ROUND TABLE—How Do You Define Success?

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek, with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com. and for this week's roundtable, we've got the Zen master that cannot pronounce his R's. Mike. Zen master Zano. Mike, how are ya?

I'm all. Can't even say it now. I'm all right.

Good.

How are you?

I'm good. I'm good.

Eyes are overrated.

They are. They're way overrated. And then, of course, we get the pleasure of listening to the female. The female guest, because we've always been so male dominant. So nice to have. Cynthia Chapati. Cynthia, how are you?

I'm pretty good.

Great, great. You're not intimidated by all the testosterone?

A little bit. I am, actually, but I'm here.

Yes.

All right, well, I think it's great that you're becoming a fixture on the roundtables, so thank you.

Thank you.

And then the big papa Tate. Litchfield Tate. How's it going?

I'm great, thank you. Everything is moving along. It's getting cold.

It's getting cold. How's the baby? How's the sleep?

You know as much. You know, we're sleeping as much as we. Anybody can expect, I guess. Not great. Not bad. But whatever, it's fine. I'm young.

All right. You bringing the baby to boot camp, San Antonio?

I don't think we're gonna go to boot camp. I think we're gonna. Well, not San Antonio, but I think Scottsdale. We're planning on it.

All right, awesome, awesome.

And then for sure, elite weekend.

Yeah, definitely. Then Eric. Hashtag team Eric Peterson. Eric, how are you?

I'm good, thanks.

All right, great, great. And then last but not least, you know you love him. Scott Todd from Scott todd.net landmodo.com and of course, automating your Craigslist and your Facebook postings. Postingdomination.com thelandgeek Scott. Todd. How are you, Mark?

I'm great.

How are you?

I'm good, I'm good. Just a reminder, today's podcast is sponsored by the Lanky Bootcamp. So if you haven't registered yet for the bootcamp, go to lanky.combootcamp we are almost full for San Antonio, so do that now. Oh, and by the way, do you know we have set it and forget it system to get paid called GeekPay IO I never say it, but I feel like I feel compelled to just remind the listeners. All. All right, let's just get into it. This is kind of more of a woo woo topic. But as we kind of get down to the end of the year, I think it's important to kind of, you know, take. Take stock of where we've been all year and then look forward and, you know, it's kind of New Year's resolutions time. So, Mike Zano, we'll start with you. How do you define success? How do you define success?

Yeah, I think that's a great question because I think everybody defines it differently, right? To me, one of the great things about our business is the time creation. Right. You know, I like to think of all our systems kind of like force multipliers. Like, we're really just creating, you know, so much from so little of our efforts. So success to me is being able to honestly spend time at my house, spend time around my kids and. And do things that are obviously meaningful. As probably a lot of people define success that way. I mean, I work for the fire department, used to do a lot of overtimes. Now that would take up a lot of time away from the family. I don't do that hardly anymore. And it's just been a whole new kind of experience. And so success to me definitely revolves around time and just, you know, my. What I want to do, I want to be in the yard, I want to be in my basement hanging around, tinkering with stuff, and I just relaxing. So I'm able to do that through the land investing. So that to me is success. Being able to create, you know, a system where you can pay for your bills, pay for your expenses, so there's passive income and then just chill.

Phenomenal. Phenomenal. Cynthia Tripathi, what's your definition of success?

I agree with a lot of what Mike said. I completely agree. It's about, you know, having the time to do the things that you want. And I think it's different for everyone. You know, everyone wants to spend their time differently. But I also, for me, a big part of my definition of success is also kind of synonymous with my definition of happiness, which is growth. Because I'm the kind of person like, if I'm not growing, I'm really unhappy. And that's, you know, kind of how I stumbled into this land investing business because I was like, hey, what's next? You know, what's my next goal? What's the next thing I'm going to accomplish? And I think that goes the same for a lot of ambitious people, you know, a lot of ambitious people. Everyone on this call, probably all the people listening to this call, you know, you, you all want more from your life. You know, you want that drive and that, those goals to work toward. And for me, that's success. It's constantly growing, constant and never ending improvement so that you can achieve your goals, but also being present. So, like enjoying the journey more, working on those goals, getting that progress. And then, you know what Mike said, spending time with the people that you want to spend time with, doing the things you want to do, and, and really embracing that.

Yeah, I like that concept. It reminds me of, you know, this term that I used to kind of say a lot. Like, you're either camping or climbing, and we can't keep climbing, climbing, climbing all the time. At some point you got to go, you know, and kind of shut down a bit camp and then get ready for your next climb. But I think the challenge for, you know, ambitious type A people is gearing down and actually camping and being present. Right. And then getting ready for the next climb. I don't know. I know for me, it's, it's, it's. I've had challenges like that at time where I'll gear down and maybe I'm taking a long hike. I'm like, oh, wait, I should be working, right? I shoulds kind of like start taking over. And now instead of being present, now I'm in my head like, I should be doing this, I should be doing that. And I just have like, Elon Musk on my shoulder because I just read his biography, his autobiography, like, well, that guy's working now, you know, So I think it's. I think it's one of those sort of challenges. But I really like that answer just as much as Mike's too. Tate Litchfield, what's your definition of success?

You know, success, it's an interesting topic, and it's different for everyone. One of the things that I really like doing is reflecting on my why, like, what motivates me in this business and what I've realized that success and happiness and my why all go hand in hand. So for me, I'm judging my success based on kind of the quality of life that I'm living and the activities and the time that I'm able to do or time that I'm able to spend and devote with the people that I love and care about. So that, to me, is the definition of success. And, you know, when we start off on this journey, everybody starts with a number in mind. And as they start to buy and sell more property and they start to build that passive income, what I found is that that number tends to get a little bit smaller than what you originally thought it was, because you realize that with all this free time, you're able to do things that actually bring you a lot of joy and happiness, and so you don't need as much money. So, you know, for me, success comes down to kind of time and the ability to be a present dad and a good husband and give back to my community and the people that I care about.

Wow, that was deep. I think I might. I'm going to steal all these different. See, this is why I'm going last, because I get to steal everybody's answer. Eric Peterson, what's your definition of success?

Well, I think that success for me, first of all, comes just in small increments, really. I mean, it's meeting big goals, but it's also meeting small goals. And through meeting those small incremental steps, you know, it gives you that momentum to keep moving forward and ultimately just kind of feeling successful for achieving those goals, even if they're small and working towards those bigger ones. But ultimately, you know, like, everyone's kind of saying, you know, it comes down to freedom and having time to spend with family, friends, and whomever you might want to. So, I don't know. I guess that's kind of how I look at it.

You know, for a second there, I thought Eric was just going to be like a Tesla, but he didn't, which was shocking. Shocking.

Isn't that in yours? Your list?

We'll get to me, Eric. We'll get to me.

Geez, Eric.

Jeez.

Wow, that's a little.

Little aggressive.

Give us your list now, Mark.

I'll get to my list. I've got a whole list. Scott. Todd. See, look how. Look how quickly Scott comes to Eric's defense team.

Scott, I think you're reading into something.

I don't know, possibly. All right, Scott, what's your definition of success?

I mean, there's been a lot of great, great answers, you know, so far. But I think that, you know, defining success, I mean, like, before, it used to be like, I needed to earn a certain amount of money, right? Like, I wanted to have a certain amount of money. I wanted to have a certain level within a company, right? Like, and then, you know, all of that shifted at one point to where as long as my bills are paid on a monthly basis, all is good, right? Like, you know, yeah, it's nice to. It's nice to plow down more money into savings, et cetera. But, you know, I think that at the end of the day, for me, it comes down to time. Am I able to do the things within my time that I want to do? You know, Mark, you know, it's no secret I've been taking like flying lessons, learning how to fly a plane. And so, you know, it's really cool because I started that, I started that process in August, the end of August, and basically I'm, I'm almost done. So, you know, in four months I've gone from never really doing anything with a plane to actually like flying the plane by myself now, you know, like, ready to take the, you know, the FAA check ride, et cetera. But there's no way, there's no way I would have been able to do that in four months had I not had the time. I mean, the fact that I was able to, to, you know, to take three days a week, you know, a couple of hours each day to go do that, it really became a game changer because, you know, I was able to do it faster. I was able to go. I was able to go faster, I was able to pick up information faster. And I was able to allocate like time to even studying for the, for the knowledge exam, like the written exam. You know, like, that's stuff that, it takes time and a lot of people are able to, you know, have to put it off because life gets in the way. And for me, I was able just to plow down and just, just do it and have fun. So like, that's a definition of success for me is, you know, can I, can I control my time? How much of my time do I control? And you know, is my bank account, are we paying the bills and is the bank account growing? I mean, all of those things kind of are meaningful to me. I think you really have to determine what's important to you. Is it time, is it money, is it whatever it is? And then that's your definition of success, not mine.

Yeah, I mean, I think if you'd asked me like what my definition of success was like let's say 10 years ago, right? And I was being super, super honest, like not kind of giving, you know, a typical, you know, answer that, you know, that would be politically correct. Like if I was really, really being honest, I'd be like making more money than my brother in law, right. Or, or, you know, something, you know, something very, very ego driven or, you know, having a bigger house than Scott Todd, you know, or, or something like that. If I was being really, really honest, it would have been something, you know, very, you know, very ego driven. And I think Today, especially going through what I went through in 2010, my definition of success is, you know, creating, you know, meaningful work, meaningful relationships, like what Cynthia said, growth, what Tate and Scott and Mike said. And Eric, you know, working when I want, where I want, with whom I want, you know, this time. And because what, you know, we can always make more money, but we can't get more time. And what time I think buys you is to do those things in life that you really, really want to do, to be, to be the best version of yourself. And, you know, like this morning, the best version of myself was actually going to a new breakfast place with my wife and putting the phone away and really having an in depth discussion about our middle child and where he's going to go to school next year. There's no way we would be able to have that relaxed conversation over breakfast on a Tuesday. If I was working my investment banking job. And I would not have had even the energy to be present after coming home from work. I'd be like, where's the scotch? Right? I need to gear down. I just had a really stressful day. And then she would have come to me around 9 o' clock at night and said, hey, we need to talk. I'd be like, can we talk tomorrow? Or we'd have to defer it to like a Saturday. And I think these little precious moments for me that, like, okay, that for me is success. And I don't know, Scott, do you like that answer? I do.

I think, I think that that's what a lot of people miss, you know, Like, I remember, you know, when, like when I was working for the, for the man and I would go meet my wife for lunch, you know, it was very rapid, right? Like, I gotta get back. You know, there was a, there was a sound on my phone because I had VIP alerts set up, you know, like if my boss emailed me, Bing, my phone would go off or if there was something urgent, Bing. I had like all these VIPs and so my phone was always ding, ding, ding all day long, right. And I ignored the other email. Not really, but I mean, like, those were low priority. But when I heard that, that little Bing, I would jump onto the phone and there's no way that you can kind of enjoy, enjoy the moment when you're obsessed with your phone or, you know, or your, your thought process of, oh, well, this is what's going on at work, I got a problem at work, or you know what we're gonna do about this problem, or I got this deadline and honestly, you know, like, in this business, it's great. Like, there's no deadlines. You know, the. The Bings on my phone are gone. It just doesn't. Doesn't exist. And, you know, probably the closest thing I have to a Bing right now is Voxer, and I've kind of shut that down because it kind of was annoying to me. So, you know, I go in and look at Voxer, but it sounds like, jump on right away. And so you get to control. Like, you get to control your time, you get to control the annoyances in your life, and then all of a sudden, you start to look at things and you're like, well, is that something I really even want to do? I even want to deal with that anymore, Right? Like, whether it's a customer or something, you know, like, how much frustration do I want to interject into my life?

Or.

None, Right? Like it's okay. Like, it's all okay because I control the time and I control everything else.

Yeah, I like that, Tate.

Well, I was just thinking about what Scott said right there, and I always tell myself that there's no such thing as a land emergency. You know, they just almost don't exist in this business. Right. You can have a disgruntled customer, but you can have somebody call Mac, have a va, Call them back for you and say you'll give them a call tomorrow or when you're back at your desk. And so that's kind of. Kind of the beauty of this. And this business eliminates that need to be 100% on your phone or near your computer all the time, 24 7. And that's. I mean, that right there is the definition of success, Right? I'm not tied down. I can go to a movie in the middle of the daytime and not worry about my emails.

Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, I think this is a good question for Cynthia, because you just recently quit your job, right? And so what do you do with all this time now?

I'm not at this level yet, but.

I mean, are you. Are you lonely? Like, are you calling your friends and be like, hey, let's go to the movie a matinee? And they're like, we're working, Cynthia.

Well, I'm still. You know, my time is slowly freeing up, but I'm not. I'm not at the level where all you guys are.

Mark. She has survivor's guilt right now. She's in the survivor's guilt phase. I've spotted it because it's where you can walk away for the day and, like, just enjoy life. But you feel guilty not working.

Yeah, that happens all the time.

See, we've all been through it, and you'll. You'll get over it. But it does take some time. Like, usually you have to meet some certain. Certain thing. What's that? Cynthia?

I'm still at the point where there's, like, a ton I have to do. It's not as much as it was when I started, but it's. I'm slowly getting there. But, I mean, yeah, I do kind of get lonely sometimes. Like, I'll go. I'll go work, you know, with Mark at his office. I mean, I'm just gonna come work with you today because I don't want to be back alone, but my cats keep me company, so that's nice. Or I'll go, like, on a walk in the middle today to go, you know, see some nature.

Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, that I'm writing a book now, and one of the chapters is the downside of all this time. It's like, no one's around. Everyone's working. It's like, dude, let's. Let's go hang out. And it's like, yeah, I'm not my own boss. I'll get fired if I just, you know, leave for a matinee. Like, okay, so. And one of the best. Yeah, I know, exactly. I'm, like, doing you a favor. Do it. But, you know, Eric Peterson, you're still working. You work from home. I don't know. What's it. What's your. What's your workday really like?

Yeah, I mean, I do work from home. I'm here by myself. I mean, my wife comes and goes based on, you know, she's got to run errands or pick up the kids in the afternoon from school and different things like that. But, you know, I've been. I've been working from home for quite some time now, so, you know, I'm kind of fully adjusted to it, and it's, you know, it's just part of my day, I guess. You know, it's. It's really nice to get out each day, though. I really enjoy just driving my kids to school in the morning because it gives me an opportunity to get out of the house for a little while.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. All right, well, let's go ahead. Cynthia.

I was just gonna say, you know, for me, I think working from home was a big adjustment. I think it's like. It sounds really awesome, because before I was commuting 40 minutes one one way to my job. So I was in the car an hour and a half every day, and I was so excited. I'm like, I'm not going to have a commute. This is going to be awesome. Not going to have to get in my car. But I also think that it's like, after, you know, the newness of it wears off. I think it's a big adjustment, especially if you're used to working for someone else and having to drive to an office every day where I think most of us have probably been on this call. And it's a big adjustment. I mean, I literally had to cancel my Netflix account because I would, you know, I'd work and then I'd say, okay, I'm gonna go eat some lunch. I'll just, like, watch an episode quick. And then three hours would pass. It's 4 o', clock. And I'm like, ah, this is terrible. Because no one's there, like, kind of managing you or telling you like, hey, this needs to get done by this time. So I think for me, and, you know, I want to say, a lot of people working from home, it takes some time to really get into that rhythm and, you know, set that schedule for yourself and say, okay, these are the things I'm going to do today. This is, you know, I'm going to be at my desk by this time. So I think there's definitely. There's an adjustment to it, for sure.

Yeah, I remember. Go ahead, Scott.

I was gonna say Cynthia, like, but you don't have to, like, work during the day.

I like working during the day. Why wouldn't I work during the day?

Oh, see, I don't want a day job. If anything, I'm just gonna answer some emails at night. That's. That's a dream. But that's my definition of success.

Yeah, I mean, you know, Cynthia, you were kind of like that kid that, like, had really, really strict parents. High school, right? And then all of a sudden they go to college and they freak out with all the freedom, right? And I think we've all been there, that when you make that transition. I remember my. I think my second year working for myself, I'd done really, really well that first year. And it was kind of getting easy, right? And I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna get an Xbox. And I brought an Xbox into the office, and for hours I would play Xbox. I mean, and I was feeling guilty, but I got. I was addicted to it. Like, I was. I'm like, wait a second, there's no consequences to this. I'm playing Xbox for hours. My wife doesn't know. She thinks I'm working. And you know, finally I, it was like, this is just, I have to be an adult. Like people would come by to the office and they, I was like embarrassed for myself. Like I'm a man child, you know. And so finally I got rid of it, but I went crazy, like with all the freedom. And so now I've got like, my wife would say I have ocd, but I think I'm just self disciplined and I have structure. And I almost think that having more structure creates more freedom in that way. But that's a whole different topic for different roundtable. Let's go to the next topic. Mike Zano, shutting down early for the holidays. What are you, what are you doing this year?

Is that a joke? Is this, this can't be a real topic. There's no way we're going to talk about this right now.

I. Look, if you're, I mean, you're talking.

About like, you're talking about like shutting down, like, I don't know, like Christmas Eve night early, right? Like, is that we're talking about Humbug.

Yeah. So, yeah, the flight school people know the mini bat, there's no shutting down. The machine continues to work. That being said, I mean, you know, it is something we should discuss. Mike, what do you, what are you doing as far as two weeks of the year?

I guess along those lines, I'll say that, you know, things are winding down and kind of already putting my vision towards the next year. And so really just kind of cleaning house still sent out a massive amount. I think probably within the last. After this next mailing, about 6,000 mailings have gone out. So we've really taken massive action on that end because I know we're front loading next year with a ton of properties to really, you know, set us up for a great year. So I think I'm just kind of winding down with some really nice acquisitions, still making some sales and just kind of letting the dust settle and not getting too comfortable. I don't believe in getting too comfortable, but I think just kind of slowly looking for that transition into next year and setting some big goals and just, you know, having happy about what we've accomplished this year, but still a little uneasy. As we talked about, we want to be uncomfortable and move into something bigger and better next year. So we're lining it all up. So I wouldn't say I don't see myself shutting down because I guess the People that do the work for me, they're going to take time off. Right. But the system itself will still be moving. Maybe it'll slow down a little bit, but I don't think it'll completely shut off.

Yeah, absolutely. Cynthia Tripathi.

I mean, if people want to buy land, I'm here to sell it. So I have no, no plans on shutting down. I'm, I'm ready to take sales.

All right.

Yeah. I mean, we're going hard until the last day. We're not slowing down. And I mean, it doesn't mean I'm not going to enjoy some rest time, but the way that our business is built, it's, you know, you can spend a couple hours prior to going on holiday and everything continues as normal. Right. Payments get processed, emails go out, deal of the week gets sent. We don't even have to think about it. So the business is still going to run. We're still going to sell property up until the end of the month. I mean, we'll probably sell a few more before the end of the year. So we're going full gas until January and then it'll be even more motivation to go extra hard in January. Right. We want to start off the year. Right. So these last few months, business will continue as usual.

Yeah. How about you, Eric Peterson?

Pretty much the same. I will be traveling at the very end of the month for about a week, more than a week. But, you know, I mean, the business will keep running. You know, I'll continue to do what I need to do on a daily basis to keep things running, but. But yeah, I mean, I'm looking to get a few more sales before the year's out, so.

Great. I also think it's good to take that time off just to test your systems, like, what does happen when you go away. So I think it's always helpful to stress test those systems. We already know Scott's answer, but we'll just ask anyways. Scott, will you be working from the boat on the plane? Because obviously you'll always be kind of working.

Mark, does Amazon ever shut down?

No.

There you go. Like, yeah, you're right. We're an Internet business. We never shut down.

Right.

What's the problem? Like, just let it roll, baby. You know, I think, Mark, I think the thing is, is that, and Tate kind of alluded to it, if you've set it up where, you know you can, you have a VA team that can do the work and you don't have to do the work, Cynthia, because you don't feel Guilty about, you know, not working in an office. Well, then essentially, you know, essentially, you're still working, like you're still making the minor tweaks. It doesn't really matter where or what you're doing. It's really just about building that business. And Mark, I remember when you. I remember listening to you before I started the land investing business, and you were talking to some other people and you were asking like, hey, I can't remember exactly who it was, but you said, hey, you took a trip. And they're like, yeah, I took a trip. And you're like, did you make any sales on your trip? And the guy that you were talking to said, my land investing business paid for the trip.

Right.

You know, and I think that's the thing, is that once you build a system, the system doesn't have to stop because you're on a trip, you're on vacation, you're relaxing. The machine just continues to operate. And I think that we all need to keep working to build those machines, which we do talk about that in flight school. So if you're looking to build a machine, flight school might be a great option for you.

Yeah, I mean, this is, you know, one of my core missions of waking up every day is helping people get out of solo economic dependency, which means if they're not working, they're not able to generate income. Right. And so, you know, you can have, you can have, you can be a doctor and make a lot of money, but if you're not, your hands aren't, let's say if you're a dentist in someone's mouth or you're a surgeon, your hands aren't in someone's body, you're not generating any income. Right. It might be a lot of income, but you still have solo economic dependency. And so I think it's really important to be hyper aware of those. You know, if that's your reality, like, how do I get out of that and start making a plan? Especially like Mike said, setting those big goals for 2018. So I think that'd be a great topic for the next roundtable is, you know, how are we setting goals for 2018? What kinds of goals are they? And just actually just the process of goal setting in and of itself, I think that'd be a good roundtable topic. What do you think, everyone?

Yeah, good.

Yeah, great.

Awesome. All right, well, now we're at that point in the time where we get the Hayes, Eric Peterson, or as we like to say, the tip of the week, a website, a resource, a book if you're Mike Zato, maybe a quote, something actionable where the art of passive income listeners can go right now, improve their businesses, improve their lives. Let's give Eric the first shot at it, because I know he's been bragging about his tip.

All right, so this week, my tip is all top. I'll put it in the chat. Alltop.com a l l t o p.com and basically, it's a. It's a tool that I like to use to look for content that I might want to share on Facebook or, you know, share with my buyers list, things of that nature. So you can come in here and, you know, search for something like, I don't know, survival. And it's gonna pull up all kinds of blog articles that. That tie to that search keyword. And you can go through and read the blogs and decide if you want to share one of those on your. Your Facebook page or maybe tell your buyers list about it if it's something that might be helpful to them, etc, etc.

So that's all.

Oh, this is kind of cool.

It is.

How is this different than, say, Pocket?

I don't know. I don't know what Pocket is.

Oh, that could be my tip of the week. All right, never mind, Never mind. Cynthia Tripathi, what's your tip of the week?

My tip of the week is a keynote speak that I listened to yesterday. So it's by a guy named Noah Kagan. It's called How I Made a Million Dollars. And that's Kagan with a K, K, a G, A N. So this guy, he started. If any of you are familiar with AppSumo, I think he either started or worked for Mint Facebook. So he's been in kind of that tech industry. And it's just a really good video. It's about an hour, and it's really, first of all, really engaging because he's really funny. But it's also just a really good, I think, video to watch, especially for a lot of, you know, fellow land investors who are maybe in the beginning of their land investing career and, you know, trying to build their business to the point, you know, where all of you are at, you know, the goals that they're reaching for. But it's just really good. You know, he puts a lot of things in perspective for you, and he basically, like, puts a. Kind of gives you, like, his timeline of how long it took him to make a million and, you know, all the things he failed at. But it's just really. He puts kind of a different Spin on it and it's really engaging. So I think everyone should go check it out.

Alright. Fantastic. I love Noah Kagan stuff, by the way. That guy is just a brilliant marketer and businessman. I just learned Austin, Texas. Yeah. And his tools are amazing and they're super affordable. I'm on his list. Appsumo is phenomenal. Tate Litchfield, what's your tip of the week?

All right, my tip of the week is it has to. Has to deal with collecting payments. So if any of you are using the new iPhone, iOS 11.2, very shortly, you'll be able to collect down payments via the Apple Pay now button, which is going to be kind of a game changer just because it's another way. It's very similar to, you know, kind of a Venmo, but if you're texting with a, with a potential buyer, going back and forth like I was yesterday, you can go ahead and request a down payment. Payment directly through your messaging app.

So.

It'S going to be really cool. It's just another, you know, it's another tool in the, in the toolbox for collecting a down payment. You can do it instantly. And so I haven't used it yet, but it seems really, really cool and I can't wait to collect my first payment.

Yeah. Now if you, if you have the iPhone now, do you have to have the 8 or the 10 or is just.

It's the iOS 11.2.

Okay. So you have to update. So, yeah, I updated a few days ago and I tried actually sending you money. Tate Scott and my wife, and it said that you didn't. So it's the rolling it out.

Yeah, So I did try, but you should try it again if you were trying to send me money. I'm definitely, I think I'm up to date. But yeah, make sure you send.

You can send me some money.

No, you don't. You don't have it. I have it. I think now if you do a.

Credit card with it, you got to pay 3%, but if it's. If it's linked to your bank account, it's free.

Exactly.

Which is really cool.

It seems really cool. It's just, you know, like I said, it's another tool, another resource for being able to collect a down payment from a potential buyer. So it's good to have all these options. I mean, whatever it takes, right? We want to make it as easy as possible.

Okay, now see what that says. It says, Tate Litchfield cannot receive payments sent with Apple Pay at this time. So I've Been getting this from everybody yet, but so it's just rolling out.

Okay.

But hopefully by next week when they hit this roundtable.

Mark, I would tell you to keep trying on a daily basis. Maybe increase the money every single day. That's probably the issue.

You didn't send enough. That's the problem.

You didn't send enough. Right. $1. Apple's not even gonna waste its time with.

Want some zeros?

Indeed. So, you know, think about the cost of an average lunch, and you should try spending that amount.

Okay.

I can always request it, too, if that helps.

You know what? That probably would.

All right, I'll start doing that.

Yeah, absolutely. Then, like, the next roundtable, like, you'll see, like, my iPhone just explodes. Be kind of cool. Yeah. Mike Zano, what's your tip of the week?

Can I shut the video off so I don't have to see Scott? He always gives me the funny look when I do my quotes. Throws me off my game.

Oh, no.

I don't think I've talked about this before, but if I did, it's worth repeating, because this is something we know, our business. Well, I'll say this. There's two types of, you know, everybody knows. I like to read about Buddhism and whatnot. Well, in Japanese Buddhism, they have this taizokai and kongokai mandalas. These two mandalas, right? And one of them is like the God's eye view of the world, and one's like the personal person's view. So kind of like if you were to be inside your house and you look out the window, you have that one perspective. But if you were standing looking down at your house, you have another perspective. So how does that apply to our business? Well, I believe we're building this box, this model inside. We have these five plates that Scott always talks about, and we're trying to turn these into gears, connect them together, and we build this box. And truly, we want to be outside that box with a macro view. In this case would be the Congo guy, the view from the outside. But sometimes we have to tinker. We have to go inside and have that micro view and fix some of the systems. I think when you're looking at this business and you're trying to figure out how the heck we all automate and get everything fully functional without sticking our hands in it. It's good to have that kind of macro and micro view of things. You're inside of it. You tinker. But sometimes you need to take a big step back and look at it, see how the parts are Feeding each other. See where the kinks are and go in and then go back inside, fix it, come back out, take another look at it. So just the idea of perspective, I guess, is the tip of the week. Perspective.

Perspective. Okay. Tate's looking a little bleary eyed now. I think he's processing it.

Yeah, Perspective. I think it's a good tip.

I like it.

I think it goes with what we were talking about earlier, right? With success. How do you measure success on your perspective?

Right, yeah, when you were talking, we were talking about, you know, what do you do with that? I remember old school with Will Ferrell. You know, a little Home Depot, a little bid Bath and Beyond. That's what we're doing today. That's what I'm doing today. We'll sell some land.

Nice. All right, before the roundtable starts to devolve, what's going. Scott, Todd. Scott, what's your tip of the week?

Mark, have you ever heard of this website called Pocket? I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I didn't. I don't know anything about it, so I'm gonna let you take it. But actually, here's my tip. And this is like a life tip. And this is just something that happened to me. But, Mark, do you have an unlimited data plan on your cell phone?

Of course. I need to do. Really?

Look, I didn't have the unlimited data plan. Like, I had, like, my data plan was a 32 gig plan. A 30 gig plan. I had an old Verizon 30 gig plan. And you know, everybody that want to talk to me about, you know, unlimited plans, they freaked me out because it always said that it was, you know, throttled after like 22 gigs. And I'm like, well, that's not unlimited, man. Like 22 gigs, that's terrible. My kids will run out of that in no time. And little did I realize that it was 22 gigs per line until about two weeks ago. And that's a game changer. So look, do yourself a favor. If you don't have an unlimited plan, you should really think about it because it just changes the way that you look at data on your cell phone, like, completely. It's amazing. So life tip from Scott. Yeah, I mean, Verizon, like, I have Verizon, but it's called like the Verizon beyond unlimited plan. Unlimited data. So, like the kids thing, burn through data all they want. I used to have to pay like $5 a month just to be able to, like, to limit how much data that they were using. That went away It's a dream, man.

It's.

It's a dream. My iPad has unlimited data. That's the best.

It's an abundant world.

It is.

It is.

Well, awesome. Well, my tip of the week is getpocket.com getpocket.com and it kind of competes a little bit with All Top, but I think they're different. So let's say, for example, you're reading an interesting article. Let's say, I don't know, maybe you're listening to the podcast and you don't get a chance to finish it. You can go. You can just save it on Pocket. And then for offline listening or reading, you can do that. So check out Get Pocket. They have an app. They have extensions. So if you're on the web, you're like, oh, I want to get back to that. You can just save it real quick.

Oh, you throw it in your pocket.

Throw it in your pocket. Get Pocket. What do you think?

So you can take all those articles that you find on All Top, and you can save them in Pocket. Then you can go back.

Exactly, exactly. So it's like Evernote. Yeah, it's cool. I don't think it's. I don't know. It's okay. It's good. But, you know, if I'm reading something interesting, I'll put in Pocket. And it's kind of a cool bookmark. You can favorite stuff, videos, images, articles. And then they have the recommended stuff, which is what will keep you from All Top, because then you can go to the recommended, and then it'll know the algorithm with stuff that you like. So, like, for me, it's like Warren Buffett's to the strategy, how to maximize your focus and master your priorities. And I just hit the save, and then it goes into my pocket and it's added to my list, and I can read it when I want.

Right.

For you, Eric, you might like this article, can youn Die from a Broken Heart and just, you know, save.

That sounds like a lot better than lint in your pocket.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You know why COO should think like behavioral economists? HBR.org who doesn't like Harvard Business Review? Right. So that would be like something for Mike Zano. Oh, this would be great for Scott Todd. Why your brain hates slowpokes. See? Oh, for Cynthia Tripathi, mental models I find repeatedly useful. Right. And then, of course, for Tate, the Disciplined pursuit of less. So there's something for everybody in Get Pocket, which I think is cool. So I want to thank everyone for being on the podcast. And I want to thank the listeners and just remind you the only way that we'll get Cynthia Tripathi to come back next week is if you do us 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 thelangeek.com we're going to send you for free the $97 Passive Income Launch kit. Boot camp is just about filled up, so if you want to be in the room in San Antonio, go to the Langeek.com Boot Camp. I know our room block is already full, but I think there's still rooms at the JW to do that. So Eric's going to be there, Mike's going to be there, Tate's gonna be there, Scott's gonna be there. It's gonna be awesome. So Scott's. How you know he's gonna be there?

Who?

I think Wes Schaefer and his wife.

Really?

Sales whisperer. Yeah.

Wow.

I think so.

That's big time.

It's kind of cool. That'll be. Could be kind of fun. So thanks everybody, and hopefully we'll see everyone next week. Thanks. All right, so it's. It's lunchtime. What's. What's going on for lunch? Well, I guess, Eric, you already had lunch, right?

I did. Scott probably did, too.

I did.

Mike. Ian Sims.

Scott. Not Panera.

Not Panera.

Yeah. My food gets delivered every week. Hard body meals. You can see the difference.

Wow. Ripped. I'll tell you what, I got to get in shape for boot camp because I can't walk in there like a marshmallow fracture. No, it is going to be tough. I have to do, like, something I'm gonna be able to, you know, I'm gonna do physical therapy, but, you know, I can't look like Elvis before he died.

Coming to boot camp, Mark, I'm kicking myself, man, right now, because, I don't know, about 10 days ago, I looked at the price of bitcoin and I was like $9,200 a coin, and now it's 11,8 up $4,000 in the last 30 days.

I know.

Shorting it.

What are we doing with bitcoin, man?

Short Shorting it.

That's a good, great topic for next week.

You know what, though? Eric Short knows a lot about this stuff. You got to talk to Eris. Eris Ruiz. He knows.

Yeah.

You can't short bitcoin, though.

Why can't I?

It's not gonna implode. Reminds me of when I was in high school and they had these. Everybody goes, $20. The guy at the top gets some money, and eventually the whole thing, you know, imploded.

You know, Frank Abagnale is like, this is the biggest fraud. There's a lot of security issues with this.

What if we got in and got out?

Well, that's not. Yeah. Short term play.

Sure, Scott. I'd get it and get out on it.

I mean, in the last week, I.

Honestly buy a piece of raw land that I know will last forever.

This is blowing up, though, because everybody thinks it's gonna. This is gonna be the biggest. This is when it's gonna crack. It's gonna keep blowing, blowing, blowing. It's gonna hit something we know.

Come on. Like, is it gonna. Can I make it a week? If I can make it a week, man, I can make, like, you know, a thousand dollars, man. $1,000 a week. Come on.

It's gonna implode.

It's gonna implode.

I think I'd almost rather have land, though, right?

I'd rather. I'd rather have land. If everyone's zigging, I want to zag. If everyone's talking bitcoin, I'm going back.

Why didn't we buy bitcoin when it was earlier, though?

That's exactly. Exactly.

Just as a point.

If you wouldn't buy it then, why would you buy it now? I did buy it. Like, here.

Here's what's great. Here's what's great, though, is I did buy it. I bought it because I had a. I was working with a guy who's a photographer. He only wanted to be paid by bitcoin, Right. So I'm looking over my transactions from, I don't know, a couple years ago, and I paid him. This is what kills me, though, is I paid him 1.46 bitcoins a couple years ago for total 400. $400, Mark. $400. So those pictures today have cost me. I'm like, having to do the math now. Those Pictures cost me 1.47. 1.4776 times 11,793. Those pictures cost me $17,400.

Wow.

It better be nice.

Whoa.

But I actually have a balance of $41 in there that it was, like, $4. So winning.

Winning.

Might need to sell it now and really be the winner.

Yeah. Cynthia, what are you doing for lunch, by the way?

You know, we haven't gone grocery shopping since we got back from Thanksgiving, so I don't know.

Get your meals delivered. Don't even have the grocery shop. Okay.

You know, I have someone that does my meal prep, but she's out of town, so I'm SOL Right now.

There you go. Saving time. I love it. Tate, are you guys still doing that? Is a blue apron or.

Yeah, yeah, we are. We. I can't remember which. We're not using blue apron anymore. We're using a new company, but we've been really happy with them.

I think it's you guys.

Fresh.

I didn't put my socks on anymore. It's all automated.

Well, you know, my new thing is, by the way, you guys are like this. When I use my electric toothbrush. I do it now, like, in the morning, I do it with one leg for core balance. Try doing that and then you switch. So for two minutes, I'm doing a core workout. Good.

Actually, I have this whole podcast. I've been squatting down, not sitting. It looks like I'm in a chair, but I'm not.

I'm maximizing every minute of my day.

I've been standing on one leg this whole time. What are you talking about, Mark? This is not new. I've been doing the Flamingo the whole time. Look at me.

Mark's gonna start walking on his treadmill with one leg.

Hopping. You can only hop on your treadmill.

I'm getting the assault. So the next podcast will be on the. On the Rogue Assault. I'll be doing this. Sweating. Okay, Eric Peterson, what's your tip of the week? I'm sure we'll get tons of listeners from that.

That voice.

Yes.

Yeah, like a little Darth Vader.

Ish.

Oh, yeah. I can't wait for new Star Wars Skywalker.

You gonna go, Eric?

I just watched the last one.

You know how. Yeah.

You didn't go see it on the big screen?

What?

No. My.

I boycotted it. I don't know why. It was a filler.

It didn't. It was all right.

And. But my wife and I, we watched it over just a couple days ago. It was great.

Really good.

That should have been my tip of the week.

I get a tip of the week. Don't go see the Justice League. That's a tip of the week?

Really? My kids love Thor. I didn't see it, though.

Justice, really? Too many people, too many things happening. Don't waste your time. Sorry, everybody.

All right, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go see Thor.

Yeah.

See, you guys lived out here. We could all go Thor Ranger over lunch. Over lunch.

You know, before. Before we had the baby every Tuesday we'd go to the movies during. During the daytime. It was the greatest tradition. We'd go at, like, two in the. After, we'd get lunch, and then we'd go to a movie, and we'd have maybe a couple senior citizens in the room with us. Other than that, it was just us.

Did you get the huge popcorn?

Huge popcorn.

I don't care if I can't eat it all.

I'm getting it.

Yeah, Always get the big popcorn. Always get a refill on the way up, too.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I feel. I feel like Tate's life is like Benjamin Button, you know? It's like. It's crazy. Like, he's. He's retired. You know, he's like, 20. What are you, 24?

7.

27. I mean, it's a totally Benjamin Button life.

It's a good life. It's the good life for sure.

And then when you're, you know, in your 80s, you're gonna get a job.

Yeah. Become a greeter.

What's this job like?

What's this job thing? What's this thing?

When Cynthia was saying, yeah, everybody, you know, comes from a kind of a cubicle environment, I thought, I've never been in a cubicle before. I don't even know what that's like.

Wait a minute. That's a great movie. See someone like, yeah, Tate grows old. Get. You know, he goes and works at Walmart. The young guy come. Young kid comes in, and he starts mentoring, not knowing how successful he was in his life, thinking it's just some old guy greeting. All right, I'm gonna write that right now.

Good screenplay. All right, I'm gonna go. Go.

He mentors his old self. Oh, it's like a Back to the Future.

Yeah.

You don't know that until the end.

I like that.

I like that.

I just spoil it for all of our.

Spoiler alert.

Delete this. Mark.

Mark.

Delete it.

I'm gonna delete it. Yeah, it could be like the. Who's that. Who's that director that does, like. I see dead people and.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wait, is he. I mean, listen, we can. We can really do this on. We can do this on a low budget, too, because there's lots of actors that are not employable right now. Yeah, I'll be the actor.

I got the time. I got the time. I'll do it.

I'm writing the book. You need to delete this. We can't give away my top. That's a great movie. Blind.

I like it, Mike, that's.