AI Time Journal extends the sincere gratitude towards Mr. Brian Solis , Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce for sharing with us on the varied dimensions of his journey. The first part of this interview shared earlier has focused on his ideation and passion towards the Key-note speaker and his vision towards the technology transformation. This second part of the interview with Mr. Brain Solis highlights his public speaking, motivation and his recent book named, Lifescale. Also, check on Mr. Brian’s instant replies on “Fun with your thoughts” segment.
Public Speaking
Jagan: When you are at the stage, facing people with varied ideas, what would be your thought process at that particular moment?
Brian Solis: People facing me have ideas or that they’ve been curious or that they’ve been held back in their work that they’re there because they’re looking for inspiration or motivation to unlock ideas, because they’ve been held or constrained to those rules and conventions in the past.
So when I’m at an event, I spend time understanding what are those challenges and opportunities. So that when I come to that group of people, I bring to them what it is that they’re hoping to get out of it. I don’t just come as a speaker to talk to them. I’m there to remind them that they’re there to make a difference in the world, in their work, outside of their work, because we need people to think differently.
We need creativity, imagination, originality. We need to challenge the conventions in how we work, and we can do that collectively together.
–Brian Solis
So I bring to any event, that series of thinking, my history, my own personal challenges and my own optimism for how we can all move forward together because then every event is a mission.
Lifescale
Jagan: What exactly has prompted you to write your recent book, Lifescale?
Brian Solis: Lifescale? The inspiration for Lifescale is very personal. It was my eighth book. When I sat down to write the book, what was going to be my eighth book, I struggled to find deep focus, flow, deep creativity, because my mind was constantly racing, and I would find it easy to be distracted and then I realized after deep reflection and soul, that I had a problem, that I wasn’t the same writer who wrote the last book.
So I started to research what were the causes of that? It is the technology that how it rewires your brain, body, biology etc.., and it makes you accelerate everything.
–Brain Solis
It changes your social construct to feel like you need validation and attention from everybody and everything that you’re doing. And then, you build this larger community because we measure life by how many people you’re connected to now. This is an unproductive and unhealthy path towards our own human potential. It also leaves us more prone into less critical thinking and believe anything that we see online. It’s why we see the dangers in politics and in the rise of conspiracy theories and fake news all over the world.
It’s not like I signed a term of service when I agreed to use Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or any game or any applications and I don’t sign by saying, “Okay, yes, you can change how I think.” It’s called persuasive design. So when I realized what those design techniques were, I then had to figure out how do you use design thinking to unwire the bad and rewire the good in a hybrid way.
I didn’t want to go back to just an analog life. I wanted to use technology to be more intentional. I wanted to run technology in order to grow exponentially in a new way. So that’s what led to the inspiration to write Lifescale and there was no framework for that. There was just detox, mindfulness, meditation, yoga, a lot of different applications treat the symptoms, but not, one, get to the core of the matter, and two, to rewire yourself in a new way forward. So that Lifescale became all of the research that I went into to explain where we are and how to move forward in a new way, and that became the book.
Fun with your Thoughts
Jagan: Let us have an interesting segment now “Fun with your Thoughts”. So first one goes like this. How would you propose an idea to make money from an ice cream stand near a fitness center using artificial intelligence? I know that’s a funny question, but I want to see how you put your thoughts on it.
Brian Solis: Well, I don’t know. To be honest with you, artificial intelligence operates when it has an existing data set, and we’d have to determine where we’re going to get that data set. And then how we’re going to train it to recognize patterns that give us the insights on selling an ice cream to a fitness freak. So I think that there would have to be a series of conversations or data inputs or data gathering that we would have to do before we could even open that ice cream stand.
Jagan: Okay, fine. So next one, if not the word artificial intelligence, what other name or an alternate name that you would suggest.
Brian Solis: Well, at the moment, I would really consider cognitive automation.
Motivation
Jagan: I have one last question here. Being titled by Forbes, as one of the more creative and brilliant business minds of our time, so what are the motivational elements that actually drove you to obtaining this publication.
Brian Solis: Yeah, I’ll be totally honest. I don’t know. I’m always listening and learning and unlearning. I feel like I’m a student of life and work. I am constantly assessing what’s happening and trying to share my ideas in ways that that reach the right people who can help bring together bigger ideas to life. And then, somewhere along the way, you see Forbes say something like that, or ZD Net say something or Incredible People say something, and it makes you smile, but there’s no time to just sit back and enjoy it because the ideas, I have so many things that I want to share.
And I’ll tell you the things that stop me in my tracks are when someone sends a note to let me know how my work has changed their life. That’s where I stop and smile. And that’s where you think, gosh, all of this. That’s what matters. That’s why I do this, and things like Forbes, don’t get me wrong, make me smile too. But it’s the impact. It’s seeing the impact from somebody personally that really drives me.
Jagan: Thank you so much. It is an incredible experience of me where I could get to talk to you, and I feel like you have a lot of passion towards helping people. So all your ideas transforming into a proper outcome for the people. And so that was really my vision in hosting you, in an AI Time Journal interview. So thank you so much for being on here.
Brian Solis: Thank you so much. I very much enjoyed this. Wonderful. Thank you.
