Land Academy is a Performance Based Eco System (LA 1819)
Land Academy is a Performance Based Eco System (LA 1819)
Transcript:
Steven James Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill K DeWit:
Hello.
Steven James Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.`
Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWitt, broadcasting from sunny Southern California
Steven James Butala:
Today Jill and I talk about how Land Academy is a performance-based ecosystem, I’m happy to report. When we started Land Academy in 2015 or launched it, I should say, I thought I knew all kinds of stuff. Well, it turns out I was wrong about everything and what’s new about that. We started it to help a handful of people learn how we buy and sell land successfully to create a tiny little investment group where we could all do deals together. Well, mission accomplished there. The group got a lot bigger than we thought. I think there’s about 480 members right now total. And we both have agreed to not allow the group to get larger than 500 people. So at times, Jill will close enrollment. I think you did last two months ago for quite some time for an entire month.
Jill K DeWit:
It’s open right now.
Steven James Butala:
My 480 number is probably not right. It’s probably closer to 500, but yeah, it’s open right now. So it was all mission accomplished there. We found some great partners. We have got literally lifelong business partners now, but what we found throughout this, let’s call it a little journey that I created for better, for worse, we’ve got this little performance-based ecosystem going on, where we’re all communicating with each other.
And so when I watch this group grow, while this is kind of the show. Before I get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on landinvestors.com online community. It’s free. And I hope by now you know we have a full-blown operational printing company called offerstoowners.com. And Jill and I set this company up a few years ago for ourselves because we were real frustrated about the level of misunderstanding from regular commercial printing companies that we were experiencing when we sent out our own mail campaigns. And so we were frustrated, we started our own, and now we do between 700,000 and a million letters on behalf of our members and non-members every single month. So check it out.
Jill K DeWit:
It’s pretty cool.
Steven James Butala:
Support offerstoowners.com.
Jill K DeWit:
By the way, we are seven years this month.
Steven James Butala:
Oh, it is this month!
Jill K DeWit:
Seven years this month that was since we launched Land Academy. Oh, been a little while.
Steven James Butala:
Yeah. Wow.
Jill K DeWit:
Been a bit.
Steven James Butala:
It’s actually eight years from the incubator stage, but seven years live.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s what I’m saying, seven years since we launched. And no one asks anymore, “So who are you guys? What’s your track record? And does this really work?” We don’t have to answer those questions anymore.
Steven James Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
Which is really kind of nice. Now we answer, “Hey, my friend’s doing your thing and I want to get in.”
Steven James Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
Can I get in?
Steven James Butala:
It’s not, “Does this work?”
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven James Butala:
That’s what happened for a year.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven James Butala:
I got tired of that.
Jill K DeWit:
I know, but we got it.
Steven James Butala:
I was in a bad mood for a couple years, actually.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s funny. So there’s actually a question here. I’m going to get to it. Steve wrote, “Went to contract today on my first section.” Timeout, in case you did. Oh, he wrote it in here, a square mile, a whole square mile, 640 acres. He’s buying it for $226,000, listing it for $499,000. I’m the JB funder and with a revenue share it’s ranch land. Best use is as is. Unfathomable. That’s awesome.
Steven James Butala:
So Steve’s very, very experienced investor in our group and a very active funder. So he does tons of deals with other people who send mail out, who just don’t have a bunch of money laying around. This is no exception. And he is real active in discord. And I appreciate him being out with the group. He’s actually making this group a lot better than before he was in it, which just ties into what our show is about here. So congratulations. I remember when I bought my first section. I remember it. I don’t think you ever forget that. What’s so funny.
Jill K DeWit:
I remember when I had my first child, bought my first section, had my first marriage.
Steven James Butala:
Keep [inaudible 00:04:22] Jill. What else do you remember that your firsts are?
Jill K DeWit:
Let’s see, my first job, my first paycheck. My first encounter. I love it. Just section just rolls right in there.
Steven James Butala:
First Mercedes, in your case.
Jill K DeWit:
There you go. Uh huh. That’s nice. First kiss. Okay, go ahead.
Steven James Butala:
First kiss?
Jill K DeWit:
Sure.
Steven James Butala:
I thought first kiss was like first Mm-Mm.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh no. Oh, that was something different. That’s what you thought.
Steven James Butala:
That’s what I thought.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, I wouldn’t have to disguise the words if it’s a kiss.
Steven James Butala:
I thought first kiss was-
Jill K DeWit:
There might be kids in the car here.
Steven James Butala:
… your first encounter.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s what I meant. Well, my first kiss didn’t lead my first encounter.
Steven James Butala:
Oh, I got this all wrong.
Jill K DeWit:
What?
Steven James Butala:
I’m 55 years old, and I still don’t get it.
Jill K DeWit:
What are you talking about? I
Steven James Butala:
Thought your first kiss was code for your first Mm-Mm.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh no, no. First kiss is first kiss.
Steven James Butala:
Like in sixth grade or whatever.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. That’s like, come on in the back of the playground. Your lips brush. Like what just happened? Yeah. It’s on the jungle gym.
Steven James Butala:
Oh man. Okay.
Jill K DeWit:
You’re hanging upside down. Anyway, moving on.
Steven James Butala:
Were you hanging upside down?
Jill K DeWit:
Nope.
Steven James Butala:
All right. Was it intentional?
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven James Butala:
Okay. Good. Today’s topic, Land Academy is a performance based ecosystem. This is why you’re listening. Although the topic-
Jill K DeWit:
I hope that’s why you’re listening.
Steven James Butala:
… that Jill just brought up would be more fun to talk about.
Jill K DeWit:
That might be why you’re listening too. We could talk about that later.
Steven James Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
So yeah, so I think of this, you know what? I’m so no that everybody gets a trophy person. I’m sorry. I grew up in AYSO Soccer and you placed. Some teams go on to tournaments, and if you suck, you don’t. And just like March Madness, which I love, that’s my favorite time of year. Just like March Madness. You’re one and done. I mean talk about tough. We don’t even get best of seven because you’re having a bad day. You’re having a bad day. You are out.
Steven James Butala:
Single elimination.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. I’m sure everybody here listening knows what I’m talking about. I’m just kidding.
Steven James Butala:
I just like saying that phrase.
Jill K DeWit:
I know, I’m just joking.
Steven James Butala:
I say it as often as I can. Single elimination.
Jill K DeWit:
Yes. So if you’re in Land Academy, you’re here. You’re at the dance and those listening who know what the dance is knows what I’m saying there too. Anyway. So excuse me. It’s an eco based or performance based system. So we are rewarded on our performance. That’s life, everyone.
Steven James Butala:
Heck yeah, sir.
Jill K DeWit:
Those who work harder should get paid more, should get promoted, should earn more. That’s just the way it is. So I was thinking about this. How does relate to me in my business? I’m out to get the best deals from the best sellers in the best areas, period. I’m not going to canvas the country and just let the chips fall where they may. No, we are seeking out the high dollar amount properties in the rocking areas. Did you not like that?
Steven James Butala:
No, I don’t know where you’re going with it.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, let me run with it.
Steven James Butala:
I’ll make it a lot more simple in a minute here.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, you can say it like a man.
Steven James Butala:
You’re going to get some comments. You did it yesterday too.
Jill K DeWit:
I know. They’re going to be… It’s okay. I’m a woman. I’m allowed to say that stuff.
Steven James Butala:
The whole world is trying to do away with gender right now. And Jill’s sticking her middle finger up to the whole thing and saying,-
Jill K DeWit:
You know what?
Steven James Butala:
… “Here’s the thing.” No, I love this about you. I just don’t say it like you do, and I really appreciate that do.
Jill K DeWit:
You know what? Well, do we need to go into that now?
Steven James Butala:
No.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Got it.
Steven James Butala:
I wouldn’t apologize or explain yourself at all.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay.
Steven James Butala:
I would just say thank you.
Jill K DeWit:
Thank you.
Steven James Butala:
You’re welcome.
Jill K DeWit:
All right. So this is how this topic relates to me. And then you can say how it relates, and then you can say what it really needs. I’m here. Performance space. So what I do is performance space. I’m rewarded by the way. I’m paying a ration amount for convenience to sellers and I’m rewarded with the profit. You have more to say. Go for it.
Steven James Butala:
Oh, is that it?
Jill K DeWit:
No, I’m skipping number three now, because you’re making me feel like I’m off on a-
Steven James Butala:
If you’re not rewarded for your performance, then what are you rewarded for? Breathing? Just showing up? I’m really asking this question because it doesn’t make sense. If you remove performance… I’ve said this on the show before. I’ll say it again. We live in a house that’s got a fairly large backyard and there’s tons of animals back there, rabbits and quail and all kinds of predators and every single one of those animals, as cute as Jill thinks they are, they’re all trying to kill each other. All of them.
Jill K DeWit:
True.
Steven James Butala:
They’re trying to destroy each other. So I really believe that it’s human nature to perform.
Jill K DeWit:
True.
Steven James Butala:
Or get eliminated, if you can’t perform. And so Land Academy makes that incredibly easy in this ecosystem because most, or all of us, are exactly. We all understand that for some reason, no one’s ever talked about it until now. And we’ve created this performance based ecosystem where the person who makes the most money or funds the most money, like Steve’s a great example here. They’re at the top of that chain. And so I don’t know, if we don’t reward ourselves for performance, I don’t know what we would reward ourselves for. I guess just being a participant.
Jill K DeWit:
I know, I don’t understand how that works.
Steven James Butala:
And I think that there’s huge countries and continents that have tried that system where everybody’s equal. You don’t have to do anything except this job that I’m going to give you. And here’s your money.
Jill K DeWit:
My girlfriend was telling me this cute story the other day about this bird. She came out around her patio one day and the sweetest little bird had fallen out of the nest, and she lovingly scooped him up, put him back up in the nest and went about her merry way. Turned around, came back and the mom pushed him out. Talk about tough. He was not meant to make it, speaking of performance. There was clearly something wrong and the mom was pushing him out.
Steven James Butala:
So that’s our take on performance. The other part of this is this ecosystem that continually grows out its own. It’s now organic. So a great example of that is land funding or deal, what we call land funding or deal funding. And we never intended, ever intended when we started Land Academy at all to create this little group. All I ever wanted was a small group of people that were partners who were buying properties together, which happened. And we still do that. But what really started to happen is, this organic questioning and answering and it’s education and this tool development, this ecosystem where new members will come in and say, “That’s all great. And I understand what you guys are doing, but I don’t have any money.” Well, wait a minute. I do have a ton of money and I don’t have enough deals.
Okay, great. So let’s get together and maybe we’ll do this thing called deal funding, which organically developed. Same thing with Neighbor Scoop. I don’t have an effective, easy way to find these properties without a mailing address. I just have the state, county and the accessor’s partial number, the APN. What do we do? So we do developed Neighbor Scoop.
Same thing with Offers to Owners. This ecosystem had this huge pent up demand for sending out mailers using, utilizing the mail merge scenario and then sending it to an unrelated third party printer who had no idea that you were doing a mail merge. They’re used to sending out catalogs for a hospital or something like that. So we developed Offers to Owners. The latest version of that is a lot of people are coming to us, really bright people saying, “I’m tired of doing these mailers myself. Can you guys do my mailer? And I’m happy to pay you.” So that’s concierge data now, which we’re re-releasing here this week. By the time this airs, it will be released.
And so what’s next? I don’t know.
Jill K DeWit:
I know.
Steven James Butala:
But it is an organic ecosystem. It’s not like we’re sitting around saying, “Oh, we should create a product that no one needs.”
Jill K DeWit:
I love it.
Steven James Butala:
We had a house guest recently. It was all about marketing. And he believed that after about an hour of talking with us, he knew my customer better than me and was explaining to me all the products that we need to release to essentially take advantage of my members, punish them.
Jill K DeWit:
I know.
Steven James Butala:
We just get more money out of the. So we don’t do that.
Jill K DeWit:
No.
Steven James Butala:
We’ve created an ecosystem, and it’s performance based.
Jill K DeWit:
Thank you. And thank you for tuning in and thank you for listening to me on Jill’s all off content, all off topic content day.
Steven James Butala:
What does that… What do you mean?
Jill K DeWit:
I don’t know.
Steven James Butala:
What do you have to say about this?
Jill K DeWit:
No, it’s okay!
Steven James Butala:
I really want to know what your take is on it.
Jill K DeWit:
No, no.
Steven James Butala:
Because I loved what you’re saying. I loved what you’re saying.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, that’s great, but it doesn’t apply. That’s why I said it’s all off topic content day for Jill.
Steven James Butala:
Well, talk about getting kissed on the playground.
Jill K DeWit:
No, no, no. That’s funny. No, no. There’s nothing more that I need to add that’s going to make this any better at this point. So I’m going to wrap it up.
By the way, Jack and I are fully aware that not everyone has a few hundred grand lying around to buy land, as these wonderful deals roll in. Not to worry. We got you covered. Check out landfunding.com. It’s our website. You can go on there, fill out a form. By the way, it’s not just for Land Academy members. Although I want to be honest with you. I sure do look at non-Land Academy members differently, because I don’t know where the deals come from and with my community, I know how they did it. I know how they think, but either way, we do believe no good deal should go to waste. So if you need money for a deal, check out landfunding.com.
We are Jack and Jill.
Steven James Butala:
We are Jack and Jill. Information.
Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven James Butala:
It’s by undervalued property.
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