Nite Cap with The Land Geek Guys—QRPs with Damion Lupo

Sam, I'm doing phenomenal. How are you?

Oh, great. Happy Thursday.

I'm gonna change the setup on the. Make it a gallery view. There we go. Much better. Happy Thursday to you. How you're looking sharp. Where's the robe?

Yeah, it's really hot in the office and it's hot, hot, hot in the office and gonna be casual Friday tomorrow. So I thought we'd go one button down and just be casual.

Did you hear me just crack my stout?

I did. Very good.

Yeah. Be a connoisseur. We all know now that's old news, but.

Right, right. Beer connoisseur. You're a newbie in that department.

Yeah.

I think we should probably tell everyone who we are in case we got some newbies watching.

All right, let's hear it. Who are we?

Well, we're the Land Geek guys. And this is Nightcap where we sit down at the end of a long week, have a brewski or a bourbon or Lacroix with vodka. Matt Forbes. And we celebrate our week's accomplishments and have fun and banter back and forth and hopefully talk land investing.

Yeah, it's definitely land investing. And you know, we've had some. Some really. What are we on, like episode like 500 now? Is that right? Yeah, yeah. And we've had some incredible guests on here. We've done a live show at boot camp that was incredible. Tonight we're have a different guest. I want. We. It's going to be a little different. Did you already put it out there is a surprise or has this already been posted, what we're having?

No, it's posted. Talked about a couple times this week in the Facebook group. So, yeah, it's gonna be. It's gonna be a good show. I just.

Yeah, it's going to be a whole nother angle to the. To the land investing and what's possible and you know, just going to be really interesting, I think, isn't it? And I get to ask like all these questions of someone that, you know, I want to know things about. Right. So I'm going to unravel them on this show. This is going to be great. You know, we're talking about Damien. Right. But anyway, we'll get back to that.

Yeah, we're talking about Damian Lupo for sure.

It's going to be awesome. Scott, how's the week been so far? Thursday, land investing. Anything happen, anything exciting in your land world? Anything going on?

Yeah, I don't know. Things are after. After a dip for a week or two. Had a sale this week so numbers on that one are pretty decent. 500 down and 550amonth for a year. It's a one year, same as cash deal. But that's, that's pretty awesome.

Nice.

But yeah, got some other things in the works, things in the queue that I think are definitely gonna be great here in the next couple weeks. So how about you?

Yeah, it's going good. We had a few cash sales. We did have a term sale, something we bought for around 2000, sold for about 8000 over 24 months. So that's good. I'm happy with that.

It's great.

And the best part about it is I didn't do. Was all done by my team. And you know, land investing is a team sport, as I say all the time. And you know, having a great team is, is just awesome. It really is.

Let me, let me give a shout out because it was my wife's sale Primarily, she's about 90%, so she got that sale. Sweet.

That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, my wife actually handles more of the business than I do. She's in charge of the va. She does every so often ask me a question. So I'm okay with that. You know, I'm out in the yard puttering around and a question will come up and boom, I answer it and she's doing awesome. So shout out to her. I guess we had to do that, right? We had to throw that. I can't have you shout out to your wife and not shout out to mine. That just wouldn't be cool.

So what were you gonna say?

Saying we both had a good week in land investing. I'm thinking that. Do you have any questions? You have the all important duty of viewing our questions on Facebook. Anything popping up, Any shout outs? Let's hear it. This is always the best part, allowing you full control over the comments, as you would say. Comments.

It's a pretty quiet group. So far we've got a good number of viewers. Barbara Thibodeau, Andy Wellmers, our regulars are in the house. Chris Grassman, our regular. And Barbara Thibodeau says the wives representing again. So that's great.

You know, I was gonna do it. I don't know if everybody. Where can I find that impersonation mock did of me?

That was pretty phenomenal. That should be the Facebook quote of the week. Let's save it for next week because we don't have it in the queue.

But yeah, it was pretty good. Mark's getting better. You know, in case anybody knows, spoiler alert. Mark's favorite movie, the departed. And so, you know, any opportunity has to, you know, to try out that accent and throw it out there. He definitely. He goes for it.

So, yeah, he's getting better. It's a work in progress.

It's a work in progress.

I think we should bring our guests on. We got a lot to talk about.

Yes, we do. Yes, we do. I'm gonna bring them up. So no surprise this week. You already had it out there. We're gonna unravel them. This is someone that comes to all the boot camps. He offers some incredible insights and methodology to, you know, for, you know, taking your land investing to another level, really. Right. And with retirement, whatnot. But let's bring them up. Going to. Hopefully he's not going to take control of my screen. He's fond of taking control of things. But I'm going to bring up Damian.

Lupo, author and entrepreneur.

There he is. And this is the day job. We knew he was going to outshine us because he's, like, so good at the pocket. Look at. He's got the whole setup. I can't wait to get my office in place. It just put me to shame, Damian. But it's awesome to see you. How are you?

Good, guys. Good to see you, Mike. Thank you.

Thanks, Damien.

You as well, Scott.

I know. We know. It's Mike.

Show the mic. Show.

How are you, Damien?

Doing good. Doing good. I'm the early bird out here. You guys are crossing over into the. The late night.

Yeah. About 10:39 out here. And yeah, you're looking pretty relaxed. You know what's been going on? What? I haven't seen you since. Since boot camp. How have things been going? Anything new and exciting in your world happening since that time?

Yeah, we're all. We're all just really loving the fact that we're in the middle of summer all of a sudden, and it's 110 degrees.

Oh, yeah. Very cool out there, huh? Oh, man. Yeah, we're coming down there in August, so it's going to be probably the coolest time of the year out down there, I'm sure.

Yeah. Welcome to hell.

In your home.

Well, you know, it's funny. I've got my hoodie on, and it's.

I was just thinking that. I didn't want to say it, but that's like.

But it's not just because the air conditioner is cranked. It's. I actually wear this outside, and I'm out in the middle of the day. And I'm sure people think this Guy is. He's got a bomb under there or something. Like why.

This guy's crazy.

110 degrees.

So there's no reason. You're just.

Well, I'm cold because I keep it at 65 in my place.

Protecting yourself from the sun during the daytime?

Yeah, absolutely. This is. It's like. It's like Wisconsin in my house. It's like very. You know, it's cold.

Yeah, Beautiful.

Beautiful now, though, Wisconsin without the deer camp.

Without the deer camp.

Yes, the deer camp. I have a deer camp in my house.

Go ahead, Scott. Bring it on. You're up.

No, Damien, I was just gonna ask, how many boot camps have you been to now?

I think I lost. Gosh, I don't even know. Probably like seven or eight.

Wow. Okay, so you. I mean, you've had interface with a lot of people in the community, but for those of you who have not seen you or met you yet, tell us a little bit about yourself. Give us a brief history of your stint in the real estate business and then how you came across the QRP model and what that has done for you and what satisfaction brings you in helping others use their. You know, helping teach others to utilize their own resources to invest and come out ahead in the end.

Well, I basically just get to. I mean, the coolest part about what I do, it's. It's a departure from what I used to do. I used to just go out and make lots of money. I did a lot of real estate, you know, had hundreds of houses and property all over the country, and I was fun. It's great to make a lot of money. There's a different thing that happens when you start teaching people how to break their own financial shackles. And so in my world, that's the qrp. It's unleashing the retirement money and giving people access to this so they can start to create the financial freedom that's kind of waiting for everybody if they just have the right tools. But the problem is we're brainwashed into thinking that we're too stupid to run our own ship. And. And fortunately, people that are watching probably have been to boot camp or they've been exposed to the land investing, which is at least different than Wall Street. The problem is we're still told that we really shouldn't control this retirement money. And my whole world is about breaking people out of that mold and giving them control. I mean, the company's total control financial on purpose. It was founded so that people could have access to all this money. $15 trillion what's sitting locked up right now. And so I spend all my time giving people access to it. And some people even get bitcoin in the deal, which is a little fun, but that's another story. That's an inside joke or story. So that's all I do. I focus on that. I think Mike might dance around this a little bit. We might have some fun with it. I do some martial arts. Been doing that for about as long as I've been doing real estate. And. And so my job is to free people. It's. I'm the. I'm not the executioner. I'm. I'm like. I'm the guy that breaks the chains. And. And that's what I do with the qrp.

Yeah, I like that. Removing perceived limitations, right? And, you know, 15 trillion. That's.

15 trillion.

That's like a huge number.

I don't even know how many zeros that is. It's a lot. You write it down, people go, that's. That's what. Like, how much is that? You know, that you don't even know because it's just. It's so stupid how much money that is. I mean, that's. That's our. That's basically the national debt. Our national debt's like 20 trillion. I mean, there's like $15 trillion in the retirement accounts. You just imagine that it's either in your account or it's in your neighbor's account or your family's account. There's all this money that's sitting there, and people go, well, you know, it takes money to make money, and I don't have any money, and I can't do my thing. I'm stuck. Like, you know, there's 15 trillion reasons why you're wrong.

15 trillion. What about this? Tell us about this QRP, right, and land investing. What makes the two such a good match?

Well, I mean, I think this is something that Marcus brought up, that he was doing a show, and people go, well, I don't want to use my. I don't want to use a retirement account for, like, you know, like an IRA or anything for investing in land, because you don't get to depreciate it. And so people sort of didn't really focus using retirement money for their land. And then all of a sudden, there's this thing called the qrp, and the QRP is like this unicorn, because the QRP you can go and you can use. There's something called a Roth, which is basically. It's a type of retirement account. Where once your money's in this, you never pay taxes as you're growing your money and when you take it out and so you can go buy land and create wealth, cash flow and gains and all this stuff, and you never pay taxes ever. And it's pretty great because with the qrp, you actually have control of your money. You can actually write a check. I mean, you have the checkbook and you get to invest. So there's ways to use this thing and get rid of the IRAs, the custodians, get all that money into this thing, this pool that you have, and then go out there and be a powerhouse with a checkbook. And I mean, that's really what it is. It's letting you loose on the market so you can do things and not have anybody looking over your shoulder or messing with your deals.

Yeah, and one thing about the land investing, we get some crazy returns, right? So to take those returns and now amplify your retirement, you know, and take it, like you said, out of the. Take control of it and remove it from people that you, you know, assume have your best interest at heart. Right. And. But then you take that control and you start to insert these returns that we have. That's a whole nother animal, isn't it?

Well, I mean, who really has your. Who. Who cares about your money more than you do? Nobody. Wall street sure as hell doesn't. Right. And I guarantee you the government doesn't care about your money other than they want to take it.

Right.

We give away like 70% of our money over our lifetime.

Taxes, fees, and.

Yeah, I mean, it' crazy. So if you can make these hundreds and thousands of percent in land investing and then actually keep that money, which is what you can do with the qrp, I mean, you literally hit a magical unicorn. I mean, it's like, that's your ride.

How'd you come to the qrp? Like, what brought you to. I mean, obviously you have a diverse background, real estate. And you know, what path was that took you down and led you and helped you just kind of have this realization, and now you're helping everybody else to have the same realization.

Like, what path led me down? All the wrong ones. I had to do all those first. And then, I mean, that's kind of what it was. It was, it was trying all these other things. And when I did all my real estate, one of the things that I. One of the mistakes I made was I was making so much money and spending it all now, I wasn't really focusing on the Future. So I didn't, I mean I had a little ira, but I wasn't thinking a whole lot about the future. The funny thing is the future shows up. And so the path I was taking was very, very short sighted. Then I eventually had the experience of watching my parents retire and them being broke. And I thought this sucks, you know, and this is not a good path. So I started seeing some things as I went down my own jagged path off a cliff, losing my money in 2008 and having to start over. And the QRP was almost kind of an accident about 10 years ago when a guy called me and said, hey, I want to use my retirement money to buy some medals. Cause I had a precious metals company. And I said, well, I don't really know what that means, but I mean, I guess if you want to do it and your money's green, I'm in. And what I found out was that he'd already, he knew something I didn't know. And then, and then I switched, I literally switched my entire company and my focus to teach people about the QRP and then offer this service because it was more important than selling gold or silver or anything else I was doing. So this is the only thing that I do. And I built a company around it because it's the most important thing I do. And it was just, it was an accident. It was like a fortuitous blessing that the universe rained down. And so now I get to share with you guys.

That's awesome. Sharing your wealth with others, that's pretty phenomenal. So give, give our watchers, Damian, some examples of what you can do with this QRP land or otherwise.

Well, here's the, here's the fun thing about the qrp. Whatever you want to do, you can do. With the exception of like eight things that you can't do. It's the goofy thing about the irs. The IRS says, here are the things you can't do anything else. Have fun. So like you can invest in, in banana groves in Nicaragua if you wanted to. If you want to do that kind of land, go for it, you can do it. It's no big deal. If you want to take, you want to diversify outside of the United States, you can do that. If you want to invest in Jimmy John's sandwich shops, you can do that. If you want to buy precious metals, gold and silver and take possession of them, like imagine that you can actually hold your wealth in your hands just like dirt. And I mean just, it's something that's so strange to people because we're used to being told that you can invest, but you've got to have somebody else holding all your stuff, like Wall street or custodian, and you can invest in all these other things. So you can be a bank. You can lend your money out, your retirement money out. So I remember. I remember in 2008 when I got hammered, and I thought, this sucks. And I remember the people that made all the money were the bankers. And even when the bankers lost the money, they got bailed out. And I thought, it's good to be a banker. I like that job. So, I mean, that's what I do with mine with my qrp. I'm a bank. I just. I lend to people. You can be a hard money lender. So, you know, I lend and make 12 or 14%, and it just keeps coming back every year. And that's nothing compared to land. But then you have to ask yourself, well, if I have excess cash, what's the safest thing to do with it? Lend it out with a piece of dirt that's backing up this, you know, the loan.

Yeah.

Damien, we talk a lot in our business, and probably most people do in their business model in terms of the why, like, why you do it, right? It's powerful, right? It keeps you motivated, keeps you going. I'm curious, you know, you know, both what your current why is now and maybe how it shifted. You said, you know, Prior, it was 10 years ago or so, somebody called you up and wanted to invest in some metals, and they wanted to use their retirement. And, you know, so there's. There you are at that point, and you have. At that point, you have this. Why, whatever it was. And how is it, when you took this, you had this epiphany, this realization, you know, and what's. How's. That why shifted and what is it now?

Well, in 2008, when I had the big old resets button hit and I had to start over, and when I lost everything, a $20 million portfolio, I had the thought of, well, you know what? I had to ask the question, who am I? And so the question was answered with, I'm a teacher. And so I started teaching. But then the real pivot moment was in 2014 when I was sitting with my dad right before he died, and he told. He just looked at me and he said, you know, there were just so many things that I wanted to do. So many things. And I was like, God, that sucks. You are literally in the last weeks of your life, and you're looking back with regret. And I realized that I was heading down that same path. We talked about paths a minute ago, and that's what I was doing. I was going down a path where I was not living full on. I was not. So I was offering the qrp. I was offering, I was teaching, but I was playing small. And that's why I do what I do. It's why I spend so much time sharing. Because it's really not that hard, especially in the United States, to make money, to make a living. I mean, people will bitch and moan that, say things are hard. Nah, if you hustle, it's not that hard. But the question is, are you going to be able to look back and say, I gave it all and I have nothing left or. Or are you gonna do what my dad did? And my dad was a huge gift because he was a huge warning and I'm not willing to have that experience. So now the mission has shifted. It's not to teach. The mission is to free a million people from financial bondage. And that million people, that impact will ripple into a 10x factor and again, so ultimately it'll be a billion person impact. I used to want to have a billion dollars in the bank. To me, being a billionaire now is a billion people impacted. And the billion dollars in the bank is such a, it's such a, you know, like a non event. Like I. That's not my focus. And it used to be a fixation. So it's, it's a huge shift that's happened.

That's really, that's awesome.

It's that pebble in the pond that Mark talks about, right? I mean, you're the pebble in a huge pond. And just to see that, to see the effects of that just has to be so refreshed, rewarding. And you know, Mike, I think that's why so many of us get into this land business. Because we're searching for something in our lives because something's missing for sure, right? Three years ago I turned 40. I was hitting a midlife crisis. Wasn't where I wanted to be. You know, I'd done everything I was taught to in life and none of those things were bad. Work hard or study hard, work hard, get a great job, help people in your job. But it ends up feeling like you're kind of spinning your wheels and not really getting anywhere sometimes. And getting into this business is allowing us and our community to experience time freedom and financial freedom. And then we're going to pass that on to our kids. I'm already seeing, I had A discussion with my 13 year old tonight about, you know, the benefits of this business and how our business is growing, but our time in the business is decreasing. And we're experiencing that time freedom to enable us to do the things we want to do. Like, Damian, you're going to Rwanda to see the gorillas in a couple weeks. I mean, that's just phenomenal. So anyway, I think that your why is it really, really relates. I think a lot of us really relate to that. So I think that's awesome, Scott.

I appreciate that. There's a difference between saying I'm going to do this thing someday and the alternative, which is booking it, it's choosing to live it. And the shift is more of a mental shift. It's like the first phase, the second phase is doing it. The first phase is the mindset. And the mindset is that I'm not going to let security and significance, like having a shiny car or these things be as important as the experiences, as, as the engagement, as, as me, you know, going out there and, and being a part of the world. I mean, that, that's more fulfilling. But people tend to be stuck in the security and I get it. Except it's a choice. It's not reality unless you make it a reality.

Yeah, yeah, that's for sure. You know, something that I really, I love that you did the last boot camp you had that moment. We talked about presence and being in the present moment. And I think something that's really neat about the land business is when you, you know, you can generate the income and you can kind of relax a little bit because, you know, you have that passive income equal to greater than your fixed expenses. It opens up a window right. Where you can start to relax. And I know this is something that you're passionate about. I mean, you're about helping people. And that's why I know that you were, you felt moved, so moved to kind of bring that exercise to the group where we all kind of had that momentary experience of presence. Right. And I'd love to hear you talk a little bit more about that. I think that's just fascinating and how, you know, you know, and how that impacts your daily life, this idea of presence and how that you bring that to the table when you're helping people. Just that whole idea. I just, I think that not everybody that's listening had the opportunity to be at the boot camp and I thought that was just a powerful subject.

Well, there's, there's this, the problem we have right now, and it's Getting worse is that we're. We're so busy chasing things, and it's. We're trying to force things. We were not really present because we're being pulled in 50 different directions. And the point of power is in the present. And in order to be in the present, you have to be present. So the idea is that if you can figure out a way to actually get yourself present physiologically, then you have the ability to go and be a part of whatever the environment it is instead of just getting knocked around the world and in life. So what I was sharing was a way to breathe. Because right now, most people, even if you're watching, there's probably a piece of you that's in a fight or flight state where you're literally tensed up. And if you're tensed up, you're focused on one thing, and that's really dangerous because you're missing either things that are important or dangerous. To the side, the left and right, you've got to be grounded, and you've got to be. You've got to let the tension out of your system. And this, we find this in martial arts too. It's. The teaching that I do is about releasing the tension. And releasing the tension allows you to become very, very present. And when you're present, you can truly be aware, and that's where the opportunities are, and that's how you can connect with people. If you can't be present, forget about a relationship. I mean, tension does not bode well for relationships. You know, you got to let go. So that's. That's what we're doing. We're teaching. I mean, that the idea behind presence is. Is to allow yourself to physically and. And consciously let your body release the tension. And that was the exercise. And it's.

Right.

It's truly one of the most important things that you can do, because if you can't do that, you're going to miss everything, period. So you kind of have to. You have to start with getting present, right?

I love how that connects, like on the personal level, but then also carries over to the business. It's everything, right?

It's.

It's all encompassing. It's not, you know, just something you do over here. It really does kind of encompass the whole big ball of wax, right? Everything what we're talking about. So that's awesome. So hopefully people at the future boot camps get to enjoy that experience as well.

It's funny because there's. We do this exercise in martial arts, it's called Randori. It's multiple man attack. And it's one of my favorite things to do because there'll be four or five people that will be attacking at once. And so I'm. I get to have them come at me. And. And I'm throwing them around. And. And when I first did this, when I first got my black belt, I basically passed out after 45 seconds because I forgot to breathe. So I was so tense that I just, like. I mean, I about went blue. And. And now it's because the presence, because I'm so dropped down, people are coming at me and they're all tense. And if they're tense and I'm not, I have all the power, they have all the force. And then I just take and I let them throw themselves. And. And I can talk about it as I'm going. And. And it's really fun because the presence has shifted so much. But it took 15, 20 years of practicing this so that people go, that doesn't even make any sense. How could that be? That you're talking and laughing and guarding people and protecting and displaying and teaching, and meanwhile, people are flying against all sorts of things. So it's. But, you know, it is possible if you're willing to put the time in, just like investing or anything else.

Right? Right. I think that's awesome. I think it's like. I think, like, one of the most powerful things like, that people can bring to the table in life is like, there's so many distractions, right, that could happen, like, all. And it's like, just to focus on what's the most important thing right now. Right. And when you're in that multiple randoria, like you said, like, there's something happening that's most imminent at that moment. Right. And then there's the next thing and the next thing, but you're so present, then you can. You can deal with them as they come up. In our business, it would be like, you know, there's opportunities after opportunity, and if you're distracted and you're not centered, you're going to miss these. Right. You're not going to be able to capitalize. You're going to. You're going to miss out and you're going to make big mistakes. Right. And in one situation, it might cost you some physical bodily harm. Another one might cost you a lot of money. Right. But it's still that. That same connection.

Well, you know, it's funny, right now everything comes back to Facebook for some reason, because it's. And we're on Facebook, which is great, but it's if you're sitting there worried about missing out, this fomo, this fear of missing out, right? It's the same thing about being tense and afraid on a mat when four or five people are attacking you. If you're afraid, you're dead. If you're. I mean, you're literally going to get run over by these people, you get punched in the face. Same thing with, with life. If. If you're afraid that you're going to miss out and you're just. You're tense and you're watching this Facebook scroll and you're not focused on that thing and you're not grounded, you're going to miss out on the wealth, you're going to miss out on the experiences, and you're constantly going to be afraid because you're focusing on the security. The security is the fear. It's. They're tied together and you've got to be. You got to realize, get conscious to this because then it changes everything when you actually shift into a place of power because you go more present.

Right? That's awesome.

That really correlates to just taking a leap, right? We all have to take a leap at some point, whether it was you, Damian, with the QRP thing, or Mike, four years ago when you needed to change your life, or three years ago when I didn't need to change my life. You're exactly right. That security is our fear. It's a barrier to moving forward. You're not going to experience freedom until you take that leap. And that's what this business is about. I mean, Mike, we talk to people all the time. They're nervous as hell. I mean, I was nervous as hell three years ago, but we had this faith, which is, you know, we had this faith in the community, faith in Mark Podolski, faith in the programs, faith in all the stories we'd seen to where we just needed to take that leap. We're at that precipice in our life where we need to take that leap. And I don't know, I think that's a hard thing to overcome.

So, Scott, what's the funny part is if you ask yourself the question, what is the hard part? And we ask this of ourselves, whenever we're doing something that's uncomfortable, that. The thing that's uncomfortable is we feel like we may do something stupid and either we're going to lose something, we're going to lose money, we're going to lose face, we're going to be judged, and. And then we go, wait, what's the worst thing that happens, somebody's gonna laugh at us. They're not even paying attention to you because they're focusing on themselves. They don't care. Nobody cares. We're so fixated on what people think they're thinking about themselves. So if we just get past that and realize that once we go into that thing and then we're there, it's like going to the gym and then you start lifting that thing, that weight. It's called the experience. And you build that muscle, which is called the confidence. And the confidence is where the freedom is. It's not a pile of cash. It's literally the muscle. You guys are confident because you've done it. When you first started, you had to go in there and say, I've never picked up a barbell before, but I know this is going to work. And just. You have to believe. And once you believe and you take action, it's over. It's 90% done.

Right. Then you get to become comfortable with the fact of the unknown. Right. I mean, growth comes from being unbalanced and finding balance again. Right. So, like, reaching to a higher level of you can get. That's what I love about this business of being at the boot camp, being around people such yourself, Damien. It's like you get these glass ceilings, as I say, and you think, well, this is good as it gets. And you see other people saying, no, look it, you can do this, you can do that. You're like, all right, I didn't think of that. And you go into another realm and you're comfortable being uncomfortable and you're allowing yourself the opportunity to grow. And that comes with the confidence that you've developed from the prior wins that you've had. Right. So it's really awesome.

I like what you're saying about the. About getting comfortable with the. You actually look forward to these unknowns.

Right.

It's fascinating when you realize that the big, dark, scary forest that you're going into, there's actually no tiger there. I mean, I'm going to Africa. There are some tigers. I might actually get eaten. But if you're not going to Africa, you're probably not going to get eaten by your land investing or whatever you're doing. But we think that everything is going to eat us. And then when you realize and you actually trust that it's not going to eat, you start getting excited because you go, that is where I'm going to grow.

Yeah.

You know, it's actually really exciting. Like, what is the new thing that I have no idea about? Right now.

Yeah, you put yourself in a position. But you know, on the other side, I know in some martial arts they call like the sugyo musho shigyo, it's like at the end of it, you're going to be better than you are when you started. Like, you're going to put yourself in a spot and when it's over, you're going to be. You're grown to a new level. And that's. That's funny. I used to do that, but years ago I lived on the edge of these woods and I. And I was afraid of the. Like you said, this big dark unknown, which I think is. Likens the mind. But I would go out there at night and just kind of try to walk around. And you're right, you're thinking of this. All this stuff out there could be scary, but stay present and you're fine. So it's funny how all this carries over to our, you know, to the business model as well. It's pretty awesome.

Yeah. I mean, it is. I mean, there are a lot of things to be afraid of in the world. And we're built. We have some built in fear, but most of them are just made up there. I mean, it's. It's amazing what we're afraid of. And if we were really honest about it, it's kind of ridiculous.

Yeah. Right, Mike?

Yes. We need to.

We need to lighten it up a hair.

Okay, well, we got a segment.

We need a segment.

We got segments. You ready for our first segment? Damien, what do we got?

Well, let's see. We got what? You know what? I'm gonna pull out. I feel a little bit guilty about this, Mike, because I'm introducing a new secret segment tonight in honor of you.

Congratulations, Mike.

I don't even know that. Might be a little bit early there.

I'm not sure.

Damian, what's about this kind of.

I've been thinking about doing this for a few weeks.

No, I don't know what's going on.

This kind of parlays off of Mark's thing in Dirt Rich. Mark's thing this week he kind of beat me to it a little bit. So I thought, well, I'll parlay off it. So we have a new segment, Mike. It's called the Boston Lega segment, AKA Wait, hold on. I didn't have this queued up. Hold on. AKA Come on. Oh, come on. AKA what the.

It's not working.

What the bleep are you saying, Mike.

Zano, how many times do I vox to Scott Bossman he goes, I have no idea what you just said to me. Like, is it the accent? What is it?

In this segment, Mike, the community will learn a new Bostonian word. Either a word that is commonly mispronounced by Bostonians or a slang word that none of us understand. It works like this, Mike. I'm going to spell a word or a group of words if you're going to repeat that word back to me. Are you ready?

I will do anything you want me to. Go ahead, do it.

All right, here's the word. B, A, R, N, Y, A, R, D.

Is that what you just said? I don't know what he's saying. See, Banyad.

That's what you said.

Everybody say it with Mead Bonyad. It's the new segment, the Boston segment.

He likes how I say because I don't know, Damian. You know, since we've last met, Damian, I've become quite. I know you were giving me some tips on the wine and the whole idea of going around testing, but I've become quite a beer connoisseur.

That's a Bastin thing.

It's a Boston thing. So right now I have my Sunday paper, Imperial Stout. But that's a great segment.

All right.

Hey, listen, I feel honored I got a segment in my honor.

Yeah, it really is in your honor. So we're gonna mix it up. There's gonna be a new word every week or maybe a slang word. But anyway, it's a fun one to come. So I think we should have another segment real quick, because we're about halfway through the show, and we got. We got somebody down in the peanut gallery we shouldn't leave alone.

All right, I'm gonna bring him up. This is a. This is a great segment. We're bringing him up. Here he comes. Matthew Forbes.

There he is.

He's awake. One day, we want to just roll open and have him leaning back, just snoring. Are they ever going to call on me?

It's five in the morning, gentlemen. You get. You got about 185,000 land investors going banyard.

Matt's the only one that thinks I said it right.

Well, you. You did say it correctly. So. I'm also from Massachusetts, as you can tell from my accent. So. All right, let's do some refill because that was some deep stuff with Damian, who I was going to make fun of immediately because I met him at the last boot camp and he owes me money, but that was really, really good. So instead we're just gonna say, grab your. Grab your booze. I think you all deserve it. Or you're lacroix. We won't even make fun of you. Damian. Maybe a little bit. Grab your glass. Throw some in, because the second half of this is gonna be better than the first half. And that was a great first segment. That was inspiring stuff, Damian. So cheers. Cheers.

Awesome. Thank you, Matt. We appreciate it, as always. That's our technical advisor and refill segment extraordinaire.

Resident drinker.

Resident drinker. All right, we'll talk to you in a minute. We'll bring you back up for the. For the final toast.

All right, let's do a giveaway too, can we?

Yeah. Damian's got some cool books he's written and. Let's do it. He's. He's. He's. These are going to be signed. Are you going to sign these for us and.

Yeah.

All right, all right, all right.

So how do you want to do. How about we give away a duo? Can we do that?

Duo? Sure. Let's do it.

All right, let's do it.

Yeah. We're going to give away these two books. QRP for Land Investors and Reinvented Life. All right. Two great books that will move your business or move you.

I mean, something. I'm not sure.

All right, so I got my. I got my names and a half here. You ready?

Drum roll.

And here we go. The winner is.

All right, let's see. It's almost there. Eric. Justin.

Justin. All right, Eric. And you know what? I just saw in the comment that it is his first ever nightcap tonight. So welcome.

Wow. What?

He'll be coming back?

Yeah, absolutely.

All right, Eric, you get two books.

Yeah.

Reinvented Life and qrp. Total Control Financial Guided QRP for Land Investors.

Congrats.

I'll get you his info, Damian. Okay.

Yeah, Good.

Damian, I got a question. If. Listen, if I say that I want to learn more, what's the most critical thing I need to do right now, if I want to. Listen, I like what you're talking about. I think I might be interested. What's the. What. What's the most critical thing I can do to get involved? Like, how am I going to best, you know, maximize this whole process?

Well, I mean, the education piece, just understanding what we're talking about. I think this is a fire hose. I mean, it's like we talk, you know, we talk about investing. And for most people that have never done any investing, it's basically Chinese, unless they're from China. So they're. You know, it's very confusing.

Then it's English.

It's English, except it's qrp, Lish, and it's very confusing. So I mean, the first thing you really want to do is start to get your arms around what this is. And there's. The easiest way to do that is to find a bite size nugget to start really digging into. I wrote a thing. It's a report on the QRP that people can get and it's emailed to them. So that's probably the place to start because if you don't have. I had a guy earlier today that, that said, you know, I talked to you a year ago and we had a great conversation about, about apartments. And he goes, but it wasn't until about three weeks ago that I realized, holy crap, the QRP is the answer to a lot of the problems I had. I didn't. It wasn't in my frontal lobe. It was off over here. You mentioned it, but I just didn't get it right. I don't think he read the report. If he had, we would have been talking about this a year ago. So.

So if I want to get that report, I email you, I go to a website. Scott, can we throw that up for everybody? What's the best.

Yeah, the easiest thing to do is just to text the word QRP to the number 72,000.

Perfect. How much easier can it be? QRP to 72,000. Text.

Yep.

Awesome.

And then you get, then you get the info and then you can just, I mean really the information. Information is the first thing to being empowered and then you have to do something with it. You may say, this is the stupidest thing and this doesn't fit. And that is perfect because you actually did something. I mean, that's. I love finding information and then throwing it away because it, it tells me that I don't need to think about it again. And then some things I grab and run with. But if you don't do anything, you'll be wondering and you may wake up five years from now going, I wonder if I should have texted 72,000.

Be dreaming about it. You know, a lot of times people, when they get involved in a land investing, they wonder, you know, they see that, look, this can work, right? But can it work for certain people only, right? Maybe somebody had been a realtor, which is obviously not the case, but they have these thoughts that maybe there's a special sauce that they have. So is there a unique skill set, superpower that somebody has to have to work the qrp or is there anything they're Saying, well, Jesus, seems like it works well for him, but I'm not sure if it'll work well for me. This kind of fear, this uncertainty, this doubt, how do you address that? And how can you help someone over that hump?

The superpower is being naive. I mean, truly, the advantage that somebody that's 20 years old has is that they haven't. They don't have the scar tissue. And I mean, there's a beautiful thing about having scar tissue because you have experience. Like, I've been through so much, and having lost $20 million, I can see things. I can feel things about what's coming that people wouldn't be able to feel. The problem is I also am more weary and I'm more conservative. And so this being naive and what I mean by that is you just say, oh, you know what? I can totally go build the Great Wall of China in a week. I got that. That person says, I can do it. Good people that haven't done it. The best thing to do is listen to somebody that has integrity, that says, this is how it's done, and then do exactly what they did and what they say. The problem is, we go, oh, you know what? I got a better plan. Good, go do it. After you model and mimic the thing that works. But everybody has a better plan. And I think that either they're afraid and they think, oh, no, that couldn't work, or they decide they want to totally jack up the system. And both of those are recipes for disaster, right?

I like that because I talk to people when they're going into preparing for flight school, and I talk to some people that are, like, really successful in other endeavors of real estate, whatnot. And I say the best thing you can do, empty your cup, follow the recipe Scott Todd puts forward. But what the beautiful thing is, when that's all said and done, all at that point, when you understand how we do what we do, then all of the other past experiences and the successes you had, they come in like this fine seasoning, and they make you all the better. But you gotta, you gotta. You gotta just make room for that new. That new knowledge, right? And then you can bring all your experience on top of that, and it can really be, you know, take it to a higher level. So that's awesome.

I think there's another one of the things that I agree with, that I was reading in a book, it was a good reminder, was that typically the smartest people are the least successful because their ego gets in the way. And this, this, unfortunately, this happens a lot with, with medical professionals because they spend so much time being so smart and it's a, it's a matter of life or death that they're smart and, and so they go into something and they, instead of saying, well, you know what, I'm going to just be completely young and new and like basically stupid and follow the teacher like I'm in kindergarten, oftentimes the people that are the smartest have a hard time. Yeah.

Yeah, that makes sense. Totally. So speaking of books and stuff, anything you could recommend to us, but I mean we obviously we get your books, but what about other books? What's inspired you?

Best book I read recently was a book by my friend Steve Sebold. It's called what the what Self Made Millionaires Teach Their Kids. And it's fascinating. I don't have any kids and I was reading this book and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I'm pissed at my parents right now because they didn't teach me any of this stuff. And it was his process of interviewing and being a multimillionaire really understanding what the very rich are teaching their kids. And it's fascinating. It really is not what you think it is. And I've been in this world a long time and having created a lot of wealth, a lot of money and I didn't know most of the stuff that was in this book and I just thought, how could I not know this stuff? So it's amazing. There's always more.

And I think what self made millionaires teach their kids, that's. Who's the author?

Steve Sebold. Steve Sebold. He has, he has a number of books. How Rich People Think. How Rich People Think. I mean it's different. There's a world class way of thinking and then there's a middle class and a poor class and even the rich. It's different between the rich and the world class. World class thinking is really, it's amazing because at a certain point you shift. It's not about the amount of money, but you shift into a world class state where it's more generous and it's more focused on other people. It's not focused on just your own entitlement or your own consumption. It's really focusing on the legacy and how you're, how you're showing up for the rest of the world. It's an amazing departure from our conventional wisdom. So I really endorse his stuff in a big way. He's a great guy. Author.

I'll be picking that book up tonight. Audible. Audible. Is that Audible, maybe. We'll see. If not. I'll read it. I'll go old school.

Reading the lost art.

Scott, what we got? We got. We got some segments here. We still gotta. You know, this is.

Yes.

Awesome.

I wish.

Yeah, I wish the comments were a little bit more easy to navigate here. Let's do an X. Let's do another segment. You ready?

We're very high tech here, Damian. Watch this.

Ready, Damien?

Ready.

Time for the Facebook quote or question of the week.

Very tech. Very high tech.

I feel like David Letterman.

Throw it. Yes. I like it.

There's Paul Schaefer.

Wow. All right, so let's see Facebook quote of the week. I got. Actually got a couple here, but this would be good for you too, Damien. This is from Chris Grassman. He's trying to sell some land on Facebook and he says, what do you do about toxic people commenting on your Facebook ad? I've responded to a couple of his comments by maintaining. Maintaining a positive spin. But he is insistent on letting the world know that my land is garbage. I'm not going to argue with him that suicide. Do I hide his comments or just let him vandalize? Let his vandalism sit on my post.

Have you ever had anybody, Damian, try to just.

The haters, Damien.

They're out there, right? People that they were nothing more. Nothing better to do. And they have more time than you and I to do this. It's just hate and negative comment. How do you. How do you deal with that in your world?

Well, the first thing is to realize it has nothing to do with you. It has to do. It's them. I mean, truly, they have a sad place. This is all they've got. So it may be their entire focus in life. They may have nothing else. They may not be employed. They may not even have a. I mean, like, you're their entire focus. So, you know, maybe you just say, hey, thanks for participating. I mean, I, you know, I'm glad you're around. You know, it's. Sadly, we've got, you know, I mean, you may be the last thing that they're holding on to, the last thread of life before they off themselves. So, I mean, shift the thinking a little bit, right? Yeah, they're toxic. You can engage them and you can also hide them. I mean, there's a point where you just say, all right, you're out of here. But I think there's an opportunity there. And when you realize that a human being is there and deep down, everything we do is either an act of love or a Call for love. I mean, if you really understand that it's from the Course in Miracles, then you'll realize that's not an act of love, what he's doing. It's a call for love. There's something desperately yearning, a connection that's probably missing.

I love that change of perspective. It's like, now this is a little bit different, but maybe you'll see the similarity. It's like, I remember years ago, someone saying, imagine you parked. You parked at a stoplight, right? And this car comes behind you and just rams you. And like, it gets out, you get out. You just want to just, you so angry, you want to grab the guy and you get out. And you realize that somebody who just suffered a cardiac arrest, and that's how they. And now you are going to the role of helping them. Look at the mental shift. Right? I mean, it's just like that. You know, you go from one situation, and all of a sudden your mindset has to change immediately. Now you're helping this person. Right? So I love that. Very similar.

Yeah, Mark. Mark talked about this too. I mean, he loves his haters.

He'll.

He'll call him out. He'll. He'll ask him questions. He'll engage with them and, and flip them if possible. If not, then just so important you're on someone's radar.

You know.

Guys, it's funny because back in 2007 or eight, like, when things started melting down and, and I was, I was, I was a pretty big douche back then. I, I, I was running around.

Technically speaking.

Yeah. Figuratively, physically, I was.

Bad situation.

Terrible.

I love the nightcap. We don't hold anything back.

No, I mean, it's just, hey, you know, what's the point? It's just not. So I was. And, and that I was, I was. Somebody posted. Because I was in a Lamborghini one day. They posted a picture, and, and then I had all these trolls that were out there saying, oh, this guy is such a dick. And I was going, wow. And so I engaged, and they went right after it. And I was, it was like bait. And then I just got mauled. And what was really funny was somebody at one point throughout that they said, you know, you're. So you got, you got fired on this thing. You were doing this campaign. And I was like, no, I didn't. And I was just, I was like, wait a second, just be with it. I was like, you know what? I did get fired. I got fired as a volunteer. That's how bad of an employee I am. I'm terrible. I can't even keep Damien.

We don't even want your free help. Take it out of here.

That's how bad I was. So when you own that stuff, you're like, you know what? You're right. And if I had said, yeah, that was being a Lamborghini and I am a douche, what are they going to do? Yeah, you really are. And I'm like, you know, you're right. I really am. They got nothing left. Like, oh, he just deflated us.

So true. Sometimes in life it's just a different perspective. And maybe it's your perspective. Right. And that whole situation changes totally.

Right. Who has the power? You know, that's always the question. Who has the power?

Just remind me of that 80s songs. I got the power anyway. Remember that.

You remember that 80s?

Could you. Could you. Could you say the word P O W E R Power.

Come on. How else would you say it?

Does anybody have an er?

I can actually do that.

There's no ah, but in Mike there is an ah.

Oh, my goodness.

So if the audience wants to find you, is that how they. The text? Is that the best way? I mean, I want to talk to you, Damian, tomorrow about my qrp. How do I do it? The text. What's the quickest way to do that?

If you go to total controlfinancial.com.

Okay, I threw it up there. I threw that up there in the comments. Let's see if we have. You guys have any questions for Damian? I'm surprised you don't have a few more questions for Damian. He's a. He's a wealth of knowledge.

I can tell you a million things not to do.

Here's an interesting quote from Nick Bond referring to what we were talking about earlier. The average GPA of multi millionaires is what my guess is. Wow.

I'll go with 3.0.

2.7. 2.7 for multimillionaires craziness.

Here's. Here's an interesting twist on those of those people that are out there along those lines with this whole academic space that you've taken us into, do you know that those people that are getting ready to bring on teams and need some support and stuff. So if you think that you're an A or a B or a C, like you're trying to figure out who you are, I can tell you who you are by who you hire because A's higher A's and B's higher C's. So if you're. If you're getting Cheap people. If you're getting bad people and your business sucks, it's probably because you're not pushing yourself into a world class A space. If you're going out and getting the best to rock your business, it means you're really owning the fact that you're an A. So just think about that when you're hiring next time, because all of us are going to need team members. You want great team members. You don't want shit bags.

Yeah.

Wow, that's awesome.

Lane Ambassadors a team sport. I guess life's a team sport too, right? It's who you surround yourself with.

You are. Yeah, for sure. Okay, I got a question here for you, Damian. You touched on this a little bit, but what's the difference between a self directed IRA and a qrp?

A self directed IRA is shit.

That's technically speaking.

Again, technically, that was, that was the technical piece of that. Yeah, there's. It's the technical difference is that with an IRA, here's the beginning pieces. You can put 5,500 bucks a year in an IRA. You could put $55,000 in a QRP. All right, so 10 times better. You can invest a QRP in real estate. And if you want, if you buy properties that, you know, you end up doing things that have debt, you get to invest a little bit of money with a whole lot of debt, and you get to keep all the profits. If you use an ira, you do the same transaction, you give away at least a third of your money to the government instantly every year. So those two things alone are like, why would you entertain an ira? There's literally no good reason to have an IRA instead of a qrp. If you have an ira, you're gonna get hurt. You're gonna get hurt with fees, you're gonna get hurt with taxes. You're gonna get hurt with a lack of control. You're going to get hurt with being broke when you're old because you could only put $5,500 in there a year. So you want to get hurt, Stick with the ira. You want to get rich and open and free. QRP is your way.

All right, expand on this also, Damian, Larry or Street says, I would have thought that using my retirement funds for my land investing business would be, quote, self dealing. How does it work and stay legal?

Self dealing is when you're really, when you're doing things, when you're investing with yourself. Like when your retirement plan is investing with you and you're co mingling funds and there's. If you're investing. If you're buying something, what's a good way to put this? If you go and manage a rental property and you're doing all the work on a rehab, that would be self. It's kind of self dealing. You're in the middle of it. It's a disqualified thing. If you're buying a piece of land and you're collecting payments, how is that any different than buying a stock and collecting dividends?

Right.

So I think you're probably in good shape. And you do have to be careful about how active. If this is the only thing you're doing, you want to get it as passive as possible. So, you know, you have a system, a machine that's actually collecting payments. If you're doing all the work, what happens is it looks like it's an active contribution so you can go find investments. But again, if you're painting it, I don't know how you really paint dirt. So if you're not painting your dirt, I'm not really that concerned about this. It's a bit of a kind of a gray space in the tax code where the active. Disqualified. Getting payments is not an active business. I mean, it's managing a team of people is more of an active. So this is where part of your team is your accountant and your accountant is helping you. This is a cpa. This is not your neighbor Fred, that read a book on accounting. This is literally having a team member with credentials saying, here's how you make sure to not be disqualified. That's what you need. Making this stuff up or hoping it all works out is a very bad plan. I call that smoking Hopium. It's not a good strategy.

Opium. We're getting close to the closing here, but I want to know any tools, resources, I mean, you know, that you use in your daily life. I mean, whether it's dealing with me. Because you. There's a lot of people you engage with and you know, in our community, we deal with a lot of people. We have a lot of buyers and sellers. Anything, any unique tools, resources, or anything that stands out that you use on a daily basis that makes your life easier.

Yeah, less. I mean, I say that because, like, I use very, very small numbers of tools because there's an endless never ending, never ending. It's like a growing pile of stuff that dings and bings. So I have a no ding policy in my life that's it's incredibly important to be able to think. We're so distracted by all this stuff. So the tool I primarily use for pretty much running my world, my team just everything is slack. And I use that because I don't have to try to figure out where things are. It's very simple. It's streamlined. I use it to track everything. So I do that. But I also don't have it dinging and binging at me. And I hammer on this. It's like my biggest pet peeve. All the noise that's out there and people are so, so ridiculous that they have to keep their stuff on and dinging and binging. So in my environment, I have a rule and if you ding, you're out.

And so, I mean, that's.

My system is like that too. And I feel terrible if I ding. So I think that that is probably one of the most valuable things you can do because it allows you to stay focused. And if you can stay focused, you can stay present. And if you can be present, you've got the power.

I knew it was going to tie back to the presence. I love it. Absolutely no ding is presence.

Somehow they all go together.

Can we get two quick, two more quick answers from you on these questions? Number one, can you roll over to a QRP?

Yeah, you can roll over almost anything. IRAs, 401ks, 457s, Thrift Savings Plan. If you're a government employee or have been, typically it's, it's previous employers, there are cases where you could be working for somebody and roll over the money that's in your, your plan there. It's not very common, but it, it happens all the time. It depends on how they're, they're structured. But yeah, you can put almost anything into the qrp and it's tax free and penalty free. So it doesn't, it's. You're not penalized and you don't pay taxes. By moving it over, all of a sudden you have control. That's the, that's the outcome.

Except for a Roth ira.

Correct. That's the only thing that you can't move over there.

Yep. Okay, awesome. And then one other question. What are the downsides of a qrp?

You're in charge. If you make a mistake, you got nobody to blame but yourself. I mean, that's, There are people that are so nervous about doing their own investing that this is a bad idea. They should have somebody else holding their hand and eventually that person will lose their money for them. So, I mean, that's the downside is you're in control and you can screw it up. And if you're not willing to put the Time in. I know people that are so busy with either their job or their business that they're not going to spend any time. They're probably better with a very smart, very honest financial advisor that can keep them in something super boring and safe that, you know they'll make 5, 6%. And that's probably better than them taking it on and then gambling with it, which is what most people will do if they're not willing to spend the time being educated.

Awesome. Awesome. Cool. Thank you. Really appreciate having you on. It's been a blast.

My pleasure. You guys are fun.

Mike, it's been an hour.

You know, time flies when you're hanging out with Damian. It's been an hour.

It's hilarious. All right, so are we gonna do a toast?

Yeah.

What? We bring back up Matt, and then we'll do the outro, which is the same as the intro because we're so technically advanced and.

No, I made a promise. I made a promise to Aaron. So you know how I've, you know, come up with my own quotes before? You've come up with your own quotes before, Right?

We quote ourselves.

We quote ourselves.

Who is dinging in the no ding zone?

Sorry, sorry, sorry, man.

I turned off Damian, didn't we?

I turned off slack. He was talking about it. I should fall through the floor right now. That would be awesome.

It'll be awesome, actually. All in the same room, like, hey, Boom.

So my wife wanted me to share this because I thought this was quite profound. She was out watering her flowers yesterday, and she thought of this quote. She said she thinks a flower does not think of competing against the other flowers next to it. It just blooms.

I like that.

Isn't that nice?

That's very Zen like. I like that.

Very Zen like.

That's me. My quote on the next roundtable. Don't tell anybody.

You better credit Aaron Bossman or she will be after you.

I'll just say Aaron B. They won't know. So it'll sound like a really famous person and be like, wow, who's this?

Aaron B. The great Zen master. Aaron B.

Once the great zenmaster. Awesome.

Here's to all of you flowers. You're everyone. Unique.

Yeah, Matt, you too. Anything like you.

I'd like to be more like.

Here's the bitcoin.

Cheers.

Bitcoin.

Damien, thank you very much. Matt, always a pleasure. Can't wait to see you guys in person again.

Scott, you complete me.

You can believe me.

Oh, it's so much better when mom and dad are all snuggly. On the nightcap as opposed to, like.

When they fight for the outro.

So much better.

Thanks, David. Thanks, Matt. Thanks.

Thanks, guys. Thanks, guys.

Look at this. What do you think of this, huh? Rotate the spin in the reverse direction. I have no idea how to end this podcast. Thanks, d.