Life Can Be An Adventure If You Just Say Yes

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the Land Geek with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com and today's guest. We've had before on the podcast, but he has a new book out which I'm really excited to talk about. But more importantly, he's kind of taken Scott Todd's dream lifestyle and just executed on it. So now Scott has the perfect mentor to follow into his steps. But before we talk to our guests, I'd have to properly introduce my co host, Six Sigma. You know him, you love him. Scott Todd from Scott Todd.net Most importantly, not most importantly, pretty important though, landmodo.com and actually, if you want to start listing your properties on landmodo.com, you can start doing that now. And postingdomination.com thelandgeek can always make more money, can't get more time. And this automates your Craigslist and your Facebook postings. Postingdomination.com landgeek Today's podcast is sponsored by GeekPay IE, the only automated financial CRM set it and forget it system. GeekPay IO schedule a demo today. Today's guest is Jim Palmer.

Captain.

Captain Jim Palmer. So if you don't know Jim, he is the Dream Business Coach. He is a marketing and business building expert and in demand coach. He is the founder of the Dream Business Academy and Dream Business Coaching and Mastermind program. He is the host of Dream Business Coach tv, the hit weekly web TV show watched by thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners and and he's also the host of Dream Business Radio, a weekly podcast based on Jim's unique brand of smart marketing and building business strategies. Jim is best known internationally as a Dream Business Coach and creator of no Hassle Newsletters, the ultimate done for you newsletter marketing program used by hundreds of clients in nine countries. He's the author of over seven books, but I think we're going to talk today about the seventh one. Just say yes. Create a dream business and live your dream lifestyle. Jim Palmer, how are you?

I am great. Thanks for having me on, Mark. We had a lot of fun last time on the Land Geek.

It was a lot of fun. But you have written another book and I want to kind of just rewind the tape a bit. Why did you write this book and what are we going to learn in Just say Yes?

You know, I have learned three times now. When I wrote my fifth book, I said that's it, I'm done. I don't want to write more books. And then I ended up writing, decide, which is, I think the last time you had me on your program, I said, that's it. Six books. They actually fit nicely behind me in my old office. Three and three, and it's no more books. And then I just was really encouraged to write this book. Marc, I'll tell you, one of the things that holds so many people back, and I know you know this with what you do, is they get an idea, they get a concept, or they have a dream. No matter what it is, whether it's to live and work on a boat or just do whatever you want to do and then whatever side of the brain kicks in. The what if Game. Well, what if this happens? What if that happens? You know, this dream that Stephanie and I have, which we've made come true, we really, it was a good eight to nine months in the making. And that whole time we're like, yeah, but what if I'm really not a good boat driver? What if this thing, you know, or what if we run out of gas? What if we run aground? What if I can't get wi fi and I can't run my business? In other words, what if, what if, what if? And sometimes you just have to say yes. Another way to say which was alter ego cover was jump and spread your wings on the way down. Because if people wait until they have everything figured out, until they connect every last dot, they often don't get anything done.

It's so true. And right now I'm reading a book by Mel Robbins, the Five Second Rule. Jim, have you read that book?

I've heard of it. I don't think I've read it.

Scott, have you read that book?

I have not, no.

It's just basically a metacognition book that says when you want to do something, you have to get started. And you go, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go. And then you do it right. Now, if it's something like planning your dream lifestyle on a yacht, like Jim, yeah, probably not a good idea to do 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go. And just buy a yacht. But the idea of these little things getting done, whether it's working out, losing weight, you know, maybe paying that bill, there's something you're procrastinating on. You go, five, four, three, two, one, go. And you do it right. I think it's a. It's a metacognition sort of hack. And it, you know, it can work. I'm still going through the book, but. But what Jim is saying is so important. It's like getting started is the hardest part, right, Jim?

Yeah. I read when we decided to do this, I mean, so much had to happen. So the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 rule in something as big as what we've done, like, we had to sell our house. You know, we sold one of our cars. We got rid of a lot of stuff. We're really, you know, in a way, where we've very much simplified our lives. We own the boat. We own one car, and we have some furniture in storage, and that's it. I got to tell you, it feels great. I feel lighter physically lighter, but I feel lighter for not having all this stuff, and. And there's so many things that. That go into it. The one of the things I want I wanted to share with you, Mark and Scott, is that when we decided to do it, we both started reading a lot of books for people from people who became Live aboards, which is kind of the term when you live. And.

Jim, I think. I think your. Your WI fi is acting up because we're losing you now.

I. High speed. I'm tied to the dock, actually.

Are you tied to the dock? We're having some. Some issues there. But maybe kill the video.

Maybe kill the video.

Yeah, kill the video. Let's see if that helps.

Let's do that.

And just kind of repeat the liveaboard thing again.

Yeah, let me just.

Now you're back.

I don't have much. Much on. In fact, I'll even turn off Skype just in case.

All right, yeah, I'm gonna.

Let's close that. All right. There's nothing on except us right now.

Okay, good. Yes. And Skype is a huge resource hog, by the way.

Oh, is it?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

That was my issue. But anyway, where was I? Where don't we start?

Okay, so let's talk about Live Aboard. You guys are doing research.

Yeah. And so I read this. This guy wrote this book, and it was called what's Up Ditch. Now, the ditch refers to. Scott probably knows the Intercoastal Waterway, which they dug, like, you know, to help ships, protect them from submarines and stuff. It really is a ditch. Anyway, he said, so many people think about this romantic life of living on a boat. And he said, what holds them back is all the what ifs, what if? And he basically said. Which was interesting, because I was going through that process myself. And he basically said, yeah, but what if you do find out you're you. You get up every day, you solve a problem, you replace a pump, you're a badass boat driver, and by. Because you said, yes, you have the adventure of a lifetime. And for me and Stephanie, we didn't want to get to a certain point in our life where we were like, too old to do it or not safe to do it. Like crap. Why didn't we just do that? You know what I mean? I mean, I just turned 59 years old and I couldn't find one financial planner that I work with that said, yeah, you know what, buying that boat, that make real good sense when you're this close to retirement. I mean, a boat is like the worst thing in the world you'd want to buy. But you know what, we're doing it anyway, and we're having one heck of an adventure.

Scott. Todd.

Well, you know, I think, Jim, you're bringing up like all the what ifs, right? And I mean like the voice, the little voice in your head. People call it head trash. You know that that thing, that little voice can talk you out of some of the greatest things of your life because your brain is trying to protect you, but it's trying to protect you from like, you know, the dinosaurs and lions and tigers. It's, it's trying to, it's trying to like, keep you safe. But the reality is, is that what it's doing is it's creating self doubt. And that self doubt is what squashes a lot of dreams. And you know, I think that one of the approaches that you're saying here is like, you know, I've heard it phrase another way, but one of the phrase, you know, one of the ways that you can accomplish that or to try to like get rid of it or hush it is like to list out, okay, well, here's all of the things that, here's all the what ifs, like, what if this happens? And then in the next column, say, well, then I would do this right? Like plan out, like a postpartum, if you will, like, plan out. Like, here's all the things that can go wrong and here's all the things that I can do to minimize that. Today I may not have Internet connection. So what, I can switch to satellite, right? Like just list them all out and then in the column next to it, list out all the things you can do. Is that something that you did or, you know, like, not so much.

Not so much. I'll tell you what, I was working on a, an article or a blog post. I'm not sure what it'll be this morning because I ended up talking with a couple of folks who were interested in coming to my next event. And, and to me, I've done, this will be my seventh event. I've been working with entrepreneurs for like nine years. I know if somebody's going to be like, this will be amazing, this will be pretty good, you should come anyway. Or no, you should stay home. I can, I can tell in a court conversation who would do that. And these people would just, it would be all, it would be amazing. And both of them said, yeah, I've got some real time constraints now. Mind you, we're talking 90 days in the future and I'm just not sure it's in the budget now. To me, I don't even go past X. I just can't fix. And you know what it is. And what made me want to write this article, guys, was so I was, I was sharing this with a friend of mine who's also a coach. He said, Jim, here's the thing, you can't want it more for that person than they want it for themselves. Like I want it because I know it'll be awesome or if I know if I can help them with this, it'll be awesome. But if they don't want it bad enough that they want to go ahead and find a way to get here, you know, get help with childcare, drive instead of flight, whatever it is, if they don't want it bad enough, it's not going to happen. Now for Stephanie, Stephanie and I, we really wanted, I mean, we were in that same house, which we loved for almost 30 years. We raised four kids there. I was getting tired of baker and a half of grass and you know, all the service that goes with the snowblower, tractor generator, all that stuff, I didn't want to do it anymore. And so we both wanted to go on an adventure. And no matter what came up, like actually when we drove the boat from Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay up to Rhode island where we are now, I've never driven a, a 50 foot boat with this kind of horsepower. I've never dreamt been in the Atlantic Ocean other than on a ferry going to Martha's Vineyard, you know, a 2512 ton ferry, whatever it is, big steel job. And so when we were out there and we're bobbing around like a cork in a washing machine at a certain point for about an hour and I'll tell you what, I felt really insignificant. But we got here and we both were, we both feel like, can you believe what we just did? And you know what it made me realize, guys, was that for the last, I'd say three to Five years. We've been very blessed and lived, you know, very, very comfortable life. But I don't think we've been outside our comfort zone too much. You know, things are going and growing, as they say, and doing what we're doing right now is stretching us like we haven't been stretched in a while. And it feels pretty cool.

I love it. I love it. I feel like people are either camping or climbing, right? And you know, you buy. And there's nothing wrong with camping, right? We need it. We need to take a little break. We need to sort of get our bearings, but then we need to start climbing, right? And now you're climbing, Jim. And I think that the little daily adversities of living on the yacht are probably some of the things that, you know, once you solve those problems are, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, are probably providing some of the greatest happy moments that you guys are having, right? Like there's nothing better. I mean, at least for me personally, when I've got a problem and I solve it. How do you feel about it?

Pretty much. You know, we're calling, we call this our big adventure. So we always talking about, yeah, it's our adventure, life's an adventure, etc. But you're right, there are certain things that I have gotten used to that I don't have or can't have, or it's a different variation on the. But for example, I love long hot showers. If I want to take a long hot shower, there's very nice bathrooms up the marina. That means just gathering my clothes and towel and walking up to the building up there. Or I can have a five minute shower on the boat because this hot water tank is about a quarter the size of what you'd find in your house. I mean, that's just one thing. There's other things which. And every time we. I discover one of these little things which I would just. If I was at home, I would, you know, throw money at it and fix it. You can't necessarily do it here. And what I've learned is that life for us is a trade off. So I'm trading different things with one car. If Stephanie wants to go off shopping or go to the Y or do whatever. And then something hits me. I said, man, I got to run to. Well, I can't. I can't until she gets back. I mean, it's kind of silly things like that that in your normal routine you get used to. But it's a trade off because every day I wake up and I'm still an early riser and I look at the sun coming up over the water. I'm looking, I'm in the marina where I love looking at other boats. So there are trade offs. So there may be a few things that are slightly annoying to me or, but, but it's an awesome trade offer for the benefits that I have that I didn't have when I was a dirt dweller, as some boaters call when you have a home.

A dirt dweller. A dirt dweller. So, Scott, Todd, how are you going to make the transition from dirt dweller to Jim Palmer?

I mean, I don't know. We got to have Jim tell us how are we going to do it.

Jim, Jim, how can Scott do this? But he's got two kids in, you know, one in high school, one in middle school.

Do you wait at this point? I would think so. I mean, Stephanie has been following this couple. They have a YouTube channel called Boat Fam. It's a couple with two boys. I think they're six and nine, something like that. They've been living aboard for two years on a sailboat and they're homeschooling the kids. And that is their home, not a sailboat. Excuse me. I think they're on like a trawler and. But they totally do that. I think for Scott to, unless his kids were totally into it, to take him out of school, middle school and high school might be a bit of a challenge. But the thing is, you know, Scott, you could easily look at the five year plan because I'm somewhere around five years you'll be empty nesters. Did I get that right? The age of your kids?

Ballpark? Yeah, for 14 and 16. So five years.

Yeah. So you could do that. And you know, Stephanie and I, I mean, we were married at 21, started having kids at 23. We had four kids by the time we were 27. And you know, so we've been empty nesters now for quite a while. And I still feel fairly young and still feel fairly healthy, knock wood. And so that's one of the reasons we started having a family early. We didn't know what it would look like, but we wanted to be young enough to still do things. I mean, other people make different decisions. You work till you're 35 or 40 and then have kids. I guess you're so tired when you're done with kids, I don't know what you're going to do. But we just wanted to experience life. You know what else this is probably will resonate with you guys is. We felt like we have lived a very safe, predictable life. You know, the home we had all the insurances, we put money away in retirement. You know, we did everything, we got all the kids, braces. I mean, we did everything we're supposed to do. And now it's like, okay, now we need to do. That's. It was Stephanie's idea. We need to do a big adventure. We almost thought we might go live in the Caribbean for a year. And we bounced around a few ideas before we decided to become live Aboards. But this is good. You'll like this one evening when we both decided, after some conversation, yeah, this is what we're going to do. I think we both woke up the next day feeling, oh my God, did I just say yes to this? I don't know if this is the right thing and I don't know if we even vocalized it, but she went off to work, she got one of her daily morning motivational emails and doggone, I can't think of the who said it. You might know this, but he said, you were not created to arrive at heaven's door in a well preserved body. You were meant to skid in sideways with a big pile of dust with a smile on your face and say, wow, what a ride. And we took that as a sign that says, all right, that's enough. Safe, predictable, dependable and boring. Sometimes we're going to go do this.

It's really inspiring, Jim. And you know, it's, it's, it's one of those things that, that I think that we don't see it enough. Right. Where people do get comfortable, they get on the hedonic treadmill where it almost is to the point where it's really difficult to kind of, you know, go that other way where, you know, you're, you've got the, the dog and you've got the house and you've got the yard and you've got all these things that society says, yeah, that's what you do. And now you've got to kind of, you know, face all that and say, well, it really doesn't make any making me happy. Let's go on an adventure. Right?

Yeah.

So when you and Stefan, like tell it, like, tell us like about that conversation and the who was more difficult to sort of, I mean, were you guys totally aligned or was there, was there any kind of friction there?

Now we were not only were we total and I honestly feel it was, it was, it was, it was her idea. She's the one who verbalized why don't we live on a boat? And I think that was just God looking out for me because I had it been my idea and gone bad, it would have been, you know, maybe not so good. So it was her idea. Of course. She knew I would love it. I mean, we've been boaters now for, you know, three years and, and we just totally love the boating lifestyle and the community, people supporting each other and just, it's just wonderful. And so we thought, we can do this. And then we started putting the plans into motion. Well, if we're gonna, we gotta sell our house. I just thought, well, I know enough about marketing, let's sell it ourselves. And we did. In five weeks. We sold it ourselves and probably saved 14 or 15 grand commission, which, you know, went into the boat. And so we just figured it all out. And we sent Steph to a nautical school on how to read charts and know what those floating things are out in the water, you know, the buoys and stuff like that. And there's just, there has been so much to learn and the way it worked out as we sold our house in December, we didn't move on the boat until late April. So she found us a one bedroom furnished apartment. We lived on for, lived in for five months. And we just really studied, studied, studied. I learned an awful lot about, you know, different things and basic repairs, how, how boats work, all the different systems in a boat and, and you never stop learning, right? I mean, if you gotta, if you gotta hire somebody to come fix every little thing, man, you're gonna go broke real fast. So you, you learn to, you learn to get stuff done and you know that. You mentioned having a dog. Yeah, we got a, we got a 78 pound black lab. And so we had to take that into account, you know, how we going to deal with him. And we thought we could train him to go at least number one on the back of the boat when we're out there. And he won't do it. He's very respectful of his territory. So we can be out for eight, eight or nine or 10 hours. And you know, he's got pretty good holding power. But as far as us being out overnight, I don't know if we'll be able to do that. Like out on the hook, so to speak, when you drop an anchor. We'll have to figure that piece out or we'll just have to stay at marinas when we're traveling.

Scott Todd, he's solving a lot of your problems.

He is, man. Like just, I mean, we could just keep this podcast going. Like, how are you doing this? I mean, Jim, I think that. I really think that it's. It's kind of cool, the adventure that you guys are on. And you know, like, as you can tell, I have a boat. I enjoy going out on the boat. You know, it's. You're right. There is a sense of community out there, the water, everybody's looking out for each other. And you know, a friend of mine that I used to work with, he and his wife were building a dream home and they were renting a house. And the dream home was going to take a little bit longer than what they expected. I think it was gonna take like a year and a half. And they had rented a, rented like a townhouse or something for a year. And they're like, look, we still have another year and a half to go. We're gonna spend X amount of money on rent. Why don't we go and buy a boat that we can live on? So they went out and they bought like a 43 foot boat that they could live on. And, you know, I think, I think it's been about a year and a half now. And last I checked on, they were still living on the boat because the house was taking a little bit longer than expected. But I mean, really, they. They were making the most of it and just enjoying that whole lifestyle even while they were holding down their. Their corporate jobs. You know, like, they had their corporate jobs, but then they had this boat that they were living on. And so vacations, they could pick up anchor and go where, wherever they wanted. You know, really, really a different lifestyle. I was trying to ask my wife, like, could you do it? And she's like, I don't know, I could do it. But I think that it's something that could happen, you know, especially after the kids are grown up and, you know, that's it.

You know, I had been looking to downsize for probably the last five years. It took stuff a long time. Even though before we had the plan, I mean, you know, very emotional about the house where we raised the kids and all this and that. And plus we didn't know what we're gonna do. We didn't want to downsize just for the sake of downsizing, although I could have done that. But, you know, she wanted to have an actual plan, so that's why it got put off. And it, you know, with timing and everything, it just worked out. But yeah, you know, what people, we've talked to people who try it and do it For a year or two and then find out. Well, even on a big boat, you know, it's not that much space. And the funny thing is, you know, Steph and I jive with each other a little bit about her. She has shoes and purses, and I have baseball hats and T shirts. I just. I see a good hat and a good T shirt, and I just buy it. Well, we don't do that anymore because we each have two small drawers that fit almost all of our clothes and. Which is kind of a cool thing. We don't buy, like, if we're out shopping or we'll see something at a, you know, just some kind of an antique store or something, we don't buy it. You know why? Because we don't have a place to put it. So it's. It's pretty cool. I mean, so financially, knock wood. If the boat doesn't need any major repairs, this is actually less expensive than our former life.

There you go, Mark. There you go. You got to get your wife living on the boat. So, you know, like, the shopping bills go down.

I'm. I'm sold, actually, so. But I'm like you, Scott. Like, I can't take the kids out of school. You know, I go through this a lot, Jim, where, you know, because of the. Of the freedom that I have and the flexibility I have, I have all these opportunities, right? And yet, at the same time, I have. I can't, like, just do whatever I want because I've got to, you know, take into account what's best for the kids.

Right?

But there will be a day in seven years where the whole world will open up to me and I can do whatever I want. Given if, you know, then I've got one person to convince.

It will be seven years, six months, 23 days, 42 hours. You got it all figured out?

Yeah. I mean, you know, it's crazy because the way our business is just like your business, we can do it from anywhere in the world. And we've got the systems, we've got the processes, we've got the passive income coming in, and it's. There's no restraints, right? So it's really, like, a very cool thing. But, you know, it is scary.

You know, I really appreciate people that want to do it when the kids are young, because, you know, I'm sure it's just an amazing experience. But to take kids who, you know, that are teenagers or in school with their friends, that would be tough. We could not do that. I mean, Steph always said, you know, we'll have a time again for us. But now it's our family. Now it's kids time. You know, it's all about the kids. Because, believe me, I have a hard time remembering. We have four kids go through school and it seems like a blur. So it'll go by pretty quick.

Oh, it is going by quick. And like, oh, my gosh, it's crazy. So, final words of advice, Jim Palmer, before we get to our tip of the week.

I don't want you to get. You know, I saw this video and the guy said he, they were, they were talking to a bunch of people who were very, very close to death. And they said, what are some of the things you regret? And most of the people didn't regret things that they did. They regretted things that they didn't do. So. And I think the video ended, like said, you can't change the beginning of your life, but starting today, you can change the ending. And I think what I'm trying to say and what the video said was don't have any regrets. If this is something you want to do, you should do it. You know, figure it out. There's people that can help you. I mean, there's just, that's where we are just. I mean, we are totally loving life right now. And whether we do it for another 18 months or we do it for five years, we don't know. We're kind of up in the air. And if we don't want to do it, well, what are you going to do then? Well, I don't know. We'll just figure it out. I mean, you know, we'll just figure it out. And I also appreciate how that's very hard for some people to do. They want to have a real concrete plan. But if anybody's thinking about it, we created a blog. It's not a business blog. It's a. It's our floatinghome.com. the name of our boat is floating home. Our floatinghome.com. if people want to just learn about our journey, we've posted videos. There's a video tour of the boat there. If you just want to see what's going on, that would, that would be one thing to check out.

All right, fantastic. Well, so, Jim, we're now at that point in the podcast where we're going to put you on the spot and ask you for your tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something actionable where the art of passive income listeners can go right now. Improve the businesses, improve their lives. What have you got?

Well, It'll be very self serving, but I think they should get a copy of my book. I'll give them one for free as long as they pay the shipping and handling. If you go to just say yes book.com we'll send you a free copy of. My team will mail it out within 48 hours. First class mail. You know, I know you've read some of my other books, Mark, and I think, you know, first five were very strategic and strategy and business building decide was very good mindset book. I'm pretty proud. This is my motivational kick in the pants book to get going. Just say yes, do what you're going to do and stop worrying about it.

I love it. All right, Scott, Todd, what's your tip of the week?

Mark, this one is easy. It's something you should, everybody should go do. When you have those voices in your head talking you out of those great things, simply make the two lists I talked about. List one is the what ifs, as Jim said. You know, like list out all the things that could go wrong or all the things that you feel like are bad. And then in the very next column, write out all of your containment plans. Like what, what can I do to offset this? If this happens, this is what I will do. And I think what you'll find is that just by going through that exercise, you will be much more, much more engaged and much more active in solving that problem. And you'll be more energized because you'll be like, you know what, I've got this. I'm bulletproof. You'll march onto your goals very quickly.

I love it. And my two tips of the week again. First one is when you're procrastinating or you're having a hard time starting, just do that metacognition hack. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Go and do it. And don't get your mind out of the way. Right? That will shut down the mind saying what if? Or I don't want to do it. Right. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go. And just do it. My other tip of the week is. Learn more about Jim Palmer@getjimpalmer.com the dream business coach who is literally living the dream, Jim Palmer. Are we good?

We are good. You know, it's a quick, funny story. I know we're ready to sign off here, but even if there was a couple days when I was like, I don't know if I can do this, my God, I have told so many people about it, I absolutely have to do it. Even if I completely screw it up because too many people. I've made a public declaration. We're talking about living on the boat. We're gonna have to do this, Steph. You know, we're gonna have to drive that boat out in the ocean. We're gonna have to figure out how we're gonna get there or not. We're gonna have to figure out if we can put this thing in the dock, in the sl, our neighbor, and this, that, and the other thing. Too many people know it. And if we say we couldn't do it for whatever reason, I'm going to look like a big weenie, and that ain't going to happen. So sometimes you want to make public declarations also and have people hold you to account.

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Fantastic. Well, I want to thank all the listeners and just remind them the only way we're going to get the quality guests like a Jim Palmer's, you got to do three little favors. You got to subscribe, you got to rate, you got to review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of your review. To support the Land Geek Calm, we are going to send you for free the $97 passive income launch kit so you can learn step by step how to actually become like Jim Palmer and live on the yacht. So do that, please. Also, Please go to GeekPay IE, schedule a demo, and learn the Forget it and set it financial CRM. Also posting domination.com thelandgeek start automating your Craigslist and Facebook postings. And Scott, are we gonna do it? Oh, you're on mute. You're on mute.

I'll let you do it.

Let freedom ring. All right, thank you, Jim Palmer, and we'll see everybody next time.

Thank you.