Team Land Geek Tackles How to Turn Your Struggles into Strengths

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, land geek, with your favorite niche real estate website, thelmageek.com and on this week's roundtable podcast, it's not a real big roundtable, but we got some. Some round. And we've got Landon. Still no nickname. Harris, maybe Landon the Landman Harris. It's not bad.

That's not bad.

Not bad. Landon, Landman. Harris. Lynn, how are you?

I'm doing well. Having a good week so far.

Good to see you. And we've got Taria putting in the reps. Harris Trea. How are things?

Things are well. Mark, how are you?

I'm great. I'm great. It's good to see you. And I think we've got a really good topic for today's roundtable podcast. And it's something that I know I've struggled with a lot. I think a lot of people struggle with. It's sort of like this universal struggle that we can kind of get into and see how we, the three of us, sort of solve it for ourselves and help our. Our coaching clients. So, Sharia, what's the struggle?

So I have found with my clients and with myself, especially in the beginning of the business, the ebbs and the flows of business. So something as simple as, oh, my gosh, I had three sales this week or this month and next month I. I have one or I have none. And it's trying to stay motivated and stay encouraged to continue the course. Like business is going to ebb and flow. So do we get down and want to quit, or how do we position ourselves to be able to proceed forward?

Yeah, I love this topic because it doesn't just apply to business. You can be going along, you're having a great day, maybe you just got off the phone with your best friend and you're feeling on top of the world, you know what I mean? And then three minutes later, someone cuts you off in traffic or, you know, you get an email that says, oh, you owe this much in taxes, and now your whole day can be ruined. So, Landon, I'll start with you with the ebbs and flows of business life. How do. How do you manage it, and what types of things do you typically do?

So this actually is a. This is something I feel like I've dealt with forever. And I say that as an athlete, as a swim coach, and now even in the land business. It's kind of one of those cycles you always kind of go through through your life. So I've. I've looked at this in different angles, and I'LL say it this way. I feel like the best way to get over these dips or whatever that you go through or kind of start to reset. But like when I say reset, it's more of begin from the beginning and do things that let's say in this business that you really like to do. Focus on that. Just keep plugging away at that. The second thing I would probably say is look at it long term. I think so with anything that we do, I think so many times we get stuck on the what's in our face, what's happening right now and we forget kind of down the road and you know, you, you have to go through that. And then the third part of that is like maybe go back and remember all the things that you did to get to this point. So it's kind of like you look forward, but then you also got to look back a little bit to say, okay, I did, you know, I only had five sales in the month of whatever and this month maybe we're not having that many sales, but remember when we did. And those kind of things just kind of remind you, you can make it, you can do it and you just keep working at it. So that's probably my 2 cents on that.

I love it. I love the perspective taking of, you know, and this is that great book, the Gap in the Game. You know, we've talked about that. And when you're in the gap, you're looking out in the horizon and you see how far you have to go. But if you just reverse it and you see how far you've come from when you first started, you're in the gain. You can always be in the gain. It's the same thing, it's just a different perspective.

You.

And I think that, you know, what you're saying applies to that in business and in life as well. And you know, just that resilience, just keep going, you're going to be okay. And there's just change is constant. So I really love that as a follow up question to you, you know, I'm sure you see it with especially your higher level swim clients, right?

Yeah.

You're trying to get into the Olympics and so, you know, these slight little things can be the difference.

Yeah.

And they, but they've also like, we all know it's like it's something, you know at some point. It's not even physical, it's mental. What kind of things do you help them with mentally?

Wow, great question. And actually it brings up a story, a short story. I was talking to One of the kids that I used to coach, she's actually swimming for Air Force now. This little girl, I say she's little, she's about 20 now, but she was about 5, 2. Didn't really feel the water, so it didn't come really natural to her. But she worked really hard. And we just got off the phone yesterday, as a matter of fact, and then she got cut from the team. Didn't have a really good season last year, so she got cut. So kind of looking bleak for her. We talked a lot and we kind of went through how to look forward and what you need to do at this point. And the things that I. We came up with were one, set a new plan, set up something actionable that you can start making yourself do currently. What is that? Maybe she can get out and go run and maybe she can be a little bit more active. The second thing we discussed was start making a real decision. Do I want to keep swimming, do I want to switch my schools? Or I want to stay where I am and make that decision and don't drag it out. Like, we put a hard stop timeline, you know, we. So we have a specific time that she has to make that decision, so there's no pressure to it, but you don't want this sitting to just drag out forever. And ultimately, I think she's going to be fine. I think she's going to transfer somewhere else and things will move on. But I say that you look at this business, we do the same thing, just going through everything that we kind of look at. You know, I think just having that reset button, you start over, you start looking at, okay, well, what can I do? And then once you figure that out, then set a window of like, okay, well, I can do these things and let's just start looking forward at that. We can just kind of step into it. So I think a lot of things that, you know, athletics or life or even just business, like, they all tie together. So I think we do a lot of that as we look in this business.

Yeah, I love that. Sort of, you know, dealing with your disappointment in a realistic way and, and not being in denial, but also having a vision and not sort of stewing in it. Like, you don't get to stew in the. The disappointment of being cut for too long. I think that's really brilliant and probably super helpful for. For her.

Yeah, it's just, you know, pick yourself up dusted, dust yourself off, keep moving forward. Life's not over. That's. Yeah, yeah, that's the way I Look at life. And that's the way I look at this business. I look at that all the time. It's like, it's not over. Yeah, it may sting a little bit, but you're not dead. You can keep going.

Yeah. Yeah, Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And, you know, it just reminds me of that. That story, you know, that that ball keeps bouncing, right? Like, you just never know. I think I wrote about it in the Review Digest. I love that story. The. It's like that. That old fable where the. The rancher and his. Loses his horse. Right? You guys know that story. And the. And. And the people are like, oh, it's so terrible. You lost your horse. He's like, we'll see. And then the horse comes back a week later with all the horse friends. And then the. The villagers are like, oh, my gosh, you're so lucky. You got all these new horses now. He's like, we'll see. And then his son's breaking one of the horses and training one of the horses. Horse bucks him off and he breaks his leg. And then the villagers like, oh, that's terrible. Your son broke his leg. Like, we'll see. And then, you know, a week later, the army comes around looking for the. For his son. Like, we need a. He needed him to go to war. And sure enough, he's in the hospital. He couldn't go to the war. And, you know, they're like, oh, you're so lucky. He's like, we'll see. So it just continues.

It's continued, that path.

Terea, put in the reps. Harris, what about you? The ebbs and flows of life. How do you. How do you deal with them, and what do you suggest people do?

So we've kind of touched on how I deal with them. One thing I like to verbalize. I like to communicate. Like, this sucks. I don't like this. I have to discuss it. Landon knows this. If not, it stews in my brain. So for me, for other people, it may be just writing it down or something, but I have to get it out of my brain. So I sit and I vent to Landon. This is terrible. This is whatever. And I give myself a window, 10, 15 minutes, and then I'm on to actionable items. Okay, so is this something that I can solve? How is this something that I cannot solve? Then how do I deal with the fact that I can't change it? I am more logical when it comes to these kind of things. So I'll have spreadsheets and diagrams and all of that put together, step by Step how I can move through it, just depending upon how difficult it is. You know, we didn't sell a property this week for me. I've gotten used to that. It's okay then. Let's see what we do with marketing next week. And those are a little easier. But the ones that really, you know, as you said, knock you off your horse. I try to be more methodical in how I deal with those. One is getting it out. Two is coming up with a plan if I can fix it and coming up with a plan if I can't fix it. And then I just kind of take those actions moving forward.

Okay, so how do you get it out?

I talk. I like, yeah, I talk. Every now and then I might write like I have in my notes on my phone or on my computer. So it's almost like a journaling where I just kind of journal how I'm feeling, what I'm thinking just to get it off me.

Yeah. Have you heard of morning pages? The thing is, Julia Cameron, she. It's kind of like this famous sort of methodology. You wake up in the morning and you just do stream of consciousness writing. You just get all of it out. And I, I've tried it, especially when I was going through a difficult period in my life and you know, half the words would be curse words, but you just kind of stop, you can't stop writing and you kind of get your inner curmudgeon out and you just feel so much better. You're like, ah, I got all this out that was kind of swimming in my head onto the paper and you just exhaust yourself. And then you're like, okay, now I could take on the day, you know, more clear headed than before. I get the sense that's what you're doing, just in a different way.

Correct. Every now and then it might be writing, but for the most part it's just me communicating with Landon or one of my girlfriends. But yeah, it's. It's a release. And then sometimes when you talk about it, for me, it doesn't seem as bad. Right. Just doesn't seem quite as bad when you can kind of pull yourself out of it and look at it.

So first you deal with the feelings and then you're. You're going through the logical step.

Correct.

Of solving the problem.

Yep. I can't stay in feelings for too long, so I get them out and then I have to go to what's.

Next and then just, just take action and then solve what you can solve and let go what you can't Solve.

Correct, correct.

That, that seems very logical and very practical, very wise.

I tell her she's a Vulcan all the time.

Is that right?

She's very logical, like the Tin Man. They're like, well, here comes the Tin man.

So if you're Spock, is Landon Kirk.

He's Kirk for sure.

He's Kirk, yeah. Kirk all day.

Yeah.

Look, that Enterprise ran beautifully. When you got, you know, the emotion, you've got the logic, it's a killer combination.

I may crash it, but we'll come.

Back the whole shit crash.

I mean, you know, treat just like that. That doesn't compute, Landon.

I don't even understand how that works exactly.

So for me, I mean the ebbs and flows of business, I always kind of just lean back on my sort of, you know, I've been a long term, long time meditator. You know, I would say I'm like a quasi Buddhist, if you will. Although I don't really subscribe to Buddhism. But there's this. I do like the idea of, you know, just a simple sort of idea of pain is inevitable, right? It is inevitable. Like bad things are inevitably going to happen to all of us. In fact, if we take it all the way down, you guys know I love my weak rocap, right? We're gonna die, we're gonna lose everyone, we're gonna lose everything. We live long enough, it's all gone, right? So pain is inevitable. And you know your properties are going to default, your VAs are going to disappoint you, your intake might process, might not be perfect. It's going to be frustrating. You're going to have this great deal and then at the last minute the seller might just change his mind and you're disappointed. So this pain is inevitable in any business. Not land, business, any business, in any relationship, everything in life, it's just inevitable. But the part that I always like to remember is the suffering is optional. Why do I have to suffer with it and I don't? And so to watch and sort of like the way that you guys do it, I sort of watch like a curious observer. The thoughts and the feelings sort of come and go and just this idea of letting it go and just like it's a cloud passing by. Like it's always sort of blue sky. But then there's the clouds of life. They come, they go. I can watch them, I can feel them, but I don't have to be attached to them. I don't have to spend the whole day suffering, reliving what happened three hours ago with that person or reliving or, you know, keep playing in my mind, okay, I'm gonna have to have a difficult conversation with someone. I don't have to keep playing it, playing it over and over and over again. It doesn't do any good. I mean, I, I think I, you know, I tell the story a lot. My first boot camp, it was two and a half days of me talking and I just didn't sleep that night. I just kept playing it over and over and over again like it didn't solve a thing. Like I had to deal with it when I could deal with it. I couldn't out think the day. And so at some point you're prepared enough, you just let it go, okay? And when that time happens, I'll deal with it. If I have a bill after the payment, I don't think about it all day long. It's like, okay, here's my time to pay a bill. Here's my time for that difficult conversation. I set it aside. And so this idea, this Buddhist idea of non attachment, I think it's really served me well as far as the ebbs and flows of life. Don't get me wrong, people can push my buttons like anyone else. And there's this great saying, and you know, if you think how, how calm your mind is, go spend, you know, a week with your parents.

Right?

It's like, that'll be the test.

Exactly.

Yes.

You think, you think you got it all under control. Okay, go, go spend some time with the people that can push your buttons.

Correct.

Exactly.

But yeah, so it's a practice. It's. It's a practice. It's something that you get better with a time you don't wake up one day and just have this in the perfect spot. And I think that's really a great metaphor for business too. It's your practice. You're getting better at every aspect of the business each day that you do it. You only fall behind when you procrastinate it or you don't do it and you don't get better. So that continuous improvement that Kaizen seems like it's, it's a great way to approach it, but I really went on a rant there. I feel like I talked a lot.

You did well. And I was, I was going to ask you, like, if you would recommend practicing because not. We don't all start off, not most of us with the ability to kind of pull it in, rein in your thoughts, rein in your emotions. It takes time. So you got to put in the.

Reps. Yeah, you got to put in the reps. I mean, I think, like, this. This whole idea of choiceless awareness, like, people are like, oh, I hate meditating. I. I can't stand it. I can't, you know, calm my mind or I'm always lost in thought or like, they're judging the meditation. Well, really, all it is is the practice is. Yeah, you will get lost in thought. Right. It's inevitable. You can't stop your thoughts. Just like the. The outside issues of life are going to hit you. You can't stop that either. Someone's going to cut me off in traffic today.

Right.

I can't control that. Most of the things that happen in our lives we can't control, but we can't control our reaction to it. And so practicing that, seeing that, and. And being identified to the fact that, okay, this is not the best version of myself, I can begin again just like what Landon and Tree were talking about and sort of reframe it and see, okay, how can I learn from this? How can I get better? The next time can be really helpful. And that's like a stoic philosophy as well.

Right, Right, right.

And anything can be reframed, even the worst tragedies in life. And really, when you think back on your life, you know, what at the moment seemed like the worst thing in the world. You know, you just never know. It turns out when you reframe it, like, oh, this was a great gift.

Absolutely.

And I just didn't, you know, recognize it at the time. And again, the suffering is optional.

Right.

So I like that that leads us to having Landon, hopefully to deal with the pain of tip of the week, but not suffer through tip of the week. So, Landon, before we go to your tip of the week, a website, a resource of books, something else actionable from the art of passive income listeners to go improve their businesses, improve their lives, I have to give a shout out to our sponsor, which is flight school. Learn how the next 16 weeks can transform your life. Go up that mountain of land, investing quickly, safely, efficiently with Scott Taub. Scott Todd Azure, Sherpa. He's done it for thousands of times. And that flight school tuition ain't going to cost you nothing, guaranteed. Learn more. Go to thelandgeek.com training the landgeek.com training. Solve your money, solve your time problems without any headaches, but it's always the way to do it. Landon Harris, what is your tip of the week?

Okay, so my tip of the week, we use slack a lot, and it definitely helps us kind of manage our team. Now, in Slack, there is a. I believe it's a new option. It's new to me. So this option allows you to verbally kind of communicate with your team. And so if you're familiar with Voxer or even the iPhone has it, where you can verbally leave a message with somebody, you can go back and forth with them. This has the same option in Slack where you can go back and forth. I believe you get one member that's free. And then after you get. After you upgrade, you can include up to 14 members in your team that you can communicate. But it's cool. It's cool. I was playing around with it with our intake manager just a little while ago, so just kind of neat little thing. Sometimes you don't have time to type it all out. Maybe you're on the road and you just need to get a quick note to your team and just let them know what you're thinking. Maybe just, hey, great day. But usually it's always business. But I think it's a pretty neat.

Little.

Action that's in Slack.

By the way, you should see the look on Tria's face right now. She's just beaming. She just seems so proud that, number one, Landon's doing this on the podcast. But number two, like, she doesn't have to do the tip of the week. Yep, that's it. What did you think of his first tip of the week?

I like it because he made it something that I'm going to use. So I like it a lot. And oftentimes I do just need to give, like, hey, go into this. Do this. Do, like, I don't want to type it out. It gets lost in the translation. So a good one.

All right. I think it's great just because I think that when you're typing, you lose tone when you're communicating with your team, that tone can make the whole, like, the biggest difference. It makes me think of, like, Ron Burgundy. I'm Ron Burgundy.

I'm Ron Burgundy.

I'm not.

It. He'll read anything you put on that teleprompter. So. But, like, you know, if you're just reading it, it's not funny, as opposed to hearing the tone. And. And so even, you know, taking the sting out of something, you know, a text can come out very harsh because now they're. They're using your. Like, they're imagining your tone. Right? As opposed to you can give them your tone, and then it's like, oh, that's clear and pretty reasonable to do, especially if you know, it's Tariya with her Spock like, Vulcan tone. Right. I will need that due diligence report by Monday.

It's kind of close.

It's pretty good. All right. You like it? I want to thank the listeners and remind them the only way that I would be able to cajole Landon Tree to come back on the next week's roundtable is if you do three little favors. Follow. Great. Review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of that review. Support. Com. I'm going to send you for free a signed copy of the Rich to give to your friends, your family. You know, put it on. You know, brag about it. Like, put it on the socials. Like, here's my signed copy of Dirt Rich to help me solve my time and money problems. What are you doing with your life, people? Right?

There you go. Make sure the tone is right, but.

Exactly. And then you're like, because I listen to the podcast, I'm slacking, So. And by the way, Dirt Rich, too, is coming out very soon.

Yeah, I can't wait. I'm excited about it. Yeah.

Do you guys. Do you guys like the. The plot thickens. How to scale your land business without skipping a. Business without skipping a beat.

I like that. That's gonna be the title. You playing around with that title.

That's.

I mean, I could be. I'm pretty sure that's where it landed.

The plot begins.

Yeah. Instead of the next plot.

Yeah.

It's. The plot thickens because it means that it's getting more, you know, more sophisticated, if you will. Right now, we're scaling. It's thickening.

Be really cool.

I like it.

I like it.

Nice play on plot.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

I'll send you guys the COVID We're working on the COVID too. Graphics. See what you think. But. All right, well, thanks, everybody. And let's do this. 1, 2, 3. Let's let freedom ring. Not bad, I see. You know what? With three people, it's not. It's not a bad roundtable. See, now, two people. You can really sit at a roundtable. Could you.

Right? It doesn't really go around. It's just back and forth.

It'd be awkward.

Right.

But I, you know, we. We. I think we pulled this one off, considering.

I think so.

Yeah. Jealous. They weren't on this one.

They are.

I think I'm going to vox them. You guys missed an epic roundtable podcast today.

Make sure your tone's right.

No, my tones to be excited. Like, maybe. Maybe you guys don't show up next week.

Week. Take a break.

We're fine. I'm just. You know. I'm kidding. We're not. We. We want all the coaches there.

Yeah. We need those guys.

Yeah, exactly.

All right, thanks, everybody.

Thanks.

Yeah.

Thanks for listening to the Art of Passive Income podcast. Are you ready to learn how you can start building a passive income without renters, rehabs, renovations, or rodents? Schedule a free consultation@the landgeek.com training. Let freedom ring.