Managing Land Business Burnout (LA 1683)
Managing Land Business Burnout (LA 1683)
Transcript:
Steven Jack Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill K DeWit:
Hello.
Steven Jack Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from the Valley of this Sun.
Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I talk about managing land business burnout.
Jill K DeWit:
It’s a thing.
Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I are neck-deep in Career Path right now, and we’re coming up with a lot of good topics, because these are some of the things … A lot of these topics this week, probably for next several weeks, are legitimate Career Path discussions.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, and even our discussions.
Steven Jack Butala:
On this topic, yes.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. We’re just going to share it and air it right here with you.
Steven Jack Butala:
A little bit burned out, jill?
Jill K DeWit:
One of us does get burned out. And shockingly, not usually me, but we’ll talk about that.
Steven Jack Butala:
Aah, this is how this is going to go.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Jack Butala:
Before we get into it. Let’s take a question, hosted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free. And don’t forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like.
Jill K DeWit:
Kyle wrote, “Hey, I just joined yesterday, hitting the ground running. I started on Land Academy 1.0, but I’m a little confused. Should I be starting with Land Academy 2.0? Is that the most up to date? It was just confusing because one says Infill Lots and one says Vacant Land.” I get it, it is a little confusing. Kyle, you are not alone.
Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s the deal. We’ve really explained this in multiple areas and I’m glad you’re asking here, because we’ll explain it here too. It’s a lot like Microsoft Windows. We’re on Microsoft Windows 10 now, Windows 10. It’s not often that, or ever, that I’ll go back to Windows 3.1 and learn from it.
Jill K DeWit:
You know what’s funny, my dad used to do that. He hated updates. He didn’t understand it and he would just struggle through. We’re like, “Why are you doing that, dad?” And he would still be on the 3.0 version when we’re all on 8.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Well, back then-
Jill K DeWit:
So don’t be that guy.
Steven Jack Butala:
Back then, since we’re going to talk about computers.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
Back then, once you got the new version of Windows you needed to get new computer parts-
Jill K DeWit:
And [crosstalk 00:02:23] bought that.
Steven Jack Butala:
… because the hardware couldn’t hit handle it.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
So that’s just not the case at all now, almost always. But anyway, back to this, start with the most recent. There are die-hard people on Discord in Land Academy that love the Cash Flow From Land program from-
Jill K DeWit:
2015.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. And Kevin Farrell’s one of them, Kevin, our famous moderator in Discord. So he always tells everyone, “Don’t do anything except go back to that. Follow it step-by-step.” We had people in Career Path that just brought that up.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
“I just followed the step-by-step program and Cash Flow From Land program,” which was our first one.
Jill K DeWit:
Not how I got here.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
Today.
Steven Jack Butala:
So 3.0, they’re all kind of the same. They have extra stuff in them that I think is really helpful as we have gone through these years. But 3.0 will probably be out by the time this airs, or close to it. And so if I was brand new, I would start with that.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s the new thing. It is coming out probably in a couple weeks, honestly. But so one point, the Cash Flow From Land is our original program. 1.0 was an updated version with some different things and tips and tricks that we’ve learned since then.
Steven Jack Butala:
And it was a supplement to the original program, not a standalone program.
Jill K DeWit:
And then the Rural Vacant Land 2.0 it was just a separate little thing. Like, “Hey, take the Cash Flow From Land if you want to focus on Rural Vacant …” Or excuse me, Infill Lots, then you focus … Then that was the 2.0 that you could add on. And now we’re doing 3.0, which is basically an all encompassing update to the Cash Flow From Land program.
Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s my final point on this, you need to watch them all. If you’re serious about this-
Jill K DeWit:
[crosstalk 00:04:04]. You get nuggets out of everything, it’s true.
Steven Jack Butala:
We have people in Career Path that are making millions of dollars a month. And many, many people in Career Path that make over a million dollars a year and they want to increase their business. And they’ve seen all of the education and they know all about it.
Steven Jack Butala:
Really the answer in all of this is, start with the most recent. But depending on how serious you are about this and how much you want to learn and succeed, you really should take all of it in.
Jill K DeWit:
Cool.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, managing land business burnout. This is the meat of the show. Jill, it seems like you have a lot to say about this.
Jill K DeWit:
I made some notes. Well, I’m may or may not have personal experience in our home, having this discussion. Because you know what? It’s hard. You’ve done this since the nineties so I get it. I’m a baby compared to you. I’ve got, what? 10, 12, I don’t know how many years under my belt. But it’s still nothing to sneeze at, it’s a long time. And it’s a lot of, just like most things, it’s repetitive. There’s a lot of repetitive tasks that we do every day.
Jill K DeWit:
You pick a county, get the data, scrub the data, send out the mail. Field the phone calls, especially that part too. There’s that you’re just getting pounded with phone calls of people coming in. Some good, some bad. And you have to stay fresh and you have to stay interested, because you’re trying to buy these properties and sell these properties. And then on the flip side too, you want to stay excited about the properties and motivated so your buyer is excited and motivated too when they purchase your property and are talking to you.
Jill K DeWit:
So land business burnout, we’ve struggled with it. It’s a real thing. I want you to know you’re not nuts, you’re not alone. And I have some tips for you. Do you want to talk?
Steven Jack Butala:
I have a story.
Jill K DeWit:
Go ahead.
Steven Jack Butala:
We’ve obviously done tens of thousands of deals, Jill and I. And we just got a property back in, and one of the things that I do when Jill asks me to is to log into the CRM, we use Airtable, and approve a deal. It’s usually she’s either on the fence about it or it’s a bigger deal, or for some reason she just doesn’t buy it herself, for whatever reason.
Steven Jack Butala:
And so in this case she’s asked me … Well, CRM asks me. We don’t talk to each other about it, we all put notes and trigger emails so that I have to go in there and look at it. And in this case, I went in there and looked at it. And the transaction coordinator and a new title agent that we have said this property doesn’t have any access. And here’s the preliminary title report to prove it. “Do you want me to proceed,” question mark, at Jack Butala.
Steven Jack Butala:
I go in and I review the preliminary title report, like I’ve done 1,000 times before and this is what it says. Yeah, we’re going to write a title insurance policy on this, but we’re not sure this is the title company saying this in their policy if this property has access, so we’re going to Schedule B, exempt access.
Steven Jack Butala:
We’re going to insure it. It’s going to close like a regular deal. It just didn’t pass all of our tests about legal access. Certainly has physical access, you can go and see it. There’s a huge county road driving right through the middle of the property. This is a buy for 14,000 and sell for 60 to 80, according to our rockstar land real estate agent in this area. If this kind of thing is happening to you, you might be burnt out.
Jill K DeWit:
Here it comes.
Steven Jack Butala:
I’ve been through this type of transaction. I bet half the properties I’ve ever just in this specific state that I’m talking about had a Schedule B exemption for access, but they don’t know that. And so they are trying to save us from ourselves. They think in their head that they’re helping me from making a bad decision that’s going to bankrupt me. So I blew my top and there’s-
Jill K DeWit:
That’s what happens when you have land business burnout, you don’t want to blow your top.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s right.
Jill K DeWit:
You want to catch it before that.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, I’m not advocating blowing my top.
Jill K DeWit:
No, yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
But I don’t know why or how somebody who’s in … These people have been in the business store as long as I have.
Jill K DeWit:
It’s amazing.
Steven Jack Butala:
They’re older than me.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. How they’re at this point and what they’re trying to save us. I’m telling them too, this same thing every day.
Steven Jack Butala:
I know, [crosstalk 00:08:41].
Jill K DeWit:
I knew that when I bought it, what’s the problem?
Steven Jack Butala:
So my question to you is, Jill.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). What do you do?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
I have it. All right. Well, number one, take breaks. I know-
Steven Jack Butala:
That doesn’t help.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh yes, it does.
Steven Jack Butala:
Little tiny breaks doesn’t help.
Jill K DeWit:
Not little tiny breaks. What about getting in the RV and going away for the weekend.
Steven Jack Butala:
That helps a lot.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s what I’m saying. Taking breaks. What about going fishing? What about-
Steven Jack Butala:
That helps.
Jill K DeWit:
… going to a gun show? What about going to a movie? How about like what we did on Monday. “I don’t want to work. Do you want to work?” “I don’t want to work.” So we don’t work. Take a break, we do it all the time. I am here to tell you, it’s a lot.
Jill K DeWit:
Also, hire help. Think about the stuff that you’re doing. There’s probably some things that you’re doing, like deeds, that you’re like, “If I have to make another deed myself, I’m going to shoot somebody.”
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Jill’s got that about deeds. I agree with that.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, do you like making deeds?
Steven Jack Butala:
No, because I haven’t had to do this for a very long time because we’ve had a staff who does it.
Jill K DeWit:
Right.
Steven Jack Butala:
And mostly does it wrong.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, that’s my pet peeve. Hire the right people, spend a few extra minutes training them, and get that out of your life. That’s a huge one. So get help. I have four things here. My third thing is … What?
Steven Jack Butala:
Get help. Jack, get some help.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, we could talk about that, but we won’t do that now. When I said air it and share it I didn’t mean that, but yeah. All right. Third thing is, use your peers.
Steven Jack Butala:
Well, we ended up buying that property by the way.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, yeah. It’s a great property.
Steven Jack Butala:
We ended buying the Schedule B exception property and it’s-
Jill K DeWit:
Of course, because we knew.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
It’s all good. So use your peers. Sometimes you get so burned out that you might be overthinking something. You might be passing on some good deals. I’ve seen that happen in Discord and I’ve seen it in Land Investors and other environments, where people were like, they’re just tired, they’re burned out. And they’re like, “I don’t think this is a good one.” And you need another pair of eyes to go, “Oh, no. You missed this attribute,” or, “Did you not look at the same pricing I looked at,” kind of thing. You’re like, “Oh.” So use your peers, lean on your peers. And you have them. They’re in-
Steven Jack Butala:
This is good advice.
Jill K DeWit:
… landinvestors.com and they’re in Discord, and they’re on the Thursday call. And they’re us too.
Jill K DeWit:
And then finally, make some changes, change it up. Maybe make changes to your property types. Change your areas. Do something else that is more exciting. Maybe add a niche. Maybe you’ve got it running so smoothly on the Infill Lots that you’re like, “I’m going to start looking at doing commercial property.” I don’t know, dream it up. “I’m going to really start zoning in on this,” and something that’s going to …
Jill K DeWit:
I argue that when you find a new property type and there’s more opportunity there and less people doing it, and chances of great profit, that just might be what you need to get excited. Because that gets us excited.
Steven Jack Butala:
The best sure fire away for me to stop burnout. This is me personally, I don’t think it’s everybody, it’s certainly not Jill, is to mechanize the machine so that on the first Tuesday … For example, the first Tuesday of every month 12,000 letters go out, so it’s just in a machine.
Steven Jack Butala:
We know exactly who’s going to get answer the phone. It’s the same person that’s been answering the phone for years. They do a great job. It’s tested and vetted and done. The deals come back. They go into CRM, we don’t even know about it yet. Jill and I are off doing something else, teaching Land Academy probably.
Steven Jack Butala:
And then, at a certain point, let’s say on Thursday, we respond, Jill and I respond to what’s in the CRM. This is the same thing over and over and over again, we approve 50% of what we review basically. But even then, hopefully your transaction coordinator’s like, “You guys are going to love this one, you might like this one. Probably not, but I got to check on this,” because they know us so well. Because it’s all just in a machine. So we approve the properties and it goes into the sales machine. And so that stops burnout for me.
Jill K DeWit:
Just having a routine.
Steven Jack Butala:
What destroys my soul and triggers all this for me is when every deal’s different. “Let’s talk about this deal. This deal comes … Well, yeah, but it’s a little bit hilly.”
Steven Jack Butala:
In Land Academy environment, I have no problem with that, but in my own deals, it’s like, we’ve been through this 15 times before and this is what I’ve learned over a lot of years. They just want attention. We don’t talk to an employee for a whole year and they’re doing great. And their paycheck’s clearing, the whole thing. That’s my ideal scenario. And that’s just not the way Jill runs her business at all.
Jill K DeWit:
Nope. That’s not the way everybody else … Again, remember when I told you we don’t let Jack answer the phone? Well, there you go.
Jill K DeWit:
Happy you could join us today. Five days a week you can find us here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Jack Butala:
Tomorrow the episode on the Land Academy Show is called The Solution, my solution to all land business bottlenecks. I don’t mean 99%. I mean all of them. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill K DeWit:
Feel better now?
Steven Jack Butala:
I felt great before. You know what the thing is? I don’t get burned out on Land Academy ever.
Jill K DeWit:
No, no, no. You don’t-
Steven Jack Butala:
Why is that?
Jill K DeWit:
I know you don’t.
Steven Jack Butala:
Do you get burned out on Land?
Jill K DeWit:
No. No, we talked about that. I think there’s nature-nurture to this too, remember. Because I had a very monotonous job for a decade, over a decade, and it’s not this one. And it’s not being with you.
Steven Jack Butala:
“It’s not this land business job I have.”
Jill K DeWit:
It’s not the job of sleeping next to you.
Steven Jack Butala:
Oh my God, Jill.
Jill K DeWit:
I’m joking.
Steven Jack Butala:
Jeez.
Jill K DeWit:
No.
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s nasty.
Jill K DeWit:
I’m joking. Come on. No, but I had a very monotonous job for a long time. People were like, “How did you do that for one year? Let alone that many years.”
Steven Jack Butala:
I mean, I’m on that person. Whoever said that, I don’t know how you did that job.
Jill K DeWit:
I know. Well, I made it fun. I guess I should have added that in there too. That’s another one.
Steven Jack Butala:
You should teach a class.
Jill K DeWit:
I did make it fun.
Steven Jack Butala:
You should teach a class on vacant-
Jill K DeWit:
And I had a good time with my peers.
Steven Jack Butala:
Stuff you know that’s terrible fun.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. We were on the phone and people couldn’t see your face, we’d make faces and draw pictures. It was kind of funny, but it was never disrespectful. Just like, “Oh, here we go again, kind of thing. And just again, you made it fun and it was no big deal. And so hopefully that helps somebody.
Jill K DeWit:
Thanks for tuning in. We hope you find our content valuable and we really appreciate your support. If you haven’t already, please check out our YouTube channel, hit the Subscribe button. We’re Steve and Jill.
Steven Jack Butala:
We’re Steve and Jill. Information-
Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration-
Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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