Day in my life as a Land Investor

You've seen those Days in the Life videos from real estate investors waking up at 5am grinding through back to back meetings, inspecting properties in the blazing heat and hustling until midnight. It's exhausting just watching them. But what if I told you that our typical day as land investors looks nothing like that? In fact, most people are shocked when they see how little time we actually spend working on our business. There's one thing about land investing that flashy real estate gurus don't want you discover. The most profitable land business is often the most boring one. And in today's episode, we are giving you unfiltered behind the scenes look at what our days look like and why. The simplicity of this business model is precisely what makes it so powerful for creating true financial and time freedom. It's nightcap time for those of you who don't know. I'm Mark Podolski, also known as the land geek. I am joined tonight as always as we drink our various libations with John Handsome Rob Burnett. John, good seeing you, brother.

Good.

I like that.

We've got hats on the bottom today. Yesterday was hats on the top. So it's great. It's a good switch up.

I love it. We've got the Zen master reading, the mailing, read out the marketing. Mike Zano. Mike, how are you?

Good. I might sound funny. Got a little allergies going on, but nothing hot water and whiskey can't handle.

Nothing like a little hot water, whiskey, a little nightcap. Shame that won't get that, won't, won't knock that those out right away as we just relentlessly make fun of it. And then of course, last but not least, dude, buddy, the nightcap OG Scott Bossman. Scott, how are you?

I'm great. My bourbon also has a function tonight. It's snowing sideways here in Wisconsin, so it's keeping me warm.

Yeah, it's just talking to Scott, like why, why are you there? You know, the whole point of this life is freedom. He can live wherever he wants, work wherever he wants, with whomever he wants and he chooses.

This builds a lot of character.

He's just there for the cheese.

That's right. Choosing cheese and beer.

Cheese and beer.

So.

Which is a perfect segue into the day in the life of a land investor.

So.

John, what does the real life look like for you? What does a day look like?

I mean, it doesn't involve a crazy amount of land investing.

But yeah, I.

Mean, for me, I fill up my time and you know, I like to get up early and, you know, work out, spend time with my family, take my kids to school after breakfast. And then I do, I do work throughout the day and I work on my land investing business and I work on other things. But you know, for me, like my land investing business, like a while ago, I budgeted out the time that I spent on it, and it's like, it was like five and a quarter hours, right? A week. It's not a ton. Some weeks, a lot more. You know, if, if I'm working on like some strategic project for the company, but it doesn't take an enormous amount of my time. So generally, you know, I'll look at some deals that get escalated to me if people want feedback on them as to whether or not we should acquire those specific properties and all. Just kind of like today I had working meetings with a few people that work for me where we just talked about marketing. I met with my executive assistant and talked about quarterly plans, met with acquisitions person and just talked about our focus in that area. And yeah, that was kind of it for me. So I came home and ate dinner, and here I am talking to you.

What was for dinner?

What is it?

Dinner.

Eat for dinner. I know, yeah. We had pork tenderloin, sourdough bread, and Mediterranean orzo salad. So very well balanced, very fancy. I know. Yeah, yeah. Good for your gut.

It's good for your gut. And when you're making that kind of passive income and you have all that time freedom, I think food tastes better. Do you. Would you agree?

I would agree. Yeah.

Yeah. How many of. In your, in the old days, you work a. A long day and you come home and you're just so. You're too exhausted even to eat and like, you're not, you're not even enjoying the food because you're so, so tired. Is that. Have you ever experienced any of that?

Yeah, I mean, I've definitely experienced it. And it's, you know, it's weird. Like, I hit. I don't know, maybe this is a little bit of a tangent, but I hit a point where I had a ton of time freedom, and then I, I ended up moving the opposite direction. I'm like, I actually really want to. I want to fill up my time, so I just want to fill it up on my time. Fill up my time on my terms. Right. I want the flexibility. And so I like coming home after, after working hard, but I, I like to not have to. Right.

Like, Right.

I want to. Yeah.

So, yeah, I think that's, that's the key is that you're choosing it, you want to do it, and you don't have to do it. And I'm the same way. Like, I love my work and there are hard days, but those days I chose. And if I choose to opt out, I can do that too. And it's, it's nice having that, that, that total freedom, if you will. I think what happens is we end up kind of not choosing and we get on this path that we didn't even know we chose because, you know, you talk to somebody else and like, oh, yeah, I'm doing this, this and this. And they're grinding and they're hustling like, oh, yeah, that. I want to do that too. And you're like, you step back. Like, I didn't want to do that. I was just copying that person. And you realize, like, you know, you want to do that. But I'd love to. To know what a day in life of the Zen Master is like. I mean, we should play the game. Like, let's guess, right? Like here, let's. Let's play a game. So, John, what do you. How do you assume Mike starts his day?

I think Mike gets up at like, four in the morning and like, hops straight into the ice bath.

Okay, four in the morning, ice bath. Scott, what do you think?

What I think Mike does. I'm thinking about 7:30 in the morning, gets up and has a nice hot tea made for him by his beautiful wife, Laura. She even lays his socks out for him in the morning. So nice of her. And then taking a nice little walk in the neighborhood, followed by Jiu Jitsu a little later in the morning, followed by, I don't know, a little light lunch at home, Little, Little land work in the afternoon, family time later. Like, that's it. Like, Mike does an hour work a day. Unless he's at the fire station, which.

I mean, I was gonna guess something similar. I was gonna suggest breakfast with Laura, then Jiu Jitsu, then to. To, because it's a tough workout. Then the ice bath. And then, you know, go visit family, spend time with some family. And then you'd be like, oh, yeah, I. I should probably notorize a deed.

Yeah, right.

Well, he probably. He probably has his virtual system with limited power attorney. He probably doesn't even do that anymore. I don't know. You know, maybe he does some kind of work and feels productive.

I need to meet this guy.

Yeah. And then, and then, you know, it's like, well, we're gonna have Kibby tonight.

For Italian meat pie.

The Meat pie. What is, what does the day look like for you?

Well, so first off, John, I don't think you went off on a tangent. I think this whole topic tonight is going to be totally tangent. In fact, I mean, a day in the life in event investor could be very boring, right? I always tell people the good and bad news about our business. It's repeatable, it's, it's redundant, AKA it's boring. But the boring nature serves us well, right? It's something we can systematize. I think I've heard you say before, Mark, it's not that we love land, it's the fact that land can be systematized. Right? If you, if there was something out there that came along that was better, I think we all would embrace it. We just haven't found that yet.

Right?

Land is something that serves us. So you guys are kind of close with what you're saying. You know what I think is great about when you have some time? Freedom and when you develop some, you know, income through land investing and things start to lighten. I, I, I, I think about this, Mark. I want to fire on all cylinders when I say that. I think of, you know, there's four Fs, the family, the faith, the finance and the fitness. I want all of those, right? And there's people out there that have some of them, but they're imbalanced, right? You know, people that are very wealthy but they don't have very good family relations or they may not have good fitness or you have really, people are really fit, but they don't have good finance. So I think all of us really embrace that, you know, spending quality time with our family because we can now helping them out. Now, faith, it could be religion, it could be spirituality, it could be mental cultivation, but anything that like, resonates with you. And then of course, finance, that comes from all our deals, right? We're creating, you know, as you said on one show a while back, Mark, I liked it. I loved it. You know, when I started out, I was in debt to people, AKA credit cards. Now people are in debt to me. So I become the opposite. And that's pretty exciting. So I think really my day is all that, right? Get up in the morning and yes, Laura does lay out my clothes. If I don't have socks, I don't know where to find them. I don't even know what draw they're in anymore. I just like Laura underwear. What do I do?

So she really does take care of me.

But then I'll go Off.

I'll go up.

I do some light stretching, and I go. I have some tea. I go off to jiu Jitsu. So you guys have a little bit of that. And I come back and I'll visit family at that time, and then I'll come back, and yes, then I remember, oh, I have a land business, and I'll attend to a few tasks in there and work with some people on my team, but it's really nothing overly exciting. But I like that. I like the simple life where I can choose what I want to focus on, because that means that it is extreme. Of all the things I can focus on, these are the few things that I do focus on, and it makes them all the more important. So this is kind of a. Sort of a boring subject we're talking about tonight, but it's really important. But it's nothing. It's just that we live very simple lives that are fulfilling, I think.

No, I love that, and I love the four F's. Yeah, for sure. There's a. You know, there's a book that just came out. I think it's a best. Like a bestseller. Celil Bloom wrote about the. You know, the. The five types of wealth, and that the time wealth, the social wealth, the physical wealth, and the. The. Did I say financial wealth?

Yeah.

Right. And then, of course, the. The. The spiritual wealth. Right.

Your faith.

Well, and. And how important all those are. And I think. I think it's a book really geared towards the younger people. Like, I think he wrote the book that he wanted to read when he's in his 20s so that people could live this more intentional life when they're younger.

Yeah.

You know, and. And have that in those frameworks. So, dude, buddy, nightcap. OG Scott Bossman, before you tell us what your day is like, like, I think we should guess. So, John, what do you think Scott's life is like as a land? I mean, like, how did he rolls up and.

He rolls out of bed, runs downstairs to his block of cheese, takes a big bite.

Stole mine. Stolen.

Is it a block of cheese or is it a cheese curd?

I just imagine a giant wheel. Like, he's just got it sitting on his dining room table. That's great. Yeah.

Yeah, I can visualize that, and I feel like it really resonates. Mike, what do you. What do you think?

Yeah, I was gonna go with the cheese curds. I think he just rolls out of bed, you know, goes downstairs, has a cup of coffee, just reaches into a big bag of cheese curds, throws them out dipping the co. You know, eating the cheese curds. You know, thinking about his day, maybe taking the dog for a walk. I know that that's something he's definitely gonna be doing, so I know there's something there. I know he's big with his family, so he's probably taking care of someone in the family, helping them out, whether it's school or something of that nature. And at some point, he realizes again, oh, yeah, there's a land business. And he starts to tend to it.

Yeah. Yeah. My. My guts are similar, except he doesn't set an alarm. I feel like Aaron, his beautiful wife, wakes him up and says, honey, go get us some cheese curds. And he's like, you know what? I want to start my day with love and service. And so he goes downstairs and he get. He makes her coffee, and he puts in the right amount of cream and sugar exactly the way she wants it. And then, you know, a couple bowls of cheese curds, and they have, like, a cheese curd breakfast together. And then he decides, okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna work out. So he has, like, the peloton and the, like, what's the other one?

Tonal.

Tonal. And he's like, oh, it's a tonal day. And he picks out his perfect, like, instructor that he likes. And so he's got the perfect instructor. And he's like this great workout. And then I don't think he needs to do a cold plunge because he can just step outside. So maybe he'll just step outside.

Get.

A little cold, take a shower, and then. And then, you know, kind of start his day.

I could see him slide with his flip flops and a sweatsuit out to the mailbox while his neighbors wonder, what is this guy? Slide, slide. Sweat. Cedo. Doesn't know which one to put down.

To get the mail.

Cheese curds, coffee. Grabs the mail, sticks under his arm, slides back into the house. The babies are like, who is this guy?

I know. And you know. You know, the neighbors are all whispering like, scottish drug dealer. Like, what are. What are the Bostons doing? He's walking around in sweatsito, and it doesn't look like he works at all. And they're living this incredible life. Okay, I think we've got some late hours.

The miss that Scott is from Wisconsin, they're like, why are we all talking about jeans.

Cheese curds of land? Because land provides you the freedom, the flexibility to literally ingest as many cheese curds as you want on a daily basis. That's the life of Landmaster Kyle.

There it is.

There you have freedom.

You guys are all very close.

In there, right?

There's a version of truth in there. Yes, for sure. I would say that my day is a combination of many of those things. I wouldn't say I have cheese every day, although I did have cheese today on a nice sourdough bread and made nice little hands. My specialty is sandwiches, so I make a lot of. I usually have, like, you know, every day or every other day, I make a nice sandwich and I make my wife a sandwich.

So what kind of sandwich is a turkey sandwich? Is it a bologna sandwich?

Today was ham and cheese and pickles and sourdough bread. And a lot of times it's egg sandwich with bacon and cheese, a little bit of mustard, chicken salad to make a good chicken salad. So I'm a big sandwich guy, so.

Oh, man.

You know, back when I was working, I didn't have. I didn't have the time to make a sandwich during the day, so there's a little serving others I do like to serve others. I do like to be there for my kids and my wife in whatever that entails. And this business has afforded me that luxury because when I started, I was working a lot and I wasn't able to do that. So now that I've gotten to a point where I'm literally working in my land business one or two hours a day, five days a week, and some days I leave it alone. Right. That's a tenth of what I worked as a physical therapist. A tenth, Right. Which is crazy to think about. And my land business brings in a lot more than I made as a physical therapist. So that just affords us all of these amazing opportunities. Right. And I would say that I do like to serve myself right? So there's some self care during the day. I love to read. I'm able to read more now than I ever have.

Okay, can we just. Can we just talk about the best book recommendation you've given me in 2025 for a second?

Of course.

Okay, write this down, everybody. So there's. And first of all, I recommend the audiobook, but Scott has changed my life for the better. The book is Shantaram, and then the sequel, which Scott told me about, is the. Is it the Mountain?

See, I recommended the sequel, but I haven't even read it yet, so I love that it changed your life.

It's so good you never listened to it.

This morning, I'm like one of his best.

The Mountain. The Mountain Shadow sequel to Sean Throne Yeah, David Roberts. Yeah, I'll put it in chat.

Yeah, sh. It, it is one of the best audiobooks. Mark recommended it to me a couple years ago. It is one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to.

Shantaram and it's a combination of Goodfellas and Slumdog Millionaire.

But so much of it, Mark, he actually wrote, he actually was in prison when he wrote that book. And it's like an epic. It's like a 40 hour long audiobook, right?

Yeah. And so is the sequel.

Is the sequels just as long? Yeah. And it's crazy is when he was writing the first one, he lost, he lost the manuscript. Like he lost half the book and he had to start over. Did you know that?

I did not know that.

He lost it in prison. I mean, he had all the time in the world. He was in prison.

Yeah. So Apple made a series of it. It's on Apple TV too. It's not nearly, not nearly as good.

As the book, but, but the sequel is, is as good as the original or.

53 hours.

It's worth, it's worth, it's worth going to the sequel. It's really well done.

53 hours.

I don't know if it's as good. Right. Like usually. Unless you're Godfather. Godfather too. The sequel's never as good.

Right, Right.

But it's really good.

I'm about to buy it with one of Laura's credits. She's not gonna like you right now, Scott, because I'm gonna steal a credit and I'm gonna.

She's fine. Should be all right. Yeah.

But anyways, I, I, I'm sorry I interrupted. So you like to read. What are you reading right now?

Right now I'm actually reading a classic, east of Eden, which I hadn't read yet.

Oh, Steinbeck. It's so. I love that book. So by the way, Dave Parmelee is the one that put me onto that.

Book and he actually recommended it to me as well. And then for, for an entrepreneurial book, I'm reading, Reading Hidden, Hidden Potential by Adam Grant. So I usually read like one fun book and one entrepreneurial book. And then I take care of myself. I like to exercise. So usually every day I'm either getting on the peloton or doing the tonal like you mentioned, or walking the dog. And yeah, it's like, can life be any better? And then I work. I'm literally down to half day a week as a physical therapist. They want me more, but I'm like, I'm good So half day, week, I get to go work with the geriatric population, which is the most fun population to me and always has been. So I go spend a little time with them every Thursday morning.

Okay, what is your best tip for us to age well and so that we don't end up in your office?

Ooh, that's. That's a very one tip.

Okay. It's your top five tips.

Oh, top five tips. Well, you need to do some resistance training, because some resistance training leads to greater bone density. So then you're going to have less risk for fractures, compression fractures, osteoarthritis, all that stuff. So some resistance training, for sure. Daily walking, for sure. Something to challenge your balance, balance and agility. So yoga is good for balance. Tai chi, that type of thing is good for balance. Even standing on one leg. And, you know, like, do you know the old man test for balance? You should be able to stand on one leg and put your sock and shoe on on the other leg. And that means that you're at a very low risk of falls. So that's a good way to test you. It's a good way for you folks to test how good your balance is. Tomorrow. Can you stand on one leg and put your sock and shoe on on the other leg? And if you can't, you're at a high risk of falls. So then you want to figure out, how do we make our balance better so that we're at less risk of falls? So that's number three. Number four, if you're sitting, you need to do some postural exercises. So look up chin tucks and look up like lumbar extension exercises. Chin tuck is like this.

Wait, what is it?

Like this. Like this. Straight back. Yep.

We've really gone off the rails on the life of land investor.

We sure did ask.

No, but I think it's all really valuable.

And yeah, as D. Reese says, drink lots of water. That'd probably be my fifth. Fifth tip. Drink lots of water.

Resistance training, walking, balance, be able to stand on one leg and put your shoe, your sock and shoe on.

Postural exercises.

Postural exercise.

Or water?

Yeah, I'm. I'm three out of five, I'd say. John.

How.

What about you?

What about me?

Yeah.

For my tips for not coming to see Scott.

Yeah.

I mean. No, no. Are you doing those things?

I am doing some of those things. More. I have back issues, I think, largely from bad posture habits and then also from lugging children around in various improper positions. There was one time, last time I went. I I, like, threw my back out really bad. It was from hugging my daughter. And you're.

You're gonna throw your back out, though.

I know.

That's the way to do it.

It's the sweetest way to throw it out.

Yeah. So.

Yeah. But it still hurt. Yeah.

Thank you.

Jim Myers, by the way.

That.

That really. That really means so much to me. Thank you. I appreciate it. Do you guys want to guess what my. The day in life of. Of me for me?

Oh, I think we should. Yeah.

Yeah, let's. Let's play the game. Handsome Rob, you want to start? Let's see.

So I think Mark rolls out of bed. I'm gonna say, man, this is hard. I'm gonna say, I can't tell if you're gonna. If you're the type person who sleeps in or who gets up really early. And I feel like it's either one or the other. I'm gonna say five. Five. He gets up and then we start reading, drink a big glass of water. Let's see, light breakfast, go on a.

Walk.

Maybe head to. Let's see, do a little bit of work, a little bit more reading, light lunch. Am I on point with any of this so far?

You're very close. You're very close. It's almost like you spent the night last night.

I actually.

I'm secretly at your house right now, Mark. This is a virtual background.

Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Very close. Zen master.

What's.

What's your guess?

I'd say about 6 o', clock. You roll out of bed and then go into the closet, shut the door, and sit in the dock for about four hours.

Mini darkness, retreat.

I know that you know, and I think you probably have creative thinking in this closet. You know, you're probably doing some sort of meditation, gratefulness, sitting in the closet, all dark, nothing, you know? Right. You have that crisp, clean, early mindset, and then you emerge from there with your tasks for the day. Maybe I don't think you're doing coffee anymore. So you probably have some sort of a light tea, maybe a little honey, and then a nice walk, and then you start to check in the people on your team.

Huh? Okay, close. Close.

For sure. For sure. Dude.

Buddy, what's your guess?

Yeah, I'm gonna guess.

By the way, I love how you guys don't think I work out at all. Do you think. Do you think they look like this?

I haven't finished. I haven't gone yet. So I think you roll out of bed about 6:15. 6:15 in the morning. 6, 6:15 and yeah, there's. There's some sort of morning routine with maybe just sitting outside with a cup of hot tea or a glass of water, having some quiet time, some little meditation time. And then there's a nice. There's some physical activity in the morning. A walk or a hike maybe with Laney, because I know you have beautiful hiking trails around there. And then you come back and I mean, you also serve Mark. So I know you spend a few hours a day on land Geek, which I think is great because you're helping a lot of other people achieve these goals of time freedom, which I think is amazing. And then land. You're not doing land. I mean, what are you down to? Like one meeting every two weeks and land or something? No, no.

Meeting a week. Meeting a week.

Oh, one meeting a week. Okay.

Now things can pop up.

Yeah.

And I'll handle them. But basically it's just how, you know, what can I break?

Right. Right.

Which everybody loves. The team.

Loves it. The team. Yeah. No, that's amazing.

Yeah.

So. And then I'd say the afternoon. You'll definitely get some reading in. In the afternoon and a walk. You like the audiobooks. And then dinner. You guys eat dinner out, like a lot because you're foodies. So there's a lot of eating out.

There's a lot of eating out. Lainey's a great cook, though. We had that's good. A few nights ago. Black cod filet, wasabi mashed potatoes, a cucumber, like Asian salad. It was phenomenal. Blistered shishito peppers. I'm telling you, it was so good.

What's black's card? I don't. I don't know why I've never had that.

Yeah. Oh, Jeremy, that's next week about the. How tariffs will impact land investors. So black cod is a. I think it's an Alaskan cod. It's usually get it like, like, like Nobu is famous for the black cod. Like, like typically high end sushi restaurants will have black cod. It's very buttery. You can eat it with chopsticks. It's delicious.

It's not cooked.

It's sushi. No, no, it is cooked.

Okay.

Yeah.

So you may. You marinate it and then you cook it and it's fantastic. It's not sushi, but. Okay. You guys are very close. So first of all, I'm a sleep nerd. So I really dial in my sleep. I have a thing called eight sleep. So it's this like pad that keeps me cool all night and it uses AI to actually increase my REM sleep, my deep sleep. So there's no alarm because the mattress will slowly heat up and I want to be up typically around 6, 6:30. So that would give me 7 to 8 hours of sleep on average. Then when I get up, John was right. I'm drinking water and I'm taking my supplements which would typically be, you know, my creatine, collagen. What else am I taking these days? Vitamin D I'll take. Yeah, so some supplements. Then I have a thing called the X3 bar and it is as Scott would say, it's resistance training. But it's really good on the joints. So I do a very intense x 3 bar workout and usually it's either depending on what that schedule is if I have something on the calendar, usually, usually my first meeting will be about 9 if I have a meeting on the calendar. So then depending on that time I will either meditate for 20 minutes after that workout or before that workout. I have something called a PEMF mat. So it's grounding me while I'm meditating. And then I. I'm not eating, I'm fasting. But I have this coffee alternative called Kamana. K A M a n a.co it is delicious. No caffeine, but I still get that morning ritual. It's mesquite and for those of you who are interested in trying it, I highly recommend it. And you can get 15% off with the coupon code mark. So definitely check that out. K A M A N A CO I love it. That's part of my morning ritual. Then I will walk to the mountain. So it's about three mile walk from my place and it's beautiful walk. I want to be in nature. And then I'll take my cold shower, start my day and definitely I forgot to mention I will journal and I will also. Kimata.co.com oh sorry. Yeah, I'll journal and I will also be reading. You know I'll be listening most personal half that, half that walk. I won't listen to anything. I'll just kind of be in my thoughts and then the on the way back I'll be either listening to Shantaram audiobook or a business audiobook. And I'm always reading a book. So I think right now I've got. I got Constellations 2 by David White. Just one of those books you can pick up and read. It's phenomenal. As well as Jefferson Fish. Is it Jefferson Fisher, that lawyer's book about communication which I'm really enjoying as well. And. Yeah, and so that's. That's typically my. My morning routine.

What's this pad called you kind of skipped over that you sleep on?

Oh, it's. I have to give you the brand. It's. But it's a PEMF mat. It's fantastic.

You. You exercise on it?

No, no, I meditate on it.

You meditate on it.

And before bed, I'll actually lay on it. It'll kind of like make sleepy. It's got a bunch of different.

When you're sleeping. What's the one that changes temperature when you're sleeping on it?

Eight sleep.

Eight sleep.

The number eight sleep. It is fantastic. I was. I was telling Laney the other day, if I had to get rid of all my possessions, the last one I'd want to get rid of is that eight sleep. What about you, John? You gotta get rid of everything. What's the last thing you'd want to get rid of?

Ah.

You know, I don't know. I think I'd be sentimental and just say, like, all of my photos of.

My kids, it's a possession. Like.

Like a thing.

That possession can't be digital.

Like, it's not. It's not like, you know, the house is on fire and you gotta, you know, grab something. Like, no, you've lost everything, but you still got your family. So all that. But yeah. What's that last thing you wouldn't want to sell?

I think, like, you're like. I mean, if I had to do, like, something that I. That I own, I probably say my Kindle. Honestly, like, oh, I. I mean, I. I read a lot on my Kindle, and then I've got a. Coming for my birthday. I've got. There's a Kindle scribe that you can write on. It's like the. It's like the notable, but it's the Kindle knockoff version, so. Which I'm very excited about. So that's probably what I.

Remarkable. Oh, yeah.

That's what I mean. The Remarkable. Yeah, it's the. The Amazon knockoff of the Remarkable.

Yeah, no, those are fun. Zen master, what about you?

Also, somehow.

Somehow we're good. I feel like we're going off the rails, but maybe not. Like, this is the life of a Landmaster. You're getting an insight of how actually we have the systems and processes and the people so that we can live our best lives, and we have that freedom, and this is what we're doing with the freedom.

I agree. So I would probably. My one possession would Be what I call my wooden man. It's the. It's a. I know. It's a martial arts device that I inherited from a close friend and teacher of mine 30 years ago. And I use it wherever I go. I set it up. It's something I can practice moves on. And I feel like I have sort of energetic relationship with it. And it. I don't know, it's just beautiful.

Wow.

That. That is beautiful. Can I change my answer now? Because I. I pick something sentimental, too? How about not sentimental?

Not sentimental. Yeah, well, it's fun.

You're making all of us look bad.

Well, it's functional, too. It's just like you're mad. It's something I do that brings me peace of mind and calm. It centers me. So I don't think it's just sentimental. It's everything.

Okay. Okay. That's awesome. It's got a wooden man. How do we get this wooden man?

You'd have to make one. I mean, you can buy some, but this is specially. Specially made for the particular style that my friend practiced and showed me.

I kind of feel like this woodman could be part of like. Like that kill bill scene where it's like that. You know, that.

That.

That artisan made. Made that blade and there's only like seven in the world. Is this that kind of thing?

No, I don't think it's like that, but it's special to me. I love it.

Awesome. Awesome. And I don't mean to mock it.

No, I don't take it that way.

Yeah, dude. Buddy, what about you?

So I have kind of a cool thing in my office. I have all of my tapes and CDs from when I grew up on the wall. And I have this device that is a. It's a, like a hybrid turntable, CD player, tape player, Bluetooth player. And every day I just put music on and it's like nostalgia day in my office. It's kind of fun. And I can. I. I can. I keep adding to my collection over time, you know, CDs that maybe I wanted to get at some point or another that I. That I skipped over. My. My son goes to college at the University of Wisconsin, and just down the street from him there's this amazing CD and album shop. So we go there all the time, and I pick up some new things here and there. I get. Just got a rare. A very rare Dave Matthews CD last week. And so that's just kind of my cool thing. So my little music collection, I think that's plastered on My wall here in my office. I love it.

I love it. Okay, so you've got to pick one cd.

It's impossible. No, no, no.

You have to pick it, and then you're gonna be interested. Listen to it all over, over and over again on a desert island. What would you pick? I know what I would pick.

All right, well, I'd probably pick Joshua Tree.

Oh, okay.

The shirt I'm wearing.

Yeah, I. I love it. I would pick the Beatles White Album.

Yeah.

Yeah. John, what about you?

Oh, man, that's hard. I'd probably do the Beatles. I would probably do. I mean, I grew up with. I know it's not like one of their original albums, but the one album was one that we had when I was a kid, and I listened to that a lot.

All the greatest hits.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Zen Master, how about you?

Maybe a little Enya. You know Anya, right?

Yeah, we do. That's why we're laughing.

Oh, my.

From Joshua Trees, the Beatles. Mike, this is all.

This is it.

Like, you just don't listen to Enya.

Yeah.

I want to be chill on that island. I want to be really chill.

Boat will come by to save. You will say, just keep going. I'm having a good time.

Yeah. Mike, he's like, must be in the wrong podcast. Land investing. Yeah. This is the day in the life of land investors. Okay, so what do we actually do when we're actually, you know, doing our work? What. What does your work in land investing look like?

Yeah, so for me, like. Like sometimes my team will escalate properties up to me if they're wondering if this is a particularly good deal or something that we want to. We want to do. And so I'll look at it and I'll give the thumbs up or thumbs down, and then I will.

Like.

And I think we should get some context. How long have you been land investing?

It's been seven and a half years.

Seven and a half years. So you're CEO of a land business, which is what we. We coach people how to do, because it's not. You don't want to be in the business. You want to create a business that's this passive income machine. So again, it's kind of boring, but we're not in the day to day. It's not like John's out looking at property, which I think a lot of people might think that that's like the day of a land investor, but that's not what we do. So go ahead.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, yeah. So, like, I mean, properties get Escalated to me and I'll like, I'll review them. If the team is wondering if it's a good deal or not. I will, I like to do working meetings with team, with team members. And so I'll, I. There are certain team members that I'll meet with like on a weekly basis and we'll just review everything. So I've got, you know, one person that might work on some projects with me and she does customer service and I'll just say, is there anything that you need help with? Is, you know, are there any, you know, anything that I need to do? That was about a 10 minute meeting. I did another working meeting with an acquisitions guy and we talked about where we wanted to market to acquire property and built out a basic strategy for that. That was about a 30 minute meeting. And then my executive assistant, I met with her and we just talked about team dynamics and how we were going to continue to build that and all kinds of stuff. And that was probably a 45 minute meeting. And so that was a lot of the time I spent in the business.

I did.

So sometimes, like right now I'm, I'm looking at potentially revamping my website. So I was looking at that and just thinking about the direction I wanted to go and then just decided I was going to hire a developer and so, and so just posted it on Fiverr. So that was kind of, you know, those are the things that I focused on today. So it was a few short meetings and then thinking about, you know, strategic direction for the company.

So your day is leadership and judgment basically, which is what a CEO does. Mike, how about you?

Similar vein, I think, you know, you check in your team, see if they need anything, you know, something, are you okay? Is there anything you need, anything I can do to support you? But also something, you know, you said earlier about working on and not in the business, but we always talk about you can retain the things that you do enjoy. There's no re. There's no rule that says you have to outsource everything, delegate everything. You know, for me, I love deal evaluation. I just love seeing the deals.

It's.

Perhaps if I wasn't land investing, I'd be scratching tickets. I just like that, you know that, that thrill of seeing the new deal coming in and looking at the numbers. So that's, that's where I'd spend my time if I were to spend. When I do spend time just looking at deals, deal evaluation, but again supporting and making sure that they have everything they need. And you know, then there's always refining something. We always talk about, you know, looking at your swim lanes, looking at your processes, looking at your workflows, you know, is there a way that they can be improved? Asking the people that work for you, is there a way that we could do this better? Do you have any suggestions being open to that?

Yeah.

I mean, again, a lot of leadership is your day and judgment how, you know, what's the best way I can.

Help you.

Yet still reserving the right to, to do what you love to do.

Yeah.

In, in the business.

Dude.

Buddy, how about you?

Yeah, I'd say it's, it's much the same as what John and Mike were talking about. I think that something that might be helpful to convey to people who are watching, if they've just found us, is that, you know, we're all pretty established in the business. Mike, 10 plus years. I'm coming up on 10 years. You know, John's over seven years. Mark, 25 years. Right. You know, I, I think that if you're first starting this, I think we just move forward with the notion that, hey, I'm going to spend 10 hours a week on, on this for the next few years. And with 10 hours a week, you can move the needle in your life. Right. And what will happen with that 10 hours a week is that it will gradually change. The duties will change. In the beginning, there's just a lot of learning and doing. Right. And then after you've learned, you know, we have a, we have a great program called flight school, which I believe teaches you probably 80% of what you need to know in the business. And the remaining 20%, you learn with time and repetition. So after you get through the learning phase, then you will continue to learn a little bit more. But it's about 80% doing 20% learning at that point. And then you just continue forward at that pace. Right. So if you can just commit 10 hours a week for the next three to five years and do now what most people won't do. Zig Ziglar. Right. You're going to change your life. And if you can just continue forward at 10 hours a week in this business, which is what I do now, five to 10 hours a week, what do I do? I do deal analysis, I do refining of processes. I check in with my team. Right. We, you might have to like, change your team based on some performance things you're seeing. So things just shift over time and duties change over time. But it's still the 10 hours a week that I had initially, really, when you Think about it. It's just I'm not working a 50 hour job a week on top of it. Right. Right. Yeah. So, so that's what I do.

So that's the day in the life of a land investor. I'm, I'm more of the chairman stage now as.

Yeah.

As opposed to CEO. And, and so I'm just kind of looking at the numbers and looking at other various strategies and checking it in that way. But I've been doing it for 25 years. It didn't start that way. I mean, I, I grinded for a long time. I made lots of mistakes. And now I teach people so that they don't make the mistakes I made and don't build themselves another job, which is really the key to all of this. Because you don't want another job. You want to have that freedom. So yet you can come on this podcast and talk about your crazy free morning routine and the things that you, you like to do and, and then have people be like, hey, I thought we're talking land investing, but no, this is what we do now. Yeah. And, and this is what our life is like as land investors because we put in the time, we made the effort, we, we took a risk with our, our money and we bought raw land. We created a process, we created a system, and we just did it again and again and again. And we built team, we built processes, we built systems, we built automation, and we have a machine. And then just every day, we're just tweaking that machine to make it better and smoother so that we can live our best lives. And I think that to, to John's point, you do hit that existential crisis period where it's like, well, what am I going to do with my life? And when you have six children like John, he wants to show those kids he works. And I think that's, that's noble. He doesn't want them to think, oh, you know, there's no work ethic in the Burnett home. There is dad and mom work and this is what our work looks like. But that's his choice. Where my kids are, are older now and, you know, they could see dad travels.

Right.

Or what, you know, in enjoying my life at this stage of my life. But when they were younger, I definitely worked very hard and, and wanted to show them what a work ethic was and whatever had to be done, I would do even if it was something I didn't want to do. And then got to the point it's like, oh, wait, I can delegate this Or I can outsource this, and I can teach this process so I can have that freedom. Mike, what about you? I mean, what's your advice to someone listening to this?

Well, something that was coming up as you were all talking is, you know, we're talking about what we do, but how about what we don't do? We don't micromanage. You know, I think that was something that's kept from all the discussions we're having here. It's got me thinking about that. I often reference from telling people about our business as a local grocery chain around here. And, you know, every generation, you know, the new generation takes it over, you know, over and over. They pass it down the family, but they start out. The next generation starts out pushing carts, bagging groceries, you know, working in the. In the. In the. In the milk and cheese aisle. And then, you know, as they go along, the tasks may get more difficult. They go into the meat departments. There's more chance of, you know, getting hurt or whatnot. Eventually, they know the whole business. So we have to go through that process in the beginning. Right? We have to go through. So. And I don't want to ruin the word from last week, but add to something. We don't want to do that.

Right.

We don't want to. We don't want to outsource something too soon. We have to understand it. But some things, like how long does it take to understand you take the cart from the parking lot and you bring it back inside where people can use it, or you bag groceries. You don't put the breakables on the bottom. You know, there's things you can learn quickly. Other things take time. But you won't see the manager at the very end, when he finally gets to that position, coming down and showing the kid how to, you know, grab the cart. You're doing the cart wrong. Oh, you know, back in the. You don't see that because they're not micromanaging. They have already trained these people into these positions. So I was just thinking that as we were going around talking about what we do, But I was saying, well, what don't we do? Yeah, we don't micromanage. We allow them to fall into the position. We allow them to blossom and make recommendations and to excel.

Yeah, we don't do everything. We really focus on what we do best. And we create those swim lanes to get the people who are in their zone of genius to do what they do best and then let them run with these. But there's guardrails I mean, there's. There's accountability.

Yeah.

And there's systems and processes, but for sure, that's. That's how you build a sustainable business. Dude. Buddy, what about you?

What's the question? Exactly.

What are you doing?

What am I doing? Yeah, yeah. Just same. Same stuff. Same stuff as Mike and John. Right. CEO. I'm not quite to the. I'm not quite to the level of Mark Podolski, but I have another 15 years. Right. To get to. To grow it to the point where.

The nice thing about you in those 15 years is you're in a balance and strength.

Yeah, exactly.

Good posture.

Posture.

You're gonna age gracefully. Like, the three of us, we're gonna be like, in your clinic.

Yeah.

Like I told you to do those chin ups.

Yeah, Chin tucks.

Chin tucks. Exactly. Chin tuck.

Chin tucks. Very important. But yeah, no, I. I think I just approach each day as like, okay, what can we do to improve things? What can we do to become more efficient? And there's been a little bit of a shift also in, I guess, my mindset regarding the business. Initially, I was in it for me and my family. Now I'm in it for, like, you know, we actually have a nice team like over in the Philippines. Right. And it feels good to. To be able to give folks work and to see the things that they do to help us. I don't know. It's rewarding, right? I know you know that, Mark. So that's rewarding. And I've kind of had a mindset shift also with just the people we sell to, you know, when you think about it, because for people tuning in, maybe they don't know, like, we buy most of our land for less than $5,000, and then we sell it for, you know, anywhere from 5 to 10, 20, $30,000, something like that. Like, those are our bread and butter deals. When we sell those properties on owner financing, we're actually selling to a lot of people who maybe wouldn't be able to afford a property for cash. Maybe they don't have 10 or 20 or 30 in the bank right now to pay outright for a property. So we're selling to them on owner financing, and we're helping people become landowners at one or two or 300 bucks a month. And it. But I've been in this long enough now to. To get like, thank you letters from people. Like, you're helping people. Their dreams are coming true, and it's pretty cool. So, you know, I'm getting letters now from people who we sold them land five years ago, and they built an amazing house on the land. And they're like, hey, I just want to thank you for the opportunity to buy this land from you for, you know, 200 bucks a month. And so, so I don't know, I think it's fun business in that regard. And, you know, some people think, oh, you're buying land at a deep discount. That's sleazy. And, you know, you're, you're selling to people at an inflated price, blah, blah, blah. That's sleazy. It's not actually. We're helping people on the buy side and helping people on the sell side. So I'm just enjoying that part of the business more, I think, as time goes on.

Yeah, I, I love that. I think that, you know, all along the line that that value is there because we're helping somebody who's, who bought this asset. Now they're tired of paying the property taxes, and so we get the option and the opportunity now to help them out because now it's a liability. So we're, we're buying it from them and they're gonna, they take that money and do something more productive with it, and they might even be, might not even be paying taxes. So then we're going to go and sell that property to somebody. You can pay the property taxes. They're going to improve the county schools and hospitals and roads, so it helps the county. But then you're helping somebody get this asset that lasts forever. They don't have to maintain, they don't protect. And typically what we're looking for are properties that have no restrictions. They can do whatever they want out there. Build your, your dream, your. Use it recreationally, whatever you want to do. It's. It's yours and it can't be destroyed. It's. Yeah, I don't think we talk about enough like the, the rewarding feelings of the buy side and the sell side as well. And there's a great book by David Brooks, because we're all big readers, called the Second Mountain. The First Mountain is very egoic. And, you know, you're, you're, you do what culture says to do, right? You, you, you, you study hard in school, you get the education and you get the good job and you get the stuff right. You, you get the house and the cars and the vacations and in all the things that you think you, it's gonna make you happy. Right size, they'll just make you happy and you get it all. And then you get up that mountain, you're like, this is empty. So you go to the second mountain. The second mountain is a way harder mountain to climb. There's no top to it, but it's way more fulfilling. It's about, you know, love and intimacy, your relationships. It's about faith and spirituality. It's about your community. It's about, you know, this isn't a job anymore. It's your vocation. This is what you're meant to do in life. And so as we talk about, you know, the life of a land investor, I don't want anybody to get the impression that we're just out playing golf. Like, we are doing these things that are very rewarding, not just for ourselves and our family, but also our community and also allow us to deepen ourselves individually on that second mountain as we go up that and have that time and energy and freedom to. To really improve other people's lives. John, I talked a lot there. I feel like you had something you want to say.

Oh, I mean, I'm just listening, but yeah, no, I think. I think, yeah. I don't know. Just having been in this business for. For seven years has definitely been transitional points. And, you know, having been in the grind and like, the life of a land investor, for me is. Looks very different in different seasons. I think what Scott said is really true, which is that, you know, you spend five to 10 hours in the business, and that kind of follows you. Right.

For.

And.

And so for me, like, it's still the same thing. It's still five to 10 hours. But I do remember pivotal transition points. Like when I quit my job, I remember sitting down with Valerie and we took out my computer and we recorded a video of just talking about what life was like. You want to remember, right? We wanted to remember. Yeah. And I just saw it the other day, but it's just crazy. It's crazy the life we have right now.

Right?

Crazy in a number of ways. Six kids is crazy, but it is. It's wonderful. It's wonderful to have to have freedom and to be able to focus on the things you want and to just fill up your life. And there's something freeing about. About having the ability to work on what you want. Right. So not. Not doing something because you have to, but because you want to. Right. And there's. You can create some awesome things when you. When you have that level of freedom in your life. And so that's. Yeah, it's really exciting.

That's beautiful. Getting goosey's thinking about that.

That video.

What a great idea.

It's A great idea.

I'm gonna do that tonight. I know. I think. I think it's really.

Yeah.

Look back a year from now and make another video. I think that's. That's really a cool idea. Zed Master, do you want to. You want to land this plane?

Well, I. That was great, by the way, John. I, I. Something Scott said. You know, I think a lot of times people think, well, who are you buying this from? Are you taking advantage of them, this and all that? And I think one thing I tell people to help them frame this whole business, to make it really just palpable, is that we all have items. Whether or not. I know in my garage, I got a bike or something here that I bought years ago. Maybe I paid 400 for it. But if someone came today and said, I'll give you $100 for it, I'd be like, take it. And do I care if they made $200 with it? No, I'm done. I'm emotionally detached from that. I don't want it. This land is no different. They're not. These people don't live near the land. They're emotionally detached. They don't want it anymore. We come along, we do solve the problem. And so I think when you frame it that way, this is just an asset. It's just like buying that bike from somebody or that. Something that they just don't use anymore and they're not attached to it, and we provide a solution. So in no way, shape, or form are we taking advantage of them. We're just helping them out. And then, like you said, we flip over and help the next person. We're truly in the middle of two dreams. Right. We had someone who had a dream years ago. They bought the property for a very specific reason. And maybe they did use it for that reason. Maybe they did go camp with their kids and use it. But then the kids grew up, and then the property is sitting there, and it's like you said, taxes are accumulating and whatnot. They're done with it. We come and re rescue that property from them, and then we hand it off to someone whose dream is bubbling up again. So we're truly sitting in the middle of two dreams and just making, you know, making good things happen on both sides. We're facilitating.

I love it. I love it. Next week, we're going to be talking about tariffs in the economy and getting back to more of the nuts and bolts of land and the business and the economy. So stay tuned for that next week. I know our. Our email went out. We're supposed to talk about tariffs and, you know, economic insecurity and what we're doing in our land business. Maybe what pivots we're. We're making ourselves. So stay tuned for that next week on Nightcap. Dude, buddy, what do you think of that? Was this a good show?

It was a good show.

You lost everybody, like, in the first 20 minutes. You know, we're talking about our routines.

I think we may have lost some people, but I bet some people loved it, in all honesty, because it's fun to hear about the possibilities. And we're now a little bit further along this journey to where the possibilities have come true. And that's why Land Geek exists, is to help other people realize those possibilities. Right? So that's why we're here. That's why we're doing what we're doing. And we'll talk more nuts and bolts. We'll do that next week. But it's not only nuts and bolts, this business, it's. It's what comes with it. Like John says, it's a lifestyle business. Right? So it brings us time, freedom brings us financial security, brings us family, freedom brings us location. Freedom. So cheers to all that. Cheers.

Cheers.

I'll see you guys next week.