This is episode number 2154. Jill and I are talking about lessons from 16,000-plus transactions, what we wish we could do and what we knew sooner. I love this topic.

This is a good one.

We could spend eight hours on this. Jill and I spend more time wondering what we could have changed or could change than reveling in our success. We can start right there.

Why is that? What is wrong with us?

That’s healthy.

Do you think it’s healthy?

If we walked around patting ourselves on our backs and saying, “We live this great life. Everything’s amazing. We’re amazing. We’ve done everything right in life,” that would be awful. It’s not a world that I want to live in.

Do you not remember all the real blood, real sweat, and real tears? Things happened that we went through to get to this point, so I’m going to argue we earned it.

I agree but I don’t think we should walk around thinking and talking about that.

We don’t do that. That’s not who we are. That’s a different personality type. We’ll unbox that another day.

We’re going to talk about it all week. I’m glad you brought that up. If you’re a super mentally healthy person and happy, you’re not an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are not healthy.

If you're a super mentally healthy person and happy, you're not an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are not healthy. Share on X

That’s true. Everything needs to be better, fixed, and redone.

Constant improvement. Questioning everything all the time.

It’s so much fun for me.

If you have an entrepreneurial child in your house and all your electronics are taken apart, and they’re questioning every single thing you do like, “Why do we live in this house? Why don’t we live across the street in the bigger one?” That’s an entrepreneur.

In a sunnier state or fill in the blank.

“Why is this car so old? What’s wrong with you guys? You don’t make enough money.”

Did you do that to your parents?

Yes. I was like, “Is there a reason that we are growing up in Detroit? Is there anywhere better that we could probably have a little bit more fun on a Sunday afternoon than Detroit?” They didn’t like that. They didn’t respond well to that.

I didn’t ask those questions because my biggest issue growing up was we had to save quarters for the parking meters in Laguna Beach. We had to leave early because otherwise, you wouldn’t get parking.

Jill and I had the same mental and psychological upbringings in very different places. One in Disneyland and one in Detroit, but somehow, we got together.

It’s amazing. I hope that’s going in your book, Disneyland meets Detroit.

It’s all in there. There’s a chapter called Enter Jill. I’m serious.

Thank you. I can’t wait to read this.

All week, this is technically called Develop and Improve Your Land Business Week but it’s really The Psychology of Your Land Business Week. We’ll see what gets published here because once we turn the mics and the cameras off, I don’t know what happens to this anymore. I used to do everything. I don’t do any of this stuff. It’s weird. I’m not sure I like it.

I like it.

Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum and take a deep dive into land-related topics by popular request.

Ian wrote, “I got my first callback from someone interested in selling their land. Now, to do some research. Whether this deal happens or not, I want to say thanks to the group for getting me to this point.” I saw that Discord. That’s so darn cool. Congrats, Ian.

It’s this little type of win for the person who’s got the right mindset and the right habit-building skills. This is a person who’s going to succeed. Ian’s going to succeed very well at this because that tiny win where it’s like, “I do want to sell. Give me a call back,” is all you need for the next step. Some personality types are like, “Why isn’t the deal done yet?” We’re going to talk about that because the technical skills of it, in the end, are way more important than learning to buy and sell land. The mindset behind all this stuff shouldn’t be overlooked. This episode’s topic is Lessons From 16,000-plus transactions, What We Wish We Knew Sooner.

The technical skills of it, in the end, are way more important than learning to buy and sell land. Share on X

I got one.

What’s your one?

There’s Always Another Deal

My quick one is there’s always another deal.

That’s good.

Paint the picture, please.

I’m going to paint a picture of when I started. This is in the early ‘90s. This is not, “I walked up to the school both ways uphill.” This is not the good old days. This isn’t sitting on Grandpa’s knee telling us some dumb story. I’m simply painting a picture of what it was like back then and what it’s like now. Cutting to the chase, it’s a lot easier to buy and sell land largely because of the internet and the tools that are on the internet. We did everything manually with the telephone on our desk and no real computer.

I’m finishing a book that describes all the steps and stuff that happened to me professionally, the ups and downs, and the things that went on that you barrel through. That’s what the title of the book should be called. It won’t be. You get over it, deal with the tools that you have at the time, and move on. I utilized technology. I realized a lot writing the first half of the book that I was always in the front of technology and I didn’t realize it. I didn’t know it at the time.

This is the meat of this episode. I didn’t know I was doing it right at the time, but I seriously was. It’s because it came naturally to me. People have been asking me up to and including my entire career, “How do you know how to do all this? How did you put all this together?” The truth from the bottom of my soul’s answer is I don’t know. I didn’t know how else to do anything else.

You didn’t know how to stop. You knew that it was going to happen. You were like, “I’m going to dig in and make this work.”

Surrounding Yourself With Like-Minded Entrepreneurs

What I wish I would’ve done sooner to directly answer the question is I wish I would’ve surrounded myself from a very young age with people who were on the same entrepreneurial page as me, and I did early on. I talk all about it in the book. This is not a book sales pitch. Early on, I was lucky to fall backward into some people in high school and middle school who were the same way. They didn’t know how to do anything else. I was exposed to them and still exposed to them as friends.

Jill met them for the first time and that was the greatest thing that could have ever happened. Joining groups like Land Academy or exposing yourself to people, not necessarily land, but a liked-kind mentality is fantastic. It’s simple. If you expose yourself to people who are upset about life all the time and don’t want to live anywhere else except Detroit, for most people, that’s how it’s going to end for them. You’re going to become one of those people.

I was supposed to be a blue-collar product of factory workers. It was everybody in my entire family with the exception of my parents who got themselves out of that. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it doesn’t work for me. There are 100 cultures I could be dropped into or you could be dropped into all over this world that aren’t going to work for you and there’s probably a handful that will.

It’s your job, especially if you’re young or unhappy professionally or wherever you are in your life, to sit down, take a step back, and say, “This has got to change. What if I could wave a magic wand and fix what’s going on that’s wrong in my life? What does that look like?” Figure that out and then set a course for solving it, getting to whatever that looks like. We didn’t have anything like Google Earth. We had atlases from a metes and bounds plat map scenario to try to find a property that we were buying.

It’s amazing the changes that have happened.

I got so frustrated with trying to find property. We would send out offers and a ton of them would come back signed. I would go about trying to find these properties. It took me a long time. I got to a point in the early 2000s where I stopped trying and bought it all.

I wonder how many people signed the offers and sent them back because they didn’t even know where the properties were.

Many.

Three Key Lessons: Mentality, Change, And Competition

I have three things.  I appreciate all your insight. It was awesome. I’ve been sitting here thinking about what you wish you knew. I’m thinking, “I have three things that I wish I knew, understood, embraced, and accepted sooner.” One is there’s always another deal. I have such an abundance mentality. I don’t care.

What does that mean to you that there’s always another deal? What problem is that solving?

If this doesn’t work, who cares? That salary you are not on the same page, who cares? If somebody stole the deal, who flipping cares? Do you think this is the last home run you’re ever going to have? No. You’re going to have another one. Don’t worry about it. That’s the thing. There’s always another deal around the corner. Don’t care.

My second thing is change. You better embrace change. Laws are going to change. Rules are going to change. Technology is going to change how you do things. Your bank, how you do stuff, and taxes are going to change. Stuff is going to change. You better embrace it and be ready for it. That’s the thing. The third one is competition. If your idea is any good or this area is any good, whatever it is, there are going to be other people out there. You need to embrace it and be better. Be better, be faster, get these deals done, and move on because there will be other people out there.

Stuff is going to change. You better embrace it and be ready for it. Share on X

Every once in a while, I come across somebody socially or professionally who asks why all the time. I met a guy like this named Mike who is not only asking why all the time. It’s not, “Why, Steve?” It’s why about everything. It’s why to himself. It’s, “Why am I doing this?” I would further that and say what he’s really saying is to what end. It’s like, “ I’m making a little decision about ordering another beer.” To what end?

People who can reach that level of self-awareness are like, “I know exactly how I’m going home tonight. I know I’m not driving. I know what we’re going to have for dinner. I know what my next week looks like. I’m having another beer,” or whatever little decision it is that you’re making at that time. If you do this often, especially throughout your whole life, this is subconscious. You’re answering this question constantly. You’re like, “I’m doing this to a certain end.”

Sixteen thousand deals later, it’s not about the technical skills of buying and selling land. It’s about having fun, making a bunch of money, and the psychology behind knowing what you’re doing when you’re doing it and changing stuff as you go. Join us again where Jill and I talk about the single best business habit that we experienced for land investors. You’re not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill, information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.