The Land Geek Podcast #24

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Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek from thelanegeek.com and I'm with the man, the myth, the legend, Joran Frazier from reserveland.com and now landhub.com Juran, I know you slept in late this morning because you can. How you feeling? What's going on? What's going on in the world of Carlsbad, California?

Well, I definitely slept in this morning. I have a wonderful wife that sometimes lets me sleep in. I generally don't stay up too late to work. But last night was a late night. I actually ended up having a couple meetings till about 7 or 8 and got home and I think I worked till midnight. So I woke up with the kids at like 6:30, hung out with them, and then I jumped back in bed for an hour or two. So, you know, it's the life of an entrepreneur, but that's how we roll.

That's nice. That's nice. So what were these meetings on? Anything land related or these startup companies?

Yes, all real estate related. You know, the couple of guys that I'm, that I'm working with are, they're, they're, they're very large transactions are, they're in the hundreds of millions of transaction transactional projects that, that need the puzzles put together. So I'm sort of helping these guys kind of formulate ideas bringing the money guys in. And so that's, that's what I'm doing. So it's, it's, it's interesting stuff. It's stuff that I have connections to that I can kind of help. And so we're just all chatting together.

All right, awesome, awesome. So I went to LA this weekend.

I'm sorry.

And. Well, don't be, because when I got off the plane, I called my wife. I'm like, this weather is delicious. You can see why so many people live there. That breeze is so good.

It is good.

It's really good. So I get to LA and I'm staying downtown. It was like one of the worst night sleeps of my life. I don't know if you've ever stayed by the airport and you're listening to the planes come in every 20 minutes at 2 in the morning. But I got like four hours sleep that night. So the next morning, Saturday morning, I go to this investing Expo sponsored by Realty411. And there's all these big companies there. HomeVestors is there. Equity trust is there. You know, you've heard of a lot of these companies and they have speakers. And so I was one of the exhibitors. And it's my first time doing it, right. So I'm completely unprepared. Everyone has like these big elaborate booths. I had nothing. I had myself. So I thought, oh, you know, I'll collect leads for the Land Geek on my laptop. And there was no WI fi. So I'm literally sitting there on my phone with these flyers. It was completely the most amateurish exhibit by far in the conference room. But look, I had to start somewhere. I've never done it. Now I know, okay, this is what you got to do.

Mark, you know, that's actually pathetic that you say that. I'm saddened that you would tell everybody on this podcast that you didn't prepare.

It wasn't that I wasn't prepared, it was that I didn't know how to prepare. I didn't know what I didn't know. I'd never done it.

It's funny that you, you bring up what you just said because I just happen to have a friend who's come up. So you know what QR codes are? Correct. I've never been a fan. They've never caught on in my mind because they're sort of one way. It's like, what am I? I don't care to see your flyer by, by hitting my, my picture button, seeing what this QR code says. Well, this guy that I know very well pitched to us last week about something. The website's called scanbright.com and scanbright, basically it's like a two way communicator. So you would click it and it would send information both ways. So you would get their information and you. And they would get your information. But it would be like, it would be information as to what your company's about, what it is. And I don't know if it comes in an email, but it's a really interesting concept. But it's for conventions so that you can walk in and you don't have to worry about, you know, trying to type in something or do it. It's a QR code. You hit it. It's a two way transaction and very, very unique and interesting.

So yeah, that you know. And for the next expo I do. I'll Definitely do that. I mean, I got 26 or something leads. I networked with all the exhibitors. And, you know, the great thing about these conferences is that these are. These are people that already are invested in real estate some way or form. Right. So it's, you know, their worldview is real estate's a good investment. And I wasn't there selling land, although maybe next time I should be. I was there trying to help people learn more about how to make money buying and selling land because most of the education there was focused on doing that. But there were, you know, there were some guys there that I actually done deals with a couple years ago. They were buying up land from me in Treasure Lake. And finally I met the guy face to face. It was really a small world. But his model is really interesting and I think the listeners can learn a lot about this. In fact, I think we should start doing this. But he basically markets and has live informal conferences or meetups locally in Utah. Right. So he'll get a group of investors in and he'll just educate them about real estate and real estate investing and his experience. And then afterwards, he's gotten all this authority. He's built his credibility. They'll contact those people that went to that seminar and, you know, try to see if they're interested in either the houses or land that they own, buying it. As an investor, what do you think of that model?

It's very interesting. I mean, I think it's sort of similar to you and I sort of on the. I mean, I don't know if we have that authority. I hope we do.

But if we went out and spoke for 45 minutes or an hour about what we know, like just like a podcast, we would get that authority. Right?

No, I agree. And a lot of that authority also comes from the Internet, which is what we're building now. And I've sort of, over the years, I've done some writing which we've talked about, and people sort of respect me for my entrepreneurial views. Not so much just my real estate or land or land education. But I think that for us, I think that would be a great way to go. But I sort of like the Internet side of it. But I do like, I mean, obviously face to face in person, obviously you're building that real live authority in front of somebody that trusts you and respects you.

Right? Yeah. I mean, it's a different model. Obviously, it's been working for this company. And I met a guy from Equity Trust, like the big self directed IRA company. He hasn't been home in three months. This is what he does. No, I should say three months, three weeks. He goes event after event after event and just gets leads. So it must be working. They invest a lot of time and a lot of money in these conferences, and I think we'd be missing a big opportunity by not going to these. But you have a different opinion about it, right? You're not so into these conferences.

Yeah, I'm not a. You know what? I tell you, there's. I think the hardest part about a conference is that there's so much to weed through. You've got to be. You've got to really understand what you're looking for. And, and as an exhibitor, it's hard because you're sitting in a booth waiting for people to come to you and you're hoping that the right guy comes down that aisle.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. I felt like somebody at the red light district.

Exactly.

Hey, how are you doing?

And you probably look like it too. And I'm not going to tell the listeners, but Mark had a. Mark had a really nice Speedo on and, and I think that was his way of attracting people, which I don't think it worked. What do you think, Mark?

Yeah, no Speedo. I left the Speedo at home.

It had a picture of Treasure Lake on the front. Anyways, so, yeah, I think it's. For me, I'm not a big conference guy. I've been to many conferences before and I've learned a lot from an educational aspect. They have workshops or they have, you know, when they break up and you, and you and you meet in a group of 10 or 15 people. Those are the times I generally tend to learn and meet the right people. But when you're walking around at these booths trying to really figure things out, you tend to see so much fluff and you don't know who is the real player. So unless you're really educated in that industry and a lot of the, in this case, people are walking through and they don't know, like, they're trying to learn. Like, hey, what is the. What is the right booth to talk to? You know, and if they're looking on how to buy and sell land, to be honest, obviously, Mark. Yeah, no, that's why I think, I'm just saying, like, Mark, you probably are the best guy in that room for that. And these people didn't know that. Again, probably because you had a booth with a, with a, with a cell phone that you didn't really know what you were doing.

You know what. And I think there's a lesson there. And it's, you know, look, I, I had very little. The way I got into this was with Realty411 and I'm going to have Linda Pliagas on the podcast. But she said, you know, I had no notice. Basically she said, come to this event, you're going to meet a lot of people. I'm going to introduce you to a lot of people. I'm like, linda, I don't have anything. She's like, you don't need anything. Just bring your laptop and some flyers. So that's why I did it was just basically on her suggestion.

But, you know, would you pay the.

Envelope, you know, she gave it to me. Comped. I would. Had to pay a thousand dollars.

Got it. Okay.

So. So, you know, I embraced the suck. And I think when you first start something, you need to embrace the suck. You're going to suck whatever you do. But look, I wasn't paralyzed by not doing it right. I mean, I went and did it. Now I learned a ton. And it's the same thing with people who are just starting, like with the investors Toolkit. You don't need to spend so much time and energy just on the education. Right?

Yep.

Education is important. Get your base, start learning. But yeah, start making offers. Start, start doing it. And sure, so what if you're not great at it first? You're not going to be. But there's only one way to get better at anything. It's just doing it. So you've got to combine education with action, I think, which is what I learned. So, yeah, it was an awkward 8 hour day being the worst in the room. But look, I'm not going to be the worst in the room again.

Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, people tend to think that education, education becomes execution, which it doesn't. You know, education is one tenth of the equation. You have to get out there and actually, like Mike Mark said, take action and execute on the plan and have a plan in place. Because if you're going in there just to educate yourself. Look, I love to be educated. I love to learn things. I don't know. I mean, every day I'm learning something new and I sort of force myself to do that just so I can learn it. And I don't know, I'm not always trying to implement it, but I just want to understand it. But when it comes to wanting to sell land or sell real estate, you have to have a plan in place and you have to execute by learning it. It's not going to force you to force yourself. And it's funny, we talked Mark too about. I'm actually working. I'm busy in the process right now. I'm going to be in Vancouver in January at a big mining conference and we're exhibiting which is really interesting because I've never done that before. But we're putting, we've got our booth, we're putting our 10 by 10 booth together and we're exhibiting and it's, it's mining and I don't know much about mining but should be interesting.

So that's great. Yeah. I mean you're going to learn a lot and you're going to network and yeah, I really think those things are worth it. And it's going to be Vancouver. Are you taking the family?

No, no. It's January, freezing. So I mean there's, there's, there's, there is that, that Whistler aspect but my family's. I don't think my kids are going to go up to hang out a Whistler for a few days. I think I'll just go solo. It's a two hour flight for me so it's not too bad.

Yeah. Yeah. That's cold. That's some cold skiing. It's not spring skiing up there.

No, definitely not.

Yeah, but that's great. So I think that there's an opportunity here to combine education with the sales cycle, right? Yep. And I think if we're just always online we're missing that old school physical opportunity and today you can kind of combine it. So I'm going to tip off my tip of the week here. But it's meetups, right? You can just start up a meetup and just focus on the education. You don't need to go in there and do the hardcore sell. Hey, I've got 40 acres here, I've got 5 acres here, I've got 10 acres here to these people. But educate them on land. Land investing. Why land is such a great investment right now and then afterwards follow up with them and introduce your property to them. I guarantee it. I guarantee a percentage of those people are going to buy. What do you think?

It's all about numbers. It's a numbers game and conversion. So yep, I agree with Mark. The more you talk, the more chance you have. So there's a lot of truth in that.

So yeah, I mean I think it's a. I'm going to try the motto and I'll report back to you on how it goes. I mean all you have to do is Prepare a keynote presentation and have a fishbowl out and have them give you your card and follow up with them afterwards. Or have your virtual assistant make some phone calls and follow up.

Yep. And if you guys have never used either, what I think, is it a keynote or PowerPoint? It is so simple to put it, Put something together, a presentation. You can go, you can go, do you know, you can go Google some facts, pick them up real quick, throw them in a, throw them in, throw them in a presentation. And you can literally build a 10 page deck to talk to, talk to or with to people really quickly and make it look really presentable. I remember building a 15 page deck. I'd never used PowerPoint before in my life. I'd seen plenty of presentations. So like five years ago a guy asked me, hey, would you present on this Internet marketing stuff? And I said, I don't know enough. He goes, dude, trust me. You know enough. I said, okay. So I put this presentation in. I think it was a 15 page PowerPoint. And I had 12 people in the room at a board table that were in awe. And I was like, dude, I nailed it. That was awesome. So it's really, it's, it's really, really simple. If you haven't done it, go to Keynote, which is for Macs, and PowerPoint, which is PC or Mac. Those are really simple. Open it up, create a slide. They already have slides like preset up for you, so it's really neat. But those are really easy ways to make yourself look like you're super knowledgeable, even if you're not like me.

Right, Right. Yeah, I mean, it's just another opportunity. I mean, certainly you can, you can. I mean, look, we've been doing it for 10 plus years, strictly being online. I mean, all you need is an inexpensive computer and you can do this business. Right. But I do think that you could be missing out on a big opportunity. Just once a week or once every other week, or even once a month, do a meetup and start building yourself as, you know, the guy in your niche locally. I don't know, I think it, I think it could really help build your list and, you know, accelerate your sales cycle. I've never done it. I'm gonna try it. What's, you know, what's the worst that can happen? I'll suck at it. And you know, with practice, I'll get better at it. So, yep, it's, you know, it doesn't take a lot of time.

This goes for everything. You know, again, we're not trying to Tell you like, hey, if you're listening to us, there's a percentage of people here that are going to go, hey, I don't really want to buy land. I just want to listen to Mark and Joanne yell at each other the whole time. And so. But there are a percent of people here that may not ever go that direction. But this is useful for everything. This is useful for whatever you're working on. You know, meetups, PowerPoints, all these things are things you can utilize in your life, whatever idea you're trying to come up with. These are great. It's a great way to utilize an in person meeting through meetups and presentations about whatever you know or you want to execute on.

Right? Exactly, exactly. So I'm going to start speaking at some of these events and I'll start promoting that in the emails and the podcast as well. So, you know, depending on where you are in the country, if you want to come out and meet me face to face or Duran, I'm going to get Duran if I can afford him to come out and do it with me. Are you, are you interested in doing this?

Yeah, I just bought a tour bus, so I think we're ready to go.

You did not buy a tour bus. You got the RV though.

That's what I'm talking about.

You're going to take your rv.

That's the tour bus, buddy.

Yeah. We got to talk about your diet before I stay in an RV with you.

Yeah, it's awesome. So, yeah. Well, very good info, Mark and I want to touch on something that's kind of off topic a little bit, but that'll lead me into my tip of the week. If you guys don't know, we've talked about in the past about Internet marketing and Google and the algorithm changes with Penguin and Panda. There was a recent change this past week called the Hummingbird, and it's another change in the algorithm, but it basically goes to what we've talked about before. It's just focused on content, you and what people are looking for. So really, really honing in on what these searches are. I mean, we used to search for iPhone5. Now we search for where can I find the cheapest iPhone5s or C or whatever it is. So now with these geolocations and everything that Google uses to sort of track you, it's really helping hone in on what we as each individual searching for and what would be the best site to promote in that search for us and you individually. So just be weary that Google's always doing these things. And in this case there's another change in the algorithm which I think is good. I mean, I think Google at the end of the day is trying to make it take all these keyword stuffing websites out and really focus on what people want to read or see.

Right, right. So the most meaningful content is going to rise to the top is basically what you're saying, right?

Correct, correct. And in this case, which leads me to my table week, there's a website called Crowdcontent.com Mark said, what is this? And I said, well, it's basically a site that I can write and I don't think I'm a great writer. I'm an okay writer. I can write, I just don't have time to write. So I like to find articles and I generally will go get an article and I will sort of tweak it if I need to. Most of the stuff I do write, like entrepreneurial stuff, I write all that stuff. But if there's like, like I'm working on some very large content pieces for different websites that I don't need to really focus in on amazing content because they're part of particular pages that will probably be touched on a few times if you're roaming through a website. But you need content and content is key. So you go to these websites, help you build content and then you go in and you tweak the content. I'll go in and I'll buy a 300 page article and I'll tweak it quite a bit to make it my own, but I just don't have the time to write it generally. So I'll go in. But there's a website called Crowdcontent.com C R O W D C O N T e n t.com and that'll help you. That website's really good at helping you come up with articles. And you can pay a very small amount per word up to like I think 15 or 20 cents a word for a good article. So it's helpful for you if you're sort of building that Internet piece of your, of your project and you need to, you need to start building content and maybe you're not, maybe you're a horrible writer and you need someone to help you kind of write something that you can tweak and make your own. So. Right, that's, that's my tip of the week. I'm sorry that I'm partially losing my voice, but I talk too much.

No, no, it's, it's okay. We haven't had too many complaints about your voice. Okay, I'm going to. I'm going to send you some. Some drops or something to soothe your. Your vocal cords. Is that what you need?

Yes. Yes, please.

All right, so. Crowdcontent.com and so, okay, let me just understand this correctly. You're gonna send them like an idea and then they just write it or a keyword. So I want to write about easements, then they'll write the article for me.

Huh.

But they don't know anything about easements.

Well, that's why you pay. The more words you pay, the more they research.

Oh, I see. I see. Well, how about if I just wrote an article and then they just tweaked it and put all the search engine optimization stuff that I would need or I wouldn't know or, you know, the keywords or whatever it is. I mean, do they guarantee I'm gonna be on the first page of Google?

No.

What am I paying for?

You pay for content. Content is. It is something over time that's very valuable. You're not going to put up article up today and it's going to rank tomorrow.

Yeah, but how can I pay someone else for content? They don't know. They're not an expert. You're the expert.

You're right, Mark. But this is for, like, if you're building a site out and you need, like I need. This is how many pages I've content. I need 30. 33. 3200 pages of content.

I need how much?

3200.

3200 pages of content. This is for Land Hub?

No, it's for different websites. But this is. But of that I need of that content, which a lot of the key stuff I will be writing, but I have a team of guys that's writing for me that you won't be able to go write it yourself. Right. So these guys will go and research. Where are the whatever. Where are the best places to find the Paleo Diet cheap whatever it is you're writing about? These guys can help you. You tell them your keywords, you tell them what you're writing about, and they'll go research it and write it for you.

Okay. I mean, why not? I'll try it.

Yeah.

Just. It's just money, Durant.

It's just money.

It's just money. Well, look, you know, the. The time is more important than money right now.

Yep.

So, I mean, we can't. We can't do everything ourselves.

Yep.

Although I do think creating meaningful content is somewhere that. I mean, how long Is it really going to take 30 minutes a day?

Yeah, I mean, maybe 30. I mean, depends on if you're a good writer. You could Write it in 15 minutes. If you're a horrible writer, it could take you two hours. I don't know.

Yeah, and then, you know, I'm a big advocate right now of creating videos and putting up on YouTube, putting up on Facebook, Google, because I don't think anyone's reading anymore.

Yeah.

Do you disagree?

Disagree.

You disagree?

100% disagree.

All right, well, the stats will. I have to show you some stats. But people, you know, the videos are really rising in the ranks in the Google search engines.

Good.

So start doing videos.

Perfect. I'm in. All right, so just mark web. I think I've already talked about. I have 20 million views on my videos. How many do you have on yours?

You know, you don't have 20 million views on your videos. Your wife, who's A supermodel has 20 million videos on hers. I don't know if you guys know Duran's wife's a supermodel and she gets 20 million views. Personally, for me, I'd be a little skeeved out by the fact that 20 million men art looking at my wife, but no, whatever. Look, you're a really, really confident guy, so that's great.

That's. You know, I do have actually have, I think have two, two full time bodyguards that man the front gate and, and then one full time in the back. So we're okay. I feel fine.

It's good, it's good. As long. As long as Lauren's not freaked out by it.

Oh, dude, she carries nine millimeter everywhere she goes.

I mean, whenever you guys get into argument and she's just like, look, 20 million men.

Yes. No.

You know, I chose you.

Just, just to clarify this real quick. It's. That's not the case. My, my wife, My wife actually had a friend that had a, had a, had a video that went viral on our account and, and then we sort of just backed it up with some funny kid videos. And this video is my wife. But they're nothing. There's definitely nothing provocative at all in my opinion. Right.

No, no, they're not provocative. But, but, but yes, she is a model. She is easy on the eyes.

She's a pretty girl. That's for darn sure. So anyway, but anyways, I will, I will. So that my tip of the week is, is crowdcontin.com. so again, go to that website if you're in need of a, a writer for Your website.

Right. So I'm going to put that in the show. Notes crowdcontent.com that's it. Correct. And my tip of the week is going to be meetup they meetup.com so start your own meetup or go to someone else's meetup and start networking. That way you never know what's going to happen. And yeah, I think this was good. How do you feel about it, Duran?

I feel great.

You feel good? All right, well, if you want to learn more tips, tricks, techniques, go to www.thelandgeek.com. and we're doing a new thing now. Instead of just subscribing, you've got to register. So we want your name, last name, email address. We want a little bit more information. But because you're going to do that, we're going to give you a lot more. And included in that is going to be the passive income blueprint, three Fatal Land Buying Mistakes. You're going to get the podcast delivered to your email each week and the Coffee Talk videos as well. So there's going to be a lot more in depth content for doing that. So register on thelandgeek.com and look, buy some wholesale land, right? Frontierpropertiesusa.com if you're not just interested in the education and you're interested more in wholesale land. And of course, give Durant some love, he's working so hard. Go to reserveland.com check out landhub.com especially for those of you looking to syndicate your properties everywhere. And Duran, thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day. And please, next week, let's do something about that voice, okay?

I'm working really hard at fixing that. Sorry, sorry, folks. I apologize.

I'm going to send him some. What is it, Ricola? Would that help?

Maybe that will help me. I don't know.

All right, all right. This is Mark Podolski, the Land Geek with Duran Frazier saying make your week productive extraordinary and send out some offers. All right, we'll see you next week. Thanks a lot.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Land Geek. Join us next time for more tips, secrets and information that will help you succeed. Stay connected with the Land Geek on facebook@facebook.com thelandgeek.