People Who Can’t Say Yes (LA 1809)
People Who Can’t Say Yes (LA 1809)
Transcript:
Steven Jack Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hello.
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 the sunny Southern California.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about people who can’t say yes. As I said yesterday… Because Jill and I are on vacation in California, we are successfully beating the heat from summer in Phoenix. And so, I got a chance to watch the Dr. Phil show. Oh my God, Jack, that’s ridiculous that you would spend your free time like that. Yes, you’re correct. And he interweaves… He did a show about the great resignation, and he had some people on, of all different ages and in completely different career types, tell great stories about it. About their experience with the great resignation and starting their own companies, and going from 50,000 to $500,000 a year.
And then he had some people on there that were not successful with it, or as successful with it, and so they’re looking for advice. And him, one of the things he said is, “I try to not stick around… I won’t listen or hang around with people who can’t say yes. There’s just [inaudible 00:01:11].” So that’s what this show’s about. Before we get into it, let’s take a question on how it translates into talking to sellers.
Let’s take a question posed by our members on the landinvestors.com online community, it’s free. And I hope you know by, now we have a full blown commercial printing company. And I mean full blown, called offer2owners.com, where we print and mail your blind offers to real estate owners for houses, apartment buildings, land, all of it. We send out almost a million units a month now. It all started because Jill and I are really frustrated-
Jill DeWit:
It started with us.
Steven Jack Butala:
It started with us. We were frustrated using a commercial printing company that just didn’t understand our business and how we mail merge things. Contact support@offers2owners.com, and check it all out.
Jill DeWit:
Cool. James D wrote, “I just wanted to say I had my first consultation call with Kevin Farrell yesterday, and it was very helpful to me. Highly suggest it if you have some questions whatsoever.” Love it. That’s awesome. So we have a lot of tools and resources here within Land Academy. You have discord, you have landinvestors.com, you have our Thursday member call, you have… Oh my gosh, how many programs? We have a bundle of four or five educational programs, I can’t remember what it is. But there’s lots of content. Sometimes there’s too much content, you have to sift through it. I don’t think there’s such a thing as too much content as I say that, but anyway.
Sometimes there’s some other questions that maybe you’re just not getting it. You have it, but it’s not quite sinking in. So one of the other resources that we have is, we do have consulting opportunities, and Kevin Farrell is our guy. And you can just go on landacademy.com, and under tools I want to say, there’s a menu item that you could schedule a consulting call with Kevin.
Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s what we’re working on. And Jill doesn’t know about it. We’re working on a calendar, so that you as a potential member, or a member, can see when all this stuff goes down. Kevin has iced out nicely, very nicely… Kevin just started out as a regular member, and he’s just shining. Continued to shine, did a presentation at the live event. And so now he’s star consultant. In Discord, everybody that does a consulting half hour with him comes back and says what James said here.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. What’s this calendar you’re working on?
Steven Jack Butala:
At some point very soon you will be able to click on calendar, on the land academy.com’s website, and you will see when the Thursday calls are airing, when there’s a Clubhouse episode that Jill does. She has a little show on Clubhouse.
Jill DeWit:
Brilliant.
Steven Jack Butala:
When our podcasts air. When career path actually starts.
Jill DeWit:
When is this going to happen?
Steven Jack Butala:
When enrollment closes, when it opens. My guys are actually working on it, and then they’re going to go to your people and [inaudible 00:04:07].
Jill DeWit:
Brilliant. To give the stuff to fill in?
Steven Jack Butala:
For content. Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Wow. Thank you.
Steven Jack Butala:
And click throughs on it.
Jill DeWit:
Much needed.
Steven Jack Butala:
So O2O is always running intermittently, and not always running promotions where it’s 10% off. That’ll all be on that calendar. So you can plan your life around it.
Jill DeWit:
This is great. Excellent. Good idea.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, people who can’t say yes. This is why you’re listening.
Jill DeWit:
I have to giggle. Every time it makes me giggle. Because I’m the opposite.
Steven Jack Butala:
I’m in the middle, I guess.
Jill DeWit:
I’m like, “Who can’t say yes?”. Unless like, “Do you want to run into this burning building with me?”. Then…
Steven Jack Butala:
And you might do it.
Jill DeWit:
I might. What’s the reason? What’s in there? What are we going in for? Oh, that’s in there? Okay, I’m with you.
Steven Jack Butala:
So this trip is about 30/35 days. So we’re spending 30 or 35 days from Scottsdale to Southern California here. And we’ve had-
Jill DeWit:
Getting out of the heat.
Steven Jack Butala:
… intermittent friends come and stay with us, because it’s a pretty big place. And we just had some people come in from the Midwest, and they were describing to us how they’re optimist. And I think that’s funny that people say that. Because I don’t know what that is. I look at everything in a positive way? Because I don’t, I guess I’m a pessimist. I go into everything thinking it’s not going to work first.
Jill DeWit:
That’s a pretty good description of this, babe. That’s why this works. Ying, yang.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Or yang, ying.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. It’s going to break. I’m like, “Let’s just try it first.” “I’m telling you, it’s going to break.” “Hold on a moment.”
Steven Jack Butala:
When you’re on a phone with a seller, very quickly they’re going to say… You can, I think, gauge whether or not they want to sell their property. You’re more qualified to talk about this. But there’s a certain personality type, they’re very predisposed to just say no all the time.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t know where it comes from. I don’t know if it’s nature or nurture. But you would do very well in your career to try to learn how to figure that out really quick.
Jill DeWit:
That’s a good question. I think it’s more nurture than nature. Because I was raised with a, “Let’s just do it and figure it out later.” attitude in my… That was the gist in my family, “Just go for it, and then we’ll figure out how to pay for it later.”
Steven Jack Butala:
Financially pay for it?
Jill DeWit:
Yes. There is stuff like that.
Steven Jack Butala:
Now’s a really good time to bring up the success dynamic of people within Land Academy. Because I write these topics, and I tend to dominate the podcast, and it’s actually pretty… This has been since year seven.
Jill DeWit:
Well it’s your show, I was never supposed to be here anyway. So there’s that.
Steven Jack Butala:
We’re on show number 1850, or something like that. But I don’t say this often enough, because it’s… I produce this whole show. It tends to be… With the exception of this week, very technical. About the technical stuff. About pricing mailers, how much mail you got to send out, all the money aspects involved, and all of that. And so what gets overlooked often is, how much of, I think, a dynamic personality that you need to succeed at this.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
Or to develop a dynamic personality to succeed at it until you can hire somebody who has a dynamic personality. So a ton of this is being on the phone, and talking to sellers, potentially talking to buyers, finding real estate agents, getting the right escrow agent, and on and on. And so the more dynamic of a personality that you have for these things, the more you’re going to get what you want. Meaning, buy and sell property for the prices that you want.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Steven Jack Butala:
This industry, the world, is chock-full of people that aren’t wired to say, “Yeah, let’s do this deal.” I’ll give you an example. Getting anything developed or anything done in California this day and age, everyone’s stood up and said, “Nope.”.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, those are people who can’t say yes.
Steven Jack Butala:
“Hey county planning, I’d love to put a strip mall over here.” No, way-
Jill DeWit:
“We’re going to have a problem with that.”
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep. “There’s no chance that’s going to happen. Have a good day.”
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Steven Jack Butala:
So we don’t put up strip malls in California because of that. We choose to deal with people who say yes.
Jill DeWit:
What was the tie… If you said it and I didn’t catch it, I apologize. What was the Dr. Phil tie from the great resignation stuff happening to the people who can’t say yes?
Steven Jack Butala:
So he said that very often in a large company, you’re going to do some type of presentation if you get that far. Whether it has to do with just sitting down and being… Maybe your fourth round interviews with the people that you might work for. And very often those middle managers, or the people that you’re interviewing with, have this personality where they just… They’re not going to say yes. And so whatever you’re presenting, whether you already work there and it’s your job to present things like that, or you’re trying to get the job and you’re presenting yourself in your resume, you can tell really quickly cross the table. “Yeah, this person’s not… ” Or cross Zoom, or whatever it is now.
“This person is not going to accurately represent me and what my work here, and what I’ve done to the person that’s actually going to make the decision.” If that’s the case, just move on. There’s no reason to get upset about it.
Jill DeWit:
Is this topic today more of a, “Hey, as a business owner to business owner, you need to watch out for this.”? Or more of a business owner to business owner to do a self-reflection?
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s really sad that I have to explain what this topic today is about. It makes me think I didn’t do this right.
Jill DeWit:
That’s so true.
Steven Jack Butala:
I’m sitting right next to you.
Jill DeWit:
I know.
Steven Jack Butala:
“What’s this topic about today, Jack?”
Jill DeWit:
I’m still having trouble wrapping my head.
Steven Jack Butala:
“We’re 10 minutes into this episode, and I’m not sure what this is about.”
Jill DeWit:
Do you know why? You know what this is this? I struggle with this topic. I struggle. Because you know what? Here’s how I am. I won’t let people off the phone until I get a yes.
Steven Jack Butala:
I know.
Jill DeWit:
This is the problem. And this is why I get deals done-
Steven Jack Butala:
I know.
Jill DeWit:
… and get things done. So hey, from me business owner to you business owner, if you come at it like that you’re going to get… You will accomplish everything you want. If you just don’t give up. That’s my take on all this.
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t personally have the personality to fight. I’m not going to fight. I’m not going to fight a county-
Jill DeWit:
City hall?
Steven Jack Butala:
About putting a mobile home on a piece of dirt that I own, where they’ve already said multiple times and it’s posted everywhere, “The zoning for this property is not conducive for a mobile home.” I’m not going to go through a zoning change. There’s people-
Jill DeWit:
They do.
Steven Jack Butala:
… personality types… And I’m not saying this is right or wrong. There are personality types who believe they’ve been put on this planet to fight. To fight the good fight. And fight what the rules are and all of that. I’m not that person. I’m the person who’s going to say, “Okay, I get it. I’m probably not going to buy real estate in your county anymore.” And they’re going to say, “Thank you. We don’t want you here anyway.” And then everybody wins.
Or state. I might go two or three states over where everybody’s like, “Oh my gosh, come on in. Are you kidding? We love this kind of thing.” Arizona, in general, is like this. If you call planning and zoning anywhere in Arizona and say, “I’m thinking about buying this piece of property, and here’s what I’m thinking about doing. Is it even possible at all?”
Almost without exception they’re going to say, “Oh my gosh, yes. Let’s see how we can get this done together.” And so this is what I mean about people who can’t say yes. My experience in business, there’s been a lot more people who are not that way, like I just described in Arizona. They’re the other way. Like, “No, no, no. We don’t build stuff anymore, at all. The doors have closed.”
Jill DeWit:
All right.
Steven Jack Butala:
And fortunately I walk through the door, so I’m good. And you’re not.
Jill DeWit:
What’s the takeaway I should be having at this moment? Because I’m now how many minutes in? And I’m still [inaudible 00:12:18].
Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, now it’s 12 minutes. You get a seller on the phone.
Jill DeWit:
12 minutes in. Why should I walk away from today? Because I will go and sit and ponder it. I’ll go into a corner, and I will really focus.
Steven Jack Butala:
You know what’s going to happen five minutes after we record these episodes today? Jill is like, “What are you-
Jill DeWit:
I’m going to forget all of them.
Steven Jack Butala:
“… talking about? I have other stuff to do.”
Jill DeWit:
Yep, totally.
Steven Jack Butala:
If you have somebody-
Jill DeWit:
But let’s just say if I would…
Steven Jack Butala:
If you have a seller on the phone and they’re not capable of saying yes, just go make the next… Open the next envelope or make the next phone call. [inaudible 00:12:54]
Jill DeWit:
Oh, I’m sorry. I’d make them say yes, I get them to a yes. You know what I’ll do? I’m going to give you truth time on it… End on this because… And it’s okay to disagree. We’re going to disagree today. Because I’m like, “I need to get a number out of you. No is not enough for me.”
There’s a number that they would say yes, and I push them to that number. Unless they say there’s a plot out back… You know what? Even if there is a plot out back. There’s a number that says, “We’ll dig up grandpa and we’ll move everything.” Think I’m kidding?
Steven Jack Butala:
No, that’s great, Jill. I didn’t know that.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s a little scary.
Jill DeWit:
It’s a little scary. But no, I don’t usually go that far, obviously. But, unless they say, we’re going to… But most people say, “Ugh.”. Not most, but many. They will say, “Not this number.” “Fine, well what’s the number?” And then I do push them until I have a number. I will make them give me a yes. I won’t move on that fast, so sorry. I’ve got you to say yes.
Steven Jack Butala:
I think it was the other way around.
Jill DeWit:
I know. Thank 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 of the Land Academy Show is called ‘2022 and 2023, the real estate market, and what it means for you as a land investor’. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah so by the way, you didn’t tick my no. There wasn’t a lot of no’s though.
Steven Jack Butala:
It wasn’t, we were all… [inaudible 00:14:24]. That’s a great example, we were all-
Jill DeWit:
I never had a no. I had a, “Slow down, cowboy.”.
Steven Jack Butala:
We’ve always wanted to go to the same place. How we get there is a little bit different, but that’s just how it is. And that’s not a good example anyway. Look, I just avoid… At this age, I just avoid this stuff now. If it’s really difficult to buy property in state X, then I’m just going to go to state Y. This is really what I mean. Because there’s local cultures everywhere you go. I’m guilty of this all the time, I’ll look on a map and say, “We should take the RV right here. It looks beautiful, look how beautiful it is.” And you get there, and there are people that are just awful.
Jill DeWit:
Right. And you’re not lazy by the way, it’s being efficient and thinking about your time, and just getting deals done.
Steven Jack Butala:
Right.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you for tuning in. Jack and I are very aware that not everyone has a couple hundred grand lying around to fund deals, and to buy land basically. Well lucky for you, we and our community do have several… Actually, million lying around-
Steven Jack Butala:
Tens of millions.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. What did we come up with now? I don’t know, 60 million with our group? There’s probably even more. Because not everybody answers that question, they just, “I’m not going to tell you how much I have, but I can do it.” kind of thing. So the point is, there’s a lot of funding going on right now in Land Academy and our community. And you don’t have to have the funds to buy the deals, you just need to find the deals. If you want to learn more, go to landfunding.com, or send a note to support@landacademy.com. [inaudible 00:16:01].
Steven Jack Butala:
Information.
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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