Daniel Burrus & Burrus Research Inc. on Becoming the Positive Disruptor the World Needs

Pamela Bardhi: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Underdog podcast. Today I have an incredible guest here with me. Daniel. How are you, my friend?

Daniel Burrus: I am doing fantastic. And I know you’re doing great. You’re just a glow over there.

Pamela Bardhi: I’m having fun. There’s a lot of really great lights around me, Daniel, so that’s.

Daniel Burrus: Well, that wasn’t the glow that I was referring to. I meant the inner glow.

Pamela Bardhi: I love it. You are magical, and as are you, my friend. I’m so excited, I read up all about you. And I was like, man, I can’t wait to talk to Daniel about all of his incredible achievements. Like I said to you when I first got on, it is so nice to meet another fellow disruptor, you know? So, I’m super excited to hear your story and, like, where it all started, what happened through the journey. Just really all the magic that happened all in between time.

Most people don’t like disruption, so let’s be positive disruptors

Daniel Burrus: Well, you know, you use the word disruptor. And let me just talk about that a minute, because most people don’t like disruption. The reason is because it happens to them, and then they have to react, putting out fires, crisis, managing. What I like people to do, and what I want all of us to do is to be what I would call positive disruptors. Creating the transformations that need to happen to elevate your relevancy and to accelerate innovation and growth. So, really, let’s put that twist on that and say, let’s be positive disruptors. Because Jeff Bezos, who started Amazon, does he dislike disruption? No, it’s all the people he’s disrupting. We can do that regardless of your size.

Pamela Bardhi: I love it, I honestly just can’t wait to dig into all of it. And I love that reframe that you mentioned, because it’s just a different way to look at it, right? Bezos didn’t think he was going to, you know, disrupt the whole industry. He did in a way, but positively so, I love that, I absolutely love that.

Daniel: You’re either going to be the disruptor or the disrupted

And for me, Daniel, I’m super interested to know, and I want to reel it all the way back. But what did you want to be as a kid when you were growing up? Because this magic had to have originated somewhere, my friend.

Daniel Burrus: Yeah. Well, I didn’t have specifics around it other than I really loved the underwater world. I thought originally, maybe marine biology or something like that. And, I did up in the very beginning, teaching biology and physics. So I did kind of get into that before I started my first company. But again, disruption is, I mentioned relevancy. Let’s just hit that for a minute. Today, you’re either going to be more relevant or less relevant, there is no middle. You’re either going to be the disruptor or the disrupted, there is no middle. What I would prefer to be is the disrupter rather than be the disrupted. There and again, looking at it, as a positive way. Something that you can do to make the world a better place through disruption.

For example, one of the things that I did a number of years ago. I was writing not my latest book, which is the anticipatory organization, but the one before that, flash foresight. When I was writing the book, it was during that last recession that we had. 2008 nine, remember all the foreclosed homes all over the place? And I thought to myself, while I was writing the book, why don’t I create a company while I’m writing the book. Using the principles of the book to see how good the book is with two rules. I won’t hire anyone and I won’t spend any money, and let’s just see how good the book is now. So I used my, what I’ll call, my hard trend principles. Hard trends, by the way, are based on future facts that will happen, which means they can’t be changed.

Gives you certainty in an uncertain world. Quick example, wireless. We went from 4g wireless to 5g, is that it? No, we’re going to go to six g, followed by 07:00 a.m. i. Certain? Absolutely. We’re putting a lot in the cloud. Is the cloud getting full? No, it’s not. And a lot of people are retiring. You know, they’re, so as they age, we can see a lot. Hard trends, does that. So I thought, all right, we were just starting to use smartphones in 2008, 2009. The apps that were being sold were, have your phone do this and it looks like you’re drinking a beer. Ninety nine cents, and there were no real business applications. I simply asked, will there be business applications? To myself? Well, yeah. Will they be using smartphones? Well, yes.

Are smartphones going to get smarter? Absolutely, they will. What are the apps that need to be created? I spent some time thinking about it. Generated about 100 of them. And the one that, then I did for free, remember, I’m not spending money. Did a free little Apple search, or Google search rather. To find out which one of those phrases are being searched the most. Out of 100 apps, what was searched the most, by far, was the word foreclosures. So I created the first mobile real estate apps, which was extremely disruptive, by the way. Instead of just making one for foreclosures, I decided, well, let’s make three. Because it’s the same software, I called it complete foreclosures, complete homes, regular homes, and complete rentals. Now, how did I do that without hiring somebody and paying?

Money is the secret ingredient, I use some of the principles I teach. In this case, one of the principles is the skip it principle. Skip the problems that you’ve got to skip them altogether. What I did was I called the local university and I asked for the computer department. And asked for the head of the department, I said, I’d like the name of an undergraduate that’s getting a degree in software. Writing and programming that’s smarter than all the professors. He said, oh, you mean Steve? And I said, yeah, Steve. So I gave Steve a call. I said, Steve, what are you doing on the side while you’re not going to school? What are you doing when you’re, to make money? I’m doing websites for companies, and I said, oh, I bet you’re bored with that.

He said, yeah, I’ve been doing it since junior high. I said, well, how’d you like to make the first mobile real estate app? And he said, oh, cool, and I said, now, I have a rule, I can’t pay you any money. However, I can give you 10% of the profits in the first two years. Are you interested? He said, yep, I’m in, I got him in. Well, I got other people to work like that. So I didn’t have to hire anybody, and I didn’t have to spend any money. To make a long story short, that was the 7th most downloaded app in the Apple store. When I launched it, within it was the second day I was in the Wall Street Journal. All of the major publications because I was disrupting real estate.

Second week, I was on Fox News disrupting real estate, and I was also did something else that was disruptive. I found a different way to make money on the app store. So I was the first guy to make the app free and make money by charging people that are in the app. What I did is I made the app free, all three apps free, I have very good apps. And what I did was I charged real estate agents. $24.95 a month to have an exclusive zip code in the app. So the first real estate agent bought ten zip codes. The next one bought 20 zip codes when it took about eight months for those zip codes to be done. By the way, when all the zip codes are sold, that’s 1.2 million a month in recurring revenue without any employees.

The flaw then was, now I’m starting to get known for real estate because I’m becoming the real estate guy. But that’s not my future. That’s not what I wanted to do. So instead, I decided to license that to a small little company that is today called Zillow. That was kind of an underdog story in a way, because there were no mobile apps. And actually, everything that I’ve done, there wasn’t any. One of my companies was, I got into. I was one of the first ones to do ultralight airplanes, experimental aircraft, and there weren’t any. What I did is I brought three axis control, meaning it flies like a plane, except it’s,

Another disruptive innovation was introducing two strings to kites. Before me, all kites

You don’t need a pilot’s license to fly it. We ended up with 37 national locations in the first year, I was my own test pilot for that. Interesting enough, but, again, talk about Underdogs. There was none. So it was kind of like reinventing the plane with ultralight materials. A lot of fun. My core business, because I’ve started six companies altogether that did well. By the way, one other, one year ago that people might find interesting. Before me, all kites, no matter how big or small the kite was, had one cable or one string. I was the first guy to introduce two strings so you could steer the kite that ended up doing really well. And you’ve seen those surf guys with the two things.

I was the first guy with two so that you could control it. Another disruptive innovation, because why have one? You can’t control the dang thing, but two, you could do it. See, it’s not that hard to think through, if you think about it. In my current world, for the last many, many decades, I’ve been writing seven books. As you know, that has been New York Times, Wall Street Journal bestsellers about the future of technological change. And how much certainty there is in an uncertain world. So, I was speaking about the future of technology. But if you go back to my beginnings, no one was talking about the future of technology. Because we’re talking, the eighties, they weren’t interested.

I was a total underdog, because you’re talking about things that people weren’t interested in. What I did to get people interested was I needed a little eye candy. So I worked with a company and developed a very sophisticated robot that was the best. Coolest robot that was made at the time. And I again did my, skip it principles and had other people work on the software. Just told them what I wanted it to do, so I had the robot and I started speaking. Most of my speech was me. At the end, I would unveil the cool robot and basically I just had to be better than the robot.

It was amazing, I gave many, many speeches and was launched. As a matter of fact the world’s fair, in Australia in the eighties, that robot was there. Because it was the most advanced in the world. So you see, I was launching a speaking writing author career. But I was doing it as an underdog because there weren’t any technology futurists. I had to have something that was cool to get people to say. Well, even if the guy’s no good, at least we’ll get to see the cool robot.

Dan uses the skip it principle to help entrepreneurs solve difficult problems

Now, I’ve been talking away, giving you ideas, and what am I really telling all of you that are listening? What am I trying to tell you? That there is nothing that’s perfect. There is nothing that’s perfect. God, I love that. Because if everything was perfect, world wouldn’t need you and I, but everything is flawed, actually very flawed. Oh God, I love that because that means everything could be made better. I mean, let’s face it now, I didn’t do this. But long ago we had a can, let’s say a beer can. How’d you open it? Used an opener to open it, to drink that beer. Long ago. Flaw was you had to find an opener and you didn’t have to always have an opener. Then somebody said, wait a minute, why don’t we have the little pull top?

Remember the little thing you push in and rip off? The trouble is that, created pollution, so I was like, isn’t there something better? So someone, by the way, each one of these people became millionaires. The next guy said, wait, there’s got to be a better way. Maybe we just push in on it and it doesn’t throw away. By the way, that person, that’s another million dollars. Everything can be made better, whether it’s putting two strings on a kite, whether it’s using ultralight materials to create an airplane. Whether it’s looking at real estate and saying, is there a future for a smartphone? And I thought, yeah, hard trend, it is going to get smarter. It is going to get better, and it can be used to disrupt a lot.

By the way, I was the first one to create apps for the military. Because I thought, I bet they would like a smartphone that did something. And I had a problem because I had this idea, can I use my team that I’m not paying to develop it? Then I thought, problem is you have to be a defense contractor. That is a lot of hoops to do that, to be able to sell that app to the military. But I used my skip it principle that I write about in my books, took that problem and skipped it. What did I do? Found a defense contractor that I could work with and let them sell it. And I get a percent of the profit, so I didn’t have to deal with it. I shared a cup. Two of many. One is hard trends.

By the way, all trends are either hard trends based on future facts that will happen. It means they can’t be changed, it gives you certainty in an uncertain world, it lets you see disruption before it disrupts. Turning disruption into a choice, it lets you see problems before you have them giving you the option of presolving it. So you can move forward faster. Very important for an entrepreneur, and then there’s soft trends. And those are based on assumptions that may or may not happen, by the way, I love those, too. Why? Because if you don’t like it, you can change it. It’s not a future fact. If there are negative trends, probably they’re soft trends that can be changed, or you could ride them out.

So I taught that, I taught about the skippit principle. I only mentioned it a few times, but I use the skip it principle all the time. The way I like to speak about it is think of your biggest problem right now, by the way. I’d like you all to do that. Think of your biggest problem right now. Didn’t have to think long, did you? Goes up pretty fast immediately. Now, here’s what I want you to do. Take that problem and skip it, now, how can you skip it? First of all, if you were working on the real problem, you would have solved it by now. You’re smart, the reason you’re stuck is you’re working on the wrong problem. You got to dig down and get the real problem. Just dig down just a little bit farther.

I recently had my niece, she’s got her first job. She called me and said, uncle Dan, you know, I can’t save any money. I’m trying really hard to save money, but I can’t. And she knows it’s possible because her older sister Audrey can save money like crazy. But Hallie can’t save any money, she says, I’m working at saving money. What’s the problem? And I said, well, that’s the problem. You’re working on how to save money. Why don’t you work at how you spend your money? Guess what happened, she started saving money. So again, she was working on the wrong thing. Now, I gave you a simple example, but they’re skipping it all together. As I mentioned in a couple of my other examples. Well, I’ve got dozens of those kind of principles.

Like, opposites work better to look at whatever you’re looking at. Look in the exact opposite direction, and they’ll see what nobody else sees. That’s even a better answer, and by the way, opposites and skip can work together really well. I’ll give you a quick example. All right? Remember the first Jaws movie that almost didn’t happen because they were trying to make the shark. A shark, a fake shark, looks good in the movie, and all of the fake sharks looked terrible. They all looked fake, they couldn’t make them look real. And they were almost ready to shut it down until they skipped the problem. Let’s not show the shark, let’s show what the shark sees when it’s swimming.

Daniel Burrus: Ah. They used the skippet principle, and, all of a sudden, bingo. Then later in the movie, when they did show the shark, which, by the way, did look kind of fake. We didn’t care, we already were engrossed in this great movie and just bought into it. So the skippit principle is an amazing principle. I teach many dozens of these that I’ve learned over the years. You know, solving problems and doing what I do.

Pamela Bardhi: Daniel, you are magical.

Your pragmatic thinking is incredible for any entrepreneur and everybody who’s listening

And I love the way your pragmatic thinking is so incredible for any entrepreneur and everybody who’s listening. It’s such a pragmatic way to break things down, because, again, the uncertainty is what creates fear in everybody, right? So for you, I love how you’ve been able to break this down in such a pragmatic and beautiful way. For me, the ultimate question that stands out as you’re saying. All of this is like, where did you build this beautiful mindset of yours? I’m like, It’s such a visionary, it’s amazing, so I just kind of like, what’s your mindset? How did you get it? Who inspired you? I mean, whatever answers that question, because I just think it’s so magical.

Daniel Burrus: Well, I, you know, I really didn’t have mentors, and I wish I did. Because I probably could have accomplished a lot more. But, so a lot of it was just through trying to do it. And I attended, and I was shocked by this. By the way, I attended, recently, one of those high school reunions. You know, where and I hadn’t gone to any before because I was too busy. But I thought, you know, I’ll go and see what these people look like after all these decades. So I went to a high school reunion, and to my shock, I’m serious. They were saying, oh, yeah, you were talking about the future all the time back in high school. You’re talking about the technology future and all this stuff, and I was going, really? I didn’t remember that, maybe, I’ve just been wired, that.

Pamela Bardhi: Way all along, I think so. It sounds like it. That’s why I love that, you know, I love hearing, that backstory. It’s amazing.

Daniel Burrus: And, you know, we’re gonna live, we’re gonna spend the rest of our life in the future. Maybe we ought to think about it a little bit. I think we don’t spend enough time thinking about it, and opposites work better.

Think ten years out and ask yourself what is your ideal future

One of the principles I mentioned to you a few minutes ago. Let me give you something that will change how all of you plan your personal future as well as your business future. Most of us have a plan that goes out one year, two years, three years, four years, maybe five years. But then surely you can’t predict anything beyond that, so we just won’t go any further. Which, by the way, is very foolish. Those of you that have been reading my books all these decades and been reading my stuff know. It’s been very easy to predict the future with accuracy when you’re using that hard trend model. So what I would suggest is the opposite.

Stop having a one year, two year, three year, four year plan. Instead, I would like you to think out, ten years, maybe 15 even. But let’s make it ten for you right now. Think ten years out and ask yourselves, what is your ideal future? Now, the word here that’s key is ideal. What’s the ideal future? And when you say, all right, ten years from now, here’s my ideal future. Then I’d like you to start planning back from the future towards the present. Getting more vague as you get towards the present. Why? Because now you already know the direction. Most people don’t accomplish their ideal future because they haven’t ever been bold enough to think about it yet. I think that’s the key.

How you view the future affects how you act in the present

One other concept, I’ll share right now with you, and that’s future view. How, your kids, if you have any, how your employees or employer, if you have your customers. How we view the future to a great extent, shapes how we act in the present right now. Some people are buying apples, some people are selling apples. Why? Their future view of Apple is different, some people are buying bitcoin like crazy. Other people are selling that or would never do that, their future view of bitcoin is different. Some kids are thinking of going to college. Others are thinking of going to drugs, their future view is different. So here’s the concept of how you view the future. To a great extent, shapes how you act in the present.

By the way, how you act in the present will shape your future. Therefore, your future view will determine the future you. I’m here to tell every one of you this is true. Every single one of you. Your future view is too low because we’re doing things today that were impossible two years ago. We could be doing two things two years from now that are impossible today. There’s more opportunity than ever before. You’re watching too much news, and remember, bad news sells. Good news doesn’t sell, and if there is no bad news, what do they do? They give you the anniversary of bad news. So watch that bad news a little less. And why don’t you study up a little bit more and become an expert on your passionate subject area. The one that you have, purpose around.

Pamela Bardhi: I love that, Daniel, I absolutely love that, I mean, all of these insights are absolutely phenomenal. It’s basically your behavior, your future, you, like you were saying, like, that’s also super interconnected.

What do you think the future looks like for AI and education

And I’m curious, based on your experience and everything, you know, all six companies, all seven books that you’ve written. What do you think the future looks like from here on out? I mean, we’ve got AI, we’ve got all kinds of craziness, and a lot of people are. The future looks so dark. I’m like, I don’t believe that. Like you said, you know, bad news sells, doesn’t it?

Daniel Burrus: Does sell, I have a lot of knowledge in those areas. And by the way, with AI, I’m an advisor to the Pentagon and defense contractors on a. I mean, I know stuff about AI, can’t even tell you, but with that said, boy, I’m excited about it. Because someone asked me when Generative AI first came out, I was being asked by an interviewer. They said, will humans be replaced by AI, and my answer was, humans will be replaced by humans using AI. Let me just put it to you this way, all of you are already using AI. Take out your smartphone, do a Google search. By the way, you’re using Aih. Every time you use Google, you’re using AI. Facebook, you’re using AI, by the way, Facebook’s using AI on you. So we’re using AI all the time. You just don’t know it.

This new AI is new, so we know it. But pretty soon, we won’t even realize it. What we’re going to have is what I call augmented thinking. So instead of, we’re replacing your thinking, we don’t need you. No, we want to augment your thinking with what AI does. Because AI does something that humans can’t do, and humans do things that AI can’t do. It’s a nice blend. Let me put this in really simple terms with an example, because I think examples are always a good thing. Let’s say that you know somebody that has cancer. Heaven forbid. All right, but let’s say you know somebody that has cancer. I’m going to give you three choices. And before I mention the choices, know that right now, AI knows more than any living oncologist.

It has absorbed every study that’s ever been made, every chemotherapy that’s ever been given. It knows all this stuff that no human can recall, like that, I mean, it’s, it knows everything. And that’s true, that’s right now. So I’m going to give you three choices. You know somebody that has cancer, number one, a really good oncologist who’s really good, great, reputation. Number two, just AI, number three, a really good oncologist that has access to AI. You’ve just seen the future, you’ve just seen the future of every profession. I want a plumber that has a little thing in their ear. That’s helping them to know how to hook up that hot water heater. Because it’s going to be too expensive to have a robot coming into it. We still need people that can turn a wrench.

But I want them to have some assistance, some augmented thinking, and a way to solve that problem. You got this leak. How do I solve it? I just had a friend of mine that said he had a plumber in. And he wasn’t able to solve the problem, that’s because he didn’t have augmented thinking, and how about in schools? What do I think? Oh, I love it in schools. Now, if you go back in time, a long time ago they wanted to ban calculators, they wanted to ban Google. I’m talking about them, meaning education and school districts. So one of the things that I love about AI and education is it’s going to shift teachers into teaching critical thinking. Which they’ve been ignoring. Because there’s so many facts to teach them but now, we don’t have to give them the facts. It is critical thinking.

Here’s what’s going to happen in the classrooms, and I’m talking about elementary school, junior high, high school. Instead of the teacher saying, oh, you got the answer, I want the answers. The teachers are going to say, now that you’ve given me the answer, how did you get that answer? That’s changing the game, it’s not the answer anymore, it’s how you’ve got the answer that’s going to be important. Much deeper learning will take place. So I say yay, I, for AI, by the way, it’s also freeing us from all the drudge jobs and all that stuff. By the way, there’s an old saying, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Luckily, humans aren’t dogs. We can learn new things. And if you’re not willing to learn new things, you probably aren’t going to like the future that much. But you can and you should.

Pamela Bardhi: I love that. Daniel. Oh my God, those are such incredible insights on, like, where the world is going and all that.

Daniel: What are some hard trends that you’re seeing coming up

You were mentioning hard trends too, which is such a great way to really be visual with the future. And be able to create that problem solving in advance, which I think is so amazing. What are some, I mean, you kind of touched on AI, a little bit. What are some trends that, your hard trends, that you’re seeing coming up?

Daniel Burrus: There are many. As a matter of fact, I do a lot of consulting. But I also do a lot of keynote speaking and to big audiences. Last year, my biggest was 20,000 people, my second biggest with 10,000. They aren’t all that big, but some of them are big. They’re international, I was just in Dubai speaking. So I get all over the world and in every speech I’ve given in the last 15 years. By the way, that is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. What I’ve done with the audience. Once they understand hard and soft trends, I have them use their phones nowadays. Write down one hard trend you know will happen and a related opportunity. And by the way, make it a good one. For example, I was just with a thousand CEO’s of tech companies.

So you’re only going to write one. This will take about a minute and a half, but there’s a thousand CEO’s in the room other than you. If we all write a really good one, you’ll see why. Because I’m going to collect them all. I’m going to put it into a report and I’m going to give it back to you in two weeks. And what I want you to do is realize big lists never get done. Look through it, and don’t look for the things you could be doing. You’ll never do that. Don’t look for the things you should be doing. We have no time for that, look for one or two things that you have decided you must do. Now, the reason I brought that up is there are thousands and thousands and thousands of hard trends. There’s not like ten, there’s not like 15.

Matter of fact, you can even see hard trends when you relate it, to get this government regulation. Now, you’d say, all right, wait, how can you be right about that? We’ve got all of these Democrats and Republicans fighting with each other. How can you say that you can predict the future of regulation? And I would say, well, I skipped the parts, I don’t know. And I can’t predict because uncertainty doesn’t empower me. What can I predict? I’ll give you an example. Will we have more regulations on cybersecurity? The answer is, yeah. Why? Simple, there’s some hard trends at play that politicians can’t ignore, there’s other things they can debate. So I want a list of things I am certain about instead of the things I’m not certain about. I want the things that I can do, not the things that I can’t do.

And remember, technology is letting us do things that were impossible just two years ago. One other reason, I’m excited about the future, and boy, I am excited about the future. Even with all the problems we got, why am I excited? A couple of quick things we don’t need new physics. Actually, the tools to solve every problem that’s out there, the real one, already exists. All we need is the willpower and people saying, hey, it can be better. I’m talking to all of you right now that are listening. You can do that. Secondly, I do travel around the world quite a bit. I’ve been just about everywhere except for Antarctica and the North Pole, and you know what? I have found so many bright young bulbs out there.

Now, there are some dim bulbs, but there are a lot of bright bulbs out there. These young people are not going to sit around and let everything go to hell. You know what? The opposite, they’re moving forward. They’re creating the future, creating a better future, not just for themselves, but for others. That’s what we need to be doing. So I’m more excited about shaping the future, in actively shaping it, rather than passively receiving. Rather than just predict it. Which is important to look at what you can see, what you can predict to help you innovate. Because strategy based on certainty has low risk. Innovation based on certainty has low risk and high reward. So that’s where hard trends come into play. And if we use that to create a better future for ourselves and for others, bingo.

Pamela Bardhi: I love that. Daniel. Oh, my God. You hit the nail right on the head, and I love the positive outlook on it. Because, you know, you hear so many people, doom and gloom and all of that. Just like, the way that you broke it down so beautifully, I’m just like, I’m inspired. I’m like, Daniel, I could listen to you all day, literally, you are amazing. And so much wisdom, so much knowledge, oh, my goodness.

Daniel Burrus: I’m excited about what I do

And quick questions for you before I ask you where everyone can find you and all this magic. Like, what’s up in your world in the next, like, few months. What’s going on in your realms, in your future, if you will.

Daniel Burrus: Yeah, well, I’ve got, I mean, I have a lot of things that I love to do. You know, I love nature, I love boating, I love motorcycling, I love photography, I love all kinds of things. That’s another story, perhaps, but the thing that I’m doing the next time the speech I’m doing is kind of interesting. I’m going to the third largest city in Oklahoma. The city is Lawton, and about six years ago, they were losing population. All the young people were leaving. They had no Internet connections, the city was kind of dying down. And the mayor had read one of my books, brought me in and said, help us. Help the city. So we got all the city leaders into a giant thing. I did something with them, gave them some ideas to get going.

Anyway, they’ve turned around. They’re doing amazing, they’re growing, they’ve got new multimillion dollar companies in there, they’ve got the Internet now. I’m going back to, first of all, help celebrate their successes, but more importantly, get them to the next level. Because there’s always a next level of opportunity for everyone. So that’s the one of the ones coming up, I have others like that. But as you can see, I love what I do, I’m excited about what I do. Hats off to the people of Lawton, they did the work, they are the ones that rolled up their sleeves. There’s the ones that, like you. They saw the hard trends, they actually saw the opportunity and they had certainty. And that empowered them to make bold moves.

Pamela Bardhi: Thousand percent, and that’s kind of where I feel like I’m at in my real estate development journey. In utilizing shipping containers for sustainable building and modular construction. And then, you know, also with my team, my c three team, rebuilding, green energy infrastructure. Not just here nationally, but globally as well, through battery energy storage systems and stuff. So it feels like the things that we’re talking about right now is like everyone’s like, wait, what? You know, so it’s like, like you said, looking at those hard trends or what. How you can use that predictive analysis, to, really.

And risk mitigation to move forward, so I love, I love that. I mean, everything that you mentioned today, my gosh, it’s literally mic drop Daniel on everything. You are magical. I’m just, oh, I’m just so grateful for you and just everything, everything. Like, you are just absolutely incredible, and I know everyone listening is like, where can I find dinner? Where can I find his books, where can I find everything? So if you wouldn’t mind letting everyone know where to find magic.

Daniel Burrus: Yeah, well, if you go to Burrus, it’s burrus.com. You can find a lot of blogs and things you don’t have to buy, you can download, you can find my. I’ve got an anticipatory leader learning system that you can get into that’s been an award winner. You can always go to Amazon. Look at my name, Daniel Burris, and find, for example, my latest book, the anticipatory organization. Sounds like it’s for companies, but it’s actually for individuals, too, because either you’re going to be anticipatory or reactionary. I’d like you to be a lot more anticipatory. And so those are ways that we can connect, I’ve also got, what, 1.2 million followers on LinkedIn. Join the conversation. I do a lot of giving on there because what I’m doing is sharing principles like I’ve been sharing here.

Learning one new thing a year broadens your portfolio of things

If we’ve got just a couple of minutes, I don’t know how much time we have. No, let me give you one, let me give you something, else that’s a different food for thought. This, I think, is good. Not just if you’re young, but young, is relative, isn’t it? I mean, somebody who’s 70 is young compared to somebody who’s 85. So long ago, way back when I was really young, I met a great, great grandfather who was in his late nineties. I was a very young kid in elementary school. And when I met him, I don’t remember him saying anything, I just remember he looked old. But I thought to myself, I said, you know, someday if I’m in my late nineties and somebody’s there.

I would like to have something interesting to say. So I asked myself, has he explored everything that he was capable of doing because he’s in his late nineties? And I kind of thought to myself, well, probably not, I don’t think mom has, I don’t think dad has. Don’t know if my uncle, maybe nobody has. I’d like to find out what’s inside, so it took me a little while because I was in elementary school. When I was in my early twenties, I started a path which I’ve stuck with. Here’s what I did, I decided every year I’d learn one new thing. Every year I take a class, I’d learn one new thing. Now, the goal, to be world class at it. No, I want to learn this, so one year I learned how to do photography.

One year I got into filmmaking, one year I learned how to dance, one year I learned how to cook. One year I learned how to do fancy dives off a diving board, one year there was an open mic. On Thursday nights at a comedy club, and I challenged myself because I knew I could make my buddies laugh. Could I make an audience I didn’t know, laughs, I did that. A lot of them were really a stretch. And I discovered so many things, so when you said, what do I like to do? I have a lot of things I like to do. Because that was decades and decades and decades ago. It broadens your portfolio of things that you know and can appreciate and can do.

I play a dozen musical instruments because why? Well, they were on the list that I did. So maybe think about this as you’re listening, I don’t care what your age is. Maybe learning one new thing a year, your choice. Do you need a big list ahead of time? No. Here’s a hint. Those things will find you. Because if you know that you’re going to be learning something new next year. You’re already in the back of your mind kind of looking for it, and it will find you. You don’t need a big list. All you got to do is decide, I’m going to learn one new thing, and I’ll tell you right now. It’s pretty amazing what that does for you.

Pamela Bardhi: Amen. Oh, my goodness. Danielle, I’m totally with you on all, it’s like, your mindset is just, it’s just amazing. The way that you articulate everything is so beautiful. And I’m like, I’m sitting here taking so many notes myself because I’m like, man, I got to write a. There’s so much wisdom here. Like, oh, my goodness. No, I absolutely love that because you just never know. I mean, one of the best analogies that I’ve ever learned was about your muscles, right? When you work out, your muscles get sore. Why do they get sore? Because they’re stretching, and that’s how they form into muscle. So, like, if you don’t stretch them and feel that soreness. I’m like, okay, all right, we’re going to keep going.

That’s growth, right? If you don’t challenge yourself to that workout to learn. Okay, let me try this one, I don’t know. I don’t know if this bicep workout or whatever is gonna work out, but let me just try it, right? Then you’re sore the next day, you’re like, oh. You’re like, well, actually, I’m starting to tone up, you know? So it’s like, it’s almost like, you know, it’s like learning something new. And just all of this compiled together is absolutely amazing. Because, again, you know, that’s one of the biggest things that everyone freaks out about is uncertainty. But in the way that you break it down, it makes it so much more approachable.

Daniel Burrus: Yeah, and based on what you were just saying a few seconds ago, think of this. If the body is the temple of your mind, the bad news is you can’t move. The good news is you can renovate, so the body wants to be healthy, I don’t care how old you are. Your body wants to be fit. And sitting is the new smoking, the more you sit, the worse it is. So the key is, keep thinking, keep moving, and there’s lifespan, but I don’t work so much on lifespan. I like to work on health span because I like a long health span rather than just a lifespan. Because some people, the last 4568, 910 20 years. Isn’t that great, because they didn’t work on health span. Let’s commit ourselves to a long health span. All right?

Pamela Bardhi: Amen. Absolutely, and that’s the whole integration of mind, body, spirit, everything interconnected, right? Everyone thinks everything’s separate. I was just at a doctor Bruce Lipton’s event that he had here in Boston a few weeks back. And he was talking about Newtonian physics, and he’s like, energy and matter and everything. It’s like, no, there is no matter.

Everything is energy, and it’s controlled by the mind, right

Everything is energy, and it’s controlled by the mind, right? So the mind controls it all, which is exactly what you’re saying here, is the same exact thing, right? Like, the mind is the most important thing, and again, with one of the most challenging principles, which is uncertainty. The way that you break it down so pragmatically. It makes it so, like, okay, I’m not that afraid of the future now. Because I can almost kind of predict it based on the questions that I ask. Anticipatory, which is amazing.

Daniel Burrus: Exactly, and a lot of things to think about. For example, I think we’re all, all humans on the planet are connected at birth. The more we pull away from each other, the more discord and even war happens. But the more we stay connected, the better, so, you know, it’s not about disconnecting. It’s about connecting, because that’s how we started out anyway. I think that’s important. And, something I’ve been, another practice I’ve had for a long time is there’s the conscious mind. There’s the subconscious mind, there’s the super conscious mind. Conscious mind is where you tap into all global consciousness. That takes a little bit of thinking and discipline, it’s around a deeper meditation. But it’s amazing what you can do with your mind when you decide to do something with it. It is really quite unlimited.

Pamela Bardhi: A hundred thousand percent, and that’s what we’re all connected, right? We’re all one. Back to what you were saying earlier. In the subconscious mind, 95% of your programming. Conscious mind, 5% of your programming. Like, it’s your waking mind, but your behaviors are determined by your subconscious. And, I mean, it’s just, man, the mind is such a powerful tool, and the first step is awareness, right? Which is the key part of it all. But it’s incredible because this is all physics, like, looking at quantum physics. I mean, that whole, like, all of that stuff fascinates me, like, everything, because it’s science, right? You can’t refute data. Right.

Daniel Burrus: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. There’s so much discord, and so much problems that we have, especially in the United States at the moment. You know, one of the things to think about is a captain on a ship. Doesn’t say how many egos are on board, it doesn’t say how many bodies are on board. No, they say how many souls are on board. When you connect with people soul to soul, all of a sudden. And you get rid of the egos and all the other stuff, you’ll find yourself not butting heads as much. Not getting so angry. So talking of the political back and forth, all of a sudden. That kind of push goes away and you get into a much deeper, better place.

Pamela Bardhi: 100,000%. And when you understand that, you know how someone reacts to you, the react. That’s why I love when you said reactive or anticipatory is because a lot of society lives in reactive state, right? Someone says something to you, you automatically get triggered. You take it personally. But when you realize that that person is simply projecting what’s going on internally with them. Then it becomes a whole different conversation because you don’t take it personally anymore. Right, then you can go into an anticipatory state, love them where they’re at, and keep moving forward.

Daniel Burrus: Absolutely. I remember, you’re, reminding me of a quote, and I can’t remember whose it is. It’s not mine, I love it, though. Quote is, if someone’s always pushing your buttons, remember who installed them.

Pamela Bardhi: Yes. I love that.

Daniel Burrus: There’s a lot of wisdom in that. A lot of wisdom in that.

Daniel, thank you so much for your time on Underdog

Well, anyway, a wonderful, time we’ve had together. I’ve really enjoyed it.

Pamela Bardhi: I enjoyed all of this. Daniel, thank you so much for your time. You are incredible, I loved your insights, and I’m just so excited for everyone to connect with you. And read your books and tap into your insights on LinkedIn and all the things. I’m so grateful for you, my friend.

Daniel Burrus: Thank you. Same here. Take care.

Pamela Bardhi: So that’s it for today’s episode of Underdog. Catch us next week. Always dropping on Thursdays. And remember, if you’re interested in real estate or want to learn how to create more money and magic in your life. Check out meetwithpamela.com and let’s chat. Sending you so, so much love.