Jill Friday – Enthusiasm (LA 1677)
Transcript:
Steven Jack Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill K DeWit:
Hi.
Steven Jack Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show. Entertaining, land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill K DeWit:
I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from the valley of the sun.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today Jill and I… Well, it’s Jill Friday and she’s going to talk about enthusiasm. One of my most favorite attributes about you. I mean it.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, I thought you were going to say one of your most valued attributes, yours. I’m just kidding.
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t understand. What do you mean?
Jill K DeWit:
Well, you have enthusiasm. How about this, on a scale of one to 10, how do you rank yourself as, enthusiastic about life?
Steven Jack Butala:
Probably, six.
Jill K DeWit:
Child raising?
Steven Jack Butala:
Two, keep going.
Jill K DeWit:
Having fun on the weekend?
Steven Jack Butala:
10.
Jill K DeWit:
Riding your bike around town?
Steven Jack Butala:
Nine.
Jill K DeWit:
Taking the RV out?
Steven Jack Butala:
10.
Jill K DeWit:
Hiring and training staff?
Steven Jack Butala:
One. It’s a little impromptu game.
Jill K DeWit:
Wait, wait. Taking me to dinner?
Steven Jack Butala:
Nine.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, taking me to a Mexican restaurant?
Steven Jack Butala:
Seven.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay. You get where I’m going here. We’re going to talk about that, because I just threw out a bunch of different things. I have three main things I want to talk about, for you to be aware of, your enthusiasm in your life. That’s one of them, and we’ll talk more.
Steven Jack Butala:
Before we get into it. Let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com, online community. It’s free, don’t forget to subscribe on the Land Academy, YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay. So Troy wrote… Did you just get questions from the same two people all week? Because all I could see, is the same names.
Steven Jack Butala:
No, is it Troy again?
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. There’s a Troy, there’s Luke twice, Troy.
Steven Jack Butala:
Maybe I did the names wrong.
Jill K DeWit:
I’m like, okay… Do you just have favorites?
Steven Jack Butala:
No, somebody that’s just active. There’s active people in discord and there’s not.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay, all right. So-
Steven Jack Butala:
Or I did it wrong.
Jill K DeWit:
Or, that too. Troy wrote, “My $80,000 dream buck, picture.” There’s a picture, there?
Steven Jack Butala:
A picture of a buck that he got with a bow.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh wow. And then he said, “I bought land for $80,000, arrow to buck, three days before closing.” Oh wow. “And then sold it for $210,000 cash. Thank you, Land Academy, for making dreams come true.” So he bought the land, was without loving and using it while he was selling it, and then gave it up.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. He tripled his money.
Jill K DeWit:
Aw. And got his dream buck.
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s January.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s pretty cool, actually.
Steven Jack Butala:
So, that could be his whole year. He could be done. Completely done.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. I can live off that.
Steven Jack Butala:
$150 grand. Absolutely.
Jill K DeWit:
Yep. Thank you.
Steven Jack Butala:
So could I.
Jill K DeWit:
Totally.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today is Jill Friday. She’s going to talk about enthusiasm. This is the meat of this show.
Jill K DeWit:
So I’m trying to remember why this came up. Why did this come up? Do you remember?
Steven Jack Butala:
Because I think enthusiasm… Here’s why, I think. The message that I think this show is about is, that you send a bunch of mail out and, let’s just assume that you do it correctly, which most people do. Especially if you use concierge data, you send the mail out, and then people are calling back. And Jill genuinely, honestly has enthusiasm for answering the phone and talking to these sellers. Even if, they’re angry.
Jill K DeWit:
Right.
Steven Jack Butala:
Talking to the sellers, finding out what’s going on with them, befriending them or some version of that. I don’t want to steal the show here, and turning these real estate deals into cash.
Jill K DeWit:
I remember now. Now I remember what we were talking about. We were in the kitchen and you were making tea and I’m eating breakfast. And we were talking, I said, “I don’t know why, but let me just tell you what’s going on with me.” Because we were… I don’t want to throw you under the bus here.
Steven Jack Butala:
Throw me under.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s a little late for this episode, anyway.
Jill K DeWit:
A little late. You were getting discouraged about something. And I said, “Look”, and you were assuming that I was discouraged too, and I said, “Look, here’s what you need to know about me. I don’t know why, and I can’t explain it. I don’t know if it’s nature or nurture, I’m still going to answer the phone with a smile on my face. There’s no way that there’s going to be a call, that I’m going to go. Yeah. What do you need?” Right?
Steven Jack Butala:
Right, yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
I’m not going to do that. Am I still going to be enthusiastic. I said, “Look, I had this problem in a past life.” I’m calling it a problem. Because for some people it is, I just make fun of it. But I had the same job for 17 years and I know people that couldn’t last 17 months or 17 days, doing it. But I did. And it was routine and monotonous, but I found ways to make it fun.
Jill K DeWit:
I found ways to just be excited about, you never know what’s going to happen next. And in our world, this is even more fun. In that past life, at that job, it’s like, it really was the same thing over and over again. But I had friends around me and I made it fun. We played games about it. Like, “Okay, what’s this one going to be”, kind of thing. And people can’t see you when you’re on the phone and you could write notes and it’s silly and you’re still very respectful. No one knows. And you’re not doing anything bad, but you just made little games to make your day fun. So in our world though, it is exciting to me because I never know who’s calling me or why they’re calling me. Maybe they want to buy something, maybe they want to sell something. Maybe they’re calling me back to tell me who knows, something great. So we talked about this. You’re like, “We got to talk about this.” Because I really can’t put a finger on it. I think it’s a little bit of nature. I think it’s more nature than it is nurture.
Steven Jack Butala:
Me too.
Jill K DeWit:
And so when you’re looking for a partner in life and in business, you should try to find this.
Steven Jack Butala:
One of the things we do in career path is, we ask everybody to take a personality test in the beginning.
Jill K DeWit:
True.
Steven Jack Butala:
And I, Jill, we do it too. We’ve done it. And Jill’s personality test comes out conducive to what we’re talking about. She’s just an enthusiastic person. She wants to help people. She’s into answer. When we first joined forces professionally, Jill, I thought you were just getting through it. I assumed that all people, nobody really wants to talk to a customer or answer the phone. What they really want to do is, what I do. Bury their head into a computer, do market research, create data scenarios, and run risk analysis and all that. Because that’s what I naturally want to do. I don’t want to talk to customers. But you do.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. You thought I was faking it, really well.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. That’s what I thought, you were just grinning and bearing it.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. And now you know, I’m still not faking it.
Steven Jack Butala:
So my message here is, and talking about this, while you might have to do all this stuff in the beginning, it won’t last. Unless you find somebody to do the thing that you don’t want to do, unless you’re one of these very rare people that likes the data and likes to talk on the phone.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, I understand that. My point today is, I gave you the background and here we are. And if you don’t have it in you, you need to find it in you. And there’s three areas in your life that you really need to think about and make sure that you’re enthusiastic. So I wrote down three things here. One is life. This is personal to you. You need to be enthusiastic with yourself. Because if you can’t do that, you’re not going to get out of bed in the morning, I’m telling you. And whatever that is to you, whatever you have to do to yourself to give yourself the enthusiasm and the motivation to get out of the bed, and go to work and be with everybody in your world.
Steven Jack Butala:
Show up for your life.
Jill K DeWit:
Not be the dingdong on the road, that’s like, “Grr.” Your nails into the steering wheel. You’ve got to find that. And you probably know what it is. Like the guy Luke here, his is hunting. Maybe that’s his motivation. Man, if I could do a, one weekend a month and go out hunting, everything is right in the world. What is yours? You have a, if I can do this, everything’s right in the world, thing.
Steven Jack Butala:
Honestly, for better or for worse, I get a huge kick out of making money.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s fine too.
Steven Jack Butala:
I’m very, very, very motivated by money.
Jill K DeWit:
Getting up and looking at a good bank balance.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.
Jill K DeWit:
And then, everything’s right in the world.
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t do that every morning, but…
Jill K DeWit:
No, the report comes to you.
Steven Jack Butala:
Excuse me. I get up in the morning, and look at what I’m supposed to do in my calendar, because I know what the yield’s going to be financially, on that.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. There you go. And then the second thing that you want to think about, in being enthusiastic is so important, and this is all encompassing, your personal relationships.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
The people in your world, you don’t want to be a non enthusiastic parent like, “Hmm. I don’t know, go to bed when you feel like it.” Come on. And/or your life partner, you want to be enthusiastic because you want others to want to spend time with you. It’s super important.
Steven Jack Butala:
I’m very motivated by our family and doing well and winning, and being a good dad and showing up for all this stuff. That really motivates me.
Jill K DeWit:
You know what’s funny, I think there’s two parts for you. I think there’s three things of you, tell me if I’m wrong. One, yes, you do need to wake up every day and know that your road’s okay, financially. Everything’s taken care of, the people you love are provided for. And that’s just, simply knowing the bank balances there. Number two, because you have told me this, you have to do something, one little win in the morning. I’m not kidding.
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s true.
Jill K DeWit:
I watched you do it this morning with our junk drawer.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s true.
Jill K DeWit:
Yep. You were finding some things, fixing some lights behind us. You were doing little things, organizing the little things in the junk drawer. You probably found something you didn’t know, you lost. And you’re like, “Ah, that’s where that is. There’s my win for today.”
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s true.
Jill K DeWit:
Thank you. And then, I think the third thing about you is, you have to get yourself out of this building, out of this room. And leave and go do something on, at least a couple times a week.
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s true.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. To feel right with the world.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s absolutely true. And I really enjoy Land Academy. I enjoy running this whole thing. And at this point in my… Not when I was younger.
Jill K DeWit:
This precedes all that.
Steven Jack Butala:
At this point in my life and my career and our age, my age-
Jill K DeWit:
Your age.
Steven Jack Butala:
I love running this whole… I love success stories. I love teaching and hearing people succeed.
Jill K DeWit:
And that gives you enthusiasm. And then the last thing that I really want you to think about with enthusiasm is, oh my goodness, your day to day business. Do you really want to answer the phone and happy to go? Ugh. I’m not going to call that guy back. Or, who’s going to want to partner with you, you are a wet noodle. You’re calling a bank. You’re asking for such and such, who knows. You’re calling your title company, you’re calling the county. You need people. You want people. You need people to want to work with you. You want them to want to work with you. And by the way, if you’re enthusiastic and you do your homework and you’re that person, they’re going to love you. I’ll end on this for me. So we’re training.
Jill K DeWit:
We have a new employee that just started here, this week, in Arizona. And for right now, because since we came back from California, we sent everybody home, with COVID. So we’re restarting offices and restarting here, a whole different way. So for right now, working a little bit out of my office, half remote, half my office and I was having a little talk with him the other day about, when you call these people, especially the county. I said, “Let me just give you a quick little trick. You want them to love you. You want them to help you right out of the gate, have a small in your voice and ask them how they are. It’s the silliest little thing. But it makes such a difference. Everyone at the county, planning and zoning is very used to people, especially gruff, contractors saying, all right, what’s the setbacks for R4, whatever it is, kind of thing.
Jill K DeWit:
You don’t want to be that guy. No, if you call up and just say, “Hey John, did you say? Hey, how you doing? You having a good week?” Right then and there, you just reset his whole day. He is so, not used to that. And happy to whew, just take a minute and talk to you and say, “Actually it’s been a nut week. I can’t believe the beginning of the year is like this. Wow, these people are going construction crazy.” I’m like, “Yeah, I get it. I don’t know how you guys do this.” “And are you the only one?” “Yeah. Right now I am.” Like, “Okay, well I’ll try to make it easy for you. I’ve done my homework. I’ve looked here, here and here. And the only thing I can’t find is this.” Okay, this guy is your best friend. He’s going to open up. He’s going to tell you everything you need to know.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
And want to talk to you, and that’s how you get stuff done. And he’s going to remember you.
Steven Jack Butala:
I grew up in the suburb of Detroit, some of the worst weather in the country with an extended Italian family. If that doesn’t ring depression.
Jill K DeWit:
Detroit, Italian, crappy weather.
Steven Jack Butala:
Don’t know what does. And so to all you people out there that have trouble getting out of bed, just because of stuff like that. Yeah, I understand. But you have to do it. You got to get yourself out of that zip code, get yourself out of that situation, where everyone around you is depressing. And if you don’t do that, the odds are against you.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Jack Butala:
You got to get out of that stuff.
Jill K DeWit:
It’s true.
Steven Jack Butala:
If you want to.
Jill K DeWit:
Go to bed at night, thinking about what you need tomorrow morning to wake up and have a good day and feel good.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s good advice, Jill.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. And… What’s so funny?
Steven Jack Butala:
Well, because I’ll do it for you, if you’re in that situation I was in, and I went to bed and I would say, “Well, I need a new family.-
Jill K DeWit:
I need a new house.
Steven Jack Butala:
“I need a new state, I need a new zip code. I need some freaking sunshine. Okay. I’m going west.”
Jill K DeWit:
Hold on a moment. Let me back up then. Let’s just-
Steven Jack Butala:
No, I think you’re right.
Jill K DeWit:
All right.
Steven Jack Butala:
In my case, it was extreme and I did all those things.
Jill K DeWit:
It’s true, but-
Steven Jack Butala:
I need a new job. I need to, not be surrounded by these people anymore. And I need to have it in another state. So I don’t have to do this stuff anymore. These negative people,
Jill K DeWit:
That’s a little extreme, but no, I understand.
Steven Jack Butala:
What do you think a good example is?
Jill K DeWit:
No, I was just saying, I’m just thinking of little things. I’m all baby steps. You can’t-
Steven Jack Butala:
I’m not baby steps.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Hold on a moment. It’s January, whatever. It’s the beginning. You can’t expect yourself, all right. In 48 hours, I’m ditching this family. I’m leaving this state.
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t mean ditching your children.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, that’s what-
Steven Jack Butala:
Don’t ditch your children, please don’t do that.
Jill K DeWit:
Hold on a moment, you need a new family?
Steven Jack Butala:
There’s some way can work this stuff out.
Jill K DeWit:
No, but you could make stuff… You can do a lot… Okay. Let me back up. Boy, you need this enthusiasm show more than anyone, I think. I see the problem.
Steven Jack Butala:
Teach us, Jill.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh my gosh. It can be, and it should be a little tweak, getting you down the right path. You, waking up in the morning and maybe every morning, Steven, maybe you’re the kind of person that every morning you wake up and your phone’s going off and it automatically like, “Gosh, darn it. I can’t even just wake up to my alarm or wake up when I want to. Every morning I have to listen into this stupid phone going off and I just can’t take it.” And it automatically sets you in a bad mood. So you know what I want you to do?
Jill K DeWit:
Put that stupid phone, turn it off, put it on silent, whatever. Put it in another room. Because you know, what I’m telling you right now, whatever it is, it can wait. So a little tweak like that. So you can have a morning, maybe not every morning, just maybe on Fridays, maybe on the weekends, you can say, “You know what? I’m going to allow myself to wake up when I want to wake up and start my day, nice.” And so you can start with little tweaks like that, that make your life better, make you a happier person and set the tone for your day. And maybe even too, set yourself up with, I don’t know, something, you know you can win at, at the morning.
Steven Jack Butala:
I think that’s great advice.
Jill K DeWit:
Thank you.
Steven Jack Butala:
I tend to look at the bigger picture, all the time and Jill doesn’t, and neither one’s right or wrong. But that little-
Jill K DeWit:
You have to do both, I think.
Steven Jack Butala:
That little phone trick isn’t going to help, if I am going to bed and then waking up the next day, knowing that the whole system that I’m involved in, sucks.
Jill K DeWit:
Well then you know what? You can’t do that. You can’t go every day, it sucks, it sucks.
Steven Jack Butala:
No, you got to get out of there.
Jill K DeWit:
You got to start doing something. So that’s fine. You go to bed that night, again, put your phone away and you have step one. You know what? Here’s the biggest thing that’s going to make this system, the way we’re doing our business, whatever it is, that stinks. I’m solving it tomorrow or I’m going to do day one of 10.
Steven Jack Butala:
Or I’m going to get out of here.
Jill K DeWit:
Solving it tomorrow. And then you’re going to do it, feel good about it. And then the next day, day two, day three, day four. And then by day 10, you’re like, “Hey, we fixed it. I got rid of that employee. Or I hired that employee. So I don’t have to do that stuff anymore. Or now we have a new phone system.”
Steven Jack Butala:
What we’re both saying is, Ii you’re in a situation that you don’t like, you have to get yourself to the point where you are enthusiastic. And it’s certainly not going to happen overnight. In fact, I’ve written the whole thing.
Jill K DeWit:
You can.
Steven Jack Butala:
I think it happens, takes two years to get yourself out of a really, really big picture, bad. Have you ever been in a big picture, bad situation?
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
It take two years to get out of it?
Jill K DeWit:
No.
Steven Jack Butala:
Okay. All right.
Jill K DeWit:
No, no. Again, I snap. So maybe that’s me. So that’s what I’m trying to tell you. I’ll snap, but so there’s two ways to do it. You can go nuts. That’s usually how I go, which is true. I was giving you the easy way. I’ll tell you the hard way, how I do it. I, F this stuff.
Steven Jack Butala:
I’ve seen that.
Jill K DeWit:
This is the truth for me. If I’m going to bed right now… All right, truth time. I was giving you all the easy way.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, you always do.
Jill K DeWit:
And say, “I’m trying to be nice and trying to be gentle and help you along this path.” Wow. This is going long, sorry, but-
Steven Jack Butala:
F this stuff, is a show.
Jill K DeWit:
And giving you, hey, wake up tomorrow. Know what it is about you and get yourself in the right mindset and get there. Now, for those of you who are like me, who are rip the bandaid off, people, all right, I’ll tell you how to do it. You go to bed that night and you say F this stuff, my alarm is set, I am jumping out of bed. I don’t care what’s happening, and the new sheriffs in town. And you all better watch out, hold on to your hats.
Jill K DeWit:
And you’re going to walk in your office and you’re going to be… And you could do this, too. This is what I do. I’m going to be a different person tomorrow. That’s it. This stuff’s over. I’m not taking that from that person or that from this person, this person’s going to listen to how I do things. And if this person can’t do it, they’re out of here. And it could be family, employees, kids, fill in the blank. And you’re going to scare everybody. By the way, they’re all going to freak out and go, “Uhh, what’s wrong with mom?” But you know what? You’re going to get there, and it’s going to be fine.
Steven Jack Butala:
They’re going to respect you in the end, if you do that.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
Versus nothing.
Jill K DeWit:
So you got to do something.
Steven Jack Butala:
You got to do something.
Jill K DeWit:
Either way, you can’t keep going.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s absolutely right.
Jill K DeWit:
I give you both extremes.
Steven Jack Butala:
You got to do something.
Jill K DeWit:
You figure out what it is for you.
Steven Jack Butala:
You have to want to change. You have to want to get to that point, where you are waking up every morning, enthusiastic.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And sometimes you just have to get pushed so hard.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.
Jill K DeWit:
And then you go, “All right. I took all I can.”
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what the show about yesterday was, where we just got knocked to our knees and that, sometimes you got to hit rock bottom like that.
Jill K DeWit:
Thank you. Can I end it on my show please?
Steven Jack Butala:
Sure.
Jill K DeWit:
Thank you. Happy to join us today. Five days a week, you can find us here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next week for another interesting episode, because you are not alone in you’re real estate ambition.
Jill K DeWit:
Stealing my thunder a little bit, there.
Steven Jack Butala:
What? How did I steal your thunder?
Jill K DeWit:
No, I’m just joking. But yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
Seriously, did I?
Jill K DeWit:
No, no. It’s really about, this is you. This is you. It’s not about business. This is way more than business, because you know what? You can have a comeback and not be enthusiastic. You could still be angry about it and bitter about it. And have a hard time with it.
Steven Jack Butala:
Boy, we’ve all worked with people like that. I’ve lived with people like that and worked with people like that. There’s just no changing it.
Jill K DeWit:
No. So, no matter where you are in life, career, finances, if you can find a way to be enthusiastic in all of it, you’ll attract so much goodness with people, relationships, people want to work with you, and then it’s going to help you financially, too. So hang in there and thank you for tuning in. We hope you find this valuable and we do appreciate your support. So don’t forget. Please check out our YouTube channel and hit that subscribe button. We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Jack Butala:
We are Steve and Jill. Information-
Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration-
Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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