Tips and Tools You Can Use Now to Improve Your Life

Hey, it's Mark Podolski at the Land Geek with your favorite niche real estate website, thelandgeek.com and on this week's Roundtable podcast, we have almost all the usual suspects. We've got Eric the Technician Peterson. Eric, how are you?

I'm well. Good to be here.

It's good to see you. And interestingly enough, no hot Nashville chicken anywhere to be seen.

Not today.

Not today.

That does sound good. It always does.

Yeah. We got Tria putting in the reps. Harris. Tria. How are you?

I am well. How are you, Mark?

I'm great. I'm great. You can tell I'm hungry because I'm thinking, when's the last time you had Thai food? This week? This week?

Last week? I had Thai food last week.

Last week. Okay. And we got. I love it when you call me Big Papa. Tate Litchfield. Tate, how are you?

I'm good. Happy to be on here.

Good to see you. And you actually probably are hungry.

It's lunchtime.

Yeah.

We're going to get through this, all right?

We're going to get through it quickly, safely, and then last but not least, you know him, you love him. The brain, the professor, your flight school Sherpa. Scott Todd from scotttodd.net landmodo.com Learn anything about anything. Investyourninjas.com Scott Todd. How are you doing?

Good. I remember the last time I ate Thai food.

No, I think you're thinking Indian food.

No, no, no. I remember the last time I ate Thai food. It was February of 2020. You and Tate were in Tampa, and we went to a Thai restaurant. That's high enough. This is before COVID It was at the beginning.

That place was good.

That was good. That was. I totally remember that place. How. How do we. How do we visit Tampa and not go to Burns? Like, how did we not go there with Tate was.

Well, you and I went on that trip.

Wow.

Tate.

Tate left home to go home, and you stayed one extra night. And that's the night that we went to Burns.

Oh, okay, good. So Tate.

Tate missed out by going home early.

That's okay. Yeah. It was like punishment. I remember that now.

Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Vindictive. Mark came out. Oh, you're going home early today. That's fine. Watch this. Do you know what the dessert room is? We do. Yes.

I know.

I know now because it's been told to me a hundred times over.

Well, it seems like a minute ago now. Anyways, we've got a great podcast, and because it used to be Back in the day, we would all give a tip of the week, and it wasn't until Philip Ma raised his hand years ago and said, you guys are killing us with tips of the week. Please, just one tip of the week per podcast. And we thought, oh, that's great. Only one of us has to come up with a tip of the week each podcast episode. And even to this day, I'll be honest with you, it's so hard to come up with a tip of the week. But this episode is all going to be about what is our favorite tips of the week. It could be a book, a website, a resource, but something actionable for the art of passive income listeners to do. Go improve their businesses, improve their lives. I hesitate to ask Eric Peterson to go first because I know he doesn't like.

Okay, I can handle it.

So who would like to go first?

I'll go first.

You're gonna go first. Awesome. Eric the Technician Peterson, what is your tip of the week?

So my tips today are going to revolve around audiobooks. I listened to a decent amount of audiobooks, and the first one that comes to mind, I finished, I don't know, a couple months back, and I remember I vox Tate after I finished it, and I was like, you got to.

Listen to this book.

And he's like, oh, no, no, no, I already listened to it. It's awesome.

So.

So it was bitcoin billionaires. And as many of you know, I enjoy crypto. That book is an amazing listen or read just to hear some of that story. And then the next one after that that I would recommend is called the Infinite Machine, which is kind of about the development of Ethereum, and I believe they're making a movie on that one in the. In the near future. But both of those books, they're both crypto focused but good listens, so I'll start with that.

So your tip is fake money? Yep.

That's what you want to call it?

Hold on a minute. We said one tip, and Eric now comes out of the gate with two.

It's kind of.

I don't have to.

These full fancy crypto guys don't listen to the rules anymore. They're decentralized, Scott. You and your centralized rules. No, no, no. If we say tip of the week, he's going to go with five or six tips of the week, and by the way, anonymously, and it'll be on the blockchain. All right, so for those of you crypto people out there, you're loving this, this humor for everybody else, you're like, what is Mark talking about?

Right.

I do think we should expand on it because crypto is an interesting topic and a lot of people are interested in crypto, myself included, but we don't talk a lot about it. I do think it is interesting. The bitcoin billionaire book is great. The Infinite Machine. I don't know much about the story of Ethereum. How is Ethereum different than, say, other cryptocurrencies?

I'm not going to claim to be an expert here, but from the way that I would maybe best describe it.

For.

Someone that doesn't know a lot about crypto is Bitcoin was essentially the start of cryptocurrencies.

Right?

But there were some things lacking in the, in the bitcoin blockchain and how it was developed that weren't really possible. And the main thing being what's referred to as smart contracts. And Ethereum was developed to make all of that possible. They wanted to develop this other cryptocurrency, this in this blockchain behind it that would allow for these smart contracts and the flexibility and the things that can be built with these smart contracts really open up the doors to so many other possibilities. And we're seeing many of those possibilities already, and they continue to develop more and more things that can utilize those.

I think for our business. The smart contract is here already, correct? Or it's still not ready for prime time.

Are you referring to like a service out there that.

Contracts?

Certainly there's some out there that are trying to take advantage of some of that technology. Whether it's the best solution maybe yet to be determined. But I mean, I just think there's so many possibilities, not only in our business, but in many others, where these smart contracts could be utilized in a way that could make our lives just so much easier. Essentially, the smart contract means that it's written into the code that, you know, for example, you know, in selling a piece of land, well, maybe even simpler, like something that would involve royalties, like a piece of music or something. You know, you've got multiple people that get revenue from that piece of music when it's played. There might be the musician, there might be a producer, there might be a label, etc. And the idea of the smart contract is as that money comes in, it can just be distributed based on those percentages to those people. So it's a pretty powerful thing and can really eliminate a lot of kind of extra work that we do nowadays. So, you know, if we think about land, you know, there's Lots of possibilities in our terms, contracts and things like that as well.

Yeah, the future of this technology is going to be very interesting as it, as it develops. I think it's so it's still early days and I can imagine that. Well, I know Tate can't imagine this, but I remember a day when you didn't feel safe to make a credit card transaction online. That was really risky. And this whole idea of doing anything like that online was like, oh, this is just ripe for fraud and scams. And then we see how it developed today where it's kind of slowly over time. But there's a little company out there that I think most of us have heard of called Amazon that's totally dominating. And I think that could be the future of money in cryptocurrency where we will all be transacting in that way. And you definitely should get educated about it. Now, whether or not you believe it or not is. It's completely up to you. But I think to put your head in the sand and ignore it could be a huge mistake. In the same way that my parents probably put their head in the sand, were like, oh, what's this online thing called? The Internet. Right. So it's here. We don't know who the winners are going to be, the losers are going to be. But just like the Internet boom, there will be some major players that survive and, and it will be a winner take all environment, which it seems to be. That's what the Internet does.

So.

Great tips, Eric Peterson. I'm saying a long winded way. All right, Terea, point of the ribs, Harris, what is your tip of the week?

So my tip of the week has probably been given before, before my time, actually. But it's one of my favorite books. I read it maybe every couple years, and that's Atomic Habits. I thoroughly enjoy this book. And it's one thing I love books that are practical, but then over time I kind of fall off or I cease doing what I know I'm supposed to do. So it's a good reminder. This book talks about how changing behaviors, oftentimes people go for the dramatic and the drastic change as opposed to just the small minute changes would ultimately end up being bigger changes down the road. So I love this book by James Clear.

Yeah. So Trio, why don't you pick like a popular book?

Because I like it.

I'm totally joking, by the way. Atomic Habits has been like the biggest bestselling book like the last five years. That thing is like a supernova and there's a Good reason. It's a supernova. And I think that is one of those. Those few books, when fully understood, is life changing. Almost like a rich dad, poor dad was for me back in the day. Just to change your mindset. That's a great book. Just to revisit quarterly, at least annually, for sure. Because our life is basically based on our habits. And if you're not happy with your life, look at your habits. That's what it is. I have a habit of talking too long on this podcast. Right. I mean, I need to change that atomically. I can make one small adjustment and just stop talking and ask Tate Litchfield, what's his tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, Something else. Actionable. Tate.

All right, so mine's not really a business book. It's actually the most recent book that I've gotten. And due to having a young family, I live in the city.

This is.

This book is called Outdoor Kids in an Inside world, Getting your family out of the house and radically engaged with nature. And it's by a guy named Steven Rinelli, and he is a pretty famous outdoor activist. He has a YouTube channel podcast. He has a series on Netflix called Meat Eater. And I really like this guy. I like his approach to life and sustainability. And he came out with this book, and it's really interesting, and it's got some really interesting tips. So it might not be perfect for everybody, but if you're like me and you have a. A big emphasis of, you know, the great outdoors in your life, I think you'll find value in it, and your kids will thank you for it later. So not really a business book, but I do believe it's a quality of life book.

Yeah, I think. And I think if you improve your quality of life and you're getting outdoors more, that will ultimately improve your business, or at least improve the way you feel about your business. Yeah. So, okay, Tate, I'm just going to put you on the spot. What was your biggest takeaway from that book?

You know, I'm not done with it entirely, but I think the number one takeaway that I've had is that the more time we spend in nature, the great outdoors, the happier we become. I mean, plain and simple. And that is the emphasis here from an early age, is that if you make those sacrifices to get outside, and sometimes that's not possible for everybody. If you live in New York, it's a little bit more difficult to get out into traditional thoughts of what nature is. But it doesn't mean that time outside is ever wasted. So my main takeaway is that if it's important to me, I'm going to have to make some sacrifices so that my kids find it important as well. And all the studies, there's a million studies out there that prove, you know, we are happier humans when we spend time outside connecting with something that's bigger. And I do think that this book also kind of embodies the idea that, hey, kids can do hard things and it shouldn't always be easy for them. Take them on long hikes, go camping, put them out of their comfort zone. Even if it's out of your comfort zone as well, they'll only benefit from it. So, great read. The audiobook is fantastic. The author reads it himself, and so it's really engaging, and you can kind of feel his emotion and his energy in the.

In the.

In the book. So I highly recommend it.

I love that. And for those of you with families, I actually did a little bit of research on this, and it turns out the characteristics of all happy families, it's like there's a whole bunch of things, but the one thing that all happy families have in common. Camping. Yeah.

Love of the great outdoors.

Love the great outdoors. So there you go. Scott, Todd, what is your tip of the week?

All right, so Terea kind of mentioned this. She said she reads that one unpopular book, like, once a year just to kind of give herself a restart and a refresh. But what if she could get nuggets from that book and all her other favorite books as reminders throughout the year to like, oh, yeah, that's a good idea, or, yeah, am I doing that? You know, like, so that's what my tip does. It's going to solve that problem. Or even for Tate, like, Tate's reading this book, and then guess what? He's got to remember to put it into practice. So check out Readwise IO Readwise IO. Obviously, it's an app you can get. I think you can also sign in online, too. And basically what happens is you tell it like, hey, these are the books that I like, or these are my popular books. And then if you read on a e reader, like a Kindle or Ibooks, well, then it can sync your favorite highlights with that. And then in doing so, it will bring them back to you on like a newsfeed almost on a regular basis so that you get the reminders of the golden nuggets that you've highlighted or that you've shared or that you told the app that you like. It brings it back to you. And it allows you to go in there and just make the reading. Not a one time thing, but to incorporate these things into your life. And it doesn't just work with books either. It's like ebooks, like Instapaper and all these other apps too. Twitter, all this other stuff. So check it out.

I actually like this tip of the week. And I love the way how it is completely the complete opposite of Tate's tip of the week where he's out the outdoors. It's like here, let's put you on another. More screens.

No, no, no. See, this is in conjunction with Tate's anterior to some extent and almost Eric's too because he talked about audiobooks. But look, I, I'm just saying that you can look at your phone even in the great outdoors. You can do that.

But you probably shouldn't, honestly.

I mean, why you're breathing the fresh air, right? Getting the sun.

I don't know. What does Stephen or Nelli think about bringing your, your, your devices into the great outdoors?

Yeah, I mean, you can imagine he's not.

Yeah. That being said, I, I do think it's in all seriousness though, efficient way to read. And I think too many people honestly don't read with intention. Like they'll read the book. I think I'm guilty of this as well. I'll listen to the book and if you're not taking notes, you're not engaging or you're not highlighting if not engaging with the book, well, you're probably forgetting literally 90% of what you're listening to or what you're reading. I think when we listen to something and we write it down and we take notes, we remember like 50. When we teach it to somebody else, we actually remember about 80%. So what do you think, Scott Todd? See how I, how I boomerang that back?

That's pretty good. I do wonder though, I wonder like, you know this, this book that Tate was referencing, I mean, is there a complaint about taking your Atari out? I mean, I know you did this. You took your Atari out, you ran an extension cord outside and you played your Atari outside, right? Like, isn't that what you did back in the day, Ari? Atari. Atari.

Look, I'm not afraid.

Before Tate's time, I played Pong, man.

And Intellivision was a great one.

Yeah, Pong, right. What about that tank? That tank game? Remember that tank game on Atari?

Oh, yeah, that was great.

It is completely like. Did you see the deer in the headlights look at just a second ago? Like Atari?

What's that?

And then he's like. He's googling it. And now he's wondering, like, how old are these dinosaurs on this?

Well, first I thought maybe he's making a dig at me. Like he's throwing out words I don't understand. And maybe that's a below the belt kind of blow. But then I realized nothing about yours. This is just early video game talk. You know, it's your. It's your true land geek nerd coming out.

I like it.

I welcome it.

All good, man.

Yeah.

War Game was my favorite. That, that and the Pitfall. The jungle game. Pitfall.

Love Pitfall.

They probably have it in, like, the app store. You could probably get like a mobile version of it.

Listen, you can. Hold on, hold on. See, there's this thing about the Atari because you would hold the base like this. And I had that one stick. Eric knows what I'm talking about, too. Like, you have the bass. You hold the bass like this and you have the stick. Okay. And then the button. Now, if I gotta do on my phone, that requires the sequence is wrong. I need the Atari base because it emulated the original video games, too. Like the Pac man kind of a deal. Come on, man. You can't bring that stuff mobile. It's not the same.

Look at that. You can get an Atari Legacy Centipede stand up game for 4.99.

I love Centipede.

There you go. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we've. This is really devolved into some serious cake.

Play Centipede in your car now.

Like, probably in your Tesla, right?

Yeah. I mean, there's tons of games.

Oh, look at. Look at this mark. Hold on a minute. I just googled this thing, man. You can get the. On Amazon, you can get the Atari Flashback 8 Gold with those controllers.

How much?

And pitfalls included in it. Holy cow, man.

Oh, my gosh. I know. I know what I'm getting you.

No, I do not need this.

It's just a cool gift.

No, no. It would have to be returned. Can't. It's not sustainable. All right, well, if Frogger's on there too, man.

Good one.

Frogger was so good.

There you go.

I. You know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Controllers have cords on them.

Yeah, the good ones do.

Oh, yeah.

Eric, close to the tv. What was your video game of choice as a kid?

I remember playing Pitfall and Frogger both and then Super Mario Brothers.

Yeah, the great. Yeah, Super Mario Brothers is great. The great thing about Pitfall is like, you kind of felt like Indiana Jones. I was like, what is like, like, was that like the early 80s? Right?

I remember, I thought it was like in the 70s, man. Late 70s.

Was it late 70s?

1982 is when Pitfall came out.

Wow.

82.

Oh my.

Tyson's punch out. We played a lot of that.

Yeah, that was great. Anyways, I've got a tip of the week.

Yeah, what was yours? I mean, come on man.

I thought, you know, because everyone's like, oh, do I need a website? Do I need a website? Do I need a website? I thought, well, here's a one page website that you get for free. That's really simple, responsive, easy, just it's, it's build one page sites for pretty much anything. Personal profile, landing page to capture emails or something a bit more elaborate. It's called C A R R D Co. C A R R D Co Car Co and it's free now if you want, like to make it like a custom domain. You want to publish more than three sites from a single card. You want forms like sign up like ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, Mailchimp, you know any of those Google Analytics. You want to get rid of the branding. You want widgets and embeds from third party services like Stripe, PayPal, Gumroad type form. Guess how much that is per year to get all that optional GoPro. It's not 9.99amonth, it's $19 a year. Which is literally less than Scott Todd in his donut this morning. I don't think a lot of you don't know about his gluten free fancy donut. Gluten free from a specialty baker that charges 22.99 for the special donut. Gold encrusted.

That's only for the ones he's flying in from Brentwood.

Yeah, that's right. The beluga caviar donut.

Oh boy.

Anyways, how great is this that we don't now have to talk about our tips of the week?

Yeah, we're done now, right?

Yeah.

Let freedom ring.

Well, I'm sorry. It's all about the freedom of ring. I do want to say today's podcast was sadly sponsored by flight school. Learn how you can start building a passive income without renters, rehabs, renovations and rodents go up that mountain of land, investing quickly, safely and efficiently. Scott Todd, as your Sherpa who's done it thousands of times, just go to landgeek.com training thelangic.com forward slash training. Oh yeah, that flight school tuition ain't going to cost you nothing. Guaranteed you're going to make that tuition back 180 days or less. Cash terms, deals. Just show us your work. It's that simple. Just show us your work that you showed up to do it. All right, I want to talk about one last thing before we go. Top Gun.

No, some of us haven't seen.

No, no, no. Like, just like, have you seen Top Gun? Are you gonna see Top Gun? Is it worth seeing Top Gun, Tate?

Oh, it was awesome, man. It was great. I loved every minute of was classic, but it was a modern day twist on it, so it was fantastic.

Great.

It was just great.

Okay. Eric, have you seen it yet?

I have not. I'm really excited to see it, though.

Sure.

Yeah, I'm excited to see it. We didn't have time this weekend, but sometime before next weekend, I hope we can.

Okay, great. Scott. Todd, how about you?

I haven't seen it, but I will.

Okay, I'm gonna go see it. I did watch an Apple tv per Zaino's recommendation. We crashed on Apple tv. Did you guys see that?

No, he didn't give us that recommendation.

It's the story of WeWork, and it's crazy. It is crazy. But there are some interesting business lessons in there, so when you guys see it, we can discuss it. Because it actually does apply to some interesting business principles, or lack thereof. So it's pretty good. Anyways, I want to thank the listeners. Remind them the only way that we're going to continue ranting and raving about various topics is if you do us three little favors. Follow rate Review the podcast. Send a screenshot of your review to supportlandgeek.com and we're going to send you for free a signed copy of Dirt Rich. And I might even read your review in real time. We'll help out all our fragile egos, so please do it. Thank you. All right, let's do this. One, two, three, Let. Our enthusiasm today has just been off. I think it's just. I'm recovering from COVID Everyone seems tired.

Summer, man, we're just.

The energy is just not there.

But maybe next time.

Maybe. Yeah, next time we'll. We'll bring it.

Dumping jacks next time.

What's that?

Better start doing some jumping jacks for next time.

Yeah, no kidding. I don't know. Anyways, thanks everybody.

See you.

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@thelandgeek.com forward slash training. Let freedom rain it.