Daily Routines and Strategies for All (CFFL 552)
Daily Routines and Strategies for All (CFFL 552)
Transcript:
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 the daily routines and strategies that are going to make you successful in everything, not just land investing.
Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community. It’s free.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Luke H. asks, “I bought eight properties and I have signed purchase agreements with 10 more from sellers calling every day.”
Jack Butala: You can’t make this stuff up.
Jill DeWit: I love this. “I’m starting to run out of money.” I love that.
Jack Butala: Been there.
Jill DeWit: Yep. “From the research I’ve done, doing deals without money requires one of the following: One, buying on an option. From what I understand, the only way to do this with zero dollars is to find a company that will do a dual closing. I’ve been unsuccessful in doing this so far, but I’m still working on it. Number two-”
Jack Butala: We will solve that problem for you within 60 days.
Jill DeWit: Yep.
Jack Butala: Called Title Mind.
Jill DeWit: Yep. Number two-
Jack Butala: We’d be happy to do your dual closing for you.
Jill DeWit: Number two … It’s like a class.
Jack Butala: Mom has spoken.
Jill DeWit: Geez, Jack. You in the back, sit down please. I appreciate the comments, but save them for recess. All right. Where were we?
Number two … Does anyone else has a smart ass comment there?
Jack Butala: You’ve got to stop swearing on the show, Jill. You can’t swear.
Jill DeWit: Sorry, sorry.
Jack Butala: I’m serious.
Jill DeWit: Is that bad?
Jack Butala: Yeah. We have a G rating, and iTunes, the whole thing happens.
Jill DeWit: I didn’t know that that was bad.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Okay, sorry. Anyway, “Number two, assigning the contract. All the offers I send out have a clause in them allowing me to assign the contract, but I have not taken advantage of this yet. Can I advertise a property for sale with the intent of assigning a contract I have on it without yet owning it?”
Jack Butala: Yes.
Jill DeWit: “Number three, finding an investor. Jack and Jill as well as other land investors talk about doing deals together. Does this entail some kind of written agreement? Is it typically one person doing the work and the other person putting the money down? And which of these three do you recommend? Are there any other options I’m unaware of?”
Jack Butala: No, this is incredibly well written, Luke Harris. The level of intelligence that our group members have just is shocking, Jill, to me. Number three’s my favorite.
Jill DeWit: Why does that surprise you?
Jack Butala: I just think we have a real … my point is in a real positive way. We have a way, for some reason, of attracting really intelligent people to be members of our group. I’m proud of us.
Jill DeWit: That’s very true.
Jack Butala: Number three is my favorite, finding an investor. LandCrowdFund.com will be live here within days. In fact, by the time this airs, it’s probably been done. The site’s done. We’re just putting the finishing content on it. And it’s exactly what it says. You’re going to post a property there, and the software’s set up so that it’s not a true crowd fund where everybody puts 20 cents in, at least yet, it’s not. We’re going to release it so it’s just one person is going to approve the deal.
And that’s how it works. You’re going to do all the work. You found the property. You’re going to do the negotiation, the closing, and the sales piece, and all of it, and the person’s going to front the money, and you’re both going to own 50% of it. That’s not going to be an option when we release this. When we release the actual site, there’s only going to be one way to do a deal. I’ll provide a suggested agreement and the whole thing. It’s already all in there.
That’s my favorite way, and here’s why: Because the people who fund these things have been in your seat before, and they’ve succeeded, so they know what they’re looking at. They know if a property’s … if you’ve posted a property, and the acquisition price is four grand, they know they love it at four, or they hate it at four, or they hate it at six but they love it at four, if you know what I’m saying. Finding an investor and then developing a long term relationship with that person just really makes a lot of sense to me.
Options, they work. Jill and I have done lots of options over the years. They’re not my favorite. Finding an investor who just is begging for more because they’re constantly getting a tremendous return on their money is great. Here’s the other thing, on the other side of the deal, why is it good for the investor? It’s actually better for the investor than you, but it’s a way to get started for you.
Dream with me for a second. Let’s say you have $15 million, right? People who have $15 million, and their house is paid for, and the whole thing, I know a lot about this from personal experience, all they do really is sit around and say, “I’m going to make 15 million, 30 million, without any risk. I don’t want to lose my 15 million.” Or let’s say, “I have 30 saved over here, so I’m going to play with 15.” They love this kind of stuff because they can’t wait to do these deals with you, right? They could do 80 deals in one day, all right? You can’t do 80 deals in one day because you don’t have time.
Jill DeWit: But they can.
Jack Butala: But they can.
Jill DeWit: Yes, no, no, yes, yes, no. That’s how they do it.
Jack Butala: That’s right, Jill. That’s exactly right.
Jill DeWit: That’s it. Done.
Jack Butala: So we put this site together at the request not so much from people like you, but money people. If you ever watch Shark Tank, all they ever say is, “Well, I love the company, but it’s not scalable. Next.” Scalable, this is lending money. This isn’t even a lender situation. I can’t stand lenders. That’s not what this is. This is an investor situation. It’s totally scalable. You could do 15,000 deals in a month if you had the funds and a website that you trusted.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: So finding an investor is the way to go.
Jill DeWit: Love it.
Jack Butala: If you have a question, or you want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on LandInvestors.com. Today’s topic, the daily routines and strategies it takes to be successful at this, or really anything.
I read a book a long time ago by Ross Perot. Not a fan politically at all. If you remember, if you’re my age, you remember he ran for president and lost, but that’s not what he did originally. What he did to become a multi-billionaire is started a company called EDS, Electronic Data Systems, and its biggest customer was General Motors. Essentially what it did was it made General Motors computerized.
Jill DeWit: I didn’t know all of this. Thank you. This is history.
Jack Butala: This is leading to a point.
Jill DeWit: This is history for me. Thank you. I’m like, “Wow, thanks, Jack.”
Jack Butala: And he did a whole chapter in his book, which I thought was funny, about organization, and what it takes and why. What he said was this, and it obviously stuck with me forever: “Whatever your system is, have one.”
And then recently I read an article in Fast Company, and the title of the article was this: The Number One Reason Companies Fail. Guess what it is, Jill. Just guess.
Jill DeWit: They don’t have a system?
Jack Butala: They’re not working on the right stuff.
Jill DeWit: Oh, that. Yeah, yeah.
Jack Butala: Right? They’re spending all kinds of time designing a logo when they actually should be going out and getting customers.
Jill DeWit: Correct.
Jack Butala: And getting customers is the first thing you should do. Forget about a logo, or business cards, or even a phone number. You should have customers in the back of your head all the time. So here’s my point: whatever you do, have a system. Even if it’s wrong in the beginning, have one. I’m going to use this show as an example of this, this podcast and how we record it, and why [crosstalk 00:07:53].
Jill DeWit: This is a good example. This is going to be a Dharma and Greg day, by the way, just so you know. When I tell you my notes about this, it’s going to be very different, so keep going.
Jack Butala: So this is how we record the show: It’s all in-house, we don’t sub anything out any longer. The script gets written. I usually write the script, and we’re probably months ahead. I’m constantly months ahead in writing a script. And then somebody pulls questions from Land Investors and puts it in. One of Jill’s people populates the script itself with the questions that we read in the beginning. And then we record it.
We record all five shows on Thursday morning at 8:00 in the morning. Hell or high water, that … Oh, I swore. Sorry. G-minus rating. PG rating on iTunes. Heck or high water, I don’t care if we’re in a hotel room, on the back of a boat, in an RV, or on an airplane, we are set up. I have a backpack, and it’s all battery powered, and we can do five shows and send the shows off to get produced. One of my people produces them. Thank you, Pavon. So that’s what happens. We have a system. That’s why people are constantly saying, “How do you guys do one show a day?” We don’t. We spend two hours a week, really, all in, recording and producing this whole show. I used to do all this stuff myself when we started the show. Probably sounded like it, too.
So you have to have a system. Jill is famous for calendars. She loves calendars. I’m not a calendar person. I’m a spreadsheet person, but I’ll tell you, at 8:00 on Thursday, everybody’s sitting down, ready to go. What I’ve seen people do that fail at a lot of things, I see this typical personality trait where they’d get up in the morning, and they start to have feelings. “Oh, I don’t feel good today.” “Oh, I feel great today. I’m going to get a lot of stuff done.” “Oh, it’s raining outside. I don’t feel that good.” “Oh, I’m going to go to the beach today.” Let me tell you something. That is the single fastest way to fail at whatever you’re trying to succeed at. Or maybe if you were that kind of person, you don’t want to have any goals anyway.
Jill DeWit: That is your routine.
Jack Butala: Tony Robbins said the single reason people can’t get anything done, the one thing that’s standing in your way, and he’s Mr. Motivation, he said it’s one word: emotion. If you have emotions and feelings about stuff, you’re going to fail.
Jill DeWit: Jack!
Jack Butala: All right, Jill, now you go.
Jill DeWit: Wow. Well, that’s it. What the heck is that?
Jack Butala: I knew you’d have something to say about that.
Jill DeWit: Oh my goodness, I can’t believe you just said that. If you have emotions and feelings about your family, you’re going to fail. No, just kidding. Jack! That’s so, oh my gosh.
Okay, while I agree, and I have to have a calendar. It’s funny, I used to walk around like that. That’s what’s kind of funny, is Jack’s poking a little fun at me.
Jack Butala: I really am.
Jill DeWit: So that’s where that came from. It’s all pointed at me, because Jack, you say, “What do you mean?”
Jack Butala: It’s just your turn. Tomorrow, next show, will be my turn.
Jill DeWit: You wake up and you just decide, “You know, I’m not doing that today.” Or, “Today, I’m going to start X.” Now, here’s my point with all of this. You can still have a version of that, but you also have to get all your important stuff done, too. So if you have a schedule … Here’s my thing, and actually I’m doing this today with my team. We are actually sitting down, I told everybody that we’re having a meeting this afternoon at 1:00, and I want them all to have their daily/weekly/monthly calendars filled out-
Jack Butala: Wow.
Jill DeWit: I’m serious.
Jack Butala: Jill!
Jill DeWit: Thank you. This is our meeting today.
Jack Butala: I’m proud of you.
Jill DeWit: Thank you. To do, because A., I need to assess how they’re spending their time-
Jack Butala: So they’re accountable.
Jill DeWit: B., I need to make sure it’s spread out comfortable. C., so they’re accountable, and D., because I’m going to give them more projects.
Jack Butala: Jill and I have separate offices in separate buildings, in separate zip codes.
Jill DeWit: That’s true. That’s all true.
Jack Butala: Which is a different topic, but it’s important for Jill and I not to work together too much, for a lot of reasons.
Jill DeWit: For a lot of reasons.
Jack Butala: Because every time I walk into Jill’s office, they all stop partying, and they say … “Stop, he’s here. He’s here. Go back to work.”
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Just a big party over there. Yet you guys all get your stuff done.
Jill DeWit: Well, that’s the thing. You have to have them both. Here’s my thing, and then this is going to parlay into my other points. You have to have a healthy balance, I think, but there’s too much going on. If you don’t have a system, and you don’t use your time wisely, you will fail. One of the things I teach my staff is, little things like … remember you and I used to have, Jack, days, we still do this, where we review all the transactions at one time. I’m not going to review every transaction as it comes in. That is a complete waste of time. Save them all, put them in a spreadsheet, sit down, spend one afternoon, two hours, it’s on the calendar. Review all the acquisitions at that time, decide what you’re going to buy, what you’re not going to buy, and then it goes to the next phase is whatever your time is that you are going to reach out to everybody and set up the transactions, however you do it.
And then you take it even down to the point where with my team, I have told them, “Do not be a slave to your e-mail. You will never get anything done.” If you have your e-mail alerts popping up throughout the day, and you stop whatever you’re working on every single time a new e-mail comes in, you won’t get anything done. I want you to have set times to check your voicemail. I want you to have set times to check your e-mail. We have Q and A places for customers and all kinds of stuff. Don’t be a slave to any one of them. Put it into a system, because that way you can have your focus time.
When you have your focus time, you have two hours during the day that is your project, whatever it is, time, that’s your time that I don’t care what you’re doing. What if you’re working on writing a blog? What if you’re working on writing a book? What if you’re working on dreaming up a way to come up with your buyer’s list, or you’re dreaming up an interesting way to market your property? Whatever it is. Or you want to make your videos better, showcasing your property. Set aside that chunk of time, and then you really can devote all your energy to that time. That is the way that you set up these routines and strategies, and you will be successful.
I’m not going to get real detailed with Monday/Wednesday/Friday and Tuesday/Thursday, but you should be doing that kind of stuff. That’s what we do. There’s daily stuff, there’s weekly stuff, there’s monthly stuff. Now all of that aside from this, I want to circle back around to something that is near and dear to me, and I want-
Jack Butala: I pretty much want to rip your clothes off right now.
Jill DeWit: Because having some more … Well, I’m going to change it all here in just a second. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
The notes that I wrote before the show that I also want to include are, number one, you have to take care of your mental well-being. Before even your work day starts, please put your workout in there. I don’t know, please put your yoga time in there. If you meditate, put that in there. I love all that stuff. Jack has a way of getting up and … Jack has his own version of this. Jack’s way is, and everybody in the house knows this, please don’t talk to Dad. Seriously. Too early in the morning, and I know this, don’t talk about business too early in the morning. Let that guy get up and have a cup of coffee and have his head to himself, and just have a few minutes to sit down. Jack really is a very quiet person in the morning. He needs to get up quietly, no talking, make his way to his coffee, and I can tell he’s thinking, he’s just thinking about his day, and he’s organizing his thoughts-
Jack Butala: I’m going to buy you a diamond ring.
Jill DeWit: Aww.
Jack Butala: That’s what I think about all this right now.
Jill DeWit: Thank you very much. And that’s Jack’s mental well-being time, and I respect that. Me personally, I wake up like … I’m like a puppy. I’m like, “Oh, great. Now we’re going to do this. We’re going to do that.” I could run around doing that all morning, and that’s going on in my head, and I’m holding back because I don’t want to mess with his morning.
Jack Butala: You shouldn’t hold back. You should go do that.
Jill DeWit: Well no, but I don’t need to do it to you.
Jack Butala: Oh, yeah.
Jill DeWit: Or on you, or with you, you know what I mean?
Jack Butala: On me.
Jill DeWit: I don’t need to run all my ideas by you. I don’t need to verbally throw up on you in the morning, and I won’t. This is not about a tennis bracelet moment. This is [inaudible 00:16:42] tell us, always turning into that. So anyway, all right.
I want you to wake up and do whatever it is to you, for you, and have your mental well-being. If you have to get up at 5:00 in the morning and work out because that really makes you happy and gets you going, do it, all right? Number two, your family well-being. I wake up, I have my own mental thing going on. Number two, I’m thinking about my family, and that’s Jack, and that’s why I’m like, “Hold it back. Hold back, let him have his time. Let him have his coffee, and when the time is right, we can talk about X.”
Jack Butala: And jump on him. That’s what she means.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. No. You know what, I do preface things a lot. I’m like, “Can we talk about this now?” And that’s a very healthy way to do things for everyone in a relationship. There’s nothing wrong with saying-
Jack Butala: How did this become a relationship thing now? But that’s okay.
Jill DeWit: With your business partner. “Can we discuss this now?”
Jack Butala: Yeah, sure. Yeah, we’re business partners.
Jill DeWit: Should I just say, for whatever it is to you. So mental well-being of you, mental well-being of your family, and then number three, of your job, and that’s it.
Jack Butala: Do the same stuff every single day. That’s the first rule of social media advertising, is do 10 or 15 little, tiny, inexpensive ad campaigns. Invariably, three or four or five of them are going to be fantastic, and dump the other ones. Do the same stuff. Try a lot of stuff, constantly change, but execute it all the same way every single … all day. Here’s the truth, I have alarms set in my phone constantly. I have constant alarms that go off that say, “All right, you spent too much time on that, now move on to this.”
I recently read an article on it, and actually the concept made it into my book. The title of the article is, Your E-mail Is Not Your To-Do List. That’s the name of the article. Get control over that. Seriously, all the noise in your life, get it out of there. 90% of the stuff, especially if you have a bunch of employees like us, when they ask questions, if you let two hours go by or an hour go by before you answer it, nine times out of ten — this is a real stat — they solve it by themselves without your help. Same thing with kids.
Jill DeWit: I’ve watched you do that to me.
Jack Butala: With kids. What?
Jill DeWit: I’ve watched you do that to me. I know you’ve done that to me. He’s like, “Yeah, I’m not even going to go there.” It’s so funny.
Jack Butala: When Jill and I first started working together on Land Academy, not with the dirt, not with land and houses and stuff, there’s just so much more intense IT that goes on with Land Academy than it ever did with land or flipping houses. I used to joke about it because she would e-mail me or send me a text and say, “My e-mail’s not working. My monitor doesn’t work. [crosstalk 00:19:50]”
Jill DeWit: I didn’t say the monitor. That’s not funny, that wasn’t me.
Jack Butala: “I can’t get into the website.”
Jill DeWit: You know what though? I do have to say we’ve come a long way, baby.
Jack Butala: We have.
Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh.
Jack Butala: Now we have an IT staff. It’s awesome.
Jill DeWit: Not only that, I know way more than I ever intended or needed to know about IT and tech and solving these problems. Heck, I’m recording things in Audition on my own for our company voicemails.
Jack Butala: I’m proud of you.
Jill DeWit: I can’t believe I’m doing this. It’s hilarious.
Jack Butala: Anyway, the takeaway from this show is, have a schedule and stick to it, and change it as it’s needed. Don’t walk around and just have a feeling.
Jill DeWit: And don’t be a slave to everybody else. You are in control.
Jack Butala: That’s right, Jill.
Jill DeWit: Not them. Even your customers, let them know, “I will get back to you in a timely manner,” and do that. Follow through.
Jack Butala: Well said, and if they call you again-
Jill DeWit: I say follow through and let them know. There’s nothing wrong with saying I answer all these questions every Tuesday, between 2:00 and 4:00 is when we do these, and I’ll give you a call after that. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Jack Butala: Join us in the next episode, where we discuss how to overcome bad situations, by Jill. I will silently and quietly listen, just like you, listener.
Jill DeWit: Thank you. And we’re going to answer Chris and P.’s question about mailers sent out that hit after Hurricane Harvey, and now we have Irma. So what do you do about those?
Jack Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition. Everybody knows the secret now. We’re just going to record it right after this.
Jill DeWit: Which one?
Jack Butala: We’re not really going to record it tomorrow. We’re going to record the show, How To Overcome Bad Situations, about 13 seconds from now.
Jill DeWit: That’s okay. That’s all good. We still have enough to talk about, so good job. Hey, you like our show? Please subscribe and rate us on iTunes, or wherever you are listening.
Jack Butala: Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property and stay organized.
If you enjoyed the podcast, please review it in iTunes . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on iTunes. My staff and I read each and every one.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at jack@LandAcademy.com.
I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.
And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes.
