Do Politics Matter and How Does It Affect the Land Business?

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, thelandgeek.com and on this week's Roundtable podcast, we've got Kirk no Fear Peart. Kirk, how are you?

I'm good, Mark. I'm good.

Good to see you. And Tate, I love it when you call me Big Papa. Litchfield, Sin City. Tate, how are things? It's good.

Things are going well. Getting ready for boot camp?

Yeah, we're getting ready for boot camp. By the time this comes out, boot camp will already been completed, so hopefully you were there and you got value from it and don't miss the next one. But we just had a big election, and I think there was a lot of anxiety about this election and how the economy was going to play out or how it would affect us. And I think it's something just to quickly discuss and just see, like, does the President, United States? Do politics really matter in the land business? Kirk, what's your. What's your take?

I mean, you know, I think politics is one of those things everybody, lots of people are heavily invested in and feel like it makes certainly, you know, everybody wants their candidate to win and unhappy when their candidate doesn't. But as far as, like, the daily turnings of business and the daily turnings of life, what I've seen, and this is my first big election going through, you know, while going through the land business, it really hasn't made a difference. In fact, if anything, I would say now that the election is behind us, I feel like our customers are ready to be focused again. Our phone is ringing, our website is getting pinged, our ads are getting clicked, we're talking to a lot of folks and we're on both sides. We're buying more properties now. We're seeing an inflow selling more now as well. So I feel like it's business as usual. If not business is better.

Yeah. I mean, Tate, are you feeling the same way? Do you think we're in a dip?

No, I don't feel like we're in a dip. And I wouldn't even say re election. We were in a dip. I think we were just in this unknown environment for a period of time, and people were just wondering what is going to actually happen. This isn't my first election that I've lived through as a land investor. I've been through other ones that were very heavy, needed. And, you know, at the end of the day, whoever's in the this seat, whoever's got the. The wheel, it really has minimal Impact on my ability to hustle right into the day. I gotta hustle. Right. I gotta. I gotta make sure that the mailers are going out. I gotta get. Make sure that the ads are getting posted, that deeds are getting signed. I've gotta do what I've got to do, and nobody's going to do that for me. Right. Yeah. I can train VAs to do it for me, but speaking figuratively here, I have to do it. I gotta hustle. And, you know, the hustle's alive, it's real. And kind of like what Kirk said, the last week, week and a half, business has been very, very good. I'm. It's a good time to be a land investor. Let's just put it that way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I've been doing this so long. George W. Was our president.

Yeah.

And, and, and to your point, both of your points, like, it really has never affected business, the land business, at all. I think it may be other industries it could, but ours, it really hasn't. I think we were talking about this before the podcast. I mean, Kirk, you went to Elite week in coaching 15 months ago.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We, you know, we don't really talk about. We talk about. But you had a path to double your business, and you did it. And so, you know, I know we don't want to share numbers, but it's. Your. Your passive is now significant to the point where you have solved your money problems, you have solved your time problems, and the future is going to be very, very bright for you. But it did take a while to do. And, you know, I'd be curious, what. What did you learn in the last 15 months as far as doubling your passive income?

Yeah. You know, I think the thing that I focused on most is just the fundamentals of the business. Right. And I think, Mark, you and I had a conversation that I, I kind of always go back to because I asked you this big question. I was like, how do you make a billion dollars in this business? You remember when I asked you that question?

I do remember.

And you were like, yeah, I'm not the guy. Yeah. Like, I'm not the guy that's going to show you how to make a billion dollars in this business, but I can show you how to do really, really well. And then I asked you, okay, well, on your path to doing work, to getting to where you are today, what was the thing that you really focused on and what are the couple things that you can really focus on in order to do well and, like, you know, jump These hurdles. And the thing you said to me was, be really good operational. And I just never forgot that. This is like, okay, operationally means, like, getting your mailers out, right? Doing good county research, getting your ads up, getting more ads up than you expect that you need. You know, picking up the phone and talking to everybody who comes in and talks to you, like, training your team. Like these really sort of basic things in building your business. Never stop being the things that are important for you to do well. And so I just sort of buckled down and just did that, you know, And.

Yeah, and. And. And you're seeing the results. I mean, Tate, how often do you get frustrated with a client and they say they get that shiny object syndrome. They want to get the fancy CRM or they want to start implementing AI or they want to do this or they want to do that. They've got three properties, right?

It's a little bit heartbreaking because at the end of the day, you know, you want to move the needle in your life. Here's the formula, guys lick envelopes, post ads, pick up the phone. That's it, right? Like, the CRM is going to make your life easier. You don't need it at day one, though, right? You don't need a lot of things. AI is really cool, and I use it. I use it all the time. But I can't let AI do everything for me because I firmly believe that nothing is going to replace the human element. Right? I talk about this all the time at boot camp. I'm a big human element kind of guy. So don't get bogged down. I see these things online about learn how to automate everything, learn how AI is revolutionizing this space or that space. And I don't know if it's true. I'm not going to say it's not true. But I can tell you that the most successful land investors I know, and these are guys who are not joking around, they're not making 10 grand a month, right? These are big players. They're focusing on fundamentals. That's it. And when we can find an opportunity to introduce AI or new tech or new software, we do. But we do so cautiously. The reason we do it cautiously is we have something that works. Why do I want to rock the boat with something that might make it better or worse? So we do a lot of vetting, we do a lot of testing, and after that, you know, that probation or period of testing has expired, we then make a decision, is it worth it? Is it worth rewriting playbooks? Is it worth reinventing our wheel? Is it worth getting rid of X person who's been loyal and helpful and done everything? So that's our approach to doing things. But fundamentally, the land business is very much the same as it was the day I mailed my first offer.

No, I mean, Kirk, do you ever get bored with it?

Yes, absolutely.

That's the goal with the fundamentals and how you continue to make it so that you're enjoying the game, but you're fighting the human nature of wanting to complicate something that is just so fundamentally successful. When you just keep doing the basic, simple things that Tay was just talking about. Get out your offers, have your systems, have your process, close deals, pick up the phone, do the things that will lead to success.

Yeah. You know, I started thinking a lot about just repetition, right. Like, and it's, it's one of the things that I think is, is really important to understand about this business, I think any business, is that it's all about reps. It's all about repetition and repetition. Isn't five. I think we talked about this in another podcast. It's not five, it's not 10. It's not 100. Like, it's, it's hundreds, if not thousands. And so, you know, at A, at 150 or 200 transactions, is it time to start making changes? Or do I keep doing it and just get better at those reps? Do I get so good that it feels like it's easy? And do I work so hard at getting good that it just becomes more boring and somewhat mind numbing? But my business will be simple, it'll be easily replicatable. I'll have good, solid systems and I'll have less problems, or at least I'll have problems that I know how to deal with because I've dealt with them before in previous reps. And for me that's been the answer, just to go deeper on the reps and, you know, keep it simple.

Yeah, absolutely. And take like, you know, the problems really never go away.

No, no, no. You know, I always tell people the land business should be boring, right? Yeah, it, it should be. If you're running a good land business, it should be boring. And although I like excitement, I've got young kids, I don't need excitement in my day to day business. Right. I want my money to be predictable. Think about that word, predictable. That's powerful when you can predict the money. Yeah. Bring on the chaos that comes with life, right? I, I tell people all the time, and those of you who know who've listened to the podcast a long time. You know, I like to fish, and one of the things I say is, look, you don't leave fish to find fish. If you're fishing and you're having success, you stay there till the cooler's empty, the sun goes down, and you can't even make a cast anymore. Why? Because you don't get tired of fish, even if they're small fish. I'm never going to leave small fish that are biting to go try and catch bigger ones. What's the point of that? Right. That's the way I run my land business. I don't leave fish to go find new fish. I'm going to stay here till the wheels fall off.

No, absolutely. It's so good. I love that. Don't leave fish to find fish. And how many times have we seen clients, they're making money in a county and they want to go to a new county. They get bored making money.

Diversification is the killer of business.

Diversification. We might have a show title, Diversification is a killer of Business.

Yeah, this is. Folks, we. I just see it all the time. Like, folks start to try and diversify too early. Like, they've got five properties and they want to be in three counties. Like, oh, I've got success with five properties in this one county. And then they start. But then they don't realize that every county is different. Every county now you have to know the. The phone number and the people at the recorder's office, the phone number, and the people at the tax assessor's office, the phone number and the people. The tax collector's office, the phone number, and the people at the zoning and planning office. So. And, And. And the phone number of the folks that do. I don't know. There's another one. There's. There's at least five phone numbers and folks and offices that you need to know for every county. So if you go to three counties, that's now 15, you add two more. That's like 25. That's a level of complexity that you have to then put into your business, train your people. They have to know what to do. If there's an issue at each one of those counties, they've got to call. Like, why?

Yeah, Yeah. I. I love that story about John Wooden, who was the. The most successful college basketball coach from UCLA in history, and he had all these talented players, Lou Alcinder, who's now Kareem Abdul Jabbar. And the very first practice, he would actually teach them how to Put on their socks, put on their shoes, and tie their shoes. And, you know, when you think about it, it's like, yeah, this is the fundamental. First piece that you have to do to play basketball is make sure you're not going to get a blister when you're playing. And that's how he would start every practice. So just the fundamentals. And of course, when you're that talented, you're bored with it. But they did it, and they won, and they won, and they won. What was it, 18 straight championships or something crazy, I forget. But it was not like. Like, it's a record, but all about fundamentals, principles, and these values that you can go and. And create your own land utopia and have your team really embody what is important to you as far as your fundamentals, your values, and your principles, so that when there's a process in their system, like, this is how we treat a customer. This is how we do our intake. This is how we deal with the county. This is how we pay our taxes. And just drilling those fundamentals into your team, next thing you know, you wake up and you've doubled your business in 15 months, and you've really moved the needle in your life. So it's. It's something that I know if you're listening to this podcast, you're like, oh, of course we know this, but it's a good reminder. And of course it's boring, but if you're finding yourself dealing with complexity, dealing with uncertainty, ambiguity, then rewind and just go back to the fundamentals, take a deep breath, and start making money again. Yeah.

Amen.

Amen.

And look, you know, it's one of those things. There's, like. Not to say that you never diversify, but, like, it's got to be. You got to be. So you got to have basically got all the fish at your one spot and have a system to get the fish at that one spot that will work while you move away to go do other things so that, you know, now you can grow your business. You set up everything. You got one area on lock, you've got your team on lock, and then you can move away from, and then you can start to diversify. But I think that takes a long time. It takes a lot of effort and energy.

No, absolutely. And there's only so many hours in a day, and you really have to maximize your time and leverage your time in this business. All right, well, we're at that point in the podcast now where we get to pick on Kirk and ask him for his tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something else actionable for the art of passive income listeners to go improve their businesses, improve their lives. But before he does that, we got to give a shout out to our sponsor, which is flight school. Learn how the next 16 weeks can transform your life. Solve your money problems, solve your time problems. Start building that passive income without any renters or rehabs, renovations or rodents. I know what you're thinking. The tuition ain't going to cost you nothing. Guaranteed you're going to make it back 180 days or less. Just show us you did the work. Learn more. Go tolandgeek.com forward/training thelangic.com training schedule a call with one of our land experts and see if this model, this business, is right for you. All right, Kirk, what is your tip of the week?

I didn't really prepare one for this week, but if I'm going to pull one out of thin air. Recently I've been reading or listening to the audiobook by Seth Godin, the Practice, and it sort of falls along the lines of what we're talking about too, right? Like, just a great book, really talks about doing the work for the sake of the work and how the work enriches you and enhances you and. Yeah, so highly recommend. It's a good book. When you feel like you're doing the same hammering, the same, the same nail over and over and over again, well, there's a reason why, like, that's where the mastery is. Hammer that. Hammer that one nail.

Yeah. I love Seth Goen. I love the fact that this guy's a marketer, but he doesn't tell you about how to market. He's really more like a, like a business philosopher. And here's a framework to work in. And I love his term emotional labor as well. Like, you know, you want people who are going to put emotional labor into their work. They're, they're going to spend the extra minute on the email reply, or they're going to spend the extra five minutes making a customer feel seen or heard and in really going deep into the practice and doing good work for doing good work's sake. I, you know, all his books are kind of the same in that, in that regard, with variations. But ultimately I, I think that's this, you know, beautiful message that he's giving, and it's not prescriptive. He doesn't tell you exactly how to do it because he comes out. It's like there is no map. You have to make the map so, yeah, I'm gonna get that book.

Super, super, super insightful. He's a great offer.

Yeah. Awesome. Well, Kirk, are we good?

Yeah, Mark, we're good.

Tate, are we good? We are awesome. I want to thank the listeners. Remind you the only way that I'm going to be able to cajole both these guys again to come back on the roundtable podcast if you do three little favors. Follow rate, review the podcast. Send a screenshot of that review support@thelandgeek.com I'm going to send you for free a signed copy of Dirt Rich. And if you have Dirt Rich and you don't want to sign copy, just do it anyways because then it allows us to get better guests as well. And also, I can just tell Tate and Kirk, like, hey, we're getting good reviews, so come on back and I'll do it. So are you ready to do this in the most awkward way possible?

Awesome. We do it.

1, 2, 3. Let's. Let's. Freedom.

Freedom Ring Ring.

All right, thanks, everybody.

See you guys. See ya. Thanks for listening to the Art of Passive Income podcast. Are you ready to learn how you can start building a passive passive income without renters, rehabs, renovations, or rodents? Schedule a free consultation@thelandgeek.com training. Let freedom ring.