Transitioning From Pharmacist To Land Investor

We have Nathan Cheung, a Career Path member. I’ve got a ton of questions for him. First and foremost, how are you finding Career Path and what led you to the point of making the decision to join us?

First, I just want to say thanks for having me on. I’ve been listening to the podcast for a long time, probably since 2019, when I first listened to it. I’ve probably started with episode like 100 or something and just rolled all the way back. I had a really long commute. A little surreal to be talking live. I’ve got a Career Path. I think I’m the fourth cohort of Career Path. I was really interested in joining 1, 2 and 3 but I actually work full-time. I’ve got two young kids. I think before, it was on like Wednesdays and Thursdays. That was going to be hard to explain to my boss, what I’m doing.

“Why are you taking these four-hour lunch breaks every Wednesday?”

As soon as you offered it for Saturday, I just jumped all over it. I asked my wife almost sheepishly like, “Land Academy is doing a Career Path on Saturday.” To my surprise, she didn’t even flinch. She just said, “Do it. Go for it.” She watches the kids while I do it. I hide out. They don’t even know I’m around. It’s been awesome.

What do you do in real life? What’s your W-2 job?

Yeah, so my background, I’m actually a pharmacist. No real background in real estate or entrepreneurship, but caught the bug a few years ago and long story short, I’m here now. I’m still working full-time but I’m really doing both.

We interviewed Dan Smart, who’s a pharmacist with his wife.

Brainy people travel in our group. That’s the whole underlying theme here. I’m going to say, it’s definitely because of you. It’s not because of me. I don’t think I draw in the brainy people. That’s funny.

We have a really good friend. He’s from Iowa. He’s retired. He created from the ground up this very successful contracting business that’s specializes in green elevators for farming. He told this joke recently to us and we’re all on the floor about checking out pharmacists with a couple of packages of bacon and his cholesterol medicine over here. I’m sure you’ve seen it all.

In 2019, you found us. Do you remember when you joined Land Academy?

Yeah, middle of 2019. I didn’t really know what I was doing yet. I was yet to get my first couple of deals under my belt. I actually went to the live event, the last one in Hermosa Beach, so that was huge for me, just hearing what the other members did. I remember specifically I want to say Matt Rogers, hearing him speak and some of the other advancement members talking just thinking, “This is possible.” It seemed really far away from me at the time but realizing that was possible helped catapult me a little bit. It’s like each step is another mental barrier to level up.

I said a really long time ago that if you’re real entrepreneur, all you need to know is what’s possible. You don’t need to know how to do it. You don’t need to know how are you going to build for it, or how the money works, or any of that stuff, but if a switch flips in your head, once you know what’s possible, that’s it and you start taking action on it. I’m glad you really said that. I forgot about that until now.

If you're a real entrepreneur, all you need to know is what's possible. You don't need to know how to do it. Share on X

That was a huge reason why I joined Career Path also because this has been working for me, like third full year in. In 2024, I did well. On my second full year, I did well, but I also felt like I’m just scratching the surface. I know there’s so much more to it or so much more that could be accomplished. I wanted to be a part of Career Path and hear from YouTube and the office hours. I love the office hours. I don’t say much but and I don’t look like it, but I’m enjoying it. Also, hearing from the other members here, we got what 2 or 3 guys making $1 million, $6 million or whatever it is. Hearing from them, too, has been awesome.

Financial Growth: From $50K To $150K In Land Profits

That’s what you do. You successfully thought about it and you’re doing the right thing. You need to put yourself in those rooms like you are and you’re listening to them like, “I can do a deal like that.” Especially now, you’re really seeing behind the scenes what goes into it and what’s needed. This is awesome. I want to hear some numbers. If you don’t mind sharing, first year, second year and for the audience, because you’ve told us what you’re doing.

I’ll skip the first six months because I didn’t know what I was doing there. It was still important, because at least in the first six months, I’ve learned the whole process. I did all my own closing sales, all that. I also learned I don’t like doing most of that, but at least I can do it. I would say, in my first full year, I did about $50,000 in net profit. Second full year, I did about $150,000 in net profit.

I’m on track for a little bit more this year but I think that’s where I felt like, “Okay, this is my bottle neck now,” which is really just getting a lot of mail out. My goal is to do about 15 to 20 deals of maybe $40,000 or $50,000 in profit. I think that’s the next part. I’m trying to get to when I did $150,000. I did maybe like fifteen deals, so I definitely err on the side of doing left field, but the bigger. I’m trying to do less work.

You know this from Career Path. I’m a big fan of making $50,000 to $80,000 on a deal and just doing 10 or 20 of them a year. After doing this for how many year, Jill, I just think to make $1 million and just do 20 10 or 20 deals, it works out really well.

It does. Are you going to ever leave the other gig? Is that in the cards or do you just like having this supplemental thing? I hope you’re paying off college education is right now for the little ones or something, putting that aside.

Yeah. I guess I just want to know that’s possible or that I can if I want to. I don’t know if I’m really looking to step away just yet, but I think once my first son was born, this is the round 2019 when all this started, I realized if I lose my job or something happens to me, I just have this one income. I think that really sparked all that I needed to have something on the side. I personally would really like the accomplishment of being able to do both. I have my full-time gig but then if I’m able to scale you know the land business to something that’s more than a full-time W-2 compensation, that would be awesome.

There’s a lot of people reading right now they’re probably blown away like, “did he just say he’s got this full-time gig and it’s a serious gig?” You can hear it’s not fluff work. You have little kids and you’re doing this on the side and you quietly made $150,000 and you’re going up from there. That’s huge. What’s your secret that you can tell us? A lot of people are saying, “There’s no way I can do that,” and you’re proof that you can.

Streamlining With Services: Leveraging Concierge For Success

I think the biggest thing is leveraging other services. Working backwards, I fell with the broker because I don’t like handling sales. I close with a title company because I didn’t enjoy doing all that paperwork. I was only like 70% sure what I was doing anyway, so you move into the bigger deals that I felt most comfortable. With the phone, I have PATLive. It’s almost more of a real company in the sense of just leveraging other way to be more efficient.

I think the biggest thing that helped me right now or that I’m starting to use a lot more is Concierge. I think that was probably my biggest hang-up because I only have so much time. I still like to sleep. I get up 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning before work and do all the kids’ stuff, but I was reaching a limit of how much mail I can get off the door because I was doing the pricing myself. I realized if I want to get to the next level, I’ve got to get mail out. I need to get mail out. I got a price it and I need help with that part. Concierge has been something that I’ve really emphasized a lot more. That’s probably the next part that I’m leveraging out.

I think that’s great. You’re the perfect match for it. You’ve been doing this for a few years.

You know how to do it.

Concierge Data, for those of where don’t know, is a service that John and I concocted because we use it. We’ve been using it to price and to create our mailers for years. In fact, it’s exact same people. We’ve made it available to Land Academy members who want to outsource their mailer. We’re working on a very similar service to outsource our transaction coordination staff directly to Land Academy members. You can get that out of your life too. We’re trying to make it real hard to make any more excuses, not get the mail out, not getting deals done and not succeeding.

It’s going to be funny. I used to always say that when we got together, one of the things he said was like, “I always want to have a career I can do from the back of a boat,” but you didn’t say was drunk on the back of a boat because that’s how you’re making it. You really even don’t have to do that much. Be sober for a couple of days, pick the counties, price the counties, and all the rest and everybody else will do for you.

That’s the next goal.

If you want to be just like us, aim higher.

Nathan, my favorite part with you is I might not look like it, but I’m actually really enjoying this. I say that to Jill often.

Yeah, that’s right. It’s going to happen tonight. “How’s your dinner?” “I might not look like it, but I really like it.”

Future Vision: Million-Dollar Goals & Family Motivation

How do you think this ends? I love that your first child motivated to do stuff because that’s exactly what happened to me. I said, “I’ve got to really got to kick this up a notch. The house isn’t big enough,” and just there’s all kinds of stuff that kicks in when you have that first child. Can you see that end of it at all, like financially, what it looks like?

Financially, I think right now, I’m probably just looking at once I cross that million-dollar threshold. I’m not there yet, so I’m working on that. I always envisioned myself as the soccer dad, basketball dad, all that stuff. That’s where I want to have the freedom to do that sort of thing with my kids. I think the finance plays a big part into the freedom to do that. Don’t get me wrong, they drive me crazy sometimes, but I like them the most when the outside and playing sports or something, at least for the next few years anyway.

Keep sticking with your plan. You tripled your money from year 1 to year 2. If you triple your year 3, year 4, you’re there.

Honestly, how do you think 2025 will end?

We’re at about halfway through the year right now. I think the deals that I’ve done up to this point were still the ones that profited $15,000, $20,000. As soon as we started Career Path in late April, early May, I’m just talking ones that are $40,000, $50,000-plus in profit. Since our 5, 6 weeks in Career Path, I sent out 15,000 mailers. Even out of those 15,000, let’s say it’s a conservative and I get a deal 1 out of 3,000, hopefully that’s like 3 or 5 deals right there with that, $40,000, $50,000 threshold. I’d be happy with that.

Yeah, that’s amazing numbers. You just have to that. That would be great.

How’s your wife so supportive? How amazing is she?

Have you heard any questions?

Navigating Risks & Mental Barriers: Stepping Out Of Comfort Zone

Thinking about it sometimes. For those hard times, and she’s not listening, it’s like, “All right, it’s time. Let me schedule the appointment.” My wife has been amazing. Both of us are pharmacists. If you look at the personality trait of pharmacists, very safe, very conservative, not taking a lot of risk, all that sort of thing. Once I caught the bug, she’s very supportive of me starting. I think seeing the growth now, she’s the one that anytime I have a doubt, like, “Should I go with this property or should I join Career Path,” she’s the first one who’s like, “Just go ahead and do it,” because I think she’s seen the progress. It’s really helpful.

When we first started, though, I didn’t know how I was going to get on board because I come from a non-entrepreneurial background. Even just buying a course, it’s a big step for some people. Now it’s chump change. Back then, it’s like a big mental barrier. I sat her down and I said, “Can we talk about our goals?” That really sparked her interest because we never talked like that before. I was just like watching Netflix or something and like, “Can we talk about our goals?”

She said, “Yeah, let’s do it.” I told her my goals financially, time, freedom, all that sort of thing that I use that to lead me to the course. Sometimes my friends will ask me now, because I told them that story, like, “What goal does she talk about?” I have no idea. I don’t remember. I brought all that up. I set all that up just so I can go on this course.

To be fair, she doesn’t remember either, but I think just seeing the progress, she’s really enjoyed it and is very supportive of it. Our kids are 2 and 4. During Career Path office hours, she’ll just take them and get them out of the house and go play or something. A lot of that, I owe to her too, just having someone to support you.

That is huge, you did that right. I talked to people in the past and that was one of the things. You always make sure you got to get your significant other on board because if they’re not on the same page, it’s going to make this really difficult.

Make sure to get your significant other on board because if they're not on the same page, it's going to make this really difficult. Share on X

Back in the early days of Land Academy, Jill would talk to wives once or twice a week. Men wanted to join and Jill is designated spouse discussion.

I was. I’d say, “If you want me to, I’ll talk to your wife.” They’re like, “Really?” I’m like, “Sure. I’m happy to.” Once we talked a little bit, then they’re like, “All right.” Everybody agrees like don’t spend a lot of money here. Test it. Buy some cheap property. Sell it. Even now, see if you like it. It’s not for everybody and then go from there.

You did it exactly how you should. You learned how to close the deals yourself and realized, “That sucks. I know how to do it. I know it’s involved but I need to up my game because I don’t want to do that anymore,” and then you learn too. The more you do these bigger deals, it’s like flying a plane. The bigger the plane easier it is. It’s all a lot of pilot. You have title company doing this. You have your broker doing that. You can just sit back and manage them and bring in more deals, which is awesome.

I think the greatest thing about having a career like being a pharmacist is it’s a safety net. I always think in terms of safety nets, even at this point in my career. Jill and I’ve talked about this probably 100 times. We have four safety nets. If something goes wrong, we’re going to go to Plan B, Plan, C Plan D. If it goes on to Plan E, something’s really wrong. Being a pharmacist, you can go get a pharmacy job tomorrow that will probably pay the bills.

Yeah. I think if I had to, I can be the drive through midnight pharmacist or something. Yeah, it’s nice to have in the back pocket.

I can go back and get an accounting job, but I’m just not sure.

You could be a drive through midnight accountant. “Here’s your tax return. Please pay in cash.” You don’t want that drunk from the back of a boat.

There’s so many people reading this saying, “Like Jill said, his plate’s really full but he made it work for himself.” Do you have any advice?

I think the first mental barrier is just knowing that there’s always a way. For me, the first thing was I need 5 to 10 hours to work on this. I don’t really see where that time is.” I know what time is. I have to wake up a little earlier. I just wake up at 5:00. Never did that in my life I always slept in and all that stuff, but just start waking up and then just chip away at it.

I think one thing is, especially in the beginning, I don’t know what it looks like ten steps down the road. Just have to go one by one. I think my first real progression in terms of deals, this is an oversimplification. At first, I was buying like deals for $1,000 or $3,000, but there was a string where I bought one for $3,000, sold it for $9,000, bought the next one at $9,000, sold it for $25,000, but one at $25,000, sold that for $55,000, bought that one for $55,000 and then sold it at $105,000.

I needed those funds because that was like my land fund. Each deal, I needed it back but I was still sending mailers in the interim. It just fell into place and fell pretty nicely. It doesn’t always go so perfectly. Also, when you’re only buying deals for $1,000 to $3,000 and then spending $25,000, the first time you spend $25,000, “This is a lot,” but I came back at $50,000. The next one buying at $50,000, it was like, “This is a lot.” I just made all this money and then spending $50,000 and then on to the $105,000 one.

Part of that was trusting what I knew and trusting the comp and trusting the data. I think that one that I bought for $55,000 and sold for $105,000, that was in the middle of winter and this is a snow heavy area. I saw all these comps for also around like $120,000. “This is everything I have. What if I just lost everything I did?” It was just the next step. Just trust the comp, trust the data. I’m going to do it and then my broker sold it in like two weeks, so that was amazing. I think it’s just a little bit of trust and a little bit of faith, like a step of faith a little bit.

Just trust the comp, trust the data. Share on X

A lot of conversations to have with the with the spouse who’s like, “I don’t know yet.” Those are good checks to look at.

This has been so great. Any funny things you want to share? It’s funny, I love office hours too. It is fun because for those who don’t know, what we do in office hours is before every week, we have professor time or class time to ask any questions leading up to that day before we start that session. Anything hanging over from last week that you want to discuss, you want to look at something, whatever it is, so it’s all free flowing and it goes in all these different directions, which I love. It’s nice that we all do it together because I still believe you get so much more out of that, especially with this small group like this. Some of going to think of something that you didn’t think of if you were just doing a one-on-one.

It’s two hours of us just freely asking and talking about really anything in real estate, reviewing mailers or whatever.

Did you do our Thursday calls, Nathan? Are you on those?

I’m not on the Thursday called mainly because of the work. Those are usually tough for me to get to. A lot of times, I’ll listen to them after. I listen to them after. I think that’s always helpful to hear everything in real time. It’s not so mystical anymore. It’s like, “This is actually how everything gets done.” Those are really big for mindset also.

I think it’s the first Tuesday of the month is our advanced member calls. After you graduate in June, you’ll be on the one in July, and that’s long office hours.

It’s 30 or 40 of us just saying, “Everything’s going great, except I’ve got this terrible deal right now. I don’t know what to do,” and we all pitch in and help. That’s what I love about this Career Path right now. Everybody’s doing deals. There were a lot of people in the past. It’s really hard to have 10 or 15 people in the group. Half a brand new and half are where you are doing and ramping up. Everybody seems to be doing deals in this one. It’s fun. Everybody’s got real stories to share.

Yeah, we’ve got a couple of millionaires in here. I think the first session, we’re just getting to know each other we’re ranking ourselves like, “Are you Level 1, Level 2, Level 3?” These guys come in and say, “I’m like a Level 1 or 1.5.” What in the world? What am I doing here? I don’t think I qualify or something.

“If he’s a Level 1, am I a negative 1?”

I love hearing their experiences. It’s cool seeing some of their deals on the stuff that they’re stuck on. Another reason I won’t join Career Path is I want to make sure I’m doing this right. I don’t know if I was or not and seeing some of their deals and what they were working on helping, “I’m on the right path. I can tune this up but all right. I’m on the right path.”

Pearls Of Wisdom: Small Tweaks For Big Wins

That’s a good thing. Do you have any revelations yet and through Career Path like, “I’ve got to change this right now?”

Yeah, I think it’s more too many to count in terms of number of little pearls. There are a lot of little tidbits. I don’t think any of you even know that you’re throwing them out there, but they’re just a little tweaks that really helped me along the way.

There was a lot of that that way. We set Career Path, really Land Academy, entirely just to be around and now on Discord. The fastest way to learn something is to hang out with people who are succeeding at it. That’s really what Career Path is.

The fastest way to learn something is to hang out with people who are succeeding at it. Share on X

It was a blast to talk to you. I would love to, if it’s all right, dropping the schedule for like 6 to 8 months from now and we’ll check back again and see how you’re doing.

It’ll be perfect. Let’s see how 2025 ended. I want to know how these numbers did.

In your case, let’s see who’s on diapers and who’s talking.

How much sleep you’re getting.

Sounds great.

Awesome. Thank you so much. We’ll see you soon.

Sounds good.

Thanks again.