You Either Love Your Mask or Hate It (LA 1308)
You Either Love Your Mask or Hate It (LA 1308)
Transcript:
Jack Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Happy Friday.
Jack Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I am Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny, southern California. I’m chilling it out. It’s Friday.
Jack Butala:
It is sunny.
Jill DeWit:
It is sunny.
Jack Butala:
Do you know about this Apple fire?
Jill DeWit:
No. What Apple fire?
Jack Butala:
It’s east of Riverside. It’s pretty serious. It’s causing most of this gloom and haze. It’s not the weather.
Jill DeWit:
I don’t see any gloom. I’m looking behind me. I don’t see the gloominess.
Jack Butala:
I’m just going to check and see if it’s cleared up. Anyway, today, Jill and I talk about you either love your mask or hate it.
Jill DeWit:
You either love your husband or hate him.
Jack Butala:
That’s probably true.
Jill DeWit:
I’m sure it’s true. I’m sure the guys are saying, “You either love your wife or hate her.”
Jack Butala:
Here’s a spoiler alert for what we’re going to talk about. The types of people that watch TV, and really love taking direction, and being issued orders, and told where to stand, and how to stand, and when you can go outside, and when you can’t, love their mask. That’s their comfort zone. Am I judging them or engaging one way or the other and this side? No. But they’re very, very comfortable in a W2 environment. In their minds, contribution to the effort, it’s optional for them.
Jill DeWit:
I would argue this. I just want to bring up this thought. Remember, how do I say … You know how people are on the phone, they can say things they would never say in person? And on the computer, oh, gosh, especially on the app NextDoor, people are so verbal, and social media is so verbal. They say things they would never say in person and out loud. I wonder if there’s a little sense of security with this that they think, “They don’t know who I am, I’m going to say what I want.”
Jack Butala:
I’m sure.
Jill DeWit:
Interesting.
Jack Butala:
Absolutely. I’m sure there’s some elements of that.
Jill DeWit:
I hadn’t even thought of that.
Jack Butala:
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:
John. I’m looking for the question, like where’s the question? It is a one-line question. John wrote, “Hello all. How is the pandemic affecting the land business?”
Jack Butala:
I love these simple questions.
Jill DeWit:
You want to go first?
Jack Butala:
Yeah. It’s not.
Jill DeWit:
You just do it all.
Jack Butala:
Here’s what happened. This ties in actually to the mask thing. Really, I could have titled this whole show, how does this mask thing tie into real estate investors and investing? And that’s really what we’re going to talk about. So, how does the pandemic affect the land business? It had had somewhat of an opposite effect that usual recessions have had. The recession is dramatically affecting employment, unemployment rates, but they’re only affecting very specific types of businesses, specifically hospitality and retail. Those two are the major ones. Manufacturing, durable goods seem to be okay. So how is it affecting real estate?
The people that have their jobs, mostly the demographic that listens to this show, have been able to go home and effectively work at home. So they’re not unaffected. The vast majority of the people in our social group have been unaffected by this. So the land … What they’re doing is buying real estate. They’re making like we all do, some stuff changed and we’re making decisions to change our life to adjust to it and hopefully, for the better. So it hasn’t been affecting the land business. If it has been affecting it, it’s only positive.
Jill DeWit:
I was going to take it to the next step, which is sales.
Jack Butala:
Please do.
Jill DeWit:
The jury’s out. We all know we don’t have to work 24/7. You know what I mean? You don’t have to work in your office five days a week, that’s what I was trying to say. I read Google said July. I heard that don’t even count on coming back until a year, and I’m saying next July, July 2021.
Jack Butala:
That’s what I read. I read that, Jill, too.
Jill DeWit:
So I don’t know if the campuses are going away, but I do know that they said that they don’t-
Jack Butala:
They must have read the same thing.
Jill DeWit:
So, yeah. And then there’s other businesses that are following suit. So, check, don’t have to go to the office. Oh, but, sweetheart, we’re in this great school system. Well, guess what? Now our great school system, I’m using the term loosely, is now 100% online. Well, don’t need to be here for that now, too. So the bottom line is our sales are up because people are just deciding that they don’t have to be in the city. They don’t have to spend all the money. They want to get out of there. They want some land, they want to see something. My only thing is sales are up and we’re loving it.
Jack Butala:
So think about this philosophically, this whole thing happened, and what’s the either the intended effect or the unintended consequence here or both? It jammed us all, whether it was willing or not online. So for years and years and years, we’ve been online anyway. All of our businesses are online with very few exceptions. And the ones that are not online, fortunately for us, it’s a very small part of our pie, are being sold right now. So one of the consequences or unintended consequences of this is that we are on the computer doing our job, and we’re either doing it successfully or not. And hopefully, we were doing it that way before this pandemic hit. But we’re online. If you look at the performance numbers, financial performance numbers, and just sales and users and everything for companies like Google and all companies online, they’re through the ceiling. They’re having banner years.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
Amazon’s having a banner year.
Jill DeWit:
Is this part of the-
Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Okay.
Jack Butala:
This is the net effect of this pandemic.
Jill DeWit:
I mean, is this part of the topic?
Jack Butala:
No.
Jill DeWit:
Oh.
Jack Butala:
No, it’s not.
Jill DeWit:
Okay.
Jack Butala:
I know going too long, Jill. I’m sorry.
Jill DeWit:
No, I was just curious. I didn’t know.
Jack Butala:
That’s code for, you know …
Jill DeWit:
I’m not sure because I feel like it overlaps into the topic.
Jack Butala:
It does overlap.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Thank you.
Jack Butala:
So people are very willingly moving. There’s a couple of companies in Los Angeles that have been providing online schooling for high school students, it’s all credited, for a long time. You can’t even get on the phone with them right now. That’s how packed it is. How does it affect the land business and real estate? Fantastically well. It’s a market. Real estate’s a market, just like the stock market. And anytime there’s volatility, up or down, it’s good. You never want a stagnant market. This is anything but stagnant right now, whether it’s up or down.
Today’s topic, you either love your mask or you hate it. This is the meat of the show. Hey Jill, do you love your mask or do you hate it?
Jill DeWit:
Oh my God, I hate it.
Jack Butala:
I hate it too.
Jill DeWit:
I hate it with a passion. I have to have spares tucked in my purse because I might not remember. And then he definitely doesn’t remember, so usually, I have to have a spare. If it’s for me, I’m usually pretty good. I usually don’t forget. I’m usually pretty good about it. But this one is constantly, we go somewhere, we’re about to walk in the door, it’s like, “Oh, no, do you have an extra mask?” And I say, “Yes, I do.” I’m not picking on you. I’m just saying I got you.
Jack Butala:
No, I don’t take that … Actually, it’s kind of a compliment.
Jill DeWit:
I know it is.
Jack Butala:
If you’re an entrepreneur, and everybody who listens to the show is, you question stuff. You dig down deep and you find out why things are being sold, they’re not sold, you look for markets to sell stuff in. You get to the bottom of everything so that you can make good decisions and turn whatever you’re doing, your energy and your capital, whatever form it takes on, into money, to get rich.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
You’re sitting there watching TV and you’re saying, “Well, wait a minute. Okay, there’s pandemic. I get it. You guys got to all do this, this, this, and this. And we’re going to close the economy down for a while. What? Wait a minute. You’re going to close the economy down. Well, I own companies. I’m thinking about buying companies,” or, “I’m a public accountant,” let’s say, “and I’m not going to do this for the rest of my life.” And then it unfolds. And so no matter how you slice it, we are being told what to do, including wearing a mask, like never before, certainly never in my lifetime.
How does that fit in with what we’re trying to accomplish? And where does it end? Where does being told what to do end?
Jill DeWit:
I got to tell you, I’m a rule breaker.
Jack Butala:
So am I.
Jill DeWit:
My walk this morning, I’m sure I had one in my pocket. I didn’t bring it out once. I didn’t have it around my neck. I didn’t have it hanging off an ear. I didn’t have a visible anywhere in my hand, it’s in my pocket. And I proudly walked the beach.
Jack Butala:
We live in a little beach community in Los Angeles and it’s packed full of people. If you ask them questions like … I’ve heard statements like this for months now. “Hey, we’re supposed to stand six feet apart.”
Jill DeWit:
Well, I was just going to say, can I add to that please real quick?
Jack Butala:
Sure.
Jill DeWit:
Before I piss anybody off, seriously, before I piss anybody up, I’m not running up and hugging people. I didn’t go into a store. I’m walking.
Jack Butala:
We’re complying.
Jill DeWit:
So, yeah. That’s what I want to make sure I’m saying. I’m not like being, I’m a rule breaker, yeah, but I’m still adhering to what is still healthy. My stance is I want to be healthy, and I’m not going to sneeze on anybody, and I’m not going to be stupid. I wash my hands a lot. I do carry wipes. I did that anyway before. But I’m like, I don’t believe that I should wear a mask when I’m 20 feet from people. That’s my only thing.
Jack Butala:
Look, neither one of us-
Jill DeWit:
I’m not around people. I’m out here early in the morning. I’m not even touching anyone. There’s no way you’re within six feet of me. The closest guy that got to me was a guy up driving the streets.
Jack Butala:
Seriously, we’re following-
Jill DeWit:
Okay, what?
Jack Butala:
This commentary here is falling for all this stuff. My point is of this.
Jill DeWit:
Well, I want to be careful and not piss people off too.
Jack Butala:
Look, we’re all complying. Jill’s complying. We doing it out of respect for our community. And, do we agree with it? Not at all. But I just still have respect for people and where they live, regardless of what their opinion is.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true.
Jack Butala:
I’m not flying some flag that says, “I refuse to do this.” And we have friends that are doing that.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
Not friends, people we know. And they’re real proud of it. And I think it’s ridiculous. There’s two sides to this and they’re both valid. My point is when you are so enthusiastic about one way or the other, something’s wrong, If you love, love, so wear your mask.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, that’s where you’re going with that.
Jack Butala:
And making it a political statement and you’re flying a flag about it, there’s something wrong.
Jill DeWit:
Like you’re borderline wearing it in the house.
Jack Butala:
There’s something wrong. It has nothing to do with this pandemic or very little to do with it. And if you’re on the other side, you hate it, and you’re walking into stores without it, and the managers coming up and saying, “This is crazy. You got to put a mask on. There’s people that are dying.” And you’re saying, “Not going to do it. Call the cops.” There’s something wrong with that.
Jill DeWit:
I understand.
Jack Butala:
We’re entrepreneurs, which is what I started out saying here, which this is really about. And people who watch this show are entrepreneurs. We are used to solving problems to our own benefit. It doesn’t benefit us, regardless of what we think of this pandemic or the stats or any of the stuff that’s involved, to be on the super right of this or the left of this or whichever, however it ends up being. You just get through it. You adapt and overcome. That’s what we are all about. So trust me, this thing is a massive distraction. Are people dying? Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
But this is just like everything in politics, a massive distraction. What are we being distracted from? Money and success and doing stuff that’s a right, like raising a family, and being in a good relationship, and buying and selling land, or it manifests yourself for you. So don’t get caught up in it. That’s my point.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Jack Butala:
This whole thing was kind of a commentary.
Jill DeWit:
I didn’t know where you’re going to go with this. So thank you for saving me.
Jack Butala:
Did Jill break the rules today by walking around exercising without a mask on? No. The rules are very clear about, in our little community here, no. Do you disagree with it? Are you the person who loves your mask and you’re going to type a bunch of crap on the bottom of YouTube here about how we’re going to go to hell? Then that’s your problem. I think you have other problems besides the fact that somebody went outside without a mask on.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you. You’re so sweet. Happy you could join us today. Monday through Friday you can find us right here on the Land Academy Show.
Jack Butala:
Join us next week for another interesting episode of the Land Academy Show because you are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
Thanks. Appreciate that. I appreciate you. That’s a tough topic.
Jack Butala:
It is.
Jill DeWit:
You know what it is? I don’t know how to answer the question.
Jack Butala:
I do. I just did.
Jill DeWit:
I don’t know how to talk about it. I’m usually, so …
Jack Butala:
We all know people that get so angry about political issues, either on the right or the left, and for what? That’s what they want you to do. They want us to all argue these points. Stop the arguing. Go bank a bunch of money and do the right thing.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you. Well, that’s good. I’m glad that you said that. Because it was interesting, a couple of weeks ago I got into it with somebody because we have different viewpoints about it. And at the end, I was like, that’s not the point here. I said the same thing. I’m like, “Look, you’re entitled to your opinion and I’m entitled to mine.” What was funny as we started to get into it, and what was making it a heated discussion was that person was mad that I didn’t agree with their opinion.
Jack Butala:
Yeah, it’s not the mask.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
It’s always something else.
Jill DeWit:
Right. And I’m like, “Wait a minute. I’m not making you agree with my opinion. Why are you making me agree with your opinion?” And they finally went, “All right, I hear you. I get it. You’re right. We’re each entitled to our own opinion.”
Jack Butala:
I mean, you could spend … Can you imagine the amount of energy that you could spend just fighting for something that’s way, way far-right or far-left, and never get anything done?
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Jack Butala:
And all the people that are going to be negatively affected versus positively affected. I mean, do you think that you could have a more positive effect having a show like this, where you’re teaching somebody to do some stuff that you already know a lot about versus screaming and yelling into the microphone? Trust me, there’s not a show … Way more shows out there that are about screaming in a microphone about stuff that’s happened on the front page all over the country and with a lot more listeners or watchers than this show that we have about buying and selling land. So it’s your choice. You can get caught up in it and get real angry and just be angry for the rest of your life on one side or the other, or you can buy and sell some property at the beach. And within reason, put a mask on when they tell them to. Take it off when you don’t feel like you should use it. And you know what, while this is all going on, make $5 million a month. That’s how you win.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you. And thank you for tuning in. We hope you find our content valuable and we appreciate your support. If you haven’t already, please check out our YouTube channel and hit the subscribe button.
Jack Butala:
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Jill DeWit:
We are Steve and Jill.
Jack Butala:
Information …
Jill DeWit:
… and inspiration …
Jack Butala:
… to buy undervalued property.
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