Well, that's true, that's true it's like there's some ideal use of it, but there isn't any ideal use search, too. Dean: I just look at it as like what would I, how would I treat it or what would I do if I personified it? You know, like I've been imagining Juniper being a real person and you know sitting beside me. Dan: Let's take the eight profit activators. Activators yeah. So, activators you've done complete walkthroughs of each of the activators. Dean: Yes, I have. Dan: Okay, take activator number one. What's activator number one? Dean: Select single target market Okay. Dan: Run it through Google Notebook and see what conversation comes out of it. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Okay, and then what do you learn? Dean Jackson, creator of the first, you know, the first activator. What are you learning there? My feeling is the first time you do it, you'll see all. I guess. Dean: If I imagine that the capability of me, you know, documenting, like you know you've heard the things of, you know like is everything you know written down somewhere. That's really what it comes down to right is if I were to convey, If I were to convey everything that I know about the, about the profit activators, into this language model, what I would love for it to be able to you know, take, do what I do in a way that it's doing the question asking. You know, like I think most of the things that I've seen so far are training up a language model, like loading up a language model but then saying isn't this great, Go ahead, ask it anything, but you've got to you and I talked about that. You've got to have batteries included. You know, you've got to be the one that now you're limited by your, your ability to ask the right questions, to draw it out, and I think it would be infinitely more valuable if we could train it to ask you questions, like I would ask you questions to see where the opportunity is within the profit activator. So I have a thing that I do called a 50-minute marketing sprint, and I basically go through the eight profit activators before, during, after we overlay it on your business and I teach people how to kind of think, how to divide their business into those categories, how to recognize what the driving you know metrics are for each of those and see where the opportunity is. And then, once you know, even with the we have the profit activator score card, using your scorecard model of the you know each of the eight that I think being able to interpret what somebody needs from that like if somebody's a four on profit activator number two, which is compel prospects to call you but they want to be a 12, that would be intelligent enough to say hey, Dan, it looks like you are. Say hey, Dan, it looks like you are. I mean, what we always say to people with the scorecards is you know, I'm looking for people who are clear on Profit Activator 1. They know who they want to attract and they're high on Profit Activator 5, which is deliver a dream come true experience for your prospects. But then they dip down in Profit Activator 2 and Profit Activator 4, which are, you know, compel your prospects to call you and make compelling offers. So I can help people bridge that gap If you know who you want and you can get them great results. Let's do this, let's take some, let's see how we can compel people to call you? Dan: Yeah, I think you're a week away. What I mean? A week away, actually two weeks. We're traveling next Sunday, but two weeks away, I think you're two weeks away from us having a conversation about your first experience of taking you know, creating a transcript for yourself and you can just walk through Profit Activator number one and then it's transcribed and then feed it into the notebook and it'll take it apart and create a conversation between two people. And then you get the recording back and you listen to it and it will take it apart and create a conversation between two people. And then you get the recording back and you listen to it. I bet you'll be very what I would say stimulated by the conversation that comes out and you'll learn three or four new things about how to explain profit activator number one. Dean: It's crazy. Dan: I mean, we did, I'm just telling you how I would approach it, and Hamish McDonald is doing it. I'm going to ask him. The book that we're writing right now, the first chapter, we have the transcript from it the recording. He'll just run it through and send me back for the recording. Okay, and see, I've got a smart human between me and the technology I'm just pointing out my approach to technology period I always have a smart human between you and the technology, but I'll get back to recording and I can listen to it. Okay, and yeah, I love that. I think you'll be, I think you'll be stimulated, I think I'll be stimulated. We can have a nice conversation about what our experiences were. Yeah, We've got an assignment for the next podcast. Dean: Wow, joe Polish and I, we did a Zoom this week with Cherie Dr Cherie Ong, joe's girlfriend, who's a vaginal plastic surgeon, and so we were talking about some marketing things for her and we went, so we did the Zoom. Joe had the honor transcript of the put it into that Google notebook. Transcript of the put it into that google notebook, and to hear this conversation about the conversation that we had was just, it was amazing. I mean, it really was. Dan: Yeah, it was, it's just something yeah, yeah, I mean, I have about you know not what you're talking about, but a different ai experience is every day I have two or three things that just occur to me and where I might have gone to google before I go to perplexity yeah, because google is a search and google is a search engine and perplexity is an answer engine, and there's a big difference between answers and searches. Okay, yeah, and yeah, I did one, because I'm creating this new tool which is called. We haven't talked about that yet, but how you're always luckier is the name of the tool. Okay, so I put in a perplexity 10 significant ways that successful entrepreneurs consider themselves lucky. That's my prompt for and five seconds later I had yeah, and it was useful. It was very useful. Like you know, they're very alert and curious about possible opportunities. You know they're very alert and curious about possible opportunities. That's one way that you know that entrepreneurs prepare themselves for luck. Ok, they have connections with you know creative people. They have connections with creative. So there's 10 of them, you know 10 of them, and I said that's very gratifying. I found that very gratifying, and I also have the suspicion that my prompts are sort of unique, so I'm getting a whole set of unique answers back. Okay, so there was another one. There's this general narrative out there that, because of the political polarization in the United States, that we were on the brink of civil war, and I said perplexity, give me 10 reasons why, in the midst of this political polarization, in 2024, there won't be a second civil war. Five seconds later I got the answer and they were all very plausible. There's absolutely almost nothing in common between 2024 and 1860. You see, it's just news media people with probably too much college education creating new theories. And you realize that, when it comes to getting things done outside of government, the United States is basically going on as normal. It's just things are being sold, things are being created, things are being shipped new ideas are being explored and everything like that. So, I've got this relationship with perplexity, that any topic comes along, I says perplexity, tell me 10 things about this, and then I get my 10 things back. So I've got a new book. One of the new quarterly books is coming up. Dean: It's the 10 reasons for anything. I like that. Dan: Yeah, and that is that anything you can mention. There's probably 10 reasons for it Maybe 100 reasons, but there's at least 10 reasons. You know 10 reasons why Dean Jackson and Dan Sullivan like talking to each other. Right, I bet there's 10. Dean: At least yeah. Did you ask the follow-up question? Dan? Did you ask the question of what are 10 reasons that there might be a civil war? Dan: I would, but I'm not looking for that. Dean: Right, right, right. I just wonder if they can build the argument the other way too. Dan: Oh, sure, sure sure, although perplexity is kind of, I haven't noticed any real bias yet. I've been working with it for six months and I haven't noticed any bias. They simply answer your prompt on the basis of what you wanted to explore and it explores it. But I wouldn't be interested in 10 reasons why there might be a civil war. Dean: Right but. Dan: I think perplexity would come back and say I'm sorry, but my information doesn't allow me to actually explain that Right. Yeah, it does not compute. Yeah, and you know, a couple of times it's come back and say there just isn't enough bases to support. You know the answer that you're looking for. Dean: Right, right, right. Do you use chat GPT for anything different than? Dan: what you use. Dean: Never used it oh okay so you use perplexity as the main thing right, that's it yeah. I'm a monogamous guy. Dan: I'm a monogamous guy. You want to? Dean: have that. Dan: Why would I have two? Dean: I mean, it's like having two wives. You want to grant someone a monopoly right, yeah, and then go deep with it. Dan: Then get really good at that. One thing I'll use this. I'll use the Google notebook, but I won't be the one doing it. Somebody else is going to be doing it for me. Dean: Yes, exactly Me too, that's, I've got Glenn doing that and that's really it's pretty amazing. We're right now on the thing of Okay, we have homework, we have homework. I'll get it done you get it done. Okay, and then? Dan: we'll talk about our. We'll talk about our results. Dean: Yes. Dan: We'll have as a matter of fact fact, we'll get them back and you can send me yours and I'll send you. Know, you just send the link and I'll send the link to mine and you can. Yes, I'll listen to yours, you'll listen to mine, and then we'll have a roaring conversation now. Dean: So what was the question? You wanted me to ask it again. So I'm feeding in Profit Activator 1 and then just seeing what the conversation is. Dan: Right yeah. What is the Google notebook conversation related to? Dean: I think what I'll do is I'll do the 50-minute marketing sprint and see what they say. I think that'll be amazing, yes. Dan: Yeah. Dean: That's pretty smart, you know I think it's not named properly. Dan: Google Notebook. I don't think it's named properly. It should be called the eavesdropping. Dean: Yes, exactly. Dan: No, I mean, wouldn't you like over here two people talking about Dean Jackson's? Dean: This is what's amazing is to hear them. Dan: You're eavesdropping on two very positive people talking in an excited way about your thinking. I mean, who wouldn't want to eavesdrop on that? Dean: Yeah, so, joe, I loaded up episode one of the I Love Marketing podcast and it came back. I mean it was so great to tell the. It was telling the story, so we do a deep dive. It's a conversation between two giants in the marketing world. Dean and Joe, two giants in the marketing world Dean and Joe and they're telling the stories about how they got started and how their earliest jobs really led the foundation. I mean to hear these things talking about it like they're just kind of enthusiastically. Dan: You know, can I tell you something? I think this is the end of social media at the intelligent level, the whole point of social media from the standpoint of Mark Zuckerberg, or anybody else that they've got your attention. This takes your attention away from them. This takes your attention away from them. This takes your attention away from them. Yeah, I mean, I've never been on social media, but I have observed that you're giving your attention away to somebody else. Okay, yes, yes, and with that, you're returning your attention to what's interesting to you. Yeah, you've just created something that's unique, okay. So, Dean takes Profit Activator number one, puts it into Google Notebook Okay, and it comes back with a totally uniquely produced conversation between two AI voices, strictly on Dean's thinking. My feeling is you've returned your attention. I think you've returned your attention to yourself. Dean: I think you're right and it's funny because we're going to take that now, take that conversation that they had and put it through another AI that will create supporting video. I've had this idea of doing the I Love Marketing podcast, which was my idea was to go back to the first 100 episodes and do a commentary on them, but I think that it might be fascinating to do you know, I love marketing AI to have the Google notebook do their summary on each of the first 100 episodes. It really is a really good 10 minute. 10 minute deep dive, as they say. Dan: Yeah, well, it's you know, to me it's really but I think what if you choose to apply this in a way that's beneficial to yourself? Dean: Yeah. Dan: I think you want your own thinking coming back at you, being discussed by two other people. Dean: Yeah that's. I love that. I really do. Like you're absolutely right, it's so. Yeah, it's a moving sidewalk for sure. Like it's definitely a catalyst for connective thinking, you know, to then have a conversation, yeah yeah, but anyway, it's really. Dan: I think it's really neat. You know, one thing that really occurs to me is the wow factor that everybody's talking about. Gee, it's just like human with a high IQ. No, it isn't. It's just a further advancement of technology. Dean: That's all it is. We've been living this. Dan: We've been living this. Humans have been living this forever. This is just a new extension of technology. Dean: It isn't magical. Dan: It isn't human, you know, it's just technological. I had a lot of religion when I was a kid and I can tell when other people are starting to get religious with technology. Dean: Uh-huh right. Dan: I said, you know, when people don't have religion as children, they tend to try to create it out of other experience when they get older. Dean: Yeah, that's true. So you have a. You got a big week this week coming. Dan: No, I just have one. I have a free zone on. Tuesday and I'm starting my next. I'm just starting my next round of connector calls. Dean: Okay, yeah, I'll have to look at the calendar when our next connector call is and get on board. Dan: Well, not free zone, but I have a 10 times connector call at 1030 your time tomorrow morning. Oh, okay, yeah. And this is where I'm testing out strengthening your strengths for the first time. Dean: Okay, oh, that's why it's hot off the press. Well, I mean I. There's a greater than zero percent chance that I might fly up to chicago for to get out of here. Dan: So we'll see when's it supposed to hit tampa? Dean: well, tuesday, wednesday, will be the peak fall, so we'll see it it supposed to hit Tampa. When's it supposed to hit Tampa? Well, tuesday, wednesday will be the peak fall, so we'll see it's supposed to. You know, form more, get more structure and stuff today, so they'll see what the expected path is and stuff. It could go further north or south, or it could fizzle out. You never know. Dan: Yeah, yeah. The news media loves this stuff, you know. So drama, you know, and they've got a narrative going now. These are the worst hurricanes in American history. I said no, they're just hitting more populated areas. Dean: Oh man Well now you know the whole conspiracy, now that is, that was enhanced hurricane, that they manipulated the weather, dan, and pushed it yeah, to North Carolina because they want. It just so happens that all these mountain towns. Dan: They want a lot of people not voting Republican. Dean: Well, they want the lithium underneath there. The mountain areas there sit on the highest concentrations of lithium in the world. Dan: We're talking real conspiracy here. Dean: Oh, yeah, yeah, no, that's exactly it. We're talking about like weaponized weather, to shut down, to make Asheville the next smart city. Dan: And I'll tell you something that there is actually something unique about North Carolina, that the finest quartz in the world that go into microchips, the finest quartz comes from one town in North Carolina. Dean: Yeah, I mean in the world. Dan: I'm talking. Well, this is not lithium, it's quartz, I mean maybe there's also lithium there, it's the same thing, yeah. But that town's been going for 30, 40 years, you know and everything else else. But it's really interesting that the finest grade quartz just comes from a mountain in one little town in north carolina, I think that's an interesting fact, it's proof of rule number three that's so funny, it's true. Number three is rule number three is there are no rules, no rules, no. Life's not fair. Dean: Life's not fair, right, sorry, right. Everything is made up, nobody's in charge and life isn't fair, that's right. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, you get those down pat and you know, you know, and life gets real simple. Dean: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I love it simple. Dan: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely I love it. Do you know the american one dollar bill, the left hand side of the american, backside you? Know, it's got the pyramid. Huh got one there I don't have paper bill I don't know. Dean: I don't think I have paper bill. No, I don't have one. Dan: I have lots. I have ATMs in my closet. I have ATMs in shoe boxes. I've got ATMs in the freezer compartment. I always have cash, but that's very interesting. But you see the pyramid there. That's the three rules. Dean: Oh, it's made up. Dan: Everything's made up. Everything's made up. That's one side of the pyramid. The other side to that second side, nobody's in charge. And number three is life's not fair. Dean: And if you get that, you're a happy American. And the I is. We're always watching. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, see if you've been good or bad, that's exactly right. Dean: That's exactly right, yeah. Dan: I love it Well anyway, we both have assignments. Dean: I'm excited about that. Dan: First thing tomorrow morning and it'll be really interesting. But I'll just go to Hamish, because Hamish is playing with it already and it's really great. And yeah, this is a neat site. We can have our listeners out there do the same thing, you know. Dean: I love it. Dan: I'm going to go to Perplexity and say tell me the 10 most important things about Google Notebook. Oh, very good yeah I like that Because I bet perplexity has a better notion of what it does than Google does. Dean: I wonder if perplexity I'm going to ask perplexity give me the top 10 things or top 10 ways I should be using you, the top 10 ways you could be useful to me. Dan: I asked it, the R factor question, you know the perplexity. I said perplexity if we were having this discussion three years from today and you're looking back over the three years, what has to happen for you to feel happy with your progress? Okay, okay. Five seconds later I had it Okay. And then I said what are the 10 biggest obstacles to you being happy with your progress? And then it said at the end if I solve these 10, if I overcome these 10 biggest obstacles, I'll be very happy with my progress. Obstacles I'll be very happy with my progress. That was a good answer. Dean: That was a good answer. Yeah, that's great, I'm going to do that. That's funny. I'm going to see what they say. Well, so next week you're traveling, and then so two weeks. Dan: Yeah, we're up to the cottage for Thanksgiving, which is and so, but we go up on Thursday, we have the big dinner on Saturday night and Babs and I come back to the city on Sunday. Dean: Drive back on Sunday. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, so Monday. Dan: Monday's the holiday, but right, yep. So two, two, two Sundays. Yeah, all right, you got homework I got homework, got homework, absolutely I'll talk to you soon, okay, bye.

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, We glean valuable insights into writing methods by contrasting Stephen King's solo approach with James Patterson's collaborations. We explored the benefits of a second-person narrative and tailoring content for specific readers. We talked about an entrepreneur who built a candy empire by recognizing an opportunity and exemplifying the power of vision, focus, and innovative thinking. His story highlighted how early experiences shape goals and the importance of collaboration. Additionally, this discussion examined how US elections impact businesses and underscored innovation and marketing's crucial roles. Lastly, we covered strategic concepts like revenue per unconverted prospect and discussed books' significance in education. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS I explore the contrasting writing styles of Stephen King and James Patterson, focusing on King's solo approach and Patterson's collaborative method. I discuss the benefits of writing in the second person to create a more engaging and conversational tone for specific audiences, such as experienced entrepreneurs. I share the story of a young entrepreneur who successfully identified a market gap and built a low-sugar candy company, emphasizing the importance of single-minded focus and methodical growth. I delve into the significance of visionary goals and collaborative efforts in driving entrepreneurial success, using personal anecdotes and experiences as examples. I analyze the impact of US presidential elections on business sales, highlighting how different election outcomes can shape various business landscapes. I introduce the concept of revenue per unconverted prospect (rev pup) and its role in strategic business planning, particularly in understanding client gestation periods. I examine the financial dynamics of a signature program, discussing how a $15,000 fee per participant can generate significant revenue and emphasizing the importance of capital investment in lead generation. I highlight the role of books in attracting and educating prospects, particularly those published with Hay House, and their efficacy in creating qualified leads and fostering deeper understanding among participants. I discuss the benefits of a high-protein, low-carb keto diet and share personal plans, including a trip to the cottage and trying a new French establishment, Cafe Balloud. I reflect on the importance of focusing on one thing for entrepreneurial success, using the example of a young entrepreneur who built a low-sugar candy empire and the notion of always striving to go further in one's pursuits. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan, mr Jackson there he is Well. Yeah, I had a great week. Yeah, I'm very busy. We started a new book. The previous one went to the printer on Tuesday and we started the next book on Thursday, so this is the fastest that we've gotten to a new one. Oh, I like that Right into the next. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah don't know what stephen king, the author that's his habit of he writes for. You know he writes every day a certain amount of time and as soon as he finishes one of the end on one if it's halfway through a session he gets a new sheet of paper and starts the next one. He doesn't like sit on his laurels, he just gets right into the next one. It's very interesting. Dean: Yeah, I'm wondering because I don't really know much about him. Is he right strictly alone? Dan: and then, yes, you know, yeah, like, so it's a very interesting thing that he's like a rugged individualist, whereas you know, james patterson is definitely a who, not how, collaborator, you know, and prolific at it. He's got a really, really interesting process in that he does extensive outlines for his books and then he collaborates with someone to fill it in, to do the actual right, and then he gets with them and gives notes and so the book is a hundred percent. He's the author. I guess you can say, and then, but gives the, but gives the co-author the latitude to take it, exercise their creativity or whatever and how it goes. But he's got the basic. You know, he's created the outline and the story art Pretty extensive outlining process he has I took a I don't know whether you've ever seen and the story arc Pretty extensive outlining process he has I took a I don't know whether you've ever seen. There's a website called Master Class and they have, like the best in fields, doing a master class on their thing, and so James Patterson was one of the first. He did a thing on writing and yeah, it's very, it's very well done. Do you think they actually reveal what they actually do? Yeah, I think so. I mean it's from seeing the things. Yeah, he actually shows actual outlines, outlines, and you know, I imagine there's nothing you know. Sharing the process is very empowering for other authors, just like I think you don't keep one and has observed you, observed you doing it. I've got one right in my backpack right here, right now. I've got the everything is created backward book right here and I just think this format, it's so you know, it's, you're so consistent in the output of it, it's amazing. Dean: Yeah, I just wonder. There was a story of a martial arts master in. Asia, china, and he was known throughout the land as the greatest martial arts master. And then he had a student who was just prodigious he was a prodigy. And so he had a student who was just prodigious he was a prodigy. And so he taught him. And then the student went off and made a name for himself and then came back one day and he says as far as I can see, there's just you and me, he said to the master, and he said so why don't we settle it right now to see who's actually the master? Okay, and so they did it and the student had his master at a great disadvantage. And then the master pulled out a trick he had never seen before and defeated the student. And the student said I thought you taught me everything he says, except for one thing. Dan: Great, I love that, except for one thing. Dean: I love it, and I'm not saying that I have one thing, but I'm saying that there's something that happens in a creative process that involves a lot of other people. So I have Shannon Well, I do my outlines to be my version of James Patterson our fast filters, and so I do the fast filter, which is basically the structure of each section of the book the introduction, there's eight chapters and there's a conclusion, so 10 sections and each of them has a fast filter with a best and worst. And I do everything in the second person, personal, so I'm always talking to you you know, whoever the reader is, I'm always talking to. the reader allows me to do is to bypass, research being a too quick start. I'm not heavy on the research side, right, and what you're depending upon is the research that the reader has already done in his or her life. That this makes sense, and that's you know, that's the second. Dan: That's. That's a. That's a real secret. You know that. Like it, it's really. It's the best to read as well, because it feels like a conversation, feels like you're just talking to me and explaining something that is that you wouldn't have, as if you were just writing a letter to me about it. Dean: Well, you do that when you're talking. I mean you know, I mean, I think you you use the second yeah everything I do it's the same. Dan: I do the same every email that I write. All of that is that because that's the I think that's the most engaging right. Dean: Like people, it's easy to get engaged with that when it feels like it's just you and me, and so I'm just trying to think here of the, because I'm only talking to a certain kind of person, you know. Dan: I'm not writing for the world. Dean: I'm only talking to one, someone who's an entrepreneur with experience and with success, and so I'm simply reflecting in my talk what I already know about this person's life. Dan: I think that goes a long way, that one of the great, like you know, models of that is thinking about one person as if you're writing a letter to one person, or even a small workshop filled with whoever you're, you know, whoever filled with the right people and only speaking to those Something to that you know where you're not. You don't try and I think people often in marketing writing especially, they are trying to accommodate or change so that, just in case these people aren't this or that, they don't know about this. And I'm like you know what you gotta like avoid. You gotta let go of the bottom 20% and write as if you're only writing for the top 20%. You're writing to the people who want to do what it is that you're doing, not, you know, leaning on your back foot kind of thing. You're leaning into helping the people, the tippy top group. That really want what you have, and don't hold back on that, you know. Dean: Yeah. Yeah, it's really interesting. I made it. I think I mentioned this on a previous podcast, but I made a decision as I was approaching you know my current age. I said you know I've been Well, that's something everybody can do, you know approaching your current age. Anyway, I just made a decision I wasn't going to do any speeches anymore to big rooms. The only public presentations I would do would be to entrepreneurial audiences, but I would only do it in the form of a thinking tool. I wouldn't try to tell them how the world is or where I see the world going. I simply say I have a thinking tool for you. And what it relates to is you know something that happens to entrepreneurs and I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions about it and then I'm going to have you think through your answers and everything like that, and then I'll have you talk to each other, and then we'll come back and we'll just share insights. And that relieved me. I didn't like public speaking and the reason was that I knew I was only talking to about a small percentage of the room. Dan: And. Dean: I didn't know who they were. You don't know which ones, right? Yeah, I didn't know who in the audience, and then you're trying to make it appeal. Dan: Just even subconsciously, you're trying to make it appealing to everybody. Yeah, yeah, just uses a lot of energy and this is, you know what, this way, doing these, I would argue, you know, doing these 90-day books, quarterly books that you're doing is way more impactful than doing speeches to big crowds. Dean: This is really the big thing and I've sort of refined it about my decision about not giving talks to large groups. Talks to large groups when I'm in the office either the Toronto office or the Chicago office the coach will frequently say can you come in and talk to the group? And I'm always a bit puzzled. I don't know what to talk to them about. What I've done recently is that I have a big table in the cafes Toronto or Chicago and I say I'm going to have lunch and anybody who wants to come in and talk to me, you can come in and have lunch with me. So usually about eight people, and that works out really great because the only people who show up are the people who actually want to talk to me. Dan: Yeah, exactly that's great. Great, I like that. Yeah, that's my favorite. My preferred style, too, is just that is the here I am. Ask me anything, you know, that's the way I can show up the best for things you know. Dean: That's yeah, that's always been. Have you been that way all the time, or is it developed? Dan: I think it's always been my preference. I have the capability to do a prepared presentation. It's not my preference, but I just like being able to customize the message to whatever somebody wants to hear. You know, so a lot of time I don't do really I don't do prepared like keynote talks anymore. I much prefer like fireside chats kind of thing, where we'll do an interview and I can take it where. What I'd much rather do Q&A, because it can be directed in whatever they're specifically interested in and I can think quickly and articulate an answer. So they're not going to stump me. I know that much. So I prefer that and I think it feels to people there's a more, there's a different energy to it's an improv theater element to it right where it's flying without a net and you know you, there's always that danger that somebody is going to stump you or ruffle you or whatever, but they're not so that that confidence to be able to do it. And I've done enough thinking about my core ideas that I can adapt them with, you know, simplifying stories or examples that work, Of course, I think one of the things that's true about both of us. Dean: we've been out there long enough that people who really want to get in touch with us know how to do it. Dan: All right, exactly, yeah. Yeah, I was just thinking about that. I was thinking that on the way over, I'm in Orlando right now, I'm in the Tesla mobile podcast recording studio parked under an h80 tree today, and but I was on the drive over. I was thinking about that different. Just doing some assessment things on the different types of like if you're doing a wealth matrix or whatever, in terms of one of the things we do with our listing agent lifestyle things is this balance between daily joy, abundant time and financial peace, and I was thinking about the different kinds of advantages that people can have. I have complete time freedom. Basically, I have very little demands on my time in a recurring way, so I have self-direction on what you know you would call freedom of time. Dean: You know I would call that freedom of time. Exactly. I think the term that you're looking for, dean, is freedom of time, that's so funny. Dan: But the other thing is along with that time I was joking with somebody the other day. You know I'm in the middle of a project for myself here but I was saying to them that just jokingly, you know I've got access to Dean Jackson for free. And I look at that as one of my greatest assets access to me for free? Dean: Yeah. Dan: Anytime, anytime, that's exactly right. Dean: If he's in a good mood. Dan: If I can only wrangle him, you know, wrestle him down. Dean: If I can get his attention, if I can get his attention. Attention I can only get him to apply himself. Dan: That would be the thing right yeah we'd be on to something. But I think that the other thing is you know, you know, as far as vcr, you know, assets go, this, I've got so much, so many vision capabilities. You know like I, I know a lot of things that can be applied to a lot of things, and it's really the. You know the job. The struggle, let's say, is to direct that to one thing. You know, it's like the, it's like you. I remember we talked about offer briar one time that he you know, I was just. Dean: I was just as you said, that I was just thinking of him you know, exactly at that moment that you said his name. I was thinking about him, isn't that? Dan: funny that you, you know, I remember you telling the story of being with him and I've had the same conversations with him that his model, his technology, just for people listening. He's a brilliant guy. He's able to simplify learning and teaching models so he can really teach somebody how to learn anything and become a master at it in a very compressed amount of time and become a master at it in a very compressed amount of time, and his, you know, assertion is that he could do this for anything. It can be any skill that somebody wants to learn, and I think you were one of my favorite stories. You were at a dinner with him. Dean: I believe you were in Israel, right, tel Aviv, yeah. Dan: And said well, I'll let you tell the way you described it no, I just. Dean: it was a, you know, a very short comment. Dan: And I said. Dean: I said, you know, I think you really want to be known for this, for being able to teach anybody anything. But the problem is you can't focus on one thing. And you only become really well known if you can't focus on one thing, and you only become really well known if you can do one thing, really great. And you know, and he just laughed and he smiled, and you know he, he nodded and agreed, that was true and you know, and that's where I think it's very important to have guidance from outside of. You know what's the best thing for you to apply your talents to, your one talent, your greatest talent, what's? The best thing to do for that. And you know and what would you think with VCR? What would be the? Dan: Well, that's where I'd go. You know, is that this is? You know, even the marketing, you know is certainly the one. It's one thing, but there's so many applications of that you know, that's where I struggle, but what? Dean: would be? I guess I'm asking the question again what would be the best? I mean the, you know. I mean even in the strategic coach. I'm for entrepreneurs, you know the strategic coach is for entrepreneurs talented, successful, ambitious entrepreneurs. I say yeah, but not all of them. Not all of them. You can check off those three boxes. I'm for the ones who are really driven to collaborate with other entrepreneurs to create a new thing, that hasn't existed before. So, you know, and I think this gets more refined, Wouldn't you find? of who you would spend your time with 10 years ago that you wouldn't spend time with them today? Yeah, no, I think you're absolutely right. Dan: I think there's, yeah, there is that. Yeah, no, I think you're absolutely right. I think there's, yeah, there is that. I was it's so. I was, just as a sidebar, was listening to a podcast the how I built this podcast with Guy Raz and the the thing that one of the most recent guests was this young, the young lady. She's 26 or seven now. When she was 21, she started a company to make low sugar gummy bears and evolved that product line to other low sugar gelatinous treats and the company is called Smart Sweets and four years after building it, she sold 80% of it for $360 million, you know, as a 25 year old or 26 year old, in a four year period. And it's just, I mean, it's amazing, right, that one thing focus of doing that it unfortunately feels like it's the way is one thing. If your goal is building wealth, it feels like, I guess. Dean: Was that her intention to do that, or was that a stroke of I? Dan: think she wanted to. You know she wanted to create. She saw a gap in the market for low sugar candy right, that people like candy, but they're, you know it's so high in sugar and corn syrup and all the bad things, right. So she was looking for healthy alternatives and and there were really none. And so she figured, boy, if I could get, if I could figure this out, there'd be a, I think, a big market for it. Dean: And she was right. Dan: I mean she was definitely right and yeah, but went through. You know that whole process and you know, immediately kind of hit a third stride with it. But you look at, you know, the simplest businesses, you know, like that, imagine at some point beyond the idea and the execution of launching it that it's a different. It's a different game than the, it's a different game than the idea and the, the blueprints kind of thing, you know. And there's something that's I'm sort of resistant to or I find it hard to. You know, focus on just taking one thing all the way, kind of thing you know, that's been like. I look at. You know you look at, I see it among my. It's one of my most successful clients. You know that they're focused on one thing we crack the code on the marketing and create a multiplier for it that drives for the next three or four years and then they sell. Dean: You know it's a big yeah but single-minded focus for that period of time it's an interesting thing because that's a particular payoff for doing one thing. In other words, you know 300 million or whatever at 26, but you can also have a method that you constantly want to be growing and you know, the success is sort of a byproduct of the method. I would say that I have sort of a one thing, but it isn't a payoff or an event, it's actually it's a process you know, and but it's. I think part of it is just always be creating new things and then, to give evidence that they're actually new things, have it in the form that other people can use them, like thinking this is one you know or workshops you know, or quarterly books and and everything else. But but I I like yeah that's true. Dan: Yeah, like I look at that, that you're in a lot of ways, you know, I look at this as your Jiro dreams of sushi kind of you know experience of pursuing mastery of collaborative thinking tools for ambitious entrepreneurs at the highest level. You know, with a trillion dollar free zone, you know economy as the, you know, at 100 years old, that's a very, you know, that's a very ambitious north star right that that's the direction that everything is heading and it gives you enough, there's enough, uh, variety in the constant creation of new things. And I think there's something elegant about this quarterly book cadence supported by quarterly workshops and that model with new tools and a organizational support for, in the wake of what you're creating, that you're always on the lead. You're always on the lead ship in the armada, car-charging the course and heading to the $15 trillion future right and bringing on the free zone people on the lead ship and everything behind an armada of other coaches and the signature program, the 10 times program, all kind of headed in that same direction. Dean: Yeah, I would say that it really stems from an experience I had. I think it was about 10 years old and I've mentioned this that I was out walking in the fields of the farm that I grew up on. It was in February, you know, very clear, bright day, cold but very bright and sunny. I think it was still 54. The airliners were still mostly propeller. I think this was a DC-6. It struck me that it had four engines. It was either flying from Cleveland to Chicago or flying from New York to. We were in the flight path of those type of destinations and I was watching and all of a sudden I just got this feeling. It was a question that came to me and it's saying I wonder how far I can go, and that's kind of framed it for the last 70 years. I wonder how far I can go, and that's kind of framed it for the last 70 years. I wonder how far I can go. I've done this Now I wonder, and whenever I hit one level of measurable achievement, measurable success, then the question always comes to me Now I wonder how far I can go. So I think that's my one thing, I think that's my. One thing is just that it's a question, it's not an answer, it's actually a question now I wonder how far I can go and that requires, you know, being in good health, being, you know, having energy and that requires having, as you say. I've got a lot of organization that gets formed out of the creativity because it becomes doable by other people, like having coaches do the workshops. And you know, I meet clients now who have been in coach for 25 years and it's the first time I've ever met them, but they've been working with the other coaches for 25 years and that's kind of proof that you're doing something useful. You know, it sort of indicates to me that this stuff is real. Somebody who would maybe be attracted to coach because of a book they read, or they saw a podcast or something, but they do it through another coach. They're never actually in my workshops, they're in somebody else's workshops. And when I meet them, I'm always very pleased that there's enough substance and enough impact to the stuff that's being created that they don't have to be with me. Dan: I think that's right, that you've got enough like yeah, I mean you, a strategy circle and an impact filter are going to work, no matter who explains them. Right, when they explain them and they go through the process, it's like it doesn't require any. You know, there's not any creativity required in the telling of that, it's really self, it's built into the tool and any anybody can share that. Yeah, that's the. But you know you've got kind of that framework. I look at that as the. You know, in my world, that framework of the eight profit activators, the breaks and blueprint, is a is one thing. I look at that as one thing. Right, the but the application of it. You know there's this different, I guess, in teaching the application of it, helping people apply it to their own businesses. Dean: How many would you, how many would you say, have taken at least the it's first three days right, it's a three-day introduction. Dan: Yeah, the three-day. Dean: Three-day. How many, would you say, have taken it now. So I would say that probably. Dan: well, let's say 10 times, maybe 600, I'd say Do people do it again? I'd say Do people do it? Dean: again yeah. Dan: I've had people who've come many times Because it's one of those things where you never step in the same river twice or you never play the same golf course twice. It's the same round of golf even if you play the same course. The eight profit activators are the thing and it's just literally layering on. There's always constant improvement and new nuances within each of the eight profit actors. So if people are working on their before unit or their during unit or their after unit, there's all these layers of you know building on top of it, and once they've had an experience of it, you know now that you've actually applied something and something's going that unlocks, kind of the next thing you know, you get to see, okay, now, what could we do? Kind of thing. You know, and it's really, it's very interesting. Like my, one of the things that I've been really leaning into is one of the biggest frustrations I have. I'll explain something that's a real thing going on here. Real thing going on here is that in the before unit, which is the first four profit activators, and they're all about identifying your ideal client, compelling them to raise their hand, to start a conversation, educating and motivating them so that they know that working with you or doing whatever it is that you do, would be the right thing. And then making a compelling offer that makes it easy for people to get started and we get people to think about that before unit as a separate entity from their during unit, which is the unit of the business that does the thing that you do. So let's say the strategic coach workshop process, like once somebody is in strategic coach, that would be the during unit of it, right? So the before to act as a supplier to the during, and what they're supplying is new registrations for strategic coach workshops, new workshop enrollees, and the way that we try and do it is set up like a prospect vending machine as opposed to a slot machine. Most people do slot machine marketing where they put money in and they pull the lever and come on seven hoping that something will happen. And a vending machine is very predictable. Right, you're doing a vending machine. You have to select, even though there might be a dozen things in a vending machine. You have to select even though there might be, you know, a dozen things in the vending machine. You have to select what's in a1 and press a1 and it tells you what the price is and you put that money in. But you push the button and out comes your whatever it is that you asked for and so we try and line that up for people and the most predictable, the way to really do that as a vending machine is to think about the investment in the before unit as a capital investment versus an expense-based approach. Where most people are running expense-based approach, they want to run the ads, get somebody to come online and then buy right away, before the credit card is due at the end of the month to pay for the ads. Right, that's what everybody's looking for. But I look at it that if you take a capital investment approach of generating your ideal prospects and taking a bundle of 100 of those and then not measuring your ROI until 100 weeks from now, your ROI until a hundred weeks from now is the what's the ROI on marching that bundle of 100 leads that you made a capital investment of 500, a thousand $2,000 in. What's the ROI over 100 weeks versus the next hundred hours? You know which is what most people are focused on, and so I, where I run into challenges with people, is getting through what I call the Van Allen belt, where it's you load up your a hundred, or you know however many you load up a hundred leads that you've generated, however many you load up a hundred leads that you've generated and then the Van Allen belt is getting them through that period where you haven't done a transaction yet and it feels like you're spending money and you're, you know, keep loading passengers on the rocket kind of thing, and but nobody has, nobody has bought yet, and that getting people to stick with that through the Van Allen belt and then get the ROI is a big obstacle and I see it happen again and again. It's one of those things, literally people stopping three feet from gold. Dean: I really grasp what you're saying. I was just thinking how do you conceptualize that for the people who are actually involved in the activity? Dan: Well, that's the way I'm describing it now. Dean: I mean, if we put together marketing and strategic coach with sales and Strategic Coach, I would say we have it's a quarter of the country, a quarter of the company you know, easily 30, easily 30, 30 individuals and and and what they create is really educated, enthusiastic, first workshop participants. Basically that's what they create and it's interesting. This year we'll do 1,000. Like, we'll have 1,000. Dan: New registrations. Dean: You mean, yeah, new registrations, and then the price went up this year, so there's more. I mean, we were about 980 last year and we'll be slightly over a thousand. And one thing I've noticed is there's a fall off in sales in presidential years. Oh, yeah. When the US is having a presidential election and the toughest period is about the three months before the election. Dan: The reason is that yeah, right the election. Dean: The reason is that, yeah, right now. The reason is it makes a difference. It's not necessarily who wins the election, but you kind of know how to adjust your you know, you kind of adjust your journey once you know, who's going to be the president. You know, and this year there's very definitely a difference. You know, I would say it's the greatest philosophical difference. I've probably seen in my entire lifetime. Dan: I have a perfect example. I have a client who is an immigration attorney and they're, you know, right now talk about. There couldn't be a greater polarity of possibility in. November that they're. You know they're right on the thing of ready to pivot that if one side gets in it's all about immigration and getting legal. If the other side gets in it's all about staying here, deportation defense. You know it's a different. It's amazing how that kind of thing can have a polar difference. Dean: Yeah, and I just noticed that. I mean, I've been through, we're in our 35th years, so there's been eight presidential elections over that, and I just noticed there's a holding back. That happens usually summer to the, unless it's pretty well clear that an incumbent president is going to get reelected. You know, and that's happened a number of times. Anyway but that. But the interesting thing about it is that I think it was Peter Drucker said there's only two things, there's only two areas of profit in a company. One of them is innovation and the other one is marketing. Dan: Right. Dean: Everything else is an expense. Yes, but I don't think that's true. I think everything should be looked at as a capital investment, right, like I? Dan: look at one of the things that we help people look at. I don't know that I've ever shared this with you, but I think it would be a very interesting metric for you to have just an awareness of, for, even for strategic coach, that one of the greatest comforts for people is knowing what their I call it their revenue per unconverted prospect. A rev pup we refer to it as, and that's a number that, if you take of all of the new people that came into strategic coach in the last 12 months, you're saying that's going to be a thousand for this year and the amount of revenue that generates divided by the number of unconverted prospects that you've identified through your market. So imagine that there are. Everybody kind of comes through a process of somehow getting in your world. They've opted in for something or they've asked for something or signed up to come to a workshop or the Zoom workshop or an intro, or they were referred, all of that thing. I'm sure there's a pool of people who you have communication with that have not yet decided to join the program. But all of the people that did join the program came from that group and most people don't have a sense of the gestation period of people being in your world, right, because sometimes people come into your world, they have one conversation, they learn all about it and say I'm in. That's a great outcome, but the majority of people will have a exploration period, you know, where they're kind of learning about and observing and getting immersed in the environment. And so that number you know, let's say that the a thousand people and let's say would you say that a blended average of fees would be 15,000. Would that be there between signature yeah and yeah I mean new people coming can only join signature, yeah. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Yeah, so what was how much is the signature program? Now it's, I think it's 15. Ok, so 15,000. So you know, 15 million dollars in new revenue from the before you, which would be. Dean: Well, it's more than that, because the uh, that's 15,000. No, it would be. Yeah, it would be, let's just say 15,000. Yeah, cause new people coming in have to start at signature level, right, so yeah, I mean, it's more than that for us, because 80% of that is in the U? S and everything gets translated back, so so just for around numbers. Yeah, but let's say 17. Dan: So 17,000, that's $17 million on 1,000 new people. And so we take that 17 million and divide it by the number of prospects in your email database that you're emailing your newsletter to, emailing your things to. So let's say that's 100,000 people. Dean: It wouldn't be that high 50,000? 50,000, yeah. Dan: So you take that 17 million and divide it by 50,000. Yeah, take that 17 million and divide it by 50,000. And whatever that number is, you're rev-pup. And so let me just do the math real quick on that. So, 17 million divided by 40,000, that's $340 per prospect per year is where you get a little more granular. And looking at this is looking back and seeing what was the ad date of them. When did they first come in? Because some of them may have been in for 30 days and some of them may have been in for 30 months or you know whatever, or three years or more. And that gives you a good sense of what your annual. So you look at that and, on terms of capital investment, if you can add people into, you know if you make a capital investment that generates new leads for let's even say $34, you've got an immediate 10, you know return on that. Very interesting when you start looking at it like that. You know. Dean: Yeah, I mean the, the, and first of all it's it's an accurate number because all the money's up front with us, so you know that we have that money before they do their first workshop, do their first workshop and the interesting thing about it is the difference that the three books have made. Dan: You know, the big books the Hay House books and you know, I was very interested in. Dean: Ben Hardy's offer. You know that he would write the books because I just don't have the stamina to spend. It's basically at minimum it's a 12 month process with the publisher. I mean Hay House moves a bit more quickly than other publishers do. I mean you can start there. They're looking basically like 12 months. They'd like to turn a book around in 12 months and the books have done wonders for us in creating qualified leads. It's not the case that people read a book and they sign up for the program, it's that they make a phone call and the other thing is people may not have read the book and read the books, because usually they read all three and they come through a referral and they phone and then we send them the books and they read the books. Ok, so the books are useful either way. And one of the things that I wasn't sure of it because we never had this capability before. But you know, I would say, since the three books have come up one way or another, you know it's a large number of people who signed up for the program because of the books. In other words, that it was, that it was sort of, um, it was the biggest sense of proof that this was the right thing for them. Dan: Yeah, I mean the book itself. In that way, when you're putting out like a book, that's being, you have the reach of amazon and other bookstores and people kind of. There's an interesting environment for people to discover a book organically right and people talk about it and all of that stuff. So you're not really. It's not that you're having to push the book out to people. There's a they're kind of drawn to it, right, and amazon has a great engine of you know if you like that. Dean: You probably like this yeah, they're a great capability, yeah yeah, anyway like there was a new workshop, not this past week but the week before, and they had about 35, there were about 35 new people and I just laid the word out for them that if anybody wanted to come in and talk to me at lunchtime they could. Okay, and immediately the table was filled, you know the table was filled as soon as lunch break. And the thing that I was struck this was their very first workshop. How much they knew about the program. I was very struck by this. And they were asking me questions about the concepts and the tools that in many cases they won't get to for three years. They were asking me because they were mentioned in the three books, the tools mentioned in three books, and so that's been a big. So that's been a big, that's been a big gem, very exciting, right. Dan: Like I mean, it's kind of I love to hear when things like that happen, you know. But that a book is a very is a really great profit activator three tool educate and motivate. And that's really it that you're getting mind minutes of attention. And that's the crown jewel if you can get somebody's mind and attention focused on taking in a new thought that resonates with them, that they say, oh, that makes, that makes sense. That's the thing. So then when you make an offer to join the program, it makes all the sense in the world, right. Dean: Yeah, we're just starting consultation with Hay House right now on the book that we wrote with Jeff Madoff Casting, not Hiring. Yeah, we think that may be the number four. The number four book. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, we think that may be the number four. The number four book. Dan: Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I think that's great. I mean, that's very exciting. I haven't seen Jeff in a while. Dean: Well, he's been busy with his play. He came back yesterday from London because he's been auditioning this whole week and they're going to go for an early 2025 start of his play in London. Oh, very nice. Dan: Wow In the West End. Dean: In the West. End, is equal to Broadway. Dan: Right From a theater standpoint. Dean: I said it's taking off. Oh yeah. Well, you knowago was a big deal chicago's. You know. They had a 10-week run in chicago and they got great reviews. It's just that chicago is a bit in a funk as a city that there's so much negative things happening and people don't want to be downtown after dark right that puts a crimp into theater. Yeah, yeah so we'll see next week, because the democrats are having their convention and, uh, the pro-palestinian people have said they're going to tear the city apart if they have to oh my goodness, oh my goodness, yeah, wow, they need good jobs. They need good jobs yeah. Dan: Well, it's less than a quarter and it'll be over. I can't believe. It's almost. You know we're more than halfway through August right now. It's almost here. Dean: It'll be here, and then the next campaign starts. Dan: Yeah, that's exactly the impeachment campaign That'll start whenever, whoever. No, it's not the impeachment. Dean: But even the presidential cycle is never about. Dan: Oh, yeah, yeah. Dean: Like I mean, the moment they the one ends, they start the next one, you know anyway. But yeah, but yeah. I think I think the what happened to the Democrats I think they're not going to have the ground troops to support this because they were there was so much uncertainty with Biden that I think and I mean she's only attractive right now because she's not doing press conferences and she hasn't had, she hasn't had a debate. I don't think she she'll stand up to full public. You know, full public right, I'm sure I don't think I don't think she has the experience and I don't think she's the type of person who stands up well to that sort of thing. So anyway, that's my guess. That's my guess, and if I'm ron, I'll still have a really good entrepreneurial day the next day. Even the day of that's right and I go to bed at 8 o'clock, so it doesn't matter. Dan: Oh, my goodness, Is that true now 8 o'clock yeah? Dean: No by 9. Dan: No. Dean: Certainly I'm in bed by 9. I'm certainly in bed by 9. Wow, and I get up early, I'm a morning person. Dan: Yeah, yeah, well, it's working, it's all working. Dean: Yeah, yeah, it's very good. I got a lot out of your description of that and there's a lot of protein in what you're talking about there. Right, that's the thing. Not carbs, no carbs. All meat, all protein. Yeah, that's the thing. Not carbs, no carbs, all meat All protein, keto marketing. Dan: That's exactly right. So you are on your way up to the cottage for the last hurrah for the season. Yeah. Dean: Wednesday, so it'll probably be two weeks, very nice. Dan: And then I'll see you. I'll be back pretty soon, in September, less than a month. We'll lock in Table 10. Maybe we can do Cafe Balloud as a new place, as a new Our new French establishment for lunch. It'll be awesome, okay, all right, dan, I'll talk to you soon. Dean: You too, okay, bye.

In this episode of Cloudlandia, Our stories highlighted agricultural aspects of central Florida and comparisons of population densities in the U.S. and Canada. We also reminisced on television's evolution from shows like Romper Room to the first color programs. We reflected on limited past options versus today's unlimited streaming and the importance of managing screen time given continual new choices. Additionally, the discussion explored social dynamics considering Dunbar's number theory contrasted against digital reach on platforms. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Dean discusses the strategic advantages of living in Central Florida, particularly in Winter Haven, which is centrally located and offers easy access to both coasts. We delve into Winter Haven's rich agricultural heritage, highlighting cattle ranches, orange groves, and other rural aspects of Central Florida. There's an interesting comparison between the population densities in the U.S. and Canada, including reflections on Ontario's geographic size and its southern location relative to many U.S. cities. We take a nostalgic look at the evolution of television, from classic shows like "Romper Room" to the advent of color TV with hits like "The Price is Right," and how this contrasts with today's streaming culture. The episode includes reflections on how past limited screen choices have evolved into today's endless streaming possibilities, and the impact of this shift on modern screen time habits. We explore the concept of social reach and relationships in the digital age, discussing the Dunbar number and how platforms like TikTok and Instagram have changed the dynamics of personal connections. Insights are shared from the new book "Casting, Not Hiring," which introduces the VCR formula—Vision, Capability, and Reach—as a framework for modern success. Through real-life examples and personal stories, we emphasize the importance of aligning vision, capability, and reach to achieve significant accomplishments, using figures like Safali Shabari and Max Martin as case studies. The episode also discusses the importance of choosing the right tools and staying committed to ongoing exploration and self-improvement. Finally, the conversation underscores the necessity of conceptual ability to see how one can be useful to others and leverage their capabilities, vision, and reach for collaborative success. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan, mr Jackson, you got through Hurricane Week. Dan: Not quite Hurricane Week, Tropical Storm Week, but we did oh. Dean: Tropical Storm A notch down in the hierarchy. Dan: That's one of the good things about living in Winter Haven. It is actually a haven from winter. We are in the center. We are perched on high dry, sandy land, so there's no storm surges, nothing like that yeah, so you're a long way from the coast, aren't you? Well, I'm actually an hour and 15 minutes from either coast. We can get to either side and we can get to virtually almost every beach in two hours. Like it's such a centrally located, we're almost in the exact geographic center of peninsular Florida, so I can get to Jacksonville in three hours and Miami in three hours and pretty much everywhere you want to be within an hour. So it's good. Dean: So I have a question because I've been there. Where is the big cattle ranching country? Is that south of you or north? Dan: It's surrounding us, but sort of north and south in the central. If you think about the middle of Florida, basically aside from the Orlando-Tampa corridor which is like this swath that goes all the way across the state from Tampa to Cocoa Beach, that area is very developed but above and below that the center is much like the Australian outback in terms of the density of population. And north of I-4. In that area there is equestrian and rolling hills and there's a lot of equestrian properties there and ranches. South of that is where you'd find a lot of the cattle ranches, sod ranches, orange groves. All of that is in the center and then you get all the way down to the Everglades and then the Everglades is one of the big national parks, it's the Everglades. Dean: Yeah, alligators I was actually on something that was described as the biggest cattle ranch, not only in Florida, but one of the bigger ones in the United States. Yes, and we drove at least 20 miles on the ranch before we got to buildings. Dan: And it was interesting. Dean: It was interesting. They had a lot of pigs wandering around and I asked them were they in the pig business? And they said no. It's just that every week or so the trail hands would like something besides beef. Dan: Right, go out and wrestle them up a hog Right. Dean: Yeah, yeah, have a barbecue, have a. Dan: Yeah, well, you can actually not too far from here you can do hog hunting, where you can go and hunt hogs in the forest, yeah, all natural. Dean: It's not. So. It's not silicon valley that we're talking about here no, we're really not. Dan: We're talking about, you know, rural florida. This is why I know, yeah, you know you look at Florida and you know people talk about population density and stuff, but there's a lot of land in Florida that is undeveloped. I mean there's a whole south of I-4, there's another highway that goes all the way across the state, called Highway 60, and through Lake Wales, and it's very undeveloped. I mean there's really nothing. All the way from Tampa to Vero Beach is where it goes and it's virtually. It's the only place I've been in Florida where you can, on certain parts of it, look as far as you can see in any direction and see nothing. I mean it's that. And somebody has bought up like 80,000 acres around what's called Yeehaw Junction, which is where the Florida Turnpike intersects with Highway 60. Where the turnpike, the Florida turnpike, intersects with Highway 60. And you could see easily that you could duplicate the entire I-4 corridor, like Tampa and Orlando, along Highway 60 with plenty of room to spare. So I'm not worried about the you know population increase in Florida. Dean: Yeah, it's really interesting. Peter Zion and one of his frequent you know he has his. You know he has videos every three days. Yeah, and you. But he was talking about all the developed countries, which would be mostly European countries, and you know Australia, new, zealand. You know he said that the US is by far the country with the least population density. I agree with that. Dan: Most any state, even Ontario you look at as densely populated as the GTA is. Once you get beyond the GTA it's pretty sparse in Ontario. Dean: Oh yeah, oh yeah I mean, yeah, there's an interesting thing. Just to give you a sense of how big Ontario is. First of all, ontario is a province in Canada, for those listening, and it's roughly about from north to south it's about 1200 miles, and from east to west it's 1400 miles. It's actually it's as big as mainland. It's almost as big as mainland Europe Isn't that amazing Without Russia when I found out. Not counting Russia. Dan: I heard when I found out you could drive north from Toronto the entire distance from Toronto to Florida and still be in Ontario. That's pretty amazing. Dean: Yeah, that gives you a context for it and most people don't realize that Toronto itself is further south than almost 20% of the United States. Dan: People don't realize that Ontario dips down no below that. Dean: No, it wouldn't be that much, but it is south of Minneapolis, south of Seattle, I think, it's south of Portland, you know, and then it's quite a bit south. I think it's south of Boston, it's south of you know everything like that. Yeah, maine all of it. It's about as south as you can get actually, yeah, but I think it's the most populated large city in the world, furthest north large city in the world oh, wow I think it's further south. I think it's further north than moscow oh, wow interesting. Yeah, yeah and yeah, and it's getting bigger, it's getting bigger. Well, there you go. Dan: Well, everyone. I'm waiting with bated breath to hear the great air fryer experiment from the Four Seasons beaches. Dean: Has your air fryer arrived. Dan: Oh, it's on the counter. Dean: Okay, it's on the counter. It's on the counter, it's been plugged in, but it hasn't been used yet. Okay, okay, we sort of inch our way into these new technologies. Dan: I got it, just unpack it and set it there for a little bit and just kind of let it live with it. Dean: Well, it's been a week now and we haven't used it. Why don't we use it? So anyway, but it is sitting on the counter. It's a ninja. Is that the kind you have? Dan: I think I have a breville is the name of uh mine. But did you get the one then? Did you get the one that steven palter posted? I have no idea. Oh okay, that's uh. Dean: So, oh yeah, that's fab you have to appreciate how little I take into this sort of thing, exactly right. Dan: I love that. Dean: There will be a who who's between me and the air. Dan: That's right? Dean: Oh, dan, that's the best Any technology in the world. I can guarantee you there will be a who between me and the technology. And I said what do you think? And I look for people who really love interacting with technology. I want that person between me and the technology and I'll ask them what's it do? What's it do? Dan: I'll tell you what I'm working on. Dean: What will it do for the thing I'm working on? Yeah, yeah, I love that and I've been pretty constant on that. I mean, you know, I was constant on this when I was six years old. I just always let some other human investigate the new technology. Dan: Yeah, and yeah. Dean: So I've lived a disconnected life when it comes to technology. What explains that? Dan: Well, I was thinking, you know about you, and I was thinking how you have the gift of being kind of brought into an era where television wasn't even a thing Like your earliest childhood was electronic free, I thought. But were you like? So you were born in 1944. And so it was six years. Probably Do you remember when you got exposed to your first television. Dean: Yeah, I think I was maybe. Yeah, I think it was around 52. I mean I had seen it, I'd been in other people's houses right they had television, but actually having our own television, I think it's maybe eight years. I was eight, so you got all the way to you. Dan: Think about this. You got all the way to eight years without being exposed to anybody else's visual bombardment of electronic propaganda or otherwise. Right, your visual input into your mind was largely formed through your own imagination. Yeah, you. You had to work, you had to create these visual pictures in your mind. Yeah, did you guys, did you? Dean: listen to radio, and I was assisted by radio. Dan: I remember radio had a big impact on me. Dean: And yeah, oh yeah, sorry, sergeant King of the Yukon. And yeah, there was Amos and Andy. We listened to Amos and Andy, andy, we listened to Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and then there was one that my siblings, my older siblings, listened to at night, which was called the dark museum, which scared the daylights out of me and the shadow. Dan: We listened to the shadow so was that the family activity no, no. Dean: Here you have to get the full impact okay, sorry sorry. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. The shadow knows. And then you had a 30 minute. 30 minute example of human evil. You know it was great but you had to do all the visuals. You know I, you were the visual director of all these radio programs. Dan: So was this? Everybody in the family gathered in the living room sitting on the couch listening to the radio like this. Is that what was going on? Dean: Yeah, there was sort of a. Yeah, there was sort of a dining room actually where you could listen. There were a number of radios. There was a radio in the kitchen, there was a radio, I think, someplace else, and it was a big house, a farmhouse, yeah, and I remember listening, imagining, you know, imagining. There was another series called Sky King, sky King, which became a TV station you know, and the Lone Ranger. We had the Lone Ranger. Dan: So there was a lot of variety, uh-huh and so, and then, in 1952, eight years old, you get your first television set. Dean: I think, so I think that would have been about then, yeah. Yeah, because I remember the first presidential election was 52. And I can remember that being on television. Who was the? Dan: president, was that Ike Eisenhower? Dean: Yeah, I like Ike, that was Eisenhower's first term. I like Ike. Dan: Now you know that's a really interesting thing. Do you remember, like your new routine when the television came? Were you watching TV every day from that period on? Or were your parents limiting the TV, or was everybody gathered around and limiting the TV, or was everybody around? Dean: and watch the TV. Yeah, I mean it was a frequent. It was a frequent activity once came in, that's all I can say I don't know, I don't know if I watched every day, but there you know, there were favorite shows. I think Arthur Godfrey was one of the early shows, the variety hour, and yeah, no, children's. I think there wasfrey was one of the early shows, the Variety Hour, and yeah, no, so Children's. I think there was Howdy Doody. Howdy Doody was. Dan: I think one of them Doody time. Dean: Yeah, and I think Soupy Sales was on and yeah. Dan: Yeah, I'm just thinking how. Yeah, I remember Romper Room. I just saw a video of Joe and I at the I Love Marketing event and I was saying we had all the people streaming from all over the world and I was doing a little Romper Room and about half the people in the audience knew about Romper Room and half didn't. Dean: That was kind of interesting. Dan: I remember I see Bobby and Johnny in their magic mirror. I used to hide behind the sofa so she wouldn't see me miss joan miss joan, miss joan. Yeah, so I was thinking about it was good, I mean I mean it was good, but it wasn't. Dean: It wasn't the major part, you know, of your you know it was only during weekdays, it was only at night and uh yeah, and on weekends I don't really there was. I don't know what the years were, but you know you got. You know, somewhere along the line you had jackie gleason and you had ed sullivan and you had other things like that, you know. But I wasn't. I can't say I was captivated because I was usually out. You know, I was outside, we lived in the country and I was out and I had really gotten hooked on reading. So I was doing a lot of reading back then. Yeah, interesting, but it is kind of what about yourself? Dan: I mean, you were born in the television age. I was born in the television age, you're right. And so every day, you know, I mean, yeah, tv was part of every day. And I was just the reason. The context for me thinking about this was thinking about how recent, you know, as each layering availability of content became unlocked kind of thing, our, you know, screen time has dramatically increased. And I was thinking all the way back to you. That's why I was thinking about you is, you know, literally your first six or eight years there were no screens, there were the only, you know, the cinema of the mind. That was your, that was your entertainment, your imagination. But I remember, so when I remember when we got our first color television right Around 19 or some early like that, and I remember the first show that I saw in color was the Price is Right with Bob Barker, and then All in the Family with Archie Bunker. That was, so you know, in the 70s. It was the Jefferson and Sanford and Sand and then all these. You know, the 70s, I think, was the golden era of television, you know, with all these shows becoming. You know, I remember Star Trek and you know all these, the Rockford Files and Starsky and Hutch, all the Love Boat, all these shows, these iconic shows in the seventies. But you only had, you know, basically the three networks was Canada, we had the CBC and TV Ontario. So those were the things and I remember as a kid, when the TV guide would arrive, we subscribed to the Saturday Star, the Toronto Star, that would arrive on Saturdays and that would have the TV guide in there, and I remember they would have it laid out like a you know a. Gantt chart, or whatever the time, the grid of times, to show you what was on. Dean: It was like a matrix. Dan: It was like a matrix you could see yeah, so it would list there were, you know. Dean: Every day had a matrix from yes till night 13 but you only had the three. You only had the three. Dan: There were 13 13 channels, yeah, to choose from three networks. And I remember the you know organizing my saturdays in the winter around the cartoons. You know like okay, so I would have a highlighter which was recently invented in that winter around the cartoons. You know like okay, so I would have a highlighter which was recently invented in that or newly introduced or whatever to our household, but I would have the highlighter and I would like highlight my. I would do my programming. You know I'm going to watch. I'm going to watch the Justice League at you know eight o'clock and then I'm going to watch the Justice League at you know eight o'clock, and then I'm going to watch Batman at nine, and then I'm going to watch Shazam and then Scooby-Doo, and then it was the we're all about why CBS or ABC's wide world of sports. That was like a big thing. And I remember now how much of my childhood was around synchronous and scheduled programming Because there was no other option. If you wanted to see that show, if you wanted to watch the Waltons that was on my mom's favorite show you had to watch that on Thursday nights or whenever the Waltons were on, you know, and Little House on the Prairie, and it was like your selection, your decisions were made. It wasn't like what should we watch tonight? Of the like now, infinite choices available to us, but we actually spend probably more as a percentage of our time not you, but collectively watching, consuming screen content. It's just been an observation. I've had some of these conversations. I'm getting really conscious of really being aware of my screen time and trying to be more discerning. Dean: I was just thinking now that you've got me thinking about it. I left home in 62 when I was 18. And I can't remember until I was 40 actually having a television during that 20 years or 22 years. I went 22 years and you know I don't remember. I remember people having televisions that I would go and watch things, sports things like that but, I went 22 years so, and then, of course, I haven't watched it in the last six years, so I've got pretty close to 40 years of my life when I didn't watch television Half, almost half my life. So I think it's never been a big deal for me. Dan: Right, think now like I look at kids now, like you think about the technological sophistication and facile nature of technology to eight-year-olds today, compared to Dan Sullivan at eight, you know is pretty amazing. But your experience in the outdoors to the average eight-year-old you know? Dean: it's so funny. I never see very rare. Dan: It's very rare, even in the 70s. Like growing up, you know the whole period of my childhood like from you know, six to 12. Six to 12. You don't see the same sort of pack of kids roaming around on the street that we saw when we were, when I was growing up anyway. I mean, you know, I grew up in the suburbs so we had like a very active, you know social ecosystem. We were outside all day, every day. You know social ecosystem. We were outside all day, every day you know, playing and making things up and riding our bikes and exploring the ravines and the sewers, and our parents never really knew where we were either. I mean we were. The idea was you got up and you had breakfast and you got out and you came home when you got hungry or when the streetlights came on at night. That's the deadline, you know I heard a comedian talking about that that it was so laissez-faire when we were growing up that they had to run ads on TV at night that said it's 1030. Do you know where your children are? Had to remind our parents that they had kids. Oh, so funny and true, you know. Dean: Yeah, it was really interesting, Really interesting. We in London we have our favorite hotel where we stay in London. Dan: And across. Dean: They've taken a whole old industrial area and they've completely transformed it. So they have a hotel and then they have condos and then they have shops and there's a courtyard in the middle and you cross one of the courtyards and there's a Japanese restaurant there. I remember being in there one night and there were six teenage girls, Japanese girls 16, 16, 17. And there were six of them at the table and each of them was on their phone during the entire meal. Dan: Yeah they're all talking in direct with other people. Yeah, so funny, right? Dean: They're not even there even when they're in the presence. It struck me that their world is actually inside the phone. Well, that's my point. Dan: That's the whole point of Cloudlandia. Cloudlandia is the real world. That's where we all live in. Cloudlandia. Dean: Not me. Dan: No, when I say we all, I mean society, everything. I have to have a permanent disclaimer. Dean: You're saying a large number, a large percentage, a large percentage, a large percentage, and Sullivan excluded A large percentage of people. Yeah, yeah. And it's honestly a different world. I mean, yeah, I can't make too many comments on it because I've never really experienced that you know. Dan: So we've got a young guy in our, in our go-go agent platform. He's a young realtor in Guelph, ontario. He's in his mid twenties, just getting started on his career and stuff. He's lived in Guelph his whole life and one of the strategies that we teach people. Dean: Nice city. Dan: Yeah, guelph is a is beautiful, yeah, so he's grown up there. You know, really, you know good looking young guy, very personable. I think he's got a big future. But one of the strategies that we encourage people is to gather their top 150 relationships, the people that if they saw them at the grocery store they'd recognize them by name and stop and have a conversation with them. Right, and the hardest thing, the funniest thing is he, after racking his brain, could only come up with 88 people on his list of 150 people. And I thought to myself like the population of Guelph must be 150,000 people right In the Guelph area I mean, it's pretty good size city. I thought you know you look at this right that there's a kid who has grown up largely in the internet world, right, like largely on in Cloudlandia, and that's the real thing. The reality is that if you go outside of his bedroom and walk around on the street, he only knows 88 mainland people and he's surrounded. I was teasing him that I said are you telling me that you've lived your entire 26 years in Guelph and all you know is 88 people and you're walking around surrounded by 149,920? Npc is a gaming term, dan for non-playing characters, because all of these online video games GTA or Grand Theft Auto and all these things that are kind of photorealistic things. All the people that walk around in the background are called non-playing characters or NPCs. Ground are called non-playing characters or NPCs. And I said that's really what you're telling me is, you've spent your whole life in Guelph and you only when you step outside your bedroom, know 88 people. That's a problem If you're in a business that is a mainland business. Mainland business right. Dean: All houses are 100% firmly planted on the mainland, as are the people that inhabit those homes. Dan: So it only makes sense that you need to get an outpost on the mainland, not in Cloudlandia, you know. Dean: Yeah, I was just thinking, I was just caring of my company company, my team members. There may be some new ones that I don't know, but I certainly know 100. And then my free zone program. I've got 105 in there and you know, some of them. I have to check the list to get their name, but you know I'd be over. I'd be over 150 with those two groups. Dan: Yeah, but there's. Dean: And then there'd easily be another 100 with the 10 times group, and then there would be 20 with Genius Network. Yeah, I'd probably be 300 or 400 anyway. Dan: And it's a really interesting thing. There's a lot of thing around that. Like Robin Dunbar, the evolutionary psychology anthropologist from Oxford, he is the one that coined that or discovered that information that the 150 is the magic number. You know, that's the number of relationships that we can manage where we recognize people and have, you know, a current status in their life kind of thing, in their life kind of thing. And that goes back to our first kind of days of playing the cooperation game where we would be tribal and have 150 people and that was a security thing. If you didn't know the people around you, that was a threat. Right, you had to know everybody. So, that's part of it. If it got to 150 150 what would happen is they would split up and go off and, you know, form other tribes. But that was. There's so many naturally occurring ways that that happens, but I just noticed you know how so much of it is for me personally. Like my Cloudlandia reach is a hundred times or more my mainland reach. Like if you just think about the number of people that I know or know me from in Cloudlandia it's way bigger than the number of people that know me in Winter Haven, florida, in my own backyard, you know. Dean: Yeah, well, it's very interesting. You know good FreeZone partner Peter or Stephen Poulter. You know, with TikTok he's got he's probably got 100,000 people who believe that he's their friend, he's their guide, he's their friend, yeah, yeah, but he wouldn't know any of them. Dan: Right, that's exactly right. Dean: So it's very. Taylor Swift probably has 100 million easy, probably more who know her? Dan: Mr Beast has 350 subscribers. You think about that. That's a measurable percentage of every person on the planet. When you think about that, almost that's, yeah, more than. Dean: It'll be interesting to see what he's like at 40. I wonder he's pushing 30. He's pushing 30, now right. Dan: Yeah, I think 26 or 7. Dean: Yeah, yeah, it'd be interesting to see what that does, because we only have really interactive relationships with a very small. I mean you talk about Dunbar's 150, but actually if you see who it is you hang out with, you know in the course of a year. I bet it's less than 15. Yeah, that's less, yeah, but yeah, yeah that's less, yeah, but yeah, I think, these numbers, you know, these huge numbers that come with quadlandia, do they mean anything? Do they actually mean anything, though, you know? Dan: um, well, I think that what I mean to that? Dean: do they have any? If you have that large of a reach, does it actually mean anything to you? Dan: It certainly from a monetary standpoint it does. From a relationship standpoint it's sort of a one-way thing, yeah, I was talking to one of our social media. Dean: We have a social media team here and I said can you bring me up to date? We have a social media team here and I says can you bring me up to date? I'm out there a lot every day, aren't I On Facebook and TikTok and Instagram and everything I said? I'm out there. And LinkedIn I'm out there a lot. And she says oh, yeah, every day there's probably about you know, five to ten new messages are going out from you and I said, that's interesting Because every once in a while I run into someone and someone says boy, I really liked your Instagram the other day and I said yeah, well, I aim to please. That's your whole thing, yeah, but I have no idea what's going out. Dan: And that's, you know, that's only going to be amplified when you take, when AI starts creating or, you know, repackaging a lot of the let's face it, you've got a lot of content out there. You've spoken a lot of words, You've been, you know, if we capture, everything you say basically is captured digitally right. Dean: Yep, Danny's got a lot to say. You do. Yeah that's right and you've got your. Dan: You've got the whole organization. You're the happiest. He's very expressive. Dean: Yeah, he's very expressive. You got a lot of milk, yeah, yeah. Well, anyway we're. I think we're going to start our next big book. We did the three with Ben Hardy, which have been a huge success. And I sent Ben a note. I said it was your idea to do these things, so without your initiative none of this would have happened. And of course you wrote the three books, so without your writing none of this would have happened and we've had really good results from hot leads coming in to coach from the books. It wouldn't have happened if you hadn't done that. But you know the publisher is giving us a call every month Say do you have a new book, do you need a new writer and everything. But we're ready to go. Dan: We're ready. Dean: And I think so it's going to be. I think it's going to be the one that we're doing with Jeff Madoff casting, not hiring. Yeah, it's a nice punchy, you know, it's another one of the punchy titles and so that will come out in coach form in the first week of September. Dan: So that'll be all printed. Dean: I think it went. I think it goes tomorrow to the printer and it'll be printed up. And you know, I don't know what it is, but I think a lot of people are fooling themselves about reach because they're lacking vision and capability. They think if you have reach, you've got something. But I think, if you don't have all three, you don't have. If you don't have all three, you don't have anything. Dan: Well, I think it's, if you have capability if you have capability. Dean: If you have capability but no vision, no reach, you have nothing. If you have vision but you have no capability and reach, you have nothing. You got to have all three. Dan: Yeah, you know it's very interesting. Chad Jenkins and I were talking, you know he's one of the bigger advocates for the VCR formula vision, capability, reach, about the you know the secret of that for people that you know whether we were to express them in capital V or lowercase v and capital C, lowercase c, capital R, lowercase r to see that where somebody self I see a lot of situations where people have a capital C capability that gets discovered and all of a sudden they're thrust into reach that they have no idea, no vision of what to do with. And it's very interesting. So someone that comes to mind. There's a woman, safali Shabari, who I met in Toronto through Giovanni. She was a guest or speaker at one of his Archangel events capital C capability for parenting and that kind of advice and she got discovered by, you know, Oprah and all the mainstream. So she was kind of thrust into the spotlight that was now shining a light on her capability, which brought her tremendous, acute onset reach that she really doesn't have, in my observation, a vision for how to navigate, you know, or what to do with that. They're an abundant reach asset with no vision. You know, to connect the two and I think that happens a lot. I think that happens a lot, that people get thrust into a spotlight and they, you know, have. And often you can have reach without capability too, and that's a problem too, and that's a problem. But if your reach is a result of somebody discovering your capability, that is a big. That's the formula I was. you know I've often talked about Max Martin as a role model you know the guy who's written all the number one songs on the radio that when I really started looking a little bit deeper into it, what I found out was that it was really through the reach of of Clive Davis that Max Martin's capability became. You know that he became Max Martin capability became. You know that he became Max Martin and because he was just a guy in Sweden producing great music, with a capital C capability of making pop songs, you know, and Clive Davis, when he discovered that he, as the president of Columbia Records and the founder of Arista and Jive Records, all of these subsidiaries, he had tremendous reach to both artists and their audiences. Visionary, to pair his artists with this Max Martin capability to create this capital VCR outcome of you know, all the success that Max Martin has had. And it was only through that pairing of a capital C capability with a capital R reach and a capital V vision then it all really became a big thing. Dean: This is my observation. Dan: This is all like live, you know developing, you know thoughts here around it, because I constantly. I run that filter constantly in background, filter constantly in background. But that VCR formula is, I think, a very relevant collaboration tool, that if people were really aware of their capabilities and had transparency to other people's vision, capabilities and reach, that's where the big connections happen, you know. Dean: Yeah, I think it requires a fair amount of conceptual capability that you can. You can sort of depersonalize your situation enough to understand what your capability would mean to somebody else. And you have to have a conceptual ability to see what reach would mean. For example, I was on a podcast on Friday. I was a guest of someone who is a key player in the land development industry across the United States and he's in COACH. So he asked me a lot of questions about coach and I went through and I explained. He's got 10 years in coach and he talked about what each of those concepts meant to him and everything else. And then his podcast is going to go out to 5,000 key players in the land development land development business in you know probably 25 or 30 states and everything else. And so at the end he says you know, I'm going to send this out and I'll send all the coach information, everything else. And I got off the call and I said that was easy. Dan: That was easy. Yes, that all you had to do was stay in your C lane of your capability. Dean: I just stayed in my lane and said what we had done. And then I talked about where I thought we would be with Coach when I was 100. I'm 80 and Coach was 100. And that's kind of a significant statement. It's not the sort of thing you would hear every day from an 80-year-old of what things were going to be like when they were 100 and much bigger at 100 than at 80. And it was really interesting, but that was like an hour middle house and you know I'm just talking, you know really good conversation, a lot of back and forth and you know, both of us asking the other questions and everything else and I said that's pretty cool that goes out immediately to five thousand. That's immediately goes out to five thousand people. Dan: Uh, yeah, yeah I mean that's pretty mean, you know, when you think about this, so of staying in your, in your lane of that's. Part of the great thing is that these things are largely plug and play, you know, like, and it happens. That's why I say a multiplier. You know, with the formula vision plus capability multiplied by reach, that reach is a multiplier. Dean: Well, they're actually. Yeah, I think what it is that two of them are addition, but the third one's a multiplier. Dan: Yes, that's exactly right. Dean: In other words, you can have vision plus reach multiplied by capability. You can have vision plus capability multiplied by capability. You can have vision and capability, vision plus capability multiplied by reach. You can have vision plus reach multiplied by yeah, yeah, yeah but, I, think it's like two of them are inside of our parentheses. You have, you know yeah, then the other that's multiplied by the third one. Dan: Yeah so it's very. Dean: I'm convinced it's three yes From the triple play. So I'm thinking about a tool right now where I said who's got the big idea, who's got the big idea, who's got the ready-to-use capability, who's got the ready-to-use capability? Dan: And who's? Dean: got the ready-to-use reach? Dan: Yes, you know that's fantastic. That would be a very useful tool. I think that's a really useful framework for collaboration. Yeah, it fits so well with our whole free zone operating system, you know? Dean: yeah, because we're surrounded by those those capabilities. Dan: Everybody's got a capability in the form of, uh, their self-multiplying company that they've already kind of established. To get to that point right, most people undervalue. They mostly undervalue their own capabilities and reach. They don't see them as assets in most cases. Dean: Well, even when they have vision, the vision isn't really useful to anyone else. It's only useful to them Right. Dan: Vision isn't really useful to anyone else. It's only useful to them, right yeah? Dean: I mean your vision has to have a lot of room for other people. Dan: That's what. So, chad and I've been talking about this there's the horizontal vision is within your own capability channel. You know they see vision, maybe within how to improve their capability, or internally. All their vision is within the walls of their own company. But where the real benefit comes is with horizontal vision. I said vertical vision is within your own company vision. I said vertical vision is within your own company. Horizontal vision is being able to see what your capabilities paired up with, recognizing someone else's vision that your capabilities could help or how someone else's reach could enhance your capabilities. You know all of those that vertical or the horizontal vision is where the collaborative creativity comes yeah, yeah, there's so much yeah I think you're right that there's, you know, articulating, the thinking tool that helps you recognize and assess what your unique probably unique ability fits within a capability right. That's a thing in your organizational unique ability and your unique teamwork all fit within that capability channel. Dean: Yeah, it was really funny. I was when was it Thursday? I think I was. When was it Thursday? I think I was invited into a workshop here in Toronto and it was the lead master's group. Okay, so the lead master's group is the lead group of all the people who are still at the signature level after 20, 25 years. Okay, and they haven't jumped to the 10 times. They haven't, you know. Their next group would be 10 times. Dan: And they're a long way. Dean: They're a long way off from free zone Anyway, but we're introducing the triple play straight across the program. This quarter. So everybody's getting the triple play. And there was a group, probably about 40, maybe 40 in the room and I would say, three got it, three got the triple play Understood, yeah. And they said, yeah, well, why would I do this? And I said well to differentiate yourself from everybody else. Yeah well, I'm not sure why I would do that and everything else, and so this is why I put the emphasis you have to have a conceptual ability that's apart from you. You're just seeing something that exists, that's big and it's powerful, but it exists outside of you. It's not you. Somebody else's capability exists outside of you. Somebody's vision exists outside of you. And somebody's reach exists outside of you. And you've got to be able to see this as a reality that exists in the world, whether you want to use it or not. These abilities, these capabilities, vision and reach is outside of yourself. Vision and reach is outside of yourself. And then you have to say if I'm going to use what other people have, how do I have to be useful to them, that they would be agreeable to that, and I think that takes a lot of conceptual ability to see how you could be useful to other people. Dan: Yeah, I agree with that, that's true. Dean: Yeah, I think there's. I mean, if you can only see within your own framework, you're not going to be VCRing anything. Dan: Right, exactly, you're only going to be trying to increase, you know, or improve your own limited vision within your own situation and working on your own capabilities, and only with your own reach. It's real. That's where it's like linear. That's linear, yeah, and you know exponential is plugging in to ready to implement reach, vision and technology or capability. Dean: It's really funny because huh, well, yeah, it's who, not how. But you have to see the who's as existing, completely independent of you. They just exist. They're out there, they're doing their thing and they're not going to be interested in you unless there's a big payoff. In other words, they have to see and it was very interesting because when I talked to like first year and strategic coach, you know first or let's say, signature level first or second and people will say well, you have such great people here at coach, how do you find great people? Dan: And I said you know where I live, you know I live in such and such place. Dean: We don't have great people like you find great people. And I I said you know where I live, you know I live in such and such place. We don't have great people like you have great people. And I said I suspect you do have great people, they're just not looking for you. Yeah right, how? How do you have to be such that other great people would be interested in you as an opportunity? Dan: Yeah, yeah, amazing you have to have something compelling you do you? Dean: have to have something compelling. Yeah, not convincing, but compelling. Dan: That's right, you know, shaped with a what's in it for them. Yeah, viewpoint, you know that's. I think Joe's book is amazing to set. I can't. It's one of those things that I can't believe nobody has written that book until now, you know. But just that whole idea of thinking about your vision, capabilities and reach from a what's in it for them perspective, with other people, what you can do for other people, it's almost one of those things that it's so powerful. Dean: That's true. That's true of all new things, though. Dan: Yeah. Dean: I can't believe somebody hasn't thought about this before. Uh-huh. Right right, right yeah. Dan: Oh man, that was. So there was George Carlin. He had a thing, a little you know comment where he was saying how the English language is so incredible that you'd think everything that's possible to say has already been said, you know. But he said I'm going to say things tonight here that have never been spoken in the history of the world. For instance, he said hey, marge, after I finish sticking this red hot poker in my eye, I'm going to go out and barbecue some steaks. Nobody's ever said those words in the history of the world. So it's not. Everything hasn't been said. I thought that was pretty funny actually. So there, yeah, Well we've spent an hour. Dean: We did a good hour, I think so. Dan: I always enjoy these conversations. Dean: Yeah, and. I'm going to, I think yeah you ought to zero in on the tools. You know that, yeah, and I'm going to. Dan: I think, yeah, you ought to zero in on the tool. Dean: You know that I'll give some thought to it, but this is your tool, not my tool. I'll give some thought to it. I love it, All right. Dan: Okay, talk to you next week. Bye. Dean: Okay, bye.

In this episode of the "Giant Robots On Tour" podcast, hosts Sami Birnbaum and Rémy Hannequin interview Dan Clark, the Founder and CEO of MindJam, an innovative platform providing emotional and SEN (Special Educational Needs) support for young people through gaming, game design, and digital skills. Sami shares a personal story about how his mother, an educational psychologist, introduced him to MindJam, highlighting its impact and relevance. Dan explains that MindJam was born out of the need to support young people who feel out of place in traditional educational settings, particularly those with ADHD, autism, and other neurodivergent conditions. By leveraging popular games like Minecraft, MindJam builds trust and engages young people in a medium they enjoy, transforming therapeutic support into a more effective and engaging process. Dan discusses the inception and growth of MindJam, which started during the pandemic when traditional in-person support became impossible. This shift to online sessions via gaming platforms provided a new avenue to connect with young people, enabling them to open up and build trust in a familiar and enjoyable environment. Dan emphasizes that gaming offers numerous benefits, such as enhancing cognitive abilities, fostering social connections, and providing a safe space for expression. Despite the negative stigma around gaming, he points out that it can be a powerful tool for personal development and emotional support. MindJam has grown significantly, now with 110 mentors supporting over 2,000 young people globally, showcasing the scalability and effectiveness of this approach. The conversation also touches on the broader implications and challenges of integrating gaming into therapeutic and educational contexts. Dan highlights the need for societal perception shifts to recognize the positive aspects of gaming, counteracting the negative media portrayal. He underscores the importance of educating parents, educators, and social services about the benefits of gaming and how it can be used constructively. Dan shares inspiring success stories from MindJam, illustrating how gaming can lead to real-world achievements and personal growth. MindJam (https://mindjam.org.uk/) Follw MindJam on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MindJamOfficial), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindjam/), or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mindjamofficial/). Follow Dan Clark on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-clark-58533220b/). Follow thoughtbot on X (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Transcript:  SAMI: Right, we are back again. And this is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots podcast, the Giant Robots on Tour series coming to you from Europe, West Asia, and Africa, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host Sami Birnbaum. RÉMY: And I'm your other host, Rémy Hannequin. SAMI: Let's get into it, Rémy. Joining us today is Dan Clark, the Founder and CEO of MindJam, a platform that provides online one-to-one sessions, providing emotional and SEN support for young people through gaming, game design, and digital skills. Dan, full disclosure on this one: so, about a month ago, right? I get an email from my mom. Now [laughs], this email says, "You've got to check this guy out. Go and take a look at MindJam." And I'm thinking, mom, I don't get these emails from you. This is not the normal sort of thing I'd get from my mom on your average weekday. And I know in the past, like, I've told her that I'm kind of doing this podcast thing, and I'm starting to regret, like, telling her this. Like, what is she throwing my way? But I get into some research...and maybe for some context, actually, which is helpful because my mom isn't just doing research for the podcast, my mom's an educational psychologist. So, she's been doing that ever since I can remember. I remember growing up as a kid, and that was, I mean, she assessed me numerous times. And she works, I guess, similar kind of to the children or people that you're working with, people with ADHD, autism, neurodivergent children, just often who are struggling in school and trying to find where they fit. And I start doing my research. I look into it, hit the website, hit your LinkedIn. And I'll be, like, totally honest with you: We were both just blown away by what you are doing. And this is coming not only from me, and I work in the tech industry, and I've got a history of slight gaming addictions, which we might touch on, but also coming from my mom who works on the other side and works with all the local authorities. She does the kind of tribunals that they have to do to try and get people into the right schools and kids into the right schools. And, literally, we were blown away, and I nearly got lost as well on your website. I found some kind of gaming streams that you do, and I feel almost like we missed a trick here, Rémy, because we could have done this podcast on Minecraft. It's such a nice flow, right, when you're streaming. DAN: Yeah, it makes it easier when you've got that distraction there as well. You can just chat about it. Thank you so much for inviting me on. It's a pleasure being here and, yeah, I'm glad you kind of understand what we're doing here. MindJam itself is four years old now. But I was doing things before in the pandemic, similar. But once the pandemic hit, that was the key moment where everything went online for my support with young people. And, suddenly, the light bulb came on, and I was like, this is a way in. You know, there are so many young people that are struggling, lost, feel they're stupid, and don't fit in. Yet, actually, they're amazing. But, you know, a standard way of sitting in front of them going, "Tell me why you can't go to school. Why can't you do this?" you know, it doesn't work. They don't trust that person. They've got trauma. They've been, you know, battered down by education and by health services. And so, to suddenly have someone who comes in and goes, "Oh, so you love Minecraft. Oh, I love Minecraft, too. Let's join in. Let's go in a world." And then, you can build that trust to then go, "How's your week been then?" Or, you know, and start talking, and you're just on the same wavelength. And, for me, it was something as soon as I sort of realized, it was like, this is...of course, this makes perfect sense. And then, I looked and saw nobody else is doing it [laughs]. So, I started off MindJam just on my own. At first, very quickly, we got working with lots of...in the UK, we have local authorities, which is the councils around, so seeing there is a real, you know, thing that they would work with us. So, that was great, to be recognized as actually a real service, rather than just someone playing games with kids. It's like, no, this is real. This really works. And then, it quickly got bigger than me, and now we are at 110 mentors working for us, and we're supporting over 2,000 young people all over the world. SAMI: That's incredible. DAN: It's a mission of mine, you know, we'll go more into my sort of history, but I've got two neurodivergent children: both autistic, one's ADHD as well. When you see something that you think is going to work for your child, to then suddenly see it's got, like, a two-year waiting list, which most have, it's heartbreaking, and you know it's going to be too late. So, it's always been my mission with MindJam to keep that waiting list as small as I can, but also, obviously, expanding with quality mentors and all that. So, you know, we generally tend to always say about three months before we can sort of get that support for young people. But yeah, it's something very close to my heart that I'm so passionate about and, yeah, it's been a great journey so far. SAMI: You can tell. It's so interesting because, like you say, when you find something that works for your kids. Because when I was younger, I struggled with separation anxiety a lot in school. So, I would have days when I would really struggle to go to school. During my high school period, I went to the Royal Free, which is down in Hampstead, so not too far from where I grew up and not too far from my school. And my parents...I tried to engage with a therapist. But it's almost like, I don't know if I wasn't cognitively or intellectually developed enough to engage in that way, but it didn't work. Ultimately, I did kind of one or two sessions. I remember filling in some questionnaire and thinking, like, I don't get this. This doesn't make sense. And what you're talking about, if I understand correctly, is you're coming to where the child is at. You're coming to a safe space for them, a place where they feel comfortable. It's almost like a world which is predictable. Whereas the outside world is very scary, right? Especially for people who have generalized anxiety disorder, like I said, autism. It's very challenging. And so, you come to their level, and you say, "Right, let's find a place where we all feel comfortable." And then, we can start to engage. And you say, like, you know, the pandemic was a little bit of a light bulb moment. What's been the biggest barrier then? So, you've found yourself kind of going into this and saying, right, this is something which works. It works for my kids. I want to make this available, accessible. What's been your biggest barrier to getting this off the ground and getting it working? DAN: It's the negative thoughts and the way the media portrays and education portrays gaming, basically. That has been the hardest thing is most parents are on board, but they still feel a little bit ashamed of how social media is on gaming and screen time. And they're very worried that they're not doing the right thing. And we come in a way of also educating. We educate the educators. We do training plans for schools, and for social services, and all sorts because there are so many benefits to gaming that aren't recognized. And, you know, gaming is still generally quite new. It's evolved so much in the last even 10 years. It's insane the way the characters have evolved. And the emotional nature of games now is really complex and, you know, young people and older people can get so much from them. But gaming still, in general, people are still like, "Well, get off that. Do something actually worthwhile." It's like, it's so worthwhile. There's so much, you know, strategy game you've got so much from it. And a fast-paced shooting you've got cognitive abilities. The perfect example I've got is, did you hear a couple of months ago a young lad, I think he was 13, he beat Tetris. SAMI: Yes. DAN: He completed Tetris, which is incredible, you know, it's like, oh, wow. And the first thing the newsreader said to them, the media person interviewing him went, "You should get out more." That's the way she portrayed it, rather than going, "What an achievement it is. You should get outside more." I'm literally like, what? What's going on? You know, again, this kid, you know, he's in the Guinness World of Records. What an achievement. He's famous around the world for doing it. It's like, why is that not seen as such a good thing? You know, so yeah, so that was the hard thing was especially schools, you know, they're very frightened of gaming and of change. And so, trying to help them see that, actually, if you meet a young person where they're at in something they love, then you can help inspire them and help find out why they can't deal with the things, why they can't engage with school, and also inspire them for future learning careers. Even healthy gaming comes from having that understanding of how they're gaming. So, if someone's sat up all night gaming, yeah, we all know it's not great for them. But if you just say, "Gaming's evil. Get off it. You're wasting your time. I'm turning that off," they're going to want to rebel against that. Yet if you come in and go, "Oh, wow, I can see why you were sat up all night doing that. But have you noticed that you're not as good at playing when you're really tired or really hungry?" And if you look at the top e-sports players, they're athletes. They exercise; they eat well; they sleep well. So, you know, if you embrace gaming a bit more, you can get that trust and that bond to then help inspire in other ways. RÉMY: I mean, I could talk about it for a long time. It's really refreshing to hear someone talk about video games in such a positive way and talking about the benefits. And you even mentioned strong players like athletes. It's really refreshing. And I'm wondering, how did this knowledge come up to you in the first place? So, I bet you might be someone enjoying playing games yourself. But how did you see all these benefits yourself? Because, unfortunately, it's not something we talk a lot about. As you mentioned, in the press, we hear about all the negativity. Every time there is a strong event, we blame video games, all that. And we forgot all the stories where the video games enhance people, if they have trouble or not. It can be very beneficial to a lot of people. So, how did you see this value yourself? DAN: Yeah, well, yeah, I've always been a gamer, you know, ever since Spectrum 48K, I think you had. I'm showing my age now, but it was mainly when the Sega Megadrive, and from then, PlayStation onwards were my days. And me and my brother used to have great times together on that as well. You know, it was our bonding. But then I think the biggest light bulb to me...before the pandemic, I was a teacher. And I used to teach music and ICT and computers as well, and having my children as well, and both in school connecting with the young people. Because I was a gamer, I could talk about the games that they're playing with them and to see their eyes light up...and you're on a different wavelength with that young person. They suddenly got this trust in you, and they want to tell you all about what they've done on Minecraft, or what the new season of Fortnite's about. And it was having such a beneficial effect on them and same with my family as well. We, you know, both my children are autistic, and we've got, you know, we have a lot of difficulties around that of bonding together as a family, yet our closest moments have been through gaming together. So, Mario 3D World was the first one I remember with my children playing, and we could play at all levels. So, my son was about four and, you know, he was often in a bubble, killed, and floating back onto the screen again. But, you know, we had a great time. And I was suddenly, like, looking, thinking, this is amazing. You know, nobody hears about this side of it that it's bringing us together. And so, from there, I then started doing after-school gaming clubs, so not coding clubs, nothing like that. It was gaming. And the young people they loved it. It was oversubscribed. Masses of kids came to it. We had all sorts of things from Super Smash Bros, if you know that, to, you know, to PlayStation games, Go Simulator, and everything playing. And we just had a whale of a time, and they could really relax and make friends. And, again, it was all coming from the joy of gaming together, basically. And it's, you know, as much as some people might not like it, it's bigger and bigger. It's the biggest entertainment industry now. And, you know, on the other side of it, there are so many careers in it. If your young person has an interest in gaming, see what they're interested, help it, champion it because it's, yeah, you know, there's such a future there. But yeah, that's my story, basically, and where that sort of light bulb came from. And then, I've done a lot of research into the benefits of gaming and how you can use that for connecting with young people. And, you know, so many games now have characters with, you know, emotional things going off, or, you know, you can talk about feelings even in games like Minecraft where the characters don't talk. But you can be like, how must that person be feeling there? And, you know, you can really bring in real-life situations while gaming and also have a lot of fun, which I think is super important as well, which sometimes gets forgotten about. But, you know, real life is really enhanced by having loads of fun, and gaming's fun. SAMI: Yeah. It's so fascinating. As you're speaking, I'm having this internal dilemma, right? Because, in my head, everything you're saying is true and makes sense. And I believe it, and I've seen it. And then, I probably still harbor those feelings that are almost entrenched, like you're saying, in the media with, you know, the person who completed Tetris. And those sorts of feelings are still, like, a little bit entrenched to me in terms of the negative sides of gaming. Like, I guess I grew up probably similar to you, where it was like, "Well, why aren't you outside more?" and the negative aspect of it. I spoke about this in a different podcast, which I've apologized to my parents for mentioning in public. But when I was in university, it's too late now, I also kind of developed, I would call it probably, like, a small gaming addiction. I don't know where it would sit, but I was doing all-nighters Playing Call of Duty, Modern Warfare. And so, there definitely is a negative side. But I like what you say about, well, actually, you can address that in a healthy way. But then, this week, just this week, which is quite uncanny, my seven-year-old comes, and he says, "Daddy, I really want to get an Xbox, you know, my friend's got one." And he's just starting to get to that cusp of gaming. So, in my head, I say, yeah, like that makes total sense, and I imagine the benefits and the fun time me and him could have on an Xbox. But I still struggle with those feelings of...maybe they're my own worries of, well, but what if he neglects his other stuff? What if he goes into like, yeah, with ADHD, he goes into hyperfocus, and that's all he does? How [laughs] can you counsel me out of this concern? DAN: Well, no, I completely understand, and that is where all our fears come from, especially our generation and how it's put through. But I think young people more and more connect through gaming, whereas I think when we were gamers as young, a lot of stuff wasn't online. So, we weren't playing with our friends. We were playing on our own a lot of the time, whereas it's very social now. Platforms like Roblox and Minecraft are the things that are super social, working together as a team, things like that. But also screen time, I can show you that we've got a whole list of benefits of gaming, actually, that I'll share with you because there's studies that even screen time has been proven not to be detrimental the way we're told it is. And I think we must know that through how we work. Most of us work on screens these days, so. SAMI: Yeah, that's such a point of contention in the house because we currently do only on Fridays. So, they get, like, two hours of screen time. I don't know if that's strict. I don't know where I am on that. Do you have, like, with your own kids, or how do you handle that discipline? So, let's say I get the console, right? I bring it into the house to my seven-year-old. Do I limit it with screen time? How would you approach that sort of thing? DAN: Obviously, with a seven-year-old, it's a little bit different from...mine are now 17 and 14. So, we discuss it more, but yeah, definitely, you know, have boundaries. And also, if you're worried about how they're gaming, maybe have the Xbox in the living room, so instead of gaming in their bedroom, they're gaming when you're around, and it's a shared family activity. And then, it's easier to say, "Well, we're going to be having food in a minute. So, finish up on that game." And you can have all that understanding. But I think also, you know, that other side of things of coming from seeing what they're playing. I talk to parents a lot about this, and they get, you know, they see frustrations in their young people when they're trying to get them off. But they don't realize that maybe they're playing something like Fortnite or something that's a bit more online team-based, where if they pulled them off the game in the middle of the match, it could be detrimental to the team they're working with, their rankings. You know, they could even get banned from the game for a few days, you know. So, understanding and them being able to work time management together, being like, "Well, after this game is finished, this is where we're going, you know, we've got to go out. We've got to do this," you know, there is a give and take there. And I'm not saying there isn't negatives to gaming. We need, you know, everybody needs a break as well. But, again, through the understanding of what they're playing, you can have those conversations. If you're not playing them or watching them and don't understand what the game is about, and what the joy is about, there's going to be a gap between you, you know, where the young person is going to be like, "You don't understand me. You don't understand why I want to play this." My kids, you know, we went from the other [inaudible 17:37] because they've had severe problems at school, both of them, through their neurodivergency, and gaming has really helped them both to regulate. And maybe when you're saying about yourself when you had problems, and maybe there was something else going on. And then, the gaming was a way for you to cope, that safe space to go to that was actually working in a way as a little bit of therapy and keeping you grounded, you know, as well. So, you know, there's two sides to see it. But yeah, definitely, I can understand the worries of staying up all night playing it or not doing your homework and playing it, although I have different things to say about homework. But to say it's not actually beneficial is wrong because, you know, you just got to look at something like Minecraft and the amount a young person can learn, everything from biomes, and blocks, and diamonds, or ores to actual mathematics and things. And it naturally leads onto PCs and learning how to code things and who knows where that's going to lead, to creating something completely new. So, I worry for the ones that are heavily restricted on screen time. I worry that they're being held a little bit back. You know, that might sound a bit controversial for some people. But when most jobs are digital and you're not allowed to learn, I mean, the young people I see they're so gifted at such a young age in understanding digital things that they're going to be at the forefront of the new technology. So, it's almost like, yeah, I think it should be embraced with both hands. RÉMY: There's an incredible opportunity to learn new things through video games and to be happy and to share, like you said. And I bet our audience is already quite open to video games, but we never know it. I think it could be interesting if you could provide, like, a very simple, not comprehensive list of famous games and the kind of skills and benefits they provide you. You mentioned Minecraft; you mentioned creativity. But what kind of games and skills benefits you? You could say for our audience to understand more about the opportunity that is out there. DAN: Yeah, I mean, there are so many. But yeah, so, if we look at your normal shooter game like Call of Duty, and Fortnite, and things like that, that is for cognitive ability. You know, getting those dexterity in your hands and learning those [inaudible 20:11] of pressing buttons is more than you think. It's really training that brain and getting that brain working really quick. It's proven to boost your brain power, your gray matter. It's actually proven that gaming, in general, just boosts your gray matter. I mean, we all know about doing brain training games, but all games using that brain, you know, it's much more advanced than sitting watching TV. But then if you go into more things like puzzle games, so things from your Tetris all the way through to more advanced ones like Portal or strategy games like Civilization and things, there is so much you're doing. You're boosting that brainpower, and you're thinking all the time. But then you can get into...yeah, back onto the shooter games as well, they help with spatial recognition. So, it's actually helping to spot things from a distance: dangers or things to collect. You can see them, and it actually enhances eyesight. It is proven to enhance eyesight, which is great. Decision-making and leadership skills, which is a key thing people talk about for business, is all there when you're in your team of shooters. You're playing Overwatch or you're playing, you know, any game like that. You know, there's always somebody leading or, you know, saying what should be best, seeing the best strategies in there. Problem-solving comes into all sorts so, obviously, in shooters and things again, I'd- say, but also your Minecraft. You know, you've got to create a certain thing to defeat the dragon or whatever you're doing. There's always something, or if you're building something. But then, of course, your high-end puzzle games and even things like Mario. I mean, they get so complex in the problem-solving to overcome a level. Again, the brain power, and the brain power seeing these young people that they're way more advanced than we were playing games. The games are so intricate and so hard now. One you never hear about is social skills until...I think the pandemic helped that a bit. People started to see, oh, Animal Crossing, it's a great way to connect with people. And, you know, and Roblox as much as it gets a lot of bad press, for young people to connect and play, and lot of it is almost like playground role playing play, and they're playing together. You know, there's games just based in Ikea, and they're shopping, and [laughs] things like that. It's really good for them to be doing that. And health and fitness surprisingly, of course, is in gaming. So, obviously, a lot of Nintendo Switch games are sort of standing up, you know, playing switch sports and things, but then virtual reality is huge for that. And if you've ever tried Beat Saber, that's a real workout, which is really good. But there's loads of boxing ones. There's one that kids play now called Gorilla Tag, where, oh my God, that is such a workout. I have mentees that I work with, and then we'll be like, "Oh, Gorilla Tag," an hour of that, I am exhausted. Because you're just flinging your arms around like a gorilla trying to move fast. It's amazing. SAMI: I saw a post you did recently about there's, like, a Greek mythology level on Fortnite, like, an educational aspect [laughs]. It's so funny because I remember playing God of War on the PS2, and I learned so much about Greek mythology. Everything I know comes from God of War. And so, there's also that educational aspect. DAN: Yeah, exactly. You get this deep dive into something, and you really find what you're interested in. So, I've got a kid, and he loves this game called War Thunder, which is all about planes, World War planes, and he can tell me everything about every plane and what country it's made. He can spot it a mile off. You know, "Oh, that's a Russian plane from so and so. Its weak points are here. It was built by so and so." And it's like, you're a genius, and it's all come from, you know, this game's sparked this real interest. And, you know, like I said, Fortnite brings it in, God of War, of course. Assassin's Creed is amazing for things like that, history, it goes from Egypt times. And they even now have walkthroughs in the game where...this needs to be used in schools. I don't know if schools embrace it yet, but you don't have any of this story and the killings and stuff. You just are going through history and walking through the towns and things like that, which is brilliant. The latest one for Assassin's Creed was Vikings, wasn't it? And that was brilliant because that brought in the UK and how it was when the Vikings came over. There's so much stuff. I've got a young person, and he loves this game called For Honor, which is all about medieval sword fights. And he got such an interest in weapons that he's then become a blacksmith. He's enrolled onto a college course apprenticeship being a blacksmith. He wants to be making armory and swords for movies. You know, he said like, "Look, Lord of the Rings, that's all made properly, isn't it?" I mean, that's [inaudible 24:50] SAMI: Wow. DAN: Yeah, it's amazing. One other thing that the games bring, which I think is amazing, is mindfulness as well. There's a huge thing of that. Yeah, like I said, going back to maybe yourself when you were gaming at night, and you maybe needed to destress and maybe take your mind off something, you can get into a game and almost...there's a thing called the grind in the game. Minecraft has it a lot, where you've just got to get yourself a hundred diamonds, or whatever [laughs]. So, it's like, you can almost turn your brain off and just do that, you know, and it can be so super relaxing. And you can get into this thing called flow state. A lot of driving games are like that. If you hit every corner perfectly, you're kind of just in this dream-like state where you just...everything's going well. And that brings a euphoria, too. There's so many good things. But now there's loads of games that are actually based around mindfulness. Tetris is one that's been proven for that. But I don't know if you've heard a more recent one called PowerWash Simulator. Now, this game was one of my most favorite for the last couple of years. All you're doing is washing stuff with a power washer. But the way it works, it gives you a little ding when you've cleaned something properly, like a [vocalization]. And it just...you stand back and look at your job. Honestly, it's amazing. But now Oxford University are doing a full study on it because they realize how beneficial it is to relaxing and chilling out, you know, and just making yourself just feeling happy when you need to just de-stress. It's amazing. RÉMY: I can totally relate. I remember a few years ago, I played GTA 5, and GTA 5 is the kind of game famous for arbitrary violence or all this kind of stuff we hear in the media. But I remember me playing and sometimes I wanted to play just to take a bike and to go on the road and to see a sunset. And, of course, we could argue that I can see the sunset out there, but, in a game, it's just a piece of art. At work, recently, we just had a conversation about beautiful games. So, we weren't interested in all the features or how the game would work but just how beautiful it is. And sometimes we just play video games because they're beautiful. And so, they could provide so much on the intellectual level, on the skills, but also, just as piece of art, just beautiful things made by beautiful artists. DAN: Yeah, it is amazing when you see that. And yeah, I get that completely with GTA. It gets a lot of bad reputation, you know, and story-wise, it is very adult. But, you know, it's the biggest game in the world for a reason. And, you know, like you said, you climb the mountain, you look at the view, you know, it is such a lovely thing to do. There was a game, Red Dead Redemption. I had a young lady I was mentoring, and she was situationally mute, which means, you know, she couldn't talk to anybody. She used to type her responses to me. But she loved Red Dead Redemption, loved horses. And she actually created a group from all around the world, where they would all meet her on a Friday in the game, and she would take them on horse trails. And so, this is all in the game, and she would just take them around to beautiful spots, do nice little jumps with the horses, setting up camp, you know, and, I mean, that's [inaudible 28:08]. It's amazing. And yeah, she ended up making a horse game on Roblox, and that doing really well, and her actually working for Roblox themselves. So, yeah, you know, it all inspires them to work on that. And, I think, sorry, I'm going on tangents here, but also, as you say, appreciating art. There are so many different sides to gaming. A lot of people used to think gaming is just coding, and I don't want to be a coder. That's confusing. I don't want to do that. If you look at the credits that roll on a main game, and they go on for, like, about an hour. There are so many different jobs from artists, storyboard writers, level designers, musicians. There's everything there. The coders are just one part of it. So, as I said before, there are so many career opportunities there, either starting up your own business as a self-employed person or getting involved in it. One I love...a lot of the neurodivergent people I work with [inaudible 29:07] is being a games tester. Because the first thing my son ever does is, if he gets a game, he tries to break it. He tries to find where he can walk through a wall, or something like that. So, it's like that job would be ideal for you. It's like, it's amazing. And that's a job. That's a really important job as well. SAMI: Yeah. When you talk about these stories, they are inspirational. Like, I feel like almost, like, a flutter in my heart as you talk about this kid who maybe felt he has kind of no hope or very little opportunities to actually honing in on this Viking game and then being able to go and become a blacksmith, or this other person you mentioned who's now with Roblox. Yeah, I almost wish, like, they had more publicity around them. And maybe we're kind of doing some of that work now. What would you say is your biggest success story? DAN: I guess MindJam in itself I think is just, I mean, it's way bigger than me now. Obviously, it was born from this idea of giving young people the time and the respect. They are doing something that they love to do and is beneficial. That's what I found was everybody...even when I was teaching, we used to have this connection with the kids, and I used to work one-to-one with the, you know, special education needs, young ones. And a great connection talking about gaming, and their eyes would light up. They would talk about their week, and how they were feeling, and what they achieved. But then it would always be, in the back of my mind, we need to get back onto what we're supposed to be doing and, you know, I need to tick these boxes. And there's always something wanted from them. And it's the same if they go and see a health service. There's always something that they want from that young person. Yet if you just approach them and say, "You know, let's do what you want to do." It's child-led. It's low demand, and let's see where that takes us. That's where we got to discovering about the blacksmith thing. And that's why we've got young people making albums and things with MindJam. You know, it goes anywhere. I've got one young person who shows me Tai Chi, you know, that's our MindJam session. It started off from Rocket League. So, it can really go anywhere. But yeah, sorry, going back to the big success, it is every day now I get a message saying how one of my mentors has helped a young person to help the whole family. That is just the best thing in the world. You know, this is something we've created, and we work hard. We work really hard to make sure we've got the best people. You know, and we're well-trained, and informed, and everything. To hear that it's really making such a difference, and, you know, some people say we're saving lives, and, you know, I just have to pinch myself. Me and my wife we were just like, we can't believe it really how amazing it is. But we're just on a mission now to make sure it's accessible for as many people who need it. SAMI: Yeah, I've seen some of the reviews on your website, and they're heartwarming. But, like, it kind of makes sense, right? Like, for some people, this is the only place that they feel safe. They feel comfortable. You imagine all the cortisol that's going through someone when they're in that fight or flight moment, and there's lots of stress and anxiety. And they enter into a gaming world, and they can escape. And all of a sudden, that reduces. You're dealing with a different person. You're dealing with someone who feels happy, who feels content. And then, you're opening up their mind to have other conversations, you know, like you say. I really recommend it to our listeners. Go and check out the stream. You do kind of...I've seen you've done a few episodes of streaming with other mentors. And it's fascinating to see how all of you, whilst you're playing, are in a conversation about, "Oh, how was your week? And how's that been going?" And, you know, something happened over there. And it's like, you're just in a more of a relaxed state to have those conversations. DAN: Yeah, you know, it's been used before, you know, LEGO therapy is kind of like that. You know, that's what MindJam is in a way is play therapy, but there's so much more you can do with the digital platform. And we're at an amazing age as well, where most bits of software are free. I'll click on like, you know, if they want to look into 3D modeling, it's easy to get a copy of Blender. If you want to get into Unity or Unreal Engine, I mean, there's always into...and it's all, you know, what a wonderful time. When we were younger, if I wanted to get into game design, it was so complicated. You didn't know where to start where, you know, so yeah, it's really amazing. And another thing that I love as well is the mentors that work for us. Most of them are really [inaudible 33:28]. I struggled when I was in my early twenties, and I remember seeing a counselor. And it felt like they had no idea what they were...yeah, they're reading from a textbook, you know, and I remember just really patronizing me. And I was just like, you've got no clue. Whereas I think all the mentors we have all said, "I wish MindJam was around when I was a young person." And I thought, that's the key thing for me, their empathy, their understanding. We don't have to solve it straight away. It's just being there and going, "Yeah, that is hard. Yeah, you know, you'll be okay though. And there's, you know, you're not on your own here." And, you know, I think that is...so many people seem to have to try and heal people straight away. And it's like, no, people just need time to talk, and it's the same as adults as well. Yeah, it could just carry on really to all ages really, couldn't it? SAMI: Yeah. And you've also got that buy-in, right? Whereas, you know, I think of myself perhaps going to therapy at that young age. I didn't really buy into it because I was sitting there with an adult who I didn't really know what we were doing. And I was just kind of there for a conversation. And here you've got...you're doing something that they like, and they enjoy. To put my parent and adult hat back on [laughs] because it's something I want to pick your brains on, right? So, working in the tech industry and working in coding, I've read articles about games, which kind of it says that they're more and more...you see it maybe more on the games on the mobile phone. So, they're employing, like, these kind of gambling tactics, so a lot of the stuff where it's treasure chests. And what is it? On Fortnite, it's the packs. On FIFA, it's also, like, you open up the pack and you see what players you get. So, that sort of stuff I also find scary where I feel like you have from the industry...so, whilst you're using the industry in this way, is the industry itself there to promote and perpetuate the benefits that come from games? Or are they looking, I want to get people in; I want to get them hooked; I want to use these gambling techniques, A/B testing, whatever it is? DAN: From all big companies, we get both sides, obviously. So, you got your unscrupulous ones that, oh, go for it. You loot boxes. But I think more and more, especially with young people, they're more and more aware. They're far more savvy than we are in these things. And the good one is EA with, you know, FIFA. They get review bombed because as soon as someone's putting in loot boxes and things, people are just like, you're just after our money. This is a con. It's pay to win. Mobile games are the worst for it, of course. You know, they're quick cash-making things. Again, instead of, like, saying, "All gaming is evil. We should never do it," it's being aware and being aware of what these games are trying to do, which, again, when you're looking at a young child, is having shared gaming experiences. So, you can go, "Ah, can you see what they're doing here? You know, they've hooked us in. We've played this for two minutes, and we've had free play. And now they're asking us to pay five pounds for extra things. That's a bit of a con, isn't it?" And, you know, you can actually bring that awareness, and then they're not going to fall for things like that. But at the other side of it, I see firsthand...I've luckily enough to work closely with Sony. One of their great companies is called Media Molecule. I don't know if you've heard of them. They did LittleBigPlanet, and lately, they had a game called Dreams, which is actually making games on a PlayStation, which is really cool. But they're so accessible. It's all about, you know, making everybody happy, giving people the keys to creativity, and really help making everything accessible. Again, they worked with this wonderful, wonderful artist who created characters, character designs. They'd never met her. She was so socially anxious. She never could leave her house but was actually one of their top artists that they would send the work, send the brief. She'd send this amazing art back, and then they'd pay her. They didn't have to come into the office nine till five for no reason whatsoever. And there's a lovely side, and, of course, there's a business unscrupulous side. And yeah, again, bring that education of that. This is what I think should be in schools. Instead of avoiding the whole issue, is actually talk about being toxic gamers and what that means, and how to deal with toxic gamers, and how not to be a toxic gamer yourself. For those that don't know toxic gamers, it's just people that are really, really mean to everybody, which seems to be a set thing that people do, especially to a new player. It's like, learn how to encourage people in. And there's now games coming out where they ban people straight away if they're being toxic, and it's all about helping that new player feel like part of the team. But again, yeah, let's say if this was actually brought into education, so then we learn about loot boxes and, you know, pay-to-win type games, then young people would be on that same wavelength. They would get it, either that or it would make gaming so lame that no one would play gaming anymore because it's in schools [laughs]. Like, oh, it sucks now [laughs]. SAMI: Yeah, I think that that way that you embrace kind of what gaming is and you say, well, actually, we can see that it's got a benefit. We can see that it's positive. How do we get the absolute most out of this? How can we not hide, stick our heads in the sand to the issues that might be there? And how can we then say, "Let's use this?" And I think, I mean, my mom will be listening to this podcast for sure. But I think it's something which it's quite disruptive what you're doing. I really do feel that way kind of dabbling in gaming, working as a consultant in the coding industry. I actually teach neurodivergent kids as well on the side. And I'm actually mentoring another kid in coding as well. And what you're doing, as I said at the beginning, it's mind-blowing, and we could talk to you for hours. We have a little chat on this podcast, which listeners can't see. And I asked Rémy, like, "Do you have any questions before you want to wrap up?" And Rémy was just like, "I just want to keep listening. I'm loving it." And I'm exactly...I feel like we can listen to...I think me and Rémy game and we dabble here and there as well ourselves. So, it's definitely something which speaks to us so much. But I've got to thank you so much for your time, for taking the time to jump on with us, give us such an insight into the work that you're doing with MindJam. Let's talk about the BAFTA Young Game Designers Award Ceremony Open Day. Give us some info. DAN: Oh yeah. Well, this is a lovely thing. I've luckily enough to be involved with BAFTA on this for a few years. An early success of MindJam was I was nominated as Mentor of The Year and finalist for Mentor of The Year for BAFTA in 2021. And they run this thing called Young Games Designers every year, and it's brilliant because they do...it's two sides to it. One is actually making a game, but then, of course, not all young people are ready to make a game. And, you know, so the other side is a games concept where you could just send in sketches, ideas, things like that. And that's really accessible for lots of young people we work with, of course. But yeah, in July, I don't have the date; it's early July, we have the award ceremony, which is on this Saturday. But then on the Sunday at BAFTA in London, it's an open day for families to come. You have to apply and get a ticket. I'm sure you guys can put the link on here later on. But yeah, MindJam will be there, but there's loads of game places. I think TT Games will be there who make the LEGO games. And there's all sorts of...we have D&D there. We have all sorts and talks on how to get into the industry and things like that. So, it's really a great thing to come to if you're a young person who's interested in gaming. SAMI: That's really cool. So, parents, if you're listening, save up all that screen time so you can use it. A month's worth of screen time [chuckles] at the BAFTA Awards, Young Game Designers Awards Ceremony in the Open Day in London. If people want to get hold of you, Dan, where's the best place? They've heard this. They're inspired. They feel like they've got someone who would benefit from your services. Where's the best place to get in touch? DAN: If you go to our website, it's mindjam.org.uk, and you can email us at hello@mindjam.org.uk. And I think you said this podcast is international, isn't it? So, we do offer sessions all around the world. We have mentors in America, in Australia, in Japan, all over the place basically. MindJam is universal. So, wherever you are, get in touch. And if you're interested in being a mentor as well, get in touch as well, so... SAMI: Definitely, I highly recommend. And I've already got people I can think of that I'm going to be passing your details on to. Listeners, listeners, listeners, our lovely listeners, no one likes missing out on things. Remember that flight you missed? The train that passed you by? Your partner's birthday? I've been there, by the way; I missed one recently. It's a horrible feeling. I cannot deal with you missing out on these things, but I can make sure that this feeling doesn't come about when it comes to our podcast. So, move your thumb. Yes, you, move your thumb. Hit that subscribe button. I can guarantee you, you will never miss one of our podcasts. And you'll hear amazing guests, just like Dan, as we get them in, and we have great chats together on the Giant Robots on Tour podcast. You can find notes and a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, you can email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Check her out at mandymoore.tech. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Bye.   AD: Did you know thoughtbot has a referral program? If you introduce us to someone looking for a design or development partner, we will compensate you if they decide to work with us. More info on our website at: tbot.io/referral. 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In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we have a thought-provoking discussion around AI and its future implications. We introduce Juniper, an advanced voice-based AI capable of tasks from writing to coding, giving insight into emerging technologies. We explore impacts like the attention economy, where value emerges without physical costs. Success stories like Mr. Beast showcase uniqueness and AI's potential to tackle real issues. The episode delivers a well-rounded look at AI capacities and societal changes. References to early smartphone adoption phases parallel today's AI capabilities. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We discuss the potential of voice-based GPT-4.0 AI, specifically highlighting "Juniper" with a Scarlett Johansson-like voice, and its various applications from writing to coding. We compare the current adoption of AI to the early days of smartphones, emphasizing that we are only beginning to understand AI's full capabilities. We explore historical productivity trends, noting a decline since 1975, and question whether modern technology truly enhances productivity or just alters our perception of it. We debate the role of technology giants like Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla in shaping productivity and economic measurement. We reflect on the mid-20th century advancements such as electrification and infrastructure, and compare them to today's computing power and its economic impact. We discuss the concept of the attention economy and the creation of value from digital products without physical production costs, using digital creators like Mr. Beast as examples. We consider the potential of AI in solving real-world problems such as city traffic congestion and climate understanding, rather than just creating new opportunities. We emphasize the importance of practical solutions and specific use cases to fully leverage the capabilities of advanced AI technologies. We touch on the economic shifts in the digital era, including the rise of digital transactions and the non-tangible realm of digital innovation. We highlight the unique nature of success in the digital world, using examples like Mr. Beast and Taylor Swift, and discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by new technologies. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan, who is that person that gives the directions when we start the podcast? Dan: Well, I'm not sure the one that says this podcast this call may be. Dean: You are the first one on this conference phone call, oh my goodness, who is she? Dan: Who is she? She's a bot. She's not real. She's a bot. She's not real. She's not real. She's not real, she doesn't sound. Dean: I've heard worse sounding bots. Dan: Dan, I have been experimenting, playing around with chat GPT-4.0. And I use it primarily in voice mode, meaning, you know, I just say things to it and it has an amazing Scarlett Johansson-like voice that has zero, not at all like Siri or Alexa. You know where those voices definitely sound like. They are bots. This, my GPT-4O I think her name's Juniper is the voice that I chose. She sounds like a real person, I mean, and has like real tone, real inflection, real like conversational feeling to it and I realized that I don't think we really understand what we have here. I mean, I look at it and I think, imagine if that was a real person. Dean: Now, when you say we, who are you talking about? Dan: I mean the collective royal we I I'm sorry I've never been around yeah, I just think we as a when I say we, we as a society or we as the people collectively using this, it reminds me of this Seinfeld episode where Kramer got this or Jerry got his dad, this wizard organizer, and they always use it as a tip calculator, like the least of all the functions that it has. They're just excited that it's a tip calculator, and I feel like that's the current level of my adoption of Juniper. Dean: Yeah, I think the big thing is what you let's say, a year from now, level of my adoption of Juniper, you know, yeah, I think the big thing is what you let's say a year from now. You're using Juniper for a year. What do you think will be different as a result of having this capability, new capability? Dan: Well, I think it's operator, you know, I think it's operator dependent, you know, I think it's up to me what I think if you said to me. You know, I think it's up to me what I think if you said to me listen, I'd like to introduce you to Juniper. She's going to come here and she'll be within. She's going to follow you around. She's going to be here within three feet of you or discreetly out of sight, whatever you, but whenever you call she'll be right there. She is a graduate level. She is a graduate level student. She could pass the bar. She knows everything that's ever been recorded, she speaks every language. She never sleeps, she can write, she can draw, she can do graphics, she can do coding Whatever you like, and she's yours 20 to a month. Have fun, yeah, do you think you'd use it Well? that's my question is that it feels like I'm not using it and I have it. That's essentially what I have. I've got it in my pocket. You know how they said. You know the iPod was launched with the promise of a thousand songs in your pocket. Well, I think this is really like. You know, an MBA or a PhD or whatever you want in your pocket is essentially what we have, and I find it very interesting. Dean: No, I think it's unique, you know, and it's brand new. But what problem did you have that this solves? Dan: Well, I think that it's not per se a problem, but I think that we're I really have been observing and thinking, and I've said it you know in lots of our conversations, that I think that 2020, you know, if we take the 50-year period from 1975 to 2025, that we've pretty much set the stage now for a new plateau launch pad kind of at the same time. I don't. I think that once we understand and people you know, I think it's almost like the iPhone had the app store, that became what Peter Diamandis called the interface moment. Right, that was the you know, that allowed, once people realized that the capabilities of the iPhone to both measure geographically where you are at any precisely at any moment, the gyro thing that can detect movement, the sound, the camera capabilities, the touch screen, all of those things, Well, people realized what the baseline capabilities of the phone were. They were able to architect very specific, you know, starting with games very specific ways to use the capabilities that are very specific ways to use the capabilities that are built into the phone and I think that right now it's almost like it can do anything, and I think that we need to figure out the very specific use cases and I think we'll see people. Dean: You keep saying we, but I don't think we is going to do it. I think you know, who we are. Do we have a cell phone number? Do we have a street address? You know, I think you're having a very interesting personal experience with the new technology. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know if anybody else is going to be in on this, but the big thing is, how are you going to set it up so that you can prove that this is valuable? I mean, let's say, three months from now the time you come back to. Toronto for your next strategic coach pre-zone workshop things you're going to test out and see if the inclusion of this spot with a very sexy Scarlett Johansson voice. This isn't the issue that she sued somebody for. Dan: I think it's, I don't know actually this voice is. It's not exactly her, but it's, you know, it's that tone and things. Dean: So yeah, so. Dan: I don't know that. It's a pleasing voice, much more pleasing and personal than Siri or Alexa, for instance. Yeah, but yeah, I think you're absolutely right it does come down to and I think that's where the paralysis of you know the it can do anything, but you know what would be you know where my mind goes. Dean: It's which, how that I already have, but am I going to assign this capability to so that I don't have to spend any time whatsoever interacting with this bot? But my who's a you know who's a live human being working for a strategic coach would that person actually work? Do this, you know, and actually and I tested out for three months what are you getting done faster? So, for example, we have an AI newsletter that rewrites itself every two weeks and chooses new content, designs it and goes out and it uses up one hour of my Linda Spencer, who's one of my team members on the marketing team, and it's very interesting, I mean we have about 2000 people who read it and they grade it and everything like that. But the only thing I have to do every two weeks she said here's the news, here's the results from the last newsletter, here's the design and contents of the next newsletter, yes or no? And I'll go through. I say, yeah, looks good, send it out, right. Yeah, now, that's not freeing me up, because we never had this capability before. It's a new capability, right, and it's been going for about nine months now and people will talk to me about it and you know everything like that and everything like that. But I haven't seen that it's made a huge difference in the crucial numbers of strategic coach, which are marketing calls. Are we generating great leads that people are talking to us about? Are they signing up for the program? Are they whatever? So the normal measurements. So I think, with any technology, the first thing I would establish before I got interested in the technology is what are the crucial numbers that we have that tell me that our business and myself are moving forward? And then, whatever I'm going to use the new technology for, it has to have an impact on those numbers. Yeah, I think that's yeah, because you know the amount of productivity. I'll use the United States as an example. You mentioned 1975 to 2025, 50 years of individual productivity in the United States was much higher in the 50 years before 1975, since it has been for the last 50 years since 1975. Even though there are these amazing books and that about how productivity is going through the world with the microchip. But the actual numbers which are gathered by the US government, the US Treasury Department, us Department of Labor, indicates that the level of individual productivity has actually gone down in the last 50 years even though the excitement level of productivity has gone through the roof. Dean: By what measurement? What are they deciding? Is product? Dan: Dollars of economic activity per hour per worker. Okay, that's how productivity is measured. Dean: The number of workers. Dan: You have the number of hours they work and the amount of economic dollars that their hour of activity produces. The productivity was much higher total for the entire all workers. Dean: But is it all productivity or personal productivity? Like are you saying no all? Dan: productivity? No, the entire GDP of the economy, measured by the number of workers. Yeah, okay by the number of workers it's going down, it's down. No, yeah, since 1975, it's not as great as it was from 1925 to 1975. So that 50-year period the productivity levels in the United States were bigger than the last 50 years. Dean: Wow, that seems. That's surprising. What do you think that means? Dan: Well, a lot of people are really excited and involving themselves in technological activity that produces absolutely no productivity. Yeah, they're very excited, they're very excited and they're getting very emotionally connected to this activity. But you know, I'm not saying that's not a great thing, I'm not. Maybe they're having more fun, Maybe they're you know, maybe they have. Dean: What actually counts as GDP. Dan: Well, GDP is amount of sales amount of sales. Dean: Okay, so would the advertising sales that Mark Zuckerberg makes for Facebook count as GDP, or is it only in physical, like you know, shippable goods, or whatever? Dan: Well, whatever, uh, you have a dollar spent on something that constitutes a sale to sale. Dean: Okay, so advertising, so Google and Facebook and Netflix and all of those things count as GDP? Sure, okay, all right, then that seems impossible. Dan: It seems impossible, but it's true. Dean: That's pretty wild. Dan: Yeah yeah. I'm not saying that Mark Zuckerberg isn't making a lot of money. I'm not saying Mark. Zuckerberg isn't productive. My feeling is that the technology is created, makes a lot of other people non-productive. Dean: Yeah, and I wonder I mean that's a do you think you know if you measured that in terms of the total population versus the workforce? Is that what? In terms of the total population versus the workforce, is that what you know? I'm just looking for some explanation of this right. Dan: Somewhere along the line, there has to be an economic transaction for it to constitute and everything else. See, this is the difference. Yeah and everything else See this is the difference? China talks about its GDP, but they don't use the same term that everybody else in the world uses. They use the economic value of what they've produced. So they can produce a million machines and they're sitting in a warehouse and they count that as GDP gross domestic product. But there was no sale, it's, you know, they spend it, it was an economic activity. There was a transaction there, but there was no sale. So I think that's the big thing. It doesn't count unless there's a sale. Dean: GDP, doesn't it? Dan: doesn't count as GDP unless there's a sale. Somebody makes money, yeah. Dean: Okay, money Okay, yeah, yeah, I mean, it's pretty. Dan: No, I'm not saying it's not exciting. And here's the. Dean: Thing. Dan: Maybe it's an A&I, it's what I would R&D stage. The last 50 years have been R&D stage. For the next 50 years, which are going to be 100 times bigger of GDP. Okay, that may happen, but it's not happening yet. Dean: Yeah, yeah, I mean it's pretty, yeah, it's pretty wild. I mean you can definitely see, like the capabilities of you know, you can definitely see this replacing many customer service interactions, for sure. For instance, it's like a you can definitely see that going away, that there's not going to be a need for humans manning a customer service telephone center, for instance you know, yeah, I mean if it's good, I mean if it's good you know, and it depends upon the service that's being talked about, but if it's good, you know, maybe it does See, efficiency is not effectiveness. Dan: You know, and effectiveness is that you made a sale. Efficiency is we took all the activities leading up to a sale and we made them more, faster and easier. Yeah, the question is did you get a sale out of it? Dean: Mm-hmm. Dan: Mm-hmm, yeah, so. I don't know, but I think there's a bit of a magician show going with a lot of different kinds of technology, you know. I mean, it was like somebody was saying, you know, they were talking about EVs and specifically they were talking about a Tesla, and specifically they were talking about a Tesla. And he says do you know how much faster zero to 60 is in a Tesla than any gas-powered? Or you know, and I said, to tell you the truth, I don't know. Dean: To tell you the truth. You know. Dan: Geez, you know All the things I've been thinking about since last Monday. I'm sorry, I just didn't get to that one Anyway. And he says well, it's easily a second faster. I said good. I said now, where do you do this? There isn't any way. We're in greater Toronto, the area of greater. Toronto 6 million people, where you can go from 0 to 60 on a city street in two seconds. You know and everything like that. He said, yeah, but boy, you know, I mean, just think of that, how much faster you can go. And I said, yeah, but Teslas don't go any faster in Toronto than any other car, that's true, and usually they're stopped. Dean: Yeah, that's exactly right yeah. Dan: So I think the Tech Magic Show, I think it multiplies people's imagination, but it doesn't multiply their results. You know, I think there's something about it. And I think this is great. I mean what you're telling me. I've had some really boring people on the other end of a phone call and Scarlett Johansson would really liven it up a little bit. Dean: Absolutely yeah, yeah, exactly. Dan: Yeah, I was noticing that Cleveland hired Jack Nicholson and they still use it. It must have been 20 years ago. All the announcements, the regular announcements like don't leave your bags unattended, and things like that, oh right. There's a whole bunch of just what I would call airport announcements, and they have Jack Nicholson doing it and you stop and listen every time it starts. You know it's very effective and I'm sure and I'm sure Scarlett, I'm sure Scarlett Johansson would do a good job too. Dean: Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, it's so, it's so funny. I mean, that seems. I'm just dumbfounded by the fact that productivity has decreased in the 50 years that we're talking about here. Dan: Yeah Well, think of the 50 years, though, and you gave me that great book. Dean: Yeah, you gave me the book that was 1900 to 1950, 1925. Dan: But 1925 to 1975, the entire country was being electrified. They're laying in lines and everybody was the farm that I was on. I was born in 1944. That farm was electrified in 1928. So it was only 16 years that they had electricity. Right, and you know they were putting in the entire water systems. The Tennessee Valley Authority was putting in all these dams and the electric plants. You know Lake Mead as a result of the Hoover Dam. They were putting in all those dams and that just produced enormous jumps and the cars were going in, the gas systems, all the infrastructure for gasoline was going in. It was just a monstrously productive period of time. And then all the production that went into the second world war, which they then had as productive capability after the war stopped and so they had all the manufacturing capabilities you know and you know and so. But there's to see the thing is, the real jump that's happened is the jump in computing. There's no question. Dean: There's been a monstrous jump. Dan: It's a billion times since 1970. It's a billion times. That doesn't translate into money, and money is what productivity is based on. How much more money are you making per hour of human labor? How much more money are you making for our human labor? Now maybe somebody will say well, we got to start counting the robots in our GDP. Something is doing work. Yeah, Just I mean wow, wow, wow, the only problem with you know the only thing about robots, though they're shitty consumers. Dean: Yes, exactly that's so funny. Yeah, they don't buy anything you know. Dan: Yeah, A computer is a good worker, you know. It doesn't take breaks, doesn't get sick you know doesn't form unions anything. You know it doesn't go home, it doesn't have a house, doesn't have furnishings doesn't need furniture doesn't go out to eat. Dean: Right, right. We're definitely in a stage right now where there's opportunities more than ever for economic alchemy, creating money out of nothing, seemingly compared to 1975. I'm not sure how that happened, I think, since in the digital world we're essentially creating money out of ether, you know, out of attention, even in a way that if we just take the attention economy or the portion of the money that is derived from the advertising world in, where it was print ads, television ads, radio ads those were things that were kind of happening in 19, right and, but they were selling sort of physical goods, whereas now I remember having a conversation with Eben Pagan about this, when I did a book Stop your Divorce in 1998, when it was when PDFs were just coming to be a thing where you could create a digital document that didn't require printing a physical book and you could email that or somebody could download it. And I just realized that you know, in that we've literally sold $5 million of a picture of a book not physically printing. These thousands and thousands of books, it's literally no zero physical good. That's why I wondered about whether the GDP is only measuring you, because we're definitely in a time where you can create money from nothing and the way that was driven was from Google AdWords. Dan: You can't create anything from nothing. No, I mean nothing physical, any. You can't create any. I don't think you can create anything from nothing there. No, I mean okay, nothing physical. Okay, that's what I mean. Dean: Yeah, like you look at it, that the book, you know we created the book and turned it into a pdf that was put on a website that there's no physical manifestation of it's, only digital. You can only see it online. People would search on Google for save my marriage or how to stop a divorce, or any of the keywords we could magically get in front of those people on their screen. They could click oh, stop your divorce, how do I do that? They click on that. They read this digital. It didn't cost anything other than what was paid for was that we paid google for the, you know, for sending that, you know the ability to display that person, that opportunity to somebody. We paid google every time somebody clicked on that ad and then they would buy the book and it would automatically take them to a page to download the book. There was no inter, no human interaction and no physical exchange. It was all 100 digital and that was where, you know, I started referring to that as alchemy, really like creating money out of of bits. You know, yeah, yeah, that's so that. Dan: Yeah, I think there's no I think there's uh no question that we've moved into a what I call a non-tangible realm of creating value, creating property and everything else, but at the end of the day it all adds up somewhere where this constitutes an economic transaction and as far as the accountants care, they don't care whether it was something physical or sold or everything. There's taxes that are taken out of that. I don't see the remarkable difference. You're using a different medium, but there is work that goes into that. And you had a big payoff with one, but there were another thousand people right at the same time you were doing that and their results? They put in a lot of work, they put in a lot of effort and it didn't produce any money whatsoever. Efforts go into GDP, your efforts go into GDP and there's way more of them than there is of you. So it brings you the overall results down and you know so and we kind of know. We kind of know that. You know productivity numbers. You know, like, on a year I know people talk about well, that productivity is going to go up by 20% as a result of that. Well, that may be true for a single company, but that's not true for the industry they're in, because their new thing going up by 20% may actually make obsolete 5 or 6 or 20 other companies who have had productivity that a year before, but now they have no productivity at all. So their loss of productivity is balanced against the gain of productivity. Dean: Yeah, that's interesting. I guess you think about that. That could be true in all the casualties of the digital transition here, right Like, what do you look at? Dan: Well, certainly the advertising world, certainly the advertising world, I mean before Mark Zuckerberg and before Google, newspapers like the New York Times. Dean: Daily. Dan: Edition was very thick. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And half of it was advertising. Now it's very thin okay because, they don't have the same. Yeah, but there's winners and losers, you know, in this, and you have a technological breakthrough, you have far more losers than you do winners. Dean: Yeah, I'm looking at like I was just listening to an interview with that Tucker Carlson did with someone I forget who, some former CBS correspondent you know, and they were talking about the new. You know what's really changed now is the reach capabilities you know, like Tucker really primarily being on his own platform but using the reach of x has, you know it's the audience is accessible to everybody, as opposed to him in the beginning of their careers, the only way to get reach was to be signed to a, a digital, or assigned to a traditional network where the eyeballs were. But, now the eyeballs are accessible to everybody and it really becomes these are my words, but it's more of a meritocracy in a way that you're you know that it's available for everybody. The cream definitely can rise to the top if you've got a voice that people resonate with. Dean: Yeah, I mean, and Tucker's a star, tucker's a star. He's got his following, he's got probably a couple million followers. Whatever he was big when he was on Fox and he had the top numbers on Fox and everything like that, but there aren't two of them. Dean: Right, and you can't replace him with an AI either. Dean: No, but what I mean is we pick out the winners. It takes a lot of losers to get to a winner, you know and I think this is more extreme in the Cloudlandia world than it is in the physical world- you know. I mean, I think there's a thing called network effect and the network effect is you can only have one Amazon. Basically, you can only have one Amazon. Because, the nature of Amazon is to suck everybody's customers up into one destination. There aren't five Amazons competing with each other, and that's what digital does. A person like Taylor Swift couldn't have existed 20 years ago. They wouldn't have had the reach. Yeah, that's true, and she's got the reach today. I mean she's coming along and she's got a lot of things going for her. She's very attractive, she's very productive, she pumps out songs all the time and the songs seem to resonate with a mood in the public right now. And everybody's got their cell phones and everybody's got that. And what I'm saying is, if you have one Taylor Swift, you can't have two. Well, yeah, that's. Dean: I mean it's, I wonder you start to see that she's just a, she's one voice, right Like I look at, I've been following rabbit holes like up the chain. You know and I start so Taylor Swift is a good example that many of her biggest hits and biggest success have been in collaboration with Max Martin, who is a producer who I often talk about and refer. Second, he's got the second biggest number of number one songs to his credit, right behind. He just passed Paul McCartney or John Lennon, and only Paul McCartney is ahead of him. Now he's about five songs behind Paul McCartney. What I realized is, you know, there's a way that it's kind of like you get max martin's voice is really what is, you know, behind most of the the most popular music, or much of the most popular music, and yet not many people could pick him out of a lineup. And then then I went another layer up. It just dawned on me, like in the last couple of weeks here, that the real catalyst to Max Martin's success was Clive Davis. Who is? Do you know who? Clive Davis is the former, or still, record executive. Dean: He was the head of so far, your records so far. So far, you're introducing me to a lot of new people. Dan: Okay, great well, I, I just love this that. You know, max martin, I've been saying, as that's the thing, like you think about one thing Max Martin's one thing has been making hit records. Right, that's all he's done. Making pop songs since 1996, or what is first number one. But if you trace it all the way back, the catalyst to it because he was in Sweden, there was a group years ago called Ace of Bass and they had a number one song. But when you go all the way back to how that happened, it was because Clive Davis, who was the head of Columbia Records and all its subsidiaries, arista and Jay Records, and all its subsidiaries, arista and J Records and all of these things, he found that song. He's like a guesser and better. He was guessing that song is going to be a hit and he signed Ace of Base to bring them to America. So he plucked this obscure Swedish band out of and brought them to America and on the wave of that, created the opportunity for Max Martin to work with all these great artists that happened to be under the direction of Clive Davis. And if you go even one layer beyond that, the guy that owns Bertelsmann, you know G Music Group in Germany. They own almost all the record labels, kind of thing. It's him seeing Clive Davis and putting up a million dollars for Clive Davis to start this record label. It's amazing that it all, kind of you know, goes back to capital allocation. Dean: But the big thing is none of that has to do with any productivity. Dan: Yeah, that's the thing I wonder, you know, I mean that really. Dean: No, well, what you're talking about is. You mentioned a name. Yes, and he does this and he's very successful and he's famous for being successful. But at the same time that he was doing what he was doing, there were 9,999 who were waiting on tables and doing this on weekends and nights, yeah, okay, and they weren't making any money at all. So what. I'm saying is when you pick a winner out and you see, see how productive they are using new technology you also have to account for the people who are using the new technology and not making any money at all, and therefore it's not more productive. Yeah. Dan: Yeah. Dean: And I mean, you know we haven't talked about him for a while, Mr Beast. Yeah, and people say, see what you can do when you're 18? You won't see anything because he's so unique. And he has such a set of circumstances that there's nothing that he does that is repeatable by another person. Dan: I mean, yeah, he just became just in the last, I haven't heard anything about him. Dean: Is he still doing stuff? I don't know. Is he still doing stuff? I don't know. Is he still doing stuff? Yeah, yeah, he just became. Or is he retired at 28? Dan: No full steam ahead. Dean: He's got a 300-foot. Dan: He just became the number one subscribed channel in the world. He was the number one individual but there was this T-Series channel in India, which wasn't a person a different thing. Now he's the number one thing. He's now working on an Amazon show. He's taking his stuff to to amazon still full steam ahead with his, with his videos, but he's doing a big game show series in uh with under the amazon banner yeah, yeah, yeah. Dean: it's really interesting because you know again I go back that it seems to me that a lot you know and I've made this statement before is that a new technology comes out, or a new form of a new technology comes out. A whole series of people say I'm going to create a new company based on this technology and I want you know, I need some early investors. I need investors to get there, and so there's a whole industry for doing that in Silicon Valley and other places, and so billions are raised, not just for the one you know, not one investment, but for let's say 50 investments. And none of them go anywhere, none of them go anywhere. Dan: You know, nothing happens, okay, but people did make money because it's based on a Ponzi scheme kind of thing that the early investors get paid out by the late investors who end up pulling nothing and everything else. Dean: None of that represents productivity. Right A lot of action, a lot of excitement, a lot of money, but no productivity. And we're seeing that with AI. Goldman Sachs, the big investment bank, came out that, going on two years since open AI, we just don't see that there's any money to be made with this, except if you're like the chip maker, NVIDIA. They make a lot of money and they're very productive, and I think the reason is that I think that AI, if I look at the next 10 years, I think it's going to be very effective, it's going to be very useful and it's going to be very important for solving complexity problems that we already have on the planet. Okay, and you know, a great example is just large city congestion complexity, like Toronto, I think, may have the worst traffic congestion in North America. Dan: I did notice a big difference in that, even in the five years since I was there. Dean: Yeah. And the main reason is that they're making new cars, but they're not making new roads. Dan: Yeah, and I noticed that they've actually added a lot of bike lanes too, which have taken out some of the actual lanes. Dean: Yeah, Actual lanes, yeah, yeah, so without some new kind of solution to congestion and I think AI is the perfect tool for this and that all the traffic lights, all the traffic lights in the city are a single system and you're just changing the frequency of the lights changing and everything around the car changing the frequency of the lights changing and everything around the country, and there's a sort of a master view, how you know you can reduce the amount of people just stuck in the city by 40% if we just get all the lights. That's a complexity problem. Dan: You know and for example. Dean: The other thing is they haven't. You know, for all. The study of weather is probably the most complex system that we have on the planet and to this day they have no notion what effect clouds have on climate. You know they don't. They really. Clouds are just very complex. So if you had the ability to, I mean, they know different types of clouds and different things that happen when you have different types of clouds. They know that, but there's no unification of their understanding of the cloud system. And so you'd have to apply it to that. Now, you're not creating anything new with this. You're solving an existing problem. With this, you're solving an existing problem. My sense is that the best use of technology is always to solve some problem that you already have not create a new opportunity that's interesting. Dan: So maybe that's how I mean yeah, go ahead. I was just saying maybe that's how I should be thinking about my relationship with juniper yeah, what? Dean:what complexity problems do you have? Dan: Exactly what complexity problems do I already have that Juniper could solve for me? Dean: Yeah, like getting out of bed in the morning. That's a complexity problem. When does my first coffee arrive? Exactly yeah, why am I still thinking about this? Why at this late date. Dan: Oh man, that is so funny. Dean: It is funny. Dan: The funny thing is I posted up on Facebook right before we got on our podcast today. I took a picture of my. I have these. I have these Four Seasons Valhalla coffee cups and I took a. I made a coffee before our here and I posted up a picture of it right Pre-podcast caffeination, prior to the prior to our podcast here. So I'm fully caffeinated. I'm on the, I'm on the juice. Dean: Yeah, I will tell you this. Chris Johnson, great thinker in the FreeZone program he's got it's not his system, he's licensed his system from someone else but he had 32 callers to set up meetings with their primary salespeople for his company and he's in the placement business. He finds really good high-level people to go into construction companies and engineering companies. And he was telling us that his 32 human callers could make 5,500 phone calls and produce a certain result in a day of phoning. And since he's brought in his AI system, they can do 5,500 in an hour and produce a better result of people agreeing to phone calls. Well, that's productivity. Dan: Yeah, I guess. So yeah, pretty amazing huh. Dean: And he let go his 32 humans. Oh, my goodness. Wow, so this is AI making outbound phone calls? These are all AI and they've got complete voice capability of responding to responses and everything else. And then they get better every day. They have sort of upgrades every day for it. And that's productivity, that's productivity. Dan: Yeah, there's, yeah, that's a. That's an amazing story. An amazing story, I mean, you start to see, I just look at the things, even when we had the AI panel at FreeZone in Palm Beach. You're just seeing the things, even what Mike Kamix is able to create and the things that Lior is doing. You just think, man. Dean: I think we're early. Dan: Yeah, absolutely, we're early. Dean: Yeah, I mean I think we're in the first or second year of the internet with us, right? Dan: Exactly, I agree. That's why I say, that's why, in my summation here, I'm kind of thinking you know 2025, give it another 18 months. It's only 18 months old now when you really think about it. Right, this is it's 18 months, and give it another 18 months and we'll see that people you're already starting to see that people are taking the AI capabilities and they're honing it into an interface. That is, a logo maker, for instance, or AI. You know that it's already honed into the ability to specialize in making logos based on your prompts, or and I think that's where that's what I meant by the interface moment is people are going to start carving out, packaging very specific outcomes from the capabilities. Like, if we have these capabilities, what can we do and just deliver that specific outcome, rather than the capability to create that outcome that's why it's funny that that's kind of parallel to what I've been saying. I've seen people that are taking and training large language models based on your you know, all of the you know let's call it all the Dan Sullivan content that's been out there and then touting it as you know, having Dan Sullivan in your pocket, that you can ask Dan anything of it in your pocket, that you can ask Dan anything. But I think the ability to ask you anything isn't as useful as the ability to have Dan ask you things. Yes, I think that's the question. Dean: So in the last quarterly book, and the one we're finishing right now. So it was everything is created backward, where the tool we featured was the triple play, and then the next one is called casting, not hiring, where the tool is the four by four casting tool. We call it the four by four casting tool, and this is where I'm asking them questions. Dan: Right, okay. Dean: I don't see any value whatsoever of them asking me questions. Dan: Right. Dean: Because I'm not getting the benefit of the question. Some software program is handling it, so I'm not learning anything and I've got a rule that I don't involve myself in any activity where I don't learn something new. Dan: Okay. Dean: So there's getting the benefits, but plus we'd be competing with ourselves. Dan: I love it All, right Well off, we go. Dean: I will phone you next week I'll be at the cottage. I'll be looking out at a mystic blue lake while I'm talking. Dan: Oh, wow. Dean: It's really good yeah. Dan: Awesome. Well, have a great week, okay, and I'll talk to you next week. Thanks, thanks, dan. Bye.

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, I reflect on the successful launch of our inaugural CoachCon conference, which brought together 350 members of the Strategic Coach community in Nashville. The vibrant energy of Music City and the exceptional facilities of the Music City Center made for an experience surpassing expectations. Our discussion centers on cultivating the mental fortitude needed to remain anchored amid future-focused hustle. We connect this to aspects like political endurance while acknowledging the enrichment that unfolding daily actions alone confer on tomorrow's potential. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We recap the inaugural CoachCon Conference in Nashville, noting the participation of 350 strategic thinkers and our partnership with Agile for event organization. I share my personal stance on cowboy attire and backyard barbecues, highlighting a preference for distinctively non-Western wardrobe choices. We reflect on aging and the evolution of long-term vision, contrasting my early career's short-sightedness with the strategic foresight demonstrated by successful individuals and families. I celebrate another birthday and contemplate the depth of understanding that comes with each passing year, using the experiences of Kathy Ireland as an example of life's cumulative experiences enriching future visions. We explore the importance of journaling and manifesting desires into reality, discussing how projecting our goals into the future contributes to personal growth. The discussion covers the importance of crafting a future-focused vision, especially as one grows older, to avoid feeling diminished with age. We examine the significance of living in the present moment and how our current actions lay the foundation for future success. Personal insights are shared on the perception of time and the possibility of slowing down our experience of it through heightened consciousness. We speculate on political endurance and the uncertainties in the political arena, likening it to a horse race with a focus on the candidates' abilities to sustain a full term. The conversation includes a mention of upcoming travel plans, expressing a commitment to continue these enlightening conversations from wherever life takes us, whether it be a London hotel or a Cleveland suite. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: I am back from Nashville. Dean: That's what I hear. I am excited to hear all about it. It looked like a real party it was a total party. Two parties. Dan: Yeah, so providing some context for the listening audience. We had our very first community conference and I say that because you did not get invited unless you were connected to someone in the strategic coach community and it's our first conference of this kind called CoachCon. And as a result of it. I already committed at my birthday party, which was on the second night, two-day conference, second night and I said we're going to have one in 26. So we're thinking we'll do this every two years Okay, that's amazing. Yeah, and we had 350, which was good for, you know, our first experience. Dean: And. Dan: I will say that we're really committed to Nashville. Nashville is just such a great city to have a conference. It's just. The city itself has an enormous amount of energy and the Music City Center is just a marvelous venue. It is so big it staggers your imagination. It's two blocks long by almost two blocks wide, and if you look at it from the air, from above, it looks like a guitar. Dean: Right, right right. Dan: Yeah, which you wouldn't do in Toronto. Dean: It would have no meaning, it would have no meaning. Dan: It would have no meaning in Toronto. Okay, it would. Dean: And anyway I was working with go ahead. I was just going to say not to say that Toronto has a pretty wonderful convention center facility too, downtown, yeah, but Nashville has a great. Dan: Nashville has a great Nashville has a great convention center. That's the truth. Yes, yeah, as a matter of fact, one of the smart moves we made as a company is that we immediately hired a convention conference company called Agile. I think they're from Kansas City and Minneapolis. They have two branches to their company and so, right from the very beginning, our team members were working with their team members to create the event, and this was a year and a half in planning, and they just are the perfect interface between yourself and then the venue itself, who have their own team. So it's really it's really a triple play of three teams working together to create the event. Dean: And I mean it's such a, it's such an engine. I had such flashbacks, you know, seeing the footage that was coming out of there of the room and the setup and the way everything was. Or you know that we did an event roughly twice that size every month for 14 years. You imagine, like the engine that it takes to put that, to put that on the logistics of it. That was what the main event was. We'd have, you know, 600 or 800 people every month. It was something. Dan: Yeah, are you speaking about one of your? Dean: events. This was with Joe Stumpf when we did the buy referral for the real estate agents. That was what we did. Dan: Oh, that was where you did it, that's where you did it that's where you did it yeah, that's right well, here I'm trying to impress you and you're just tolerating me no, I mean there's some. Dean: There's an exciting energy around a uh, a big event like that. I mean there's, but it's a very different energy. Dan: Yeah, wasn't it in Nashville 14 times. Dean: No, we did. We were all over the country. We did one a month. We did one every month for 14 years. Wow. Yeah exactly so Nashville was in the rotation that's like 168. Dan: That's like 168 conferences. Dean: Yeah, we did over 200, actually is what it was, but that was like a circus coming to town every month, every month, yeah. Dan: Anyway, I was talking to one of the black backstage crew. I was talking to one of the black backstage crew. You know who'd do the get you ready for going on to the front stage and I said we have 350 people. If you had other conferences going on at the same time. Our size, how many could you have? And he says I think around two dozen dozen we could be doing in the same building at the same time. But then when you get outside of the music center it's just filled with all the sorts of clubs yes and broadway, which is their big party street, is about two block, two blocks away, and there's lots of hotels. Dean: There's lots of hotels around, so's lots of hotels around, so you can feed into it. Dan: I was at the Four Seasons in Nashville. Dean: Of course you were. Yeah, did you get a hat and some boots to celebrate your 80th birthday? The Nashville way? Dan: I did not, and I'll tell you, my approach to cowboy hats and cowboy boots is about the same as my approach to backyard barbecues, and that is, I will celebrate my 80th birthday without ever having participated, actually organized one of those, and so it's on the list that I'm going to try to get through my whole life without doing I love it. Dean: That's the greatest thing. Dan: Dan. Dean: I can't tell you how many times I've used the. You know people are going through their whole life hoping to never have to meet you. Dan: I was having. Dean: I had lunch with an attorney friend who's a personal injury attorney and you know he works primarily with people in accidents and I said you know the challenge with his marketing is that it's acute onset and you know nobody is preparing for or anticipating the need to meet you. Dan: And I said in fact most people are hoping to go their entire life without ever having to meet you and if they get to, good for them, you know, yeah, funny, yeah, yeah, some people's marketing challenges are more severe than others yeah that's exactly right, well, yeah you know, as you know to be being that we're right at the beginning, when I started my coaching life, which was 50 years ago, in 1970, the people which was called Top of the Table and the table is a previous organization which started, I think maybe 50 or 60 years before, which was called the Million Dollar Roundtable, and it was a certain amount of sales qualified you and you got to go to the acronym mdrt. That was the thing, and. But in the early 70s they had gotten together and said let's take a top 500 in the world and and establish ourselves as the top of the table. Okay, and so right off the bat, in 74 and 75, I had one who was just a great friend and promoter of what I was doing at that time, because it was just being out there testing out this thing called coaching for entrepreneurs. And then very quickly I got others because they talked to each other a lot without seeing each other as competitors. And one of the things that I really remember is just getting really, really deep into how life insurance agents operate. And it's a tough marketing proposition because you have to engage people in a conversation about what's going to happen after they die. I mean, that's the premise of life insurance and the other thing is you're doing it for other people. And really you're doing it, and I had one of the great ones. These were, in the first instance, they were all Toronto-based, that's where we were, and I remember this one he would deal with, very wealthy. One of the things that attracted to me to these top life insurance agents is that their entire clientele were entrepreneurial. Okay, they didn't have corporate people, they had people who created their own businesses. And I remember this one agent here in Toronto. He said the first thing you have to zero in on again, it's a difficult sale is what the individual, who's a wealthy individual? What do they love that they want to be remembered for having been a great person after their life? What is it that they love that they would ensure and he said so. He had this line of questioning with. That went something like this he said first of all, as we talk about this, do you love your wife? And the person would say no, not really, not really. He says do you love your children? That would be a flat no. And he says no, I don't love my children. He said do you love your employees? And he says no, I don't love my children. He said, do you love your employees? And he says no. Finally gets to number four is do you love your reputation such that after you die, people will say you know he really loved his wife, his children and his employees? He says yes, I do love my reputation, and he says, ok, let's ensure your reputation. He says until you find out what someone loves, you might as well not talk about your legacy, and everybody has a different one. So the big thing everybody has a something that they want to be remembered for. So he says that's the thing that we have to ensure. Dean: And it's amazing. Amazing, isn't it, that there's always the reason behind the reason. Dan: It's funny yeah well, well, there's ultimately. There's the reason, the others aren't a reason you know, and actually that's true, yeah, and you have to find out what makes the person tick. You know, know, I mean everybody who lives for a long time and is very active in doing it has something that's right at the center you know, and I think it's idiosyncratic. Dean: What do you mean by that? Do you mean, that it's? Dan: I don't think it's predictable. Dean: Okay, right. Dan: Yeah, there's a deeper. I don't think everybody is Well. If you have the money to be different, then you're different in the way you want to be different. I mean we're talking about people who can write a check and they can write a big check. And what do they write the check for is the big question. And they're not doing it out of need, they're doing it out of want. Dean: Right. Dan: My contention is don't do things out of need. Do them out of what you actually want, because that represents much more of who you actually are than doing things because you need to do them that's an interesting because that's why or is that why you spent so much time 25 years. Dean: I remember you saying you made a commitment to every day writing what do I want. I journal for 25 years. Yeah. Dan: And because I was coming off a divorce and bankruptcy which coincided on the same day, that was, August, August 15th 1978. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And you know, divorce and bankruptcy qualify as two bad report cards. Dean: Right. Dan: Right right right, yes, I mean any way you interpret it, it's a bad report card and so you know I was kind of in a state and one of the neat things when you go through a divorce and bankruptcy, people don't throw parties for you to have you come and explain it you know they give you a lot of peace and quiet of your own, you know, yeah. So I had about four or five months after August to think this through and I said you know, the reason why these things are happening is I'm not telling myself what I actually want. You know I'm assuming certain things about other people. I'm expecting other people expectations, assumptions about other people and other things. And I said, you know, I think the key here is that I'm not actually telling myself what I want. Dean: And so. Dan: I said myself what I want and so I said so. Nobody cares if I was divorced and bankruptcy, and nobody really cares whether I amount to anything you know you know, and I was 30, 30, 34 years old at that time. And once you hit 30, nobody cares you know, it just, we invest a lot in younger people until age 30 and then they kick you out of the nest and anything that's going to happen in the future, you're going to do it on your own. You're not going to get a government grant to do it. And so I said, well, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to have one goal here. So I said, well, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to have one goal here. For the next 25 years, every day, I'm going to keep a journal and I'm going to write in it something that I want, With one constraint I'm not going to use the word, because I'm not going to use the word. I just want it, I just want it. And I did that, I did it for 25 years I missed want it, I just want it, and I did that. I did it for 25 years. I missed 12 days. There are 9,131 days in 25 years including the six leap year days, and so it's 9,131. And I did them on 9,119 days and my relationship with Babs came out of that. The whole strategic coach came out of that. You know and all sorts of things, like the lifestyle I'm living and you know why today I don't have to think about money at all because the money's there and you know, and the type of people I'm spending my time with. So it feels good, but that that the other thing is I. What it proved is I have the ability to stick with something for 25 years, right on a daily basis on a daily conscious basis. Dean: So still journal. Do you, uh, do you still journal? Dan: well, Dean, that's a really great question. I do journal, but it's in the form of using my tools on a daily basis. Dean: I got you Okay, so you're thinking about your thinking every day, like my fast filter, my fast filters. Dan: Yeah, you know fast filters. I'm saying what I want. It's just mutated into different forms. I want it's just mutated into different forms, but there isn't a day that I go through where I'm not stating something that I'm planning to achieve sometime in the future. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really. That's something I'm coming up. Next April will be 30 years of, you know, daily journaling. Yeah, I mean of sequential, and I actually have all of the journals. It was April 1995. I would journal. I was always someone to write down my thinking, but not in an organized, archival kind of way. But April of 1995 is my journal number one the official like keeping that. Dan: So next year is the 30 years. Yeah, and it's so funny that you know, like you said, I think more than half your life. Dean: Yeah, that's exactly right. I just turned 58 on Friday and that was a you know, you mentioned you know at 30, I noticed that you did it at 29. Yeah, that there's a different you know different experience level at 58 than there is at you know 29. Dan: Oh yeah. Dean: Yeah, I remember when I first started with Strategic Coach in 1997, year one that was, I remember the three-year kind of vision thing was it was difficult for me to even like see three years into the future because everything up to that point had been constantly evolving. You know, and I just remember, as in real estate, you know, when I was young, starting in real estate, I remember there was talk of the, you know, halton hills the town where I was, had just released their 20 year plan and I thought to myself, man, that's like that's forever, that's a lot. I don't never get here. You know, 20 years, I can't imagine that they're thinking that far ahead. And I had a couple of experiences like that. One of the largest sale that I ever made was to an italian family that was land banking. They bought land on the corner of ninth line and steels in halton hills that wasn't going to be developed. Dan: we we're talking about Toronto. Yes, right, exactly Greater, Toronto area. Dean: Yeah, in Halton Hills that was like the outer edge of the greater Toronto area and their expectation was that this was going to be land that would be developed in 40 years and that was almost exactly true as to when it, you know, came about. It's just kind of that was their model. They would, you know, go, they were a development family and they would go out to the edge and buy the land that was inevitably going to be the development. So, you know, they owned a lot of land in Brampton and Mississauga that were, you know, at the time, rural areas that they bought, you know, 20 years previous, in the 60s, at that time, knowing that was going to be developed later on and what an interesting like long term vision, like that. But that tell that story, because I always like to have you know kind of I look at my birthdays, I like to have like a day of reflection and looking forward and you know real and yes, uh, two days ago was your birthday, that's right, yep, and so you know, looking, I have a completely different understanding and experience of what 25 years is, yeah, than I did when I was 29, right, and so it's like, not you know, because I can still remember cracking the you know seal on journal number one, april 1995, virginia Beach. That was the you know day one journal one, and I still I can transport there, you know know, right now. It's just amazing how your mind I'm just like I'm sure you can immediately remember your lunch that you had on the day you got bankrupt and divorced. You know, you probably recall that right there, but you couldn't imagine it was actually a good lunch yeah, that right yeah because it was on the credit card you were about to turn in. Dan: Yeah, the interesting thing about it is I've been working on a concept and I was reminded of it because for our top guest speaker at the conference we had Kathy Ireland, the very famous model. Dean: Oh, wait, it wasn't Joe Polish. Dan: As I said, we had our top speaker. It was Kathy Ireland. Joe was good. He was one of the three main speakers. Right yeah he should be delighted with that. Yeah, he should be delighted with that. Dean: Anyway. Dan: Kathy Erland talked about how her intent was not to become a model. Not that she was against becoming a model, but that was never her intention to be a model. And she was just approached when she was on the beach in Santa Barbara California when she was 17. On the beach in Santa Barbara California when she was 17. And an agent came up to her and said you know, I think there's a niche that if you wanted to become a model, you would really, you know, sort of a tomboy she's. You know, she was very athletic, she was very muscular and she, you know, she sort of had freckles and you know, and she did wonderfully for 15 years from age 17 to 32. And she was on many covers of magazines, especially Sports Illustrated, and but then when she was 32, she just decided to stop and while she was a model, she had taken a crack at creating different kinds of businesses, so it wasn't something new, she said. I always knew I was going to be an entrepreneur and that the modeling gave me a bridge from where I was born, where I grew up, to the outside world. And then she stopped at 32. And for the last almost 30 years's created a three and a half billion dollar global company. And it was really great. We have jeff madoff interviewers, so jeff, is how I know I had. Jeff is how I know kathy, because he had her as a guest at a marketing class that he teaches at one of the New York universities. But one of the things I found in common with her she said I like getting older because you just know so much more, and one of the things I'm really appreciating at 80 is that I can really I can think of my life in terms of at least seven decades. You know, the first one's a bit sketchy, you know, because you hadn't really become conscious. Dean: But you've recalled being out in the woods. Oh, no, no. Dan: I have very good memories below 10. And I think I've enhanced them some, but you have what's possible over long periods of time, you know and what you will stay with over long. I think one of the principal pieces of knowledge that you get as a benefit of getting older is you have a very clear idea of what exactly what you will stick with over a long period of time and we're just, and we're just trading reports here of something you stuck with and what I stuck with over a long period of time, and young people don't have the advantage of doing that that's exactly right. Dean: Yeah, you can't imagine and it's very interesting to see how I spoke things into existence in that journal, leading up to them, like describing what I want, and to see how they started out as a seed in the journal and then became reality. You know, something it's interesting to see and you wonder, you know, part of it is to keep that, you know, keep that rolling, keep it now looking forward in the next five. It's as you say, it's, you know, your I love about you at 80 is that your, you know future is still bigger than your past and that's kind of an exciting thing. Dan: Yeah, I will say. This doesn't naturally occur just by living years. Dean: No, no you have to be. Dan: I mean the. To make the future bigger than your past at 80 takes a lot of. Dean: Yeah, especially when. But maybe that goes to what your print too. Right, just achievement is a thing, that's a motivator for you. For the sake of parties, for the sake of parties. That's all the bigger parties. That's all the bigger parties. That's great, yeah, yeah. Dan: Someone was asking me that. You know, when I looked at the conference that we just had in Nashville, wednesday and Thursday, people said, well, how would you plan a conference? I said, well, I didn't plan the conference. It was my team members to plan the conference. So it was my team members to play in the conference. But I said my attitude toward the conference is what the party is going to be like on the final night. Yes, I work backwards from the party. What has to happen for it to be a great party? Dean: Right. Dan: Well, this is very exciting, that now it's just coincidentally, two years from now, we do it at the same time. Dean: That be, yeah, first week of may is a good day. Dan: It's a good time, it's good and we would do it at nashville and we would do it at the music city. I mean, we're far enough ahead on the schedule that we know it would be your 60th birthday. Dean: Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that'll be right in time for peak Dean on my health journey here. You know that'll be Back to my. Dan: That was the year of the peak Dean. That's exactly right, it's almost, like you know, a periodic visit of the northern lights. Yeah, yeah. Dean: No, I think that's very exciting. Yeah, and I've already said even more. Dan: I've already yeah, you put it in the calendar. It'll be the week of your birthday, probably okay, I mean I don't know what the week looks like, but let's find out now. Dean: I'm yeah, but yeah, nashville, early early 2026, may 10th is a Sunday. Yeah, it won't be that, it won't be on a. Dan: Sunday no, but it'll be the week. It'll be the week before, it'll be the week before. But the thing is now that they've done it once and we've got a date in the calendar. First of all, they can put the date in the calendar and they can get the event company plugged in. And they can get the event company plugged in, they can get the reservation at the Music City. They can get the hotel bookings I think the hotel bookings most hotels you can't get in for about six until six months before. Dean: But as early as you can. Dan: And yeah, we had a lot of bookings at the Four Seasons and you know, and we came in from the airport on Tuesday or on Tuesday? No, on Monday we came in, am I right? Dean: here. You came in on the Monday, yeah, because we spoke last Sunday yeah, I think I came. Dan: We came in on the Monday, yeah, and and we. But when we arrived, there was this whole meeting party of Four Seasons personnel. They came up to us and treated us like they liked us oh right, imagine that yeah, which I take regardless of what their motive is it doesn't matter, it still feels just as nice. Dean: Yeah, I think that's great. Mr. Dan: Sullivan is the general manager of the hotel. Oh, we're so happy to have you, Thank you. Thank you very much and a very friendly guy, yeah. So anyway, I'm going to work on this. The value of age. You know, there's a lot of people and I'm noticing them, because I'm starting to notice how people who are getting up in years I won't say they're my age, but they're getting up in years are falling into the general narrative of how people act when they get older and I'm just so convinced that they feel diminished because they haven't constantly worked on having their future bigger than their past. Yes, there's a point where they stop creating their future whenever that was there, was you know, well, and I think that you really have. Dean: It's a discipline that I constantly have to get myself to turn and have my gaze future focused, because as you do get older, you start that there's more to look back on. You know, and you spend a lot of time revisiting the past, but all the action is in the future. Dan: There's nothing, nothing you can do about the about the past, but yeah, but what I do is that I the past, if I remember. It can only be raw material for creating something new for the future. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Like when I go back and I remember a situation, I'll say now what did I learn from that situation that I can use in the future? You know, I don't accept the past's interpretation of itself. Dean: Yeah, say more about itself, yeah. Dan: Say more about that. Yeah, and I had a friend for a number of years who I'd gone to college with and we've, you know, we have been in touch for 20 years and he said you don't have any nostalgia, do you? You don't look back and have an emotional. And I said no, I mean, first of all, I was given a chance, you know, when I was having the experience, to appreciate what it was Okay. So it had a momentary opportunity to really imprint me with its importance. But if I'm looking back from 20 years ago, it's my interpretation of what it means to me going forward, not the interpretation. And I'm noticing, with the boomers, you know, there's nothing more disgusting than a nostalgic boomer. Dean: Yeah, like thinking about back in the day. Is that what you mean? 60s? Dan: well, 60s, you know, that's the usual. The 60s and 70s, you know, and they were going to turn the world on its head. And then they became civil servants, they got jobs as government employees or they became teachers and everything else. And then you get with them and they go back and they say, oh, those were the days, and everything like that. And it's kind of, but I have this notion that up until 30, society really supports you. Society invests in you, the government invests in you, the community invests in you, your parents invest in you, the teachers, everybody invests in you. And at 30, they cut it off and they set you free. And it's like I say about people say well, e know they have very high purchase. When the chicks are born, you know they're hundreds of feet up the eagles, and then on one day the mother eagle, just there's little eagles, they have wings. You know they have feathers, they have wings. She just pushes them all out of the nest. They have wings, she just pushes them all out of the nest. And the ones that don't hit the ground know how to fly. The ones who hit the ground, you don't have to worry about them. Wow yeah, and I think society at a certain point they just push all the 30-year-olds out of the nest and they want to see if you can make anything. Is there anything different or unique, and if there isn't, you just, more or less metaphorically, you hit the ground and you're nothing more than what things were before. Dean: There's nothing new. Dan: There's nothing new, but I pushed myself out of the nest when I was 18 years old, so the time until I was 30 didn't really mean anything. Dean: Right. Dan: But I don't comprehend nostalgia, because my emotions are in the present, they're not in the past. Dean: Yes, yeah, and that's what you realize, even in the future. I think when we were talking in Palm Beach earlier this year about the, you know the main thing is the future is really only shaped by the behaviors and habits and happens Really. Dan: The future is shaped by your present capabilities. Yeah, so I don't want to be looking backwards, as I'm living the present. I want to be fully alive because it's my up-to-dateness with the present that determines the quality of the future. Dean: Yes, yeah, bringing there here. Dan: Yeah, it's really interesting. We had a whole raft of speakers. Dean: Yeah, tell me about some of the highlights. What were some of the highlights? Dan: Well, I didn't get to all of them, because I went to every hour. You had a breakout session. I went to it, but there were different streams and tracks. I mean they're all going to be videoed. I mean they were all videoed so everybody's going to be able to see them. But I went to one and they had a couple of futurists there and I wasn't impressed. I wasn't impressed, and more and more over the last 10 years, since we did the collaboration with Peter Diamandis to create Abundance360, I always knew that people could be trapped in the past, in other words, that they were doing every day trying to hold on to the past. Okay, but I'm just as convinced now that people can get trapped into the future. They can get trapped, that they can't really be aware of what's going on right now because their mind is in a realm that hasn't happened yet and one of the things I know it makes them very nervous, makes them very anxious, anxious. And the thing that I found really interesting about these two speakers, the husband and wife team, was that they were making up all sorts of crazy words to describe what's happening, and you should be aware of this. And they had a word called templosion, which you know temp is, I guess, a Latin word for time, something and implosion, which I guess adds on a notion of explosion and that we're in a period of templosion, where there's hundreds of different ways that you're going to have to choose your life. Dean: And. Dan: I was sitting there and I said no, well, I know, 20 years, or I know 20 years from now, exactly what my life is going to look like. I don't know the details but, I, know it's going to be a direct extension of what I'm doing today. Dean: And. Dan: I know 80 percent of it. It will be expanding. I'll meet all sorts of new people. There's all going to be, but what's happening in the rest of the world and what other people are doing really don't, it doesn't really matter to me that much. Dean: I like that. I mean, that's what I realized in the journaling. I have two things. You something you said about. You know that spending time, you know, in the future is there's a lot of temptation or opportunity to just stay constantly planning and thinking about the future without actually you know, I've been using the word applying yourself. You know, I found that it's in our minds the things that motivate us to actually do something. We only do things in the present. So our own, you know our, you know our behaviors extended over time are what we define as habits, but it's really the behavior that's to be done today. You know, and I realized that writing in your journal and thinking about or planning for, or architecting or doing all these things that are future gazing is not actually applying yourself, it's not actually putting anything on the record. It's the equivalent of to the committee in our brain that actually controls what we do. It's the equivalent of quietly sitting in the corner coloring. Because no matter what anything that you do in your journal. The great deception is that it feels like that's actually making a difference. Right, that you're actually accomplishing something, but it's not. Until you break that barrier of getting it out of your head into and on the permanent record in the form of an action or a behavior. It's not going to do anything. Dan: Well, I think the big thing and I think it's a hard realization. I think it's maybe one of the harder realizations that nobody has ever lived in the future and nobody has ever lived in the past. Yeah, you only live in the moment. You know, and it and a lot of people just aren't capable of being conscious of the moment because their attention is being either dragged back backwards or pushed forwards and they're thinking about next, they're not thinking about next year. They're not thinking about, they can't think about next year because everything's happening right now. They can't think about 10 years ago, because everything's happening right now, and I think being present-minded is hard. Yes, I think it takes really an enormous amount of mental muscle to actually just be aware that things are happening right now and the way you handle things right now basically makes the future. Dean: Yes, that's the only thing that makes the future. It's the brick by brick layer. Dan: You know what I mean it's really the truth. Dean: It's that in the tapestry or whatever, that we can only see the accomplishment of it. But you realize that you can. Dan: I bet in the world of brick layers it's what a person can do in a day that really puts them at the top of their craft. Dean: I think you're absolutely right. Yes, and it's only on the reflection. You know, great walls are only built on the you know, compilation of daily accomplishment. Dan: Yeah. Dean: You know the thing is you can change any of it at any time. You know the thing is you can change any of it at any time. That's what I realized is in reflection, you know, when I was thinking about those, the elements of a perfect life, and really getting down to the, you know how DNA has, you know, the five elements of it, that if you look at the DNA of a perfect life, it's, you know, the elements are me, like everything. If I were to strip me naked and drop me on a deserted island, everything I have there, that's me, the portable things. Then time is life's moving at the speed of reality. 60 minutes per hour in perpetuity and you're always doing something in there, then environments are the things that are. You know. You basically put yourself in or you've been put in to an environment. That is your version of what's happening here, where, geographically, where you are, that where you live, what you have, what you do, all of those things are environments and you could, in theory, all of those things are environments and you could, in theory, move your, so I mean, you could completely change your environment. That's what you're thinking of the immigrant, right of you could leave everything behind and go change the environment and decide everything that you're going to do. Then the element of people meaning all the people that are around you, and money. So the combination of all of those five things are what create what we would call a life, you know, and I love like I find that infinitely entertaining too, you know in terms of yeah, the other thing is that, uh, one of the things that was predicted for me by other people is that as you get get older, time speeds up. Dan: Okay, and since I 70, I've experienced just the opposite. Time slowed down during the 70s and the years just took their time, and I think the reason is, I think it has to do with consciousness. You know, and I think that you know when you're, you know when you're a child, you're learning everything. So you're, you know, you're, everything is kind of new and you're exploring it and everything else, and then, as you get on, a lot of your experience you already knew that. So it's not significant, okay, but I think what happens with a lot of people, they are never actually creating their experience. There he is. I got a phone call that interrupted our phone call oh man, how rude somebody named Stephanie ok and. I immediately hit just to say you have no right. You're trespassing, that's right. Yeah, be gone. Where did I leave the thought that I was on? Dean: Well, you were talking about consciousness. That's what you were saying. Dan: Well, I think consciousness is the number of times during any time period that you're actually conscious of what's happening to you Okay. And I think it's massive when you're a child, because everything's new, right, but as we, let's say, we're now 20, we've actually mastered a lot of things that were new and now they're known, actually mastered a lot of things that were new and now they're known. I think, therefore, the number of situations when you're 20, that you're suddenly struck by something new is less than when you were, you know, four or five or six years old, okay, and so you're moving quickly from one moment of consciousness to another. And when you're six, it might be 20 things a day. That's a long day, but if it's 20 times a week when you're 20, that's a faster week, and if it's 20 times in a quarter, when you're 50 that's a really fast quarter and when it's 20 times, when you're 20 times in a year, when you're 70. I think that whether time is going fast or slow depends upon the number of consciousness things about something new that's happening in your life. And I found over the period of the last 10 years. I was back to having suddenly new conscious things that were happening. You know many times. You know many times a week or a day and time slowed back down, so it's actually being conscious. Dean: That's really, you know, that's almost like Euclidean, that's like euclidean geometry, you know yeah, that that harmonizes with something that I heard about. Why it the perception is that it moves faster is that when we're looking back, the routine reads as one experience, right? So you're looking back at the thing, if you've been, if your life becomes waking up in the same place, driving to the same job, sitting at the same desk, interacting with the same people and you look back over time at that, that all reads as one experience and it's only the new and novel consciousness moments that you were just talking about that get registered and recorded that single experience for some people may have. Dan: Another year just went by. Dean: That's exactly right and that's what oh well, that was fast where that was fast. Dan: Where's the time go? Where's the? Dean: time go. Dan: It's not a function of time, it's a function of consciousness. Right, that's exactly right, and we've had at least five conscious things in the last hour. I love that, Dan. We've done each other a favor over the last 60 minutes. Dean: I'm very excited about the culmination, the 60th. I'm reframing CoachCon as a peak theme celebration. I'm just I'm taking it for me, that's what it's. Dan: Not that you didn't have something to live for before, but we just put some kind of put a cherry at the top of your whipped cream. Yeah. Dean: I've had something that I was already on the path of you know, and that's kind of that's kind of great. Yeah, I just celebrated nine nine weeks of the peak Dean path here, so that's all it's very exciting. Dan: That's been a good nine weeks, hasn't it? It really has. Dean: Yes, it shows the whole you know thing of accountability and the plan and Somebody else's executive function, that's exactly right. Dan: Now I'm looking honestly. Dean: That's the thing Now. I'm looking for that in my you know, in deciding in my productivity now, in all the times that I'm, because I realized what an abundance of time I have you know, and very. I have what you would call very little environmental drag on my life in terms of time, commitments or obligations or people or other things, so it's a huge palette to play on Attempts on the part of other people to use up your life. Yeah, exactly, there's no claims to it, that's exactly right. So I've got no excuse. So now it's just like I get to architect this amazing adventure here. Dan: You know the thing that's going to be the highlight in the election campaign. It might happen in the next week or two where Trump finally sends the judge in the current trial in New York over the edge. He says I'm sending you to jail, and then the United States is just fixated on. Trump. He won't be in a normal cell. Of course He'll have a phone. Of course he'll have a phone and he'll be messages from Rikers Island, which is the main jail and he'll have lineups of everybody wanting to get his autograph and his picture taken in Rikers. And you know he'll be giving campaign speeches to all the prison guards and everything else. And meanwhile President Joe will have to be reminded who he is again and what his job is. Dean: Oh, my goodness. Well, we got six months. That's the exciting thing here. Dan: This is very exciting. This is very exciting. This is very, this is a and. And people say, isn't it a tragedy? I says what's a tragedy? And they said just the preposterousness presidential campaign. And I says, well, it depends on how you look at it. Because a lot of people say, well, this is crucial. You know the future, the world depends upon this. And I said, well, america has so much going for it, the United States has so much for it, it's got so much leadership at every level of activity that Americans are the only people on the planet in the history of humanity that can just treat domestic politics as a form of popular entertainment. Oh man, so I don't think you're approaching this correctly. You think that this is actually important, but it's entertainment. And then the question is who is the most entertaining candidate? And that I can predict yes. Dean: It would be amazing to see it all unfold, how it plays out. I still see Las Vegas still has all the odds makers still have Donald Trump as the winner. Dan: Yeah, I think it's in the 60s. Well, it depends on whether they're doing it with all the candidates or just the main two. But I think the betting markets I check every couple. I think the betting markets I check every couple weeks, the betting market. Yeah, it's been generally 60, 65 and you know and you know, which is surprising, because a lot of the big, wealthy democratic donors could be gaming the market, you know, just throwing a lot of money into the market. But but these are the las ve. I mean Las Vegas puts a bet on everything, so it's probably some legitimacy to what their bets are. Yeah, yeah, and it goes deeper than a particular issue. You know, it's just like. You know, it's almost like which one of them could actually be there at the end of another four years, and I think that's part of it. Holy cow yeah yeah, that's exactly true yeah, it's like a horse race, where you're betting to see if any of them could actually get to the finish line right oh my goodness, we know they could be at the starting gate. We just don't know which one's going to actually finish you know, yeah, that's so that's amazing, yeah all righty are we uh on next week? yes, nope, I'm on a plane trip to london on sunday of next week. So and the week after I, yeah, the week after I can do it from a hotel room in cleveland okay, perfect, but I'll have to give you the. I'll have to give you the date of the time. Dean: Okay, no problem. Dan: And I might have to get you up early. Dean: That's okay. It's my only thing on these Sundays. Yeah it's my only thing, so it's the highlight of my day Okay thank you, thanks, bye, bye.

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We discuss the chaotic nature of daylight savings time, including its agricultural origins and debate over its current usefulness. We examine the historical development of measurement systems, particularly the metric and imperial systems, and their impact on cultural standards. I share personal anecdotes about adapting to metric measurements in Canada and look forward to a trip related to a stem cell project in Buenos Aires. We delve into the dynamics of capitalism and intellectual property, using Amazon's business practices as an example of market trend capitalization. We recount war stories from the frontlines of commerce and highlight the significance of trademarks in protecting intellectual property against knockoffs. Peter Zeihan joins us to provide a macroscopic view of global events and dissects the interconnected fabric of our world. We explore the influence of geography on politics, discussing factors such as Florida's appeal for real estate and the impact of political strategies on elections. We chart a course through personal development by focusing on the transformative power of daily habits and the pursuit of personal growth. I detail my health journey and the benefits of mentorship, high-protein diets, and habit stacking, as well as the challenges of technological transitions. We emphasize the neutral nature of habits and the importance of accountability in crafting disciplined routines for a life well-lived. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Hello there, mr Sullivan, mr Jackson. You know, your Loudland announcer, who welcomes us to the call, always promises there's going to be others, but there never is. There's just one, just us. Dan: We're waiting for others to join. I am other. Dean: We're waiting for others to catch up. Dan: That's exactly right. Dean: Well, how? Dan: did you? How do you feel you're an hour short? Yeah, I don't like this. Dean: I've been confused about five times so far today. Dan: Okay. Dean: Part of the reason is my watch and my cell phone are in another time zone and that's reflected. Dan: My computer is still in Toronto. Oh, my goodness, that's so funny. Are you in Chicago right now? Oh, got it Okay. Dean: Yeah, it's a little F you from winter, you know you get this little kick. Dan: Okay, I'll leave, but I'm taking an hour with me. Dean: I mean, I mean it's go ahead. Dan: I was gonna say we can't complain because we got an extra day this year. We got 24 extra hours, so I guess we deducted it from that surplus. Dean: But that's in the past and that is, in the past, yeah, that's right, you know, I haven't really studied where that came from, but I think it has to do with farming Daylight savings. Dan: Yeah, I think it was to absolutely to extend harvest times in the summer. You know, work more. Yeah, I thought we were trying to get rid of it. We, as a you know that's the inclusive version of they thought they were trying, we try to try to get rid of it. Dean: Yeah, no, I haven't. I haven't really devoted an hour and a minute of time to that particular project. Dan: I know, Florida is. I know Florida is like Arizona is considering staying on daylight savings time at all times and not yeah, and I think there were a lot of states that were looking to do that and I thought, oh boy, what a, what a mess that would be. It's already enough of a nuisance that Arizona doesn't participate. Dean: You know I would vote for keeping it. Yeah you know why? Dan: Because it's quirky, it is a little bit quirky, and you know what for me in? Dean: Florida and I like quirkiness and other people, so why wouldn't I like quirky in the time system? Dan: Well, you know, it's the only way that I mark the season changes. That for me is like the transition into, you know, spring, summer, and then I know, when we get to to light savings, we get fall and winter. That's the only thing. It gets darker earlier. Dean: Yeah, it's really interesting because when this is, I'm changing the context here, but it has to do with weights and measurements. You know the metric system is a French creation. It was created, I think, during Napoleon's reign and you know he tried to standardize in uniform, make Europe uniform, because he wanted to be emperor of Europe, you know, then emperor of the world. You know folks like him sort of have those type of ambitions and so up until then, you know you had what is commonly called the imperial system of measurements in in the UK, great Britain. You know pounds and inches and miles, you know and you know, and Fahrenheit, you know, was the measure measured. And then you know, europe adapted the metric system. And but once Brexit happened. This is in 2016, the merchants who were permitted to go back to the imperial system for weights in stores oh wow, growth grocery stores. But the bureaucrats who run the you know who run the system in Britain. Dan: So you have sort of. Dean: I think it's a bit of an entrepreneurial versus bureaucratic standoff. And so it's a real mishmash in Great Britain now, and I kind of like that, because almost everything else about Great Britain is a mishmash. Dan: I think that's so funny. You know, it's like the. Dean: I like mishmashes. My favorite kind of food is a mishmash. Dan: There was a Saturday Night Live skit where the they were, you know, they were founding settlers, founding the United States and deciding, you know, the guy was saying how we would adopt a system of measurements. That would be, you know, there'd be one foot, is the thing, and they'll be three feet in a yard and the whole, you know, just made no sense because the metric system is such an easier system. You know how many feet in a mile. And they were saying nobody knows you know why it'll? Dean: you know why it'll never happen in the United States? Because of sports. Oh yeah, 100 yards for football 100 yards, a 350 foot home run, seven foot center. Yeah, exactly Right. Dan: Right, Right yeah but in Toronto. Dean: Well, they try to impose it on the sports reporting in Toronto, but nobody pays any attention to it. No, you know. Dan: I mean. Dean: I've never switched over. Dan: I've been in Toronto for 53 years, 1973, I think, is when the system international started. So you know, my first grade was Imperial, second grade was Si, so we started learning, you know, metrics and second grade, but I still think in Imperial I mean, it's so funny, we're always doing the conversion you know, yeah, and it's especially scary when it comes to temperature, because zero really means something in Fahrenheit, but it's, you know, it's sort of wishy washy and metric. Dean: Zero is like 32, 32 degrees. Yeah right, Exactly yeah, 32 degrees. The only place where it meets is 40 degrees minus 40 degrees. Dan: So it's exactly the same. Dean: Yeah, but who wants to have that experience? Dan: Oh man, that's so funny. So when is your next Buenos Aires? Dean: trip. It'll be Saturday, two weeks, so two weeks from yesterday. From yesterday and this is our fourth, and this may be then the last quick trip. And it'll probably be six months. Six months Now, we'll do six months and then probably, depending on how it shows up, six months from now. I'm talking about stem cell here stem cell treatments. And how are you feeling? Dan: Are you starting to notice the difference? Dean: I'm feeling great. Yeah, the biggest thing is there's still soreness in my knee. And but I feel very confident about it. You know, I mean before there was soreness in my knee and I wasn't feeling confident because, barring any kind of therapy, it was going to get more sore in the future and I have definite confidence that'll be less and less until the soreness disappears, you know because, the cartilage is definitely regrowing. Dan: I was going to say is there evidence Like do they quantitatively measure the? Yeah, you do it with an. Dean: MRI. The MRI can show what it was, and what I learned is that it doesn't layer from bottom to top like the new cartilage. This is, you know, exactly my cartilage that I lost in through an operation, through an accident, in an operation in 1975, so long time ago. And so in those days they just, you know, it was broken, it was torn, so they cut it out, you know don't need anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they would glue it back together now they have a surgical clue now that they could glue it back together, but the but what it does, it comes in vertically. So it's this constant extension, like it's you know, it's a half of an inch, and then it's an inch. Yeah and it's very interesting how it comes in. It comes in sideways so it doesn't come in. You know it doesn't come. That you establish a base and then it builds on the base. Dan: Right. Dean: So it's anyway, but I can feel the difference going up and down stairs. That's where my you know my daily measurement is really that more and more I'm walking up and down stairs. Normally. Yeah oh, that's great. But the biggest thing is the brain stuff. Because they have an IV, you can't inject things into the brain, you have to. You know a thing called lymph which create a pathway into your brain. So you have the lymph sites one day and then two days later they put an IV and the cells are actually custom designed for the brain so they, once they get into your blood system, they go automatically through the new passage way that the lymph sites have created and then they go into your brain. But I really noticed in my EEG tests and then neurofeedback program that I'm in that my concentration, my focus, you know, not being distracted is improving enormously. Oh, that's amazing, yeah. Dan: That's awesome. So you've got, for example, we're. Dean: You know we're 13 minutes into the podcast and not once have I forgotten that I'm talking to you. Dan: Hey, there we go. I like that, that's good news. Dean: Yeah, you know, you count your progress where you find it. Dan: Yeah, that's so funny. So I have something for us to look at next for next time. I was talking with someone and they were sharing with me this guy, yanis Verifakis. Do you know him? Have you heard of? Dean: him? Yeah, I think I have heard the name, but I'm trying to think where. Dan: So he's just sent me a video called capitalism has mutated into something worse and he's talking about this. You know cloud. You know cloud migration or whatever, and how those things are, you know, really owning our. Well, I don't know enough to say. I just wanted to ask. I'm wondering if you had heard about him. But essentially saying, companies like Amazon, like these big companies, are fiefdoms that control our. You know the way we see things like. You know your Amazon store, for instance, when you go to Amazon, is very different than my Amazon store. You know, based on everything that I all my, all the data that they have about me, kind of thing. You know when it used to be in on the mainland, when you would go to downtown or you'd go to the shop area, you'd have all the stores. Everybody sees the same. Everybody sees the same thing. It's more of an equal landscape sort of thing. But now you know there's advantage in knowing. You know, in having this established. You know data that everybody that's what they really have is access to. You know amazing amounts of data. So this cloud, the cloud, is really changing. Who's winning in the? You know, even in a global sense, but borders and everything don't really matter anymore. It's not about that. I wonder if that kind of resonates with what you know Peter Zion is saying. Dean: But yeah, I think Peter Zion saying exactly the opposite. Dan: Okay, that's why I'm very curious, right Like that's you know yeah, he's saying borders matter more than ever. Okay. Dean: Because of transportation. Okay, so Amazon, you can do anything with Amazon, but it's got to be transported. Dan: Yes. Dean: And transportation is the great constraint you know, and so, for example, one of the problems that Amazon has with crime is traffic congestion in cities. You know so that they're promised that we can deliver it in. You know, if you order this morning, you'll have it by noon. Dan: Yeah, I've had that happen. Dean: If traffic permits. And then there's the labor costs of actually finding drivers that'll do this. You know, for more than just a short period of time. So you always have to be thinking of the labor costs. And yeah so so my sense is yeah, he's of a school. Whoever this man is, I'm suspecting that it's a man. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dean: Does he identify? Does he identify as a man, I mean? Dan: yes, I think so. Dean: Okay, anyway, and yeah, it's the same thing. Capitalism doesn't really change. It simply changes the environment in which capitalism is being used, because it's really a methodology for growth. You know capitalism is? You know, first of all, it's about pricing, and Amazon are the great price competitors in the world. I mean that's. They introduced a whole new way that you know, whatever it was, the total cost of getting it to you and the price you had to pay, they could pretty well out compete anyone else. That's capital. Dan: That's capitalism you know, and they're moving property. Dean: You know they're moving property from. You know, actually the Amazon never owns any property. Dan: You know they they're just really, unless they do create or white label or do things themselves, they're pretty robust at that that. That that's been one of the things. That that's been one of the things that they have as an advantage is that they Create their own brand of stuff, that they see things that are, you know, new products or new things that are Selling, and then they create their own version of it or white label their own version of it you know, and it's very interesting yeah. Dean: Yeah, we've had not like a product per se but we've had a continual Conversation with the Amazon because with the three best-selling books that we did with them Hardy, the book comes out on a Monday and by Friday there's another book called who, not how, and it's the summary of who not how and you know you can kind of create a summary of any book now with artificial intelligence in about 10 seconds, you know 10 seconds, and then there. So our book will be listed on Kindle and you know. And and then immediately, within a month, you'll have a first one in five days, but in a month, if it's really selling, you might have seven versions of summary of who, not how, and we said, you know this is kind of Toddry, you know we talked to them and we've had about five of them, five or six of them taken down Because it's too close to our stuff, it's almost, you know yeah, but that, and did you register the trademark on who, not how? Yeah, that's and that's where we get them. That's what we get them with, because you can't, you can't, you don't have Exclusive control over a book title. You can have 10 books with with you know. With you know, by the same name, there could be 10 books out there called who. That's how. Right but you can't have been hardy, and what they were doing they had you know. Summary you know who, not how, by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy. Well, that that you're crossing the line there, you know, right, you know, and it's like flies and mosquitoes. You know, you just make sure you have good screens. You know and you make sure you close the door and everything but it's a constant. It's a constant thing but you know, and maybe it does as good. I don't know if it does as good. Somebody buys the summary and then they say hey. I better read the book, you know so. Dan: I don't know but. Dean: But it's no different from knockoff Rolexes in Hong Kong. Dan: Yeah, I see what I'm looking at. The thing now, the one right after it is it's not the how or the what, but the who succeed by surrounding yourself with. Dean: Yeah, I mean that's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know it's Babs gets angry at it. I just considered it, as you know, it's like it's mosquito season, you know. Yeah, but I would say capitalism is no different now than it was in In the marketplace of Rome, and but it changes its methods. I mean it changes its presentation. That changes, but this thing about capitalism is changing. Let's create conscious capitalism, let's create humane. There's just capitalism and there's somebody's emotional response to it. Dan: Right, yeah, yeah, that's yeah. Dean: I mean Peter Zion. I mean, I've read so much, peter Zion. I could Sort of tell, you know, one thing we know is that the United States is better at it than any other country. Yeah, it's not universal. Dan: I think it's that like. It's very, it's really interesting. I watched some of his. I watched some of his videos, which I was fine and insightful, and I'm always surprised that you know he gets three or four hundred thousand people a day watching his dispatches. You know they're always it's really well done. He's good at articulating things and it's fascinating to me. Dean: It almost makes you want to go to Colorado too right. Dan: Yeah, it's beautiful, right. I mean it's almost yeah yeah. Dean: He says yeah, I, I'm Very easily communicating to you from thirteen thousand feet Everything which is kind of said you must be really in good shape you know, yeah, so yeah, but he's fairly. He's faster responding than anyone else in the world. An event happens on Tuesday. Dan: And by. Dean: Thursday. He's got an explanation for why it's happening. Yeah he's really remarkable. He's in my lifetime I've never come across anyone like him. Dan: Yeah, it's really like I'm. It's it seems like such a macro level view of things that I'm always. You know I'm kind of fascinated why you're so fascinated with this. Like I mean, when you've read the, the book, you said like seven times or something. Dean: I mean well, his latest book, yeah, seven times complete, yeah, seven times complete. Yeah, and you know, and what I'm looking for is there. You know, with anything, when I read them, yeah, is there sort of a deeper level that he doesn't go into, or and so what I did is I just came out with my latest book, which is the great meltdown you know, and then I Explained that wherever you are on the planet, you're constrained by the cost of money, the cost of energy, the cost of labor and cost of transportation and no two places are equal in risk and Relationship to those four constraints and the US is just that keeping those four costs the lowest of Historically. I mean right back to the beginning. They've just been better for all sorts of lucky reasons, mainly because their geography. Dan: The geography is so good. Dean: I mean we talked about Florida, that Florida is proof that God loves. Real estate agents in the state of Florida. Yeah, because you have on the East Coast. You have three, three waterfront. Dan: That's right exactly the ocean side and two intercoastals, and same all the way yeah the same all the way up the Gulf too. Dean: Yeah, the Gulf that goes all the way to Texas. But thank, you and the north of Florida goes all the way to Virginia. I think Virginia or Maryland is still you know, the inner. And what it does is it prevents large storm shroom actually hitting the mainland, because that buffer zone of the inner coastal, you know, just stops big waves, it stops everything. So, yeah, so any anyway. I mean you don't really have to go into the Atlantic Ocean very much once you start if you're taking a boat trip Private boat trip down the East Coast, if you start at Virginia. Dan: Really go down the intercoastal all the way yeah. Yeah, yeah, started an apple receiver proves that God favors. Dean: Yeah so funny. Yeah but you know, people are always trying to create a standardized global version of reality. That's been happening forever. But those four costs means there can be no standardization because it's I mean, it's different in or it's different where you live than it is in Tampa. Dan: Yeah, it's really interesting. I guess there's regional, like when you think about it's transferable on every level, right, like the whole, because the cost of transportation you know has, you know, the further away, the more remote you are, the more costs to get something to you. And so even if I think now I see kind of the thing that you're talking about, like if you go to a place where the labor costs are lower, perhaps you've got a balance with the cost of transporting the reduced goods that you've done back to where they're going to sell. So it all has to balance out. Dean: Yeah, well, I mean you can take the huge migration from New York, you know, from New York state, to Florida right now. And you know people explain it politically and everything. But just compare the four melt costs between you know the cost of money is lower in Florida, the cost of energy is lower in Florida, labor and transportation the costs are lower. And I mean there's a lot of political issues that make things expensive or inexpensive. But you know, I mean that. For example, the court case where Trump was found guilty, you know, two, three weeks ago for something that's an antiquated law from 150 years ago that's never been inflicted on anybody. That in a business negotiation he said his company was worth 1.2 billion and it turned out it was only 800 million and that's called negotiation. Dan: Right right right. I mean, I mean, I mean right, that's the whole thing. Is something is only worth what someone's willing to pay. Dean: Yeah, yeah. And they said well, this is fraud, but nobody was harmed, you know nobody was like any negotiation, nobody was harmed. You agree on a price and you know the banks made money. The other side made money, he made money. And well, the word is going out now don't invest in New York, don't do business in New York. Dan: I mean the moment that hits and. Dean: but the governor said, well, that's not what we meant by it. I'm sorry. Oh boy the horse is out of the barn, you know yeah right. Dan: I mean that's pretty crazy. I saw Kevin O'Leary was talking about just that, that he was saying he's having some good weeks right now. Yeah, that's the death knell for a New York investment. It's nobody's gonna do anything there, that's easy. Dean: So your melt cost just went through the roof just as a result of that court grilling. Dan: Yeah, this is. That's pretty wild, and so in big news we saw that Super Tuesday last week and Haley's out, but not endorsing Trump. That's not throwing, not, you know not. Dean: Yeah, well, she's likely the warrior in. Yeah, I don't have legs and arms left, but these are mirror flesh wounds. Dan: That's right, I can still bite you. I can bite your kneecap, yeah. Dean: And for the life of me I don't know what her game plan was, because I mean, she didn't do him any harm, but I just don't know. You know what her game was and doing what she did, do it. Dan: Right, did you have to think she? Dean: was bad. She was betting that the court system is going to stop him from being the nominee and that she would Right. Dan: And I was just going to say that was. I thought that that's her game plan is hang in there. As to just the last one standing at the end, yeah. If Trump does get you know taken off the or disqualified or whatever which by the way what do you think the likelihood of that is? Zero Zero likelihood Okay, so and I felt especially after the Supreme Court case last week where it came up, because of the Colorado. Dean: Yeah they sort of the states can't take them off, right. Yeah, and the nine Supreme Court, just as it was nine, did not. Dan: It's not an enormous. Dean: I mean you can't run a rick, you can't run a country this way, and I you can't have 50 states having different rules about who can run for. Dan: Right, exactly. Dean: Yeah, yeah. Dan: Yeah. Dean: That's what the Supreme Court's for. You know, that's in the Constitution. Yeah and yeah, but I don't really know. I mean maybe she'll get a talk show on, you know, but you know I can't figure out where what her future is based on this performance, you know right. So yeah, but I mean, yeah, politics is, you know, politics is not entrepreneurial, it's an entrepreneurial business, you know you know there's clear cut winners and losers, and she's a loser right now, right. Dan: And it's very interesting to see what the you know the RFK effect here. What's that's gonna who that's going to affect more? Do you know what the projection is or who is that? Dean: going to hurt more. Yeah it's hard to say you know really. No, I mean, I saw him because Joe Polish had a man yeah, genius, and you know. I mean a lot of it. They were talking. They weren't talking about politics. Dan: No. Dean: And then we went to dinner. We went to dinner at somebody's house in Scottsdale and I was kind of say he's really sort of an ideal candidate for the president of the country that no longer exists, like if he had run in the 70s or 80s he would have led the Democratic Party. I mean he would have made it, but I don't think the country exists anymore. That would elect him president. But if he got 3 or 4 percent more of one party's voters, then he makes a big difference. Dan: That's what I meant. He's like the green box on the roulette wheel, but he's the little edge that's going to the wild card in this. That could make it's not just black and red, it's not 50-50. He's a viable third party. I mean it's funny because we're definitely a three-party country in a two-party system. Really, that's the thing. Dean: Yeah, I mean it's made a difference in some elections like 2000. Well, yeah, Ross Perot got Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton would not have gotten elected. But the other one is Gore lost because there were 50,000 Ralph Nader votes in Florida. Dan: That's big. Dean: I mean he lost by 500. He lost by 500. Yeah, that was never brought up. Well, it was the Haining Chats. Dan: Haining Chats. That's right, that is so funny. Those words are fun. I've got some friends named Chad. I've got a couple. Dean: I don't want to hate any of my friends who are named Chad. Dan: Which one do you want, willardson or Jenkins? Dean: Yeah, chad Johnson is one of our coaches. Oh there you go yeah, I've never had so many Chad's in my life, that's funny, it's not a common name either. No, but it must be contagious. Dan: Yeah, I was like go through. I'm realizing Dean's not as common as you might think either. Dean: Yeah, yeah. Nobody gets called Bob or Tom or anything like that anymore. You know they're all the same. Yeah, exactly Exotic names, anyway, but yeah. And so the other problem was that with Gore nobody brought this up, but he lost Tennessee as home state I mean even as home state didn't vote for him. So there was a, you know but it's been more recently, although in 1948, I think, there were four people who got significant votes. Truman, sitting president, won, but he didn't win with 50%. He won, you know, 40, 46. Dan: Yeah. Dean: So yeah Well, I don't think a third party can ever win unless it's replacing one of the, unless it's replacing the one of the existing parties you know, yes, and that hasn't happened since the 1800s. Dan: Right yeah, did you watch the state of the union? No, I don't watch television. No, okay, but I meant the. You saw the highlights, or the summary or any highlights of it. I haven't had a chance yet to even see. Dean: I mean. What I saw is I've seen angry old people talking to themselves on the street. Dan: Right, exactly, and that's a video that very cleverly showed that he's given the same speech four times in a row. You know he's got the same exact talking points and it was so funny they'd show it from, you know, from 2000, and then they'd show 2000, this year, you know saying exactly the same, the same lines, and it's just. It was pretty funny, actually I was amazed. Dean: There was. I love that Well, did you ever? When Disneyland California Disneyland opened up, they had recreations. You know they were in plastic or rubber form of Abraham Lincoln and you know, George Washington and that. Yeah, the hall of presidents, right, right, but they're, you know, their arms moved and their lips moved because they had they had little tubes that had fluid in them and you know it would. They would manipulate the tubes, you know, and their hands would move. And they didn't show this at the state of the union. But were there a lot of those little hoses coming up behind him? I don't know. Dan: Watch Joe move. Watch Joe move. Dean: He's like so lifelike. Dan: Yeah. Dean: It's really. It's really the closest I've seen in. You know, a high stakes election president of the United States is as high as it gets when. It's like the emperor's new clothes, you know. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Nobody wants to mention that he's really. You know, this is the leader of the free world and say, geez, you know. Dan: Oh man. Dean: Yeah, you know. But you know you root for the home team whoever is the captain, you know regardless of who the captain is, you know so. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Anyway, but yeah it's interesting. But you know, somebody was saying I have a longtime Canadian member of the strategic coach goes back to the 80s actually, and I had breakfast with him last and he says you know, I just you know you know, he says I know Biden's bad, but I just can't, you know, I just can't stomach the fact that we would have Trump again. There's something about it, and you know he was going on for about five, 10 minutes. And I've had other situations in Toronto where Canadians are voicing their displeasure and I said you know, I read the US Constitution once a year. It doesn't take long to read, it's only typewritten. It's about 27 pages, you know. Dan: And most of it's just. Dean: You know, it's a set of rules, you know, and I said nowhere in the US Constitution does it say that American politics have to be pleasing to Canadians. Dan: Any more than the Guinea. Politics have to be pleasing right. Dean: Yeah, yeah, I mean, you can be on the happiest convenience matters? Not at all. Dan: That's so funny. Yeah, I can't wait to see how it all unfolds. I mean, certainly it's going to be an amazing six months or whatever we've talked about. Dean: Yeah, no, I just if you just say it's not politics, it's entertainment. Dan: Yeah, that's exactly right, pretty good entertainment, you know. Yeah, yeah, switching topics. Here I was. I've mentioned, I've been playing around with the, with the Adams. Dean: Yeah, did you get the connector for the? I did. Dan: I got that and on Monday I need to Connect with the gentlemen that sent it to me because, yeah, because, yeah, I need to figure out how to yeah the problem I explained. Dean: Yeah, I explained in my email that. Yeah, it's done in FileMaker which no longer exists, so it's hard to Transport it. Dan: It's hard to. He offered to, he offered to transport something that no longer exists. Right, exactly but he offered to help me, walk me through it, so I'm gonna yeah them up on that, yeah cuz. I do want it, I do want to try it, but it's been very interesting to watch this just the way. This is Claire, yeah, yeah, it's just. It's so satisfying to see I've had, you know, it shows I've got ten reps down of my habit of waking up and drinking 500 milliliters of water, first thing that you can stack. I'm looking, you know, to stack all these things. It's been. This was a great week. Dean: I have been working with JJ verge you know, I got your, we got your phone message, you know yes, yeah, where you yeah, yeah, together. A little Dean, you have witnesses now. Dan: Well, that's exactly it, right it's. I said to Joe like, well, behind the scenes, while we were in Palm Beach, there was so much kind of rallying and you know, going around in the most supportive way possible for, you know, to help me get on track. You know, weight-wise, health-wise and, and you know Joe Polish has been just above and beyond you know, in orchestrating and you know organizing all of this I mentioned last week. You know he came and spent a few days with me and really helped me get things on track. And I've been working with JJ. So you know this was my first week, you know, full. Joe left last Saturday, so this was my first week with JJ. But having the daily accountability and systems around, you know what I'm doing. It's certainly a who, not how type of thing is really you know the importance of having a who that's kind of Onboard and guiding things. But I get into this nice I'm accountable for in the more I send JJ, then you know the daily Story of yesterday, kind of thing with. She's got me hooked up on a Coronameter app which basically tracks my macros the protein, carbs, fat and calories of everything that I eat. She's helping with my you know menu selection and all this. So in the morning, after I drink my 500 milliliters of water, I Way every day and take a picture of the of the screen scale. Scale, yes, exactly. And then I send her my aura results for my sleep and readiness and yesterday's activity and Yep our goal. You know I was on average when we were looking at it before. I would average, you know, 2500 to 4,000 steps a day would probably be the average, with you know probably 3,000 plus 3200, the kind of median of what, how many steps I would get in a day. So we've set now 4,000 is the baseline, the minimum steps that I get every day, mm-hmm, and so I send her that activity to show what that is. And then my Chronometer and she's got me focused on Protein. First, eating, my, you know, getting, you know, almost 150 grams of protein per day, which is really it's a lot. I mean, that's it's. I never hunger. I'm never hungry and it's almost like getting into the routine of trying to lead, lead with that and stay well, I mean your body knows when it's had the necessary nutrition, and protein is the champ for giving nutrition. Dean: Absolutely complex, complex carbs and you know, and yeah, I mean yeah, you can. You know you can eat 5000 calories of Simple carbs and you feel hungry. Dan: Yeah, yeah. So this, you know this target. Dean: So I'm plus water make. Water makes a big difference, absolutely. Dan: Yeah, yeah, so it's been great. So the we you know tomorrow will be the you know the kind of Week on week weigh-in. But I'm already down like three and a half pounds from. So you know most 1%, 1% of that's the target I guess is 1% of body weight per week is a good to keep on and You're just getting in the habit and the routine and you know that every week she'll be in the cloud, that's exactly right, that's the goal 57 right now, you'll be 80, I'll be 58 in May. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so yeah, so yeah. Certainly taking this long-term view of by my Well, it's habits, I mean yes, that's all it is, you know. Dean: What I was thinking, because I knew we probably Talk about this topic today, but I was thinking about just looking at habits as reality and they're either working for you or they're working against you, and that's yes, you know that's not an opinion, you know it's. It's just that you can tell whether the habits are supportive. Or that's supportive and the other thing I was thinking about, the gap in the game. And I think that if you just think in terms of replacing bad habits with good habits. Yeah, you stay in the game. Yes, and I think the gap is that you need to be penalized for your bad habits. You know I think there's a internal thing. You know that you should feel guilty, you should feel shame about your bad habits. I said they're just habits, right exactly. I said they're just habits, right, exactly, I said they're just habits, right, exactly, and that's. Dan: And so this, really this thing like looking at this week here, and I think that I had lunch with Leo or Weinstein yesterday. I went over to the Four Seasons in Orlando and we had a nice three and a half hour lunch and this was a lot of what we you mean Mr Good at everything. Mr. It's so. It's almost unfair, isn't it? Yeah, the guy's just so smart and everything Right. We had some great. We had some great conversations and yeah, this was. You know the fact that there's nothing else you can do but what I'm doing habitually on a daily basis. That's the only path. It's not. That's the thing is there's no, it's not like this monumental effort because it's a big mountain to climb, you know. To get to the top of, you know, mount 100 pounds or whatever, you know, the ultimate benchmark is. But to climb to the top of that mountain just requires that you've got to take steps every day. There's no possible way to get to the top in one day, and that's where it. Dean: And nobody gets more than one day every 24 hours. Dan: That's exactly right. So having that benchmark of 1% a week as what you can safely and consistently lose is just that, it's just stacking those things, and a day a week is the perfect, I think, amount unit of measurement, because it's you can't really that's the most important, more than the daily even you know like the variation in one day. It's more important over a week that you take that. So that's all I'm focused on is the week, and we're already at the routine I've already got. I'm very comfortable with consistency and habit, so I don't need a lot of variety in things. If I find certain things we've got now some meal combinations that really work for me, and if I can just, you know, stay on that track and continue to have the accountability, I think it's an inevitability, you know, is just the watching it happen. Well, it's like you're a profit activator, I mean just moving that to another thing. Dean: I mean, if you're doing all late and they're all contributing to a profit, it strikes me there's no, there's nothing to fix. Dan: Right, exactly. Oh, it's so funny, right. So, yeah, it's so funny. I mean just identifying that the key thing for me is just to continue raising the benchmark, right, like I'm raising my from 4,000 to 5,000 steps it's the minimum on my way to 10,000, you know, yeah, Do you measure steps or does that matter to you? Dean: I mean, it's not my main focus, but if I get the right number of steps, I get the high number of attendees on my activity. You know, and every, you know, every quarter or so I raise the number. You know the stuff. So I do right now probably average around 6 or 7,000. And yeah, and I've done 10,. You know, on some days, you know, when it's kind of walk in nature day, I'll get more than that. But you know but I'm doing a lot of things like my big thing that I've been working on for four months is I never get in trouble with my meals. I get in trouble with snacking between meals, and so I've eliminated that and I'm down, you know, five or six pounds just by doing that. Wow, yeah, yeah. So you know. Anyway, first of all, kudos to just you know. It really strikes me that Dean Jackson doesn't do anything and stick with it unless it makes intellectual sense. That's true, probably, yeah, no, I mean. Yeah, I mean unless I mean you know your habits and you know your. Yeah, we all have a measurement system on what constitutes progress. Yes, and my sense is until you get the way of something you can do every day, yeah, it's an intellectual satisfying, you don't do it. Dan: Yeah. Dean: And a lot of people try to make it emotional, emotional, you know that you know and everything that, but you can't sustain it. Dan: And even if it is, even if you get to the point, I agree with you 100%. By the way, I don't perceive it as emotional, but you know that often that's. You know well what's the cause of this kind of thing you know. But the reality is that even if you were to uncover an emotional issue, that still requires them that intellectually you have to figure out what's the mechanics of what needs to actually happen. You know it's like getting to the bottom of an emotional issue isn't, on its own, going to solve the problem, the same way that you know, figuring out the mechanics of what actually needs to happen. Yeah, happen, yeah. That's really the bottom line, but I'm very encouraged. This feels like a very different level of, you know, systemic change. Dean: That's happened here, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well it's a process you know. The process consists of you know and you keep. Every time I talk to you, you're adding some new habit to it. Yeah. Dan: Yeah. Dean: And my sense is that once you get the momentum of 10 good habits, you're motivated to have 20 good habits. I agree 100%. Dan: Yeah, I agree, because that then becomes a great game. You know, that's the I love to game-a-five things. That keeps us interested, you know. Dean: Okay, I have a meeting in. Five Minutes with Daniel White. Dan: Okay. Dean: And who's staying with us in Chicago? Dan: Chicago. Dean: Awesome. So, but I'll be, I'll. I have you in my calendar for next Sunday. Dan: Awesome. I'm not so we're going to be in Toronto next Sunday. You are going to be because on my calendar it says no Dan podcast. Dean: Yeah, but we have, but I will be there, okay, perfect. Dan: Fantastic. Dean: And in the same time. So Okay, Perfect Okay. Dan: Bye, bye, bye.

In today's episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, I share insights from my experience at the Cloudland Summit. We discuss the carefully constructed approach to selecting impactful speakers and crafting their messages. Dan and I explore deeper implications of habits. From influencing personal growth to organizational culture and nations. Recent tech and political events show how biases stem from ingrained habits. We cover self-tracking progress through a daily habit-scoring system and cooking's role in health, wealth, and innovation. Overall, it's a thought-provoking look at intentional living and leveraging the mundane for extraordinary results. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We discuss the Cloudland Summit and how major tech breakthroughs often come from the convergence of three pre-existing technologies. I share insights from my upcoming book "Everything is Created Backward," suggesting that innovation stems from remixing the past. We explore Perplexity, an AI tool that aids in research by suggesting further inquiries and providing references. We analyze the creation of iTunes as an example of innovation by combining existing elements in novel ways. I introduce the 'Top 50 Tool' I've devised to identify and refine daily habits that shape our lives and future selves. We examine the role of present habits in shaping our future selves and the effectiveness of setting goals for personal growth. We touch on the biases of Google's chatbot and the financial repercussions of such biases on a company's valuation. We discuss the number 51's significance in politics and business and the importance of counting fundamentals. We talk about the transformative power of cooking habits on health and wallets, and the broader implications on personal and national success. We tease the introduction of a new tool designed to track and score daily progress, highlighting the importance of consistent habits. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan, yes, it's Welcome to cloudland at time. Dan: Amen. I heard it's being recorded, so that's half the job right there. Dean: Yeah, and it's never going to let you down. Dan: That's right, Well, yeah what a what a whirlwind week. It was so good to see you and babs and everybody. Dean: We were shooting for one meal and we were shooting for one meal and that kind of ended up as five. Dan: Yes, what what can happen. Oh, that's, yeah. Nothing wrong with that. I like it. They were all playful. Dean: Yeah. Yeah, it was really interesting because I spent probably a day preparing for the Friso summit for our listeners. We just had our annual being the top level of strategic coach and and we have this every year it's it's a meeting Squeezed in between two drinking parties. Oh man, that's funny. Yeah, the meeting is so you can recover for the first from the first drinking parties so that you're ready to go for the second one. Dan: And I'll tell you what. I sold that to those pokeballs short, that was those are delicious. Dean: Yeah, I always find that alcohol is the almost failproof Of 10 times multiplier. There you go one dollar invested in alcohol Somewhere along the line, that always produces the 10 times positive result. Dan: Oh, good, that's noted. Dean: Yeah, I'm not sure that marijuana does that. Dan: Oh no. Dean: Yeah, yeah, anyway, yeah, but I spent a day on that conference and. What I did is we chose the speakers and then alanora called each of them to see if that was okay and we specified the topic, and that was all done by you know, alanora. And then what I did is I wrote a fast filter for each of the speakers, not on what they were going to talk about, but how they were going to talk, okay. And I thought it worked really well. I thought it worked really well. Dan: It really did. I mean the panels were, you know. It seemed like the whole thing moved quickly. Everybody was bringing valuable insight, even just the. The resources they were recommending, especially your. The ai panel, was fantastic, not too much. You know I I immediately came back and started using perplexity and I downloaded perplexity as so let we should probably set the stage for what perplexity is as a chat, gpt alternative and combined with kind of Google and yeah, well, it's interesting because I've done it on about 10 different Questions, you know. Dean: I asked a question and then I get an answer and uh then, but it's got Uh two neat things about it. At down below it has three more questions that you might ask. Okay, three more. Dan: Um, yeah, on the topic. Dean: That first of all gives you the original answer, and then it suggests three more things you might look into. But, at the top it's got four boxes and these are references that you can go to that indicate where it got you know the information to answer your question. And if you do all, if you do the first thing. And what I was asking was mark mills, who is a tech Thinker. He thinks a lot about what technology is doing to the world and he mentioned in one of his books it's called the cloud revolution that if you look at technology, almost all the breakthroughs happen as a result of combining three existing technologies. And he goes back and he goes rake back to Samuel Morris in the mid 19th century with the telegraph, and then he comes all the way forward to not to ai, but to when how the internet came into existence. You know, he puts the internet and talks about the three things that had to be there first before you could even think about Creating this new technology. And the reason is I'm writing a quarterly book right now which is called everything is created backward, and and what I mean by that is that you can't you can't create the future out of the future, because there's nothing there. Dan: Right right. Where's the stuff you know First of all, I've never been rendered in the simulation. Here it's unrendered. Yeah, nobody's ever been nobody's ever been there. Dean: You know they I mean. But the problem with it is that you have to do a awful lot of convincing With something you try to create out of the future, you know and but I gave the anxiety. I just wrote the first chapter, but the actually the introduction, and I use itunes as the example that steve jobs simply took three things that already existed. One was the mp3 player, which he apple already had. The ipod Okay, it already had millions of people already using the ipod, so he had a build-in. He had a build-in audience to go through with something new. The second thing is that nabster had already pretty well figured out how you use the internet to download single songs. Yes, okay and their only problem with their model was that it was illegal. They were stealing, they were stealing and that's that. Never has long shelf life. Dan: They were sharing something they were sharing. Dean: No, they weren't sharing, they were stealing. They were stealing other people's property and making money on it. Yeah, that's called theft, and and then apple had its operating system, so it was the mp3 player, the nabster innovation with the internet and the apple, you know, apples operating system for all of its computers, which it had many more already existing Customers, you know customers were already using it. And then he put it together and he created iJudon. You know it was an app that went on your apple platform and you could download music and then put it in your ipod. Dan: That's great and you're right, like it's. I see the triple play the things now I can. Just I'm looking at it. Dean: I mean, if you look at, artificial intelligence and work backwards as a result of three things. I haven't really analyzed that, but it seems to be three things that had to exist before, and so what I'm suggesting in the book is that the key to your future is actually what you're doing with the past, your past experience, what's available to you, yeah, and so that's. I think that's a tremendous breakthrough. I think this is a keen insight. Dan: Yeah, I mean, what was a keen insight for me? My biggest takeaway from the free zone. Dean: I was looking for a little bit more excitement on your part. Dan: No, I'm totally excited and this is where it's. It's related to what you're saying that when we had the conversation about Looking back at the habits that you've established, oh, yeah, now, yeah, that's what I meant is that, looking working Backwards, like that, everything that we've created right now is the some, you know, the accumulation of all of the Daily habits that I have instilled, right, the behaviors and habits and choices, and that only you know. I think it goes in that. I think that fits with what you're saying, that you can't. It's not about, you know, picking something in the future. When you said, what are the habits, what are the daily present habits of future dan or future dean, of where you want, and that's the real thing is that having to establish, though, those habits? Yeah, I've had a couple more thoughts. Dean: I've had a couple of birth thoughts since we talked in palm beach about how you could approach this, and so one of things and I have a tool that I've created which really hasn't gone into the program at all. It's called the top 50 tool and it's just a page and it's got 50 boxes, okay, and what you do, and what you do is when you have a number of things. So let's just Apply it to the present project. You have 50 existing daily Habits right now. Everybody does, you know everybody in the world and I'm just arbitrarily picking 50. Yeah, my sense is it's if you put all the habits, the little things that you've woven together to produce who you are today. Yeah you know it could be in the hundreds, you know hundreds or thousands, but you know it fills up the time. Yeah, you can account for it. Yeah, in the 24 hours, and then the waking hours. Probably there's probably habits you have at life and nighttime which bear Examination. But I said okay. So the first part of the project is just create a sheet. That's got, you know, it's got 50 boxes. You know five by 10, okay, okay, and number them one through 50. And then just you know, and every day as you go through, observe something else. For example, in our house I do the dishes, okay. Mm-hmm babs cooks and I do the dishes. So usually it hangs around, you know it hangs around. We have supper. You know we have not so much breakfast, but we had lunch and dinner and there's dishes and I just put them next to the sink, close to the dishwasher, and then I go about doing something and then I, and then you know I open the dishwasher and there's a previous meals already, clean dishes there, so I have to unload it and you know, put everything in the shelf and then I load it. Okay, and it's not a kind of how that I really like doing, but it's the agreement, you know Okay, so within the last three weeks I've adapted as soon as the meals finished, I do the dishes, okay. And in order I put the dishes in the dishwasher, and in order to do that, before the meal I look at the dishwasher and I unload it and put everything away so that when the meals finished, it's just a matter of rinsing the dishes and putting them in a dishwasher. Well that's two habits. That's two habits right there. Okay, so they would go down in boxes. You know two of the boxes, okay, but once I do it, and I'm doing it the way that I would like to see it, see me doing it in the future, you know. And you know, and sometimes we have staff in the house and they do it so that it gets taken care of, but it's not my, but when it's just Babs and me at our home and at our cottage. You know, two homes in Toronto, and a home in Toronto, a home in Chicago and then a cottage up north in Canada. Anyway, and I'm the dishwasher, you know. Dan: And I had to do it. Dean: So I said, since I'm gonna be doing this for the rest of my life, I might as well you know kind of improve it so that I actually enjoy the activity. Dan: Yes, I really like this, Dan, Like you're saying the same thing. I mean the things that have been triggered from our conversation about it in Palm Beach. You know, Like you just described, it's one of those things If, even if you ask yourself the question is there any way to not do anything? I mean, the thing is that the dish has gotta get done. Dean: Well, the other thing that's part of my relationship with Babs, you know, and she's commented a couple of times during the last two weeks and she said I really like it that you get it done right away. Yeah. Dan: Oh, there you go. Yeah, that's your target audience. Right there, I'm getting social proof from your target audience. That's the exact thing. Dean: This is. I can tell you, this is my number one target audience. Yeah, so let's say you go through and you fill up your 50, okay. You know, you get them. You know, maybe I'll take you two or three weeks and you just notice little things. You know how you get up in the morning, you know, you know how you get ready for the day and everything, but there's a lot of little habits. There's a lot of little habits there, and then you sort of reach 50 and you say now, how many of these? How many of these tomorrow, can I improve? I'll look at the habit. And then I'll say to myself how would I like this always to be going forward? And then you do it that way. You do it that way, and then you have to attach a point system to it, so you're scoring every day. Because, I don't stick to things I can't score. Dan: Right, well, you may like, dan, there's James Clear just launched his. Adams app, which is Adams A-T-O-M-S, and he's the guy that wrote you know Atomic Habits and this is exactly what you are talking about here. You know you can make, you can create habits that you want you can, and it gives you prompts or you can track. It's almost like wind streak in a way, right when you're adding things on it, but daily you can. So I set up my first habit that I set up just on Wednesday or Thursday I downloaded the app. Actually, I set up that I said I want to start with the first thing in the morning that I drink half a liter of water, the 500 milliliters of water. The first thing that I do when I wake up to rehydrate and do that. So I've done that. Now I've had Thursday, friday, saturday, sunday four rounds of that and it tracks your streak and it shows you your progress and so I've had four total repetitions so far. And the way they set it up is you put a purpose around the habit, like why you're trying to do this right. So the habit is that it's always like a place and a time and a reason. I think right, so it's a vote. And when they do your thing, when they give you the report, it's like congratulations, that's four votes for your healthy dean or whatever You're making. Every day you're making a vote. Dean: I think that's great yeah. Dan: I'm voting for this. So habits is the name of the, or Adams is the name of the app on iTunes. Dean: It's done in the app store, right. Dan: It's in the app store and it's just a yellow stacking yellow with like a white stacking thing. Dean: But yeah, I've periodically over the last dozen years been conferences for James's, you know, and I've always enjoyed his take on things. Dan: Yeah, and that's I mean. I like this Dan a lot. This is kind of gamifying thing. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Now. Dean: I can tell you what my if you call it my top 50 tool. Then there's a little arrow in each of the boxes and what you do is you press the arrow and it takes you to a page where you develop your criteria for what constitutes a great habit. Okay and then you attach numbers to the to that, and there's room, I think, for 10 criteria. Okay, and then you go through, and one of them is that I want to be more and more doing habits every day that are going to last the Rest of my life. Yes so that's that would be one criteria and I give my, I can establish the range, and and then you all you have to do is the criteria for one, and then that applies the criteria to all of them, and Then, as you go along, you start improving the criteria, and the moment you improve the criteria, it improves it for all of them. Okay, and then, as you go through, you notice that certain certain habits get a better importance score than others and it automatically, automatically prioritizes the 50, that this is number one, this is number two, this is number three. Rate to 50. What do you think about that? I really I mean would you? Dan: like to get that. Dean: Would you love to get? Dan: that. Where would one get one of these? Dean: Only from a particular person. Yeah, and it's right. Now, it's a file maker file, a file maker no longer Exists, but that this continues to work. Okay, this continues to work, okay, so I'll just send you the file maker oh, I like that a file maker form and, as you're going along, what it does is it give. I mean, I think the combination of the atom, the atom app and this tool probably Complets the circle it might be. Dan: I mean, I'd love to discuss what you're describing. Dean: Here's the tip sounds like as you go along, there's habits that are less important and they don't belong on the top 50. So there's another backup 50 and that they're in the backup 50. Dan: Okay, the farm team. Dean: Yes. Yes you can't have major league without a farm team. That's exactly right. Dan: I, like you know what's very. What's really interesting about this, dan, is if I was really Reflecting on my accumulated daily habits, right, if I look at what are my observable habitual behaviors? Right, and I went through the way I went through it was looking at the vignettes of each day, like looking at a timeline from the, the moment I wake up and and I was saying, you know, I have established Really good sleep habit of you know, my sleep window is Very uniform, my, you know, I woke up this morning I'm, you know, 8786 on my sleep and readiness score for my or ring. I get enough deep sleep and all that. So I've established that habit of Really a really good sleep window there. Then I started looking at, you know, my observable, if we were just somebody was following me around, logging my movements, like in a computer program or whatever, like just line items like Lining, describing every step or everything that I took part of. It is, you know, look, replacing now looking for the opportunities, like where do I want to establish this habit? And I think that little window of you know right, when I get up the first, you know the first hour of being awake. What do we want those habits to look like? Yeah, would future deans habits be? Dean: You know something there are constraints and deans, future habits. You know what? They are deans present habits? Dan: are yes, that's exactly it. I get it and that's what you're saying. I'm like you. Dean: Do anything in the future now you can't do anything in the future. You can only do things in the present. Yeah, the future. Dan: That's exactly right. Dean: Yeah, but I've been around the tech people and you know I mean, like the environmental movement, no more fossil fuels. That's a bullshit, is such a bullshit goal Because 80% of all the energy on the planet comes from fossil fuels. Okay, the other thing is that the people have these kind of goals are really not very good at getting anything done. Dan: Yeah. Dean: They went to university. They've been in university for six years, you know they've been in school since they were four years old. They've never actually done anything in the real world, you know and. But they're going to change the entire structure of the world and the problem is that it's not a plausible goal. Like no fossil Fields, you know, the other one is no borders. You know the thing we shouldn't have borders. Well, there are borders and people will kill for the borders. Yeah, right, but the thing is the people who set these type of goals in the future are some of the most incompetent people on the planet and it's really interesting that the the way you described it there. Dan: All these people, they're not accountable for the day we have. They're talking. They're just going and admonish people about this future. There's no fossil fuel because it's not actionable. Dean: It's not actually, and what they're trying to generate is tax money. They're trying to generate Donations. They're trying to but without ever producing any kind of satisfactory result you know, yeah, because they're just painting the ideal. Dan: And I wonder, how do we do that in our own lives? I mean, well, the big thing. Dean: Well, one of my things that have occurred to me is that all your goals for the future are actually you Operating, you personally as an individual operating at a higher level of capability, you know I mean you know, if you have a, you have one house and you have a house, another house that's bigger, it's better. You know it's got far more, it's more in the right place, it's. You know it's got about 10 Better criteria that you could say. And you say, well, that's my goal and I said no, that's actually the result of you being a Different and more productive person in the future. So every goal you have to bring back that it's you as a person operating at a higher level. You're making more money, you know, and that's number one. You know, yeah, and in order for you to make more money, you've got to look at what you're doing right now to make money and improve it. There may be, between you and that house, there may be, 10 Improvements that you have to make to how you're making money right now. Yes, yeah, this is yeah maybe eight profit activators. Dan: Which one? Dean: all the profit activators are habits, aren't they? Dan: they are, yeah. Yeah, you're absolutely right with metrics. I mean, that's part of the thing I think is that's measurable, right, everything you're describing. That be a good habit horrible habits. Yeah, huh, yeah, and I was dawned on me how long these habits, many of them, have been established. Like, I like your idea of the ranking of the habits. I mean that's it's, you know the numbering them, you know there's probably a Habit you know, but this is endless pursuit. It feels like you know an endless. Well, it's a daily person. Dean: It's a daily improvement activity. You know because what I'm finding? I've been doing this for about four months. Daily habits, and the first one and what I've been doing is I've been going to Buenos Aires. I've done it three times, for the fourth that's coming up in two weeks. And and there's basically six weeks before visits to Buenos Aires. So I said I'm going to create a 42 day cycle of changing certain habits. Okay, oh, wow, anchors is something right. Well, you anchor it in time, you give it a, and then so that's. You know, six weeks is 42 days. It's an odd time period and that intrigues me, you know. So I've got these 42 improvement, 42 day improvement periods. Dan: And then I say Just a lot to support the 42 is that. You know they say it takes 21 days to establish a habit and 42 is just twice that. So you get two cracks at 21 days to establish. Dean: You just explained why I did it. You just explained why I did that, but I didn't know that. Dan: There you go. No, that's great, though right Like that's a. Dean: I'm doubling down. Yeah, yeah yeah, I hadn't seen that. I had not seen that. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Anyway, but what I did? The first one, it was very simple no snacking between meals. I don't get into trouble with meals. I get in trouble with what happens between meals. Okay, okay. Dan: And. Dean: I aced it, I aced it, I aced it over 42 days, and then I started adding so the second one had two or three habits, the third one, you know, the 42, because I'm getting used to it, okay, and you know. And then all of a sudden I said pay attention to all your habits and just do it right. If there's something you have to do that day, do it the way you would like to have it done in the future, and then give yourself points for that. You know, and so. But there's an enormous Well. First of all, there's a dopamine hit to it, because it means that every day is valuable for learning and growth, and that's a, you know, that's a great thing. Dan: This is fascinating because that dopamine is healthy. Good, you're the beneficiary of the dopamine compared to like watching. Dean: You're your own dealer, yeah. Dan: Be your own dopamine dealer. Dean: Be your own dealer. Dan: That's a great title for a quarterly book, Ben. Dean: I just logged in. Dan: I mean, that's the truth. Dean: You never know. Anytime you talk to Dan, to Dean, you're going to get a new quarterly book out of it. Dan: Sometimes you get a major market book out of it. You never know. Dean: That's a good habit, that's a good habit. I don't know what it is about, dean, but anytime I'm around him I can count about you know, half a year down the road, and something he said is now a book. Oh wait for this. Dan: You know what the elegance of your 42, the 42 days, six weeks is? That you could get two rounds of that per quarter. It's just another nice, elegant fit. Dean: Well, you can get basically 42, you can get two rounds and basically oh right, then a quarter yeah. Dan: You can yeah 12 weeks. Dean: And then you get some free days to. Yeah. Dan: Go wild, I'm better. Yeah, enough of this structure. Dean: Enough of this structure, you know. But the interesting thing about it is you're actually, every time you improve a daily habit, you're exponentially improving your future. Yes, yes. And it's the only way. Yeah. And the thing is, there's certain habits you would like to change today, but you have to change some other habits before you can get to it. Yeah, so yeah, I'll give you an example. I've been listening to people talking about intermittent fasting. Yeah, Like you go a weekend without eating. I said no, I'm not anywhere near that. But what I've noticed is on Saturday and Sunday I can have 16-hour periods between meals. Dan: Okay, yeah. Dean: And I said, you know so, on Saturday we have dinner at three o'clock in the afternoon and then I don't eat again until so that's nine hours before midnight, and then I have, you know, I eat breakfast at seven and then that's 16 hours. Dan: Okay, yep. Dean: And that's intermittent fasting. Dan: Yeah. Dean: And I can do the same thing on Sunday over Sunday night and breakfast. So I said, no, I'll just start off. Once on a weekend I'll do it. And now I'm at the point where I can do it twice on a weekend. You know people said well, you know, it doesn't matter, unless you do it for a couple of days. And I said I can't do it for a couple of days. Dan: Right. Dean: My habits. Don't support it yeah. Dan: Yeah, and I mean I don't know what to do about it. Dean: So whenever people say you should do something, you have to check back and say, ah, interesting, but my habits don't support what you're talking about. Dan: Right, right. Yeah, this is amazing. I mean, I'm not really a dashboard and scorecard, but you're totally in control of that. Dean: You won't. Dan: Yeah, you're the only one who knows the habits? Dean: You're the only one that knows how you want the habits to be in the future. Here. Dan: Yeah. Dean: There's complete agency here on the part of an individual. You know, and you can know all the ramblings of other people about what you should do and you have to do this. No, it's not so. It's bullshit Right. Dan: Yeah, yeah, I mean this is yeah. And then there's a. There's a guy, rob Dierdek. I don't know if you know him. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did mention him. Dan: Okay, yeah, that you know. Everything that we're talking about is exactly. You know what he's on board with. Everything he's talking about is Dave Tuchad, chad Jenkins. Dean: Willard oh Chad Jenkins. Dan: Chad Jenkins I gave him and Steve Dastante actually, yeah, Rob Dierdek back to back two podcasts called the most unrelatable podcast episode you'll ever listen to. And it was him describing to the what ends he goes to track and quantify and establish his daily habits. And it's fascinating, I mean just to see, you know, make things inevitable, you know. Dean: Yeah, and there one thing that makes you appreciate that nervous systems are really different. You know human nervous systems are really. You know, what appeals to one person doesn't appeal to other people, and I think that's a tough nut to crack for a lot of people, because they want what they're doing to be the truth. And I said well, it is the truth. Dan: It is the truth. Dean: It is the truth, but don't go beyond yourself with it. You know, you know and and I think it has a lot to do with your you know your early experiences in life, what you got used to doing, what you like to do, things that you didn't like, and I think and these are forming before we have the ability to be conscious about them. Dan: How many of your habits Dan in on looking at your list are 50 year old oak trees? Oh, yeah, yeah, I mean some of the habits are oh yeah. Yeah. Dean: Some of them are. Some of them are beyond 75 years. Dan: Right, and some of them you know. Dean: I'm probably not going to fool around with those. Dan: No. Dean: Not at first, not at first. Do not take on a 75 year habit. Right, exactly, yeah, but it's really interesting Now, as you know, this happens to if we we can shift the context. I've been very interested in the, the reason why, in the last two weeks, google has lost $90 billion it's market value because of that Right. Because of a stupid AI chat. Okay. Dan: Yeah, I don't know what happened, so you know well what they do. Dean: it's a new chat chat bot that, when you put in directions, it'll create graphics for you. Okay, Okay. I'll give you an example. A guy says can you give me a picture of Vikings? And it comes back and they're all black. Dan: Okay. Dean: Now. Vikings were the whitest people in the world. Dan: Yes, right, right. Dean: Northern European. Not much sunlight, you know. Dan: Yes. Dean: So, anyway, and that says show, give me a picture of the founding fathers of the United States. And there are a whole bunch of them sitting on that table and a number of them were black. So what? Okay, so just giving you the general context, that what's being reflected in the Google chat bot is the dominant political views of the organization. Interesting, isn't it so? And they're getting such backlash. Well, their stock valuation went down by 90 billion in about a week and a half, 90 billion they just dropped, you know, their stock value. Now I would interpret that as someone giving you feedback. Right, right. Dan: Right. Dean: Right, you know, because what a stock price is an estimation of the future value of something you know and what I realize is that now they're scrambling. They had everybody had to work all this weekend to correct the problem. But the problem isn't their chat bot, the chat. The problem is Google's dominant thought process. Okay, so what's being reflected in any organization's cloudlandia presence is what their mainland habits are. I mean I don't think you can communicate too much beyond what your dominant habits are as an individual and as an organization. Dan: Yeah, this is you know, and I wonder if that so you're thinking like the Google things as reflecting their own biases are coming through in the stuff that it's how do I? Dean: that they have a bigger game to change how people think you know I think they do. You know, and you know, and you know, and maybe they shouldn't be that ambitious. Maybe they should just change the way that they think. Dan: Yeah, there's no. It's so amazing to me that there really is no. Like it's difficult now to get objective stuff, to get objective information without that. You know I saw that sort of you see it coming through in the biggest companies like Google, all the media, the mainstream, meta, meta, yeah, that, you see the whole. You know I look at. I was sharing with you the headline, you know, when Donald Trump just won South Carolina by a landslide. You know over 60% of the votes, 39% to Haley, and the headline on Drudge was 40% of Republicans don't want Donald Trump. It was like, what an amazing like flip of not mentioning the historical trouncing that she got in her own home state. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah well, you know you know, in politics and in business the number 51 is really important. I tell people you know, when you own a business. There are two numbers that matter 51 and 49. 51 is the same as 100%, 51 is the same as 100% and 49 is the same as zero. Yeah, you don't understand the difference, the crucial difference, between 51 and 49, you're gonna have a rough life. You're gonna have a rough life. Yeah, and he has won three more tomorrow, and they were. You know, they were equal to the that he's been achieving everywhere else. He's now. There's now been seven states and he's won all seven. Yeah, but 40% of people don't want him. Dan: Yeah, 40% of Republicans don't want Donald Trump. That's right. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the interesting, I think next Tuesday there's 15, you know, there's like 15, it's called. Super Tuesday Super Tuesday, yeah yeah, super Tuesday, and probably he'll be up by 22,. It'll be 22 to nothing by the end of Tuesday night, you know. And he said, and she'll be saying I'm gaining on him. Dan: Gaining on him. Don't give up yeah. Yeah, yes but it's like, it's like 22, 22 flesh wounds. Right, exactly, yes, I'm not dead yet I'm not dead yet Just a stump. Dean: no legs, no arms, but I can still bite you. Dan: Yeah, yeah, I can still bite you I can't quite. Dean: I can't quite figure out what her lawn game is by doing this short. You know her short term activity. I can't figure out what her lawn term plan is. Dan: Yeah, this. I mean what a year this is gonna be. It's gonna be a great year. Dean: This is a I think this is a tectonic shift year, and it's not just in the States. That happened in Argentina when we were down there, the new you know the new government that came in. It happened in Holland. It's kind of happening all over the world right now that people who know how to count are replacing people who don't know how to count. Dan: Yes, so amazing, Dan. I'm excited about the, about this, the 50. I'm excited to get that too. Dean: Yeah, I'll, I'll be in the office tomorrow and I'll have our tech team send you it. And it's just, you know, you just punch on it and it opens up and it's self-explanatory. There's it's called the top 50 tool. And then you know, you use 50 boxes on the first page and then you have a backup page that has 52 and you just start listing them and then you wanna grade them in terms of their priority as a habit, and then I think it fits in really well with what James is doing. Dan: Yes, I'm just that's the only habit I've established on there so far, but I think it's really, yeah, it's really, I think gonna be a great thing because you can anchor it to times, you know, like when you want to, when you want to establish this habit, like you were saying the dinner, the dishes, is what are you, how are you triggering that in measuring? So you're saying-. Dean: Well, you never lose if you do a habit that's from the past and it's not what you want in the future. You don't lose points if you do that. There's no losing points. You can only gain points, okay. Dan: Okay. Dean: So I've got a daily scorecard, okay, and like in the first 42 days, in. I've got a total of 122 points for you know, sticking to no snacks between meals. Dan: Oh good, that's great. So you're keeping like the tally of it. Dean: Yeah, I'm keeping a tally. And then when I go back to Buenos Aires and I said, next time I'm coming back and I you know, I don't remember exactly, but I added two or three more habits, you know, to it and as you're going through the day, you're becoming more and more conscious of your daily habits. If you do it 10 days in a row and you're tracking habits, the next habits on the list will suggest themselves to you. You don't have to go looking for them. You know you don't have to go looking for them, they're looking for you now. Dan: They want to get points they want to get points and they build. You get the momentum of the feedback too, right? Yeah, you know. Did Babs know what you're up to, or did she? Yeah, and just your observation. Dean: She's starting to do it herself. I mean, she was inspired to start. You know, start doing it. She won't do it to the maximum way that I do, because that's not what she does. But she knows she's with me, so she knows things will get better. Dan: Right, right right. Dean: Yeah, I'm around a good habit-forming person. I mean, that's just, I'll just hook on and I know things will get better, but anyway, yeah, and. But you know, what it's doing is that all humans are completely equal and that they only get 24 hours per day. That's true. Dan: That is true, your comment, the speed of reality. Dean: That's the speed. That's the speed of reality. Dan: Yeah, and I don't. I mean, it's funny when you say it. When I first started thinking about it I thought you know, is that too obvious? But it's, yeah, I think it's one of those. It's been right there. Dean: Well, the other thing that I can tell you a lot of the problem they're having in their life is they don't account for that truth, right? Dan: yeah, I think that's really the thing, right. It's tuning into the speed of reality and looking at the only times. The only time we can really have any action is today, and there's a hard stop. I mean, there's a hard stop on it that your sleep, you know, is a. There's no possible way for us to do anything tomorrow. Dean: Yeah, and the only impact you can have on yesterday is what you're changing today. Dan: Yes, and that's the thing I was having. So Joe Polish came up, came back with me from Palm Beach. He just left yesterday, but he spent three to four days with me here and I mean, we went through, we set up my total environment here for success, you know, in terms of eating, and we went through my kitchen and cleared out everything that isn't supporting the habit of future healthy being right, and we went through that kind of it was. So we were talking about the four C's two is the commitment, and then courage and capability. And so we went I don't cook and I've never cooked. I've never. You know, yeah, I've never cooked. No, don't really have any skill in that, but we went. Dean: That means that if we catch you cooking, we know something that's deeply wrong. That or? Dan: deeply right. I mean we went and got an Instapot. I don't know if you've heard of this device, but so the Instapot is a miracle vessel. I mean, you just put stuff in and push a button and then it cooks. It's like. So we went to the grocery store and we got some, you know, some organic chicken legs and chicken thighs and chicken breast, and we got some grass-fed ground beef 90-10 and we got some. We've had some. We've cooked the entire the whole four days that he was here. And so the thing is now I left this with a new capability, right Like. So now I've got and I said to Joe it's kind of like reframing. I think it's almost like getting back to my, to building a primal habit of going to the grocery store and hunting some dinner, hunting food. Right, go, hunt some chicken and bring it home and clean it and cook it and enjoy and eat it, you know, but how easy Rather than having food hunting you. Absolutely, that's exactly right. And so that capability, you know, like we, we literally just take the chicken, wash it some salt and pepper, put it in the pot, put some potatoes in there on top, whole, you know whole, just washed, you know, Yukon gold or gold potatoes, put it in there, press the button 11 minutes and it's the most delicious. Whole, you know whole, some. No, no oils, no anything. It's just so clean, right, You've got organic chicken, you've got the stuff, and it's delicious. And then we, you know, got on the pan. I learned some pan skills right Of being able to, just with some butter in the pan, you know, grass fed, organic butter, of course, and putting. We got some steaks that were like, thin cut. We got some pork chops that were thin cut, ground beef, all of those, just the same thing, just taking the meat, salt and pepper and a little bit of, if I wanted to add any spice or whatever to it, cook it on, you know, both sides, and there you go. We even chopped up zucchini and squash into little medallions and sauteed them in the in the pan. So this capability now of being able to see this is a better habit to do than well driving through somewhere, right. Dean: The big thing is that it's got a future reference, that you have a sense of who you'd like to be in the future as an individual. You know and you can only be that in relationship to the habits that you form right. Because you know, there's part of our day which requires focus. Concentration because it's new stuff, yeah, and therefore the habits have to be good. When we're not focusing directly on the activity, you have to have great habits, you know yeah and and yeah. the book I just came out with the great meltdown is that the US is the top country in the world because it's got the best widespread habits of people using innovative skills to lower the cost of money, lowering the cost of energy, lowering the cost of labor, lower cost and no country in the world can possibly match it. You know, yeah, yeah, the prices of things are up and down, unpredictable around the world, and but the US has a habit of always trying to lower the cost of anything. you know yeah and other countries don't have this, and so you know. You can see the difference between Canada and the United States right now. I mean it's really extreme. From the last time you were here, the difference the average per capita income in the United States is now lower than the per capita income of Mississippi. Dan: Wow, the United States, the in. Dean: Mississippi is number 50 and per capita income and the average. Canadian is now below, below the per capita is in the low Wow, yeah, I wasn't. Dan: it wouldn't have expected that. Dean: Yeah, and not only that, they don't freeze to death in Mississippi. Right that's exactly right. At least I got that going for them and that's basically. You can measure it from when the president, prime minister, came in, has been going downhill since this prime minister came in because he wants to save the world. Dan: Yeah, it's interesting, right, that's been funny to watch the. You know my algorithm, for you know, sending me things, video clips and stuff is now I get a lot of those, Pierre Polly. Dean: Yeah, yeah, smart guy. I had breakfast with him about five years ago. Yeah, smart guy, very smart, yeah, and from Alberta French speaking from Alberta, that's a pretty good. You know, that's a pretty good background. Dan: You know he's got a triple. Dean: That's a triple play Canadian that's a triple play for a Canadian. That's French, french. Dan: I mean that's, he's got it all covered because, it just doesn't get it. Dean: And then his wife is from Venezuela, she's a refugee. So she knows what a country gone wrong early looks like yeah, oh, that's funny. Yeah, yeah, and you know, so so anyway, but you can just see the difference that the United States is better at handling milk costs than Canada is. Dan: Yeah, wow. Well, dan, I'm excited, this is great. Seven days? Yeah, well, I'll tell you the tool I can promise you you'll have the tool by this time. Dean: Not this time, but by the end of the day. Tomorrow you'll have top 50 tool and just play around with it. I mean it's self-explanatory, you don't have to. There's no rule book that comes with it. You'll just play with it. Just remember, in every square where you put something, if you press the arrow it takes you to the criteria page. Okay, perfect. Dan: I'll do it. Dean: Yeah. Okay, then I'm interested in the teamwork between the top 50 tool and the Adams app. That'll be really interesting because I've been lacking a daily scoring system. You know, people won't stay with something unless they can score on a daily basis. That's the truth. Dan: That is true. Dean: Yeah. Dan: I can't wait. Dean: All right. Dan: I'll see you. I can't wait. I'll have it tomorrow. Dean: All righty. Thanks, Dan. I'll be on next week if you are, I am absolutely Okay. Dan: Okay, thanks, dan, okay, bye, bye.

In today's episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we reflect on serenity in nature and technology, drawing parallels between Cloudlandia and meticulously raked sand. Woven into our talk is AI and how it's changing everything, from Evan's course helping us out at work to all the crazy experiments shaking things up. We get into how innovation unexpectedly boosted my creativity, which we're calling "exponential tinkering". As our annual event nears, lessons in "exponential thinking" add to the anticipation of a reunited community and potential for growth. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Dean and I explore the serenity of Cloudlandia and how it parallels the peacefulness found in Japanese Zen gardens, reflecting on the role of imagination in experiencing digital spaces. We discuss the success of Evan Ryan's AI course within our company and how it has encouraged experiments with AI across different teams. Dean introduces the concept of "exponential tinkering," highlighting how AI is revolutionizing the arts and content creation, with a nod to OpenAI's Sora tool. We contemplate the cultural shift toward immersive experiences like VR, while expressing skepticism about their long-term utility and appeal. Dan recognizes the importance of integrating existing consumer experiences to create innovative products, using Apple as an example. We highlight insights from Mark Mills' book "The Cloud Revolution" on the strategic importance of reshoring supply chains and repurposing shopping centers into logistics hubs. We compare Tesla's success to the sustainability challenges faced by other electric vehicle companies that are more dependent on government subsidies. We share anecdotes about the Soviet-era's illusion of luxury, and how modern-day explorers uncover the true state of Soviet infrastructure. We examine the declining enthusiasm for venture capital in the tech world and the concept of "cruel optimism" that can be prevalent in this sector. Excitement is expressed for our upcoming annual event, stressing the value of 'exponential thinking' and the potential growth of our community. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan how are you, mr Jackson? Dan: Well, welcome to Cloudlandia. I'm sitting out in my courtyard and it's a little bit of a cold, rainy morning. I don't know if you can hear the rain gently falling in the courtyard. It's relaxing. Dean: Do you have an? Dan: umbrella over your head. No, I'm in a. I have a covered, a covered area here that I'm sitting at about. I don't know what you call it, like a lamina or a loja, I don't know how it is, but it's a covered underroof thing, that's attached to my courtyard. Dean: What you're saying is that there's something between you and this guy. That's exactly it. Dan: I'm not getting rained on, I'm under covered, as they say. Dean: Yeah, well, it's sort of a poignant, almost like a Japanese. Stay right, yeah, this almost feels like a Japanese Zen garden. Dan: here I hear the like the little the water coming off the roof of a tile roof, so that it's very Japanese Zen actually, because the there's a spout that drains the water down into a drain. Yeah, so nice. Dean: Yeah, it's very interesting. When I was a teenager I sort of fell in love with Japanese culture. This would be early 60s, late 50s, early 60s and you know I read the literature, I looked at the artwork. I was interested in their architecture, their history, and then in my military. I was drafted into the US military and got sent to South Korea. And I'm an R and R. Rest and relaxation, that's what they called it. Dan: R and R I went to Japan. Dean: I went to twice, oh nice. And my memory is of being in the mountains, at a place where they really didn't speak English I don't know even now if they you know, having Americans who was part of their experience, but it was perfectly understandable. I mean, the hospitality was so great. But I can remember being in one of these little rooms where they had. They had sliding doors that would open up and you could see the mountain, you could see the water. And I remember it raining, but I was warm and I had tea. And I was sitting there and it sort of corresponded to what my teenage visions had been. I always remember that. Dan: That's great. I love it when stuff like that happens. Well, this would definitely be the kind of day that would be conducive to tea. Dean: And sitting out here. Dan: It was kind of a Zen garden that I have in the courtyard, so it's nice. Dean: Yeah, yeah. Speaking of Zen, there's a lot about the jump from the mainland to Cloudlandia that has a Zen-like quality to it, tell me more, tell me more, especially now with the. A lot about it, well, a lot about it. You have to imagine, in other words, that you only get as far in Cloudlandia as your imagination will go. I'm really seeing this. I'm kind of being a creative collaborator with Evan Ryan, still in his 20s, but he's been investigating artificial intelligence for the last 10 years, so he's well into it. So basically his adult life has been and he's got a very thriving business and he's got clients from all over the planet. But he wrote one book which was superb. It was called AI as your teammate and he put it together into a six-module coaching course for companies and our entire company went through that. Dan: Oh, wow. Dean: So it's six to our modules and just to the main. Purpose is just to get people over the hump that this is any scarier than any technology that they've already mastered. It's just a new technology. And it did wonders. It did wonders and I can see the last module was probably four months ago and I can see the investigations and the experiments that are going on across the company, each person sort of focusing on something different. And then Evan is writing a new book and I just shared an idea with him and maybe it be a topic that we would discuss today. But I said, there's all sorts of predictions being made by people about where AI is going and where it's going to take us, and both exciting and scary. The predictions are both exciting and scary and what I realized that all these predictions, no matter how expert the person tried to present themselves, was just one person's prediction. And more or less their prediction for everybody else was simply what they wanted to do for themselves, Right. Dan: Yeah. Dean: And I think Mark Zuckerberg and there's all sorts of people the big tech people and government people and everything, corporate people and I say you're trying to make this a prediction for the world, but it's only probably a prediction for you that this is the direction and what I realized is that there's an exponential breakthrough with AI and it's in the area of tinkering, which is a neat word, yes, Tinkering. So Evan and I talked about it and he's going to. You know, he's developing the idea as exponential tinkering. Dan: And I really like it. Oh, I like that. Dean: That's a good yeah, what a nice combination of words, because, there are kind of two words that are jarring when you put them together, that's very good. Dan: I like that a lot. Dean: Yeah, so what are you tinkering? Dan: with. So I'm tinkering with a couple of things right now and deep into the. Are you talking about technology things? Dean: No, yeah. Well, technology, or specifically AI, are you tinkering at all with it, seeing what it can do? Dan: I'm starting now to. Did you see the latest thing a couple of days ago? The release of Sora, the video creation tool. Now, that was OpenAI did that right. OpenAI has just I think it's only very limitally open to their top tier, you know, data users or whatever, but the demo reels of it you know, showing what it's capable of, and I mean it's certainly you see now where that's the final piece of the puzzle here, like two things have happened in the last 30 days that have really kind of cement where I see this going. I've been predicting here that 20, that you know, almost like the big change 1975 to 2025 will kind of look and the you know all these exponential improvements reaching the top of the asymptotic curve that there's You're using big words. Dean: Yes, so Asymptotic, asymptotic. I think that deserves a subhead for our listeners. Dan: Okay, Well, asyn, in math when you do exponential, it's exponentially increases, increases, and then it reaches a point where it's just marginally like improving slightly. You know, like there's not really the exponential leap, for instance, of going from. If we just take text, we've gone from, you know, writing it on papyrus or having people hand write stuff. Dean: Chiseled as on. Chiseled as in play. Dan: Whatever. And then Gutenberg was an exponential leap in that, but it got better in terms of when we were able to, you know, create digital photocopy and things like that, and we got to the text file where you could digitize text and that became a PDF. And now so everything you know, the functional like improvement in text, has really reached the top of. There's nowhere really to go from everything ever written available instantly on any device you have. And that same thing has been over the last 25 years, kind of cascading series of those with increasing complexity of them, right? I think it's not. That's the easiest thing to fully digitize is text. And then pictures were the next thing, that you could digitize pictures so we can transfer images, then moving pictures right? Audio, sorry, was next after text, audio images or images, videos. Now we're at the point where you know every piece of media video, audio, text or images is completely digitized. It's available on any device at any time you want it. And this next piece that's falling into place is the ability to generatively create, from description, images and videos that you can describe. And so when you take this Sora, and you take Dali and you take the all the things that are converging with the, with the AI, and we'll give them another two year runway, which would even sort of double their time that they've been in our world Mainstream they'll be fully cemented into the mainstream use. And then you look at what's happening with the release of Apple's new Air Pro goggles, or whatever they're calling them. Dean: Vision Pro. Dan: Vision Pro. Dean: And that is. You know everybody who's going to use any of this. Dan: Exponential tinkerers. Dean: Yeah, but that somebody who's doing it tinkerers. Tinkerers is just someone who's doing it for their own purposes. You know they're not trying to create something for anybody else, they're just for example, I gave you the example that I've had a real interest in. You know, I wrote a new book and I had. I was writing a new book and I had one chapter finished and it was how we put our company together, and the chapter was unique ability teamwork. That, basically, a fundamental difference between coach team members and other team members is that we everybody operates according to their own unique ability within unique ability teams. Okay, so that's that, but I've always had a fascination with Shakespeare. You know he's one of my five. Dan: Yes. Dean: You know, five lifetime role models Shakespeare, because he was not only a great poet, a great playwright, a great you know creator of, you know, creator of plays, but he was also a tremendous entrepreneur and he, you know, he created the first company that was self-sustainable and he created a new theater and everything else. So he was very entrepreneurial and seems to have made a pile through theater. And anyway, but I was always fascinated with the language form that was operating in London in the late 1500s and 1600s. So Shakespeare is 1560, 1560, 1660 years and it was called iambic pentameter and it was a structure where there's only 10 syllables per line. You get to the 10th syllable and then you go to a new line, and so I had one of my team members actually go to AI, go to chat GPT and say we would like to translate Dan's copy into iambic pentameter and it was back in 24 hours. Dan: You know came back and I was just fascinated. Dean: I was just fascinated with it because I thought differently about my own thoughts when I saw them come back in a different language form. In English but about a different structure. So I was sitting there, I was reading it and I gave it to some of our team and I said what do you think about this? And they said, wow, I get totally new thoughts from reading it. It's, you know, the basic ideas, but they're in a different language form. And I said now what I'd like to do is I hear it like it here. It's spoken, you know, by someone who was really great with Shakespeare's language. So it was a very famous actor who we have their recordings of, and so we open my team member, Alex Barley, who is British you know. So he's from the UK, so he has a feel for this type of language and he has a feel for theater. And then he worked with Mike Canig's, great friend of ours and. Mike. Mike gave him two or three other AI programs that he could take a look at and about four days later I get this wonderfully eloquent reading of a whole chapter in Iambic content and I listen to it every week. I listen to it every week and it does things for my thinking. Okay, and I've shown it to a few people. This is a you know. A number of people have listened to it and they're all say, wow, that's amazing. Dan: You did that. Dean: Why'd you do that? Why'd you do that? Dan: Why'd you do? Dean: that Just tinkering? I was just tinkering and I just. I kind of said you know, if I put this together with this and maybe put the two of them together with this, I wonder what it sounds like. And I have no intention of, I have no intention of going any further with it, but it really serves a purpose, that it really influences my own thinking and I've noticed that my writing has changed as a result of listening to this for three or four, three or four months, you know, I just I just get a different take on my own ideas. Dan: And. Dean: I call that tinkering, I just call that tinkering. Dan: I like that. Dean: And I believe that with AI, what you have, there was always tinkering in the technology world, but I think what AI does, it makes, it allows tinkering to be exponential. Dan: That's interesting. So there's, I'd say, yeah, you're, there's an artistry to it in a way. Dean: You know, in that there's, it's kind of like doing something for your own pleasure for your own yeah, and your own enhancements you know you see, you see an extension of a capability that you already have, but you can see new dimensions of the capability that you already have and that in itself is the reward, that in itself. And people say well, are you going to? You know, I tell people and they say oh, so are you going to actually produce this? And you know, you know like we produce our books. And I said no, I'm just doing it for my own reasons. Dan: I just like the feel of this. I just like the feel you know and. Dean: I do not think I'm unique in this experience. I think there's a hundred million people doing the same thing with something that kind of fascinates them. Dan: And I wonder if that's the artistic expression gene or something. I mean, that's our internal desire to chase our whims. Dean: You know, in a way, yeah, that's one of the great joys of the the reason I'm saying this is that we're always making the predictions about who the giant tech giant is that's going to dominate this and I said one I don't see it emerging. I think all of them are scrambling like mad so that they don't get left behind. But I don't think the idea of tinkering really exists in that world. You know quarterly stock prices, investments that's what they're looking for, you know, and everything else, but I don't see the dominant player, even. You know, even open. Ai is the dominant player. Dan: Have you had some experience? Have you tried the vision pros yet? Dean: No, I don't like goggles. Dan: I don't need. I mean I'm not inclined either. Dean: They're anti social. Dan: I wonder you know it's going to be. I know there'll be a lot of people at Free Zone next week that have them that are, so we'll get a chance to try that for sure. But I know my kenix has it. Dean: I know Leo as his one of the things that I always look at their past stage right now, but it'd be interesting checking their lives down six months from now whether they're actually using them. Dan: That's what I'm curious about, right Like it's so. Dean: I don't need to be first in with anything. Dan: Right, exactly, yeah, yeah, I think that this chasm it's getting, you know, I think it's getting wider and wider, this that there's even now, nuances of going deeper into Cloudlandia, because I think that's like immersively diving into Cloudlandia and I think that there's. Nick Nanton just posted a thing about some big movie director who was tweeted about. You know, just spent the day editing this is a feature movie, mainstream movie director saying you just spent the day editing in the Vision Pros with, in collaboration with his editor, on a big screen. They are theatrical, like movie screen size and just fascinated. He said. Dean: you know, no headache, no anything so I don't know, yeah well, where I think and I felt five, ten years, well, let's say five years ago when people were talking about visual reality, okay. Dan: Yes. Dean: And Peter Diamonis had a lot of proponents of this at Abundance 360 and I was sitting there and I said first of all, every everything that I've seen I find boring and the reason? because what you're seeing is the creation of one brain, and if it's not an interesting brain to begin with, the result of their creation of a VR program is exponentially less interesting. Okay, and what actual reality is good? You know, I look out in my yard and you have the same opportunity there. I look at them and I've got these seven giant oak trees in their yard, I mean they're a hundred, and ten hundred foot oak trees, and the reason I love those trees so much is nobody created them. There was no intention for this to happen. It was just a lucky acorn. Dan: Right the result of it. Dean: I mean they produce thousands, millions of acorns in our yard and it's just squirrel food you know, and and it's the nonintentionality that interests me, it's not the somebody's intention, okay, and one person's story really doesn't interest me for the first time if it doesn't include a lot of other people's stories you know, in other words. You're putting that together, so I don't know. I mean, I think there's a fundamental obstacle to all technological breakthroughs, and it's called human nature. Dan: Yeah, this is where that's. What I wonder, is the goggles? Them sound like it. Just it feels like, wow, this is a you know, unless we're at a point where I think the improvement of the vision pros is that you can actually see out of them. Dean: Well, you can see out of them and it's got the thing that I think is really going to make a difference, and that's all augmented reality. Yes, exactly In other words, you're looking at a real thing. Yeah, there are useful pictures, useful data, useful messages on it, and there's useful capabilities, in other words, there's like email and, I'm sure, the design. You know design tools and everything that you can do and that, I believe, is good, but it'll only, it'll take hold where the use of this speeds up an economic process that already makes money. But you can speed up an economic process. Dan: I'm seeing that, if everything is, you know, being shaped to drive us deeper into this cloudlandia existence here, that everything's happening in the goggles, that I was just had coffee with Stuart, my operations guy, and we were saying how it seems like there's a trend towards you know, I have you ever heard the term hostile design for architecture where the Starbucks one of the Starbucks here in Winter Haven just went under when it's 10 year renovation and they completely turned it into like a basket robin's? where it's all the character of you know a basket robin's. There's no sense of that third place kind of you know origin that Starbucks started with, where, when Starbucks was first getting started in the 90s, they had, you know, nice design, comfy chairs. It was inviting to come and get a coffee and sit and you know gather kind of thing. And now it's essentially designed with the hey, keep it moving, keep it moving kind of vibe to it. There's no, nothing about the chairs, the seating, it's just literally one long banquette with facing single wooden chairs. You know that, on and round table, so there's no comfort or invitingness to come and linger. Dean: Well, they commoditize, so you know. In other words, yeah they start off at very special places. Yeah, and you know you could go in if you could use it as an office, it could be your office all day if you were I think yeah. Dan: I think that's what happened is that post as we got into the last ten years where it became more, you know, wi-fi is ubiquitous and, you know, demanded in public spaces like that. That you know I was saying to Stuart. My theory about it is that in the 90s and early 2000s the internet was still a place that you had to go to right, like you, yeah, had to go to your computer to go there, and these third places were, of you know, an important part of you're putting that aside and you're coming to this third place to be there and as laptops and Wi-Fi and all these things made it possible that people could go and set up shop in the Starbucks and spend the whole day there, that became defeated, the whole purpose. It wasn't a third place, it was the place. 0:25:06 - Dean: You know, yeah, and the other thing it became every place. You know, I mean, when you commoditize, it's every place. And, and you know, I mean you know. And the other thing is that there was a fundamental change in the Starbucks culture and I can say exactly when it was. It was in the 90s and I think it was probably around 1995. They said there's a risky part of our future and that is we can't guarantee that we're always going to have good baristas okay, because the real right. The real skill I mean of Starbucks is who is? Where the baristas who can do the coffee, just right, and they said we can't. You know, it's too risky and that we become too dependent on these people, you know and they said we've got to make it mechanical and what they did immediately is that their espresso drinks, you know, whatever form it came in, was only 80% as good, but it was predictably 80. The moment you give away quality in order to achieve quantity, you've lost all uniqueness. Yeah. I agree, yeah and that's what they've done. And now the other thing is that they created their own competition because people seeing how a coffee operation works, they went to Starbucks University and got their degree, you know, and it probably take a year to do that and they went out and created their own independent coffee shops. So I think those unique coffee shops still exist, but they're not trying to take over the planet yeah, it's really. Dan: It's interesting. I'm looking for places like that, but you just it's kind of a sad thing. It's almost like you've talked often about the, the black cab knowledge of the drivers in London that they have London, I think London. Dean: London, birmingham and Manchester, I think they have, but the black cabs are the best cabs in the world. Yeah, okay, they're, just there's nothing to compare of what an experienced black cab driver with the black cab experience in the world. There's just nothing like it, and it takes you three years of dedicated study to even pass the test to become a black cab driver, you know and it's very interesting that all of that now can be. You know, anybody in their Honda Civic equipped with their iPhone, has the knowledge right on their phone well, actually it worked out, it didn't work out in London right, because Uber came in and they said well, you know, the Uber guys got it, but they have no feel for the city right and yeah, and so within six months of Uber coming in and actually threatening black cab developed its own Uber software, so now they have the Uber software plus the knowledge of the driver yeah, right it's like AI, an AI program defeating world champion, chess champion okay, yeah and within a year, the chess champions just said okay, we've upped the game and now it's us, plus our AI program, against each other. Dan: Yeah, it's very. You know, it's a-. Dean: Humans are infinitely smarter than technology. Dan: Yeah, it's a fascinating time to be approaching your 80th birthday right now too, you know, looking into the next decade here. Yeah, what are you guessing and betting on for the next few weeks? Dean: I'm betting that people's grasp of their past is now their trump card. Okay, that the future is completely and totally unpredictable, okay as far as I'm concerned. I mean, I think you could predict the future more in the 19th and you know the book you gave me, the 1990, the great change I would think was called the Great Change. If I think back to 1950, where I was alive, I think that the first grade teacher and I had a first grade teacher in 1950, sister Mary Josephia. Sister Mary Josephia, sometime, first grade she says the reason why you're learning this now reading, writing and arithmetic is that when you graduate from high school because nobody went to college in those days- you know, you left high school and you went and got a job. She says everybody's going to be looking in the job market at how good you are at reading, writing and arithmetic and showing up on time and finishing what you start and saying please and thank you and everything else. And she was totally correct. In 1962, exactly what she predicted was true. Okay, so try a first grade teacher in 2024, can she predict anything about what a first grader will experience 12 years later? Dan: Yeah, no chance yeah. Dean: And that's just a general condition on the planet. I just think the future is no longer predictable. So what's the unused resource? The unused resource is your past. Dan: Say more about that. What do you mean? The unused resource? Dean: Well, first of all, it's unique. I mean, if I sat down with you and asked you questions about your past and it went on for a year day in day out for a year. Not one thing that you say about your past during that year is anything but unique to you. That's true. Yeah, exactly that's where all the raw material is for creativity. It's not in the future, you know and it was so funny because I remember four or five times in abundance 360, peter would invite in people from Google, okay, and they had these moon shots, okay, and what was interesting about them? They were predicting new things in the future that hadn't been imagined yet, okay. And it seems to me like sparse ingredients, but it was what they were up to and there was presentation after presentation and they had videos on YouTube and everything else. And I said is there any customer experience in this? No, there was no customer experience. They were just making it up, you know, and they were sort of, and these teams were in competition with each other who could come up with the most convincing thing? That didn't exist. And then I kept track of it and over a 10-year period they shot all those projects down. They never went anywhere. Dan: Wow, yeah, they never went anywhere. Dean: Yeah, and I said, all you do is let's find three examples of things that people are already enjoying, and can we put them together in a new way and create something new where people already have experience? With at least a third of the new thing you know, and that's what Apple does. Apple never does anything. First they sit there and they say MP3 player, napster, making money doing this Internet. Let's put the three of them together and see where they go. Dan: Yeah, that's smart. They were doing triple plays and didn't even know it. Yeah, well, maybe they were, Maybe they were yeah that's your clever observation of it, right, exactly, yeah, put a framework over it. Dean: There's a great technology thinker by the name of Mark Mills, and he wrote a really interesting book called the Cloud Revolution. Okay, and it's really worth a read. Okay, and what he said? If you go backwards 100 years and you look for all the major technological breakthroughs that have more or less been the mainstream of the last 100 years, he says they you always discover it was never one thing, it was always three things. Dan: Oh really. Dean: He uses the radio, he uses electricity, he uses internal combustion, he uses cars, he uses airplanes, he uses, you know, motion pictures and all the major things air conditioning and everything, and he shows the three things that went together before the breakthrough was possible. Oh wow, and part of the reason is you're putting together already existing habits. Dan: Yeah, that's really. You have to piggyback on something that somebody's already doing, right. Dean: Yeah, that gives them their existing habit, even though you're adding. You know you're adding factors that are two other habits. But you have to get people something solid to stand on before you ask them to take a step into the new. Dan: What was the name of that book? Dean: again, it's called the Cloud Revolution. Okay, the Cloud Revolution. Yeah and he uses an interesting example and this is a prediction he's making for the future. He said, with reshoring take place. So that's one factor the supply chains are going to get shorter and shorter in the future, because COVID sort of proved to everybody that relying products that came from a hundred different places and required 5,000 miles of ocean travel to get to us wasn't reliable for the future products you know, foods and everything. So what? The major thing is that you're going to try to have supply chains were important with things as close as possible to where the customers are. And he said that's one trend. Okay, that's reshoring, that's that process of bringing your manufacturing and your industrialization back to close to you. That's one factor. The other factor is no longer obsolete shopping centers, Okay. And he said let's suppose that you just take every obsolete shopping center and you turn it into a combination of warehouse, factory and distribution center, Okay. Okay, All the existing infrastructure is built in. That's already zone. It's got huge parking, it's got some massive, big spaces like the big anchor stores, some massive big spaces. You already have delivery docks, you have truck docks that go underground and people go yes and everything. And he says but it's obsolete for the purpose it was created for. But he says if you think about it as a nexus point for trade supply routes in other? Words the raw material will come in and then supply routes going out to the actual customers. And he says all of a sudden you got a new use. But people are used to shopping centers, people work in shopping centers, you know and everything else he says well, you know, and they have major, usually they're situated where there's major transportation routes, there's major highways, there's, you know. I mean probably the best shopping centers are in places that have, you know, highway access. They have air airline, you know, ups, and so that he says just look, look at a lot of stuff that already exists. Put it together in a new way and people's habits already supported. Dan: That's smart. Dean: Yeah. Dan: I like those things, so that fits in with the whole. Jeff Bezos, you know what's not going to change in the next 10 years model, looking not at what's going to change, but what's not going to change, because that's what you can anchor on. Dean: Yeah, it's kind of like I'm just watching all the EV companies, the electric vehicle companies, with the exception of Tesla, because they've got a unique, established niche. I don't think any of the other companies that are based on a profit motive are making that forward, shutting, cutting back. Volkswagen is cutting back, gm is cutting back, everybody's cutting back, because they're losing anywhere from $30,000 to $70,000 on a vehicle and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better. Okay, and then, but what made it unnatural is the fact that you had to have massive government insistence for it to even get off the ground. Dan: Yeah, you just kind of hit something on the head there, because Elon Musk has definitely thrown his hat over the fence on electric vehicles and it is dominating the market for it, because he's all in on that, which is something that Ford and Volkswagen and all these companies can't do. They're not, they're only like dabbling in the electric vehicle markets, you know. Dean: Yeah they did it because there were massive subsidies, there was math, you know, and the states like California were mandating. You know, you know, and by 2035 we won't have any fossil fuel vehicles. Okay, and you know, if the strong arm of government's gonna come on and just forbid the alternative, well, of course we're going to invest our future in it. But those governments are going to be thrown out. I bet the government in California is throwing out within 10 years, I mean you know, by the way, that that just reminded me of something. Dan: I just watched the Tucker Carlson interview with Putin. Did you see that? Dean: Yeah, Parts of it. I saw a part Okay. Dan: Yeah, yeah, nothing extraordinary about that. That wasn't what I was getting to. But while Tucker was in Russia, he did a series of short Videos that were just kind of exploring what is it actually like in a, you know, post sanctioned Russia that you know, yeah, since they put sanctions in place and you know, and it was funny because he was describing, you know, like every visual that we have of, you know, communism in Russia is, you know, empty shelves and limited supply and limited Choice and utilitarian things. So he went, he did a interesting series where he went to a Russian Supermarket to see, okay, so what is it like like? What's day-to-day life like in Russia under sanctions during wartime? And it was, you know, the most fascinating like grocery store where you go in and it's the shelves are stopped with Everything you could imagine, all these things. It's a beautiful, clean store, very modern. Everything about it was amazing. They filled up their basket with what would be, you know, a week's worth of groceries for a family of four kind of thing, what you would get if you were kind of feeding a, a family of four and they, you know, found everything. They they wanted a beautifully you know, fresh baked bread, all the staples that you could need. They filled them all up. They all him and the producers kind of guessed that they would have, you know, $400 or 400 worth of groceries if they were buying it in America, kind of thing which was their frame of reference and Turns out they got all of that stuff for like a hundred and four dollars is what it's what it costs. Dean: Yeah, don't you find it fascinating that he found the one supermarket in all of Russia where that was. Dan: That's what I wonder. That's what I want. Dean: No, that's not you think he went there just have passers-by on his own, I don't like to go. Oh yeah, yeah, the Soviets had one in Moscow. It was right near the Kremlin. It was called gum GUM, if you look it up on Wikipedia. Huh, capital G, capital U, capital M, and you went in and it was just well-dressed shoppers, everything you know, I think that's that's might have been where he was. That might have been it, oh yeah, and it's, and it's a show place, it's a show play and that's what they found when they found out the history of it. Shoppers would go in and they would come out the front door and then they go around the block, go through the black door Backdoor and give back everything that they had bought, and then it was restocked on the shelves. Dan: Oh boy. Dean: They were all actors. Dan: Oh, wow, very interesting. I wondered the same thing, because they did. He went to a subway station that he admittedly said was the most beautiful. So we never seen a subway station as nice anywhere in in America and it was. They showed the footage of it. You know, beautiful artwork and chandeliers and steam, cleaned cleanliness and, no, no graffiti, all of those things. And it did have the sense of. Is this a show place? Because there's an interesting YouTube channel. There was a gentleman from the UK and his channel is called bald and bankrupt and what he does is he goes just solo with a single camera and he was touring all these Soviet Territories. All the outposts, you know, like that were the height of the thing, to compare, and every one of it is Just like everything is run down. And you know all of the Soviet Union, you know post Communism is completely, you know, run down. And what you would expect, right, what you would that, your Vision of it, and I think that you kind of just hit it on the head. That's that it's more likely. Dean: That's like a show place or a yeah that that subway system was put in the 1930s. Okay, they had the boss of it, was cruise ships, cruise ships came in the fame Because he put in. But there was. There was no Limit on cost and there was no limit on how many people died. Building, they asked, made about 20,000 workers died. Putting in the subway system Okay and and, but if those are not cost you pay any attention to, then you can build anything in the world. But, if you wanted to go to another city and see the subway, they wouldn't let you do that. You could only see the subway. That they, because subways were a bigger deal you know in the 1930s or 1920s. Then they are now. You know, because most people don't use the subways. But in Europe, you know, where people don't have cars and they live in very dense populated areas, subways make sense. I mean 80 percent of the Public transportation in the United States I'm talking about buses and subways and commuter trains is the greater New York area that once you get outside the New York area, only 20 percent of the public public Transportation public transportation exists because everybody's got private transportation. Dan: Yeah exactly right. Dean: I mean you got your own. I mean you got a plush Travel vehicle called the Tesla X. You know it's kind of neat. You don't use it 99% of the time, but it's nice having you know. Dan: You know what I said. I was talking about you. Yesterday the I was had to drive somewhere that was about an hour away, just over an hour Actually. Dan said a new high watermark for my migration north. I went just about a half an hour north of I for the first time since. What's it like? Dean: I mean do you need oxygen? Dan: I mean you know I was using the self-drive, which is just name. You know it's only in named and as it has a nervous breakdown if you take your hand off the wheel for more than 30 seconds at a time. But I said you know Dan Sullivan has it figured out. Dan Sullivan has had self-drive since 1997. Dean: You've had true self drive, self automatic, self drive you know it's an interesting thing, but what I notice, you know I'm just developing the reason. This thing about the past is interesting because I'm writing my new quarterly book right now and it's called Everything Is Created Backward, and what I mean everything that sticks is actually created by starting with the past and picking the best of, and I think three things is really a formula. I mean, there might be things where it's five things, but I think three is useful because you can go looking for three, okay, and what I'm seeing is that the tech world has basically ground to. A lot of people don't know this, but the investment part, the venture capital part of the tech world, has just hit a wall. I mean, there's a massive amount of money available, but nobody wants to invest it because so many things promised as new things in the last 10 years really haven't amounted to anything. It's about, I think about less, maybe around 10% of IPOs. You know, initial public offerings have panned out Okay. That's a high risk that you have a nine you know, a nine to one chance of losing your money if you invest in something new, and I think the hype factor for getting investment has lost its energy. Dan: Yeah, that's changes everything. This changes everything, oh that's no good, then that's a sure sign that it's doomed. Yeah, this changes everything should be your signal to run away. Dean: Yeah, and you know I mean, but it does change everything for certain individuals and this is the mistake. It's like Joe Polish calls this cruel optimism. Dan: You know cruel optimism Okay. Dean: Yeah, and he has a great take on this, and he said that that when it comes to you know, because he's very interested in addictions and how one gets off an addiction, and he says there's thousands of predictions that if you do this and do this, you get a work for you. And he said what's true about it is it'll work for somebody, okay, but it's their willingness for it to work that actually makes it possible. And so there's a lot of human agency to things turning out the way you want. If you take complete ownership and it has to work for you, probably it'll work. But if you think it's going to be done to you and you don't have to do anything probably it won't work. Yeah, that's a very yeah, but I thought it was. But he says it's very cruel Because when it doesn't work and it doesn't work, and it doesn't work, your addiction gets more powerful. Dan: I said to somebody I've been talking about. I've often talked about the difference between, in marketing, a slot machine versus a vending machine, and that's a great analogy. It's often the way that most businesses take on marketing. They put money in the slot machine and they pull the lever and they hope that something happens and they're surrounded in a room by all the other entrepreneurs. Dean: Yeah, we got two out of three. Or we got two out of three oranges. Dan: We got a trend going here, that's right, so everybody's pulling their slot machine and they're all in the same room and somebody hits the jackpot and they all flock over to that machine. Look at the crowd, See see, see, it works. They're like yeah, trying to do the same thing. And then you know every all the testimonials that you see. That's exactly what that reminded me of. It's cruel optimism that sometimes see it does work, but they're usually talking about something that happened quickly and to a great extent and once. And it's not the same as the predictable vending machines. Not every time I put in the dollar I get $10 out. Dean: But you know, one of them has. One of them comes with a dopamine factor and the vending machine doesn't come with the dopamine factor. Dan: That's the truth, isn't it? Yeah, but we're all seeking that excitement of the the lot machine. Yeah, it's a cruel optimism, that's funny. Dean: I think it's a good. I think it's a good title. You know, he everything but and. But. It has that somebody else's formula for the future is going to work for you. You know, so I have a. You know I have a little saying that in order to create a more, bigger and better future, you have to first start by creating a bigger and better past. And the reason is the past is all yours to work with. The future is nobody's to work with. Dan: Right. Dean: Yeah, and so my feeling is the greatest breakthroughs with the new vision pro, you know and you know the other AI technologies that are coming along with it is that my feeling is that the best breakthroughs for this will be actually an industrial work, where you're actually dealing with existing engineering. You're existing with existing infrastructure and I think quality control is going to go way up, as people can check out every system you know and they look at, you know they go backstage, they go into a boiler room and they can do a check with their goggles on of every piece of machinery and they have a checklist, does this check and does this check and nothing gets missed. And I think it's going to. The great greatest breakthrough is going to be an industrial quality control. I think that's where it's going to be most used Wow and warfare. I mean all the 35, the latest jets. They operate as six pilot, six plane units. And all, every one of the pilots is aware of the other five pilots and what they're doing. Okay, and they operate as this six person unit, their radar allows them to see 500 miles out in all directions. Okay, and they can see any threat coming, probably two or three minutes before the threat sees them, which makes a big difference, you know. So yeah, somebody said, all breakthroughs happen in three ways, all human, technological breakthroughs. Number one is weaponry. Okay, that's number one, number two is toys and number three is porn. Dan: So there's a triple play right there in the making. Dean: There's a triple play. I mean, if you can check off the box, if this is good for warfare, it's good for play and it's good for porn you got yourself a winner. Dan: Oh my goodness. Dean: That's funny, I like within three days. The biggest complaint about Apple's new vision pro was you couldn't do popcorn on it. Dan: You can't I mean, it's funny, isn't it? That's the way, that's the thing, oh man. Dean: Now, instead of being horrified by that, you're being told something important. Dan: Yes, exactly that's great. So this, this is the week, dan, this is our yeah, so we'll be in. Dean: Orlando at the four seas, in Palm Beach at the four seasons. So Thursday evening will be arriving there. I've got all day Friday completely free. And but we already have Saturday for dinner and Sunday dinner in the calendar with others who have requested it. Dan: Okay so so I got lots of time. Okay, so that's my plan Initially. I may come down Friday then, but Saturday was when I was going to arrive, so maybe, let's you know, put Saturday lunch for sure, yeah, if that works for you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and yeah. Dean: So we're completely, you know, completely flexible with those days All my materials for printing have to be in by Tuesday this week. Dan: Okay, so you're gonna. You're a relax and it's all underway. Dean: Yeah, it gets printed out of Chicago and it'll be sent to the team when they get to Palm Beach. It'll be in the four seasons and they'll just have all the materials for the workshop. Dan: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Okay, well, worst case scenario be Saturday at lunch, maybe Friday. I'll come down on Friday, okay. Dean: What'd you get? What'd you get out of today? Dan: Fascinating, I think this whole. I like this idea of the exponential thinker. Dean: I think that I will be there. You should chat with him about it. There's so many people. Dan: I'm looking, really looking forward to seeing everybody it's. I can't believe it's been a year. Dean: You know, yeah, yeah, yeah. So there, anyway, I think we're gonna have a good. We're gonna have a good, a good event. We have about 70 free zoners and we have another 90 guests. Dan: Oh my goodness, wow, okay, great. Yeah, so hopefully that will yield some new free zoners too. Dean: Yeah, okay, dean, see you on Saturday. Thanks, dan, bye, and just let Becca know, you know, and she'll work things out. Dan: Okay, that sounds great, okay, okay, thanks, bye, bye.

In today's episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we embark on a reflective journey through the lens of history. We examine the perceived hardships of modern life compared to past decades like the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing on personal experiences, I note how some aspects of the human condition remain unchanged despite technological and social evolution. Shifting to practical topics, we discuss strategies for leveraging intellectual property, especially during economic downturns. Adapting to changes and maintaining resilience emerge as significant when transforming ideas into tangible assets. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS In this episode we reflect on how technological advancements have transformed personal and societal challenges compared to past decades. Dan examines the prevalence of mental health discussions in contemporary society versus the silence around such issues in the 50s and 60s. We explore the philosophical implications of our tech-saturated age through the ideas of Italian philosopher Augusto del Noce on atheism and technology. Dan and I question if the abundance of knowledge and advancements in AI truly contribute to happiness or complicate our understanding of the world. We consider whether technology, like virtual reality, adds new dimensions to life or repackages what has always existed. discussions on the military's use of advanced technology, such as eye-controlled systems, and its trickle into civilian life. We share insights on the transformation of media consumption habits and the strategic benefits of converting intellectual property into tangible assets. I underscore the importance of adaptability and resilience, especially when leveraging intellectual property during economic challenges. Dan and I share personal experiences, noting that while the geographical footprint expands, human connection and existence remain constant. We ponder the impact of innovations on our daily lives and the need to adapt to chase tangible achievements in the face of technological change. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan, Dan: Mr Jackson, Dean: it would be a tragedy if these calls were not recorded. It really would. Dan: That would be the truth. Dean: Isn't it nice? Dan: that they're automatically recorded and we don't have to remember to do it. Yeah, just feels organic, so welcome back. Yeah, it's been a few, a couple of weeks here. Dean: Yeah, you know, here's a, here's a thought that I was just pondering, that it seems to me that, as cloud by India expands people's real world experience not real world, but mainland experience they're both. Mainland experience seems to be more challenging and seems to be, in some cases, more vaccine and more traumatic. Okay, do you have some exhibits? That's my thought, that's my cheerful thought for the day. Dan: Do you have some exhibits for your argument? Dean: Well, there's such an emphasis now on meltdown, people having nervous breakdowns, which I don't remember at all growing up, you know 50s 60s? I don't remember any talk like this, but now it's constant, every day. You know people. Dan: And it's everywhere right. Dean: Like now this is. Yeah, I mean everywhere that I know it's much of the world in humanity that I don't know, but everywhere I know, it's not so much that the people that I'm talking to, our experience, and it's not that it's a narrative. You know that. You know these are the most trying times that humans have ever had, and I said well, first, of all. I don't even know how you would know that you know? Dan: how would you know? How would you know? Yes, I mean, if you haven't been there, you probably your knowledge of 150 years ago is probably pretty slim. Dean: How about the dark ages? That would have to be pretty yeah. Dan: Well, I, you know, I don't know, you know, I don't know. Dean: I mean, I think it's a comparison, and I think somebody's got a point to make. When they say the dark ages. Well, they probably weren't dark for the people who were in the dark ages. They probably weren't dark for the people who were in them. Dan: Right, exactly, that's so funny. Dean: Well, the Roman. Dan: Empire seemed to have a pretty good time, didn't they? Dean: Yeah, well, you know, life is life. You know, you know, and yeah, it's a discussion I have with people who are talking about the future and I said I'm going to guarantee you one thing about the future is that when you get there, it's going to feel normal. Dan: And we're going to. It's funny. Dean: I think that would be disappointing to a lot of people, because they think that the future is going to transform them. And I said well, not anymore than the past. Did I remember how? Dan: to find the old. I would say these are the good old times. Yeah, like that's the reality. Is wherever right now. It's just the distance of it right Like if you're thinking. You know, in the past, that was just a reflection of a moment in the present. At one point you know, yeah, well, the reason was we were thinking about the future. Dean: The reason was we were. We were at Genius Network this week and the subject of Apple's new Provision goggles came out. Okay, I don't know if you've experimented yet I haven't. And not, but they said this is going to change everything. Dan: And I said wait a minute. Dean: You're in a half. Ai was going to change everything. And you know I got up this morning and you know my life doesn't feel that much different than when the day before AI was introduced. Yes, at. Dan: GVT. Dean: Yes, and I said and so I began thinking about that that you're using basically a Cloud Landia phenomenon to save. That phenomenon is going to change everything. And and I said, well, you know, I mean who's talking. I mean my question is who's talking? Maybe it's going to change you, but you know, for most people there I mean half the world won't even know about it 10 years from now. Dan: Yeah, like that's. You know, it's so funny. It reminds me of the. You know, how do you? It's like asking a fish how do you like the water? Yeah, yeah, they don't have any recollection of what you're reading. The water, yeah, gen Z is now. You know, all the Gen Zs have no idea about a world without Internet and social media and everything on demand. I mean, they have no idea about there being three channels on TV that broadcast everything to everyone at the same time and not when you watch what they put out. I mean, that's pretty, it's pretty amazing, right, and it was in black and white. Dean: In black and white, on a dream. Dan: Yeah. Dean: You had to jiggle with the antenna to make sure that you're receiving that day. Yeah, you didn't think anything strange about it, that's just. You know, that's just what you had to do. Dan: Eating your TV dinner and it's tinfoil plate and your Jiffy popcorn. Dean: I remember those as being quite tasty. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Isn't that? Dan: funny though, dan. I mean, I do think about that a lot. I just I extended the southerly boundary of my footprint on the planet a couple of weekends ago. I was down in. Miami, in Brickle, at Giovanni Marceco's Archangel event. He invited me down and yeah, so it was just a you know another world. You know expand everything happening. You know people bustling around all in there, certainly a lot of traffic, every you know on the mainland things are Largely status quo, you know, and getting more. Dean: Yeah, you got to pick your time. You got to be more intelligent about picking when you decide to travel these things you know, but I got a feeling that's been that way, you know, Since we could transport ourselves. But I think the question I have is. What is it about, the president? That's not okay with you you know, and. I did this diagram, which I'm going to develop into a thinking exercise. I love that. Yeah, and it's, and I think you've seen it, I think you've seen it and what I have is a sheet of paper and the diagram goes from lower left to upper right. Okay, and down at the bottom there's a little circle and that's at the upper left. Upper right is a bigger circle, and underneath the little circle is here, and under above the Bigger circle in the upper right-hand corner is there, and then I draw a line that's got an arrow head you know, it's a straight arrowhead and it's called striving. Dan: And I said I'm. Dean: This is a portrait of your entire life. I'm going to tell you your as entrepreneurs. So I'm just going to tell you your entire life is. You're here and you're striving to get there. Striving, I said how many of you remember, this is the way it was at 10 years old, 30 years old, some of you 50 years old. I can remember 70 years old. Okay, that was just what I say. So let's say you start at 10 and now you're 60 years old and One thing is absolutely true you have a lifetime, 50 year habit every day, lifetime habit reinforced, of being here but striving to get there. I said so With that very pure habit in place. What do you think the chances are? At 60, you're going to be there. Dan: That's it's so, it's profound Right, but it fits in with the cap and the game too, in a way. Dean: Yeah, so actually 10 years ago. The reason I'm bringing this up is 10 years ago I Decided that I'm there and now, the job is not to get anywhere. The job is just to expand the quality and quantity of the there that I'm at mm-hmm okay and, and I had this exercise and you did, which is called your best decade ever, and I decided, when I look back, that I've achieved more Between 70 and a couple months, 80 70 to 80. I've achieved more in the last 10 years than I did in the previous 70 years. Dan: And what do you? Did you set out with that as your intention, or did you know? Is that my? Dean: intention. I just made a decision. I remember that 10 years ago, when I was 70 and yeah, there was, if you remember, there was a big party and I mean, how can I forget? Dan: you just recently forgave me for lying to you. Yeah there was a. Dean: Dirty lying culprit Involved in that and I love him in spite of that. Dan: I love, there we go, thank you. Dean: Thank you and anyway, but I was reflecting that I'm there, you know, I'm there and there's no. And it shows up in two ways, dean, and it is that I've noticed, and I this just occurred to me one day, because people say Would you like to meet so-and-so, and I said not really right really, and I don't have any particular reasons, it's like yeah, somebody said who's the person that, if you could, you would love most to have dinner with and I said Jackson. I said, certainly someone I know, certainly some what I know knows. You haven't met them yet. And I said, nah, I can't think of anyone you know. And they said yeah, but you know, yeah, I mean, is there anyone in the you know that's gonna be different in the future and I said yeah, but that just that's built into the formula. I said you know, every year we bring you know close to a thousand new entrepreneurs into the program and I know a lot of a thousand there's gonna be. You know a handful of them that I really get to know and they're you know, they're bright, they're exciting, they're ambitious, they're creative, they're doing all sorts of interesting things. I so, just as matter, of course, I'm gonna meet them and they said no. But you know, I mean, would you like to meet Taylor Swift? I said no, what would we talk about? And somebody was gonna introduce me Actually the I was described to this person. That person said I'd really like to meet him and it was a famous politician. They'd like to meet this guy. And so they said would you call him because he'd really like to talk to you? And I said but I don't have anything to say. He may think of a reason for meeting me, but I don't have any reason for meeting him, you know. And I've got so many really bright people that I know. That I'm having great conversations with I don't you know, I don't really want to. It would be a lot of effort, you know a lot of effort. Yeah it would be a, it would be a guess and a bet. Dan: Where I'm working with I'm working with guarantees, you know so. Dean: Anyway. But the other aspect of this where's the place in the world? You haven't been yet. I said can't think of any. You know that you'd like to really go to. I say I can't think of any. Right you know, maybe when I'm in London I'll head in the northwest direction rather than you know the other directions. Have already gone in to see what's five or six streets away and I know in. London. You're in London, you're always running into something new. No longer, no matter how long you're there, you're doing that. So I've got those two things and I think it's a function of the decision I made 10 years ago. You know that there's nobody I particularly want to meet. There's no one, a particular Place that I want to go, and I think the reason is because I've decided that. Dan: I'm there. Do you know? What's so funny, dan, is that is very similar thinking to what I did in 1999 with the. I know I'm being successful when I'm thinking about that. It's being is the state of being here. You can only, you can only be in the present doing it's being right being yeah, it's really interesting. Dean: I've been reading this several volume series by this Italian philosopher, truly a philosopher. Augusto del noce died around 1990 and it's on atheism. As it seems, that is Last 25 years of his life. He was just zeroing on this one subject of atheism, which is kind of a new thing on the planet, you know, goes back the beginning of it is maybe 400 years ago and it probably coincides when we to have the tools and we started to have a financing to do things scientifically, you know, and people notice that as they, they develop scientific concepts and then technology enabled them to measure In a way that they hadn't been able to measure. They discovered brand new things and they just said, since we have this growing ability and it seems like it'll grow forever why do we need God? So, why do we need heaven when we can create our own heaven here? And that was a guess in a bet and it's. It Seems to me that they haven't really been successful. But anyway, I was, I was just. I've read a couple of them twice and I'm on a new one right now, and he's just introduced this vast universe of different thinkers who contribute some aspect To what we would call atheism today. You know which is essentially the denial of that One there is a God and number two, that a God is needed. You know that perfectly okay, ourselves. And and since I've been writing that, I've just been increasingly aware of the topic, the subject I started the conversation with, on my part today. Which was, it seems to me, as we develop these incredible technological abilities. So there's no question that AI. I don't know anything about the new ones, so I don't have any opinion on it, but to that it's not making people happy right Like perfect. Dan: You know, there's great words that I heard Peter Diamandis talking about one time a perfect knowledge that you can see that we're moving to a place where we're wearing let's call them sunglasses now you know like goggles, not the big thing that apple just put out, but that's if we liken that to the first cell phones that were those big brick Cell phones. If we, you know, link that down to, if we take the progress of those, you know VR and AR, you know goggles to be more like, you know, super thin Sun glasses that just look like glasses and we couple that with the advancement in VR or in, you know, ai, in our pocket or attached to our Wrist or whatever, however that goes, that we will reach a point where we know we would have access to knowing everything about everything that's known by visual or auditory cues, right like being able to walk through A city and have, through facial recognition, everything about a particular person, or to walk through a forest and see every, you know, animal butterfly, you know all of those things then there's not going to be any mystery of things. I think you know, like if you just Fast-forward these things, the speed. Dean: Friction is what you're getting out of Peter D Amonus saying this. Dan: I'm saying, I'm looking, what Peter D Amonus said he was the one that I first heard say those words perfect knowledge and I'm translating it into when we're headed now, where we see that it's not too far of a stretch to see the combination of chat T AI and the, you know, ar Sunglasses augmented or virtual reality Sunglass or glasses to be able to view the world through those lenses and have reflected up on the screen or in front of us All the data about somebody or about anything that it sees. You know, it's really almost the way. You know, the need for the more friction Involved ways of gathering knowledge would have been like if you had to let's say you saw this amazing Flower or something out on a walk you'd have to remember, remember it or draw or make notes of it. Then you'd have to go to the encyclopedia you know a botany and you'd have to go through, or even go to the library and look in the dewy decimal card catalog system for Flowers and look for a book that you could scan through to find that maybe somebody has documented what this particular, what this particular flower is. The friction of gathering knowledge was so, you know, so involved in friction, and the more that you Knew, the more that you could store in your, in your brain. That was sort of a measure of Intelligence, right, or a measure of the fact that you knew stuff. That's an advantage for Things. But now if we get to a point where everybody has perfect knowledge, you don't. You have to look at it and see okay, that's the, you know Whatever that, whatever that is, or that person is this, or this product is this or that I'll get you. Dean: I'll give you someone who has a yearly experience of I'm very smart. You know him Peter Steven Poulter. The. IVF doctor and he says you know the thrill of being in this field because the all, basically most medical breakthroughs happen in the Pregnancy and like the first year of life. So most you know if you watch where the money goes and Medical science, it has to do with pregnancy, conception, pregnancy, birth and then probably the first year of life and the other one is the last 12 months of life. Okay, and that's Experimenting to see if we can keep someone alive. You know, beyond, yeah, normal and he says that. He says from my perspective as a Doctor and a scientist, he said every year it seems to me that we know 10 times more About pregnancy because he's an IVF doctor and vitro realization, and he's a great you know, and the Statistics gathered by the US government Indicate that's true he's in the top top. You know five and and he says but the problem is that when you know 10 times more, you're is set with the 10 times greater Universe of what you don't know. Dan: That the 10 times new knowledge has opened. Dean: Yes, yes okay. So, and I was just pondering this, as people are saying well, dan, have you tried out? There's a new provision, yet I haven't. Dan: I said no, I haven't. Dean: I haven't answered two questions. I don't have the answer to two questions. They said what's the questions? I said does this Experience a provision? Does it increase or decrease? Dan: I bet it just where would you put your main line, dopamine? Yeah, you don't even have to move your hands anymore. Dean: Yeah, yeah, that's the first question. The second thing, the second question I have if I don't do it, am I missing anything? Dan: I, you know. What's very interesting too is that to me, the visual that I'm getting also is that Even chat, gpt and all of those things are decidedly backward-looking, meaning it's only trained on what's known knowledge. Dean: Yeah, I'll actually. All creativity is backward-looking. Okay, I mean if it's worth anything, you know. Dan: I mean. Dean: I mean, the apple is really great at this, because apples never first to do anything, you know as right. Dan: There's a highly valued. Dean: You know on a consistent basis they're most highly valued corporation in the world. But they've never actually Done anything new. Just do what already exists a lot better. Dan: Wow, yes, so you wonder what is? So the probe and there is anything new. Dean: What I can see about the provision, because the goggles already exist. It's you know, it's an upgrade on you know what, palmer, lucky probably created the bag and then, you know emails already. They say you can do emails with your eyes and you know you can do search with your eyes. Dan: You can you know everything else. Dean: But I said, these things already exist. They're just pulling together and integrating something that wasn't able to be done. That the same time, you know, and you know it's really pricey, I mean it's, you know, I mean it's reassuringly expensive. They've tried other goggles how much is your program? Reassuringly expensive, that's that I'll tell you. The sales team is gonna have that line tomorrow. It's what? And they say, well, why is it? Reassure me? And I said you know, you know who's not going to be in the room. What they're doing is already exists with the US Air Force, and then All the pilots, that everything they, those pilots, do, is done with their eyes. They have this screen. That's not a screen. I mean, there's no screen, but they see a screen. They see the and they operate with five other planes. So almost every Mission where they sent one of the new hyperjets, the pilot feels himself as a group of six. He's a member of a group of six and he can tell exactly what the other five are doing. You know he doesn't have to turn. It said he doesn't because he can see it on the screen. Plus, he can see 500 miles in all direction. This is all done with the eyes. These pilots have to train themselves to do Everything with their eyes. Well, that already exists. You know they're bringing that down to a civilian, civilian thing. But you know the whole question I have are the stakes big enough that I would teach myself a new skill? Dan: Mmm, right, or does it fit, can you? Well, that's it right. This is. I've been Test-driving, by the way, dan the, and it gets good reaction. They can I. Is there any way for me to get this without doing anything Is a good place to start. Dean: Well, check your limit on your card. Yeah, and first of all it's an anti-social activity because you're putting goggles on, so nobody's going to be around you when you have your goggles. But Mike Kenix was there the other day and Mike said you know, he says you have your mind, has no grasp of you until you've done it. And I says that's fair. I said that's totally fair. I understand that the question Is there enough of a compelling offer that I would even want to have experience? And I think that would be measured measured in the mainland, not in, not in Kauvalandia, I think, whether it was worse. I think whether anything is worth it. It really has a function. Does it register? Is it measurable? Progress in the mainland, right, I think you're right. Well, I'll give you an idea, your studio, your great studio which, yes, we'll have our will have a copy of in September or October of this year. I'll see that the team is in there now. We have eight studios. I have eight studios and they're gonna be you know, up-to-date technologically and and but the thing that compelled me to, first of all, for us to Follow your lead and really investigate what your studio is doing, one of our team members whose key to the Execution here came down to Orlando you know, yes you're. And went there and they said it's fantastic and they're very helpful and they'll help us any way we want, and. But the thing was suggest how much you get done in the mainland was what prompted us to look into it. Dan: Yeah, I mean, that's it's so. You know, that was kind of that before you brought it up, even thinking, I remember the day sitting in the cafe writing in my journal about okay, I want to start doing more video stuff, and asking myself the equivalent of that. You know thinking, because I'm definitely trained in thinking who, not how. But I caught myself really going down a how path of thinking okay, what do I need? You know, at least two of these. I need two cameras, I need lighting, I need what am I going to have for the background? I was already visualizing how I would rearrange one of the rooms in my office to be the, you know, always ready studio kind of thing. And then it really dawned on me about that that it's already there. Is there? That's the equivalent of is there any way I can get this without doing anything? And we literally went, you know, straight there and set up, signed a contract and recorded the very next morning. I mean, it's just so funny that the pressure not allowed and I realized that was you know. I was at the end of the 12 weeks. I signed a 12 week contract that. I had already, you know, I had 12 weeks worth of content in you know, created and already documented, and we hadn't even reached the point of what one of those cameras would cost. Dean: Like. Each of them got three cameras that are $6,000. Dan: You know the microphones are $1,000 each. The that sound for the studio environment. I mean the whole thing, the software, the all of it. It's a crazy thing when you really start thinking about it's the only way to do this without doing anything, and that's part it's so parallel you know I've been talking about. Imagine if you apply your self SELF, sphere is things around you. Is there somebody else as a service or someone that you know that could just do this without you having to do anything? Dean: Yeah, the thing is that I'll you know, I can think of some team members that. I'll encourage and we'll you know we'll finance it. Have some finance. Who would be interested in looking that provision and see what application it would have to the normal course of business, of speeding things up, making things easier, you know, and everything, and so funny. I was having a conversation with someone and he said I mean, he was texting you know and about. We were with him for about two hours and he probably texted you know 15 times to our hours and received text and you know and to our he's excuse me, I just have to take five minutes to do this. And so I said what would you see on the average day that you're involved in texting busy? And I said, and I suspect, if you do it on five days a week, you actually do it on seven days a week. Dan: Yeah, exactly. Dean: I don't think you take a weekend off from this habit. So so anyway, and he says well, you know, a light day is maybe a hundred texts and you know, a really filled, filled up day is 400 texts. Dan: And. Dean: I said you know that you're lower number, 100. That's more than I've done in my lifetime. Dan: More than more texts than you've done. Yeah, yeah, 100. I haven't done 100. Dean: I haven't done 100 texts in my lifetime. I mean, yeah and it's, and that would be 95% to Babs, you know and you know, and mostly I use emojis. I've become very Egyptian. I can do. I can do hieroglyphics with emojis and I can get a message and I like it. You know thumbs up times three. You know times. Dan: Smiley guy with sunglasses you know, I mean, you can do a lot of creative work with emojis, but except that we're apart. Dean: The only reason I'm doing this because we're apart, you know we're not in the same location, otherwise we just chat. But the thing is that this person, when I look at what he gets done, I get sometimes more done than he does in a day, certainly in a week or a month, you know, a week, a month or a quarter I get 10 times more done and I don't do any of it. You know, I don't do any of that stuff. Dan: Yeah. Dean: I bet. That's part of the I mean it's not profitable productivity, it's the feeling, it's dopamine busyness yes, I agree 100%. Dan: That's exactly where I that's what I've been catching myself, you know is this is really taking a look at that and realizing how much of this is, you know, really counterproductive. You know a lot of ways. I was saying I had a breakthrough blueprint at celebration last week Monday, Tuesday, wednesday and we were talking about, you know, 19,. I was bringing up the idea that you and I had been talking about the 25 year frames, and you know we're talking about your 70 to 80 best decade ever, and how. You know, three years I'm going to be 60 and then it'll be 20. The next 25 year framework I'll be 85, you know. So, looking back 28 years ago you're not discussed like that takes you all the way back to, you know, 1996, 1995, whatever that, whatever that is and realizing that everything that we look at right now that is so important to our lives wasn't even in existence. Then you know, like we, I still remember in 1997, when internet was just starting to become mainstream and it was definitely a place out there that you went to go to. You know you would go to the internet from your primary world on the mainland and it was a distraction, it was something it was starting to dip into. Maybe you know TV time or something that you would do otherwise. And then I remember, you know, gradually it became more and more, and 2007 I view as the tipping point, when we started with the iPhone bringing the internet with us and the app world becoming vital functions for going through our days. And now we're at a point where it's so woven into our existence that it's like water and we don't even remember, you know, I mean, all the talk now is what would happen if the grid went down. Indeed, dan, what would happen if the grid, the internet, went down? Not the power, not electricity, but let's say that the network goes down. So many things would be, you know, so many things would be messed up. We don't know how to survive without it. I was joking about that article. I remember, in the New York Times or GQ, I think it was magazine had a journalist that they sent, you know, to try and survive in New York City for a week where their only means of contact with the outside world was the internet see if he could make it. And he searched, you know, in this bulletin board, and he found this restaurant, this Chinese restaurant that had a menu and they would. You could order delivery on the internet, you know, and he slowly survived with those things. But now it's so exactly the opposite that it would be challenging to survive in New York City a week without the internet you know, it's just so how things have switched. You're the closest thing you're the closest thing I know of to being, you know, amish in the I've been involved in it. Dean: Yeah, I mean yeah, and one is, my life is not that much different. I mean, I certainly made use of the technology. I mean there's no question and I enjoy the. You know, I enjoy the internet and I mostly enjoy it for YouTube, I would say YouTube yeah, because I can get really in-depth, one-hour explanations of a particular topic you know, and Peter Zion is very good at his eight minute, 10 minute, 15, very, very good at it and. I really enjoy that. And then I'll watch all the action scenes out of Denzel Washington's new Sicily film, you know and. I mean, you don't have to watch a whole Denzel Washington movie to get the essence, you know it's about 20 minutes of really hardcore violence, you know. Dan: Yeah right. Dean: And he, you know, and he wishes the other person hadn't gotten him into this situation. He says no, I was just going about my life here. You know, it would have been better if you left me alone but here we are, you know and you got about 10 seconds to decide whether you're going to live or not, you know. So I'm just looking at my watch right now and three seconds to say you know, and I enjoy that, it's like a little you know palate, you know refreshing. And then I'll go back and I'll look at some question that occurs to me. I wonder you know what happened in this historical situation? Sure enough, you can find one or two or three you know, yeah movies, or you know videos, or something on the internet. you know and you can do that and it's very conducive for my ADB brain to have that activity and people say well, how much. You read a lot. No, I told people you know I haven't watched television at all, and Joe I. It'll be six years that I haven't watched nothing. All the football. I haven't watched any of it, Nothing. I haven't watched anything, but what I've discovered is that no football game has more than 10 minutes of action. And so I just watched the highlights. And then I don't want to see the highlights for the other teams, I just want to see the highlights for my team. That's about six minutes. And I said, geez, all those games I spent watching hour after hour on television. I could have gotten 10 or 15 of the men and the time it would take to do it, but you know, you kind of zero in on what's the dopamine part of the exercise. You know the activity so, but I resist the notion that this is going to change my life. I just resist the idea. Well, this changes everything. And I said, well, you know, speak for yourself you know, change anything for me, right? Dan: And we're both tourists. Dean: We're both tourists, yes, and we will sacrifice no pleasure for something new. Dan: Right, oh man, that's so funny. Dean: Any existing pleasure. We will not put that on the table as a bet. Dan: Yeah, we like our current pleasures, that's right. Dean: Oh yeah, so you know, and the thing is, the world is made up of all sorts, and so you've got to have the people who are, you know, the people who are just crazy nuts about the future, you know and you know, and there's people who say well, you know, as far as human nature goes, I haven't seen anything particularly new in 79 years. Right, interesting, I'm not saying not interesting. I just haven't seen a lot of new stuff happening with the fundamental change in people. Dan: Right yeah. So how are you? How are you looking at your next best decade ever? You're months away, days away. Dean: Yeah, the big thing is that we've discovered a great capability in the last two years, and that is that our thinking tools, coach tools, seem to translate easily into patents. Okay, so we started in April with a big batch. We you know we put in dozens of applications and they're starting to come in and we've got 12 now since April, we've got 12 patents and these are, you know, these have asset values. They're like every patent is like you created a house, you know, and it's got a marketplace value. The moment you get the asset, you know, you get the you know notification from the patent bureau that this is now a patent. And there seems to be something good about our thinking tools. You know strategy circle, pre-focus and buffer days. There seems to be something about our thinking tools that resonate with what they consider to be a patent. You know, something that can be granted a patent. So this is very exciting, because all we're doing is taking stuff that's been created over the last 35 years and giving it an asset value beyond just getting paid for it in workshops, you know. So it's it's growing and we're not doing that. It's a whole team of other people. We just write it a check. And you know a year later, we get back an asset that is, at the minimum, 10 times more you know, greater than our investment. Dan: I mean that's you know 10 to one in a year is pretty good to return that investment. Dean: So I'm very excited about that because we just have vast Dean. You can't believe how much stuff we've got in the store room. You know just a sheer number of ideas that we have and all of them are popping up in my mind. We're going back through documents I created 25 years ago. I said, geez, that was a great idea, but it had no present use so it didn't have a value. But here you can take everything and increase the value. I would say, the next 10 years, the amount of asset value we will create in intellectual property and on patents will equal the total amount of, will be the total amount of revenues we've created since 1989. Wow, yeah. So that's what I'm excited about. Dan: Wow, and that's where the program is. Dean: That's where the program is going. I mean, Dean, if you went through all your, all your notes, all the notebooks that you created and everything else. I bet there's a gold mine there that it can't. Dan: No, I understand that intellectually, I understand that there's lots of that. I get that. I just I can't. When I have a hard time wrapping my mind around is to what end? You know like. I wonder what the. Dean: If you were ever in, you know. First of all, that tells you that its property is the fact that you can barrel against it, not that we need it. Dan: Right. Dean: And I will tell you, we had this scamper a little bit during COVID and we had this scamper a little bit during the meltdown in 0809 where we lost the bottom of our program. I mean the revenues for the people who were at the lowest level. We just instantly lost it, you know, for a year and a half or two years, and unfortunately we went into our own reserves, our own personal reserves. Dan: Absolutely. Dean: And we could. You know we could finance the company but it was nervous. Used up weeks of her time you know, I don't want to hear you just call a number and you say I'd like to. You know the way it's all set up now with the, you know, the appraisal companies and then the loans loan companies. It's all set up and we'll get to know all those people. So the assessed value is up to date every day, and so it puts you in a position where your cash confidence. I like the game that the strategic coach represents and I just wanted to go on and on, and I don't want to be, wasting time with nervous crises, right exactly. Dan: Yes, it's a good way of putting it nervous crises, that's a. Dean: Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's creative crises, but the nervous ones I could do without, right? Oh, that's so funny. Is there any way I can solve this problem? By doing nothing? That's right, I'm not doing anything. Dan: Well, that's as close as you could get. I guess, when you think about it like that seems to me perfect knowledge. Dean: Yes exactly All this numbers. Dan: Yeah. Dean: I don't get the value of knowing everything you know I don't get the value of instantaneously knowing what would. Yeah, and besides, we already created that technology. Dan: Who was that? Who was the famous? You know the old story of the gentleman that said he doesn't need to know those things. He has a button on his desk and whenever I need to know anything I'll push that button and seven men will show up in here and one of them will know the answer to what I'm looking for Henry Ford yeah it was Henry Ford, that's right. Dean: Yes, I could summon someone, but we've already created the technology for perfect knowledge. And you're going to say, dan, what is the technology? Dan: for perfect knowledge. Well, what is it? Dean: Dan, it's called God. Okay, so they don't have access to it. But they said, no, we're going to get off, we're going to get away. You know, and I'm not joking here, because when you read these books, you realize that it's a desire not to be dependent upon at all, upon the entity that created you. And I said, well, I'm okay with it, right, right. And they say, well, it's like you're dependent upon God. And I said, hey, well, first of all, I'm very comfortable to know that he exists, or she, whatever, in this transgender age Anyway. But I have a feeling. You know, I've had a feeling since I was a kid that I'm connected to something that's transformative and it's way above my ability to know things, and you know I'm okay with that, I don't lose any energy over that, but I think there's this one of the. In reading these many books on atheism I automatically translate. When I read a lot that is very deep subject and a person has spent their whole life doing it I always think is there some aspect of this that I can just capture and write a quarterly book on? And it came to me after I've been reading El Noce, the Italian philosopher, for about a year and what I came to is a title. I always go for the title. Dan: Yeah, of course that'll see. Dean: Yeah, and the title is atheism is very hard work. Dan: Oh boy. Dean: It's very hard work. Yeah, these guys people were atheists just have to. I mean, it's 24, seven. I tell you there's no harder work on the planet than being an atheist, oh my goodness. Because they're on the lookout for anybody who even suggests that there's a God, and you know it, they get angry and they you know they have to get into an argument. I said, geez, that's a lot of work, that's a lot of work. Dan: Yes, it's so funny, dan, and observant and true, it's like those things. It's funny. It's like those isms, right, like veganism. Yeah, you know, yeah. Dean: I mean you can't sleep, compel even jelly. I mean you can't relax, you can't sleep. I mean isms. Dan: I mean you know except quick start ism. Right, yes, you watch Dan Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin. Dean: Yeah, I think Tucker Carlson did himself a lot of good, uh-huh. Dan: I think so Absolutely. Dean: Yeah, I mean, he wasn't any different with Putin. Dan: You know, I mean, this is the guy who's gonna get you thrown off the top of the building. Dean: You know he didn't see many more you know, yeah, he's got more sex than he is with anyone Anyone. You know he just Right, right right. As a matter of fact, there's a couple of situations where he just kind of broke out laughing. Yes, exactly. Dan: I can't believe. Dean: You just said that. Dan: Right, but it was very interesting to hear Putin's history lessons. You know, going all the way back. Dean: Yeah, well you know, you gotta look at it from their point of view. They are the easiest country historically to invade. I mean they have about 13 different gateways where enemies can send their troops. It's a flat country, you know. Dan: Yeah. Dean: I mean US has 3000 mile moat on the east and they have a 5000 mile moat on the west and they've got pot smoking Canadians on the north, you know, I see their no threat, oh my goodness. And then you have the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean on the south and then where they're connected to Mexico, it's 200 miles of desert mountains. I mean you can die before you can get across that thing. So the US, but Russia is just the opposite. I mean not only can people invade, they've been invaded 50 times since his 800 number, you know, whatever the year is. I mean Right, they have real honesty, got reason for being paranoid. Dan: Yeah, it's so funny. I thought it was funny when he was saying how you know, he asked about joining NATO. I thought to myself because this isn't the whole purpose of NATO to protect against Soviet expansion. Well, let's get in on that. Why don't we join that too? Dean: But you know you got to look at it from his you know, I mean you don't have to agree with his point of view, but you at least have to know what his point of view is. And if I was his point of view, I mean he was born to nobody and he you know. Through diligence and hard work he got to be a colonel in the KGB. And I have to tell you if you were in the Soviet Union before it collapsed there was no more better job and status in the world than being, you know, a, you know, up and coming officer in the KGB. They got to travel, they had their own stores, they could have somebody arrested and killed. You know, you know pretty easily, and everything else I said you know. You can see it. He took his career, took a real drop when the wall fell. You know so well. Dan: Dan, we said it all. How do we do it? How do we do? I mean, we said it all really, but there's always knowledge though there's always more. Dean: That's exactly right, yeah, the one thing about what knowledge is being made up on a daily basis, so I don't know how the word perfect fits in there, right? I mean, we just created over the last hour, we just created some new knowledge. Dan: That's exactly right. That's what. So it's visually like. It's really interesting. That's my vision of that. It's future blind. You know that GPT it's all only feeds on what's already been created. Dean: Yeah, you know but there's still got to be some, if technology had feelings, which I don't think it does. I think AI should be more nervous about humanity than humanity should be nervous. Dan: Right. Dean: What are they going to come up with today? You know? I mean I feel like we've got it all organized every night and you know, at the morning and the morning we get back and the rock is down at the bottom of the hill again. We've got to push it up. That's so funny. That's so funny. Yeah, I think it's technology that's trying to keep up with humanity, and not the other way around. Dan: Well, I'm excited, dan. It's almost a couple of weeks. Yeah, we've got a calendar date. Dean: Yeah. I tell you we're going down the Thursday before we're arriving in the evening of the Thursday before. So, we've got Friday, saturday, sunday, monday. I think we got four days and we're at the four seasons. Dan: Yes, that's great. When are you leaving? Dean: Wednesday, the day after you know the day after the yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. Dan: So we will have some time. We're on track. Dean: We're on for next week. We're on for next week I like that, okay, perfect. Yeah, great Dan, we'll have a great week then. Great Dan, I will talk to you next week. Dan: Thanks Okay, bye.

In today's episode of Welcome To Cloudlandia, Dan and I reflect on the lost art of letter writing and how corresponding through history has helped shape our podcasting discussions across time. We speak about the meaningful routines that have guided creative minds, from the structured elegance of Victorian letters to our own cherished Sunday rituals. We also explore memory-boosting techniques like visualization and repetition, applying them to maximizing focus and managing time efficiently through life's challenges. The discussion spotlights approaches for evaluating routines that enhance well-being as work dynamics evolve, touching on parallels with societal shifts like the Great Depression. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Dean reflects on the joy of podcast recordings and the historical significance of letter-writing, drawing parallels between Victorian correspondence and modern podcasting. Dan discusses the role of structured routines in creative individuals' lives throughout history, including segmented sleep schedules influenced by lighting and caffeine. We explore the ABC questions as a tool for personal growth, helping to identify challenges that lead to immediate development when addressed. Dan compares time management to a strategic investment, emphasizing focused work sessions and revisiting effective past habits for increased productivity. We examine the impact of COVID-19 on workplace habits and the lasting effects, akin to those experienced during the Great Depression. Dean highlights the SELF acronym for personal efficiency and discusses the changes in commuting and work relationships due to the pandemic. Dan emphasizes the importance of aligning with one's natural rhythms post-retirement and the significance of consistent sleep schedules for overall well-being. We delve into the life game analogy, illustrating the impact of 'crowding out' bad habits with good ones for a harmonious existence. Dean discusses the importance of delegation and efficiency in daily routines, sharing his meal planning strategy that ensures balanced nutrition and time-saving. Dan speaks on being selective about new habits at his age, focusing only on those that will last or reinforce existing beneficial habits. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: I'm Mr Jackson. Dean: You know, I look at my calendar and I get this little ding on my phone that tells me we're coming up to podcasts with Dan, and it's always this little spur of joy that comes over me and I wonder where will our adventures take us today? Dan: Yeah, it's a tough bet. Dean: I'm guessing it's going to be somewhere wonderful and I'm betting on that. Yeah, yes. Dan: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know it's a nice structure because, other than my podcast with you, sunday's not a very interesting day for me. Dean: Exactly. It's the highlight of the day and we've picked a good time. Dan: We've picked the perfect time. Dean: It kind of invisibly, you know, non-obtrusive in the day, we get the morning kind of ease into it, and then right around now is when we start thinking, okay, what are we going to do today? And here it is, and then we've got the rest of the whole day after this. Dan: You know I read the last year a history of Victorian England. So this is basically 1830s till you know 1890s and 60 years, and there are people, you know very notable leaders and you know notable for other reasons, who would write up to 30 letters a day. Yes, and have them delivered by courier if they were in the city. Dean: Yes. Dan: If in London and there were some individuals that they wrote to virtually every day and then we get a return, yeah, and so the interest, the interesting thing about it is that the stain in touch with certain people and trading ideas goes back a long time. Dean: Yes. Dan: The UK probably had the first best postal service, you know which, and they had great courier services. Since I said, yes. And so our podcast is like sending a letter, you know, and, but you don't have to wait for the response. Dean: I really like that. You know, because all the way back you think about all of that. You know the back as far as we can see, even almost. You know, every book of the New Testament in the Bible is letters. It's, you know, letters to, to. You know Paul's letters to the Ephesians or to the Colossians or to that's. It's an interesting thing. I read a great book Richard Rossi turned me on to it years ago about the daily routines of notable people, like all the way back in time, and it was very interesting to see. You know, in the 1800s and the 1700s there, whatever is kind of known about the routines of, you know, different composers or writers or artists or whatever. It is pretty, pretty similar among creative people all across the board. They would, you know, they would kind of wake up and ease into the day with some coffee and you know, reading or whatever. Then they would do some, they would do some work and then they would break for lunch and maybe go for a walk and then do their. There was almost exclusively. They all did their correspondence where it was. You know what you were just talking about. They'd get their letters and they'd write their letters and that was the equivalent of. Dan: And read their letters. And read their letters. Dean: Yeah, read their letters and then in the evening they would meet with friends and you know and not, and then read or whatever before going to bed and they were pretty much typically all in bed Pretty early. That was the routine of the thing. Because there were less dopamine, I think was harder, you had to earn dopamine back then Right, yeah, yeah, I mean, I didn't get excited. Dan: What keeps you excited? Did you also you know, when you were reading about the letter writing habit to do also come across the fact, which I found interesting, that and this obviously would be, you know, upper class people, because it required light, but that they wouldn't sleep through the night, like they wouldn't go to bed and sleep. They would have couple of sleeping periods where they'd go to bed and then they'd get up in the middle of the night and required light. So they obviously could afford candles or oil lamps, and they would. They would spend a couple hours writing and reading and then they go back to bed for their second, for their second night time, did you? Dean: come across that I did a couple of a couple of times and that was, I think, a pretty common practice back when people would kind of go to bed with the sun right and as the sun went down they would kind of not long after that go to bed. But it wasn't I don't recall it being the most common thing because a lot of these people were I don't know when that practice. Actually I'm familiar with it. I'm not sure when it was popular and when it stopped. Dan: I think you had to have light you know, generally speaking, light was hard to come by. You know, one of the things that I'm always a bit irked about when they show, you know, movies that are historical movies, you know, in other words, they're dealing with a historical period and it's, you know, it's a palace or it's a castle or something, and it's right. There's hundreds of candles, you know, like hundreds of candles or there's fires? I don't think so. I think it was pretty dark. I think it was pretty dark. I mean, the biggest thing which created nighttime you know, awake nighttime for us was probably kerosene you know, which you could have kerosene lamps and then gas lamps, you know you had gas systems and yeah, where you didn't have to individually fill the. And, as a matter of fact, we were both in London over the during the last 10 years when they were digging up the entire city to replace gas lines have been put in the 1880s and 1890s. So it was they had been in the ground for 130 years and my sense is that there is a case to be made that it was lighting and also caffeine that created sort of like a second day for people. I just talked about a second night, second sleeping night, but also the all of a sudden when you had light available or places that had light and you had caffeine, people would work. You know, into the evening people would work. I think caffeine to a certain extent created productivity. You're not well you're a coffee drinker aren't you. Dean: I am. Yeah, I have coffee in the morning. Yeah, I'd say two o'clock is the latest, but primarily it's only in the morning. Dan: Yeah, I don't have anything after noon, after 12 noon. I don't have coffee, but you were talking about the habits of famous people Coffee was a good piece of it. I have a new tool I'm creating, you know, just to get people in touch with kind of things they always do without really reflecting on it. And it's called best lifetime habits. Okay, and generally speaking, a lifetime habit is a habit where you do it pretty well every day. Dean: Yes, and I think that's. I have some of those for sure, like everybody does. Yeah, and you know there's. The thing is like. I think it was you that once said nobody looks for new habits except for the ones they are already accustomed to, right? Dan: Once we already have. Dean: And for me I've, because it's constantly the fun game, you know, of trying to systemize your. You know, systemize things, look for the best way to, you know, be get as much happiness and productivity as you can out of your days and kind of go with the flow. I've really determined that my the flow, for me it really falls into zones and I remember I had a great conversation with Ned hollow well, and you know he was saying and I've shared this with you before that you know he was saying when you think about my days, like a bobsled run and set up the bobsled track that you get in at the top and it slides and winds you through the course and you end up at the end with touching all the touch points that you want kind of thing, and otherwise we end up going through the day like a toddler and a picnic. And that is absolutely true of me and I'm sure of you. So my hybrid of that, my most recent iteration, because I'm constantly evolving it, thinking okay, this is the you know, this is the new routine here. So my, I've been looking into zones and the thing that is absolutely true always and will continue to be true, is the constant of life moving at the speed of reality, 60 minutes per hour, seven days a week, you know, 24 hours a day. That whole thing is very that's a locked in place system that we can't nothing we can do about that. We can only move through that time in in real time. And so there are certain things I look at that my I try and set up my hybrid of the bobsled run is a compromise. That is like setting up a slalom run for skiers. You know when you go you have to go through certain gates. You know you have to go around this gate to get to the thing. So my basic things are setting it up, that I like to. If I set a constant of waking up at 7am, which is a natural and normal thing for me to do, I don't think there's any reason for a human to wake up at 5am. But you are different than me and that's a total different world, right? So I wake up at 7am, I can do that effortlessly without an alarm clock and it feels good, right? Then this first zone I look at, my next like gate that I'm trying to get to is 10am is the perfect time for me to do focused you know, focus finders 50 minute focused sessions from 10 o'clock till noon, and that's a big zone for me. That if I can steer everything to that, where I am in my the spot where I'm gonna do whatever, the optimal environment for my focused work is 10 to 12 is the perfect time for that. I've. Recently I went through with Jay Virgin. I went over for dinner with Tim and Jay and you know we were talking about, you know I had her go through with me and we picked out some power meals for me from Grubhub and Uber Eats to have on rotation right. So we picked 10 meals which are delicious and wonderful and protein first sort of meals with protein and vegetables. And I found the. I've been using the pre-arranged delivery on the app where I can last night set up to deliver one of those meals at 12 o'clock so that I don't have to think about it. And at 12 o'clock I know that my first meal is arriving at noon. Then the next zone then is the afternoon, is the time for anything. Any appointments that I have or any Zoom workshops or client appointments or talking with anybody happens Tuesday, wednesday, thursday between one o'clock and six o'clock, and so that zone is reserved for any time obligations that I have for involving other people. And then six o'clock is the second time when either one of those meals arrive or I've been subscribing to a meal service called Factor 75 and they deliver these great meals that you get a weekly shipment of it. So I get seven of these meals, six of these meals, sorry delivered once a week and they're all hermetically sealed and chilled and all you have to do is warm them and they're delicious and the right calorie balance and everything like that. So it takes variation out of that process there. And then the other zone then is seven o'clock to 10 o'clock in the evening and then reading, and in shutting it down I'm in bed, basically, or on my way there, by 10 and lights out by 11. And so that routine, that zone is really the most natural thing. There's lots of ways for me to optimize within that, and I think that it really comes down to really preparing in advance for those two hour my focus sessions. I can tend to be ready to do the focus work but not know specifically what it is that I'm going to work on, so I've been really focused on using those times. To use my golf analogy a goal, optimal environment, limited distractions, fixed time frame. So I lay out my when we were talking about who, not how, in the initial stages, one of the you know, basecamp one is to who up. A thousand hours was the goal and I started really thinking about those thousand hours as capital allocation. But then realizing you can really, I can really only allocate, you know, 10, 20 maximum of those hours in a week. And so it's being more intentional with those allocations and realizing that not all the hours are equal, you know. And so realizing that the if. I focus on if I can get two or three of those focused hours in a day. That's a win for me. Oh, yeah, you know. Dan: Yeah, yeah, the I just during the last quarter and it just relates to the last point, and I've got a lot of comments on the previous points, but the last thing you said was this freeing yourself up. And so during the last quarter I am still going and it's called the ABC questions and it's I think you did this. I think you did this yes. Dean: I just got my package just arrived. Dan: Yeah, I called for Thursday yeah, yeah. Dean: And the. Dan: Zoom workshop on. Thursday, and but what was interesting about it is that these are the. What you're applying it to is what I call growth problems. Dean: Okay, and I've never, never. Dan: Used that word before, but it's a problem which, if you sell that, there's growth that immediately follows and then and then a area of your life time money. You know relationship, yeah. And so you just brainstorm and then you pick three of them and write them out, and then the first question is there any way you can solve this problem by doing nothing? Okay, and I've done about six of these and I'm going to turn it into an actual, you know, an actual tool that I use on a frequent basis. Okay, a desktop tool, and the answer is usually no, but then you immediately identify the thing that you do have to do. Okay, so, and six cracks, that would be 18 growth problems. I've never said yes, there is something I can. This is something that I can solve by doing nothing. Okay, but, it forces you to think about it. Then the second question is what's the least you have to do to solve the problem? And now we're into who, not how, territory. Dean: Yes. Dan: Okay, the moment you say no, there is something I have to do, but usually it's just a communication. And in my world you use a fast filter to communicate. You say this is you know, this is the project, this is the best result, this is the worst result, and these are the five measurements of success. Okay, and then the third question is there a? Who can do my least? Dean: Yeah, exactly, it's like the do you know what it's all in the syntax right Is when you think about is there any way you could do nothing? No, that's impossible. You have to do something. Okay. So what's the least I could do? And then can I get somebody to do that, and the answer then is that you're doing nothing which is fantastic. It's like it reminds me of a story, dan, of the gentleman, the guy that went in to see the priest and was asking him if it was okay to smoke while he's praying, and the priest said well, praying is a very reverent thing. You should be respectful, you see, yeah, so you can't. Yeah, so no, no, you can't, you shouldn't smoke while you're praying. Dan: It's the wrong question. Can I pray while I'm smoking? Dean: That's exactly it. Dan: Cause a few months later he comes back and he said father when should I pray? Dean: And he said well, the Bible says you should pray without ceasing. And he said should I pray while I'm gardening? Well, yes, you're in nature. You should pray while you're gardening. Dan: Can I pray while I'm? Dean: walking. Can I pray while I'm smoking? Of course you can. Dan: Of course you can, exactly yeah. Dean: So I think you've stumbled on that same logic. Dan: Well, the thing is, it's gotta be able to humor to it. Yes. Dean: You know people say well. Dan: I said well, think it through. You know, yeah, and I said, the reason is that entrepreneurs of a certain nature anyway, my years in mind have a tendency to immediately throw themselves into a new possibility and it upsets your schedule. You know, it upsets your schedule, it upsets your team work and everything else, yes. So my whole point is you know, I've got a lot on my plate. Is there any way that I can get away with just 10% effort, just 10% effort, where I was thinking of 100% effort for the day? Is there any way that I can get 100% result with a 10% effort. You know it's always you know. But going back to the habit thing and my, you know your best lifetime habit, I would ask two questions best lifetime habits that you were doing it once but you haven't been doing it, and the other one is things that you're doing and they can be reinforced Because a lot of people, if they think about their life, they can think about at a certain time. You know they did this and it was great for them, but somewhere, for some reason, they got off track with it and just ask them if they you know, would it be worthwhile getting back on track with this particular habit? Dean: You know, while I'm thinking about it, dan, you're that progression of can I do nothing? What's the least I can do? Is there anybody that could do that least? That really harmonizes with my acronym, for you know, imagine if you applied yourself S-E-L-F, and it's the interesting thing is that S is for meaning is there some service or person or you know, something that you could, that could eliminate the need for you to do that? And if that, if you don't have something in your sphere, then the next thing would be E, which is energy, which is your energy. What do you have to do? L is leadership, meaning could you instruct somebody else to do what needs to be done? And F is finances. You could finance it. So, is there a way? No, it's about applying your self, your sphere, your energy. That's the one we want to least do leadership and finances. And so the only thing you're applying your energy to do is to figure out a way that you could turn it into a leadership opportunity to ask somebody else to do it. Dan: Yeah, and it's really interesting. Have you thought about that? Or what a profound change that the restrictions of CODET have have, how they've impacted people's work habits? Have you given any thought to that? Dean: I think about it all the time. I mean your own, obviously your own obviously yeah, but yeah, I have a feeling I told somebody. Dan: I said you know, I talked to a lot of adults when I was a kid who had talked about the great depression and how things that have been available weren't available and how their you know, their daily, weekly behavior changed as a result of the Great Depression. And I have a feeling, covid, which I mean the United States the Great Depression lasted 10 years, 29 to 30. And it didn't end until Pearl Harbor when the Second World War started. For the United States it didn't really end, so it was 10, 11 years. It was the you know, great depression and people's attitude toward money, towards work, you know where they lived and everything else was really altered by the, you know, by that 10, 11 year period here it was about really, you know, it was about two and a half years, let's say, and it's still being affected, you know, and what happened is that people's habits changed in a very significant way you know, And I was saying, you know, it's going to be hard to get a lot of people back to their job, you know. And what happened is that they were so busy they didn't have time to think about why they were busy. And so I said, you know, they were out for three months and they said I never realized how shitty the commute is. I called it the three shitties. The first thing, that's three shitties. Yeah, how shitty it was and how shitty the work was. You know, I would go through a shitty commute back and forth every day. The work was really shitty and the, you know, the people I was working with were really shitty. Dean: And. Dan: I never realized it because I never had time to think. You know, and now I have time to think and I think that it's a fundamental, lasting shift, like it'll last for the rest of people's lives. But, you know, the younger people will, you know, kind of be forced to adjust to what the older people's habit change was. You know, Of course, younger people's habits were enormously changed and the biggest thing, they're finding that truancy rates are at an all time high. I mean schools are back and you know they're back in person. But COVID taught kids that you know showing up for school is optional. Dean: Yes, yeah, and it's so. I mean, what's happening at Strategic Coach now regards to, you know, remote working, and how have you adapted to that? Dan: Well, we have one rule and the rule is everybody has to be there on Wednesday, and the reason is that Wednesday's, wherever it is, whether it's in London, or whether it's in Los Angeles or Chicago or Toronto, Wednesday's always a workshop day. It's always a workshop and so more people have to be in anyway because of the workshop and we just said Wednesday and people said well you know, you know I'm not, you know I'm not on the front stage on workshop days, so why do I have to come in? And I said and Bab sorry, this is not me, bab, the other team leader says because the rule is on Wednesday, you're here. Yeah but yeah, but the rule is Wednesday, you're here, Okay. Dean: So we have that. Dan: And then the other thing is now we have four workshop days a year, every quarter starting. We're just starting this. It's a full day workshop but it's just for the teams wherever they are and we have to get, and they have to be there in person so they can meet other people. I mean we had 23 new hires from January to January you know, and they haven't met the best. Majority of you know people that they're working with and everything like that. So we're making adjustments. You know we're making adjustments. We had our best year ever, so it can't be all bad. You know we had our most sales and I mean you know the boxes that you would check off. That says that this is a great year. We got all the boxes last year, so it's not like we're in trouble or anything because of the new arrangements or anything else, but there is a value in people really firsthand getting to meet the people that they work with. Dean: And in. Dan: June, everybody in the world comes to Toronto. You know everybody in our. You know California, chicago. Dean: London and. Dan: Toronto everybody's here for two days, for two days. But you know, you just make adjustments to things as they go along. Dean: Yes, but that's very yeah, that's good, I think that's. Dan: But you know, it's really interesting that if you take the money that people don't have to spend to commute and then the time saving, it's quite a bonus that they've gotten in a very short period of time. Dean: Yes, yeah, I mean you think about just the hours back of the commute. Even if it's 30 minutes, like even if you're local, it's still 30 minutes. Dan: Yeah, and there's not just the time, there's the getting ready for the 30 minutes. Dean: That's what I mean, yeah. Dan: So 30 minutes is an actual commute time. It's an hour, you know, do it. So it's twice a day and our team works 220 days. So, that would be 440 hours and then discount the one where they have to come in, but it would be 80% of that. And yeah, so you know, 80% of 440 is, you know, 350, somewhere around 350. So that's 350 hours. And then there's the gasoline cost, and I don't think any of our one or two of our team members have an electric car. But you know, Right, yeah, so anyway, but there's, you know, there's everything involved with the car parking. Dean: So, dan, I'm curious now about your day, how your, you know, or we kind of rhythm do you run your personal operating system? Dan: Yeah well, mine is really based on four things. It's doing workshops, it's everything involved in creating a book and podcasts, and then it's the preparation for those things. So three things that are products, and then there's three things I don't. I hardly do any marketing or selling anymore, I just think I have two three hour sessions a year. So from being the main salesperson 30 years ago to being just a little special treat you know, and that's that's an enormous time saving. I mean, I used to go to trade shows where it was like a four or five day trip, you know and you know and. I never travel for marketing. Right now, I would just. I just wouldn't even entertain it. The answer would be no. Somebody says hey, yeah, we'll make you a P. I said no, not going to do that. And the reason is we got great, you know, our marketing and sales that other people are doing is doing the job. Yeah, so that's it. So so that remains the same before COVID and after COVID. It's just that there's very little travel involved in most of that. Dean: That's great and so, but in your what about your daily rhythm or how you're, the day daily routine of, if we're writing this for the, for that book 100 years from now? Talking about the 2020s. The great Dan Sullivan, how he would spend his day. Dan: Well, I differ slightly, and when I get up, then I understand. Yeah, because if I'm not up by 530, it's unnatural. Yeah, you know, I I like getting up at 530. Tell me automatically I'm an hour and a half ahead of you. Dean: Yeah, but you know I think it's so funny. I had breakfast with Robin Sharma in Toronto when I was up last and you know I was joking with because he of course very famously started the 5am club as the thing and you know it's. I joked with him. I said I feel like people it'd be a you know, better for people to join the nine hour club, to get nine hours of sleep than it would to get up at 5am. Dan: Yeah well, I did a sleep course during the summer, Great. Yeah yeah, Michael Bruce. Dean: Yeah. Dan: I had to log a diary every day. Dean: I remember and you were he was staggering, usually making you stay up till 1030 or something, 1030 was 1032. Dan: Yeah, I mean, what it was is to make the time you got up constant. And he started us off with me and then Babs. Babs joined me. But he sleep deprived me and then we gradually got off my sleep sedative, got off my Adderall. Dean: So I haven't had. Dan: Adderall. I've only had one Adderall in the last six months and then, and so the reason was drugs like that, including the sedative. You don't have to get sleepy to go to sleep, because you take a sleep sleep. And you don't have to be rested when you get up in the morning because you take an Adderall you know so, but what gets lost in that is your natural sleep pattern. So yeah, now I'm, it's about 17 hours. He says that's the right period that you get at least 17 hours of waking time. But, I don't. I need 16, you know I. You know you modify it as you go on, but it's been great, you know. But you know I'm up early. I've always been up early. I grew up on a farm sports, I was in the army. You know I always get up early. I like, I really like getting up early you know, but of course, finally, I'm not a late night guy. Dean: Right yeah, so your, what time are you asleep Then? Normally? What time is your? Dan: wake at eight hours so we're in bed and out in eight hours, and that agrees with both of it, I mean when you're living with someone you got to and you're in the same and you're in the same bed. Well then, you know you're going to synchronize the hours, yeah, yeah. But it was kind of funny because New. Year's is a totally uninteresting day to me. New Year's Eve, right. And people say so, did you stay up? And I said, ah, we were in bed at nine, you know. And I said you know, you know when it was, you know when it was midnight somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. That's when I went to bed. Dean: Yes, right, it's so funny. Dan: Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I mean, my best creativity is in the morning. Dean: Yes. Dan: And I think yours too. Dean: Yeah, yeah, that zone, you know I like to, so I try, and I like to have one 50 minute session for me in that seven to 10 zone where I can just be a toddler at the picnic in my journal, thinking thoughts that I didn't know I was going to think. Right, that's, that is great for me and I've taken into, I've adopted your, you know your practice for 25 years of asking what do I want? That's really what that is about. Is my thinking, about my thinking in that time, right, in that 50 minutes and that way. But I also want to then make sure that I'm being the steward of those two hour block, the focus sessions, so that I'm allocating and stacking up here I mentioned, you know I have a thousand hours of that, but I can really only, I only focus and this is always. But my latest iteration is that I'm only stacking up, kind of the next 10 hours. What is the thing? How am I going to allocate the next 10 hours? And of those, what are the two or three today? Dan: that. Dean: I'm going to, that I'm going to do, and that's been. You know so much. I've got such a great, you know, such an abundance of ideas and things that I could do. You know it's the. It takes really curating and discipline in a way to to realize that in order for those things to get done, they have to happen in real time. You know, and that's because the what and how kind of things are shape shifters, you can puzzle on those and figure those. You figure out what you need to do and how, how it needs to be done or even who is going to do it. But the all, the applying yourself, happens in the when and the where. That's the most important thing. That's what I lack in my. That's my executive function disorder right. Dan: You know all you can you know to be useful to other people. The only thing you can do is actually tell you. Tell other people what you do, not, what they should do. I never even tell people what they should do, and my reason for that is we only get to play in the present, you know so the only game day we have is the hours available to us. You know, from rising to, you know going to bed. Yeah, we're all playing on the same synchronauts, yeah, but who you are in the present is really a function of your story about what your past is and what your story is about your future. We don't actually live in those realms and that tells me that who people are in the present is absolutely unique, because the story they tell themselves about their past and their future is completely made up by them, and they might communicate 1% of that to somebody else, but the 99% is them having a conversation with themselves both forward and backward and forward. So you know, unless you can understand what people's past and future is, it's hard for you to comprehend how they actually arrange their dates. Dean: Yes. Dan: And yet it makes total sense to them. It makes total sense so, more and more as I go along you know I have to even with people I've known for a long period of time and talk to a lot. You know I always have to remind myself that in understanding this person, I have probably less than 1% of the information that they have. Dean: Yeah, the inner world. What's going on in there? Dan: Yeah, and for most people they're not even conscious that they're making up their past. You know? I mean past is the past. You know that happened. I said well, yeah. I'm not disputing the fact that it happened, but your interpretation of what happened is the important thing here you know, and two people can have what looks like to be an identical experience and come up with very different stories about what the you know what the situation was. And so and the other thing is the future. So you know, and I follow, I've got a file on my Evernote and it's about people who think they can predict the future. You know. Dean: Wow, okay, yes. Dan: And I said, they can predict the future, but they can't even predict their tomorrow. Dean: Right, that's interesting. Dan: It's like climate. You know climate. Dean: Yeah right. Dan: Climate actually doesn't exist, it's a thought. You know and what climate is in a particular location, 365 days of temperature and you know weather conditions. Yes, the average weather conditions for 365 days. That's what climate is. It's a abstraction that gets created by averaging a large number of a large number of days. You know. Dean: Yeah. Dan: People have talked about the climate and I said well, you know, the real problem with getting people really engaged emotionally with the climate is there's not a single person who's actually experienced climate. We just experience weather. Dean: That's an interesting thing that, really, when you think about what you passed, is it's the tapestry of this woven thread of all of the things that you actually did. Yeah, I mean, it's certainly it's the weather of, it is the when and where of what did you do? Yeah, what were you? Dan: Yeah, and there's a lot of abstractions, like society. Dean: I've never experienced society. Dan: I experienced Dean, I experienced Babs, I experienced Joe Polish. I don't know the things society I've never. You know society should do this. I don't think society got the memo, you know. Dean: Right. Dan: Society is not Consistently yeah, or? We're destroying the world? I said I don't think so. I don't know what's the world, you know? you know, you know, and we may be destroying ourselves, you may be destroying yourself, but I don't think we're destroying the world, you know. I mean you know the world's taken. Asteroid hits. The temperature has gone up 100 degrees. It's gone down 100 degrees. You know where I'm talking to you right now. You know, 15,000 years ago it was under 100 feet of water. You know, and you know, I'm right on the shore of Lake Ontario. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And yeah, the shoreline used to be Castleoma. You know how high Castleoma is you? Dean: have to go up to get the Castleoma. Wow, so my, so my Yorkville was underwater. Dan: Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, yeah yeah, that's what's going on, actually. Yeah, quite a bit of us going on. So the big thing is that people create these abstractions and then the abstractions become their reality, over which they have no controls. I mean, if they didn't have any control over their personal reality, boy, they sure don't have any control over things that are an abstraction, you know, and isn't it interesting, though, that so much of everything is an extra abstraction. Dean: When you look at these things, you know we look at all the things, the collective abstractions that we all participate in is certainly most geography. I believe that Africa exists, but it's only an abstraction to me, because I've never been to Africa Me either. I've never been to Buenos Aires, but I'm going to take your word for it that it's really there. Dan: Yeah. Dean: That's interesting. Dan: And it's closer to Africa than it is to Toronto. It's actually closer to Antarctica than it is to Toronto. Dean: You can't go to Antarctica, Dan everybody knows that. Dan: Yeah yeah. Yeah. So the big thing why habits are good on a daily basis is because they're not abstractions. These are neural pathways that you're creating in your brain that encourage you to do this tomorrow rather than a whole bunch of other stuff that you haven't thought about. But my sense is, you know, and the thing I'm going to get across here, that success is a function of productive habits, times, longevity, you know it's productive habits, namely that you're doing this on a daily or frequent basis and you're doing that over years, and it's like compound interest, you know, and yeah, but, you have to make the deposits, to make the transfer. Dean: It's so funny. I was playing around with a visual metaphor for how the constant moving of the speed of reality. Have you ever seen the? Have you ever seen the video game, the guitar hero? Have you seen on visual or anything? Dan: No, I haven't. Dean: So guitar hero is a game where you have this guitar but you've got, instead of strings, you've got these color buttons on the neck of the guitar. So it's yellow, green, blue, red, you know whatever those things are. Then your imagine, do you know how the title sequence to star Star Wars is coming, like when the words are coming at you and you're kind of moving. Okay, so you're looking down the neck of a guitar and you're moving towards it, or it's moving towards you, and as the notes get to this line, you press the red button and then, when the green comes to the line, you push green and then you push yellow or whatever it is to make to play the song that's coming, but it's moving and if you miss it you miss the points, right. So I thought about the way that musical Tetris that's exactly it. Okay, there's perfect example. Tetris is coming at you. So you've got this. You know, as it's moving, we're in control. Our focus can only be on one thing at a time, right? So if you're focused on, you know in our hundred ten minute units that we're getting throughout the day our ten Jackson units. As we were referring to our hundred Jackson units is that we can be in one lane kind of thing for that. So we're moving the joystick or the controller over to be in this activity. Right, and looking back at the record of what we're leaving behind is the wake of what we actually did in those minutes. Right, so you could be neutral where you're just sitting there doing nothing, but you could be in the sleep lane for eight hours. Of that on the record you could be. You know you wake up at 5.30 and by six o'clock I think you're working out by then. Right, is that your trainer arrives. So you look back at the. You look back at the permanent record that you're leaving in your wake is at six, is yellow, with your trainer or whatever, consistently over time that you're getting into those things and the more you know erratic those things are, it leaves less of a pattern over time, right, but that's where you get that. So the consistency, my observation of it is to, if I could try and tighten up those things so that in those bands that from 10 o'clock to 12 o'clock, I've established the consistency over time of dedicating those two hours to the most important things that I can be doing, that's going to have an impact, you know. Dan: Yeah, well, it's all very interesting, you know, because I think a lot of people just don't comprehend who they are today as a function of consistent past habits, yeah, and who they're going to be in the future is a series of consistent habits. And you know, and I was reading, charlie Munger is the width and wisdom of Charlie Munger, warren Buffett's partner, who just died about a month ago, and he said you know, you can have a lot of raisins, but they're in addition, it's half raisins and half turds. We call the dish turds. Dean: So you have a lot. Dan: You have good habits, but you have a lot of bad habits. We call the result bad habits, even though there's good habits along the way. So I think you know it's part of your self knowledge is to increase one and decrease the other. Dean: Yeah, I was just thinking about my, you know. You look now the deposits of over time, the 12 o'clock and six o'clock perfectly balanced meal Delivered without any variation. Or you know, human error in that thing that over time that tapestry is going to be a different pattern, right? Dan: Yeah, and the thing is because a lot of other things are responding to it, you know I mean your brain is noticing a difference, so it's got to make adjustments. You know your brain yeah, make adjustments in your social life. Yeah, make adjustments and everything like that. That's why you don't have to think about 30 things If you got three good things to think about the other 30 will have to adjust to the three. Yeah, and I never try to change bad habits, I just tried to crowd them out with good habits. Right, I think what I, you know, evolved in thinking today, I want you to pay a lot of attention to them, you know. Dean: Yes, I think a realization I had today, dan, is I was thinking to myself could I establish that meal system without doing anything? Is that literal? Well, I don't have to cook and I don't have to buy groceries to do anything. I only have to decide which I want and place the order. But if I look, that's the least I could do. But now, as I think about it, I could get Lillian, my assistant, to do to. I said these are the 10 meals, let's rotate them around, and I want them to arrive at 12 o'clock and six o'clock and not have anything to do. So there is a way that I could do that without doing anything. Dan: Yeah, yeah, and they're not wasted because they go in the fridge, you know. Dean: So oh no. I would eat them anyway. I have to eat them. Yeah, I have to eat. Yeah, exactly. Dan: Yeah, well, of course. I mean that's the way ours are done. You know Christopher, who's the caterer for our workshops, he does Babs on my Meal and lunch and dinner, and then our back to our EA, looks at our schedule, whether we're going to be at home or not, and then she, you know we have guests in the raving house, and then she asks us questions about it and we, you know we'll give the answers. And then she's in touch with the caterer and the meals arrived. You know the meals arrived and basically lunch and dinner, like for the weekend. They would come on Friday afternoon and their guests for Saturday and Sunday. Dean: Yeah. Dan: I love that, yeah, yeah, I mean, and you know. But the big thing is I noticed, going on the 80, I'll be 80, you know four months, hey, yeah, and what I noticed is that I don't really start anything new these days. If it's not something I'm going to stick with for the rest of my life, okay, or it's going to reinforce something else that I'm going to stick, that I'm already doing, that's going to last for the rest of my life. Dean: So yeah. Dan: Yeah, so I'm very selective about anything new, you know, and you know, people say hey this is really interesting. So I said, don't think so. I don't think this is going to be a rest of my life experience you know, and so but on the other hand, I'm going a lot deeper into things that you know. I'm really interested in things that really support the new things, that support the thing that I'm already doing. Dean: I'm really yeah, and our podcast is one of those. Yes, one of those. Dan: Yeah, so you can. You know pretty well, figure, as long as you're up to it, I'm up to it. Dean: That's great. I like it, yeah, yeah. Well, it's been an amazing conversation, as always I had no idea what adventure we were going to go on, but this was really enjoyable conversation. Dan: The one thing I should tell you is that when you're in Argentina, it's not uncommon for dinner to start at nine o'clock at night. Dean: Right. Dan: Okay and which which, so you can take dinner time and then, after dinner and going to bed, which kind of dictates that Argentinians get up later. They get up later in the morning and I said this tells you why the US and also they have the two hour break. Dean: Yes, the middle of the day, you know and. Dan: I said. So this kind of tells you why the US is ahead, because Americans get up early and work all day. Yeah, I think on a one developed countries. Americans work a lot more than certainly anybody in Europe. Americans work a lot more than anyone in. Europe, I think probably anyone in South America, probably not. Southeast Asia. I bet Southeast Asians work more than Americans do. Yeah, but anyway. But that's just the habit of the culture. It's a workout. I mean, america is a work culture. Dean: Yes, I love. It, okay, well, I guess I will see you on Thursday. Dan: Oh well, have a good day I got a lot of great stuff for Thursday. Dean:It's all very exciting. I'm going to read the. I got the new book for the or yesterday, so I'm going to read that. Dan: Awesome, all right. Dean: Okay, Dan, I'll talk to you next week or I'll see you Thursday. Dan: Okay, thursday Thanks, thanks, gene.

In today's episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we take you on a journey through history and our complex relationship with time and its perception. We discuss hidden economic forces that shaped pivotal history and debate if we live in the "best or worst of times." I share my experience with breaking free from television, only to be pulled back by sporting thrills and gripping shows, a reminder of how addictive media can be. As we wrap up our discussion, we reflect on exciting developments on the horizon. We celebrate entrepreneurs who have adapted their businesses to thrive online.   SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Dean talks about time perception and the fascination with having foreknowledge of events, particularly in the context of financial markets and the desire to possess tomorrow's news today. We explore the human ability to adapt to a wide range of temperatures, humorously comparing our ancestors' robust survival skills to modern reactions to climate change. Dean reflects on the concept of whether we are living in the best or worst of times, citing both the remarkable conveniences of modern life and the psychological challenges posed by the battle for our attention. Personal anecdotes include Dean's success in abstaining from watching television for over five years, despite being tempted by his loyalty to sports teams and the immersive experience of a Netflix binge. There's a discussion about the skepticism surrounding medical advancements and the difficulty in discerning credible health information in an era of conflicting opinions. We examine the impact of technology on spontaneity and control in our lives, touching on smart devices and drawing a parallel to the controlling nature of HAL 9000 from "2001: A Space Odyssey". Dan shares insights on entrepreneurship, reflecting on the adaptability required to thrive in the digital age, such as the growth of his coaching program and the shift from in-person workshops to online formats. We delve into the process of book production, noting the importance of releasing work to make room for new ideas and discussing technological advancements that have expedited the process. Dean talks about integrating AI chat into books to allow readers to interact with content and contemplates whether AI could help guide readers through material by asking questions. Coordination for an upcoming trip to Chicago is mentioned, where Albie will be joining Dean and Dan, indicating excitement for the visit and the promise of future stimulating discussions. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: I'm almost tapping in here. Dean: Almost. That's exactly right as close as you can get without going over. We're you know we're going to be 12 hours away from it here, it's all very exciting. Dan: Yeah, yeah, we were talking to Kim Daniel. He now calls himself. Daniel White and he phoned us from birth Australia from the future from the future from the future. So they're already. They're already into New Year's yeah, that's so funny. What a weird world, what a world for a world, you know. Dean: I saw an infographic that there's an island. There's two islands up where Russia and Alaska joined. They're separated by three miles. You can see the other island. I like it once called tomorrow Island or something. What the American side is. You know 24 hours difference because it's right after the straddle the line divides them is the international date line. So they're three miles away, and yet they're 24 hours apart. Yeah that's really interesting. Dan: You know people often have these quizzes. You know it's either you're reading the quizzes or you're being asked the quiz. Yeah, and it's. Dan: if you had one superpower, what would it be? Have you ever had anything like that, so many? I have you know I think about or you were you were a witness to this question being asked. And mine is that I would like to have tomorrow morning's Wall Street Journal yesterday. Yeah, exactly Exactly. How great would that be, that could be. Dean: The thing is literally what you should. That could be a loophole, Dan. Maybe we should go to these islands and subscribe to the Wall Street Journal on tomorrow Island. Oh man. Dan: Now take a bit of work. I mean, you still have to learn what to look for, and you know you'd have to have the means by which you could, and but that just reminds me. I think everybody would like to have that superpower. Dean: They would like to have advanced understanding of the future Well you know what's so funny is one of the things that I wanted to talk about today, because it's, you know, explore. This idea is because I ranked it up there as one of the top concepts of the year for me, and that is guessing and betting, and essentially, what you're saying is it's absolutely true. The reason that would be so valuable is that it would bring certainty. If you look tomorrow and see what the closing stock price of a any stock was today. If you knew that in advance, that it starts out at X and it's going to be X plus. Y at the end of the day, you're betting with certainty, and that's a pretty interesting. That's what I really thought about the that concept, and I'd love to hear a little more, because well, I think it's, I think it's been. Dan: It's a thought that's been in the human brain since the first humans. Dean: Yeah, I agree, you think that not knowing, I wonder where. I wonder how would that have manifested itself then in the beginning? Knowing where, the, I guess what would it be? Knowing where, the where the food is going to be, or something. Dan: Well, I think, you know, I think probably it manifested itself in the first days of people just noticing the weather, you know, like wherever they were, that you know, that. I mean I think they probably, if you did Colby's back then, like a Colby profile that that the earliest humans really varied in terms of you know what they were skillful at and what they focused on Okay. And. But my sense is that there were some people who were more conceptual, who could notice patterns better than others. And they could make sort of predictions which you know as it regard weatherers. That regarded, the wildlife around them or the you know. The you know availability of food. They would immediately go to the top of authority and in whatever group they were, because they just had a sense of what was going on and a better sense of tomorrow than anybody else did. Dean: Yeah, that's really yeah must have freaked, I mean, imagine, not knowing with. I guess the first certainty would be well, even though the sun went away, it's going to come back up again, Yep, and then getting that certainty that, okay, there it is. And wait a minute, it's colder this time of year than what's all this white stuff. I subscribe to the Gary Halbert philosophy. He had a saying that God gave us a sign by planting palm trees in all the places that were suitable for human habitation. So if you wake up and you don't see any palm trees, keep bending south. That's his philosophy. If you see palm trees. Dean: You know you're in the right place. Yeah. Dan: Yeah, and then you know you, it's very interesting. Everybody worries about global warming or they are making large amounts of money warning about global warming. I think that's more of a ladder than it is that they're actually worried. I think they've discovered a new way to make money? Yeah, but but if you think of the variations in temperature that humans can deal with, okay. So, for example, in North Africa, in the Sahara, people go about their business when it's 120 degrees up, 120 or plus, you know, in the Sahara. And at the same time there I've been in Alberta in Canada, when it was 44 below and everybody went about their business. Speaker 3 Yeah, so that's a difference, that's a difference. Dan: Fahrenheit wise, that's a difference of 164 degrees Okay. And humans at one end, people are going about their business. That's the other. They're going about their business and they're freaking out about a one degree change, one or two degree change. And I said I mean, who of us doesn't go through that, even you know, in idyllic spots like where you live? Yeah, there's still a variation of 20 to 25, maybe 30 degrees during here, right, Right. Dean: Yeah, no, it's been. It's been a little cold here Like I. Literally, I almost had to wear socks with my shorts today, dan, it's that's how chilly it was, wow, yeah. Yeah. Dean: And I have a hoodie on Wow. Just to stay one because I'm committed. I'm still sitting out in the courtyard have you done trauma? Dan: Have you done trauma therapy on this? Dean: No, you know, the funny thing about I mean, what they call the whole climate change is, you know, if we look back, it's a fact, scientifically accepted, that we were in an ice age at one point and somehow, without the aid of fossil fuels and combustible engines, the earth warmed itself out of an ice age. And now we're having a nervous breakdown that we're gonna, because of combustible engines, throw the whole thing off into. Dan: I don't know, it's just See as an entrepreneur talking to an entrepreneur. That proves to me that there's money to be made in nervous breakdowns. Dean: Give people nervous breakdowns. That's the thing, yeah, yeah. Dan: You know, it's like the Jerry McGuire movie. Remember Jerry McGuire movie. Dean: I do. That's a great movie. Where's the? Dan: money. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Show me the money. Show me the money, show me the money. And I think that when you're trying to analyze any event on the planet which is being interpreted in economic, political well, not economic but political, philosophical terms, I say I think your first question has to be okay, who's making the money? here yeah right. Dean: That's absolutely true, absolutely true, and it's gonna be. Yeah, I think that you know I was sharing a couple of weeks ago the idea of my contemplation on whether this is the best of times or the worst of times. Dan: And the answer is yeah. Dean: That's exactly right. But what I realized is that there's, in terms of every physical measurement, every convenience, access to information, democratization of virtually everything. It's the very best of times. There's never been a better time than now, and on the worst, the best things that I could come up with are the most, you know, the things that would qualify as making it the worst of times, where all the battle for our minds and it's that creating those there's a lot to fixate on. You know that really has nothing to do with us in. You know, in reality, like when it's all mental, the inner game is really the battle, for Dean Landia is strong, you know. Dan: Yeah, I think it's true, and just to bring you know the latest update, I'm now in my Almost six, five and a half years of not watching television. Dean: I know I thought like amazing. Dan: Yeah, and, but this was sort of the test for me this fall, because I'm from Cleveland originally and. I have the normal sports loyalties. Like I rude right, you know, I root for the teams I rooted for when I was eight years old and the Cleveland Browns are having a really quite an extraordinary season as the result of a 38 year old quarterback. Yeah, I've heard his name Joe Flack, oh, oh. Who was sitting on a. Who is sitting on a couch Watching television or lying on a couch? Six weeks ago, when Cleveland went to their third quarterback of the year, went down and they brought him in. And he's been easily the best quarterback in the league over the last four or five years. Yeah and Just, I mean he's. Here's the Hollywood ending that they go to the Super Bowl and this guy comes off the coach and wins the Super Bowl. That's a great. Dean: Yeah, it's the Kurt Warner story right. Dan: Oh yeah yeah, this is even more because Kurt Warner was about 31 or 32, yeah, when it happened, but this guy's 38. He's he played 16 years and nobody wanted in this year. So it's just got all the makings of a great just a terrific Hollywood script you know, and. But ask me how much? What? How many minutes of Watching the Cleveland Browns this fall have I done? Dean: well, you told me your secret Was that you watch the YouTube summary of the game. Dan: Well, first of all, I watch whether they won or lost right, okay, perfect yes. If they lost, I don't watch the summary if they win. I watched the video. And what I've discovered I? Dan: what I've discovered is that no football game has more than 10 minutes of actual highlights. Speaker 3 Right. Dan: Yeah, and then? The one I like the best is where they just show your team's highlights when they want, which is about five minutes. Yeah right right, right. Dan: So rabbit pan. First game was 97 Jim Brown, olive fame and perhaps the greatest running back of all time. It was his rookie season and he broke the one game rushing record Day for touchdowns 200, 200 plus some yards. That was my first and I was addicted. It was like drugs, right. You know, you don't you give the first sample away free, and then the drugs do the selling for the rest of my life. Yeah and so anyway. But, tempted as I may be, this fall I did not watch a minute of television. Dean: Wow, that's great, and you know I'm watching the. Dan: I'm not watching the highlights TV, as a matter of fact, I'm looking at the TV. It's across the room for me. And. Dan: I don't even know where, I don't even know how you turn it on, oh, boy. Fantastic. It's like the Dark Ages. I've lost abilities that the Romans said. You know the whole. Dean: You know, on the other side of that spectrum is Yesterday. I had two amazing things happen. So yesterday I Got up and I got coffee, and sometimes what I'll do is I, like Jerry Seinfeld had a series called comedians in cars getting coffee and it's just a fun. You know they're 10 minute episodes, 10 12 minutes kind of thing. I think I'm someone in, so I sometimes I'm having like coffee, I'll sit there and I'll watch a comedians in cars getting coffee, and so I turned on Netflix to do that. And Netflix has this thing of pushing to your home screen, you know, through your algorithm or whatever, the thing that would be the most interesting to you, probably. And there was a series called money heist, which was a big thing. You know, in 2020, when we were all in Lockdown based, this money heist series came on and everybody got, you know, fully addicted to it. It was really well done. It was just from Spain and it was Dubbed with English voices, but really well done. So, in any event, the third installment of this money heist series was front and center on my Netflix home screen yesterday and I Ended up no, this was Friday, sorry, I ended up watching the whole series on that Friday and the funniest thing, dan, is that I, for the entire day, thought it was Saturday and I didn't realize until the end of the day that I got an extra day. Do you have those things where in the holidays the days just kind of blend all together? Because I haven't had. Or anything you know and the way you do that, in the way you do. Dan: We each, we all have our own approaches, you know, right on that was so. Dean: That was the funniest thing. I watched the entire series of Fantastic and, but it felt like I just borrowed from my leap year day. Dan: Something got that day. Now I'm thinking got. Dean: I said something got heisted. That's exactly right. Dan: That is exactly right. Well, you know, everybody makes a big deal about this today, but I don't think it was any different. Everybody wants to make Case that the world and humanity has never experienced before, of what we're experiencing to work, and I resist that thought. And I say well, first of all, we don't know, do we? I mean we? I mean we don't know what was going on in the world when we were five or six years old, you know, I mean yeah. I mean, we were just struggling together handle on walking and running and Everything else. But people make all these things like Something like this has never happened before in human history and I yeah. I said first of all, vast majority of people haven't got a clue what happened 10 years ago so you know. I mean and you know some of some people it's last week and. Anyway, and I said actually probably, we all want to believe that our own age is something special. And I said okay, well, that's something to remember that regardless of what age you're in, people want to believe that it's sort of special. Okay, and I get that, but my sense is it's always been special. One it's always been special, or two it's never been special. And but if you go back, and If you go back and read the thinking of people, where we actually have the documents Greek 2500 years ago, totally understandable, translated and Very thoughtful and you could learn a lot from these guys. Okay so so are there people smarter today than our Air stock? I don't know, because I'm not sure how you would compare a smartness over in 2500 years. Dean: Well, I mean, I think you can point to certain things. I mean you can point to Even just in. Let's just take medicine. You've just returned from your second trip to Buenos Aires to get stem, stem cells for generating cartilage in your knees Right and others and others. Dan: So it's turning into. It's turning into repair and also prevention. So they're now doing proactive stuff for you know your brain and your vascular system and everything. Dean: Oh, I remember. Yeah, so you know. I remember walking in Regents Park in London with Jamie Smart. We were walking around and he was telling me, you know he had written his new book at the time Clarity was out and he was saying how, in the 18, people thought that bad smells cause disease and so people would walk around with posies and fragrant things to ward off disease. And turns out that it was germs that caused this disease. And so when you think about, you know, 2,500 years ago, advancements in medicine, you know we were, I mean, leaching and you know bloodletting and all of these sort of you know superstitious things I think were happening and they were thinking that some diseases were demonic possession. You know that's really what was going on, that bring people had seizure, that they were possessed by the devil or by demons. And so now you fast forward to today and we have DNA that with certainty can point to what your genetic predispositions are, and stem cell, you know, can go in and repair or modify those things. I don't know. Dean: I mean, I think that we are, I think, life expectancy. So I think in many ways we're constantly ratcheting forward society, right, and I think, with now access to you know it used to be. If you just take even 50 years ago, you know it used to be that all of the research and development and advancements in medicine were all done in silos, where you know proximity to those people or you know had to be around. And now we're at a point where every advancement that's documented and available is, you know, instantly analyzable by artificial intelligence and machine learning. So we have access to not just our own thinking but the analysis and you know computation skills or whatever, to everything to the hive mind. You know. I think that's really what we've evolved to. Is that you know it's not individual thinkers who you had to. 2,500 years ago you had to be in at the Agora to listen to Aristotle talk, to get the wisdom of Aristotle, or somebody had a scroll that had written down something that he said. You know Now it's like everything I don't know. It's such amazing things that we have access to everything that's ever been said and can project forward in the style of what Aristotle would say today about certain situations. Like you told me, your story of having something interpreted and written as Shakespeare would write it in the Iambic pandemic right, and so I don't I mean, it's like in certain things any argument that today is not a pinnacle of achievement or Well yeah, I think we I've been, you know, pondering over the years what constitutes smart, because it's very clear to me that you can find examples of people thousands of years ago. Yeah. Dan: If the person were in the room and you could understand the language they were speaking they would strike you as being very smart. Speaker 3 Yes. Dan: Okay, and the couple of weeks ago in Congress we had three presidents of prestigious universities who, over a period of about 15 minutes, indicated that they're not very smart Harvard, mit and Penn, okay. And they were asked a fairly simple question Would anything happening on your campus in advocating genocide to Jews, with that constitutive violation of code of conduct? And they couldn't answer the question. Somebody 2,500 years ago could answer the question. So my sense is it's kind of like you're as smart as who you hang out with. Yeah. Dan: And you're as smart as your ability to deal with the your own unknown factors, like we all have unknown factors, and so my sense is that intelligence and smartness has to do with your creative response, or your either creative or reactive response to kind of the conditions that you're living in. You know. You know, and, for example, it's pretty well known now that the people of the South Pacific pledged all over just understanding the color of waves. They could see that there were different variations in the color of the water sea water and they could make predictions based on that. I doubt if there's any human beings today who can do that. Yeah, but I wonder yeah, I mean that's so the thing that I'm saying, I think that human intelligence is kind of a constant and you know, people in the earliest humans were kind of smart in relationship to their circumstances and we probably couldn't survive for a day what they could survive for a year, you know, because we didn't have their knowledge and experience. So I think we have access to great medical breakthroughs right now, but I haven't met a regular doctor yet that knows any of those breakers. Dean: Right? Well, because there's a whole. Dan: I just use my general. I just use my general practitioners for drugs drug dealers. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Good drug dealers. Dean: Yeah, but there's a whole. You know there's a whole, especially in these medical things. There's a lot of. That's one of these nervous breakdown things that there's a whole lot of. For every advancement or every miracle cure or protocol, there's someone, there's a vocal and official sounding opposition to it. Yep. Dean: It's really. This is where it's really difficult. Dan: You can count on that. Is to discern what the yeah, because somebody's pension is at stake, somebody's reputation is at stake, somebody's livelihood is at stake because of something new, because of something new Because they stopped growing 20 years ago and they've been on autopilot and suddenly they've been interrupted. Something new what we've? Dean: got to stop. Is you look at something as devices, as vaccines? That's been the. You know the number one kind of contention in the last four years is the whole. You know the on both sides. You know it's either is it a miracle or is it killing you Is. You know and you don't know the normal answer. Dan: The answer is yes, and the answer is yes. Dean: Yeah, I mean it's so funny. But true, right Like so. Dan: I mean the whole thing, that there was some wisdom, that they had before COVID, which they disregarded. One is that what you have to do is go for the 65-year-olds and older and protect them. Yeah. Dan: Protect the humans that are over 65. That's because there's a likelihood they've got a lot of other conditions that this will put them over the edge. This new thing will put them over the edge. Okay, no they want to start at six months old, they want to start at a year old, you know. Yeah. Dan: I mean, the masks were bigger than the child's head, you know Right, and everything like that. It had nothing to do with medicine. It had nothing to do. It had a lot to do with control. Yes, yes, and I don't know if we've learned anything about vaccines over the last four years, but a large portion of the public has learned not to trust healthcare experts. Public Right, especially public healthcare, that's what we've learned. Yeah, I mean, that's what we've learned Exactly. Dan: Yeah, like, don't go to the water hole at sunrise or sunset, right? Yeah, I mean, that's the truth. Dean: Right. Dan: I mean creditors show up for easy eating. Yes, you know. So my sense is a lot has been learned over the last four years, but I don't think it had anything to do with vaccines. Dean: Yeah, yeah, I agree, and that's, I think, from the you know, for the general public, for people you know observing this, it really creates the sense of you know, nervous, breakdown level things, of you know that there it feels like you're there's no right answer, that it's wrong. You know that you're either COVID's going to get you or the vaccine's going to get you and you can't make the right decision. People are not there's no uncertainty in the decision. Dan: Are your Tesla is going to explode. Right, exactly, or they're going to you know, and there's the thing, right. Dean: That's all part of it. That's what your Tesla is going to be shut down. You know that the government's going to control. Yeah, I mean, there's so much, yeah, I love this. Dan: You know, I mean I'm not. Babs loves her Tesla and she has the same model you do, and she's had it for six years and she loves it and I love Babs, so it works. But I really liked my Beamer. I really liked the Beamer we had before. Dean: You know what? Dan: It didn't get any smarter in the garage overnight. And when the car goes into the garage when the car goes into the garage before dark and we close the door. I don't want a smarter car. When I pick up the phone, oh my goodness. Dean: You know, what's so funny is I think it's so presumptuous, so fun. I wake up, I get in the car and it tells me it's nine minutes to Haven Bakery, haven Cafe. It's like telling me that. Or at Honeycomb Cafe, it's telling me nine minutes, traffic is okay. It's presuming where I'm going. Dan: Well, why can't you just take a chance? I wonder how the traffic is going to be this morning. To see that there's a pleasure has been taken away from me. Yeah yeah. Dean: It's so funny, right? I don't have any, you've got certainty and I just push the button and let it drive me there. So that's the greatest thing you know. It's so funny. Dan: Yeah it's like you know it's 2001,. Stanley Kubrick's movie. What was the astronauts name? I forget, but that Hal was talking to us. What do you think you're doing? Was it Doug? Or I'm trying to think he's. Hal Dave. Dan: Yeah, hal was the computer you know yeah. Which is just IBM. You know, if you take IBM backwards, you come up with Hal, but anyway, and it's saying what do you think you're doing, dave? You know, like that. Dan: It's nine minutes to the coffee show, Dave. Dean: Right. Why are you turning left? Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah, why are you? Dan: even wondering Goodness, that is funny though that your car. Dean: You wake up and your car is smarter it was. Oh man. Dan: Oh, you said it at the beginning. You said it was the beginning. Dean, that's all a fight and competition for your brain, that's what it is. Dean: It's the absolute truth you know, and I think that you, you know, I think you've cut off the good portion of that access to your brain by removing yourself from programming television and you're becoming the program director. Dan: Well, think about this as an entrepreneur, that if you want to know the distinction between an entrepreneur, and a non-entrepreneur you know and I think about this a lot because I've been at it for 50 years right now, and I've asked that question a lot, you know. Do you think entrepreneurs are born? And I said well that I couldn't attest to it. Yes, they were born, but you know, or you know, is it learned? And I said well, I don't know the answer to that question, but I would say that the entrepreneurs I know were on a path that was decidedly different, probably before they were 10 years old. They weren't going along with the crowd, they were. they were doing something individual, kind of on their own because, they were very curious about something, and most people who aren't entrepreneurs were more socially addicted. You know what did the group think and what they had, but if you think about that, you're a self programmer. The big thing about entrepreneurs is that we're self programmers, in other words, we program the next day, we program the next week, we program. You know, here we are on New Year's Eve and both of us are programming the next year and it really doesn't have to do with anybody else's programming. Dean: Yeah, that's the greatest thing. This is going to be a big 2024, it's going to be a big year. I mean you're about, you're going to turn 80 in. Dan: May, yeah, and it's 50 years coaching 50 years coaching since and the company. The program is 35 years old, so yeah, they're at 35th and yeah, I mean, yeah, they all three of them happened this year, but but I mean we just came off our best year ever. I mean just in terms of you know new people into the program and everything else. Yeah, we hit 52, which was great. 952 new people in the program that's awesome, and except for two presentations, I didn't have anything to do with that. That's a real, that's a real good measurement for me. Dean: Yeah, for sure. And now this year, this will be your first year with only free zone workshops. Dan: No that was. Dean: This was your first year. Dan: Yeah, this I stopped, I stopped. I'm just trying to take one. Did that Cross over? That's what I'm wondering, yeah. Dan: No, it was January of last year, January. Dean: Okay, so this year was yeah, I've gotten a full year full year with only free zone. Dan: Yeah, right, and you know, really caused a lot of tension for a lot of people in the company and everything else and I said, well, it's going to happen sometime. Why don't we just make it happen right now? Yeah. Dan: And you know there was pushback and you know the usual sort of thing. But my way of creating change is just to create a vacuum. Yeah, right, something's going to fill it. Speaker 3 Throw your hat over the fence. Yeah. Dan: So I announced in the middle of just trying to take care. I announced in the middle of 2021. So it was June of 2021. At the end of 22, I'm not going to do any more 10 times workshops. Right, yeah, I remember. Dan: People said, well, how are we going to do this? And I said my security clearance doesn't go that high, I just have no idea. I just know that after the end of next year I'm not going to do any 10 times workshops. Okay, and. I've done this enough in the past. People and Babs and I had already worked this out, so that wasn't Babs and I are saying that something's going to happen. Well, that's not negotiable. Dean: Right, yeah, that's awesome. Dan: But we have five coaches, who you know, who had to jump to the next level, and they did a good job and the renewals are more or less the same as if I was doing the workshops at the end of the first year, pointing off here, pointing out there. So you know, and you know, and I think we had 180 people who moved from the signature level to the end times. So that was great. Dean: Oh, I didn't have a. Dan: I didn't have anything to do with that, and the more things that can happen in the company that I don't do or don't even know about, the better I feel. Speaker 3 Yes, yes, that's yeah that's pretty exciting, I'm talking about. I'm talking about. Yeah, no, I bet it. Dean: I'm sure any dip in the you know 10 times conversions or whatever was offset by people in 10 times who want to stay with Dan moving up to freedom. Imagine that was offset by that. Yeah. Dan: Well, it pushes. It pushes both ways. But the one thing that we realized, that I hadn't thought of that. Really worked out great, and it's only because of COVID. It's the two hour. Zoom workshops, yeah, so every quarter. Dan: I do six two hour 10 times workshops and I do two hour free zone workshops and that little two hour thing, which was only possible because of COVID Nobody, nobody watched Zoom before. Covid has made a world of difference. It's made a world of difference. So I was only going to do that for a year and now I'm going to. I've extended it to the end of 24. And I like that yeah. Dan: But I like it, I like it and everybody else likes it, and it seems to work. But I don't think that would have ever happened if I hadn't just said no more full day in-person workshops. Dean: Right, yeah, that's fantastic, so you're coming up now. This is interesting, then the when did your quarterly book? Did that start on your birthday? That was the end of the end of 2014. Dan: So next December it'll be book 40. Dean: Right, okay, there you go. And we're just curious about your intention and your plan for your 80s being the best decades. Dan: Well, I'll do 40 more books because I'm not to 100 yet. So, and they're getting better. I mean, I can tell the feedback from our longtime clients. They said you know the books are really, they're really getting more interesting. They're not just program tools that you're explaining, you're doing right, doing all sorts of different things, but the insight I had, dean, was that a lot of people spend years, even decades, on books Okay, which, yeah, aren't finished, which aren't finished, right, and they they maybe have 20 or 30 chapters and each of the chapters are kind of interesting, not equal to each other but their interest. I said, why don't you just take one of the chapters and turn it out as a book? And of course you and I went through the early days when you could do this quickly, when you had the 90 minute book idea and are continuing to do that. And then I think it was who was it that came up with they could turn a book around in a week for you if you just send it in for them. Who is that Amazon? Is it Amazon? Yeah, I think it's Amazon Exactly. Dan: Yeah, amazon yeah, and we use. Dean: yeah, I mean it's yeah. Dan: And yeah, and perfectly good, you know, perfectly useful, and but we've got our own. You know print shops here in Toronto and it's a lot cheaper than in the US. We found out that a point to realize for you living in the States that getting a book printed in Toronto is about 40% cheaper than getting a book printed in Chicago, dollar for dollar. You know Canadian dollar. Dean: Wow, Even after the exchange rate right. Yeah, yeah. Dean: After the exchange rate yeah, yeah, you're, yeah. The other thing is yeah, my head. Dean: You know it's not a unique. You have a one of one style of book. That everything about it, from the double cover to the thickness of the color cover, to the paper stock on the inside and the color scheme, and you know it's one of one. There's no, there's nothing else like it. Dan: Yeah, and I've told people you know you're sitting on books. I mean you're always talking about writing the book. But where's the book? You know, why don't you just get the book finished? And they said well, you know, you know. I said I said you're thinking about it too much, you're not executed. I said just get the book out there. I said it's not going to change the world, it's not going to be a bestseller, they're not going to make a Hollywood movie out of it. So Right. And what it does is it gets some old ideas in your head out so that you can have some new ideas. Dean: Yeah, the truth isn't it. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what a collection to going all the way back to book number one and then to book, you know, whatever you're at now I'm working on 7 right now. Yeah, yeah. Dan: Well, I get a lot out of it and of course we've got great teamwork inside the company when we started with your team actually the first one. Dean: I remember the first couple Thinking about your thinking that was the first book. Dan: And then you know, some of our team members said well, we could do this, and we could do this, and we could do this. And I said that's great. Plus, the technology just keeps improving. I mean, if you think I started that in. Where's the technology today compared to where? it was in 2014,. Dan: You know. Yeah, yes. Dan: So my cartoonist Hamish McDonald. I estimate that every year I get the productivity capability of another Hamish just because of the upgrades to software and hardware. Dean: To the tools he's able to use and deploy. Dan: Oh. Dean: Yeah, oh yeah. Dan: I mean, like I'll, we're right at the end of the book I'm working on. So we're just working on the conclusion and the program where we describe strategic coach. Those are the last two sections. So on Tuesday I'll sit down and we'll sketch out what the cartoon is going to be for the conclusion. I've got the outline, with the outline copy all done, so we can read it. Yeah. Dan: And we'll sketch it out and we'll have another meeting on Thursday and he'll be 90% finished Full color. Yeah. Dan: And we do a little tweaks and then in the last 10 minutes we say well, let's look at the next section and he'll sketch it out, and on Monday of the following week he'll be finished with the cartoon. Book one that was a 10 day process for. That was a 10 day process for one sections cartoons. Dean: Right, well, it's wild. And now I guess you know I mean book 36,. You've got all of the ear. You've evolved it into all of the ways to consume. Now you know that you've got the cartoons and the audio and the video. Dan: Yeah, so we're going to do one new thing that Dean and we could talk about this. We're going to do one new thing, probably the first quarter. I'm going to take one of the books and we're just got it down to choice of three and we're going to create an AI chat on just that book. Okay, so the entire knowledge base will just be the words that are in that particular book. And then we'll use, and Leor Weinstein is helping us with this. Dean: And then. Dan: So in addition to the audio, the video, the cartoons, the text, you'll also get the AI and you can ask the book questions and it'll answer you. Dean: Do you think, dan, this is? I've had this in this conversation. Maybe we could have a whole discussion around this, but because I you know this is a very real capability of AI right now, but I think that there's. I would rather have the AI ask me questions and guide me through the process than me having to ask the questions. Yeah because that requires me having included yeah it requires work. Yes, that's exactly right. We're inquiring, you and I, how that's exactly right, and I would much rather I would love to have an AI coach me through applying this to me. So it was hey that hey, hey, hey yeah. Dan: Well, I think you should go get in the car and take a 15 minute, 15 minute drive to the car. Dean: I think that's not you know, because somebody else. No, no, no that's brilliant. Dan: That's brilliant. Let's talk about that. Yeah because somebody else that actually indicates some intelligence, doesn't it? Dean: Yes, but the thing is that you know that application where, if I could go through a track, it's like a guided thing. If you could train the AI as a coach in this to guide somebody through where they're at and how this would apply to them, like somebody had, because somebody was training up a Napoleon Hill that you could chat with Napoleon Hill and you could ask him any questions. And I just realized that much better experience. Dan: You could have one from Jerry Spence. Yes. Dean: How great would that be right, Jerry Spence coaching. Dan: Well, he would ask you all sorts of adverts questions before you know that's, that's his book is great, by the way, you put me on to him. Yes, you know more or less his autobiography. But nice person, I mean he comes across. I mean probably a prick if he was the opposing lawyer in a trial, but he seems like, if you had him on your side, you'd feel good about him. Dean: That's exactly true. I need to reread that again. That how to argue and win every time is one of my top wisdom books. Dan: Yeah, Anyway what did we cover today? What are two or three things that we covered today? Dean: So follow the money, follow the money. Dan: Yeah, we found out about what the Hamas is about. All the money was in Kedr, you know the country of. Kedr. The three top people were worth 6 billion, 5 billion and 4 billion. So that's what Hamas is all about is about money, you know, and their racket. Dean: That's amazing. Dan: Anyway, yeah, but okay, follow the money. What's in the other thing? Dean: Yeah, I think your strategy. It's always amazed me this last five years of your disconnecting from programming. Dan: Yeah other people's programming. Dean: Other people's programming. Yeah. Dean: I think that's a big thing. One thing we did not get to talk about that I want to maybe present next time is I watched another Russell Barclay video and they're talking about executive function and the. It's really an interesting distinction but the difference between you know what and how, knowing what and how is not effective. That the ADHD brain is not. It's not inhibited in the knowing what and how to do. It's the when and the where. That is where executive function comes in and I found that that's absolutely the truth in a real. It sounds so simple and obvious, but it's the absolute truth. That's the thing about you know. Imagine if you applied yourself. Applying yourself is only evidence in the when and the where, both where, when and where. Future and when and where is this going to happen and when and where did it happen? You know what actually happened. That's the an often those don't align. I find for me that's the biggest. That's the biggest disconnect is knowing what I want to do, knowing what you know, how it needs to happen, even projecting when and where, but the alignment of you know missing the exit kind of be interesting with the intention. Dan: That'd be an interesting question, yeah because, the appropriateness of things is really not the what or the how the appropriateness is really the when and where it makes appropriate or inappropriate, you know yeah. Yeah, great topic. Dean: Yeah, how about for you? What was your take away from today? Dan: Yeah, I think that the big thing that I'm zeroing in is the bet that human nature is fairly constant and that changing times simply means humans using different capabilities that they've already developed for new purposes, but the basic human nature remains fairly constant, and the more I mean it was, you know, was Jeff Bezos was asked what do you think's going to change most in the next 10 years, and he said the thing I'm most interested in what are the 10 things that aren't going to change? Yeah next 10 years, because you can actually bet on those. Yeah bet on those better than what is going to change Awesome. Dean: Well. Dan: I think we, I think we, each of us, says on our part today I think so Absolutely. Dean: I can't believe it. Let this quickly Alas, it did so, yeah, and. Dan: I'm we're in the schedule for Albie in Chicago next week. But we're in the schedule, so I'll talk to you from Chicago. Dean: I love it. That sounds great. All right, happy New Year, dan, to you and Babs. Have a wonderful night. Okay, we'll talk to you soon. Bye.

In today's episode of Cloudlandia we weave through various topics. Dan shares his journey with stem cell treatments, from the miraculous changes in his mobility and pain to the improvements in Babs' condition post-injections. As we delve into regenerative therapies, discover the future of diagnostics where AI and DNA merge to transform healthcare. I also recount surprising neurofeedback session benefits and reflections on technology's paradigm shifts over time. Our discussion explores Indify's pioneering artist venture capital model and investing in human potential, drawing inspiration from visionaries like Musk and Jobs. Lastly we examine managing our digital lives, I offer tech fasting insights and preview Toronto's upcoming free zone community event with excitement.   SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Dean discusses his personal experience with stem cell therapy, describing a noticeable improvement in his chronic pain and mobility two weeks post-injection. Dan highlights the significant pain reduction in Babs' big toe following her stem cell treatment and mentions the vascular IV treatments they both received for energy improvement. We explore the impact of artificial intelligence on diagnostics, transforming biological signals into digital ones, which Dean experienced firsthand from the early days of the internet. Dan recounts the advancements in technology, from limited television channels to the current convergence of AI and DNA, which he has observed over the years. We delve into Indify's venture capital model for independent artists, discussing the strategy of partnering with musicians for a 50% ownership and the successful returns seen since 2020. Dean reflects on the importance of investing in human creativity and potential, drawing parallels to the entrepreneurial mindset and success stories like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. Dan talks about the art of digital survival, sharing his personal experiments with tech fasting and the creation of a 'red box' to manage the influx of digital information. We examine the shifting media landscape from advertising to subscription models and how Dean has adapted his consumption of news and current affairs through an aggregator. Dan and Dean discuss the inescapable nature of human biases, the illusion of complete neutrality, and how being aware of our biases can influence conscious decision-making. The episode concludes with an announcement of Toronto's upcoming free zone event in June, coordinated by Tammy Coville, and a look forward to creating new memories in the city. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Welcome to Cloudlandia. Dan: Ah, you have a very resonant place to this morning. Dean: Well, you know what I did. I came in on the app today and so we'll see. And over the last week we had some intermittent disruption. So to try this this week. Maybe it's a different level of unpredictable variety I called it unpredictable variety, that's right, we roll with it and yeah, and there we go, yeah. So everybody wants to know, dan, how is the $6 million man doing with his biomegase here? Dan: Yeah, yeah, pretty good. So we're talking on a Sunday and just the past Thursday was two weeks. And you know I got to figure in the placebo factor here, and I think I mentioned this last time that when you have a pain and you don't have any solution for it, you try to avoid the pain, and so you kind of? A you kind of a focus on it. You rearrange your posture and your body to avoid the pain. Dean: Yes. Dan: But since I had the stem cell injection, I came back and the pain didn't seem any different. But I was confident about it that I now had a pain that in, according to prediction, in six months I won't have the pain. And so I'm not avoiding the pain and I'm you know, I'm walking downstairs without holding out to the rail and just depending on my leg. But I will say in the last two or three, three days I've I have noticed an improvement, so that I'm getting from. You know, we have top to bottom we in some cases I'm going to flights, yes, and and yeah. So I told Dr Hasse David Hasse, who's in the free zone with us because he's the arranger for all this. Anything else I do, I go through his clinic, so he's the one who arranged everything in Buenos Aires yes, and I tell him. I said I'm, I'm naturally a self producer of placebo's. Dean: And I said I think it's part of my. Dan: I think it's part of my character. I had nice said actually isn't strategic coaches? Not what strategic coaches? Producing your own placebo's, that's the best. Dean: I love it yeah. Dan: Yeah, so anyway, all friends, but I will tell you this we had three different treatments. I did and Babs had a fourth one. So Babs had a big toe, inflamed bones and her big toe. And the pain is way, way down after two weeks. And both of us had vascular IVs, so this is where the stem cells are put you know it's an IV, so it goes in over 40 minutes. Dean: It wasn't an injection. Right, right Right. Dan: But it's, the stem cells are geared just to your vascular system, so just you know, the veins has sent. And so I feel quite a bit more energy, and again, I'm not discounting the placebo effect. And the third, the third thing that I did Babs did vascular two and I did brain cells. So these what they do is that they put lymphocytes in on day one and then on day three they give you a IV for the, for your brain cells and the lymphocytes. I don't exactly understand what they are. Okay, I know they're neither Republican or Democrat. I do know that. Dean: They're NDP. Dan: Right, exactly, yeah, I know that I know they don't have a political characteristic about them, but what they do is they actually create pathways through what's called the blood brain barrier. Okay, and what I understand is that the brain is very protective of itself, so it doesn't allow any foreign thing to come in To the brain. But it'll accept limbo sites and they're just little, they're kind of temporary pathways and they die after about a week or two. But what happens then is the stem cells that are geared to your brain can go through those pathways and and I'm doing a program called neuro potential, which is bio feedback program, and I'm doing a neuro potential program called neuro potential Bio feedback program, and I did session 30, 29 and 30. I've been doing that for about a year. And what it tests you on is when you're watching a movie and I picked a favorite movie which was foils for British detective, homicide detective series Long time ago, 15 years ago. Very intriguing, very good acting. And so I went Saturday ago and I did it. And usually what happens during the course of the session? You're watching the, you're watching the screen and then all of a sudden the screen will go black, the sound will go out, but the movie goes on and your brain notices this and it readjust itself so that the screen comes back and the sound comes back. And normally during a session it'll happen four or five times and there's nothing you can do. All you do is the brain just adjust itself and that adjustments are actually making improvements to how your brain operates. And I've been doing it and my EEG tests, which are a battery of screen tests that I do every quarter, indicate that my brain has improved quite a bit over the last year. But this session, the first time now I'm talking about a week ago, saturday not once during the entire movie did the screen black out and or the sound go out. And the first time it ever happened. And the technician they have technicians there who you know they will. They put your sensors on your brain and then they you know they're there all the time and she said I've never seen that before. She said I've never seen it, certainly haven't seen it with you, but she said I've never seen it with anyone. And these people are these train? These people are trained not to be enthusiastic. Dean: And they're just there, related to your, to the stem cells or yeah, well, it's the only thing that's changed, it's it's gotta be right, yeah, it's gotta be, and she up the difficulty. Dan: So when I do it fairly easily, she'll up the difficulty and the and yesterday I went and it sound went out three times but the screen did not go black and and she said that's amazing because she said you're even stronger this week than you were last week and that was a real breakthrough week. So I think, that's and this is the only thing where I have outside reference. That's testing. So, yeah, so, but my energy has been real good from the overall. But I think the big thing is that I am now convinced this specifically from the stem cell thing that we're going through and also other things that I've been doing for the past year that now anything in the body, if it can be diagnosed, if there's something off, if something's not performing right, something's not working period or, worse than that, it's something wrong is happening. I now am convinced that if it can be diagnosed, it can be repaired and it can be regenerated. So that's yeah and, and I've been and I've been going on. I've been going to faith for the last 36 years in this regard that this would come. Dean: Yeah, and I mean you know, you look at, I heard Joe Rogan had well, he always has all kinds of interesting people, but he had no. Gary Brecca on. I don't know him no well, he's kind of an interesting story, I don't. I mean, you know, like anything. When you hear him on you know he kind of breaks into the scene. He's the guy that kind of turned Dana white around. Dana's lost all kinds of weight and reversed his oh yeah, I know Dana white, he's the. Dan: Yeah, you see ultra fighting. Dean: Yeah, that's exactly right, yeah, yeah, the US, and so he. This guy's background was as a I don't know what the right word for what he did, but it was some sort of for insurance companies. They would predict your lifespan. So it was like advance. What do they call that in insurance mortality rate guessing as the rate of the yeah yeah, so actuarial. I guess, would be kind of based on statistical groups kind of thing, and what they do is this is based on records, on your, on measuring, like genetic markers and and blood work, and they can predict, he says, within you know months of somebody's life expectancy and mm-hmm very interesting, right. So Dana came in and he had, you know, very elevated triglycerides and you know certain other markers that were really kind of degenerative. And he's 53 years old and his they marked his life expectancy at 63.6 or something like that and it was really like an eye opener for him to see that have that sort of you know, mortality check on what you're, what's going on in your body, and he basically says all these things are, you know, they're starting to give out years and years before they're actually the end of it. So it's not a mystery kind of thing, it's just that way you know, and so he's, you know, done all the things that he recommended and he's already added, like you know, 12 years to his life expectancy already, and that it's kind of, I think, when you're right, that we're at a stage where we're started learning all the repair models of things that yeah to be able to to regenerate. I'm still amazed that even the fact that DNA exists like how do you even tune into something like that, right? Like how did somebody even discover that's a thing is just like beyond my imagination. Dan: You know it's yeah well, electron microscopes was the. Yeah well, I mean with you know the actual day break through there's some great stories about that aren't really on point here, but we could go into them. But the point I'd like to bring. This is all cloud landia. This is all these are cloud landia capabilities that have come into existence, because the I was talking to Peter DM on this, about this, and I said it's clearly a lot of things that were predicted by a lot of people 10 years ago happened, happened okay they haven't happened to the degree that they're happening, but they're not to the degree. But I would say that the application of digital measurement to your body has gone way beyond what anyone was predicting at the ability to, at the most minute level, to sell your level of actually measuring and then having comparisons. You know comparisons because these are large model. These are large model. You know, when somebody says you are, you know a certain age, like if you take Dana White and they said 53 and they his prediction was for 63 what they were doing was measuring against millions and millions of other tests that they've done on other people right that used to take yours to put the facts together and now it takes minutes. Dean: Yeah and it wasn't even possible. Dan: Years ago I put those no, no, yeah, no, I mean, you know I, my first doctoring counters were in the 1940s, so this is 80 not quite 80 years ago, and the best you could hope for back then was that the doctor had a good bedside manner well, three out of four doctors prefer Chesterfield cigarette actually it was camels actually it was camels, and it was. It was actually seven out of those seven out of eight who a doctor. Seven out of eight doctors who smoke prefer camo camels. No, this is a great. This is a great ad campaign. We shouldn't be frivolous about this. It's really sold a lot of camels, I'll tell you. Dean: I wonder what those things like. If we look forward, you know, fast forward, 40 years from now, what are we going to look at? As you know, so stupid and obvious back in you know that we haven't been paying attention to well yeah, you know, I always say that a depressed utopian, a utopian who's depressed. Dan: Our people get depressed by the absence of things that haven't been invented yet. Yeah, exactly, there's so much that has been. I'm missing all these things. I said what exactly are you missing? Well, I don't know, but I'm missing it. Dean: I don't know yet yeah, exactly I don't know what I need, it's so funny, I just saw somebody in on Facebook, one of the there's a local group called it. You know, if you grew up in Georgetown, you remember, you may remember group and it was pretty these things. And somebody showed you know Georgetown cable was. You know halton cable was becoming available and they were offering, you know, service on on the nine channel for our listeners. Dan: Today, we're not talking about George town in Washington. Dean: DC. Right, exactly, we're talking about. Dan: We're talking about your town, a lovely veil north, and is it more west than north? Dean: I'm trying to think it north. I know the go train goes there, that's exactly right, it's the last outpost on the on the go train and that was the thing they were offering now service on channel two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, eleven and thirteen, and I remember those days, like you know, 1970 something when we got our first color television and I got the table you know that was, that was the thing. Wow, what a world. Yeah, but just back to the. Dan: You brought up a subject right at the beginning of our talk here DNA. It's actually been the merger of artificial intelligence and DNA that's producing all the amazing diagnostic tests. Because they can now do, then? What they do is they convert biological signals to digital signals okay and now they can do 10,000 tests either on something that exists in the time that it would takes to do one manual test ten years ago. So 10,000 to one, that's, that qualifies as exponential in my world, I would say so yeah, I would say so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'm banking on that. You know, and as you know from our conversations of a long time ago, that I was Babs and I were on this path in the 90s, you know, in the 1990s so we're 30 years down the road now but I knew you could tell. I mean, I read a lot. You know, the internet has been a great tool for me of just letting my brain go wild on the internet and it finds this and kind of. I find your brain kind of finds what you were looking for, but you didn't know you were looking for it, that's the way I explain it do you? Find that I do. Dean: I had some experimenting this week, actually, based on our conversation last week that you know you mentioned. You kind of let your brain just go and do what it wants, but let's just I mean almost like with an agreement that let's just, at the end of the day, let's get these three things done, and I don't care what you do or when you do it, but let's just go ahead, let's get these three things done. But I got a. Dan: I got. I've been thinking about our conversation too and I said but it's finding it for some reason, and I think using a I language here, that's somewhere in the past you gave your brain a pump prompt, just like with a chat, gbt, you gave it a prompt that. If you ever come, if you ever come across something like this, alert me to this. You know so my sense is that you've been programming your brain To look for a certain things Since you know. Since the beginning, you've been prompting your brain to look for certain things and All of a sudden it comes across a plane and then you wake up and say, gee, that's neat, that's neat. I didn't know that, but somewhere in the past you gave some sort of prompts, I think, to tell your brain, if you ever yeah, you know, if you ever. Dean: See something like this Just let me know right away, because I'm interested in it one of the things that I came across this week was, you know, in relation to our conversation about melt, about money, energy, labor and transportation all going in rising cost of those, and I, you know, been thinking about money, like access to money, and I'm seeing there's more and more versions of intelligent money coming, you know, being the thing of Empowering Creators in a way. So I looked at, I found out about a company called in defy, which is taking a venture capital kind of approach to creators, musicians, particularly independent artists who are, you know, making Music, and they're partnering with them for, you know, 50% ownership of Whatever comes out of what they're they're producing and it's really, you know, they may not produce, like, compared to the music Label industry, the model where they would, you know, sign an artist and do a full album and of those things these are really but those who are already existing. Dan: That was already. Yeah, here's their here they're doing music and musician futures. Dean: Yes, that's exactly what it is and that's a really interesting Model, like typically there, you know, with a particular like a song, for instance, they may invest $30,000 to produce a single Song and artists, but they're showing that the you know, the typical Return on, even like them, that to be they're not talking about hits, but things that either they showed investments of their typical investment of $30,000 has returned $110,000 so far per one of those that they've done. Yeah, and they started in 2020, you know. So over that period of time, they've kind of tripled their investments and I thought, partner, you know that that level of you know, in the entrepreneurial world I don't know whether that's that you know the rising cost or you know, corollary to that, the diminishing supply of them capital I don't know whether there's different rules for Plotlandia and creative things as opposed to, you know, large scale physical capital, you know. Dan: Yeah, my sense of that is that the smart investors, whether it's in the mainland or whether it's in Plotlandia, are the same person. There are the same, and my feeling is that the smartest investors invest People. They don't fast on things, they don't really invest on things. And so my sense is that the Example you just gave this person has proven in the past that they're actually creative and they always seem to be coming up. They always seem to be coming up with new things, and Some of them have monetized and some of them haven't monetized. So that's the guess, and that's the bet you know. In other words, I'm guessing that you're going to. You already come up with something in the past that turned out to be money-making and I'm betting I'm just gonna Bet on you as a creator that you're going to come up with some good stuff that, properly captured, properly packaged and properly distributed, is going to be money-making. Dean: Would you say I agree. Well, yeah, Patron days it's been oh yeah, yeah in a way yeah. Dan: Yeah, go totally, totally. I mean entrepreneurs are you and I and All the folks that we hang out with are we're self patrons. Yes the difference between an entrepreneur and non entrepreneurs, an individual who's betting on Himself as the future. Well, you did that a long time ago and you know, and I did it a long time ago, and, and so that's why I'm not taken by things. You know, I'm not really taken by things. You know, betting on things like I'm talking about a product or a tech right, I'm not betting on that. I'm betting on the thing possibly being a tool that some really smart human is going to maximize. It's gonna, you know, it's gonna do something. And I was thinking about that with Elon Musk, because there's no reason for his valuations Related to Tesla. You know, if you took the normal valuations of a car company the number of cars you got, the distribution system, you got his. The Tesla doesn't make sense. The valuation that he has for Tesla makes no sense whatsoever. By right, historic automobile standards, right, and somebody was saying that they you know this is, you know this is, you know this is a scam. I said you're missing the point here. They're not betting on the Tesla car. They're betting on Elon Musk coming up with always new things. Dean: That is true, and he, yeah, he's, yeah, he's come up with quite a few. Yeah, I think. Dan: Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was on that track, but he died. He, you know, he died. I mean because, really, if you take a look at Apple's extraordinary, it's stuff that all goes back to Steve Jobs. Yes and I mean not a big thing since not a really big thing since 2008, right since the iPhone right, I mean, that's really the iPhone. Dean: Yeah, yeah, that decade of, you know, 92,000, 8. That's really. That's where everything happened. I think was a joke about it. Yeah, we talked about it in our analysis of the last 28 years. That none of it you know, but Apple was close to bankruptcy, that they were in trouble 28 years ago he had to borrow from Bill Gates. Yeah, exactly that's. That's kind of that's pretty amazing, right, when you think about everything that's turned around since then and thinking about even Jeff Bezos, who you know, who knew. Dan: Yep, yeah, and you know and so so the the thing about betting, but I always bet on people. You know my whole approach is that this is a person you know who proven track record and part of it is that they cannot do what they're doing. You know one of my yeah that I look at somebody who cannot do the thing that seems to be most valuable and. So I don't have to worry what they're doing when I don't see them. Dean: What's he? Dan: doing I what's? What's he doing today? Dean: I know exactly what he's doing. Dan: He's doing what I bet on. Dean: He's doing what I bet on him doing you know and you know. Dan: So it's a very interesting thing. So, but I think I was going back because we had this conversation. I said, you know, if I go back because I've really been an entrepreneur since really the beginning of the Microchip age in the 70s. They started using the word microchip, I think early 70s, but I read about it in 73 and I started my company in 74 1974, so 50 years next year and. I would say that the microchip itself Breakthroughs and. The ability for there to be something that has a personal computer, which came up, you know, within the first ten years of the microchip and then graphic user interface, which made the personal computer available to everybody, okay. And then the internet, probably software somewhere in there, the whole notion of software, that it didn't have to be hardware. Usefulness of the computer did not have to be hardware, it could just be a program. And then I would say the internet, and then the iPhone, and now artificial intelligence. Dean: Yeah, artificial intelligence that I think what's happening there is. Nobody could really have predicted. I mean, maybe people who knew were predicting, but I don't think people really had a sense of what was really possible with this until now, and I think as a species right now, we're clueless about where this is going. Dan: I said you know. I said you can say anything you want about where it's going and probably you'll be right, but there's going to be a million other things happening to that nobody could have predicted. Dean: Yeah, I mean it's really. Dan: I mean, where are you crossing into this world? I mean, what are you do? We have three or four projects. We have three or four projects going that. Dean: I'm involved in the company. Dan: And so where are you? I'm at the experiment where you experiment. Dean: Yeah, I'm experimenting in the personal, like my personal experience with it. We're not using it as it's not integrated in any way into my company that you're you know our stuff yet, but I can see that it could be. I mean, I looked at, you know, one of the things that we do we have a subscription for. We have two different versions one for realtors, one for financial advisors of a postcard newsletter called the world's most interesting postcard and it's essentially a carrier for referral programming that you as a realtor or a financial advisor would send to your top 150 relationships so that you are programming them to notice conversations about real estate, to think about you and introduce you to the person that they had the conversation with. And it's been, you know, a phenomenal game changer for the amount of referrals that people get, measured as a you know, return on relationship, the percentage of repeat and referral business you get from your top 150 relationships. I haven't had four years we've been doing it for 12 years now a monthly postcard where we have someone research and put together there might be 16, you know just short interesting facts that you put on the front of the postcard and it's got a nice design and so it's easy to read. It's kind of just like you know interesting things and the. I started thinking about, well, if I did what, if I did one specifically for for financial advisors, that all the facts and stuff are money related. And I just asked chat GPT one day. I said can you write to you know 10 short interesting facts about the history of money? And it started, you know writing the things. And then I asked it to you know, make it a little more interesting things. And it, you know, put it out. And I said you can be 20 more. And it was like boom, all interesting. Dan: Yeah, absolutely I say yeah, and you're, you're, you're designing, though, as you go along, there's probably an interactive thing going on between yeah right, I'm just you know there's two a I a. Breakthroughs consist of two a you know the first day I as artificial intelligence, the second one is called actual intelligence. Dean: Yeah, exactly so. Dan: I'm bringing the actual intelligence. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I said it was so funny, Dan, because I said to it Well, these are great. How many do you think you could? It said well, I can make an infinite number of these. How many would you like? And it was just so funny that I ended up with like 50 of these you know, and just instantly done and I thought you know that's a really interesting thing. Again, those are, you know it's content related. I came, I had this idea of you know I think there are 400 and something cognitive biases that are, and I just started how many, how many of you mastered it Right exactly. And you know it's an interesting thing. I said can you make a three minute video script describing confirmation, bias, the facts about what it is and how it might be, how it might be deployed or come into play and how to defend against it? And it wrote this amazing like just you know, intro this, then scene of this, and then this, and narrator says that there's the script. You know, and it was just. I mean, when you look at the putting together of the different things, I saw this. I saw someone do a demonstration of you know having it write some. It was writing ads, video ads for something, and it they had gone to one of the gone to 11 labs. I think is a place where you train your voice. So it's got your voice. And then it went to another place that had your digital, you know avatar, you know from video of you, and then it combined this AI written script with your voice through your face on your avatar on video and it's instantly translated into any language where your mouth moves and your mouth is saying the words in Japanese or German or French or whatever and I just man, it's just such a like you can see, that's a you know. The distribution of Content like that, you know, is amazing. But then it's still so that's everything I've seen has been Content related, you know kind of yeah, creation and as a multiplier for content creation. But then the bigger you know we've had the conversation that the bigger you know. Picture of that is that our brains we still can't consume At any more than the speed of reality, which is 60 minutes per hour right, it takes us. Dan: Yeah, and the other thing is that we can only think about one thing at a time, you know? I mean, we can't think two things at the same time. Humans just can't do this and you know, and, as you say, it's reality, world, time-based, you know, and really Successful people have learned firsthand just what can get be gotten done in an hour a day and and, and then also it's developed a sense of discernment about just what's worth having your mind on for an hour for a whole day and you know and that you know, and I've dropped I'm noticing I'm shedding all sorts of things as I Approach 80. Just I dropped televisions. I'm in my sixth year now dropping television and and people say, but you're a big sports fan. And I said, oh, I've got a trick. I said I wait till the game. I I've got. I wait till the game, as though I'll use Cleveland Brown says an example and I just checked. I checked the score. You know the scores are in now. It's some beyond game time. Did they win or lose? Well, if they lost, I'm not interested. If they won, then they have a 10-minute video of the highlights and that's my game, you know. Dean: And. Dan: I know they've won and then I just get a chance to see how they won. Okay, if they lose. I don't watch it because I, because that doesn't do me any good, doesn't do me any. I'm already disappointed they lost. Why would I pile on and people said, yeah, but you're missing? All the excitement of the game. And I said I said yes. I said I want to be excited about other things. I don't want to be excited about, yeah, people who are one third of my age, I think. I'm coming through for me or not coming through for me? I want to see the final result. Dean: I've been contemplating Dan because, I I find that embarrassingly. Much of my time is screen-sucking. You know, as our friend, there's a lot of, there's a lot of screen-sucking and I would count television and YouTube and tiktok and Facebook and Anytime my eyeballs are sucking dopamine in through my screen as that time. And I've been experimenting with, you know, disconnecting from the the dopamine device you know, and so this morning was one of those times. I'm trying to get to a point where I can get as far into my day without having any, you know, digital input, and I think that there's a real Face that I could go, you know, all the way till noon with no Contact with the outside world and that, I think, would be a better thing for me. But it's amazing how your body like I went over to the cafe this morning to get some, get a coffee and just sit outside and you know I didn't take my phone I woke up. I still wake up in the. You know the first thing, you know, I checked my phone or whatever. I left it here and I went to the, the cafe, and it's amazing how your brain is Is like saying you know, wait a second, what if anything? What if you? What? Dan: if you break down. Dean: What if you're what? If you get an accident or you need to call somebody here, what? What about that? And then I realized I don't know a single person's phone number. I don't know what single phone number except my office, you know, and not there's nobody there, but that's, it's very funny to me, that's where your mind goes. And then I had that. I took real money because normally I use my Apple pay on my phone to pay for it and so. I had real paper money with me and it was just. It was so interesting to sit at the cafe and just watch everybody you know, all you know, even together screen sucking the whole time and I've been experimenting, see like how much can I Disconnect from that in a proactive way, right, like well, it's interesting. Dan: It's interesting because in the year you're applying the concept of intermittent fasting. Yeah, exactly that, yeah, you're going through. You know I'm going to spend three hours or four hours when. I fast you know yeah. Because your brain will find something to do if you're not right now. Dean: Yes, I'll talk with you fixing. I mean, I remember this is something interesting. I was really going as far as like, how far Down can I go with this? Right, like what would I truly be missing? I do. I use my phone all the time for everything. I mean texting, email, ordering food, you know all of the stuff. Entertainment talking, and I was. I remember there was a show about the royalty, I think it was called the crown, and maybe it was a movie about the queen, but I remember this was struck me as very like, very interesting is that every day at a certain time 5pm, maybe, noon or sometime they would bring the queen a red box. Was everything that she needed for the day, everything that needed her attention, kind of thing. Dan: And. Dean: I thought how neat would that be. What would be interesting if I could, at 5pm every day, get a box that has every thing that I need, like any emails that have come in, any texts that have come in, any you know articles of interest. That would be, you know, something that I would need and I wondered about that getting rid of. Like you know, I check on that judge report and you know I the news. Like seeing different things that are going on in the world and I thought to myself I wonder what happened if I went to, like you know, paper subscriptions to Newsweek, time magazine and the Wall Street Journal as the my connection to the world. Dan:I've gone beyond that because I used to get five papers a day. I got two Toronto papers. I got the Wall Street Journal, I got New York Times and National Post. Well, national Post was Globe and the Post for the two Toronto papers, and then the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and the fifth one was Business, business Investor's. Dean: Daily. Dan: Yeah, right, yeah, investor's Business Daily, and. But I began to realize that I all those papers. The only thing I was really interested in was the Opinions section. Okay, where the people wrote oversight articles. In other words, they were looking at us something and they were writing that. And then you know politics. I began to notice that in the newspaper world they were making most of their money after a while on subscriptions, because the advertising dollars were being taken away by Facebook and Google and yeah, and they had to go to digital versions on a subscription basis, and what that did is that it polarized the media in the sense that, for example, the Wall Street Journal, I would say 80 to 90% of its subscription probably is center or center right on the political spectrum. There's center right and the New. York Times is barely center, mostly to the left, and I noticed that the Globe and Mail is now center to the left and the Globe and Mail or the Post is still somewhat into the right into the right and the investors business daily only has Opinions on Saturday. They only have a real commentary section. So, yes, Okay. So what I began looking for, I said, well, still hit or miss, because there may be some good stuff or not good stuff. So I went to this aggregator which is called Real Clear, comes out of Chicago and all they do is aggregate article headings and they're almost all. They're all commentary, Okay. So every morning and six days a week they do an update at three o'clock in the afternoon. So you get up in the morning and they have that, and then at three o'clock in the afternoon they have an update. They don't do this on Saturday. Okay, there's one day when they don't do it Right but then they have all sorts of real clear. They have real clear politics, they have real clear policy. They have real clear market real clear world real clear defense, real clear energy, real clear health, real clear science, and those are more. They're picking up a periodicals rather than daily, yes, and so I just get up in the morning and I look and I click on three or four of them and they come for the New York Times as lucky if they get one every day, and some of them have paywalls so that when you go to their thing they're saying well, you can read the article if you pay for a subscription, and that counts them out. You know, I'm not going to pay, I'm not going to sign up for a subscription to get one article. Right so yeah, so, so, anyway. So that's what I've done. So and I'm down now to. Babs gets the post because she likes knowing Toronto things, but I don't bother looking at the, for the last two or three weeks they've had great articles. It's mainly how our Prime Minister is going down the drain which I always find comforting reading. And then the Israeli, israeli Amos situation and that's been a great clarifier, Boy. You really find out where people stand with this particular issue. That's been a really great clarifier herself. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Yeah, yeah. So anyway, but that's how I handle it, I handle it. That's been sort of my red box. Real clear is my red box. Dean: Right yeah that's interesting. Dan: You know what they call that the thing that the clean gets. I don't know what they call it. They call it the red box. Okay, that's what I thought, that's what you know that red, you know that red box she gets every day you know what they call it the red box. Dean: That is so funny, but I thought about experimenting with that, getting a red box and the government has to prepare them for. Dan: The Prime Minister's office has to prepare them for her Right, exactly yeah. Yeah, because they're both in town once a week. The Prime Minister has to come to the palace and you know and deliver in person. You know some of the crucial issues. This is not recorded. No one ever goes. Dean: Right A weekly audience with the Queen Right. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and the King now I guess? Dan: Yeah, I guess the King. Should we send the red box to the King? Dean: It's kind of hard to say. Dan: It's kind of hard to say, you know it's kind of hard to say King. How do you say King? You know? Because he was in for seven, seven years or so. Yeah, there was a great play, actually was called the interview. I saw it, and I saw it in London, right around the corner from the hotel. Dean: And. Dan: Helen Merrin was the Queen. Helen Merrin was the Queen and that what they did is all the Prime Ministers that she's had, starting with Winston Churchill, right up until last year. I guess there were a whole bunch of Prime Ministers over the last two or three years, so anyway, but she that just talked about it was all made up, because nobody really knows what's that, but they just used topical issues of the time and you know, and whether she got along with the Prime Ministers or not, or and everything else, and it was very, just a really terrific, really terrific play. Dean: I saw Napoleon on Thanksgiving Day. What'd you think? Dan: What'd you think I? Dean: didn't like it Did you see it. I haven't. It was as we like to say, Dan. There was a lot of middle in that movie. Dan: It was all middle it joined in progress and just never left the middle. Dean: There were only two scenes that were repeated six times. There was the drama in the palace and then there was battle scenes with horses and bayonets and cannons and on and on the same battle scenes, again and again, and then back to the palace and it was really. I didn't enjoy it at all, I didn't have. No, it was my shortest movie review ever. I looked at the camera, shook my head and said Nope, and then I hashtagged it Nope, olean, yeah, yeah. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Yeah, and, but I have no real historical knowledge of, you know, of Napoleon, but I did. You know, the most interesting thing was at the end they did a summary of all the people that were lost in battles, like 6 million people. In his period of being the king he lost in battle. That was. That's crazy, you know, 6 million seemed like that, seemed like a lot. Dan: Well, we must use all of them up, because his final battle was 1815. That's when Waterloo was you know the final battle, and then there was not a major European war until the beginning of the beginning of the first World War. So it was 99 years so he must have used everybody up because it took a whole century to stack up again. Yeah, and you know, yeah, I mean a lot of American history, american history really, you know, from the British fighting the French. You know that's really where the American thing starts, it's. I don't know what they call it. You know they call it the seven years war here in Canada, but in the United States it was called the French and Indian war. You, know, and this was 1817, 50s, 1763, seven years. But this is where all the American colonists got their military training, which they then used to go to for self fighting the British. Oh wow, 1717. So George Washington was an American born. You know, they were all British. I mean, they were all British. Yeah, all the colonists were British. And then and anyway, but that takes you right up until he I think Napoleon comes in around 1793 and he was in for 22 years but he totally changed Europe. I mean, he was like a major earthquake that went right across the continent and that really changed things. You know, Hitler was great, Hitler was great. Admirer of Napoleon, yeah. Dean: And that right. Dan: He made, and he made the same mistake. Dean:He invaded. Dan: Russia. Right right right, right right. Dean: That's yeah. So I'm going to save you from from that yeah. Dan: Well it's not a it's not a topic that I'm really interested in. Dean: Right, I've never heard you talk about Napoleon. No. Dan: I just you know, but he, he not only was a significant military person, he was very significant politician. Because that's where we get the metric metric system is from Napoleon. Dean: That's right yeah. Dan: And they didn't have any standard measurements in Europe. Okay, you know, I mean the British had their own. But you know, the British is kind of an organic thing that's developed over time feet inches, feet yards, and everything, stones, yeah, and the lightfully accent, and it's idiosyncratic, it's eccentric, eccentric. The British are eccentric, you know. And he wanted this 100, everything, as you know, and it took all the fun out of it, took all the fun out of measurement, right. Dean: You imagine. Dan: American, American baseball and metric, you know. Dean: American football and metric. Dan: Yeah Well, even the Canadian football. They use yards and peeps and you know everything like that, you know all the funny. Yeah, track and field they don't, because that's more of a European thing. Yeah, yeah, world stage Anyway well, it's really interesting, but I'd like to pick up a little bit more on this couple themes that we've developed over the last a few talks, and one of them, and what I think, is that every human being is a confirmation bias. Okay, say more about that. Well, you're biased according to the experience that's proved useful or not useful, okay, okay, okay, so you've used a term you know to great movies that are not worth seeing a lot of the middle. Okay, yeah, so there's a lot. I don't remember if there was. I don't remember if there was a beginning and or an ending, and Battles and battles. That's right and palace, you know, but I think that really thing because I think that it's impossible for human beings not to have the bias. Yeah, I think that's what I do, what I do think as the smarter human beings know what their biases are and Choose them. Yeah they actually choose them. Yeah, and, and you know, as it just strikes me that this whole notion of neutrality neutrality that you can be unbiased is, I Think it's just silly how could you? Possibly be on. I mean, that's right in the world. You wouldn't survive. Dean: Yeah, yeah. And the words of Milton Friedman to field on at you. Where do you propose we find these angels to organize society Without regards the personal interest or bias? I don't even trust you to do that, Phil. Dan: I've watched that about. I've watched that about ten times. Yeah, that's such a great thing, because you can just see that Phil Donahue just has this sort of fluffy, waffly form of logic. You know, all, all, basically emotion based. You know emotion, yeah, I mean, he didn't have. Our Perspective new Prime Minister here is getting a lot of fight. When you finish here, go on Google and say here, paulie of you know, you know how to spell it, don't you? Dean: yes, okay. Dan: Takes down reporter. Just he just took down a reporter and it was one of the most masterful take downs of reporter Ever, and he did it while chewing an apple. Dean: Oh, I love it. Dan: So he's being interviewed, and he's, and the person says, well, you know, you know, you're taking a very ideological approach. He says ideological, what's that? Well, what's ideological? And the reporter says, well, you know, it's more emotion based. And he says name a name, an example there. Name an example, well you know, and it gets round that he's reproducing Donald Trump and you know that's the ultimate killer, that's the kill shots. You know you call somebody Donald Trump, he's not right. No. And he says, well, a lot of the experts. And he says experts, name one expert and and the reporter did not have a specific piece of information, that was all this fluffy narrative and you could just see the guy was flailing and meanwhile Pierre Polyov is just eating, example, and he says do you have an actual point to this interview? There's some. And the guy you could just see the guy you know. You know they didn't show that, show him in full, but I bet you know there was a puddle under his feet when he was finished. Yeah, yeah, and he's just learned how to deal with this whole issue that they try to catch you on their words. Dean: Yeah, exactly, I don't even know, what that word means. Dan: I mean do you know what that word is? You just used a word I don't know what that word is and he says well, you know, you're doing left versus right and he says Name a time when I've actually said that I've never said love first right. I don't believe them love first right. So I believe in common sense and I'm kind of bored the side that has common sense. So we haven't had any of you just aren't used to it because we haven't had any common sense for the last eight years. So anyway, and he's. I think he's a phenomenal debater, you know because he's been in he's 44 years old and he's been in parliament for 19 years. I think he's a phenomenal debater, you know because he's been in. He's 44 years old and he's been in parliament for 19 years. You know, he's been there since he was 25 and wow, yeah, but it's really interesting to watch it. You know, I mean, and I'm very biased towards his side of. Dean: You have a cognitive bias around him. Dan: I have a total. I have a total cognitive bias. That's funny. Dean: I love it. Dan: Yeah, okay, so anyway, fascinating where this is going, but I think this AI thing is a Much what should I call it here? I think it's a Catalyst for a real mind change and how we think about everything. I think the team with interacting with this technology Is actually introducing us to how we actually think about things. Dean: I think you're right, because you have to bring that to it. Yeah, so you are. You are off to Phoenix. Dan: Yeah, we fly out on Tuesday and then we're there until Saturday morning. We're there until Sunday morning because I can't take more than two days of Sitting in a room and so we're off to Chicago and then we have a Chicago week, we have a. I just have one workshop. I have the free zone on Thursday. Yes, yeah, so so anyway, you know, yeah, it's been a good year. It's been actually it's been a very Sailing kind of year. I haven't had any real-time crunches or anything else. Been a great right, that's awesome. And so then we're back, are you? And yeah, and so June 12th, june 18th, is our first free zone in Toronto. Dean: Oh, you've set the date already. Dan: Yeah, oh great. Yeah, and now I'll just forward Tammy, who is the wizard mastermind of scheduling here, tammy coville. Dean: And I'll just send you. Dan: I'll just forward her announcement. It just came through two days ago, so I'll just yeah. Dean: And we're doing it in June. Dan: I mean, it's not nice starting it off in June? Dean: I love that. I love that I do miss Toronto. Yeah, I love it. Dan: Toronto misses you, I think Toronto misses you oh Honey. I love it. Yeah, there's no more table 10 anywhere. I haven't found a table 10 anywhere. Dean: We're gonna need a new. We'll need a new venue. Dan: Oh well, we'll go. I mean less elective still there and they're still good, so we'll go okay good Okay, perfect Okay okay, dan, have a great trip two weeks. Dean: We'll be back. Dan: I'm sorry. Two weeks, two weeks, okay, perfect, yeah, okay, okay, I'll talk to you then. Dean: Thanks Okay, bye, bye.

In today's episode of Welcome To Cloudlandia, I share the story of my unexpected adventure travelling to Buenos Aires for a pioneering knee stem cell treatment. I describe how my blood and fat cells were transformed into new cartilage and transported across continents for the procedure. I also recount my partner Babs' experience treating an inflamed toe and the vitality we've regained. Our discussion explores the pursuit of longevity and regenerative medicine's potential to make 156-year lifespans attainable through the normalization of audacious goals. We delve into hopes for abundant years energized by purpose and new ventures. Additionally, I discuss the art of self-talk and strategies like daily focus tasks negotiated through self-management.   SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Dan shares his transformative experience with stem cell treatment in Buenos Aires, describing the process of turning his own cells into cartilage. We discuss the broader implications of regenerative medicine and how it might extend our lifespans and rejuvenate our vitality. The episode touches on the concept of setting ambitious longevity goals, like living to 156 years, to guide life's endeavors and encourage significant projects. Dean talks about the importance of mental self-management and compares it to a daily negotiation to focus on critical tasks. We delve into the balance between productive 'focus days' and the freedom of 'buffer days', and how each contributes to overall productivity and creativity. The conversation includes insights on the internal quest for happiness and whether the 'fountain of youth' might be a state of mind. Dean and I examine the concept of 'Dean Landia', a metaphor for the mental environment we create and have control over. We discuss the entrepreneurial mindset, emphasizing the role of deadlines, and the Danger, Opportunity, and Strength (DOS) and Money, Labor, and Time (MLT) frameworks for success. The episode reflects on how personal goals influence our actions and the normalization of extraordinary ambitions to build confidence. Dean describes his experience with stem cell treatment for his knee injury and his partner Babs' treatment for an inflamed toe, highlighting the physical and psychological benefits they've experienced post-treatment. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: I wouldn't have it any other way. Welcome, Mr Claude Ladiak. Mr. Dan: Jackson. Mr Jackson, yeah Well, very pleasant woman who, and you know, I was the first one on today and she said you're the first one to Join the call, the others will join pretty soon and so far, in about seven years, only one person has shown up. So I want to know who the? Others are. Is this the National Security Agency? Is this the Communist Party of China? I'm just trying to get a handle of who the others are. Dean: I think you're probably right once, two or more Gathered that everybody is. Dan: Yeah, but I found that just the two of us is more than enough. That's the truth. Dean: Well, I am excited to hear about all of your Adventures here You've been. You've been all over the world. Here seems like you've been in Chicago. You've been in most exciting Lee Buena Flores. Yes, I'm excited to hear all about the Adventure here. Dan: Yeah Well, spire Chicago goes. I missed the bullets, so that's all I can report on we're not. We're not in the part of the city that's in the crossfire zone, but anyway yeah. Buenos Aires was interesting. It's only the second time I've been to South America, and the first time was just to land in Ecuador, co City in Ecuador, and then we took a flight to the Galapagos Islands and this was as the guest of Richard Rossi, who put together, you know, a gathering that went to the Galapagos Islands and you know the plain lands and one of the islands, and then you take a National Geographic boat and I think it's Linblad and National Geographic and then you know we investigated all the sea life and the animal life which are, you know, very distinct from what's found elsewhere, and that was great, but it was mostly just painting out, with a whole bunch of people that were interesting to talk to. So that's only the first time and that was a long time ago. And then we just do Create the setting here. The context, again, as a result of being a guest of Richard Rossi, has a mastermind group which is called Da Vinci 50, and Babs and I took us two or three years to get our schedule right so that we could Guarantee our attendance at all the different meetings, but the very first one, this was in New Orleans. This was last January. I met a doctor, babs. I met a doctor there from Buenos Aires by the name of Gustavo Mabilia, and, and he told a story about what he's doing with stem cells and these are your own stem cells, white blood cells and fat cells that if you collect them and then send them. It's not an entirely easy process to get them to Argentina, but we got them there and he would then convert them into the stelle, the stem cells that you're having problem with your and your body and I have an orthopedic injury in 1975. I tore my cartilage in the left knee and in those days they would Take out the torn cartilage. They wouldn't do that today, but that's you know, that was the best that was going 48 years ago. And he said oh, we can regrow your cartilage. She said we can the part that was snipped out. We can regrow that cartilage and I said that's cool. That's cool. Yeah, I was convinced that Babs has a chronically inflamed right toe that really impedes a lot of her walking or exercise and it's inflamed bones. So I didn't know that bones got inflamed. It shows up on MRIs when you do an MRI. So long story short, through dr Hasi, who's our main Medical guide and explorer for us in Nashville, tennessee. He's got a clinic there called Maxwell Clinic. He did all the, you know the coordination before us to. You know, make sure that our stem cells were there, make sure that the they turn it into a magic potion I don't know too much more about it and he arranged with for our trip down. So we went. This is so. Yesterday was Saturday, we're talking on Sundays, it was two. Two Saturdays ago we took an overnight flight to Buenos Aires, where it's now springtime because they're in the other hemisphere. Yeah, it's more complicated than I'm telling you, but that's the upshot of it for the week and and so, as far as the you know, the brain cells and the vascular cells, the only thing I can say and I have to be, I think I have to be cautious here, but because I have, like a lot of entrepreneurs do, I have the ability to create my own placebo's. Dean: Right. Dan: Yeah, okay so all. I can say I've come back after the trip and we had. We came back after seven days and and this week I have felt more energized and more confident. Dean: Then I can remember recently sounds like quite an adventure and the upside yeah, gonna be. The upside is gonna be a total new development of cartilage in your knee specifically. Second, what's the Hope for it Like? Are you gonna have the knees of a preteen Swedish boy, or are you gonna Just have the normal knees of 79? Dan: well, basically yeah, I'll basically have the, basically the knee I had before the injury. Okay so that's 48 years, so six months, and the orthopedic is pretty easy for them. I mean, they're doing some advanced work and other parts of the body, but the cartilage is, you know, it's pretty, it's not a complicated thing, right? But what happens is they take my blood cells and my fat cells and they turn, essentially turn it into new cartilage cells and that's. You know, that's what stem cells are that? How? Dean: does it gather. Dan: Yeah, well it's. This was all done in Nashville and. So, what they do is they? You know it's, it's basically a centrifuge and you have an IV in both arms and the blood that gets taken out and it's, and they take the white blood cells out and then you know it's simultaneously they're taking blood out now return it to your body, but they're taking the white blood cells, which is far prior less of your blood than your red blood cells. Okay, actually it was like a two hour, two hour session and it was like a cup full. You know, after a big cup, a big mug full, and so that's the white blood cells and then the fat cells. You go to a plastic surgeon Because they're used to taking you know it's part of plastic surgery of taking out fat cells and so and you get enough they're, they're told how much of each are required for them to basically do a year's worth of. You know we're going to go down probably four times during the next 12 months, starting with the first trip two weeks ago. And they'll have enough just from that one extraction, extraction of both, they'll have enough. So next time I go down I broke both my Achilles tendons in the 1970s. That was a bad decade. That my in 1970s were just a really bad decade anyway. So anyway, and the Structurally, I mean they're shortened because of the surgery, the tendons, are shorter, but they've developed calcification. Oh yeah which reduces flexibility, and it's got pain attached to it. So next time they'll Take my same fat cells and white blood cells and they'll turn it into something that gets rid of all the Calcification and my and my tendons. Yeah, so, and that will give me more push-off, it'll give me more flexibility to go along with the new cartilage. So I think probably, you know, probably I'll be gaining back about 30 or 40 years of Running ability out of my legs, you know. Dean: I always Run for his money yeah. Dan: Well, yeah, I just want to run again. I enjoy running and I haven't been and it's been too painful to do for the last 10 years. And then the whole thing is the overall, the Direct injection. You're just going after a particular issue, but the IV, the, it goes into your brain and it looks for anywhere where your brain cells Are not performing correctly and it wakes them up. So the stem cells don't cure anything, they just wake up the natural cells that are there and they start growing again. And the same thing with the Vax vascular system. That's your, but I. I would say that Knowing that now I have the means to repair anything in my body as soon as it's identified as a problem is Very confidence. Dean: It's very confidence building you know it's very and. Dan: I was noticing that I had sort of blot into Sort of why I know I'm wearing down and I know that there's an end to it at some point, but I hadn't realized how much that was until I got the other thought that, no, almost anything that's going wrong with you you can repair now and you can rejuvenate it, and so that's a. That's a huge confidence builder. Dean: Yeah, and it's really I mean perfectly timely, right as you're entering into, you know, in my ninth decade. Yeah, exactly entering into your ninth decade with the goal of it being the best decade ever which I love that framework, by the way and at a time when normally it would be, you know, physical deterioration happening, you're like physical rejuvenation. Dan: You're going backwards on that thing, yeah, I mean yeah, you know the there's so many factors that are involved in aging, and some of it is just the fact that your cells only reproduce 50 times. Okay, there's a thing which is called the Haflick barrier. This is a I don't know quite what kind of scientists he was, but he found that every cell in the body and there's 20, I think, 26,000 different types of cells in the body, some number like that they all reproduce only 50 times, as far as they can tell, but they don't do it equally. They don't, they don't. They're not doing it at the same time. Heart muscles might be faster, other cells are slower, but it sort of reaches the limit of everything by the time you're 120. We only have one person on record where there's actual valid records of birth who has lived 120. She also lived, she also. She got to 122. She died. A French woman who died about 10 years ago. Dean: And that's the only person that. Dan: I mean, there's all these claims, you know, you know around the world, the people who lived at 200 and 300 and everything else, but they don't have any valid records which actually established that. So anyway, but but most people don't get to 120. Dean: Right, exactly. Dan: Yeah, I mean, even if you only got to 120,. I said, even if you only got to 120,. I said well yeah, I mean, if you're an entrepreneur and you're at top of your game at 60, and you're saying, no, I guess I have to retire pretty soon. Well, the decision to retire is sort of telling your body it doesn't matter how long the body lasts now I mean, it can go really quickly. But if I know I'll be 18 next May and if I know that I can stay in top form for another 25 or 30 years at the top of my game right now, then that's a big deal. Dean: Yeah, I look at, I saw me. You know, bob Barker died earlier this year at 99. And the thing that was going around with that, he got to as close to 100 as he could without going over the big showcase showdown. Kind of close to 100. Dan: But you know George Burns, the comedian, very famous mid-century 20th century, you know, 40s through the 80s or 90s. He had a goal that he was going to do a full show at the Palladium in London, big Venue in London, england, and he did it. And then and I always gave him as an example because he was performing full time in his 90s and then- did an actual 100th birthday. And then he was in a shower about four weeks later, he slept, broke his hip and he died two weeks later. And I said, George, you didn't understand what you did. You should have set another date for when you were 110. Exactly. Dean: Isn't that amazing, I wonder? Yeah, I mean, that's kind of a. You've been programming yourself for 156 for as long as I've known you Since 1987, you know since 19, 36 years right now, yeah. Yeah. So that's kind of you know. You're just approaching or just at the halfway mark there ramping up, gaining speed, gaining momentum. Dan: Well, people say do you really think you're going to live to 156? And I said I know I won't if I don't have it as a goal. Amen. Dean: Well. Danny just setting yourself up for disappointment. Dan: Well not me everybody who ends up with my messes after I'm gone. You know when I'm gone. What do I care? Dean: Exactly, that's the point. I love that. Dan: I love, I laugh. Dean: I tell people that all the time, when you said the just for you, it's just going to be live, live, that's better. There, you go, you're not going to experience the disappointment. Dan: There's a great French philosopher from the 1600s named Blaise Pascal. Dean: And there's a blaze. Dan: There's a Pascal wager. And he says you know, when you think about it, all of us regarding if there's anything after this life, it's a guess. You know it's a guess and it's a bet and he says but let's just take a look at the two bets. There's nothing after you die. Okay. Dean: Okay well that's cool. Dan: The other one is there's a whole other world after I die. And he says it's not so much which makes the best sense after you die. It's what bet makes the sense right now? Because if you think that there is a whole world afterwards and it turns out there's nothing, well you really haven't lost anything, because you know there's nothing, but what? If you believe your whole life there isn't anything after death, and then you find out that there and they said you know, and you said geez, if only I had. Oh my God, if I had known this and he's believing there's a afterlife is a much better bet, psychologically and emotionally, for right now. Yeah, yeah so I'm kind of a. I'm a kind of a Pascal wager kind of guy. Mm, hmm, that, I mean, is so back then everybody you know lived a life that took the natural course. You know I mean living to 60 and 70 in those days was kind of an achievement, with all the different ways you could die back then disease and you know and violence unless you were, unless you were, matthew's a lot. Yeah, yeah, but birth records. Dean: No documentation. Dan: I'm sorry, Matthew's a lot. I'm sorry, but where's your come on? Where's your papers? That's everybody. Dean: Every time I think about muscle, I think about our Aubrey, aubrey de Grey. Yeah and the Missusola prize. Have you heard any updates on that? I've kind of lost the past. No, I saw video. Dan: I saw a video of him talking and I got a feeling that that Living living two or three times more than natural, but not being happy right now is probably Not a good bet, because I didn't get the sense that he was a happy. I didn't get the sense that he was a happy person, you know. So I mean you never know, I mean people who never saw aren't necessarily unhappy, and people who smile all the time aren't necessarily happy, you know. Dean: I mean happiness. Dan: Yeah, an internal disc, it's an internal disposition, yeah. But anyway, you know I'm just reporting back. I'm sort of a bit of a trailblazer in relationship to this stuff, but I'm only. I will tell you, dean, I was thinking about this when I was in Buenos Aires that if I didn't have that goal of living to 156, I wouldn't be doing this stuff right now. Dean: Yeah, that's true, right, you're already in traditionally if you speak about like. I'm beyond refund right now. You know, I mean, you're out of warranty. Right now You're an extra innings Actuarial tables. You're an actual outlier. Dan: Yeah, but I'm really a profit center for the insurance companies. It's just been me paying them, just been me paying them up until now. I love it. Dean: Dan is so great. I think this is like that's one of the great things of you know being alive at this time in particular, just all the access to these things. That's only gonna get better, as we understand. I remember when I went to the first, the first abundance 360 and Richard Rossi's friend, gary Kaplan, was there with us. I think you've met Dr Kaplan. Dan: Oh no, Gary. Yeah, Gary, you know, I see him every, I see him at every defense. She 50 maybe. Dean: You know, he's a great guy Okay yeah. Yeah, I really went to the go out there. Dan: I went to the go out because silence with Gary, so we had a lot of time to talk. Dean: So I've known him for a long time, you know, well, I remember when this was. This had to be Almost 10 years ago, right 9, 9 years ago. Anyway, the first abundance 360, not the very first one, the first one in LA Beverly Hills Hotel there, and you know I'm sitting with him and he was Saying you know, when you look at all the medical advancements that are coming right now, this is back then you said it's gonna. It's gonna seem like we've been Throwing rocks at people to get them healthy, you know, compared to what's actually coming. I mean, yeah, we would describe what you know regenerative, and that's a good word. That's kind of become, you know, newly minted. Regenerative medicine is All the things from the on a cellular level regenerative Regeneration, replacement. You know we're pretty much going to be able to replace everything Before we repair it or repair it. Yeah, replace repair, regenerate right. Dan: And that's pretty cool. So, yeah, I like well, I think, the hmm, I got involved with Peter Diamandas in I'm just trying to think. There was December of 2011, the first before a 360 meeting. We didn't have a name for it, but this was in Silicon Valley and and one of the things that sort of connected Peter and Peter and me Was really the fact that we both had this commitment to living way beyond normal age, you know. But I had a thinking process, you know. Of course it's the first hour of strategic coach, which is the lifetime extender. And he came in at that time and I said you know it's not a goal you can achieve unless you can normalize it as a normal thought. I said you know our brain, and Our brain really resists abnormal thoughts. We, it has to be normal. So I set myself the goal in 1987 that every time I thought of my lifetime I would just think 156, you know, you know, at that time, life expectancy for males you know of my background and you know the thing was 78, so 156 is twice and so it took me about three years before it was just a normal thought. So whenever I you know I'm pushing 80 now and you know, and I said, well, what's my lifetime, I said 156. So at 80. That makes me very ambitious because I know I've got in my own mind, I've got, a way you know, enormous amounts of time left, really twice a lifetime 76 years. Yeah, yeah, I got 76, 76 years to get things done, so it makes me Totally confident about starting new, big, new big things. And I mean your whole life is either happy or unhappy. Unhappy based on the kinds of conversations you're having with yourself. I agree. Dean: I agree a hundred percent. I mean, you realize, I was realizing, I've been thinking a lot about this. You know, this straddling of the mainland and the cloud land via, and those thoughts then brought me into the actual game, which is game land is where at all happened and I realized that how much of you know Dean landia is affected by the inputs and circumstances and the Context and relationships and conversations and environments that you voluntarily Put yourself in, you know, surrounding yourself with the environment that's going to shanty people yeah, people, I mean. Dan: Yeah. Dean: And. Dan: I just had a thought, and that was triggered by your Dean Landia, that I only have direct access to one human being on the planet. You know, and same goes for you, and a lot of people spend their life. A lot of people spend their life trying not to be, not to deal with the one person they have direct access to you know they're hoping they're going to be saved from the proof that they hope something else will save them from the person that they're actually inside of, and you know so. so my, my whole point is why don't you just take ownership for the, the relationship that you have just with this one person, and you know there's new dimension, there's new dimensions presenting themselves all the time. And and the other insight I had and that comes from our conversations, because we're we've got a very similar approach to life on a lot of different fronts and I was thinking, you know, I've been trying to control my brain up until I think, about two years ago. I was going to control my brain and, you know, make sure my brain was focused on this and that. And I said why don't we change the relationship here and take for granted that you want, I have no control over my brain. And the other thing is why don't we just see where it goes every day? Because it's totally unpredictable. I spent one day and just sort of locked in where my brain was going that day and there was absolutely no predictability to what's forever. And I said, okay, why don't we just I'm just going to do it deal with my brain wherever it goes? During that day I wanted to do three useful things for my plans. You can go anywhere you want, but by the end of the day, I want progress on this, I want progress on that, I want progress on that, okay just have fun, you know, do whatever you want, but by the end of the day, if you and I are going to sleep happily tonight, you know, I got to see progress on these three things. Dean: Oh, my goodness, Dan, that's so funny. You know, it's like I've been having these exact conversations with myself here. It's like taking over the management. You know, it's all in that vein of you know, imagine if you applied yourself your FELF, these things of taking over the management, you just you hit it on the head that I only have direct control over one human on the planet and that's me. And I thought about entering and I realized that my brain, my desires, my ambition, my you know vision, the visionary in my brain here is not necessarily the one in control of the, the doing part of my brain, the labor management versus labor right. And so I was thinking about I heard one time that there's a form of contract where a you know production will enter into a contract with an actor or a celebrity, that with their company on an SSO contract which is for services of. So it would be enter, as I thought it's kind of like entering into a contract with my brain here for services of being Jackson and thinking what you just said is like those. If I could just like allocate time and attention to you know I've I've thought a lot about your thing of three, three things a day. How much I'd love to hear from you how, on a buffer day when you are I don't know how you define whether buffer day or focus you've got workshop focus days where those are like the Bob's fled run kind of thing. That you know what's happening on a workshop day. You get up and I'm sure your car arrives at a certain time and you get taken to the workshop and everything is for my computer, or my computer does, because some of them are virtual. Yes, exactly Okay. And then but on the days where I never struggle with those, I realized that everything that I do get done has that external exoskeleton or that scaffolding to make sure that gets done. If you're just in the right, all you have to do is, you know, get in the car and the rest of it is taking place, or open up the computer and sit down and you're. You know you're able to focus and deliver the workshops. But I'm curious about your free range time, where I think I may have, like I crave and do a lot to carve out big blocks of uninterrupted time, only to end up having nothing to show for it. Because, I don't get myself to sit down and do the things that I've carved out all this time to do. I'm curious how, what your experience is on getting Dan to do stuff that requires his own batteries, I guess I'd love to hear your experience. Dan: Here again, I think we're very similar and I think that's why our podcasts are so enjoyable, because to a certain extent, neither of us wants it to end when we get going. But I have one of our models in the strategic coach is a theater model which is front stage, back stage, and front stage is really, whether you have a viable company or not, it's your front stage your profitable front stage impact is what determines whether you're getting paid to take care of everything else, and I don't have to be motivated for a front stage impact. You know, and workshops is an example, podcasts is another example, creating new thinking tools is another example, and writing books is another example, or videos or audios. So these are all front stage. In other words, if I can get this done, then it has a multiplier impact out in the world on other people, and that either me directly interacting with the world, or our coaches or our team members interacting with the world, and that ends up in profitability. Okay, so those are my focus days, but some of the days that are not focused days, I have to be preparing for those days. Okay, but anytime. I think of front stage impact preferably. I don't need to be motivated to do that, I love doing that. Dean: Okay. Dan: And that's my usefulness to myself, that's my usefulness to everybody I engage with. But just going back to my decision over the last two years of just letting my mind wander, when I'm not directly engaged in front stage impact activities, my brain can do anything at once. It can go anywhere and so I don't really care. Before I used to care. I'm not making use of my front stage, my back time, I'm not making it. I said leave it alone, just let it go where it wants to go, let it run, let it go out and frolic, let it explore and everything else they really run. So I mean, it took me till practically age 78 to come to this agreement with my brain, and so I'm either in hyper focus, actually doing the things that make money and spread the reputation and do all sorts of good things, or it's free reign. I really don't care. Dean: And to me what it does. Dan: It frees me up from the tyranny of time and effort. That you're absolutely maximizing the use of your time. I said I don't care about my time and I don't care about my effort, as long as I make a front stage a profitable front stage impact. If it takes me an hour to do that, and it's an hour if it takes me a full day workshop, then it's a full day workshop, but I don't really care about the time and the effort, I just really care about the impact. And then backstage. I just say brain, go and do whatever you want to do, think about anything you want to think about, and I couldn't care less. You don't have to justify your existence. My brain doesn't have to justify its existence when it's not on stage. Dean: That's very interesting when you're creating a new tool. For instance, you introduced a tool on Friday for our pre-melt connection. Call yeah, your melt tool, and what's happening? How does that come about? What's your process? Dan: for that. Dean: That's one of the key outputs that you're providing is new IP and thinking tools for the thing, so how does that come about? If your mind goes, you mentioned you've read Peter Zion's book seven times now. Dan: Yeah, the end of the world is just the beginning. I think it's the most important book in the world. I'm reading and I read it seven times. So it's Peter Zion. Dean: Z-E-I-H-A-N. Dan: And the book is called. Dean: The. Dan: End of the World is Just Beginning and he's written. This is the fourth book that he's written since 2014, where he's just predicting that everything we were expecting to happen 10 years ago ain't going to happen that way, and a whole new world is going to happen. Dean: And he's got very plausible readings. Dan: I'm not going to explain the book here but it has a profound impact on me. But it seemed to me that he was operating at a macro geopolitical level and I said well, is there a simple sort of set of gauges, if you will underneath, that determines in any place at any time whether things are moving forward or they're stagnating or they're falling behind? And I came up, it just sort of fell out of. He doesn't talk about this directly, but after I'd read it a whole number of times, it just struck me that it was the cost of four things that determine this, and one of them was the cost of money. How much is it cost you to get money? And that comes in two forms how much is it cost you to get a loan and how much is it cost you to get an investment? Those are the two main, the financial vehicles that underlay growth. And then your profitability is the third one. Are you keeping a lot of what you're making? Dean: That's savings. Dan: And then the cost of energy and all of its different forms and the cost of labor getting really top notch. You have access to other people's skills, and how much is it cost you to do that? And then the cost of transportation, because we live in a physical world and to move a pound costs money including your own pounds and that costs energy and I just started playing with this. I know we did. I was mentioned on a previous one of our podcasts Mike Kenix, we did it on that and everybody I talked about it. It had a simplifying effect on their thinking. I said this is a good tool. That's all I do If you come up with an acronym and it's. M-e-l-t. And I said I think we're going into a great meltdown next 30 years where everything of those four factors is going to cost more, and you can see it. Yeah, I mean you can see it. All you have to do is read the news every day. Most of this is going up, energy is costing more, labor is costing more and transportation is costing more. And I said so. You know, I think it's a neat way. So what I did is I just introduced a tool to the free zone entrepreneurs, just two days ago, when you were there and I said if this is true, let's just suppose that it's true, that these costs are going to go up for everyone else and what's your biggest advantage and opportunity over the next 30 years? And that's just. That would be a thinking tool, and it has two qualities it's a sudden new thought, it provokes your interest, but it brings your right back to what you, as an entrepreneur, can take advantage of. So those are my criteria for a new thinking tool for a strategic coach. It took me from the time the thought occurred me to Friday, because that's the first time I did it. It took me six months of playing around with the idea, checking with other people you know conversation and then just looking at the news and saying, is the news going in the direction of the theory? You know? Dean: Yeah, and then. So when you like to get it to that tool, state that's part of your when you're letting your mind wander. It's so funny, dan, I've been talking about this idea of the self-milking cow, the idea of embracing your bovinity and realizing that you're the one that can create the milk. And if you set up an environment like I've moved towards, is that we basically have things divided into three divisions. I call it the pastures, which is me out roaming the pastures, you know, exploring and being a happy cow. And then we have got a milking shed and the milking shed is set up for me to come in and be, milked, essentially to turn my thoughts, free range thoughts, into, you know, into digital milk, meaning that we're recording something about my you know I'm doing it either through a podcast or through a Zoom or interview or whatever we've got with my team. And then we have the processing plant, where they take the digital milk and they process it into podcast, courses, tools, anything like that. So I'm curious, like it sounds like one of your pasture roaming activities is reading things like the like Peter Zion's book and your six you know your of daily input from real clear politics and the Wall Street Journal and All the things that you do. You put those all in and then ruminate on them and and then outcomes the things. When you're turning it into a tool, though, are you consciously like? Are you starting with, like illustration, journaling, doodling? What's your, what's your kind of creation process for? Dan: yeah, I do, because our tools come in in One page written. There's boxes and the box. You know the number of boxes, the kind of boxes you have so with with the melt tool. All I did was have it's called your great meltdown and your great meltdown DOS. Okay, so DOS is a previous tool that we have in coach is that and any human activity. There people are responding to dangers that they're fearing loss of some sort. The other thing is opportunities, where they're excited about the possible gain of something. Dean: And then their strength. Dan: These are the things that they already have going for them. And I said I think all human beings, every day, operate within a unique DOS framework of things that are fearful about, things are excited about and things that they're confident about. So what I did is I did a matrix and matrixes are cool, so the cool way of structuring where you have MLT, money, energy, labor, t and then I had four arrows going up for, I think, cost, and then down the side I had danger, opportunity, strength. And then I said to the entrepreneurs, because they're familiar with the DOS, everybody At the level that you're at in coach, the free zone. This is an old tool. This is, you know, 20 years old and some of you have been there 20 years and I said so from your standpoint that all of your clients and potential clients, customers, are going to have the danger of rising melt costs. What's your opportunity in this? Okay. So what's there the opportunity with dangers? What's the opportunity? Yeah. What's your opportunity with other people's opportunities? And what's your Opportunity with other people's strengths? And then you go through it and there's another exercise which I won't go into right here, and you come back and then you just have a general conversation, you have breakout sessions and conversation, and the room goes crazy, you know, and because everybody's done thinking about their thinking, they've talked about their thinking, and they come back and they hear everybody else's thinking and that's what produces the workshop. But the thing that triggers all this motion is that I have deadlines to create new things. Dean: Yes, I got it and that's really how it all comes out and that's, I think, do you have a sense of what your, how much of your time? Is that free range versus you know the structured workshops? And so I guess it's getting left, or more and more Free range. Dan: Well, I would say even on my most intense front stage days. Still, the majority of the day is free range and then when I don't have that type of thing. It's all free range, yeah, but it's not a. Yeah, without a commitment to someone else to deliver something, giving myself deadlines is worthless. Yeah, me too. Dean: I've discovered that about me giving myself a backstage free range deadline. Dan: Well, first of all, I think free range and deadline is a contradiction in terms. Right. Dean: Yeah, this is what I like about the, you know is doing a workshop or scheduling a milking session. Is I know that if I've got a milking session Scheduled, like I've been going to the studio? Yeah you know, on Thursday morning, 10 o'clock to 12 o'clock, and I know that you know I'm prepared for For being milked at that at those times, you know. So I'm either, yeah, doing something myself. Some of the best things that I've done have been just preparing myself to record a State of the Union or a new, you know, record myself as a thought. I do find those a little more that I have to. You know, if I have to have that time set aside, right, that's how I've been. How I did the convert more leads book was I Could free range, I get my thoughts together for this section of the book and then I go and talk that out. So it gives me that structure. One thing that I have realized and that's been very helpful is this idea that Reality you know, the mainland, the real world here, applying yourself, moves at the speed of reality, which is 60 minutes per hour. And, yeah, if I'm going to embark on a project that's going to take 20 hours, that there's no possible way to allocate or Put in those 20 hours without actually putting in the 20 hours and that I can't do it. All at once. So the only thing I've got an infinite. I've got an infinite Opportunity list of all of the things that I could possibly do, but what I've been experimenting with that's very helpful is Just loading in my next 10 hours. What if I? What can I do in the next 10? 50 minute focus sessions that I have? you know that's really that narrow. That helps me prioritize and make a decision, which is the first step of you know my acronym of playing golf a goal, optimal environment, limited distractions, six time frames. So a goal is the decision of what am I going to do at Tuesday from 10 o'clock to 12 o'clock I've got two potential hours that I can allocate there and what am I going to do in those times. You know, that's really been a big help. Dan: Yeah, yeah and. I, you know and I've got a reputation that goes back, certainly the full extent of the Coach program, which goes back. I mean we'll be 35 years Next November. We're in our 35th year of the coach program. Dan always delivers. Yeah, and I have a Absolute commitment to never in any way undermining that reputation. So whatever it takes, dan always delivers, okay me too. And you know if you handle that, whatever it takes to deliver, you know life gets real, simple. Dean: Yeah even though it's sometimes. You've seen that illustration of the you know assignment made, accepted, deadline here the timeline, and then the little five percent at the very end and the 95% all allocated is goofing off. And then five percent, all the work done, while crying. Dan: No matter what. Dean: Yeah, well done, you know, yeah, yeah yeah, because your, your entire reputation is just in terms of commitment, is that you've made to other people? Yeah, and I think, though, our ability to our ability to always deliver, I think has really been, you know, honed because of our, the requirement of us always pulling a rabbit out of our hats growing up. Dan: I think yeah, even in any assignments or anything like that. Dean: We've gotten Really good at improv theater you know, yeah, I. Dan: Well, I think the other thing is if that's true, you always deliver then, what people can't see about that? Are you happy with the time you spend that other people can't see? And I would say that I'm up about 1,000 times over the last 30 years. I'm really happy with the free range time. I'm really happy with all the work backstage that I have to do. I used to be grueling. It was working nights, it was working weekends under severe pressure, and that's not true anymore, because I've got a sense of the framework of the project. I got the sense of the timing of the project. And I said you know and then you know, I've kind of worked out what the deal is with my brain. My brain always delivers at the end of the day. And I says, well, there's two of us that always deliver my brain. If I set my brain three things by the end of the day, have this self, I don't care what you do, You're not accountable for any of your time, but by the end of the day I want these three things delivered. And then I've got my commitments to deliver a front stage. So I've just worked out a two-way deal here. I love it. Dean: That's great. Well, Dan, I never yeah. Dan: I think we're kind of cosmic soulmates, you know, both the payoff and the problem. I think we're. Both of us have tried similar landscape in terms of coming to grips with ourselves. I agree. Yeah, I find these conversations infinitely interesting One takeaway that you got from today, and I'll tell you mine. Dean: So that's my big takeaway for today. It's given myself permission to just roam the pastures, to enjoy my free range, as long as I just hold up my end of the bargain right. That was a night. I got a lot out of that. Dan: Yeah, and I think that I do really interesting podcasts also with Shannon Waller which is called Inside Strategic Coach and people always want to know. Our clients especially want to know how we do, what we do backstage. And I'll just drop this as a topic for her, because I think this the greatest tension that entrepreneurs have is not front stage, but the greatest tension is backstage. Dean: Yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree. Well, I'm excited about next week. Yeah, I want to talk again even more conversation. I look forward to it. Thanks, steve, this is really great, thanks. Dan: Steve, okay, I'll talk to you next time.

In today's Welcome to Cloudlandia episode, Dan shares his experience with stem cell treatments, from his different injections to increased energy and improved brain function. Next, we explore the fascinating realm of intelligent money exemplified by Indify and how it empowers creators by potentially disrupting the music industry through musicians' futures. Lastly, we make a special announcement about our first Free Zone event in Toronto this June. Join us for insights on innovative concepts that can upgrade our lives.   SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We delve into the world of stem cell treatments, starting with my personal experience and how it has improved my energy levels and brain function. We discuss the concept of intelligent money and how platforms like Indify are empowering creators and musicians, potentially disrupting the traditional music industry. We explore the concept of investing in people and emerging technologies, citing examples like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. We reflect on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in content creation and the importance of discernment in information consumption. We discuss the concept of media polarization and share our personal experiences with the shift from newspapers to online news aggregators. We mention a play we saw about the Queen's relationship with various Prime Ministers, shedding light on an intriguing historical fact. We explore the topic of neutrality and bias in AI and discuss how it might impact our thinking processes. We announce our first Free Zone event happening in Toronto in June and share our past experiences in the city. We discuss the idea of digital detox and share our strategies for reducing screen time and the benefits we've experienced. We reflect on our experiments with AI in generating interesting facts and video scripts, emphasizing its potential as a multiplier for content creation. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Welcome to Cloudlandia. Dan: Ah, you have a very resonant place to this morning. Dean: Well, you know what I did. I came in on the app today and so we'll see. And over the last week we had some intermittent disruption. So to try this this week. Maybe it's a different level of unpredictable variety. I called it unpredictable variety. That's right. We roll with it and yeah, and there we go, yeah. So everybody wants to know, dan, how is the $6 million man doing with his biomegies? Dan: here. Yeah, yeah, pretty good. So we're talking on a Sunday and just the past Thursday was two weeks, and you know I got a figure in the placebo factor here and I think I mentioned this last time that when you have a pain and you don't have any solution for it, you try to avoid the pain, and so you kind of? A you kind of a focus on it. You rearrange your posture and your body to avoid the pain. Dean: Yes. Dan: But since I had the stem cell injection, I came back and the pain didn't seem any different. But I was confident about it that I now had a pain that in, according to prediction, in six months I won't have the pain. And so I'm not avoiding the pain and I'm you know, I'm walking downstairs without holding out to the rail and just depending on my leg. But I will say in the last two or three, three days I've I have noticed an improvement so that I'm getting from. You know we have top to bottom we in some cases I'm going to flights, yes. And and yeah, so I told Dr Hasse, david Hasse, who's in the free zone with us, because he's the arranger for all this. Anything else I do, I go through his clinic, so he's the one who arranged everything in Buenos Aires. Yes, and I tell him. I said I'm I'm naturally a self-producer of placebo's. Dean: And I said I think it's part of my. Dan: I think it's part of my character. I had nice said actually isn't strategic coaches, and that was strategic coaches producing your own placebo's. Dean: So I love it yeah. Dan: Yeah, so anyway, all friends, but I will tell you this we had three different treatments. I did and Babs had a fourth one. So Babs had a big toe, inflamed bones and her big toe. And the pain is way, way down after two weeks. And both of us had vascular IVs, so this is where the stem cells are put you know, it's an IV, so it goes in over 40 minutes. Dean: It wasn't an injection. Right, right, right. Dan: But it's, these stem cells are geared just to your vascular system, so just you know the veins, as I said and so I feel quite a bit more energy, and again, I'm not discounting the placebo effect. And the third, the third thing that I did Babs did vascular two and I did brain cells. So these, what they do is that they put lymphocytes in on day one and then on day three they give you an IV for the, for your brain cells and the lymphocytes. I don't exactly understand what they are. Okay, I know they're neither Republican or Democrat. I do know that they're NDP, right? Exactly, yeah, I know that. I know they don't have a political characteristic about them, but what they do is they actually create pathways through what's called the blood brain barrier. Okay, and what I understand is that the brain is very protective of itself, so it doesn't allow any foreign thing to come in To the brain. But it'll accept lymphocytes and they're just little, they're kind of temporary pathways and they die after about a week or two. But what happens then is the stem cells that are geared to your brain can go through those pathways and and I'm doing a program called neuro potential, which is a bio feedback program, and I'm doing a neuro potential program and I did session 30, 29 and 30. I've been doing that for about a year and what it tests you on is when you're watching a movie and I picked a favorite movie which was foils for British detective homicide detective series Long time ago, 15 years ago, very intriguing, very good acting, and so I went Saturday morning to the hospital. And so I went Saturday ago and I did it. And usually what happens during the course of the session? You're watching the, you're watching the screen and then all of a sudden the screen will go black, the sound will go out, but the movie goes on and your brain notices this and it readjust itself so that the screen comes back and the sound comes back, and normally during a session it'll happen four or five times and there's nothing you can do. All you do is the brain just adjust itself and that adjustments are actually making improvements to how your brain operates. And I've been doing it and my EEG tests, which are a battery of screen tests that I do every quarter, indicate that my brain has improved quite a bit over the last year. But this session, the first time now I'm talking about a week ago, saturday not once during the entire movie did the screen black out and or the sound go out. And the first time it ever happened. And the technician they have technicians there who you know they will. They put your sensors on your brain and then they you know they're there all the time and she said I've never seen that before. She said I've never seen it, certainly haven't seen it with you, but she's, I've never seen it with anyone. And these people are these train. These people are trained not to be enthusiastic. Dean: And they're just there, related to your, to the stencils or yeah, well, it's the only thing that's changed. It's gotta be right. Dan: Yeah, it's gotta be, and she up the difficulty. So when I do it fairly easily, she'll up the difficulty and the and yesterday I went and it sound went out three times but the screen did not go black and and she said that's amazing because she said you're even stronger this week than you were last week and that was a real breakthrough week. So I think, that that's and this is the only thing where I have outside reference point. That's testing. So, yeah, so, but my energy has been real good from the overall. But I think the big thing is that I am now convinced this specifically from this stem cell thing that we're going through and also other things that I've been doing for the past year that now anything in the body, if it can be diagnosed, if there's something off, if something's not performing right, something's not working period or, worse than that, it's something wrong is happening. I now am convinced that if it can be diagnosed, it can be repaired and it can be regenerated. So that's yeah. Dean: And. Dan: I've been and I've been going on. I've been going on faith for the last 36 years in this regard that this would come. Dean: Yeah, I mean, you know, you look at, I heard Joe Rogan had well, he always has all kinds of interesting people, but he had Gary Brecca on. I don't know him? Dan: I don't know him. Dean: Yeah Well, he's kind of an interesting story, I don't know. I mean, you know like anything, when you hear him on you know he kind of breaks into the scene. He's the guy that kind of turned Dana White around. Dana's lost all kinds of weight and reversed his. Dan: Oh yeah, I know Dana White, he's the. Yeah, you see ultra fighting, yeah, that's exactly right, yeah, yeah, the US. Dean: And so he. This guy's background was as a I don't know what the right word for what he did, but it was some sort of for insurance companies. They would predict your lifespan. So it was like advanced what do they call that in insurance? Mortality rate, I'm guessing. Dan: Yeah, it's the actuary, the actuary, yeah, yeah, so actuarial. Dean: I guess would be kind of based on statistical groups kind of thing. And what they do is this is based on records, on your on measuring, like genetic markers and blood work, and they couldn't predict. He says within months of somebody's life expectancy, and very interesting, right. So Dana came in and he had, you know, very elevated triglycerides and you know certain other markers that were really kind of degenerative and he's 53 years old and his they marked his life expectancy at 63.6 or something like that. And it was really like an eye-opener for him to see that have that sort of you know, mortality check on what you're, what's going on in your body, and he basically says all these things are, you know, they're starting to give out years and years before they're actually the end of now. So it's not a mystery kind of thing, it's just that way. You know, and so he's, you know, done all the things that he recommended and he's already added, like you know, 12 years to his life expectancy already, and that it's kind of, I think, when you're right, that we're at a stage where we're started learning all the Repair models of things that, yeah, to be able to, to regenerate, I'm still amazed that even the fact that DNA exists like how do you even Tune into something like that, right, like how did somebody even Discover that's a thing, is just like beyond my imagination, you know it's, yeah well, electron microscopes with the yeah well, I mean with you know, the the actual day breakthrough. Dan: There's some great stories about that aren't really on point here, but we could go into them. But the point I'd like to bring. This is all cloud land. Yeah, this is all these are cloud land media capabilities that have come into existence, because the I was talking to Peter de Amonus about this and I said it's clearly a Lot of things that were predicted by a lot of people 10 years ago haven't happened. Okay they haven't happened to the degree that they're happening, but they're not to the degree. But I would say that the application of digital measurement to your body has has gone way beyond what anyone was predicting at the ability to, at the most minute level, to sell your level of actually Measuring and then having comparisons. You know comparisons because these are large model. These are large model. You know, when somebody says you are, you know a certain age, like if you take Dana White, and they said 53 and they his prediction was for 63. What they were doing was measuring against millions and millions of other tests that they yeah, I'm not other people that Used to take yours to put the facts together and now it takes minutes, yeah and he wasn't even possible years ago that I put those together. Yeah, no, I mean, my first doctor encounters were in the 1940s, so this is 80, not quite 80 years ago. And the best you could hope for back then was that the doctor had a good bedside manner. Dean: Well, three out of four doctors prefer Chesterfield's. A great Actually. Dan: And it was. It was actually seven out of those, seven out of eight. Who a doctor? Seven out of eight doctors who smoke prefer camo camos. No this is a great. This is a great ad campaign. I mean, we shouldn't be frivolous about this. It's really sold a lot of camos. I'll tell you. Dean: I wonder what those things like. If we look forward you know, fast forward, for the years from now. What are we going to look at? As you know, so Stupid and obvious back in you know that we haven't been paying attention to. Dan: No, yeah, you know, I always say that a depressed utopian, utopian who's depressed. Our people get depressed by the absence of things that haven't been invented yet. Yeah, exactly, geez, there's so much that has been. I'm missing all these things. I said what exactly? Are you missing? Well, I don't know, but I'm missing it, yeah. Dean: It's so funny, I just saw somebody in on Facebook, one of the there's a local Group called it. You know, if you grew up in Georgetown you remember, you may remember kind of group and it was pretty these things and somebody showed you know Georgetown the cable was. You know halting cable was becoming Available and they were offering, you know, service on on the nine channels for our listeners. Dan: Today we're not talking about George town in Washington DC right, we're talking about. Dean: We're talking about. Dan: George town, a lovely veil Norris. And is it more west than north? Dean: I'm trying to think it north and more what I know, the go train goes there. That's exactly right. It's the last outpost on the on the go train and that was the thing they were offering now service on channel two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 11 and 13, and I remember those days, like you know, 1970 Something when we got our first color television and I got the table you know that was. That was the thing. Wow, what a world yeah. But, but just back to the. Dan: You brought up a subject right at the beginning of our talk here DNA. It's actually been the merger of artificial intelligence and DNA that's producing all the amazing diagnostic tests. Because they can now do, then, what they do is they convert biological Signals to digital signals okay and now they can do ten thousand tests, either on something that exists In the time that it would takes to do one manual test ten years ago. So ten thousand to one, that's that qualifies as exponential in my world. Dean: I would say so. Yeah, I would say so. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'm banking on that. You know, and as you know from our conversations of a long time ago, that I was Babs and I were on this path in the 90s, you know, in the 1990s, so we're 30 years down the road now, but I knew you could tell. I mean, I read a lot. You know, the internet has been a great tool for me of Just letting my brain go wild on the internet and it finds this and kind of I find your brain Kind of finds what you were looking for, but you didn't know you were looking for it, that's the way I explain it. Dean: Do you find? Dan: that. Dean: I do. I had some experimenting this week, actually Based on our conversation last week that you know you mentioned. You kind of let your brain just go and do what it wants, but let's just I mean almost like with an agreement that let's just, at the end of the day, let's get these three things done, and I don't care what you do or when you do it, but let's just go ahead and let's get these three things. Dan: But I but. Dean: I got a. Dan: I got. I've been thinking about our conversation too and I said but it's finding it for some reason, and I think, using AI language here that somewhere in the past you gave your brain a prompt, just like you do with a chat GPT you gave it a prompt that. If you ever come across something like this, alert me to this. So my sense is that you've been programming your brain to look for certain things since the beginning. You've been prompting your brain to look for certain things. And all of a sudden it comes across something and you wake up and say, gee, that's neat, that's neat. Dean: I didn't know that. Dan: But somewhere in the past you gave some sort of prompts, I think, to tell your brain. If you ever see something like this, just let me know right away, because I'm interested in it. Dean: One of the things that I came across this week was in relation to our conversation about melt, about money, energy, labor and transportation all going in, rising cost of those, and I've been thinking about money, like access to money, and I'm seeing there's more and more versions of intelligent money coming, you know being the thing of empowering creators in a way, and I've looked at, I found out about a company called Indify which is taking a venture capital kind of approach to creators, musicians, particularly independent artists who are, you know, making music, and they're partnering with them for, you know, 50% ownership of whatever comes out of what they're they're producing and it's really, you know, they may not produce like, compared to the music label industry, the model where they would, you know, sign an artist and do a full album and all those things. Dan: These are really but those are already existing. That was already existing. Yeah, yeah, here they're here they're doing music and musician futures. Dean: Yes, that's exactly what it is and that's a really interesting model, like typically they're, you know, with a particular like a song, for instance, they may invest $30,000 to produce a single song and artists, but they're showing that the you know, the typical return on, even like they're not to be they're not talking about hits, but things that they showed investments of their typical investment of $30,000 has returned $110,000 so far per one of those that they've done. Yeah, and they started in 2020, you know, so over that period of time, they've kind of tripled their investments and I thought, partner, you know that, that level of you know in the entrepreneurial world I don't know whether that's that you know the rising cost or you know the that, the diminishing supply of capital. I don't know whether there's different rules for Plotlandia and creative things as opposed to. You know large scale, physical capital. You know capital, physical world. Dan: Yeah, my sense of that is that the smart investors whether it's in the mainland or whether it's in Plotlandia are the same person. They're the same, and my feeling is that the smartest investors invest on people. They don't invest on things. They don't really invest on things, and so my sense is that the example you just gave this person has proven in the past that they're actually creative. Dean: And they always seem to be coming up. Dan: they always seem to be coming up with new things, and some of them have monetized and some of them haven't monetized. So that's the guess. And that's the bet you know. In other words, I'm guessing that you're going to. You already come up with something in the past that turned out to be money making. Dean: And. Dan: I'm betting I'm just going to bet on you as a creator, that you're going to come up with some good stuff that properly captured, properly packaged and properly distributed is going to be money making. Dean: Would you say I agree. I mean, do you think you're kind of heading back to the patron days? Oh yeah. Yeah in a way, yeah, yeah. Dan: Oh, totally, totally. I mean entrepreneurs are you and I and all the folks that we hang out with are we're self patrons? Dean: Yes. Dan: The difference between an entrepreneur and non entrepreneurs and individual who's betting on himself as the future. Well, you did that a long time ago and you know, and I did it a long time ago, and so that's why I'm not taken by things. You know, I'm not really taken by things. You know, betting on things like I've talked about a product or a tech. I'm not betting on that I'm betting on the thing possibly being a tool that some really smart human is going to maximize going to. You know it's going to do something. And I was thinking about that with Elon Musk, because there's no reason for his valuations related to Tesla. You know, if you took the normal valuations of a car company, the number of cars you got, the distribution system, you got his the Tesla doesn't make sense. The valuation that he has for Tesla makes no sense whatsoever. By right, historic automobile standards, right, and somebody was saying that they you know this is, you know this is, you know this is a scam. I said you're missing the point here. They're not betting on the Tesla car. They're betting on Elon Musk coming up with always new things. Dean: That is true, and he, yeah, he's, yeah, he's come up with quite a few. Dan: Yeah, and I think Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was on that track, but he died he, you know he died, I mean because, really, if you take a look at Apple's extraordinary, it's stuff that all goes back to Steve Jobs. Dean: Yes. Dan: And, and I mean not a big thing since, not a really big thing since 2008. Dean: Right, since the iPhone, right. I mean, that's really the iPhone yeah. Yeah, that decade of, you know, 90 2008,. That's really that's where everything happened. I think was. I think about it. Yeah, we talked about it in our analysis of the last 28 years. That none of it. You know Apple was close to bankruptcy, that they were in trouble 28 years ago he had to borrow from Bill Gates. Yeah, exactly, and that's you know, that's kind of. Dan: That's pretty amazing right. Dean: When you think about everything that's turned around since then, and thinking about even Jeff Bezos, who you know, who knew. Dan: Yeah, yeah, and you know, and so so the the thing about betting, but I always bet on people. You know, my whole approach is that this is a person you know who proven track record and part of it is that they not do what they're doing. You know, one of my views is that I look at somebody who cannot do the thing that seems to be most valuable, and and so I don't have to worry what they're doing when I don't see them. Dean: Right, what's he? Dan: doing? What's? What's he doing today? I know exactly what he's doing today. He's doing what I bet on. Dean: He's doing what I bet on him doing, you know and you know. Dan: So it's a very interesting thing. So, but I think I was going back because we had this conversation. I said, you know, if I go back because I've really been an entrepreneur since really the beginning of the microchip age in the 70s. They started using the word microchip, I think early 70s, but I read about it in 73 and I started my company in 74 1974. So 50 years next year. Dean: And. Dan: I would say that the microchip itself is one of the real breakthroughs. And then the ability for there to be such thing as a personal computer, which came up within the first 10 years of the microchip and then graphic user interface, which made the personal computer available to everybody, okay. And then the internet, probably software somewhere in there, the whole notion of software, that it didn't have to be hardware. Usefulness of the computer did not have to be hardware, it could just be a program. And then I would say the internet, and then the iPhone, and now artificial intelligence. Dean: Yeah, artificial intelligence that, I think what's happening there is. Nobody could really have predicted. I mean maybe people who knew were predicting, but I don't think people really had a sense of what was really possible with this until now, and I think as a species right now, we're clueless about where this is going. Dan: I said you know. I said you can say anything you want about where it's going and probably you'll be right, but there's going to be a million other things happening to that. Nobody could have predicted. Dean: Yeah, I mean it's really. Dan: I mean where are you crossing into this world? I mean, what are you do? We have three or four projects. Dean: We have three or four projects going that I'm involved in the company and so where are you? Dan: I'm at the experiment when are you experimenting? Dean: Yeah, I'm experimenting in the personal side, like my personal experience with it. We're not using it as it's not integrated in any way into my company that you're you know our stuff yet, but I can see that it could be. I mean, I looked at, you know, one of the things that we do we have a subscription for. We have two different versions one for realtors, one for financial advisors of a postcard newsletter called the world's most interesting postcard, and it's essentially a carrier for referral programming that you as a realtor or a financial advisor would send to your top 150 relationships so that you are programming them to notice conversations about real estate, to think about you and to introduce you to the person that they had the conversation with. And it's been, you know, a phenomenal game changer for the amount of referrals that people get, measured as a, you know, return on relationship, the percentage of repeated referral business you get from your top 150 relationships. And so I had four years we've been doing it for 12 years now a monthly postcard where we have someone research and put together there might be 16, you know just short, interesting facts that you put on the front of the postcard and it's got a nice design and so it's easy to read. It's kind of just like you know interesting things and the. I started thinking about, well, if I did what, if I did one specifically for for financial advisors, that all the facts and stuff are money related. And I just asked chat GPT one day. I said can you write to you know 10 short interesting facts about the history of money? And it started writing the things. And then I asked it to you know, make it a little more interesting things. And it, you know, put it on. That said you can be 20 more. And it was like boom, all interesting. Dan: Yeah, absolutely. I said yeah, and you're, you're, you're designing, though, as you go along, there's probably an interactive thing going on between yeah, right, I'm just directing, you know, there's two. Ai's AI breakthroughs consist of two AI's. You know the first AI is artificial intelligence. The second one's called the actual intelligence. Dean: Yeah, exactly so. Dan: I'm bringing the actual intelligence. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I said it was so funny, Dan, because I said to it well, these are great. How many do you think you could? Well, I can make an infinite number of these. How many would you like? And it was just so funny that I ended up with like 50 of these you know, and just instantly done and I thought you know that's a really interesting thing. Again, those are, you know it's content related. I came, I had this idea of you know I think there are 400 and something cognitive biases that are, and I just started. Dan: How many of you mastered it Right, exactly, and you know it's an interesting thing. Dean: I said can you make a three minute video script describing confirmation bias, the facts about what it is and how it might be, how it might be deployed or come into play and how to defend against it? And it wrote this amazing, like just you know, intro this, then scene of this and then this, and narrator says that there's the script, you know, and it was just. I mean, when you look at the putting together of the different things, I saw this I saw someone do a demonstration of you know, having it write some. It was writing ads, video ads for something, and it they had gone to one of the gone to 11 labs. I think is a place where you train your voice. So it's got your voice. And then it went to another place that had your digital, you know avatar, you know from video of you, and Then it combined this AI written script with your voice through your face on your avatar on video and it's instantly translated into any Language where your mouth moves and your mouth is saying the words in Japanese or German or French or whatever, and I just Just such a like you can see. That's a you know, the distribution of Content like that, you know, is amazing. But then it's still so that's everything I've seen has been content related, you know, kind of yeah, creation and as a multiplier for content creation. But then the bigger you know we've had the conversation that, the bigger you know. Picture of that is that our brains we still can't consume At any more than the speed of reality, which is 60 minutes per hour right, it takes us. Dan: Yeah, and the other thing is that we can only think about one thing at a time, you know. I mean, we can't think two things at the same time. Humans just can't do this, and you know, and as you say, it's reality, world, time-based. Yeah, you know, and really the successful people have learned firsthand just what can get begin gotten done in an hour a day, and and then also it's developed a sense of discernment about just what's worth Having your mind on for an hour for a whole day and you know, and that you know, and I've dropped, I'm noticing I'm shedding all sorts of things as I Approach 80. Just I dropped televisions. I'm in my sixth year now dropping television and and people say, but you're a big sports fan. And I said, oh, I've got a trick. I said I wait till the game. I I've got. I wait till the game, as though I'll use Cleveland Brown says an example and I just checked. I checked the score. You know the scores are in now. It's some beyond game time. Did they win or lose? Well, if they lost, I'm not interested. If they won, then they have a ten minute video of the highlights and that's my game. Dean: You know and. Dan: I know they've won and then I just get a chance to see how they won. Okay, if they lose, I don't watch it, because I, because that doesn't do me any good, doesn't do me any. I'm already disappointed they lost. Why would I pile on and People said, yeah, but you're? Missing all the excitement of the game and I said, I said yes. I said I want to be excited about other things. I don't want to be excited about young people who are one-third of my age. I did coming through for me or not coming through for me? I want to see the final result. Dean: I've been contemplating Dan because, I I find that embarrassingly, much of my time is screen-sucking. You know, as our friend, there's a lot of, there's a lot of screen-sucking and I would count television and YouTube and tiktok and Facebook and Anytime my eyeballs are sucking dopamine in through my screen as that time. And I've been experimenting with, you know, disconnecting from the the dopamine device you know, and so this morning was one of those times. I'm trying to get to a point where I can get as far into my day without having any, you know, digital input, and I think that there's a real Face that I could go, you know, all the way till noon with no Contact with the outside world and that, I think, would be a better thing for me. But it's amazing how your body like I went over to the cafe this morning to get some, get a coffee and just sit outside and you know, I didn't take my phone, I woke up, I still wake up in the you know the first thing. You know, I checked my phone or whatever. I left it here and I went to the, the cafe and it's amazing how your brain is Like saying you know, wait a second, what if anything? What if you? What? Dan: if you break down. Dean: What if you're Get an accident or you need to call somebody here? What? What about that? And then I realized I don't know a single person's phone number. I don't know what single phone number except my office, you know, and not there's nobody there, but that's. It's very funny to me, that's where your mind goes. And then I had that. I took real money Because normally I use my Apple pay on my phone to pay for it, and so I had real paper money with me and it was just. It was so Interesting to sit at the cafe and just watch everybody you know, all you know, even together screen sucking the whole time and I've been experimenting like how much can I Disconnect from that in a proactive way? Right, like well, it's interesting. Dan: It's interesting because in the year you're applying the concept of intermittent fasting. Yeah, exactly that, yeah, you're going to. You know I'm going to spend three hours or four hours where I fast, you know yeah. Because your brain will find something to do if you're not right now yes autophagy Remember this is something interesting. Dean: I was really going as far as, like, how far down can I go with this? Right, like what would I truly be missing? As I do, I use my phone all the time for everything. I mean texting, email, ordering food, you know all of the stuff. Entertainment Talking and I was. I remember there was a show about the royalty I think it was called the crown, and or maybe it was a movie about the Queen, but I remember this was struck me as very like a very interesting is that every day at a certain time 5 pm Maybe, or noon or sometime they would bring the Queen a red box. Oh yeah, box was everything that she needed for the day, everything that needed her attention kind of thing, and I thought how neat would that be. What would be interesting if I could, at 5 pm Every day, get a box that has Every thing that I need, like any emails that have come in, any texts that have come in, any you know articles of interest. That would be. You know, something that I would need and I've wondered about that getting rid of. Like you know, I check on that judge report and you know I the news, like seeing different things that are going on in the world and I thought to myself I wonder what happened if I went to, like you know, paper subscriptions to Newsweek Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal as the my Well they're. Dan: I've gone beyond that because I used to get five papers a day. Yeah, you got two to Toronto papers. I got the, I got the Wall Street Journal, I got New York Times and. National Post well, national Post was globe in the post for the two. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Toronto papers, and then the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and the fifth one was business, business and best investors daily. Yeah, right, yeah, investors, business daily, and. But I began to realize that I all those papers. The only thing I was really interested in was the opinion section. Dean: Okay, where the? Dan: people wrote Oversight articles, in other words they were looking at a something and they were writing that. And then you know politics I began to notice that in the Newspaper world they were making most of their money after a while on subscriptions because the advertising dollars were being taken away by Facebook and Google and yeah, and they had to go to digital versions on a subscription basis. And what that did is that it polarized the media in the sense that, for example, the Wall Street Journal I Would say 80 to 90 percent of its subscription probably is Center or center right on the political spectrum. There's center right and the New. York Times is Barely center, mostly to the left, and I noticed that the Globe and Mail is now center to the left and the Globe and Mail or the post is still Still somewhat into the right. Into the right and the investors business daily only has opinions on Saturday. You know they only have a real commentary section. So, yes, okay. So when I began looking for, I said, well, still hit or miss, because there may be some good stuff or not good stuff. So I went to this aggregator which is called real clerk, comes up Chicago and all they do is aggregate Article headings and they're almost all, they're all commentary, okay. So every morning and six days a week they do an update at three o'clock in the afternoon. So you get up in the morning and they have that, and then at three o'clock in the afternoon they have an update. They don't do this on Saturday. Okay, there's one day when they don't do it Right but then they have all sorts of real clear. They have real clear politics, they have real clear policy. They have real clear market real clear world real clear defense, real clear energy, real clear health real clear science and those are more. They're picking up a periodicals rather than daily, and so I just get up in the morning and I look and I click on three or four of them and they come for the New York Times. It's lucky if they get one every day. Some of them have paywalls so that when you go to their thing they're saying well, you can read the article if you pay for a subscription, and that counts them out. You know, I'm not going to pay, I'm not going to sign up for a subscription to get one article, so right. So, yeah and so, so, anyway. So that's what I've done. So and I'm down now to Babs gets the post because she likes knowing Toronto things, but I don't bother looking at the, for the last two or three weeks they've had great articles. It's mainly how our Prime Minister is going down the drain, which I always find comforting reading. And then the Israeli, the Israeli Amos situation and that's been a great clarifier Boy. You really find out where people stand with this particular issue. That's been a really great clarifier herself. Yeah, yeah, so anyway, but that's how I handle it. I handle it. That's my sort of my red box. Real clear, it's my red box. Dean: Right, that's interesting. Dan: You know what they do you know what they call that? The thing that the queen gets. I don't know what they call it. They call it the red box. Dean: That's what I thought. Dan: You know that red box she gets every day. Dean: You know what they call it. Dan: They call it the red box. Dean: That is so funny, but I thought about experimenting with that and getting a red box and the government has to prepare them for. Dan: The Prime Minister's office has to prepare that for her, exactly yeah. Yeah, because they're both in town. Once a week, the Prime Minister has to come to the palace and deliver in person some of the crucial issues. This is not recorded. No one ever knows. Dean: Right A weekly audience with the queen Right. Dan: Yeah, yeah. Dean: Yeah, and the king now. Dan: I guess I guess the king. Should we send the red box to the king? It's kind of hard to say. It's kind of hard to say it's kind of hard to say king, I'd say king, you know because she was in for seven years or so. Yeah. There was a great play. Actually it was called the Interview. I saw it, and I saw it in London, right around the corner from the hotel. Dean: And. Dan: Helen Merrin was the queen. Helen Merrin was the queen and that what they did is all the Prime Ministers that she's had, starting with Winston Churchill, right up until last year. I guess there were a whole bunch of Prime Ministers over the last two or three years, so anyway, but she had just talked about. It was all made up, because nobody really knows what's that, but they just used topical issues of the time, and you know, and whether she got along with the Prime Ministers or not, or and everything else, and it was a very, just a really terrific, really terrific play. Dean: I saw Napoleon on Thanksgiving Day. What did you think? Dan: What did you think? Dean: I didn't like it Did you see, it. I haven't. It was as we like to say, dan. There was a lot of middle in that movie. Dan: It was all middle it joined in progress and just never left the middle. Dean: There were only two scenes that were repeated six times. There was the drama in the palace and then there was battle scenes with horses and bayonets and cannons and on and on the same battle scenes, again and again, and then back to the palace and it was really. I didn't enjoy it at all. I had no. It was my shortest movie review ever. Dan: I just looked at the camera. Dean: I shook my head and said nope, and then I hashtagged it nope, olean, yeah yeah yeah, and, but I have no real historical knowledge of, you know, of Napoleon but, I, did you know? The most interesting thing was at the end they did a summary of all the people that were lost in battles, like 6 million people in his period of being the king, he lost in battle. That was that's crazy, you know. 6 million seemed like that seemed like a lot. Dan: Well, we must use all of them up, because his final battle was 1815. That's when Waterloo was you know the final battle, and then there was not a major European war until the beginning of the beginning of the First World War. So it was 99 years. So he must have used everybody up because it took a whole century to stack up again. Yeah, and you know yeah, I mean a lot of American history, american history, really, you know, from the British fighting the French. You know that's really where the American thing starts, it's. I don't know what they call it. You know they call it the Seven Years War here in Canada, but in the United States it was called the French and Indian War. You, know, and this was 1817, 50s, 1763, Seven Years. But this is where all the American colonists got their military training, which they then used to good for self fighting the British. Oh wow, 1717. So George Washington was an American born. You know, they were all British. I mean, they were all British. Yeah, All the colonists were British. And then anyway, but that takes you right up until he. I think Napoleon comes in around 1793 and he was in for 22 years, but he totally changed Europe. I mean, he was like a major earthquake that went right across the continent and that really changed things. You know, hitler, hitler was great. Hitler was a great admirer of Napoleon. Dean: Yeah, and that right. Dan: He made, and he made the same mistake. Dean: He invaded. Dan: Russia. Right right, right right. Dean: That's yeah. So I'm going to save you from from that. Dan: Yeah, well, it's not a it's not a topic that I'm really interested in Right, I've never just talked about Napoleon, no. I just you know, but he, he not only was a significant military person, he was very significant politician. Because so that's where we get the metric. Metric system is from Napoleon. Dean: That's right yeah. Dan: And they didn't have any standard measurements in Europe. Okay, you know I mean the British had their own. But you know, the British is kind of a organic thing that's developed over time, feet, inches, feet, yards and everything, and it's the light and the lightfully accent and idiosyncratic. It's eccentric and eccentric. The British are eccentric, you know, and he wanted this 100. Everything is, you know, and it took all the fun out of it, took all the fun out of measurement. Dean: Right, you imagine. Dan: American, American baseball and metric, you know. Dean: American football and metric. Dan: Yeah. That's even the Canadian football league uses yards and feet and you know everything like that, you know all the buddy, yeah, track and field they don't, because that's a more of a European thing. Yeah, yeah World stage. Anyway, well, it's really interesting, but I'd like to pick up a little bit more on this couple of themes that we've developed over the last few talks, and one of them, and what I think, is that every human being is a confirmation bias. Okay, say more about that. Well, you're biased according to the experience that's proved useful or not useful. Okay, okay okay, so you've used a term you know to grade movies that are not worth seeing a lot of the middle. Okay, yeah, so there was a lot. I don't remember if there was a beginning end or an ending end. It's just battles and battles. Battles and battles, that's right, and palace, yeah, but I think that really thing because I think that it's impossible for human beings not to have a bias. Yeah, I think, that's absolutely I think as the smarter human beings know what their biases are and actually choose them, yeah, they actually choose them, yeah. And and you know, as it just strikes me that this whole notion of neutrality, that you can be unbiased is, I think it's just silly, how could you? Possibly be unbiased. Dean: I mean, that's right. Dan: In the world, you wouldn't survive. Dean: Yeah, in the words of Milton Friedman. To fill down at you, where do you propose we find these angels to organize society without regards to personal interest or bias? I don't even trust you to do that, phil. Dan: I've watched that about. I've watched that about 10 times. Yeah that's such a great because you can just see that Phil down to who just has this sort of fluffy, waffly form of logic. You know, all basically emotion based you know emotion yeah. I mean, he didn't have our perspective. New Prime Minister here is getting a lot of fights. When you finish here, go on Google and say Peter Polly of you know, you know how to spell it, don't you? Yes, okay, takes down reporter. Just, he just took down a reporter and it was one of the most masterful takedowns of reporter ever, and he did it while chewing on Apple. Dean: Oh, I love it. Dan: So he's being interviewed, and he's, and the person says, well, you know, you know, you're taking a very ideological approach. He says ideological, what's that? Well, what's ideological? And the reporter says, well, you know, it's more emotion based. And he says name a name, an example. Or name an example, well you know, and it gets round that he's reproducing Donald Trump and you know that's the ultimate killer, that's the kill shots. You know you call somebody Donald Trump. Dean: Is that right? Dan: No. And he says well, a lot of the experts. And he says experts, name one expert and the reporter did not have a specific piece of information. That was all this fluffy narrative and you could just see the guy was flailing and meanwhile Pierre Polyov is just eating example, and he says do you have an actual point to this interview? And the guy. You could just see the guy. You know they didn't show him in full, but I bet you know there was a puddle under his feet when he was finished. That's so funny, dan yeah yeah, and he's just learned how to deal with this whole issue that they try to catch you on their words. Dean: Yeah, exactly. Dan: I don't even know what that word means. I mean, do you know what that word is? Dean: You just used a word. Dan: I don't know what that word is. And he says well, you know you're doing left versus right. And he says name a time when I've actually said that. I've never said love first right. I don't believe them. Left first right. So I believe in common sense and I'm kind of bored the side that has common sense, so you know we haven't had any of. You just aren't used to it because we haven't had any common sense for the last eight years. So that's not used to dealing with. So, anyway, and he's I think he's a phenomenal debater. You know because he's been in, he's 44 years old and he's been in parliament for 19 years you know, he's been there since he was 25. Wow, yeah, so, but it's really interesting to watch it. You know, I mean, and I'm very biased towards his side of the political spectrum. Dean: You have a cognitive bias around him. Is that what you said? I? Dan: have a total. I have a total cognitive bias. That's funny. Dean: I love it. Dan: Yeah, okay, so anyway, fascinating where this is going, but I think this AI thing is a much. What should I call it here? I think it's a catalyst for a real mind change and how we think about everything. I think interacting with this technology is actually introducing us to how we actually think about things. Dean: I think you're right, because you have to bring that to it. Yeah, so you are, you're off to Phoenix. Dan: Yeah, we fly out on Tuesday and then we're there until Saturday. I were there until Sunday morning because I can't take more than two days of sitting in a room. And so we're off to Chicago and then we have a Chicago week. We have I just have one workshop, I have the free zone on Thursday, yeah, so so anyway, you know, yeah, it's been a good year. It's been actually it's been a very sailing kind of year. I haven't had any real time crunches or anything else. Great, that's awesome. And so then we're back, are you? And yeah, and so June 12th, june 18th, is our first free zone in Toronto. Dean: Oh, you've set the date already. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Oh great. Dan: Yeah, and now I'll just forward to Tammy, who is the wizard mastermind of scheduling here, tammy Colville. Dean: And I'll just send. Dan: I'll just forward her announcement that just came through two days ago, so I'll just yeah, and we're doing it in. June. I mean, isn't that nice starting it off in June. Dean: I love that. I love that I do miss Toronto. Yeah, I love it. Dan: I think, Toronto misses you, I think Toronto misses you. Oh, that's so funny, I love it. Yeah, there's no more table 10 anywhere. I haven't found a table 10 anywhere. Dean: We're going to need a new. We'll need a new venue. Oh well, we'll go to the old bed We'll go. Dan: I mean less selected still there and they're still good, so we'll go. Okay Good, okay Perfect. Dean: Okay, dan, have a great trip Two weeks. We'll be back. Dan: I'm sorry. Two weeks, two weeks, okay, yeah, okay, okay, I'll talk to you then. Thanks, okay, bye.

In today's Welcome to Cloudlandia episode, we embark on an intriguing exploration of the realm of AI and technology. We examine fascinating experiments involving text conversion to a unique speech structure that aligns with your heartbeat. Lastly, we delve into discussions around marketing education and share snippets from our upcoming trip.   SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We discuss the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on content creation, exploring how it's being utilized in Hollywood and our personal experiment of converting a book chapter into Iambic Contameter with the help of AI and a Shakespearean actor. Dean highlights a fascinating experiment conducted in the Soviet Union where foxes were genetically modified into dogs, shedding light on the intriguing topic of canine intelligence and their comprehension of human language. Dan and I delve into the evolution of television, discussing its early stages where it was used to re-enact radio shows, and its transition to the current landscape of diverse media platforms like Facebook. We share insights on the challenges of implementing strategies in businesses and how we've addressed them in our own ventures, highlighting our successful thought leadership newsletter and real estate accelerator program. Dan emphasizes the importance of normalizing new technological advancements in the realm of AI, arguing that the future doesn't arrive until we've normalized it. We touch on the concept of hierarchy versus network in corporations and ponder on the potential obsolescence of middle management jobs due to AI advancements. We discuss the role of AI in marketing strategy, underlining the significance of identifying high margin products and generating leads for potential customers. We express concern over the current state of higher education and speculate on its potential crisis in the face of rising vocational training and AI. We delve into the future of work and systems, discussing how AI is making certain jobs obsolete, particularly in the middle white-collar sector, and how it's affecting the education system. Finally, we briefly discuss our upcoming trip to Buenos Aires, sharing our excitement and some interesting facts about the time difference and geographical position of South America. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dan: Wow. Dean: Mr Sullivan, wow, yes, Recorded entrance grad it's so good. We're living in increasingly turbulent times. Dan: That's true, but I'll tell you what the great thing about it is. At this particular moment, at this particular outpost in the mainland, it's the absolute perfect temperature. The fourth season of the Valhalla, absolutely like room temperature, with a slight breeze, quiet, six, perfect. Dean: Well, at our global domination compound in Toronto, we're having a perfect whole day. Dan: A whole domination compound. That is true. Dean: I don't want to own the whole thing, I don't want to own the whole world, I just want all the property next to mine. Dan: I was excited about your idea of getting the house behind you to have that whole drive through, but they give it up on that. Dean: That might bring the furies down on us. So far we've escaped scrutiny, anyway, yeah. Well, one thing that I thought would be interesting is kind of a Cloudlandia. It's that Taylor Swift's movie, her tour movie, has done, I think, worldwide with you, as down 150 million in two weeks and both weeks. Dan: Yeah, she's only playing it Thursday to Sunday because she doesn't want kids neglecting homework, so she doesn't. You can't go see it on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. You can only go see it. Dean: Well, I think she neglected hers and where she is Exactly, but I think she's alone Brilliant, I mean the fact that her tour alone. Dan: Her live tour was one of the biggest tours ever. Now the recording of it. I think she's going to make another billion dollars with it. Dean: Yeah, but the interesting thing about it is she bypassed Hollywood altogether which is the mainland, and they just wanted their 20% for being Hollywood, and she just bypassed it. And that comes right after the strike that shut everything down, for one of the griefs being, of course, being live streaming, the other one probably being the AI that's replacing a lot of the 80% work in Hollywood. In other words, first draft scripts and everything else can now get done with AI, and then you bring in the craftsman to actually, you know, take it the final 20%, yeah, and these are definitely. Dan: I think that's a seed there, true. I think that's especially true, dan, for content. You know, let's call it streaming or television or documentary content, that is, book report content. That is like writing a. You know, if we were to do a documentary about the you know evolution of print starting with Putin or starting with the you know Chinese on papyrus, you know back in 1012 or whatever, A long time ago, that I think that that would be the kind of thing where AI would be able to write a script research, write a script. That would be 80% of what you would need to do a compelling documentary about that, compared to the creative act of creating something new. You know, I don't know. Dean: Yeah it's really interesting. On a previous episode I told you about the little experiment I'm doing with converting my chapters of this particular book. So this is my book number 36 and the 36th quarter, and it's called Everything, everyone and Everything Grows. That's the name of the book. It's the backstage. It's the backstage description of strategic coach since 1989. We put our backstage together and as I was going through, I've been reading a lot of books on Shakespeare and there's something consciousness altering about the speech structure that they used. It wasn't just Shakespeare, it was of the time. It was, you know, around 1600 in Great Britain. It was called Iambic Contameter and it was 10 beats per line. Okay, and Mike Canig's, knowing that I'm interested in this, sent an article which has to do with they've scientifically proved that Iambic Contameter actually your heart, matches the beats. After you listen to a minute or two somebody doing Iambic Contameter, your heartbeat gets in sync with it. The 10 beats. Dan: Is that right? Dean: Yeah, because it's thumb, you know, and anyway. So I had. I've got a great team member by the name of Alex Barley, and Alex is from the UK, he lives in Toronto but he was actually born in Sherwood. Born and grew up in Sherwood Forest which is an interesting fact. Yeah, sherwood Forest is a big area and then among the trees there's seven little towns and he was born in one of the towns. Dan: And his father actually has. Dean: His father actually has a club that opened in 1604. Dan: So and remember we have. We have someone in strategic culture. Does those forests getaways? Dean: or has Gary Fletcher? He's in Friso. Dan: He's actually yeah, yeah. Dean: Yeah and anyway. So I had him take a chapter that was on unique ability and unique ability teamwork and I had him converted into Iambic Contameter. And it was startling to get it back, because all the ideas are there but the ideas are put together in a different way. And it was just. I just found it fascinating and I said, boy, if I had a really great Shakespearean actor, you know, somebody who could really speak the language and listen to it rather than just, yeah, reading it. So I was talking to Alex about it and I said my favorite would be Richard Birkin, okay, and? And he said, see, I really wouldn't know how to do that. So we went to Mike Canix and Mike knew how to do it. And so Mike gave Alex a couple sites where you could go to and experiment with them. And about two days later from the time of my request to Alex, I got back Richard Burton. And it was Richard Burton, it was totally Richard Burton, and I've listened to it about 15, 15 times, and every time I listen to it it has a greater impact. And I played it for team members and the team members say, boy, I'd like to have that to listen to before I go to bed at night and everything like that. And so I asked him and did it. You know, when you first made the translation, in other words, you had the AI voice he says no, it was just, it was just sort of mechanical. And he says so what I did is I got actual recordings of Richard Burton and I would listen to it and then I would go through and I would change the timing, I would change. And he says I put in some breath intakes and he said I would you know? He says he rushes ahead, then he speeds up, and then he does it's very unpredictable with Richard Burton and he did this all. So it's actually AI times. The craftsman. Dan: That's a. Dean: B percent plus the human craftsman, you know, because a human ear, you know, just has infinitely greater sensitivity to how things actually work than they calculated. You know a mechanical thing and went to it. It went to deliver it evenly. Dan: You know and. Dean: Richard Burton in particular, has the way of making words explode just by saying the word and then he was kind of built a delivery to William Shatner in a way like different. Yeah but I had never put yeah, I'd never put William Shatner and Richard together in my brain, yeah but the interesting thing about it. The interesting thing about it was we've done two chapters now and you could see Alex is getting more inventive and you know, and he's really getting into the poetry and it's in rhyme. So with iambic pentameter. You can have it as prose or you can have it as rhyme and. I said well, since we're going the route of Richard Burton, I should put it in. But I was struck because I'm only going to use this for backstage with coach. I'm only going to use this with, and the Baron of the Four Seasons, valhalla, I might talk to the warlord talk to the warlord there, I mean, because he's almost backstage, anyway, anyway, but it just does something. But what I'm noticing is changing my writing style as I go forward, because I've got that voice in my ear and I'm writing that to sort of meet the voice halfway, you know halfway. Dan: Oh, that's right. Dean: Yeah that it's an easy pick up. I mean I can't talk like that, I don't sound like that and everything, but it's how I am doing. My writing has been changing as I've listened listening to Richard Burton telling me what it sounds like in Shakespeare's age. Dan: This is. You know, a couple of things jump out at me. You know, as you're talking about that and Alex's joy in tinkering, and you know it's a creative act. Using these, using owning technology like a good dog yes, Right. That's really what he's doing there. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And it reminded me of Peter Diamand is talking about these cent powers, the chess masters, paired with an AI that they can override or direct or run things by, or amplify their calculations or confirm their hunches. That's really the way forward, isn't it? It seems like that's the. Dean: Well, what it suggests is that if you're a mechanical human being, this new form of mechanical will wipe you out, but if you decide to take refuge in being creative, they'll probably just offer you a deal. Dan: Yeah, I mean it's interesting, what's there? There are a hybrid for this, like a creative machine or a. I mean there's something here, because even the AI is not doing it on its own. Some people are going to distance themselves. What we've seen mechanics do is distance themselves as a skilled operator of these new advantages. Dean: Yeah, it's really interesting. There was an interesting lab test that was done in the Soviet Union before the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was that they wanted to see if they could turn a fox, turned foxes, into dogs. They could do it through basically two-year generations. In other words, a fox had two years old as a fully grown fox. So you just have a two-year from birth to adulthood and they went through 10 generations where each generation they picked a fox that was more docile, it didn't have aggressive, it wasn't paranoid, it was sort of friendly and docile. And by the 10th generation, the genetic product GMO, had enormous number of dog characteristics. It was friendly, it would come up and it would take dog characteristics and they decided to put the dog fox or the fox dog and an actual dog and they chose I think it was a German shepherd, and they put it through a and this. They had it in the puppy stage, so it was about six to eight months old, and they put it through an obstacle course that they was designed so that the animal couldn't solve it. They would hit a wall where they just couldn't solve it. And it was very interesting that the fox dog, when confronted with the final barrier, just curled up, went feral. He just went into a, wrapped himself up. He was just defeated and he wrapped up. The moment that the dog actually hit the thing he turned around and he searched out his owner and he says hey buddy, hey buddy, I need your help here. Okay, your turn, yeah. And they said they don't know if they can teach that, they don't know if they can. Actually they can genetically. Dan: I was just writing. It's funny when you said that I was writing down nature versus nurture. But what was it that they change it genetically to modify it? But were they also? But they didn't, they couldn't Domesticated it. Dean: They couldn't genetically reproduce the teamwork that's probably part of the inheritance of dogs. In other words, they trace it back 30,000 years since humans domesticated wolves to produce dogs, and that's a lot of generations of canines. And anyway, but it tells me kind of that's why I wrote the book Owning Technology Like a Great Dog is that we've got We've got this 30,000 year experience in the animal stew of kind of working out teamwork with dogs and certain breeds are better, certain breeds are good for this, certain breeds are good for that and we've kind of developed kind of a real deep knowledge. And they can do about 150 different tasks at this stage. Some of them can know as much as a thousand words. If you say a word, they know exactly what it refers to. It always refers to an object. It refers to an activity. They're not high on the concept level, I hope they have a good memory of. Dan: Have you seen those? Yeah, and there's concepts of people setting up all these buttons on their floor that are labeled that a dog can push the yellow thing and it says a single word like walk, and so it knows to push that when it wants to go for a walk or a treat it can push treat, and I wondered about whether that, I mean it, seems real. So you're kind of confirming that they are able to build that kind of vocabulary. Dean: Yeah, there was a professor in, I think, south Carolina. He was near retirement and he was a psychology professor and he just wanted to see how many words and he got sort of a border collie type. Border collies are just super smart and they're super responsive. And he got the dog to a thousand words of everyday objects. The dog you could. He knew all the dog's names, of all the dogs in the neighborhood, and the dog had a very definite opinion about each one of them. Dan: So he said Max. Dean: If he said Max, his tail would wag, and if he said Irving, it would just go. Dan: Doesn't like Irving. Dean: First of all, you know right off the bat that a dog gets named Irving. It probably has a difficult environment. Why would you do that? But Fred Feisman I don't know if you've ever met him. He's a coach client, probably 15 years. Dan: He's in 10 times. Dean: And he was a cowboy in British Columbia for 10 years. Where every May he and another cowboy would take out 3,000 head of cattle and move them through elevations of pasture land. So in British Columbia you can have 4 levels of 4 levels, you know, geological levels, okay, and that would take them out to the high grazing area and then they would gradually bring them in. And so it was Fred. It was a partner and a dog. And I said if you had to lose one of them, the dog or the partner, which one, which one would you lose? He said lose the partner, just me and the dog could take care of all 3,000. Because the dog always knew which steer was the lead steer and would get the lead steer. He also knew the route. He also knew the route and plus he checked for predators like wolves, coyotes, bears and everything else, and you know, would you apply? Dan: Why are tigers? Dean: and bears. Oh my yeah. Dan: Yeah. Dean: And so, but it was really interesting. He said a great trail dog is it's you know. He says you can't put a price on how good they are, but they're not doing anything more than they were taught. Dan: Right, yeah, that's interesting. I just got my. I got a I bought with my copy of how they use technology like a good dog. I don't own technology like a good dog, so I'm looking forward to reading it. I mean, yeah, that's really about Gotten to dive in there. Dean: Ownership. I mean, it's not a question of owning technology or owning your dog you actually own your rights, right, yeah, and you know, it's really about ownership more than it's about dogs or technology. You know, but the big thing is that I think that in learning how to interact with AI, we're going to learn about learn a lot about what human intelligence actually is. I think we're going to learn more from this interaction than we've learned from all the psychological studies possible, because it's going to be interactive all the time against the best result, you know, and correspondingly, I mean we'll have more knowledge about it, but more knowledge about us will be built into the programming of the AI. Dan: Have you seen anything recently that has wowed you or changed your opinion about the usefulness or the future of AI? Like this, like in terms of sounds, like your Richard Burton experience has shaped some new enthusiasm. Dean: Well, what I get is that all the breakthroughs will be specific. It'll be individual and specific. So right now I don't know how many in the first two or three months, you know, plugged into chat, gpt, and then, of course, there's hundreds of other there's hundreds of others, specialized AI, and my sense is that it's transforming the world, but there would be no overview on how that's happening, because it's happening in a hundred million different situations in a different way. Dan: So if anything so the ability to have an oversight or an overview of this, I think it was impossible on day one, yeah, and it reminded me of like, as I was kind of reflecting on it is I mean the use that I'm using of. Dean: Who would think of that? And right, there wouldn't be anyone else, that would even well. If, why would you do that? And I said I found it kind of neat. Dan: Yeah, you know I was looking at it, thinking back on like this, as one of the major things of the big change of 1975 to 2025 that. Ai as the platform. I don't know whether platform is the right word or what it is just like. Television was a. That was the big capability that was brought and started out with. You know, just the ability to, you know, have the three national channels and broadcast things. But in the earliest stages of television, nobody really knew what to do with it in, in that they were just bringing radio to television. They were re-enacting, like turn the camera on and do radio theater. Dean: Yeah yeah, I mean, I remember the 1950s sort of programs that were kind of dramatic and they'd have the opening of the curtain. They'd have the opening of the curtains, you know, and because they well, they're putting on a show. Dan: So what do you do? Dean: Well, you, but yeah, and. But here's the thing that the networks were still networks that were broadly shared, you know they were in competition with each other. But it was. You were on one network, you're on the network, I think, with you're on a billion different networks you know, and each of them each of the networks is being uniquely custom designed for particular purposes by particular people for you know, and everything like that, and my sense is the whole notion that there's going to be an overarching system like Facebook or something like that. I don't see that happening. Dan: I mean. Dean: I'm guessing embedding. And you know, I'm guessing embedding, just like everyone else. But I don't really care how other people are using it, I only care how I'm going to use it. Dan: Yeah yeah, yeah, I think that's and you probably got. You've probably cornered the market on turning thinking tools into Richard Burton. Readings of Iambic pentameter. Dean: Yeah, you know, I want to see if anybody's trailing me, and I haven't picked up on anything so far. Dan: It's a blue ocean strategy. Dean: Yeah, the other one we're doing. I don't know if you know Joe Stolti. He's. Joe is the runner of the. You know, the AI newsletter that Evan Pagan and Peter Diamand. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Joe 100K yeah. Yeah. Dean: So I met, I met Joe at 100K and he just said what it will do, and so we've been going. Now I think we've got 12 episodes out and they do an interview with you online. You know thought leadership, other people you like, articles you like and everything else. And then they keep fine tuning what it is that you really want. But our last we've had in the last seven episodes we've had five of them with more than an 80% open rate for the entire issue. And then, and we had one I had one interview. It was a podcast interview with Mike Canix. We got a 95% open rate. Okay. Dan: That's wild. Dean: And it takes no work on our part. It creates the issue you know, so it gives you the results from your previous issue and then it shows you what the next issue is, based on the rates of the last issue. But, you're learning a lot about what we're learning a lot about what people really like listening to and what they like. You know, so it's an interesting thing. Dan: And he's great to work with. Dean: I really like him and his team. So yeah, it's called dailycom, I think it's called dailycom. Okay, yeah, it's great, yeah, it's great, and I mean we'll put out probably. Dan: Well, you like the idea of not having to do anything. That's happening. That's pretty good Well it's all existing creativity. Dean: A lot of it is existing articles that's existing. So we're repurposing I mean, we're getting a repurpose out of existing articles and all the content is original content. Dan: You know I love that I'm just realizing that's for guessing and betting people's fondness for things that do the things they would like to do, especially if it's things that they would do if they could count on them to do it. You know, that's kind of a there's a good thing there. We recently in my Go agent world here our realtor we've launched the new real estate accelerator program. Where we're actually doing it's a who, not how, model of implementing the listing agent lifestyle elements in someone's business. So I've created that framework of the you know core five things that people you know the bankable results that they can get referrals and multiply their listings, get convert leads, find buyers, get listing. Those things I've got you know core programs and shortcuts and programs for them to do them. I was having in conversation with Diane, the who kind of runs that division with me, she I was saying you know, what we've been doing is we've been selling gym memberships essentially to Go agent, where we've got all of the stuff, all the tools, all the IP, everything you need to implement it, and you just come on in and access it and do what you do what you want, and we observe that very few people you know actually do the stuff that we know, this is the secret sauce of gym memberships 40% never go up. They pay for the whole year and never show up once. That's exactly so. We're running that same model and for someone you know, I like to see people get the results, you know. And so I've been doing these you know workshops where I thought, okay, we'll do these implementation workshops where we'll spend you know five weeks and we'll do a weekly session on each of the things as like a booster to get you focused on here's what to do, kind of thing. And I observed we've done that for a year and realized that improves the, that improves the implementation, but still overwhelmingly people are not able to rally themselves to do the things that they know to do. And so we decided, well, what if we just did it for them? And I recorded a video. I said you know? I said you know, I realized that I would be a really great real estate VA if I came to work for you and did all the things that I know in your business. And I said I know how to. I've been spending 35 years putting all of these pieces together and I know exactly what to do. And I went through and I outlined here's what I would do if I came into your business, because I realized that really we could implement all of it in somebody's business with one synchronous 30 minute, you know, check in at a fixed time with somebody that would then see, you know, three to five hours of implementation in a week, kind of thing for it and I was sharing it that it's like having a personal trainer instead of just a gym membership. You're meeting a personal trainer at the gym and the difference is that we're going to do the six, the sit ups, and you're going to get the six pack. That's really how the difference and every single person I've talked to, dan is on board with this, because of course you're selling the reward. We do the sit ups, you get the six pack. Dean: Yeah, you're selling the. You're selling the impact without the effort. Dan: Exactly right. Dean: Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, yeah but you know there's still. I bet, if you work out your percentages, even that people won't go for. You know, because they have an escape from fantasy land about who they are and what they want to achieve. You know, one of the things that Peter Diamanas has the sixties regarding the digital revolution you know digitize the deceptive, the demonetization, dematerialization. There's democratization yeah, yeah well as the sixth one, I'm saying yeah, it's democratization in that the possibility as democratic, the utilization follows the same as anything that 10% will outdo 90%. Dan: Yeah, I think that's true. You know there's so many everybody. That's a really interesting thing that there's just like in truth. You know, in political democracy there's opportunity, but not everybody takes advantage of it. Everybody has the opportunity to have a YouTube channel and reach the entire world, but there's only one, mr B. Dean: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and you know, he's number two in the YouTube world. I think there's somebody who's got more. I don't know who it is, but he's got the last one. I heard 201 million subscribers, followers 201 million. Dan: Yeah, I think he's the number one individual. I think, yeah, yeah. Dean: Yeah, yeah. Well, it's very interesting. You know the good for a young guy. You know, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, you know he's got a future, this guy. He's going places, you know you can tell him almost right away. He can tell him almost. you just get a feel Anyway the but the thing that I'm talking about, you know, I mean, the thing that I'm feeling is that I had a line one day. Peter Diamonis and I were going back and forth and he was talking about the future this, the future that, and I said you know what I've noticed about the future? When you get there, it feels normal. Dan: Yes. Dean: Huh, as a matter of fact, it doesn't arrive until you've normalized it. Dan: Yeah, can you say more about that, because that led you to that Well we don't like abnormal. Dean: Humans don't like abnormal. They like normal. Okay, and if you're asking them to do something new, that's different. Uh you have to show them how to go through a normalization process where they get used to it. You know they get used to it and that's why I've been noticing that tech. Every company right now has to appoint a chief AI officer. A chief AI officer Ooh Dean, where would this person be? You know, I mean, where would this person? I mean, I mean, do you even have room or space for a chief AI officer? Okay, and I said no. I said why don't you just bring in somebody smart who shows your entire team how they particularly, and what they're doing can do this or that or this and this and let them lose, you know, and see what comes out of it and see what comes out of it? And why don't you just have self-empowered you know, self-empowered team members, you know in person or virtual, you know, or remote, and just have them say, you know is, where could, what's the 20% that if you could get rid of it, which is it still needs to get done, what would it be? And then say, well, there's an AI program that can do this, or is an AI program do this. They get that 20% done. They say, well, what's the next 20%? And just keep them going for 50 years. Dan: Yeah, and that's what. That's the approach. Dean: We don't have a chief AI officer. First of all, we don't have anyone who's called chief and we don't have anyone who's called officer, because that sounds like had chief officer, you know, I think the Gestapo had chief something officer, you know, you know, and everything. I don't like cheap something officer, I just don't like the sound of it. Dan: That's not good for anybody. Dean: Oh, you know, right off the bat I get the willies. Dan: That's funny. Yeah, let's say so. How? What are you doing in that, then? Do you have someone whose role is helping the team become a no, we brought in Evan Ryan. Dean: He did a six module course how to think it through and then he's off and running, you know, and he checks in and you know with the latest stuff of if they're doing this and they can look at that. So we have. You know, we have a already operating system in the company that's called unique ability teamwork. You know, everybody's in their unique ability and everybody's doing a different aspect of necessary activity in the company and they're all coordinating with each other. So it's virtually impossible for us to have a chief something officer, because that's not the way the company works. Dan: Right, not a hierarchy. Dean: It's not a hierarchy, it's a network. Dan: Yeah, that's interesting, I mean. Dean: I'm not even. I'm not even chief. It's just that Dan has certain unique abilities. He's really good at coming up with new stuff. So where do you get, you know, any, especially new stuff that's offered to the public and we get paid for it, you know. Right so you know, you know, I'm not a boss in any meaningful way, except I'm the one to define what the next projects are. Yeah, but oh hefe Right, yeah, I think corporations are going to have real hard time with this. I think anything that's a hierarchy and because there's one person at the top and there's a lot of middle people down to the bottom and I get a sense it's useful at the very top and it's used at the very, but in the middle I think all those jobs are fair game to get rid of. Dan: Have you been following Salim? Well, not new, but kind of expansion on the exponential organizations, like you're seeing. Dean: Yeah, I spent two days with him and you know, 100K? Yeah, because we were out to dinner on Friday night and we were sitting together and talking about it. But you know, the model is from my standpoint. It's a big organization model. It's not really. I mean because you got about 13 things that you have to check off and you and I personally are done after three. Dan: Right, yeah, it requires somebody who's like it almost feels like just achieve an exponential. That's what I was just going to say. Yeah, yeah it almost needs to be, I mean. Dean: I like Salim's a great guy to talk to. Yeah great thing. But I think he gets the big bucks from the big corporations. I don't think he gets the. You know he doesn't get the money like we get the money at the, not from entrepreneurs right, we're street level. Dan: We're street level. Men are the people really? Yeah, we're house lawyers. Oh, my goodness, it's so fun again. You know I get such joy out of that. You know, like the I've been. You know I go to a cafe here called Honeycomb Bread Bakers and they you know one of you learn the crowd and the people there was. There used to be a coffee shop called N plus, one which was the yeah yeah, so I would go there all the time and N plus, that was pre COVID, wasn't it? Dean: That was pre COVID. Dan: And yeah, and during COVID. Dean: Yeah, let's say kind of hit the wall during. Dan: They didn't really recover from that in terms of it being a profitable business. They were attached to their bike shop, which was the main, and the idea is invite. Yeah, the idea was N plus one is the equation, for you know how many coffees should you have, which is N equal the number of coffees you've had today Plus one. That's how many. Dean: And so I got to know the owner, Peter Zion, was saying that when you lived on a farm you had as many children as you could plus one. And somebody asked him well, what's the plus one for? To know that you've had too many. Same thing with coffee, I think. Dan: You know, the fun thing is that riding a bicycle is a decidedly mainland adventure and they serve an area and the 15 mile zone. What are you calling it? The bubble. Dean: you know, and do they have like bike paths and everything? Dan: Oh, there's like paths all over Winterhaven. Yeah, lots of great places. But, so over coffee a couple of weeks ago he was asking for some marketing advice. Like think I mean to ramp things up. I went through this concept of you know the before, the during and the after unit and you know largest check and I could ask you know what's the best if I could just line people up the door right now? Who would you want? What would what's the highest margin thing? And it was eBikes is the thing. Yeah, I said so. I have a learning that I've had from working with a bathroom boutique client in Miami and I've learned from doing this that putting a catalog together is a really great lead generator. Right Objective data is all, rather than trying to convince people that they should buy a bike and put there because they were running ads that were like, hey, where's the bike shop? Here we are, we're in Winterhaven and you know bikes are great kind of thing. Getting their name out there and I shared with him the concept of and value of getting their name in here rather than getting your name out there. Let's get the names, let's gather the names of everybody who's interested in e-bikes and I proposed putting together this e-bike catalog with them, and so we did that. We put that on my Facebook. I put up the ads forum and we're generating e-book our e-bike catalog downloads for $1.66 each. So he said to him like you put this in the thing it's like for let's just give some room for improvement for our cost of the ads to go up. But let's say that we can get 100 people to metaphorically raise their hand and say, hey, I'm interested in an e-bike for $150. We can get 100 of them to raise their hand and his average margin on an e-bike is around $600 to $700. And so it doesn't take many of those to engage with and them to buy a bike. It's kind of funny. It's like that I still I get as much joy out of that as doing something with a big national company that's got. Dean: I think the big thing that I'm getting and this is not going cloud landing discussion is you're growing understanding of exactly who you want to talk to and the continual evolution of people knowing exactly who they want to hear Actually, who they want to hear and that bypasses an incredible amount of bureaucracy, I mean if you think about the sheer amount of bureaucracy In my sense, is that the current extreme polarization in what's called polarization, political polarization and cultural polarization, is that I think that the probably three or four generations who took the root of high education, so in other words, starting in nursery school, they were competing to get into a great kindergarten and compete to get into a great primary school, to get into a great university, to get into a great high school which got you to the university and the graduate school, that they're imperiled. I think that they're imperiled. On the other hand, an 18 year old who, after graduation with no thought of university at all takes a 10 week welding certification course, is making anywhere between 60 and 100,000 at the end of the, and he's the buyer or she's the buyer. She's the buyer because and probably you know within 10 years they're making a million. They're making a million and they're bypassing the higher education. All because the higher education is about abstractions, but AI is about extreme specificity. It's about extreme specificity and I think that a lot of the uprising on universities and the polarization and the cancel culture is they don't want to hear news about anything else except what they've been promised lies at the end of the rainbow the abstraction rainbow, and it's just a general unsettling. You know and and I mean think about it you were in school from four years old to, let's say, 26 years old and have run up. I mean it cost you an incredible amount if you could pay for it, or it cost you an incredible amount and you know loans and you're a quarter million, or 400, a quarter million, or you're $400,000 in debt when you graduate. Dan: Yeah, yeah. Dean: And then you learn that there's a new technology that's just going to make everything you did for the last 22 years irrelevant, including you. Dan: Yeah, yeah, right, right, right. Dean: So my sense is that it's the middle white collar, you know the whole middle white collar, part of the economy that's going to get clobbered but not at the high end, where people are really creative, or at the end, where people are really handy. You know where people are really handy. Dan: I think that they're completely safe, even things like you know legal associates, like people who are, you know, in big law firms. You know the first session year both the involved do, slaving away in the library looking up case law. Dean: Yeah, or contract contract, you know, yeah, and I mean there's somebody that a test of a particular deed on a particular property in another state that required about inputs from about seven different things, which generally takes about three and a half to four weeks to get the whole three, and the AI program did it in like 15 minutes start to finish and it was completely accurate and I mean it was really really sort of had involved and it's blessed entry. Dan: Very well. So what do these have? Like the Pretty amazing, isn't it? I mean well, like we're living in the future, it's we're normalizing that. Dean: Well, we're normalizing it on an individual basis, we're not normalizing it on a group basis. Dan: Yeah, yeah, I think that it's only the front runners you mean that are Seeing that? Dean: no, it's just an alert, curious, responsive, resourceful individual who's got a particular thing in mind. And they found those new way of multiplying their Productivity, multiplying their profitability you know and you know. So yeah, but see, everybody I had, I was, we were in Chicago last week and we have a G, you know, in general practice she's an internist and she's our. Chicago doorway to any kind of specialty that we need, you know, specialty medicine. And she's going concierge November oh nice tonight and and Because we've been with her for about 15 years, you know and. I can tell that the weight of the Disease management Industry is weighing down on her. Dan: We don't have a healthcare system. Dean: What we have is a disease management. Right you know and and so, and I could tell she was lighter. I mean, she's had this light, energetic feel about her and welcome to the entrepreneurial world. You know, welcome. I said you get paid for what you ask. You know you get paid for what you asked. And she says well, you know, I'm really worried about the fact that the people who Don't have the access to you and I said you were worried about that before, I said 99.9% of you didn't have access to you you know, before this happened, including you didn't have access to you before this. Now you get access to you and I said that's the only change here. And I said there but You're going to get pickier and pickier about who gets to see you and everything. And I said it's just very natural. And she says yeah, but the whole system, I mean how? I said her name's on me and I said I mean there is no system, the biggest, there are 10 million systems and you're one of them. You're a planet, planet, I said. The biggest fallacy is this is industrial thinking from 1900 to 1950, that there's a system, there is no system. You know, and I said there there are no systems, there's just. There's just connected local neighborhoods. Dan: So you're what you're saying really reminds me of of Ray Dalio's you know understanding of the market and saying how you know the way we talk about the auto market, what that really is just an aggregate Construct of all the individual micro transactions. Oh yeah one person buying one car, and you're saying the same, that I feel that Same way that there's no system. The system is just made up, yeah, of this aggregate of the individual micro transactions between one person with Very precise medical needs, seeking them from one person. Dean: Yeah. Yeah, yeah and the it's like climate. There is no climate people said yeah, and I said the climate is just a 360 day average of what the temperatures were. You know, yeah, and what the precipitation was and what the wind was, every day being entirely different from the other 364 and in order to get some sense of it. You call it, you average it and we got to have a name for that, so they call it climate. There is no climate, there's just a lot of temperature, right right right. There's just a lot of weather. I've only experienced weather. I've never experienced climate. Dan: Climate is this. Dean: System weather is reality. Yeah, so I think the whole notion of systems, you know, you know, I mean there's some big tools which are being used in common, but you know, like, the dollar is the reserve currency rate you know, and and everything else, but everybody's using dollars differently. They're using dollars for different reasons. You know and, and or English, the English language, and there's no uniparty around the world. There's about a hundred different versions of English. You know because it's it's the one language that you can get along Extremely well-speaking, badly. Dan: That's funny. Yeah, yeah, true, can't do that with can't do that with French. Dean: I can tell you, you can't do that with French. Yeah, but that's the language of romance. Yeah, so why did you get out of this? I mean, we windered a bit today, which is our favorite activity Absolutely. Dan: I think that's. I think that's fantastic. I haven't thought about the relationship between the system and the market in that parallel way that Ray Dalio and I think that really, you know it does come down to you know, being able that's really what it is being able to use whatever means to get an outcome for People. You know I'm bullish about the future here. Dean: Yeah, now I'm just trying to think I can do it next week, because, no, I can't do it next week. I'm on my way to Nashville next week. So I but I can do it two weeks from now and I'll be in Buenos Aires, argentina. Dan: Okay. I will be here and I will be anxious to hear about your Buenos Aires experience. Will you have had the experience? When we talk? Dean: No, will you? Dan: be there. Dean: We got an overnight flight on Saturday Okay, weeks from now and and then it starts on Monday, so I'll this would be the. We're two hours ahead of you, so time-wise, buenos Aires is two hours ahead of where you are future and, yeah, all of South. Here's an interesting thing about you know where London Ontario is. Of course, because yeah lived halfway there. But anyway all of South America sits east of London, Ontario. Yeah wild right, you think it's underneath. North, I know it isn't it that goes way to the east? Actually, brazil is only a thousand miles from Africa. That's crazy. Yeah, two-hour flight from. Africa to Brazil. Dan: Yeah anyway, well then, I will be here with bells on and I will look forward to it. Dean: You know what? And we're both ten quick starts. We're both ADD. And that's a prescription. That's a prescription for no system. That's exactly right. Dan: They're like holy so all right. Okay, two weeks for me. Okay, okay, bye, bye, bye you.

In today's episode of Welcome To Cloudlandia, Dan and I explore Ontario, Canada, alongside a discussion of groundbreaking research on an immortality gene. A doctor shares insights into pinpointing this gene's phenomenal potential for humanity. Lightheartedly, we touch on frequent flyer miles and a Buenos Aires stem cell treatment trip. Shifting to business, we analyse the impactful Working Genius model's six elements - Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanisation, Enablement and Tenacity. There are a lot of nuggets in this episode that prompt us to reevaluate what truly enriches our world.   SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We discuss the fascinating exploration of an immortality gene found by a doctor, that has the potential to revolutionize human life. We touch on the effects of altitude on our bodies and share some anecdotes about our trips for stem cell treatments. We delve into the Working Genius model and its six elements that foster successful collaborations in business. Mark Lechance and Babs share their experiences with the Working Genius model, emphasizing its practical benefits. We share the thrilling story of Matt, a man of Discernment and Tenacity, who successfully navigated domain name issues to set up a project in real time. We examine the dynamics of travel and connectivity, challenging the notion that convenience and comfort are sources of happiness. We discuss the importance of purpose and meaning in achieving true happiness and explore the future of transportation, including the possibility of human-carrying drones. We analyze the psychological limits of convenience in our modern era, and encourage listeners to reconsider the value of real experiences over convenience. We explore the future of travel convenience, discussing how modern technologies have reduced travel friction and predicting the future of transportation. We discuss the concept of convenience, how it is interpreted differently by different people, and reflect on the emotional experience of convenience. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: Thank God, there we go. Dean: There we go. Thank God we're recording. Yeah, I don't like the sound. Dan: I don't like the sound. Dean: There was just an interruption, that's all I don't like the sound of that voice of yours. What's up? Dan: Well, I just got a cold, I got a head cold Friday, I think. And here I am. Here I am, though, and I'll use the capability that I have available to me to have a great podcast. Dean: There we go. I love it. Well, I missed you last week. I've had a great two weeks. Lots to catch up on. Dan: I'm sure you've had it in the last few weeks. Yeah, we did. We were at DaVinci 50 and Sundance. I've never been there before. Dean: How did you like? Dan: that. Yeah, it's a neat place, it's sort of a neat place, but Babs doesn't operate good at 7,000 feet. Dean: Oh, boy, okay. Dan: So she has some issues. But, she went and she got a. What's it called? It's an IV that you take that pumps your energy up. Dean: Oh, okay. Dan: I knew, yeah, so fortunately we had a lot of medical advice around us. A little bit, yeah and they were able to get right on it. She had it, but she wasn't sleeping well and I'm pretty good. I don't have that problem at altitude, but there was a lot of downhill climbing from our room to the. And my knee, which hopefully, and we're off to Buena Cerras, Argentina the first week of November to get stem cell treatment for my knee, so hopefully that'll be done. Yeah, yeah, we fly in overnight. They pick us up at the airport, take us right to the clinic and I get an injection in the first hour when I'm there and that's my stem cells coming back at me and the promise is that I will grow a new cartilage. Dean: And how long does it take for that to be noticeable? Dan: It's about six months until it grows back. That's what I'm told, and there's a protocol of not putting too much stress on it, not to go hog wild. Dean: Well, how perfect is that You'll have a new me for your AB of perfect I will Just about, and that's exactly right It'll be on. Dan: My birthday will be six and a half months and this will be six months. We go down twice more so that they can check on the progress, and so our frequent flyer miles are going to go up, and it's a long, long flight. Dean: Nine hours have you been to Plano Furniture before? I have not. Dan: I have not this is the first time and they're I think they're either an hour or two hours ahead of Toronto time. Yeah. Dean: One of the things. Dan: Yeah, no, they're an hour and a half Exactly. That's so funny, but it's sort of when you look at the map. It's always a shock to me how that, if you go to London Ontario, all of South America sits east of London Ontario. That's wild, isn't it? Yeah, it's amazing Because you think of South America being under North America but it actually curves around to the east and Ecuador. The west coast of Ecuador is the furthest point in South America and that lines up perfectly with London Ontario and, for those who are listening, it's sort of Columbus Ohio, if you think of Columbus. Dean: Right, right, right, there you go. Dan: Dream of Iowa. Yeah, and Americans, you know Ontario. Where's Ontario? Isn't that near Los Angeles? You? Dean: know they have an airport here. It's called Ontario yeah. Dan: Ontario Airport. You know. Well, that's great. Well, of course it's east of Ontario, california, but you know we're talking about a province that is basically the size of Western Europe. Dean: It's probably the size of Europe, but Ontario. Dan: Yeah, I was realizing the vastness. Dean: When I got to understand the vastness of Ontario I realized somebody pointed out that you could drive north in Ontario the distance between Toronto and Florida and still be in Ontario. That's pretty big right. Dan: And if you did east to west, from Cornwall to Canora, that's basically two cities in Ontario. It's the same distance as Washington DC to Kansas City. Dean: Wow, okay, yeah. Dan: Well, there we go. That is pretty much about all the Canadians huddled close to the border. 90% of the Canadian population is within 100 miles of the US border. Dean: That's great. Well, any big shares from Da Vinci. What's coming down the pipe? You got new me. Dan: Yeah, the biggest thing. First of all, richard is a phenomenally good chooser of great speakers. Yeah, and it's always very, very enlightening, if not shocking, some of the research that's being done, and I think we have a couple of doctors who were there. And one of the doctors, doctor doctor West, says that it's pretty clear now that there's a fundamental gene, if you will I'm not sure exactly what the terminology is- but, it's a gene, that's the immortality gene, okay, and they've been able to zero in on it because none of our genes die. I mean the body they're in dies, but none of the genes themselves actually die. They're immortal and because we all have them, so all humans have them, and every time a new human being is born, it's basically picking up on a couple of million years of genetic development. Yeah so they know that those are immortal. And but in each individual there's a turnoff, there's a series of turnoff mechanisms I'll just use a more understandable term here and they're zeroing in on this. For example, there are life forms that don't die flat, flat, flat, flat. Worms, for example, don't die. You know, they, they just never die. And you cut them in half and you can cut them in half, and doesn't matter which half, and they can regrow the other half back. So so you know, I mean, it's just really, it's just really interesting where all this is going. I mean, what's the time frame for this, to discover this? Well, they don't know that, you know. But the bare fact that they're they now think it's possible and that they're experiment way. I just find all that stuff interesting. Dean: Yeah, I find it very interesting too. Yeah, that's great. Dan: I mean, it's kind of the fact that we can know that DNA exists. Dean: I mean the fact that somebody discovered that and I mean it's just, how would you even know to look for something like that? Right, yeah, we take it, you know we're. It's so amazing, the things that I mean that's all happened in the big change from 1975 to 19. Dan: They're 2025, you know, I've been really thinking about that. Dean: That too, the you know the the biggest change If we take, if we extend out to 2025. I think that period of 1975 to 2025 is going to be, you know, civilization changing yeah you know scope of what's happened here. Dan: Yeah, but it's like yeah. Well, my redone it is, that it's the people who benefit from this. It's not going to be worldwide. The next 50 years let's say 2025 to 2075, I think that. I think what we're going to see is massive political and economic change, because there's a there's a point where you wanted to become a powerful technological country. And at this point not many have. I mean, if you think of all the countries in the world, the US is clearly, you know, in the lead, and the US has just so many other things going for it. You know, it's geography, for one thing, that's, it's really hard to invade the United States. I mean, first of all, 3000 miles of water one way and 5000 miles of water the other way, and then you have the Gulf of Mexico, and then you have Mexico. But Mexico in the 200 miles south of the US border is desert and mountain. It's not a it's not a populated area, and then the North North Canadians were always a threat, but now that they've nationalized pot, that's that's neutralizing that. Right and Canada. Weren't we going to invade the United? Dean: States. I think the US looks at Canada, the natural resource reserve tank attached to their northern border. Dan: You know well it's, it's. It's America's biggest gated community. Dean: You know right. Dan: You have to check in at the gate you know, they make you check in at the gate and you can't bring in guns and they want to know if you have any alcohol. They want to know if you have any tobacco. They're not interested in you if you have any new ideas. Dean: Yeah, so you'll love this. I've got four C's that I've observed here, looking for the next 25 years and the I observe that, but you're going to tell me about that in the next podcast, right? Oh, I can tell you about it right now. Here we go. Dan: All right. Dean: So the first is increase, and I love how you always say increasing, as taken this from you, but increasing connectivity with the farthest outposts of the mainland. That is going to be a big driver of the next 25 years. I think we can if we're guessing and betting. That's where that's what I was thinking about, if I'm guessing what's going to happen in the 25 years. What can I bet on? And I bet on increasing connectivity with the farthest outposts of the mainland and that I don't think you can go wrong and I think that, as the technologies are evolving, that will facilitate that connection. That's going to be a big thing. I saw something dance. You know I haven't really been so on board with the metaverse and then I saw and I don't know whether you saw it the most recent video of Lex Friedman and Mark Zuckerberg having a chat in the metaverse with the latest version of the Facebook Visual avatar development where it creates a photo, realistic version of you, three dimensional, in your inner three dimensional space, and you could tell I mean first watching it on the video it's stunningly realistic and impressive. But you could tell that that Lex Friedman even said he's having an emotional experience. This is so uncanny that he's got the you know, the new meta headset on, but his feeling is like he's 100% for real in the room with Mark Zuckerberg, like literally having a real conversation with a real person, and that I think that's the first I've seen of what potentially could be what comes here. You know, because it was really, it was really pretty stunning. When you're watching the video, I'll send you the, I'll send you the link, unless you've already seen it. Dan: No, no, I haven't. This is the first I've heard of it. Dean: Okay, so they have. They basically have a. They split the screen like a try screen where you can see Lex or Mark with the headset on, like where they really are talking and what they're saying. Then they show the middle version, which is kind of the digitized version of what's happening, like all the without the shell on it kind of thing, and then they show the final, the real thing, and it look, if you just look at the visual thing, you would never be able to detect that this is not real. And that's the first that I've seen where there's no latency, there's no, you know, telltale, you know mismatching of the mouth movements or the eye movements or anything like that. If you just saw the third version of it, you would think that's really Mark Zuckerberg in real time talking and that's really Lex Friedman, and so that was like that opened my eyes to and they were just kind of in a, you know, a black background kind of thing, like in almost this. They're in a black, like on the Charlie Rose show or something you know, just their things. But you can imagine in, you know, giving fast forward into 2025, the overlaid on any visual environment. You could place them in at table 10, at jocks, you know, or at the select bistro and they're surrounded and, having that experience, I literally. I would. I would put because you know what, I've said it and you've said it that I don't really have any interest in putting on the goggles because I haven't seen an environment that's real. You know, but if I could put on those goggles and have a real table 10 experience with you, I would put on the goggles. Dan: That was that impressive, you know so that means I have to agree. No, it's one of the things I you know I'm I'm taking your description of it as real, but yeah, I haven't had the experience so I don't really know, you know yeah. Dean: So, anyway, I'll check it, I'll check it out, and yeah so there's the first, that's the first C for guessing embedding connectivity, connectivity, that then that I think, if I'm guessing, embedding on the next 25 years our increasing capabilities, both on demand and on cap. You know, I think if we look at the capabilities that AI is going to provide for us, I'm starting, you're starting to see now the real applications of this. Where you take these, these avatar technologies of being able to create your own digital avatar. I fully believe, now that that is going to be in detect undetectable difference between the real, I mean a digital representation, the real video that I had performed, or a digital AI have done it. So those, all those capabilities on demand, along with and if those are not, capabilities on demand through connectivity with the farthest outreaches of the mainland to every other human that's out there, you know, for the special, for the special things you know well not every other human being, but just the one. You know, the ones the ones who are on the main, the ones who are connected in cloud land you know, because, because I believe in Dunbar's law, that we only have emotional capability for at most about 150. Dan: Yeah. I mean everybody. First of all, I can't comprehend what everybody means, you know. I know Dean and I know Joe and I know. And you guys use up all my time. You know I don't have time. Dean: I was just going to say thankfully, we're solidly entrenched in each other's top 150. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dan: I mean the other, the other eight, you know eight billion plus right, I mean I, I'm told they exist, but they don't really have that much. They don't have a place in my future, that much. Dean: Yeah, right, right. Dan: Yeah. Dean: I love it. Dan: And then the number three. Dean: Number three, yes, yeah collaboration that's going to lead to better and better and better collaboration opportunities with both humans and technology. I can't wait to reach your how to treat technology like a well-trained dog or whatever. Dan: What is it like? Dean: Like a great dog Like a great dog. Dan: Yeah, I own owning technology like a great dog. Dean: When is that coming out? Dan: Oh, it's out. Dean: It's out, oh it is. Dan: Yeah, you should have gotten a notice in the email that you can download the ebook. Okay, I'll see you about that. Dean: Yeah, I think that's fantastic. I had on the collaboration front. I had a really amazing widget extension. I've had a great experience this past couple of weeks here. The widget, of course, the working genius model, I see how useful. This is now in collaboration. Dan: We've got three of our team members trained as facilitator or training other people to use working genius. The moment you told me about it, I looked it up. We have the same UNI or the same we have the same. We're inventors and we're discerners. Babs is an inventor, is that yours? Dean: No, I'm DI your ID. I mean, I imagine it's the same thing, but Babs is what? Dan: She's IG, she's a galvanizer. Okay, yeah, right yeah, and I'm proof of it. Dean: So that's great, that's the perfect thing. That's your secret formula, right there. Dan: Yeah, I'm proof of it. Yeah, she galvanized me. Dean: Yeah, and so I had a really great experience with Mark Litchett. Why don't? Dan: we explain to those who don't know what we're talking about Sure Okay. Dean: So Mark, of course, unless you want to Go? Ahead. Dan: No, go ahead. Dean: Okay, so this was introduced to me by James Drage and James introduced this working genius model and you can find it at workinggeniuscom and it's one of the most useful assessments that I've ever come across, right Right up there with Colby, because I think I would rank them. Probably I would rank widget at the top, colby second, and I also like I find Myers-Briggs very useful, but I know you're not as big a fan of Myers-Briggs as I am. But the way that workinggenius works is that we all have workinggenius, which are things that we find effortless, really coincides with our unique ability, really harmonizes with all the strategic coach concepts and the idea is that every team needs, every collaboration, needs somebody in each of the six elements and the six calls spell out the word widget. So W is for wonder, someone who can look at something and see all the ways that this could be improved or where could we go with this. Then I is invention, which is making stuff up. There's a lot of I's in strategic coach. It would probably be, you know. Also, they would correlate with being quick starts, I'm sure. G is for discernment, the ability to look at options and know what the right thing to do is, to have a highly confident ability in discerning that this is the right thing to do. G is galvanizing, which is someone who has a genius for gathering all the people and elements that are needed to get something accomplished. E is for enablement, which is someone who can support the people who are doing the thing to make sure that everybody has everything they need to complete the task. And T is for tenacity, and tenacity is someone who has a high follow through, who makes things happen and takes things all the way to completion, so fast forward. I'm in a boardroom in Boca Raton with Mark Lechance and some of his team and I had this amazing experience of Isn't that amazing. Dan: We just had a metaverse experience because I'm the one that started the call with the cold, but now you have the cold? Dean: Yeah, I think mine is. I'm out in my courtyard and I can tell that our pollen count is very high right now, but anyway, I'm sitting there and I noticed how there's one of the guys on well, there were six of us in the room, but Mark Lechance is a galvanizer with invention, a galvanizer invention and I'm starting to identify like the one sentence summary of what these things are. So, mark's like one word, one sentence, like super power is gathering people, gathering the capabilities that you guys are super smart. Here's what I think we could do, you know, like this inventing all the coming up with ideas or the things that could be done. Then there was a gentleman there, matt, who is a D, he's a, he's got discernment and tenacity and my observation of that is that he would see something and say that's a good idea, and then the next word out of his mouth were done and he, like we were talking about something, we, you know, I came up, I was, you know, discernment and invention is my thing and I came preloaded with this is what I think we should do. We were doing, we have a VCR, vision capability, reach opportunity with one of the projects that Mark runs, and I came in already preloaded with here's the ideas. Well, I think we should do, which was, you know, it's a really great, great idea and we, you know, came up with the domain name, the whole thing, and literally right there in the, in the meeting you know, matt went and bought the domain name, set up like all these things are happening in real time and getting making something real you know, and so it was really amazing to see that, that collaboration between you know, the widget experience there. And I see now, like I realized, galvanizing that I would have guessed that Babs is a galvanizer, because that has been. You know that. That's the, that's the main thing that drives your ability to get your ideas into real world things. It's galvanizing the unique ability, teamwork of everybody on your, on your team, yeah. Dan: Yeah, and she just knows how to create team. I mean she, she knows how to create team leaders, she knows how to create teams and the teams have their, you know, they have their projects and they have their goals. And you know they have their measure measurements and everything like that, but one of the one of the things I've noticed about Babs is that she doesn't really comprehend the impact that she has just by being in the room. Dean: Yeah, I mean, how do you observe that? Dan: How do? You see, no, no, things just happen when she's in the room. Yeah, and in any situation, if you were somewhere with Babs and they had to get something done and within about an hour or two hours she'd be, she would be chosen as the leader. Dean: Right. Dan: Without her saying anything. Dean: Right yeah, right, right, right yeah. Dan: I mean, I mean she's six foot two and that helps you know, because she has a core. But you know, often, frequently, she's the tallest person in the room, but she just has a, she has command in her strength. Yeah, Command is number one. Yeah, you know. She just basically says okay, let's get started, let's get something done here. And you know, and you know I mean that's my life is divided into two parts before I met Babs and after I met, after I was with Babs. Yeah, and you know, it's just real clear that I'm just always highly motivated when I'm around here. Dean: Yeah, what are you looking at? Yeah. Dan: I'm looking at you, I remember you telling me and we're in the 42nd year of AAMD. Oh, that's funny, yeah, yeah. Dean: Okay. Dan: You've done you've. You've gotten three. What's number four? Dean: Okay, so the fourth is convenience that we're observing less and less friction in day to day interactions and mainland to Plumlandia, you know communication. So convenience, you know. I remember I think in 2016 or something, I read that article that I've shared about the tyranny of convenience and how we start to see it's a never ending, you know, desire to make things easier and better and ratcheting those advancements without going backwards. You know, and that's really I think, if I were to guess and bet on things being more convenient, increasingly convenient, over the next 25 years, I think we're going to be. I think that's a good bet and you know, you start to see that. I think that, as we're, we're already seeing things like you know, one click ordering from Amazon. That's now gotten into. You know, apple Pay and Google Pay and Amazon Pay you never there's no need to ever type your credit card into anything to buy online. But I see how that's going If we chart out where the room in convenience is. I also see, I see companies like Rocket Mortgage, you know, foreshadowing where we're headed, that when we start seeing everybody's got access to all of the data we're all going to be, you know, pre-underwritten in background. For anything we're going to have some, you know, available capital or available credit, you know pre-assigned already. You know that we literally will be able to push a button and get approval instantly for whatever we want, and I believe that the blockchain and smart contracts and all of these things are going to make things more and more convenient over the next 25 years, and that's where I've gotten so far. Those, so the connectivity yeah Well, I think they're good. So connectivity- Number one ��로 liability Number two. Elaboration number three. Elaboration and convenience, convenience. Uh-huh, it's good, I think those are, and there's probably more. Well, you know those are the first, uh, first four. Dan: Yeah, I wouldn't push it beyond four. Make the others be servants of the first four. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Yeah, yeah, you know. One of the things is. So what's the role of uh? Travel that takes time, it's the uh. I'm asking you a question here. Dean: Yeah, I think it's the. Uh, what's the? What's the? Dan: what's the role of travel that takes time? Dean: The physical, First of all. It happens? Dan: Travel happens in the mainland because if I can just, of course, if I can just click or have a thought and I'm so yeah and I'm meeting somewhere else, then it hasn't required travel. And it doesn't, it doesn't take time. So, and I think that that's where? Dean: Yeah, so the you know the inconvenience of travel is what is? Two things. That's inconvenient and it happens at the speed of reality. You have to move your, your, your meat puppet from one out. Dan: Yeah, I, I'm going to call you that. I think that's. I think that's a bad term. Dean: The meat. Dan: And I think it diminishes your body and the one thing I want to tell you about, about virtual reality. You're only using sight and sound. You're only using sight and sound. You're not using touch, you're not using taste and you're not. You know, and my sense is that actually, sight and sound make up about less than 10% of what the body actually uses to function. Okay, so, I can understand why my Mark Zuckerberg wants to be in another realm because he can't be speed. He's trying to find a place where he can't be subpoenaed. Dean: You know so. Dan: Right, right, yeah. And I understand that because he doesn't look like a human being who does well in terms of relationship and you know, and everything else, and I can understand why he wants to find another realm to do it, but we've got a million years of actually creating value out of things that take time and things that you know you have to travel over distance. Okay. Dean: Yeah. Dan: I don't think there, I don't. I can't sum up all that just as inconvenience, Right yeah. I mean learning doesn't. Learning doesn't happen instantaneously, learning happens over time. Yeah, so I'm just the American as you put the four things. As you put the four things together, I'm saying, yeah, but you know, when I go on a long trip, you know, for example, it takes two and a half hours for us to drive to the cottage. Okay, yeah, and I've been interested in plots during those two and a half hours that I wouldn't have if I just touched a button and I was in the cottage. Dean: Right, yeah, you think that part of the experience of it is the fact that it took a long time to get there. Dan: Yeah there was a price. There was a price for it. Dean: Yeah, you know yeah. Dan: And if I agree, yeah. So yeah, I'm, I'm. I don't have the answer to this. I'm asking the question. I don't have the answer. I have the answer to it yeah. But I'm noticing that convenience and comfort don't necessarily make people happy. Uh huh, I think purpose and meaning make people happy. You know achievement combined with purpose and meaning. Dean: And my experience is. Dan: That takes a bit of time. That takes a bit of time. Dean: And so yeah. Well, that makes a lot of sense. I mean there's so, um, yeah, that does it makes a lot of sense. And these are just uh. So I do, I'm looking at, no, I think they're they're available. Dan: I think what you're saying is that actually they all come under the heading of capability. You know it's obviously a huge jump in capability, because connectivity and um and uh uh, collaboration and uh and uh and convenience are great capabilities, you know, and I think people are always striving for greater capabilities. Dean: I agree, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's something there's always going to be real. There's always going to be a higher value on on real. Dan: Yeah. Dean: I believe that we're definitely missing out. You know, and it's not by an order of just a small percentage, I mean, it's exponentially different. I think you know um say say what? what I think in the convenience, yeah when I was going to convenience things is that I think that the ability to make that travel, which is still highly valuable, being present in in a place is still highly valuable, um, but the elimination of friction in in doing that To the extent that you can, is going to be, I think, a safe bet. Uh, when you look at I it was, it was funny, we were, I was having a conversation with someone about the the newest travel trend. Uh, in mainstream travel is the private terminals that are popping up now, like at LAX there's was the first one that I heard of where you can bypass the, the main terminal. You go to a private terminal where you pull up, they valet park your car, you go into a suite that's got, you know, just a food and whatever you allow Comfortable for you to wait for your flight. You go through security, everything that's necessary, checking in the whole thing, and then, when it's time they drive you in, you know a BMW or an SUV, they drive you to on the ramp, to those where the plane is, take you up and put you on your on your seat and off you go, and that level of friction, skipping from the curb to the gate, that's what everybody is. That's where all the the hassle of of mainland travel is once you're on the plane. Nobody's mad at the first class cabin of any airliner. It's comfortable, it's. The seats are great, the food is great, the you know the environment. Everything about it is is fine. You get to your, your destination. It's just all the inconvenience from the curb to the gate. You know that we're all the we're all the thing is now. Now, and I also think, like recently, as you start seeing, I think it's pretty clear we're going to end up in a human carrying drone world where that, you know, drone flight is going to be, you know, for shorter, and it's going to be a two hour drive into a 20 minute, you know, taxi, drone, taxi type of environment. I think we'll see that in the next 25 years. I think that's a that'd be a pretty safe bet. Dan: I'll let you bet that it doesn't happen, okay, yeah. Dean: Good and that's interesting. So why? What makes? You think that, that, that it won't happen. Dan: Well, first of all, I don't think the capital is going to be there over the next 25 years, because capital money is getting very, very expensive and it's a function of the fact that transportation is getting very, very expensive. So when you have transportation very expensive, it makes money really expensive, it makes energy really expensive and it makes labor really expensive. Dean: And I don't think. Dan: First of all, I've never you may be the first person I've ever talked to had that as an aspiration or as a future thought, and my sense is that the next things to get invented is where there's like an 80% aspiration in the marketplace. We'd like to have this, you know, and you know, and I think the Amazon has done well, because there's an 80% wish that last minute purchasing or last minute shopping could be eliminated. Dean: Yeah, there's, there's something. I think that's true. Dan: Yeah, but one of the ways I've gone in the opposite direction, I've just eliminated all need for meetings that require travel. Dean: Yeah, me too. How is the travel industry doing? So I would say that that's more of an aspirator. Dan: I would say that's more of an aspiration than making travel comfortable. I would say not traveling at all is more of an aspiration. And, yeah, traveling with the least amount of friction. Dean: I agree and that's what I think would fit in with convenience. Well, I think we started going down that path. That was, I think that in every, in every way, in every element, I think convenience is really a driver right. That that's kind of we're definitely looking for things to be here and less friction. Dan: Let's look at the word convenience, because I think everybody's got a different notion of what constitutes convenience. You know, and I think it's is entirely defined by your situation in the mainland. I mean it only has been in relationship to the, to the. To the mainland I mean that my Apple computer comes on. It takes me, you know, five seconds to get on and I could do it in a second. I really don't care. I really don't care, you know right the five no five seconds. The five seconds seems good enough for me, you know I don't, I don't need it. So first of all, I think there's a point where convenience, or the striving for convenience, has a diminishing return. You know, because even at your personal airport, you know your private personal airport let's say that pretty soon there's going to be a desire on the ideal jet that there's a first class and the second class Right, and people, people say, well, why are they up there and we're, we're back here and you've got every convenience in the world. But because it's all psychological I mean all everything we're talking about here is psychological. You know, pricey psychological. Dean: And. Dan: I just feel that my notion of convenience may be different from your notion of convenience, you know. I mean if we went down step by step and we took our daily life and we went through, and everything like having food delivered to my house doesn't interest. Well, first of all, by all, my food is delivered by house by one person. You know we have a caterer and yes, but, but I can name on two hands. A number of times we've ordered in from a you know a restaurant, you know so that doesn't fall in my area of convenience, right yeah. Dean: Yeah. Dan: The other aspect about it is that traveling not under compulsion, in other words, I'm not compelled to travel, but just getting out and driving around. I find that interesting. Dean: Yeah, even like going up to the cottage or going. Dan: yeah, yeah, I find it interesting and you know, we have a halfway stop at Tim Hortons where we've never eaten, but we've always peed. The restroom is always in the same place. It's always clean. It's great. My definition of Tim Hortons in Canada is where white people go to get whiter. Dean: Have you ever experienced webbers? No, we go up to 404. Dan: We're heading to the east. We're not heading to the east. We've been on 400 and I've passed it, but the line up looked inconvenient. Dean: Well, you know it was quite a thing that they did was because that was kind of like the official stopping point of the way up to Muscova. That everybody would, you know, friday night stop and get a burger at Webbers. And then they brought in a great extent an overpass. They bought the land across before the oh no yeah. They brought in a great expense on an overpass that you could. Dan: Well, they could put in another parking lot. That's why they did it. Dean: Yeah, it's now convenient to stop on your way home, because it was super inconvenient. Dan: It's really interesting the I just want to zero in on the idea that convenience is uniquely defined. I think you're right. So I think a lot of the technology people make a guess that everybody is going to enjoy a new level of convenience that they're creating and they're generalizing they have to generalize human nature, that everybody's going to like this. I think it's a form of projection on the part of the inventors that, because they find it convenient to everybody else, only 16% of technology startups succeed. The thing, so it means that 84% of them. Yeah, I would say that most technologies are created to satisfy some form of convenience. Yeah, I would say. Dean: There's some definitions of convenience. I would love to go to the source here and see. So. Convenience is the state of being able to proceed with something with little effort or difficulty. Dan: Well, you and I are great believers in that. Dean: Yeah, the quality of being useful, easy or suitable for someone. And then the third is a thing that contributes to an easy and effortless way of life. Yeah, and so? I think, that that's going, no matter what you're doing, to making. I would argue that the virtual division of Strategic Coach has made it, through convenience, a possibility for people in what would otherwise be inconvenient parts of the world to participate. Dan: Yeah, and I think that you may. Zoom has, zoom has. Zoom has Zoom has. Yeah, my sense is that they Do. They need much more than Zoom. Do they need to actually have the feeling that they're? Dean: there. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, we're not going to be able to. Dan: I mean to be tested, yeah, to be experiment, tested. Dean: I was just like you know. You know just at what appeared to be what was literally appearing in this thing. So that was. I'm just reporting the news. Dan: Yeah and yeah, I know he seemed real, but is he real? Dean: Yeah, and I was only seeing a 2D. I'm only seeing the 2D example of it, right? So, yeah, I can't imagine what it would be like. If you Like Lex Friedman's response to it I don't know who he- is. Dan: by the way, I don't know who this person is. Dean: Lex Friedman is a very popular podcaster, similar in popularity as Joe Rogan, like that level, one of the top interview podcasters, very smart, intelligent guy. But yeah, this was His visibly, you know the visible reaction that he was having to. It was like he was having a hard time really describing the impact, the emotional experience that he was having of this and he's a pretty non-emotional guy. That's part of the you know the term he's of. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Yeah, well, I'm going to have. Dan: I'm going to have to have the experience I'm going to have to. The experience you know yeah. Dean: Yeah. Dan: By the way, that whole. Dean: You know us being able to. It's just so funny to think now of all of these things, like I just see the layering, of this constant improvement in understanding of both our unique abilities and the unique capabilities that are being presented to us and the convenience of collaboration. Did you watch 60 Minutes? Yeah, you don't watch any TV, so there was. Dan: I am innocent of the experience. Dean: Do you know who Rick Rubin is? He's a music producer. He's regarded as maybe the oh, no, no. Dan: I've watched his YouTubes. I've watched his YouTubes. Yeah, he's a great guy, yeah. Dean: Really, he plays guitar. Dan: He plays guitar right. Dean: No, he doesn't. He doesn't play anything, which is really. Dan: Which is really impressive. Somebody else that I'm thinking of he does a really great job of telling you why a song works or how a song works and everything. Dean: Yeah, yeah. Dan: Yeah, he's a white hair. Yeah, I'm looking at white hair. Dean: Looks like Nafuzela. He's the no. You're talking about Rick Beato. Dan: He's the guy you're talking about yeah, that's who I'm, that's what. Dean: I'm talking about. Yeah, no, rick Rubin looks like Nafuzela, he's got a beard and long hair, real zen kind of guy. But he was on 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper and it was pretty. There's some great sound bites from it. Because Anderson Cooper was asking him well, what is it that you do? Can you play instruments? And Rick said barely Could you work a sound board? And he said I have no technical ability and I know nothing about music, like actual music things. And Anderson asked him well, what do you get paid for? And he said he thought for a second and said the confidence that I have in my case and my ability to express what I feel has proven helpful for artists. And I thought there's a guy, if we were to do a widget on him, I'm sure he's a GI, I'm sure he has discernment and invention as his two things. You can see, this is a good idea, this is the big idea here, and this is what I think you should do. Dan: You have a visitor in the recording. Dean: It's a crow. I think it's funny. Dan: Don't you know that you're sitting. Don't you know that you're occupying his space? I? Dean: must be. Dan: Yeah, he's trying to tell you to get out. This is my space, Anyway it's all interesting. I keep coming back to the whole concept of the difference between convenience and comfort, and purpose and meaning. Yeah because my limousine company that I have in Toronto oftentimes has these sort of elite lifestyle magazines that advertises places to go and none of the people look happy. Yeah they look true. They look like they look like they've got everything they want, and that hasn't made them happy. You know, they look. They look sophisticated, they're obviously wealthy and they have this, but it hasn't done the trick. You know, it's like models. It's like models you know like in Vogue magazine. Babs gets some of the magazines and the Wall Street Journal once a month has a style magazine that comes with one of the additions and they all look well. First of all, I could draw a thought bubble above all their heads and say what I would give for a burger and fries, right, I mean, they look just, you know, they just look so unhappy and yeah, but they're representing the top of the world in fashion. You know, the elite living there are the top and I said, yeah, but they're, it's absent. It's absent meaning and purpose. You know, you've achieved something but and and people will sacrifice enormous amount of inconvenience for purpose and meaning. So it's an interesting discussion, isn't it? No, I mean, I take it may. I'm not a cutting edge guy with technology, but when I hear enough of other people talking about things that seems to work, I said why don't we just include this? And you know, and. I'm really driven by productivity. I like getting a lot of stuff done easier and faster, you know. But it's the thing that is being achieved, that has meaning and purpose. It's not the means of getting there. So yeah. Dean: I think there's a good, no, it's an interesting this thing is you know, yeah, and we live in totally a lot of the world. Dan: We do. Dean: I think that's part of the thing is maybe the, the harmonizing of that is pointing convenience at the end of comfort or out of purpose and meaning. Yeah, to make speaking purpose and meaning more convenient there, there's a new special on Netflix called Blue Zones and it's yeah observation of Okay talk about it. Yeah, and those things, those people, inevitably. They live very simple lives about much adornment. They've got the if you guy, as the Japanese would say, the purpose, you know the meaning that, the thing that brings them joy, connection to people. They love Community, but that's all. Dan: But if you think of your six Right. Dean: Yeah, they're very simple. Dan: They get rid of the eye. They'd wipe out the eye people really fast. Dean: Exactly. A mill that's 150 years old. Dan: I found from their great great grandmother you know, yeah, yeah, there's a famous temple in Japan. This will be. I have to jump right now afterwards, but there's a temple in that every 20 years it's totally torn down and rebuild again. Okay, and this has been happening now for 2000 years. So every 20, that's 100 times, 100 times, wow, and, and, and they have to find wood that's exactly like the wood you know that, the original or the existing one they have to replace with the same kind of woods. There's no mechanical parts of the temple, it's all done with drilling, with ancient yeah and everything they use now. The light screws, yeah, everything like that, and and an American coming into contact with this experience would say why? Why do you do it? Why don't you do it the next time? Why don't you build something different? You know, and, and I said because they have created enormous meaning and purpose out of something that's always the same. Dean: Yeah. Dan: So you know, convenience is a capability, but it's not the really purpose. It's not the ruling me. Right, convenience is not the ruling me. That's a discussion I like you yeah, I really, of course. Let's have a four C's dual. Let's have a four C's dual one, okay, when you do your first free zone with you and I will have a dual in the front of the room between your four C's and my four C's. Dean: Okay, there we go. I like it. Dan: Well, one of them is the same because we have capability and common, and I think capability is the master one. Dean: Yeah, and you're not. You don't think collaboration there. You're putting collaboration as a capability. Dan: Yeah, yeah, I think the other three are actually, I think capability is the center of your four C's and the other three are enhanced capabilities. Connectivity, collaboration and convenience are always being developed new in the world. I love it All right. Dean: Okay, thank you. Well, always great, dan. I'll look forward to next week. Dan: Yeah, and I'll be on the way home from the cottage next Sunday, so I won't be able to so to be the Sunday after. Dean: Okay, no problem, two weeks Okay yeah. Dan: Okay, okay, okay, thanks have a great time, bye-bye. Okay, bye. Dean: Bye.