Five Year Anniversary Episode (LA 1298)
Five Year Anniversary Episode (LA 1298)
Transcript:
Steven Jack Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hi.
Steven Jack Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny Northern California.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about… Well, it’s our five year anniversary episode.
Jill DeWit:
Yay. Oh, I’m sorry I don’t have champagne and balloons and everything right now, because this is recorded a few days before this. But I either have already by the time you’re listening or I’m about to later today, as this airs on Friday, July 31st, 2020, we’re doing something special. So you’ll see us with some kind of celebration stuff going on.
Steven Jack Butala:
We launched Land Academy on July 31st, 2015.
Jill DeWit:
Wow.
Steven Jack Butala:
And all the way up to the setting up the podcast and learning a ton about software I never wanted to learn, that entire time I said, “There’s no way this is ever going to work. Why would anyone… People aren’t going to understand buying and selling land. They never have.”
Jill DeWit:
And what if they don’t like us?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Yes.
Jill DeWit:
And what if they get it, they just don’t want to listen to us?
Steven Jack Butala:
Or all that in between. And Jill’s response was, every single time, “You’re crazy. They’re going to love it. They’re going to do well with it. They’re going to respond to it well. It doesn’t have to be perfect,” and on, and on, and on. She was right, and I was wrong.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Steven Jack Butala:
This is almost episode 1,298.
Jill DeWit:
98. Woo-hoo. We have another thing to celebrate here pretty soon too.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s amazing too. Either that, or we’re just weirdo whack jobs. Usually I say, let’s take a question posted by one of our members, but today I’m going to ask Jill some questions about… And she theoretically is going to ask me some about five years later.
Jill DeWit:
So we’re jumping right into the meat of the show?
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s all the kind of the thing. Sure. This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWit:
All right. This is exciting. This is awesome.
Steven Jack Butala:
Did you ever think that it would end up being this?
Jill DeWit:
No. I had no idea it would be this good and be this big-
Steven Jack Butala:
Just well received.
Jill DeWit:
… and be this successful.
Steven Jack Butala:
You know what I didn’t think? I didn’t realize, number one, how many people we are helping. Not just like seller’s getting out of their land, but people learning how to buy and sell real estate. And then number two, and this is really the meat for me, the meat of the show, I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed teaching and watching people succeed. It’s like a second career.
Jill DeWit:
That’s good.
Steven Jack Butala:
What’s your take on it?
Jill DeWit:
I agree.
Steven Jack Butala:
What’s your surprising take? Or is this pretty much what you thought?
Jill DeWit:
Okay. So is that question number one? How are we going to do this? You want to ask questions or just converse?
Steven Jack Butala:
Well, it’s the meat of the show. So yeah, just converse.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. So what are my biggest takeaways now five years later? I knew it would work because I know that… And that’s a fact. Whatever you and I put our minds to and really put our heads down, we will go all in on it. We won’t socialize, we’ll stay home, we’ll do whatever it takes. We’ll work evenings, we’ll work weekends. It’s one of the nice things about us that we… And it would be hard if I was with someone that didn’t feel that way. They’d be like, “No, it’s dinner time. You have to stop.” I’d be like, “this is our livelihood. I can’t stop,” kind of thing.
And we help each other too. Like even this morning, we’re getting ready to change locations. So kid and I are packing the car, while you’re setting up equipment. And you might be getting lunch while I am reviewing some deals, or something like that. We help each other a lot. So where’s this tying in with this? I don’t even know. Does that sail you off on your own tangent? You don’t even know [crosstalk 00:03:43].
Steven Jack Butala:
Is this what you expected out of Land Academy?
Jill DeWit:
Oh, so that was my whole point because we help each other and we dig in. I expected Land Academy to survive and thrive. I did not expect to be dealing with the caliber of members and community that we have today. This surprised me.
Steven Jack Butala:
Me too.
Jill DeWit:
I thought that because I really wanted us thinking the majority of our membership and our people would just be people that were already buying and selling land. And I only kind of only would tweak it a little way, a little bit. And I had no idea that the smart people that would find us. And still, so much of what we do is organic. I’m not on them on a magazine. I’ve never been on CNBC. We never done anything like that.
Steven Jack Butala:
We could be.
Jill DeWit:
We could be. So the people that find us, you’re digging. If you know us and you even listen to this show, you probably had to dig for it.
Steven Jack Butala:
Well, it just made sense to you.
Jill DeWit:
But it’s good.
Steven Jack Butala:
Or you’re very bored.
Jill DeWit:
Because then it’s the right people. I’m glad the way it worked out. The community that we built, the deals that we’re doing, and I never thought that so many people would be reaching out to tell us, “I quit my job. My wife quit their job. We now can do this. Our kids’ colleges are paid for.” That positive going forward stuff that we were able to help people do, I didn’t expect. I just thought it would just be teaching people to do stuff on the side, whatever. I didn’t think people would take it to the level like we do. And you know what? I’m here to tell you too, it’s not uncommon that some members are doing better than we are each month. I’m like, “You sold how much?” I’m like, “Wow, I got to up my game. I got to keep up with you now,” kind of thing. I think it’s awesome.
Steven Jack Butala:
So I started this whole show and I said the whole… Not the show, the whole Land Academy portion of our business. Because we’ve been buying and selling lands very successfully all the way through this and continue to. And somebody asked me at the live event, one of our advanced members said, “What was this all about? What’s your whole goal here?” What he said was, “What don’t you have yet? What was your point here? What haven’t you accomplished yet?” And I very quickly replied without thinking about it, “I would like to have unlimited capital to buy and sell land,” and that’s what we have, we have that now. It’s like mission accomplished. So I’m very, very proud of that.
Without putting syndications together, and complicated stuff, and raising capital through capital markets on Wall Street, people can do that. I’m wired for that. I know how to do it. It takes a lot of time, there’s a lot of risk involved. Versus developing a community like this, where people are there, and they will walk up to you and say, “Hey, I’m John listening to your show-”
Jill DeWit:
“How much do you need?”
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. “How much do you need?” I get you guys.
Jill DeWit:
Got it.
Steven Jack Butala:
How do you typically structure it? Let’s talk. That’s the way to do it. So that’s what it was for me in the beginning and it all happened very quickly, and we’re living it now. Went as a side product, like an unanticipated result or outcome was just the people, just the amazing people and how successful they are. I talked about it yesterday or two days ago, we have people in our group that joined, in four months they’re producing a million dollars a month for themselves. They’re just organized. And they come from a very professional like environment, where they’ve done that with other stuff in the past, and this just makes sense to them.
So that as a teacher, instructor or whatever you want to call it, whatever we are, that makes me misty. I feel like Jill and I do very well. And I’m never one to sit around and say, “It’s all mine.” we could have done that. That was really my next question for you. Do you think that we would be doing more real estate deals now or less with, or without Land Academy? We could have done nothing in 2015 and just [crosstalk 00:08:05] real estate.
Jill DeWit:
I think we’re doing more for sure. And here’s part of the reason why, because having this community forced us and gave us the need for creating tools. This is one of the things I never expected. I never thought we’d have things like ParcelFact, and NeighborScoop, and Offers2Owners. The online community made sense because it was a way for us just to interact with each other, when were just Land Academy, when it started right away, they’re like, “We have questions.” Okay. But a lot of these tools and things that we’ve developed that made our lives better, our business better, more efficient, faster, I could do my due diligence better, all this stuff. I didn’t predict that. And I know all those things save me a whole lot of time, and money, and energy, as well as everybody else. So I know that’s just one reason why I know we’re doing better deals and bigger deals.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, me too.
Jill DeWit:
And I’ve learned some things about certain areas. I’ll be honest, I’ve learned different parts of the country helping deal funding with other people’s deals. So I’m like, “Oh, now I know about that.” I just had to, you just have to learn. And I’m sure I would have branched out, but I’m sure I would have branched out everywhere. I wouldn’t be in as many counties as we are in right now if it weren’t for our members.
Steven Jack Butala:
Do you regret anything?
Jill DeWit:
Oh my gosh, no.
Steven Jack Butala:
Nothing?
Jill DeWit:
No, no, no, no. The only thing that I would honestly say that I might like, “I might want to take a little more time off now and then.” Do you know what I mean? But then I sit back and go, “You know what? It doesn’t matter. I love what I do.” So I don’t need it. I love everything that we’ve done. I love our community. I love our life. I am right now eating my words on the show. I used to fight him on the show because it was hard for me to get myself going sometimes, and the consistency about it. I’m not that kind of person. I like a free flowing schedule. I like I wake up, I know what I have to do today, I don’t have to do it right now.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s my nightmare.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. I just know between now and before I go back to bed, I got to get this stuff done. That’s my natural state. So your natural state is 10:00 AM, noon, three o’clock, whatever-
Steven Jack Butala:
It totally is.
Jill DeWit:
… now we can go have a drink. I’m like, “Eh, whatever.”
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s exactly it.
Jill DeWit:
So for the first little while.
Steven Jack Butala:
First decade.
Jill DeWit:
I had a hard time with you and the schedule. And when I mean schedule, the main thing was this flipping show. So I had a love/hate relationship with this podcast.
Steven Jack Butala:
Boy, that’s saying it lightly.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, exactly. But now I’m over it. It’s okay. I get it. Oh, so many things that we’ve learned. It’s so funny. It’s just story after story. I think that’s what this show’s about. Me coming in, getting mad at you, going, “What are you doing messing around on Facebook? You’re supposed to be filming this chapter of our program.” And I was literally mad at you. And you’re like, “I’m doing this for the business.” I’m like, “What the hell would Facebook have anything to do-”
Steven Jack Butala:
With business? That was some classic stuff, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Steven Jack Butala:
There’s a lot of moments like that.
Jill DeWit:
Oh yeah. Okay. What’s one about me? Give me one that you’re like, “Oh, okay. Now I see it.”
Steven Jack Butala:
From the second I met you until this moment, my whole thing has been, “Oh now, I get it,” about sales.
Jill DeWit:
And how I do everything?
Steven Jack Butala:
Interacting with people, specific buyers and sellers, and then eventually Land Academy members. My whole thing in life is, look, you either get in or you don’t. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You either want to sell your property or don’t for this price. I’m about to move on.
Jill DeWit:
And I don’t want to do any talking.
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t really care. I don’t want to talk that much about it. And if you don’t want to sell it or you don’t want to buy it, that’s fine. In fact, you know what, don’t call me anymore. If you want to buy it, here’s the link to the credit card checkout, or here’s the escrow agent’s phone number, and do it yourself. And honestly that worked out great. Until I met Jill, and found out you can times four, times 10 stuff, if you actually talk to people, listen to what they’re saying, hear them out and approach it as if everybody’s equal.
Jill DeWit:
Thanks.
Steven Jack Butala:
And so if Jill weren’t around for whatever reason in the next six months, and I continued on in this business, I would revert back to my old, weird ineffective ways.
Jill DeWit:
And you’d be okay.
Steven Jack Butala:
And I would do fine.
Jill DeWit:
You’d be great. Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
We certainly wouldn’t be at this level. So you bring a lot of positive energy and positive new variants to… All new positive stuff. Really, I’m not trying to get you. I’m really being honest about it.
Jill DeWit:
Well, five years later, I have this to say. This has been your baby all along. You came up with this whole thing in the ’90s. This is your business, and it’s brilliant. And I’m trying not to cry. And thank you for letting me be a part of it, and thank you for teaching it to me. You taught it to me. That’s, too, when I knew Land Academy would be wildly successful because you taught me. And I’m like, “Oh God, I got this. We can teach others,” and we did.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.
Jill DeWit:
And thank you.
Steven Jack Butala:
So what do you think’s next?
Jill DeWit:
Maybe another show. We keep talking about it off and on, off and on, off and on. So that’s what we’re going to have to do. I’m just going to say it. Somehow, somewhere, we’re going to figure out how to make this… We’re going to keep the Land Academy Show. Land Academy’s not changing. It’s going to keep growing, getting better. But we’re still going to branch off and do something about you and me because there’s something about you and me that I think we have more to give a more to share, and it’s not related to land.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what I think too.
Jill DeWit:
And just being good partners in life, in business, all kinds of things. I know that there’s people that want more insight into that.
Steven Jack Butala:
We have a successful producer, Hollywood producer, in our group, in our social group, in our group, who’s saying to us, and he’s been saying this since we met him probably over a year ago, “You guys got to do this YouTube… You need a YouTube show where you’re just inspiring people,” because that’s what this is all about, and giving people hope, especially now. So we’ve been calling it the Jack and Jill Show forever. I don’t know what it’ll end up being called. And every time we talk about it, people are like, “Yeah, you guys should do that.” So we’ll see.
Jill DeWit:
We have to. We will.
Steven Jack Butala:
What do you regret?
Jill DeWit:
Nothing. I’m trying to think.
Steven Jack Butala:
I mean, do you think we failed at anything?
Jill DeWit:
Oh my gosh, no. No, nothing. I’m really happy for how this turned into this big community, this culture, the live events, getting to know people. I’ve got nothing. I think we did it at the right pace, the right time and I know it’s going to get better.
Steven Jack Butala:
There are a handful of people, not recently, that Jill and I… It’s very windy. That Jill and I, we got very close to. And in the end, and this happens with everything, in the end they were just there to kind of take advantage of the situation and snooker us, and just be narcissistic, selfish. And it probably happens with people in Hollywood all the time for self serving reasons.
Jill DeWit:
I don’t even regret that.
Steven Jack Butala:
I mean, I laugh about it. It’s funny. It’s just too bad, but I won’t put myself in that position anymore. It was a learning experience more than anything.
Jill DeWit:
That’s it.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s it.
Jill DeWit:
Stuff happens everywhere.
Steven Jack Butala:
[crosstalk 00:16:10].
Jill DeWit:
That’s the worst thing that happened to us is someone tried to not do good, not be nice people. And that’s okay, it’s going to happen.
Steven Jack Butala:
It happens no matter where you are.
Jill DeWit:
We’re still here, and everything’s great. So thank you everyone. Thank you for a great five years. Hard to believe that we’re going to be… I know it, we’re going to be like, “Well, here’s our 10 year anniversary,” and the show, it’s going to be cool. We’re not going anywhere.
Steven Jack Butala:
Jill will be on Facebook Live today, I’m sure.
Jill DeWit:
Oh yeah, we’re going to do something, you and me together.
Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, okay.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Come on, we have to do a little toast. Like at the end of the program. If those of you who are in Land Academy and you’ve watched the program, remember we sat there, we finished the program, we had some champagne, I rang the bell.
Steven Jack Butala:
The sales bell.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Well, we’re going to do something like that too again.
Steven Jack Butala:
Good.
Jill DeWit:
Happy you could join us today. Happy you could join us the last five years. Five days a week, Monday through Friday, you can find us right here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Monday for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. For the 13,000th time, real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
What happened to that dumb bell? I think we moved and it didn’t make the cut.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
That was kind of fun. That was good. That was a sales bell that we would ring, and it was kind of a… We had to tell people, “Make sure you hang up the phone before you go, ‘wow.'” We haven’t talked about that in a while, but we have to remind people like, you know you got a home run deal, you don’t want to celebrate while the person’s still on the phone. Make sure it’s disconnected. It’s so funny. The Land Academy Show remains commercial free for you, our loyal listener. So wherever you’re watching, wherever you’re listening, please subscribe and rate us there. We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Jack Butala:
Information.
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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