Land Geek Round Table: Outsourcing Truth Bombs—Hiring and Training Successful Virtual Assistants

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com. and on this week's roundtable, we have most of the usual suspects. We've got Dude Buddy, the nightcap OG Scott Bossman. Scott, how are you?

I'm doing great, Mark. How are you?

I'm feeling very geeky. If you're not watching the video of this, we both have stuff, Star wars backgrounds, which, you know, I feel like I'm tapping the force.

Yeah, I feel like I'm there. It's pretty amazing.

It's really cool. We've got the technician, Eric Peterson. Eric, how are you?

I'm doing quite well.

It's good to see you. We've got the most feared woman in the country, the terrorist hunter, Mimi Schmidt. Mimi, how are you?

Doing all right. You doing okay?

We're hanging in there. We're hanging in there. Not a day goes by I'm not grateful for alcohol. And then we got the big papa. I love it when you call me Big Papa. Tate Litchfield. Tate, how are you?

I'm all right. Starting to get a little bit worn out like everybody else, but I'm okay.

Yeah. I mean, you. You've got a little rougher than I think most of us. Because of the. The youngins.

Yeah, they're. They've been giving us a run for our money over the last few days, but it is what it is.

It is what it is. And then last but not least, you know you love them. Scott Todd from Scott Todd.net landmodo.com automated your Craigslist, your Facebook postings. Posting domination.com thelandgeek learn anything about anything investor ninjas.com Scott Todd. How are you, Mark?

I'm great. How are you?

I'm good. I'm good. I'm hanging in there. My wife cut my hair today, so I feel clean. Tate's got a nice haircut. Boston's got his haircut. Eric looks good.

He's wearing a hat.

He.

Okay, all right. I was just wondering, because he. He looks like he could easily be Jeph Low with that hat on. I don't know.

Oh, man, that already Already throwing punches.

Shots fired.

Shots fired. Within the two minutes of the podcast. Scott, you're looking. Looking good. Mimi. You. You look like. Like you've got. Like you're going to the salon every day. I don't know what's going on over there.

It's bigger and bigger, more and more.

I don't know, but. But everybody seems to Be doing fairly well. I think it'd be a really good way to start the roundtable. Just this week's update. How are things going in the middle of the pandemic for your business? Let's just start with the nightcap OG Scott. Bossman Scott. How are things going?

Things are. Things are moving along. Things are busy. We've had a couple cash sales in the last week and a couple terms deals in the last week, so it continues to be busy. And we're purchasing properties. Bought one today. Buying a couple other ones this week.

Okay. Wow. Not. Not bad. Any defaults yet?

I still have not had any defaults. Knock on wood.

Wow. The technician, Eric Peterson. What's the state of your land business?

Things are going well. Had a couple sales over the weekend. We've got small handful of properties we'll be purchasing this week. Things are moving right along.

Okay. Wow. Any defaults?

Not since the one I mentioned last week.

Okay. The terrorist hunter, Mimi Schmidt. How's the state of your land business?

I own a lot of property. Had some good sales. Had. Have a note that's getting paid off early today. So I'm still seeing more cash coming in than normal and lots and lots of visits to property. Everyone wants to go look and get out because they can go look at land and social distance at the same time. And the weather's getting nicer too, so that's been great. Because if they go see it, they're more likely to want to buy it.

No, absolutely. I mean, you could almost put like as a headline. This, this land will keep your sanity. Go out, camp on it, get away for sure. It's like, would you rather drink a fifth or a camp? Here you go. Easy terms. Tate Litchfield, the big papa. How's the state of your land business?

You know, we had somebody pay off the remaining note today, which is kind of exciting. Nice little $3,000 double right there.

So that's.

That's kind of cool. But honestly, we haven't really seen much change from the last time I kind of gave this. We're seeing a ton of activity, lots of sales happening. It's been a really good month for us. Dare I even say record breaking, so. But I don't know for sure. We still got a couple days left, but. But we're hustling, so it's pretty awesome time to be a land investor.

And no note defaults yet?

No. We had a couple people make adjustments to their notes. I do think I am going to see one, but I can't say for sure. It's a result of COVID 19. The guy is honestly kind of perpetually late. So could be a variety of different reasons, but I think we are gonna have a default with him, and I'm sure he'll claim it was Corona.

Yeah. I have a question for you with these perennially late people.

Yeah.

Now they're in default, and then they're like, hustling to get back with you, and they're like, no, no, no, I want to pay, I want to pay. Do you keep them in default or do you let them, you know, get current?

You know, it's something we'll look at on a case by case basis. I mean, if somebody ran into a difficult few months and they stopped making payments, they absolutely have that right to do so. And if they call us back and say, listen, I can't make the full payment today, but I could pay, you know, last month and then the late fees, we're gonna work with them. You know, we're good people and we want you to get your land, but it's the people that don't communicate with us that are constantly late. I mean, we've got probably six or seven people who. It doesn't matter what month of the year it is. Every single payment is late. Every single one of them. And, you know, it doesn't bother me, right? We collect their late fee charge. They're okay with it. I've spoken with them. I've said, hey, let's pick a new date. Let's pick a new note collection payment. I don't want you guys to pay this. And they'll say, okay, let's move it to the 15th, 15th will come, payment will fail. Hit with a late fee. On the 22nd, they pay, plus their late fee. And it's like, all right, that's just the way they operate. No problem. So we're good guys.

No, you know, absolutely. Absolutely. The brain, the professor, the flight school Sherpa. Scott. Todd. What's the state of your land investing business, Mark?

Let's see. I will tell you right now, it is, in fact, a record breaking month. Like, by far a record breaking month so far. Right. Like, you know, everything else after this way, way more than anything we've ever done. So basically, this month is probably double my best month ever. Prior to this, like, we doubled our best month ever. So not bad. Cash collections is up, I think, by 20%. Cash collections is up by 20%. So people are paying. Actually had a guy, interesting story, Had a guy that he. He's been a customer of Mine for a long time. I want to say like a few years. And he goes through these like, waves, okay? Like, he'll go, he'll pay great. He's a great payer. And then all of a sudden he disappears. Like, you can't find him. Like he's gone, nothing. And you send the notice of default. And then he comes back and he's like, hey, I'm back. Hit some rough times. Can I get the property again? And you know, like, we do operate on the clock, right? Like, you know, this happens and this, like you make your payment or you don't make your payment, then this happens. Notice, default, whatever. But just because we do that and we send through the termination stuff doesn't always mean that we always put the properties back up on the market either. Sometimes we'll hold them because like this guy, he shows back up again two, three months later. And I'm not necessarily holding it for him, but at the same time, do I really need to go sell that one right now? I mean, like, I've got others in my inventory. So it just goes. There's. And then what happens is when he shows back up again, he's like, hey, can I get the property back? Well, let's see if it's still available. It is, because we kind of put it on the side for a little bit. And what we do is we say, hey, listen, yeah, you can basically pick up where you left off. You have to make two months payment and you have to pay the doc fee. He's like, okay, let's do it. So we do the doc fee again. He pays two months payment again, and we're back in an active note. So like, this guy showed up again and he's got money again. So it's like, let's roll. And we actually had the same property that he wanted still available. So we're like, let's go. So that's the way we do it. Like, you want to get back in after it's terminated? New doc fee, two months payment, and then we can roll.

I love it. I love it. I think more people should be doing that. Yeah, because it does. I mean, look, it does take time to get these people back in the fold. There's. There's emotional bandwidth at play as well.

Just. I think what happens is, you know, if you, if you don't.

Yeah.

Like, look, there's labor involved in saying these notices, right? Like, there's neighbor labor labor involved. And yeah, we use systems to do it, but guess what? People have to still do this stuff. Okay. Like, people have to monitor it and do things. And there is an opportunity cost too, right? Like there's an opportunity cost for me not selling that property. And again, I'm not necessarily saving it for them, but it's not necessarily top of. When I take it off of permanent a deal, unless I have someone absolutely needing a property like that, well, then I just kind of put it on the back burner and I'll put it back in when the inventory starts to move around a little bit. But I try to be fair to people, but then if somebody were just to make a couple payments and then vanish on me, I'm not that nice. I shouldn't. Because, like, why? They haven't built a relationship. They just left where this guy, he's paid for a long time, you know, I don't want to see him like, lose money.

So this is what we do.

All right. I love it. I love it. Well, we have a really interesting topic to discuss this week, but before we do, I really need to promote our sponsor and thank them for supporting the podcast. Today's podcast is sponsored by Flight School. Learn how the next 16 weeks can literally transform your life. Have Scott Todd be your land geek Sherpa up the mountain of land Investing. In 16 weeks, you can start creating passive income, more cash flow, really create an entire business. It's a one time sale. You get recurring passive income every single month. No renters, no. No rehabs, no renovations, no rodents. Learn more. Just go to thelandgeek.com training schedule, a call with the nightcap OG dude buddy Scott Bossman or the Zen master Mike Zano and see if this model resonates with you. So, Scott Todd, what is our topic for the week?

You know, Mark, I kind of get. I. I kind of get my blood pumping when I see comments like this. And this is from the Facebook group. And basically someone is asking on there, they feel like they're wasting their time by creating training material to do something like due diligence, for example, when.

They'Re.

Not even quite sure, not even quite sure of what they need anyway, right? Like they're, they're trying to focus on other things. And the comment in there says, like, I'm trying to be a land investor, not a VA trainer. And you know, I get it, I understand it. And, you know, so then what happens is they're looking for kind of someone else's VA's training material.

Okay.

Like, hey, any training material? Well, due diligence is one that, you know, there are people that know how to do this. But I'd love to know everybody else's kind of mindset behind how do you create training documents or how do you. How do you train Vas to go do something? It can be due diligence or something else. So, like, how do you train VAs?

It's a great, great topic. Scott Bossman, let's start with you.

Yeah, so I'm a firm believer. I mean, I think a lot of people try to do. They try to outsource too quickly without knowing every single step in the process. So for me, I need to do it a number of times myself. And I need to map out that process line by line by line, or use mind mapping software or something like that, and then be able to not only write it down, but be able to describe it to somebody. So via training video or something like that, or talking through it. Uh, so you gotta dial down the process, do it. Repetition, repetition, repetition. And then when it becomes rote to you, it's. It's time to get rid of it. But I think, you know, you need to have those processes down. And I think for me anyway, the more these things are mapped out, the more linear it seems and feels, the better people do things. And that's. That's kind of our approach.

Totally makes sense to me. Absolutely. The technician. Eric Peterson, what are your thoughts?

Yeah, I mean, I do agree that most of the time you're gonna have to have a real good understanding of how to do whatever it is that you're asking someone else to do. But there are instances in this business where it's not necessarily something that's specific to our business of buying and selling land. And it's maybe a little more general around real estate. And there are people out there that might know how to do that stuff already. So in the example of due diligence, you can probably go out to upwork and find somebody that knows how to do due diligence without having to educate them on the entire process. You know, I think, I think back to when I first started, you know, kind of like Scott just described. You know, I would really spend a lot of time on a process and getting it all nailed down and put into a system and trying to make it foolproof. Before I would give something to a va. But I've really learned over time that oftentimes for, again, the right kind of tasks, we can kind of take some of that building of processes or systems off our plate, in a sense, by potentially having a zoom call with a VA and just kind of demoing it or maybe just recording yourself doing it and just walking through exactly what you're doing, talking about it as you're doing it, and then just taking that rather than spending all the time to fully document that and put it into something. You know, either hire a VA that can just do that part for you, or hire a VA that's going to do the work and actually have them build out that process at the same time. And you can, you know, obviously answer questions as they might come up, but you don't have to be the one to build all that out all the time.

Yeah, I love that answer. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'd love to know what the terrorist hunter Mimi Schmidt does. She used to manage 150 people. So this is probably like simple for you.

The amount of work you do in training is completely tied to how experienced the person you hire is. If you are hiring someone who is brand new, you have to teach them from the ground up. And Eric's right, everyone's right. You need to understand what you're doing and have done it enough that you get it right. To manage Java programmers, you don't have to know how to program in Java. Right, but you have to have a basic understanding if there's something that's not right. Okay, same with due diligence. If you want to hire someone who's more experienced, you don't have to create all of these training materials from A to Z. In fact, it's a waste of time and will probably not get used because if you've got an experienced person, that means they probably are working with 5, 7, 10 other investors. And if you impose your program of how you want things done, I want you to use Dropbox or Google Drive or whatever CRM you're using, then they're going to be more likely to make mistakes because they've got 10 different CRMs they're expected to know how to use. Okay, so a lot of these SMEs, you need to macromanage them and let them use what they do, what they're good at, and use the tools they know how to use. Right. And then all you're doing is teaching them what is specific that you have to have for your business as opposed to teaching them the A to Z process.

I love that. I wish Mimi had a service where I could outsource my hiring to Mimi and I could just be like, okay, this is what I need. I need a due diligence person. Mimi, be like, okay, I'll go hire him for you because I know what to look for what do you think, Mimi?

That's a lot of work.

You want to take that on?

No, I want to be at the beach.

Come on.

Yeah, that's true. The big Papa Tate. Litchfield. What are your thoughts on all this?

You know, I echo what pretty much everyone else has said. Most of the time, what we're doing, it's not rocket science. You know, it's not brain surgery. Get out there. Look for somebody who's got the qualities and the skills that you want. Give them a basic outline of what you expect and how you want them to do their job. See what they come back to you with. Right. I mean, you got to give them some opportunities to prove themselves, and I think let go on the reins a little bit. I've always said I'm not an expert on anything except hiring experts, and I believe that applies directly to due diligence. Right. I don't have a degree in due diligence or, you know, real estate or anything like that. I've learned this all from, you know, my mentors and training and experience over the years. And as a result, I've been able to share that knowledge with the VAs that I work with closely. But most of them didn't have a background in this either. So it's been a. It's been a labor of love and taken a lot of time to get these people to where they're at now. And, you know, I kind of am open to their new ideas and their new approaches and new tools, and I will do whatever I need to get whatever I need to to keep them happy and satisfied. So at this point, I trust them. They're really good. But you got to have somebody show you what you need to do so you know what the pitfalls are. And I think that's where flight school comes in. Really helpful. And then as you learn to notice these trends and these pitfalls, you can really start to outsource it to people who do this all day, every single day, and feel confident in what they. They get back to you.

Yeah, absolutely. So let's give Scott Todd the last word on this. Scott.

You know, to me, what I do, Mark, is whenever I have an assignment, one, I don't necessarily assume that they don't know anything.

Right.

I think that's one of the mistakes that people make is they think, oh, I have to prepare the training material because they don't know anything. Well, see, the reality is that people know things. That's why you're hiring. Right.

Like, if you go to upwork for.

Example, and you hire someone that has a title abstractor. Well, they know how to, how to do this stuff. Now, do they know exactly what you want? No, you have to tell them what you want. You have to tell them. But do you have to document out everything that you do? No, what I do is I get them on a zoom call, right? Like, the first time I'm going to do it, I get them on a zoom call just like this, me and you and I share my screen with them and I show them. Like, I record it and I show them, okay, this is what I'm doing. And I stutter through it. I point out things. I might go, well, that's not it. Hold on, let me see if I can find it. It's. It's not a Hollywood production. It's me being me, right? Like, it's not polished in any way. It would be no different if you and I were in the same office together and I sat you down right next to me and I shared my screen with you. I'm going to hunt and peck and do whatever, and at the end, I'm going to show them how I come up with the due diligence, right? Like how I do it. And then I'm going to say to them, hey, why don't you try one here, try the one that I just did. Okay. Okay. Like, I do that. Like, we just did one together. I'm going to stop the video, I'm going to process the video. I'm going to give you the link so that you can watch the video and do one just like we just did the exact one. Why would I use the exact one? It's because I know what success looks like, right? Like, it's. I can see, like, this is what I wanted so that when they send me what they're going to send me, I can compare it. Like, well, this doesn't look right. And then nine times out of 10, there's something wrong. Okay? Like, I was training a VA today and I showed them how to do it. They sent me back something that's wrong. And I'm like, okay, listen, this is wrong. This is wrong. Please go back and watch the video again and figure out, like, how you got it wrong. And they did that and they came back to me, right? And I'm like, perfect. But you see, like, the thing is, is that I'm willing to invest the time with them 30x the time. And what I mean by that, I mean, like, if the task takes me an hour, I'm prepared to spend up to 30 hours training them. And not just training them, but working with them, guiding them, mentoring them. Okay? Like, I don't need to write all of the policies and the training manuals. I just need to show them what I'm doing. They will come to the project with their own thoughts and mind, and they'll do it their way. But at the end of the day, all I'm looking for is this. And I don't really care what this looks like. And then I would say to them, do you have a better way of doing this? If so, do it. And by the way, please document what you're doing. Make me a video of what you're doing so I can learn from you. Because after all, I am paying them, right? Like, I'm paying. I'm paying for their brain. And when I pay for their brand, I have the right to download the data that's in there that they have. I should be able to learn from them. And if it's not just for me to learn, it's for my next VA to say, hey, look. Look at how this guy did it.

Right?

And maybe this guy's a train wreck. But that's also why I don't just hire one, I hire three. And I give them the same project, same video, same property. Due, Due diligence on. Why? Because one's gonna be terrible, one's going to be mediocre, and one is going to be a superstar.

Yeah, I think we got the title for our podcast, Due Diligence Outsourcing Truth Bombs.

Right?

I mean, these are a lot. I mean, this is a really, really valuable episode. And what everybody said from Bossman to Scott is really, really important. What I think is interesting is what wasn't said. Mimi Schmidt, you know what wasn't said? Just go to this company here and let them do it. Just here's a company, this is what they do all day long. Just outsource it to them. Here's a service. I'm surprised no one's just said, hey, do that. Why not? Why not?

I think people want to train people, have people things to that are a little more focused on their business. Right? A little more attention to detail and customized to their business. When you use a service, they're great. There are a lot of great services. But I don't think you get that person's distracted by a lot of other things, too.

No, absolutely. I think it's the difference in philosophy of management in house versus outsourcing it. And depending on where you are. I don't think there's anything wrong necessarily going to one of these services. But ultimately, if you don't train your own team, your own people, you're not bulletproof. And you're also going to be paying a lot more in the long run as well. So, you know, when you get to be a big company, let's say, let's just use a company, they always in house counsel. Why a lot less money to have in house counsel versus going to one of these big law firms and paying for legal work every time there's a legal issue, and paying 500 to $1,000 an hour versus having your own person there that understands everything intimately. And in doing that, does that make sense? Eric Peterson, what do you think?

Absolutely. I think, you know, you can definitely outsource something like due diligence to a service that is out there and offers that as a solution. But I think you're exactly right. You're going to pay more money and you don't get kind of the customized treatment that you might want. So, you know, maybe, I don't know, there's something in due diligence that you want to pull that, you know, they don't normally do. It's a lot harder to get a service to add something that they don't typically do. Then it would be for you to train your own VA to just make that part of the process.

No, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I think this has been a really, really valuable podcast. And if you agree with me, do us a favor. You've got to subscribe, you have to rate, you have to review the podcast, send us a screenshot of that review. To support thelandgeek.com we're gonna send you for free the $97 wholetailing course, how to double your money, 30 days or less. And that way, Mimi Schmidt will continue coming on these podcasts and giving us a tip of the week. Because if you don't do that, like, there's weeks where Mimi will go on and be like, you know what, Mark? I'm not coming on this week. No tip. Nobody's listening. We're not getting any reviews. I'm busy with my own land business. I've got a big life, like, where's love? And so I got to, you know, keep doing this. This is all for Mimi and her fragile ego. So please do those things. So we are now at that point in the podcast, Mimi, where we're going to ask you for your tip of the week, a website resource, a book, something actionable for the art of passive income listeners to go improve Their businesses improve their lives. What do you got?

So this week is from the Zapier blog, and the article is called how to choose the best social media platform for your business. And we get a lot of questions as coaches about other platforms besides Facebook and Craigslist to sell or land on. So the very first thing the article mentions is what social media apps does your audience use? I think it's interesting. It just reaffirms what we're already doing. YouTube and Facebook. 73, 69% of people use these apps. So do we spend a lot of time trying to market on Instagram and LinkedIn and Snapchat? No. No, we go where the audience is. So I just, I found this an interesting article, and then there are some other Zap suggestions farther down, too, that I found interesting. Different ways to use Zapier to automate your business.

That's a phenomenal tip. That's really interesting. If I had to guess, I, I would have thought those two, you know, the Google and the Facebook. But I, you know, look, I got teenagers in the house, and they, they're on TikTok, Snapchat all the time. Instagram, they don't even fake. They don't mess around with Facebook or. Well, they're on YouTube a lot, too, but not, not looking at raw land.

Right.

Necessarily.

Right.

Even though I'm urging them to. But whatever, it's not here or there. So this has been phenomenal. I want to thank you guys so much. And are we. We ready to do this? 1, 2, 3, let.

Let freedom ring.

And of course, wash your hands. Thanks, everybody. So, Scott Bossman, when's nightcap? This week or next week, I should say.

I think tomorrow night, Wednesday at 10:00pm Eastern.

All right. How are we doing with flight school? Are we filling up for May?

We're filling up for May. We're gonna have a full class May 13th. We got people signing up steadily. We had a. We have a great. Well, it's going to be past the time, but we have a Q and A plan with Scott Todd next Monday night, which is always an exciting event for people who are interested in flight school. So a lot of interest in flight school. A lot of success. I mean, we're seeing students, as Scott knows for sure, that are doing deals really quickly and coming out the back end of flight school having done multiple deals. It's exciting.

No, it's really great. And the Facebook lives, I mean, I think those are really, really fun to do. It's, it's, it's getting to that point where Like, I have to wonder, like, am I doing it? Like, am I showing up too much every single day in doing it?

I don't know. I mean, people can't get enough.

I don't.

But, no, I think. I think it's really engaged the community, honestly, and that's cool to see. So I hear on calls all the time. People are excited about those.

All right, great. So I have to pick on Mimi more. And Eric and Tate. Come on.

More.

I don't even know if Scott Todd will even take my calls anymore, really. It's kind of.

Well, I mean, you know, let's be real here. Like, why not?

Hey, you know, last week, we. We asked our audience to do something. What was the result?

Oh, yeah, I. I haven't checked Facebook. I don't know. Have you. Have you looked?

Did we have a.

No.

I mean, I must have won, though.

I mean, I don't think you did, honestly. Like, I sounded really good.

And who won the tiger meme contest? Tiger king meme contest?

I don't know.

Did you get any tape?

Not enough. I was kind of disappointed, honestly, because I think if anybody wins, it might be Scott Todd, because he's been slaying it on the memes lately, and Scott Bosman's done really well himself there, but, you know, I know his wife, and so I'm sure she had an inside track. She had a hand in that. No doubt. But she's, like, the funniest lady I've ever met in my whole life. So, anyways, yeah, you know, I was hoping to see some other ones, but the boys on the podcast kept me busy, kept me entertained, so. I appreciate that.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. You know what it is? You know what it is. The podcast just came out today.

That's right.

That's why. That's why. So. Yeah. Yeah. By the way, has anybody had any. Anything like in quarantine changed their life? Because I have to give Eric Peterson some props. But before I tell the story, Tate, have you purchased anything in. In. In quarantine? They're like, oh, my gosh, my quality of life is way better now.

No, I don't think so.

I think it might be time to get that opal nugget ice maker.

Yeah, no, that's not here yet. I did order one of those yesterday, but don't tell my wife. It's for her birthday.

Oh, yeah, she's gonna love it. That's one of those things, like, every day. I will say, cleaning it once a week is not so fun. But it's not that bad. It's like 15 minutes.

It's all right.

Therapy, right?

Yeah, absolutely. How about you, Mimi?

Yes. I got an outdoor lounger, it's about 8ft long, 5 or 6ft wide, that's going to go on the porch outside my bedroom. And it should be here this week. And my husband's going to have to put the thing together. I can't wait. It's got like, cover to protect me from the sun. It's going to be glorious.

That's. That's. Wow. Glorious.

All your work.

Yeah. How about you, Eric? Anything?

No, nothing comes to mind. But, you know, like I told you earlier today, I'm. I'm kind of debating on that kettle.

I wouldn't debate on it. I would get it for sure. Um, it's. It's. It's one of those things. I mean, we use it every day. You've got to get it. Yeah, yeah. Um, how about you, Dude, Buddy, Kettle?

What do you mean? Can you elaborate? Like kettle bells or what?

No, no, I'm going to tell the story in a second.

Oh, okay.

I don't want to ruin the story.

Yeah, no, I. Okay, I gotcha. No, I don't think. I haven't purchased anything life changing. Well, I did purchase something that's in the mail that I hope is life changing. We have a. We have a dog that has a barking problem. So I purchased an ultrasonic high frequency noise device that I'm hoping will change things because he's an awesome dog. He's so smart and he's getting a lot of things down. He's just got a few things left to work on. So I'm hoping that is going to be my life changing device.

Look at Tate laughing. He's like, Scott. Exotic.

I'm just dying.

He's like. He's got a lot of good characteristics about him and. Except he's still working on controlling his bark. I mean, is this a puppy or is this like a dog?

No, he's a dog. He's three years old and he is.

All right. Yeah.

That ship sailed, man. You're done.

No, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Well, the problem is it goes beep after it gets him, right? The bark will. He'll bark and it'll beep. And so instead of just barking, you get barking and beeping together.

We'll see. I got a plan. I'll let you know how it goes.

No one on this call is optimistic about this thing, Scott. You guys, let's just take a. Let's wager does your turn it in? 7 days or less. 14 days or less or 30 days or less.

I'm gonna work.

Go ahead, Tate.

He's not returning it because he's too stubborn. He's gonna make it work.

Thank you, Mimi.

I said within the month.

He'll give it a good try.

Good college try, but he'll return it.

Yeah.

Don't forget.

Aaron's gonna look at him, like, with disgust. I can't believe this thing. You know, we did this thing. It doesn't work. It's making it worse. Send it back, Scott. And then he's like, okay, I gotta go back on the round table and return it.

Yeah, Eric.

So is this a collar that he's gonna wear?

No, it's. It's a device that you hold, and basically, when he barks, you. It's like a remote. Like, I'm gonna have a remote for my dog, and I'm gonna return it off.

Because the problem is you're never gonna have that remote near you. When he starts barking, it's gonna be.

It's gonna be. I'm get one of those belts, and I'm gonna put my remote in the belt, and that's how it's gonna be.

Scott, Todd's got 52 dogs. I think he's gonna have the definitive answer on this.

Not have 52 dogs. I have two dogs. Thank you. Two dogs. Where'd you get the 50 from?

Why on.

Why would I, like, throw some solutions to Scott Bossman that he's just gonna pop me in the head again? I'm not like, we're enemies, man.

He's still better. Such a. Such a grudge holder. That was weeks ago. Oh.

Oh, listen. It hasn't come back yet. It hasn't come back yet.

You'll feel the pain. One guy. One guy throw. Just throws shade at Scott Todd, other than Mark Podolski, and look what happens. He can't even handle it.

There's even more shade in the shade.

See?

Don't you worry. It's coming. Don't you worry.

It's coming.

Yeah. See, Scott, when I. When I cut, my cuts aren't very deep, but when.

Really. Okay, I want you to say we. I want everyone to go back and review that episode because we were. You know, Scott, Todd was assigning Tiger King characters to people. He's got to be somebody.

But not. Come on, not Howard, Please.

Howard, man.

Really?

I mean, everybody else was taken except for the dead guy.

If it was me, I would have been the dead guy. I Would have doubled up. I would have been, like, the writer of the show. Anything but that guy.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, you compared me to, like, the. The dude who would be wearing flip flops and socks. Come on.

I don't know. It was the process of elimination.

You know what reminds me, Scott? I had a. Like, this is, like, years and years ago when I was working at my investment banking job and people were getting to know me, and this guy's like, hey, do you want to go hang out and go off road? And I don't know him that well. I'm like, okay, yeah, sure. So we're spending, like, a few hours together. At one point, I swear to God, he looks at me, he's like. So I'm just gonna guess, like, you were in band in high school? I'm like, I look like a band guy to you? Like, no, I played basketball. I was like. I did track, and I played on tennis team. Like, that's how uncoordinated he thought I was. I was like the band guy.

You.

That is the same kind of cut to Scott, Todd.

I take offense to that. I was a band guy.

No, there's nothing wrong with being the band.

It's not what you're saying, but there's.

A stereotype about being in the band. You know what I mean? You know, nothing wrong with the drama kids, but there's a stereotype.

Yep.

It's just that you would ask the question. I'm just curious, like, what'd you like to do in high school? And then you answer it. You don't just assume, like, you know, all right, like, you. You've got a great singing voice, so of course you would be in the band. And that's like, There's a lot of cool things about all these clubs. Like, you know, my son's in robotics, and he looks like a robotics kid. Nothing wrong with it. It's just you would ask the question.

Right, right. All right, I'm quiet. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not elaborating on anything anymore because Scott, Todd is. He's just. He's got a check. He's. He's got a full page of ammunition over there, apparently. He's coming out.

I'm plotting over here.

He's plotting.

Know, I feel like I've just offended probably everybody with the whole high school thing, too.

You offended a robotic kid?

No, but I'm not offending them. I'm just saying that, you know, don't assume somebody's like, something like the stereotype when you first meet them.

All right, we're gonna have to throw away yet another podcast. Mark, great job.

Why? I'm not throwing this away.

Just kidding.

It's actually just a way for Scott Bossman to give shade to everybody and be like. Okay, I'm gonna make some guesses. Tate, when you were in high school, you were blank.

Yeah. I'm not doing that.

Here's a fun game.

Fill in the blank.

Fill in the blank. Yeah. Mimi's got a very serious look on her face.

Uh.

Oh.

I'm fine. You didn't mention my sports.

What were your sports?

Gymnastics and cheerleading.

See, now, how would you, like if I was like, so were you president of the math club, like, after just meeting you?

No one would mistake me as being the best.

I'm just saying, like, it's not that it's like an insult, but you're like. Wait, you think that, like, just from, like, that's. That's the vibe I'm giving off after just meeting me.

Right?

Yep.

So just, it's. It's. It's all in context, where if you're talking about, you know, Fermi's paradox and the elegance of the Pythagorean theorem, and someone's like, oh, my gosh, were you president of the math club? You're like, yeah. I was like, you'd be like, be taking it in pride, like, if I heard Scott Bossman singing, like, oh, my gosh, were you. I hope you were in a band.

Yeah.

In band club. Or, you know, wire. Yeah. Or whatever. So you see tight cycling, and, you know, you're like, did you have any friends? Like, these are legitimate questions.

All right, this is getting bad.

Okay. All right, thanks, everybody. Oh, man.