Managing Work Burnout (LA 793)
Managing Work Burnout (LA 793)
Transcript:
Steven Butala: Steve & Jill here.
Jill DeWit: Hi!
Steven Butala: Welcome to the Land Academy show. Entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit: I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from gorgeous, sunny, southern California.
Steven Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about managing your work burnout. This week.
Jill DeWit: Thank you. We need to talk about this. We really need to talk about this.
Steven Butala: This week is all about. Kind of like non-land topics. It’s just about stuff that goes on in work.
Jill DeWit: Boy, do I have a lot to say about this.
Steven Butala: Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the land investors online community. It’s free.
Jill DeWit: Jordan asks, I’m currently in the process of closing my first ever deal.
Steven Butala: Good.
Jill DeWit: For this reason, I have questions. Number one. How critical is it to have title insurance for a land transaction? I know most of you aren’t lawyers here, but I guess I can ask whether or not people here typically purchase with it. Two, when is it too late to buy title insurance? I want to get this worry out of the way so I can get this deal closed.
Steven Butala: Good questions.
Jill DeWit: Three. If I should buy title insurance, does anyone know what company that we could go to. Anyone that will offer insurance itself and not part of the closing package?
Steven Butala: No.
Jill DeWit: Any help here is greatly appreciated. I’m pretty anxious about this whole thing. Thank you.
Steven Butala: May I?
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: There’s like three or four questions in there. Number one, it’s very unusual, if not impossible, to find a company to separate escrow and title insurance and here’s why. They’re issuing a title policy and the process of escrow makes them much more comfortable.
In fact, it reduces a lot of risk for them because they’ve researched the property and they close the deal. They know this guy’s got the money and the whole thing and they close it and they can issue a policy on it. It’s a qualification to get … Escrow is a qualification for title insurance.
Number two. We have a pretty hard-and-fast rule about the purchase price and whether or not we close the deal ourselves or do it with title insurance and it’s about 5,000 bucks. Although more-and-more, with very few exceptions, we almost close everything with title now, just because …
Jill DeWit: Because most of our transactions are more than $5,000.
Steven Butala: Yeah. In fact, all of them.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: I’ll tell you, it’s a lot of work to close your own deals. You should do it. You should learn how to drive a stick and then eventually just drive an automatic because it’s easier. You should learn how to close your deals. It’s something you need to know mechanically so you can manage title people the rest of your life, but, it’s great to sub out all that work to someone else.
Jill DeWit: The reason we picked that $5,000 and why we coach on that and advise that with everybody is because less than $5,000, and I’m talking the purchase price, not necessarily the sale price, but if I’m buying something less than $5,000. If I did it all wrong and I’m out $2,000, I can afford that.
When I get more than $5,000, now it might hurt, number one. Number two is because now there’s a little more profit in the game too because getting title insurance and entering escrow, we all know, is not cheap.
Steven Butala: Yeah, yeah. That’s right, Jill.
Jill DeWit: Gosh, if I’m buying a property for $1,000, do I want to spend an extra $1,000 getting title and escrow? Now, it’s not worth it for the deal, so I don’t want to do that, but if I’m buying something for $10,000 and I’m selling it for $20,000. I can budget doing the title insurance, the escrow and the other in there. That’s the other reason that we have that advice, if you will.
Steven Butala: The third question is, it’s two-fold. Number one, where do I get it?
Jill DeWit: Where to go?
Steven Butala: Where do I get a good title agent to close a deal and when is it too late to get title insurance? So, we almost always get title insurance from a company that’s local to the land. So, if you’re in Massachusetts and you’re buying a piece of property in New Mexico, get a title insurance company that’s in New Mexico and preferably close to the real estate.
Where do you do that? You go to a company called sourceoftitle.com. It’s packed with moms-and-pops. That’s who you kind of want to do business with. These mom-and-pops are great. They’re flexible on the price. It’s like dealing with an owner and everything.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: When is it too late to get title insurance? Jill and I have purchased property without title insurance and then gotten it a year later.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). You can do it later.
Steven Butala: Or, we sell it to somebody, who sells it to somebody, who sells it to somebody, and nobody did title insurance but now they want it because they want to build on it. They just go back. So, you can always do it.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: It’s easy, but time-consuming.
Jill DeWit: I’ve done that just so you know too, when you’re selling a property. I’ve sold it without title insurance and made it really clear that I’m selling it without title insurance so the savings go to you. Then, my buyer and I’ll tell them, “If you guys want to get it after the fact, you sure can.” They’ll do that themselves, as a separate expense. Good questions.
Steven Butala: Today’s topic, managing work burnout. This is the meat of the show. What is work burnout, Jill? I’m going to ask you like 10 questions, if that’s all right.
Jill DeWit: Yeah!
Steven Butala: Not to put you on the spot, just because …
Jill DeWit: Oh, I love it.
Steven Butala: We’ll define it this way.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Work.
Steven Butala: Of all the stuff that all the things you do for all these crazy companies we do, what burns you out the most? Like what just, you get into it and I can’t stand this.
Jill DeWit: What do you want to know first? Do you want what is work burnout or do you want to know what happens to me?
Steven Butala: Both.
Jill DeWit: Well, work burnout is for anyone, where you almost, you’re working so hard that you realize you’re making bad decisions. That’s for me, what work burnout is.
Steven Butala: Wow! I wouldn’t define it like that as well.
Jill DeWit: You’re not even showing up. You’re there every day. You’re spending 10 hours a day. Really doesn’t matter. The last eight of those 10 hours where you got nothing done. You’ve been surfing the internet and, seriously, you’re perfecting your posting. You’ve written the same paragraph, rewritten the same paragraph five times. You’re just not thinking straight. That’s one work burnout. It’s a mental work burnout.
But, then there is a physical work burnout. I mean, they really go hand-in-hand. You know what I mean? You just don’t want to get out and go to bed. You just don’t want to go to work anymore. You are burned out.
Steven Butala: Wow!
Jill DeWit: You know, that happens to people. Does that surprise you?
Steven Butala: No. It’s just not how I’d define it, but I think that’s excellent. I’m sure that that happens. I’m sure you’re right.
Jill DeWit: Like, well, how do you define it?
Steven Butala: My definition of work burnout is you come in and you’re just like, this sucks. Wait a minute, Steve. You’re making a ton of money at this. Yeah, but it sucks. This is awful. It’s not even worth it anymore.
Jill DeWit: That’s another way.
Steven Butala: That’s …
Jill DeWit: That’s career burnout almost maybe.
Steven Butala: I need a vacation.
Jill DeWit: I get that.
Steven Butala: There are certain product types that we’re involved in that I can’t stand. I’m not involved in it at all. There are certain things that go on in these companies that we have. One of them’s IT, where I’m just so done with it and disgusted with it because it just never goes right. It’s not rewarding.
At the end of it, you’re not making any more money. It’s just … Back ends of web sites make me sick.
Jill DeWit: You just shared that you, so that’s your thing and that’s true. Like, for me. I’m trying to think, what is it for me? What is it for me?
Steven Butala: I don’t know. This whole show is kind of meant to be a rant for you and me.
Jill DeWit: I know. I’m trying to think, what is it for me about when I get burned? I guess, for me, I can rally. You know what’s interesting about me is that there are times that I don’t … I need a break right now. I’m not coming in today. I am just not on the right …
You know what? I guess that’s my thing. There’s times I hit it. I hit it and it doesn’t happen very often, but when I do, I’ve learned to go, “You know what? If I come in today, I’m not going to be a whole lot of fun. I know I’m not going to get a lot of thing done. I’m just not in the right frame of mind. I need to take a break.”
It’s because I work seven days a week. We both do for eight months’ straight. I can take Tuesday off. I earned it.
Steven Butala: Back off of stuff. Back off of stuff or will drown you. My big peeve has been for quite some time is if you’re going to spend money, which we all have to do to run companies. It better be a profit center, not a cost center.
That’s why IT bugs me so much because it just seems to be this sinking hole of money that doesn’t really improve anything. I mean, it might improve our customers’ experience. I actually think our websites work really well now. They weren’t for a while, but I don’t like it. If that was my whole job, I’d pack it all up.
Jill DeWit: I know. I have a couple of things to say about tips to manage work burnout. Number one, be aware of it. That’s the biggest thing. If you’re aware that this could happen or you feel it happening, or you just know that the next person that walks in your office, look out.
Steven Butala: They’re going to get it.
Jill DeWit: Doesn’t matter what it is. They’re coming in to tell you your lunch is being delivered.
Steven Butala: Usually, it’s me.
Jill DeWit: That’s right. You just let them have it. That’s number one, to manage it. Be aware of it. Then, I guess, number two, sometimes now-and-then for me, I do a reality check. I kind of go, “All right. Am I really where I want to be? Am I really doing what I want to do? Is it really going in the right direction?”
Steven Butala: It helps me too.
Jill DeWit: What’s interesting is, so many people in our community, and I think a lot of people listen to this show. You have your day gig and you have your side hustle. Right? That’s what’s going on. We don’t want our side hustle to be our day gig. This is hard. This whole process right now and this transition right now, you’re killing it at your day job because you don’t them to fire you.
You want to stay there so you’ve got to show up and do a good job. Your heart’s not really in it. Your own business, what you’re building on the side, is where your heart is, and that’s what you want to do. This work burnout is even more important and you’re more of a candidate for it in this situation so you’ve really got to be careful and watch for it. I guess …
Steven Butala: Here’s the real fix. May I?
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Steven Butala: Number one. Get yourself on a schedule. What stresses people out is that they’re not in an Outlook-type calendar every single day, doing what their calendar says. You know, you schedule out your whole month or so. You just look at your calendar. You know in your head, while you’re working on this stuff, this is how I get through it all.
Jill DeWit: This all works for you.
Steven Butala: Right, and I understand it, and that’s why we’re here to suggest what works for people. That is what keeps me not burned out.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Give us all of your lists and then I’ll finish my list.
Steven Butala: That’s it.
Jill DeWit: That was your only list?
Steven Butala: That and you need to take vacations. I don’t mean vacations. Vacations, you just need to take a day off where you turn your phone off, go out on the boat, do whatever it is.
Jill DeWit: That works for you, okay.
Steven Butala: You really have to like give your mind a rest and not think about work at all or talk about it, especially if you’re working with your spouse. You tend to just come home and start talking about work. You’ve got to control that. You’d go nuts.
Jill DeWit: What else do you do?
Steven Butala: That’s it.
Jill DeWit: You don’t do anything else?
Steven Butala: Well, I’m trying to keep the show short.
Jill DeWit: That’s okay. No, I want to know more about it. I want you to finish your list and then we’ll go back to my list.
Steven Butala: That’s about it.
Jill DeWit: That’s all you do to manage work. There’s nothing else that you can think of that you want to … What about releases? Do you …
Steven Butala: Yeah. That’s kind of what I meant by the second comment.
Jill DeWit: Take a break.
Steven Butala: You really have to unplug your phone. For me, unplug the phone. Go do some stuff that it’s completely unrelated that you have to concentrate on, like boating. Boating’s a great one for me.
Jill DeWit: That’s a third. Good. That’s three for you. That’s good. All right. For me, my list was be aware of it, watch it coming. You guys doing two jobs. You’re really such a candidate for this. You’ve got to be careful. I love your comment about please don’t take it home. That’s hard. You don’t want to come home and take it out on people.
Maybe, do something else. If you have to do something on your way home. Like, a lot of people, I think that’s their time. A lot of people have commutes. Their time in the car. That’s when they’re listening. Getting out of everything so they can come and be a pleasant dad. You don’t want to come home and be mad dad. We’ve all seen mad dad.
Steven Butala: Sad mad.
Jill DeWit: Sad mad.
Steven Butala: That’s what the kids call it.
Jill DeWit: Just kidding. I’m just kidding.
Steven Butala: Sad mad dad.
Jill DeWit: We all have had our moments.
Steven Butala: Take it out on a treadmill or something too. That’s always good.
Jill DeWit: Something like that. Exactly. That’s a good release. My final point is, you’re probably going to mess up and that’s okay.
Steven Butala: Yeah. Cut yourself some slack.
Jill DeWit: Be kind to yourself. Give yourself a break. If you are that sad mad dad, when you wake up in the morning, bring your wife coffee, make her some toast, make her some eggs, tell her you’re sorry and remind her that this is why I got burned out. I’m working so hard. You know what? I’m doing this for us. There’s a big reward at the end of this. That’s why we’re doing this.
Steven Butala: It’s very motivational, Jill. ,
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Steven Butala: Well, you’ve done it again. You spent another 15 minutes or so listening to the Land Academy show. Join us next time where we talk about buying your way out of a cash crunch, believe it or not.
Jill DeWit: And, we answer your questions. Post it on landinvestors.com. It is our online community and it is free.
Steven Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition. Good stuff, Jill.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. You know what’s funny? I think these motivational shows in these weeks, every time we do this, I get nothing but good stuff. There’s so many people out there that they understand the details about flipping land and all stuff, but there are some personal hangups and stuff that are more inspirational that get in the way. These are all good shows.
Steven Butala: The older I get and the more we do Land Academy and Now House Academy, the more I’m learning that the actual real estate deals themselves, they only take a little while to learn. It’s all this other stuff. It’s keeping a schedule, not getting burned out.
Jill DeWit: Following through. Posting the property.
Steven Butala: Staying motivated.
Jill DeWit: It’s funny, you buy the property. Now, you’ve got to follow through and post the property. It’s hilarious.
Steven Butala: All those things. The real estate deals themselves should just come very easily because the technical aspect of how to buy-and-sell in these groups we have, everybody’s got to figure it out. It doesn’t take long.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: It’s the other stuff.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. Share the fun by subscribing on iTunes or wherever you are listening to watching. It might be YouTube, so please subscribe and rate us there.
Steve & Jill: We are Steve and Jill.
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