How to Stay Motivated II (CFFL 0240)
How to Stay Motivated II
Jack Butala: How to Stay Motivated II. Every Single month we give away a property for free. It’s super simple to qualify. Two simple steps. Leave us your feedback for this podcast on iTunes and number two, get the free ebook at landacademy.com, you don’t even have to read it. Thanks for listening.
Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Welcome to our show. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how to stay motivated, version two. Great show today, Jill. Let’s take a question posted by one of our members on successplan.com, our free online community.
Jill DeWit: All right, Eric wrote: “I’m so happy I found you all. I’m glad to be part of this community. Would you mind sharing your techniques on how I can find dependable investors. Thanks, love it.”
Jack Butala: Oh yeah. I love this question.
Jill DeWit: I knew you would. That’s why it’s there.
Jack Butala: Yeah, so I’m just going to say it straight out, Eric, this is such a good question. Is Eric a member, Jill?
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Um.
Jill DeWit: Oh, you know what, actually…
Jack Butala: A lot of members on Success Plan are not members.
Jill DeWit: No. Yeah. No, he’s not. He has just found us, and he will be.
Jack Butala: There are more … There’s way more money out there than talents. Think about that for a second. If you don’t have any money, then get the talent. Where do you get the talent? From us. Learn how to buy under-valued property and it’s going to treat you well for the rest of your life. There’s a whole, huge, huge, much larger than real estate. Huge community out there, where their job is to, they wake up in the morning to spend money.
They are literally held accountable for investing money and how it returns. It turns out real estate is pretty good investment if you know what you’re doing. To find … It’s never been easier to find people with tons and tons of money, there’s a lot of them on Success Plan actually. I’m glad that he put this out on Success Plan. We have members who don’t buy and sell real estate at all. They’re just money, guys.
Jill DeWit: It’s true.
Jack Butala: They’re horsing around inside of our community, in Success Plan, in a pro area, or wherever else, like on Facebook and stuff.
Jill DeWit: Deal Board.
Jack Butala: They’re aligning themselves with the people that, the members who are out there bird-dogging this property. They’re out there finding under-valued property through offers in their mail. They’re aligning their personalities with the people that have a like-mind kind of way to do it. I just saw an interview with Bill Gates, not Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, an old, old interview. He went through, and he was like 22-years old, trying to find a venture capital financial backing guy, and he wen through hundreds and hundreds of guys who just didn’t get it.
This is back before real computers, way before the internet, before computers were even on anybody’s radar. He finally found one guy, and this guy stuck with him all the way to the end. They became billionaires together.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Eric, put yourself out on a mission, and try to find a money guy that’s like-kind your personality, understands the product, understands the value, has the same values, and you know, make sure you’re kind of friends. You never want to be a partner with somebody who’s not a friend first. I’ve made this mistake many times in my life. Whether it’s doing one deal, or doing a full blown LLC, where you guys are buying and selling whatever. You want to be horsing around and laughing a lot. You want to have the same personality type, where you’re serious at the right time …
Jill DeWit: That’s important.
Jack Butala: … and horsing around at the right time. One person, not both of you, are calling the shots. It’s a tricky relationship kind of thing, but when you find that person, man, it can be a great, great thing. Make it your mission to go out and find, there’s venture capital-based real estate investors all over the place. If you start horsing around on Google, you’re going to find them.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jack Butala: A lot of them are going to say, “We only buy office buildings, next.” “Oh, we only buy strip centers, next.” “Oh, vacant land, what have you got? We love vacant land, but it has to be improved, like ready to build a house on, an entitlement subdivision, next.” You will find a vacant land guy, who just loves vacant land, and it was just chuck full of cash.
Jill DeWit: I’ve seen our members, with Success Plan too, work at partnering up and doing things together. Just like you and I talk about how you’re good at some things, and I’m good at other things. I’m watching them do stuff together, and work together financially, and to help each other out business-wise.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: It’s really good.
Jack Butala: It’s a great feeling.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jack Butala: When it all clicks, you know?
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Jack Butala: Okay, if you have a questions, or you want to be in the show, call 800-725-8816. Today’s topic, how to stay motivated, version two. This is episode two on this topic. Why is it episode two, because how to stay motivated, episode one, consistently ranks, after almost 300 shows, in the top 5 most listened to shows, so it makes me think that our listeners are having a little trouble staying motivated.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). I hear that.
Jack Butala: What would you suggest, Jill? Because, I’ll tell you what, flat out, you can be the smartest person in the world, and you have the most ambition, and the right tools, everybody, no matter who you are, has problems staying on track, and staying motivated. What do you do Jill? What’s your advice?
Jill DeWit: You know, you, your thing that you share with us, even just in the last couple weeks is a good thing. I’m going to start with your little tip, which is you conquer something small everyday in the beginning of the day, and I think that’s a really good, really good advice. I kind of like yours. Yours is the best right now. You wake up and there’s some little task that you do. You want to give an example, as I turn it back on you?
Jack Butala: Yeah, sure. I mean, I just thought about it, like I just have a better, I have better overall attitude when I sit down at my desk in the morning, if the stuff that I did right before that, I don’t care if it’s working out, or taking a bike ride, or whatever you might do in the morning, or like, I don’t know, the sink’s leaking and you just fix it, and it works.
That’s like, “Man, this is great, I got it, you know, I fixed it.” It works well, the screws all fit, figuratively, or maybe literally. Now, let’s go sit down at our desk, and just kick it, apply that like a positive, conquer it attitude.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: It’s … If you wake up in the morning, and there’s three babies crying, and everybody’s yelling at each other, and there’s garbage all over the house, it’s hard to be … It’s hard for me, anyway, to get a good start and stay motivated, and moving in the right direction.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: What is it for you?
Jill DeWit: I just refuse to stop.
Jack Butala: Or are you just happy all the time?
Jill DeWit: You know what, I am, but I think it’s just because I know, well, I know, and you and I have talked about this a lot, I know how much better I do in everything that I do, whether it’s work related, or not, if I’m in a good mood, and I’m happy, I’ll kill it.
Jack Butala: Me too.
Jill DeWit: What do I do to keep myself in that good, happy mood? I try to take care of myself. I guess that’s what I do. I am my, I have my own little routines, and my own little world, and my own way of doing things in the morning, and I wake up happy, and I’m excited, and I take care of myself, do my little things, then when I, gosh, sit down to conquer whatever it is, it just flows so well, but yeah, if I had a terrible morning, and my dog got out, and you know, whatever, I would, there’s no, I couldn’t, I’d sit down and fail. It’s like I have to start the day, however, I start the day is usually how my whole day goes.
I try very hard to, you know, like I say, I have my little routines, and I wake up happy, and I get my coffee, and I have my creamer. Then the rest of my day just kind of flows.
Jack Butala: If you work in an office, or you work in some environment where there’s lots of people, you have colleagues, or bosses, ask them. You’re going to be amazed at the response you get, if you phrase the questions correctly. I’ve done this in the past, in the way distant past, and you can find out. I mean, a lot of responses that I’ve gotten in the past are what Jill just said, “Oh, well, you know, everything started out great, but I ran out of coffee, now it’s just a, you know.” That was enough to trip up the whole thing.
Jill DeWit: It’s true.
Jack Butala: I get it.
Jill DeWit: That could happen.
Jack Butala: I’m not saying there’s [crosstalk 00:08:15]. A lot of people it’s coffee, or however, they start their day. I was famous for running around …
Jill DeWit: Could be the same person who’s laying in bed next to me. Just kidding.
Jack Butala: Yeah, woke up with the wrong person this morning. It’s kind of throwing me off.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: They’re the wrong gender.
Jill DeWit: You’re still here.
Jack Butala: They’re the wrong gender, and got to ask myself some questions now today.
Jill DeWit: I love it. Do you know …
Jack Butala: That could throw your whole month off actually.
Jill DeWit: You know, thinking about, too, though, about being motivated, I innately refuse to be, to let something get to me. Man, I’m going to die trying, whatever it is, like, I refuse to just let something bring me down, like for example, remember years ago, we were talking about a lot of our business, we would do, way back in the day, we depended on PayPal, you know, that’s how we’d do a lot of transactions. You know, and PayPal came along and said, “All right…
Jack Butala: I don’t miss that.
Jill DeWit: Right, they came along and said, “You know what, we just decided, no more real estate transactions on PayPal. You’re done.” Like, “Gasp”, that could have sunk the ship. I know that for a lot of people it did sink the ship.
Jack Butala: It did sink … Exactly Jill.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, they’re like, “I guess I’m out of business now, I don’t know what to do.” You know, and we’re like, “No, no, no, no, no, no. There’s going to be another way, we’re going to figure it out.” It did take us a while to figure it out, it wasn’t months, but you know, days going into weeks, and coming out with a new way in setting it up, and did not let that stop us. We got, we conquered it, and gosh, talk about motivation.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: You know, I’m like, “I just, I won’t stop.”
Jack Butala: Keep moving forward.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. It’s …
Jack Butala: I’m a total keep moving forward. I’m advocating the title of the show. I’m a total keep moving forward, press through it at all costs kind of person, but even I sometimes, when stuff just, one thing after another is going wrong, or there’s distractions. That’s another thing, if there’s a lot of distractions constantly, you know, I find Facebook to be one big distraction. I have to turn it on and off when I’m ready to use, because it’s just popping in. They’ve mastered getting in to your life, you know. Their default settings are in your face.
Jill DeWit: That’s true.
Jack Butala: They should call it that.
Jill DeWit: They’re good.
Jack Butala: They should have like four levels of settings: in your face, in your life, you know …
Jill DeWit: In the background.
Jack Butala: In the background, and off.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. You know what? That could go for relationships too.
Jack Butala: I wish … wouldn’t that be great.
Jill DeWit: How do you want me to be today? Oh, that’s a fridge magnet: in your face, in your life, in the background, and off.
Jack Butala: What if there’s a switch in the back of your mates head.
Jill DeWit: That’s it.
Jack Butala: There are four dip-switches.
Jill DeWit: I want that, and depending on their mood, you’re going to go, “I love this. I want you to be right here with me.” Then, put them, and be like, “Off.”
Jack Butala: What if you could turn your partner off like a robot, and they just stand there in the corner with their head down, and their arms are limp. Turn them back on an hour later.
Jill DeWit: That’s nice. After everybody’s calmed down.
Jack Butala: That’s awesome.
Jill DeWit: Oh, my gosh.
Jack Butala: Pretty good. We’re going to get PhD, psychiatrists calling now.
Jill DeWit: That’s funny. All right. I have another point about this staying motivated.
Jack Butala: Yeah. That’s what this show is about.
Jill DeWit: It is.
Jack Butala: Not dip-switches in the back of your wife’s head.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, cause that’s really not the right way you want to motivate people.
Jack Butala: That’s fun to not talk about real estate.
Jill DeWit: Another important thing, for me, about staying motivated is accepting yourself, and recognizing those times when you are not motivated, and not beating yourself up. It’s important to go, “All right, I clearly need a time out.” I have so done that to myself.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Jack, you know it. I personally will give myself a mental time out, going, “You are not in the right mind frame for this.”
Jack Butala: Let’s explore this.
Jill DeWit: “You need to get the heck out of here.”
Jack Butala: What do you do?
Jill DeWit: Get on your bike. Go have some fun. Go shopping, go workout, go to the park, go walk on the beach.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Go work on your car. Whatever gets your mind out of it, you clearly need a mental time-out here. You have to accept that and know that’s going to happen, and it’s okay. We do this … I … We talk about it, cause I do this often. I will come to Jack and say, “You know what, look, I know what’s going on, I know what’s coming up. I know how important this is. I’m hear to tell you, I am not bringing my A game. I know that. I’m going to be over here, I’m going to go off, I’ll be back in two hours, I need a mental break.” By doing that …
Jack Butala: Cover for me.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, exactly. I need you to cover me. Sometimes on a show like this.
Jack Butala: Right. No seriously.
Jill DeWit: It’s true, I actually have. Like, “Ah, thanks for helping me, I was off there.” Or something. Yeah, I need to go recharge my batteries, and I will come back a better, happier person, and it’s true. I’m stronger and motivated, and all that; smarter.
Jack Butala: The point that Jill’s making is an excellent one, and I would add to this, have a contingency plan. Don’t try to figure … You don’t get a trophy for endurance on some of this stuff.
Jill DeWit: Oh, yeah.
Jack Butala: You might in the Military. You probably do in grade school, you got to sit there and take it, and a lot of jobs, corporate jobs specifically, higher up you get, you got to just sit there and take it. In this, when you’re running the show, you have a partner, you have the luxury of saying, “You know what …”, and planning for it. My point is: plan for it. It happens to everybody, I don’t care who you are, and plan what you love. For me it’s like, getting on a motorcycle for an hour in the middle of the day, and just driving around, I don’t know, whatever. Maybe it’s lunchtime, I don’t know what it is, go read some papers, not the paper, but go read something that motivates you on the bike.
Just have a plan, know your stuff, and know what it is. What is that saying your dad had forever? I’ll never forget it, I mean I remember it, but I want to hear you say it, cause it’s more, better.
Jill DeWit: That’s funny, we haven’t said this before, this is really good. My dad’s all time saying, what it is that’s going on, all you need is a bowl of Cheerios and a walk around the block.
Jack Butala: You know, and that lends, that’s a great saying.
Jill DeWit: That’s true.
Jack Butala: What I got out of that saying is, he formed a habit. Did he do it?
Jill DeWit: Oh, gosh yes.
Jack Butala: There’s … We should do a little show on habits, because I am such a big fan of habits. When stuff happens, you can trigger yourself, or train yourself to just go have a bowl of Cheerios and walk around the block.
Jill DeWit: You’re going to make me cry, now.
Jack Butala: Because, I’m sorry.
Jill DeWit: It’s okay. It’s good.
Jack Butala: Jill’s dad passed away a lot of years ago, but what he did was formed a habit, so that by the time he was walking back in the house after the walk around the block, and the Cheerio thing, he was ready to go again.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: In a positive way. It’s a habit forming thing. It’s a lot less about the walk and Cheerios, and the motorcycle, and a walk on the beach, it’s more about solving a problem. When you walk back through the front door, you’re ready to, you’re mentally ready, versus when you walked out, you just weren’t ready for it.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Exactly.
Jack Butala: That’s great advice. Jill, that’s from your dad, actually.
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Jack Butala: That’s excellent advice.
Jill DeWit: It is.
Jack Butala: This is a technical two. Two minutes of property investment advice. Let’s make it the technical two of two minutes of staying motivated advice from our 15 year, 15,000 deal experience. Form a contingency plan and make it a habit. When you run it … When you are feeling yourself not motivated. Here’s an example, the Cheerios around the block. What is your Cheerios around the block? Whatever it is, do it over, and over, and over again so when it happens, excuse yourself, take a few minutes, and whatever it is to you, it might be doing push-ups in a broom closet somewhere, it might going down to the basement and punching a soft wall three times, our it might be a little speech inside your head. Jill’s famous for this.
Little speeches inside of her head, like mantra’s saying … Like what’s a mantra that you have?
Jill DeWit: You know, “I can do this.” Just little things like that.
Jack Butala: Anything.
Jill DeWit: Little saying like that, you know.
Jack Butala: I married her for a reason.
Jill DeWit: It’s not that bad. It could be worse.
Jack Butala: I have three children.
Jill DeWit: You could have ten.
Jack Butala: I have three children, so if this one gets in trouble …
Jill DeWit: I have two more.
Jack Butala: … I have two more children. That’s it. I have two additional children.
Jill DeWit: Two back-ups. That’s great.
Jack Butala: I’m going to use that. I’m making myself laugh.
Jill DeWit: It’s so good.
Jack Butala: Have we even got to the inspiration of this yet.
Jill DeWit: I know. This whole show … You’re making me cry again, for a different reason. It’s so good.
Jack Butala: If you have a question or you want to be in the show, call 800-725-8816. This is not all inspiring. Jill inspire us.
Jill DeWit: All right. I came up with this, and I really like this. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. We do that. I have no idea why. We shouldn’t be. You should be walking around comparing yourself to you, and only you. You being the best version of you that you want to be, period. Not the guy next door, not the guy who’s doing much better than you, or the guys who’s doing much worse than you. Who cares? It doesn’t matter. You should have your own standards, and your own goals, and your own mantra’s, and your own way you want to be, and your own vision of how you want your life to, in your retirement, whatever it is, and don’t … that’s how we … Because we get caught up in stuff, and don’t compare yourself to other people.
Jack Butala: I have so much to say.
Jill DeWit: Whether they’re way ahead of you, or they’re way behind you, you know. Just …
Jack Butala: This is a very, very difficult thing that’s Jill’s asking you to do. We are taught in this country from a very young age that competition, and winning is extremely important. Usually at all costs. I don’t think that’s the case. We’ve been in Southern California now for a while. We go back and forth from Phoenix to Southern California. You people out here have that licked, you have it figured out. It’s a different culture out here. It’s not so much about winning the race, as it is the race itself, and how you treat other people. It’s just a values associated with, and not just the finish line, it’s how you get there.
You have to undo, as whacked as it sounds, I’ll tell you, I’m the first one to say, “I’m not very good at it.” You have to undo what you’ve been taught your whole life.
Jill DeWit: It’s true.
Jack Butala: You’re exactly right. Exactly right. I don’t know what it is about the culture that we live in, and it’s so darn important to compare yourself to other people, and how you stack up against everybody…
Jill DeWit: What you drive.
Jack Butala: Turn on any sporting event, there’s like gold, silver, bronze. I’m all for healthy competition in working toward a goal, but if you have beat somebody up and compare yourself, and tear somebody down to do, it’s not doing the right thing.
Jill DeWit: You know what’s interesting, too, how many times you hear the real story about the super, super, you look at them and so there uber successful, they have it all, and everything like that, and then you hear the real story about what they had to give up, what they missed.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Gosh, I didn’t even know my kids growing up, that sucked. This, that, you know. You hear … You think they have this glamorous life, when in reality they may not.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: You know, and it’s sad.
Jack Butala: I just read a very, a cliff’s notes of a cliff’s notes, of a summary of that cliff’s notes version of Colonel Sanders life story.
Jill DeWit: Is it one word? I don’t know this story.
Jack Butala: I’m going to give you the summary of that last cliff note I mentioned.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: He was an absolute financial failure. By the time he was 65, and he went on welfare, or he went on Social Security at that age. This is lots of years ago. He sat under a tree, this is all a true story, writing a suicide note, and he’s writing all this stuff down in his life that he did, and didn’t, and wanted to do, and saying good-bye. He’s through writing that note, realized that, you know, there’s a bunch of stuff that he might have to offer. He said, he went through a line of questioning to himself, and ended up saying, “What am I actually good at?”
He was in the military at a very young age, and he ended up being a cook. All the guys were like, “This is the greatest, you’re the greatest cook there ever was.”
Jill DeWit: Aw.
Jack Butala: Really helping these … It was in a war time scenario.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. Home cooking.
Jack Butala: That’s what he did. He was like, “You know what? I’ve got all these recipes, I’m going to do it,” and he did. He made … He was billionaire by the time that he died in his late 80s. It took getting to rock bottom, to that point, so it’s all possible. I just think he was side-tracked, and his whole story, if you read it was, he got caught up comparing himself to other people, he got caught up with the whole money thing that you mentioned earlier. It was actually a different show where you mentioned money’s making decisions for you instead of the other way around.
Jill, that is an excellent inspirational piece. Forget about everybody else. You’re fine.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: If somebody is not telling you that. If you have parents or a spouse, or somebody in your life, that’s constantly telling you that you’re wrong and bad, you need to do something about that.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Seriously. That can hang you up forever.
Jill DeWit: That’s good.
Jack Butala: Well said, Jill.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: Join us in another episode where Jack and Jill discuss how to use information, that’s me.
Jill DeWit: And inspiration, that’s me.
Jack Butala: To get just about anything you want.
Jill DeWit: We use it every day to buy property for half of what it’s worth, and sell it immediately.
Jack Butala: Now, more than ever, you are not alone in your real estate ambition. We got all serious at the end.
Jill DeWit: I know.
Jack Butala: Versus waking up next to the wrong person.
Jill DeWit: That’s because this is a touchy-feely show.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: That’s good.
Jack Butala: Half of our listeners are all disappointed right now.
Jill DeWit: Yes, they are.
Jack Butala: What is this about?
Jill DeWit: They tuned out 5 minutes ago.
Jack Butala: What am I supposed to do. You’re supposed to send offers out? What are you talking about this stuff for?
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Then we do the … We send all the tech, do a technical show, and then half of our listeners say, “Why are you guys so cut and dry?”
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Can you kick it up a couple notches. This is boring as hell.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: What do we do?
Jill DeWit: Do you know, it’s so funny, I sit and I scratch my head …
Jack Butala: It’s hilarious, it’s right down the middle too.
Jill DeWit: … How do those people do it, remember that we interviewed this guy one time, I don’t know if we ended up airing it or not, but he was a financial advisor guy, you remember that?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: He does a weekly show.
Jack Butala: I know exactly who you are talking about.
Jill DeWit: Then I’m like, and talking to him, I was falling asleep. I’m like, “How do you show…”
Jack Butala: It’s like Ferris Bueller’s history teacher.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Anyone. Anyone.
Jill DeWit: I’m like, I don’t understand those shows, and the stuff that’s just technical drive. I guess somebody wants that. I don’t know.
Jack Butala: I don’t know who listens to that. I’d like to see the numbers on those shows.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: It’s like reading from a law book, or an accounting book. I guess there’s people who like that.
Jill DeWit: That’s right, and the new financial term today, is …
Jack Butala: I stopped listening, like, at noon.
Jill DeWit: R-O-I, could you imagine.
Jack Butala: We should do a whole show like that, and see how the numbers come out.
Jill DeWit: That would be funny.
Jack Butala: See what kind of mail we get. We should go on a show, and go like this, “Jill and I, based on a lot of responses that we’ve gotten from our listeners, decided to change the format of the show, and here it is. Today, we’ll talk about sending offers to owners in the mail.”
Jill DeWit: I got one: “Today, Jill is going to read 6 different types of deeds.”
Jack Butala: Okay. Keep going, I want to hear this, what are the deed types.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: Do it without laughing.
Jill DeWit: I know. Special warranty deed. The grantor (this is where you fill in this) hereby grants to … Could you imagine?
Jack Butala: No.
Jill DeWit: Today we’re going to discuss assessor parcel numbers, and the history of assessor parcel numbers as they date back to 1802.
Jack Butala: Even that’s interesting, the way you’re doing it. You can’t be boring if you tried.
Jill DeWit: Oh, sorry. I’m trying. It’s hard not to. Could you image. That’s funny.
Jack Butala: Geez. Information and inspiration to buy under-valued property with a little bit of entertainment on the side, hopefully.
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