Is There a Secret to Success in the Land Business?

Hey, it's Mark Kudoski, the land geek with the favorite niche real estate website, thelandgeek.com and on this week's Roundtable podcast, we have almost all the usual suspects. We've got the technician, Eric Peterson. Eric, how are things in beautiful Franklin, Tennessee?

Beautiful. It's like summer here. Sun's out, warm, no complaints.

Fantastic. I love it when you call me big Papa. Tate Litchfield, how are things in beautiful Sin City, Las Vegas, Nevada?

It's hot, man. Summer is here. It's not like summer. It is summer. 100 degrees on the menu for today.

You know, I think anything 105 or under is not so bad.

There's a noticeable difference between 105 and, like, 101. Like, it's noticeable for sure.

It's for the dreams, but I think, you know, there's more noticeable. 106 to 105 for sure.

I mean, you get above that, like, you said that 105 threshold and. Yeah, yeah, it hurts.

You know, we have over. Over Scott Todd. It's a dry.

Yes. And I was gonna say no gators, but.

Yeah, that's right. So last but not least, you know him, you love them. The brain, the professor, your flight school Sherpa. Scott Todd from Scott Todd.net landmodo.com Learn anything about anything. Investor ninjas.com Scott Todd, how are things in humid Tampa Bay?

Not so humid, actually. It's like, you know, it's rising on the scale. But let me ask you a question, Tate. What did you say the temperature was today?

We're going to be at 100 degrees. Nice.

And so even with the feels like temperature where I am, the feels like temperature, which factors in the humidity. 92 degrees. So. Yeah, but bring it, baby.

Okay. My feels like temperature is.

Feels like 95, so I'm still cooler by three.

Yeah, but you're wet. You're always wet.

Yeah.

You're always sweating.

Slammy. No, I'm not sweating heat.

Yeah, feels good. Feels good, man. It cools you down.

Whatever you say, boss. Whatever you say.

Yeah, that sounds good to me.

Well, anyways, this is not the topic for today's roundtable podcast is the sweltering humidity of Florida. No, it is. Scott Todd. Tate Litchfield. Eric Peterson, is there a secret that we're not sharing about the land business? So oftentimes people, you know, feel like if they get, you know, this amount of information or that amount of information, it unlocks everything for them, and that if they just had that information, success would be theirs. So the Question is, and Eric, I'm just going to start with you because Zaino's not on because he loves going first. Is there a secret about the land business where if someone's struggling, if they just had that one piece, it could all be unlocked and success would be theirs?

I think that, you know, all of the knowledge in the, shall we say, like the steps of buying and selling raw land online like we do, I think that the reality is all of that information is out there and available for free. Okay? It's in our podcasts, it's in groups, it's in other people's information. I mean, it's everywhere. So if someone wants to spend the time and go out there and learn all of it that way, I think everything is there. I don't really think that we're holding any secrets that we only release to, say, coaching clients or something. It's more, I guess the way I would put it, it's more about accountability and having direct access to someone that can help you through the times where you might get stuck. You might be able to get through those times on your own by doing the research, but it's going to be quicker, it's going to be more efficient when you have access to someone that's been through this before. But the reality is there's no secrets, nothing. We're not hiding anything. There's no, you know, pay X amount of money and all of a sudden we open the book and you're like, wow, I had no idea.

It's.

It's all there from my perspective.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I say this a lot. There is no how to gap in any of our training. So it's all there. Anyways, between the YouTube videos, nightcap, the Facebook group, my networks group, it's all there for the taking, for free. It really is. That being said, if you want it nice and organized, you can get the investors toolkit and do it yourself. If you have more money than time, then yeah, of course you should do flight school because you're executing in real time with the group, you have that accountability. And then of course from there, if you want to scale, of course coaching is going to make sense for you because then you're going to have that accountability. And again, you're not going to waste any time in scaling and getting to the next level in your land business. But there's no, there's no information gap that I would say that there's out there, but that's just for me. I love when you call me Big Papa Tate Litchfield might actually have a secret that he doesn't tell anybody and could unlock and blow the doors off of somebody's land business.

Today's.

Today's the day. Let's hear it.

Could be the day.

Look, is there a trademarked Tate Litchfield secret? No, there's not. But I think what you'll often see is there's people who are information junkies, and you kind of alluded to this at the beginning, Mark, and they always want to get the next book in the next podcast. And really, to be successful in the land business, I think you just got to put the blinders on and do the work. Where having a mentor really comes in to play is if you need a little extra hand holding, if you want somebody to say, all right, I understand what an intake manager does, but show me how to implement them. That's where the help of an advisor really, really makes sense. Because now you get to see how one person has applied this VA to their business. You get to see their process, their swim lanes, their. The job responsibilities, and you don't have to come up with those on your own. So is that a trademark secret? No, I don't necessarily think so, but I think what it is is it's a refined process, and that refined process has value to it. That refined process has evolved over the course of many intake managers and many years and lots of trial and error. And maybe that's what people are looking for. They're looking for a shortcut to get from A to Z. And sure, there is some things that you might need to pay for to get, but for the most part, the role of an intake manager, the role of a due diligence va, what to do during due diligence, that's pretty common. That's public information. We talk about it on this podcast all the time, like Eric said. So is there a magic bullet for this business? No, there's not hard work, really. That's what it comes down to. And persistence and time. I think this is one thing that we overlook all the time, is just how much you have to spend working in this environment to really understand it. I've spent years looking at satellite images. I've spent time in a friend's plane over, over the skies looking at properties from a 10,000 foot perspective, seeing what these properties look like, being able to identify good counties that make sense, that comes with years of experience. And that experience can't really be bought in most cases.

No, I absolutely agree and I have some thoughts about it, but I don't want to get. I don't want to get too sidetracked with my own thoughts and listening to my own voice because I'd rather get the sage wisdom of Scott Todd, because Scott's kind of looking at the camera like, remember that. There's like. I forget what commercial was like some ancient, you know, secret. Like, what's the secret? Scott Todd, just tell us. We could end the podcast and just unlock all of it for us.

Wasn't it Uncle Ben's rice that had the secret?

I forget the product. I don't know.

You know, the thing is, like, again, everybody said this, there's no secret. And to some extent, there's no secrets in the world, right? Like, everything is. Is out there. Everything can be seen. There's not any. Okay, maybe the Coke formula is not. Is a secret still. But beyond that, you know, for the most part, everything that you would have to do to pull. Pull something together is there. And I, I guess I see a lot of people come. Come to the business, and I see them at different levels within the business, and I see people that maybe they're struggling on something or whatever. And I think that the difference is, is that it's not that there's a secret, but we all know that we can't be good at everything and we can't grasp every single concept. And Tate kind of mentioned this, right? This is hours and hours and hours in the beginning, right? Like, it's just not something. Look, if you wanted to. If you wanted to. If I wanted to invest in a, I don't know, a multifamily property, well, then I either have to go through the education to learn how to do it, and then I have to execute on that and understand that I'm going to make mistakes, or I need to have somebody that I can. That can guide me through that, right? And the guide can be someone that maybe, maybe they're a coach of mine, or maybe, heck, maybe I just joined the syndication and give my money to them and they go run off and invest it. Either way it's fine. But the end of the day, you know, like, there's not a secret to it. I think that the difference is, is that sometimes people are able to see the next dot in the sequence, and sometimes people struggle to see the next dot. And, you know, you see this with everything that you've ever learned. Think about elementary school or middle school when. When they teach algebra. Some kids, they get algebra, it just connects, boom. They understand it. Some kids do not get it. Some people never get it. Some people get it from just repetition. Or, you know, what happens, I think, to most of us is that we may not have gotten something in school. And then as we. As we mature, as we age, as we go through life, we start to realize, like, oh, I understand algebra now, right? Like, it just comes to you because it keeps impacting you, or you see something in a different way. And to Tate's point, that's the time in the business, right? What a lot of times people do is that they hit that wall, whatever it is, they bounce off of it, which is rejection. They get rejected. Somehow they bounce off that wall, and then they don't go back towards that wall again, right? Because they're like. They know that that wall is going to knock them down again. So what do they do is they try to go a different direction. Oh, I don't like that wall. I don't like that resistance that I just ran into. So I'm going to go a different way or I'm going to. There's got to be a different way around this wall. Well, the only way around the wall is to figure out how to go above the wall. And some people can figure out how to go above the wall and over the wall, and other people start going in different directions, looking for another way around that wall. Well, there's. Sometimes there's not a way around the wall. You just got to figure out how to get over it. And then once you figure it out, you're moving on to the next wall. Because there's always walls. Somewhere along your journey, you're going to meet one.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, as you're talking, Scott, it reminds me of. The story was about a year ago, we were in Nashville together at the Passing Income Astronomer with Russ and Joey, and we're at topgolf, right? And I'm watching Scott Todd hit golf balls and golf ball after golf ball. Long, straight, beautiful. I get up there and I shake it, and I'm looking at Scott like, well, I'm swinging just like him, right? I go up and again, shank it again. And he's just hitting it long and straight, long, straight. And my attitude is, this is horrible. This is miserable. Why does anybody want to do this where, you know, Scott and a lot of the other people there are just enjoying themselves and thinking straight. Now, what's the difference? What's the secret? Well, the secret is, at some point, Scott got through that frustrating part of an intrinsically very difficult game, and business is intrinsically difficult. And his attitude was, well, you know, I'LL just keep practicing. I'll get better. Right. Maybe you got a little bit of coaching. I took golf lessons. I mean, I had. But I just never hit that point where I got to Tate's point. I got enough reps in to actually become confident. And once you become confident, you really enjoy it. You become. Then you start getting that next level. So I think that might actually be. If there is a secret. The secret is how do you frame your experience? And when things go well or don't go well, where. Where's where your mind go? If things go well, do you look at somebody like Scott or Eric and Tate like, well, I did well, but not those guys. And then you're not happy. And then when things don't go well, do you go to, like. Like, you know me with golf, like, oh, this is just terrible. This is no fun at all. Why. Why does anybody want to even do this? So either way, you lose. But it is so easy to reframe that experience into. This is something I'm eventually going to get really good at the more I do it. And looking at how far you've come in your success and not comparing yourself to somebody, like, on this call, I don't know. What do you think, Tate? I like it.

No.

And I think that makes a lot of sense. I really like the analogy of it's going to take time to get good at anything. I think it was Thomas Edison who says, I've never failed, but I've just found 10,000 ways of not doing it. And that's kind of the idea with being an entrepreneur, is you're not going to get it right the first time or the second time or the 10th time. And if you can find somebody or find resource that can help you get from A to Z a little quicker, it's in your best interest to take advantage of that. So is there a magic bullet? Again, I'll say. No, I really don't think so, because the steps are published. It's common knowledge. How bad do you want it?

Yeah. And I think we've even talked about this before. Another roundtable podcast. It kind of comes down to grit.

Totally.

Really? I think if we were going to make, like, a success stew and we were just going to throw in a bunch of ingredients, I think the first ingredient might be grit. The second ingredient might be a burning desire.

Determination. Determination.

Determination. Right.

You know, never say never. Right. Like, that kind of mentality, like perseverance. That's important. I don't know.

Yeah, A. A growth mindset, maybe.

Yeah.

As Far as it, you know, you say to yourself, I'm gonna get better at this. Instead of like fixed mindset. Well, I'm just not good at, you know, deal flow. I'm not. Or I'm just not good at marketing. I'm just not good at selling. That's a fixed mindset, where you have a growth mindset. Well, I'm gonna get better at these things. Or I'm gonna get, you know, to Tate's point, I'm gonna get better at hiring people that are better at this than me.

I'm not an expert at anything except hiring experts. Right.

And that's how you grow a business. Absolutely.

Hey, Mark, there's a book that I read a long time ago, I think I read this book around the year 2000. And this book is actually a much older book. This book was, it's called the Keys to Success and it's written by B.C. the letter initials B.C. forbes. And I think it's like from 1920 something, right? B.C. forbes, who, who was, I think the founder of Forbes magazine. Okay, so like this guy wrote this book, Keys to Success. And you know, he starts off by basically saying, like, you know, he identifies these keys and one of which is to think it's self education. The one that kind of sticks out to me a lot is that he called it, and remember, it's dated stuff. This is like 100 years old. He called it stick to it. Iveness, right? You know, grit, basically, you could say it's the same thing for grit. He has a whole chapter on that. But basically he says like, hey though, right in the think part, right in the beginning, he says, remember that the Woolworth Building was once only a thought. You know, the, the Egyptian kings basically had thoughts of the pyramids, right? Like everything begins with the thought and nothing just goes up instantly. And so a lot of times I think that what we run into is people think, oh, well, I'm going to achieve this number, whatever it is, by this time frame. An artificial deadline that they put on themselves. And then when they don't get it, they get like self defeating as opposed to. You know, we can think of so many people that we've seen do something with the land business. They just keep showing up, man. Like, I'm telling you, there's people that you don't hear from for a while and then they pop up on the radar and they're like, I'm still doing it and my passive income is X. And you're like, whoa, where have you been? Flying under the Radar. Right. You know, and that's just the thing, is some people just don't quit, man. Don't quit.

There it is. So, Scott Todd, is that the secret?

No, There is a secret, by the way.

There is.

Should I give it.

Yes.

I'll give it to you next week on this.

All right. Well, fantastic. Before. All right, fine. We'll get. And by the way, before we get to the tip of the week, that.

Is the tip of the week.

The secret.

I just gave it. I. I know, but show up next week and get it again.

We got it. We got to give a shout out to our sponsor, which is Fight School. Learn how the next 16 weeks can literally transform your life. Go up that mountain of land, vesting quickly, safely, efficiently with Scott Todd as your Sherpa, and start building that passive income without any headaches. No renters, no rehabs, no renovations, no rodents. Once your passive income exceeds your fixed expenses, you're totally free to live your very best life and do what you're meant to do. And I know you're thinking, well, what's about that flight school tuition? It ain't gonna cost you nothing, guaranteed. You're gonna make back that money 180 days or less. Just show us your work. To learn more, just go to thelandgeek.com training thelandgeek.com training okay, well, Scott Todd, I really do think you gave us the tip of the week, which is that book. Do you have another book?

No, I think that one's good. Go look it up. It's free, by the way. Guys, it's so old. It was 1926. It's in the public domain. I mean, I just looked at. I just Googled it. The Keys to Success, the BC Forbes. And Google has it for free. You can read it online. And I don't know, I just remember that book from 22 years ago. And I mean, I highly recommend an old book every now and then.

All right, so a free book. The Keys to Success on Google. Fantastic. All right, awesome. Well, I thought this was a really great podcast. And if you are, dear listener, getting value. All you have to do is give us three favors. Follow rate, Review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of that review to supportlandgeek. Com. We're going to send you for free a signed copy of Dirt Rich. So please do it. All right. Tate, are we good? Yep. Eric, are we good?

We're great.

I think the. The moral of the story today is, you know, be unwilling to quit if you want to succeed in this business.

I Love it. Scott.

Todd, we're good, man.

I'm so excited for that secret next week. I can't even tell you. Wow.

Okay, well, we'll see everybody then.

All right, we'll see everybody next week for the actual secret that Scott Hodd has not told anyone yet. All right, one, two, three, let's freedom ring. Not bad. So you guys can't see him here, but right across from me is the one, the only, my, one of my favorite of the two slow talkers, Russ Morgan. Yeah, he's just. Just laugh at me. And the reason he's laughing at me is we're kart racing at the Passive Income Mastermind in Austin. And this is for those of you that aren't familiar with it. It's. It's a group of accredited investors and it's three pillars, right. It's building infrastructure to help build and scale your business. Really about working smarter, not harder. Passive income ideas and tax mitigation to grow. But of course, the bond. In one of these mastermind groups, we're doing kart racing. And I gotta tell you, I'm just saying I suck. I mean, terrible at kart racing. Terrible. Like, if you, if you really want a, like just a lesson in humiliation, come to the event and kart race with these guys. I'm getting lapped by one of the attendees wives twice. I'm doing my best. She's zipping around like, this can't be that difficult. And by the way, they tell you, don't pass anyone. Stay in your own lane. That's how slow I was going.

Let me ask you a question.

Start throwing turtle shells and bananas out the back.

Yeah.

I was going to say you need to take the defensive game up a notch.

I'm going to take. Honestly, that's not a bad idea. I should have done.

But let me ask. I should have.

Mario karted it. Just started throwing bombs.

That'd be great.

Is that you, Riverdo?

Behind me.

But Mark Riverdo is here.

Let me ask you a question. So instead of being out on the track, you've thrown in the towel. You're on a podcast with us and it's a lot like the golf menu last year you hit the wall and you're like, I'm just going to talk to everybody. Is this a pattern?

This is a pattern. You can see, like my frustration tolerance is really low in a lot of areas.

Yeah. So then you just go back to the comfort zone.

Yeah, exactly.

Podcast. Just hanging with us.

Yeah, it's nice.

Okay.

I have no argument. You're absolutely right.

We're happy to have you. He just owned it.

I own it. Yep, you're right. You're 100% right. And it's something I should explore. That being said, I really, you know, look, to give me a little credit, at least I did it right. I think the really not being your comfort zone. I wouldn't have even done it, which is my natural inclination, because I kind of knew at some level that this just isn't my thing. And I don't like the idea of going really fast, slowing down, maybe hitting a wall. Here in the background.

Oh, yeah, we hear it.

There it is.

They announced the winners, and it was not Mark Podolski.

No, it was not me at all. Have you guys been kart racing?

Like go kart racing?

It's like a go kart. It's like these fast go karts. Yeah, it's a workout. It's fun.

Did they spin you around? They spin you out. They tap you so you spun?

No, they didn't have to. I was doing it myself. Like, remember, like, little slow down signs on these tight hairpin turns? I. I'm not good at it yet.

You drive a car.

Okay.

You know, an argument could be made as to whether or not he's good at doing that too. Right? Like, we've been in the car with you.

There was that time I gave him directions back to the. I don't know, his house. In his own house.

It was like three blocks. It was like three blocks from where we were at, and he still put it in gps. Yeah, I remember that.

Like, just go down there, turn right.

You're golden. Look, I own it.

Get out of the car.

I own it. Some people are just blessed with sense of direction. I am not one of those people. Of course, it is a little bit embarrassing when Scott's coming in from Tampa, giving me directions in my own town, and he's not using gps. Oh, yeah, yeah. Let's go over here.

It's all good, man.

All good. It's all good. All right, well, thanks, guys. I'm gonna go back to the cart racing and get back out of my. Outside my comfort zone.

All right, Good.

All right. Get a great one. Thanks, guys.

See ya.

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