Coffee Talk With The Land Geek-Erlend Bakke

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the Land Geek with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com. and today on Coffee Talk, all the way from Oslo. Yes, Oslo, Norway, is Erlund Bakke, the author of one of my favorite books. And I'm not just kissing up Erland because you sent me a signed copy of it. It really is a great book, and it really kind of discusses how to never work again. It's not just one of these highfalutin books. It's like, here's how to Never Work Again. I love it. So we're having a. Let's have a cup of coffee together. What are you drinking?

Tea. I'm drinking pukka tea. Cool. Mint green. Because I was in the Moroccan mood today. Nice.

So are you more a tea guy than a coffee guy?

It's awful. By the way, it looks like a grandma teacup. Yeah, you need a cool one with, like, Mr. Outsource on it.

You really do. Yeah. See, I got the Land Geek one.

I'll have to saw that online.

Of course. Everything's online. Absolutely. All right, so let's talk about the book Never Work Again. Why did you write it and what was that like? I love the book.

Why did I write it? Well, it was actually on my vision board for many years to write a book. It was at the time. I actually still have it up here. It was called Life of an Entrepreneur. That was the title of the book before. I was actually challenged by a mentor who said, like, okay, it's time for you to write your book because that will position you as an expert in outsourcing. It will be easier for you to get speaking gigs. It'll grow your list. It'll add to your credibility, you know, authority, author authority. And in hindsight, I think, like, having a book is when you write a book, you should write it so that it, like, sells millions of copies. That should be your goal. A lot of people say that, oh, just write your book. You know, just like, get it done. And it's like, yeah, maybe the first one. Maybe the first one. You just want to get it done. But the thing is, it's like real estate. Like, once you have a book, like, Think About Getting Things Done by David Allen, Right? That book has sold, like, I don't know, more than 6 million copies or more.

Yeah.

45 languages. Like, he's constant. People are constantly reading it, referring to it, using it, watching his videos on YouTube. And he's in the. Every time somebody interacts with his brand, he becomes more brand worthy or more credible in terms of time management and stuff. And then he gets booked to speak at conferences where he gets paid, you know, $50,000, $100,000. So when you make a book, I think it should be really, really good. And my next book, of course, I want to be even bigger than the one that Never Work Again.

New York Times bestseller.

Yeah. I want actually New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Amazon. And it needs to be like in that league just because it is time consuming. It is a big investment. And when you do it, you should really, like, knock it out of the park.

Right. I have a shortcut for you.

Okay.

Okay. So just call Oprah and say, oprah, I've got a great book.

Let's have coffee and.

Let's have coffee. And she's like, erlan, of course. And it's all over. And then, you know, that, that just happens.

So I don't think anybody's ever done that before.

They should. Why not? She's a person just like anybody else.

Are you going to give me her number?

Of course. Of course. Yeah. I can't do it on this.

But the thing is, the funny thing is I didn't even try to be on opera. Like, I didn't even. Because like, you know how, you know if you never try, you never, never happens. Like those, those who ask don't get.

Right.

So it's kind of like that, like I could say like, yeah, yeah, like opera. But like, I should be in the state of mind where like, oh, part of my plan is to be on opera.

I absolutely agree. I mean, I think you, you should, I think you should be absolutely unreasonable with your expectations, with doing anything. Yeah. Because it's just a numbers game. If you talk to a hundred influencers and just one of them says, earland, I love it. Right. And Seth Godin anoints you, the Mr. Outsource Guy.

Right.

You know, it's over.

Over.

It's over. It's. Erland blows up. It's all over. Right. So life changes overnight. You know, it's like one of those things.

But I must say, like writing a book, it's a very good process. You know, it's like it's a project and you think about it all the time, you get ideas, but it does take time and it is an investment and it, but it's fun. I recommend it. It's very sort of soul searching.

Right, right. And what I love about the book and MrOutsource.com is the fact that we can always make more money but we can't get more time. And this really kind of gets really granular. Like, here's all the things you can do and you should do and can do to make your life better, to make your company more profitable and to really do the things you want to do in life and not be a slave to your business. Like, no entrepreneur goes into business thinking themselves. You know what? I want to wait. I want to work 80 hours a week.

Yeah.

You know, but that's a lot of that. That's what happens, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So.

Well, I think I talked a lot about goal setting in it as well. Because if your goal. If your goal is just more money, then, yeah, of course you're always going to be working. But I think. I think it's good to have fun goals. And I think we need goals because I've tried the sort of just be happy today and just be grateful and just be very Zen about it. And, I mean, that feels pretty good. But I believe as human beings, we do need to say, okay, I did X, now I want. Yeah, because we need, like, these moving towards goals to kind of feel alive, to sort of feel like we're making progress. But the backside of that, though, which is weird, is like, once you've achieved certain goals and, you know, like, okay, then you're like, okay, it feels good. But, like, you always ask yourself, what's next?

Right, Right.

So you never. You never, like, reach the goal. So. So it's always like, process. But I still think we need, like, process towards a goal for life to be fulfilling. But a lot of people will sacrifice everything for the goal, to realize when they hit the goal that it wasn't what they thought it would be.

Yeah, I. Yeah, I mean, it's like, pure, you know, it's like this life, like, we all know it, but no one really says it. Right. Like, we all know deep in our side, in our. In our psyche, like, we know money's not going to make us happy. Right. And there's study after study after, like, $75,000. You do it in the U.S. like, your incremental happiness is, like, very small. Above that. Above that threshold, if any. If any. So, you know, the ego drives it. And then you're on your third wife, your children hate you, but you've got a big house and a big car. You look successful where I think you're right. The success really is, number one, determining how much is enough. And number two, is doing my best every day enough. Right. And seeing that progress and going through that journey and making a life. I don't know. What do you think?

I think there's like, I think it's like a small percentage. So when I got started in business like seven, eight years ago, whenever it was, it had a lot to do with my insecurities, right? So like I was good at school, I was good at stuff, sports. And then I worked in a business and I was fired and I was like, wow. And that really like was a big sort of brick in the head for my self esteem. And then a lot of other things came up from my, you know, when I was growing up. And then I was like, oh, I'm gonna start a business. I'm gonna be a millionaire. I'm gonna prove to people that I'm worth something. Right. A lot of my initial, A lot of my initial motivation came from like proving myself to other people.

Right?

Again is like, it's like more money. It's like, like an endless. You can. If you, if you, if you prove things to yourself, then that's a healthy thing. Like I'm going to prove to you that I'm going to go to the gym afterwards, right? I'm going to prove to myself that I'm going to meditate afterwards, right? That's like. And then that, that's all about me. And it's like internalization of my goals, which has nothing to do with comparing myself to somebody else meditating, which is stupid anyway. But I feel like I'm losing my thread now. I'm gonna have some tea. Sure, sure.

Have some more coffee.

How's your coffee?

It's okay. I'm doing this bulletproof coffee with the butter and the MCT oil. Now it's gotten a little cold. Yeah, exactly. And it's a little bitter. I mean, I use these organic Canadian beans. It's called Kicking horse coffee. It's strong coffee. It'll put hair on your chest.

I need some more hair on my chest.

I know, I know.

But back to, back to goals. So like I think there's like 5% of the. Any, anyone in a profession or like an arena competing that where they just have like this. When they do what they do, they just kind of enter flow, right? So they're, they're in this like flow state when they're competing, when they're doing business, they just have a love for the game. And I believe that like freedom is being in flow. Freedom is like. So our brain, we got three levels of brain. We got like sort of lizard brain, fight, flight. And then you have monkey brain, which Is more like, oh, I'm just. I just want to be happy. I just want to be comfortable. I want everything to stay the same. And then you have, like, higher self, right? So, like three levels of mind, and in any given day, we go through fight, flight, monkey brain, higher self. So the reason for me saying that is, like, if you want to enter flow, you often have to go to, like, in your higher self, where you're like, okay, I just. I just see the purpose with spending 12 hours a day campaigning to become the governor of California. Whatever. It's just part of their flow. That's what they want to do. So. And those people are always untouchable in any industry.

Right.

They're always like, the best in the industry.

Right.

And what I write about in Never Work Again is like, if you will never want to work again, it's about finding ways of getting into flow, because that's where the magic is. And if you want to get into flow, you can't be worried. You can't be thinking about, like, okay, who's going to do my accounting or who's going to do my legal work? Because I ain't, like, for me, that I have. I don't get flow when I sit down with legal paperwork. It's just. For me, it's just like a nightmare. Right?

Right. Yeah. And the only way I think you can enter flow is you need to do something that is a little challenging, not overwhelming, but not boring, not. Not routine and is interesting to you. Right. Like, you know, doing accounting might be challenging for me, but it's not interesting.

Right?

Yeah. So.

And then, like, you know, because. Because we have, like, monkey, lizard brain in that when we go outside our comfort circle, we're into, like, fear, Slight little fear, like extreme fear or little fear. Not sure I'm really speaking well English today, is that, like, we quickly go into a lizard brain. We quickly go into monkey brain, where we just kind of like. So it's always. But you're right. It's like flow is oftentimes when you are challenged a little bit and then you really enjoy it because you, like, you're experiencing all these new things and maybe you're having some aha Moments.

Right?

But again, like, if you. If you externalize your goals, if you externalize, like, like if you go on stage and you speak and you're like, really worried about, oh, what do people think about me? And what is the consequence of this? And that's like, lizard brain. Right?

Right.

Instead of like, going like, oh, how can I just really really in the audience today. Like, if I help these hundred people, then life will be better for them. That's awesome.

Right, right, right.

So the flow.

I love it. I love it. All right, well, Earl and Bakke, thanks so much for being on Coffee Talk. Listen, if you're watching this, you've got to get the book Never Work Again. So I don't know if Earl will give you a signed copy, but where can you get the book, Erlin?

You can only get it on Amazon.com or whatever Amazon you might be at.

Okay? So Amazon.com and look, if you really want to take this the next level, you've got to go to MrOutsource.com I am currently using and loving and enjoying. I don't even know what today is today, because it doesn't matter. Today could be Monday, could be Sunday, could be Saturday. It doesn't matter for me. Right? It's all the same. Because of Mroutsource.com my kids asked me the other day, dad, what's the date today? I'm like, I don't know because I don't need to know. So it's just a really great feeling of having a competent team in place. But I don't want to go on and on about it because I want to go on and on and on about it at the appropriate time. So. But Definitely go to MrOutsource.com Erlan Bakke, are we good?

We are good, man. Cheers.

Cheers. Thanks so much for being on Coffee Talk. And learn more@thelandgeek.com as well. Download for free the Passive Income Blueprint, get the ebook how to Avoid three Fatal Landmine Mistakes and listen to Earl and I on the Best Passive Income Model podcast, which will be delivered each week to your email inbox. Thank you, my friend. See everybody next time.