Motivation Week – Learn from Someone Accomplished (CFFL 0280)
Motivation Week – Learn from Someone Accomplished
Jack Butala: Motivation Week – Learn from Someone Accomplished. 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: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit.
Jill DeWit: Hi.
Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about, “Hey it’s motivation week.” Step 2, learn from someone who’s accomplished. Step 1 is dream it up, and kind of visualize the end. That was yesterday’s show, and that was fun.
This one is now let’s get serious about it, and get some education, and learn from somebody whose done it already, and make sure they’ve done it already, and they’re telling the truth. Make sure you have a good feeling about it. There’s a lot of very accomplished people that you just have to spray yourself off with Lysol after you listen to them talk.
Jill DeWit: Yuck. That’s a good point though. There are very accomplished people whose motivations now are not as sincere as they should be.
Jack Butala: That’s right.
Jill DeWit: I think that’s what you were trying to say with your Lysol term.
Jack Butala: I got that from a former boss. He’s like, “Yeah, we’re not going to do anything with these guys because I have to get the Lysol out.”
Jill DeWit: That just brought up this horrible image.
Jack Butala: Do these kids know what Lysol is?
Jill DeWit: They know what Lysol is.
Jack Butala: The kids do, you think?
Jill DeWit: There’s commercials on still.
Jack Butala: That’s still a product? I don’t even know.
Jill DeWit: Yes, there’s still Lysol. You can say hand sanitizer. You shake your hand … If you shake someone’s hand, and you need hand sanitizer, that kind of a person. They’re slimmy.
Jack Butala: Great show today. Before we get started let’s share something interesting that’s happened to us lately. I’m getting used to the new format.
Jill DeWit: You know Jack, I thought this would be an excellent time to … A few people who follow us on Facebook know where we were on Friday night because they put some notes on their, and they saw a little video.
Jack Butala: I can’t think that far back.
Jill DeWit: I know, let me refresh your memory. I wanted you to tell the story, Jack, about Friday night because … Let me preface this. You were all in going into it. We were kind of drug there … I don’t want to say drug there, I was whole-heartedly all in.
Jack Butala: I was drug there.
Jill DeWit: You were drug there.
Jack Butala: I remember now.
Jill DeWit: By a younger generation person in our world who really wanted to have a Friday night West Hollywood event. You want to share Jack?
Jack Butala: Yeah, they drug me kicking and screaming, as usual. I don’t mind having fun and all that stuff as long as it’s close to home, and it’s not a big … This was a 10 mile Uber ride. 15 miles. I don’t know. A lot of zip codes. I like to stay in one zip code. This is 6 zip codes away.
Jill DeWit: This is true.
Jack Butala: Kicking and screaming, and man, did I have a blast. We went to some world famous institutional spots. The whole thing started with Jill because she’s got … I checked a couple of things off my bucket list that night, and I’m not joking.
Jill DeWit: That’s so great.
Jack Butala: That’s how cool I was.
Jill DeWit: I’m so glad.
Jack Butala: Give us a summary. Tell them … You know … I don’t even remember the names of these places, but you do.
Jill DeWit: We started off the evening having a cocktail at a institutional hotel in West Hollywood where all the musicians hang out. It has been forever. You name it from-
Jack Butala: It’s the Sunset Marquis. We can name it.
Jill DeWit: From Sting to Ch-
Jack Butala: I’m the biggest Led Zeppelin fan there ever was-
Jill DeWit: Led Zeppelin.
Jack Butala: They started their career there at the Sunset Marquis, they stayed there. It’s a world famous rock and roll hotel from the 60s and 70s where these classic rock bands, they would stay there when they were trying to become a rock band. The place is plastered with great pictures of these bands and the crazy stuff that they used to do. The whole lifestyle.
Jill DeWit: They’re still there too by the way.
Jack Butala: Oh yeah, they still do it.
Jill DeWit: You’re sitting, and it’s …The bar we’re in, it’s a really dark on purpose kind of … It’s a nice bar, but it has a real dark atmosphere, and you’re not sure … That looks like so and so. I’m not sure who that is. It’s definitely somebody, you just … It’s still the hang out. It was just so … I used to go there years ago.
Jack Butala: Long before I ever met you, I had dreams about the Sunset Marquis. I don’t know if you know that.
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Jack Butala: I guess we talked about it when we were there. I checked that off my list, then-
Jill DeWit: Then, we hop in a cab, hop in an Uber, and head over to stop number two, which was Whiskey a Go-Go. It turns out … Didn’t we find out later on that 30 years ago that night-
Jack Butala: To the day.
Jill DeWit: The Beetles-
Jack Butala: The Beetles played there, 1964.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: It was a-
Jill DeWit: 66 then.
Jack Butala: It wasn’t 30 years even.
Jill DeWit: It wasn’t?
Jack Butala: It was the same night in 1964, that’s what the younger generation explained to us.
Jill DeWit: It was 32 years.
Jack Butala: Yes. It doesn’t matter.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: It was either 64 or 66, I don’t remember, but anyway that’s how institutional … I’m telling you, the whole place is, front and back stage. You don’t sit down or anything. You just stand there and gaze at the band. I think the whole place is probably 10,000 feet maybe less.
Jill DeWit: The talent-
Jack Butala: Yeah, it was unbelievable.
Jill DeWit: You know what’s so interesting to me is the band that we went to see is a band that we know from Scottsdale. We know them. We didn’t even recognize them. It’s a whole different world. What they bring to the table and … Some of the other bands, they were not well known bands at all, but-
Jack Butala: From start to finish-
Jill DeWit: Boy were they great.
Jack Butala: Liquid impressed.
Jill DeWit: Remember that guy? That guy stand … I thought that was so cool, the guy standing in the middle of the room. What they have nowadays, the technology, with a mixer in his hand, standing in the middle of the crowd-
Jack Butala: An iPad.
Jill DeWit: In the middle of the crowd adjusting the sound quality right there. Not having to be in the back. Not having to be over here. He’s just standing in the middle of all of us.
Jack Butala: We are going to talk about real estate at some point.
Jill DeWit: We’re all … This is where I love this stuff. Sorry everyone, I’m dragging us on this long road. Then we ended up at the Rainbow Room, and there was a Viper Room, and it was just … I don’t even know what time we got home, and I don’t even want to know what time we got back.
Jack Butala: Whoever was running that whole event was … My hat is off to you. There were probably four bands, maybe five, and I think their breakdown and set up time … This is a full band, some of them six or seven people in it, full set up and breakdown time was less than five minutes.
Jill DeWit: It was amazing.
Jack Butala: Actually, one band, the drummer didn’t even have his stuff set up, so they started … There were timers going off. He was missing two drums. He played the first song, and then ran and got the other ones. I have a lot of respect for organization. Especially in an environment where you think it’s all loosey goosey rock and roll. Nobody’s … There’s no schedule, just play what you want.
Jill DeWit: That’s hilarious.
Jack Butala: Check that off my bucket list. It was awesome.
Jill DeWit: I think the words were time of your life Jack.
Jack Butala: Is that what I said?
Jill DeWit: You did.
Jack Butala: You remember.
Jill DeWit: You may not remember that.
Jack Butala: You remember certain stuff.
Jill DeWit: I do.
Jack Butala: Some stuff.
Jill DeWit: I wrote it down in quotes. I did.
Jack Butala: Awesome. Fantastic. Blast. Seriously, you kids can drag us to anything you want. Not anything.
Let’s take a question posted by one of our members on successplant.com, our free online community.
Jill DeWit: Carly asks, “Jill or anyone here in this forum, what is the secret to negotiation? I can’t seem to bring up that topic and get my point across to the sellers.”
What is the secret … I’m trying to figure out what she’s-
Jack Butala: I don’t know why there’s any negotiation at all.
Jill DeWit: That was my first thought. Do you like my offer? I’m really not reaching out to you to negotiate anything. I’m reaching out to you to buy for this price as stated on my offer.
Jack Butala: I’m really glad that this came up. I’m really glad because here’s the thing, there are so many things that happen … There are so many ideas that we bring … Real estate concepts that we bring to our own careers, and half of them are wrong. This whole concept of negotiation is very antiquated in my opinion. I don’t ever … If you listen to our show you know this. Our whole model is, and our Land Academy model is write offers to people who own real estate with a price in there. At the moment it’s just about land, but we’re in the process of completing a program about wholesaling houses too. It’s the same concept. Write an offer, if it’s a house, $80,000 cash and we’ll close on Thursday. It’s not 85,000. In variably, people call back, and they say, “I got your offer for 80 grand, and it’s great. Your timing’s great. My parent just passed away,” or whatever the story is, “and I do want to sell it, but not for 80. I want to sell it for 85.” What’s your answer Jill?
Jill DeWit: The offer’s 80.
Jack Butala: Yeah. I don’t even say that. I say, “That’s great. You should go do that.”
Jill DeWit: That’s true. I will go-
Jack Butala: It’s 80,000 or nothing. I don’t have time for this. I have 19 other offers to open-
Jill DeWit: Well I-
Jack Butala: 19 other deals to do. Go ahead.
Jill DeWit: Sincerely, what I do, and … I don’t blow them off. I let them know that I’m taking their offer seriously. In reality, this person calls me back, and they really strongly … Usually it’s like I say 80, and they say 100. I say, “You know what? Let me go do some looking. I appreciate where you’re coming from,” and they’re probably going to say, “Cause this house sold for that, and this house sold for that, and this house sold for that. That’s why I think I should get 100.” “Okay, I’ll tell you what. I’m going to go do some looking, and I’ll get back to you. Can we talk tomorrow or Thursday?” Whatever it is. Then I do go … Part of it is I’m going to double check my numbers to make sure I’m not way off. I sent out 1500 offers this batch, make sure one didn’t sneak in there that’s kind of a little bit off, and maybe they’re right before I blow them off. Number two, I want them to think I’m really doing my homework.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Sometimes … Realistically, I’m not wrong, and I am going to stand firm, but hanging up the phone and letting them think about this a little bit, that I’m really going to go do my due diligence a little bit harder before I come back, it does make a difference to the seller.
Jack Butala: Okay.
Jill DeWit: It’s true. Do you not like that answer?
Jack Butala: No, I think … It works great. Your way, and my way too, they both are very effective.
Jill DeWit: It’s just what works for you.
Jack Butala: It’s a waste of time.
Jill DeWit: You know what Jack? Everybody’s different. What works for you works for a lot of our people, and what works for me works for a lot of our people. We need to accept it all.
I’m going to call … Now it’s Thursday, 5 o-clock, Carly, and I am calling Mr. Jones back and saying, “You know what Mr. Jones. I really hear you, and I appreciate where you’re coming from, and I know that’s … Gosh you justified it for A, B, C, but I’m still with 80,000. That’s really my highest, and I can’t go above that. Hey, if you would consider that we’ll make it a deal right now, if you want to think about it for a week, I’ll still be here. Otherwise I wish you all the best, and if something changes someday reach out to me, and maybe we can make something work.”
Jack Butala: There’s a lot of … You’re actually extremely good at this. All kidding aside, is there a resource out there about negotiation that you trust or that you’ve learned from or anything?
Jill DeWit: No, I’m going to write one.
Jack Butala: Yeah. You really should. That’s really where I was going with that.
Jill DeWit: I am going to write one.
Jack Butala: Your way … I see you befriending these people, and I mean with honesty. It’s not just because you want something from them. I see you befriending them, and then you’re establishing trust through a couple of phone calls, and now they’re going to sell their property to you.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, there’s a lot that goes into this. You’re right. I have established trust. I’m a real person. I’m befriending them. I’m talking to them like I want them to talk to me. I’m not talking down to them, or making them feel like their asking an insane offer. Even if it is an insane offer, I’m never going to go, “Wow, what are you smoking?” I’m never going to say that. I’m going to go, “Okay, my offer’s 80, you think it should be 210, well I will go take a look at that.” Then I’m going to come back … I might have some reasons why when I come back and say, “You know what? I know you said da-da-da-da, but let’s keep in mind that one has a pool, and they just redid the kitchen.”
Jack Butala: See, now you’re explaining yourself, which I don’t do.
Jill DeWit: I know.
Jack Butala: That’s fine. That’s fine though. I’m not knocking it.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That’s my way. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on it too Jack. I think that’s the main point. I might give them a few little things, and then I’m still going to leave the door open and send them on their way because I’ll tell you, it’s amazing to me their either going to say yes right then, they’re going to go, “Ugh, all right. Okay,” or they might come back in a week or two or a month, and say, “Does that still stand? I thought my sister-in-law would list the house for me, and now she tells me I’m crazy, and she doesn’t even want to do it for me, and I just would want to cash. Are we still good?” That’s what I do.
Jack Butala: You know what I do? If there’s … Invariably there’s … Certain pieces of property … What happens is you get a bunch of offers in, and they’re sitting on your desk, and you open them all, and you do a little bit of research, and you get a good image on your computer of what these properties are. Now you have 10 images, and invariably one or two of them is just a you can’t believe it, run to the bank situation. On those properties, I will … You know what I do? The gallon of milk thing, and it seems to be pretty effective.
Look seller, there’s three-
Jill DeWit: I don’t tell them that one. You tell them that one?
Jack Butala: Look seller, there’s three gallons of milk, three places you can buy a gallon of milk; on a convenience store down the street, at the grocery story, or you can take a drive to Walmart. The one on the convenience store, it’s right in the name, it’s convenient and it’s expensive. Let’s say it’s $4.00. At the grocery store, maybe a little bit less, 2.50, $3. At Walmart it’s rock bottom. Probably not going to get it any cheaper, but you don’t tell a cashier, “Gosh, this is expensive.” You know that going in. If you want to sell your property to us, this is a convenience store model. It’s going to be a pretty low offer. That’s why we’re in this business, but we are going to make it incredibly easy for you. Someone’s going to show up to your door with a cashier’s check. It’s also going to be done next week. You can check this off your life list.
Again, I only do that on the properties where I’m just falling over. Your way’s better.
Jill DeWit: You know what Jack? Both ways are good.
Jack Butala: You know every acquisition person that I’ve had throughout the years, including right now, has been a female. I’ve had two male acquisition people in the past, and neither one of them were very good. For some reason women and trust and that whole thing. Our sellers are probably 50/50 right?
Jill DeWit: Our sellers?
Jack Butala: 50% men, 50% women?
Jill DeWit: No, I think it’s more men. Well … I think you’re right. I think it’s 50/50-
Jack Butala: I just think … I don’t know for some reason I think … Women are escrow agents too for a reason. It’s the same talent, closers.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Maybe we should talk about the topic of the show at some point.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. I was wondering about that.
Jack Butala: Today’s topic-
Jill DeWit: For a minute I got confused thinking maybe this is the topic. I’m like oh yeah, no, we still do have a topic to get to.
Jack Butala: Today’s topic is … It’s motivation week. Five episodes of talking about motivation. This is the second one. Tuesday’s, learn from somebody who’s accomplished. The Lysol thing at the beginning of the show, I think is appropriate. You need to have a good feeling about the person that you’re learning from, and know that they’re concerned about it. They’re listening to you, and not that you’re just an after thought or a …
I had a person that I learned from that was the Lysol version, a long time ago when I was a commercial real estate broker in Michigan. Just an awful boss. Just a terrible person. I was very young. I didn’t know any better. I did learn a lot, but man, it could’ve been a lot easier.
Jill DeWit: Maybe one of the things you learned is I don’t want to do it like that. That’s not a bad thing.
Jack Butala: Yeah. That’s right. That guy’s nuts.
Jill DeWit: I’m sure that’s what happened. I’m sure you took away the good parts of it like okay, this is how you find people. This is how you get them excited. This is how you do this, but then you said, but when it comes to this part, I’m not going to do it like that. I’m not going to be that pushy guy or whatever it is.
Jack Butala: My point, and the whole show, the topic of today is learn from somebody you trust or that has already done this, or is doing it right now. That, and make sure you have a good feeling about him or her, and don’t just learn from one source. There’s lots of plays out there. Books have never been cheaper than they are in the world right now. You can get a used book on Amazon for a couple of bucks.
Jill DeWit: Jack? They just download them on their iPhone by the way. It’s even cheaper than that. I hate to break this to you.
Jack Butala: Is it? How much is it?
Jill DeWit: Oh my goodness.
Jack Butala: Can you belong to a club, and … You don’t even have to pay right?
Jill DeWit: I don’t know about that, but it’s … Oh boy.
Jack Butala: Read a book on your phone?
Jill DeWit: I just had this conversation … It was so cute because I was dripping somebody at the airport yesterday who is in their 20s, and I said, “Oh shucks, you’re going to have so much time,” and I’m like, “Do you have a book that you’re working on?” They’re like, “Yeah, I’m reading about six books right now,” and she held up her phone.
Jack Butala: Wow.
Jill DeWit: Seriously. She was like, “I don’t read one book at a time, I jump round.” I’m like, “Is it big enough?” She’s like, “Yeah, like hello.” It’s super easy just to go on your phone, download a book, and it’s right there. You don’t need a kindle anymore. You don’t need a little device. It’s just right there.
Jack Butala: How backwards-
Jill DeWit: I know, I love how-
Jack Butala: How backwards do people think that I am?
Jill DeWit: You know what? I still think it’s personal preference because there’s something for me about holding a book in my hands. I probably … I wonder-
Jack Butala: Me too.
Jill DeWit: You know what Jack? I’m going to do this now. Next time I’m sitting in Starbucks with my book or my magazine because I kind of like that, I’m going to take a poll and see how many people are doing it. I’ve never done that. I’m going to count the room and see if there’s 20 of us, who’s reading on their computer, who’s reading on their phone, who’s actually reading something in their hands, who has a piece of paper because I think it’d be really interesting. I’m going to do that.
You’re learn from someone accomplished and multiple books, it’s a place to start. This is how I see step two of motivation week. One, Monday was visualizing it, seeing it at the end however you want it to be. Then step two is taking that first step. You need to start somewhere, and the best place is get some … Don’t blindly go into this trying to wing it and figure it out. Do it the smart way, and learn from someone who’s done it.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: I love your multiple resources Jack, that’s how I do it. If you looked at my bookshelf or on my computer, the articles on my computer that I’m perusing all the time, it’s a lot of the same information from five different sources because I want to hear everybody’s take on it, and just like your former boss Jack, that was one of your mentors, I’m sure, of many, and you took some stuff from him. You probably got … Where did you get your way of doing business? You thought he was slimmy. You didn’t … He was the Lysol guy. That didn’t sit well with you, you got whatever you needed from him, but you got something else from someone else.
Jack Butala: Right. Yeah. Multiple sources.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). I love that.
Jack Butala: If you have a question or you want to be on the show call 800-725-8816. We’d love to hear from you.
Jill DeWit: I would love to add today that if you didn’t hear yesterday, we are going to do a, Jack and I, one … We’ve never done this, a free live webinar tomorrow. Wednesday, August 31st at 5 o-clock Pacific Time, California time. It’s going to be Jack and I 5:00 to 5:30. It is limited to 100 that can actually log in. If you want to have a burning question you really want to ask us, anything about us, about our business, stuff you hear on the show, write it down, have it ready because what you’ll do is you can find it on my Facebook, any one of our Facebook pages, there’s an event, but I have it in one of my posts. You’ll find it. There’s a webx log in, you just click on that a few minutes before, once you get in you know you’re in. You’ve made it in the 100. You can just cut and paste the question that you had types, pop it right in the forum, and as Jack and I go live at 5 o-clock we’ll start answering those.
It’s going to be mostly Q&A, and then at the end at 5:30 I’m going to … I already have people asking, “Are you going to do anything special for people?”
Jack Butala: Oh really?
Jill DeWit: I have people asking about that.
Jack Butala: Are you going to do something-
Jill DeWit: I’m thinking about something, but it will be at 5:30.
Jack Butala: Okay. How do you know if you’re one of the 100?
Jill DeWit: You will be logged in. You’ll know you’re logged in, otherwise it will kick you out. You won’t be able to get into the-
Jack Butala: You can’t reserve a spot now or anything?
Jill DeWit: No. It’s the first one-
Jack Butala: You just get in there.
Jill DeWit: The first 100.
Jack Butala: Get in their 10 minutes early. That’s the moral of that story.
Jill DeWit: Get in there 10 minutes early, and pray your connection doesn’t fail. Pray you don’t have beach WiFi because if you get logged out, then someone else might get logged in. It only holds 100 because we just can’t handle-
Jack Butala: Or if you don’t want to be there.
Jill DeWit: We can’t handle 100.
Jack Butala: If you don’t want to be there.
Jill DeWit: If you get tired of it, log out, and someone else will jump in. That’s not bad too. As a backup because I realize as we’re going down this … I’ve started letting this be known that we’re … This is something that I meant to be just a little thing for Jack and I just to talk to some people, get a feel for where everybody’s at right now, and see what questions they have for us so we can tailor our show towards it, and other things that we want to do for folks.
Jack Butala: We learn a lot from this.
Jill DeWit: That’s where it really started out just to be a small group, and now it’s … I realize now it’s not just a small group. What I’m going to do is I’m going to make it also a Facebook Live event. We won’t be able to answer questions there on Facebook, but you can log in to … Go to my Jill DeWit Facebook account, make sure you’re one of my friends, and you’ll be able to see it live as we’re doing it, and at least be in the loop and see what the question … We’ll read the questions out loud so you know what it is, and as we’re answering you’ll get to join in and hear it all.
Jack Butala: It should be fun.
Jill DeWit: Should be a lot-
Jack Butala: I think it’s going to be a huge success.
Jill DeWit: I do too.
Jack Butala: Join us in another episode here Jack and Jill discuss how to use information, that’s me.
Jill DeWit: And inspiration, that’s me.
Jack Butala: To get just about anything you want.
Jill DeWit: We use it everyday to buy property for half of what it’s worth and sell it immediately.
Jack Butala: As always, you are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Good show Jill.
Jill DeWit: That was good.
Jack Butala: We went way over on time.
Jill DeWit: We keep doing that nowadays.
Jack Butala: I know.
Jill DeWit: I’m like … We were like … It’s kind of funny. I hope it’s … You know what? There’s people with longer commutes. I think this works out just fine.
Jack Butala: Okay. No, this is good stuff. I like motivation week. The crooks of it is, like we talked about originally, it is just as important to stay motivated and inspired because you’ve got a million things going on in your life. Stay inspired to stay on track to be a real estate investor. If you’re already a real estate investor, stay on track. It’s hard. There’s only so many hours in the day. If you have a regular job like most of our members, you’re doing this on the weekend and stuff. You really have to stay motivated and organized.
Jill DeWit: Yup. I’ll give a little tip, this is one of the things I’m going to talk about on tomorrow’s show, which is don’t let your own obstacles get in your way. That’s the thing about staying motivated. How many people just create their own problems?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: We’ll talk about that more tomorrow.
Jack Butala: Yeah, that’s exactly right.
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