Creating A Balance Between Acting And Land Investing

Hey, it's Mark Tapolsky, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, thelandgeek.com and on this week's podcast. It's one of our favorite podcasts to do. It is with a graduating member of flight school who's got a really, really cool story. But before we talk to our guest, I'd be remiss if I didn't introduce properly my co host, the brain, the professor, your flight school sherpa, Scott Todd from Scott Todd.net landmodo.com learn anything about anything. Investor ninjas.com Scott Todd.

How are you, Mark?

I'm great. How are you?

I'm a little intimidated. It's not every day we get to interview a celebrity as well as one of our flight school grads.

That's right. Let's get going.

So today's guest is Paul Flanagan. And Paul, why don't you just give everybody a little bio on you?

So my name is Paul Flanagan. II Mark. Thank you for having me. Scott, thank you for having me. My bio, a little bit of bio on me is I'm a professional actor. I've been a professional actor for 20 years. Mark and I have a agreement that I will trade him a signed, what we call a headshot for a new version or a signed copy of your book. The new book that's coming out. Did you guys figure out a title?

We're still working on it.

Okay.

Still work.

So I've been. So. So I still don't do that.

So.

Right now I've been. The most recent thing that I'm in right now is your honor. It's a show on Showtime. A lot of people are watching it. I was really impressed by the show. I think it's gonna be. I think it's gonna end up being a really good show. You guys can find me on another show right now. It's called amazing stories. It's not as good as your honor, I'll admit to that, but I did good. And so you guys are in for a lot, I think. I graduated flight school with Scott Todd as a teacher in 2018. I think it was December of 2018 is when I graduated and from the. From the land geek school. And it's been nothing but awesome from there. So daughter, wife, and still, you know, one foot in front of the other. So that's my bio. Yeah.

No, it's great. So, you know, being a working actor, I can imagine is tough in the sense that your income is lumpy, right?

Yeah. So, yeah. So, I mean, that's where it ties into the brilliance that is, that is your program or the land geek and flight school and even just period. Land investing is because it is a haul to be a professional actor because you don't make any money as a professional actor. You don't unless you're reoccurring or you happen to get the roles that I got which pay you passive income. And I have two, two ways of receiving passive income. One of, one of them is land investing taught by you, and the other is acting. But it took me 20 years to get two roles that pay me passive income. So, so.

Wait, you're, you're Paul, you're on mute one day. Oh, there you go.

I worked one day on two, two different shows and I get, I have reoccurring income or passive income for the rest of my life for those two shows. As long as somebody airs those shows, as some, as long as some production company airs those shows. Just when you go back like another one like mash. You remember mash?

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Those guys signed a contract that took them out of their passive income. Like they signed. They don't have any passive income because they, they just made a bad decision and their agents made a bad decision. So. And I've been bought out before on several. There a lot of different roles. I've been bought out and they pay you a flat amount. But on these two, that's, I guess that's what you kind of go for. And that's the thing, like as a professional actor, you can get those two roles or three roles where they pay you for the rest of your life a percentage of whatever is taken in on the production company. So that and land investing is the only two things, the only two mediums vehicles that I have for passive income. So. Yeah.

Scott, Todd, what are your thoughts?

Well, the good news is that anybody that's thinking about doing land investing, one, they don't have to go become a professional actor, right? Like it doesn't go. One, like you don't have to become an actor to do land investing. Okay. That's the good thing. And you can create a passive income. And I think that that's one of the things that a lot of people miss when they talk about like passive income or real estate or whatever. It's okay. It's nice to have the money coming in because the minute that your bills are met, well then the rock is out of your shoe. Right? Like imagine walking around, you got this rock in your shoe. It's uncomfortable. You can manage, but it's Uncomfortable. The bills. Not knowing if your bills are going to be made or just cutting it close enough. That's that rock in the shoe. The minute that all of that's done, well, after that, you're walking around with no pebbles in your shoes, and life gets better. And then what happens is you can go. I mean, I'm not saying this for Paul, but, like, you can go, and it relieves the stress, and then you can go have fun with the other stuff that you want to do. So Paul said, like, 20 years to get these two roles. Well, the passive income from land investing takes a lot of that burden off. Now he can go have some fun with what he's doing. Get it, don't get it. I'm golden. And I think that that is power. That's leverage, and it's power. And I just want everybody to be able to get passive income like that.

Yeah. So the fun. Yeah. So that's another. Todd, hit it, Scott. Todd, hit it. Like the reward is. The fun. The reward is it takes work. What you guys are teaching takes work. It takes a few minutes, you know, to do. You can't. It took me 20 years to get one source of passive income from a skill that I have. You guys are teaching something, right? So you're teaching a skill. So I don't have to. I don't have to actually have that already. I can just implement what you guys already know. You already know it. So I. But I. But I do actually have to work at it, and I do have to do it. But the rewards, I think, dude.

My.

First deal after December 2018 was with a land investor. It was another land investor. He sold me three properties. I made, like, a 700% return on three properties from another land investor. It wasn't. It wasn't, you know, a mailing or anything like that. It was actually a mailing, but it was another land investor that got the mailing. But it wasn't a motivated buyer. Wasn't a motivated buyer. It was a land investor. So you do have to work at it. But I do find right now that the land investing has helped me become who I'm supposed to be as far as being an actor, because I have passive income on that side because on the land investing side, because it's very difficult to make money acting. But so you do end up with that free time, and you do end up with making, you know, the money that, you know, equalizes to the amount of time that you put into it. So that's. That's the greatest thing. Yeah. That's the greatest thing ever, is just. It's just I'm doing. I mean, land investing in enabled me to do my dream further. And I know it took me 20 years to actually job working for other people, doing a 9 to 5, getting fired, quitting, running out of vacation time to be this professional actor. So I did put in that work. However, land investing and the flight school and what you guys taught me furthered my career, furthered my career as a professional actor and gave me free time to be able to do auditions and show up. So it's great.

That's great. I can imagine, though, when you first, I imagine you heard me on a podcast. Is that how you found us? Then you go to your spouse and say, honey, I want to do land investing. How did that go over?

So that's the brilliance of the story, is that I actually married somebody who's better than me, right? So she was already doing better than me. Listening to a podcast that I think, Mark, you were a guest on. I think you were a guest on. And I don't know. I don't know exactly what it was, but you talked about the book Dirt Rich, and so she didn't read it. She didn't read it. She didn't. I don't even think she bought it, but she was impressed by what you were saying. And I think I bought it. I got it. I looked at it. I'm not a reader. It's like 69 pages or something. Like, it's a skinny book. Right? It's not a hard read.

It's not a hard read. It is 200 pages, but it's not a hard read. It feels like 200, 200, 200.

I read that.

That's awesome. That's awesome that you did that. But, you know, you're. I'm not a reader, and so. But what you said in the book and the way that you said it, it was like, oh, wait, I can actually make some money doing this and, like, have my family be proud of me and provide for them through this vehicle. And I understand what this guy is saying. So that alleviated a lot of stress. Yeah, she. She brought the book. I read it, and I now, you know, I got hooked when I read it. So I don't know, you know, if you don't have that, if you don't have that energy where. Where you're not going to, you know, you have to have the energy to. Where you want to change your life, right? You have. That has to be inside of you. And. But your book it was a vehicle and it, you know, to get, to get there. So it was basic. It was really easy. It was, it wasn't hard, it wasn't difficult. You laid it out and I read it and I put it in place and had my wife not done that, I'd still be like this struggling actor who, you know, it's just, just relying on that and trying to fill in the holes. But yeah, I hope you, I hope I don't know what's coming on Dirt Richer, but I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. So whatever the name of the book is.

Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be how to scale your land business and start using those other points of leverage other people's time, software and other people's money and really grow your business. So Dirt Rich is the foundation dirt richer or something like that would be taking it to that next level. Scott, Todd, what are your thoughts?

I mean, there's a lot. I mean, one of the things that Paul said is that, you know, he, he had that desire.

Right.

And I talk a lot about. Okay, like, I see a lot. I, I'm pretty privileged because I see a lot of people that want to, want to do something with land investing. Okay. Well, the people that succeed, they all have one thing in common and that is that burning desire to fix a problem in their lives. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter. Replace your income, you hate your job, you need security, whatever it is, man, when you have that passion that says, like, man, I'm going to go and do this thing, well, then you are unstoppable. The challenge for most people is really pulling out that. Why? Because, you know, like, I'm not, I mean, the person I'm about to mention is a very polarizing person. I'm not saying one way or the other about him. But you look at this, you look at this Congresswoman aoc, right? Aoc. Everybody knows aoc. Well, whether you like her, hate her, it doesn't matter to me. It doesn't matter. I'm not trying to make this politics, but the one thing that you may not know about her is this. She had an intense fear of speaking. Okay? Young 20 something year old person, intense fear of speaking. You can't get her to stop talking now. Yeah, okay, like, and I'm not judging one with you. I'm just saying she is not. She doesn't stop. It's like she gets paid by the word. Why is that? Why? Because she felt so, like, she felt so this, this big need to make some sort of a Change that. She's not stoppable now. Okay? And I think that that's what happens. And I like what Paul said. He had to solve this problem, right? Like, he knew he had to solve the problem, and then he gets to reap the benefits of it. And to me, how to solve the problem. And they're like, you know what? I make a lot of money at work. You know, I. Okay, if this works, great. And that's cool. You've educated yourself on something. But, man, you really want to put the. Put the pedal down. Think like Paul.

Absolutely.

I appreciate that, Scott. And. But, you know, you do need a vehicle. And I think the vehicle was the book. I think it was. And then, of course, you guys. And my next thing is, is to get, like, on process moto. Actually, I'm gonna get really intensive on process moto. And because I've been in the business since December 2018, things are going great.

I've got.

As far as numbers goes. I never did do coaching, but so my numbers are. Could be a lot better. But I think I've got like 14, I think, right. At 14 terms deals, and I've had, like four or five cash deals. I. I think. But the ROI or the return on the income on the terms deals is freaking phenomenal. It's just insane. It's insane. So my next thing is definitely to focus on process moto. But, yeah, you do have to have the desire. But I definitely needed the book. I definitely needed somebody to tell me the way to go about doing it. And it was. It was awesome. Just. Just to. Just to realize. Just to read it in words that this is possible. So that was cool. That was really cool. Yeah.

Are there. Are there any parallels that translate from acting into the land business that we haven't even thought about? We were like, oh, this. This seems pretty easy for me because you don't have a real estate background at all.

That's a good. That's a really good question. Before I just jump off and answer something. The parallel that I can come up with is, I guess on the. Is. I don't know. I guess just the passion of it. But that's personal. That's on a personal level. So I have a passion for. That's a gift that I was given to be able to do act and read, because I can't. So there is a parallel. So you help me figure it out. So the parallel is. This is that a director tells me what to say, right? So I am. No, I actually am just a true actor, and I can't like, come in. And I'm not a script writer. I'm not a director. I'm not. I'm not. I actually need somebody to tell me what to say. I do. And then I need you to tell me what the feeling or the message is that you want to deliver. And I can't come up with that on my own. So I guess it would equal to, you know, just. The land business is. It's black and white, right? So it's. It's. The land investing is all about deeds and notary and buying and selling and actually doing the legal stuff that you're supposed to do. So I think that I would draw a parallel there where you can be successful in both. But there are, for me, anyway, there's guidelines that you need that you need to stay within in order to do it.

Right.

I guess. And that's the parallel that I draw.

To it, because it's like, Scott Todd's your director.

Yeah, like, Scott Todd. And he is. And that's. That's the thing.

And then.

And then it makes it easy for me.

Right? Is Scott Todd the best director you've ever worked with? Is he like a Spielberg, a Scorsese, a Kubrick?

I'm gonna say that Scott Todd is a Scott Toddler.

Okay.

I'm. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna. Scorsese is awesome. My favorite actor is De Niro, who works with Scorsese a lot. And Scorsese is a brilliant actor, but he's no Scott, though.

All right.

Oh, boy.

All right, Scott, you like when we. We stroke your ego?

Of course. Who doesn't? But, you know, the thing, Mark, the thing is, is that what I. What I like what Paul's saying. Okay. What I really like, what he's saying, is that, honestly, this does come down to a recipe, right? Like. And that's the way I break things down. Because a lot of times when you look at the world, the world can be complex, but the minute you put a recipe in there, it's. It's easier. Step, step, step, step, step.

Right?

And so when there's a formula for something, and, like, I've done that with. With land investing, I've done it with process moto. Because the way I'm thinking is, I think through these steps, and I'm like, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Let's just go do these steps and then do it again and do it again. It is repeatable. And ultimately, I think that that's what a lot of people struggle with any type of investing, real estate investing, it can be stocks. If you gave someone a recipe for success with stocks, like, do this, this. Anybody can be successful at anything. You just have to figure out the formula. Can you be successful in land investing without flight school? Of course you can. Like, there are people that do it. How? Because they figure out the formula. They make their own formula, and that's okay. Or you can take the shortcut and not have to worry about the formula and just follow. So, like, I like what Paul. I like the way that Paul did it. He just shortcut.

Yeah. And I will say that today's podcast is sponsored by flight school. If you want to be like Paul, you want to move the needle in your life, you want to start getting that passive income. You want to just solve. You don't want to just solve your money problems, but you want to solve your time problems and have Scott Todd take you up that mountain of land investing quickly, safely, and efficiently. Go to thelandgeek.com training and schedule a call with Mike or Scott. Thelandgeek.com training well, Paul, we're at this point on the podcast where we're going to ask you for your tip of the week, a website resource, another book, something else actionable for the art of passive income listeners to go improve their businesses, improve their lives. Your story is so inspiring, but we're going to ask you for one more bit of wisdom.

Yeah. Thank you guys for having me on here. And the tip of the week does happen to be the very. The hardest thing about this for me. I had three of them, and I narrowed it down to two. So have you guys heard of Carrots Egg Coffee? The store.

Did I.

Carrots, Carrots, Egg, egg Coffee.

No.

So it's not. I had this whole. I had three. I had this freaking, like, this website, and I was like, the platform that was. And so I. It didn't work. It was too. Too many. There was problems with it. So carrots, Eggs, coffee is. Is a Mike Zano thing. It's a mindset. It's a mindset thing. So my tip of the week is going to be this. This mindset for most people, for people, period. And it's a story. And as an actor, I guess it fits me. So there's a little girl. There's a girl. A little girl. She's, you know, in whatever grade school she's not. She goes to her mom and she, she. She tells her mom. She's like, mom, I'm, you know, watching the news and whatnot. You know, this is a Monster thing. So she's like, I'm watching the news, and I'm. I'm looking at television, and I have no. I'm kind of like wondering what's going on in the world today and, like, how to fit in and stuff and how to make a difference. And her mom tells her, you know, she says, go to the kitchen. And she goes, get me three pots and fill those pots up with water. And she. She does. The girl goes, get three pots. She fills them up with water. And her mom happens to have three stove. She puts the pots on the stove.

She.

She.

She heats them up. She goes, I'm gonna put a carrot in this one. I'm gonna put an egg in this one. I'm gonna put some coffee in this water. Everything's got water. And I want you to go back. She tells her daughter. She goes, I want you to go and sit down and think about, you know, just how you feel right now. She does. And then, you know, she got. Come back in 15 minutes. Okay, great. So 15 minutes pass, daughter comes back, talks to the mom. She's like, okay, mom, what do you. What's the deal here with the care, with the. With the carrot and the egg and the coffee in these three pots? And she goes, okay. She goes, well, which one are you? And the daughter goes, what are you talking about? And the mom goes, well, which one are you? You know, you're talking about how you know your. You know your environment, and you're talking about the way that things are in the news and world and how do you want to be. Which one are you? She's like, I don't get it. And her mom goes, okay, well, I boiled this water. I put a carrot and an egg and a coffee and all three of these waters. When you gave me the carrot, it was hard, pretty, pretty sturdy. Now it's, you know, really soft. It's been. It's been changed by the boiling water. It's soft. It's not as rigid. The egg. You put that egg in there, and it's also, you know, on the inside. You and I both know that it's yolk. But if I crack it, it's now changed. The water has changed and it's hard, and it's now different coffee, the coffee beans. I put these coffee beans in this water, and it's changed the water, Right? So which one are you? And. And the daughter wasn't. You're real clear about it. But she goes, are you going to be the heart? Her mom cleared it up for her. Are you going to be somebody who comes in really soft, gets put into the environment and come out really hard and rigid and upset about what's going on? Are you going to be. Or end up getting soft about what's going on? Are you going to be the egg that comes in really soft, ends up being hard? Are you going to change your environment? Are you going to be a coffee? Are you going to, you know, being. And just kind of change. Can't change what's going around you? So that's my tip of the week is I think we should be coffee beans.

I, I love it. I quit drinking coffee, but I want to be a coffee bean in the story.

I thought you guys would like that, man, because it's different. It's. It's a different tip of the week.

That's great. That's great, Scott. Todd, what's your tip of the week?

I didn't even think of bringing one. I don't know. I don't have one. Okay, listen, I'm gonna build off of pause.

Yeah, you don't need one.

Carrots, eggs, and coffee. And the first thing that comes up when you google carrots, eggs and coffee, Mark, did you see what it is?

What is it?

It's a restaurant in Hawaii called Alan Wong's. My favorite restaurant in Hawaii is Alan Wong's. Therefore google that. So you remember my favorite restaurant, Alan Wong's. Go to Oahu and go to Alan Wong's restaurant.

I remember looking at that menu. It was insane. I think you sent me some pictures. I mean, it's even the, even a drink there was insane.

Yeah, it was good.

My tip of the week is learn more about the talents of Paul Flanagan. Start watching your honor amazing stories. We will be promoting everything that Paul is in because he's part of our community. That's one of the great things about the community is we support each other, we cheer each other on. And it doesn't just have to be the land investing business. It can be the other things that you're doing as well. And it's really cool to have someone like that in our community that's willing to share, give back. And it's also seeing how the passive income is moving the needle in their life so they can go and pursue their greatest passion in life, which for Paul is acting. So I want to thank the listeners, remind them the only way Paul Flanagan isn't going to come back and tell us that he's, you know, just destroying it now in land investing and fans of income is if you do 3 favors subscribe rate, review the podcast. Send a screenshot of that review. Support the landgeek.com we're going to send you for free the $97 wholetailing course, how to double your money 30 days or less. All right, Ready to do this?

Yeah.

One, two, three.

Let freedom ring.

All right. Thanks, everybody.

All right. On.