Redefining Focus and Structure

Dean: Welcome to Cloudlandia. Welcome to Cloudlandia.

Dan: I will have all the recorded Dean Jackson for years and decades to always be available to listen to. That's exactly what the prom. That's what the promise of the, of your introducer to this promise that the discussion you're about to have is now going to be.

Dean: May be recorded. It's. And transcribed.

Dan: Oh, no. Yeah, but that, that, that it is going to be called in Trinidad. Anyway, welcome to Quadlandia.

Dean: It's reassuring to know that it's going to be recorded. Yeah, I take some comfort in that.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. And thinking back 30 or 40 years, you know, when I first came TO Toronto was 1951 years ago, I worked for second largest ad agency in Canada, Baker Lovick, which was part of the BDO Global organization. And what we're doing right now was totally impossible.

Dean: Isn't that amazing? I said that you had Joe Polish and I recorded a podcast on Tuesday.

Dan: Yeah, he was telling me.

Dean: Yeah, okay. And you know, one of the things we were talking about was this. One of the motivations when we started recording the I Love Marketing podcast was we'd been having these great conversations for years. And you know, we had one particular conversation. We talked for two hours and we both thought that would have been an amazing podcast because we were brainstorming some specific idea. I don't even remember what it was, but we came up with some great, some great things collaboratively in that. And then we got to talking about, like, how great it would have been if, you know, in the early 1900s, you know, 100 years ago at the time, you know, we were doing this in 2011, what that would have been like if Albert Lasker and Claude Hopkins would have gotten together every week and just talked about what's working in marketing and what they're doing and what they're working on, their ideas, how amazing a resource that would have been for us. And I said not to say. Then Albert Laster, but the fact that 100 years from now, people will be able to listen in on what was kind of, you know, cutting edge in, in 2010. And that's kind of a great, That's a great.

Dan: Yeah. The thing is, at least we have their, A lot of their writing. You know, I mean, a lot of the writing of those individual. I mean, these are great classic. You know, if you took. I went to a college where I read the hundred hundred great books of the world. We actually read more than 100, but it was 100 different authors. But in the world of, you Know, if you take marketing and advertising as industries essentially that started for real was really in the 1920s when radio really took off. Radio went from nowhere to every household in the United States in a matter of 10 years. Every. Yeah, everybody got a radio during the 1920s. And, you know, and some of them didn't quite understand how advertising could be part of it, but a lot of them, you know, a lot of them did. And, and, and then you started getting major thinkers and what constitutes, first of all, what constitutes great radio program period? And then what constitutes great advertising that goes along with great radio programs? You know, and, but a lot of this, you know, I mean, each of these people, you know, were pioneers in the field. They gave talks that were recorded and, you know, they were videoed and then they were interviewed and they were recorded. You know, if they were important enough, they would have been on, you know, on the major networks like NBC, abc, CBS and anything. But just the, you could run a college, a four year university just going through the, the talk of the great advertising minds and the great, you know, in the United States, the great commercial. I mean, I know enough about advertising that I know there's a difference between an ad and a commercial. Right, right, right. You know, but huge wisdom. I mean, just huge, massive wisdom. If you went to four years of Harvard and didn't have this and you went to another special university and you did have it, I have to tell you, your career afterwards would be the, it would be the non Harvard person who really took off afterwards. Yeah.

Dean: And so it's amazing is thinking back to the radio, the content that was on the radio, and realizing how important that was in gathering audience. And you go all the way back that I was always fascinated that Procter and Gamble was really one of the drivers of content both on the radio and into television. Like, it's funny how most people don't realize that Procter and Gamble invented the soap opera and created the soap opera to gather their audience, you know, to sell them soap. Think about the brilliance of creating the cliffhanger that at the right moment and they're leaning forward on the sofa with the. Fixed on the television, and then they break the commercial and tell them about the soap.

Dan: Well, one of the big TV programs during the 50s that I remember was Lux Video Theater.

Dean: Okay.

Dan: Lux was, Lux was a brand of soap. Yeah, yeah. And every, I mean, these were 43 minute. I think some of them were 43 minute, you know, with 17 minutes of commercials. And, you know, so, so the big, the big thing is, and all it's reflecting is what is the culture that's starting to form around a new form of communication.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: And I think the greatest educational system, and certainly in the United States, the greatest educational system for the entire 20th, 20th century, or let's just say the last hundred years, 20, 20, 19, 20 to 2020, is the commercials.

Dean: It's probably. You're right. Like, it's probably a really. The great way to get a handle on the zeitgeist or what was actually important, watching culture evolve or develop.

Dan: Yeah. You know, and, you know, married life, you know, all the commercials that had to do with some aspect of families being in their. Families being in their home. You know, I mean, just message after message, you know, you know, about hygiene, about, you know, convenience around the household, but the various products that you could have free embarrassment.

Dean: Ring around the collar.

Dan: Rain around the car. Yeah.

Dean: Ring around the collar. Oh, that's embarrassing.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, and I always remember the. The wife at home. You know, radio programs in the 1950s, you know, you had Ozzy and Harriet. You had Father's Knows Best. You had, you know, Lucy Life with I Love Lucy Love with Be the Beaver.

Dean: Yeah. Leave it to Beaver. Right.

Dan: Leave it to Beaver. But what was always in the background was this context of the family.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: The honeymooners, you know, Jackie Glass. Yeah. And all of it kind of taught things. I mean, you would, you know, you would see how these people interacted with each other, how they responded to each other, what they ate and, you know, what the. What their daily life looked like. And that was. I'm convinced that that was the main. Educational. Regardless of what they were trying to teach.

Dean: Teach kids in school with television, when you remember, did you always have. Was television already up and running before you were like in the 40s, was it? No, mostly radio. I never had.

Dan: We never had a television, as near as I can remember, until the. I think it was brought into our household for the 1952 presidential election. So that would have been, you know, maybe the summer of 1952. And. And it was a big deal for my parents because they grew up Democrats, you know, blue collar Democrats. And that was the election when they switched. And Eisenhower, you know, I mean, Eisenhower just swept. He just swept. I mean, you could be a lifelong Democrat and you felt great about voting for Eisenhower. I think my parents got it in that.

Dean: Is that the. I like Ike.

Dan: I like Ike. Yeah. And he, you know, he was not a partisan. He didn't have a party. He was a military guy, you know, and. And so after The Second World War. I don't really know what he did between the end of the Second World War and the 1952. So seven years there, I actually don't know what he did. I don't know that. But he wasn't running for any other office during that period of time. So anyway, that's my starting point with television. And then I can. So I was 8 years old.

Dean: Yeah, you remember. Was your. Was radio a big part of.

Dan: Yeah, I grew up with radio. Yeah. So there were, you know, there were series. There was Sky King, that was. And that, that was a radio program that went over to television. And Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, that was a pro radio program that went over to the television. And Amos Andy, that was a radio program over to television. Those are the three I remember. And, and then you had. But what you had is you had network commentary. And I remember two of them. Robert Fulton Stevenson, he would come on every night for about a half hour of commentary on the world. And Gabriel Heater, and Gabriel Heater was a union guy and the sponsoring organization was the Voice of Labor in America. Remember that? My, you know, my dad bond to. He was a farmer, but during the winter he worked at a truck line which was. Trucking was, you know, basically the Teamsters union. And you know, so, so, you know, I was all blue collar. I mean, you know, Northern Ohio was. I mean we had Ford, we had Chrysler, we had GM and the Metropolitan.

Dean: Like what was the big. Was Chicago the.

Dan: No, Cleveland.

Dean: Cleveland was a standalone.

Dan: Yeah, we were, yeah, we were. Did. Yeah, we were right north along Lake Erie and we were just about halfway, halfway between Cleveland on the east and Toledo on the west. And these were big automobile. These were big.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Toledo was the glass capital of the world. They made the safety glass for all the cars. Not just one, you know, not just one manufacturer, but everybody had Libby Owens Ford safety glass in their windows. And then south and east of us was Akron and Akron was the, you know, was the rubber capital of the world. They had Goodrich, they had Goodyear. You know, these were. Is where the Tigers came. So, so that you had this cluster and then Detroit, of course, which was about a two hour drive from where I grew up. Detroit was the wealthiest city in the world in 19. 1954.

Dean: Oh, wow.

Dan: Huh.

Dean: That's interesting. Was. Were you. Do you remember was the Saturday, you know, movies a big thing? You see that in all people reflecting on their childhood, going to the movies every Saturday, that kind of.

Dan: Yeah, I did that. You know, I mean, yeah, I did that Right. You know, right from early. And so you had. I mean, I mean, there were the Cowboys, there was Gene Autry, there was Roy Rogers, there was Haplon Cancer Cassidy, and there was the Lone Ranger. So those were the. You know, and they had, you know, they had cereals. So. Yeah, cereal would go from Saturday to Saturday. And you picked your friends based on which ones you favor, especially Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. I mean, you weren't even handed. You weren't even. You weren't even handed. You were either an Autry fan or you were a Ray Rogers fan.

Dean: Oh, that's interesting. I didn't realize that. Yeah, that's funny.

Dan: I mean, I went. Quite frankly, you know, I don't remember ever being friends with Roy Rogers.

Dean: And to this day, we still don't see eye to eye. That's right.

Dan: No, I mean, there. Yeah, you just don't. You know, you got to pick your teams early in life and, you know, you got to show some loyalty.

Dean: Yeah. Well, how was your two weeks? It's been. We skipped.

Dan: Yeah. Well, I have to say, Dean, I cannot remember a two week period where I was busier than the last two because I had three new workshop starts. In other words, I had the brand new 10 time, you know, and. And I had a brand new free zone, but I also had the. An entirely new lifetime extender. And I created eight new thinking tools for the three workshops.

Dean: Oh, my goodness.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. And I had one, two, three, four, five, six workshops. I had four. In addition to great creating stuff. I had that. And then I. And then I had.

Dean: Were you in Chicago the whole time or both?

Dan: No, no. Chicago since last Saturday. Yeah, I got back yesterday afternoon. No, let me see. I think we went on Sunday because I didn't have a workshop on Monday and I was still scrambling to get, you know, the new work. The new work done, so. And yeah, but it all came out, you know, I mean,

Dean: it always does. It always does.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. Nothing like a deadline.

Dean: I read. I saw a video. I'm not sure whether I mentioned this last time. I remember the doctor, but he had a. It was a video that was talking about AD and ADHD that, you know, describing it not as a attention deficit disorder, but more of an executive function disorder. That the thing of knowing or being able to pay attention to something is different than the ability to get into motion to do the things. So you introduce some really interesting ways of saying things that I've never heard. Like he was talking about how we have. And I particularly relate to this one of time myopia that we only see time, like with nearsightedness about time, that it only appears real in the, you know, approaching.

Dan: That's why every between now and the deadline.

Dean: Yeah, the deadline. That's exactly right. That reminds me of the whole there's a funny infograph or info thing that shows the timeline from when the assignment is made and when it's due, with, you know, 90% of the line represented by, you know, goofing off plenty of time, and then the last 5% being all the work done while crying. You know.

Dan: That. Yeah. Well, the, you know, part of it is, it's that you have highly specialized focus. In other words, I always say that fact finders and follow throughs or people who aren't ad, who aren't ad, can focus on anything at any time. But. But I think people are ad. And then to put that together with Kathy Colby's notion of quick start. Yeah, you only focus when it seems worth it. And, and when you have no margin for time to get it together. In other words, you are down to just absolutely the minimum required time to actually get something done because that triggers hyper focus. And then you go into hyper focus. Huh. And that feels really. Hyper focus. Really feels good.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: But it's got to have a value, a new value that something better than anything you've done before or it's not worth doing.

Dean: And so, you know, one of the things I realized why the things that I think both you and I enjoy the most are things that are synchronous and scheduled in that, you know, the. There's no way to procrastinate or, you

Dan: know, delay a podcast or a workshop, you know.

Dean: Yeah, you create the workshops because you've set up what he describes as external scaffolding. You need. There's no. The, all the interventions required for really behaviorally addressing ADC have to be external. It's not about teaching someone here's what to do, because you could know everything to do. It's. You won't do it. You just, it's. And it's no different than telling a quadriplegic all you need to do is get up and run. Right. You know, that's all that has to happen. But they just don't have the capacity to do it. And that's. It's as real as that. But it's always marked with moral shortcoming, you know, more than anything. And I really felt that when he was talking about it because both, you

Dan: know, do you happen to remember who the doctor was it.

Dean: I'LL definitely find.

Dan: Wasn't that Hollowell was it Heard a

Dean: lot of the things that Ned says re in align with that. But I'd never heard anybody say it the way that punched me in the face like his did you know that just like hit. So, you know, I mean I'll definitely look it up because he was. It was so powerful to me. Changed it real. It made me realize all at once why the thing. Because I think immediately whenever I think about add, I think about you and I. Because you're the closest one I know that has. That has ADD as well. We've talked about it the most and I think about when he said about the external scaffolding that supports what the to get anything done is. I think about your whole life is set up with external scaffolding like that. You schedule. You've got however many podcast series you're doing, those go in the calendar and they're on the. And you're going to show up and be amazing. Right. Because you're a quick start and you've got.

Dan: Well, and the other thing is that the this, you know, the schedule and the structure are totally predictable. What happens within the structure is totally unpredictable. And that's what I like about it. The only unpredictable part of our podcast is what we talk about during a structured hour.

Dean: Yes. I mean it's so. It's very interesting. And I thought about look at the structure of what you have created there. I mean, you've got you. You happen to have more. You embrace it and seek it out in that your entire calendar for a year is laid out structured. You've got structured it. You've got the cadence of I'm writing a book every 90 days and everything. You know, do you think that you could do that without all the external scaffolding that's in place support that. And that's the thing that I realize about the difference perhaps between our outputs or our ability to execute ideas that we have is your willingness to embrace the structure and. And have that right. Because my.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: I look at that and you see just the cadence of. You've got this many workshops that you're doing that are already on the calendar. So, you know, you have to a year ahead.

Dan: You're. It's always 300. It's a moving 360, you know, 365.

Dean: That's a great.

Dan: Yeah. So

Dean: I like that. And that's the thing.

Dan: If I ever laid out for someone I've never. You're the only person I know who has any sense of How. And people say, well, you never know what's going to happen at this time next year. And I said, what day next year?

Dean: And that's the best day. I can tell you. I can tell you exactly Sunday morning, you know, Sunday morning, 11 o', clock,

Dan: today's the 18th of September. And I can tell you exactly what's happening on this day next year. And I can tell you exactly what my schedule.

Dean: I got a pretty good idea that. Fingers crossed. I'll be on the couch. You'll be on your couch. There we are.

Dan: Yeah, yeah. And the reason is because I really love doing unpredictable things. And the only way you can do, do it and not be bothered by the world is that you've created a set of commitments and a set of obligations and you build a team around it and there's a process and I'm totally obedient to that structure, but it's my structure outside, you know, I'm not responding to someone else's structure. I'm responding to my structure.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: You know, and then what that does, it releases me within the actual safety of an hour or safety of a all day workshop and you know, and then I get to just pay attention and respond to what's going on. Just what's happening, you know, with. It's always with other people, you know, it's always with other people that I'm doing it.

Dean: Yeah, yeah, I think that's. I found the Gentleman's name is Dr. Russell Barkley. Barkley, yeah.

Dan: B, A, R, K, L, E, Y. Russell and Barkley.

Dean: Yeah, Russell Barkley.

Dan: I'll remember that because Bill Russell, probably greatest basketball player and Charles Barkley, funniest basketball player ever. There you go. Remember that? Yeah, I'll look him, I'll look him up. Yeah.

Dean: So I thought.

Dan: Yeah, yeah. Well, the thing is, it really sounds, I mean, we've talked the last couple of weeks, last couple podcasts about your new structure with the video recording studio and it seems to me now that you've got an outside structure which totally responds to your, you know, your projects. You tell, I've got a project in hand and I'd like to come in for hours on Tuesday and. But once you enter it, and once you enter that realm, you don't have to do anything except do what you went there to do.

Dean: Agreed. It's like, it's so. Yeah. And that's really, I, it's funny when I've really looked at it, that my ad brain has what has been running the show in terms of my, even my expression Desire my express definition of I know I'm being successful when. Is resistant to that structure. When I say my number one thing is I know I'm being successful and I can wake up every day and say, what would I like to do today? That's the. It's a great. It's a great thing. But it's been a Limiting things. The resistance to the residual. Like you're. Is almost like you're the almost exact opposite of that. I wake up and I know exactly what I'm doing today. And that's to your definition of success because you're not doing something. Nothing's going to get on your calendar that you don't want to do. No, you're 100% in control of your calendar. So you fill your calendar with everything that you want to do. Your highest value things. You wanna. You're in workshops, you're doing podcasts, you're, you know, whatever your free days, you're in at the cottage, you're in Canyon Ranch, you're wherever you want to go.

Dan: But, you know.

Dean: Exactly. So this is like, almost there. The. It's really caused me to kind of revisit my.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: My strategy because I look at it primarily look at my calendar, almost embrace the idea of having nothing but options on my calendar, but there are just a bunch of options with.

Dan: Not that. Yeah, well, you know, the other thing is that I have a rule about something that I had planned, but it's not, you know, so I get into it. Let's say it's a. It's a podcast. Not with you, of course, but another podcast. And I say, you know, this can really be improved. Not this. I'll do it at the next, you know, at the next episode, you know, when it's scheduled in the future. And then I make sure I have a debrief with Vikman after, you know, after the podcast. And I say, okay, I want to do a little experience Transformer here.

Dean: This work.

Dan: But this didn't work. This didn't work. So next time we do a podcast, I want more of what worked and none of what didn't work. And then he makes corrections, you know, and everything. So I. What I am is you never fix things on the spot, right.

Dean: Always plan. You look at it in reflection. You go with Transformer. Really?

Dan: Yeah, yeah. You go with the plan and you, you know, you enter fully in the experience, the way it is, with the knowledge that afterwards you're going to have a debrief and I'll remember it. You know, I'll remember, I don't have to take notes. I'll remember what has to get changed. So these little structures are always improving. They're improving, you know, they're improving and efficiency. And one of the things I'm noticing, for example, I do one of our really successful series is with. I do it with my video manager, Suvi Su. And she's been, you know, and she's been developing herself as a video producer. And, you know, she can handle the cameras and everything like that. And then what she does is she interacts with the program advisors about really great stories, great success stories that coach clients have. And. And she'll just do a zoom interview with them, you know, about the great thing that she's heard they're doing. And then they'll tell the story, and then she'll wrap around it. She'll say, well, can you tell us more about your, you know, how you became an entrepreneur? And then, you know, and if you could just pick three things that's been a, you know, a benefit to you of being in co. Being an entrepreneur, but also being in coach and, you know, and it might be free focus and buffer days, or it might be, you know, just zeroing in on my unique ability or who, not how, or the gap in the game, you know, social. She'll do it. And so what she does with me is she. And this is for most of the last five years is what she does. I just go in. She warms me up, so I'm looking straight into the camera, and she'll take someone. Liner of mind. Like, our eyes only see, our ears only hear what our brain is looking for. Okay, But I've got a lot of these, you know, there's cool quote books, you know, and she'll pick three quotes, and she's just doing it to warm me up, and she'll just hit me with one of my quotes. And. And I gotta put together a new explanation of this in. In a minute or two minutes, you know, like, I have to.

Dean: Yeah, I love that.

Dan: And. And the whole point, I really enjoy the activity. I really enjoy the activity of being put on the spot and come up with a new explanation for it. And I've developed, you know, I've developed a way of saying, well, this is a really great technique for always responding when somebody says something. You know, can you explain this? And you say, well, there's three things you have to consider here. And then I'll say, and this is number one, this is number two, and this number three. And I said, and what Number one means is this. And then what number two means is this. What number three means to this. And then at the end, I wrap the three together on how they create a new thing that's just a structure I've learned how to do.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: So I have no problem. I really like that. I like that. You know, and I've got a clock. I can see the clock. So I'm. I always. And, you know, I tried to hit it in two minutes. You know, it's over two minutes. I got a timer on. I got a timer on the screen so I can, you know, I can see it. And then she says, okay, we have two testimonial interviews with clients. And then she says, it's so and so. And I may have met the person. I may not have met the person. You know, he could be with another coach. And. But the first thing that she has to do is tell me where it is. Okay, where it is. And, you know, and I said, look that up on the map. Okay, so. And she would do it on the spot. Look at that. But the map, you know, it's in Oregon. I said, where? And I've got pretty good geographic. Pretty good geographic knowledge. And she'll say, well, it's a little southwest to southwest of Portland, Oregon. And I say, what's the name of the town? Okay. Yeah. And so it's very important for me to do that. And one of the big things I noticed, huge cultural difference between Canadians and Americans. The difference between Canadians from Americans and Canadians, especially from people who live in the UK is Canada is just as such, this big, huge geography with not very many urban centers. Okay, And. And. But the United States, the first question, I mean, any American will actually, within a matter of minutes, immediate in another American and say, oh, where are you from? Where do you live? And they'll say, you know, I live, you know, I live in. Yeah, I live near Orlando. I say, orlando, where? Whereabouts in Orlando? And they say, well, there's this community. It's called Celebration. Ah, yeah, I know. Celebrate. I got a guy named Dean Jackson, lives in Celebration, you know, and this is the way that we make instant common ground with other Americans. We always want. Or, you know, you know, or you'll say something like that. You know, that something you've told me about Celebration. And I'll bring that up as a topic of discussion. And what it does is immediately establish this common ground.

Dan: And Canadians, Canadians don't do this. Canadians just do not do this. And I tell our salespeople, then one of them will Say, gee, I just really talked to. You know, I just. I had a great call. And I says. And I says, where's he from? He said, oh, he's from the United States. I said, well, that sure narrows it down. And I mean, really. He says, oh, Texas, Oklahoma, I don't know. And I said, well, there's a big difference.

Dean: especially on any Saturday in the fall. Yes.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: And that's another factor, is sports teams, you know, another factor, you know, and everything. But there, you know, in Canada, there's, like, Toronto and then, unfortunately, other places that aren't in Toronto, that aren't Toronto.

Dean: Unfortunate. Other places. Yeah. Oh, that's so funny and true. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. Like, I mean, Canadians, that I say, where do you live? And I'll say, you know, the person will say, well, you know, I live and, you know, I live up. Up near Kleinberg, guys. A Kleinberg guy, right. I said, have you been. Have you been to the. You know, to the McMichael Gallery there?

Dean: Oh.

Dan: And they said, no, I've never been there. I said, oh, yeah, that's a great place. You know, that's a great. You know, that's a great gallery. I said, you ought to walk in there and walk around there. You'll be blown away by the paintings there, you know, and everything like that. Well, it shows the person that I know what, you know, I know where they live and everything. Yeah. But there's just this thing that I noticed that Americans immediately peg other people by geography.

Dean: Yeah. That's pretty interesting, you know, because the more I think about, like, really looking at my growing up in Toronto in the gpa, that. Which is all. I look at that as the one and the same. The whole. We realize now, I appreciate what an ecosystem the GTA is like. The GTA really is Canada, for all intents and purposes. And it's funny that even Vancouver, they would say the same thing about Vancouver, you know, but it's almost like it may as well be two different countries. Really.

Dan: Yeah. And I'm sure Montreal, you know, Montreal would say the same thing, you know, and I mean, those are the three biggies, you know. Yeah. In the country. And they have absolutely zero to do with each other. I mean, there's.

Dean: That's what I mean. Yeah. It's like they may as well be different countries or like siblings that don't really get along or whatever.

Dan: Yeah, yeah. They've solved not getting along by putting large distances between them, you know.

Dean: Yeah. Yeah.

Dan: So back to the. I was just talking about how I prepare for the, you know, and then what I'll do is I'll do a wrap around the interview that she's done and then my comments about what the person said will be spliced in. Okay, so. And I said so. So she, Suvi had been getting high points for the interview. I want to know what the business is. I want to know how long they've been in the program. You know, as I said, the geographic location and then, you know, what are the five, three points that they're talking about? And then I'll just riff it, you know, I'll just rev.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: And you know, talk as if I talk as if I was the one who had done the interview, you know, and then, you know, and if they talk about free days, I've got about, you know, 30 riffs about free days that I can tap into the same thing. But what I have made a change now as I want her to, to send me actually the, to clip out three parts of the interview that she did and send them to me the day before. And then I, you know, with all the other relevant information, person's name, you know, and you know, married, married, children. And then you know, back somewhat of the background and everything else. And then I just look at it and I find then when I get into it, I can do a much better job of showing real understanding of this person and a real grasp of what they're up to and why. This is so important for other coach. You know, this is a really important lesson for other coach entrepreneurs. And we get a high, you know, we get a really high. I mean we've already had, you know, there. This is one of four podcasts I've done that have crossed 2 million. 2 million series. I'm talking about a series here. 2 million independent downloads. So the one with Joe is there. Peter Diamantes is over. And Shannon Waller, the one I do, Shannon Waller, then SUV and mine are very short. Each of them never more than eight minutes. They're eight minute hits, you know, so. But they're really good for marketing to prospects, you know.

Dean: Yes, absolutely. I've just started doing a series of those in the new studio. You know, I can block, I can do, you know, 10 or 12 in a one hour period. Yeah, that are three, you know, three minute sort of. I look at them as, you know, hit songs kind of thing. Like as long as the one song on the radio, three to three and a half minutes. And I've got all these, you know, these topics and it's funny, you Were saying your formula of you know, you've got your three things and that's about what you could do in three minutes. Yeah is it was just funny how I just broke down when I was compare talking about Proctor and Gamble and the things, you know, three lessons that, that I really took the heart from Proctor and Gamble from the book specifically the PNG 99 and I you know they're plan to dominate is the first one. They go into any category without a plan to completely take over the category. They're not going in to dabble in something. They build the very best product from the customer's perspective so they whatever. If it takes more expensive ingredients then you put those in it's the best product possible. And you treat each brand as an independent. You. Yeah and I think 20 billion dollar brand.

Dan: Yeah yeah. I was talking to the head of png. I was Harry Rose and Taylor's I was on the top four of the Bestok and the head, the actual head of the PNG for Canada came in and he was talking about I, you know I was asking him lots of questions. He says yeah, he said I think we have, he said I we have 23 this year that are a billion. Each of them is a billion.

Dean: Yeah and I'm always fascinated by that because they even seem to compete with each other. You know if you think about well

Dan: ahead of each of those things wants to be the overall. I mean, I mean some of them are just that's the end, you know that's going to be their top achievement right. In their PNG life. And generally speaking they don't go someplace else after they've been at P and G. And he mentioned that and he says generally are you know the heads of the brands which are like corporations as you say, like separate corporations. And I said so I asked the guy, I said so for example he didn't, you know but he could become the head of like a company another country. He could be P and G and you know, the UK. But I said he, I, he said why doesn't that happen? And he said because they're totally worn out. They're good for nothing but retirement. Oh wow.

Dean: So they really ride them hard, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah it's kind of like their corporate equivalent.

Dan: I mean all culture, you know, every culture's got its unique way of going about things that really can't be reproduced by some other culture.

Dean: It is interesting, right? Like some certain corporations have developed this aura like a, you know, like a Procter and Gamble, like An IBM, the IBM way, you know, that whole kind of thing. And I think of GE and in the consulting world, totally Apple.

Dan: Yeah, Apple. I mean, Apple, Amazon would be a nice one, you know. Yeah. And they have a very distinct work culture and, you know, the, you know how they hold it, try to hold the organization together as a unique entity and everything. I mean, Coach, we very definitely do, you know, I mean, we actually, it's one of my quarterly books out. It's called the Extraordinary Coach Culture. And we've got, you know, we've got. We have 13 things. But I'm not. That's a little bit too much for a book. So I'm, I'm going to take, I'm going to make 13 down to eight because my books have eight chapters and there's some of them that, there's eight of them that are more important than the five I'm leaving out. So I'll just subordinate the five under the eight somewhere. You know, I'll get.

Dean: Oh, yeah, right.

Dan: Yeah, yeah. So, so anyway, but there's very definitely, I mean, for example, four weeks ago, five weeks ago, the city water main to our building in Toronto broke overnight and we ended up with 3ft of water in our entire basement.

Dean: Oh, man.

Dan: And, and the, that's where our entire tech department is. Okay. That's where all my studios are. That's where all of our knowledge products are in books. You know, I mean, so all the inventory. Yeah, all the inventory there. And we have a really big gym, you know, we have a really big gym for the, you know, down there. And, and so I'm going to tell you two facts about this. One is that we were, I think, at the cottage when it happened. And so Karen Square, who's our person you want, when there's an emergency, because she's totally unflappable. She's just totally an unflappable person. And so she just said, and she said, we got everybody coming in, the insurance been notified, everything. And you know, the city is in. They have their structural engineers in to see, you know, if there's been damage to the structure, you know, the supports for. And the city health is in and we can't be in there because they have to check out, you know, what's in the water. There might be chemicals. You know, it's an old building. It's 100-year-old building. So anyway, and, and so this into the foreseeable future. In September and October, I'm doing my workshops in hotels. You know, we had to. But my first Response to Babs was, I said, well, we're going to get a big whack of money. And my feeling is that we can do a lot of new thinking about the overall design of the downside downstairs. Yeah, that was my first response, and I didn't. And that was my entire involvement. So between the accident and are going back to a completely renovated downstairs, that's the only meeting I'm actually having, because they are. The team is so good at handling this type of thing.

Dean: Yes. That's.

Dan: Wow.

Dean: That's amazing. Which. What hotel have you adopted as the Workshop Hotel? Well.

Dan: Well, what we could get, because it was Tiff. Tiff was.

Dean: Oh, right.

Dan: You know, it was like hotels. Right. We got the X at the. There's a new. I don't know if you're aware, there's a hotel. Yeah, yeah.

Dean: Down close to you. Yeah, yeah.

Dan: And, you know, it's function. I mean, it's functionary. There's nothing special. Nothing special about the hotel. I have a really great architect in, and I think you. I don't know if you've met him, you've seen him because he came to the Free Zone program during the COVID period, so he wouldn't have met him.

Dean: His name is virtual.

Dan: Yeah, his name is Richard Hammond and he's really great. And. And. And I. So I came in and, you know, we both sort of rolled our eyes, you know, when we got. And I said, you know, I never went and I never would want to go, but it gives me a kind of a feeling what things must have been like in the Soviet Union, you know. Oh, boy, oh, boy. And I said, but at least Red Square was red. This has nothing that distinctive here, you know, like. And they had Lennon's. They had Lennon's tomb. And I said, that would have jazzed up the, you know, the fixtures here a little bit. There was something not worthy about it, but. But, you know, it was doable and the hotel staff was good and we had good food and.

Dean: Yes.

Dan: You know, and everything was, you know, everything was in place and, you know, so, you know, so we went out and it was good workshop. So this week I have one, tomorrow I have one, I have one on Tuesday and that. And then, fortunately, we've got about two or three weeks, so they're able to get, you know, some better hotels.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: And, you know, Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons, you know, something like that, you know, as we go. So. So anyway, anyway, it happened. But the thing was, it never would cross my mind that the team can't handle this. Right.

Dean: That's great. That's the good thing about having been surrounded by who's. Yeah.

Dan: Well, not only who's. With a phenomenal amount of years behind them. I mean, we have 40. We have 40 years, you know, we have 50, 50 year olds here who's got 25 years experience in the company.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: So there's still, you know, there's still, you know, they're still really energetic and everything else, but they just have so much understanding of how things are supposed to go and they go that way, but also how things are supposed to go when they. They're, you know, something surprising has happened. So. Yeah, so, yeah, but it's a really interesting discussion and you know, we started this, our podcast today about giving structure to someone who doesn't like being structured. You know, but you got to make a choice. You need structure to be productive, you need structure to be profitable. And therefore, if you don't like other people's structures, you're the one who has to create your own structures.

Dean: Yeah, I get that, like on a visceral level right now. I mean, just. I'll tell you in that, that I told Joe, I sent. Immediately sent the video too, because he found it really hit home kind of thing for him too. So. Yeah, something it explains so much like I say it so like we had the. So much of the. Yeah, so much of my experience of the. So much of that. Imagine if you applied yourself kind of mindset really comes down to that. It's like, you know, imagine if you could just run. I mean, it really, it felt like such a eye opener. Like something like nothing that I've had that kind of eye opening experience in a very long time. So there's something there. I'm currently like on a deep dive into his world. That Russell Barkley.

Dan: Yeah. So I'm going to look him up. You know, I'm going to pick him up right away because that's a different take. I really, you know, I really heard. Yeah, the take. Because you know what I think of, you know, if I look at the part of my life that worked and the part of my life that didn't work, it's where I wasn't taking responsibility for creating my own structures. I was just rebelling against other people's structures.

Dean: Right. Yes, that's exactly it. You know, that's the, that's. And then, you know, I think about how much of a impact Babs has been in your infrastructure to you. Right. Your exoskeleton kind of thing. That's been.

Dan: That's a good. That's actually a good image exoskeleton. That's right. Yeah. But it better be yours.

Dean: Right, Exactly. Yes. That's the thing.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah.

Dean: And. Yeah.

Dan: I mean. And people will say they couldn't possibly live the structured life that I live, you know, because I tell them, you know, I've got, you know, this. From the moment I walk in on a workday, there is a structure there that someone else is managing. And they say, well, how do you put it up with their. And I said, well, they're not managing me with anything except what I've told them to manage me on. You know, it's not. They're not imposing their order on me. They're imposing my order on me.

Dean: Right. That's what I. That's the thing that my whole. My whole I know I'm being successful when thing. If I really. If I. Because I was looking back at them now, are really a. They've been drawing a line around to protect my, My. It's been my resistance to other people's structure. Yeah. On my world without a proactive approach to imposing my own structure on my chosen.

Dan: Yeah. You see, it's almost like, you know, your school reports, you know, kind of like the thing was pointing you in the direction of. It was kind of. I mean, they weren't saying that necessarily to give you permission to do what you wanted out in the world.

Dean: No, but they were.

Dan: They were telling you that there is nobody out there that's going to create the structure for you to apply yourself. I mean, if you read into it, I mean that you don't know what they were intending, but they sent you. They sent you. And mine was, you know, 12 years of report cards has no respect for authority.

Dean: Right.

Dan: And I said, well, you better establish your own authority that you respect, you know.

Dean: Yes.

Dan: And that's really what I've done, you know.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: No television, you know, just here of no television. Because the authority, the authority of my lifetime experience told me you're. You can free up 800 hours a year for other things. So.

Dean: Yeah. So do it.

Dan: But don't sit there watching television and complaining how television is interfering with you getting done what you want to get done. Yeah. And I think it, you know what it is? It's the no complaint life. Really what it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dean: That's a great. There's one of your. There's a book for you.

Dan: I think there's a book there. There's always a book.

Dean: The no complaint life that's it.

Dan: Yeah, yeah. But, you know, it's really interesting because entrepreneurs, period, if they don't have this attitude, are just. It's going to be just constant conflict and tension and being bothered and everything like that, because that's when you choose to be independent in the arena of money making. You have to have a structure that's just as tight and just as, you know, just as if you were working for someone.

Dean: Yeah, that's. And even. Yeah. But, you know, you look at it that the people who've achieved unreasonable success have really helped themselves to a higher standard or work ethic than anybody else they would ever submit to for anybody else.

Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dean: There's no, it's not. It's not a way. Being resistant to the work is not a. Not a bypass for the work. Yeah. The work has to get done. Yeah, yeah.

Dan: Because you said so.

Dean: Yes, that's exactly right.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, well, with a bit of an interruption, this was a fine podcast.

Dean: Absolutely. I always enjoy these so much. So next, it won't be next week.

Dan: Next week because we're going to Chris Ross's premiere in Beverly Hills. Where is.

Dean: Oh, nice. Okay.

Dan: Yeah. So we're flying out on Saturday afternoon. So it'll be the weekend. It'll be the weekend after.

Dean: Perfect. Okay, well, have fun and I will talk to you then.

Dan: Okay, great.

Dean: Bye.