How To Manage Stress in a Healthy Way

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with a favorite niche real estate website, thelandgeek.com and on this week's Roundtable podcast, we have all the usual suspects. We've got the Zen master breathing in the mailing, breathing out the marketing, Mike Zaino. Mike, how are you?

Great, thank you for asking.

Good to see you. We've got your nightcap partner, the dude buddy, the nightcap OG Scott Bossman. Scott, how are things in Unalaska?

Things are warming up here. The ground is thawing finally.

Wow, that's fantastic. Well, you enjoy those 12 days of nice weather.

Will do.

We've got Terea putting in the reps. Harris Terrea, how are you?

I am well, thank you.

Good to see you. We've got the technician, Eric Peterson sands a rib. No rib in his mouth today.

No rib. I'm doing good, though.

It's good to see you. I love it when you call me Big Papa Tate Litchfield Tate, how are things in Vegas? They're good.

Things are warming up. It's almost pool season, so get with it. Scott Bossman.

We just, we do the polar plunge here all year long, so.

No need.

For barrels or fancy machines to do that.

Just walk outside.

That's right.

Exactly. Exactly. Last but not least, Scott Todd from scotttodd.net landmodo.com learn anything about anything. Investorninjas.com, the brain, the professor. Scott Todd, how are you?

I'm great. How are you?

I'm great. We've got a great topic. It's one that I think actually everyone can relate to, no matter where you are in the land business. And it's how do we manage stress? Now, Scott Todd, since I know you don't have any, I am going to define it for you. Because stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry or nervous. Stress is your body's reaction to a challenge or demand. In short bursts, stress can be positive, such as when it helps you avoid danger or meet a deadline. It does become actually, let's say harmful when it continues chronically. So the Zen master, breathing in the mailing, breathing out the marketing. How do you handle stress?

Well, I have two answers. One, in just terms of day to day, we talk about this all the time. I do really fully believe in the ice water ice bath a la Wim Hof. I think that it does bring some sort of calmness to your day. I know it sounds really contra indicative, I guess that you're Going to soak in some ice cold water even in the middle of a frigid snowstorm. But it does something. It does something to reset you, sort of like meditation. So that's, that's number one. I recommend that everybody look into that because it's got some crazy health benefits and it just keeps you really calm. Number two, I've noticed that in this land business, particularly if I spend the day working in my business as opposed to on my business, I end up feeling pretty stressed. But with the days I work on my business and not in my business, I feel really great. At the end of the day, it's weird, but I bet we could all relate to that. Right. If I got caught up in the little nitty gritty things doing that, I might get a few things accomplished or several things accomplished, but I feel like I was spinning my wheels all day. But if I develop something on the business, so it takes care of that after moving forward, like I've solved this problem forever in a sense, then, wow, that certainly changes things for me. And then I would say stress, stop treating everything so serious.

Stress, stop treating everything so serious. I love it. I love it. It's true though, right? It's true. But we're not going to go any further into the ice bath. There's been a lot of science, by the way, Mike, on these cold plunges.

Yeah. You know, but I think one of those things you just have to do because you can, you know, the studies on everything. Right. But it's one of those things that. And I'm happy to hear that. I think you're going to be getting into it so then we can talk about it some more. But it's, it can be challenging. You know, a couple minutes is all right. I'd like to build up to 10 minutes, which isn't so bad when the weather starts getting nice. But 10 minutes in the middle of a frigid winter, that's. That's a different story. But I do Marco right into the hot tub and then I go back and forth and you know, I've always read when I was little, following martial arts, that some of these Japanese masters would do the ice, hot ice, hot ice as a way to temper the nerves. And now I see what they mean by that. So it's sort of pretty cool to experience it.

That's, that's super cool. I didn't know you're going cold, hot, cold, hot.

Yeah, it's, it's pretty cool when you get out and you go right into the hot because it doesn't feel hot at first because of the transfer. Then you go back into the cold. So yeah, it's, it's, it's. That's something that I think Wim Hof talks a little bit about. But I used to read like some of these Japanese martial art proponents, they would do that. I read that they would do this years and years ago as a way to temper the nerves, to bring like, probably like equanimity or to bring some sort of stable mind. They go hot, cold, hot, cold. And of course I never tried it. It sounded ridiculous. And now that I'm 50, I try it. I'm like, wow, should did this sooner.

I thought you were, you know, like a big Rick Rubin fan because that's like, he's like the super music producer. Rick Rubin was like famous for doing that as well.

Oh really?

Hundreds of pounds, you know, doing these things.

Yeah. I definitely think it plays in with the intermittent fasting because I would much rather do a cold. But I don't do cold plunges after I eat. Like, so I don't like that ties into, you know, that the idea of just being hungry and, you know, you know, nothing's digesting and then you get in there. So I think it all fits together.

All right. I love it. Scott Bossman, dude, buddy Nightcap. Og how do you. I mean, I assume you have some stress. How do you handle stress?

I do. I have to make a comment though about Mike Zano since he's been doing the polar plunge. Like I spent a lot of time with this guy and he is a different person. So we may not have some quantitative scientific data on this, but that's my qualitative assessment. I guess when I think about stress, you have the, you have the body and the mind, right? So I do try to exercise because that decreases your, your stress hormones, your cortisol, your. Your adrenaline, your adrenaline. And those are actually damaging hormones in your body.

So.

So I think you have the physiological part. You know, do some things, try to stay active, try to exercise, try to get your heart rate up, because that's really going to help. And then, and then you have the mind thing. Right. So I've just been focusing, like if I'm feeling stressed or anxious, I actually have taken up some breathing exercises and you know, I heard something long time ago and recently just came kind of back. But you know, if you're worried about something, you're. You're thinking in the future. If you're anxious about something, you're thinking in the future. So if you can just kind of bring it back to the present, focus on the now. Hopefully those things won't be as overwhelming for you. So those are the couple things I do, I guess.

Yeah. I love it. I love it. Terea putting in the reps. Harris again, I don't know, but I assume you've had stress. You're a human being.

I have four sons. I have had stress, so I like bossman. I try to deal with physical and mental stress. So I do work out five, six days a week. I meditate, at least I try to, at least once a day. And then I, unlike Zaino, I take hot baths about four days a week where I just soak in my bathtub.

I love it. I love it. And does it. Which. If you had to give one up, which one would you give up?

The bath. Because I can always shower, but I can't give up working out. I can't give up that.

Yeah. All right, fantastic. Eric the technician Peterson, how do you handle stress?

I like what Mike had to say. I think that when we're talking about the business itself, working on the business does bring a sense of kind of doneness or, you know, you can move past something. Once you've accomplished that, you've created that process, you've hired that person or whatever it is. So I like that. Definitely exercise every day pretty much. And I think for me, it's probably just routine I have. If I'm home, like, I have a routine that I just follow every day and just knowing what's ahead, I guess for me, just kind of relieves some stress and not having to worry about it. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about, you know, what's ahead. Just focus on what needs to be done now.

I love it. Now, you and Boston both have a total and a peloton right now. My total is going to be delivered in May because I just could not stand the fact that you two had both and I didn't.

I think Mike has both.

Go to Zaino.

Oh, my. Oh, Zaino has both, too.

Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, wait a second now. Okay, Zaino, we could just do a whole podcast on your craziness. You got the ice barrel, you got the peloton, you got the tonal. What else are you doing?

Walking. But the tonal was pretty. Tonal is pretty awesome.

Okay, if you had to give up one tonal or peloton, which would you give up?

Peloton all day, Eric.

Probably the peloton, because I could just go ride a bike instead. Join Tate.

Okay, Scott, Bossman, I would also give up the Peloton, okay?

And this podcast is not sponsored by Peloton, so I'm. I'm very obviously.

Isn't that the thing that killed Mr. Big?

Yep.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Who wants that by the star?

Didn't kill him.

The fact that we all know that reference from Todd.

You started the Peloton craze, didn't you?

Way back.

Wasn't that you? No, Mark. Mark and I, we were there together. We're like pioneers in that aspect.

We have to get Matt Forbes. Matt Forbes is really the pioneer in that because at boot camp, he's like, mark, you got to get this Peloton. And then Anne Marie was like, yeah, you got to get this Peloton. We'd love it. And then I was like, okay. It's kind of like, Eric, like, you gotta get the total. I was like, okay.

But I. I really do love them both. I mean, I. I wouldn't really want to give one up.

Okay. All right, Trio, what don't you have? Like, do you have crazy equipment or you just go to the gym?

I go to the gym. I have a treadmill and I like to run outside, but yep, no. No equipment at home. Really? That's what I was going to ask. Do you not like the gym? Why?

Why?

Tonal and Peloton just want to be home for me.

I would. I would never go to a gym, so having it at home is the only way it's going to happen.

Gotcha.

For Mitri, I don't like to intimidate other men.

Fair enough.

It's. It's sort of a gift. Fair enough. How do you handle stress?

You know, pretty similar to what everybody else says. I ride my bike a lot. I'm pretty fortunate to say that I live a pretty stress free life. Occasionally, I'll deal with somebody who is a headache and they might make me want to quit the business. Scott knows what I'm talking about.

But for.

For the most part, that's rare. And a quick bike ride solves most of my problems. Run or just family time or just turning the computer off, turning the phone off, walking away for a little bit. I think that's. I think that's probably the best thing you can do is just step away for a moment. You know, I listened to this podcast the other day and they were saying how people are so stressed and they're so worked up, and it's because they're all day long, they're sitting there and they're pumping themselves Full of energy drinks and caffeines and they're not doing anything with that energy. And so I think if you could find an outlet for it that's really, really helpful and tonal. A real bike, you know, a proper bicycle instead of the peloton. That's probably your best bet out of everything that's been suggested here, aside from maybe flying an airplane. But, you know, yeah, we're old.

We have really bad balance. So the peloton helps that, you know.

It'S one of those things, right. Like the expression exists because it's true. It's like riding a bike.

Right.

You never forget. So maybe you had a rough childhood on it.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I guess a therapist could be one way to help with your stress too.

Talk to somebody. Yeah, and I'm happy to talk to anybody if anybody's had any traumatic episodes, like me on a bike, had to go to the ER several times because of bike accidents. We can commiserate and talk about it. Scott, Todd, again, do you want me to define it for you? I got it. Okay.

You know, Mark. Yes. Everybody has stress, okay?

Everybody.

Even the people that don't think that they do.

They do.

And look, I'll tell you what I think that I think one of it, the biggest part of is kind of knowing yourself, right? Like if you know yourself, you start to know like when you're going to feel, like when you're feeling stressed. And then you have to know, okay, well, these are the stress relievers. And for me, like one of the things that I adopted last year, I told you guys, and like, Zaina was blown away, is the morning pages, right. Maybe a couple years ago now. Morning pages, right. So every morning I, I take 30 minutes to an hour and I just start brain dump and everything on my brain. Big little. It's not a to do list. Even though sometimes it might end up being a to do list. It's just whatever's on my brain at that moment. First thing in the morning, I don't like, I get up and I do this thing. And if, you know the way that you're supposed to do is you're supposed to write three pages. Just non stop fluid writing. Just non stop writing three pages. Get everything out of your brain. But I also give myself permission not to have to just sit there until I get the three pages done. That's like, you know, telling the child, you can't leave the table until you eat your vegetables. Well, maybe they're not hungry that day. Okay? So if I don't have anything to say, well, then I just move on, right? Like, I try to dump whatever's there. And I don't just give up. I kind of stay. And then finally, I get frustrated. I'm like, okay, I'm done. I got nothing else to say. See you tomorrow. And so most days, it's three pages. Some days it's two and a half. On a rare occasion, it's one. And on an even rarer occasion, I might completely skip it just the way that it is, right? Like, life gets in the way, whatever. But what I find is that by writing that stuff down, getting it out of my brain and onto some paper, well, then that really helps you. Even though, you know, like, you're clearing your mind is what you're doing now, you can go attack what you want to go attack. And what you'll find, or at least what I found, is that, man, I found that I get some great ideas. Just, like, by writing this stuff, stream of consciousness, I just get some great ideas, and then I end up going back, and I'm like, underlining or highlighting it, or I add that to a to do list. So, yeah, I think that's one big component of it. I think moving, you know, getting out, exercising, or walking, you can go do that. You know, you. I think you have to really just do what. What works for you. And if you can't figure out what works for you, try different things, right? Because different things will work for different people. But I think that the most important part is just getting your brain off of the stuff that's bringing you stress. And, like, for me, what I find a lot of times brings me stress is all of that stuff that I feel like I might have to do, the overwhelming piece of it. And, you know, a lot of times this also has to do with maybe. Maybe I'm not where I want to be in something. Like, maybe I have a goal for something. I'm not where I want to be or I'm behind. And then you start to look at that we've talked about on this podcast, the Gap and the Gain. It's a book, but then you start looking at the gap between where you are and where you want to be. That builds up stress. And what I found, oftentimes, whenever I get to that stressful moment, I break out that piece of paper, even if it's not a morning page or I go back to that. That book, and I just might start writing, even in the middle of the day, like, hey, I'm feeling stressed right now. And here's what's on my brain. And oftentimes it has to do with me not being where I need to be or feel like I need to be. But in the gap, in the gain, you should be looking back at how far you've come from a certain metric and man, all of a sudden you realize you are way farther than where you really think you are.

Yeah, I really love what everybody had to say. And, you know, for me, I am going through a stressful time. It's been going through a stressful time in my life. And, you know, 50% of the population, the married population, goes through it. Going through a divorce. And unfortunately, because of just the way things are, it's. It's taking a long time. And so for me to have a good sense of humor, I think has helped me tremendously just to be able to call friends and family and not be negative, but just kind of joke about sort of the absurdities of life. But before I even do that, I like to certainly get my head right. I'll meditate at least 20 minutes a day. Then I want to sweat. I want to do something hard, like a hard peloton workout. I do take cold showers that, you know, in Phoenix, Arizona, are sometimes, you know, like, Mike Zane will be like, Mach, that's not cold. But to me, it's cold. So. But I want to get the cold plunge and do all that. But it really is one of those things just in business and in life that we all have to deal with. But I always love going back to that fundamental focusing question that Gary Keller, Jay Papasan wrote about. And the one thing. And so what's the one thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary? So what's the one thing I can do for my stress levels that by doing it will make my stress go away? And typically it's going to go back to, I think Scott Bossman had mentioned it, which was, what problem do I have at this moment? And when I ask myself that question and I go straight to the present moment, well, ask yourselves right now, what problem do you have at this moment? Talking on a podcast, we're together in the present moment. There are no problems. And that if something would occur in that present moment, I can deal with it in that present moment. Right. So, You know, just kind of being aware of the stories in my head, I think go a long way anyways. But getting back to what Mike Zano had brought up is knowing your triggers. What is it in the business that you're doing that is causing you stress and then finding the solution to it and maybe asking yourself, what's that one thing I could do on the business so this doesn't happen anymore. One of the things that has been, I've been struggling with for years and years has just been email, the habitual checking of email. Not that it's, but it stresses me out that I have to get these dopamine hits and so I finally took email off my phone. It forces me to be super intentional. The only time I can check my email now is when I go on my computer and I'm not just going to be standing in line at the grocery store and, and then just habitually start checking email and then now, you know, my attention's dispersed anyways. It's a, it's a long winded way of saying that what, whatever it is that is stressing you out, it is normal. Short bursts are great. You know, if you have a short person, stress means you care. And it's probably just excitement anyways, but certainly you want to lower cortisol levels and be able to manage it because this business is a marathon, it's not a sprint and you want to be able to last the long haul in this for sure. So I thought it was a good topic. What do you think? Eric Peterson? Pretty good. Tate?

Yeah, I think it's a necessary topic because it doesn't matter how good you are at managing things, at some point you're going to feel overwhelmed. And it's nice to know that even we the land geeks, deal with these pressures, external or internal, and that the key to it is just knowing how to address it personally. Because I think the worst thing you can do in today's world is ignore them.

Right.

Don't ignore your health, don't ignore your mental health and be proactive with it. And if you do, I think you're going to be better off for it.

Right, Right. Scott Bossman, this is sort of like your, your area of expertise.

Stress.

Well, I mean just being a physical therapist, I mean you're dealing with for years and years you're dealing with people's pain essentially.

Yeah. There's not only physical pain that comes with patient care. So you got to be in your emotional wheelhouse a lot. But I was going to say one other thing. I think all of us on this call are pretty spoiled. I think back five, six years ago and man, that was stress. You know, working 50 hours a week and trying to get this business going. So hopefully the stuff we said today can help people who are in that spot. Right. They're trying. They're maybe feeling some pain in their life or some type of, you know, need to get out of the situation that they're in. Hopefully this stuff can be helpful for them.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, it just goes to show, like, no one rides for free. Like, everyone at every level of society has stress. I don't. Doesn't matter who you are. Well, maybe if you're the Dalai Lama. I don't know. Okay, let's just take that. There's a few rare people, right, that maybe have no stress, but for the most part, everyone has stress. And it's. So it's just something that we have to manage in our lives in order to get to grow as entrepreneurs, land investors, and people. So, Mike Zander, since you seem to be the one with the most tools for your stress, I'm going to give you the last word.

I thought it was a very relevant topic. I think what Tate spoke of is true. Sometimes you look at people and you might think, oh, that person doesn't have any stress. Everybody has stress. Everybody has pressure. And to know how they deal with it and how they frame it, I think is very helpful, because we have a lot of different personalities on this call. Therefore, there's a lot of different personalities that we can help that are listening. You know, some people are not related to me. They relate to Scott, Date, Eric, yourself, or anybody here. So I thought it was. But it was a really. Was really great topic, really important.

Yeah, I heard about. I heard about a guy that made, like, hundreds of millions of dollars and over a joke, went up on national TV and slapped someone publicly. I mean, if he had just listened to this podcast prior to that award show, imagine how he would have been able to handle things. I mean, it's probably most people. I don't even know what I'm talking about, but, you know, someone did not handle distress well. And it's. It's. A few people have talked about it. Anyways, we're at that point now in the podcast where we're going to ask for a tip of the week. I actually have a tip of the week. Before I give a tip of the week, I do want to mention our sponsor, which is Flight school. Learn how the next 16 weeks can literally transform your life. Go up the mountain of land investing with Scott Todd as your Sherpa. He's going to take you up there quickly, safely, efficiently. You're going to start building that passive income without any renters. Rehabs, renovations, or rodents. Oh, and by the way, that flight school tuition ain't going to cost you nothing. Guaranteed you're going to make it back 180 days or less. Just show us your work schedule. Call go to lanceek.com training thelantgeek.com training all right, Mark, what is your tip of the week? Well, I found a interesting app that is on the Mac and on the iPhone. I'm not sure if it's on Android. It probably is, but I think all of us have a little add. And so this is something that I listen to now as I'm writing, like the review digest or emails or whatever I'm writing, I put on this app called Focus, and then the sign will focus at will. Check it out. There's a lot of science to it. Ned Hallowell is one of the developers of this in adhd. Experts guys have been on Oprah.

And.

I'm kind of enjoying it. I'm kind of digging it now. I will say that the app has crashed on me a few times recently, so if it does that to you, sorry, but you've been warned. You get to play with it for free for seven days. And I think it's, like, it's not much. I don't know how much it costs, but it's certainly not free. But when I do use it, I do notice that I am more focused and there's some science behind it. It could be all placebo for all I know. I don't know. But I like it. So that is my tip of the week. Tate, what do you think? I'll give it a shot.

I'll let you know.

All right, dude, buddy. What do you think?

Yeah. So it's music.

It's music. It's music.

Gotcha.

Or as Scott Todd would say, it's chewing gum for the ears.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure I would say that, Mark.

You wouldn't say that since you're typically listening to serious things.

Doing gum for the ears.

That's like a T shirt right there.

That's hilarious.

I mean, that sounds like it should be a Kanye song, honestly.

Oh, you did not just go there. I did. Yeah. Wow. Wow. I guess you didn't watch the Kanye.

No.

Netflix special.

Oh, it was good.

Genius.

Didn't miss it either.

I mean, Was that pre 2022? Because.

Look, there's a fine line between madness and genius. Is that.

Is that the one where he beats up Pete Davidson?

Did he really beat up Pete Davidson? Okay, so that's the other thing is like, I don't know what, what's going on in the world. I don't watch the news anymore. I get all my. I get all my news from my 78 year old father.

You're in trouble then.

I. I know, I know.

So, so when we, when we're all running for cover, you're gonna be like, what's happening? Too late for you, man.

Hopefully one of you will text me.

I mean, do you look at your phone or is it in focus mode? Do not disturb mode.

It is on do not disturb.

Yeah. See you.

You won't get it, but I'll eventually get it.

Yeah. After it's too late. As that. Dark shadows coming towards. Towards you. You're like, what's happened?

I don't know. I'm not really built for a Mad Max world. You guys are. I'm not. It's okay. You got. You guys can go in your bunkers. I'm gonna try to get to Boston and get to the cold plunge. Hide there. No one would, no one would check the cold Plunge. Like, you know.

Why Boston? Why not just go where Scott Bossman is? And like, no one goes up there either, except the reindeer.

That's, that's, that actually is a good point.

Yeah.

Think about that.

Who would want to go there?

Scott Boss, is there a story behind, like, how do you like, grow up in Onala? You didn't grow up in Alaska?

No, I grew up in South Dakota.

Yeah.

Even colder and windier.

Yeah. How did you, how did you grow up there or get up. Get there?

Oh, well, I just kind of always been a Midwest guy. I went to a. A small liberal arts. Liberal arts college in Iowa. Lived in Minnesota for a while. That's where a lot of my friends went. Lived in Southern Indiana. That's as far away from. From this area as I got. And then moved back up here to be closer to family, so. But I'm hoping to be a snowbird here in a few years.

Nice. Nice. Well, I know some good places to go to snowbird. Yeah, for sure. Look, there's nothing wrong with Tampa, okay? There isn't, but there's nothing like being out west. And there's Scottsdale and Vegas.

They are the places to be.

I mean, I was just in Florida. It was pretty, pretty, pretty nice. Pretty nice.

Yeah. Mark, I mean, come on, man.

Come on.

I know Tampa's nice.

Tampa is nice. I like Tampa a lot.

You guys need to go, right? Like I'm telling you, we. Eric, Eric and I, we got the place to go take you to dinner, you know?

Is that the fish place?

Yeah, that's Nemo.

Nemo's.

Yeah, I remember it.

Yeah. That place is insane. Well, all right.

One day you'll come and. And like, you'll come to Tampa. Maybe I can fly you down there for lunch or something.

Well, Mark.

I can fly, Tate. Mark would have to drive.

Yeah, either way, Eric doesn't mind driving.

Yeah. Erica, meet us down here.

Yeah, we should. We should have, like a Land Geek Nemo retreat. Let's go, man. All right.

You'll be moving here. That's the problem, right? You'll be like, who wants to stay in Scottsdale?

All right, if you guys are listening to this, put on Facebook in the official motivation wealth creation group or the My Networks group, just put in a comment, Nemo. And that will tell us we need to do some event in Naples, Florida. We're not sure what. Anyways, also, while you're doing that, you're posting that. Why not leave a review? So, follow rate, review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of that review to supportlang.com I'm going to send you for free a signed copy of Dirt Rich. It really helps us get quality guests. So are we ready to do this? 1, 2, 3. Let freedom freedom ring ring. All right, thanks, everybody.

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