How to Stay on Task, Not on the Fun Ones (CFFL 528)
How to Stay on Task, Not on the Fun Ones (CFFL 528)
Transcript:
Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit.
Jill DeWit: Hey there.
Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how to stay on task, at work that is, not just do the fun tasks, not just horse around and do fun stuff on the internet. This show’s near and dear to my heart because-
Jill DeWit: Yes it is.
Jack Butala: This whole podcast is rooted in work avoidance. Before we get into that though, let’s take a question, posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community, it’s free.
Jill DeWit: Okay, Amy asks, “Hi. I’m new. I keep hearing about the training videos but I can’t find them. Having very difficult time navigating to them. I finally assume that you must have to pay for them.” That’s hilarious. Hold on. “But on the membership matrix, it shows them as part of the green package.” And we have a link here, “Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks much.”
Jack Butala: I can enlighten you, sure.
Jill DeWit: What’s cute is Amy’s in our world.
Jack Butala: She is now. I bet this question happened before that.
Jill DeWit: Maybe.
Jack Butala: There’s training videos on YouTube, a ton of them actually, and where we link professional training videos about data and mail merges and stuff.
Jill DeWit: Specific tasks.
Jack Butala: And then when you get serious about it, this whole design. Jill and I designed this so that, don’t want you to buy into this thing, unless you know you want to do it.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: So, we provide a ridiculous amount of free stuff.
Jill DeWit: Get your feet wet, test it.
Jack Butala: To see.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: See if you like data, see if you don’t like it. See if you like real estate. See if you understand it.
Jill DeWit: Talk to some sellers. See if you can do that.
Jack Butala: Talk to the people who are already in the group at landinvestors.com, which is a whole community, like it says in the intro, of people who are succeeding at this and a couple people who are not. And see which one you’re going to be, before you even spend a dollar, dollar one. That’s the whole point to this. It’s a good question, we do have a lot, a vast majority of that content’s free. But the stuff you have to pay for, which by the way, Jill reminds me, every other day, is priced at about one tenth of everybody else’s.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Seriously.
Jill DeWit: Oh man.
Jack Butala: It’s very-
Jill DeWit: I think it’s probably less than one tenth, but yeah.
Jack Butala: Of what everybody else charges. So, that’s not why were here. We’re not here to make hoards of money doing this.
Jill DeWit: And upsell you and do all that, that drives me crazy.
Jack Butala: We are here however to keep the lights on.
Jill DeWit: We do that. Need to do that, and food on the table.
Jack Butala: You have question you want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on landinvestors.com. Today’s topic, how to stay on task with what you’re doing, i.e., buy real estate and sell it for more, not just do the fun stuff that’s all plastered all over the internet.
Jill DeWit: I want to test Jack.
Jack Butala: This’ll be the show.
Jill DeWit: This will be good, to even stay on topic.
Jack Butala: Like today? Like right now.
Jill DeWit: Like, right now.
Jack Butala: Like test the ADD.
Jill DeWit: I’m ready, yup, to test, ready, go.
Jack Butala: Is this going to be about my other [crosstalk 00:02:51] Darryl again?
Jill DeWit: Jack, how do you stay on task?
Jack Butala: You know what I do? The best way for me to stay on task is to get out of the office and go to a place with a computer and really do what I’m supposed to do. For example, it took us six months to produce the education package, Cash Flow From Land and I had to do that by myself when you weren’t on the screen, by myself in an office that was all dark and stuff for quite some time. That’s my secret, and I turn the phone off and everything. What do you do?
Jill DeWit: You get pulled out, this is good to share, this is actually, you just came up with an inspirational topic, you do realize that?
Jack Butala: Don’t talk to anyone?
Jill DeWit: No.
Jack Butala: That’s totally inspirational.
Jill DeWit: The whole topic is inspirational.
Jack Butala: That inspires me.
Jill DeWit: This not-
Jack Butala: “Hey Jack, you don’t have to talk to anybody today.” You know what? If someone said that to me, I would get all kinds of stuff done.
Jill DeWit: I know, I’m sure. This is inspirational I think and this is really, really good. Okay, how to stay on task, not just do the fun stuff, or i.e., stay focused, is really what it is. And so, for every person, you got to figure out what is it for you? Some people can dive into a project, get pulled out for a few minutes with side stuff and they can dive back in. Some people can’t do that. Some people it’s very difficult. So, I think, Jack, we’re both very different on that.
Jack Butala: Yeah, we are.
Jill DeWit: And so-
Jack Butala: We’re good partners that way.
Jill DeWit: We are. I’m okay, I can pulled out and get pulled back in, which I don’t think, I don’t know if it’s common or not. I haven’t decided. I don’t know which is more common, but anyway, I’m okay getting pulled out and then I can jump back in and I will tell people, they’ll go, “Can I ask you a question?” I’ll hold up a finger, I’m like, “Wait, wait, stopping point coming. Okay now.” I’ll have to finish my little thought, right myself a little note and then, so I know where I left off and then I go, “Okay, now I’m all yours.” And it’ll just take me a few seconds and then I can get pulled out and then I can come back and get myself back in.
Jack Butala: I mean I think what’s really important about what you’re saying is, that just know what you are.
Jill DeWit: That’s where I’m going with this.
Jack Butala: And don’t fight it.
Jill DeWit: That’s where I’m going with this.
Jack Butala: If you’re not a person, I need like hours by myself to really, really seriously get stuff done. And then, socialize or whatever in the office, because there’s a lot of horsing around that goes on in the office. Any office. That’s who I am.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: You can go back and forth much more easily than I can.
Jill DeWit: And, that’s okay. But that’s like we just said, so how to stay on. First, you got to figure out, which kind of person you are. So, I’m okay, I have to have a stopping point I can jump back in. And, I can do a couple things at the same time.
Jack Butala: So, if you outline what’s going to make you successful buying, selling real estate, literally an outline, like Roman numeral one, locate an area that you want to send letters. Roman numeral two, so with check boxes, I mean it’s like a pilot checklist. You just, you don’t go down a checklist and you don’t. It’s so easy the way the internet is to do a Google search to research some stuff and just get sidetracked immediately, with stuff that’s more fun or more interesting, and on, and on, and on. So, I wrote a, not wrote, I read quite sometime ago on the advice of, one of my professional friends, an article in Fast Company magazine and it said, “Number one reason company fails is that the owners are working on the wrong stuff.”
Jill DeWit: I understand that.
Jack Butala: I do, too.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: When I looked at the title, I’m like, “Oh, well I know the answer to that and here’s this, this or this. It’s this, it’s this, they don’t have the right funding. They don’t have the right partners. They don’t know how to get customers.” But in the end, that article was completely right. There just not working on the right stuff.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. Well, can I?
Jack Butala: Heck yes.
Jill DeWit: Can I cover this more? Okay.
Jack Butala: Can you save this episode? Yeah.
Jill DeWit: I’m trying to but you keep pulling me off and getting off task talking about fun stuff like Fast Company. Perfect, perfect, perfect example. Jill is on the topic, Jack’s over here. Welcome to my world.
Jack Butala: I don’t think Jack’s actually walking on the floor. I think he’s up near the ceiling.
Jill DeWit: Oh my goodness. I wish, this would be hilarious. We keep talking about doing this and someday we are going to do this, we’re going to have someone follow us around even just to spend the day in the life of us. If you saw what went on in our day to day operation and all the things that we have our hands in. It’s pretty amazing, awesome, scary, nutty, I don’t know how to describe it. There’s a lot going on.
So, this is my thing too, so let me back up. This whole business has a lot of moving parts. And, you can get overwhelmed. So, I think that’s what Jack was saying about have a checklist and that’s very true. So, make it not so hard for yourself and divide up all the different things that you need to do. Then, know what kind of person you are before or after, somewhere in there, you’re going to know what kind of person you are and how you’re going to best stay on task. You might be the person that, when the kids are all in bed and the house is quiet, because that’s, you need to, you have headphones on and shut out the world or you’re not going to get anything done. Then, know that you’re kind of that kind of a person and account for that.
You might be the kind of person that can you can do this right now while your wife’s cooking dinner and your kids are doing the homework and you’re sitting at the kitchen table also with your laptop open researching properties. Whatever it is, that’s okay. I guess, really that’s the whole point is, you just need to figure out what kind of person you are, how to stay on task. Figure out what kind of person you are, and do that.
Jack Butala: It’s the same thing that made you successful or not successful in school, in high school.
Jill DeWit: True.
Jack Butala: Or college, or whatever. So, it’s the same process. You have to learn some stuff, get some good educational material, hopefully you have some good teachers. And not just us, there’s a lot of sources of good information for what you’re working on. And then, study it and try it, and fail at it, and try at it, and fail at it, and try at it, and fail at it, until you know what you’re doing.
Jill DeWit: I want to add something though here. Here’s a cool thing about our business. So, you’re focused, you’re staying on task. You’re doing what you’re doing, but a little bulb goes off on something that really interests you. Maybe it’s another property type. Maybe it’s a product. Maybe it’s a way to market that’s no one’s ever considered. I don’t know. I’m not saying squash that, because that’s fun and really interests you. Write this down and save that and circle back around to it.
Jack Butala: Well said.
Jill DeWit: Because, in our business, this one of the things that I love. I always tell people, you know what? Just start off slow, something will come to you and sing to you. You might find yourself not being the acquisition person, but you might be the person that comes up with all the money guys. You might be the guy that, you’re the number one person at reaching out to other investors and you know how to find them and bring them in. So, maybe that’s going to be your forte.
Jack Butala: Get the clients.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. Then, you’re going to align yourself with someone whose good at the other things. So, this is really good stuff. So, while you’re staying on task and learning your business and building your business and all that good stuff, don’t ignore this other, these things all together because there’s good stuff there.
Jack Butala: In a lot of ways Jill, we’re in the education business and we’ve talked about this before. In our education system in this country cracks me up, because what it does is reward you for getting an A in everything, which is silly.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: What’s supposed to happen is this. You’re right about middle school/early high school, you’re going to find that you have a tremendous proficiency in one, or two or the three core, hopefully, one or two, or the three core education channels, like math or writing/English or art.
Jill DeWit: Maybe it’s a sport.
Jack Butala: So then, what should theoretically happen is, let’s say it’s math, or maybe it’s a sport, good. Let’s say it’s math, for me it’s math. Let’s channel this guy into math because he’s great at it, a C is probably acceptable in English and some of this other stuff, but gosh, this guy’s killing-
Jill DeWit: Quit beating him up over this one, he’s great at this one, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Jack Butala: This guy’s three grades ahead in math, let’s reward him.
Jill DeWit: Exactly, he can’t spell, who cares.
Jack Butala: So, instead what we do, is we cram everybody through in one channel and expect everyone to get straight As in everything, which is the silliest thing.
Jill DeWit: It’s ridiculous.
Jack Butala: It is, it’s silly.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, why is that? That makes me mad now. You just started something, hold on a moment. Hold on a moment, I’ve got to say something. Why do we reward? This is kind of not fair.
Jack Butala: I love when you get mad like this.
Jill DeWit: So, instead of rewarding the overall GPA person of a 4.916, come on, what about the guy that has an equivalent of a 5.0 in math, but his English stinks. So what? He can’t write but he’s a whiz on computer.
Jack Butala: I agree.
Jill DeWit: I don’t know. That kind of makes me mad.
Jack Butala: This is a reason Bill Gates dropped out of college. Zuckerberg dropped out of college, because they see the light in how stupid-
Jill DeWit: Some of this stuff is.
Jack Butala: Just basic reeducation, basic stuff is. I’m not saying drop out of college. I’m just saying, or maybe I am.
Jill DeWit: You heard it here.
Jack Butala: You ever heard Mark Cuban talk about this?
Jill DeWit: No, I haven’t.
Jack Butala: Oh my gosh.
Jill DeWit: What does he say? Did he finish?
Jack Butala: He gets irate about this topic. I don’t know if he finished or not, but he gets irate. You should actually look it up. When you’re not working on right [crosstalk 00:12:20].
Jill DeWit: Is it like a YouTube video? Here we go. Jack’s already off topic.
Jack Butala: Drop what you’re doing.
Jill DeWit: This show is stay on task? Can we talk Mark Cuban and his college face concept.
Jack Butala: Mark Cuban says, “Drop what you’re doing. Essentially file financial and mental bankruptcy. Go live in a house with 92 other people, spend 12 cents a month on rent.” Which by the way, he’s right. All right, I’m not going to exaggerate, go live in a house somewhere with five or six other people that your light time people.
Jill DeWit: Right, like Mark.
Jack Butala: It’s going to cost you $100 a month and work on the stuff that you want to work on. Whatever it is, do not go to your job anymore. Do not stay in a bad marriage. Do not-
Jill DeWit: Well, you got to pay the bills.
Jack Butala: Yeah, so he said, go live in house somewhere with five other people, where you divide by five or divide by eight. I don’t care if there’s six people living in a room.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Am I advocating that? Not really, but some version of it. I mean, I think all of us in some way can look back and say, “Boy, if I did that when I was 22, instead of.” Fill in the blank, get married, have kids, work at a stupid job for 10 years.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Some version of that, and he’s right.
Jill DeWit: I hear you.
Jack Butala: Talk about getting sidetracked.
Jill DeWit: Oh my goodness.
Jack Butala: This is exactly what this topic’s about.
Jill DeWit: What you don’t do. This is exactly what not to do. You know Jack? Now everyone can see. Now, I hope everyone’s going, “Wow, that really is amazing that they got this far.”
Jack Butala: That’s exactly what they’re saying.
Jill DeWit: Thank God for Jill.
Jack Butala: For you only.
Jill DeWit: I’m sorry.
Jack Butala: When I started dating Jill. I had a boat captain.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, you lost it all. You know when I met Jill, I was up here. Wow, I fell far.
Jack Butala: My boat captain at the time, I said, “Captain I met this girl and I think she’s the voice of reason in this relationship.” And he looked at me and said, “Oh my god.”
Jill DeWit: You think you’re the voice of reason?
Jack Butala: Yeah, that’s what I meant, yeah. I said, “I’m the voice of reason.” And he said, [crosstalk 00:14:34].
Jill DeWit: Oh that’s bad.
Jack Butala: We’re doomed.
Jill DeWit: That use to be your opening line, like, “Yeah, this is my friend Jill and believe it or not, I’m the voice of reason in this relationship.” And they looked at us like, “This awful.”
Jack Butala: [crosstalk 00:14:45] mess. End up in a gutter somewhere.
Jill DeWit: You guys are going to be like partying every night, nothing gets done. Pretty much.
Jack Butala: I feel like saying with the Car Talk guys, just saying, “Well, you’ve done it again. You’ve wasted another 15 minutes of your life listening to the Jack Jill Show.”
Jill DeWit: Is that what they say?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: That should be our new closing.
Jack Butala: It can’t be because it’s their closing.
Jill DeWit: That’s okay.
Jack Butala: Look at how sidetracked we are.
Jill DeWit: I don’t think they’ll sue us. One of us won’t, or one of them won’t. We know that.
Jack Butala: Join us in another episode where Jack and Jill discuss how to use information, that’s me.
Jill DeWit: And inspiration and try to stay on topic, that’s me.
Jack Butala: To get just about anything you want.
Jill DeWit: We use it every day to buy property for half of what it’s worth and sell it immediately.
Jack Butala: You’re not alone in your real estate ambition. I broke a sweat again laughing.
Jill DeWit: I like the Car Talk guys and I’m sorry the brother passed. So, the other brother’s doing nothing? He’s just like retired?
Jack Butala: We don’t know.
Jill DeWit: Were they like 70?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: All right.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: I think it was okay.
Jack Butala: Maybe even 80 now.
Jill DeWit: Oh, okay.
Jack Butala: Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.
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