Inflation-Proof Your Income: Why Land Beats Savings Accounts

Where's our. Well, our intro video is not here. Hello, everybody. We're live.

That's weird.

So I apologize.

We just lied.

I think we're live. We are live. Yeah, we're live. No intro video. It disappeared. I don't know what happened.

Oh, my goodness.

All right. I can go straight into it.

There goes the energy. They're just tanked because we don't have. Amazing.

Everybody can go home now.

Eat baloney. Buy land. All right, here. Here's the opening though. Your savings account is paying you 0.5% interest while inflation is running at 4 to 8% annually. Do the math. You're losing 3 1/2 to 7/2% of your purchasing power. And every single year while thinking you're being responsible with your money. Here's a truth that nobody wants to admit. Traditional saving is financial suicide. In an inflationary environment, every month you keep money in safe accounts. You're watching your purchasing power evaporate while patting yourself on the back for being conservative. But what if there was an investment that not only beats inflation, but actually benefits from the economic chaos that's destroying everyone else's wealth? In today's episode, we're showing you exactly why land investing is the ultimate inflation hedge. And how smart investors are using raw land to not just protect their wealth, but multiply it while others watch theirs disappear. Including the mathematical proof of why land appreciates faster than inflation destroys value, and the three reasons why economic uncertainty actually creates better land deals. Whether you're watching your savings lose value, we're looking for real protection against inflation. This episode will show you how to stop being inflation's victim and start being its beneficiary. It's Nightcap. I'm joined tonight by Dude Buddy, the Nightcap OG Scott. Bossman Scott. What you drinking, brother?

I got the Silver Bullet tonight.

The Silver Bullet. I love it. I love it. We got a Handsome Rob. John Burnett. What are you drinking?

I've got a Klaus Holler non alcoholic beer with Cascade hops.

It's good.

How is it?

It's nice. I like it. I got it from our local co op. It's got all natural ingredients and it is the German pioneer of non alcoholic. Bruce. There you go.

Must be good.

Everybody buy Klaus Teller.

Yeah. I mean, let's face it. The Germans and what they're doing. Beer wise and car wise. We can go on and on about the Germans. The Zen Master Mike's, you know.

Oh, man.

What are you drinking, Nika?

Whiskey from the barrel. Japanese. I'm just gonna like rip it Open? No, I got a cup right here.

That's fancy.

I don't know if I said it right, but looks like it's called Nika.

Nika. So should we get right into it? Like you've been told your whole life, to save money, right? Put in the bank, be responsible, let it grow, and your savings account's paying you nothing. 0.5 interest, percent interest. You know inflation's running crazy right now with 8%, right? So it's like slow motion financial suicide. Like, cash is trash right now. So what's really happening when you save? Should we do some math?

Yeah, you do some math.

I'll do some math. I'm not afraid.

Don't, Mike. Don't ask Mike.

Mike's drinking. I'll do math. Mike, you drink, I'll do the math. All right, let's say you put a hundred thousand in a savings account. The bank gives you 0.5 interest. That's 500 a year. But if inflation is 6%, that hundred thousand dollars only buys $94,000 worth of goods next year. So your money didn't grow. It shrunk quietly, invisibly. And so that's the live safety. The idea that keeping cash in a bank somehow protects you. In reality, it's like watching ice melt while pretending it's still a solid block. So the longer you wait, the smaller it gets. So here's where it gets interesting. Land, the one thing they're not making any more of, does behave differently. So when the cost of living rises, the cost of land rises faster. So it's tied to the same forces that create inflation, scarcity, population growth, and demand for real assets. And historically, raw land has appreciated faster than inflation erodes value. Meaning it's not just a hedge, it's a multiplier. And here's the kicker. While everyone else is scared of uncertainty, land investors love it.

Why?

Because chaos creates deals. When interest rates rise, sellers get nervous. When markets wobble, cash buyers win. And when people panic, land quietly compounds in value. So for our first drinking game of the night, John Burnett, what do you think of what I just said?

I concur.

So for those of you new who are new to nightcap, anytime one of us says concur, you have to take a drink. And I'm drinking poppy wild berry prebiotic soda.

Ooh, prebiotic.

30 calories and 5 grams of sugar. There's no what?

No gulping that. Slow it down.

I'll slow it down. I'll slow it down. I'll take it easy. I'm gonna Put my prebiotic, you know, bong away. Right. Just like.

Pretty sure that's not the way prebiotics work.

What's that?

I'm pretty sure that's not the way prebiotics work.

No, I'm. I'm pretty sure. You know, it's like between kimchi or. Or soda. I took the soda. Yogurt. Okay. So by the way, if you're new to this, like, what do we do? Who are we? Dude, buddy, you want to give everybody an overview?

Yeah. If you're tuning in for the first time. So we're real estate investors, but we're not your typical real estate investors. We deal only in land. Why do we have land? No headaches, no emergencies, no people problems, no mechanical problems. And it's easy to buy and easy to sell, meaning we can do it quickly because we're buying parcels for typically between 1 to $5,000. We're kind of in the penny stocks of land investing. Like Mike Zano says, my favorite analogy. And then we turn around and the cool thing is we buy them at such a discount that it gives us options.

So.

So we can sell them retail cash. We can sell them owner financing. We can sell them wholesale to another land investor. You can sell the note. There's a lot of different ways you can get these assets off your hands. But our favorite is when we own or finance the land, because that creates a passive income for us and eventually leads to freedom with our time and money and family and everything. So all three of us, all four of us, Mark, you're not included. You don't count because you're, you know, you're the og but you taught the three of us how to replace our incomes, quit our jobs, be better. I mean, all three of us, I think, are better. Better husbands, better dads, Our health is better. Except for Zano, and he's smoking his cigars. I mean, and it's all because of land investing.

Yeah. What's great about that is, you know, when I met John, he was spending, you know, very little time with his children. And I thought, okay, this guy's gonna go to a rage. And maybe it's not so bad, you know, maybe a full time job's not. Not the worst thing for a John Burnett. And little did I know, you know, he only had, I think, two kids at that time. Val's like, no, with time, with resources, this guy is the dad. Let's have six kids. And sure enough, they did. So cheers to John.

Cheers to John and his big family.

Big, beautiful family. Michael Horsley.

Although. Although, Mark. Although. Can I just call out John? I don't think those are real. I think that's just here.

Doesn't that make me look productive?

Do you think those are. Look at those, Scott.

These are all things that I have completed.

Just showing off back.

There he is. Well, so are you. Dude, you can't talk. You have a plat map behind you. Like, what are you, what are you, in your 80s? So you some 70, 1970s old school land investor with the plat map on the wall? I'm gonna take my highlighter and said how we operate anymore. All right, we digress.

All right, so can we just talk about the three reasons that land thrives in economic chaos is before we devolve.

Three.

Only three.

I mean, there's at least three.

Sure.

Okay. The first, no renters, no rehabs, no renovations, no roads. So while other investors stress about evictions or broken roofs, we hold a simple appreciating asset. That's number one. Number two, it's real, not digital.

Right?

You can't print more land, you can't hack it, you can't default on it.

Any.

Concur.

Concur.

How about number three, it scales without drama. Once you automate buying and selling, which we'll show you how to do, you can turn small land deals into passive income machines. And so if you're like, wait, well, how do I do this, Scott? Can you put up like a, A link so people can book a call with you guys?

Sure, sure will.

And so that's how our students are not just beating inflation, they're using it to their advantage.

So I'd like to say something, Mark, about. You had mentioned earlier about one of the, one of the worst places right now you can keep your money is in the bank. Right? And I think of my retirement account, and that's totally the case with my retirement account.

I have.

So I rolled. When I quit my job and became a full time land investor, I rolled my then 403B or whatever it was into what's called a qualified retirement plan. And now I have control over that qualified retirement plan. Right. And I have a lot of money in that account, but I have very little money in that account, if that makes sense.

Because.

Because I've bought a lot of assets with that money and I've basically just parked a lot of money in those assets. Now I have a lot of land in there. I have some silver, I have some gold, I have a lot of bitcoin as well. But the cool thing is that by parking my money in that land five years ago. There's the. And you can sell this land, too, for profit, or you can kind of sit on it over time and let the land appreciate. Boy, the land is appreciated. Right. And I look, I look at how much it's appreciated over the last few years, and if I had left it in the bank, nothing. I would have gotten nothing.

Right.

So I, I think, you know, it's. Your, Your. Your math earlier was helpful, and I think will be helpful for everybody on the call to put it in perspective. Like, yeah, we're all about putting money in the bank. We got to save, save, save, save, save, put money in the bank. But we got to put our money to work for us as well. And I think that's one of the reasons this business is so awesome, because we put our money to work for us, and it's just an amazing leveraging system. Yeah.

I mean, I personally like being ambitiously lazy, but I want my money to be ambitious.

Yes.

I want it working. And putting it in land is. You know, my financial advisors look at me like all your. All your net worth is in land. I'm like, yeah, like, what about diversification? I'm like, why? Like, there's no reason to. Because I'm making my money on the buy. I'm like, where else am I going to get these returns? And when I walk them through it, they're like, okay, yeah, it's a good point. So I don't know, Mike, do you think it's okay to not diversify? Am I being irresponsible?

Well, just doing land because I've been.

Doing it for 25 years. I don't remember land. Even during the great Recession then the land was on sale. I mean, it was not like, I mean, I was still profitable.

Right. I don't know. If you're asking me if you just only invest in land, would that be irresponsible?

I would say.

Oh, I mean, if. Jeez. If you could have a whole portfolio of land like we, most of us do. But I mean. Yeah, that's incredible, right? I mean, you. You have something that's tangible, something that's appreciating valuable, something with limited supply. I just don't see. But I must agree with Mike Decalo that I'm vintage with my flat map. I don't know if you guys see that up there. Recently went into flight school. He's gonna crush it. He's. He's amazing. We'll be meeting him at the dirt rich summit as well. But I just like, I get shout outs. I know. I tell everybody because I know it bothers Scott.

I tell everybody.

You have to shout out to me during the nightcap.

I mean, it's kind of a backhanded shout out though, because I mean, vintage is not cool. Really.

Cool.

Okay, you're right.

Never mind.

I'm jealous.

To go with that, with that platinum.

I'm definitely jealous. Well, Mike, you called out Mike DeCarlo who's in flight school. But I also want to congratulate Kenny and Chrissy Wallingford who just signed up for flight school as well just a few days ago. And they're gonna be in Texas, which, what, a week from tomorrow?

From tomorrow. The Dermot summit. I'm so excited. Are Kenny and Christy gonna be there?

They're gonna be there. Kenny and Chrissy are gonna be there. Yep.

Oh, fantastic. Honestly, you guys are gonna. It's gonna be the best, the best time. Just the networking alone is worth going to.

To rub out a little. Mike, Mike, you can bring the plat map. Why don't you just bring it? We'll have a nice inter. Laid.

Are you going to bring your Japanese?

Giving signed copies.

Sign.

Any questions from the peanut gallery tonight? If you guys have questions out there about land investing or comments about our topic for the evening, hit us up. We're, we're here to talk about a topic, but we're also here to answer questions.

So I mean, you know, the topic of inflation is absolutely the most dynamic topic we could have thought of. Yeah, very, very interesting.

It's, it's, it's got my heart beating over here.

It is, it is adrenaline inducing.

My fight or flight system is, is running wild.

But I mean, it's true. I mean, it is true though. Like, you don't want, I mean, I mean, I do think you need to have somewhat. You need to have some cash in the bank. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

You have to, like.

Yeah.

I mean, you can't.

I don't want to mislead people.

Yeah, liquidity. But like, let's say like, I put all my money in the land. I had no liquidity. I could sell it. I could sell my notes and get liquidity for sure. I could hypothecate those notes and get a loan on them as well.

I think that's the word of the night. Hypothecate. I mean, is that even a. We're gonna throw that Google.

You're good with words. Is that Scrabble?

Hypothecate.

Hypothecate.

Pledge.

Have a drink. Because I don't know what to say to that word.

Pledge by law to a specific purpose.

Say it again.

It's to pledge by law to a specific purpose.

And how did you use that, Mark?

I can buy the game. I know it's. I can pledge them to get a loan.

Former investment banker. That's where that comes from right there.

Yeah, yeah.

How pretentious can Mark be on Nightcap?

Oh, my God. I like it.

Buy landed. Botox. Totally by GM. I love it. Lauren, guard.

Dr. G. Dr. Lauren. Dr. G. Yes.

She's in flight school.

I think she is. Yeah.

Yeah.

You here?

Lauren?

Amazing.

I think we're starting to get a little following on here on Night Cap. I'm feeling it. I'm feeling like we're getting our groove.

I think. I think you're right.

I mean, Don Thrasher is here every week, man. Without. Without. Without fail. Don is here.

Those shirts. Don't you have like a whole box full of Nightcap shirts? We're gonna start like.

Yeah. Who wants a free shirt today? Well, wait, free if you pay shipping. I'll send you a shirt. But Don Trasher just grabbed.

Is he gonna be in Texas?

I think he is, yeah.

Oh, Don, I can't wait to meet you. That's gonna be awesome.

But folks, you're kind of quiet tonight. Any questions? Lay it on us. We can only talk about inflation so long. Yeah, right. It's just completely, completely different.

I'm feeling a little lugubrious, actually. Oh, man, these flak of comments.

Oh, the T shirt. Can we should have that. The dirt rich summit. Scott, you should bring a T shirt. Can but pump on those nightcap.

I should get a T shirt cannon. Yeah, I don't know if I could get that through the airport or not. Probably could, but.

That would be awesome.

Jared Bell is here. Jared Bell's killing it in coaching, isn't he? Isn't he, Mark?

Killing it.

Is he still in coaching?

I think he's an unfair advantage. I think he's okay. Yeah. Although, Jared, I didn't see you at the last meeting. Not. Not publicly shame you on Nightcap. We would never do that. Oh, Johnson. Can someone explain what a note is versus a deed?

John, great to see you here.

Good to see you. John Soak. Who wants to take that one?

Sounds like a Burnett answer. Could answer that one.

I feel like it is a Burnett one.

Okay.

I feel like.

Okay. He'.

So a note versus a deed. So a deed is when you are granting legal title to a property, right? And then the note is basically saying that we are agreeing that you will pay me on a monthly basis for this property. Right. And so basically the note is just a payment agreement and the deed is when you're actually transferring title across to the property. So if you think about it like if you get a car, I don't know if they do promissory notes with cars, it's got to be a promissory note, right? I don't know. But like if you get a loan on a car, you would not hold title to that car. Right. The bank holds the title and then they have a note with you. Right. So you're paying them, they hold the title, then they grant the title to the person. We do something similar with our model where we hold the title and then there's a payment plan, there's a note that exists. Right. And then once that's paid off, we then deed the property across to the buyer. Did I do a good job.

John? You did a great job. That was awesome.

Great.

Thank you for doing that. Hopefully that was helpful. John, we do have a couple other questions coming in. Here's a good one. Oh, well, this comment from Brad, Brad here started wholesaling houses, shifted to off market land deals in Washington. Love the small parcel seller finance model for mailbox money. Any tips on structuring PML lending for land? That sounds like a Mark Podolsky question all day long.

Love the small parcel sauce based on any structures on private money lending for land. So sure you do, you want to be, you want to be a. So this is like I understand this brand. You want to lend, you don't want to, you don't want to be the buyer of the raw land. You want to go to somebody like me who needs money, lend me money so I can buy the land. Is that, is my understanding this correctly?

Well, I mean let's, let's take it from both, from both perspectives, Mark. So like if, if, if I'm a land investor and I'm buying lots of land and I need more money, any tips on what that might look like?

Yeah, so I actually am a private money lender on land. Mike Zano, just so you know, if.

You need money, I have other sources.

You know, I know you do. And it's, and it's hurtful. Those, it's hurtful. It's not as good. You know what though? If you get in trouble, can they help you sell the land? Because I can. Oh, I'm not, I'm just saying, I'm.

Just saying she's Pretty shot.

Yeah, I know. Okay. Anyways, so basically what you would set it up the way you would set it up, you do it, have a promissory note. And I would do a UCC one. A UCC one, essentially, I would do an unrecorded UCC one. You can file that with your state of the assets. So you put, you, you could basically put a lien on the assets of the company because what you don't want to do is cloud title. So if I'm Brad and, and I'm loaning Mike money and Mike's like, yeah, I'm buying this 40 acre parcel for $25,000. Well, he, he wants to sell that land. He doesn't want you to put a lien on it. And then he's, you're clouding the title. So what's easier to do is that unrecorded UCC1, Mike's going to pay you. But if for some reason he does default, you have that as collateral, essentially. And then I would also do a personal guarantee. So I can go after Mike personally. I can go after him, I go after his family. Is it me? Go after his friends.

Jeez.

And then I have a lot of it. Yeah, it's collateral there. So that's how, that's how I would structure that. And on the other side of it, if you need money, Brad. Well, there's lots of different ways to get money. I think when you first start out, I'm not, I, I would actually just do land arm. I don't know, I don't know why I would, I would need to go out in debt. Like, I, I don't, I think that's debt equity deals. I think that's when you're, you're a few years into this and you have a real repeatable business. I would go out for outside capital. In the beginning, I would just do land arbitrage. I would, I might do something like a fund and grow. If I needed capital, I'd be super conservative. I'd use my retirement money before I would do that. I'd use a heloc. Lower capital on that. That's what I would do. What do. What would you guys do?

Yeah, I think all those are good for sure. I think, I think HELOCs are often over overlooked. I think people are nervous to use HELOCs. But, but really, I think if you use them strategically, they can be very beneficial. Right?

Yeah. And for those of you who don't know what a HELOC is, it's a home equity Line of credit. And so oftentimes you get a lower interest rate on the, on the equity on your home. It's just sitting there, right?

Oh, here we go.

I would probably hypothecate your note portfolio, Mark. I would hypothecate the Note and file UCC1. That's what I would do.

Okay, you could do that. I mean, you know, a less pretentious person would just say pledge.

Using chat dpt. I'm like, can you put these two words in one sentence, please?

I mean, he's got a flat map on his wall. So that's. Yeah, pretentious. Flat math. Yeah.

I don't know. Yeah, Mike's like, there's 30 foot deeded on this flat map.

So.

Got that going for me.

Notes all over it.

Nice.

I need a better background. Here's a great question from Jared Bell. So Jared Bell, he's been in this for three years. Hundreds of deals under his belt, under their belt. And they're trying to convince people every day that they're legit. And this is something that even 10 years in, you know, our. We get messages. I get messages from my sales assistant. You know, this guy doesn't think we're legit. Blah, blah, blah. What can we do to. To. To help him? Help convince him that we're legit. So I don't know. I think, I think this is, this is something definitely worth talking about real quick. So, John Burnett, what. What are your thoughts? Credibility with your buyers?

I think that there's a few things that you can do that, like one thing is people like dealing with people more than they do faceless corporations. And so if you're pitching yourself as a corporation, then you're naturally just going to lose trust, right? Yeah, my first concur of the night. But I think that it, you know, like, we always found crying kids in the background. Right. I think just small talk, like talking to people, talking about, like on the call. What's that?

Yeah, I just hold it on the call. Cry, honey, come on. They're gonna cry.

Yeah, but like, I mean, people. Yeah, like hearing kids in the background for me, like, just talking about, like, hey, you know, how's it going? Where are you at? And I just talk about, like, yeah, you know, just. Just getting ready to take my. My sons to jiu jitsu. And like, you know, just like doing things like that, I think really help humanize you and build trust. I think the other thing is, and like, Zaino's touched on this a lot, is just being pretty frank about like what I'm doing, right? Like when I, when I talk to people, I'll tell them, like, look, my business model, I will acquire property. I'll often resell it with owner financing.

So.

So for me, you know, I've got to make sure that my margins make sense, right. But I'm, I'm not, I'm. I'm pretty upfront with them about what I'm planning on doing with the property. And I think that can really help establish trust too, where it doesn't feel like I'm wheeling and dealing and trying to needle them out. Right. I'm up front that, look, I'm not paying top dollar, but I close fast and I pay cash. And these assets can be difficult to move by yourself. And so I'm. I'm the easy button option, right? And I think that that helps build trust too. It's just being frank. So those are the things that I think stand out to me. So humanize yourself and be upfront about what you're doing.

I love it. I love it. I have a strategy, but I'd love to hear what Zen master does.

Well, I. To the point John was making, I think that we really just have to be ourselves. You know, sometimes we feel like we have to. And I'm not saying, Jared, you're doing this, but there are many times we feel like we have to sort of speak a certain way, act like this real business person. We can just be real down to earth people and just be ourselves. You know, the point about the kids there, I talked to several people, like mothers that are selling land. And they're like, in the beginning, I try to tell the kids to be quiet, but then the people be like, wait a minute, you're a mother. And they would instantly trust me because they just trust moms, you know, and so now she's like, tell the kids, run around, make all the noise you want. Who cares? Like, I'm just being real who I am. So I think we have to do away with the image that you have to be this sort of stuff, stuffy, boardroom type person with your tie all up nice and tight. Just be yourself and really relate to them and get to know them. Testimonials is also really great. You know, the people you've worked with prior and you can even tell them if you're new. I know you're not new, Jared here, but someone who's listening might be. I would say, listen, this is really my first deal, to be honest with you. I'm just feeling my way through It. I'm probably going to make a mistake here and there, but I promise that I'll be in constant communication. I'll be the best communicator you've ever known. And I'm hoping that when you're done with this transaction, that you're going to be so overwhelmed with the way that I performed every way that I said I would, that if I need you as a reference, you'll be there to help somebody else understand that I'm real and just be yourself. You don't have to act like you've done this a million times if you've only done it once. Telling me just the first time I'm selling a piece of. The first time I'm buying property, first time I'm selling property. But I'm just so excited, and I'm. I'm a little nervous, but I want to get it through, get this through and do it correctly with you. So perhaps you could help me later on and with the next person I work with. So I just think that transparency goes a long way.

Yeah, I mean, I concur. I. I was gonna say exactly the same thing, actually.

But I think.

Yeah, but Scott, go ahead. I mean, I do think, like, that authenticity and that honesty. You can't. In the vulnerability. Right. Like, don't act like you're bigger than you are. If it's your first deal, say, I'm nervous. This is my first deal. It humanizes you.

Yeah.

If it's your fifth deal, it's my fifth deal. I'm still doing this. And so, you know, let's not play tennis where you hit it back to me, I hit it back to you. I answer your objection. Let's play doubles together. I'm gonna jump over the net. We're gonna be on the same side. So what do you want? You want a safe transaction? What do I want? I want your testimonial so that, you know skeptical Scott when he's working with me. Exactly. Which is the exact same look, by the way. I have a little PTSD from that, so, please.

Whatever. That. How it was.

It is how it was, by the way. I don't know if you guys know Scott's a big dude, and his is how he was sitting at boot camp.

Looking at me in 2015. I'm just thinking. Thinking.

You don't get a sense of how tall Scott is on this call. Like, he's.

I know I seem very short on the calls, so.

Yeah. So I digress. Anyways, so we're playing. We're playing I'm jumping over on your side of the net and I'll say to you, hey, look, if I make this the most simple, transparent, easiest real estate transaction you've ever done in your life, would you do me a favor and just make a quick use your phone and use a quick one minute video testimonial saying that this was, you know, what they said. Mark said what he's going to do. He did. And I was nervous. I thought this didn't seem, this seemed too good to be true. I didn't think it was legit. And sure enough it was. And they were amazing to work with. So this is how we're going to do it then just walk them through the steps and then do it.

I love it. Hopefully all that's helpful. Jared, I wouldn't add anything different, I don't think. I just think it's very important early on to, to collect those testimonials and save them over time. And there's, there's lots of different places you can save them and point new customers toward those testimonials that can be very beneficial. Right. You have, Jared, you probably have a Facebook business page, a great place for people to go make a review, a five star review on your Facebook business page. You may have a Google reviews page, another great place for them to go. Video testimonials. Best of all. Right. But, but any of those things, I think in addition, I mean the most important thing is, is the authenticity and the relationship and being transparent and divulgent with who you are and what you're doing. Right. And not, you know, Google me, I don't care.

Right.

I've lost all anonymity because of this show because you know, there's millions of us watching. They all know who I am. Google me, it's fine.

Yeah, Google me, I don't care.

Yeah, I mean it is true. And I, I actually don't Google anymore. I perplexity. Google is so 2018.

What about Atlas though? John, are you using Atlas yet?

Alice is great.

I don't know what Atlas is browser from like 1998.

Oh, it's the ChatGPT branded browser which I just, I just downloaded today. I haven't used yet, but I've downloaded.

It acting in all these. I'm like 500 in AI tools per month every. We keep bringing up all these AI. I took like a list of like five. I messaged John, I'll be John, use all these things. Like there's like six, seven of them in the last show. You use all of them, Mark.

I have open Comet Chat, Atlas India, and I go back and forth, and then I look at the agents. Like, I could use comment, and it can actually manage my calendar and it goes in and, like, as an agent, will reschedule things. It's. It's. It's kind of crazy what's going on. And this is the worst it's going to be. But I wanted to say something about testimonials, because I think when you're new, some people might think I could use, like, a Sora and I could actually create a fake land. Oh, don't do it just because you review it.

Somebody with six fingers.

Yeah, don't do it.

Excuse me?

I mean, I. I think we're gonna get better and better at noticing what's real, what's not, so just don't do it. I think actually the worst it looks and the shakier that phone in that testimonial, the better. Because it's real. If it's real polished, Even if it's true, I'd almost have them, like, don't do it in. In 1080p. Do it in 720. Like. Like. Yeah, I think. I think it's gonna get to the point, like, no one's gonna know it's real.

Oh, that's coming. Within a year, a year or two, we're not going to know what's real. Okay. I just. It's craziness.

It is crazy.

Like, we're gonna run Nightcap and no one's gonna know. It's gonna be.

It's crazy.

Like, even going through. You just thumb through videos on, like, Facebook or something like that, and, like, half of them are AI generated. I bought a book for my kids a while ago, and I was looking through it and I was like, wait a minute. And then you. I realized every picture in this book is AI generated.

It was crazy. Yeah, it's nuts.

I mean, I don't know if it's necessarily just a bad thing, but I think a fake testimonial is a bad thing. I don't know if creating content with AI is a bad thing. If it's a good book and there are good images, there's nothing wrong with it. Just you're more productive. But human creativity, human connection, human empathy, human judgment, I don't see those getting replaced.

Yeah.

If you got a job, though, I start looking at feeding an entrepreneur in the land business.

Yeah.

I would do it now. As your side hustle, for sure. Hedge your head your bets. If you haven't Booked a call with these guys and you have a W2. Do it now. Should we put up the slide?

That reminds me. That reminds me. I think I put it up earlier. Maybe I didn't. All right, awesome. Thank you. Thank you guys for that. That was amazing. We got some other nuts and bolts questions here. So Jeff Moore. Jeff, how's it going? Calling in from Utah? Remember those old radio shows where people used to call in? I love those shows. Yeah. So here's a nuts and bolts question. So Jeff is, I think, through flight school now. Zanel, how many properties should I own typically before hiring my first va?

Well, that's kind of a loaded question, I think, because which VA are we talking about? I think he might be talking about a sales manager, sales agent, because I'm going to go with that. And, you know, I think you want to have, I don't know, maybe you want to have a constant, you know, five, six, seven properties in inventory. I'm just making up a number. You're going to have something to attract these people, work on commission. So they're going to want to have to see the. You want them to see the ability to make money. You want to excite them. So if you have a property or two, you know, it's not going to be overwhelming, overwhelmingly exciting to them with the possibilities of what they can do. So I think, you know, that's why we. We constantly stack up. We have always have a ton of properties. We want our salesperson to just understand how much money they can make if they move these properties. So I don't know if there's an exact number on how you guys feel about it, but I feel like you got to have a few in inventory.

Right.

You got to have something to excite that person. If we're talking about a sales.

I.

Think it's more about moving property before you hire. Like, if you've got a churn rate of like, yeah, we're actually moving property and we're inviting you into this, then I think that's a good. A good time. Yeah, you got to be careful just to, you know, to not go set it and forget it on sales. If you're just like, finally, I never have to hop on the phone again. And then you delegate to your salesperson, then all of a sudden you're not selling. You know, the way you. It's. It's an easy thing to do. So you can't. You can't go set it and forget it. Ease them into the water, too.

I concur. Oh, I mean, I. I don't think you can do that with any part of your business. Honestly. I think that's a. You know, there's a big difference between abdicating and delegating. I wish somebody wrote a book about it. Oh, wait, someone did. How to scale your land business. Dirt Rich 2 is out.

The plot thickens.

The plot thickens.

The flat thickens.

The plat.

Oh, land joke.

I don't.

I don't. I don't know why I'm shamelessly plugging tonight. I just am. I'm in a shamelessly plugged mood.

At the Dirt Rich Summit. Am I signing copies at the Dirt Rich Summit? Are you gonna be.

I mean, sure I am. Yeah. My fragile ego loves it when someone comes up to me and says, will you sign my book?

I might have to bring my book.

I don't even have a signed copy. I gotta. I gotta bring my book along.

Yeah, I'll sign yours, guys. In blood. That freedom ring.

I love you. Oh, man, that's great. That's awesome. All right. Awesome, guys. Okay, so this is a really great question, and, Mark, it's coming to you. All right, so this is from Liberty Land Corporation. Is that the lions? Is that the Lions? I don't know. What are the top three things Mark, we should bring to be prepared for the Dirt Rich Summit? I think is what they're asking about. Oh.

Honestly, I honestly think, like, I could ask the same question to my team. I need to bring projectors and mics, by the way. Liberty Land Corp. I'm not joking. Mackenzie, who's head of our events, slacks me, and she's like, can you get a instant hot pedal? No, this is not a joke. Can you bring an instant hot kettle? And I'm like. I'm, like, kind of annoyed. Like, oh, I got. I've got it. Like, I'm bringing enough. Like, I don't want to forget my laptop. I got the mics and the projectors. I have to bring this instant hot kettle. Like, just out of curiosity. I'm like, sure, I've got one who needs it. And she's like, Mike Zano.

Oh, my God.

I will bring it for Mike. So the top three things you should be prepared for, I would say just. Just be open. I think that's number one, is like, you know, go up to people and meet people. You know, have that icebreaker question I always ask. Like, when I go to, like, an event, I'll say, you know, hey, where are you from? And then I'll say, well, know, where are you originally?

From.

And kind of get into, you know, kind of talking like that. So I'd definitely be prepared to, like, just meet people and I would bring your laptop to take notes for sure. And. And just. I would have a goal. Right. Have some intentionality to it. I think that's it.

I. I love that. Like, watch. Watch your. What's your freedom plan or what's your freedom goal? Right. I think that's important to bring into the weekend to think about. And then, you know, when I. When I went to my first boot camp, you know, I brought that into the. Into the weekend. And then three days of seeing others who have met or were on the way to meeting similar goals can be pretty impactful. And so kind of an idea what that is before you come, like, what's your why? Right. Mark, you leveled a five level. Why?

Right.

Like, I want to be financially free. Why? So I feel less stress in my life financially. Why? So I can be a better dad and husband. Why? And so on and so forth. Right? Think about that before you come to the weekend and have a clear idea what that is and then rub elbows. Right? Just. Just talk to people and talk to people who've done this, because that's the. That's the best indicator right there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think when you're in the room with people like us and you're. You're. See, like, it's not. It's not hypothetical anymore. It's like there's these real land investors and they're doing real deals with real stories. It's a different energy than when you're on zoom, hearing it.

And even people who. I mean, Don Thrasher, great example, four months in, right? He's had three, four sales or more, and he's doing well, and he's got proof that it works, and he's early on in the journey, and that's really helpful. I think.

I think we should put pressure on Don.

Yeah.

I mean, Don, you have to do a deal at the Dirt Ridge summit. And by the way, every time we do it, a live event, people do deals in real time. And then they come up and then we do a case study on like, okay, you know, where did you buy this land? How did you market it? How long did it take to sell it? What were the numbers? And they kind of. They can walk you through in real time, their deal. And you learn a ton just from that case study.

Oh, wait, we got a little pre boot camp magic. Scott Elliot.

Scott Elliot.

Scott.

That's awesome.

Scott Elliot. Cheers to you. Man, that is awesome.

Cheers.

So the cool thing is about Scott. I'll tell a story about Scott. So a couple weeks ago, we were on a flight school office hours call, which is one of the weekly group coaching calls that we do. We do four a week. It's a lot. We have people celebrate wins, which is really cool. And these could be what people perceive to be minor wins or really amazing wins. And, you know, Scott, by week eight, I think week eight or nine, he had already bought $15,000 worth of property, but the value of the property was, like, 60. Right. And then. So we're celebrating that win, and he's like, you know, I could tell he's a little bit nervous, like, oh, I need to sell them now. But I'm like, but you also need to celebrate because you just bought these properties. Like, you're sitting on a portfolio now. That's worth something. Now we just got to flip the coin. And he's flipping the coin. Pretty awesome.

Awesome job.

That's awesome. Yeah. I mean, the. The. The dirty little secret we never talk about is they all sell. Like, you made your money on the buy. Like, I get you're nervous, but, like, we're all excited because, like, we know you're going to unlock that value. It just doesn't happen as. As fast as maybe you want.

Yeah.

But. But eventually, like, you kind of get used to it, and you actually like having inventory.

Yeah, for sure. Well, Mike thinks this is a great nightcap.

Thanks, Mike.

Thank you, Mike.

Last week sucked because Dana wasn't here.

Who wasn't here?

I mean, Boston wasn't there.

Wow. Wow.

I'll take that. Wow.

That's like.

Yeah, that hurts. I'm sorry.

That's like. It's like you're dating someone new, and you say the old name. That's. That's really bad, man.

I. I feel horrible. I do. I'm sorry. I met.

I feel great. Yeah.

It's just, you know, we're just so happy when Mike does show up. I just assumed, like, last week, he didn't show up. I missed one.

Oh. Jared said, thanks for the. So he asked about the legitimacy thing earlier. Earlier. So, I mean, there. You know, the team took a hard L today, right? Oh, that happens, doesn't it? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I. I would challenge it as. As far as, like, labeling it. I would say that you. You got a learning experience for the team, and now you've got that road rash that team got because you got that picture of the bike. You learn from it. And so I would say that the L isn't a loss, it's a learning opportunity and it's going to make the team anti fragile. Like they're stronger from this.

Right. Sometimes people aren't going to sell no matter what or aren't going to buy no matter what. And it just could have been. It may not even have been that.

It just.

They could have just used as an excuse, you know? You never know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

100.

Awesome. What are. Well, we're coming up on an hour. Of course we were tardy. We're a little tardy tonight. Mark from Dr. G. When's the next dirt rich summit? Because she's having a little fomo. Maybe missing out on this one, you know, next October.

Dr. G, I. I think we're planning for the, like, October of 2026. I'm not sure, but it's. It's gonna be like the same time. Yeah.

But to get her by in the meantime, we have virtual events.

We have virtual events. Yeah. We have virtual boot camp and we breakout rooms. So you do get to meet people. So a lot of networking at the virtual event.

For sure.

I think it's January 20th is the next. I mean, it's really not that far away. Right. Our next virtual event is January 20th.

No, it's not. And I'd love to be in a breakout room with Dr. G. Like, trying to hide my wrinkles.

Right, Right.

Because I know she's like, oh, yeah, Mark, you need some Botox.

Maybe she can set up shop at the next live one. She'll have like a booth or something for all of us over 50. John's fine, but the rest.

Yeah, John's good.

Yeah.

Dr. G, can you make my crow's feet go away?

Oh, man, look at them. Wow, those are prominent.

Look, I'm happy. I smile a lot. Yeah, that's hard. Won crow's feet.

For sure. Hard one. Crow's heat. Oh, man. I do have to say one thing. I'm surprised no one. Well, not John. I'm surprised no one has said anything about my T shirt tonight.

Can't read the whole thing.

Oh, Caddyshack.

Caddyshack.

Oh, Caddyshack.

Of course, I didn't pan down and I should have, but wow, the caddy did. Golf. Golf tournament, 1980.

That's Scott. That's vintage.

It's vintage. Yeah. It's new vintage, though. It's not like vintage vintage. You know, the new. The new vintage shirts you can get anywhere. Yeah.

Gambling's illegal, Bushwood, sir. And I never slice.

I Knew Mark would bring the Caddyshack quote. I knew he would. I just knew he would.

What are you gonna free bowl of soup with that hat? Oh, but it looks good on you.

See.

We could do this all night.

We could do it. Oh, man. So, Mark, I have a question. Do we have nightcap next week or do we have an off. Off night? Because we're. We're getting ready for traveling and all that stuff.

Oh.

What do you think?

I don't know. Put in the chat. If we should. There's nightcap before we leave for Derwich Summit.

Well, I don't.

I leave.

Well, I leave early Wednesday. Yeah.

I think I would just say to the audience, we might have. We don't know yet. But is it possible we might have an off week?

I think it's possible.

Very possible.

I think it's very possible because I leave Wednesday.

I may be driving. I may be driving up to the cities. Tuesday to Minneapolis, St. Paul.

Tuesday, three hours to get to an airport where you live. Right, Scott?

Like that's true.

Yeah.

Can we just do a rerun? Let's just do a rerun.

Oh, a rerun. Yeah, I like that.

We should do the one. We cover the whole. We cover the whole model. That's a good one. Yeah, let's.

Let's do a rerun.

All right, we'll do a rerun. I like it. And then we'll be back the following week after. After the Dirt Rich Summit, and we'll have all sorts of stories to tell.

Oh, it'll be great.

Yeah, it'll be fantastic.

The post Dirt Rich Summit wrap up.

Some of the people here. Some of our favorite listeners. Watchers will be meeting us live.

That's gonna be good stuff. Good stuff.

I hope Don Thrasher's a hugger, guys. I don't know when I saw you last night. Over a year. Two years. How long has this been?

It's been like two and a half years, buddy.

No, it hasn't.

Yeah. January.

Yeah.

January 23rd.

I might cry.

I know, right?

I. I've seen John sooner than I've seen you guys because he came to coaching live.

Yeah, John.

There it is. Yeah.

John and I are gonna hang out.

Okay. All right.

That's fine. It's fine. Two and a half years.

Two and a half years, dude. We'll share a bourbon together. It'll be. It'll be good.

How does that even happen, by the way?

I don't even know.

How do we go two and a half years?

This is wrong.

Time flies, man.

When you guys coming out to hike?

Hike with the javelinas?

Never.

Yeah, because it's cold. Boston's cold. Don't even get me started. You guys are three cold places. Winter here is beautiful.

In the wild where you live bite you. The plants bite you, the habanero bite you. I'm not going anywhere in those woods.

Mark, Mark, what's the hike where people need to get rescued all the time on the helicopter?

Camelback.

Yeah, okay, that I. I want to do camelback. It's on my bucket list.

So we'll do it.

I could never figure out if we had actually reached because we're gonna hike to the. The helicopter pad. And we had lots of debates of what actually constituted a helicopter pad, but there was no circle with an H in it on camp.

It was like a flat area where a helicopter could land. Theoretically. Theoretically, yeah. Oh, Anna, how many people are expected?

How many? We have it.

So we're. We're maxed out at 280, so there's no one to. I don't think we're there, though.

I think if.

I think if. We're probably around 250 right now.

Whoa. So there's still room.

There's still about. There's still room.

Wow.

Well, for those tuning in, you're in the Texas area. To Austin, Texas area. A lot of land investors down in Austin, Texas. Join us at the dirt rich summit.

Grab your cowboy hat and come on over, Mike.

You bringing the boots and the vest.

And all that jazz as Laura.

As long as Laura got me the boot jeans. Because there's nothing worse than wearing the boots with the tight. The tight jeans so that.

If you.

Can'T tuck them in, you know, that's not good for a guy.

Oh, man. You don't wear tight jeans in Texas, man.

I guess it's not very Texas. Put your boots outside your jeans.

No, no, you don't. You don't do that there, Mike. We don't do that.

By the way, speaking of Texas, have you guys watched the Road yet with Keith Urban and Blake Shelton?

What is that, a TV show?

Yeah, it's like a reality show. Like these, like a. Really accomplished musicians who just haven't had their break yet are, like, competing for, like, a record contract. But they're. They're all country musicians. Like, they start in Texas.

I have to watch that.

Are you a country music fan?

I do like it. My wife loves it. I like it.

John.

Country.

I like old country. So you know Johnny Cash, hey Coins Ash, Willie Nelson. That's great.

We'll even Do.

We'll do cowboy music, too. That's fine.

I feel like Scott Bossman hates country. I just look at them, and I.

Feel like I'm very selective with my country music.

I would have to say, yeah, is Cowboy Carter country? Because I love that album.

Who's that?

Have you guys heard that?

Is not. That's fiance. No, I mean, it's amazing.

Don't mock it. It's amazing.

I'm like, look.

She covers Jolene.

Oh, I would have to listen to it. I. I should listen to it for sure.

It's. It's legit. Seriously. I think I won an album of the year. It's great.

It did. Yeah.

Yeah.

Awesome. Well, thanks, everybody, for tuning in. And, fellas, see you soon.

And, yeah, see you in person.

Yeah. Yeah.

We're gonna have a group hug, or what.

We'Re having. It's gonna be the four of us and Don Thrasher, and we're gonna. Five of us gonna be hugging it out. I can't wait.

God. Looks a little intimidating. I'm not sure he's a hugger.

Is Donna hugger?

I don't know, Donnie, you a hugger? You look kind of intimidating on your. On the still shot you have there. It's kind of like.

I don't know if he's still on or not, but, yeah, he's a hugger. He's a hugger.

Well, I can't wait to meet everybody and see everybody.

That's right.

Oh, look at that.

Yes.

All right. Coming your way.

Well, thanks, everybody, for a fun night. And we'll see, I guess, in two weeks, we're thinking.

Two weeks. Yeah. By the way, when I'm reading that. Oh, yeah, I'm. I'm channeling.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I'm channeling the Ferris Bueller's Day off. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

So are we gonna have the outro. We didn't have an issue.

Yeah, I got. I got the outro pulled up. I just. I don't know, for whatever reason, things were just.

Oh, hey.

Abolished.

No blame. It's just. We love it.

Yeah, we got it. You ready? Here's the outro. Let freedom ring.

Mark Podolski let free to ring. Thanks.

Good night, everybody.