Running A Business With Your Spouse—You Need To Have Boundaries To Be Successful

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com. and I just wanted to say that, you know, you probably, you know, probably when you. When you get this recording, it'll be weeks later, but boot camp in Orlando was amazing. I would be remiss if I did not mention my co host, Six Sigma. You know him, you love him. He is the walking personification of freedom and flexibility and what it takes to move the needle in your Life. Scott Todd. Todd.netLandmodo.com and most importantly, if you're not automating your Craigslist postings, posting domination.com the landgeek Scott Todd. How are you?

Mark, what's going on?

I'm really excited for today's guest. Are you excited?

Yeah, I mean, like, I think that our guest today is the one that personifies freedom, right? Like, I mean, I make it look like an amateur job compared to our guest who has done phenomenal stuff.

Well, let's talk about our guest, Jill Stanton from screw the9to5.com. Jill, tell us your story. Like, what happened? Like, when did you wake up? Like, no, screw it. Screw the nine to five.

Yeah, because everyone just wakes up and says that, right? The ones who have a job, at least. My story, I mean, I'm pretty sure I came out the womb being like, hey, I'm here to disrupt shit. But truthfully, I got my start back in 2006 on a web TV show before web TV shows were really a thing. So that didn't go too far. But it allowed me to kind of dip my toes into the whole online marketing space before, honestly, I really knew that that was a thing. Like, I started the web TV show the same year I started using Facebook. Like, I did not know how. I did not know what the f I was doing, but I just knew that I didn't want to work for anyone. And I have this problem with authority. So I just really knew I needed a way out and needed to figure out how to kind of call my own shots. So I started a web TV show with a few co hosts. It was called 20 something. I'm so glad we did that when you could still erase shit off the Internet, because I would hate to have that on there now. But from there, that led to another web TV show, a travel show which took me to Australia. And then from there, I was bartending to kind of fuel the dream. You know how it is. And my boss at the time owned a block of three different Restaurants and bars. And he was kind of into video marketing and social media. And since I was, you know, so heavily involved with that, with our show, I kind of just took that as a hint and pitched him this like all round service package that would allow me to quit my job and you know, be making decent cash. So he went for it and that was the last day I ever worked. And from there it's just really been a journey of finessing what kind of business model we want to have and how do we want to show up in our business and how do we want our lifestyle to look. And that kind of translated from social media management service business to affiliate marketing to now going all in with screw the 9 to 5 and our membership site. Screw you.

I love it. So Scott Todd, what do you think?

Do you call him Scott Todd the entire time or are you ever just like yo Scott?

I think he does call me Scott Todd the entire time. We have to go back and audit that because I think he does.

I don't know.

I'll be calling you Joe Stanton. I'm very formal, Jill.

It's because your friggin last name is so hard to pronounce. I'd be like Mark Podolski.

Look, Podolsky Jones. It's very similar.

Let's just call you Mark P. Sure.

I mean that, that's, I mean like that is just like your story is just really embracing, you know, just, I mean embracing even the name of your website now. I mean it's just like you know, you saw something you want, you just figured out how to get it and it seems like you just jumped at the opportunity then you figured out later, right?

Yeah. I'm fortunate enough that my husband is my business partner and he had a software business before. We kind of went all in together. So I came from, you know, the social media background, really building up a community side of things, communication, talking to people. And he came with the technical know how and the strategy and together we've built being able to combine that into like the perfect storm of online business partnerships. But you know, I wouldn't have had, I wouldn't have learned what I've learned if it wasn't for him because he came from such a different background and has taught me so much about this. But I just kind of, we kind of stay in our own lanes. Like Josh handles automation, tech and that kind of stuff and I handle content, communication and community.

Oh my gosh, you just said my favorite word.

Which one? Automation.

She's already playing the drinking game.

Mark.

I Mean, look, you said automation. She's drinking her coffee, or so we think it's coffee. I don't know.

Getting wild.

It's getting wild. So, Joe, let's talk about Josh, because I think it's interesting that I know personally, like, I would have a difficult time working with a partner right now.

When you're in front of Scott. Todd.

Yeah, I mean, Scott knows how difficult I am. I'm a pain, so. Because, you know, it's hard to move fast, right? You have to slow down and then talk with somebody else. Like, my wife and I fight about this all the time. She's like, you didn't even keep me in mind. I'm like, no, no, I did keep you mine. I just thought, let's get it done.

Right.

You keep me in mind.

If I kept you in mind, I just can't wait for you.

Exactly. So there's a lot of husband, wife teams that work together in our land investing niche. What advice would you give these husband, wife teams, say father son teams, brother teams, these related parties, to make sure that you're able to bifurcate the personal side to the business side. Because, let's face it, in business and even, you know, relationships are hard, right?

Yeah, man.

And then you've got to separate it, right? Because at the end of the day, like, my. My grandparents used to work together and they'd be screaming at each other at the office, and then you walk to the car hand in hand, and like, I was like, what just happened?

Like, it was like, like, we're in love again.

Totally. They were totally in love again. So what's, what's the secret for us?

It's really been. I mean, we've been at this almost five years together now. So in the beginning, it looked a lot different than it does now. And we actually started our first business together the year we were getting married. So don't do that. That is not a good recipe for success. Because when you're first starting your business, as you know, there's a whole bunch of challenges and mindset issues and emotions that pop up and just shit gets real, real fast that year. And so we've learned to really identify our individual strengths. Like, as I said, Josh handles automation tech. He does all our courses, all the training inside. Screw you. And I handle. I call it the five Cs. So there's content communication, copy coverage, and community. So those are my five things. I don't veer off that. He doesn't come into my lane. I certainly don't go into his and that allowed us to get some space. We also work in separate areas. So he's out in this, like, living room area I'm in. And I have another room just in the other room. So I have my own little office space because since I write, I need quiet and he can work with music. So we've just really learned how to separate those sides of our days so that when work is over, we can come back debrief. I mean, we never stop talking about work, or we're never not working. Essentially. Sometimes we'll be like, oh, look at us not talking about work today. We're so. We're so normal. But mostly all of that blends together. We're just fortunate that we get along like a house on fire and have, you know, complementary strengths so that we're not in each other's faces too much. Because we learned the hard way, or. Yeah, we learned the hard way that that just ends in divorce days. So we've just made it a point to kind of stick to our own role and trust the other has their side.

Yeah, I love it. So, Scott, I mean, you know, you and your wife aren't partners. You're working from home, right? Like, I have my own separate space from the house. But, like, what's that like for you as far as time management and separating? Like, let's face it, when you're an entrepreneur, like, you can work 24 7, at some point you gotta stop, right? At some point you gotta be like, okay, time to have some fun. Or. Not that what we're doing isn't fun. It's. It's a. It's a blast to do. But at some point, what. They're not involved in it, so you gotta have fun with them. Yeah. How do you manage that, Scott?

I think that it's really goes back to just treating it like a job, you know, like, there's certain times that I'm working. So for me, the busiest time of the day is the afternoon and maybe. Maybe a little bit into the evening, early evening. So I try not to do as much stuff in the morning. I tend to reserve the mornings. And then we'll go to lunch, and then when we get back from lunch, I'll really start my kind of work day, if you will, Scott.

Todd, are you able to actually shut off your brain, though?

No. No, I mean, I don't think, you know, like, I don't think you're ever able to shut it off, you know, And I think that one of the hard parts is that, you know, like, we Just moved in this house. And so my office is like upstairs in what would be like the loft. And so it's hard not to come back up and you know, the office calling you, like, come up and do something.

Just one.

That's right. Jill Stanton. So, you know, essentially, you know, it's like. But then also it's, it might be a little like space on your own too. So it's funny that you could just go and do that. And Mark, I think it's the same way with like your, your office, I mean your office is removed from your house, but yet it's just not too far. It's walking distance. And you can hear the same people, the same voices calling you. Mark, come back.

Let's make some money.

Let's go. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I remember when I first quit my investment banking job and I was, you know, I didn't have that separate space. It was hard to separate.

Right.

Like, especially because I had a six month old at home and my wife would just run out like Mark, watch the baby. And she was loving life. I'm like, at some point, like, I got to get flow here. I got to sell some properties and I would do it at night. Like I was, I was. My boundaries are bad. And it turned out like it took me a long time to figure the boundaries out. But that's not here or there. But let's talk more about Jill Stanton. Right. Joe Stanton, where's the passive income in your model for the 9 to 5? You seem like you're working too hard. Like you and Josh hustling, which nothing wrong with it, but where's the passive piece?

Well, first off, we do work a lot. I'm not gonna lie and try and hide. Lights us up though. And we're building this grand vision so I can break that down later. But right now, the passive income. So we have a monthly membership site and while that's not essentially passive, we're not working our asses off every single month to hit, you know, that 25k that we make off that membership. So that recurs every single month. In addition to that, we have a whole bunch of automated sales funnels that lead into inside to screw you. But those all generate money, quote unquote, passively. Like we have traffic running to them through Facebook ads and whatnot. But it is not on us to sell them constantly. So that's where the passive income of our business comes in. And then of course, affiliate promotions. Like, obviously I'm doing some promotion in the lead up to that, but the Payoff for that comes in without any extra added effort on my end once the cart closes. So there's a lot of things we do. Is it, you know, set and forget? Nope, but we used to have that when we had our affiliate sites. But I don't know. This. This is a new phase in our business. Well, at least like the last few years. And we're digging it so far, so no complaints here.

I mean, is affiliate marketing, like, dead? Is it, you know, is that still a valid thing? I mean, do you still get. I mean, I assume that you still your affiliate sites up and running?

We don't actually. That was very much a bandwidth issue for us last. Yeah, last year, kind of late 2015. We're just like, do we want to keep these going? Like, do we want to keep paying the hosting? Do we want to keep driving links? It just didn't. It kind of felt heavy versus light to us. So we cut those, let them go. And we haven't really. It's funny because now Josh is building a second site called in the Nootropic Space, which will be initially monetized through affiliate marketing, but it's certainly not dead. Are, you know, set and forget niche sites dead? They're a bit more challenging. But affiliate marketing will never go away. At least I don't see it going away anytime soon because people are constantly looking to get some sort of payback for constantly recommending services and products. So I think as long as that's happening on the web, affiliate marketing going nowhere.

So what am I going to learn? Screw you.

What do you want to learn? We got it all.

Well, obviously I want to learn how to screw the 9 to 5. Let's say that I'm, you know, I always pick on Procter and Gamble, right. I'm in my little cube, I'm listening this podcast, and Jill Stanton is going to get me out of the nine to five. So how are you going to do it?

Okay, so our screw you basically caters to those who want to start a personal brand or want to build their online business through things like content marketing. So it's very heavy on the marketing strategy, automation, and exposure side of things. But here's how this all breaks down. So Screw you is built around a framework called momentum marketing, a model, essentially a roadmap that allows people to self identify where they're currently at in their business. So it breaks down to five key stages. The grind, the hustle, the engine, the traffic, and the profit. This allows people to identify where they're currently at and Only focus on. On that stage until they're ready to move on. So it allows them to cut the overwhelm, cut the competing information, and just stay on task and focused. So when you come into screw you and you identify your stage as you're working through that, there's certain tasks and courses you have to go through. Once you graduate to the next stage, it's kind of like you reset. So there's a whole other set of content and tasks you have to do to keep progressively building your business, AKA building momentum and making more money. So essentially, excuse me, we help personal brands, you know, scale from the ground up.

Do you think it's important, like, to go from, you know, like, it sounds like the information that you teach is really, like, siloed, right? Like, here, let's focus on this area right now that you need content for or, you know, you need to focus on. Do you think that's. That's beneficial or do you think it's. Or maybe do you give them the entire, like, roadmap of. And then tell them the focus?

Totally. So there's a whole breakdown inside. Screw you. As to what momentum marketing is all about. So they get the grand vision of it. But what this allows them to do is only focus on the stage that they are currently in. And the reason we came up with it is because of what we kept hearing our members say, like, there's so much going on, I don't know where to start. I don't know which courses to focus on. So we were thinking, okay, we need a way to cater to that, to help them ease the overwhelm and to meet wherever they're coming in at and move them towards their ultimate goal. So that's how we came up with this roadmap, essentially, momentum marketing. So it allows them to essentially customize their experience and no longer get off track with stuff. Like, if they're in the grind and they're focusing on building their website, they're not then worrying about, oh, I need to start running Facebook ads. Because they know that that is in the traffic. So they got to work their way towards that. That way, there's no overwhelm. No one's wasting money on shit that doesn't work. And it just allows them to stay focused. Focused and moving, you know, methodically towards their goal.

Yeah, I really like the model because I can imagine if you're working a 9 to 5, right, you are already, in a sense, you have an energy depletion problem.

Right.

And now, you know, I see so many of these Marketers, you know, I hate to pick on, like, you know, Gary Vaynerchuk or Grant Cardone. You know, they're like, work, work, work, work, work. Right. But at some point, there's the energy issue. Right. I don't have so much energy. But what I like about your model, Joe Stanton. Go ahead, Mark P. You're taking out the overwhelm. You're. You're focused, right. And I think if I can focus for an extra hour and I know it's going to move the needle. And I ultimately have this plan of how to get out of Procter and Gamble and get out of the nine to five. I think it keeps that energy up, it keeps that enthusiasm, and it's a way out. At some point, if I know there's an end, if there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, I can go to that grind. Boom. I can go to the hustle, boom. I can go through the other three stages and next thing you know, I'm working from wherever I want to work and I get the three W's, working where I want, when I want, with whom I want.

Yeah.

And I would argue that freedom and flexibility are more valuable overall to your life than, say, a paycheck. Would you agree?

100%. I value nothing more than being able to call the shots in my business or in my life in general. And I mean, that is also tied to impact. Impact for me is another big why that and connection, like, that's the shit that gets me out of bed every day is, you know, interacting with this community we've built, having this impact and watching people progress. You know, that stuff lights me up. I love seeing when people come from, they're in the grind and they move into the hustle, or they're in the hustle and they move into the engine. That kind of stuff that's. I don't know, I just find that thrilling.

Yeah. You kind of remind me of a more controversial Tony Robbins. Right? So, like, you know, and I love it. But I can imagine that somebody who goes to your website and goes through is like, well, I don't really relate to this larger than life personality like Jill Stanton. She can make a personal brand, Right. She's kind of got it figured out in the same way. Like when I hear, like, Tony Robbins, like, well, this guy's like, at a different level, right. And so how do you get somebody who may not have that confidence or that, I don't know, Scott, what's the word I'm looking for here?

I Mean, I think that there's a big. Well, I think it's, you know, the. Whether it's an extroverted type of a personality or the desire to get outside of your comfort zone. I mean, because you. If you're going to be, you know, that personal brand, you really have to step outside your comfort zone if that's not who you are. I mean, Joe, you sound like you. You're okay being out there and, you know, and putting yourself out there. I know that there's other people that they would look at this and go, this is not me. How am I gonna. How am I gonna do this? I mean, I talk to people that they don't even want to pick up the phone and talk to people.

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to talk to people. Just kidding. But I truly, fortunately, I have a husband that is exactly the same. Like, he is not the one doing the interviews. He's not the one showing up in the free Facebook group talking to people. He's very much behind the scenes. He doesn't vibe with this whole, you know, crazy, extroverted, social butterfly kind of personality. He is the machine that drives everything we do with the screw. And I mean, one of our core messages. I'm actually just writing a post on this right now, is how to come up with an idea. When you don't have a quote unquote passion or you don't feel like you need to be out there so much. It's absolutely doable. You don't have to have a personal brand. You can create a brand that you run that is not on you. Like the second one that we're starting in Nootropics, that has nothing to do with Josh and I. It is strictly a brand that will be leveraged through content and social media presence, but not tied to Jill and Josh Stanton. So it's absolutely possible. You just have to make the commitment and go after it. And I really think that every entrepreneur is mostly at least trying to get comfortable with the feeling of being uncomfortable, because that's kind of a key trait we all carry. No entrepreneur that I know of is constantly looking for, you know, immediate feedback and certainty. We're all kind of cool with the uncertainty and, you know, little hiccups of self doubt and will this work and risking it all and feeling uncomfortable. It's kind of the thrill of what we do. So if someone's like, I can't do it, or I don't know if I have it in me or who would want to buy that from me? I really think it's all just a process of. I mean, clarity comes through doing stuff, right? Confidence comes through consistent practice at something. If you're not willing to do that, then your days might be limited as an entrepreneur. And I'm not trying to vibe with everyone out there. If someone comes to the screw and they're like, and this bitch is annoying, I'm probably gonna be like, okay, cool. There's tons of other people out there. You know what I mean? I just want who we're for, and I just want to help those people.

I mean, I think that that's. I mean, you touched on a lot of topics, one of which is like, self doubt. I mean, I think everyone, even the most successful people have self doubt at times. And I think that. I think that what moves the needle in people's lives is, Mark, you. You call it embracing the suck. You know, I think it's just. It's putting yourself out there and moving forward, because the minute that you're outside of your comfort zone, well, then the comfort zone expands. And then once you have a little bit of success, then it starts to grow. And what I like about what you guys are doing is by keeping people in that silo, you're allowing them to ease into that comfort zone and then expand it because they're only focusing on where they are today and you're giving them limits. Before you just go, here, here's the whole plan, and go do it right now.

And people kind of spontaneously combust in those situations. They're like, okay, well, I'm at step number one, so I probably should be thinking about step number 17. And I don't know what to do in the middle. And this all feels hard, and I give up. That's really what we wanted to overcome. And I think you made a great point about the comfort zone and expanding, but also that's where the magic happens when you're kind of putting yourself out there and unsure of how the Internet or the world or, you know, even your close family and friends are gonna. How they're gonna react. That's where all the nuances and the magic happens, because that's where shit gets interesting.

I love it. I love it. I'm. I am drinking the. Screw the 9 to 5 Kool Aid.

I need a liquor line or something like that.

Well, Jill Stanton, if anyone can do it, I know you can. All right, well, we're at that point now in the podcast where Scott, Todd and I are gonna put you on the spot. Ask your tip of the week a Website, a resource, a book, something actionable where the art of passive income listeners can go right now, improve their businesses, improve their lives. What do you got?

Well, I think a must read 100% is the book Profit first by Mike Michalowicz. Have you read it? You've clearly read it.

Well, you had Mike on the podcast, but. And I love the book. In fact, I give it out. I give that book out. There's a few books that I give out at bootcamp. Profit first is one of them. I work it. I have a book that is actually Profit first. Like certified.

That is. That's the game right there. Yeah, we just. I just profit firsted my personal accounts, yo. Shit got real that day too. But that is my favorite book. It was a game changer for really helping us wrap our heads around our financial. Just like our financial structure in our business. I feel like before we were just kind of going by the seat of our pants and we didn't know what the heck we were doing. We just. Because you always are taught, like, whatever you make, reinvest back into your business. And so we weren't really paying ourselves and shit felt hard. And the minute we figured out that system, it's been a game changer. So I always suggest entrepreneurs give it a read because it is. Had such an impact in my life. And he's so funny.

Yeah, I know the audiobook. Although I think Profit first might be a good book to actually own as well. His audio is so good, it goes off screen. Yeah, I love the pumpkin plan. I don't know if you read the pumpkin plan either.

I haven't. No.

Great. Great audiobook too. All right, great tip. Profit for Scott Todd.

Scott Todd, what's your tip of the week?

Oh, okay, Mark, here we go. So we do have. I know we have landlords that are listening to this and this podcast. And I also know that this could actually be good for what we do to check out heylandlord Co. It's an app website, heylandlord Co. And it's basically a way of communicating, keeping everything. All the communications between landlords, property managers and tenants all condensed in into one space. All of your, like, your property inspections and communications and maintenance requests, all that stuff can all be right here. And I think it's good, I'm looking at right now to expand into my customers as a way of communicating with them directly as opposed to through email. My people that have actually become customers. So check it out, Mark.

I wonder if we could integrate this with Loan Geek.

I don't know.

Maybe I'm gonna sign up right now.

So there's Land Geek and Loan Geek.

Oh, thank you for letting me plug Jail Stan.

I mean, it's your show.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, you know, Loan Geek is still in beta, but basically we are automating the payments. We're taking ACH and credit cards and we're really disrupting the entire model out there. And there's really not that many good solutions or any good solutions really automate getting your payments. So our model is basically, you know, we do real estate investing without headaches. So no, you know, renters, no rehabs, no renovations, no rodents. It's a one time sale. Then we get this passive income. But that passive income coming in has to get managed with an amortization schedule. We want to automate it. So we're doing all these fun things through Loan Geek, which is really going to make it almost a profit center. Actually, it will make it a profit center because the big thing that we're doing to disrupt is no note set up fees. Scott, Scott, Todd. No. No setup fees.

That's a beautiful thing, Mark. That's a savings every, every, every time you set one up.

That's huge. I hate note setup fees. So everything that I hate about the market, you know, I'm a typical entrepreneur. Like, I saw that there's a problem, I had a problem and I solved it. So bada bing, boom. So it's another affiliate product for the screw you anyway.

Yeah, it fits perfectly.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All right, well, Jill, Stan, are we good?

I mean, I think we're good. Scott, Todd, are you good?

Well, what is your tip of the week, Mark?

My tip of the week is going to be learn more about Jill Stanton and her. Her large vision from world domination of screw the 9 to 5. Screw the 9 to 5 dot com. I have a link to it.

You know it.

And you know, being the generous Jill Stanton that she is, they actually have a free. A free Facebook group.

Sure do.

Which I'm gonna join and then be that guy that's constantly like saying, you know, screw the nine. That's all I'm gonna write. Screw.

We'll just all like it. We'll be like, like, right?

I like Jill Stanton came on a podcast and by the way, screw the nine to five. Are you, are you grinding or hustling or whatever? Like that's literally all I will do.

Just gonna spit jargon at them pretty much is what you're saying.

Yeah, my goal would be like, get the lame geek out of our group.

Yeah, we'll just ban you. No offense.

No, no worries.

Screw the 9 to 5 community.

Yeah.

So if you want to join that, that's our free Facebook group. It's super tight knit. Super. It's full of incredibly encouraging and supportive people. So that's over@screwcommunity.com I love it.

I love it. Alright, my plugs. Go to thelandgeek.com download for free the passive income Blueprint. Get the ebook how to avoid the three Fatal Landmine Mistakes. And if you've not signed up for the web class for flight school, do that as well. Give Scott Todd some love. Six Sigma Scott Todd go to land.

So much love for Scott Todd.

There's gotta be a lot of love for Scott Todd. Go to landmoto.com get some wholesale land there. Also, if you're not automating drink Jill Stanton if you're not automating your posting postings go to posting domination.com thelandgeek Jostan, we're good.

I mean I think we crushed it. What would you say?

Scott Todd Jostan, I think this is a great podcast. One of my. The ones I've enjoyed the most.

You have to say that because I'm staring at you.

No, I don't.

I rarely say that.

I've only said it like one other time.

I'm gonna listen to your other episodes.

I can tell you exact one it was too.

Yeah. Scott Todd, we gotta get Josh Stanton on.

Yeah, the Internet could handle that.

Because we want to talk about automation.

I think we have to. We have to tell people not to listen while they're driving.

And then.

I mean he would straight up geek out over that.

Yeah, he totally would. You know what? That, that might be where our value could be in the, in the. Screw the 9 to 5 community is just talking about automation.

Except he never goes in there. But yeah, you can.

Well, I want to thank Jill Stanton from Screwthen9to5.com this has been a really fun, informative, valuable podcast. I want to thank Scott Todd landmodo.com and I want to thank all the listeners. And if you are getting value out of the podcast, take 20 seconds. It's really going to help us. The only way we are going to get the quality of guests like a Jill Stanton to come on this podcast is if you subscribe, rate and review the podcast. It takes 20 seconds. But it's like the biggest favor possible and we'd really appreciate it. So I want to thank everybody and Scott, should we make it awkward as hell?

No, I think we're done.

I've been doing it. Last podcast you weren't on.

Oh, really?

You did it by yourself?

Freedom Ring.

Yeah, but I do it myself. It's Jesus.

Okay, ready?

Should we.

Come on, Jill. We gotta get Jill involved, too.

I don't even know what's happening right now.

Let Freedom Ring.

Ready? This is our tagline at the end. And we can never get.

We're terrible with it.

We're horrible. It's like. Yeah. Ready? One, two, three.

Let Freedom Ring.

I messed with you guys, and I didn't do it just to mess with you.

Well, I thought it was great. All right, thanks.

Freedom Ring. Is that okay?

That's great.

We need to add showing on my end.

What's that, Scott?

We need to add her. Just her. To just everyone. We'll just plug her in.

Yeah, exactly. All right, thanks, everybody.

Bye, guys.