How many Land Academy Members are There Really (LA 1709)
How many Land Academy Members are There Really (LA 1709)
Transcript:
Steven Jack Butala:
Steven 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 the Sun.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today Jill and I talk about, how many Land Academy members are there really?
Jill K DeWit:
Well, there’s got to be like five million of you guys, right?
Steven Jack Butala:
We asked this question to our Career Path people. We said, “You know what? Just type in-”
Jill K DeWit:
What you think.
Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I … Hold it. We have Career Path, we’re in the middle of Career Path right now. “Please type in how many members you think there are, and then how many members you think are active.” And we got crazy responses.
Jill K DeWit:
We’ll share.
Steven Jack Butala:
We’ll clear it up here in a second.
Steven 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, and please don’t forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like.
Jill K DeWit:
Luke wrote, “With all this talk of the IRS.” I guess it is the beginning of the year and it’s tax time, that’s true. “With all this talk of the IRS, taxes and our business model, I think Steve and Jill should nail down a CPA to have on a Thursday night call or one of the newbie calls. I’m sure we’d all learn a ton and have a general idea of what to take to our own CPAs. Just a thought.”
Jill K DeWit:
Boy, I wish we could.
Steven Jack Butala:
How many times-
Jill K DeWit:
We tried to nail down our guy.
Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s my question to Jill, this is unrehearsed. How many times have we contacted lawyers and accountants to be part of our group and help educate us and, “Give you a free time slot. Join us on the Thursday call, join us on the podcast. Maybe, I know it’s crazy, maybe you offer your services to a closed group of people that have the same interest.”
Jill K DeWit:
“And maybe you can charge for it, and maybe build your business.”
Steven Jack Butala:
And here’s their answers, across the board, “Nope, nope, nope. We have enough clients. Thanks, no. No.”
Jill K DeWit:
It’s shocking.
Steven Jack Butala:
Just the answers have been from all different types of lawyers and accountants-
Jill K DeWit:
Shocking.
Steven Jack Butala:
… and CPAs. Across the board, no.
Jill K DeWit:
Shocking. Yeah, it’s hard. I get it. I’m with you, Luke. It’s hard to find a CPA who connects with you. We were talking to one of our … Speaking of Career Path, we were talking to one of our moderators and helpers in Career Path. And his accountant is more on the ball a bit than our guy. And we’re doing fine with our guy, thank goodness I have Jack here to make sure our guys stays ahead of the game.
Jill K DeWit:
But Brandon’s guy’s even better than that. I’m like, “I want your guy,” but I know the answer. They’re going to be like, “Nope.” They’re happy. So when you find an accountant-
Steven Jack Butala:
Or if you are one.
Jill K DeWit:
… or an attorney, and you guys connect and they understand your business, I mean really understand your business. Don’t have you getting an LLC and filing tax return on all 50 states.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s a pet peeve of mine. If you’re listening to this right now and your accountant says, “You need to have an LLC and do taxes in all 50 states,” you need to interview another accountant. And here’s the point.
Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s not give advice here, Jill.
Jill K DeWit:
No, but here’s my point. Let me finish my thing.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
Accountants and attorneys all take things … They all read things differently. So my point … Even down to how you’re going to pay your employees. Some people say you should pay them this way, W-2, some people say 1099. You guys need to sit down, you and your team, your admin team, whoever you’re … Your legal team, that’s what I’m trying to say, and what’s the right thing for your business. And again, it’s not just how they think, but do you connect with them? Can you guys talk on the same page? There’s all kinds of things like that.
Jill K DeWit:
People think that you’re going to call one accountant or one attorney, and they’re all going to say the same thing. And when you call three you realize, no, that’s not the same thing. People interpret things differently. And it’s not that anybody’s right or wrong, it’s just how they interpret it and does it make sense to you and your business? Is that vague enough?
Steven Jack Butala:
As a business owner, Jill’s absolutely right.
Jill K DeWit:
Without being vague. Yeah, yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
As a business owner, most of the people, a substantial number of successful people in Land Academy, already have owned businesses in the past. Or they owned businesses now and they’re adding buying and selling land to that. And one thing I’ve learned from meeting these Land Academy members or talking with them in Career Path or whatever, is that they all seem to take a sense of personal responsibility for all outcomes.
Steven Jack Butala:
And so that means in this environment, the days of shoving all your financial statements or whatever to an accountant and then getting a number back and saying, “Well, this is how much taxes you owe.” That’s over.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
That will probably sink your operation.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, I just think three accountants will come back with three numbers too.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. So you need to really take responsibility for it. Do a lot of research, just like …
Jill K DeWit:
Everything.
Steven Jack Butala:
Believe me, I’m a former accountant. Tax time is the worst time of the year for me.
Jill K DeWit:
I can tell.
Steven Jack Butala:
But you just, you have to do it. It’s just part of this.
Jill K DeWit:
I’d love the first quarter with Jack.
Steven Jack Butala:
All right. The amount of taxes that we pay-
Jill K DeWit:
Just kidding.
Steven Jack Butala:
… is our largest expense, larger than payroll.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
So you really need that … In some cases you have to really micromanage it, all the way through the year.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
Radios are clicking off all over the place.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
“I mean, I have to do stuff?”
Jill K DeWit:
Thanks a lot.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, how many Land Academy members are there really? This is the meat of the show.
Jill K DeWit:
What made you ask this question the other day? Isn’t that funny?
Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s why.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Jack Butala:
I’m going to set this up and then you can give them the numbers.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Jack Butala:
I’m a little bit tired of hearing this question.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, here it comes.
Steven Jack Butala:
“Well, that state’s saturated, too many people are sending mail there. There’s all this mail. I sent a 10,000 unit mailer out and didn’t get any responses, because there’s so many other people mailing, Land Academy members sending mail there.”
Jill K DeWit:
That’s comical.
Steven Jack Butala:
And so it’s a natural concern-
Jill K DeWit:
That’s right.
Steven Jack Butala:
… in the beginning, “Am I too late to the party?” And so, to which I say, “Absolutely not.” Not at all. Jill and I own real estate all over the country at any given time, hundreds and hundreds of properties. We’ve maybe get five offers a month.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s what started it, you’re right. Because think about it-
Steven Jack Butala:
Combined.
Jill K DeWit:
… because it’s not just our own personal property, but my name goes on the deed. Our companies go on the deeds when we’re doing these deal funding deals, 99% of the time. Because I’m either the full funder or the majority funder, so my name’s on the deed. So there’s even more properties going through our system. And I’m amazed at how little I get.
Steven Jack Butala:
We bought this house, we’ve been in this house a year. We’ve owned it for a year. We haven’t been here …
Jill K DeWit:
That’s true.
Steven Jack Butala:
We haven’t gotten a single offer.
Jill K DeWit:
Not one.
Steven Jack Butala:
We’re in one of the hottest zip codes in the state.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. That’s amazing. You know what? Someone should be hitting us hard [crosstalk 00:07:01].
Steven Jack Butala:
So I’d like to dispel this concept of mail saturation.
Jill K DeWit:
Right.
Steven Jack Butala:
And so I’m talking about houses now. When you really think about land, there’s so few people that understand it and price it correctly and all of that. And so it is not saturated.
Jill K DeWit:
No.
Steven Jack Butala:
That said, the more creative you get about where to send mail and the more research red, green, yellow tests of research that you do and trolling, like we teach in 3.0, the more you’re going to be successful.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), I concur. Can I give the numbers now?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, sure.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay. So truth time. I would love for you to take a moment and think about this. Think about Land Academy. Think about everything you’ve heard. Think about how long you’ve been following us. Think about, you’ve heard us talk about how many listeners we have. Do you have a number in your head, before I say how many members we have that are in the community right now? These are active members, and then I’m going to talk about … There’s active members and then there’s members that are doing deals, and who are really vocal about it.
Jill K DeWit:
Active numbers, ready for it? Drum roll. It’s right around 500, guys. We mean it. We set that a while back, we’re capping it. We want to keep this the awesome, intimate, personal, where we can help you as needed community that we did from day one. That has not changed.
Jill K DeWit:
What’s interesting is, of those 500, give or take, the ones that are really into it, that you see in Discord and they’re active and communicating, sending mail and doing it, it’s between 100 and 200.
Steven Jack Butala:
I’d say it’s closer to 100.
Jill K DeWit:
Huh. Every month. And it changes, but that’s right about it. I’m sure you were thinking 5,000, whatever. And I’m sure there are other education groups out there that they have those numbers, but that’s just selling us something and moving on.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.
Jill K DeWit:
See, that’s the whole thing with us too. I’m not here to sell a program or sell a book and move on. That would be the goal, if you wrote a book, that’s what you want to do. But this is not a book, this is an interactive-
Steven Jack Butala:
This is a lifestyle.
Jill K DeWit:
… business where we’re doing deals with you. So that’s why we’re keeping it like that. And who knows what’s going to evolve. We talked about things that we’re working on down the road. We have some other projects and things that we’re working on for all investors, that where might be …
Jill K DeWit:
And there’s some things that … We have tools and services that I know people that are not in Land Academy use, like NeighborScoop, when they can’t do Concierge yet, but 020, that’s for sure. Our mail services, because it’s the best and the least expensive, period, for what you get. But that’s it, we want it to be that way. What were you going to add?
Steven Jack Butala:
No, that’s it. I mean, you said it perfectly.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Jack Butala:
There’s not a lot of … There’s way less … We asked this question in the last Career Path and we said, “Please type it in.” And we got numbers everywhere.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, it was great. Oh, that’s what I was starting to say, yeah. There’s other people out there that sell things and I think that’s their goal, is to get that one-time sale. That’s not our goal.
Steven Jack Butala:
Like life coaches or self-help or any of that, there’s thousands and thousands of members in those types of groups. We don’t want that.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-mm (negative).
Steven Jack Butala:
We started this as a nonprofit and we pretty much kept it that way. That’s the truth. It was a dot org-
Jill K DeWit:
It was landacademy.org.
Steven Jack Butala:
landacademy.org.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
And so we’re not here to collect dues, that’s not why we’re here. We’re here to create partners for ourselves to do deals.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And to get wealthy together.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
All 500 of you. 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 House Academy show is called Extraordinary Deal Funding Volume. Jill and I are both shocked and amazed at how many deals we look at from a deal funding standpoint.
Jill K DeWit:
And how many deals … I don’t get to them fast enough.
Steven Jack Butala:
Tens of millions of dollars, yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
I’ll talk about that tomorrow too. It’s great.
Steven Jack Butala:
You are not alone in real estate ambition.
Jill K DeWit:
What was that?
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t know.
Jill K DeWit:
We’re all goofed up here, that’s okay. So we’re having a-
Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I literally have electricians at our house installing a home automation system, and we’re not bright enough to reschedule recording these podcasts.
Jill K DeWit:
Nope, nope, nope.
Steven Jack Butala:
So we have intermittent power shortages while we’re recording this.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, it’s great. Just sitting here and then it goes dark. Love it. Thank you for tuning in. And don’t forget if you are a Land Academy member, you are an elite group and make sure that you are communicating with us on Discard. We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Jack Butala:
We are Steve and Jill. Information-
Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration-
Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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