Work Because You Want To: My System for Automating Your Land Business with AI & VAs

You're spending 40, 50, maybe even 60 hours a week on your land business, researching properties, making offers, talking to sellers, and handling all the paperwork yourself. But you started this journey for freedom. But now you're working harder than you ever did at your 9 to 5. There's a dangerous myth in real estate that says you need to hustle 247 to to succeed. But what if I told you that the most profitable land investors I know work less than five hours a week on their businesses? The difference isn't market selection, marketing tactics, or even starting capital. It's a strategic automation and hiring system that the majority of land investors completely overlook. And in today's episode, we're pulling back the curtain on exactly how we've built seven figure land businesses that run almost entirely without us. And the simple system that lets you fish, travel and spend time with family while your business actually performs better than when you were micromanaging every detail. So whether you're drowning in tasks or just starting out and want to build it right from day one, this could be the difference between working and because you have to, and working because you want to. Welcome the nightcap.

Cheers. Welcome.

Cheers. Joining me, as always, is the Zen master. Breathe in the mailing, Breathe out the marketing. Mike Zano. Mike. How are you, Mark?

I'm great. I'm actually feeling more calm than ever because I have come. Anna, you made an incredible recommendation to me a few weeks on this show. I went and ordered it. I've never had a coffee substitute that I thought would actually taste like coffee because I don't like the caffeine. This is now what? And for me it's nine, ten past nine at night. I can drink this. Have a nice night's sleep. So I'm feeling great. Thank you for the recommendation.

You're welcome. It's Kamana Co. And if you subscribe, you can get I think 15 off with my coupon code, Mark. So I drink it every morning. I love it. No caffeine jitters, but you get that ritual and it's delicious.

Yes.

So 100%, Mike, I'm so, I'm thrilled that you liked it. And of course we got the dude, buddy, nightcap, OG Scott Bossman. Scott, how are you?

I'm doing quite well tonight, Mark. I'm wearing my Wisconsin paraphernalia here. Not paraphernalia, my Wisconsin uniform.

Drink Wisconsin.

Yeah, it's very important.

We should all be drinking Wisconsin.

We, we really should.

Which basically means we're over. We're over serving ourselves. We're drinking. We're eating cheese curds at the same time.

Yeah.

That we're drinking. And then we're like, where's the custard? It's a dairy state. It is in the country, that's for sure. Culpers comes from. So I think we have a really good topic tonight. Using AI VAs Modern technology to remove yourself from the business while making more passively. And so I don't know if you guys know this, but I actually wrote a book about it called dirt rich 2 how to scale your land business. We talk a lot about the, the systems and processes that I use in my business to scale it to an eight figure land business. So Mike, let's just, let's just take. Let's just skip the pleasantries, man. Just tell us, just the two of us. You don't tell anybody else.

Yeah, boss was not even.

How many hours a week do you work in the business?

Yeah, a couple hours, Mark, to be honest with you. And it is due to, you know, the fact that we are so systematized. I tell people years ago, when I first started with you over a decade ago, we were incredible manifesters, but we were still new to the system. Systemizing. Oh my God. I came and now I just ruined that beautiful word. We were new to the systems, but I didn't care because nobody was paying that kind of money with the deals. Right. But when you came up with the software, I remember you messaging me, Mike, this is saving us hours and hours and hours about this LG pass. I'm like, when do I get access? When do I you? And we started slowly bringing in all the systems, all the automation, all the delegation and life just got better. Things did taste better. As you always say. It just. You saw the light at the end of the tunnel. You weren't doing everything yourself any longer. So it's incredible. This, what, this delegation automation systems VAs, even AI today, what it's doing for us is absolutely incredible.

Yeah, no, as you would say, it's a game changer.

It is.

And it's. It's because I didn't. There wasn't, you know, a coaching program for me. I had a mentor, but I was, you know, he had his own business and I was kind of meeting him for coffee. You know, he didn't really understand the land business. He just understood fundamental business principles. How to scale business, not necessarily land business. So, you know, I had to figure it out and, and I had complex, which is like, oh, come to me with your problems. I'll solve it. And that's not what you want. It's not freedom. You want to empower your team to solve their own problems within certain parameters. So like we have a policy. If it's under $1,000 to solve a problem, you have permission to solve that problem. If it's over $1,000, get permission. But for that. So it solves all these problems. Then for me where it's like can I do this, can I do that? Can we get this, can we get it that? Like what's the thousand dollars? We solve a problem. Great, do it. You don't have to go to bank. But I think as far as like the way we think about it is the three levers, right. So other people's time which would be inexpensive virtual assistance. Then you have software automation which we lg pass on the front end of the Software and then GeekPay IO the set and forget to payment system. So software on the back end and then other people's money and that's how you scale. So Zen Master talking a lot.

Yeah, but it's really great to hear that like we. You talked about some of the bookends of our business. Software, software vas in the middle, connecting it all and that. I've never heard you say it like that. So that was actually I really learned something there. Just listening to you say that that was pretty cool.

Well, thank you. Thank you.

First person I think would have been a due diligence someone to just research the properties. Right. And make sure that what I'm going to buy has all the qualities of that I'd want with a property. But it can be difficult in the beginning if you don't really, you know, know how to do this. And to the point you made about you taking so long to learn how to outsource it.

And the biggest bottleneck is yourself, right? You, you are not going to scale this business unless you remove yourself. It just won't happen. You will be that freelancer that you talked about in Dirt Rich too, right. Where you have not only your W2 but then you have a land job on top of that. And you're just not going to get to that point where you are realizing the lifestyle business or the passive income business unless you take yourself out of the equation. And how do you do that? You do that with software and people and systems and new technology.

Right.

Which is changing the game big time. So that's what enables us to do what we do and create a scalable business.

Yeah, I. I've got you guys beat. I spent an hour in in this. And it's great. It's great. And I didn't start that way. I mean, it's only taken 25 years, but I'm there. Yeah, I'm there. It's not like, you know, so often. It's not like flipping on a switch. And it literally took me five years of trying to figure this out to really scale land.

It's sort of like when someone runs the mile and breaks some record and all of a sudden other people are doing it. Well, it becomes possible. It becomes. You can see it. You're like, oh, okay, he's actually doing that now. It's not just talk, it's action. So I think the benefit of being connected with you and having a mentor on, from our perspective is that we can grow quicker into the same realizations and, you know, and applications that you've already taken, even though it took you some time. So, yeah, due diligence was the first one. I think. It's just. I think a lot of people probably would answer it with the due diligence being the first. It may be something to do with mailings, but really, the meat and potato, due diligence is something that it's readily outsourceable and it does remove a lot of time from you calling and checking on the property details.

Yeah, yeah, dude, buddy, what about you?

I mean, first of all, I feel like I should leave because there's a lot of brown nosing going on between, you know, Mike. Mike to Mark. I don't know what it is. Tonight I can leave if you'd like. You guys would need a moment alone or.

He's feeling the euphoric benefits of Kamana and I'm. I'm the recipient of it. If you're not gonna drink it, brother. I mean.

Oh, oh, okay. All right. Okay. You hold your love for you.

All right, fine.

That's fine. Hello. I'll find my own love. So. All right, let's talk outsourcing. What did I first out? Well, I agree with Mike. That's probably one of the first and easiest things to outsource is your due diligence person. But I think where I really noticed a difference in my business and me being able to claim back more time to work on other things was when I hired a really great marketing person who also had really great tech technology skills with websites and that type of thing. Like, she first started out as my ad poster on all the land sites for. Right, all the different land sites. Because, I mean, trust me, once you do that once or twice, you never Want to do it again. It's laborious work. It's not a lot of fun. It's not my superpower. So I hated it, and I wanted to get rid of it. So the other thing that I didn't enjoy was the deal, the week email.

Right.

So she just kind of evolved into from one thing to the next to the next. And then I'm like, hey, Hannah, any experience building websites? Because I had a website, but wasn't the best. Wanted to, you know, I put it together myself. Wanted to optimize the website, make it look nicer, more user friendly, more professional. And I mean, Mark, she built an amazing website, and, you know, it's kind of neat. These. The folks that you bring on your team, they can evolve from one process to the next to the next. They're hungry and they want more work, and they enjoy working for you. And they're very talented. A lot of very talented people out there. Uh, so. So that I'd say that's the. That's the one that made a. That was a. That was a game changer for me when I had somebody able to post all of those ads everywhere to get my properties in front of a lot of different eyes.

Well, I. I don't want to speak for Mike, but I do love you. Oh, I think Mike does as well.

We do.

Like, even. Even if you're not drinking Kamada.

I mean, I will be now because, you know, it's the land geek peer pressure.

Yeah. The lanky pressure is real, you know? You know, so funny, though. It's like, I don't even know you, Mike. Were you. When you were hearing him talk about that? I. I'm like, he's gonna say intake manager.

Yeah.

And he said marketing person.

You thought intake manager was coming out of his lips. I was like, he's gonna say intake.

That was the first thing, though. That made a huge difference for me.

Yeah. I don't think I've ever heard that story.

Really?

Yeah. Yeah. I had no idea.

He tells me that story all the time, Mark. I hear it all the time.

Yeah, see, this is. This is not at all. I see what's going on.

I see. See, I didn't get rid of intake right away. I actually like the intake stuff. I like talking to people on the phone.

No, I like talking to people on the phone too. But, like, after the 50th time of hearing the story, I don't know about why I bought the property. I didn't get this.

They almost got the same way. Mike's kind of same way he'd tell you.

The same way.

I always called that land therapy. Mark, people will release a property if they can tell you the story behind why they bought it, what they experienced, and then they'll let it go. But they want someone to hear that. But you're right. How many land therapies can you have in a day before you could burn out a little bit?

So I burnt out fast. But when I got that intake manager that. To do the land therapy and bathe them in empathy and then be incentivized to, like, negotiate a better deal.

Yeah.

Food tasted better, colors more vibrant, and allowed me more time to go and. And. And do more productive things to build the business. So. You know, Scott, Todd always talks about it in flight school. Like, when you're. When you're delegating or you're outsourcing, what's the first thing you outsource? It's. It's what you hate doing the most. And so, Mike, for you, it was due diligence. For me, it was intake. But, Scott, it wasn't marketing. For you, though, it just. That was what moved the needle the most. What. Or am I wrong? I don't put words in your mouth.

Are you. It was marketing. I. I'd miss. I misunderstood what you're asking.

What did you. Yeah, I mean, after your fifth whiskey. So.

No, after.

I mean, so.

Come on now. This was. This was a show built on having it. Having a nightcap, and now we're drinking Kamana and there's one guy left having a nightcap. It's fine.

No, I think. I think all the. All the millions of people who are streaming this right now are definitely drinking with you.

This Bailey's in mind. Just saying. It's nighttime, Kamana.

Yeah.

Okay. Anyway, you're saying.

Okay, so what did you hate doing the most that you outsourced first?

So. Well, the next thing. The next thing I outsourced that I. That I hated was the sales conversations. So I actually hired a sales system before I did an intake manager.

Okay.

I didn't mind those parts of the business. The sales assistant, that was another thing that I hated following up with the. Or, you know, I hated following up with the leads. There's a lot of time and energy spent having to do that, frequently calling back, emailing back, texting back, trying to get them on the horn to secure the property. That got old for me. So that was probably my next biggest pain point after all of the posting of ads everywhere.

Okay. Okay. So I love it. Mark Anthony Kinziger. Is having a nightcap with you.

You know why? He's from Wisconsin, that's why.

Yeah, he's. He's drinking Wisconsin.

Yeah.

That's fantastic. Mark, what are you drinking? I'm just curious. Everybody put in the chat exactly what you're drinking. I'd be curious. Are we beer people? Are we scotch people? Are we whiskey people? We bail these people. We, you know, fancy. I don't know, wine people behind the scenes.

Oh, there it is. There it is.

Nice. Yeah. So. Oh, Krista is, is drinking too. By the way, the name Hopson, for sure she drinks beer. I'm just saying.

Good one.

Right? Right.

So.

Good one.

Okay, let's rewind the tape now. And you're creating your first playbook or standard operating procedure, which is so important. So let's just go to first principles. Why we're doing that because the system or the process is way more important than the actual person. Because when you're relying on a talented person, you are completely dependent and people are people. Right. Fancy. I don't know why in people behind the scenes.

Oh, there it is.

There it is.

Nice. Yeah. So. Oh, Krista is drinking too, by the way, if the name Hobson. For sure. She drinks beer. I'm just saying.

Good one.

Right, right. So, okay, let's rewind the tape now. And you're creating your first playbook or standard operating procedure, which is so important. So let's just go to first principles. Why we're doing that? Because the system or the process is way more important than the actual person. Because when you're relying on a talented person, you are completely dependent. And people are people, right? Life. Circumstances change. They want to grow a family, they want to travel. They burn out. Circumstances change. And so when they leave, you're left with nothing but stress and anguish because all that intellect, all that knowledge goes out the door if you didn't create a process or system or you didn't train them to create a process or system. So there's In Dirt Ridge 2, we actually have that, the land key process of doing this. But now with ChatGPT and all the AI or Gemini or Grok, whatever you're using, it's so easy, it's so easy to have them make a video of them working like a loom or a zoom, upload it into Chat GPT and just say, make a very detailed playbook or standard operating procedure based on this video. Write it like I'm a 5 year old and then, you know, see what happens. And then have somebody else run the Playbook. So, Mike, what are your. What are your thoughts?

Can't hear you, Mike.

Oh, sorry about that. No, very powerful. I think the AI has. Now that we're shifting to the AI conversation, AI topic, I think it comes down to just giving it the correct input. Right. I mean, this, like when calculators came around, like, remember 30 years ago in college, I had this Texas instrument calculator. Remember those? Mark had all the data. I mean, that could do so much, but you had to know what to do with it. You just couldn't, like, hey, solve the problem. It didn't work that way. You had to know what to put into it. And so you can get very simple with the AI, but you can also get very detailed with your prompting and get really detailed responses. So I, I think as we're shifting to the subject that's important to touch upon.

Right.

Yeah. You can have them create that book, but you can also give it some real context as well. So it really creates something of superior value.

No, yeah, absolutely. Are you using a lot of AI right now? Are you still old school?

No, I do a fair amount of AI I like. Chat has been the one. I mean, I've tried different ones. Just come back to chat for right now. That's the one I enjoy. I know that. But it's. It's everywhere. It's in the. It's in the Gmail now. I mean, everybody's Chrome, everybody's got something, some version of it. So it's there. And I think, you know, maybe some people just see it there, but don't embrace it, don't use it. And I think they should. I think, you know, you just start, at the very least, just start playing with it on a very basic level and seeing what it can do for you. Then you can start to expand, you know your thoughts and your applications.

No, 100%. I mean, it's. It's a tool like any other tool.

Yeah.

It's not going to run your business, but it's going to make you more efficient. It's going to solve problems. I mean, to not use it now seems absolutely crazy to me. It's a really good intern. It gets you 80% of there. I still wouldn't ship its work. I don't know about you, Scott, but I personally, I. It gets me close. It doesn't. It's. I wouldn't ship it.

Yeah, agreed. I think, I think it's 80, 20 right now, for sure. I mean, even if you have any idea or a thought or, you know, a strategy, you Know regarding a property or a process or you know, finances.

Right.

I use it for, for, you know, tell me what this looks like.

Right.

Some future thinking, forward thinking things regarding finances and analyzing deals financially and that type of thing. I think it's very powerful. I think it could be very powerful in the marketing, very powerful in the sales. It's doing more and more for us all the time. It helps create standard operating procedures like you said. I'd like to go back to one other thing. You know, I hope everybody realize, realizes why standard operating SOPs, standard operating procedures.

Right.

Are so important. It's because when you create those, the person learning, the person doing is not going to come to you anymore.

Right.

So like if you can nail down a really good SOP for all the different processes in your business, you're just going to get less questions from people and you're going to be more like, you know, you're, you're not going to be the, the guy explaining everything all the time.

Right.

You're not gonna be the bottleneck.

You're not, you're not gonna be the bottleneck. Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. So yeah, for sure. And you know, if you're overwhelmed with AI or chat GPT, whatever it is, and your eyes start to glaze over because you think, well, I don't even know how to prompt it. Get meta with it and say I'm new to chat GPT and I want to create, let's just pick, you know, marketing. I, I'm doing this in my land business so I need to create leads based on this avatar. Knowing that I don't know much about ChatGPT, help me create a prompt for you that is going to get me to this outcome which would be more leads for my land investing business. And then play around with it and see, you'll be shocked. But ask it to help you and ask it to create a prompt and just keep, you know, refining it, refining it until it's giving you a quality answer and you'll know what quality looks like for sure. Yeah. So, oh, here's Krista. I'm in the process of learning how to build a chatbot. We have to be on the AI forefront of the technology for sure. Yeah. I mean, think about the future. You know, Bill Gates is predicting five, 10 years from now. There won't be any jobs where AI will be doing the majority of the jobs. And so, you know, customer service represent representatives. I mean, yeah, it's, I don't know if that's true. I still think it's gonna be A good intern. I think ultimately people like working with people. We're social animals. I don't think that goes away. But, Mike, what are your thoughts on that?

Well, I think that there's some probability that there are jobs going to be affected. And, you know, I get. People say these things. They get a lot of. Especially someone like Bill Gates. It gets a lot of attention. But, you know, is it really going to happen?

Maybe.

But I don't think what's going to change for us is that you can't. AI is not going to, you know, offer someone land the way that we do. And I don't see us being replaced in what we do. You know, maybe there's certain functions of our business that AI will replace, but the overall business concept, I can't see how AI is going to take that away. Right. So I think. I feel very. I think that that could happen, what he's talking about. But I also feel very blessed that I'm in. In a. You know, my company's in a position with what we do. I don't think is going to be. I think we're going to benefit it from it rather than be hurt by it.

No, 100%. I mean, do you think that in five years there'll be Optimus Prime, Tesla robots going into burning buildings with a fire extinguisher?

I think sometime there's going to be. You know, I've already thought about that. Hey, open up a roof with a drone and a saw. You know, just go up there and do. I mean, I can see things where it could happen like that. You know, the military does things like that now. So I can see where, you know, there could be some of that coming. I don't know. But I still think you're gonna need a human component, but that this means that we should all at least pay attention to what's going on and familiarize up. I think the fear, if you have any of this and, like, it's going to come and you're going to be left hanging high and dry, well, that's not going to serve you well. It's not like this is here. Let's. Let's look at it as Krista's talking about here. Be on the forefront. Well, just. Yeah, be on the forefront. But realize, too, that if you build a business that it isn't going to be negatively affected by this. Then that's a good idea, too, right?

No, no. 100%. And, you know, I think I talked about this last week, that Jeff Bezos question, which is if Everything's going to change, which it is. Well, what's not going to change?

Right.

I think ultimately what's not going to change is people are always going to want a real asset, and this is the asset that we're buying. It's raw land. It lasts forever. There's nothing maintained, nothing protect, can't be destroyed. Pandemics, fires, hurricanes. Your asset is going to continue to go up in value, especially in inflation. And to your point, Mike, AI isn't taking that away. You know, it's not like a chatbot is going to go and buy an asset. So we're solving that problem for people. And ultimately it's an exciting future with, you know, Tesla Starlink, where you can live anywhere and you could put, you know, some type of tiny home out in the middle of nowhere now and work and have a homestead and, and live your best life. I mean, it could be the greatest thing that ever happened to humanity. But you want to position yourself in a way where you're buying assets, they're cash flowing, and you're solving people's problems, then no matter what happens, you're not going to get displaced. Dude, buddy, what are your thoughts on that? I'm sorry, Mike, go ahead.

No, I was just going to say along those lines. I mean, this model, I always tell people like this is. I've seen flyers, though, they sold land like the way we do in New York back in the day, you know, so much down, so much a month. I mean, it's been going on for quite some time. What makes us unique is that we've systematized it and we put into a process and we know how to monetize it in a very successful way. But yeah, it's been happening for a long time and I don't see it going away. Interestingly, do you remember years ago, we were talking some of the podcasts about the virtual world we were buying? Whatever happened to that? Remember? What was that? Remember we were buying plots of land.

Oh, that's right.

What was that? That was prior to the AI. That was like six, seven years ago. You remember, Scott, we were all talking about that, buying. Do you remember what that was?

Yeah, it's still happening. I can't remember exactly what it was.

But that was interesting.

It's like virtual land, right?

Virtual land. I mean, you know, because of the, the meta quests and Apple Vision Pro where you go in and you go in these virtual worlds and it was like, you know, during the crypto thing and NFTs. Yes, but what happened to it?

I don't know.

Second Life.

Is that what it was? Okay.

But I mean, I don't know what.

Happened to it either.

Yeah, I still think it's gonna be a thing. Like what was the movie, the Steven Spielberg movie where the guy puts on.

The suit, ready to play A one?

Yeah. Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that is going to be a thing.

Yeah. So our model will work there too. We'll be able to do the same thing in the virtual world.

Yeah, we'll be able to do it for the virtual world, but, dude. Buddy, what are your thoughts?

Well, I think, you know, a lot of things are going to be really affected by AI. I think healthcare in particular, you know, it's, it's already being utilized. Healthcare is one of those industries where, you know, it's recent, it's based on research. Right. You're going to be treated based on the most current research to date, most current protocols and that type of thing. AI can replace a lot of people in that sector.

Right.

AI can replace a lot of people in manufacturing and engineering and maybe even teaching.

Right.

So maybe we're going to see like an entrepreneurial renaissance here where more and more people become entrepreneurs to, you know, to make up for that, the, the fact that, that there are going to be less jobs. So what can you monetize, what can you learn? What kind of asset business can you get into where you're, you know, and I do like land. I think land is safe in that regard because we're buying this hard asset. It's, it's tangible, it's real. We talked about last week. It's not going to disappear overnight.

Right.

And I think AI is going to help us in the business, but I don't think it's necessarily going to affect our ability to buy and sell land.

Yeah. Okay, let's talk about the team that you need to build to scale your land business. So we've already brought up a couple people. We brought up the intake manager. So for those of you that don't know what an intake manager does, they work on the piece of. The business of, of dealing with the, the seller. So let's, let's actually rewind the tape and just go through the. Just the model, if, if that's cool with everybody. So basically what we're going to do is we're going to get a list from, let's say, a county, and we can get that list using a company like xamplo or datatree.com and we get a list of people that own real property. Then we Scrub that list out. And we're left with people, let's say like by use code, by VL for vacant land. Now we just have the vacant land. And then because we're going to automate it, we're going to upload that list, that CSV file into a, a tool like lgpass.com that automates sending out the mailers. Used to be, back in the day, I had Janie in South Carolina. She would buy envelopes, she'd hand write the envelopes and mail them out. And now today, software is doing it. So now those offers go out. And typically we're sending out offers 25, $0.30 on the dollar, and we're going to get a 3 to 5% response rate. So this is where the intake manager comes in, is when the seller, potential seller, gets your offer. And you can take that call, right? And you can do land therapy like Mike says, order. The intake manager can do that call and then qualify that seller. Sometimes they just want to yell at you. They're insulted by the offer, sometimes they're confused, what is this all about? And sometimes they're really interested in selling the property. And that's where the intake manager comes in. So that's gonna be your first sort of key piece. Now the intake manager says, okay, we've got a deal. And then we move into what Mike was talking about earlier, which is due diligence. And so you can have either that outsourced a few ways. You could outsource it if it's a larger property of higher dollar property. The most traditional way to outsource that is a title company. The title company is going to give you a preliminary title report. They're going to make sure there's no breaks in the chain of title. There's no liens or encumbrances. They're going to check for back taxes, anything that would be, let's say, putting hair on this deal, so to speak, right. Is your due diligence. Now if it's a less expensive property, you could go to a company that's, that's all they do all day. Looks like parcel review.com is, is a company that specializes in due diligence. And they'll give you a due diligence report. And again, it's not going to cost you much money at all. So that's your next piece of it. So you get your intake manager, then you due diligence. And then you've got what dude, buddy was talking about, that marketing person or an ad writer. And again, these are Very inexpensive virtual assistants that you can get from anywhere in the world. We like sites like upwork.com fiverr.com hirebybomb.com there's no shortage of global talent. And so the marketing person is going to be responsible for taking that property that you now own and marketing in a variety of different ways, right? And so they're gonna create ads on the land sites, they're going to email your list of potential people, they're going to go on Facebook and social media sites and start generating leads. And then you have your sales assistant speed to lead. As soon as that lead comes in, you want someone there who specializes in more land therapy. As Mike would say, let's, let's build a relationship with the site and, and start generating leads. And then you have your sales assistant speed to lead. As soon as that lead comes in, you want someone there who specializes in more land therapy. As Mike would say, let's, let's build a relationship with this potential land buyer. Are they really serious? Are they qualified? Do they have the money? Why do they want this property? And that could be your sales assistant and then you could be the closer. Or if you don't want to do sales, you have enough volume of deals, you could actually have a sales person full time. And then really the last big piece is that acquisition manager who manages the entire team and make sure that you're hitting what John Doer would call your KPIs, your OKRs, right. Your key performance indicators, and really knowing your numbers. So I think that's the, the, the basics of your land investing team that I miss anything, Mike?

No, I think you nailed it. When I envision when you talk about this as like, you know, track a race track with people running on a track with a baton, right? And they're handing it off and the, in the baton is the deal, right? You know where they go from the intake manager hands it off to the due diligence, then maybe it hands it out to the closing team, then it goes into the ad marketing and so on and so forth. So I think it's a really nice way to visualize the whole process. And like they say in the relay race, the strongest leg, the strongest runners at the end to bring it home. So that's where you want to have. You said speed to lead. You want to have that really powerful VA in the sales position. And I always look at it like there's bookends of the business. The two bookends are being the intake manager and the sales manager, because the two, two of them, you know, one.

From point of potential land buyer. Are they really serious? Are they qualified?

Contact with a potential seller, massages the deal until it's in our inventory. And the other one from a point of contact with a potential buyer, massage the deal until it's set up in geek pay. So they really carry a bulk of the responsibility for the business. And they're super important. The rest of them are feeling in little. I'm not. I'm not saying the marketing isn't important and all that. Just saying they're not. That the strength, the true strength is on the. Because you don't have deals, we have nothing to sell. And if you don't have someone you know, then you're not going to have any notes set up if no one's doing the sales side. So just to me, that some thoughts I was thinking about when you were mentioning all that.

Yeah, no, 100%, dude, buddy, what are you thinking about?

And Mike Sandals, the track coach, just yelling at everybody on the sideline, let's go. Let's get it right.

Let's go. Yeah.

This is. It's his role. It's actually sitting up in the press box.

We are like the coach, though. That's a good analogy.

What's that?

That's a great analogy. I just. When you said that, it's like, we are the coach, right.

For the team, no?

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

Get to the point where you're overseeing your team.

Right.

And. And how do we perform the best in different legs of the race? For sure. So, Mark. Yeah. I don't think you missed anything other than other than you might eventually outsource the track coach job to an executive VA to oversee everything, which is probably more like your situation because you're only working on the business an hour a week and you're sitting up in the press box just kind of, you know, enjoying the race.

Right?

Yeah. I don't know why I'm in the press box. Like, fake news, but I couldn't I just be like the chairman?

I mean, you know, I mean, box seats, I should say. You're up.

Oh, box. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's so funny because I used to joke with my friends and I asked them about their friendships and their relationships, and we'd always use a stadium as the analogy. I'm like, so where are they sitting in your life? I'm like, do they box seats? Like, my parents don't have the best view of my. Of my life. They have the box seats, but they're definitely in the luxury box. Because when they, when I do see them, they've got a great view and it's, it's curated for them, so it's really nice. I've got other people in my life that are like, I'm like, do they box seats? Like, my parents don't have the best view of my, of my life. They have the box seats, but they're definitely in the luxury box. Because when they, when I do see them, they've got a great view and it's, it's curated for them, so it's really nice. I've got other people in my life that are, like, on the first baseline and the third baseline. Like, they're the best view of my life, but they're in the game, right? And then you've got people in your life. I don't want. I call the press passes, right? It's like, they're in the game. They're there. Can't get rid of them. The first baseline and the third baseline, like, they don't have the best view of my life, but they're in the game, right? And then you've got people in your life. I don't want. I call the press passes, right? It's like, they're in the game. They're there. Can't get rid of them. They got press passes.

I love that.

I digress.

What's that?

They got press passes.

I love that.

I digress.

What's that come from? Because that concept is really powerful. Is that something that you read in a book or is that something that you just talk about with some people in a mastermind? I love that. I love the way you're talking.

No, I, I, I, I think I created this in college. Really? Over a lot of beer.

That should be a book come from. Because that concept is really powerful. Is that something that you've read in a book or is that something that you just talk about?

Yeah, the staging theory. I don't know. Where did, where did dude buddy go?

I think I wish some people in a mastermind. I love that. I love the way you're talking.

No, I, I, I think I created this in college. Really? Over a lot of beer.

That should be a book.

Yeah. The stadium theory. I don't know. Where did, where did dude buddy go?

I think I whispered to you when he left as soon as I whisked. Yeah, he left.

I told you this was too much. Too much. I'm leaving this slick.

But that was really good. Scott, you can't deny everything you're saying about It.

You got box seats, brother.

Boxes. Yeah, I want a Shakuri board. But he left as soon as I whisked. Yeah, he left.

I told you. This is too much. Too much. I'm leaving this.

It's like I have a charcuterie board in my box seat.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And yeah, yeah, it's so funny. But anyways, I digress, Scott. Do we have any questions tonight?

It was really good, Scott. You can't deny everything.

Today.

You got box seats, brother.

Boxy. Yeah, I want a Shakur.

Plug the book. Because literally I wrote the book on how to do that.

I have a charcuterie board in my boxy.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And yeah, yeah, it's so funny. But anyways, itis.

Yeah, I think you should plug the book and. And that'll be a nice little segue into questions for 10 minutes. How's that sound?

Okay, so I have not marketing the book at all, but if you go to Dirt Rich. Digress, Scott. Do we have any questions tonight? Plug the book. Because literally I wrote the book on how to do that. You go to Amazon, there's Dirt Rich too, literally. There is a 225 page book on scaling your land business, automating using virtual assistants. What you should pay them, how to create these systems, the mindset involved. It's not a bad book. Honestly.

I think you should plug the book and that'll be a nice little segue into questions.

It's a good book, I would tell you.

And honestly, Mark, we have a program that parallels that book, right? I mean, the flight school parallels that book.

Flight school parallels that book, Absolutely.

So.

So you're not alone. We're here to help.

Very cool.

Well, we do have a question. We have a technical question tonight, which I. I know Mike Zano can help with this one.

Let's definitely give it to Eric Peterson.

Up on the screen if we're going to talk.

No, no, not a technical question, but just a technical question. Like a nuts and a nuts and bolts question, Mike, that I know you can answer. So winner one. Or according to my, as Mike would say, winner, winner one. I've sent many mail mailers, but no deals yet. I followed all the rules. How many mailers on average to get a deal?

Yeah, good question. You know, I could come up and say 3, 5%, all this. But let me just tell you this way that not all mailers are going to knock it out of the park. But consistent mailing is always going to win the day. Just like not every ad is going to Knock it out of the park and you're going to get a sale. But consistent marketing, so I hear, excuse me, a lot from people in the beginning, they get a little anxious. Mailers are going out, deals are not coming in. Stay the course, stay the course. You know, particularly if you've in flight school and you've had that one on one call with Tate where he reviews you with the area and the pricing. I mean, stay the course. You're on the right track. You know, you might send out a thousand one hundred mailers and get a deal, you might send out 500 mailers and get a deal. You just never know. Right. But the consistency is always going to produce. So I'm not a big KPI guy. I don't have. I can't throw numbers out like other people on our team can. And that's why I love it. We're all different, we bring a lot. I'm like, I'm pure emotion. And my emotion tells me that if I consistently mail, I will consistently have deals in my pipeline. I. But not every mail that crushes it. So just winner number one, stay mailing. Do not stop mailing. It will produce. Now, if you've done this on your own without any direction, you might want to get clarity to make sure the pricing is right. There could be. So I don't know by winter one who you are and what you've done for training, but there are some ways that you can up your game to make sure that you're dialed in as well. So there's some caveats there.

That's great advice, dude. Buddy, you got anything else to you to add?

Yeah, I think, you know, we get this question a lot and there are actually a number of things to diagnose with this.

Right.

You know, there's. You haven't sent mailers yet. No deals or I mean, you've sent mailers that no deals yet. So. So how long ago did you send out your first batch of mailers? Every once in a while you talk to somebody and they're like, ah, two weeks ago. Ah, too soon, right? It's too soon. It could take three to four weeks for those. Yeah, it takes three to four weeks for them to hit. And then, and then they sit on the counter for a couple more weeks and then. So that's why the consistency is very important, like Mike said, because. And then also when you click send in our software, you know, it could be three to five business days before that envelope, before that letter is even processed and sent in the mail. So if you think you mailed on day one, you actually mailed on day 10.

Right.

So there's some delay here with your mailing to begin with.

So.

So just know that's the case. And then if you have followed the rules, recheck your work.

Right.

Go back and do another pricing analysis of the area three to five business days before that envelope, before that letter is even processed and set in the. And are you right in the middle? Are you. Are you. Are you low? You know, maybe. Maybe you need to. Maybe you just need to tweak your offer so it's a little bit higher. Talk to other people in that county. That's the other thing I love about our community, Mark, is everybody is very helpful.

Right?

Yeah.

I mean, there is an abundance mentality in this community. People aren't afraid to tell other people where they're doing deals, and they aren't afraid to give people a little bit of feedback on pricing in the area. So rely on the community.

Right.

And how many mailers on average to get a deal. I really do think that when you've dialed in and you know an area. Right. And you know the pricing in that area and the supply of land is enough in that area, you should be able to get one deal for every 200 mailers. I would think. One or 200 mailers.

I think you should get one deal for every 100 mailers.

Yeah.

Yeah. But I think it depends on where you're. You're mailing.

Yeah.

That all depends on your budget.

Yeah.

My question would be, why are you only mailing?

Right.

Like, there's three legs. This. This deal flow, stool. And so you could do land arbitrage, and you could do wholesaling while you're waiting for those responses. So winner one, I'd be curious what training you've got as well.

Yeah.

5,000 mailers.

Something's up.

Yeah, yeah. And then the other question is, in my opinion, like, what type of land is it?

Right.

Are you in a really competitive area? You know, a lot of people talk to us, talk about bigger deals, bigger deals. They want bigger deals.

Right?

Right.

The bigger deals are hard to acquire. The bigger deal harder to acquire, you're not getting them at a really deep discount. So maybe that's the case. I don't know. But, Mike, what would you say?

I would say if it's been two months and 5,000 mailers, there's some diagnostics that need to be run. For sure.

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. But I think, Scott, to your point, if you're doing. If you're playing in that, that bigger. I mean, to not use it now seems absolutely crazy to me.

Right.

It's a really good intern. It gets you 80% of their. I still wouldn't ship its work. I don't know about you, Scott, but I, I personally, I. It gets me close. It doesn't. It's. I wouldn't ship it.

Yeah.

Property game, say minimum $30,000 per parcel. So competitive. You need to have, I mean, 5,000 mailers probably will get you one deal. So you're, that's, yeah. Be. Be curious what niche you're into too.

Hopefully that was helpful.

Well, I, I also think this brings up a great point about momentum and one of the things that I do think is really important in flight school is that no matter what's happening at week five, you're going to own a property. Whether you pull the lever of land arbitrage or wholesale doesn't matter. We're going to keep you. While your mailings are getting ready to produce, we're going to question. Well, I, I also think this brings up a great point about momentum and one of the things that I do think is really important in flight school is that no matter what's happening at week five, you're going to own a property. Whether you pull the lever of land arbitrage or wholesale doesn't matter. We're going to keep you while your mailings are getting ready to produce, we're going to keep you going with momentum. So you brought up a great point, Mark. And I'm not brown nose. I'm just saying he brought reads.

I think, I think it's 8020 right now, for sure. I mean, even if you have a.

Good point, Scott, I know he's, I don't want him to disagree.

Can I not even get a compliment anymore?

I'm just saying it was a good look.

Ridiculous.

Thank you.

It's a little much having the idea or a thought or, you know, a strategy, you know, regarding a property or a process or you know, finances.

Right.

I use it for, for, you know.

Tell, tell me what this keep you going with momentum. So you brought up a great point, Mark. And I'm not brown nose. I'm just saying he brought up a good point, Scott. I, He's. I don't want him to dis.

Can I not even get a compliment anymore?

I'm just saying it was a good little.

Ridiculous.

Thank you.

Saying it was a little much.

Yeah, it's a, It's a great point. It's a great point.

Yeah.

You see what I did there?

I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a, it's a great point. It's a great.

Yeah, Krista. I hope Krista Hopps is like, you know, I know that joke. Go inside baseball. Krista.

I think we should plug boot camp. Mark, real quick. It's coming. It's coming up quickly.

Yeah.

You see what I did there?

I did. Yeah, yeah. Let's plug it in.

Six weeks away.

Six weeks away. What are you going to learn at boot camp?

So first, Mike, tell people what boot camp is. Because we have a lot of first time listeners here.

I always explain like it's a value add for people that are already working with us. Right. We don't go ala carte and sell tickets to this. We're not trying to bring all these people in. This is for people that are in our community working with us learning how to scale their businesses. This is a value add. It's a three day power event. And Mark and the coaches, they come together and they bring such value. I always tell people it's not going to replace flight school, but it's going to bring a deep dive into different aspects. And no matter where you are, if you're in the beginning, you're going to pay attention. When Mark's talking about getting a list looks like.

Right.

Some future thinking forward thinking things regarding finances and analyzing deals financially and that type of thing. I, I think it's very powerful. I think it's very, it could be very powerful.

Instant sending out letters. If you come back the next time, you might be thinking about marketing on the next time sales. So coming to these over and over, you always get deep insight. So to me it's just an incredible value add that we provide to people in our community. And you can access it.

The marketing, very powerful in the sales. You know, it's. It's doing more and more for us from here.

Zoom in. You know, you don't. It's so easy. It's. I mean not that I love seeing everybody in person. And I was in the beginning, Mike, I gotta say with the COVID I was like, oh, we're gonna do this bootcamp on Zoom. I was a little anxious. It's amazing. It's really, it's really powerful. I think people feel more comfortable to ask questions, you know, when they're in the, you know, they come and someone tried to hide from the front row when you do your, you know, the live ones because they're afraid Mark might pick on me. You know, there's none of that Feeling here. And not that Mark picked on anybody. Not making them give them a confidence. God was saying he didn't pick on anybody. And so I think the boot camps are amazing.

Yeah. I mean, yeah. Boot camp is really a combination of the. The knowledge combined with community.

Yeah.

And everyone's singing from the same song sheet, so we can go deeper because they have training already. They're not coming in cold. Like, you know, like, very basic. Scott, what about you? What's your. And by the way, can I just give you a compliment? Just say what. What a. What a phenomenal nightcap this has been. I'm just enjoying you.

I love you, Mark.

I love you, man. And. And you, too, Mike.

No, I'm not gonna.

Yeah.

I'm not gonna dis all the time.

It helps create standard operating procedures, like you said. You know, I'd like to go back to one other thing, you know? You know, I hope everybody realizes. Realizes.

Pierre. I don't have any anxiety because of.

Why standard operating SOPs. Standard operating procedures.

Right.

Are so important. It's because when you create those.

I don't know how.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

I. I think boot camp is essential for growing your land business. And I always encourage everybody to go to as many as they can in the first two years because this business takes multiple years to grow. And a quarterly check in with Mark and the coaches and the community will help you move your business forward. And this business evolves with time.

Right.

Your business evolves with time. And no, bootcamp is exactly the same. Yes, we go over some of the same stuff, but every boot camp, there is talk about a new tool. There's talking about new technologies.

Right.

We feature new people that have done really well in the business. It's just all a very motivating type of environment. And no matter where you are in your journey, you're going to learn something. If you're in year one of your journey, you're going to come out of that weekend with 10 pages of notes to apply to your business.

Yeah. And I love the way we end bootcamp.

The person learning. The person doing is not with the.

Focus finder because they absolutely know. Okay, I'm leaving this bubble. And it's a lot of information. In a shorter period of time, we do that focus finder tool, and they know exactly the next thing they need to do to move the needle in their business. And as Mike would say, it's a game changer.

It certainly is a game changer.

Oh, that was a nice hard R there, buddy.

Game changer rubbing off on me, Scott, Wisconsin.

You know, you know, you know, I think it's just Darren Ruiz, my takeaway. Find out what I'm doing I hate in front of. Yay. Thanks y'. All. So far I love it all. Hahaha. Damn. I need to find something I hate now. Yeah, I mean I love the positivity. It's pretty great. There's nothing in the business that it hates. That's fantastic.

Well, you know Mark, when you come to this, especially in the beginning, it's so incredible. Honestly it really is. This whole idea of creating your own income and making yourself self sufficient. So sometimes maybe the pain points take a little time to develop, you know, because you're just so. It's like love at first sight, right. When you first, it's like, oh, everything's perfect. Right. But then you start to see, oh, I can improve this or I could do this. You start to see little places. You can tweak it.

No, no. 100%. And it's, I mean, you know, I do think it's the best passive income model.

Yes.

When you really break it down. So one time sale, you get this recurring income every single month without any of the headaches of renters, rehabs, renovations or rodents. You don't need a lot of capital, you don't need outside money, you don't need a big team. You can work, do it from anywhere in the world. You're not dealing with anything physical. You step on the keyboard, you make money. It's insane. Yeah, it's insane. And it's not, you know, reliant on any outside.

Not going to come to you anymore.

Right.

So like if you can, can nail down a really good SOP for all the different processes in your business, you're just going to get less questions from people and you're going to be more like, you know, you're, you're not going to be the, the guy explaining everything all the time.

Right.

You're not gonna be the bottleneck.

You're not, you're not gonna be the bottleneck.

Yeah, things like, you know, E commerce can be great, but not with tariffs.

Right.

Those people are being affected. There's so many different businesses out there that I mean even traditional real estate interest rates go up. I know so many multifamily operators, they're getting crushed. Crushed. Our business just, it's boring, I'll give you that. It's not sexy. But when your passive income exceeds your fixed expenses and you're like these guys and you're working when you want where you Want with whom you want and you're free. You can drink. Come on in the morning, drink come on at night. Come on you know, go on your peloton and tonal. Eat a bunch of cheese curds with your wife whenever you want. Pretty good. You drink responsibly. Pretty. Pretty good. Pretty good.

No, it's all good. It's all good. We've come up on an hour. I think it was a good hour. Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. So yeah, for sure. And you know, if you're overwhelmed with AI or chat GPT solid hour. Is any. Any last questions or any last comments?

Let's see here. We got somebody looking for a JV deal.

It has a 5 bed C. Whatever it is. And your eyes start to glaze over.

Because four bed property, four bath property on it needs a full rehab. You want that?

Well, I don't even know how to prompt it. Get meta with it and deal.

Mark.

No, no.

It's physical. I don't want to deal with anything physical. That's a headache.

We like no headaches. We like headaches.

Right.

I gotta call contractor.

I'm stuck in my head now. Let's get physical. Physical.

Let me hear you.

Because you're Mike Zano.

Yeah, I love it. And say I'm new to chat GPT and I want to create. Let's just pick, you know, marketing.

What movie was that?

It wasn't a movie. It was Olivia Newton John.

It wasn't a movie.

Apple TV show. Physical.

No, no, this is back in the day.

He's talking about let's get Physical. The song by Olivia Newton John from like 1980.

Yeah, that's. That's just some.

This is a song to a movie.

Top 40 song. It was probably in a movie at some time, but I don't think it came out.

Just tell us. You know.

You know I said 1980. That's my guess. Can we check?

Yeah. Okay.

What.

What year was Greece? That's where. That's like where Olivia Newton John broke through. Was that 79?

Is that 1881? Is. Let's get.

Wow, that was close.

So close.

So close. Well, we've.

I. I'm doing this in my land business, so I need to create about an hour.

Should we see what we're talking about next week?

What are we talking about next week? Leads based on this avatar. Knowing that I don't know much.

Let. Let me see.

Let's talk about it.

Are there any more crazy giveaways? I hope not.

Not.

Not that I'm aware of.

Okay, wait a minute.

There must be something he's got.

We'll let you know last minute, Mark.

Yeah, yeah, great. Oh, and by the way, by the way, and his Jabot chat GPT, help me create a prompt for you that is going to get me to this outcome, which would be more leads for my land investing business. First, just opt in to watch Nightcap.

So, Mark, the next nightcap we are talking about, well, the title of the nightcap is should we expect a recession in 2025 and how might that affect the land business? So that'll be good.

And then play around with it and see. You'll be shocked. But ask it to help you and ask it to create a prompt and just keep refining it, refining it until it's giving you a quality answer and you'll know what quality looks like for sure. Yeah. So. Oh, here's Krista. I'm in the process of learning how to build a chatbot. We have to be on the AI forefront of the technology for sure topic. All right, awesome. Well, thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Thank you. Dear listeners. Let's all bring it in. Let's hug it out.

A lot of love on this call tonight.

You were involved in that hug.

I was involved.

I know. I'm just saying, a little upset there. You were part of that.

Yeah.

I saw you leaning more toward each other. It's fine. I'm out here on the edge. I'm over here. It's okay.

We. I, I gotta send you some coma, Scott. Yeah, you don't. Yeah, don't worry about. I, I'll send you some.

Okay, good.

All right.

Let freedom ring.

I got.

Let freedom ring.

Let freedom ring.

Yeah. I mean, think about the future. You know, Bill Gates is predicting five, 10 years from now. There won't be any jobs where AI will be doing the majority of the jobs. And so, you know, customer service represent representatives. I mean, yeah, it's. I don't know if that's true. I still think it's gonna be a good intern. I think ultimately people like working with people. We're social animals. I don't think that goes away. But, Mike, what are your thoughts on that?

Well, I think that there's some probability that there are jobs going to be affected. And, you know, I get, People say these things. They get a lot of. Especially someone like Bill Gates. It gets a lot of attention. But, you know, is it really going to happen?

Maybe.

But I don't think what's going to change for us is that you can't. AI is not going to, you know, offer someone Land the way that we do. And I don't see us being replaced in what we do. You know, maybe there's certain functions of our business that AI will replace, but the overall business concept, I can't see how AI is going to take that away. Right. So I think. I feel very. I think that that could happen, what he's talking about. But I also feel very blessed that I'm in. In a. You know, my company's in a position with what we do. I don't think is going to be. I think we're going to benefit it from it, rather than be hurt by it.

No. 100. I mean, do you think that in five years there'll be Optimus Prime, Tesla robots going into burning buildings with a fire extinguisher?

I think sometimes there's going to be, you know, I've already thought about that. Hey, open up a roof with a drone and a saw. You know, just go up there and do. I mean, I can see things where it could happen like that. You know, the military does things like that now. So I can see where, you know, there could be some of that coming. I don't know. But I still think you're gonna need a human component, but that this means that we should all at least pay attention to what's going on and familiarize stuff. I think the fear, if you have any of this and, like, it's going to come and you're going to be left hanging high and dry, well, that's not going to serve you well. It's not like this is here. Let's. Let's look at it as Krista's talking about here. Be on the forefront. We'll just. Yeah, be on the forefront. But realize too, that if you build a business that isn't going to be negatively affected by this, then that's a good idea too, right?

No, no, 100%. And, you know, I think I talked about this last week, that Jeff Bezos question, which is if everything's going to change, which it is. Well, what's not going to change?

Right.

I think ultimately what's not going to change is people are always going to want a real asset. And this is the asset that we're buying. It's raw land. It lasts forever. There's nothing maintained, nothing protect, can't be destroyed. Pandemics, fires, hurricanes.

Your.

Your asset is going to continue to. To go up in value, especially in inflation.

Yeah.

And to your point, Mike, like, AI isn't taking that away. Like, you know, it's not like a chat Bot is going to go and buy an asset. So we're solving that problem for people. And ultimately it's an exciting future with, you know, Tesla Starlink, where you can live anywhere and you could put, you know, some type of tiny home out in the middle of nowhere now and work and have a homestead and, and live your best life. I mean, it could be the greatest thing that ever happened to humanity. But you want to position yourself in a way where you're buying assets, they're cash flowing, and you're solving people's problems, then no matter what happens, you're not going to get displaced. Dude. Buddy, what are your thoughts on that? I'm sorry, Mike, go ahead.

No, I was just going to say along those lines. I mean, this model, I always tell people like this is. I've seen flyers or they sold land like the way we do in New York back in the day, you know, so much down, so much a month. I mean, it's been going on for quite some time. What makes us unique is that we've systematized it and we put into a process and we know how to monetize it in a very successful way. But yeah, it's been happening for a long time and I don't see it going away. Interestingly, do you remember years ago, we were talking some of the podcasts about the virtual world we were buying? Whatever happened to that? Remember? What was that? Remember we were buying plots of land.

Oh, that's right.

What was that? That was prior to the AI. That was like six, seven years ago. Remember, Scott? We were all talking about that, buying. Do you remember what that was?

Yeah, it's still happening. I can't remember exactly what it was.

But that was interesting.

It's like virtual land, right?