Sustainable Agriculture, Failing Forward while Leaving a Legacy, with Jonathan Pickering

What if failure isn’t the problem… but the path forward?

In this episode, Jonathan Pickering shares how bold thinking, resilience, and sustainable innovation are shaping the future from agriculture to advanced technology.

From building with his hands to leading cutting-edge R&D, Jonathan breaks down what it really takes to move ideas forward when you don’t have all the answers. This conversation is about thinking bigger, learning faster, and building solutions that actually matter both today and for generations to come.

If you’ve ever doubted your next step or felt unqualified to go after something bigger, this episode will challenge you to rethink failure and lean into growth.

About Jonathan Pickering

Jonathan Pickering is the Co-Founder of OmniForge Dynamics and co-owner of Myrkheim Customs. His background spans management, leadership, and entrepreneurship, with a focus on building practical, engineered solutions from the ground up.

At OmniForge Dynamics, he leads the development of SolVita Gardens, a modular controlled-environment agriculture platform designed to strengthen food security on Earth while advancing systems that can scale into space-based applications. His work sits at the intersection of infrastructure, agriculture, and emerging space technologies, with a strong emphasis on reliability, performance, and real-world scalability.

Jonathan believes innovation should be both visionary and executable creating solutions that are not only forward-thinking, but operationally sound and commercially viable.

Connect with Jonathan

Jonathan Pickering
Co-Founder, OmniForge Dynamics
Email: jonathan.pickering@omniforgedynamics.com
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-pickering-73b088198

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Unapologetic Leadership. If you felt stressed, overwhelmed, wrestling with the imposter syndrome, wondering if you're just not good enough, then this podcast is for you. So here's your host, Corey Dunham.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Welcome to another episode of Unapologetic Leadership, where I have an amazing guest, Jonathan Pickering, who is the CEO and CTO of Omniforge Dynamics, Technologies, Energy, and Materials R D. Welcome, Jonathan.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Hi there, and thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Yes, you are most welcome. So tell us about what you do and how you impact the world.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

So what I do and how I impact the world is I started out as a builder. I used to be in the fabrication and later started our like started my first company where we did fabricating of hidden compartments throughout households. And my business partner and I decided we wanted to impact the world further by helping create the technology needed for tomorrow's world.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Cool. And then Oh yeah, continue on.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Oh, I was just gonna follow up with that. It was gonna be more that's what brought us to research and development and engineering the new technologies, such as sustainable agriculture, safety devices, and materials at RB.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Very nice, very nice. And so why sustainability? What made you kind of go in that direction?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

At this point, I was kind of led there. It was more along the lines of what is the world in need of? And every time I looked at the world, it was constantly what's the word I'm looking for here, lacking that kind of sustainability that you would kind of hope for when it came to, for example, safety technologies, right? That was kind of my big start was with our safety, like our wearable safety device. It came down to my mother has MS and she doesn't live in the same area I do. And if something happened to her, how would I know and how would first responders know? And so that kind of created the idea of sustainability in uh safety tech. And then from there, my business partner and I, we decided to move into well, what about the future of agriculture? What about the advancements into space technology? And then we really got into deep diving it, and we realized that there are people in the world that don't even have access to that type of sustainability.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Yeah, that's a huge thing for me when it comes to uh, like you said, for farming. I thought about that even years ago, decades ago, when they've started talking about there's less and less farming available. We're producing more of that agriculture and food through science. And when you heard some of the things that weren't so great about producing things through science and they're not as natural, if we're not keeping them that way, then there's always some type of either fallout, repercussion, or some type of a disadvantage that many times people aren't sharing with you. So I I appreciate the whole idea of sustainability, as we were given this planet, the greenery, the land, all these different types of things to to manage and take care of. And if we destroy it or we're just not being ethically responsible, then that's a huge thing. And once something's gone or extinct, as we've seen, many animals have happened with animals that I mean they're gone. You can't necessarily at this point in time regenerate them and that and them being as normal as possible, or as natural as possible. So yeah, I appreciate that sustainability. Yeah. Yeah. And then as you started going down these different areas of, like you said, space technology and farming, that's kind of a huge jump in in a couple of different ways, not necessarily. But I I love it. I love it though, because that's I'm like, ooh, this is this sounds very intriguing and all that. So does that mean you have to have a lot of knowledge in both of these different areas, or do you partner with other powers that be that are involved in these industries, if you will?

SPEAKER_01 4:52

There is definitely a lot of knowledge in both fields that is required, but like any other well-maintained structure, it requires multiple parts. So in our case, multiple partnerships with everybody down the line that is required kind of in that secession, right? Like, so for us, we're building that agriculture, but we're not building the rockets to be able to push humankind forward. So it does require the partnerships as well as the knowledge of well, if we're gonna build here on earth, let's engineer for space because space has the hardest environment to grow in, right? Between radiation, lack of gravity, everything that has been given to us here on planet Earth, we take for advantage when it comes to space. And so we engineered with that in mind, and then reverse engineered so that we could have most the most optimal method of growth going forward, whether it be reducing the amount of impact we do on the climate, like on the earth itself, or even reducing the amount of waste we have when it comes to what is traditional farming?

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Yeah, yeah, I think that's pretty cool. The now, when you've navigated these different directions of going into these different areas to help with sustainability or improving how things work, have there been areas where you felt unqualified that you felt, ooh, this is an area we're definitely not as familiar with, but have you felt that you've been unqualified, but somehow you've made some decisions or moved forward while you felt that way?

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yes.

unknown 7:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Or is this a right on a regular basis? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Or is this when you're jumping into from just building, like to build sustainable agriculture here on earth, there's its own headaches and stuff like that, but it does have more of a streamline avenue to it. But when you start to add in new factors, like putting sustainable agriculture in a desert, you start to realize like you you break it down and you realize, like, oh, there's microparticles as there's sand. And so then you're like, oh my god, I'm over I'm over my head in this one, and then you're trying to figure out different filtration systems, and you're breaking down your entire system again in order to figure out the little things that you didn't think about before. So for me, a lot of it comes to the whoops, we didn't think of that, but let's learn about it.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

So kind of reframe and uh readjust and but still keep moving forward with this, not necessarily, hey, let's pull back, but let's learn more and see what we can find out.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

I don't like going backwards. I'm very much a forward person.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

I like that. I like that. It sounds like a maverick, you know, somebody who's out there in the front and willing to take some of the heat in terms of the challenges, the unknowns. And and I want to ask you, how do you stay aligned with your values or vision when the pressure is on in this case? Where you've kind of invested so much.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Yeah, I think a lot of it comes down to the I want to do what I would hope my son would do and what others would do, and push humanity towards that sustainable future. And so that is my value in the hopes of like that level of kindness. Like, I understand the the aspects of business, and I understand that structure has to be in place, but on that same note, it's like what can business offer humans and humankind and us as a society and a culture to be not just better, but yeah, I'd say to be better, right? Like to be better is people, and so that's just one of my core values is what is it we can build for tomorrow that will make it better for everyone.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

Yeah, so I'm hearing since you mentioned your son too, I'm hearing legacy and future forward focus, not just for what we can have, but leaving this place, a better place or a better world behind us rather than taking from the future generations.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Very much.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's really cool. Yeah, I talk about that a lot and I coach on that of having a lasting lasting, I almost said lasting impression, lasting legacy and lasting fulfillment, because I feel that we're not just put here on this earth to just take care of ourselves and only look very closely at our family or friends, but the fact that we're here to really impact and improve. And really, I look at it as serving is the gift I've been given from my faith as a Christian, that God says, Hey, serve and love your neighbor as you love yourself. And if we all did that, I think the world would be so much different. Because most people don't treat themselves poorly. So if we love our neighbors or serve others as we love ourselves, then that that's a powerful strategy. And I can see that and hear that from what you're saying here. So are there any things that you're working on right now that are either exciting or new that you're currently looking to achieve in terms of some of the technology or advancements you are a part of?

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Currently on the newer side, we do have a couple of extra, what we're gonna call like RD secrets we're working on at the moment. We have we have our Silvita Gardens, which is our that's our flagship. That's we are trying to, we are working 24-7 trying to get that to the world at a faster pace than what most engineering companies would try to get it out, right? I've had a few people tell me it's all like well, this could take two to three years, and I'm an optimist where I'm all like we could do it in less time. The world needs it before two to three years. And so we got that. We have our website coming up here. We'll probably have our website published within the next two to three months, so people will be able to see a little bit more about who we are, what we do, some of the extra RB projects we're working on. And from there, that that pretty much sums it up. A lot of our, I wouldn't want to say a lot of our eggs are in the one basket at the moment, but we're putting a lot of effort into the sustainable agriculture side of our RB right now.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that a lot of things, as you're saying, take a lot of resources, time, collaborations, all different types of things. And it's not always easy because everybody's it seems like they're pressed for just how they spend their time, their priorities, and everybody trying to work together to achieve things. But I know it's difficult at times, and I I can't imagine a being an engineering firm. I've never done that, but we've had engineering clients in the past and have worked with them and how exact and specific things need to be. It's not just, hey, you know, we're close and these are some random outputs. Measurements need to happen, and you need to be very accurate in a lot of the outcomes that you have. I can appreciate it from that standpoint, I but I can't imagine how challenging it is to have, like you said, potentially a two to three year prospect of having something come out. Um that's quite a bit. And I know you said you started off, right? Uh working in like a what type of shop?

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Uh I started off by working in like hands-on fabrication. Yeah, I fabrication, yes. Yep. So that's where my journey started was with hands-on fabrication and welding and blacksmithing. And then from there, I moved it into a company where we built secret components for homes, secret drawers, doors, yeah, different types of spaces like that. And then from there, my my business partner, who he's more of our he's our engineer brain, he's the one who kind of encouraged me to take my optimism and drive and apply that towards future technologies. And so together now we're engineering and creating the technologies for tomorrow, while at the same time trying to stick to stick to our our ethos and our values in what should be and kind of when it should be.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Yeah. And then going back to the hands-on fabricating, that just means it's not machine fabricated. Is that what I'm hearing?

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Very much.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Okay. All right. And basically what I'm getting at is the, as you said, basically the drive that you've had. And the kind of a slower process if you're doing things by hand. Because I know for me, I used to, back when I was younger, I was hands-on with um, I love the idea of building computers and tinkering. I've also had motorcycles and almost everything I've had growing up. I'm like, I love to fix them, tinker, get my hands on all that stuff because it's brought a deeper meaning, I guess, to that experience. Not only did I ride the motorcycle or the remote control airplanes that I used to build and then fly, put all the components together, the Balsawood kit, and then try to fly it afterward. I'm like, oh my gosh, this actually flies, you know, and I actually built it with my own hands. That was such a cool experience. But it took time. It took time, but I I didn't you kind of grumbled a little bit, but then you felt just so much a part of it, and you got so much out of it. So I can kind of see that from you having that experience early on and learning that not everything is a split second result. You know, things aren't gonna happen like a microwave, yeah, versus cooking on a fire or campfire. It's gonna take much longer. But a microwave, an instant this, instant that, people want that in our culture today. So I appreciate the just the long-term view, the drive, and just taking your time and truly wanting to have that quality output. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Yeah, no, it's a very, yeah. The building hands-on has taught me what it taught me was that when you start with your hands on the project rather than just your mind on the project, you actually wind up putting a lot more love into it. And I'll use that word, right? You put a lot of love into that project, yeah. And that's when like when it's complete, like you were saying, like it's a the feeling is way different than when if you were just a machine it and it's done.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Yeah, you're putting your whole heart and soul into it, yeah. Yeah, I think that's I think that's pretty amazing. And uh, I resonate with that, just like when I was younger too, I it was surprising, but I've always been into kind of fast things, like I said, motorcycles, video games, you know, pa pa pa, all this other stuff. But then when I would go fishing, I'm like, it's the weirdest thing, but I somehow I like fishing, and I usually never catch anything because I didn't know how to fish. But just being out there in nature, being out there in nature and just taking my time, being a part of God's creation, just being in the moment, not rushing through things, but I think that physically immersed me in the different areas that I had to realize, hey, slow down, Corey, and you'll get more smelling of the roses, right? You just go from point A to point B, point A to point B. Never smelled the roses, never had much detail, clarity, or depth. And then I've had to learn that over most of my life. Yeah, I think that's really cool. Now, where do you see yourself maybe in five or ten years from now? You know, sustainability, space, farming. Do you see yourself or have any big goals or pictures which you'd like to get into down the road or where you see yourself potentially?

SPEAKER_01 18:42

For myself, I'd like to see myself as a contributing member to the future. That's what the best way I'd put it. In the next five, I'd call it five years, I would really like to see myself on kind of like that roster of people who've contributed positive to the future over being one of those people who've just contributed in the sense of like another platform, right? I'm not looking to create more more what is it? Kind of like stagnation, right? I would really like to see I would like to encourage more people to actually take that same leap that I did, even if you don't know where you're where to start, and it seems scary. I would really like to be one of those people to encourage others to take that same leap because you never know who has a great idea until you've actually talked to them. I've talked to some people, I've had an apprentice in the past who his ideas were magnificent, and I constantly was telling him, like, hey man, like start doing this, do it for yourself, like do it for the people around you, right? Find a way to not just make your life better using this idea, but make their lives better with it too. And now he's one of my regular fishing partners. Awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

That's pretty funny. But I think it's cool because some of the concepts that you're not necessarily saying this person's younger than you, you didn't say that, but I just thinking back of reaching back to the next generation, so to speak, and even just other people, like you said, just having conversations and sharing ideas. But especially that that next generation coming up, many of them don't have the kind of mentoring that maybe we've experienced back a couple decades ago or 40 years ago for me, and how much that means to have both intergenerational knowledge and wisdom being passed along and shared because we're in the same space. Whereas now, because of social media, most of us are many times are independent or by ourselves, interacting with what's up there, but it's kind of antisocial in many different ways and doesn't foster the same kind of direct conversation that you're talking about having, or the interaction if we're in the same room. So I I appreciate that sharing of knowledge because there's so many people I think of just like the TV shows, the reality TV shows, like the I can't even think of them now, America's Best, this or that, or The Voice, all these different ones that it showcased a lot of these people who are great entertainers and singers. But the whole idea is that a lot of people nowadays are found through either YouTube because they're doing their own thing and now the world can see it much easier, or they're being showcased on one of these shows and people can see them. But otherwise, we wouldn't know how much talent truly exists in the world, both whether you're an engineer or you're a designer of some sort or entertainer, whatever it is. But my whole point on this is that back before all this was available, or before TV was available. Most people just sing in the shower. And most people didn't know that there was this great talent out there or this great inventor. So I think it's cool how nowadays our culture, you can see a lot more because of these different platforms. But I say what you're doing, even just having conversations with people and sharing ideas, and it's amazing the things that can be created only because two people came together or a new idea that's sparked that was never even thought of. And now it's like, wow, that's another interesting pursuit. And if it in your case applies to sustainability, it's future focused and has vision to it. That might be something where it's like, ooh, that might be a big shift to something. So yeah, I appreciate your uh your willingness and interest to invest time and having conversations with people.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Yeah. It was uh that that's a trait that was passed down through for sure through my grandfather and father, very much where they they would I would see it all the time where they would never say no to an idea from me. It was you know where the tools are you know where the tools are, go try it. Worst case scenario is you fail and you've learned one way not to do it.

unknown 23:24

Right.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Yeah. Because I remember the story of that's how Thomas Edison was in creating the light bulb. I think 10,000 failures, and basically he knew 10,000 ways that didn't work. So he was getting closer and closer, if I'm getting that right.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Something like that. Yeah, it was like a thousand or ten thousand. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

Yeah. Yeah, what are yeah, a lot. And most people probably have less than a dozen and say, Oh, I'm done, or somebody else discourages them. Well, maybe this is not your thing. So I appreciate that. Them fostering that, your grandfather and dad, fostering that in you. And I think we need more of that. Just the willingness to have people go out there and try things, develop their own confidence, and realizing, yeah, when you go out there and fail, it's not really failing, it's just really a learning experience. And what do you do with that data? What do you do with it? I think that's great. Yeah. I know in a lot of my leadership training, I talk about self-leadership. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Self-leadership first. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. We're just talking about self-leadership and working on your own confidences and developing your own, you know, your own identity and who you are and that foundation first. And then that's going to also help whenever you interact with anybody else to be able to imbue upon them the idea of having taking bold moves, developing your own confidence, learning, self-developing, constantly be on a path of learning. Because I thought once I got done with college, I got my bachelor's degree, and I was like, okay, I'm done learning. But as I started hanging around other mentors, business owners, fantastic people who were great at both their personal side of life, their family, their faith, but also great in business. They taught me this holistic approach that you're never done learning. You are you're always learning. And I was like, oh, I thought I was done reading books because I couldn't stand it. And I had a challenge reading too. But as it turns out, I don't know that I've ever finished a book through high school or college. It was basically the year after when I got involved with some other business people that I finished my first book ever in a nonfiction book. And I've read since then, since it's been a good 40 years now, I've read, actually, has it 30, maybe 30 something years. Yeah, just under 40 years. Uh I finished so many books, learned so many great concepts, have learned and grown all because I was willing to just take that step forward and say, yep, I'm not done learning yet. I I haven't learned everything. And especially nowadays, with all the tech and how fast it moves, that's also uh a pretty impressive thing right now. I know a lot of people talk about AI and different things or technology. Is there anything that really affects what you're doing in terms of sustainability or use the use of AI?

SPEAKER_01 26:27

I'd say that actually, as tech develops, it actually pushes us more towards our goal in sustainability. The development of AI has actually allowed us for the ability to put what we're calling eyes on the plants. And it will it's gonna be a huge help for like not everybody's born with a green thumb. I understand that as a person with a mother who can she can grow a rainforest. Yep, no, yep, I uh my mother could grow a rainforest, but I struggle, and so we've developed the eyes on the plant system with AI to allow for essentially that almost like an artificial green thumb. Right? It's paying attention to when there might be like a leaf mold growing or some sort of disease happening, and then our AI system will actually teach you, less of a, oh, I'm gonna do it for you, but more of a hey, this compartment and your basil needs to be trimmed because of this, and then you need to let it grow for another five weeks. So it's very much the we're utilizing that tech that is coming out at the speed it's coming out, but we're utilizing that tech to help teach people the resources needed in order to help with sustainable agriculture.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

I think that's amazing, amazing use of technology to teach people instead of taking everything over from people.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

I'm trying to remember the exact story. There was like uh there was a story I was told back in the day where it's very much along the guidelines of if you teach people how to use the tools needed, humanity can essentially carry on. But if you just use the tools for them, after you're gone, they will struggle.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

Yes, we've very I've heard that in a different way of Yeah, I was just gonna say the whole idea of if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a day. I'm sorry, if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Yeah, no, I think the story was very similar to that one. I I think the like the derivative is similar in the sense of like my mine came from my grandfather, I must have been five when he was teaching me carpentry stuff, and very much was like the reason he taught me how to use the tools was if you teach how to use the tools, it will continuously be passed on. But if you are the person who uses the tools, once you're gone, that's it. Everybody will pick up a hammer again and be like, how do I use this? And so my business partner and I decided it's all like, well, all this future tech is coming out from robotics, AI, nanotechnology, and even space travel going forward here right away. We are all watching as the Artemis 2 is about to launch here in the next couple of months. And we want to see people take that and learn to use it as a tool for the future rather than rely on it as a parent now. I think that's the best way to put that.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

Yeah, no, I I I hear you. I think I like that, as you say, sustainability and teaching a forward-thinking future. Otherwise, we're gonna have a bunch of people who are truly incapable of doing hardly anything, and decision-making skills are gonna go down, all kinds of things. So we need to still exercise those muscles and still share valuable information, once again, that's future focused and not just only focused on the present. So I think that's great. And one last question I had for you is what do you feel could be one of the best leadership learning lessons that you've ever had?

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Don't be afraid to fail. That would be the epitome of my leadership lessons would be don't be afraid to fail. In fact, I encourage failure. Fail as many times as you need to. Because eventually you'll come around and you'll find what is your perfection.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

I love that lesson. I love that lesson. And that lesson, too, also builds in resiliency or resilience for people to keep trying and don't give up and have that long-term focus. So I appreciate that. Well, thank you so much, Jonathan, for just sharing your gifts, your skill sets, everything here. I've got a lot of lessons that I've learned from this. And what's the best way people can get in contact with you?

SPEAKER_01 31:39

The best way right now would be through my LinkedIn channel. And in the next couple of months, right after that, would be come and visit our website, take a look at what we're doing, and contact us through there.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

Okay, and if you could spell your name Jonathan, because there's a bunch of different ways in your last name, and also to your website if you can spell that out too. Yeah. If you're not available yet, if you're willing to share it.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

My name is Jonathan Pickering, J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N. Pickering's P-I-C-K-E-R-I-N-G. And the website that isn't operational yet, but it will be coming up in the next two to three months is Omniforged Dynamics.com.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

No worries. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

You're welcome. And I want to thank you for listening to this episode of Unapologetic Leadership, where it's important to focus on sustainability, a future vision, making and leaving this world a better place than when we found it. And one of the biggest leadership lessons is don't be afraid to fail.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

So that's it for today's episode of Unapologetic Leadership. Head on over to wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week that posts a review on Apple Podcasts or iTunes will win a chance the grand prize drawing to win a$25,000 private VIP day with Corey Dunham himself. So head on over to Unapologetic Leadership Podcast dot com and pick up a free copy of Corey's gift. And join us on the next episode.