January 15, 2025 • 54 mins
What if you could harness the power of AI to revolutionize your approach to agriculture and beyond? Join us on the Poultry Leadership Podcast as we explore this fascinating frontier with Daniel Burrus, a visionary futurist lauded by the New York Times for his inspirational insights. Daniel takes us on a journey from his early days of federal research to his transformative ventures in the business world. He shares how his passion for teaching and critical thinking has fueled his innovative outlook, offering listeners unique perspectives on blending traditional wisdom with cutting-edge technology.
Our discussion moves into the heart of AI advancements, particularly in the realm of agriculture. Learn about the remarkable innovations like infrared sensors and vision systems that are reshaping poultry farming. We tackle the dual nature of AI, recognizing both its transformative potential and the challenges it poses. With practical tips and inspiring examples, Daniel illustrates how AI is not just a tool for automation but a catalyst for personal and professional growth, unlocking new avenues for efficiency and security.
Finally, we delve into strategies for maximizing potential and efficiency in everyday life. Discover how identifying underlying issues and streamlining processes can lead to more direct paths to success. From predictive technology in agriculture to the concept of anticipatory organizations, Daniel offers insights into leveraging technology for a brighter future. This episode closes with a special gesture—an opportunity for engaged listeners to receive a copy of Daniel's influential book, "Anticipatory Organizations," as we aim to inspire and empower through the power of shared knowledge.
https://www.burrus.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielburrus/
Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Commercial Accounts - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brandon Mulnix (00:26):
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I'm your host, brandon Mullnix,and today I've got an
incredible guest for you,someone that changed the way I
thought Over eight years ago.
I met this guy when I was justmowing lawn, listening to an
audiobook, and one of the ideassparked.
And then I reached out to himon LinkedIn and, next thing I
(00:47):
know, a conversation starts.
He's interviewing me for hisblog and we were able to share
an incredible idea with theworld, all because I've got one
of the greatest thinkers, thegreatest guys, that is, a
thought leader.
He's recognized by the New YorkTimes as one of the tech gurus
(01:08):
that is just inspirational toall, and so who I have is Daniel
Burrus, the author of one of myfavorite books, Flash Foresight
, as well as AnticipatoryOrganizations, and today I'm
excited to have Daniel with us.
Daniel, welcome to the podcast.
Daniel Burrus (01:25):
Hey, thank you so much.
What a pleasure.
Brandon Mulnix (01:27):
Man, I can't believe.
You know we talk, it's beeneight years and you know, as we
warmed up for this, there's somuch change in eight years.
Daniel Burrus (01:36):
Oh yeah, hey, there's been a lot of change in
eight months.
Brandon Mulnix (01:41):
Isn't that the truth?
Yeah, Daniel, can you introduceyourself?
I mean I gave some accoladesand I mean I could talk about
you all day long, and I'm goingto include a lot of this also in
the show notes so people canget connected with you.
But tell the audience who'sDaniel Burrus.
Daniel Burrus (01:54):
Yeah, well, thank you for that.
I'll make it pretty fastbecause I want to get get down
to whatever we can do to helppeople out.
You know, I found out years agowhy I was put on the planet,
because I think the two biggestthings is, first of all, you
know the fact that you were bornand, secondly, why am I here?
And I was put on the planet?
(02:16):
To teach.
So, rather than tell you somestatistics, some trends that you
can keep an eye on, what I wantto do is to teach you a
methodology.
So that's for formal, so thatyou can use what we're talking
about well beyond this time thatwe have together.
So, speaking of teaching,that's really where I started
(02:38):
out.
I'll make this kind of quick.
I started out as anundergraduate.
Before getting my degree, Iactually directed federal
research.
I was the first undergraduatein the nation to direct a
federal research grant,amazingly enough, and that was
kind of an interesting thing tohave an office and a secretary.
My professors didn't even havea secretary.
(02:59):
But anyway, that's a longer,more interesting story that we
can get into another time.
But I started out teachingbiology and physics and I did
that for a number of years.
I really loved it, got anEducator of the Year award my
first year because, rather thanteach a subject, I was turning
students into scientists so thatthey could do critical thinking
(03:21):
and problem solving and use newtools to shape a better
tomorrow, which, by the way, isstill a theme with what I try to
do.
I had an idea for an airplanedesign and I decided to build it
one summer, test, flew it andturned out to be a great design.
I ended up with 37 nationallocations in the first year.
(03:41):
That was profitable.
In the first year Started, Ileft education because I liked
making money, but I also waseducating people about a new
kind of plane and new types ofways of flying.
So the educator was still thereand I ended up starting.
Within three years I had fourdifferent businesses in
(04:03):
different areas, all growingfast, and I was about to open up
a West Coast manufacturingplant and I asked a very
important question.
I thought to myself if I'm inmy late 90s looking back at the
professional part of my life andthis is what I did am I happy?
And the answer was no.
So I know immediately I'd haveto sell those companies and, by
(04:27):
the way, the sooner the better.
Why?
Because now, that was not myfuture and it was now becoming
an anchor, because you couldtake a long time to sell a
company or a short amount.
So I sold all of them andstarted many decades ago, what
my main company is today, BurrusResearch, and we research
global innovations in all areasof technology lasers, robots,
(04:51):
genetics, fiber optics,artificial intelligence, neural
networks, all of those kinds ofthings and I've come up with
over the years a way ofseparating what we know will
happen from what might happen.
We'll come back on that in aminute.
So I've written six bestsellingbooks.
(05:11):
You mentioned Flash Foresight,which is New York Times, wall
Street Journal bestseller, ananticipatory organization.
There were four others besidesthat that were done earlier than
that.
Thousands of blogs that I'vewritten, literally, and I do a
lot of consulting.
I'm a strategic advisor, forexample, to the Department of
Defense.
I was on their.
I'm a founder of their futuresgroup, so I work on that end.
(05:34):
But I'm also working withagriculture as well as education
, as well as manufacturing,really just about every industry
.
But before we go any further,one little tidbit I want to give
you.
When I was a young guy and I'mtalking about being in even
before junior high.
(05:55):
You know, seventh grade, sixthgrade, that area.
My parents lived up inWisconsin but I talked them into
putting me on a train andletting me go down to Texas to
visit my grandmother who livedin a little place called
Telephone Texas.
Entering and leaving signs onthe same post, all the young
people were gone.
(06:16):
It was subsistence farming, andboy they were doing it in the
old way.
This was again when I was young.
So I learned how to plow afield with a mule.
I picked cotton by hand.
I've hoed peanuts with a hoe.
By the way, what was the mostimportant thing I learned about
hoeing peanuts?
Carry a file with you.
You got to sharpen the blade.
(06:38):
The sharper that blade is, thefaster you can go the minute it
gets dull, and it will whenyou're going through whole acres
of field.
By the way, we need to sharpenour blade, don't we?
So that was a great metaphorand I learned many through that
time.
So I've been in farming.
I know what it is to farm, togrow, to have animals.
(06:59):
So that's matter of fact.
I'll make one other quickstatement.
And so that's matter of fact.
I'll make one other quickstatement.
If all of the kids in thiscountry could spend a little
time working on a farm, we'dhave a much better country, all
right, and I believe that with100 percent, no question about
it.
So, with all of that said,let's turn our attention to the
(07:22):
future After all.
Hey, that's where we're goingto spend the rest of our life.
Brandon Mulnix (07:27):
You got a good point there.
Daniel Burrus (07:29):
That's where you're going to make the rest of
your money.
Maybe we better be thinkingabout it.
And you know the reason.
A lot of people don't thinkabout the future that much is
because it's always changing.
I mean, we talked about howfast things are changing and wow
, now it's in hyperspeed.
So much change.
It's like why bother?
The minute I come up with aplan, it'll be obsolete.
(07:49):
Anyway, I've come up withsomething that can help all of
you with all of that, becausefailing to plan is planning to
fail.
Let that sink in.
Failing to plan is planning tofail.
You need to have a plan and, ofcourse, building change into
the plan is planning to fail.
You need to have a plan.
And, of course, building changeinto the plan is a good thing
because change will happen.
(08:09):
But this is based on decades ofresearch.
As we look to the future, alltrends are either a hard trend
based on a future fact that willhappen.
By the way, the litmus test onthat is if it can be changed.
It's not a hard trend based ona future fact that will happen.
By the way, the litmus test onthat is if it can be changed.
It's not a hard trend, but ifit can't be changed.
(08:30):
It is.
And what hard trends do is itgives you certainty in an
uncertain world, because itlooks like everything is
uncertain.
Well, actually, that is nottrue at all.
That's just what we think,other than death and taxes.
We think that's it, but that isnot true at all.
That's just what we think,other than death and taxes.
We think that's it, but that isnot reality.
For example, we've got 78million baby boomers in the
United States.
(08:51):
Chronologically, they're goingto get older.
By the way, that's a hard trend.
They're not going to all of asudden get chronologically
younger.
And we're AI.
Maybe you're saying I don'tknow if I like AI.
Well, you can't just stop thattrain.
It's growing at beyondexponential speeds at every
(09:13):
single day.
So that, by the way, anotherhard trend.
And will we have moreregulations on cybersecurity?
Well, yeah, because there'ssome hard trends at play that
government can't ignore, even ifthey seem to be divided.
(09:34):
So when we understand hardtrends and we're about to get
into that a little further withyou what do you have?
Well, again, you have certaintyin an uncertain world, and
strategy based on certainty haslow risk.
On the other end, strategybased on uncertainty has high
risk.
So what I want to do is talkmore about certainty and the
(09:55):
other element of hard trends.
The other really importantthing to understand is you can
see disruption before itdisrupts, turning disruption
into a choice.
You see, I just want you all tohave a choice, because today
you're either going to be thedisruptor or the disrupted.
There is no middle anymore.
You're either the disruptor orthe disrupted.
(10:18):
Actually, let me tell you whatI'd like you all to do, and I
know what you do for a living.
I know the business you're in,I've studied this beforehand and
I've been involved inagriculture quite a bit.
As I said, I would like you tobe a positive disruptor.
Now here's what I mean by that.
Negative disruption isdisruption that happens to you,
(10:40):
and now you've got to crisis,manage and put out fibers.
But does a guy like Jeff Bezos,the CEO of Amazon, does he see
disruption as negative?
No, it's all the people he'sdisrupting.
They see it as negative.
Same thing with Elon Musk heloves disruption because he
creates it.
I want you to be a creator ofpositive disruption.
(11:04):
So how would I define that?
Creating the transformationsthat need to happen to elevate
your relevancy, as well asaccelerate innovation and
profitable underline that wordgrowth and you can do that in
this business of avian flu andall the other things that we're
(11:25):
dealing with.
And, by the way, we're notleaving that off to the side,
and we're not leaving AI,artificial intelligence off to
the side either.
I just wanted to lay out aframework for you all.
So we have hard trends.
There's only one other kind oftrend, and that is a soft trend,
and a soft trend is based onsomething that might happen.
(11:45):
Now, I didn't say it won't, butmight and for sure are two
different things, especiallywhen you're measuring risk.
So an example of a soft trendthat I'd love to point out, and
that is our health care systemin the United States, and that
is the cost of healthcare that'sbeen going up, up, up, up up
(12:07):
for actually several decades.
Every year it's going up, andmost of us think, well, that's a
hard trend, can't stop that.
So all of our efforts arearound how do we pay for the
mess that baby boomers willcreate as they get older?
By the way, that's a hard trend.
(12:27):
So, but if we realize, actually, the rising cost of health care
is a soft trend if you don'tlike it, you could change it,
why we could do quite a bit.
For example, we could put makea blockchain for health care.
Now, for those of us who don'tknow what blockchain is, it is a
(12:55):
way of creating transparency ina non-transparent marketplace.
You can not change it.
In other words, you can havehigh levels of trust and
security.
So what might we do with that?
Well, let's take a look athealthcare.
Did you know that an aspirin ina hospital costs $25?
No, if you knew that, you'dhave your spouse bring it, but
you don't know that.
That's why they can charge that.
(13:15):
Did you know that thatartificial knee you're having
put in because you did too muchkneeling around the farm or
maybe you played too much tenniswhen you had some time off that
artificial knee?
Same price, not the same price.
Same size, same manufacturercan vary in price by close to
100%.
So what if we put all of thaton a blockchain where we could
(13:39):
all see the prices of things?
By the way, competition wouldstart happening.
Prices would indeed come down,and there's already a blockchain
for healthcare.
That's a startup with $100million in first round funding.
So I'm just giving you a quickexample of what could be done.
So there are soft trends andhard trends, and I love them
(14:03):
both.
Why do I love about a hardtrend?
I can see disruption beforedisruption, giving me a choice,
and I can actually identify alot of problems before I have
them, so I can pre-solve themand move forward faster.
What do I love about a softtrend?
If you don't like it, you canchange it.
You can change it.
(14:25):
So I was speaking at ainternational poultry conference
in South America back in 2019.
I don't know if you knew aboutthat or not.
Nope, nope, didn't know aboutthat.
And one of the things I saidback there because we did have
disease back then as well, notjust avian.
(14:45):
There's other types of diseasethat birds get, and they're in
close quarters quite often.
So one of the things that Isaid is, first of all, you could
have now finely tuned.
By the way, you don't have towait for future.
Tech could be done right nowinfrared sensors that are very
(15:05):
specific, so that you couldactually see when a bird is
getting warm.
Oh, there's a red bird, allright, maybe we got to get that
bird out of there.
Why?
Because it's probably got afever.
Another one that you could dois you can sense behavior
changes.
Sick birds behave different andthat, by the way, is a really
easy one.
I know your company already hasvision systems.
(15:28):
The key is what Vision systemsare changing and getting better
all the time.
If you've got an old visionsystem, you know what.
You're not taking advantage ofthe opportunity that's right in
front of you.
The new vision systems you canactually build in, thanks to AI,
that behavior of a healthy birdversus an unhealthy bird, and
you can start to see where thatis and where that's spreading,
(15:52):
so that you can get them outvery quickly.
Also, we've got thecontamination of other types of
birds, especially if you haveflocks outside.
You've got migratory fowl.
You've got other types of birdscoming in.
I mean, we've got to have thiscontained and it can identify
other types of birds, even in anoutdoor setting.
(16:13):
So those are just a couple ofthings that I talked about down
there that we can fully do, andthere is a lot more.
So I have just been going likecrazy since we started.
Let me let you ask me somequestions.
Brandon Mulnix (16:30):
Yeah, I mean you talk about hard trend, soft
trend and let's just throw itout there AI, soft trend or hard
trend?
Daniel Burrus (16:38):
AI is a definite hard trend.
Will you use it?
Oh, that's a soft trend.
You can't predict whetheryou're going to use it or not.
That's totally soft.
But will AI get more powerfulevery month?
Much less every year?
Well, absolutely, and I knowmany of us are thinking well, my
(17:00):
work doesn't require AI.
Let me just put it this way Ifyou're doing anything repetitive
that could be automated and inthe past that would have been
expensive Today, well, it'ssuper cheap.
He just didn't know you couldautomate that redundant task to
increase productivity like we'venever seen before.
(17:21):
We're going to have an increaseof productivity across the
board, by everyone.
Secondly, you don't have to bea programmer and, third, you
don't need a lot of money.
As a matter of fact, some ofthese tools are get this free.
Some of them are $10 or $20 amonth and they're unbelievably
powerful.
So, as a matter of fact, aslong as we're talking about AI,
(17:41):
let's just talk about one of ourfears, and that is oh, it can
do terrible things and, by theway, oh, yes, it can do
absolutely horrific things.
However, it can do unbelievablyamazing things.
I think the people I'm talkingto right now are good people.
Why don't we use AI to doamazingly good things, while we
(18:03):
protect ourselves against thepeople that are doing the
amazingly bad things.
And since I brought the subjectup, let me give you a couple of
tips on protecting yourself.
Because I brought it up, let mejust get into that.
Number one I'd like you to haveand this is personally as well
as for your business I'd likeyou to have a zero trust in
(18:24):
terms of how you approach a textmessage that comes in or an
email that comes in, maybe fromyour bank or from someone I want
you to verify.
I want you I call them backthrough the number that you can
trust, instead of just take itas it is.
Secondly, um, so zero trustwould be really good.
(18:45):
Secondly, you need, um, afamily code word.
Need a family code word.
Need a family code word rightnow.
Need to work this out.
Here's why Because, veryquickly, I could clone your kids
or your grandkids voice.
Matter of fact, they'reprobably on social media.
They've probably been doingsome audio on there.
(19:06):
Very easy to do that, so youmight have a grandson or
daughter call you or a son ordaughter call you say they're in
trouble, they need help, theyneed you to send them some money
, whatever, and it sounds justlike them.
But how do you know?
Well, what's the family codeword?
They don't know it.
It's not them.
So there's some.
By the way, how much does thatcost?
(19:28):
Nothing.
So there's some simple thingsthat we can do to start
protecting ourselves.
On the other hand, as I said, Iwant to focus on the amazing
things that it can do, and letme give you a resource right off
the bat, because if you're notusing AI, somehow, you're really
missing out.
(19:48):
I'll give you some examples ofhow to use it.
It's a hard trend growing fast,and I have, in this last year,
reviewed 1,200 AI tools.
Now you have no time to do that.
Oh, I did Good, I saved you alot of time, and what I did is I
came up with the top five toolsin a number of categories.
(20:09):
By the way, you don't even knowwhat categories this thing can
do, well, good't even know whatcategories this thing can do,
well, good, you should know.
And, by the way, most of thesetools are like I said.
You can try them for free $10,$20 a month.
Do you need to get all of them?
No, find the one or two thatwill do exactly what you need to
have done To get that reportand you can download it for free
(20:31):
.
Go to AISTrategyReportcom.
Aistrategyreportcom, and youcan download it for free, and
I've got tips in there on how touse it, how to protect yourself
.
I've got the case studies ofhow every one of those
categories, of how smallmedium-sized businesses are
(20:51):
using it.
It is amazingly powerful.
As I travel around this isinteresting I'll be talking to a
young, an organization, right,or maybe even a conference, with
many companies in it, and afterI'm finished, this just
happened to me I had a young guycome up and he was in a sales
(21:12):
department and he was only inthe company for about eight
months and he said, man, am Ikilling it?
I'm getting raises beyond theother guys.
I'm killing it.
And I said, well, how are you?
What are you doing?
I'm using AI.
None of these people are usingAI.
God, they're stupid, butthey're smart people, but
they're foolish for not using it.
And I said, well, is yourcompany providing you with that
(21:35):
AI tool?
And he said, no, no, they'rekind of slow in getting it to us
.
But so I just am using ChatGPTmyself, and then I found a
couple of others that I'm usingin it.
Holy cow, is it great for salesand marketing and promotion.
My God, unbelievable.
Well, I talked to anotherexecutive in that same
(21:57):
conference.
He was the CEO and again, thiswas a number of companies within
this audience, because it waswhat?
About 2,000 people in theaudience.
So this CEO said well, I had mybiggest customer text me about
two months ago and you know,when you have a big customer and
(22:19):
you're the CEO, they have yourcell phone number.
You want to know if there's aproblem.
And he texted him and he wasreally unhappy with something
and the CEO told me I was aboutto work out a response and I
thought, hey, wait a minute, whydon't I put in the issue?
I won't use names or anything,but I'll put in the problem and
(22:40):
say I want to have a responsethat converts him back into
being a fan.
And of course, it took 20seconds to write that and he
said it was perfect.
Now he's breaking a rule of mine.
Here's my rule It'll get you80% there fast, but you need to
(23:01):
correct it, you need to check it, you need to add you to it, you
need to humanize it.
Put in that last 20%.
By the way, you're not startingfrom zero Now, you're starting
from 80% on everything.
But he broke my rule.
He said it was so good I didn'tneed to change a word.
So I said it to him and he saidabout 20 minutes later the CEO
(23:25):
didn't text me back.
That company CEO called me,totally happy, solved the
problem.
Now here's what the CEO told me.
This is the important part Iwant you all to remember.
He said I could have done thaton my own, but this is my most
important, biggest customer.
He was mad.
Probably would have taken me acouple of hours before I hit the
(23:47):
send button.
I could have done it.
In this case it took me acouple of minutes and I could
move on to something else and itsolved the problem.
Bingo.
There it is Now on a personallevel, let me give you another
one.
I mentioned this to a guy who'sgot a couple of young kids and
he reads them bedtime stories.
Maybe we've all done that forour kids or our grandkids.
(24:09):
And what he did was he startedthinking aha.
He happened to use chat GPT forthis and he asked the kids what
kind of story would you liketonight?
What kind of characters do youwant?
Who's the bad guy.
What kind of let's describe thebad guy?
What's the good guy?
What do you want?
Then he had chat create thestory and he read that story to
(24:30):
the kids.
Wow, now you see where I'mgoing.
He can use it for anything.
So I was asked when ChatGPTfirst came out.
I was asked will humans bereplaced by AI?
And I very quickly gave him theanswer Humans will be replaced
(24:52):
by humans using AI.
This is not about taking awaythe ability for humans.
We live in a technology world.
You know what?
We live in?
A human world that's based onrelationships.
We are in a human world that isnot changing.
What I want to do is to have uswork better.
A good example I love to give isan oncologist is the kind of
(25:14):
doctor that treats cancerpatients.
All right, and right now, aiknows more than any living
oncologist.
I mean, it has absorbed everysingle person that's ever had
chemo, every single cancersalamate.
It knows everything that's everbeen done on a global level.
No human can keep that top ofmind and know all of that.
(25:37):
Now let's say you know someonethat has cancer.
Heaven forbid, all right.
So let's say you know somebody.
I'm going to give you threechoices.
Choice one a great oncologistwith a great reputation.
Choice number two just AI.
Choice number three a reallygood oncologist that has access
(25:58):
to AI.
Bingo, that is the future.
Let's say, I'm a plumber comingover to fix your pipes.
What am I going to do?
I'm going to have a littlething in my ear that's going to
my phone and it's going to be AIand I'm going to have a little
hat on with a little 8K youcould make it 4K if you want but
a camera so that it can seewhat I'm looking at and it can
(26:22):
actually help me to solve theproblem and fix the pipes and do
things that I, as a young, newplumber, may not even know how
to do.
This is called training in realtime.
Could we use that on the farm?
Could we use Absolutely.
Brandon Mulnix (26:39):
Yeah, absolutely .
Daniel Burrus (26:42):
Yeah, I mean, come on.
So here's your homeworkassignment.
If you haven't used it yet,you're missing the biggest
opportunity that's ever happenedsince you have been alive, and
I don't care how old you are.
This is game-changing.
(27:03):
It's happening now, it'sevolving right in front of you
and it is not expensive, by theway it is.
You know what the cost is thecost of saying no, the cost of
not doing it is really expensivebecause you're starting to lose
your relevance already.
And those competitors becausewe all have competitors don't
assume they're not using it.
(27:24):
The ones that use it are theones that are going to win, so
it can help you to do so much.
Here's another example of a toolthat's in my list of AI
strategy report that you'regoing to download.
I had a friend of mine that didpodcasting, like you do, and
does a lot of speaking, and heneeded surgery on his throat and
(27:46):
they said you're going to soundpretty bad for about a month
and for about another couple ofweeks that you're still going to
be hoarse, but he had to usehis voice.
So he went to 11 Labs one ofthe tools that's in my report
inexpensive tool and made a copyof his voice that he could use
(28:08):
in real time, so he would bespeaking in his garbled voice
and have his clean voice comeout.
By the way, that was impossibletwo years ago.
But my point is, we're doingthings today that were
impossible two years ago and, bythe way, we're going to be
doing things two years from nowthat are impossible today.
That could really help you out.
That's why we need to not beplaying catch up.
(28:31):
That's why we can't rely juston agility.
By the way, agility is reactingquickly after disruption occurs.
It's reacting quickly after aproblem occurs.
You're always behind on it.
It's kind of like playingdefense in sports, and being
agile is good.
You've got to know how to playdefense.
But what I want you to do isuse hard trends and soft trends
(28:54):
to learn how to play offense, tobe able to pre-solve
predictable problems before theyhappen, to use and to feel
confident in playing with AI.
So, to start with, I would getopenaicom, slash chat, gpt and
(29:15):
get an account and spend the $20a month and it'll be the best
point you ever spent to get thepaid version.
You agree with that?
Brandon Mulnix (29:23):
Daniel, I'm absolutely agree with it.
That's where I started, youknow I got.
You know I had some high schoolkids around me which they don't
have to learn it the old way.
They get to start like wayahead where, because they get to
focus on all the newest stuff.
And so they introduced me tochat GPT and I tried it at first
and then, as I developed thispodcast, I used it to create the
(29:45):
name, used it to create thecontent at the beginning, and
then just hey, who should I haveon the podcast?
And it gave me a list of titlesof people, because at that
point it wasn't even connectedto my database.
And then, pretty soon, everysingle tool that I have in
Google has Gemini built into itand we pay for it.
We give licenses to our entireteam now, because if we're not
(30:08):
using it, how can I ever expectthe industry to use it?
Daniel Burrus (30:18):
using it.
How can I ever expect theindustry to use it?
Yep, yep, exactly.
And not all of the tools arecreated equal.
So you know you might want tostart with Gemini from Google.
By the way, gemini 2 is a gamechanger.
That's new right now.
And then, or chat, chat GPT isunbelievable what that can do,
and they do a little bitdifferent things.
Now, to start with, just getone of the other, just get
(30:41):
started.
And, by the way, you saidsomething about the kids being
around some high schoolers.
So here's an opportunity I wantto share with all of you,
whether it's kids or grandkids.
You've always been the teacher,and let's reverse the role.
Why don't you go to one ofthose young kids by the way, the
younger the better.
If the high school kids arebusy, try the elementary school
(31:04):
kids and have them be yourmentor and say look, I need to
get good on this fast and I'mnot sure how it works.
Can you help me?
And you know what they wouldlove to help you?
It works.
Can you help me?
And you know what they wouldlove to help you?
They would just love to helpyou, because you have always
been the teacher for them tohelp you, whoa.
(31:25):
So don't miss that humanopportunity, whether it's a
grandkid or a kid or a neighborkid.
Oh my goodness, how wonderfulwould that be.
Brandon Mulnix (31:37):
Well, daniel, you know you talk about all this
, you know this technology andit requires data.
I mean it requires sensors, itrequires a lot of things to
really provide accurate, good,trustworthy data, because so
many times you know people arewriting numbers on a paper and
handing it up to the manager whothen types it in All of these
(32:00):
repetitive tasks, that honestly,with the power of the tools
that are already available, thatdata can be in the cloud
automatically, instantly.
It's accessible to make greatbusiness decisions.
But let's just talk aboutthinking about problems a
(32:20):
different way.
Okay, because so many peoplethink, man, I got to go from
generation one to generation twoto generation three before I
can get there.
Talk about that problem.
Daniel Burrus (32:32):
Yeah Well, you already know where it's going
because I know you've read mybooks and one of the principles
I have many principles in thebooks, as you know, but one that
I personally love a lot is Icall it the skip it principle,
and the idea is think of yourbiggest problem right now.
Just take a second, think ofyour biggest problem, and here's
what I'd like you to do how doI get a skip it?
(32:53):
Now, there's two different waysof skipping it.
One is to realize whateverproblem you've identified,
that's not it.
There's another one underneaththat is solvable and is the real
problem.
So you've got to bore down andget to the real one.
I mean, you're smart, you wouldhave solved it by now, and I'll
(33:14):
give you a simple example.
I had a niece call me.
She has her first job and shesaid she can't save money.
Name is Hallie.
So Hallie called and said UncleDan, I can't save any money.
I'm trying really hard to savemoney, but I can't save money.
And she knew that it's possiblebecause her older sister,
audrey, can save money likecrazy, but somehow Hallie can't
(33:37):
save money.
She said I'm really trying tosave, I'm really working at it,
but I just can't save any money.
And I said well, hallie, you'reworking on the wrong problem.
You should work at how youspend money.
And once she started working athow she spent money, she found
herself saving money.
See, saving money was not areal problem.
So, again, what's your realproblem?
(33:58):
Secondly, I said there were twoways of skipping.
The other way is skip it alltogether, like I got, to go from
step A to B to C to get to D iswhere I really want to go.
And I said well, why don't wejust see if we can go straight
to D?
I'll give you an example.
I was just a week ago talking toa guy that has been a super
(34:23):
rock star in real estate.
This was out in Boston and hehad developed a really great
motivational speech and he's gota really amazing personal story
and people have heard hismotivational speech and said,
wow, this is killer great speech.
So he wanted since I've giventhousands of speeches and have
(34:45):
done well, he wanted some advice.
And before giving him advice, Isaid well, why don't you tell
me about what's your idealfuture?
Five and 10 years from now?
Tell me your ideal.
And he said well, five and tenyears from now, tell me your
ideal.
And he said well, I'd actuallylike to make a movie about all
of this and what I've done.
And I said well, then why areyou working really hard at
(35:10):
becoming a great motivationalspeaker?
See, he thought he had to dospeaking, then books, do
speaking, then books, this, this, this, this and then maybe a
movie someday.
But today it's easy to gostraight to the movie idea and
(35:30):
skip all those other phases.
I had another guy that had beenin marketing, head of marketing
in a company, and he wanted to.
He left the company and hedecided he wanted to teach
marketing and consult withcompanies on marketing.
So he said so I only have abachelor's degree.
I think I'm going to go back,get a master's degree in
marketing and then startconsulting with companies on
(35:53):
marketing.
And I said well, you've alreadybeen a marketer, you've already
been a C-suite marketing guy,you've got the experience.
You're going to take your timeto go get a degree, thinking
that's going to help you.
By the way, nobody will care ifyou have a master's degree,
they care more about resultsthat you can get.
Ended up skipping getting thedegree.
(36:20):
He ended up doing teaching aswell as that.
He thought he had to do thesethings?
Do you really have to do all ofthis stuff?
There's another thing I want totag onto, though if you don't
mind, it's a little bit of achange.
So the skip it principle wewant to use.
What's the real problem?
Ask why a number of times.
That's how you can get down towhat the real one is.
It's always solvable.
Or look at can I skip italtogether?
(36:41):
Am I doing it the way I alwayshave, because that's the way
we've all done it?
But could AI help me?
Matter of fact, ask AI howcould I skip it and it might be
able to help you out.
I mean, I've publishedthousands of articles.
It already knows a lot of mystuff, so you could even try
that.
The change of subject I'm goingback to something you said
(37:03):
earlier.
You talked about data andsensors.
Let me just get back to that,because that's really important.
Today you can make anythingintelligent, whatever you want.
All you have to do is add somesensors and the ability to
communicate Could be wireless orwired, so sensors can be
(37:23):
extremely inexpensive, evenbiodegradable.
At this point and, by the way,what's the cost of sensors Going
down hard trend?
Been that way a long time.
What's the power of sensors?
Well, going up hard trend, bythe way time.
What's the power of sensors?
Well, going up, hard trend, bythe way.
I've been doing that for a longtime as well, will continue to.
(37:44):
So where do I put sensors?
Better question is what wouldhave more value if it was
intelligent, giving meinformation?
Maybe it's a device that I wantto do predict and prevent,
instead of break fix.
By the way, your companyalready offers that so that I
can predict.
Let me give you an example ofsomething that is still not done
(38:04):
today.
I know that you live up inMichigan.
This time of year gets kind ofcold up that way, and I'll bet
somewhere in your life you'vehad a battery that died on you
in your car.
And they always die at theworst time, when it's really
cold and you don't even want tobe outside of the car, and
that's when it dies.
Isn't that right?
Brandon Mulnix (38:25):
That's absolutely right.
You grew up in Wisconsin.
You guys had such mild wintersover there compared to us.
You know like effect guys.
Daniel Burrus (38:34):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So it would be so easy to put asensor on a battery a car
battery, by the way, it could bea tractor battery, any of the
kind of battery and it couldsend you a text message in
today's world because you don'tneed a whole cell phone.
Actually, a cell phone can bethat small, that's a teeny thing
, and it could send you a textsaying I'm going to die in seven
(38:57):
days.
You a text saying I'm going todie in seven days.
Well, thank you, I'd rather getit ahead of time.
You see what I'm getting at.
Well, you see what I did is Isaid how can I make the battery
intelligent?
Why, well, I'd rather predictand prevent than break fix.
So there's a lot of thingsalready in your operation that
is not intelligent, that youcould make intelligent.
(39:20):
You just got to go around andask yourself the right questions
and, given the technologyadvances we have, let me give
everyone that's listeninganother free resource.
Every year, I publish a list ofthe 25 technology hard trends
that are shaping the future.
Just now put out a new one forthis next year, and if you go,
(39:45):
actually the easiest way to findit is to go to my website,
which is burruscom.
You'll find plenty of otherresources there, but you can
download that 25 Tech Trendsreport and it will show you how
to use it for your planning.
It's not just about thetechnology, because you're
(40:05):
saying, god, I don't have timeto look at 25 trends.
Wait a minute.
These are game changers.
One of them, maybe a combinationof two, could solve your
biggest problem right now thereal one.
Maybe one or two could give youa competitive advantage you
never had before.
Maybe a combination of thesethree could actually help you
(40:28):
deal with the avian flu epidemicbefore they come out with a
vaccine.
You see, I want you to haveyour biggest problem, the real
problem, in mind.
Look through that list with aopportunity, antenna up and you
know what you'll.
You'll find something.
So take a look at that report.
I think you'll find some heavyuse in there.
Brandon Mulnix (40:51):
So you know you, you talk about predicting the
future.
I mean, what are some of thesome of the foresights that
you're talking about when itcomes to agriculture and farming
?
You know we've talked about our, our audience.
You know what are some of thethings you're seeing that could
really help outside of some ofthe things you've already
presented.
Daniel Burrus (41:13):
Well, you know, long ago there was a worry about
family farms going away and Iand I said, well, family farms
is different than families.
That farm, so every employeeyou've got is in the ag business
, it isn't just the owner of thefacility and there's a bright
future for agriculture becausewe do like to eat, us humans,
(41:37):
and we got to have something onthe plate.
And especially if we've beenpaying attention I know you have
we know eggs have got a verygood track record for protein,
as well as chickens for thatmatter, and you know we're on
the right area, we're in thegreat spot, we're in a good zone
.
The key is we need to be ableto deal with problems that we
(42:00):
have in a better way, meaningwhat's the real problem?
And then looking at is theretech that can help us?
Probably, yes, probably yes,tech that you're not even using
today.
And you might think, well, Idon't have a budget for all this
stuff.
That's an assumption.
You're making an assumptionthat may be totally invalid.
(42:21):
A tech may be far lessexpensive than you.
Actually, the expense may benot putting it in.
You could make it back in 12months in savings and then have
the rest be profit.
So we've got to think differentabout expense, about tech and
about how we might deploy it.
But there is a bright futurefor agriculture and there's a
(42:43):
bright future for people inagriculture Because what we've
got is probably one of thebiggest productivity booms in
the history of mankind.
Thanks to AI oh yeah, because itaffects all of us.
Kind thanks to ai oh yeah,because it affects all of us
better ways of cleaning, betterways of doing employee education
(43:09):
.
Whatever issue you're dealingwith, there's ways of making it
better.
Matter of fact, that's one ofthe reasons I am really excited
about the future.
Everything can be better,everything can be made better,
right, great, you see, ifeverything was perfect, the
world wouldn't need you and I.
But actually everything is notthat great.
Good, wonderful.
I love that.
(43:29):
By the way, I want to empowerthat with my people.
I want every employee to havetheir opportunity antenna up.
How could we make this better?
And know that they can speak up, know we want them to speak up,
every single employee,regardless of what they do,
you'd say.
You know, I'd like you toexperiment, try experimenting
with AI, and here's someguidelines.
(43:51):
Again, you could give them thatreport.
That way, they've got actuallysome things to draw from.
Pick one of those things thatyou might find helpful or useful
and again, if you're stuck onsomething, ask a kid.
You need a techno mentor.
I define your techno mentor asa kid.
Brandon Mulnix (44:10):
So, daniel, if I remember right, you're a Harley
guy, right?
Daniel Burrus (44:19):
Yeah, yeah, I've been riding them a long, long
time.
Matter of fact, my firstvehicle was a motorcycle, so
yeah, been a long time.
Brandon Mulnix (44:29):
I love the Harley.
I don't have a Harley, I have aSpyder, so I have the two
wheels in front to help me guide, because for some reason, I
just love that ride.
Daniel Burrus (44:39):
Well, it doesn't matter, You're a, you're out
there and you're a, you knowit's your iron horse.
Brandon Mulnix (44:45):
So a question I like to ask leaders that I I
didn't prep you with, butleaders overcome things
adversity in their lives.
Would you be willing to shareone thing that you've had to
overcome and a little bit ofadvice on how you overcome it?
Daniel Burrus (45:02):
overcame it yeah, I think the um and this would
be going way back before Istarted Burroughs Research.
But I was, uh, thought I wasthinking big about my future,
but I was thinking too small,because there's always a bigger
big.
Now, here's what I mean by that.
Regardless of your last year ofschooling whether it was high
(45:24):
school or college or whatever itmight be when you were
graduating, you were probablythinking big about your future.
But if you think back now tothat point in time in your
history, you realize, oh man, Iwas thinking way too small.
Well, my point is you'rethinking too small today.
(45:45):
There is a bigger big.
So here's the strategy let'sput this in strategic terms,
something that you all can use,rather than just the bigger big
and that is that you want tocome up with your big thinking
and your.
Here's the best strategy I gotright now for our operation or
for what I do, if you're amanager or whatever it is.
(46:07):
There's my best thing.
And then what happens?
Well, that big idea, we startimplementing it and I would say,
right, that's when you stopWhoa, whoa, hold it, hold it.
Let's step back, let's makesure that we're thinking out of
the box a little bit here.
Let's think a little bit bigger.
Let's take a look at thosetools Remember they can change
reality and see if we can comeup with even the bigger big.
(46:29):
Are there some things that wecould skip in that big idea to
get to where we really want togo faster?
Are we heading in the idealdirection?
And it is powerful.
You've got Glacier National Parkin back of you in a picture and
you and I talked a littleearlier because I asked you
about that picture.
I've been to Glacier andactually I turned 30 years old
(46:50):
in Glacier long ago and Iremember thinking to myself I've
got to climb a mountain today.
So I looked at the top of themountain.
That was my goal, that was my.
I was thinking big and Iactually did backwards planning,
which I like.
See, I never planned from thepresent hour.
(47:14):
I planned from the ideal futureback towards the present, so
that I know I'm going in theright direction.
So I looked at the top and Icould see it was a little easier
going that way and this way andI started seeing a route and I
never had to even look all theway down to where my feet were,
because I already had direction.
I just started going.
As I got to a certain height,all of a sudden I realized the
(47:34):
top that I thought was the topwasn't the top.
There was another top, becauseyou can't really see the top
from the bottom.
You think you are, but youactually aren't.
So you have to get to a certainlevel before you can see it.
You see, I want you to come upwith your big idea first, so
that you can actually come upwith the bigger big, because
that's when you can even see itfrom that point.
(47:55):
And here's something I'vediscovered, because you know,
I've started six companies.
Five were profitable in thefirst year, four were national
leaders in the first year.
I've never had a business loanand I started out as a teacher,
which meant I had no money.
So what am I getting at?
And that is that you can makethe impossible possible.
(48:17):
It's you can make theimpossible possible, you and
it's going from the big idea tothe bigger big.
Here's what I've discovered thebigger big is easier.
That big insight for me was tothink bigger about my future and
whatever that means to you.
And I do that again and againand again.
Brandon Mulnix (48:37):
In trying to do that, Well, the world is a much
better place because you thinkbig and you don't settle on big,
because you keep going bigger.
And I really appreciate thefact that you know.
You're a keynote speaker infront of thousands of people and
here you are giving your timeto talk to our farmers.
Daniel Burrus (49:00):
Well, I'm not giving my time.
I'm investing my time in yourfarmers because I think this is
a good investment.
Actually, I think this is anamazing investment.
You know why we need you.
We I'm talking about all of usout here we need you and we need
you to be profitable.
We need you to be thriving.
(49:22):
We need you to create a goodemployment workplace.
We need you to be hiring moreyoung pups.
Why?
Because they know more aboutthese sensors and tools than we
do.
So we need you.
So I'm investing in my futureand your future with this.
And again, as I said in thebeginning, I was put on the
(49:42):
planet to teach, not just totell.
So the key here is you need totake action on something.
So you might want to re-listenor re-watch this podcast.
Take a look through those.
And big lists never get done,and you might already have a big
list of notes just from hearingme.
If you had a chance to write,if you weren't driving or
(50:03):
something.
Here's what I'd say big listsnever get done.
Boil it down to one or twothings that you consider a must
do, because there's a lot ofthings you should do.
You got no time for that.
There's a lot of it's the mustdos, one or two and then make it
happen.
Put it in your calendar, startacting on it and you'll turn
2025 and beyond into far morethan you thought it was going to
(50:27):
be.
Brandon Mulnix (50:28):
Wow, daniel, thank you so much.
I'm going to put all thoselinks you talked about in the
show notes so that way folks caneasily click on, go to your
resources on your website,download those great articles.
You know, I've been followingyou for eight years and you know
(50:49):
, seeing the content that youprovide for free, just because
of your passion and yourwillingness to teach I mean,
that's a college level education, mba program, guys that we got
just by tuning in, just byreaching for change and trying
to grow.
And that's what I love aboutyou as an audience, about
(51:10):
listeners, is the fact thatyou're not here because no one's
making you be here.
You get to be here because youwant to see change in your life.
So, daniel, is there any lastminute things that you want to
see change in your life?
So, daniel, is there any lastminute things that you want to
share?
Daniel Burrus (51:22):
Well, you just said the word grow and in this
plant, animal world we live inand, by the way, we're part of
that it's interesting.
All things that grow change andall things that change grow,
you know, if you kind of thinkabout it.
And there's an old saying youcan't teach an old dog a new
(51:45):
trick.
The good news is, hey, we'renot dogs.
So if you aren't interested inlearning new things, if you
aren't interested in finding out, you know what's the even
better version of you that youcould create for yourself,
you're probably not going tolike the future.
If you don't like change,you're not going to like the
future.
But I would like for all of youto prosper, enjoy the future.
(52:09):
Actually, I'd like us to makechange and disruption our
biggest advantage, from apersonal standpoint and others,
and the way to do that is to notjust be reacting to it after
the fact, but to be anticipatingto it, and there are a lot of
great resources you can downloadfor free on my website.
(52:29):
Also, I'm on LinkedIn.
I've got over a millionfollowers.
Join me there if you'd like.
I share a lot there.
But I also don't want to keepyou from buying a copy of
Anticipatory Organization, mylast book or the other one,
flash Foresight, I mean, hey,they're easy reads, they're good
reads, I think you'd find a lotin there, and I also have a
(52:50):
learning system for individualsthat I keep the price very low
on, where I'm teaching youspecific tools and actually
helping you to do it.
So there's a lot of ways tocontinue your journey forward.
Let's just make sure that we'reshaping a better future for
ourselves and for others, ratherthan passively receiving the
(53:13):
future as it unfolds.
Let's be active shapers.
That's how I'd like to closethat message.
Brandon Mulnix (53:21):
Excellent, and listeners, if you've made it
this far in the podcast, I'mgoing to offer you something
special.
For the five people that reachout to me and tell me what this
podcast meant to you and whatyou learned from this podcast, I
will send you a copy ofDaniel's book anticipatory
organizations, because it meantthe world to me.
(53:43):
It changed the way I thoughtand it helped me in my career
skip problems, think big, onlyto know that I succeeded even
bigger, and so I know that frommy heart, that sometimes it's
just reaching out.
So reach out to me, pleaseshare this podcast with your
(54:07):
friends, your colleagues, yourboss I don't care, because this
is the kind of content that,honestly, will change our
industry for the better.
So thank you again, daniel, Ijust appreciate you.
Daniel Burrus (54:20):
That wonderful offer you're making them.
That makes my heart warm.
So thank you so much.
Brandon Mulnix (54:24):
Excellent and thank you, poultry Leadership,
podcast listeners and you guysall have a great day.
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I'm your host, brandon Mullnix,and today I've got an
incredible guest for you,someone that changed the way I
thought Over eight years ago.
I met this guy when I was justmowing lawn, listening to an
audiobook, and one of the ideassparked.
And then I reached out to himon LinkedIn and, next thing I
(00:47):
know, a conversation starts.
He's interviewing me for hisblog and we were able to share
an incredible idea with theworld, all because I've got one
of the greatest thinkers, thegreatest guys, that is, a
thought leader.
He's recognized by the New YorkTimes as one of the tech gurus
(01:08):
that is just inspirational toall, and so who I have is Daniel
Burrus, the author of one of myfavorite books, Flash Foresight
, as well as AnticipatoryOrganizations, and today I'm
excited to have Daniel with us.
Daniel, welcome to the podcast.
Daniel Burrus (01:25):
Hey, thank you so much.
What a pleasure.
Brandon Mulnix (01:27):
Man, I can't believe.
You know we talk, it's beeneight years and you know, as we
warmed up for this, there's somuch change in eight years.
Daniel Burrus (01:36):
Oh yeah, hey, there's been a lot of change in
eight months.
Brandon Mulnix (01:41):
Isn't that the truth?
Yeah, Daniel, can you introduceyourself?
I mean I gave some accoladesand I mean I could talk about
you all day long, and I'm goingto include a lot of this also in
the show notes so people canget connected with you.
But tell the audience who'sDaniel Burrus.
Daniel Burrus (01:54):
Yeah, well, thank you for that.
I'll make it pretty fastbecause I want to get get down
to whatever we can do to helppeople out.
You know, I found out years agowhy I was put on the planet,
because I think the two biggestthings is, first of all, you
know the fact that you were bornand, secondly, why am I here?
And I was put on the planet?
(02:16):
To teach.
So, rather than tell you somestatistics, some trends that you
can keep an eye on, what I wantto do is to teach you a
methodology.
So that's for formal, so thatyou can use what we're talking
about well beyond this time thatwe have together.
So, speaking of teaching,that's really where I started
(02:38):
out.
I'll make this kind of quick.
I started out as anundergraduate.
Before getting my degree, Iactually directed federal
research.
I was the first undergraduatein the nation to direct a
federal research grant,amazingly enough, and that was
kind of an interesting thing tohave an office and a secretary.
My professors didn't even havea secretary.
(02:59):
But anyway, that's a longer,more interesting story that we
can get into another time.
But I started out teachingbiology and physics and I did
that for a number of years.
I really loved it, got anEducator of the Year award my
first year because, rather thanteach a subject, I was turning
students into scientists so thatthey could do critical thinking
(03:21):
and problem solving and use newtools to shape a better
tomorrow, which, by the way, isstill a theme with what I try to
do.
I had an idea for an airplanedesign and I decided to build it
one summer, test, flew it andturned out to be a great design.
I ended up with 37 nationallocations in the first year.
(03:41):
That was profitable.
In the first year Started, Ileft education because I liked
making money, but I also waseducating people about a new
kind of plane and new types ofways of flying.
So the educator was still thereand I ended up starting.
Within three years I had fourdifferent businesses in
(04:03):
different areas, all growingfast, and I was about to open up
a West Coast manufacturingplant and I asked a very
important question.
I thought to myself if I'm inmy late 90s looking back at the
professional part of my life andthis is what I did am I happy?
And the answer was no.
So I know immediately I'd haveto sell those companies and, by
(04:27):
the way, the sooner the better.
Why?
Because now, that was not myfuture and it was now becoming
an anchor, because you couldtake a long time to sell a
company or a short amount.
So I sold all of them andstarted many decades ago, what
my main company is today, BurrusResearch, and we research
global innovations in all areasof technology lasers, robots,
(04:51):
genetics, fiber optics,artificial intelligence, neural
networks, all of those kinds ofthings and I've come up with
over the years a way ofseparating what we know will
happen from what might happen.
We'll come back on that in aminute.
So I've written six bestsellingbooks.
(05:11):
You mentioned Flash Foresight,which is New York Times, wall
Street Journal bestseller, ananticipatory organization.
There were four others besidesthat that were done earlier than
that.
Thousands of blogs that I'vewritten, literally, and I do a
lot of consulting.
I'm a strategic advisor, forexample, to the Department of
Defense.
I was on their.
I'm a founder of their futuresgroup, so I work on that end.
(05:34):
But I'm also working withagriculture as well as education
, as well as manufacturing,really just about every industry
.
But before we go any further,one little tidbit I want to give
you.
When I was a young guy and I'mtalking about being in even
before junior high.
(05:55):
You know, seventh grade, sixthgrade, that area.
My parents lived up inWisconsin but I talked them into
putting me on a train andletting me go down to Texas to
visit my grandmother who livedin a little place called
Telephone Texas.
Entering and leaving signs onthe same post, all the young
people were gone.
(06:16):
It was subsistence farming, andboy they were doing it in the
old way.
This was again when I was young.
So I learned how to plow afield with a mule.
I picked cotton by hand.
I've hoed peanuts with a hoe.
By the way, what was the mostimportant thing I learned about
hoeing peanuts?
Carry a file with you.
You got to sharpen the blade.
(06:38):
The sharper that blade is, thefaster you can go the minute it
gets dull, and it will whenyou're going through whole acres
of field.
By the way, we need to sharpenour blade, don't we?
So that was a great metaphorand I learned many through that
time.
So I've been in farming.
I know what it is to farm, togrow, to have animals.
(06:59):
So that's matter of fact.
I'll make one other quickstatement.
And so that's matter of fact.
I'll make one other quickstatement.
If all of the kids in thiscountry could spend a little
time working on a farm, we'dhave a much better country, all
right, and I believe that with100 percent, no question about
it.
So, with all of that said,let's turn our attention to the
(07:22):
future After all.
Hey, that's where we're goingto spend the rest of our life.
Brandon Mulnix (07:27):
You got a good point there.
Daniel Burrus (07:29):
That's where you're going to make the rest of
your money.
Maybe we better be thinkingabout it.
And you know the reason.
A lot of people don't thinkabout the future that much is
because it's always changing.
I mean, we talked about howfast things are changing and wow
, now it's in hyperspeed.
So much change.
It's like why bother?
The minute I come up with aplan, it'll be obsolete.
(07:49):
Anyway, I've come up withsomething that can help all of
you with all of that, becausefailing to plan is planning to
fail.
Let that sink in.
Failing to plan is planning tofail.
You need to have a plan and, ofcourse, building change into
the plan is planning to fail.
You need to have a plan.
And, of course, building changeinto the plan is a good thing
because change will happen.
(08:09):
But this is based on decades ofresearch.
As we look to the future, alltrends are either a hard trend
based on a future fact that willhappen.
By the way, the litmus test onthat is if it can be changed.
It's not a hard trend based ona future fact that will happen.
By the way, the litmus test onthat is if it can be changed.
It's not a hard trend, but ifit can't be changed.
(08:30):
It is.
And what hard trends do is itgives you certainty in an
uncertain world, because itlooks like everything is
uncertain.
Well, actually, that is nottrue at all.
That's just what we think,other than death and taxes.
We think that's it, but that isnot true at all.
That's just what we think,other than death and taxes.
We think that's it, but that isnot reality.
For example, we've got 78million baby boomers in the
United States.
(08:51):
Chronologically, they're goingto get older.
By the way, that's a hard trend.
They're not going to all of asudden get chronologically
younger.
And we're AI.
Maybe you're saying I don'tknow if I like AI.
Well, you can't just stop thattrain.
It's growing at beyondexponential speeds at every
(09:13):
single day.
So that, by the way, anotherhard trend.
And will we have moreregulations on cybersecurity?
Well, yeah, because there'ssome hard trends at play that
government can't ignore, even ifthey seem to be divided.
(09:34):
So when we understand hardtrends and we're about to get
into that a little further withyou what do you have?
Well, again, you have certaintyin an uncertain world, and
strategy based on certainty haslow risk.
On the other end, strategybased on uncertainty has high
risk.
So what I want to do is talkmore about certainty and the
(09:55):
other element of hard trends.
The other really importantthing to understand is you can
see disruption before itdisrupts, turning disruption
into a choice.
You see, I just want you all tohave a choice, because today
you're either going to be thedisruptor or the disrupted.
There is no middle anymore.
You're either the disruptor orthe disrupted.
(10:18):
Actually, let me tell you whatI'd like you all to do, and I
know what you do for a living.
I know the business you're in,I've studied this beforehand and
I've been involved inagriculture quite a bit.
As I said, I would like you tobe a positive disruptor.
Now here's what I mean by that.
Negative disruption isdisruption that happens to you,
(10:40):
and now you've got to crisis,manage and put out fibers.
But does a guy like Jeff Bezos,the CEO of Amazon, does he see
disruption as negative?
No, it's all the people he'sdisrupting.
They see it as negative.
Same thing with Elon Musk heloves disruption because he
creates it.
I want you to be a creator ofpositive disruption.
(11:04):
So how would I define that?
Creating the transformationsthat need to happen to elevate
your relevancy, as well asaccelerate innovation and
profitable underline that wordgrowth and you can do that in
this business of avian flu andall the other things that we're
(11:25):
dealing with.
And, by the way, we're notleaving that off to the side,
and we're not leaving AI,artificial intelligence off to
the side either.
I just wanted to lay out aframework for you all.
So we have hard trends.
There's only one other kind oftrend, and that is a soft trend,
and a soft trend is based onsomething that might happen.
(11:45):
Now, I didn't say it won't, butmight and for sure are two
different things, especiallywhen you're measuring risk.
So an example of a soft trendthat I'd love to point out, and
that is our health care systemin the United States, and that
is the cost of healthcare that'sbeen going up, up, up, up up
(12:07):
for actually several decades.
Every year it's going up, andmost of us think, well, that's a
hard trend, can't stop that.
So all of our efforts arearound how do we pay for the
mess that baby boomers willcreate as they get older?
By the way, that's a hard trend.
(12:27):
So, but if we realize, actually, the rising cost of health care
is a soft trend if you don'tlike it, you could change it,
why we could do quite a bit.
For example, we could put makea blockchain for health care.
Now, for those of us who don'tknow what blockchain is, it is a
(12:55):
way of creating transparency ina non-transparent marketplace.
You can not change it.
In other words, you can havehigh levels of trust and
security.
So what might we do with that?
Well, let's take a look athealthcare.
Did you know that an aspirin ina hospital costs $25?
No, if you knew that, you'dhave your spouse bring it, but
you don't know that.
That's why they can charge that.
(13:15):
Did you know that thatartificial knee you're having
put in because you did too muchkneeling around the farm or
maybe you played too much tenniswhen you had some time off that
artificial knee?
Same price, not the same price.
Same size, same manufacturercan vary in price by close to
100%.
So what if we put all of thaton a blockchain where we could
(13:39):
all see the prices of things?
By the way, competition wouldstart happening.
Prices would indeed come down,and there's already a blockchain
for healthcare.
That's a startup with $100million in first round funding.
So I'm just giving you a quickexample of what could be done.
So there are soft trends andhard trends, and I love them
(14:03):
both.
Why do I love about a hardtrend?
I can see disruption beforedisruption, giving me a choice,
and I can actually identify alot of problems before I have
them, so I can pre-solve themand move forward faster.
What do I love about a softtrend?
If you don't like it, you canchange it.
You can change it.
(14:25):
So I was speaking at ainternational poultry conference
in South America back in 2019.
I don't know if you knew aboutthat or not.
Nope, nope, didn't know aboutthat.
And one of the things I saidback there because we did have
disease back then as well, notjust avian.
(14:45):
There's other types of diseasethat birds get, and they're in
close quarters quite often.
So one of the things that Isaid is, first of all, you could
have now finely tuned.
By the way, you don't have towait for future.
Tech could be done right nowinfrared sensors that are very
(15:05):
specific, so that you couldactually see when a bird is
getting warm.
Oh, there's a red bird, allright, maybe we got to get that
bird out of there.
Why?
Because it's probably got afever.
Another one that you could dois you can sense behavior
changes.
Sick birds behave different andthat, by the way, is a really
easy one.
I know your company already hasvision systems.
(15:28):
The key is what Vision systemsare changing and getting better
all the time.
If you've got an old visionsystem, you know what.
You're not taking advantage ofthe opportunity that's right in
front of you.
The new vision systems you canactually build in, thanks to AI,
that behavior of a healthy birdversus an unhealthy bird, and
you can start to see where thatis and where that's spreading,
(15:52):
so that you can get them outvery quickly.
Also, we've got thecontamination of other types of
birds, especially if you haveflocks outside.
You've got migratory fowl.
You've got other types of birdscoming in.
I mean, we've got to have thiscontained and it can identify
other types of birds, even in anoutdoor setting.
(16:13):
So those are just a couple ofthings that I talked about down
there that we can fully do, andthere is a lot more.
So I have just been going likecrazy since we started.
Let me let you ask me somequestions.
Brandon Mulnix (16:30):
Yeah, I mean you talk about hard trend, soft
trend and let's just throw itout there AI, soft trend or hard
trend?
Daniel Burrus (16:38):
AI is a definite hard trend.
Will you use it?
Oh, that's a soft trend.
You can't predict whetheryou're going to use it or not.
That's totally soft.
But will AI get more powerfulevery month?
Much less every year?
Well, absolutely, and I knowmany of us are thinking well, my
(17:00):
work doesn't require AI.
Let me just put it this way Ifyou're doing anything repetitive
that could be automated and inthe past that would have been
expensive Today, well, it'ssuper cheap.
He just didn't know you couldautomate that redundant task to
increase productivity like we'venever seen before.
(17:21):
We're going to have an increaseof productivity across the
board, by everyone.
Secondly, you don't have to bea programmer and, third, you
don't need a lot of money.
As a matter of fact, some ofthese tools are get this free.
Some of them are $10 or $20 amonth and they're unbelievably
powerful.
So, as a matter of fact, aslong as we're talking about AI,
(17:41):
let's just talk about one of ourfears, and that is oh, it can
do terrible things and, by theway, oh, yes, it can do
absolutely horrific things.
However, it can do unbelievablyamazing things.
I think the people I'm talkingto right now are good people.
Why don't we use AI to doamazingly good things, while we
(18:03):
protect ourselves against thepeople that are doing the
amazingly bad things.
And since I brought the subjectup, let me give you a couple of
tips on protecting yourself.
Because I brought it up, let mejust get into that.
Number one I'd like you to haveand this is personally as well
as for your business I'd likeyou to have a zero trust in
(18:24):
terms of how you approach a textmessage that comes in or an
email that comes in, maybe fromyour bank or from someone I want
you to verify.
I want you I call them backthrough the number that you can
trust, instead of just take itas it is.
Secondly, um, so zero trustwould be really good.
(18:45):
Secondly, you need, um, afamily code word.
Need a family code word.
Need a family code word rightnow.
Need to work this out.
Here's why Because, veryquickly, I could clone your kids
or your grandkids voice.
Matter of fact, they'reprobably on social media.
They've probably been doingsome audio on there.
(19:06):
Very easy to do that, so youmight have a grandson or
daughter call you or a son ordaughter call you say they're in
trouble, they need help, theyneed you to send them some money
, whatever, and it sounds justlike them.
But how do you know?
Well, what's the family codeword?
They don't know it.
It's not them.
So there's some.
By the way, how much does thatcost?
(19:28):
Nothing.
So there's some simple thingsthat we can do to start
protecting ourselves.
On the other hand, as I said, Iwant to focus on the amazing
things that it can do, and letme give you a resource right off
the bat, because if you're notusing AI, somehow, you're really
missing out.
(19:48):
I'll give you some examples ofhow to use it.
It's a hard trend growing fast,and I have, in this last year,
reviewed 1,200 AI tools.
Now you have no time to do that.
Oh, I did Good, I saved you alot of time, and what I did is I
came up with the top five toolsin a number of categories.
(20:09):
By the way, you don't even knowwhat categories this thing can
do, well, good't even know whatcategories this thing can do,
well, good, you should know.
And, by the way, most of thesetools are like I said.
You can try them for free $10,$20 a month.
Do you need to get all of them?
No, find the one or two thatwill do exactly what you need to
have done To get that reportand you can download it for free
(20:31):
.
Go to AISTrategyReportcom.
Aistrategyreportcom, and youcan download it for free, and
I've got tips in there on how touse it, how to protect yourself
.
I've got the case studies ofhow every one of those
categories, of how smallmedium-sized businesses are
(20:51):
using it.
It is amazingly powerful.
As I travel around this isinteresting I'll be talking to a
young, an organization, right,or maybe even a conference, with
many companies in it, and afterI'm finished, this just
happened to me I had a young guycome up and he was in a sales
(21:12):
department and he was only inthe company for about eight
months and he said, man, am Ikilling it?
I'm getting raises beyond theother guys.
I'm killing it.
And I said, well, how are you?
What are you doing?
I'm using AI.
None of these people are usingAI.
God, they're stupid, butthey're smart people, but
they're foolish for not using it.
And I said, well, is yourcompany providing you with that
(21:35):
AI tool?
And he said, no, no, they'rekind of slow in getting it to us
.
But so I just am using ChatGPTmyself, and then I found a
couple of others that I'm usingin it.
Holy cow, is it great for salesand marketing and promotion.
My God, unbelievable.
Well, I talked to anotherexecutive in that same
(21:57):
conference.
He was the CEO and again, thiswas a number of companies within
this audience, because it waswhat?
About 2,000 people in theaudience.
So this CEO said well, I had mybiggest customer text me about
two months ago and you know,when you have a big customer and
(22:19):
you're the CEO, they have yourcell phone number.
You want to know if there's aproblem.
And he texted him and he wasreally unhappy with something
and the CEO told me I was aboutto work out a response and I
thought, hey, wait a minute, whydon't I put in the issue?
I won't use names or anything,but I'll put in the problem and
(22:40):
say I want to have a responsethat converts him back into
being a fan.
And of course, it took 20seconds to write that and he
said it was perfect.
Now he's breaking a rule of mine.
Here's my rule It'll get you80% there fast, but you need to
(23:01):
correct it, you need to check it, you need to add you to it, you
need to humanize it.
Put in that last 20%.
By the way, you're not startingfrom zero Now, you're starting
from 80% on everything.
But he broke my rule.
He said it was so good I didn'tneed to change a word.
So I said it to him and he saidabout 20 minutes later the CEO
(23:25):
didn't text me back.
That company CEO called me,totally happy, solved the
problem.
Now here's what the CEO told me.
This is the important part Iwant you all to remember.
He said I could have done thaton my own, but this is my most
important, biggest customer.
He was mad.
Probably would have taken me acouple of hours before I hit the
(23:47):
send button.
I could have done it.
In this case it took me acouple of minutes and I could
move on to something else and itsolved the problem.
Bingo.
There it is Now on a personallevel, let me give you another
one.
I mentioned this to a guy who'sgot a couple of young kids and
he reads them bedtime stories.
Maybe we've all done that forour kids or our grandkids.
(24:09):
And what he did was he startedthinking aha.
He happened to use chat GPT forthis and he asked the kids what
kind of story would you liketonight?
What kind of characters do youwant?
Who's the bad guy.
What kind of let's describe thebad guy?
What's the good guy?
What do you want?
Then he had chat create thestory and he read that story to
(24:30):
the kids.
Wow, now you see where I'mgoing.
He can use it for anything.
So I was asked when ChatGPTfirst came out.
I was asked will humans bereplaced by AI?
And I very quickly gave him theanswer Humans will be replaced
(24:52):
by humans using AI.
This is not about taking awaythe ability for humans.
We live in a technology world.
You know what?
We live in?
A human world that's based onrelationships.
We are in a human world that isnot changing.
What I want to do is to have uswork better.
A good example I love to give isan oncologist is the kind of
(25:14):
doctor that treats cancerpatients.
All right, and right now, aiknows more than any living
oncologist.
I mean, it has absorbed everysingle person that's ever had
chemo, every single cancersalamate.
It knows everything that's everbeen done on a global level.
No human can keep that top ofmind and know all of that.
(25:37):
Now let's say you know someonethat has cancer.
Heaven forbid, all right.
So let's say you know somebody.
I'm going to give you threechoices.
Choice one a great oncologistwith a great reputation.
Choice number two just AI.
Choice number three a reallygood oncologist that has access
(25:58):
to AI.
Bingo, that is the future.
Let's say, I'm a plumber comingover to fix your pipes.
What am I going to do?
I'm going to have a littlething in my ear that's going to
my phone and it's going to be AIand I'm going to have a little
hat on with a little 8K youcould make it 4K if you want but
a camera so that it can seewhat I'm looking at and it can
(26:22):
actually help me to solve theproblem and fix the pipes and do
things that I, as a young, newplumber, may not even know how
to do.
This is called training in realtime.
Could we use that on the farm?
Could we use Absolutely.
Brandon Mulnix (26:39):
Yeah, absolutely .
Daniel Burrus (26:42):
Yeah, I mean, come on.
So here's your homeworkassignment.
If you haven't used it yet,you're missing the biggest
opportunity that's ever happenedsince you have been alive, and
I don't care how old you are.
This is game-changing.
(27:03):
It's happening now, it'sevolving right in front of you
and it is not expensive, by theway it is.
You know what the cost is thecost of saying no, the cost of
not doing it is really expensivebecause you're starting to lose
your relevance already.
And those competitors becausewe all have competitors don't
assume they're not using it.
(27:24):
The ones that use it are theones that are going to win, so
it can help you to do so much.
Here's another example of a toolthat's in my list of AI
strategy report that you'regoing to download.
I had a friend of mine that didpodcasting, like you do, and
does a lot of speaking, and heneeded surgery on his throat and
(27:46):
they said you're going to soundpretty bad for about a month
and for about another couple ofweeks that you're still going to
be hoarse, but he had to usehis voice.
So he went to 11 Labs one ofthe tools that's in my report
inexpensive tool and made a copyof his voice that he could use
(28:08):
in real time, so he would bespeaking in his garbled voice
and have his clean voice comeout.
By the way, that was impossibletwo years ago.
But my point is, we're doingthings today that were
impossible two years ago and, bythe way, we're going to be
doing things two years from nowthat are impossible today.
That could really help you out.
That's why we need to not beplaying catch up.
(28:31):
That's why we can't rely juston agility.
By the way, agility is reactingquickly after disruption occurs.
It's reacting quickly after aproblem occurs.
You're always behind on it.
It's kind of like playingdefense in sports, and being
agile is good.
You've got to know how to playdefense.
But what I want you to do isuse hard trends and soft trends
(28:54):
to learn how to play offense, tobe able to pre-solve
predictable problems before theyhappen, to use and to feel
confident in playing with AI.
So, to start with, I would getopenaicom, slash chat, gpt and
(29:15):
get an account and spend the $20a month and it'll be the best
point you ever spent to get thepaid version.
You agree with that?
Brandon Mulnix (29:23):
Daniel, I'm absolutely agree with it.
That's where I started, youknow I got.
You know I had some high schoolkids around me which they don't
have to learn it the old way.
They get to start like wayahead where, because they get to
focus on all the newest stuff.
And so they introduced me tochat GPT and I tried it at first
and then, as I developed thispodcast, I used it to create the
(29:45):
name, used it to create thecontent at the beginning, and
then just hey, who should I haveon the podcast?
And it gave me a list of titlesof people, because at that
point it wasn't even connectedto my database.
And then, pretty soon, everysingle tool that I have in
Google has Gemini built into itand we pay for it.
We give licenses to our entireteam now, because if we're not
(30:08):
using it, how can I ever expectthe industry to use it?
Daniel Burrus (30:18):
using it.
How can I ever expect theindustry to use it?
Yep, yep, exactly.
And not all of the tools arecreated equal.
So you know you might want tostart with Gemini from Google.
By the way, gemini 2 is a gamechanger.
That's new right now.
And then, or chat, chat GPT isunbelievable what that can do,
and they do a little bitdifferent things.
Now, to start with, just getone of the other, just get
(30:41):
started.
And, by the way, you saidsomething about the kids being
around some high schoolers.
So here's an opportunity I wantto share with all of you,
whether it's kids or grandkids.
You've always been the teacher,and let's reverse the role.
Why don't you go to one ofthose young kids by the way, the
younger the better.
If the high school kids arebusy, try the elementary school
(31:04):
kids and have them be yourmentor and say look, I need to
get good on this fast and I'mnot sure how it works.
Can you help me?
And you know what they wouldlove to help you?
It works.
Can you help me?
And you know what they wouldlove to help you?
They would just love to helpyou, because you have always
been the teacher for them tohelp you, whoa.
(31:25):
So don't miss that humanopportunity, whether it's a
grandkid or a kid or a neighborkid.
Oh my goodness, how wonderfulwould that be.
Brandon Mulnix (31:37):
Well, daniel, you know you talk about all this
, you know this technology andit requires data.
I mean it requires sensors, itrequires a lot of things to
really provide accurate, good,trustworthy data, because so
many times you know people arewriting numbers on a paper and
handing it up to the manager whothen types it in All of these
(32:00):
repetitive tasks, that honestly,with the power of the tools
that are already available, thatdata can be in the cloud
automatically, instantly.
It's accessible to make greatbusiness decisions.
But let's just talk aboutthinking about problems a
(32:20):
different way.
Okay, because so many peoplethink, man, I got to go from
generation one to generation twoto generation three before I
can get there.
Talk about that problem.
Daniel Burrus (32:32):
Yeah Well, you already know where it's going
because I know you've read mybooks and one of the principles
I have many principles in thebooks, as you know, but one that
I personally love a lot is Icall it the skip it principle,
and the idea is think of yourbiggest problem right now.
Just take a second, think ofyour biggest problem, and here's
what I'd like you to do how doI get a skip it?
(32:53):
Now, there's two different waysof skipping it.
One is to realize whateverproblem you've identified,
that's not it.
There's another one underneaththat is solvable and is the real
problem.
So you've got to bore down andget to the real one.
I mean, you're smart, you wouldhave solved it by now, and I'll
(33:14):
give you a simple example.
I had a niece call me.
She has her first job and shesaid she can't save money.
Name is Hallie.
So Hallie called and said UncleDan, I can't save any money.
I'm trying really hard to savemoney, but I can't save money.
And she knew that it's possiblebecause her older sister,
audrey, can save money likecrazy, but somehow Hallie can't
(33:37):
save money.
She said I'm really trying tosave, I'm really working at it,
but I just can't save any money.
And I said well, hallie, you'reworking on the wrong problem.
You should work at how youspend money.
And once she started working athow she spent money, she found
herself saving money.
See, saving money was not areal problem.
So, again, what's your realproblem?
(33:58):
Secondly, I said there were twoways of skipping.
The other way is skip it alltogether, like I got, to go from
step A to B to C to get to D iswhere I really want to go.
And I said well, why don't wejust see if we can go straight
to D?
I'll give you an example.
I was just a week ago talking toa guy that has been a super
(34:23):
rock star in real estate.
This was out in Boston and hehad developed a really great
motivational speech and he's gota really amazing personal story
and people have heard hismotivational speech and said,
wow, this is killer great speech.
So he wanted since I've giventhousands of speeches and have
(34:45):
done well, he wanted some advice.
And before giving him advice, Isaid well, why don't you tell
me about what's your idealfuture?
Five and 10 years from now?
Tell me your ideal.
And he said well, five and tenyears from now, tell me your
ideal.
And he said well, I'd actuallylike to make a movie about all
of this and what I've done.
And I said well, then why areyou working really hard at
(35:10):
becoming a great motivationalspeaker?
See, he thought he had to dospeaking, then books, do
speaking, then books, this, this, this, this and then maybe a
movie someday.
But today it's easy to gostraight to the movie idea and
(35:30):
skip all those other phases.
I had another guy that had beenin marketing, head of marketing
in a company, and he wanted to.
He left the company and hedecided he wanted to teach
marketing and consult withcompanies on marketing.
So he said so I only have abachelor's degree.
I think I'm going to go back,get a master's degree in
marketing and then startconsulting with companies on
(35:53):
marketing.
And I said well, you've alreadybeen a marketer, you've already
been a C-suite marketing guy,you've got the experience.
You're going to take your timeto go get a degree, thinking
that's going to help you.
By the way, nobody will care ifyou have a master's degree,
they care more about resultsthat you can get.
Ended up skipping getting thedegree.
(36:20):
He ended up doing teaching aswell as that.
He thought he had to do thesethings?
Do you really have to do all ofthis stuff?
There's another thing I want totag onto, though if you don't
mind, it's a little bit of achange.
So the skip it principle wewant to use.
What's the real problem?
Ask why a number of times.
That's how you can get down towhat the real one is.
It's always solvable.
Or look at can I skip italtogether?
(36:41):
Am I doing it the way I alwayshave, because that's the way
we've all done it?
But could AI help me?
Matter of fact, ask AI howcould I skip it and it might be
able to help you out.
I mean, I've publishedthousands of articles.
It already knows a lot of mystuff, so you could even try
that.
The change of subject I'm goingback to something you said
(37:03):
earlier.
You talked about data andsensors.
Let me just get back to that,because that's really important.
Today you can make anythingintelligent, whatever you want.
All you have to do is add somesensors and the ability to
communicate Could be wireless orwired, so sensors can be
(37:23):
extremely inexpensive, evenbiodegradable.
At this point and, by the way,what's the cost of sensors Going
down hard trend?
Been that way a long time.
What's the power of sensors?
Well, going up hard trend, bythe way time.
What's the power of sensors?
Well, going up, hard trend, bythe way.
I've been doing that for a longtime as well, will continue to.
(37:44):
So where do I put sensors?
Better question is what wouldhave more value if it was
intelligent, giving meinformation?
Maybe it's a device that I wantto do predict and prevent,
instead of break fix.
By the way, your companyalready offers that so that I
can predict.
Let me give you an example ofsomething that is still not done
(38:04):
today.
I know that you live up inMichigan.
This time of year gets kind ofcold up that way, and I'll bet
somewhere in your life you'vehad a battery that died on you
in your car.
And they always die at theworst time, when it's really
cold and you don't even want tobe outside of the car, and
that's when it dies.
Isn't that right?
Brandon Mulnix (38:25):
That's absolutely right.
You grew up in Wisconsin.
You guys had such mild wintersover there compared to us.
You know like effect guys.
Daniel Burrus (38:34):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So it would be so easy to put asensor on a battery a car
battery, by the way, it could bea tractor battery, any of the
kind of battery and it couldsend you a text message in
today's world because you don'tneed a whole cell phone.
Actually, a cell phone can bethat small, that's a teeny thing
, and it could send you a textsaying I'm going to die in seven
(38:57):
days.
You a text saying I'm going todie in seven days.
Well, thank you, I'd rather getit ahead of time.
You see what I'm getting at.
Well, you see what I did is Isaid how can I make the battery
intelligent?
Why, well, I'd rather predictand prevent than break fix.
So there's a lot of thingsalready in your operation that
is not intelligent, that youcould make intelligent.
(39:20):
You just got to go around andask yourself the right questions
and, given the technologyadvances we have, let me give
everyone that's listeninganother free resource.
Every year, I publish a list ofthe 25 technology hard trends
that are shaping the future.
Just now put out a new one forthis next year, and if you go,
(39:45):
actually the easiest way to findit is to go to my website,
which is burruscom.
You'll find plenty of otherresources there, but you can
download that 25 Tech Trendsreport and it will show you how
to use it for your planning.
It's not just about thetechnology, because you're
(40:05):
saying, god, I don't have timeto look at 25 trends.
Wait a minute.
These are game changers.
One of them, maybe a combinationof two, could solve your
biggest problem right now thereal one.
Maybe one or two could give youa competitive advantage you
never had before.
Maybe a combination of thesethree could actually help you
(40:28):
deal with the avian flu epidemicbefore they come out with a
vaccine.
You see, I want you to haveyour biggest problem, the real
problem, in mind.
Look through that list with aopportunity, antenna up and you
know what you'll.
You'll find something.
So take a look at that report.
I think you'll find some heavyuse in there.
Brandon Mulnix (40:51):
So you know you, you talk about predicting the
future.
I mean, what are some of thesome of the foresights that
you're talking about when itcomes to agriculture and farming
?
You know we've talked about our, our audience.
You know what are some of thethings you're seeing that could
really help outside of some ofthe things you've already
presented.
Daniel Burrus (41:13):
Well, you know, long ago there was a worry about
family farms going away and Iand I said, well, family farms
is different than families.
That farm, so every employeeyou've got is in the ag business
, it isn't just the owner of thefacility and there's a bright
future for agriculture becausewe do like to eat, us humans,
(41:37):
and we got to have something onthe plate.
And especially if we've beenpaying attention I know you have
we know eggs have got a verygood track record for protein,
as well as chickens for thatmatter, and you know we're on
the right area, we're in thegreat spot, we're in a good zone
.
The key is we need to be ableto deal with problems that we
(42:00):
have in a better way, meaningwhat's the real problem?
And then looking at is theretech that can help us?
Probably, yes, probably yes,tech that you're not even using
today.
And you might think, well, Idon't have a budget for all this
stuff.
That's an assumption.
You're making an assumptionthat may be totally invalid.
(42:21):
A tech may be far lessexpensive than you.
Actually, the expense may benot putting it in.
You could make it back in 12months in savings and then have
the rest be profit.
So we've got to think differentabout expense, about tech and
about how we might deploy it.
But there is a bright futurefor agriculture and there's a
(42:43):
bright future for people inagriculture Because what we've
got is probably one of thebiggest productivity booms in
the history of mankind.
Thanks to AI oh yeah, because itaffects all of us.
Kind thanks to ai oh yeah,because it affects all of us
better ways of cleaning, betterways of doing employee education
(43:09):
.
Whatever issue you're dealingwith, there's ways of making it
better.
Matter of fact, that's one ofthe reasons I am really excited
about the future.
Everything can be better,everything can be made better,
right, great, you see, ifeverything was perfect, the
world wouldn't need you and I.
But actually everything is notthat great.
Good, wonderful.
I love that.
(43:29):
By the way, I want to empowerthat with my people.
I want every employee to havetheir opportunity antenna up.
How could we make this better?
And know that they can speak up, know we want them to speak up,
every single employee,regardless of what they do,
you'd say.
You know, I'd like you toexperiment, try experimenting
with AI, and here's someguidelines.
(43:51):
Again, you could give them thatreport.
That way, they've got actuallysome things to draw from.
Pick one of those things thatyou might find helpful or useful
and again, if you're stuck onsomething, ask a kid.
You need a techno mentor.
I define your techno mentor asa kid.
Brandon Mulnix (44:10):
So, daniel, if I remember right, you're a Harley
guy, right?
Daniel Burrus (44:19):
Yeah, yeah, I've been riding them a long, long
time.
Matter of fact, my firstvehicle was a motorcycle, so
yeah, been a long time.
Brandon Mulnix (44:29):
I love the Harley.
I don't have a Harley, I have aSpyder, so I have the two
wheels in front to help me guide, because for some reason, I
just love that ride.
Daniel Burrus (44:39):
Well, it doesn't matter, You're a, you're out
there and you're a, you knowit's your iron horse.
Brandon Mulnix (44:45):
So a question I like to ask leaders that I I
didn't prep you with, butleaders overcome things
adversity in their lives.
Would you be willing to shareone thing that you've had to
overcome and a little bit ofadvice on how you overcome it?
Daniel Burrus (45:02):
overcame it yeah, I think the um and this would
be going way back before Istarted Burroughs Research.
But I was, uh, thought I wasthinking big about my future,
but I was thinking too small,because there's always a bigger
big.
Now, here's what I mean by that.
Regardless of your last year ofschooling whether it was high
(45:24):
school or college or whatever itmight be when you were
graduating, you were probablythinking big about your future.
But if you think back now tothat point in time in your
history, you realize, oh man, Iwas thinking way too small.
Well, my point is you'rethinking too small today.
(45:45):
There is a bigger big.
So here's the strategy let'sput this in strategic terms,
something that you all can use,rather than just the bigger big
and that is that you want tocome up with your big thinking
and your.
Here's the best strategy I gotright now for our operation or
for what I do, if you're amanager or whatever it is.
(46:07):
There's my best thing.
And then what happens?
Well, that big idea, we startimplementing it and I would say,
right, that's when you stopWhoa, whoa, hold it, hold it.
Let's step back, let's makesure that we're thinking out of
the box a little bit here.
Let's think a little bit bigger.
Let's take a look at thosetools Remember they can change
reality and see if we can comeup with even the bigger big.
(46:29):
Are there some things that wecould skip in that big idea to
get to where we really want togo faster?
Are we heading in the idealdirection?
And it is powerful.
You've got Glacier National Parkin back of you in a picture and
you and I talked a littleearlier because I asked you
about that picture.
I've been to Glacier andactually I turned 30 years old
(46:50):
in Glacier long ago and Iremember thinking to myself I've
got to climb a mountain today.
So I looked at the top of themountain.
That was my goal, that was my.
I was thinking big and Iactually did backwards planning,
which I like.
See, I never planned from thepresent hour.
(47:14):
I planned from the ideal futureback towards the present, so
that I know I'm going in theright direction.
So I looked at the top and Icould see it was a little easier
going that way and this way andI started seeing a route and I
never had to even look all theway down to where my feet were,
because I already had direction.
I just started going.
As I got to a certain height,all of a sudden I realized the
(47:34):
top that I thought was the topwasn't the top.
There was another top, becauseyou can't really see the top
from the bottom.
You think you are, but youactually aren't.
So you have to get to a certainlevel before you can see it.
You see, I want you to come upwith your big idea first, so
that you can actually come upwith the bigger big, because
that's when you can even see itfrom that point.
(47:55):
And here's something I'vediscovered, because you know,
I've started six companies.
Five were profitable in thefirst year, four were national
leaders in the first year.
I've never had a business loanand I started out as a teacher,
which meant I had no money.
So what am I getting at?
And that is that you can makethe impossible possible.
(48:17):
It's you can make theimpossible possible, you and
it's going from the big idea tothe bigger big.
Here's what I've discovered thebigger big is easier.
That big insight for me was tothink bigger about my future and
whatever that means to you.
And I do that again and againand again.
Brandon Mulnix (48:37):
In trying to do that, Well, the world is a much
better place because you thinkbig and you don't settle on big,
because you keep going bigger.
And I really appreciate thefact that you know.
You're a keynote speaker infront of thousands of people and
here you are giving your timeto talk to our farmers.
Daniel Burrus (49:00):
Well, I'm not giving my time.
I'm investing my time in yourfarmers because I think this is
a good investment.
Actually, I think this is anamazing investment.
You know why we need you.
We I'm talking about all of usout here we need you and we need
you to be profitable.
We need you to be thriving.
(49:22):
We need you to create a goodemployment workplace.
We need you to be hiring moreyoung pups.
Why?
Because they know more aboutthese sensors and tools than we
do.
So we need you.
So I'm investing in my futureand your future with this.
And again, as I said in thebeginning, I was put on the
(49:42):
planet to teach, not just totell.
So the key here is you need totake action on something.
So you might want to re-listenor re-watch this podcast.
Take a look through those.
And big lists never get done,and you might already have a big
list of notes just from hearingme.
If you had a chance to write,if you weren't driving or
(50:03):
something.
Here's what I'd say big listsnever get done.
Boil it down to one or twothings that you consider a must
do, because there's a lot ofthings you should do.
You got no time for that.
There's a lot of it's the mustdos, one or two and then make it
happen.
Put it in your calendar, startacting on it and you'll turn
2025 and beyond into far morethan you thought it was going to
(50:27):
be.
Brandon Mulnix (50:28):
Wow, daniel, thank you so much.
I'm going to put all thoselinks you talked about in the
show notes so that way folks caneasily click on, go to your
resources on your website,download those great articles.
You know, I've been followingyou for eight years and you know
(50:49):
, seeing the content that youprovide for free, just because
of your passion and yourwillingness to teach I mean,
that's a college level education, mba program, guys that we got
just by tuning in, just byreaching for change and trying
to grow.
And that's what I love aboutyou as an audience, about
(51:10):
listeners, is the fact thatyou're not here because no one's
making you be here.
You get to be here because youwant to see change in your life.
So, daniel, is there any lastminute things that you want to
see change in your life?
So, daniel, is there any lastminute things that you want to
share?
Daniel Burrus (51:22):
Well, you just said the word grow and in this
plant, animal world we live inand, by the way, we're part of
that it's interesting.
All things that grow change andall things that change grow,
you know, if you kind of thinkabout it.
And there's an old saying youcan't teach an old dog a new
(51:45):
trick.
The good news is, hey, we'renot dogs.
So if you aren't interested inlearning new things, if you
aren't interested in finding out, you know what's the even
better version of you that youcould create for yourself,
you're probably not going tolike the future.
If you don't like change,you're not going to like the
future.
But I would like for all of youto prosper, enjoy the future.
(52:09):
Actually, I'd like us to makechange and disruption our
biggest advantage, from apersonal standpoint and others,
and the way to do that is to notjust be reacting to it after
the fact, but to be anticipatingto it, and there are a lot of
great resources you can downloadfor free on my website.
(52:29):
Also, I'm on LinkedIn.
I've got over a millionfollowers.
Join me there if you'd like.
I share a lot there.
But I also don't want to keepyou from buying a copy of
Anticipatory Organization, mylast book or the other one,
flash Foresight, I mean, hey,they're easy reads, they're good
reads, I think you'd find a lotin there, and I also have a
(52:50):
learning system for individualsthat I keep the price very low
on, where I'm teaching youspecific tools and actually
helping you to do it.
So there's a lot of ways tocontinue your journey forward.
Let's just make sure that we'reshaping a better future for
ourselves and for others, ratherthan passively receiving the
(53:13):
future as it unfolds.
Let's be active shapers.
That's how I'd like to closethat message.
Brandon Mulnix (53:21):
Excellent, and listeners, if you've made it
this far in the podcast, I'mgoing to offer you something
special.
For the five people that reachout to me and tell me what this
podcast meant to you and whatyou learned from this podcast, I
will send you a copy ofDaniel's book anticipatory
organizations, because it meantthe world to me.
(53:43):
It changed the way I thoughtand it helped me in my career
skip problems, think big, onlyto know that I succeeded even
bigger, and so I know that frommy heart, that sometimes it's
just reaching out.
So reach out to me, pleaseshare this podcast with your
(54:07):
friends, your colleagues, yourboss I don't care, because this
is the kind of content that,honestly, will change our
industry for the better.
So thank you again, daniel, Ijust appreciate you.
Daniel Burrus (54:20):
That wonderful offer you're making them.
That makes my heart warm.
So thank you so much.
Brandon Mulnix (54:24):
Excellent and thank you, poultry Leadership,
podcast listeners and you guysall have a great day.
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