Team Land Geek Welcomes Professional Coach and Successful Investor: Meet Landon Harris

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the Land Geek with your favorite niche real estate website, thelandgeek.com and on this week's Art of Passive Income roundtable podcast, we have almost all the usual suspects. We've got Eric the Technician Peterson. Eric, how are you? I'm well. Happy to be here, Mark.

Good to see you.

Good to see you. We've got Dude Buddy, the nightcap OG Scott Bossman, Scott Harbor. Things.

Things are great, Mark. Glad to be here.

Glad to see you. We got the Zen master, Breathe in the mailing, Breathe out the marketing. Mike Zano. Mike, how are things going? Great, great, great. I love it when you call me Big Papa Tate. Litchfield Tate. Is it hot in Vegas? It's still hot.

Yeah.

It's only September. We won't cool off for, I don't know, another month or so.

Awesome. And then we've got Terea, put in the rep Terrace. Tria, how are you?

I am well, probably not as hot as Tate. I think it's 105 today in San Jose.

Well, I'm really excited about this Roundtheu podcast because we have a special guest, and it's super special because he is going to be our newest Land Geek coach. And he's also married to Treea Harris Landon. Nickname to be Determined Harris. Welcome.

Thanks, Mark. I'm happy to be here, man. It's awesome.

So we're gonna go around. We're gonna ask you about your journey, but I think the first question that I want to ask is, can you just walk us through your background and your. And just. Just your background and. And how, you know, I. I can't even think of. I'm having like a senior moment. Just your background. That would be helpful.

Sure, sure. Well, I've been a coach for about 26 years and developing swimmers from, I mean, the beginners all the way up to Olympic level kids. About four months ago, I wrote. Let me start back a little bit. Four years ago, we jumped into coaching. Actually, it's almost five now. Jumped into coaching and working with you guys at the Land Geek. And business has been great and love every bit of it. And I just retired here in March, so roughly about four months ago. And, you know, now I'm in a whole different space of life, and we've moved all out to sunny state of California where the prices are high, but everything has been just fantastic. Just in a happy place in life right now.

I love it. I love it. Well, I have so many questions, but I'm gonna pass off the microphone to The Zen master Mike Zainab, who loves going first, by the way. Yeah, Mike, what's your question for land?

Well, I think it would be great to hear some advice. We have a lot of couples out there working together. You guys start your journey together. You're continuing your journey.

How.

How is that working out as a. Well, I don't want to say. How's it working?

I don't want to.

We know it's working out well. What advice do you have? We have lots of couples listening today.

That's a good one. I mean, Terry and I work really well together for the most part. I. We don't really argue on much, but I think the best advice I can give to couples are delegate your roles, be specific on what you like and what you don't like, and then talk about it. Who will do what, how that will be managed, and then just get a schedule and a plan and just take it into action. I think with us, our roles are pretty defined, so we're able to know who does what and what side of the business, and we can be really efficient and effective towards what we're doing. So, yeah, that would probably be my best advice. And communicate. That's just the biggest rule. Right. You got to make sure you're communicating with your partner and just making sure that, you know, you guys are on the same page, you're headed in the same direction, and I think that's probably been the best part about what we're doing, I think, for our business. Awesome.

Thank you very much.

I muted myself. You know what they say about podcasting. Never have dead air, right? That was awkward. Let's throw the. The awkwardness over to Dude, Buddy, Nightcap. Oh, gee, Scott Bossman, can you save me over here?

I'll try. Landon, first of all, congratulations on your retirement. That has to feel amazing. We're glad that you're on board here for sure. For the new land investor out there, what is your training regimen for that person?

Any recommendation, training regimen? We're discussing land, so I want to leave the gym out of this.

So.

I would probably say pay attention to what's going on in the. In the community. I think there are a lot of indicators you can just kind of really draw on to kind of study how. How prices are changing, whether they're fluctuating up or down. I would probably also say, you know, show up. Show up every day. Like, I think that was one of the biggest things that I took away from going through coaching and going through flight school, and you just show up every day, and you listen and you read it and you pay attention to it, and it just becomes reps at a certain point. And so it naturally and organically just happens. So, yeah, I would probably say that that would be my training regimen, is just show up and just consistently keep going after and keep studying and getting paid attention.

I love it. And to show up on days when maybe you aren't feeling like you want to.

Right, yeah, absolutely.

But once you get done with that hour or two of focus time on the land business, you'll feel better. You move on to the next day. Each day builds upon the last. So. Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Eric the technician Peterson, what question do you have for Landon?

I think let's talk about the biggest mistake that. Well, maybe not the biggest, but just a mistake that you feel like you guys made in the land business, whether it was how you got started or somewhere in between, whenever that was. But, you know, what was it and how did you overcome it?

Yeah.

I would probably say the biggest mistake was you try to avoid this. And everybody says, yeah, I don't want to do this. But you end up looking at your peers. You watch and see what they're doing. You hear what they're doing. You see everything that they're doing as far as how many deals that they've made and how much. How much they were selling it for. And in the beginning, we were pretty good about just staying the path, but it's really hard when you go through flight school and one of your buddies is, you know, they're doing really well, and they're hitting, you know, certain. Certain prices, and now they're, you know, able to get to a certain point. So I think with us, you know, we. I, me, I'm gonna say me. I'm gonna say us. I had to learn to not allow myself to get down and follow what they were doing. I had to focus on our business and make sure that our business was staying on track and that we were following the plan. So, you know, as far as a mistake, that would probably be one of the mistakes I would probably say that I made in the beginning of looking over, seeing what your neighbor's doing. And I don't want to say trying to keep up with the Joneses, but it's a little bit. You kind of. But for me, ultimately, it ultimately turns into motivation. I just get a little bit more hungry, start grinding a little harder. So it would probably be my biggest mistake.

I love it. I love it. Comparison is a thief. Happiness.

It is a thief.

I love it when you call me big Papa. Tate. Litchfield. Tate, what question do you have for Landon?

Landon, I'm excited. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Looking forward to getting to know you a little bit better. I feel like I know you well, but I'm excited. Everybody who's listening should be excited because Landon is a rock star and we're excited to see what he brings to the table. His new perspective and a fresh outlook and things. So, Landon, you know, we've talked about. Eric Peterson brought the mood down with his question about your biggest mistake. So I want to talk about. Tell us about a home run, man. Tell us about something that made you go, yeah, this is legit. This is for real. I'm in it. Tell us about one of those big things.

You know, I think one of those happens sometimes. It's. It's dual. It's a dual sided thing. For me. One of my aspects of the business has been intake. I enjoy it. I don't know, it's a little weird. Some people hate it. I enjoy it. So, you know, when you close that deal of, you know, you picked up 10 to 12 properties, that was one, you know, that we, we closed on and, you know, we got it at probably a fourth of what we sold. It might even be a fifth even, but we were able to pick up a few properties. So on that side, to me, that was a win. On the other side of selling it, I've always enjoyed seeing a sales ticket go through on our email that says, hey, you just sold this property and you sold it for $17,000. I always love those. You don't always get those. You get the base hits, you the two, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 each. One of them is a win. But I'll say, yeah, when you, when you see that big paycheck come through, 20,000 or more. Yeah, those are always fun. So we've had a couple of those. Not enough. I want more. So that's. That's. That's always been the big win. I would love to say.

I love that.

Yeah.

I mean, there's something really special about going full circle, right when you mail, or I guess even before that, you pick the county. You did the mailer, you do the due diligence, you make the acquisition, you do the marketing, and you make the sale. And, and going full circle is. Is amazing. But then it gets even better when you go full circle and you only did half of that work. And then it gets even better when you do a four, a fourth of it. And then every time you, you reduce the amount of work that you get to, you know, that you have to do in something, that sale becomes even more sweet and yeah, it's awesome. Great. Yeah, those sales, look, I love the unicorns, right? Those big hits every once in a while. But I've built an entire business on getting on base. That's my goal, my team's objective. And so I can relate to that statement of layups, baby. All day long, small little victories. So excited. Thanks, Landon.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, the reps are just, you know, when you can just see them happen every other day and it makes this business so easy and you just, you just want to keep doing it. So we love that. So.

I guess I'll go next. I have a question. So transitioning from full time coaching and into retirement, was that a tough transition for you? And if so, what did you do to kind of manage that transition?

Oh, that's tough. So you see it on one end and I'm going to tell you what's happening in my brain. So transitioning was. I would probably. At first I thought it was going to be. It was easy. You know, you get more time and you're able to do more things and you're able to, you know, experience just a different side of life. And you didn't. That you didn't really know. Or after about a month or two, you kind of start looking for what's next. What am I doing, how am I doing it? For me, I'm a very orderly person. So I like having a, A routine. I didn't have a routine. And so getting out of routine for me was just chaos. And so there were nights. Yeah, I wasn't sleeping and there are days that I'm kind of frantic because I don't know what's coming next or what do I need to be doing. So I think looking back at it, I probably would have had a little bit more of a plan. I thought I had a plan, but I didn't. So I probably would have had a little bit more of a plan of transitioning. But as far as how it's been, it's. It's been just different. I can't say it's bad, it's been really good, but it's just been very different. And just adjusting to not having the 9 to 5 anymore and, you know, being able to travel when you want to and, you know, not having to stay up late coming home from work or work on the weekends, those things have all been pluses. But I will say the Camaraderie that I had with the coaches that I was working with was really good as I'm excited about building that same kind of camaraderie with this group of coaches. So that's going to be fun. That's going to be real fun. So I'm just excited about a whole bunch of things right now. So. Transition has been good though.

I know you already have camaraderie with one of the coaches for sure.

That's an easy one. I got to break out of my comfort zone. So we'll expand that one.

Yeah, yeah. But you know, on a more serious note though, and I talk a lot about this with the coaches offline and I always say, you know, as far as people in our one on one coaching program, 15% of it is how to. 85% of it is mental. And would you agree with that statement coming from your coaching background? And I mean, I think you've been very humble about your, your past. I mean, to put things into perspective, like, if you want to be an Olympic swimmer, you want to be the very best in the world, you go to Landon and now we are fortunate enough. If you want to be the very best, land geek, you know, student and build your business to the next level, you're going to have the opportunity to have that wisdom and that experience translate over into your business as well. So we're all going to benefit from it. But anyways, back to the original question, which was, you know, how, what, what types of things do you see translating over into from being the best swim coach in the world to land coaching and how that would translate over?

Yeah, that's a really good question. What I see as a swim coach, I was very driven. I was the, I'm the players coach. I'm on your side. I will back you 100%. I am focused. I will show up for you every single day. I will do that extra 10, 20% that you needed to help you get over what you need to do. And a lot of that transition is just the way that I am. And it transitioned into the kind of the approach that I would take as a landing coach. So looking at it, there's, there's a side of like you, you touched on it like, you know, yeah, it's about 30% of actual knowledge that you need to know. You need to know how to, you know, mail, you need to know how to market, you need to know how to, to get your bas together and get your team together, you need to know how to do these things. But a lot of it really is mentally like you can mentally get through so many things. I. That's something that I worked with a lot of kids that I coached. I had one kid, he taught me a lot. He's probably the best kid I ever coached. And he was seventh at Olympic trials, and he was only 17. The kid every single day always had a positive attitude. He always worked hard and he always thought positively of what he was going to do. He never said, I can't. I don't believe in those words either. So he and I really bonded really well. But it was something that I learned from him, was I can't. If you're thinking I can't and you won't. If you think positively, I can. And you work hard at this, I can. You'll get there. Now, maybe it doesn't happen tomorrow or in a week or even in a month, but if you just keep thinking I can and you keep working at it, it happens. There wasn't one time in this business that I or my wife, I don't think we ever looked at this business, this won't happen, or that we won't be successful or that we can't be as good as the next person. You know, there's these other. You know, there are other people out there. They're doing really well. Well, you know, it depends on how you look at it. Are you motivated and does it drive you to want to be better or does it make you scared? I'd rather choose the latter. I'm going after it. I want to push and try to be the best. So that's the kind of coaching that I would be or the coach that I would be. That's the kind of coaching that I like. I like to be positive. But I check you. If you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing, I'm the guy that's going to go, what are we doing? Do we need to be put? And you know, I'm never mean about it, but I will be direct and go, you're not mailing. What are you doing? Mail today and we get it done. And I will walk there every step with you. So that's kind of the way I am. That's kind of the coach that I am. But. And I see kind of being the same way, maybe a little different, but on the same type of coach as on the pool deck as I am in this business. So hope that explains. Was a good example of what I would do.

No, it's good. It's a good example. I mean, it's so inspiring. And, you know, I want to get coached, I want to get better. Maybe not in land, but certainly, you know, other parts of my life for sure. And I think, you know, it's so funny because, like, I do have several coaches and I've never regretted making that investment. And each, each coach, you know, brings something new to the table and they all have a different style. It's just you would be the first coach that's actually coming in from at such a higher coaching level and all that experience and bring it over into a different specialization, from world class swimming to world class land investing, which I think is super exciting to watch. So, Zen Master, you got another question for Landon?

I don't have another question, but I am excited to work with him, to learn from him. I think it's extremely motivating. What you just said was very inspirational and I'm going to be excited to be around that. I always love the fact that we're surrounded by such knowledgeable people that are full of execution and, you know, everybody's a bit different, but I'm just grateful to be that person that can be in the room with all of you and adding you to it. Landon, it's just awesome.

I'm very excited. Thanks, Mike. I appreciate that. I'm looking forward to the same with you guys. Dude.

Buddy, any questions or thoughts?

No, I think you're going to be a valuable member to the team and to the people who are going through coaching. They just heard it. I think what they heard is great. I think it's inspiring. I think that, you know, your future clients are going to be very lucky to have you based on your prior coaching experience, your successful land business, the fact that you're now transitioning over into this great role. So welcome, man. Excited for you.

Awesome. Thanks. Scott.

The technician, Eric Peterson.

I don't have much further to say other than welcome, Coach Landon. We're glad to have you.

Thanks, Eric. You're welcome.

I love it when you call me Big Papa. Tate Litchfield.

We're happy to have you, buddy.

Thanks, Tate. Sharia.

Give him, like, a really difficult question.

A difficult question.

I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Unlike the rest of us, you actually have to have dinner with him tonight.

I'm excited for Landon. He is. I mean, I'm obviously biased, but I think he's an amazing person and an amazing coach. I am looking forward to just seeing him transition from swimming. Well, somewhat. He still coaches me on swimming two days a week, but over into the land business, I'm Excited. See all the passion and all the dedication that he has given towards, you know, the swim community. And I just don't see that being any different here in the land industry. So I'm looking forward to working with them.

Yeah, I think it's a, it's a really interesting comment that you made about the dedication. And I know when our clients go in and they work with you, Tria, Tate or Eric, you know, they're dedicated. And it's to the point where I know that you don't want to let your coach down. And it's such a, like, that alone is just so valuable, that accountability piece, even if, like, because land businesses is. Can be hard and it can be emotionally difficult at times, there's ups and downs and so left to your own devices, you'll find something easier to do in life. But when you're in coaching, you don't want to show up unprepared. You don't want to let down your coach who is dedicated to you. And I wonder, do you feel that when you're working with Landon on your own swimming, like, okay, I'll go and implement that stroke you told me to work on a little harder because I, I see. You know that I don't want to let him down for sure because he.

Shows up like he has our, my plan all set up. Like he's. You would think I'm trying to make Olympic trials because he's that much into, you know me, I'm barely making it a lap and he's still like encouraging. Pointing out technique and having watched him coach, especially on the pool deck, what I really admire about him is he may have 40 kids, but he knows what each individual kid needs. So it's not like a blanket approach where everyone does this. No, he takes time to get to know. No, that doesn't motivate this particular kid. That motivates this kid. So I have to figure out how to motivate this person and what they need to move forward. So I think that will also just be amazing because it's not a one stop shop for him. He's learned how to work with individuals and get individuals where they need to be.

Awesome Landon, do you see as far as people like, can you put them into different motivational buckets or is it just everyone's. So you can't. Okay, what would those.

Absolutely. You know, say it this way. One thing is I think when I, when I meet anybody, there's just a. I study them. I don't know why I do it. I just Do I just study the person? Because I actually, I know why I want to get to know that person. I want to understand, well, what makes this person tick. That's the first thing. And so what that does is I start putting different things in, into or just implementing different things. For example, sometimes some people are more cerebral. We have to approach that a little different. You're not going to just, you know, drive them over the head. And you may. That may mean they need a little bit more technical advice. Some people are just in their way because they're emotionally drained, or maybe they've had the kids all day and now it's the end of the day and it's that you need that little, like, come on, buddy, you can do this. Keep, you know, hang in there. Then there's others, you know, that maybe they know what they're doing. They've got it all the way. And all you need to do is just keep guiding them towards the goalpost. There's so many different types of people, and I've gone through a lot of. A lot of different types of people that I feel like everybody falls into some different category now. They're not all the same, but you do see the same types of people. And I think that's been the biggest thing is understanding who those people are and then just directing them to the way that works for them. And I think that's kind of a little bit more of like we're coaching in the land business. You can tailor it directly for that person as opposed to, like the blanket. You know, the blanket works. It covers about, you know, 50, 60%. But then what about that other 40%? I think that's important. I think everybody who jumps into this business, one, you got to love. Develop a love for it. But then two, like, what's your goal? And like, let's move towards that. And that's, that's the, the point of being able to get everybody into what's going to make them happy about what they're doing in this business. So, yeah, yeah, I can kind of pick what buckets, you know, these everybody will be into and just make a plan based on that. That's, that's really the, the ultimate goal of figuring out how can we get this person to the goal line.

Fantastic. Yeah, I love that. And I, you know, I've already said it a bunch of times, so we've all said we're just as a, as a team, as a group, we're just so excited to be adding, you know, a caliber person as yourself onto the team. And I know our clients are going to feel so fortunate to be able to work directly with you.

So thanks, Mort.

So excited. That being said, we're at that time now in the podcast, you do not get a pass. We're going to put you on the spot and ask you for your tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something else actionable for the auto passive income listeners to go improve their businesses, improve their lives. But before you do that, I gotta give a shout out to our sponsor, which is Flight School. Learn how the next 16 weeks, you literally transform your life. Start building up that passive income without renters, rehabs, renovations or rodents. But do it safely with Scott Todd, who has done it thousands of times as your Sherpa. And oh yeah, that investment you're going to make ain't going to cost you nothing. Guaranteed you're going to make it back 180 days in terms of cash. Just show us your work. Learn more go to landgeek.com training the landgeek.com forward/training Landon. I want to say the Landman Harris. I don't know, though. I don't know how Eric kind of gave that sideways look like, well, it'll.

Come, it'll come, it'll come, it will come.

Just keep trying them till one works right?

Till one sticks. Something sticks at the wall at some point.

Exactly. What is your tip of the week?

Well, so, I mean, there's, there's tons of books and things out there. I mean, you know, everybody's read Rich Dad, Poor dad and everybody's read Psychology of Money. And those are two that just have kind of changed my direction. But that's not my tip of the week. My tip of the week is it's called Beginning with Gratitude and it's narrated by Jesse Israel. It's something that I just kind of started and it began after I retired. So this is kind of a six minute meditation. You just start your day with it and it's really good because it just kind of helps you just get into that mindset. You start with listing, you know, five things that you are happy and grateful for that, you know, have made your life better, whether it's just today or just in your life. And with this, with the six minute meditation, it just puts you in the right mind frame. And like I said, there's tons of books and tons of other things out there. But this is something that I really have felt really good about, that I listened to on a regular basis. And there's a series of these different books through audible, but something I felt has been helpful for me.

Yeah, I just saw it on audible. I'm definitely gonna do this, although, you know, part of me is like, oh, no, another six minutes. I. You know, I've got my meditation. I get my breathing. You know, I've got my workout.

I'm walking around with it.

You know, my inner Zaino with the cold plunge. Like, come on. My morning routine is just gonna get longer and longer, but that's okay. Gratitude is so important, so that's.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

All right, well, my tip of the week is if you want to learn with Landon, you have to apply, so go to the landgood.com forward slash. Coaching, I believe, is where the application's at. And you can apply for coaching. Now, you have to be in flight school to do it, but if, you know, you could start in flight school and then graduate into coaching, but it is an application process, so, you know, I think we can all agree that if you want to get to the next level in any part of your life, a coach is essential. The best in the world have coaches. I was, you know, I mean, back in the day when Tiger was just dominating, we all knew he had a swing coach. So it just applies to every aspect of your life, and there's no better investment than in yourself, and that's what that would be. So do that. All right, Landon, are we good?

We're great.

All right, Tate, are we good?

Yep.

Dude. Buddy. Zen master technician. We're great. Mark, put in the reps. All good.

All good, all good.

All right, let's do this. 1, 2, 3. Let's.

Freedom. Not bad.

My Internet's been spotty. I don't know why I went on zoom. And I guess it's better if I turn the video off and I mute myself and then, you know, have, like, the Internet, like, down. Like, don't have anything running in the background. Like, I did all that, and it's still spotty. I don't know.

Do you have over there?

I mean, I got a T1 line. You know, it's. It's different if it's like a Derek Sivers, but not Landon. Come on. I wanted crystal clear. Great bandwidth for this podcast. So, Tree, how do you think you did?

I think you did well. Landon is probably more. We're both pretty introvert. He's probably more introvert than I am, so. But I think he did well.

I thought he did great. I mean, I think it's hard, like, you know, having to think on your feet like that. And our other Guests don't like. Like, they show up like, wait, how many are people are asking me a question?

Was that.

Was that intimidating?

Yeah. Five of your friends joined in.

Five of your friends.

I'm sweating buckets over here, man.

You. You are. Are you. You are not.

Oh, yeah.

Whatever.

We haven't talked. We haven't talked about it. Has anybody seen, like, any great shows lately? Like, I've got nothing on my.

The new.

The new, you know, House of Dragon.

Whatever.

The new what?

Isn't that House of Dragon?

House of Dragons.

I never saw the original Game of Thrones.

What? Whoa.

I'm in the same boat too. I never watched it.

How about. You got a binge on that one? Yeah.

What about Succession?

Yeah, I heard that one was really good.

Succession's good. It's just, you know, they're so dysfunctional. I almost got. I was like, turned off after, like the end of the second mark.

Do you. Do you watch On Tower?

No, what's that?

So there's a series of Netflix shows. They're all called Untold, and they're different stories about different people in different sports. So, like, the one we just watched was about Mantattea and I don't know if you remember that whole.

I do. I remember Catfish.

Yeah.

Yeah. And so they walk through, like, what happened, how it happened, how it hurt his career, what happened to the other person. It was really interesting. It was a two part series. I didn't take up your whole life, but it was actually really good. And it's a series of them, so they do them in different sports and different. Different people. Pretty good.

Yeah. That's why I used to like Schitt's Creek so much. Was. It was just like 26 minutes or something. It was like, oh, and it's just light. Kind of get through fast.

Yeah.

Kind of thing. I don't know. But did you guys finish Better? Anybody watch Better Call Saul? I know Scott. Todd did. I finished that.

I used to watch it and then I fell off. I got. I got off at the second series.

Oh, my gosh.

It's season.

But then, like the last season. It is like a Breaking Bad. It is.

Okay, I'll have to go back and binge on that one.

Yeah. All right, well, I don't. I. I know we have, like, a meeting to go to, so we should end this podcast. Thanks, everybody.

Thanks Smart.

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 at thelandgeek. Com training. Let freedom ring.