#16: Why Do Adults Allow Themselves to Get Stupid as They Age?

March 26, 2019
Driving Eureka! Podcast
Driving Eureka! Podcast
#16: Why Do Adults Allow Themselves to Get Stupid as They Age?
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Notes

[00:00:01]
The Driving Eureka! Podcast – Episode 16

[00:00:34]
Feature Article – Why Do Adults Allow Themselves to Get Stupid as They Age?

[00:01:35]
Should We Be Slowing Down or Checking Out as We Age?

[00:06:37]
Are You Just Accepting Your Culture?

[00:08:11]
Course Offerings and Shark Tank

[00:09:33]
Are You Getting Smarter Every Year?

[00:11:26]
The Driving Eureka! Book Segment

[00:11:59]
Stimulus vs, Brainstorming

[00:13:48]
Need to Learn More

[00:14:48]
Using Stimulus vs. Patent Mining

[00:16:02]
Patent Mining – A Missed Opportunity?

[00:17:27]
Doing Patent Mining

[00:19:31]
The Cost of Ignorance of Patents

[00:20:22]
Are They Teaching Patents in Engineering Schools?

[00:21:48]
80% of the Value of a Company is Intellectual Property

[00:25:18]
Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy

Always Learning as a Secret Weapon

[00:25:57]
Leaders Must Be Willing to Change All the Time

[00:32:18]
Where Doug Will Be in February

[00:34:05]
The Craft Cocktail Recipe – The Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Sour

[00:34:45]
The Secret is the Sour Mix

[00:34:57]
Step 1- Making the Sour Mix

[00:36:01]
Step 2

[00:36:09]
Step 3

[00:36:12]
Step 4

[00:36:16]
Variations of the Whisk(e)y Sour

Transcript

Tripp: [00:00:01] Welcome to the Driving Eureka! podcast where we share ideas and advice for helping you find filter and fast track big ideas.

Tripp: [00:00:14] Hi I’m Tripp Babbitt advisor to global organizations on the Deming philosophy and host of the Deming Institute podcast.

Doug: [00:00:23] And I’m Doug Hall inventor speaker teacher and whiskey maker. I’m also the founder of the Eureka ranch and author of the driving Eureka book.

Tripp: [00:00:34] This is episode number 16 of the driving Eureka podcast a feature article. Why do adults allow themselves to get stupid as they age. Question mark the Driving Eureka! book segment  we’ll be exploring stimulus and then the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy using learning as a secret weapon. And we’ll also do the craft cocktail which is the whiskey sour.

Tripp: [00:01:07] So Doug before you start in on why do adults allow themselves to get stupid as they age. I got to tell you one of the things that we used to say in our family all the time which is don’t ever call anybody stupid because the only thing that is stupidity is death. You can call them ignorant though call them stupid. With that with that set up why did you choose that particular word.

Doug: [00:01:35] Well I just don’t care about the words. I’m just I was just frustrated when I was writing this. I had seen a couple of people and. OK so I turned 60 OK. And and a number of people were talking to me because I have a number of friends who are of the same error and and most of them were pretty cool. They were talking about adventures and things they were doing but they weren’t a few people who were just talking about yeah we’re settling down we’re slowing down we’re doing this stuff I’m.

Doug: [00:02:13] And I said well I can’t do this or they were talking about you know I’m starting this crazy whiskey business and they’re like I don’t know how you have the energy to do that you know. And or I was talking about computers and it’s just you know you hear people talking and they say I can’t do this. It’s just too much or I’m too old for it and I’ve just had it. I just had it. You know I mean 15 20 years ago my grandmother took her computer class she was 88 at the time 88. She’s taking a computer class like this like you know 20 years ago. And I said I said What are you doing. And she’s like Well I don’t want to miss anything seems like computers are going to be important. That’s the attitude and attitude.

Doug: [00:03:00] You know you’re not too old to your dad as you say there. And it’s time for us to all embrace never ending learning. We’ve got to open ourselves up to learning. Life is meant to be lived and and discovered and new adventures but we have this tendency to just close ourselves down in you know and you know we take classes we tell students to try new things we tell our kids and grandkids to try things on ourselves.

Doug: [00:03:31] Oh no I don’t do that. Oh. Oh you mean a new cocktail. No no no. I don’t do cocktails. Oh I drink scotch I don’t drink bourbon. Oh. Have you tried the new single barrels. Oh no no. Don’t drink them. Get over yourself. You’ll be missing a whole lot of this stuff.

Doug: [00:03:47] So I was I was you know I don’t know if it was a reaction to to the the my birthday or whether it was just a general sense of my grandmother speaking to me. But it’s time for us to not allow ourselves that as we age to just not do. I mean the Internet’s amazing science is making new discoveries. Let’s get involved.

Tripp: [00:04:14] Mm hmm. There’s you know we’ve we touched upon this a little bit before you know on this frustration of it and some of it is perpetuated I think by TV ads you know have you saved enough for retirement or you’re going to be retiring soon you know. And that has a totally different operational definition for I think you and I than it would for most people. You and I and you know we talked about this before too. I think organizations kind of beat you down and that’s one of the things that I like about the driving Eureka book and innovation engineering is the fact that not only is that a renewal of the company but it’s a renewal of a person being able to go through and you know new ideas Spark Energy that they in essence give you a reason to sit there and say wow you know this has got this is something new and different. And it keeps me you know it keeps me energized and keep keeps me going and you know I’m hoping that people aren’t taking that attitude.

Tripp: [00:05:22] Well I’m going to retire now and I think a lot of it is people just got beaten up so much from working in boring organizations for a number of years and they’re tired of getting beaten up and I can’t wait to get out of here.

Doug: [00:05:35] Hey I. My last three or four years at Procter and Gamble a very conservative company. You know proper and prudent organization. I don’t think the organization makes you that way. You accept that. Mm hmm. I mean I I push the edges. I mean I had a team and we we would just push the edges with things and what we found is we could do more and more and more. I mean they put out a rule that said there’s gonna be casual Fridays so you can imagine this back in the old days you wouldn’t have to wear a suit. I remember I remember that time at Procter and Gamble were where a buddy of mine got sent home because he had a sport coat on. Not a suit coat you know like going Jesus. This is a baby suit a. And so. So they decide they’re gonna have casual Fridays you know but there will be no jeans or sneakers. So now of course I like jeans and I like sneakers. And.

Tripp: [00:06:33] You I just don’t like shoes.

Doug: [00:06:37] So what I did was I was running the invention team at the side and I figured if you looked like a duck it walks like a duck. You were a duck. But if you look different than you are different. And we’re talking about you know entrepreneurial rapid testing fail fast real cheap real fast cycles. And so I told my team I said No you don’t wear suits. We don’t do that stuff. And I said but let’s follow this rule. They said no jeans or sneakers on Fridays. I said OK got it. OK. So start Monday through Thursday we wear jeans and sneakers from today because it was only during Memorial to veterans you know Labor Day for some reason in the equinox. That was the time he or should be allowed to do this. And so what I did is from a royal that I wore shorts and flip flops on Friday so that I didn’t violate A true story.

Doug: [00:07:30] And you know the culture doesn’t make you that way you accept that you put that in yourself. Get up. Come on. Life’s meant to be lived. You can find in your sphere of influence. I mean that’s what we teach with our we have we have a class innovation entering fundamentals class which teaches you how to transform your world screw the rest of the system. You have a sphere of influence. Let’s get that started. Get started. Let’s do something you know let’s change our thinking let’s change how we’re working let’s work smart and let’s find new ideas and find new methods. Life is meant to be enjoyed.

Tripp: [00:08:11] Well I think this is a good opportunity to do that to you know some of the courses that are offered through Innovation Engineering whether it’s at a university or at the Eureka! Ranch offered. It’s not just for large organizations it is for learning it’s individual. We have there’s an online course that’s available for for folks to be able to take. And then it’s a you know I often think Doug you know I watch Shark Tank. I love watching Shark Tank. People come out there and I keep on thinking you know I wish they would have done some innovation engineering to be curious to see how how that would work you know. So he’s got an idea but they don’t know how to you know make it happen.

Tripp: [00:08:56] They could use the innovation engineering system as an individual and take their product idea and take it through the system and learn new skills at the same time that can be used whether they’re an entrepreneur or starting a business or they just got an idea that they want to see you know if it’ll work or taking it back to my organization their skills that their their life skills if you will of things that that that they can be able to use. And the fact that you have an online and with support that they can really develop not only the ideas but but the skills themselves.

Doug: [00:09:33] Yeah there’s no barrier. I mean you can go to a school you can come to a public session you can bring it into your company you can take it online. Okay. The only barrier is you saying I’m going to get smarter this year in 20 19 I’m going to get smarter and I’m going to learn this whether it’s in our case we’re teaching you how to think faster smarter more creatively how to get things done. Whatever it is. But what are you going to do to get smarter this year. You know I had an old thing that I used to do it and I know I mean the reason I stayed I mean say for 10 years which is kind of amazing. Now it’s the only job I’ve had and I’m unemployable in that. But I had a rule which is July 4th and January 1 I would look up and say I’m smarter than I was six months ago. And every time I was I put my head down and I just kept working and I figured I’m learning. And if you’re learning you’re growing one January I put my head up and I wasn’t. So I left. That’s it. That’s it.

Doug: [00:10:35] So are you smarter than you were six months ago. That’s a challenge if not what you can do about it because if you’re not getting smarter you’re dying you’re getting stupid. Stupid. I will say like they say in New York. ya know. So get over yourself. What are you doing to get smarter take our class if you want. OK that’s a cheese ball promotion but go for it but do something do something.

Doug: [00:11:02] Tick take a meal inspire your kids to keep learning you know walk the talk walk the talk. Do you think the future is going to be less different or more different. Duh. So what are you doing to stay up. I mean at 88 my granny was doing it. What are you doing.

Tripp: [00:11:26] All right. Well what’s been to the book segment

Tripp: [00:11:42] It’s time now for the Driving Eureka! book segment with author and inventor Doug Hall so the secret to becoming smarter as you aged commit yourself to continuous learning.

Tripp: [00:11:59] So this is good segue from our first conversation and it looks like you wanted. You talked about in the newsletter you’re talking about stimulus and we’ve talked a little bit about brainstorming versus using stimulus and maybe we ought to just do a quick review or once you do a quick review of that and then get into the deeper conversation of some of the stimulus mining mining which you really haven’t gotten into before.

Doug: [00:12:26] Yes. So you’ve got a situation whereby when you’re faced with a problem whether it’s a problem that you’re trying to solve or a problem that you need a new idea whatever it is you need. You need to open your mind. Now the classic approach to creating ideas is called brainstorming or I like to call it brain draining as you suck ideas from your head so ideas are feats of association to a more unrelated ideas connect to create a new idea. That’s the fundamental philosophy. And so what we do is we say you need to gather. We turn it into a system and we say you need to gather some stimulus and the stimulus can be of all kinds. And and I won’t go into them deeply but it can be in insights from your customers that can be competitors it can be technologies that can be future trends. It can be experiential. But you’ve got to get stuff that you have to feed into your mental food processor to do it. So you have to go out and gather stimulus. Well this is another way of saying learning you’ve got to know more. You’ve got to go out and learn and know more and you go out and you go through a process and in the driving Eureka book I go into more details about how to do this stimulus mining on a future episodes we’ll take them one at a time and do them.

Doug: [00:13:48] But what you’ve got to go gather the big print your premise this week is you’ve got to know more before you try to make the decision go out and learn more go talk to people go collaborate go to connect ask people’s opinions. Use that Google thing I’m telling you it’s gonna be big. It’s going to really be big you know go learn something then gather that information together and start to do it. And in fact our data shows we track teams when they had more stimulus and less stimulus and they created significantly more meaningfully unique ideas big ideas that literally survived a three day experience when they had more stimulus versus less stimulus. And so this learning thing is not just a crazed rant by a crazy old man. It’s a fact. Those that know more are smarter and they come up with more ideas and smarter ideas to not only new ideas but to problem solve problems that they face in their daily life.

Tripp: [00:14:48] It’s really quite amazing. As you go through some of the different types of stimulus that you go through and the one I’m not going to go through all these but the one that really stood out in my mind for whatever reason was the was the patent mining that you do the really digging in to it because it does spark ideas when you see what other people have thought about and and what they’ve done. And you have a huge emphasis on patents as far as one of the outcomes that you want from the classes whether it’s at the University or at the Ranch. And it’s this whole concept of really opening your mind to things and when you start reading as you said in one of our previous episodes about going deep this is going deep. This is really separating out what to think. Questions I’ve always had about the different types of stimulus that you have is how did how did you arrive at the at the six things that you mentioned the newsletter so the wisdom mining the patent mining to market mining insight mining future mining unrelated mining and the unrelated. It sounds like a miscellaneous category always does it.

Doug: [00:16:02] Yeah. Well it happened over time. I mean I mean originally there were four and then they became six because we split them off. And so those evolved as time went on. But speaking of the patent mining I mean think about it okay there’s millions of patents only 2 percent get commercialized because most of the time people screw it up and they either don’t communicate it well or just they don’t have the funding or whatever. So you’ve got this database of ideas that are literally new to the world because you can’t get a patent if an idea is obvious to somebody with skill in the art. So these are true inventions not fake inventions because that’s why I like to have patents as a standard whether you file or not. It’s different but I want your idea to be not obvious to somebody with ordinary skill if your idea isn’t patentable that means it’s obvious to somebody with ordinary skill and that don’t sound very innovative to me. I’m sorry. You know if you only go to all the trouble do something new you may as well own it. And and so you’ve got all these people who’ve done you get millions of patents 90 percent plus are in the public domain and when you file a patent you have to make what’s called an enabling disclosure so that somebody with ordinary skill could actually practice what you’re doing. You have to make it so you’ve got a blueprint for how to do it. Literally a blueprint for how to do it.

Doug: [00:17:27] And they’re all most of them are in the public domain. The three types of patents. Let’s just stay on the public domain one so but these ones in the public domain are free and they’re in subclasses so that you can get if you know what you’re doing or if you have good software like where our patent system is we’ve got to have the complete Patent Database and we’ve categorized it in a unique way to make it easy.

Doug: [00:17:53] But if you’ve got a system to be able to go into it with flicker systems and such things then you can literally get to the area that is very close to what you’re working on to the 20 to 50 that are right in your neighborhood real close to what you’re doing.

Doug: [00:18:09] And these things are all free and oftentimes what I find is that I can go look at those you know over the last hundred years or whatever it might be and I can look at those patents and I can see things. And you know maybe 40 years ago somebody did something and it wasn’t practical because the world changed. But if I take a piece of that with another one from ten years ago and another one from five years ago that went in the public domain I can connect something that is not obvious and create a whole new idea. I mean why wouldn’t the very first place you look when you’re trying to invent an idea be the patent databases. I mean it’s just obvious it’s absolutely obvious. Now the barrier with it is this one is the search engines are set up for lawyers not for people inventing which is why we had to build our own system for it. And the second thing is lawyers write horribly. I mean they’re just horrifically written and very hard to understand. And so that’s why we have classes that teach you the coding of legalese so you can start to understand it. But the fact of the matter is is that if you want to learn a science I mean when I’m going to see a client and it’s an area I don’t know I’ll go look at the patents they filed in their competitor’s file and I’ll sit in a room with businesspeople and I’ll say Well it’s interesting what you guys are looking at there.

Doug: [00:19:31] And most of the time the executives to look at me have no idea what you’re talking about. I said Well didn’t you see the patent that your competitor just filed. What are you talking about. I’m going. My God here we’re starting from the rookies. I mean come on folks this is not hard. It is not hard. I mean I graduated with a 2 point something in chemical engineering. I’m not a genius but I’ve got better systems learn the systems get the damn book and read it do it. You can you can make this work. You just have to know more. But if you don’t know and they didn’t teach you in school how to do it then you can’t do it. It’s as simple as that. It’s as simple as that. And I think I look at the class. I don’t care what you do just listen to a damn podcast but do something yeah.

Tripp: [00:20:22] There needs to be just a class on on the patent piece. And I think I don’t know because I’m not an engineer. You went through engineering school. I did not. But from an engineer standpoint you guys get exposed to patents I would assume.

Doug: [00:20:42] Oh no. No. No. OK. That’s stupid thing.

Doug: [00:20:46] I was I was I was at this meeting they had me speak 30 deans I mean the age of engineering schools now you know me I’m I’m a com guy. Right. So I asked how many of you teach your students what is patentable and what is not just raise your hand no one raised a hand. At that point it went very badly. I lost my mind.

Doug: [00:21:16] I said I can understand business people being stupid about patents but what justification do you have for not teaching your students what is patentable what is not. I mean are we letting the lawyers make these decisions. How much do they frickin invent. I mean this is nuts. It’s nuts. Oh by the way it didn’t turn out well. There was a reception afterwards. I was not a very popular I didn’t go so well but come on folks get over it.

Doug: [00:21:48] You know 80 percent of the value of corporations their intellectual property isn’t gonna be more technology or less technology. This is. Don’t don’t even tell me that you’re not into technology. Get over it. If you’re not into technology then OK we’ll make your health simple we’ll send your country doctor you know and they’ll bleed you to make sure you know to try to make you healthy you know Dad don’t tell me you’re not into technology. Don’t get on the plane. Don’t don’t get it. Don’t you pull up your phone. Of course you’re in technology. It’s not negotiable. We have to move forward.

Tripp: [00:22:21] Well it’s not just engineers you know and you mentioned you know you expect it from business schools. There’s one thing about Deming you know who railed against what’s being taught in business schools. You know we know how to manipulate the financials you know and how to cost everything down to the penny. But but the one thing that drives better financials is innovation and patents and we never covered it. It was not. I mean there was probably a mention in one of the classes but there certainly was.

Doug: [00:22:56] The finace people should be able to evaluate a patent to determine if it’s going to have a value to the company because it’s the biggest part of valuation. The entrepreneurship classes damn well should be teaching it. I mean and oh by the way liberal arts which is supposed to be arts and sciences. OK. There’s a science that you should teach. Maybe they don’t need you know higher in physics and maybe they don’t need biology and physical chemistry but they definitely need to know what is patentable and what is not. Who everybody needs to know this. I mean it’s fundamental. It’s going to make a difference in the world.

Tripp: [00:23:36] Yeah I think so and that’s one of the things I know you guys. Yeah. Hit it hit it pretty heavy but I’m just wondering if there. I don’t think there is presently and correct me if I’m wrong Doug but there isn’t just a patent focused it’s part it’s a segment of what you’re teaching in innovation engineering but there’s not a standalone is there.

Doug: [00:23:58] There is. There are some classes that we do on a private basis for people but there isn’t a public thing that we do. I mean companies set us up to do it for them as they’re using the software we teach them on it but it’s not you know if you bring the  are Trail Blazer software and then we’ll teach you how to do it. But right now it’s embedded this for different classes on campus that we teach across our different courses and so you know it’s a component of what we do. Okay.

Tripp: [00:24:27] All right that’s fair. Well let’s move to our brain. Oh no wait a minute. Before we move on you have a table here of me for unique ideas invented that high stimulus groups forty seven medium stimulus groups 38 low stimulus groups 22 What are you telling me there.

Doug: [00:24:50] I’m telling you is that we more than double it. So if you want to make your brain smarter you go from a 2.0 to a 4.0. OK. No not really. You got the premise. I mean it’s really simple.

Doug: [00:25:02] Nothing in your head is nothing. Having stuff in your head you get smarter. It’s that simple. So if you’re sitting in an empty room with a chart pad and saying think that’s called the suck method of creativity just spend over tissue but your body. I mean you’ve got no chance. So you’ve got to open yourself up.

Tripp: [00:25:18] All right well let’s move to the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy. This is the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy podcast where we will take you behind the scenes so you can see what it takes to build a whiskey distillery business Eureka research team led by Doug Hall are creating a craft Whiskey Company with patented technology like has never been done before Always learning as a secret weapon. How are you using learning as your secret weapon.

Doug: [00:25:57] Ok. So to get learning to become part of a culture it’s critical that the leader lead by example. You’ve got to be open to changing all the time. You’ve got to be open to changing all the time. And recently I was talking with some folks about our noble oak and our relativity whiskeys and people taste it in my car. That’s amazing. I can’t believe that. And you know they like man. How could you in just a couple of years when double gold in San Francisco ninety fives to have a double gold you know. Okay. So what’s the real secret. And these were like bourbon aficionados who basically started the conversation by saying I don’t think I’m going to like you. And at the end of this they said at the end they said they said can you make. Can I make a whiskey. And so I said they said what. What are you doing. How are you making this work. I said. It’s easy learning. We never stop learning. That’s our secret sauce. The two guys looked at me. They were like You know what do you think we’re idiots. No no. But what really is it. And I go No it’s embedded in the culture of Brain Brew and our sister company Eureka! Ranch an addiction to learning to always learn learning never ending a never ending continuous learning.

Doug: [00:27:17] And that’s just part of what we do. And as an example. So we’ve got this custom whiskey experience. It’s very cool where people craft their own whiskey. And it works and it works well and people like it. But you know Phillip and I were looking at it and we said it’s kind of clunky. It’s got to be a better way. And so we started looking for different things we could measure with different the ways we can put it together different ways people could taste it. And you know we got in a whole bunch of different things and we just messed around with them and played with them and we figured out a new way. And literally within a week we had a whole new way of helping people put their whiskey together. That was massively better. And interestingly the that same system for putting the whiskey together. We then looked at our cocktail experience where people tasting craft cocktails. And one of the problems with making cocktails is you know if whiskey costs even 25 35 40 dollars you make a cocktail it’s a pretty expensive deal and you can’t make like 20 variations like we like to make because it can get pretty expensive for somebody.

Doug: [00:28:32] And I think one of the barriers to people finding their own personal cocktail is a cost too much. And so this measurement system that we had with these little spoons and different things that we were doing what we found is we could create micro cocktails that are literally 10 percent so 10 percent the size of a regular cocktail. And then we tested that. And people could taste it and see if they liked it or not. And so you know as we say Eureka. No less waste faster crafting more options. Much easier to make and taste. And so here we’ve just all set up where the thing going a whole nother direction. And and this will be fine. And then three months from now somebody I’ll turn around Peter or Joe or Philip or David or Tory and I will look at it we’ll make something new. We’ll find another way of doing it. That’s how it happens so we live this. Anything that can be done can be read and done and be reinvented. That’s the fundamentals of our success that brain brew custom whiskey. That’s cool. So you got to get it in your culture. You got to get it in your culture never ending continuous change. That’s the key.

Tripp: [00:29:47] Ok. So. So I remember I want to bring this into the conversation because we’ve talked kind of at a high level about your custom whisk(e)y experience you know crafting your own personal whiskey and you’re mentioned in here that it was clunky and slow. So so can you give me a picture of what it was and what it is that that through learning that it’s become now oh.

Doug: [00:30:15] I’m going to in a broad sense because there’s some patent stuff that oh I don’t want a broad set our sense on the tube because it’s kind of cool. It was just the way people mixed the cocktails to the cocktails or they put their own whiskey together. It was the way they would do the blending the way people had to measure and assemble a product one way versus a new way. And so we had to change that. That’s all that’s all.

Tripp: [00:30:41] Ok. So. All right. All right. Well I didn’t want to find your secrets.

Doug: [00:30:47] I got good news on the Whiskey side his government’s back in business regarding this. The government’s back in good business and that means the TTB transfer and bond and our labels are now in theory moving forward again.

Doug: [00:31:04] Yes it has been a total shut down for all of the alcohol in America because all of our new stuff for the new year literally shut down without approvals.

Tripp: [00:31:14] So OK. So does that change the timeline for you. I mean you still can’t distill something right here at the Ranch.

Doug: [00:31:23] We we I don’t intend to ever distill stuff at the ranch.

Tripp: [00:31:27] OK.

Doug: [00:31:28] You know we will we buy spirits and we put all of our money in the aging because 70 percent of the flavor comes from the wood. Yeah. So our whole focus is time compression of the wood. I mean we’ve got to still and we we. Which we’ll use for some experiments but then we’ll take it out because they can make it faster and better quality and at a better price than we can make it. I mean that’s the reality. You know when you put it fully loaded it’s much cheaper to do well with other people so that that’s how we work it.

Tripp: [00:31:58] Ok.

Doug: [00:31:59] So so we move forward we will be. You know it all goes forward.

Tripp: [00:32:07] So what what has happened for you to be open and for from where we sit today you said you were waiting for labels and I forget what the other thing.

Doug: [00:32:18] I mean we’re open now. I’m running. Boone County. So we have another distiller that the pollos done under his license over in Kentucky. And so. So we make products there. So we’re still open but we’re not going to be a traditional I mean our whole focus is a B2B deal where we’re going to work with distillers. So I mentioned last week we’re gonna be at the ACSA the American craft spirits Association’s convention in Minneapolis February 10 11 and 12.

Doug: [00:32:50] And talking to folks we’re gonna look for a few pioneers to sign on to become part of the journey for us as we go through beta testing this this year for then expanded. But it basically allows craft distillers to make more money. It allows them to make a higher margin and not have to wait months and years for whiskey they can make a profit immediately their own product unique taste their taste there would you know which is where the real value added is put it.

Doug: [00:33:24] I should also mention that on February 24 to 26 the innovation engineering team is in New York City at the League of innovation and community colleges. We’re going to we’ll have a booth there and where we’re meeting with community college people I’m speaking to I guess fifteen hundred people doing the leadership and then we’re doing workshops on Monday but February 3 4 and 5 in February 24 25 and 26 we’re in New York City. So see us in Minneapolis see me in New York would love to connect with folks.

Tripp: [00:34:05] Okay. Very good. What. Let’s move to your craft cocktail recipe the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Sour. So I’m going to guess that this is something a little bit different than the traditional whiskey sour.

Doug: [00:34:20] Yeah. So Philip who heads our candy for us is a chef a phenomenal chef and his sour mix. So let me tell you what you don’t do for a whiskey sour is by one of those sugar concoction jugs of sour mix.

Tripp: [00:34:38] Wait a minute that’s what I do.

Doug: [00:34:40] Just toss it. Throw it away..

Doug: [00:34:45] Instead the secret to this the sour is the number one rated cocktail even among whiskey drinkers and our recent research which was which was pretty amazing. And so the key is the sour mix.

Doug: [00:34:57] And so it’s a half cup of sugar half cup of water and a quarter cup each of lime lemon and orange juice and by the way that’s fresh lime lemon and orange juice. Okay. And you do the zest from the limes lemons and oranges.

Tripp: [00:35:17] What do you mean the zest.

Doug: [00:35:18] You take a grater and take take some of the skin and get some of the zest OK.

Doug: [00:35:23] And ideally what you do is you just heat it up gently for it all to meld together and then cool it and you can filter out the zest if you want. I like to keep it in. But you can filter it out and then you can keep this in the fridge and it’ll stay for for a week or so it goes down as time goes on but it’ll still be amazing. And so this is this is something where you’ve got you know you’ve got basically you know only a half cup of sugar three quarters a cup of juices half cup of water. So it’s not overly sweet but my god the balance of the lime lemon and orange just gives you a depth that is just blow your brains out. Mm hmm.

Doug: [00:36:01] And then the cocktail is simple it’s a one to one mix. So an ounce and a half of Philip sour mix with an ounce.

Doug: [00:36:09] And a half of our relativity product.

Doug: [00:36:12] You know stir it up with some ice and garnish it with a cherry if you want.

Doug: [00:36:16] And enjoy enjoy something that is truly there is no one in the world that won’t think that this is an amazing drink. If you want to make it more whiskey forward use rye instead of you know an American whiskey a four grain type product but an amazing drink a truly amazing drink even for whiskey drinkers and whiskey drinkers can be tough because they can sometimes not like these things but this isn’t too sweet. It’s a it’s got depth I mean because bringing the three different juices and the zest in just gives you a more multi-dimensional nature to this cocktail that just makes it so much more interesting and really works with the whiskey.

Tripp: [00:37:02] Okay. And I notice that you switch step by me here. You said to add it to ice and stir it 12 times. What’s up with that.

Doug: [00:37:13] Oh I just want to keep you on toes.

Tripp: [00:37:15] Was that a typo or are you messing with me.

Doug: [00:37:17] I just want to keep you on It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.

Tripp: [00:37:23] Okay. But stir it a few times anyway. Yeah. Okay. Very good. One question I did have for you Doug on this is when you get the zest from the fruit is there a tool or something that you use to do that.

Doug: [00:37:38] Yeah I mean you’re just using a grater. I mean you can use the thin side of a box grater but usually this is some different culinary ones that you just you know you can zesters that are such things as investors. So there’s no different ways to do it.

Tripp: [00:37:53] Ok. All right very good. All right. So what do you think we might have upcoming where we may be talking about in Brain Brew.

Doug: [00:38:01] I don’t know. I mean we’re going to be we’ve got a bunch of stuff happening. I try to keep this very real to what’s what’s really happening and thinking we’ve got a whole bunch of academics coming to the ranch this week coming up.

Doug: [00:38:15] They’re going to push us with regards to learning as we expand innovation engineering to hundreds of schools to universities. I’ve got a bunch of data stuff we’re doing. We’ve got more research experiments on the Whiskey side that’s happening.

Doug: [00:38:29] And then I’ll be up at the I’ll be up in Minneapolis and obviously out of Minneapolis there’ll be all kinds of stuff in the trip to New York. We’ll also have tons of stuff. So I don’t know I don’t know. I’ll just let life come as it comes.

Tripp: [00:38:43] Very good. All right. Well we thank you for joining our show this week. And we look forward to whatever adventures Doug’s got coming for us in the weeks to come.

Doug: [00:38:55] The fundamental thing is get up get out get going. Let’s start learning and not get more stupid. So.

Tripp: [00:39:05] We’re going to end this with stupid. All right

Tripp: [00:39:12] Because we appreciate you as a listener. We are offering for limited time for things a 1 hour abridged audio of the driving Eureka book a subscription to the driving Eureka newsletter which contains weekly advice from Doug Hall on how to find filter and fast track big ideas and the newsletter Has other offers that are not made public. The driving Eureka prescription for success you answer questions and will help you assess your ability to find filter and fast track big ideas and you get advice on how to grow your ability to innovate And the last item. Access to a Doug Hall interview with a radio legend to get these offers. Go to w w w dot Doug Hall dot com forward slash podcast.

Tripp: [00:40:13] And don’t forget to subscribe To the driving Eureka podcast on iTunes.

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