This is Your Dressed Rehearsal-You Have Nothing to Lose (CFFL 0050)
This is Your Dressed Rehearsal-You Have Nothing to Lose
Jack Butala: This is Your Dressed Rehearsal Nothing to Lose. Why We Can Afford to Give Land Away Every Month. Every single month we give away a property for free. It’s super simple to qualify. Two simple steps. Leave us your feedback for this podcast on iTunes and number two, get the free ebook at landacademy.com, you don’t even have to read it. Thanks for listening.
Jack Butala: Hey, this is Jack Butala for Land Academy. Welcome to our Cash Flow from Land Show. In this episode, Jill talks about the concept of a dress rehearsal but in terms of success and in our case in the land flipping success and the success of our members. Jill, I love this concept. You execute what you’ve learned but you’re not really in front of an audience yet so if you fail, does it really matter? It matters but it doesn’t matter.
Jill DeWit: It matters. Just like it was I know days ago that we came up with this topic and I think it stemmed from some of the stuff that I’m doing on the side is how we tied it all together. I think I was just trying to say it’s like what we’re doing in Land Academy can be like college for life. It’s having a mentor, having a teacher, choosing a path and having someone to guide you a little bit as you get rolling in this career and this life.
Jack Butala: One of the things that I always see, and I’m sure you do too, with some of our younger members, not younger in age but newer members, they have their first deal jitters so they’re concerned about getting that first deal done. I’m constantly trying to come up with creative ways to say, “It’s okay. Just get the deal done.” Get it recorded. Record a property. You know, buy a property. Put it in your name from a seller and then go through the motions of recording it to your spouse or something like that if that’s kind of a deal jitter. It’s a dress rehearsal. That’s the way I look at it.
Jill DeWit: Well, don’t you think that’s kind of similar in any occupation? Like, I’m clearly not an attorney, but I can imagine what if I was an attorney and I went to law school. I did everything right and then the day comes when I’m now handling my own case. I can imagine there being a little bit of some jitters. I can imagine someone saying, “I can’t believe that everyone’s looking to me and trusting me.” You know what I mean? I have all this power now for a lot of things. I imagine it’s true.
Jack Butala: I guess you’ve got to cut the cord at some point in everything, right? You’re going to be responsible as an, like in your example, for your first case. In accounting, you have your first client. I guess in healthcare, it’d be your first patient.
Jill DeWit: Right. What if you’re a doctor? You’re no longer a … is it an intern? What’s that called? They’re doing your …
Jack Butala: Residency.
Jill DeWit: Residency. That’s it. Where you have someone kind of looking over you but someday they do cut the cord and you’re on your own. Now you’re in charge and you’re making the decisions and it’s got to be scary.
Jack Butala: Again, that’s why we start a success plant because hopefully it eases … You know success plant is a place where potential members or members go and they discuss what’s going on in their land buying and selling career. I’d like to think that eases that anxiety, the beginning anxiety out of the box, I hope.
Jill DeWit: I just thought of something funny. One way that you really don’t get a dress rehearsal kind of thing is being a parent. You’re kind of thrown in there. Sorry to all the number one kids out there, and I’m a number one kid. My mom used to say, “Sorry. We made all the mistakes on you.” You don’t get to dress rehearsal and practice that one.
Jack Butala: Remember that one time we went skiing with some friends and a bunch of people and some of our children?
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: There are two kids in particular that did a lot of research on the internet about skiing.
Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh. You mean one kid in particular?
Jack Butala: They put the skis on and it just wasn’t like what they learned on the internet. They were incredibly disappointed and frustrated.
Jill DeWit: It was hilarious. That was the one and only time they skied. That was it.
Jack Butala: Is that it? I didn’t know that.
Jill DeWit: That was it. They are done. She is done. She read … All the way up there was telling everyone in the vehicle and everybody with us, all our friends that, “You guys are all silly. I read all about this, black diamond.” Whatever. She knew that she had it aced because she read all about it. That’s a good example. She got up there, put the skis on and fell down so many times and could not understand why she just couldn’t master this because she read everything about it. What was funny is this particular individual is not a quitter. That’s what’s so interesting is that in life in general, she kills it, but that skiing thing. She said, “I’m out.” It was not really on her list apparently.
Jack Butala: There’s a show on our list. Actually, I think it’s coming up really soon here, all about that exact topic. Like, some people are set up for skiing and some people aren’t. Some people are set up for land investing or real estate investing in general and some aren’t.
Jill DeWit: Well, some people are set up for being their own boss and entrepreneurship. Some people have the stomach for that. The highs and the lows and the nervousness and being in charge. Some people are just happy having a pension. I think there’s still companies out there with those. And a time clock. That there set up for that and that’s okay.
Jack Butala: What do you think the steps are to making this decision? I mean, if you were starting … Well, you did it so what were the steps? Step one, buy into the fact that you can buy and sell real land.
Jill DeWit: I went back even before that. When you just asked that question I thought about what kind of life you want. Do you want to be your own boss? Do you want to make your own schedule? Where are you happiest in life? Do you want a nine to five job? A lot of people do. I did not want a nine to five job.
Jack Butala: Me either.
Jill DeWit: I was happy and here’s the flip side, I don’t have a nine to five job but I have a seven day a week job. That’s the trade off but I can pick and do what I want, when I want. First you have to mentally, I think, decide that kind of thing. Then from there what’s going to fit your personality? What’s going to get you to where you want to be the fastest and get you set up? For me, getting involved with you and what we do in land and our numbers and everything, it was not a hard decision to make. Then when it came down to the technical pieces of it like, “Gosh. Am I comfortable making some of the decisions? Am I comfortable assessing property values and talking to people and customers?” Am I comfortable? Heck, yeah.
Jack Butala: This is a great point. I’m going to sort of half interrupt you because it seems to me like you present yourself like you’re fearless about these kinds of things. You have this kind of thing about you, Jill, and I don’t know if I’ve seen it with really high end executives in publicly traded companies. You have this attitude where, “Hey. If something goes a little bit sideways couple hours from now in whatever I’m doing, I’ll just deal with it then.” There’s a lot of people who want to try to pre-plan everything. I include myself in that, where I try to over plan everything and try to plan for good and bad and I deal with it within those boundaries. I guess what I’m saying is your way is better because why plan for something that’s not going to really happen, good or bad?
Jill DeWit: You know what I think it is? When you mention the fearless thing, I’ll have to be honest and I’ll share a little secret with you. Well, you probably know this. I’m sharing it with everybody else. I learned a long time ago from my dad that sometimes you just act like you know what you’re doing. Seriously. It works out. I have been in a lot of situations where inside I was very nervous, butterflies, scared but I just went in it with my head held high like, “I got this.” You know what? Everybody said, “She’s got this.” And I did.
Jack Butala: Are you experiencing that right now?
Jill DeWit: A little bit.
Jack Butala: What?
Jill DeWit: I’m just kidding. Well, you know …
Jack Butala: We’re sitting in a closet with the lights off in front of two microphones.
Jill DeWit: No.
Jack Butala: There’s nothing. It’s fine.
Jill DeWit: There’s still times in life, seriously, that that comes up. For example, I’m stepping outside my box right now, my comfort zone, and taking an acting class and having so much fun. I know nothing about acting. I never did it in high school, nothing. It’s fun for me but there’s a little bit of a … I’m like, “What am I doing here” kind of thing. I got this and it’s fun. I hope that helps other people. It really does work by the way.
Jack Butala: I’m sure it does. There’s so many ways to look at … I’ve always been good at computers, from the second I sat down in middle school. I just have for some reason. I think that matters too. I don’t think you should choose your whole path in the world that way. I think you can have side track businesses and side track interests, like your acting thing, and not expect to do a blockbuster movie in the next year.
Jill DeWit: Why not? Again, act like you know what you’re doing. “Hi. I’m here to audition. I’m right after Angelina Jolie here.”
Jack Butala: Do you want to be an actor?
Jill DeWit: I’m just joking. I’m just saying anything is possible and I really believe that.
Jack Butala: So I think when we were talking about the steps to getting … I believe that too. I think talking about preparing and taking the steps toward making a decision, one of the first things I always do is stare at a blank piece of paper and ask myself, “What do I want? Do I want to do a podcast or am I going to just dread doing it? Do I want to buy this piece of property?” Like we’re doing these three forty acre property acquisition right now and I know I want to do that. I know how much money we’re going to make out of it. I don’t see that as … Those three deals that we’re buying, do you see any risk in that? I don’t either.
Jill DeWit: No because we’re buying them right. We wouldn’t buy them. That’s the thing …
Jack Butala: That’s really what I’m trying to convey here. If this was my first deal, I would probably have some apprehension. Not so much that the economics of the deal work. Let’s say we’re buying these properties for, I think, fifteen hundred bucks each.
Jill DeWit: More than that at the end but we’ll …
Jack Butala: Okay. Like eighteen hundred, less than two thousand, right?
Jill DeWit: I’m just being realistic. I want everybody …
Jack Butala: Less than two thousand, right?
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: Is it less than two thousand?
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Jack Butala: All right. We’re buying these forties for less than two thousand dollars each. We know we’re going to sell them for way, way, way more than that. I guess, if this was my first deal, the apprehension I would have would be, “Am I going to screw something up? The deal’s awesome. Am I going to do something wrong?”
Jill DeWit: Am I going to record it wrong or is it going to get kicked back and am I going to need more documents or yeah.
Jack Butala: I’m not going to be seeing the property. How many pictures should I take? All those little things.
Jill DeWit: Right. When I go to advertise it, am I going to advertise it correctly to maximize the profit? Whatever it is. Sure. Well-
Jack Butala: So my-
Jill DeWit: Go ahead. I’m sorry.
Jack Butala: So my whole point to this episode is you don’t have to have those concerns because you can go into success plant. The way we have this set up you can go into success plant and start asking questions. You know, “How did you guys handle the photography thing? How did you guys handle the … Here’s the deal. I’m buying them for two thousand dollars each. What do you think I should do? Do you want to buy them?”
Jill DeWit: Right. Through us and through the program we show people this is what your photos should look like. This is where you should advertise it. This is all that stuff. Someone reviewed our program the other day and they said something really great in it and I remembered that, which was, “Hey. If you’re looking for a way to take some of the learning curve out of it and stuff, this is the place to be.” Which is kind of where we are. We’re taking … and not a lot of places you can say that. Like in college, it doesn’t … I don’t want to knock on college but a college business degree sets you up for many different things but it doesn’t quite get you there. Does that make sense?
Jack Butala: Yeah. I mean, I think college is a perfect example of exactly what we’re talking about. I look at the stuff even that my twelve-year-old is learning right now and some of it’s so silly. It’s just a waste of time. Especially a four year degree from a large college, which is where I graduated from. I graduated from that situation as maybe a ton of wasted time. I’m not saying don’t do it. I’m just saying there’s probably better ways to do it.
There’s a dress rehearsal and then there’s twenty-two months of pre-dress rehearsal that are incredibly useless and overkill, let’s say. I’m not sure that you need to go through four terms of stats to be a good accountant.
Jill DeWit: It’s true.
Jack Butala: So what do we think really is the point?
Jill DeWit: Of college?
Jack Butala: Yeah. What do you think?
Jill DeWit: You shouldn’t ask me that one. Really? Why do you want to ask me that? No. Well, I mean …
Jack Butala: I think there’s a lot of overkill.
Jill DeWit: Right. That’s very true. There is. I mean, we all know the first two years of college are kind of your fluff years anyway. It’s all the basic.
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