From W-2 to Land Full-Time: The Exact Transition Plan (Month by Month)

1. I once dined on steak with a candle's soft glow, but the bill left my savings despairingly low. Now wisdom has taught me, so simple, so grand, Eat baloney, buy land. Oh, eat baloney, buy land. Trade the fork for the deed in your hand. Skip the filling, let the sandwiches stand. Your fortune will grow when you buy your own land.

Gentlemen. Welcome to Land Geek Nightcap. Let me ask y'all a question. Have you ever been driving to work on a Monday morning and wondered, is this really what the next 20 or 30 years of my life is supposed to look like? For a lot of people, the W-2 isn't just a paycheck, it's a golden handcuff. And the truth is, almost every successful land investor started there. So tonight isn't, uh, about telling you to quit your job tomorrow, but it's about showing you what's possible. When you begin building something that eventually gives you a choice. And tonight we've got a perfect guest, actually. We have our newest Land Geek coach, Sid Christensen, uh, who built this over time and didn't stumble into success overnight. But his land investing journey actually started when he was laid up in bed a number of years ago with a broken leg. So we're gonna, we're gonna talk about Sid's journey and, uh, what, what brought him to the other side of a W-2 job and what also brought him onto the Land Geek team, uh, as our newest coach. So gentlemen, good to see you.

Here it is. Looks like a great hazy IPA you got, Scott.

It's a very— yes, it's my favorite hazy IPA. It's the Pseudo-Sue Ale from Decorah, Iowa.

I'm a strong believer that IPAs should look and taste like orange juice. That is my belief.

Yeah, more like grapefruit. What's with the microphone?

Well, you know, I just realized it has this kind of flexibility, and I wanted to— I thought I'd lay back, be a little chill. I have my protein water, aka tequila, and I just thought I would, uh, chill out. Great.

I could do it. I got chamomile. I've got the most boring drink you can possibly have.

What is

chamomile, or is it chamomile?

Chamomile tea.

Well, we should do intros, guys. I believe it's pronounced chamomile.

I was wondering, like, what kind of tea is that? Chamomile? Chamomile tea.

Uh, all right, quick intro. So I'm Scott Bossman. Uh, whoops. I'm Scott Bossman. Sorry. People calling me. Joined always— joined by, as always, Mark the Land Geek, the Godfather Podolsky. Mark, good to see you. How's it going?

Glad to be here, dude buddy.

Good, good. In the upper right, John, 8 is enough, handsome Rob Burnett.

Hey, howdy.

How are you, John?

I'm great. I'm very calm. I've got my chamomile.

Very good. I'm glad to hear that.

In

the lower left, uh, with his microphone, uh, prowess is Mike Zaino, the Zen Master. Breathe in the mailing, breathe out the marketing. What's up, buddy?

I'm feeling pretty good that I'm not the only one that, uh, that didn't get the memo about create cool nicknames. So Sid didn't get it either, so I feel better now. Everybody's got a cool nickname, Sid. You see that underneath their names? Like,

yeah,

you have to have the cool—

yeah, I don't know.

Also missed

the last name memo. He's just Sid. Yeah, he's just Sid.

I like that.

That's all you need to know.

And Sid Christensen, who, who needs a nickname. I don't know, is it like, uh, Sid Snowbike? We gotta talk about the Snowbike Sid.

But

anyway,

I think if it's gonna be Sid, it should be Snowbike Sid.

Yeah, right. Snowbike Sid. Yeah, my, uh,

um, when I was growing up, my little sister Used to call— or sorry, it was, I think it was my cousin. She used to call me Nid because she couldn't pronounce the S. So that was my nickname for a while. Um, so, but then that changed. I'm glad.

I'm glad. Awesome. Well, uh, it's good to have you here, Sid. So I, I guess, uh, let's start off, uh, you know, let's, let's rewind the clock. And, uh, you know, if you could just tell everybody what you were up to in life before land investing, uh, that'd be fun to hear.

Yeah, so what I was doing before land investing was moving dirt, but it wasn't the paper shuffling tables, papers around. It was actually moving dirt. I was an excavator operator. Um, I would load dump trucks and dig basements, lay pipe, doing all the physical labor required to do construction that way. And was interested in, you know, I just, I just thought, I can't do this forever. You know, eventually, I'm gonna get wore out, my body's gonna, my body's gonna start aching. And I don't want to, you know, be eating dust all the time. So I started listening to podcasts and actually came across the Wealth Without Wall Street podcast and was listening to them. And look, and I got involved with them. I bought some life insurance policies and I was looking for a way to use that money and invest it. And so I was listening and Mark came on their podcast and he started talking about Flipping dirt. And I thought, well, that's interesting, but it sounds like— it sounds too complicated. Sounds like a lot of work for me. And, you know, I just— all these deeds and details, and like, that's really not me. I just want to put some money into something and have it pay me. So I was actually going to do like short-term rentals or long-term rentals. I was looking at one of those. We were looking at a house to buy, a turnkey house. And, um, we like to go snow biking. And if you know what a snow bike is, it's just a motorcycle with a ski on the front. You take the tires off, put a ski on the front, and then a track on the back. And we go in the mountains and, you know, just boondock through trees. Um, it's great fun. So we were doing that and my brother ran into the side of me, my left side. We were going fast and we didn't see each other and held me right there. And so I wrecked, didn't realize it, but I broke my leg at that time. I was trying to get up and like, man, my leg hurts. And, you know, realized it broke. We had all the adrenaline going through your body at that moment. And laying in the snow, I'm thinking, what am I gonna do? Like Construction is, you know, that's my livelihood. I'm making money that way. I won't be able to, you know, work like I have been. And my wife, she was a nurse, and I was like, she's gonna have to work more. And so I was laying in the snow, I'm like, well, maybe, you know, maybe this land thing would be something that'll work out, as I was waiting for Life Flight to come pick me up. And Um, so when I got back, well, I had surgery, got back home, and I talked to Scott Bossman, and I was asking all kinds of questions about the lamb business. And I was just like, would it— could it replace— I mean, eventually I'm gonna go back to work is what I was thinking, but I want that— my wife wants to be home, a stay-at-home mom. So that was the original goal, like, will it replace her income? And at the time it was like $2,500. And that, at that, that number seemed outrageous to me to be able to hit that. And Scott was very confident that I would hit it. And I was like, I don't know, it's a lot of money every month. And I was looking at, you know, apartments, or I mean, long-term rentals. And I'm like, man, I'm gonna have to buy like 100 of these to even make that work. It seemed like And, and then I— the more I looked at land, it's like, well, it's lower, um, cash amounts needed to make higher returns. So at that point, I'm like, let's jump in. Jumped into flight school and started doing deals and working towards that. And it was— it's been a slow and consistent process for me, and it's slowly grown over time. Was able to get my wife home from work, and now I do this full-time. And Now I just move dirt for fun. So I move dirt for— I flip land and then I, I move physical dirt. So it's like I'm— I tell people I'm a professional dirt mover. So.

Yeah, yeah, literally and figuratively. Well, literally and literally.

Yeah.

I'm getting some bad feedback. Oh, now it's— now it's gone. But Sid, that— so that's an amazing story. Uh, I'm curious to know, how long did it take your wife to be able to, to, uh, be at home full-time?

Let's see. So we started it— I started in 2019, and she quit her job in '21. So 2 and a half, 3 years about. So it took for us to have her home. And she probably could have quit sooner than, um, you know, what she did. But we just— we were putting more money in the land, building the business up. So she, she worked. And then we had our third child, um, and at that point it was a good time for her to be at home full-time. So.

Well, that's amazing. I mean, who in the chat, who watching of our millions of listeners would like to either quit their job in 3 years or retire their spouse in 3 years? I mean, that's pretty amazing. So, congrats to you. And now, you know, just a couple years later, Sid, you're a full-time land investor. Was it hard to leave the job? Was it exciting? Was it nerve-wracking?

So I, I slowly left my job. I worked for my dad, and I first quit— like, I quit working on Fridays. And so I started working on the land business full-time on Fridays. And then as it progressed, I was able to replace my income. Um, so then I went to like 3 days a week for my dad, and now I still help him. Um, I do 1 day a week for him, sometimes 2, like Monday, I was driving a dump truck around and I sold a piece of property. While I was driving the truck around, I had a phone call and he was like, what is all that noise? Sorry, I'm driving a dump truck around. And he's like, really? And he's like, you know, I— you must be a real person.

Very true.

And then we had talked about dump trucks for a while. Anyway, so some of the— sometimes the noise is great for selling land. So I still do that every once in a while just to get out of the house and do something, um, you know, active like that. So.

Oh, that's amazing. Uh, Mark, what are your thoughts?

So cool. I mean, I, I, yeah, I love the story, Sid. I'd be curious If you go back in time and I'm listening to this, I'm like, yeah, I mean, it does seem like it would be easier to do, uh, you know, a rental home or, uh, an Airbnb short-term rental. Like, what's your— what's your argument? Like, why should someone do the land business over these other models in, in your experience?

So I think, I don't know, going back, um, the reason why I was looking at, uh, rentals is because I didn't think I had time to do this business. I didn't realize, you know, I thought it'd take more time than it did. And, and when I did have my broken leg and I was laying in bed, I— this is, this is what I considered my job. I was spending a lot of time to get this going. But after, you know, that was only Maybe 5, 6 months, and then I was back to work full time. And at that point, I started— like, we started it, and it didn't take that much time. It really does only take about, I mean, 10 hours a week to get this off the ground. And the time commitment is higher at the beginning, but the return is higher as well. So, I mean, from— I've only done one long-term rental, and it's my next-door neighbor's house that we bought. And already I've had to fix the plumbing, and I've already had issues with it. And I'm over there thinking, land is so much better than this because, um, you know, there's no— no, there's no termites, toilets, or tenants, right, in land. Mm-hmm. So, you know, long-term rentals, there's still time commitment, but I don't think there's as much. But it's a longer process to get the financial freedom than land, where you can buy an asset for, you know, a couple thousand dollars and turn around and sell it for, you know, um, $200, $300 a month in passive income and just keep doing that over and over again. And the, you know, and you will make some mistakes along the way. Um, I know I have. But, you know, they're like, you know, $2,000 mistakes instead of $200,000 mistakes. So it's a lot easier to think about that than trying to buy a bunch of rentals and then having a big mistake or having a tornado, something happened to it. So I love land. I've tried different things. I've tried starting an Amazon business and I hated it. I hated physical products. So I mean, I'm all in the land. And it's just been awesome.

What was your physical product?

Oh, it was pet products. It was dog beds and dog leashes. We bought some training and we're going through it. And I just was like, this is the worst. I had a bunch of dog beds show up on my— at my house. I was just thinking diversify, you know, I was I'm gonna diversify, you know, the income. And I had 300 dog beds come to my house, and I had to label them. And I just— I was kicking myself the whole time. So we had an excess supply of dog beds for a while, just kicking around our house. And they were great. My kids used them for like building tents. We still have some. And we do pillow fights, we build tents and forts with them. So I almost thought, man, I should just sell these for like forts instead of dog beds because that's what we use them for. But ended that business and I went back to the land and learned my lesson. I haven't looked back.

Love it.

That's, that's amazing. Uh, Sid, we do have a couple questions coming in from, from our many viewers. Uh, so, uh, I don't know if you— we do have a question from Mary. Where did you find your first piece of land? And maybe you don't have to tell everybody the county, probably, but, or, you know, tell us the state or the region of the US where you bought your first piece of land. And maybe tell us a little bit about the deal. Like, how much did you buy it for and how long did it take to sell that first parcel? A lot of people like to hear about that.

Yeah, so I bought a whole— so when you start flight school, Um, Scott— I was with Scott Todd, and he gets you right into it. He's like, go buy a wholesale deal and get started. And so that's what I did. I took action. And we were sending mail out, and while we're waiting for the responses to come back, I went and bought a property in Arizona. And I did my due diligence. I thought I did a good job of due diligence. Um, turns out I missed that it was in a flood zone, and I didn't know that. Uh, But we got it on the market. It took me— I want to say it took us about 4 months to sell this thing. And we sold it to the first guy. And I still didn't know it was in flood zone at this point. He actually started making monthly payments. He paid cash a few months later. So I was like, holy crap, this is awesome. And then he came back to me and he's like, hey, you didn't tell me this was in a flood zone. I was trying to do a septic. System in it. And I was like, it is? It's in a flood zone? So I was like, okay, well, I, uh, I'll refund you. So I had to pretty much buy it back from him and refund his money. And, and then, uh, 2 months later it sold. But I told the lady that I sold it to, it's like, hey, this is in a flood zone, um, just so you know. And she's like, oh, I don't care, we're just wanting to use it for camping. And she bought it, and she bought it for more than what I sold it to for the first guy. So it ended up working out, even with like, you know, learning along the way, learning about due diligence along the way. And I mean, I still buy properties in flood zones because they still sell. There's a certain— there's a buyer for everything, right? Um, but yeah, that was a memorable deal. It was one of the first properties I bought. And learned a lot. So just take action, just get started, you'll learn no matter what.

Oh, that's awesome. Thanks, thanks for that. Um, yeah, it's amazing they all sell, right? Uh, Mark talked about that 10 years ago, they all sell. And I, I looked at him like, really? And, uh, it's, it's the truth. You just got to market them, and, and there's a buyer for every parcel. Mike Zaino, you've been very quiet tonight. What do you think?

I love the story. I, I think this is, uh, pretty much, you know, it reminds me of the Zen parable. Um, maybe you've heard this from the good— where they label things good and bad, or they say you shouldn't label things good and bad because you don't know what— said you have this terrible accident and, you know, it's like you could say, oh, this is horrible, but then it leads you to uncovering something that changes your life. and the trajectory of your family forever, like a legacy play. So who's to say, you know, good, bad? You know, I came in almost 50 grand in debt, horrible, but I reinvented myself in my 40s, and, and, and now I, you know, just am so blessed by land. So I just, I'm reminded of that, you know, they talk about this, this parable in Zen, you know, good, good, good, bad, who knows, who knows, right?

It's a Chinese farmer parable. Yeah, which I think I, I write about in my first book.

Really?

Yeah, but actually I think I took it out because—

Oh, that's the farm. Yeah, because the guy comes, you gotta take this baby, right? No, no.

So, so basically, so what happens is, uh, the, the, the Chinese farmer's horse leaves.

Yes.

And, and they're— and everyone in the village is like, oh, it's terrible, your, your horse is gone. He's like, we'll see. And then 2 days, 2 days later, the horse comes back with a herd of horses, all horse friends. And the village is like, oh my gosh, what luck! He's like, we'll see. And then his son is riding one of the wild horses, and his son breaks his leg. And the village is like, oh, it's terrible, son broke his leg. We'll see. You know, a month later, son's in the hospital, and the Chinese army comes in. And, and recruits all these— every, every young person in the village to go to war.

That's it.

And, you know, it being— he broke his leg saved his life. And like, you know, what luck. And again, that ball keeps bouncing. We'll see. We don't— we never know.

Yeah, that's exactly it. And that's such a wonderful story. It's just maybe it's all about perspective, right? Just keeping things in perspective, right? And how You know, in, in American, we say lemons into lemonade, right? It's, it's the same idea, but you've embraced it, Sid, and it's, uh, it's pretty awesome. You know, I had a couple of questions, but I think the one that sticks out, I think, is more of an observation of something you said that I think you should talk about some more. But so many times people feel like, um, you know, I have to pretend to be this or pretend to be that to buy land, to sell land, but you're driving a dump truck. All kinds of god-awful noise. And what does it do? It connects you with the person who's buying your land. I've heard mothers say the children in the background— we talked about this, you know— that makes them sound real. So maybe talk a little bit about just being who you are and how that's helped you grow your business rather than being who you maybe think that you should be, quote unquote, as an investor-type person.

Yeah. So, I mean, that— it took me a while just to relax, right? And just be who I was. Because when I first started, I was listening to all the land investors and taking all the tips and tricks on how to sell land. And, you know, some of them I applied and I just felt off. They didn't really work for me. Some, some did work for me. And, you know, once I just took a deep breath and just relaxed, and I was able just to be me, I like talking about, you know, motorcycles. And if I was able to talk about motorcycles with these people on the phone, then I did that, or construction. And just if I just relaxed, I think the people, like the land The leads that we were talking to, I was talking to, they felt that. And they felt like I was not trying to be someone else. I was just being me. And I think that came across that way. So just, just relax.

What I love— difficult in the beginning, you know, but I think the idea of this, you know, even like the fact that we listen to people when we're talking to them, rather than being preoccupied with what we're going to say. That, you know, when you're talking to a potential buyer or seller and just connecting with them, when they say something, ask a couple questions about it, and then they, they just open up to you. Next thing you know, you're, you're talking for 5 or 10 minutes just about. And then now it's like a verbal— I always say, you know, why do people like to play golf, business people? Because they, you know, at the end they've, they've had this whole 18 holes of conversing and getting to know each other. Well, I always say you can have like a verbal game of golf on the phone, right? It's how do you get that energy going back and forth with somebody where it's like Wow, you're pretty cool. Yeah, you're pretty cool. Hey, how about we do a deal together? Sure, why not? You know, that's, that's like the height of it.

Yeah, for sure. I remember, um, speaking of relax, uh, when I first came to the, uh, first boot camp I went to, John Burnett was on the plane, I think flying from Salt Lake City. And I sat right next to John, and I didn't know who he was.

Right next to him?

Yeah, right next to him. He was on the phone and he was talking about some deed problem. And I'm like, I wonder if this guy is going to the Lang Geek thing. And so I asked him like, are you, are you going to Lang Geek boot camp? And he's like, yes, I am. And I'm like, no way. And he like, I peppered him with questions the whole flight there. And by the time we got there, I think I was relaxed. Maybe not.

I think we shared an Uber too. We were like, yeah, we were like bosom buddies by the end. It was great.

Yeah, it was great. And it was like, oh, such a blessing in my life just to talk to somebody because, you know, starting this out, like, I had no friends that were doing it. I had no one to really bounce ideas off of. And, you know, I was on the plane headed to boot camp. And in the back of my mind, I'm like, I spent all this time, I'm going to boot camp to learn about this land business thing. I've, I've already spent money in coaching. And this is all playing in the back of my head, like, is this gonna work? And, you know, just sitting next to John, it was just, you know, an answer to my prayers just to have someone to, to talk to as a friend about it. And that really helped. So just having someone in your corner just to bounce ideas off of is very helpful. So thanks, John.

That's such a cool story, right? It's the Land Geek serendipity right there. You guys, like, you were meant to sit down next to one another.

Yeah, it was crazy.

That's kind of like a guest shout out. That's one of the highest shout outs you can get right there, John. Shout out.

Yeah, I mean, speaking of shout outs, do we have to read Mike's shout out?

Mark, you bit hook, line, and sinker.

Thank you. Oh yeah, right? For sure, for sure.

I thought you'd never ask.

Yeah, so yeah, some faithful listener put into the comment, I'm truly thankful for Mike This is Deepak Singh. People who are honest, dedicated, and exceptional at what they do deserve genuine recognition.

I'm blushing. I am. If you listen on the radio right now, or on the, uh, people listen to us not on the radio but listening to us, know that I'm blushing.

By the way, am I the only one hearing some kind of mic? Is it Mike's mic?

My theory was that it was Mike's mic. But I think it's Sid's mic.

I think

it's Mike's or Sid's.

Yeah, is my mic weird? I don't know.

We're hearing some kind of weird feedback.

There's a, uh, there's the little microphone button at the bottom with the arrow, and a lot of times it will pick the wrong mic for me at least.

Ah, thanks for that, John.

You're welcome.

Testing.

Uh, well, I mean I don't know if you guys saw this shout out on the call. I mean, this is the second time I've been told this.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, look at the name.

Look

at the name.

Look at the name.

I think that— oh, that's my—

yeah, never mind.

Sorry, Ben. What about something nice about me?

Bossman's my boy. That's my boy.

Fatherly love. That's— I like that.

Yeah,

I like— I just kind of— my theory is that Scott just logged into YouTube as Ben Bossman just to give himself shout outs.

You

might see Larry Burnett shortly giving me—

Right, right. Yeah,

yeah.

Oh,

is my mic better now?

I think so,

I think so.

Okay, sorry about that.

Yeah, yeah, we're not hearing it too much.

I'm pathetic, but not that pathetic, John. I mean, geez, come on. Uh, John, do you have a question for Sid? You've been pretty quiet as well. And, uh, You know, I guess we love hearing from you.

Uh, did you have any, like, besides sitting next to me on the plane, were there any other major breakthrough moments for you as a land investor?

Oh my God, eye roll.

Well, I met, I met Mike. No.

He talked to me first, so

yeah,

it's

fine. First, so

yeah, but then his life changed when he met Mike, and that really just swung the passive income doors wide open.

Wide open.

And then Mark, of course. So meeting Mark at boot camp, he's like, man, this guy, he, he's actually genuine and he cares about you. So, um, yeah, I, I think, uh, when I I think a significant part in the land business, um, that happened is when I sold my first property, and it wasn't anything spectacular. Um, it was just a property that— or a buyer that just had $100 to put down, and I took it, and they made a few payments, and then they defaulted. But That was proof that I can do that and, or do this business. And so that was a significant breakthrough in, in the land investing journey. It's just seeing the, the come to fruition. It's like, oh man, I can do this. If I could do it for one, I can do it for all of them going forward. But just the confidence that it gave me was tremendous just to push me forward. Another thing I did want to say is something that's really helped me is just consistency. I love the quote. I don't know who says it, but it's consistency beats out intensity. So I mean, just doing just little things every day add up. And, you know, it doesn't have to be, you know, a sprint. It's a marathon. And just being consistent Showing up to doing this business every day. Um, I, I devote a lot of my success just doing the little things. Nothing's, nothing's big. People ask me like, how's the land business? And I'm like, it's consistent. Nothing's crazy about it. It's just, yeah, we, we buy and we sell land consistently. And that's what I love about it. It's just, it's solid. There's no big swings. Um, I mean, it's great to get a big sale, but you know what, I don't see them happen. I don't have huge sales, it's just consistent sales.

The river of nickels.

Yeah, exactly.

I throw on a base hit after base hit, still come home every time.

I like that though, with like consistency. Like, I've known somebody who is a pretty prolific writer Just writes books 15 minutes a day at a time. And you add that up. And after years, you've spent many, many, many hours on that book. You know, it's crazy. Like, if you're intentional with your time, it's crazy what you can accomplish.

Yeah, for sure. But, um, I think one of the crazy land deals I did have that was significant is I had an email come to me. And it had no text. It just had a picture of a dead goat on a front porch of a white house, blood all over the porch. And I was like, what is this? And I didn't, I didn't reply because I'm like, I don't know who you are. Like, I looked at the email and it's like, Wasn't in my, you know, CRM or anywhere. So I'm like, I don't know who this guy is. And a few days later, I get a call from animal control and they were saying, hey, this guy is, you know, claiming that you have dogs that have killed his goat and it's from your property. And I was like, oh, okay, someone's got dogs I sold land to. So I looked up the APN. And I saw where the property was, and I figured out who the guy was, and he was the neighbor. So I'm like, okay, it's a problem. Um, called my, uh, my land buyer and talked to them, said, hey, we got a problem. You— your dogs have got out, they killed the goat. And they aren't there. I knew all about it. And, and then they're like, oh yeah, we're gonna chain up our dogs and Whatnot. I ended up talking to the— so my buyer's name was Lindsay and the neighbor was Richard. So I emailed Richard. I'm like, hey, you have a phone number? I need to talk to you. And so I called him up and I was like, what's going on? He's like, yeah, these people on your land, they have the dogs and I want— I don't want to cause problems, but I want them to take their dogs away. Because they're killing my goats. So I'm like, well, let me see what I could do. I called Lindsay back and said, hey, this property has neighbors around it and it seems like you don't want neighbors. Is that right? And they're like, oh yeah, that's one thing we don't like about it is the neighbors. I'm like, tell you what, I got this property. It's way out in the middle of nowhere, super far. There's no one around it. Would you like to switch to that one? And she's like, oh yeah, that'd be great. So I was able to switch her to that one. I called Richard back and said, hey, I got the people to move. However, the property is back on the market. He's like, well, don't put it back on the market. I want to buy it. Wow. So I'm like, okay, sold it to him. So another problem solved and we got 2 sales out of it. You know, at first I was like, oh, here comes, you know, someone's gonna sue me. I was all worried, but we were able to figure out a solution. And, you know, that's, that's sometimes the funnest part about the land business is, you know, everything's, you know—

What a great story. That's an amazing story.

It's a great story. Great story. Am I the only one who's thinking about if you acquire this next parcel, I'll, I'll donate a goat to you and then sell it to the neighbor and, you know, Yeah, I'm gonna donate a dog.

Yeah, yeah, take his dogs out there.

That's, that's a great story.

That's great. You know, I once tried to do a deal for Black Friday where I offered people a free turkey with their property.

You

did not sell any properties.

You didn't pre-buy the turkeys, did you?

I think— no, I did not pre-buy the turkeys.

Were you gonna like, uh, send it in the mail to them,

or— I, I don't think I really got that far. I was like, you know what, if they buy it, I'll figure it out.

You know, um, Sid, um, you, you were talking about that first property. You said about 4 months it took you to sell it, the one in Arizona.

Yeah,

the one in the flood zone. Um, but now you talk also about the consistency. I think that I think that's encouraging for people to hear, and I'd love you to talk a little bit more about, you know, first thing people do is acquire property. That's the first part we do, right? Whether it's wholesale or land arbitrage or, you know, buying from a mailer. But then a lot of people get, you know, a little anxious on the sell side, you know, whether it's a month or 2 and they're advertising and they're like, is this ever going to sell? And they get all panicky. It's very normal, right? But you just said it took you 4 months and now you're in this rhythm. Can you You just talk about making that first sale and a little bit about, you know, just how— what would you say to someone who's got that anxiety? I have this property, is this thing ever going to sell? Like, they just want to sell it right now because, of course, you know, proof of concept and all. What would you say to them?

Yeah, I, I mean, I remember feeling all that. All that's not new. It's— I think it's perfectly normal just to feel anxious and You put your money into it. You're not— you're not just the property, but like the whole, like, your time and effort you put into learning about this. And, you know, the money you spent on coaching. So you're, you know, you're wanting this to work and you want to know fast because you're like, well, if this is going to work, then I'm going to go all in. If it's not, then, you know, you'll move on. But, um, it's like what we said, like, when you're marketing It's just being consistent. Don't— you know, every, every few days I posted, or I did post an ad on Facebook. I think it's all I was using at the beginning because it's all I can afford. I did try Craigslist, didn't have much success there, but I just— I got in the rhythm and I put reminders on my phone when I was first starting and said post an ad on Facebook. Yeah. I think it was every 3 days. And so I do that and post an ad on Craigslist every 3 days, every 2 days. I can't remember exactly the cadence of it. And it's probably different for everybody, but just help that app, or I mean, putting those reminders on my phone helped me stay consistent and helped me not to worry about what to do next. It kind of put it out of my brain for For something to think about, I just put it on my phone and it's just going to remind me when I hit it or get the reminder, I'm just going to do it. And then that's what I've done with all these tasks in the land business is just have a system that reminds me to do things. Or when you get, as you're growing, you have VAs, they still need to know when to do things. So you send reminders to them or however you have the system set up. So I think just setting up just like those recurring tasks will help you not think about it, but also do it.

Yeah, very good.

Don't think, just do.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. No, that's awesome. Sid, we have some other questions coming in. If you wouldn't mind giving your Your perspective on some of these things. So, so Mary Neely just, just started. She started her journey with the starter kit. So I'm very excited for you, Mary. And, you know, I think hopefully you can take some things from this podcast in that if you just show up consistently and spend time on this, we can all do this. But she has a question, Sid. So what, what, what was the hardest part of picking a county? Uh, when you first started out?

I think just picking one, because I mean, this works in all over all the counties. And, you know, it's, it's, it was— I just kind of, I picked 3 to start with because I was doing all these county research and I was looking at all these counties and I'm like, I just gotta pick some. And I picked some and started working them and Learned how to— and I still do deals in those 3 counties right now, I think because I spent so much time learning these counties in the beginning. Um, but I just— you just got to pick one and start. Uh, there's really no, you know, secret sauce other than just picking one and get moving.

I love it. I— and I think for, for Mary also, you know, it's helpful, um, to go where other land investors are working, right? So, Sid, you probably saw some other land investors working in that county. It shows there's a market there in that county for buying and selling land.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was looking at all those counties where all the land investors were doing deals, and then, you know, I was looking at them, they all look the same. It's like, oh, they're doing deals here, they're also doing deals here. They're, you know, it's just they all look the same to me, and I think just just picking them. I just kind of went down the list and I don't know. I was kind of like throwing a dart at it, and then just keep going.

So yeah, awesome. And then we have another question coming in from Landgrind. I kind of recognized Landgrind. I wonder if is that Shannon? I can't tell. But, well, she has it. So her question is, what advice would you give new investors? But but let's put a little spin on it. So if you could have a five-minute conversation with yourself before you started land investing, what would you tell yourself?

Hmm. I'd be I'd tell myself, okay. So this land investing business is going to take a ton of work. And it's going to be long. You're not going to get rich overnight. It's going to take consistency and hard work. But if you stick with it and, you know, give it at least 3 years, you will see success. It's, you know, going through the beginning, you're going to hit some dips. But if you push through those, you will keep moving forward. It's always been 2 steps forward, 1 step back for me in the land business. You sell 3 properties and then 2 of them default. You sell 4 properties, 1 defaults. It's always been that way. And I think it's always going to be that way. But, you know, it's— you just got to go through these dips, be consistent, and you will be successful on the other side. But you got to stick to it.

You got to show up and write the book 15 minutes a day, right? As Brad Kelly says here, his book writing is showing up here Tuesday nights, spending many hours on Tuesday nights with us. Let's hope that pays off, Brad.

They're very productive hours. We

get a lot done.

They are.

Yes. That's awesome. Well, Any other questions for Sid out there, folks? Or any questions about land investing in general? We'd be happy to answer for you. Any other questions for Sid, gentlemen? Mark, you got something on your mind?

What was the first job that you outsourced and why?

What was it? I think it was, it was ad— oh, it was ad writing. Hey, I hate writing ads. So I went on Upwork and got a bunch of ad writers to create ads for me. Got a lot of copy, a lot of it was terrible. So, but I did get some good VAs that were actual copywriters. I think they just were saying they were copywriters and not really copywriters. But you got to sift through those. And, you know, you don't have to— once you hire somebody, they could work an hour and you can let them go. But I think it was copywriting. I still hate copywriting. I hate typing. So thank goodness for like WhisperFlow and all this stuff. It helps me. And actually, you know, just if I do write copy every once in a while, because I can talk into the computer, which actually I think helps me, helps my voice come out. Because I'm not trying to spell things. I just, you know, talk into the computer and talk how I would say something. So it was copywriting. But yeah.

Who uses Whisper Flow? Zeno?

Mike's the odd man out.

I think I've tried it, but nothing catches New England accent correctly.

Oh, okay. Yeah, it's gonna be Whisper Flow for you New England guys.

Needs Whisper Flow.

Whisper Flow.

I have to make my own variation. Whisper. W-I-S-P-A-H. Whisper. I think that might work, Mark. We're onto something there.

I know. Only for New Englanders.

Whisper Flow has ruined me as a PT because when I fill in one morning a week— actually, they haven't called me in a month. Maybe, maybe it's because I'm— I don't know why. Maybe they don't like me anymore. But, but, uh, but anyway, I go in and I'm on this, uh, archaic software from like 2005 and I have to, I have to type and it's just like painful, painful. And then I come home and I just push my WhisperFlow button and I'm off to the races. It's amazing. Amazing.

Yeah, it's my favorite tool.

Yeah, for sure. All right, well, any other questions out there from the peanut gallery, from the hive mind? I knew it.

I knew it.

What's wrong with that term? I think it's a good term.

You should

just like watch the Green Apple TV show. Yeah, the hive mind.

Yeah, it's a good term. Uh, well, Sid, so, so now, uh, we should, we should talk for a minute about the fact that you're one of our newest coaches.

So yeah, it's good.

Talk about how this has come full cycle and Um, you know, what are your thoughts on, on becoming the newest, uh, Land Geek coach?

Well, at first I'm like, me? Are you sure? I'm still learning this business. But I don't

think

you'll ever stop learning this business, right, Mark? Um,

yes, every— everyone that's coached, by the way, they all start with imposter syndrome. And even to this day Like, everyone feels the same way. And I always say, look, iron sharpens iron. Be with the other coaches because you're— you've got to stay a step ahead of your students. And so everyone's, you know, like that, which is great. So everyone's still learning, but you learn together.

Yeah, so I'm, I'm still like, oh, I, you know, but I, uh, I'm grateful to have the opportunity to share this with others. I mean, I mean, I'm grateful for John. I'm grateful for Mike and Scott and you, Mark, and Eric Peterson, my coach, and Kate. I'm grateful for everybody that has helped me along this— along the way. And I feel honored to be able to help others in their journey when I can. So I just, I feel like it's a great way to give back to You know, for what I've received, because you know there's no you know there's not a self-made business, self-made man. There's everybody has help. Everybody has someone in their corner, and for me it was you guys and especially my wife. She was supportive along the whole this whole journey. I told her about the lamb business, and she's like. like, all right, let's give it a shot. And I had tried many things before the land business, and she's always been supportive. So I feel excited and grateful to, to be a coach and help out when I can, where I can, and support others on their journey.

Yeah, you're gonna do amazing because you know why? Because you're very grounded. You get a very calming energy. You're kind of like maybe that conversation on the plane, John Burnett rubbed off on you because you get a kind of a John Burnett vibe, very calm, very dialed in. Like, I think that you're gonna, you're gonna really help people grow in this business. I'm excited to see you do that. And the people are going to be excited to work with you because, you know, you've come a long way and you're very good at what you do. You're humble. You just have such great qualities that are going to really help you as a coach and It's gonna shine.

Thanks, Mike. Yeah, I think John just said you just need to relax.

Yeah, what I love about the program, though, is that, you know, it's not coaching therapy, where somebody asks a question, and then you don't ask them, well, how do you think? What do you think? Like, we give the answer and accelerate you. And what's great is that it's a team. And so if Syd literally hasn't experienced it for whatever reason— he probably has, but if he didn't, he would just ask, say, I don't know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna find out for you and come back to you with that. And, and so, you know, it's, it's again just having that breathing, that confidence into someone else because you did it, you know what they've— what they're going through. Right.

Right.

Is, is priceless, um, for, for other people to have that, uh, you know, that sensei right next to them.

Sensei Sid.

Sensei Sid. There's Sensei Sid!

Yeah, I,

I don't know, because he just got back from Africa.

How about this?

We gotta talk about Sid in Africa.

Oh man, right, it was crazy. Um, we, uh, were able to raft the mighty Zambezi River And I was able to take my boys with me.

Wow.

And the raft flipped on us. Oh. We were in the water. And I have— I mean, my boys are 9 and 8 years old. I had never been so scared in my life. And I was in the water, you know, helpless at this point. And I mean, remember saying prayer, you know, as I'm trying to swim myself, like, just help these boys that they don't Drown. Luckily, we had some great guides with us. They got them and pulled them out. And, um, but that was, that was an experience like none other. And, um, we survived it. But, and then, you know, Revan was able— my boy Revan, he was able to shoot a warthog, and he was so excited about that. And then my boy Braxton was able to shoot a wildebeest. And, you know, I just so grateful for the opportunity to be with them and share that experience with them. It was really fun.

Wow, that's amazing. I actually— we'll have to compare notes, but I did the Zambezi as well. Uh, Laney tore her knee. Um, and then when I, I flipped out, and she's— her biggest thing was like, how am I gonna tell his parents he died? Like, wow, it was, it was, it was intense. I mean, I mean, these are like— if you guys look up like whitewater river rafting on the Zambezi, it is intense. And, uh, we didn't know what we were signing up for. Did you know?

Had you been rafting before, Mark?

Yeah, yeah, I, yeah, I've been in Australia and Colorado. I thought, oh, you know, this is not that big a deal. It's whitewater river rafting, how fun. You know, there's nothing fun about it except surviving.

Did the raft flip on you too, Mark?

It didn't flip on us, but we, we fell out, you know, got thrown. You know, they were Class 5, a lot of Class 5 rapids.

Yeah, yeah, it was, it was crazy. So those rapids are huge when we were going over them, and I was the whole time I was thinking, oh, Chelyse is gonna kill me. You know, with my boys, it's like, hold on, boys, hold on. And they were good. They held on tight. And they did a good job. So anyway, it was fun. But it could have been worse. That's what— so, but we like rode in the back of a truck for like an hour to get to it. And then in the back of the truck on the way home. And that was probably the most dangerous part about it is Driving in the back of this guy's truck, taking us through the African roads.

Sure. Wow, that's an amazing story. Good stories tonight, Sid. Uh, well, we have a few minutes left and we do have a few questions, so maybe we could do a, you know, a quick, um, a 30-second fast on some of these questions here. All right, so this is from, uh, Lashana and Kyle. Um, Sid, you want to answer this one? Better to diversify within one county or choose a few counties when first creating a property portfolio?

I would, I would start with 2 if I was gonna do it again. I had 3 to start with, and then I, I ended up doing most my business in one county, but I think it gives you some diversification in learning different counties when you're first starting out, and it helps you decide like, oh, I like this county a little bit better than this one. And that's what happened to me. I just, I gravitated to one that I really liked, but I think starting out with 2 or 3 is a good move.

Nice. All right, cool. And then from Scott Christensen, Sid, other than having an amazing last name, We better do a— we better do a genealogy study here for the Christiansens.

Yeah.

What, what, what tasks do you do consistently still in your business?

Um, so I call leads. I have a certain time, well, a couple times throughout the day, I call leads that have expressed interest in Getting on the phone with me. I'm trying to think of stuff I do. I still post some ads on Facebook every 5 days. I post an ad on Facebook on my account. I haven't given that to a VA just mainly because I'm concerned that the Facebook account will be burned. It's just too good to give up. And I could do that for 5 minutes. It's not a big deal. I have to look at what I do consistently.

Yeah, you built the machine.

Yeah, it's— sometimes I wonder what I do. No, I mean, I'm always— I always spend some time 2 or 3 hours a week to— I call it my land focus time to learn something new. You know, right now it's trying to figure out what an AI agent actually is and does. So I'm spending some time doing that. So, Mark, yeah, I'm doing it.

You're

doing it with the AI agent.

Because on our unfair advantage call, we created an agent in real time.

Yeah.

And Sid saw it.

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it.

Sid, here's the real thing. That's not Mark.

Yeah.

Mark Podolsky clone. Yeah. That's

awesome.

Yeah.

Well, thank you for that. And then we have a question from Todd Williams. Um, uh, Sid, if you could wave a magic wand and solve one particular problem on your business, what would it be?

Right now it's bookkeeping, um, at the moment. And, um, that's why I'm leaning into maybe an AI agent. It's a little— I'm a little like, I'm nervous about it because I'm like, it's like important stuff, right? But I spend a lot in bookkeeping, so if I can figure out how to cut that cost any way I can, that's what I would do right now.

There are a lot of VAs. So we had a bookkeeper that we were paying $30 an hour, which she didn't work a ton of hours every month, but she had to leave and You know, we went on a bookkeeping hunt again and actually found a VA in the Philippines for $10 an hour, and she does an amazing job. So there's some really great options for everybody watching. There's really great options on Upwork for bookkeepers. So go bookkeeper shopping, right? Awesome. Well, this was fun, guys. I don't think there are any other questions. Coming in that I missed. Um, but some good stories tonight, some good words of wisdom from Sid Christianson. Sid, we're happy to have you on board the Land Geek team. It's very exciting.

Uh, Sid, are you gonna be making it to the Dirt Rich Summit?

I wish I could. I am going elk hunting.

Oh, okay. Oh.

But the elks— there's—

Looking forward to seeing you.

What?

I was looking forward to seeing you.

I, I still might. There's— so in Utah, there's 2 different, um, hunting weeks that you can do for— it's called— it's just the general, uh, tag rifle hunt that I go on. And there's 2 weeks you can choose from. We haven't decided which week we're doing it, um, but one of the weeks is when boot camp is.

We can decide for you right now.

It's the other one. The other one.

Yeah, right,

right. Well,

it would just be great to see you there, you know. And for those who don't know, it's a, it's a pretty awesome gathering. It's a live gathering. Uh, it's intimate, actually, I would say. You know, this is such a small niche. Um, but it was so funny. It's intimate, Scott, isn't it?

Nothing— yeah, it's intimate. Yeah,

how else would you say it? It's a small gathering of like-minded investors.

I don't know if I'd call it intimate. I mean, I

don't mean it's—

I mean, intimate is like, uh, you know, thousands of mood lighting, sitting on a sofa together.

Well, we do have the fireside chat. That's intimate.

Okay, that's it today.

But the rest of them, holding all the tables, it's great.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, you know what I mean? It's not 1,000 people. It's like, it's a— there's not a ton of people doing this. It's a small niche, so it's a Small group of people that are like-minded. And, you know, um, Sid, I'd love to see you there.

It's, uh, it's kind of a hive mind for the weekend.

Oh God, no hive mind. No, it's— please don't scare people away. There's no hive mind. Don't, don't worry.

No, I want to go. I, I love going to these live events. They're great because you're always at a different point in your business and things land differently as you, as you hear them, and they're so great. But I do— I have to, I have to hunt.

That's the second person I've heard from this week who has a hunting— there's a hunting obligation that weekend. I can't make it. So I don't know, Mark, we might need to check into the dates on this thing for the I know.

Who knew that hunting season was early October,

right?

I didn't know. I know now.

Yeah, well, there's hunting, you know, starting in August. There's going to be hunting going on for till like end of the year. Um, yeah, so just depends on the tag that you got, the unit, and what you're doing. So

If you do come, we're gonna bring some jerky. You make jerky?

Yeah, um, I don't make it, but I have someone make it for me.

And that's good enough. Bring the jerky.

Bring the jerky.

If I get one, I'll bring it.

Uh, Mike Zano, how many people are we talking at the Dirt Rich Summit?

I think it was a couple hundred last year, you know, maybe 200, 250 max. I mean, I always tell people, you go to your local real estate meetup, you're gonna have like 5 times as many people. Like, this is across the country. This niche is so small, right? And when you get together in a live event with people that are doing this at all levels, it's— Mark, you always say it, right? What's the quote? Live events change lives. I mean, it's, it's real, right?

Yeah. I mean, just to meet John Burnett alone and like even spend like a few minutes asking him a question is worth it.

If you just shake his hand, you're instantly going to be converted into calm.

It's guaranteed that if you come to the Dirt Road Summit, you will sit next to me on the plane.

Exactly.

Yeah. A

lot

of

flights.

There's not 100,000 people in flight school. This is a very small niche. I know we have millions of followers here on our podcast, but that doesn't translate.

I mean, I think there's MrBeast, then the Land Geek, and then, you know,

Joe Rogan underneath

that. Joe Rogan.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think we're 2 or 3.

I love telling like my friends, oh yeah, yeah, I'm on Spotify.

Oh man.

I know my—

all right

guys,

ask me like, what do you do? I tell them, they're like, what? What do you do again?

I want to head over to Spotify and check you out.

Yeah, yeah.

So, all right, all right, guys. Well, this was fun. Uh, thanks for a good evening. Uh, we'll see you next week. And Mark, you're here one more week and then you're on vacation?

Uh, 2 more

weeks, then the party starts. Get ready, Mark's on vacation. It's party time,

party time. All right, good night, everybody. Thanks, Sid. Good to have you on board. We'll talk to you all soon.

Take care, everybody. Bye.