Designing for Industry Transformation

Dean: Welcome to Cloudlandia, Mr. Sullivan.

Dan: Ah, Mr. Jackson.

Dean: Okay. So soon. Well, yeah. It was amazing to see you in person. That was a nice.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: We've spent some mainland time with you and guys.

Dan: Three years.

Dean: Three.

Dan: Three years. Three years. Well, in March it would be. No. February.

Dean: Yeah. It's over. Over. Yeah, that's right. Years. And it's crazy.

Dan: Boulders. Yeah.

Dean: So you should just preface that we were just in Palm beach at the Four Seasons. Palm Beach. I drove down from the Four Seasons, Valhalla, for the Free Zone summit. And what a great few days we had. I mean, that group is just so outstanding and, you know, only in that room combination and just everybody, you know, thinking along the lines of the Free Zone is such a. I mean, just from gavel to gavel, as they say, from the beginning to the end, every minute of it was actionable.

Dan: Well, it sort of gives me more proof and that there's a real difference between our brain and our mind. And, you know, my definition is that our brain is our thinking equipment that we're born with. Mind is how we use our brain to access other people's brain. And, and it's, you know, you could really see the, you know, the huge amount of communication and connection and everything that people had during. Yeah. During the day. But there's got to be rules and structure. It doesn't happen unless there's rules, structure. And, you know, it was interesting. We had the timer there, you know, we had the. Great. And. Except the guy in back would forget to set it, though it happened about three times. And I said, elsa, Nora. He isn't going to remember. He isn't going to remember. So every time you have to go back and you have to let him know to. When to reset it, you know, so. But these five, when we had the panel of five, three hit it right on the nose. And three went about a minute over or two went about a minute over. So it was really good. And it's easier to talk about that subject in 70 minutes than it is in seven minutes.

Dean: Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. And. But I thought they all contributed a different dimension and I think that was good for the audience because so many, you know, no less than the people, for the most part, no less than the panelists. So the panelists, no more. And I said, you know, you gotta make it useful to where they are. Okay. And.

Dean: Right.

Dan: Yeah. And I think that's the chat GPT.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: It's funny because every time I write an email now, I'm got a little PS at the bottom. This was not written with the help of chat GPT.

Dean: Right, right, right. That's so funny.

Dan: It's improved my writing though. It's improved my writing. Okay.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: So I'm writing in such a way that ChatGPT could not have written it. Yeah.

Dean: This is, I was just having a chat this morning with Chris McAllister who you may know.

Dan: Yeah, I know real estate.

Dean: Okay. A real estate broker in Ohio. Yeah. And he was, he's been experimenting with chat. Today was his first day and he had it write some articles for landlords. Just tips, you know, things like there. And he was, he was amazed at how great they really were. And then I tipped him off on the rewrite it in the voice of Ryan Reynolds tip to make it more conversational. And he's like, every one of these are just could definitely send out and add my super signature to it as the, you know, whenever you're ready. Here's some ways I can help you that and I was thinking for anything that is like a, what I call a book report, meaning information is already known and it's gathering research and projecting objective data or objective information that's widely available. That's update perfect use. It's the perfect use for it. But what it doesn't do is it doesn't have access to, you know, your insight and your subjective information or thinking or I call them field reports, your insights and experience in something.

Dan: Yeah, it's really interesting. All my books are written in the second person personal, you know, which starts with the word you know. You already know this and I haven't tried it or I haven't had it tested out but I think it would have a hard, it would have great difficulty with the second person personal, which

Dean: I think is the best way. That's the, that's what we really want to read. It's, that's what makes it engaging is reading. Well, that's the way I write all my emails.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. Well, first of all, you really have to know the reader. In other words, you're making claims about the reader and you have to have unique long term knowledge about the reader, at least who you want to be the reader, you know, who you And I find that when you write this and it doesn't really relate to their experience, then they just, you know, they just stop, they won't read any further. But I'm just looking for a particular, particular type of reader of any of our written communication. You know, it's a successful, talented, ambitious, experienced entrepreneur looking for a jump. He's looking for A job, you know, and everything like that. So the vast majority. Right. The vast majority of what I write would be not interesting to the general public.

Dean: That's a really interesting way you just described that. Like, I'm starting to see having, you know, four, five, six words that describe who the person is that you're looking for. I've been watching Deion Sanders journey taking over the head coaching role of Colorado, and, you know, he's very crystal clear on who he's looking for. He's looking for guys that are fast, tough, disciplined, smart with character. That's his five criteria for somebody to be one of his recruits or who they're looking for on the team. And I think what you just described, that's, you know, what's a five, what's a five star prospect or five star audience for strategic coaches.

Dan: You're, you're positioning in your market. In other words, you're. I'm not looking for the world here. I'm not trying to be useful to the world. I'm just trying to be useful to a particular, you know, to, first of all, totally entrepreneurial. You have to be entrepreneurial, you have to have experience. And you, you're, you're either finishing stage one and you're looking for stage two, or you're finishing stage two and you're looking for stage three, but you're looking for what's, you're looking for what's next, you know, looking for. And you've been suspended. I think usually I used to say the people who joined the program decided to do it a year before they found out about it. And they said, and what? They've come to the conclusion that they need something. They've gotten where they are through their own devices, but now they're looking for something. Now they're looking for something. And they know they need guidance, they need help, they need new knowledge, they need new mindsets, and they're not getting them from any of their existing networks.

Dean: Yes.

Dan: But they had already made the decision. They had already made the decision that I got to find something. They just didn't know what the something was.

Dean: Yeah. And I think you're, I think you're absolutely right. I was fascinated by just everybody that I talked to at Free Zone of just the number of different types of, you know, businesses or the ways people run business. It's such a variety. It's amazing.

Dan: Was as unique as they are as people, you know.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: You know.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. You know. Yeah. What do unique entrepreneurs have in common with each other? Nothing. Either. Either the word unique means something or it doesn't, you know. Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if a psych, a psychologist or sociologist can figure out who you are as an entrepreneur, you're not an entrepreneur.

Dean: Yeah, yeah. But that's, you know, the thing that blends them all together. That's why I mentioned that, you know, part of the longevity or that what makes strategic coach so infinitely interesting for a long period of time is that it's thinking about your thinking.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: It's not. Hey, let me tell you about my thinking. They're not coming to hear about. You're thinking. They're thinking because, you know, you're giving tools for thinking about.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: Our thinking. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. When I first started coaching, there was a legendary motivational speaker, you know, in. In those days. So this would be, you know, 80s, let's say, you know, when I really knew what I was doing. And his name was Jim Rohn. Doing Jim.

Dean: I know Jim. Yeah, of course.

Dan: Yeah. And someone said that they had seen him rate the first year that he went out, and he was now 25, 30 years later. And he said, it's word for word. It's worth what he did. Yeah, the same. And I said. I said, it just shows you there's a place for that.

Dean: Yeah, that is.

Dan: Yes. Yeah.

Dean: That's what I heard somebody talk about. That you can either have the same talk and find a different audience, or you can have the same audience and evolve your talk.

Dan: Yeah. And both work the same way. That there's. Because it depends upon who the audience is.

Dean: Right.

Dan: Yeah, it just depends on the. The audience. And, you know, and, you know, you know, just people are at, you know, totally different places in their personal progress and their personal development, and there's some sort of outside coaching that's probably useful for everybody at every level.

Dean: Yeah, absolutely. That contextually, that's the. That's where we all have a common kind of experience. You know, I've been writing and thinking about our conversation about the VCR formula and the question of, you know, helping people have a conversation together about possible collaborations by just kind of examining the assets that we have uniquely for each of the vision, capability and reach elements.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: And it's really something.

Dan: Dean, is something being crinkled at your end? I'm hearing crinkling sound.

Dean: I don't know. Let's hear.

Dan: Yeah. Not hearing it now, but I was. I was hearing the. Yeah. And I just wonder if it's listening in, that's all.

Dean: Okay. No, I don't think so.

Dan: Sounded like somebody was listening in, but they were, they were unwrapping their burger.

Dean: There we go.

Dan: Yeah. Keep an area. You know, you never know these days.

Dean: I mean, you never know. China is flying, you know, flying balloons over everywhere.

Dan: Well, I feel safe about that particular issue because I, I don't think that the Chinese can steal anything that I do that would do them any good. That would do them any good.

Dean: I was thinking about that same thing. Like, I wonder what is it that they're surveilling? What are they looking for, would you think?

Dan: I think it's probably electronic communication networks. I think that basically they're looking for one is they, they're about 4,000 years old and are largely ignorant of what happens outside of China. They are probably the most insular long term people on the planet who, who just. First of all, they're kind of tone deaf about what constitutes communication. Like they're just basically very tone deaf. And I think that they, they kind of think that if they get all the content, they'll get the context, you know, they'll. And try to get the context of what's going to happen tomorrow in the United States from all the content today. Just leaves you large, just leaves you very confused.

Dean: I can't even imagine. Right. Like you think about, you think you're right. Like that insular view and the even like North Korea for instance, is really locked down. That's pretty. I did hear that tick. There's a difference between TikTok in China and in the United States or the rest of the world in that in China the things that get distributed or get, you know, the algorithm promotes are, you know, kids who are doing things that are notable like, you know, achievements and possible things and all.

Dan: Well, they're totalitarian. I mean, first of all, you have to accept it's a totalitarian country.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: So they're only looking for messages that rev. That reinforce total control.

Dean: Yes, right, right.

Dan: Yeah. And the kids have learned that and they've just, you know, about 20% of them are unemployed and just don't try. They just don't try. And that is a severe threat to the country that they, you know, not involved in the striving to get where they are. So the kids sort of, they sort of figured it out that if they take pictures of me all day, I'm just basically lying down. Yeah. For some reason is, for some reason I can be in any conversation except a conversation with Dean Jackson and it's the only one that Siri interferes with. So I think somebody at Apple is Especially interested in our conversation.

Dean: Yes.

Dan: Yeah, they're especially interesting. Yeah. They're especially interested in our conversations at Apple because they're probably having to interpret what the Chinese are picking up. So Apple is. I think that's probably.

Dean: They're helping in the cahoots. Yeah. I wonder if the. I was thinking about what, you know, it's very.

Dan: Surveilling other people is a really time consuming activity.

Dean: Yeah. I can't even imagine.

Dan: I was just thinking about. Don't you. I have a phrase being myself as a full time job. I mean.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Don't you find that, don't you find that sort of true for you? I just find I don't have enough who I am. Just keeping sort of on top of what I'm up to as a full time job.

Dean: That's exactly it. Plus a full time job. Plus there's still not a five.

Dan: Yeah. I have to have.

Dean: Who's. That's exactly right. I was thinking about what Peter Zion said about like as you're just describing that, what's the current population of China right now?

Dan: Well, it's an approximation because they expect that they themselves don't really have much handle on it, you know. But the number that Peter uses, that the Chinese uses is about 1.3 billion. And they just revised that downward from 1.4 about seven months ago because they did a census and they found that they had over counted by a hundred million. Yeah, they had over counted by 100 million. And that's because they haven't really got good recent statistics. And so that hundred million would actually be people who are younger than 40 years old. Okay. And that's the worst possible. And 70% of them are male or 70% of the miscounts are female. Okay. So that means they're missing about 70 million women who are in childbearing age. And they're getting desperate now. They're creating all sorts of incentive systems for people to have as many children and everything else, but there's no possibility of it happening because everybody's locked in to making money. Everybody, you know, everybody's locked in. And first of all, you don't have the money to have more children. The other thing is you don't have time to have more children. And the other thing is that you don't have the food for more children. I mean, children are expensive. You know, they're really. They're really expensive. So. And he said there's a point where you're gradually losing population and then it happens suddenly. Then there's A real drop. And they're just starting the drop stage right now there.

Dean: Yeah. Because wasn't he saying that their own estimation is by 2100.

Dan: Half the population by 2100. Yeah. So that'd be.

Dean: Do you wonder what a world looks like with half the people? There's a show on TV that used to be called Life After People and it was, you know, a really interesting thing to project and show what, you know, a major city would look like if the people.

Dan: Yeah, well, there is. There is no world without people because we're the ones who were the ones who create the world.

Dean: Yes. And that's kind of.

Dan: There's no nature. I mean, there was no nature until we named it. Just a bunch of stuff, you know. It's just a bunch of stuff, you know.

Dean: And was that you saying, Dan, that we're. That this is like the. I don't know whether it was you or someone else I heard Talking about this 8 billion being the kind of high watermark for the.

Dan: Yeah, the next billion that they announced will be seven. Peter Zion says that too. There's. That's just people dying naturally. No capitalism. No famine. No, no, no disaster. That's just the top. Have different local population. People just. Yeah. Dying, you know, in their 70s or 80s or whatever. That we're very top heavy. It's the most top heavy population in the history of. In the history of history, yeah. Oh, wow.

Dean: And how is that true for the US And Canada?

Dan: No, definitely Canada. Not Canada. And the US could happen to Australia and could happen to New Zealand. Well, Australia is losing population pretty well or they will lose population. And I mean, the US Is probably the most unique because we can turn on the taps any what we want.

Dean: I was going to say with immigration,

Dan: at any given time, at any given time, there's roughly 100 million people who would move to the United States if they could. And. And the Canada's big problem is that it put in severe restrictions who could get into Canada. And you had to have money, you had to have education, had that training. And the problem with it is that they're not really becoming citizens when they come to Canada. They become property owners and they're driving the price of residential real estate through the roof. So it's almost impossible. You know, I mean, you and I, you know, if we were in Toronto today at, you know, when we were in our early 20s, we probably would never be able to buy. Certainly won't be able to buy a house in Toronto. You'd have to go, you know, to Go to Orangeville or you'd have to go to some outlying area. That's the real price in the United States. A lot of low income people come into the country. I mean, everybody's freaked out because the border situation and the illegal immigrants, but a lot of young people are coming in and ultimately that's good for the country if they don't turn criminal. The real problem with the illegal immigration is all the bad people who come across, the drug dealers, the gang members and everything. So the Mexican gangs have pretty well taken over crime in almost every major American city now.

Dean: Is that right? Wow.

Dan: Yeah. The. What's. It's the Mexican or It's. What's that? Ms. 13? Yeah, the Ms. 13. They're from one of the Central American countries and they are really, they're really bad news, you know, and. Yeah, and I've been talking to people who have military background and they said the US Is starting to create a whole special force that would be geared just to the cartel, cartels. And they're basically telling Mexico, if you don't handle the cartel problem in Mexico, we're going to handle the cartel problem in Mexico. Okay. And they'll reach a point where they just focus on the problem and it becomes a hot political issue. And if you're another country, you never want the United States to just give your country its full attention.

Dean: Right, right.

Dan: It's like Canada. Every Canadian, you know, who's slightly anti American. I've been here 50, this is my 52nd year. And they said, you know what I can't stand? The US doesn't even pay any attention to us. And I said, have you ever read any history of the world where the US does pay attention, does pay attention to you?

Dean: I got into a, you know, got into a discussion with a teacher in Canada at a New Year's Eve.

Dan: How'd that happen? What happened? How'd that happen?

Dean: I know, exactly. We were at a New Year's Eve party and she was going on about how Americans are ignorant about Canada, that they don't know anything about Canada.

Dan: I would say that's true.

Dean: Absolutely. And I called her out on it. I said to her, I said, why would they?

Dan: Right.

Dean: Like, why would they. The fact that you're sitting in your position, you know more about the United States because all eyes are on the United States. Right. That's why you know more about them. But I said to them, I said, you know, how many provinces are in Mexico or states do they have that? Who's the president of Guatemala? I started Asking her, does general knowledge about any other country in the world other than the United States and maybe the UK and she had no knowledge. I said, you are just as ignorant about every other country in the world as Americans are about Canada. Why would they know about Canada?

Dan: That's great.

Dean: Yeah. And she was like, I never thought

Dan: of it like that.

Dean: But it's the proximity. Everything. All of our entertainment, all of our news, well, all of our culture, everything has come from the United States, you know.

Dan: Yeah, well, Joe sent me. I don't know if he sent it to you, but he sent, he had shown him that if you go to the top of basically Lake Michigan, okay, you go to Port Huron. Port Huron, you know, Sarnia. Sarnia. And you draw a straight line east, right across, right across Canada. There's a red line. There's that. Which is above, above the red line. And it's like 70% of the Canadian population lives in that parts of Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. 75% of the population. And I said the other. And I sent back to him and I said, well, actually, if you think about it, that 90% of the Canadian population lives within a hundred miles of the U. S. Border. And that goes all the way from Nova Scotia. That goes all the way from Nova Scotia to British Columbia. Okay. It's just exactly, it's just 100 mile ribbon. That's about 3,000, 3,500 miles. And But I said the average American lives about five to 600 miles from Canada. Okay. And so they don't get Canadian tv, they don't get Canadian anything. All Canadians get American tv.

Dean: That's right.

Dan: I mean, I grew up in northern Ohio. I grew up about 40 miles. Well, I would say 45 miles south of the Chatham area, sort of the Chatham, you know, southwest Ontario area. And we got the, we got CBC television, we got, okay.

Dean: Radio.

Dan: Yeah. Like, we got Canadian football. Canadian football. When I was growing up, right. The day had to be right. As far as the antenna goes, pick it up. And so we were close. And I said. And so I knew a lot about Canada, you know, and I was interested. And. But yeah, it's an interesting thing. But what I found, more and more Canadians don't know Canadian history. I mean, my. I think that's absolutely true. My, my team, you know, if I sit down. And I said, you know, do you know, you know, how Canada got formed? And I. And right. And I said, do you know what the most recent province was to Canada? And he said, well, they all came 1867. I said, no, I said one of them came in 1948 and they said which province? I said Newfoundland. Newfoundland.

Dean: Newfoundland, yeah.

Dan: It was British territory. It was a British territory. And you know that there's two essentially Canadian islands that actually belong to France.

Dean: And one of them's off the coast of. One's off the coast of Newfoundland.

Dan: Yeah, two of them. Both of them. And they're just like a department, just French. I mean, it's not like it's a French territory. They're France. I mean they have gendarmes. They have gendarmes there. And you know, it's a probably a half hour flight from St. John's and inland that's where all the really in depth language schools are. You go there because everybody speaks French and it's French. French. It's not, it's not French.

Dean: Right, right, right.

Dan: Yeah, that's all.

Dean: That's big. I love things like that. Like, most people don't realize that the southern most part of Ontario is, you know, further south than 20 or 25% of the United States. Oh. Think about it as like if you just draw that, you know, latitudinal line there, that it's.

Dan: Yeah. Like Chatham, Chatham is probably the southern southernmost. And Chatham, you know, they might as well have palm trees.

Dean: Yeah, right, exactly. But you know, it's the same, it is the same as Napa, like as the wine region. That's why, that's why you know, St. Catherine's Niagara on the lake. That's why they're so conducive to wine growing. They're essentially

Dan: Point Peely island to him. Yeah, yeah.

Dean: And one last, one last little trivia thing is you can drive the distance from Toronto to Florida north and still be in Ontario. I thought that was pretty interesting. Ontario is big. Yeah, very big. But we only think about the, we only think about the two hour ribbon around Toronto as Ontario. That's where all the population is.

Dan: Well, the. Yeah. But it's even further east to west because the. From the Manitoba border.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Cornwall to Kenora, I think that's, it's the same distance from Washington D.C. to Kansas City.

Dean: Oh, that's amazing.

Dan: Yeah, yeah. If you look at the, if you look at the meridians as the meridians come down and you know, it's a little, I mean the meridian isn't the, you know, because they're, the distance are shorter as you go north, but it shows you the distance. Yeah, yeah. And if you've actually driven that either, if you've actually traveled north to the top and I'M not. I'm worried about you.

Dean: Yeah. No, I have not been my car, I've never, I haven't been farther than Muskoka in a car north of Ontario. I've flown, I've been to Ottawa and to Montreal and to city and all that, but never driven north.

Dan: Mine would be Algonquin Park. I've not. Oh, I've driven to Montreal. You know, that's, that's the distance. That's probably the furthest we've ever driven is that we've driven to Montreal, which is a one time. It's a one time experience. You wouldn't want to do it twice. And the. Yeah, it was interesting that we were at the Four Seasons, which apparently course is a Canadian creation. Not anymore. Gates, Bill Gates owns most of the. I think Izzy Sharp still has 10%. I think he bought out the Saudi Prince.

Dean: Okay.

Dan: Prince. And so Bill Gates, you know, owns it. And not a role model for hospitality and service. You know, not exactly. But. But that was my, that's my 30th Four Seasons Hotel that I've stayed in. The one in Palm Beach. Wow. I've stayed in Four Seasons hotels that don't exist. I've got one that hardly anybody stayed in the Four Seasons. Belleville.

Dean: Belleville. Is that a real thing? Okay.

Dan: And what it was, it was a collaboration between the Four Seasons and the Bell Canada. So Bell Canada has a big conference center in, in Belleville or did in those days. And you know, they'd have executives, but they just had motels to where there are people to stay at. And, and Sharp and whoever was in charge of Bell were talking one day and say, would you ever have need for a training. Training hotel? And he talked Izzy Sharp into that. They would, I think they took over an existing property and they, you know, they. For a Season diet, it's. They seasoned it, you know, for seasoned it and everything like that. And so Babs and I were driving back, I think from Ottawa. We were driving and we were on the 401 and I knew about it and I said, you know, there's a. And she was really tired. It was a hot day and the air conditioning had gone off, gone out on her sob. She had a sob. And so we, I said, well, why don't we, you know, it was about 4 o', clock, 5 o'. Clock. And I said, why don't we, why don't we just stop? There was Four Seasons. She had Four Seasons. I said, yeah, they have a training hotel. You know, the restaurant was great and everything Else. And I just said, I just have to go to the restroom. I went to the restroom and I signed. I signed us up to stay overnight. And I came back and I said, here's the key. Here's the key. Yeah. And so I've talked to a lot of people, but nobody had ever stayed at the Four Seasons.

Dean: Bill, that's great. I like that. That's a good.

Dan: The room. Yeah. It must have been like their original motel on Jarvis street, you know, they took over.

Dean: Have you read his book, the Story of the Four Seasons? Yeah. It was really well done.

Dan: Yeah. I like hearing Jarvis street was still the red light district in those states, you know, when they started, that was. You know, that property wasn't known for its overnight guests.

Dean: Hourly rates, only.

Dan: Hourly rates. Yeah.

Dean: Oh, that's so funny.

Dan: Yeah. And even those who. Those who did stay overnight broke it down into six or seven sessions, you know, anyways. Yeah. But the genius of it is he got the Bell Canada, or BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for those of who are not listening from Canada and are ignorant of Canada, that it was. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was right across the street. There's their main radio station in. In Toronto in Canada, actually, their main radio station in Canada. And he convinced them that they should put a studio right in his motel and that it was going to be first class. The motel is going to be first class. And all their guests could stay right there. And then they could just have breakfast and go. They didn't have to walk outside. They could do the recording studio. And so it was Hollywood people and Broadway people and country and western people. And everybody said this is the most amazing motel you've ever been to in your life. And that's where the outside connection, you know, really came from.

Dean: I love that. I don't know what it is, but I really love hospitality kind of stories. Like, I love. I loved reading that book. I love reading about Danny Meyer and I love. Yeah, you know, Chip Conley.

Dan: Danny Meyer is the Union. Union Square he. The restaurant chains, New York City. Chip Connolly. Who's he? I don't. I've heard his name, but I don't.

Dean: So he owns hotels called mostly west coast hotels. And he's a hotelier and, you know, that hospitality type of approach. And I think it's funny that every one of them, you know, you realize the intersection of it all is design is a big part of everything. I think that is, you know, like you look at what the Four Seasons, their approach of starting with the most beautiful canvas, you know, to start with they start with like premier properties and

Dan: I think which they don't know. Yeah, yeah.

Dean: The new Four Seasons in London at 10 Trinity Circle is just beautiful. It's in this you know, amazingly historic building overlooking the King London Tower Bridge

Dan: and

Dean: but it just, everything about that environment is amazing and I think there's something to that you can't have. I don't know whether it's like the vessel for hospitality. Like I would put Strategic Coach definitely has a five star hospitality own to it. Right. When you go into their Chicago or Toronto and everything about the environment, the design, the, you know, the volume of staff and you know, the way you're welcomed and everything. Definitely a five star vibe.

Dan: Thank you. Was that one of the things? I mean I really studied the four seasons was one of my big studies in the 80s, end of the 80s night cross over to the 90s. So we got our first you know, workshop the in 1989 and you know, and I had really studied four companies. One was Four Seasons and that's had a lot of experience during the 80s, 1980 I started staying at Four Seasons Hotels and Babs and I, you know, both of us stayed. The other one was Canyon Ranch which was the role model, it was the industry changer for luxury health spas in the world, you know and you know Babs and I have been stayed there 50 times or so and then Starbucks, you know, especially from packaging and then Apple. So those are my four packaging models benchmark, right? Yeah. And probably Apple has done the best in the technology world of not hassling you. I think, I think probably Apple generally their platform and their, their access is the most hassle free technology platform there is. And, and you know, and Starbucks was, you know, I mean they were the pioneer that introduced so based coffee to North America, United States and you know, and yeah, so they were all, they were all industry transformers. They call for them were industry transformers. But the big thing was the client centeredness, the customers centered their, their model, you know. And I think Starbucks has probably fallen off the most. It's easiest one to reproduce. I mean easiest one to reproduce. And all their competition is people who were trained at Starbucks.

Dean: Yeah, yeah, it's really, I think that's evident. You know now when you look at Strategic Coach through any one of those lenses and you see the impact, you see the influence of it on Strategic Coach. Do you have some sort of conscious, I don't know whether you call it documentation or you know, style guide or a tone thing, how do you communicate that or convey that to maintain Actually,

Dan: because our, you know, and I think this is true for any company that your employees are. The public's. All impressions of your company come from customer contacts with your employees. And so one of the things we got right of the way that, that we would, you know, our attitude to our employees is what we want to pass on to our customers. Okay. So we put all the emphasis on our emphasis. And the first thing is that when you join us, we're going to, together we're going to discover what your unique ability is and we want to know what's unique about you. And you're going to have to do work because we need work done. But as soon as we can, we want to get you into, you know, into a situation where you're doing what you love and you're doing what you're best at and you're in teamwork with other people who are doing the same thing. And that one concept, I think is the cornerstone for everything else, the packaging and everything. And you know, I have, you know, I have sort of a packaging kind of mentality and I've established all the, you know, the type.

Dean: Style guideline.

Dan: Style guide, yeah, you know, the whole graphic thing. I'm the one who established, you know, all that. And you know, and it's the only part of the company that doesn't have to do with my coaching where I'm on it. If I see any breakdown and the use of type or the, you know, something just doesn't look like, just doesn't look like coach, you know.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: And. Yeah, and I'm all over it. And one of the things I'm Interested in the ChatGPT is that we have a lot of existing material that I never see, like emails that go out and, you know, and, you know, printed materials about program materials and everything like that that I don't see. And I'll come across it and it's like, it's from the Department of Motor Vehicles. It's written, you know, hiding the compelling offer somewhere. You know, it's all convincing. It's all convincing argument stuff. It's not compelling offer.

Dean: Right, right.

Dan: Yeah. And we could run it through, you know, we could run it through. I said, if you don't use GPT, everything's going to sound like it comes from Donald Trump. I'm going to run it through the Donald Trump filter. And that was a grabber what Mike started off with, wasn't it?

Dean: That really was. I mean, that helps kind of set the.

Dan: I mean, I was watching the audience, I was watching the Audience.

Dean: Oh, yeah.

Dan: And some were real pleased and a lot were non committal.

Dean: Well, I don't. I think a lot of people were. Didn't realize what was happening. Like, you know, here's this. What Mike Koenigs, what Mike did in his portion of the panel in his seven minutes was action packed. I mean, just showing what the capabilities are. But to show how, you know, he basically took Chat GPT to write an introduction for Babs Smith and to then take that and he created a Donald Trump visual. I forget which place he used for the video showing all the tools that he used to do it, but to create a video of Donald Trump and then have it speak with moving lips and moving things. Introducing Babs. And it was.

Dan: No, it wasn't Babs, it was me.

Dean: Oh, sorry. Right, right, right. You did someone with Babs.

Dan: I had done the original audio with Babs and she said, I write that really creepy. She said, don't let that, don't let anybody else hear that. I find it really. So. No, no way, I tell you, no way. We were going to do it on Babs, I tell you. But I didn't know exactly what Mike was going to do. I didn. The visual part of it that, that some AI program will actually create the face, you know, and.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Everything else. Yeah, yeah. And Mike has got a whole section at a360.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Because I told, basically I told Peter that what he was doing and he says, oh God, I gotta get in touch with him. And you know, he created the mindset scorecard there and we're gonna have to have a little discussion about the use of the mines. I let it pass. You know, he was a 60 point type property, you know, capital P. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, gotta make sure that they have that. It's a Strategic Coach tool. That's the big thing. Yeah, I'll let him use it at a 360. But it's gotta. You can't repackage the logo.

Dean: Yeah, yeah, but I mean, you know, you look at this, that I think that sort of use case wrapping. Like I think we're looking at Chat GPT as, you know, this artificial intelligence that's kind of like the app, you know, the iOS platform. Then now we're going to see different apps layered on top of it. And I could see that as like a, you know, a specific use case, like a scorecard generator that could be a Strategic coach tool, you know, to make that it's programmed in, just guiding you through the output of creating your scorecard, you know.

Dan: Yeah. You know, the thing is that I think that looking for a particular capability is just going to get you bogged down. My feeling is that you actually create a project. You actually create a project. I want something that looks like this now. Now I'm gonna have all of the AI apps bid on my project of what they can do with the project. Because I treat techno, you know, I treat AI like it's a dog. You have to let the dog know who the elf. You have to let the dog know who the alpha is right away. No, we, I mean, we had that discuss, had that discussion and that is, it has to be, it has to be all intention driven. You have to, you know, technology will kill you if you're just trying to find out, you know, what can it do? It'll do you for the rest of your life. That's what it'll do.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: You know, you have to. And you know, and that's the problem with it. It's very powerful, it's very fast. It's got a magical quality to it. You know, if, you know. No, nobody was ever seduced who wasn't looking for sex.

Dean: Oh, that's so funny.

Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're an alcoholic, you don't go into a bar for. To get a glass of water, you know, I'm really thirsty. I'm going to go into the bar and get any milk.

Dean: Have you got any milk? Yeah,

Dan: you know, you know, you don't put yourself in a situation where you know, you can get captured and. Yeah, that's why, that's why I'm still wondering from earlier in our conversation what you were doing at a party where there was a teacher.

Dean: That's.

Dan: I'm still trying.

Dean: That's right. She's the wife of one of my friends. That's what.

Dan: Oh, yeah, okay. I tell you, this is a teacher. This is a teacher killer. This is a school system. I think Chachi GPT is a total educational system killer.

Dean: You imagine with like, yeah, Khan, all the information of Khan Academy, for instance.

Dan: Oh, yeah. Loaded in Khan Academy GPT. Khan Academy GPT. You just replace now and then, then the school system can just return to what it actually is. It's a, it's a body storage. It's a body storage service for, you know, storing your children's bodies for five or six hours a day or it's daycare, five or six hours. You know, and, you know, but, but it's very funny, the Toronto School Board, because you have to, you know, you, if you're going on WI fi. If you're in any school, you have to log on to the WI fi of your, you know, of the school. So they ban chatgpt in any area of the Toronto School Board. Any territory of the Toronto School Board.

Dean: Wow.

Dan: Okay. And I said, well, that's. I said, well, that'll discourage the kids. I mean, that's what. I mean, if they don't want us looking at it, we better not look at it

Dean: out in the open. Yeah.

Dan: Do not look at this dirty picture. Do not look. I said, wow. I said, there's some sort of. There's some sort of marketing campaign. How do you get it into the school system? You ban it.

Dean: Right. Well, that's the. That was the chef about Alice Cooper,

Dan: Barbra Streisand syndrome, you know.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: You know that story, right? Yeah, yeah, I think you told me about it.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: And yeah, yeah. I don't want anyone to see the aerial photograph of my mansion in Malibu. Right. Now. You can create a whole helicopter. You could create a whole helicopter service. People wanting to look down at Barbra Streisand. Yeah. And. But so one of our team members or her husband's a professor at one of the community colleges here in Toronto, and he's kind of tech savvy. So right after the 30th of November, when ChatGPT came out, he. I may have. I may have said this on an earlier call, so I'm just torsing previous learning probably. But he immediately went and did it and he said, this is really terrific. So next class he went in, he said, you have your end of term papers coming in. And I got a request now that you can't get an A unless the paper comes in where you've used Chachi GPT as a companion to write the essay. Yeah, you get a B, but. Get a B, but you can't get a name. And he said, in the meantime, he. He created an app for himself on grading papers based on use of Chat GPT.

Dean: So smart.

Dan: So that shows you two approaches. That shows you two approaches to education.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Which one would you bet on?

Dean: Yeah, embrace it. Right? That one's.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: I watched a video this week of Alex Sarmozi had challenged his team to use AI and these new technologies to replace themselves is to figure out ways to replace themselves with AI.

Dan: That's a great. That's a who. That's a really great. You know what would be useful is the aura's nine verbs.

Dean: Yes, that would be great. I mean, this whole thing, embracing things is so much better. I'VE heard of other people paying thousand dollar bonuses for people who can create something that replaces a portion of their.

Dan: Yeah, yeah. It's really great. And who was it? That was Evan Ryan, you know, who spoke.

Dean: Yes.

Dan: Fifth. He was the fifth speaker.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: And he said he's incentivizing his staff, that the more AI apps you learn, I don't know what the incentives are. He didn't mention money.

Dean: Right.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: Interesting times, Dan.

Dan: Yep. Yep. Yeah, yeah, it's really, it's really super. And I just want to tell you, I, Babs and I both totally enjoyed, you know, our discussions with Luba, you know, and that was, you know, I really went after her Ukrainian story, you know, I just, I just eat that up and it's a remarkable story. 10, 10, 10 children born there, all moved to Oregon. And now that could be Idaho, you know. You know the story about.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: What's going on? Huh?

Dean: No, what's going on?

Dan: Well, there's two parts of Oregon. There's Portland and not Portland.

Dean: Right.

Dan: And. And so I think it's. Eight counties have now had referendums where they said they want to secede from Oregon and join Idaho. Okay. They want to join Idaho.

Dean: Oh, my goodness. Okay.

Dan: And it's legal. It's legal that. That parts of a state with a referendum, properly organized, properly meeting criteria, can secede from a state, providing the state that they want to join approves it. And Idaho is all for it. And I think the reason is that it's a section that goes right to the Pacific Southern. It's EAS and Southern Idaho or Oregon that goes right. And Idaho said, you can't beat it. We got the mountains, we got everything else. And now we've got the Pacific Coast. I mean, this would be really great. I mean, there's nothing but pluses for Idaho here. And they're very productive. I mean, they're all people who actually work for a living, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And. But Idaho would become the third largest geographic state in the lower 48. That's how big. How big it is. But West Virginia got created this way. But West Virginia didn't join anybody that just seceded from Virginia. And. But it has to be approved by Congress and would pass the. It would pass the House right now. And the only question could. Would it pass the Senate? Because it's a simple majority. It just has to be 51 in the Senate. But it'd be really interesting. But, but I think it. When it will have. I think it'll happen. You know, it's one of Those things that, you know, is a bit like Brexit, you know, it's going to happen and anyway, so it's really interesting. Yeah.

Dean: Yeah. Next thing you know, parts of parts of Nebraska are going to want to separate and form further. South Dakota. I saw a. Funny. I saw a thing.

Dan: Yeah, that's like the. That's like the. The only Canadians who were all for Quebec seceding were the Newfoundland. Because they'd be that much. They'd be that much closer to Toronto.

Dean: That's right. No, I saw a map. I saw a map of the United States labeled by people from the UK without the names of the states on it. So they were naming. You know, everybody can recognize Florida and California and, you know, pretty much make your way around the perimeter and stuff. But they were labeling. It was North Dakota, South Dakota, then they had it further South Dakota instead of Nebraska.

Dan: Yeah. It's like the New Yorker. Did you ever see the New Yorker cover how New Yorkers look at the United States?

Dean: Yes, they did. Yes. That's.

Dan: Yeah, There's. There's Newark.

Dean: Old people.

Dan: So they're looking west. Going west, you have, you know, you have 2nd Avenue, 3rd Avenue, 4th Avenue, 5th Avenue, 6th Ave. Yeah. 10th Avenue, the Hudson. And then you have. You have Newark, then you have Chicago, then you have some. You have some Soraya cactus trees. And then you have Hollywood and then China. But it's true. I mean, it's like you're a school teacher. I mean, how much of Toronto do I know? You know, if it's above Davenport. I don't really know what you're talking about. You know, if it's west of Riff, and I don't really know what you're talking about. If it's east of Victoria Park. I don't really know what you're talking about. You know.

Dean: Right.

Dan: It's. Yeah.

Dean: We all have our little bubbles on the mainland that we're familiar with. Yeah.

Dan: And as it should be.

Dean: That's exactly right. And we can all come together here in Cloudlandia.

Dan: Yep. And that's strategic. That's right in the free zone.

Dean: I love it.

Dan: Okay.

Dean: Dan, it was a great conversation. I always enjoy these. I look forward to next week.

Dan: Yep. And it is a week from now. Thanks a lot for going to 11:30. I. I was. We were with Shannon and Bruce and we.

Dean: Oh, nice.

Dan: And they. They couldn't make the breakfast until 10 o', clock, so we just wanted to see if we could. That's great.

Dean: We had. I got my. I got instead of a three Waller hug I got three hugs from one waller in. Yeah. In Palm Beach. So that was. Yeah, you know, a nice compromise.

Dan: All right.

Dean: Okay. Have a great week.

Dan: Okay. Thank you. Bye.

Dean: Thanks. Bye.