Protecting what you've built, revisiting where you started, and betting on the systems that have never let you down. In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, Dan and Dean open with a riff on the strange new logic of secrecy in the internet age, where the best way to protect an idea may be to share it widely. Dan's story about a platform speaker who borrowed his Free Days, Focus Days, and Buffer Days framework without credit turns into a sharp point: the internet has made intellectual property both more fragile and more defensible at the same time. Dean connects this to his Nine Word Email and the way naming an idea is often the most durable form of ownership. Dean then pulls out journal number one, dated April 1996, thirty years ago this week, and the conversation becomes a time capsule. He walks through his early real estate licensing business, Toronto and Beyond, and how the same playbook he used then to generate leads in Halton Hills is still running today in Winter Haven, Florida. Dan reflects on his own 25-year journaling project that began after a difficult 1978, and shares that his massage therapist of 34 years recently confirmed his physical condition hasn't changed since they started. The episode closes on a larger canvas: real estate as a measure of civilization, the Louisiana Purchase at 50 cents an acre, Canadian politics, AI-driven job creation, and the quiet argument that the best protection against an uncertain future is a system that has already worked across three decades. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Dan Sullivan's Free Days, Focus Days, and Buffer Days framework was stolen by a speaker mid-presentation and the audience corrected him before he finished the sentence. Seth Godin's counterintuitive take: before the internet, you kept secrets by hiding them; now you protect them by telling everyone first. Dean Jackson's Nine Word Email became famous globally and naming it was the single act that made it impossible for anyone else to claim it. The same lead-generation playbook Dean built in 1996 for Halton Hills real estate still works today, running virtually unchanged in Winter Haven, Florida. Dan's massage therapist of 34 years told him his physical condition is no different now in his 80s than when they first started working together. For every job eliminated by AI and robotics over the next 15 years, Dan estimates roughly two new jobs will be created,most of them in the legal and regulatory pushback against AI itself. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean Jackson: Welcome to Cloudlandia. Mr. Sullivan. Dan Sullivan: Yes. And AI will know about this call. Probably never. Dean Jackson: Probably Dan Sullivan: Never. It'll be scandalized. It'll be confused. Dean Jackson: Yes. This is the closest to analog. It's like, how did those spies meet in the trip down to our bathing suits neck deep in the ocean, having no wires, nobody listening. That's what Dan Sullivan: We're Dean Jackson: Having right now. Dan Sullivan: Yeah. There's a great story about Reagan, President Reagan. And when he got in, there was a particular situation where it was very clear that the Russians, the Soviets at that time, Dean Jackson: Were Dan Sullivan: Stealing American secrets. Dean Jackson: Very sneaky. Dan Sullivan: And Reagan had an interesting response to it. He said, "You know what we ought to do? Every so often, maybe every six months, we should collect every single secret in the United States and put them in 747s, cargo planes, 747 cargo planes, and fly them all to Moscow and dump them on the runway and fly off. And every six months we just dump all our secrets on the runway." He said, "The sheer confusion that that will cause will destroy the Soviet Union in a matter of a couple of years." Dean Jackson: That's funny, isn't it? Yeah. There's something interesting. Yeah. It's so funny, right? The things that we want to keep secret seem to be more desirable than the things we're willing to share. It's so- Dan Sullivan: Yeah. Just share everything. The way to destroy them. Actually, Seth Godin had a great line. He said, "Before the internet, the way to keep a secret secret was to keep it secret." Dean Jackson: Yes. Dan Sullivan: He says, "The way after the internet to protect your secrets is tell everybody your secret." Dean Jackson: Yeah. Oh, Dan, I can't tell you. So how many times the ... I created this thing called the nine word email. And the best thing I did was name it. And it's become known everywhere. And everybody who tries to present that idea as an original or as a, "Hey, here's this thing I've been working on. " Every single time in the comments is, "Oh, that's Dean Jackson's idea or that. " But predominantly, most people start out with the, "Here's an idea I learned from Dean Jackson." And then they talk about the nine word email. Dan Sullivan: Yeah. Well, I had a similar experience with the entrepreneurial time system, which is free focus and buffer days. So There was a very famous platform speaker. This is probably 1995 and he's in, I think it's somewhere in Texas, I think San Antonio, and he's giving a talk and it's to financial advisors. It's to mainly real estate and financial advisors, couple thousand in the audience. And he said, "I want to tell you about my time system. I've created this new time system." And he says, "It's called Free Days Focus Days and Buffer Days." And the words were not even out of his mouth and about 10 hands come up and people stand up and said, "That's not your time system, that's Dan Sullivan's time system." So I have spies in the audience and we immediately get phone calls afterwards telling us about this event, this situation. And about a week later, I get a phone call from the speaker himself and he said, "Boy, you have a bunch of pit bulls for clients." And he tells me the whole story and I don't let on that I know the story. I don't let on at all. I just say, "Oh, that's interesting." And I said, so he tells me about it and he says, "Who knows where ideas come from?" And I says, "Well, I'll give you a phone number. It's my IP lawyer and he'll tell you where this idea comes from." Yeah, Dean Jackson: I'll tell you Dan Sullivan: Where Dean Jackson: This one comes from. Dan Sullivan: Exactly. I don't know about other God origin ideas, but I can tell you where this one comes from. And he says, "Well, I'm really sorry about this. " He said, "I don't want to be in your bad books." And I said, "Well, you're not ... " I said, "Well, you're not in my bad books, but let me ask you a question. How did the rest of the speech go? Dean Jackson: " Exactly. Yeah, that's funny. Threw him off his game for sure. Dan Sullivan: And I said, "If there's 2000 people in the audience, those 2000 people are going to tell, each of them is going to tell 50 other people about what just happened." So I said, "I don't know what your marketing strategy was here, but I said, I don't think it's going in the direction you wanted it to. Dean Jackson: " Right. That's so funny. And now it's really ... It is interesting that everything now is kind of, we have this public record of the internet, like when somebody talks about something on a podcast that's timestamped or posts about it or publishes something and now on the blockchain even, like what Carrie Oberbrunner is doing with the instant- Dan Sullivan: Instant Dean Jackson: IP of just putting something up and at least, I don't know whether it's been tested or held up. But you look at it either way, it's certainly, it's a level of protection that has not been available. Exactly. Dan Sullivan: And the whole thing is that all IP law is based on timing who did it first. It's not who created it first, it's who applied for intellectual property first. Dean Jackson: Yes, exactly. Stick their claim to it. And that's where, kudos to Carrie for thinking that through and using a new technology of the blockchain to be able to instantly ... I mean, it's the digital equivalent or a much improved thing of mailing something to yourself with a registered letter and not opening it. That's a really ... Dan Sullivan: Yeah, that actually works. Yeah. That actually works. Yeah. I mean, a lot of people, I said that here's the thing, you got an idea, make a copy of it, put it in a letter, go to the post office and register the letter and have it sent to yourself and don't open it, don't open it. I mean, you can write on the outside of the letter what it relates to so you know which one. And if you present this in a legal situation, it will be accepted as timestamp proof. Dean Jackson: Exactly. Yeah. So I think that's pretty great. Now that's where we're headed there. I had something very interesting. Dan Sullivan: Can I mention something? Sure. If you're willing and we'll receive a communication, Kathy Davis, of Strategic Coach, would like to talk to you about actually being the chairperson for a panel at CoachCon. Dean Jackson: Oh, okay, perfect. I love it. That would be Dan Sullivan: Fantastic. Yeah. So I'll tell her this, I'm looking at my watch right here, it's 11:09 and on Easter Sunday that I actually passed on the word that you will receive a communication tomorrow Dean Jackson: From Dan Sullivan: Kathy Davis. And I just want to establish this proof that I actually passed out the message. Dean Jackson: Okay. Yeah, there we go. Timestamped. 11:10. Dan Sullivan: Timestamped. Dean Jackson: 11:10 AM, Eastern Daylight Time. Yeah. Dan Sullivan: Yeah. So if you get a communication from her, when you get beyond noon tomorrow, you will know what it's all about. Dean Jackson: Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's coming up less than 60 days, right? Till Coach Kong. That's exciting. So I was looking, Dan, today, April 5th, yesterday was the date of the first entry in journal num
