Podcasts about jill so

In this episode of the Just Schools Podcast, Jill Anderson and Dr. Jon Eckert engage in conversation about the profound impact of educators and the importance of recognizing their contributions. Jon tells us inspiring anecdotes of teachers who have made a lasting difference in students' lives, reflecting on the transformative power of kindness and support in education. Jon recounts a personal experience from his own schooling, to emphasize the enduring influence of a compassionate teacher. They explore the crucial role of validation and collaboration between educators and parents in nurturing children's well-being and development. While acknowledging the challenges educators face, such as burnout and high expectations, they also highlight the resilience and hope inherent in the teaching profession. The dialogue focuses on the significance of prioritizing joy, growth, and meaningful connections in education, beyond mere academic success. Ultimately, the conversation stands as a heartfelt tribute to educators, celebrating their tireless dedication and profound impact on shaping young lives. To learn more, order Jon's book, Just Teaching: Feedback, Engagement, and Well-Being for Each Student.   The Just Schools Podcast is brought to you by the Baylor Center for School Leadership. Each week, we'll talk to catalytic educators who are doing amazing work.   Be encouraged. Connect with us: Baylor MA in School Leadership Baylor Doctorate in Education Jon Eckert: @eckertjon Center for School Leadership at Baylor University: @baylorcsl Mentioned: The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up by Abigail Shrier    Transcription: Jill: Hi, my name is Jill Anderson and I'm the director of the Center for School Leadership. Jon is with me here, and we're going to flip the script today, and I will be asking the questions. Jon has heard and experienced so many incredible stories from educators across the world. And so to celebrate the Teacher Appreciation Week, we wanted to share some of those stories to encourage and to inspire the good work that each of the educators out there are doing to help each student flourish. So we'll go ahead and get started with the first question. Can you share a story or two of an inspiring teacher? Jon: Yeah. So as we always talk about, we have the best job in education because this is what we do. We just go all over the world and find good things that are happening and try to highlight those, elevate those, and spread those ideas. And they're always built around human beings. And so these stories of cool things happening, I have a ton of those and we'll share them throughout the episode today. But I have to go all the way back to my first grade because that's now I guess about 43 years ago, that would be, that I was in first grade, and this is still as memorable as something that happened yesterday to me. And that's where the power of an educator comes in into the life of a student, where that educator comes alongside and helps that kid become more of who they're created to be. So this happened. The first part of it, it's not such a great teaching example, the second part is good, so stick with me. So I'm in art class. I love art. It's one of my favorite parts of the day. We're getting ready for Halloween, so we're making witches and so we're having to cut out the circle part of the head. And Mrs. Fleshy, the art teacher who've been doing it for quite a while and was a little grumpy, but she's been managing elementary kids in art for probably 30 years, so that could wear anybody down. But she's going around and passing out the scissors. And I don't know if people that are listening, if you're old enough to remember this, but left-handed scissors were always green-handled scissors. And so I knew I was left-handed, but I'd also been diagnosed with dyslexia. And so I had a really hard time knowing which hand was which. I had a hard time reversing words, you could put was and saw on top of each other. And I knew they were different, I couldn't tell you how. Six and nine, B and D they felt like they were invented by Satan just to confuse me. And so I get the scissors and she's watching me because I think she didn't believe I was left-handed. And I put them on my right hand. She's like, she snatched them from me. She's like, "Oh, you're not left-handed." And she gave me the silver-handled scissors. Jill: So sad. Jon: And I was like, "Ah, but I..." And she's moved on to the next person. And so then we're trying to cut out these circles. And if you remember the old scissors at least, if you had them on the wrong hand they did not cut. And so I'm sitting there so frustrated because I cannot get the scissors to cut the paper with my right hand, which I know I'm supposed to have on my right hand and I can't cut with my right. So I try on my left and then they really don't work. And so I start to cry because I'm that frustrated. And Mrs. Fleshy from the front of the room, she says to me, and I can still hear her, I can still smell her too actually, "Jon, if you're going to be disruptive, you need to just get out of class." I'm like, oh. So I go out of the class, I sit in the hallway and just tears are pouring down. And fifth graders are walking by me and sixth graders, and I'm just completely mortified but I can't stop. My first grade teacher, Ms. Thayer comes walking by and she's also been teaching for 30 years. I always say the best teachers in a building and the worst teachers in the building are typically the most veteran teachers, because they're either amazing and they have all that expertise or they're kind of just waiting for retirement. So you have that. So Ms. Thayer comes by and she sees me and she grabs me by my hand. And she takes me back to the room and we sit knee-to-knee in those little first grade chairs. And she asked me to tell her what happened. And so through those halting sobby breaths, I get out what happened? And she just looks at me and she says, "Mrs. Frischi shouldn't have done that to you." And then she gives me this big hug. And from then on I would run through a wall for that woman. And 43 years later, I still get chills thinking about the way she saw me, knew me and loved me in that moment just by breaking adult code saying, "Hey, that was wrong. And I know you weren't trying to be disruptive." And she gave me that hug and I was like, "Hey, I am forever loyal to you, Mrs. Thayer." So many other stories we see all around the world but I just thought I'd start with that one, because I don't think I've ever told that story very publicly. And so I was like, hey, Ms. Thayer needs to get honored wherever she's at now. I'm sure she's up in heaven at this point listening to this podcast. Jill: Yeah, I definitely had not heard that story, but that's such an amazing story to share it because of the validation, it's all it took. It was just to sit at your level and understand what you were going through and that was it. So it's not very hard to do, but it takes some time and thought to say, "Okay, I need to take a minute and see what this kid's going through." Jon: Exactly. Jill: So how can we celebrate teachers? Jon: So I think at the center, you're the director. It's great by the way having somebody else ask the questions because that's usually my role. So thank you for doing that. I think what we do is we just keep elevating the good work that's happening all over the place. There are amazing things happening that we see in the US. I've been to Australia, to England, I go to New Zealand this summer, and we're seeing amazing things happening with educators in public schools and private schools. And so just honoring the work of the profession and taking the time to listen and observe. I'll give you two quick examples where there's this reinforcing cycle of this relational component. That's where the hope always is, is in relationship. Teaching's one of the most human things we do. And so, I was in South Carolina last year. I was in a rural school and was in an early childhood classroom for at-risk kids and walked into this room and in the corner there's this tiny little wheelchair, which there's not much more depressing than a tiny wheelchair. And then a little guy who's less than 30 pounds laying on this mat, and he was just recovering from a seizure. And so he was really exhausted. He's trying to make eye contact with this teacher and he's making this noise. He's not verbal and he's making this noise, and you can tell he just wants the teacher's attention. And she's working with a small group of kids in the other corner. And she notices and she goes over and she just scoops him up, gives him a big hug, his head is on her shoulder and he's looking at me and he is so happy. And so the teacher just kind of offhandedly looks at me and she said, "Hey, sometimes we just need some snuggles." And that kid in that moment was seen, known and loved in that really simple way. And so I've given you a first grade example. I've given you an early childhood example. I want to jump ahead to validating what a high school teacher did. So she's got seniors, I'm not sure, I think she was either an English or a history teacher. And she was sharing this story at one of our professional learning sessions that we were doing last year. And she was recounting the fact that the office had called down to her room to let her know that her father had fallen and had a brain bleed they thought. And she needed to get to him as soon as possible. And so her students that were with her, they heard this because it came through. And before they would let her go, they all got around her and put hands on her and prayed for her before they would let her leave to go be with her father. Jill: That's so amazing. Jon: So that loving relationship, that part that we do it's not just a one way street. That comes back to us. It's not why we love kids so that they will love us back and it's not our job to be their friends, but when we see them, know them and love them, that gets reciprocated for us in a way that's just truly life-giving. So I think anytime we can find those life-giving things and lean into those and then elevate those to let people know all the amazing things that are happening in schools. We hear all the negative stuff because media has a negativity bias to it. But there are amazing things happening in classrooms all over the place. And so how do we see those relationships and the way kids are becoming more of who they're created to be because of the work that's going on in the classroom? Jill: Yeah, absolutely. Those are great stories to be able to share. So on that note, how do we bring more joy to the profession? Jon: So I think part of it is celebrating the right things. So when we think about joy or wellbeing or flourishing, sometimes people think of that as meaning freedom from struggle. And that's not what it is. To me, joy isn't circumstantial. Joy is in this deep abiding hope that there is more. And that joy isn't freedom from struggle but it's the freedom to struggle well. So how do we help educators see what they're doing in the lives of students that allows them to have the energy and fuel to do more? What does that look like for them? And then how do we celebrate that, because I think we've oversold wellbeing over the last few years that like, "Okay, that's really hard for you. You don't have to do that right now." And when we do that, that robs kids of the joy that comes from doing something that they didn't think they could do. And then they do it and they do it well, and there's great joy in that. So if we rob kids the opportunity to struggle, we also rob them of the opportunity to have joy. And so if we think about happiness as being something that we want kids to always feel happy, they're not going to grow very much. And we know all the way back to Vygotsky's own approximate development, the distance between what you can do on your own and what you can do with assistants where you push and stretch is where learning is. So learning is productive struggle. So how do we build that in without making it be a burnout thing? And we don't avoid burnout by getting Jeans day on Friday. That's nice. But where we really find meaning and joy is in celebrating the growth that we see. So if you want an educator to stay in education, help them see what's happening in my view as a Christian that the Lord is doing through them in the lives of a student. That's what gets you up in the morning, how do we keep seeing that and keep building on that. Jill: Absolutely. So you've talked a lot about using the phrase just a teacher. Can you talk a little bit about that, how we avoid using it as just a teacher and how we can switch that around to just teaching? Jon: Yeah. So the book Just Teaching, Feedback, Inclusion and Well-being for Each Student, plays on that phrase that, oh, I'm just a teacher, or, oh, they're just a teacher. And as educators we 100% have to stop referring to ourselves as just a teacher. Education is the profession that makes all others possible. There is great power in that role, and everyone has experienced this. If they've had a good teacher or their child has had a good teacher, the difference that makes. There is huge power in that. And we steal ourselves, we rob ourselves of that when we refer to ourselves as just a teacher. And so when we talk about just teachers, we're talking about teachers that teach for justice and flourishing by making sure each kid is seen, known and loved. And you do that by making sure they're well, that they're engaged and they get feedback. That we give them the opportunity to stretch. It's not to work ourselves into oblivion. It's not just continuing to add more and more to our plates. I think in some places burnout has become a badge of honor and educators think everything requires the extra mile. That's not it. How do we put the work on students that allows them to do the work that will allow them to flourish? And we take the work that's ours, but our job is to coach them through that, not do it for them. Jill: Exactly. Yeah, and even as a parent, I'm not a teacher, I haven't been a teacher, but as a parent I can see that in my own kids. And it's so hard to watch them go through that struggle, but once they get to the other side you're like, okay, this is a good thing that I did to help them grow in that area. Jon: Yeah. Well, we all know nobody wants to be stretched. It's no fun to be, but we all appreciate the benefit of the stretching on the back end. Jill: Yeah, absolutely. So speaking of being a parent, how as a parent can we support teachers in the best way? Jon: Well, I think we need to view our role as teachers, I'll start there, as being a partner of the parent and helping that kid flourish because regardless, in my view there are parents that do bad things for kids. But no parent wants to do things that harm their kid. They care about that kid more than anything else on earth. And sometimes as a teacher you sometimes scratch your head, well, I don't know why we're doing that. And parent-teacher conferences are always this eye-opening moment of, I can't believe that kid gets to school every day because of some of the stuff that goes on. But 95% of parents want what's best for kids. And I would say teachers are there too, nobody really goes into teaching because they want to harm kids. That's not a thing. So if we can keep our child the focus of the interaction and not get on the defensive as teachers or parents about hey... Because it's sometimes hard, especially if parents didn't have great experiences in schools, it's hard for them to come back into school and hear feedback that feels critical because it feels like they're being judged as a parent. And nobody wants to be judged or evaluated, we all want to get better. So how do we make getting better for the kid be our joint mission as parents and educators? And I think I'll go back to the joy piece, if we want our kids to experience joy and be the kind of human beings we want them to be, then we have to give them opportunity to struggle well. How can they stretch? And so that's where parents and educators can be great partners in that, what's the extracurricular activity that you need to really shine? You're not great in math, great, work harder at math. You can't just not do that. You're going go- Jill: Not do it, yeah. Jon: But then, oh, you really love art. Well, lean into art. What can you do there? You don't do art instead of math. You want to be a well-rounded human being that does it. The other thing I would encourage parents to do and this'll come into, I think you'll probably ask me for a book recommendation at some point, but as you think about who your kid's becoming, don't try to parent and engineer all of the pain out of their lives. You can't do it. Jill: That's good. Jon: You can't do it. And so how do you put those guardrails on where they know you're safe, they know that they are loved and nothing they do will change that love. However, some things they do may change how much they please you. So it's not like everything you do is fine. We just love you. You're all great. No, you can make some bad decisions that I am not going to be pleased about and I'm going to tell you. And here is wisdom from an adult who's been through all these things too, and here are some thoughts. And so the one place when I said that I was like, we really have to be smart with smartphones and social media. That is an introduced thing that didn't affect us as parents, and I'm so grateful I didn't have it. That world that's introduced there, the more as parents we can partner with schools to figure out the best ways to use technology. And how to create some freedom from it because it is oppressive. And no matter how much we think we're training them how to use it, adults aren't good at using their smartphones. Jill: I definitely am not either. I have to use the focus feature to be able to avoid it when I'm trying to do work. Jon: Right. If you've caught yourself, and I know I've done it when you and I have been talking, if you catch yourself talking to someone who's an embodied human being right in front of you and you get a buzz on your phone and you're paying attention to that, what are we doing? We're saying that's more important than this human being. So if adults are doing that, we really need to think through what that's like for people with underdeveloped frontal cortexes that allow them to discipline themselves with it. And so I think we really need to be thoughtful about that as parents, how can we do that in a way that allow our kids to really enjoy being with each other and figure out how to navigate life with other people? Jill: Yeah, absolutely. And I was going to ask you about book recommendations. I feel like you're leading into Anxious Generation. Is that the one that you were going to talk about? Jon: Well, we've been talking about... I just read that book last week by Jonathan Haidt, and I've been citing his article in the Atlantic from last summer about schools should ban smartphones, like hard stop ban smartphones. He also has the recommendation that anybody under the age that's not in high school should not have a smartphone, flip phones. Other ways to communicate fine, but no smartphones till high school and no social media until you're 16. And it's really hard to disagree with that. From what I've seen, I feel like kids are so much freer when they have that. And he gives an example in his book about his six-year-old daughter who's on her iPad, and she can't figure out what's going on that there are engineers in a multi-billion dollar industry whose job is to keep her paying attention to the iPad no matter what, because the kid is the product. That's what they're selling to advertisers, that's what they're selling. And she says to her dad, "Dad, can you take this away from me? I can't get my eyes off of it." Jill: Wow, that's really powerful. Jon: Yeah, and so I think that's really where we're. So The Anxious Generation, he has a lot of reasons why we're anxious. It's not just smartphone's bad, it's smartphones disrupt and stunt development for kids because we're not having the human interactions, everything's mediated through social media which is not real. So instead of looking, when I grew up in the '70s and '80s, especially for girls, you walk by the checkout at the grocery store and you see these models that are airbrushed and they look perfect and all this. Now, girls go on and they see that and these are their competition at school, and it's not real but it feels real. And so they curate their lives to look like something they're not, which just breeds all kinds of anxiety because it's not an embodied interaction. They're saying, "Oh yeah, I know that person. That person's like this. They're not like they're real or what it looks like on Instagram." So it's devastating. And then for boys, it's less the social media, it's more the gaming and the pornography that kids are finding at ages 10 and 11 where it's just wide open for them. Jill: So young, yeah. Jon: And again, there are features that are meant to try to limit it but if you can put in a fake birthday, you can get to just about anything. And so there's a lot of responsibility in technology, but I don't see them making a change because the incentives aren't there for them to change. I think as parents, we have to be the parents and say, "Hey, collectively, we're not going to do this." Because if you're the only parent doing it, that's really hard. And in the book, he suggests that get 10 families together that are going to commit to this, that we're not going to jump on this boat of social media, early smartphones all the time. And I think as schools, we have to make the hard decision to say, "Hey, for eight hours a day we're giving you a break from these" and not just don't have them out, because that becomes really hard to enforce in schools. It's these get turned into a pouch that's locked for the day, or these go into a smartphone locker for the day and then you get them at the end of the day. And parents, I would just encourage you to support your schools if they do that. A lot of parents are fighting it because you want immediate access to your kids. You have it, call the office. There are adults charged with taking care of your kid. Trust them to do that. If you trust them for eight hours a day, you can trust them to get an important message to your kid. Jill: Right. I've seen the attitude change just with my own kids. I have an 11-year-old, and so she recently got in trouble and got her phone taken away for a week. And she was an amazing kid. She's creative, she was drawing, she was involved in conversations, engaging, and then she got her phone back and we're like, Where did Bella go? Look, we haven't seen her." So it totally changes who they are. So yeah, I've seen it myself. So what advice would you give educators out there? Jon: So you've already picked up on some of it, so I'll just try to sum it up into a sound bite. Lean into joy, but don't think of joy as being lacking struggle. Where are you seeing growth in yourself as an educator? Where are you seeing growth in your classroom? Lean into that, celebrate that, that's where joy is. And so even when you talk about smartphones, it's not banning something. It's inviting kids into deeper engagement, into that human... When kids get to a camp and they don't have phones for a week and they get to try new things and get to be with other people like, oh, this is great. It's like the veil has come off, the haze that they're in is gone. It's like, oh, they look around there's this amazing world and these amazing people. And so I think we need the same thing for our classrooms. We need to lean into really why we got into teaching in the first place, and that's to help other people grow and become more of who they're created to be. Jill: Yeah, absolutely. So on the flip side, what would be the worst advice that you've heard? Jon: This is hard to say. I got an article out called The Wellbeing Myth, and I think we have oversold wellbeing. And I think it's bad advice to say that kids can't learn if you don't make sure everything's okay. I think we need to focus less on some of those, even the SEL stuff, social emotional learning pieces have been oversold. It's like do hard things together, that works. There was another line, this again goes back to Haidt's book, it maybe Haidt's book or it may be Bad Therapy. I've got two books now coming together in my head. But that parents, adults, or whatever, can help kids learn how to make friends. The way you learn how to make friends is you try to make friends. And it's great to have somebody that you can talk to, "Hey, I tried this and this didn't work very well and whatever." But there's not a recipe for making friends. Okay, be kind, do unto others as you want them doing to you. There's some basic principles. But you know how kids learn those? By trying to do it. So I think teachers and parents, I think sometimes we need to step back a little bit and let kids play more and try stuff more. The average kid in elementary school in the US right now gets 27 minutes a day of recess. That is tragic. That was the height of my day. I would go home with my basketball and kickball stats every day for my three recesses. I look back and I was like, recess was the greatest thing ever. And I might've learned more at recess than I did in the classroom about how to interact with human beings. So like, hey, step back. Give them some space. That's wellbeing. So worry more about the virtual world and worry less about the real world. Let the kids... Haidt has this great line, let them get bruises, not scars. Jill: I love that. That's really great. So what would you say is one of the biggest challenges that you see for educators in the year ahead? Jon: We have a really hard job as educators because so much is expected of educators. Every policy decision, every government action is like, we'll do this through schools because there are schools in every community. So more and more it gets layered on top of educators all the time. And it makes sense from a policy perspective. It's like you have a beach head into every neighborhood, but educators can't do everything. And when we try, we don't do any of it very well and we end up burned out. And so we are seeing amazing educators leave the profession and other people not wanting to go into the profession because teachers aren't making education look like a very appealing job, even though it's the greatest job ever. It doesn't look like that to students. And so that's a challenge and it's a vicious cycle that's continuing. So much is asked, I burn out, it doesn't look like an appealing profession and that's a challenge. Jill: Absolutely. So I want to end on a positive note, what's the thing that makes you the most optimistic as you look ahead? Jon: So our whole deal at the center is to focus on adaptive challenges and improvement that we can make. And so these are short cycle data collections, what can you do in 90 days that makes a difference for kids? And we're seeing teams of educators in schools literally all over the world, we're in 45 plus countries and all 50 states. And we're seeing people make improvement. Now, I don't like talking about solutions because I think solutions are often too pat and too oversimplified where improvement is, well, if you've got a dumpster fire, put the fire out first. You're not building the Taj Mahal while the fire is burning. So it's how do we make those gains and then that builds momentum, especially when you see teachers and students doing together. So I'll end with this really encouraging note that I saw last week. Well, I'll give you a specific example of something that just was super inspiring to me and then a system example. Is that okay? Jill: Okay. Yeah, that sounds great. Jon: All right. So the system example was in South Carolina, we've been working with these schools that are doing collective leadership all over the state for eight years. I'm the program evaluator and researcher so I've been studying this high school, Blythewood High School. And this year when they had their showcase of the progress they've made each year, they brought the students to do it. So I was in a session where juniors and seniors in high school were talking about the collective leadership of their educators, and the way that was affecting their system as students. And the way they were leading alongside educators. I was like, Oh- Jill: That's really cool. Jon: This is the dream. The kids own it. It's not buy-in, they own it. The other story I'll give, and this was maybe my favorite classroom visit from the last year where this makes me optimistic. Brad Livingstone, who's our first gent, he's the husband of our president, Linda Livingstone and I was in his history classroom. And he's an amazing history teacher. He teaches World War II history and Vietnam War history at a local school. And the teaching's amazing, I was there for the Do-little raids. It was amazing World War II, so I enjoyed that. But at the beginning of the class, he's having students report out how many veterans they thanked the past week. So every Monday morning they report in how many veterans they thanked for what they did. And he got them doing this, and he's done this for years in all the different schools he's been in. He drives a van full of them to HEB in the middle of the day at the beginning of the semester. And he said, "Go out and find people that are my age or older and ask them if they served in the military. And if they do, introduce yourself, thank them for their service." Jill: That's awesome. Jon: And so they go out in teams and do that, and then he's like, "Now it's on you. You got to do this." And you got to get 50 this semester. And if you get 50, the goal is to get 1000 thank-yous in the course of the semester. That fundamentally changes the community. It doesn't just change the classroom. It doesn't just change the kids, that changes the community. Once you get to 50, you get a vial of sand from Normandy that he's collected. The kid who has the most thank-yous in a semester gets a vial of sand from Iwo Jima, which is in his way of saying it is the most difficult soil to get in the world because the only way you're allowed to go to Iwo Jima is if you are connected to Japan or you're a military liaison to Japan for the United States. That's the only way you get on that island. And so a veteran brought him back some sand from Iwo Jima. So one kid each semester gets that sand. And I'm sitting in there and this kid has thanked 75 veterans that past week. I was like, "How did you do it?" And he said, "Well, I go to football games and I watch for how people stand up and salute the flag during the national anthem. And then I go find them." I was like- Jill: That's awesome. Jon: ...how amazing is that? So those kinds of small changes are the kinds of things that change our community in a society that feels like it's super broken and polarized, that changes people. And so that's the hope. Jill: That is such a cool story. Thanks for sharing that. Thanks for sharing all the other stories, and I really hope that it was an encouragement to all the educators out there. We are so grateful for the work that you do on a daily basis and making a difference in the lives of each student. Jon: Yeah, thanks for all you do, Jill. It's great. We have a great job. Jill: Yeah, we do.

At DoorGrow, we love showing off the awesome entrepreneurial people we get to coach and work with every day. In today's episode, property management growth experts Jason and Sarah Hull sit down with DoorGrow clients Jill Lyons and Alex Platt to talk about their journey in property management and with DoorGrow. You'll Learn [03:00] Starting a journey with coaching [07:26] Finding support as an entrepreneur [12:18] The path to success is hard work [16:54] Getting out of the business [19:28] The importance of good company culture [21:20] The impact of coaching Tweetables “Done is better than perfect.” “The more valuable you are to your business, the less valuable your business is.” “If you don't mind working, you don't set up boundaries.” “Just being open to the thought and the idea is enough to make it work.” Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive TalkRoute Referral Link Transcript [00:00:00] Jason: The more valuable you are to your business, the less valuable your business is. Ooh, like that one.  [00:00:07] Welcome DoorGrow property managers to the #DoorGrowShow. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others, impact lives, and you're interested in growing in business and life, and you're open to doing things a bit differently, then you are a DoorGrow property manager. DoorGrow property managers love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges, and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate think you're crazy for doing it. You think they're crazy for not because you realize that property management is the ultimate, high trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income. [00:00:47] At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win I'm your host, property management, growth expert Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow along with Sarah Hull, co owner and COO of DoorGrow. Now let's get into the show. [00:01:13] Our guests today... we've got Jill and Alex. Jill Lyons. Alex, what's your last name? Platt. Okay. I just know he's always with Jill, Alex. So we're really glad to have you on the show. And the topic of today's episode is like, we want to talk about your journey with DoorGrow because you've been with us for a little bit. So, why don't you introduce yourself and explain like kind of how you got into property management.  [00:01:39] Jill: Well, I must've taken an insane pill along the way, but I like it. My name is Jill Lyons and I own and I'm broker of Relaxed Realty Group in Sarasota, Florida. Currently we manage about 500 homes. We have like maybe 520 now and our rent roll, we just surpassed 800,000 this month, so I'm stoked and happy and proud. And you know, I love the business. There's never a day that's not that I feel like, "Oh my gosh, it's, you know, Monday." I never feel like that. So it's every day is a joy. Not every instant is a joy, but every day is a joy.  [00:02:12] Jason: So let's Alex, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us what is your role?  [00:02:17] Alex: So, my name is Alex and I've worked with Jill here just over a year and a half, or going on almost two years when I got my real estate license. My wife started with Jill, Miranda, and she's been with Jill for what, 10 years now? Started with a business with her and I do the operations here. So operations and BDM.  [00:02:38] Jason: Awesome. Okay, cool.  [00:02:41] Jill: So he came from a customer service background with T Mobile for the last 10 years. It's great. Corporate's a great, but there's a lot more opportunity here and oh my God, he's great with people. Of course He's not " to brag about himself. So I'll brag about him. So he will put on multiple hats and do everything that whatever needs to be done.  [00:03:00] Jason: Cool. Yeah, you guys make a good team. We've enjoyed having you in the program. So why don't we start with what problem problems were you dealing with when you first came to DoorGrow? Like what challenges were going on?  [00:03:14] Jill: So I would say my strengths are that I love to sell and talk to people and help people. So, you know, that was naturally there and I grew the business with success with growing doors. And I was in a kind of a comfortable, I would say position as. Having a good amount of owners and properties, but I want to start exiting the business and it was just way too 'me centered,' you know, what do we do? What do we do with people coming to me? You know, I don't mind working. Like I say, so unfortunately, if you don't mind working, you don't set up boundaries, you don't set up corporate structures. My flow, there was nothing corporate about me. [00:03:49] If I wanted to step away, which I did this year, hired the operations manager, but I'm like, now what? And now what do you do? I'm an engineer by education. All I know how to do is build a spreadsheet and show people returns. So I was looking for ...I always believed in coaches. I've been coached since day one of my business. [00:04:07] So coaching is definitely something I believe in, but the coaching company I used was really just real estate working with buyers and sellers. So I hadn't ever got the property management business aspect of it and setting up the business and the structure. So when you watched one of your podcasts and listened to your podcast, and I liked what you had to say, so I-- "let's let them get us to that next level." [00:04:32] Jason: Watch the podcast, listen to the podcast, and now you're on the podcast.  [00:04:36] Jill: I know, I'm like, what do I have to offer? That's the first thing, I'm still listening and learning.  [00:04:42] Jason: You know, there's a lot of people listening out there that would dream of having 520 doors, having an amazing operator, having the operations running smoothly and being on your journey, stepping out of the business, like this, that's a dream for a lot of property managers. [00:04:58] They're still in the thick of the mud and wondering if there's a light at the end of the tunnel.  [00:05:03] Jill: So they don't believe that I'm going to step out.  [00:05:05] Alex: She's a workaholic. So, you know, it's a little bit of yin and yang.  [00:05:09] Jason: You know, entrepreneurs, it's a tough thing. I've known a few entrepreneurs that have like exited their business and then they were bored and they started another business. It happens. So entrepreneurs, we want to stay busy and we want to do the things we really enjoy doing. So you just have to find something you maybe enjoy doing more.  [00:05:29] Jill: I don't know. Yeah, no, I'm not closed to what's next, but I don't know. I'm still here.  [00:05:35] Jason: So let's chat about, and maybe this is a question for Alex. So Alex what did you see when you first came into the business? Some of the challenges in how to like support Jill and how to get her out of the operational stuff. And what challenges did you see that DoorGrow so far been able to help with?  [00:05:54] Alex: So luckily with your program we got to revamp everything. I mean, your Rapid Revamp was amazing. I mean, we got to go from rebuilding and rebranding our logo and everything. So I really enjoyed your class, especially with the whole cycle of suck, making sure that you're not holding onto those owners that are sucking up all your time and, you know, using. A lot of your resource when it comes down to it. I would say those were the biggest things and especially your systems that you have. I mean, I think the Flow is going to help a lot for us to map out each and every one of our procedures that we have on an operational standpoint.  [00:06:33] Jason: Okay. So for those listening, DoorGrow Flow, our process software, which is pretty cool. So the Rapid Revamp, I mean, and you guys made a lot of changes. Yes. Changed your pricing.  [00:06:43] Alex: We changed our name.  [00:06:44] Jill: You changed the name. I said I would never, ever do that!  [00:06:49] Sarah: She's like " I'm not rebranding." I'm like, "okay, we don't have to rebrand." And then she's like, "I think I'm going to rebrand." I was like, "wow! All right, let's do it."  [00:06:58] Jason: Everybody says they don't want to do it. But what I love about entrepreneurs is that if you show them how to make more money, they're pretty okay with it. They're pretty okay with making more money. So, and I think the training, we do a good job in converting people into wanting to make more money. "Here's how it'll make you more money if you do the right things with your branding." So website. Did we help with that?  [00:07:23] Alex: We're almost there. We're on the tail end of that portion of it.  [00:07:26] Jason: So for those that have not been exposed to DoorGrow. Maybe they're just listening to this podcast. They're like, "I don't know if these guys are legit. Kind of looks like some sort of one of these Influencer sort of guys," or I don't know what people think before they become a client but what would you say to those that are on the other side of the paywall and maybe struggling?  [00:07:51] Jill: For me, honestly, if I would have found this 10 years ago, it would have happened faster, my growth and where I am now would have happened faster and more organized. I kind of wing it and I'm the type that, you know, I don't want to spend any money unless a bunch of sitting in the bank. And I probably, if I would have opened up the bank and gotten the coaching and the programs from a property management company versus just from, you know, where I got my assistance from, which I had when I did buying and selling, which I hate it. So I kind of kept my things rather than going into property management coaching and training. It would have definitely made it faster and less painful, and I would say that's the biggest thing that I wish I would have found you sooner, but you know, you always find people when you're supposed to find them and entrepreneurs tend not to be, in my opinion, people that go to business school because they just want to do it. They jump in head first. There's no rhyme or reason to how we do it. So the organization is usually where we struggle the most. And just networking and having the beginning, I just went to Google and figured everything out on my own, rather than reaching out to an organization like yours, that's more specific for us and NARPM, which, you know connected me to other property managers and how are they doing it? And why did I have to create the wheel and do it all my way? I didn't even know that there was anything like this.  [00:09:16] Jason: Yeah. And you had been in NARPM for a while before joining DoorGrow.  [00:09:20] Jill: Yeah. I'm heavily involved in NARPM. I'm the president of our local chapter. So that definitely has made helped my business, and the connection and they have a lot of tools that have helped me significantly realize that it is a business and with systems. But but there isn't the sales support, you know, they don't have you, Jason. It's not energetic and make me go, "yes! I'm going to do it!" With you and with everybody around! You know, it's just like the connections.  [00:09:48] Jason: Yeah. I know you have both really enjoyed the operational pieces as well, and you've attended quite a few of our scale calls on Friday that Sarah runs. What what things have you taken away from on the operational side of things? [00:10:04] Jill: So what would you say, because you deal with that more? I kind of say, go do it.  [00:10:07] Alex: So, I take a lot of the way, honestly, you guys definitely on those calls go over a lot of different systems that are in other people's companies, to be honest. And we try to take piece by piece and just kind of make it our own when it comes to this. I think it's developing more of the systems that we have. As far as like a specific system, I think we talked about maintenance heavily. And the processes over how other companies do it and what we do with our maintenance. So it's kind of getting every pieces of everybody's input on that stuff to kind of lay out what maybe we should change, you know? [00:10:45] Jill: I will say that as far as operational, we were in pretty good shape with that. It's not technicalogical. So you have DoorGrow flow. I'm just talking with Errol tomorrow. So it's been on my list of things to do this whole year to set up flow and get that going so that it's more clear how we do things because when we have a new employee, I can't just hand them, "these are our thing," we have to manually tell them or give them a checklist, which doesn't really help. So, I have to hire Errol cause it stays on my list every single month and it hasn't been done. That's what I'm going to pass the buck on versus the website. I'd like to do the marketing. So we need to finish all of this by the end of the year. That's on our list. Does it check the list? We're at the last, getting to the last quarter. So you give us the tools. It's just setting it up. That takes a lot of time and concentration time. And Errol seemed to be I met him at DoorGrow live, you know, in Texas. And yeah, he was talking about processes and creating them. Like I talked about property management, so he's going to be our guy. I'll see how it goes.  [00:11:47] Alex: We have a lot in our heads, obviously. So, that's getting it all down to where if somebody needs to know something, it's much easier.  [00:11:56] Jason: Yeah we're planning on doing some more stuff with Errol Allen, who Jill's speaking with, and he's currently playing around with our DoorGrow flow software and testing it out as well. [00:12:05] So I think it's going to be a game changer for the market. So Sarah's had a lot of interaction, I think, with the two of you. What's been your perception of why they do so well as clients?  [00:12:18] Sarah: Oh, well, so there's a few things that I'd like to kind of. Point out and give you guys like major kudos on. First is, I think you're just open. Sometimes we have people who are very resistant. They're like, " that won't work," and "I'm not going to do it like this," and "I can't do this," and "that's not in my market," right? And I think the difference is just being open to the thought and the idea is enough to make it work because if you go into something and you think, "oh, this won't work," well, you're probably right. Then it's not going to work. But you guys are very open and you also, I love this about you guys, you take action. You just come in and you're like, "this is what we're going to do," and then you take action, you implement and you get it done. I think, to date, they are the fastest people who have completed everything in the Rapid Revamp. Like, they get a medal for that. Like, every time, they're like, "yep, we're done with this," I'm like, "oh, wow, okay!" They just get it done. It's like they just put their heads down. They know what they need to do. They put in the work and they get it done and then they go, "okay, great, we did that. What do we need now? Like what's the next thing that we can do to either like build on top of that or like take us to the next level? And I think you guys are really great at that. And I think you, you work very well together. You know, you balance each other out. You like ping well back and forth, back together, and I think that gives you the ability to move things along so quickly.  [00:13:44] Alex: It's great to have ideas that we can bounce off of each other and make it a solid process and get it out of the way and move on to the next one.  [00:13:52] Jill: Well, and I love a checklist. So you have a checklist. I want to see checks on there. I don't want to see them open. So I think that myself, I can be more reactionary property management. Our phone is always ringing. Things are always happening. You know, I can easily not get anything accomplished in a day and be busy the whole day. So with the Rapid Revamp it has me be on track along with handling the things that come on you know all day but I have to get my things done  [00:14:18] Alex: And the nice thing about your dashboard was the fact that you could assign things, we would take them and split them up and be like, "okay, you're going to do these and they're assigned to you" and then I could assign ones to me so we can you know, handle what we needed to.  [00:14:30] Jason: Cool. [00:14:31] Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. I think that was really awesome just to see you guys because every time I check in with you, you're like, "Oh, yeah, we're done with that already." Like, okay, let's see what's the next thing for you guys? And you already knew! You were never like, "Hey, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. Like, you just like stayed the course. And sometimes it's hard for entrepreneurs to do because there's so many shiny objects. There's so many of them, right? Like, "Hey, I'm coming in, I'm doing this one thing and that's it," and then along the way, there's like some other little thing that's like, "Hey, I need your attention." [00:15:04] And it's so tempting to go, "Ooh, but I could focus on that." Like, " let me just go over here for a second," and like, you guys just stayed the course. You like stay on point. And I think that's that's something I really have to give you guys like a huge compliment on because it's hard to do that. It's really difficult to do that. And you guys do it really well.  [00:15:25] Jill: Thank you.  [00:15:26] Jason: Yeah. And so you've interacted with several of our team members, right? It's not just the Jason show or the Jason and Sarah show. And I think that's what a lot of people think. Could you just comment a little bit on DoorGrow's team? You don't have to remember everybody's names, but yeah.  [00:15:43] Jill: Well the two that I've probably enjoyed the most is Clint. He's like the coolest surfer dude in the whole wide world, but he's sharp as a tack. You know, "we're just going to buy a $5 million company." He's the exact person to teach you how to be cool and do acquisitions and whatnot. [00:16:03] And that you can see why he's so successful because he's a joy to listen to.  [00:16:07] Jason: Yeah, he's fun.  [00:16:08] Jill: And ironically considering an acquisition in the middle of all listening to him and he took his time out, sent me a lot of information and questions I should ask and what due diligence I should do. So, I mean, his wealth of all the years that he's done that, enticed in a few documents was, I could have never created that. And then Roya, she's a ball of energy and I'm all into manifesting and all that. So, I mean, not many people you can feel through a computer screen with their energy, you know, that's heard of talent that she has.  [00:16:43] Jason: Yeah, she's our dangerously powerful mindset coach. And teaches the advanced sales stuff. [00:16:51] She's yeah she's had quite an impact. Yeah.  [00:16:54] Jill: Yeah. For sure.  [00:16:56] I went to DoorGrow live, which was fantastic to connect with everybody. But thanks to DoorGrow and Alex being also trained as a DoorGrow. I'm taking my first three week vacation in 10 years.  [00:17:08] Jason: That's amazing. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Your business will be in good hands with Alex and and we've got his back. So. For sure. So awesome. Yep. Property managers, if you're listening to this and you have not taken a significant vacation in the last five years, when's your turn? Maybe it's time to reach out and let us help you take- this is one of the most common things that we hear, especially this summer. [00:17:36] Lots of our clients are taking vacations like for the first time ever, or in the first time in a long time, or it's a longer vacation than they've been able to take.  [00:17:45] Sarah: Brandon and Mark, they took off the majority of July, both of them, took off the majority of July, and they're like, "things were fine, like things were okay," I'm like, "that's great, that's how it should work," and if we set it up that way, then things can work that way.  [00:18:01] Jason: For sure. Yeah, one of our mentors had this quote, I don't know where it came from, but he said, the more valuable you are to your business, the less valuable your business is. Ooh, like that one. So Jill's working on making herself less valuable to the business. I've made DoorGrow less of the Jason show, and we've got all these amazing coaches and yeah, and that's the goal, right? We're able to provide more value and it allows us to be more free as entrepreneurs. To do the things that we really enjoy doing and eventually maybe to do nothing. If that's really the goal. I don't know. Jill, will have to find something to do. She's going to trap the world. She'll think we're not going to do nothing. Exactly. We're not going to do nothing. I don't think Jill knows what to do.  [00:18:43] Jill: We just want freedom to not always to be working.  [00:18:46] Jason: There you go. Yeah.  [00:18:48] Sarah: You can choose the things you do.  [00:18:50] Jill: Yeah.  [00:18:51] Jason: Well, we've really appreciated having you both in the program. You know, the, Sarah mentioned about you, but what I've noticed is Jill, you have this gift of positivity, it seems to rub off on everyone around you. We've really enjoyed having you in the program. Everyone's like, "Oh, we love Jill." All of our coaches and team members love Jill. And you can see Alex has like got a positive, you know, energy going on as well. And so you've created a really good culture on your team and in your business. And I don't know if it's always been that way, but I know that's something that's important to us at DoorGrow is making sure everybody has good culture with their business and with their team. So can you touch on culture just a little bit? [00:19:30] Jill: Well, I think connection and culture is the most important thing. If I don't have it here, how is a client going to want to be attracted to us? You know, how is that going to work? You know, if you don't have a positive look on the industry, the business... I mean, this is anybody that calls us is frustrated with property management and say, "here, we love to do property management." They're like, "I need you!" [00:19:51] you know, tenants and everybody gets to complain to us and we have to listen to them and, you know, do our job, but in these walls of this company, we don't have to do that. We can vent to each other. We can laugh. We don't complain. We more laugh about situations than we do complain. And I think I've been a good leader as far as that goes. But I think that also because I have that energy, I want to attract that energy. And so those people are, who are working here and stay.  [00:20:18] Jason: I love that. I mean, I think having a culture in which complaining is not the norm. I mean, it's easy to complain in property management. Right? And I'm sure there's a lot of you listening that are like, " I complain all the time. I complain every day," like reducing that complaining in the business and creating a culture where the team don't see that it's totally okay to just complain all the time. Because if you're complaining about your clients, they're going to feel that. They're not going to want to work with somebody that's, they know is just going to be complaining about them behind their back. [00:20:47] And so I think that's really powerful. And I think that there's a lot of joking in property management, and I think if you can't laugh about it, then you're just going to be hurt by it, and so...  [00:20:58] Jill: and the only way you make a lot of money is to do the things that nobody wants to do. [00:21:02] Jason: There you go. And they will pay you a pretty penny to do it. [00:21:05] Alex: Yeah, we don't have one person that dreads coming to work every day. That's for sure. Everybody's like, "oh shoot. It's monday. Let's go!"  [00:21:11] Jill: We're a little family.  [00:21:13] Jason: Awesome. Yeah, I love that. You have a good culture. So, cool well, anything else we should chat about? What are the biggest takeaways you feel like you've gotten from being part of working with DoorGrow for those listening? [00:21:28] Jill: I think first of all to make sure that I express my purpose to everybody, you know, start with the person.  [00:21:34] Jason: Has that changed your close rate? Has that changed how clients respond to you?  [00:21:39] Jill: Oh, just overall being brave enough to start with that, you know, I always assume they don't care, you know they're not calling for my me personally, but they are, you know, and some would get to know me on a personal level over time, but I never started the conversation with that. [00:21:54] I always started it with "I love property management" and I think they could feel our energy, but not deep down what my life purpose is. So, and how I could tie that back into having them become our client. But it gets a personal, it makes it a personal fit right away or not.  [00:22:11] Jason: Yeah. They either trust your motives and like them or they don't, but they, at least they know what your motives are. Otherwise they're just going to assume you just want their money.  [00:22:20] Jill: Yeah. The name change was a huge one. And then the third, I think final one for me is. When you did your stack deck and it wasn't like perfectly animated with all these designs and it looked great. And I'm fine with it. I stopped judging my marketing to have to be the caliber of Coca Cola. [00:22:40] I don't have designers out there. I don't want to spend design. So just produce it and get it out there and make it look kind of quirky and we're quirky anyway. So I don't know why I was thinking that we had to be this high level, corporate marketing program in order for it to work.  [00:22:54] Jason: I think done is better than perfect for sure. [00:22:57] That's one of my  [00:22:57] Alex: favorite things is like, no, just get it complete and then we'll move on and we'll get the next thing done.  [00:23:03] Jason: Yeah. Done makes money. And you've made a lot of changes. You've gotten a lot of things done that are going to help shore up leaks that make you a lot more money. And. Yeah. A lot of people get really caught up on things being so perfect. [00:23:14] They don't get as nearly as much done. So kudos to both of you for implementing and taking action. So, well, we appreciate you coming and hanging out with us here on the show. What do you feel like, what are some tangible results besides the brand? Revenue doors, any other shifts that you've seen in the business since joining? [00:23:33] Jill: Well, we've gotten rid of a lot of the properties. I had the guts to say to a couple owners, you know, "You have to either sell this property or find another manager because it's too much of a liability. And I'm scared to because X Y Z and so should you." And obviously it's a great time to sell last year. So this is the time get to get a better asset, 1031 exchange it, or let's you know, we need to drop it by the end of the year. I didn't, you know, say we're going to drop you on 30 days, but they, most of them, most of those as a consulting, they trust us and know us and they sold those properties. We have two that are closing this week, our last two that are closing and we had problems. Yeah, problems. So we've gotten rid of a lot of problems since the beginning and liability issues, you know, you know, liabilities. So that's that's, I think our biggest deal and it's allowed other doors to come in. [00:24:28] It's amazing what you let go just energetically things will fill its place. So door wise, I would say we're at about the same, but revenue has gone up 20%.  [00:24:38] Alex: We've been getting higher-end properties instead of, you know, things that were D class properties that we didn't want.  [00:24:44] Jason: Love it. 20 percent more revenue. Awesome, that does not suck.  [00:24:48] Sarah: And getting rid of the problem, right?  [00:24:55] Jason: Well, we appreciate you being clients and we're super excited to see your progression through the DoorGrow code, and this business I think that could easily be at a thousand doors in the next two to three years. It's totally doable, especially if you start doing some of the acquisition deals, like it's going to be really interesting once you get some of these systems in place, then you're ready to just scale like crazy. So excited to see what you do. All right. Well then we'll go ahead and wrap up. Appreciate you being on the show. [00:25:25] Thanks for hanging out with us, Alex and Jill. Thank you. Great.  [00:25:29] For those listening, if you want to be like Alex and Jill and make good decisions and grow your business in a healthy way, and maybe increase your revenue 20%. aNd clean up your portfolio and optimize your sales pipeline so you make more money, more easily reach out to DoorGrow. [00:25:45] We would love to take a look at your business and see if we can help you. The answer is: we can... most likely and see if you'd be a good fit for our program. You can check us out at doorgrow. com. There's a big pink button on the home page says "I want to grow." click that. Do the three steps there to see if you'd be a good candidate to work with us, and until next time to our mutual growth. Bye everyone  [00:26:08] you just listened to the #DoorGrowShow. We are building a community of the savviest property management entrepreneurs on the planet in the DoorGrowClub. Join your fellow DoorGrow Hackers at doorgrowclub.com. Listen, everyone is doing the same stuff. SEO, PPC, pay-per-lead content, social direct mail, and they still struggle to grow!  [00:26:35] At DoorGrow, we solve your biggest challenge: getting deals and growing your business. Find out more at doorgrow.com. Find any show notes or links from today's episode on our blog doorgrow.com, and to get notified of future events and news subscribe to our newsletter at doorgrow.com/subscribe. Until next time, take what you learn and start DoorGrow Hacking your business and your life.

How to Make a Million Dollars a Year is the Career Path Number 5 Number One Request (LA 1875) Transcript: Steve: Steve and Jill here. Jill: Hi. Steve: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill: And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from the natural springs area of Arkansas. Yes, Eureka Springs right now and we are loving it. Steve: Can't say enough positive stuff about this area, with the state and the country. Jill: You know what's funny, we had a day this last week where it was like, started off, it got sunny but it started off kind of dark and weird and it rained a little bit and it was, you know the show the Ozarks, how we all know it has that funky tint. They make the, there's like a filter on the cameras or something and make it kind of a dark, interesting blue? Would you call it blue background kind of thing? I swear it felt like that. Steve: It was that color. Jill: I was running around taking pictures, I'm like, "That's real." Now I get the Ozarks show and I always thought, why do they make it look so dark? But by the way, right now we're sitting in a beautiful, sunny day. Blue sky, it's gorgeous so it's not always like that, but I get it. It was really cool. Steve: Today Jill and I are going to talk about how making a million dollars a year is the number one discussion point and request for this new career path class. Jill: There's kind of two things that came up because I want to share, to tell you, there's one other thing that everybody asks for. So it's important to know. I want leave a little teaser here. So when we went around the room the other day, everybody brought up two things and one is the money and I'll tell you the other one in a minute. Steve: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the land investors.com online community. It's free. And last year a ton of people came to us, came to Jill and I requesting for help getting their first mailer out or just getting consistency in doing mailers or mailer type stuff. Well enough people came to us. Jill and I decided to turn over our own mailer department to our employees to allow them to do that. So we call it concierge data and now it's called concierge data plus, you can completely and entirely outsource doing a mailer to this department and it's a subdepartment of offers2owners.com. Or if you're having trouble getting the first one out, check it out. It's very, very efficient. And now we process a ton of orders, more and more every single month. Jill: All right, Chief wrote, "As a seller, how do you ask a buyer, how do you ask a buyer close, as a seller how do you ask a buyer to close through your selected title company? Or is it just customary for the seller to choose? It's a little late for me to be inquiring about this, but I've been letting, or should I say making the buyer's agent find one. Now that I say it out loud pretty sure I'm doing it completely wrong. I need to be sending them somewhere specific, right? My thought was it doesn't really matter to me and it's all about the same price so let them have it in case they have people they like to close through. It was one less thing I had to set up. Now I see why all the buyer's agents attitude seemed to change a little bit after their clients have signed. I'm making them do my job accidentally but sure enough, they'd sign and I'd been letting them take it from there. I'd been asking them where they want to close and wait for an email. How messy. This must be what Jack means by being able to, by doing it all wrong and still being able to pull it off. Embarrassing but enlightening." All right, so let me back up here. Steve: Embarrassing but enlightening. Jill: So here's what I do, Chief, and this, I'm going to make it easy. This will be make it easy for you actually, because I bet you putting it on them could slow you down too. I want you to stay in control for the whole transaction. Steve: Yeah,

How to Make a Million Dollars a Year is the Career Path Number 5 Number One Request (LA 1875) Transcript: Steve: Steve and Jill here. Jill: Hi. Steve: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill: And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from the natural springs area of Arkansas. Yes, Eureka Springs right now and we are loving it. Steve: Can't say enough positive stuff about this area, with the state and the country. Jill: You know what's funny, we had a day this last week where it was like, started off, it got sunny but it started off kind of dark and weird and it rained a little bit and it was, you know the show the Ozarks, how we all know it has that funky tint. They make the, there's like a filter on the cameras or something and make it kind of a dark, interesting blue? Would you call it blue background kind of thing? I swear it felt like that. Steve: It was that color. Jill: I was running around taking pictures, I'm like, "That's real." Now I get the Ozarks show and I always thought, why do they make it look so dark? But by the way, right now we're sitting in a beautiful, sunny day. Blue sky, it's gorgeous so it's not always like that, but I get it. It was really cool. Steve: Today Jill and I are going to talk about how making a million dollars a year is the number one discussion point and request for this new career path class. Jill: There's kind of two things that came up because I want to share, to tell you, there's one other thing that everybody asks for. So it's important to know. I want leave a little teaser here. So when we went around the room the other day, everybody brought up two things and one is the money and I'll tell you the other one in a minute. Steve: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the land investors.com online community. It's free. And last year a ton of people came to us, came to Jill and I requesting for help getting their first mailer out or just getting consistency in doing mailers or mailer type stuff. Well enough people came to us. Jill and I decided to turn over our own mailer department to our employees to allow them to do that. So we call it concierge data and now it's called concierge data plus, you can completely and entirely outsource doing a mailer to this department and it's a subdepartment of offers2owners.com. Or if you're having trouble getting the first one out, check it out. It's very, very efficient. And now we process a ton of orders, more and more every single month. Jill: All right, Chief wrote, "As a seller, how do you ask a buyer, how do you ask a buyer close, as a seller how do you ask a buyer to close through your selected title company? Or is it just customary for the seller to choose? It's a little late for me to be inquiring about this, but I've been letting, or should I say making the buyer's agent find one. Now that I say it out loud pretty sure I'm doing it completely wrong. I need to be sending them somewhere specific, right? My thought was it doesn't really matter to me and it's all about the same price so let them have it in case they have people they like to close through. It was one less thing I had to set up. Now I see why all the buyer's agents attitude seemed to change a little bit after their clients have signed. I'm making them do my job accidentally but sure enough, they'd sign and I'd been letting them take it from there. I'd been asking them where they want to close and wait for an email. How messy. This must be what Jack means by being able to, by doing it all wrong and still being able to pull it off. Embarrassing but enlightening." All right, so let me back up here. Steve: Embarrassing but enlightening. Jill: So here's what I do, Chief, and this, I'm going to make it easy. This will be make it easy for you actually, because I bet you putting it on them could slow you down too. I want you to stay in control for the whole transaction. Steve: Yeah,

How to Make a Million Dollars a Year is the Career Path Number 5 Number One Request (LA 1875) Transcript: Steve: Steve and Jill here. Jill: Hi. Steve: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill: And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from the natural springs area of Arkansas. Yes, Eureka Springs right now and we are loving it. Steve: Can't say enough positive stuff about this area, with the state and the country. Jill: You know what's funny, we had a day this last week where it was like, started off, it got sunny but it started off kind of dark and weird and it rained a little bit and it was, you know the show the Ozarks, how we all know it has that funky tint. They make the, there's like a filter on the cameras or something and make it kind of a dark, interesting blue? Would you call it blue background kind of thing? I swear it felt like that. Steve: It was that color. Jill: I was running around taking pictures, I'm like, "That's real." Now I get the Ozarks show and I always thought, why do they make it look so dark? But by the way, right now we're sitting in a beautiful, sunny day. Blue sky, it's gorgeous so it's not always like that, but I get it. It was really cool. Steve: Today Jill and I are going to talk about how making a million dollars a year is the number one discussion point and request for this new career path class. Jill: There's kind of two things that came up because I want to share, to tell you, there's one other thing that everybody asks for. So it's important to know. I want leave a little teaser here. So when we went around the room the other day, everybody brought up two things and one is the money and I'll tell you the other one in a minute. Steve: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the land investors.com online community. It's free. And last year a ton of people came to us, came to Jill and I requesting for help getting their first mailer out or just getting consistency in doing mailers or mailer type stuff. Well enough people came to us. Jill and I decided to turn over our own mailer department to our employees to allow them to do that. So we call it concierge data and now it's called concierge data plus, you can completely and entirely outsource doing a mailer to this department and it's a subdepartment of offers2owners.com. Or if you're having trouble getting the first one out, check it out. It's very, very efficient. And now we process a ton of orders, more and more every single month. Jill: All right, Chief wrote, "As a seller, how do you ask a buyer, how do you ask a buyer close, as a seller how do you ask a buyer to close through your selected title company? Or is it just customary for the seller to choose? It's a little late for me to be inquiring about this, but I've been letting, or should I say making the buyer's agent find one. Now that I say it out loud pretty sure I'm doing it completely wrong. I need to be sending them somewhere specific, right? My thought was it doesn't really matter to me and it's all about the same price so let them have it in case they have people they like to close through. It was one less thing I had to set up. Now I see why all the buyer's agents attitude seemed to change a little bit after their clients have signed. I'm making them do my job accidentally but sure enough, they'd sign and I'd been letting them take it from there. I'd been asking them where they want to close and wait for an email. How messy. This must be what Jack means by being able to, by doing it all wrong and still being able to pull it off. Embarrassing but enlightening." All right, so let me back up here. Steve: Embarrassing but enlightening. Jill: So here's what I do, Chief, and this, I'm going to make it easy. This will be make it easy for you actually, because I bet you putting it on them could slow you down too. I want you to stay in control for the whole transaction. Steve: Yeah,

Learn More About House Academy Here Why We Have Not Missed the Housing Boom (LA 1635) Transcript: Steven:Steve and Jill here. Jill:Hello. Steven:Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill:There was a long pause there. I'm Jill DeWit and we are broadcasting from the Valley of the Sun. Steven:Today, Jill and I talk about why we've not missed the housing boom at all. Jill:Personally or all of us? Steven:All of us. Jill:Good. Steven:This all comes from... Jill and I have children between the ages of, let's say 26, 27 and 18, and all of them and all of their friends have all throughout their entire... Let's call it late teens, early twenties have said, "Well, you guys are the generation or two generations before us. And thanks for wrecking everything." Jill:"You guys are the last homeowners," like, "Hold on a moment." Steven:To which I say, "I said the same thing to my parents," to which my parents have said, "That's what I said to my parents." Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community. It's free. And if you... Oh, please don't forget to subscribe, I should say, on the Land Academy YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like. Jill:David wrote, "Could someone give me some insight? I'm closing on my first deal. It's a 9.37 acre parcel. And in 20 days, there's not a ton of comps in the immediate area, and I was originally thinking about trying to sell it for around 30 to $40,000. But I've been doing a deep dive on research and looking at active listings. I noticed two neighboring parcels at 1.4 and 1.3 acres sold at 10,000 an acre, but it took four to six months. I'm very tempted to list it for $79,900. Even 70% of 10,000 acre at 65,000 and some change I would be thrilled with. I don't want to get crazy and list"... Oh, "I don't want to get crazy and list too high"- Steven:That was my fault. Jill:"And have to sit and/or not sell. Am I getting too excited with the neighboring properties? I'm licensed. I'm probably going to list it myself. So, if I can get the buyers and save some money... But I'm tempted to consider using a local realtor. The MLS might be different than the local one, and I might assume a local realtor who's any good would have a better handle on the prices." Is that the end of it? Steven:Yeah. Jill:So, do you want to go first? Steven:Congratulations. This is working for you. I'm really, really glad. I mean it, you're going to get through this first deal. It's going to be a lot easier. You're going to look back on it and say, "Wow, I learned a lot and I can't wait for the second one." Just like your first marriage. So... Jill:Why do you do...? Steven:I do it to annoy you. Jill:Just poking me all day long. Does this happen to you? Poke, poke, poke. Steven:It didn't bother you. If you just sailed right through it and didn't listen to anything I said, I'd never do it again. Jill:Because clearly you don't want to get a rise out of me. Steven:Here's a couple technical things, and a lot of people in our group in Discord commented the same way. Price per acre on small properties... We take a one acre property and it's priced at $10,000. So, it sells for 10,000 and apply that to even an adjoining property that's 10 acres or 40 acres... You can't use that same number. [crosstalk 00:03:27] The higher the acreage number... If it's 40 acres versus one acre, the price per acre's going to be lower. It's called the bottle case theory. When you buy a single bottle of Coca-Cola and then look at the case price, it's always cheaper to buy it by the case. It's just a pure economics thing. That's why people who subdivide property for a living make hoards and hoards of money. If you take a 40 acre property and buy it for four grand and, theoretically, divide it into 40 properties and sell it for a thousand dollars each, now you... Jill:Buy four, sold it for 40. Steven:I'm grossly oversimplifying it.

Learn More About House Academy Here Why We Have Not Missed the Housing Boom (LA 1635) Transcript: Steven:Steve and Jill here. Jill:Hello. Steven:Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill:There was a long pause there. I'm Jill DeWit and we are broadcasting from the Valley of the Sun. Steven:Today, Jill and I talk about why we've not missed the housing boom at all. Jill:Personally or all of us? Steven:All of us. Jill:Good. Steven:This all comes from... Jill and I have children between the ages of, let's say 26, 27 and 18, and all of them and all of their friends have all throughout their entire... Let's call it late teens, early twenties have said, "Well, you guys are the generation or two generations before us. And thanks for wrecking everything." Jill:"You guys are the last homeowners," like, "Hold on a moment." Steven:To which I say, "I said the same thing to my parents," to which my parents have said, "That's what I said to my parents." Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community. It's free. And if you... Oh, please don't forget to subscribe, I should say, on the Land Academy YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like. Jill:David wrote, "Could someone give me some insight? I'm closing on my first deal. It's a 9.37 acre parcel. And in 20 days, there's not a ton of comps in the immediate area, and I was originally thinking about trying to sell it for around 30 to $40,000. But I've been doing a deep dive on research and looking at active listings. I noticed two neighboring parcels at 1.4 and 1.3 acres sold at 10,000 an acre, but it took four to six months. I'm very tempted to list it for $79,900. Even 70% of 10,000 acre at 65,000 and some change I would be thrilled with. I don't want to get crazy and list"... Oh, "I don't want to get crazy and list too high"- Steven:That was my fault. Jill:"And have to sit and/or not sell. Am I getting too excited with the neighboring properties? I'm licensed. I'm probably going to list it myself. So, if I can get the buyers and save some money... But I'm tempted to consider using a local realtor. The MLS might be different than the local one, and I might assume a local realtor who's any good would have a better handle on the prices." Is that the end of it? Steven:Yeah. Jill:So, do you want to go first? Steven:Congratulations. This is working for you. I'm really, really glad. I mean it, you're going to get through this first deal. It's going to be a lot easier. You're going to look back on it and say, "Wow, I learned a lot and I can't wait for the second one." Just like your first marriage. So... Jill:Why do you do...? Steven:I do it to annoy you. Jill:Just poking me all day long. Does this happen to you? Poke, poke, poke. Steven:It didn't bother you. If you just sailed right through it and didn't listen to anything I said, I'd never do it again. Jill:Because clearly you don't want to get a rise out of me. Steven:Here's a couple technical things, and a lot of people in our group in Discord commented the same way. Price per acre on small properties... We take a one acre property and it's priced at $10,000. So, it sells for 10,000 and apply that to even an adjoining property that's 10 acres or 40 acres... You can't use that same number. [crosstalk 00:03:27] The higher the acreage number... If it's 40 acres versus one acre, the price per acre's going to be lower. It's called the bottle case theory. When you buy a single bottle of Coca-Cola and then look at the case price, it's always cheaper to buy it by the case. It's just a pure economics thing. That's why people who subdivide property for a living make hoards and hoards of money. If you take a 40 acre property and buy it for four grand and, theoretically, divide it into 40 properties and sell it for a thousand dollars each, now you... Jill:Buy four, sold it for 40. Steven:I'm grossly oversimplifying it.

In this interview, you will hear from the renowned publicity strategist, international speaker, consultant, and four times bestselling author Jill Lublin on why being kind is more important than people realised. She shared with us her view on Return on Investment, where all things are transactional, versus if we can focus on Return on Kindness instead. Simply put, when you are a kind company, you get better publicity and having kindness in business, it actually brings you more business. I can't help but think a little kindness can go a long way with our customer relationships as well! Decades ago Marianne Williamson wrote her international bestseller and highly influential book Return to Love. Jill's Profit of Kindness is also a book written to remind us about humanity and divinity as something we need to come back to. I hope you will enjoy this conversation as much as I do! Jill A. Lublin is an internationally renowned speaker on the topics of publicity and networking.  As an author of her best-selling books Profit of Kindness (Red Wheel Weiser), Get Noticed...Get Referrals, and co-author of the best-sellers Guerrilla Publicity (Adams Media), and Networking Magic (Adams Media), Jill is a master strategist on how to capture the attention of the media and increase your visibility in the marketplace. Interview Highlights What her new book "The Profit of Kindness" is about?Why it better to focus on the "Return on Kindness" Principle instead of Return on InvestmentHow to discern someone' authenticity - are they consistent on stage and off stage?Sometimes we want to work with people or coaches that can lead us to the edge of growth, which may be challenging, but that is different from working with people with who we are not comfortable.Understand your own skillset and gaps, so that when you work with others, they can fill in those gaps.The path to success and accomplishment will become clear, but not immediately and we may stumble and fell.Don't get too attached to how you think things need to be, because sometimes they will inform you how they need to be.Patience for an entrepreneur can be tough but things tend to unfold in their own natural ways"When" and "How" do we decide to quit our projects and change our direction.Many paths have projects that didn't take off because there is so much happening in the marketplace. Pick something you are passionate about so that you can stay long enough to see it through and stay in the game.Entrepreneurs are often highly creative and dynamic, we are not good with monotony and that's why it's good to delegate things you don't like to do so that they get done and you can focus on what you do best! You can find Jill's books and courses here, and you can also connect with her at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jilllublinhttp://twitter.com/JillLublinhttp://www.facebook.com/people/Jill-Lublin/1143437802 Video https://youtu.be/7Joudr_GVyI Transcript Sze Wing: Hi, everyone. I'm really excited to introduce you to my guest Jill Lublin all the way from the USA today. And I'm so pleased that she has agreed to come on to be my guest on my podcast. So hi, Jill So great to be here with you. Thank you so much. So a little short introduction. Jill is an international speaker on the topic of Radical Influence, Publicity, Networking, Kindness, and Referrals, and she's also has bestselling books and which we are going to talk about her latest one. And as many of my listeners know that I'm also writing my own books. So definitely I'm so honoured to actually have her to be interviewed. And I'm really excited to ask her with my questions. So, and her latest book is The Profit of Kindness, which went on to be number one in four categories. Sze Wing: Jill is a master strategist on how to position a business for more profitability and more visibility in marketplace. She's a CEO of a strategic consulting firm and has over 25 years experience working with over 100,

Working with Your Spouse without Tragedy (LA 1301) Transcript: Steve: Steve and Jill here. Jill: Hello. Steve: Welcome to The Land Academy Show entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill: I'm Jill DeWit, playing with my hair, and I'm broadcasting from sunny Southern California. Steve: Today, Jill and I talk about working with your spouse without tragedy. I'm sure Jill has a lot to say about this. Sure of it. Jill: Let's define tragedy. Just kidding. Steve: We can show you what a tragedy looks like on this episode, actually. Jill: I guess we could. Steve: We can give a great example of tragedy. Jill: So, divorce papers? Or just getting into it? Steve: Yesterday, and I bit the inside of my lip, we were talking about when to leave your job and I'm thinking like, "We should be talking about when to leave your relationship." Jill: Oh, that's sad. Don't say that. Steve: Sometimes you've got to leave. Jill: No, I mean, come on. Don't leave let's... careful. Steve: All right. Jill: All right. Let's be cool here. Steve: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill: Okay. Rebecca wrote, "Hi, Land Academy. Quick question on filtering and pricing lots. The last list I sent out for four to six acre lots/parcels, I filtered out the higher priced lots over 75,000, but kept the lowered valued lots. I filtered them out." So, she didn't keep them. Okay. "I received about eight signed contracts from people who I sent offers to for eight to $10,000 when their lots were worth less than $10,000. Should I price by zip code or filter out the lots assessed under 10K or both? Thoughts please." Steve: You should price by zip code, for sure. No doubt about it based on the information that we have, the level of information we now have specifically because of Zillow. So yes, you should price by zip code, for sure. Should you remove any of the top end or the bottom end data? I call it like a bell curve. I keep it all in. We send out offer prices at a million plus now, and we get some of them signed back because you just never know. Over and over and over again what I hear from our advanced group at our live events, is send out more mail. Send out more mail and see what happens. You put yourself in such a position of control when you send out just hoards of mail. So yeah, maybe some of it's overpriced, maybe some of it's under priced, to this day I over and underprice property sometimes, but I'll tell you, when you're staring at a pile of purchase agreements that are signed, let's say 10 of them, you're going to pick the best three. If you have five purchase agreements signed and you're going to pick the best three, it's not as good of a situation to be in as 10, pick three. But yeah, you've got to price by zip code now. Jill: Well, I like what you said too, careful, don't limit yourself too much because you never, like you said, you never know what's going to come back. And if you're really, really deathly afraid of anything over $100,000, I can understand that, that's over your threshold. I would download the data. You're famous for saying the data is cheap, the mail's expensive and that's true. So, I would download the data just to have it and play with it and think about it too, but go for some bigger numbers anyway because you can afford to do this. Why? Because we'll fund your deals and people in our community will fund your deals. You might find something spectacular, Rebecca, that you're buying it for $83,000 and holy cow, it's worth 400, that just comes across your desk. And I want you to be able to look at those and see those and act on them. Adding a zero or a couple zeros is not nuts. Steve: This group is packed full of people that would love to write you an $83,000 check. Jill: Right. My other thing is too, I think what may have happened is sometimes how counties assess properties.

Working with Your Spouse without Tragedy (LA 1301) Transcript: Steve: Steve and Jill here. Jill: Hello. Steve: Welcome to The Land Academy Show entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill: I'm Jill DeWit, playing with my hair, and I'm broadcasting from sunny Southern California. Steve: Today, Jill and I talk about working with your spouse without tragedy. I'm sure Jill has a lot to say about this. Sure of it. Jill: Let's define tragedy. Just kidding. Steve: We can show you what a tragedy looks like on this episode, actually. Jill: I guess we could. Steve: We can give a great example of tragedy. Jill: So, divorce papers? Or just getting into it? Steve: Yesterday, and I bit the inside of my lip, we were talking about when to leave your job and I'm thinking like, "We should be talking about when to leave your relationship." Jill: Oh, that's sad. Don't say that. Steve: Sometimes you've got to leave. Jill: No, I mean, come on. Don't leave let's... careful. Steve: All right. Jill: All right. Let's be cool here. Steve: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill: Okay. Rebecca wrote, "Hi, Land Academy. Quick question on filtering and pricing lots. The last list I sent out for four to six acre lots/parcels, I filtered out the higher priced lots over 75,000, but kept the lowered valued lots. I filtered them out." So, she didn't keep them. Okay. "I received about eight signed contracts from people who I sent offers to for eight to $10,000 when their lots were worth less than $10,000. Should I price by zip code or filter out the lots assessed under 10K or both? Thoughts please." Steve: You should price by zip code, for sure. No doubt about it based on the information that we have, the level of information we now have specifically because of Zillow. So yes, you should price by zip code, for sure. Should you remove any of the top end or the bottom end data? I call it like a bell curve. I keep it all in. We send out offer prices at a million plus now, and we get some of them signed back because you just never know. Over and over and over again what I hear from our advanced group at our live events, is send out more mail. Send out more mail and see what happens. You put yourself in such a position of control when you send out just hoards of mail. So yeah, maybe some of it's overpriced, maybe some of it's under priced, to this day I over and underprice property sometimes, but I'll tell you, when you're staring at a pile of purchase agreements that are signed, let's say 10 of them, you're going to pick the best three. If you have five purchase agreements signed and you're going to pick the best three, it's not as good of a situation to be in as 10, pick three. But yeah, you've got to price by zip code now. Jill: Well, I like what you said too, careful, don't limit yourself too much because you never, like you said, you never know what's going to come back. And if you're really, really deathly afraid of anything over $100,000, I can understand that, that's over your threshold. I would download the data. You're famous for saying the data is cheap, the mail's expensive and that's true. So, I would download the data just to have it and play with it and think about it too, but go for some bigger numbers anyway because you can afford to do this. Why? Because we'll fund your deals and people in our community will fund your deals. You might find something spectacular, Rebecca, that you're buying it for $83,000 and holy cow, it's worth 400, that just comes across your desk. And I want you to be able to look at those and see those and act on them. Adding a zero or a couple zeros is not nuts. Steve: This group is packed full of people that would love to write you an $83,000 check. Jill: Right. My other thing is too, I think what may have happened is sometimes how counties assess properties.

Real Definition of Homestead (LA 1299) Transcript: Steve: Steve and Jill here. Jill: Hello. Steve: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land, investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill: And I'm Jill DeWitt broadcasting from sunny, Southern California. Steve: Today Jill and I talk about, well, really, I talk about, the real definition of the word homestead. Jill: Why is it only you? This came up because of a call that I had it. And this guy was nutty. Well, I'll explain it. But this nutty seller was explaining to me how he got this property. He's the first one to get the property. It was never properly, what was the word he said, what did he call it? Divided. It wasn't subdivided. He said staked out or something like that. And I'm going along like a homestead and he's telling me no. So we talked about it. Now we're going to try to clear this up. Steve: That's interesting. Because I chose this topic because I was reading a stream, an extremely lengthy stream in our Facebook. Jill: So they're talking about it too. Steve: Yeah. It's all over the internet man. And it's so wrong. I have to be real straight here. There's some really bad information about the word homestead. And I know why, because homestead means four or five things to different people. So I'm going to try to clear it up. Jill: It's funny. Steve: And not in a boring way. Jill: [inaudible 00:01:22]. By the way. Steve: That's okay. Jill: Okay, good. I got to say usually we're recording this a few days before. Now pretty much today we're recording on the day. This tells you a little bit about our weekend. Steve: We were late because of our social life interfered with our professional life recently. Jill: You should not let that happen. And we did, "Well, we can record tomorrow." I'll just record tomorrow, or we can record tomorrow. And then here, we're like, Oh, you can't. We have no more tomorrows. Steve: Remember back when we first started out, not with the Atlanta Academy, but just working together. And we were there every day and working hard and all into it. And now it's just a lapse [crosstalk 00:00:02:03]. Jill: [crosstalk 00:02:06] I guess so. Don't do that. Steve: I hear radio radio switches clicking off all over the place right now. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill: Okay. So Austin wrote, "Hello. After a somewhat successful first round mailer, I have a handful of recorded deeds from the County," as you should. This is great. "I haven't sold anything so far. I focus in Northern Arizona and have five acre plus desert properties that I'm hoping to sell in the 2,500 to $3,000 range. For this price point, is it appropriate to hire a photo company such as WeGoLook. There's others like that too, to shoot photos and or video, or should I use stock photos from the region and those will be adequate?" Thanks, Austin. And we put those in there for [inaudible 00:02:59] people. That's one of the things- Steve: There's 10,000 pictures in the original program of Northern Arizona. Jill: That we shared. Steve: [crosstalk 00:03:08] 10,000, maybe 8,000. Jill: When I say we, I mean, somebody else that worked for us or you. Steve: What do you think about this topic? Jill: I would, you know what? I think that back in the day, it was hard to get people and hard to tell them where to go. And for them to find properties, it was difficult for us alone telling photographer. But nowadays you could get a guy for 50 to 75 bucks off these companies or Craigslist, and you can give them GPS coordinates that they can pop in their phone and they can drive right there. So I think not hiring it I think there's no reason nowadays to not hire a photographer, to go out there, hopefully see a couple... And you've got how many properties? Steve: A handful. Jill: Is there a way... Do all of them at the same time. Have your photographer pick the first sunny day w...

Real Definition of Homestead (LA 1299) Transcript: Steve: Steve and Jill here. Jill: Hello. Steve: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land, investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill: And I'm Jill DeWitt broadcasting from sunny, Southern California. Steve: Today Jill and I talk about, well, really, I talk about, the real definition of the word homestead. Jill: Why is it only you? This came up because of a call that I had it. And this guy was nutty. Well, I'll explain it. But this nutty seller was explaining to me how he got this property. He's the first one to get the property. It was never properly, what was the word he said, what did he call it? Divided. It wasn't subdivided. He said staked out or something like that. And I'm going along like a homestead and he's telling me no. So we talked about it. Now we're going to try to clear this up. Steve: That's interesting. Because I chose this topic because I was reading a stream, an extremely lengthy stream in our Facebook. Jill: So they're talking about it too. Steve: Yeah. It's all over the internet man. And it's so wrong. I have to be real straight here. There's some really bad information about the word homestead. And I know why, because homestead means four or five things to different people. So I'm going to try to clear it up. Jill: It's funny. Steve: And not in a boring way. Jill: [inaudible 00:01:22]. By the way. Steve: That's okay. Jill: Okay, good. I got to say usually we're recording this a few days before. Now pretty much today we're recording on the day. This tells you a little bit about our weekend. Steve: We were late because of our social life interfered with our professional life recently. Jill: You should not let that happen. And we did, "Well, we can record tomorrow." I'll just record tomorrow, or we can record tomorrow. And then here, we're like, Oh, you can't. We have no more tomorrows. Steve: Remember back when we first started out, not with the Atlanta Academy, but just working together. And we were there every day and working hard and all into it. And now it's just a lapse [crosstalk 00:00:02:03]. Jill: [crosstalk 00:02:06] I guess so. Don't do that. Steve: I hear radio radio switches clicking off all over the place right now. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill: Okay. So Austin wrote, "Hello. After a somewhat successful first round mailer, I have a handful of recorded deeds from the County," as you should. This is great. "I haven't sold anything so far. I focus in Northern Arizona and have five acre plus desert properties that I'm hoping to sell in the 2,500 to $3,000 range. For this price point, is it appropriate to hire a photo company such as WeGoLook. There's others like that too, to shoot photos and or video, or should I use stock photos from the region and those will be adequate?" Thanks, Austin. And we put those in there for [inaudible 00:02:59] people. That's one of the things- Steve: There's 10,000 pictures in the original program of Northern Arizona. Jill: That we shared. Steve: [crosstalk 00:03:08] 10,000, maybe 8,000. Jill: When I say we, I mean, somebody else that worked for us or you. Steve: What do you think about this topic? Jill: I would, you know what? I think that back in the day, it was hard to get people and hard to tell them where to go. And for them to find properties, it was difficult for us alone telling photographer. But nowadays you could get a guy for 50 to 75 bucks off these companies or Craigslist, and you can give them GPS coordinates that they can pop in their phone and they can drive right there. So I think not hiring it I think there's no reason nowadays to not hire a photographer, to go out there, hopefully see a couple... And you've got how many properties? Steve: A handful. Jill: Is there a way... Do all of them at the same time. Have your photographer pick the first sunny day w...

This week I'm talking with my friend Jill Stribling. Jill's family has first-hand experience with COVID-19. If you're a longtime listener, you may remember my chat with Jill back in Ep. 35 about her decision to unplug her family, including her 10-year-old son, whose behavior around screens had started to concern her. About Jill Jill is a teacher and is the owner and founder of English for Fun, a school in Madrid, Spain. English for Fun is a learning laboratory where children and adults are empowered to take risks and try new things. They collaborate with the best research institutes throughout the world in order to bring quality education to Spain and to the world. Jill Stribling has a B.A. in Child Development and Psychology and a Master’s degree in Education and specialty in Literacy and Language Arts from California State University and more than 20 years of experience in education. After several years teaching in public schools in Los Angeles, CA, she was recruited by the American School of Madrid in 2001, where she taught Kindergaten and First Grade and took on several leadership roles (i.e. Grade Level Chair, Accreditation Committee Leader, etc.). With her educational and professional experience firmly in place, she developed a methodology for making language learning fun, and began her entrepreneurial journey in 2008 with literally one student in her living room. Shortly afterwards, she had a total of 70 students, and actually had to expand her business. English for Fun is an educational group with an English Enrichment Program for children and adults, an Urban Camp Program, an American Early Childhood Center and a Training Center for educators. Today, she owns schools in Madrid and Pozuelo de Alarcon, and this year alone more than 3,000 students will benefit from the English for Fun method! Back in the fall of 2018, I had the privilege of visiting the Stribling family, touring English for Fun, and speaking with the parents at both of the school campuses. Big Ideas It is important to think of others during this time. If we are not careful, we could cause the death of someone that we or someone else loves. This is a great time to stay inside and work on ourselves. Quotes Jill: I think that this was the scariest thing that I've ever been through in my entire life. Jill: We were really lucky that he recovered in a week. Jill: I think that now looking back on it, we realize, you know, how crazy everything was and how fortunate we are. But, um, but yeah, it was not easy. And, and, you know, I wish looking back on everything that, that not only would we have taken this more seriously when it happened. Jill: If you are someone who is a carrier and you infect other people, you will never know if you caused a death for somebody that someone else loves. Audrey: It's almost as if like, if you don't know anyone directly, it must not be that serious or something. And these numbers of deaths on that we see on the news just seem not as relevant if you don't know them, which is sad. Jill: The thing about how contagious it is is that you don't even realize it until it's too late. Jill: So that for me is the hardest part of this, is all the damage you do to others when you're not careful. Jill: By the time you realize that you have it, you've already passed it to eight to fifteen people. Audrey: I was wishing we had done better because now of course we're seeing that it's kind of everywhere now and cases are still going up in like most of our states. Jill: I think COVID is kind of teaching us that, you know, we've gotta live differently. Jill: It's not about me anymore. It's about somebody's grandmother. It's about somebody's mother who could have cancer. And I know that for a fact, because I have seen it. Jill: I get it like we're social. We want to go out. But I think right now it's the time to work on ourselves. Audrey: I,  like you, hope that from this, we learn that we are a community. We're a global community. What happens over there impacts us, we all have a responsibility. Resources/Links English for Fun NY Times article Jill mentions I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness Review by Audrey One Simple Thing - Find Your Flow What is "Flow"? Flow is a term coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi (pronounced “cheeks sent me high”) that refers to a state of optimal experience and involvement in an activity during which we are performing at our best. Watch Dr. Csikszentmihalyi talk about flow in his TED Talk, “Flow, the Secret to Happiness.” When we’re in “flow,” we are doing something we really, really enjoy. We can’t wait to do the activity again, and we feel a lot of positive emotions while participating in the activity. We can stick with it for hours without even noticing the time going by. In fact, when we’re in flow, it’s hard to stop whatever we’re doing. Flow is different from pleasure – simply doing things that are enjoyable like watching TV, scrolling on social media, or shopping. Instead, flow activities usually are demanding and take our full attention and concentration. How do I achieve flow? People achieve flow in all different ways, including while playing a musical instrument, playing a sport, writing, painting, attending a concert, bird watching, riding a horse, or running, to name just a few. Often we cannot relate to the passion others have for their personal “flow” activity, since their enthusiasm and passion seem inordinately high. For the lucky ones among us, we find flow in our daily work. The younger you are, the more likely it is that you’ve been in flow today. Young children excel at getting into a state of flow, usually during unstructured play time. As they create their pretend worlds, “cook” in the sand box, build a fort, or swing high on a swing, they are joyful and time flies by for them. Young children are experts at happily living in the moment. As we get older, however, we need to be more aware of getting ourselves into that engaged, amazing state that we enjoyed when we were younger. Official definition of flow Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. Possible Flow Activities And here are some ideas of possible flow activities from Deann Ware, Ph.d: Physical activities such as sports, yoga, dance, and martial arts Outdoor challenges such as hiking Music–writing, playing, mixing Art–painting, sculpture, mixed media, pottery Photography Woodworking Do-It-Yourself projects, such as home improvement Working with animals Gardening Cooking and baking Software development/coding Scrapbooking Writing Needlework–sewing, knitting, cross stitch Horseback riding What you do for work (hopefully!) Questions to ask yourself (and your kids) What activities get you into flow? When have you been doing something that you are so engaged that you’ve completely lost track of time? What are new activities you want to try this summer? What makes your heart “sing?” Sometimes, we need to explore different activities before we figure out which activities get us into that awesome state of flow. Don’t worry if you haven’t found that awesome, engaged state yet. Sometimes, it takes awhile to explore, and many adults haven’t even figured it out yet! So start now, while you have some free time, exploring different activities – creative, athletic, academic, etc. – and find your flow! Flow states are a great clue as we figure out who we are and what makes us our best self! Finding Flow My Favorite I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

What’s In This Episode: Brad: If you're sick and tired, and every time you think about your business it makes you go aah, that is a poor indicator of your business health. Brad: Welcome to Breaking Down Your Business, episode 357. Jill: No, no, no, no. No, no. No. Brad: You can find the show notes to this episode at breakingdownyourbusiness.com/357, beep, boop, bop, beep. Jill: What's happened to you? Don't make me shout it. Nobody's going to know who we are. Oh, gross. Brad: Jill. It's April. We're talking about numbers. So I thought that- Jill: So, that immediately means robot voice. Brad: Yes, exactly. Robot voice for the numbers. Jill: Of course. Totally makes sense.

What’s In This Episode: Brad: Welcome to Breaking Down Your Business! Jill: There he is! Brad: Episode 358. Jill: So exciting! Brad: You can find the show notes of this episode of BreakingDownYourBusiness.com/358. Jill: All the numbers correct in the numbers episode. Brad: Yes! We're talking about numbers for the month of April.

What’s In This Episode: Brad: I'm a big fan of podcasting. Jill: Same. Brad: I think podcasting is a great way to demonstrate expertise. Jill: Agreed. Brad: However, it is a long tail process. Welcome to Breaking Down Your Business, episode 352. You can find the show notes for this episode of breakingdownyourbusiness.com/352. Jill: So glad [inaudible 00:00:28]. Brad: That exciting, thrilling energy field voice, that's Jill from the Founding Moms doing her Ethel impression. Jill: I don't know why I wanted to look like this. This is Brad from Anchor Advisors. If you've never listened to the show, I don't actually sound like this.

How to Get Over the Fear of Buying Property (1070) Transcript: Steven:                Steven and Jill here. Jill:                          Good day. Steven:                Welcome to the Land Academy Show. Entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill:                          And I'm Jill Dewitt broadcasting from sunny Southern California. Steven:                Today, Jill and I talk about how to get over the fear of buying property. Seems like such an interesting, funny, incredibly unnecessary topic, but I know it's- Jill:                          Oh my gosh, are you serious? Steven:                Yeah, to me it does. Jill:                          To me it's a necessary. Steven:                Yeah. Jill:                          Unnecessary. Just because you have no fear and I have no fear, it doesn't mean- Steven:                Any fear of buying real estate at all. Jill:                          I do not. Steven:                Have you ever? Jill:                          No. Steven:                Neither have I. Jill:                          Hold on a moment. That does not mean that everybody's that way. If it's one thing I have learned. Steven:                Well you just cut me off in the middle of the sentence, but that's okay. Jill:                          I'm sorry. I didn't know you were going there. Steven:                You know what we should do that's so, it's going to be annoying to the listener, but really fun for us. Jill:                          So sorry. Steven:                Every single sentence the other person says, just cut them off. Jill:                          Not nice. Steven:                Go ahead, Jill. Jill:                          No I didn't mean to do that. Steven:                It's not a trap, I mean it. Go ahead. Jill:                          Finish your thing. Steven:                No, I can't remember what I was going to say. Jill:                          Oh, well, sorry. Steven:                Look, this show is all about learning how to buy and sell real estate, so it's not really about Jill and I at all. So what comes easy to us might be incredibly difficult for somebody and vice versa. So this topic came up because we have a lot of new staff right now, and I'm learning by watching how they're doing deals and what they're bringing to the table that adds to what Jill and I can bring to the table. You know, there's some concern about ... you know what I think this really shows really about, and then I'll let you take over, because I know you have a lot of notes. It's just insecurity, not about buying real estate, it's just like fear of failure. Jill:                          Well I was going to say, I really saw it when we were talking about the topics. Not our people, the members. I talked to new members all the time. New and or thinking about jumping in, and this is one of their concerns. Steven:                Oh, okay, good. So it is necessary. Jill:                          It is necessary. And I have a lot more to say when we talk about the show. Steven:                Before we get into it, let's take to a topic posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill:                          Joe wrote, "Hello, my name is Joe. I'm 28 years old, married and no kids. New to this site and learning about land investing. I'm very interested. This is definitely something I want to do. However, I don't really know the best path to take at this point in my life. I have a decent paying job, but I hate it." Poor guy. "I'm just now getting to where I can make a change. I either want to go back to college or go back into the military. Now that I've found this, I'm not sure if I should focus on getting a better career first and then working towards investing in land, or just use the job I have now to save and get started. I don't know really what it takes to get going and I don't know h...

What’s In This Episode: Jill's recently made some changes over at The Founding Moms, going from monthly meetups to weekly masterminds. "I'm not even sure I know what a mastermind group is." - Brad Audio branding and content marketing expert Tina Dietz's company is in a period of rapid expansion and she doesn't know who to hire first. They talk through pain points and trust issues. "I want facilitators and listeners more than problem solvers." - Jill So what is a mastermind, anyway? Usually a small group with an agenda that aims to solve whatever business problems group members have. Jill and Brad talk through masterminds and what the benefit of having peers listen, talk through, and get clarity is. Are you part of a mastermind group? Guest: Find Tina Dietz on LinkedIn. 

How to Buy Your Next Primary Residence (LA 946) Transcript: Steven:                Steve and Jill here. Jill:                          Guten Tag! Steven:                What? Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill:                          And I'm Jill DeWitt, broadcasting from not Germany but from Sunny Southern California. Wouldn't that be funny? Steven:                We should do this where we go, everywhere we go. Jill:                          Yeah. Steven:                Today, Jill and I talk about how to buy your next primary residence using data. Jill:                          Yeah. Steven:                We've done it. I'm doing it right now. Jill:                          Exactly! We do do this on the road but we haven't been in Germany in a while. Steven:                We should celebrate a little more. Jill:                          Exactly! Steven:                Before we get into it, let's a take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill:                          Okay. This made me laugh. JeffU asked ... I've got to say, it's so funny. Do you remember there was a guy, I wonder if it's the same guy, there was a guy years ago that was at our group and his name was Jeff and it was back when we first started our member calls every week and we would always title the calls. There was always some funny thing that happened during the call. Steven:                Like these shows. Like this episode. Jill:                          Yeah, we'd all crack up about something so at the end of the call, we started to all, we said, “All right, what would you call the show?” And we come up with this funny things and I swear there was this guy that was ... I want to say it was Jeff U. We're like, “Yeah. You know what? Well, Jeff U?” Do you remember that? Steven:                I do. Jill:                          So anyway, if it's you Jeff, I think it's funny and nice to see you. So, “Sorry for the newbie question. I have heard about Steve and Jill talk about percentages off of retail value. My question is what is retail value?” Is ... this is a great questions guy. Steven:                That's what I think. Jill:                          And now I know you're new so it's not the same Jeff but welcome anyway. “Is it the top price that you could potential sell it for it? Number two, what others are selling it on Land Watch or other sites? Or Number there, is it what you would be selling it for discounted from Land Watch and other sites? Also, I'm just curious, what is the percentage of that ...” wait, “what is the percentage that you discount a property? I understand it's going to be different from county to county but on average what you end up selling it for and what is the discounted price from the full value? Let's say you sell it for top dollar and what is a discount percentage from other sites such as Land Watch for similar properties? Thank you for taking the time to answer this newbie question. JeffU.” Steven:                So we answer every single one of those questions and address those topics in a tremendous amount of detail in our of education programs but I choose this question very specifically because it's a big issue. Like pricing itself is what he's really asking is, “Yeah, you guys talk about retail value. You talk about wholesale value. You obviously say you have to buy it cheaper. What are the percentages?” Steven:                Retail value is the price that it's listed for in general. It used to be not so long ago but used to be the price you listed it for and the price you sell it for is very different. Not so much anymore. Basically, the listing price plus or minus 5% with land or houses or anything is about the same. And that's your retail value and you can very easily with land associate a price per acre or in the case of infill lots,

Jill Richmond joins us today to talk about the U.S. government’s somewhat mixed success to date in regulating cryptocurrency and the growing push by predominantly conservative political forces to reduce federal intervention and give states a bigger say in how this new economy is regulated. Jill brings us up to speed on how crypto trade and lobbying groups such as the Digital Asset Trade Association (DATA), which she Co-Founded, are faring in their efforts to ensure that states pass consistent laws across the board. And she explains how the growing tensions between states and Washington D.C. on crypto regulation involves the principle of  federalism. We’ll give you a report card of states and show how some states are doing better than others at this political gamesmanship. Tune in to find out what’s fact, what’s substance, and what’s grandstanding in the growing political battle over cryptocurrency. Topics Covered in this Conversation with Jill Richmond: – Patchwork of federal regulations – Confusion and lack of clarity – Complex woolly regulatory environment – States trying to create clarity for companies – Many states also creating patchwork of laws – Difficulties of crypto companies to get banked – Interest from banks to move to foreign jurisdictions – Confusion over definition of cryptocurrency and ICOs – Role of federalism in crypto politics – Conservative groups working to give more power to states – Digital Asset Trade Association (DATA)  working to create consistent state legislation – States Report Card – How DATA was created and got involved in legislative activity – States doing the most on regulation – Gubernatorial races and impact on industry – Wyoming becoming Delaware of crypto – Rise of crypto banks – Getting Congress to become more engaged – Closing thoughts and key takeaways   Questions and Comments? podcast@gem.co Guest Contact Information Jill Richmond LinkedIn | Twitter | Telegram Website: Digital Asset Trade Association Resource Links Blockchain and Cryptocurrency: State Law Roundup US Election Sees Crypto-Friendly Politicians Win Governor Races DATA Continues To Move the Needle in Wyoming Wyoming Eyes Creation of Blockchain-Friendly Bank to Lure Bitcoin Startups State Regulations on Virtual Currency and Blockchain Technologies Crypto industry leaders warn Congress: Figure out regulation, or watch innovation leave the US Colorado Digital Token Act Wyoming wants to be Delaware of the West With Business Court U.S. State of Wyoming Defines Cryptocurrency ‘Utility Tokens’ as New Asset Class Transcript: Interview with Jill Richmond Interview Recorded On: January 8th, 2019 Topic: Politics and Crypto   Chitra: Welcome to the show, Jill. It's great to have you.   Jill: No, it's great to be here. Thanks, Chitra.   Chitra: Thanks so much. So this past year there was a tremendous amount of interpretation and confusion it seemed on how different federal agencies were defining how cryptocurrency should be regulated.   Jill: Sure. So - and I think to lean into that a little bit more - I think you have everyone from the SEC to the CFTC to FinCEN determining whether we're looking at property, we're looking at commodity, or we're looking at a security, but none really turning around and saying this may be a new asset class. So, what you have is agencies that leaned in really hard without creating a lot of clarity and companies wrote reactively and proactively trying to respond to what was either coming down the pike as they anticipated it. And so, interestingly enough, what you've started to see as a result of this kind of complex woolly regulatory environment is states and hopefully on the federal side, trying to lean as heavy as they can and trying to create some clarity for companies, individuals, and otherwise, and obviously consumers in terms of how they need to behave, operate within a framework in the United States.   Chitra: Let's pause for a minute and talk about the current state of affairs for businesses and investors when it comes to pain points and friction in how they're operating.   Jill: Okay, sure. So, I guess you sort of need to define what you're talking about here, are you talking about cryptocurrency? Are you talking about blockchain technology?   Chitra: Cryptocurrency.   Jill: Cryptocurrency, fine. Okay. So for cryptocurrency, you have a lot of companies that have very difficult time trying to get banked. So there are banks that are more or less unhelpful to companies that are operating in the US and companies are finding themselves having to find a jurisdiction and bank outside of the US. So there's this, I would say, this interest in moving to other jurisdictions. So that's a huge pain point for companies. Certainly companies who were trying to bank class last year had a very difficult time. I can get to that later. In terms of what legislation is on the ground, possibly in Wyoming to have a bank that basically is supporting blockchain and crypto-based companies.   There are pain points around, even companies, and I'm often uncomfortable in discussing it, but there were companies who essentially said, look, we want to do an ICO. Can we do an ICO in this country? Does that mean that we have to turn around and now only work with accredited investors?   Chitra: An ICO is an initial coin offering, which is a method of crowdfunding in cryptocurrency.   Jill: Yes. So, essentially, companies last year were producing utility tokens and treating those utility tokens effectively as an investment vehicle and running afoul of major securities law. Essentially treating a token, utility token, extensively, which needs to be treated as utility token. In other words, the token has utility consumptive value within the ecosystem.   Chitra: Unlike a security for instance, which the SEC says ICOs and tokens essentially are.   Jill: That's right. So there is still real value in having a utility. That utility token, however, should not, could not, cannot be treated as an investment contract per se. So it's the intent around what that token’s primary purpose is.   Chitra: And this is a source of great disagreement at the federal level.   Jill: It is still a source of great disagreement, although I don't know because the disagreement is such that, the SEC still looks at the how we test as-   Chitra: Which is a supreme court test that deals with securities regulation.   Jill: That's right. And so, in applying that test to, I guess a utility token, it can be very complicated. And as I said, it often is about the intent of the utility tokens. So, there was legislation that was created out in Wyoming. We can cover that, HB 70, which was a bill that was passed in a Wyoming last March that we helped. And I can tell you that we helped shepherd along, which really stipulated effectively what a utility or an open token is and that it is exempt from property taxes.   Chitra: So this is important because the SEC says that cryptocurrency is a security and is illegal unless regulated by the SEC, then you've got the commodities future trading commission. The CFTC says, oh no, cryptocurrency is a commodity. And then you have the IRS saying cryptocurrency is property. And then you have FinCEN which is the treasury’s financial crimes enforcement network saying that it is money. So you have all of these different interpretations. But now you have a state named the Wyoming saying, we believe that utility tokens can be essentially exempt from-   Jill: Property taxes.   Chitra: ...from property taxes. So it seems like this is a perfect example of federalism at play. So can you talk a little bit about how federalism is kind of playing a role here and eventually they'll, it seems that in situations like that often courtside with the federal laws and so how will this all play out?   Jill: Yeah, it's a good question and we haven't seen it yet. So yes, it is a perfect example of federalism, but you still have major issues that fall within, I guess financial markets to some extent, taxes and otherwise that are still at the purview of the state level. So, as long as you are working closely with the state securities, if you're working around securities law as it relates on the state level, you're extensively okay. Do I think that there's going to be a showdown about what's happening in Wyoming? I don't know. We haven't seen it yet and it's hard for me to predict whether we're going to start seeing the courts take on what's happening on a state level. It's still extremely nascent right now. I mean with Wyoming being probably the front runner and the most maybe controversial legislation on the ground in one particular state.   Chitra: Let's go back to the broader area. It seems that many states are now weighing in on how cryptocurrency should be regulated. And the Brookings Institute essentially categorized states in seven different ways. And they said there are states that are unaware, reactionary, appreciative, organized, actively engaged and recognizing innovation potential. And I know that your trade group, The Digital Assets Trade Association has also done a lot of work and done a report card on how states are fairing when dealing with cryptocurrency. Can you sum up what you’ve found?   Jill: Yeah, I think that's fair. So what you saw in 2014, is the first wave of kind of 20 states that came in and started to regulate or started to create legislation acknowledging cryptocurrency and more or less protecting the consumer. So you've got New York and California and the license. So, but fast forward to 2018 really is sort of the next wave of states that fall within those sort of seven categories. So for us at The Digital Asset Trade Association and I love the Brookings, I thought Brookings did a great job of breaking that down, at least for people who were slightly unaware of what's going on on a state level. What we did is take it a little, a step further, which is to say the elections are imminent and let's kind of highlight some of the governors that we know are either proactive. So in the case of Colorado, we had Jared Polis who we know as a state legislator, formed the blockchain coalition.   Chitra: And you're referring to the 2018 midterm elections.   Jill: [crosstalk] That's correct. Yeah. So anyway, the short version of a long story is that where seven of those states fit. So there are seven key states that are really looking into legislation that not only is acknowledging the technology, but are creating safe harbor legislation and also, trying to identify where blockchain technology fits around public and private services. So, can we have state records on a blockchain? Can we have... how are we treating smart contracts? So you have places like Delaware, Arizona was extremely progressive. Wyoming as we know which issued and passed six bills last year, extremely progressive and probably the most progressive.   So our scorecard was basically giving, we're giving governors and states, essentially an A rating or a passive rating or an A rating, so to speak. So at least voters started to understand where their state fit and where their legislators fit around adopting legislation that was probably creating job creation within their state. So it wasn't just about cryptocurrency, it was, look, we're taking a really strong position. We want companies to set up shop in the case of Wyoming and we want to be seen as an innovation hub.   Chitra: So what's at stake really here is the entire new ecosystem that's being built around cryptocurrency. So it's a jobs and attracting more companies to increase your tax base. There seems to be a lot at stake here.   Jill: Yeah, there is a lot at stake and I think there's still that pivotal moment where legislators are starting to see if they take action, they can retain talent, company innovation, staying either in-state and not fleeing to a new jurisdiction. That's the hope. That, that innovation, that sandbox legislation that gets put on the table in Colorado for instance, creates opportunities for new financial based or fintech-based companies to operate within their state and not flee and go somewhere else.   Chitra: What are the stakes for crypto businesses in terms of the friction we talked about, the pain points, what do they want?   Jill: Oh, well. I guess it was September of this year, there was a real, there was a round table on a federal level that was put together with a number of major players within the industry and above and beyond all else, it was clarity. It was just clarity. It was the, look, in order for us to have big money come into this industry, it needs to be regulated well, it needs to be regulated with clarity and their hopes in the friction at least as far as they're concern is as they're building new financial products and infrastructure, that clarity means everything in terms of, again, where that innovation is coming from. Is it in Korea or is it really coming out of the United States? Is it coming from Malta or is it coming from the United States?   Chitra: So you have at the federal level, a patchwork of guidance and confusion. And now you have states jumping in and every state is trying to issue its own idex on regulation of cryptocurrency. You have the underlying kind of a conservative political movement steeped in federalism that's tried to give more [crosstalk] power to the states from ALEC, the conservative organization, the American Legislative Exchange Council. So you have that underlying kind of political movement that's driving some of this stuff. And then we have groups like yours that's trying to wrestle all of this to the ground and finding some kind of consistency. So how is this all working out?   Jill: Well, it's complicated. So, and maybe it helps if I give a little bit of an information. Oh, I help you understand a little bit about DATA, so-   Chitra: Your organization?   Jill: My organization, which is The Digital Asset Trade Association. The Digital Asset Trade Association, let me just sort of give some context to bring you right back. Digital Asset Trade Association was really formed last year. End of January, we had a round table with the chief information officer at the CFTC and the SEC and we sat down in a private room with stakeholders from blockchain and crypto-based companies and said, what can we do to help you? In not so many words, what can we do to help you communicate directly to the companies and understand their pain points and help you understand how do you either both weed out bad actors or be compliant or operate in a way that is moving the needle on proactivity?   And so what came out of it, at least the timing, was Wyoming was really fast moving in introducing six pieces of legislation. And we as an organization that had just been formed, turned around and said, we're going to focus all of our energy and attention over to Wyoming. We're going to work closely with the Wyoming blockchain coalition. We're going to work closely with Caitlin Long and help them shepherd through kind of a stake in the ground and that's what we did and we did it very quickly. It was within two weeks. We sort of dropped in like a SWAT team, testified, introduced as much language, education, support as the state needed. Walked away and said, okay, we have our mission. Our mission is now to use Wyoming as kind of the ground zero, even though there were other states before, but use Wyoming as sort of the proverbial ground zero and say, now let's try and create federal language that takes HB 70, for instance, on a federal level and create consistency among states.   Chitra: [crosstalk] utility token definition.   Jill: This is utility token definition, exactly. And so, we started to get inbound requests from states and guidance and support and we went over to Colorado and started working in Colorado to help pass legislation that by the way, did not pass. But we have a very different makeup in the Senate and the House right now and we have a very progressive governor. And so the short version of a long story, is DATA was really formed to create consistency among states and we will be working with bodies like ALEC to help support that consistency among states.   Chitra: But at the moment, given this patchwork, the fact which of course is democracy at its best and worst as we know it, is this a blessing or a curse that states are jumping in willy nilly to try to change and shape this ecosystem.   Jill: Is it Pollyannaish for me to say it's a blessing and a curse? Because it is. It's a blessing because you almost need to do this pincer move. There's a little bit of a pincer move that needs to happen. States are going to jump in and they're going to try and clarify and they're certainly going to do that hopefully, or at least in their best interest, which is to attract companies and they're going to go head to, so Wyoming is going to go head to head with Delaware and you've got states that are going to start competing with each other to attract talent, to attract innovation. Now is that helpful for those companies? Probably not. The reasons why states are doing it versus why companies need to have some defining language. So, it's a blessing because now you have companies that are like, great, I feel like I can go move-   Chitra: They have a home.   Jill: They have a home, they can move to Colorado and there are a lot of major companies in Colorado. They can move to, you have kind of, you have companies that are now at least exchanges that have turned around and said, okay, we can move out to Wyoming and leave Washington for instance. So you're attracting talent, but you will have to create a serious pincer move around the introduction of a lot of that consistent legislation on the federal side now. And we hope as a trade organization to bridge, we've got many masters, but to bridge that chasm so to speak.   Chitra: And one of the things you're seeing is the education of politicians both at the federal and at the state level about blockchain technology and cryptocurrency and the midterm elections were significant for the cryptocurrency industry in that you had the election of three crypto savvy, crypto friendly governors, I guess it was Jared Polis of Colorado and-   Jill: Gavin Newsom.   Chitra: Gavin Newsom of California and you had the third one was Mark Gordon of Wyoming-   Jill: Wyoming.   Chitra: ... of course. And then you had-   Jill: He was inaugurated last night.   Chitra: Yeah. And then you had two who were re-elected. One was Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island and Greg Abbott of Texas. So you've got five state governors now who are getting educated and are knowledgeable and supportive of cryptocurrency. And that seems to, that that's going to have an impact too.   Jill: Yeah, it will. I mean, you absolutely will. I mean, you're literally starting to see the movement of that legislation right now. You've got bills that are hitting the House floor in Colorado. You have new package legislation that we hope we expect to get very little push back on, but we don't know. There's now five bills that are hitting the House floor on Friday.   Chitra: In Wyoming?   Jill: Wyoming.   Chitra: And what do they, just generally speaking broadly, what are they trying to do those bills?   Jill: So you've got, and I'm going to lose the number, but I think it's HB 76, so forgive me on that. We'll have to edit that. But HB 76, so you have clarifying legislation, which is just re-clarifying HB 70. It helps to clarify in terms of the utility and the exemption of property taxes. And the most important bill, I think that's hitting the floor is a banking bill. Which is setting up the establishment of a bank, which is-   Chitra: A crypto bank.   Jill: A crypto bank.   Chitra: The first of its kind?   Jill: It will be the first of its kind, which is not FDIC insured. So there will be no lending, but it is really for the purposes of depository and acts really for companies to be able to have a bank. I don't know, you've been in this industry long enough to see what it's like to try and set up a bank account. It's often your bank account is shut or frozen or you have a ton of issues and this is a huge pain point for companies. So, I think part of the package of legislation in Wyoming is again, to attract companies and talent.   Chitra: So, in essence is Wyoming trying to become for Crypto what Delaware is for traditional banking for instance?   Jill: It is. Yeah. It is. I think you saw 1977, Wyoming really was the first issue, the LLC. And so, I think there's always been a little bit of a rivalry between Wyoming and Delaware of sorts. But Wyoming has attractive reasons for companies to go. And, I will say that only because I'm watching companies that are relocating to Wyoming that are setting up developer communities across Wyoming that are setting up a secondary office or a third office or a fourth office so that they can take advantage of what Wyoming offers them. Not that I'm plugging Wyoming, I don't live there, but it's-   Chitra: It's one of the states that's proving to be friendly to crypto businesses.   Jill: Yeah, that's right.   Chitra: So let's look ahead to this year, 2019. What do you see happening in terms of federal legislation regulation, state legislation regulation, studies, business development across the spectrum? Where do you see us ending up at the end of 2019 compared to where we were a year ago?   Jill: I think you're going to get a lot more clarity. I mean, I do believe that there is so, I think on a macro level you've seen all of the pieces of the puzzle be put back together again to the extent that you have now strong movement on the state level. So you have a number of bills and key states that are moving. You've got New Jersey that's moving on legislation and Arizona as we know, has moved on legislation. We're getting inquiries from New Mexico and otherwise, legislation that is a little bit more closely aligned with either our agenda of our members or closely aligned with creating innovation etc and just clarity. And I think that the makeup on the federal side, at least in Congress, is such that we will start to move much more quickly in creating consistency as well. So I think-   Chitra: [crosstalk] If nothing else, maybe this is an invitation for Congress to jump in and start to provide some of this legislative language to clarify some of these issues and then reduce the confusion.   Jill: Agreed. I mean, I think this is a good year to see some, either groundbreaking movement or some clarity. So, I think you saw it was maybe December 11th and there was a lot of, it wasn't the most welcome move, but I think you saw the CFTC did a public request for input really around aspects of how Ether and the Ethereum network operates. You're starting to see the engagement at least open inquiries into, let's figure this out.   Chitra: Great. Any closing thoughts, Jill?   Jill: Yeah, I think, look, I'm a big proponent of my organization. We are constantly looking for support in companies that want to join our working groups, especially as we develop working groups post-Wyoming around really around banking and identity and otherwise. And so I would say please sort of visit us at digitalasset.org and keep an eye on what we're doing in Wyoming and keep an eye on what we're doing in Colorado.   Chitra: Great. And where can people learn more about you and the work you're doing?   Jill: So you can find, so digitalasset.org that's probably the best way. And you can certainly reach out to me directly at jill.richmond@digitalasset.org.   Chitra: Awesome. Well, Jill it has been so great to have you on the show, and there's so much going on that a lot of us are not even aware of at the state and federal level. Jill: Yeah. Thanks for asking. Yeah, thank you.

Elie Katzenson interviews East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest (EBABZ) organizers Gillian Dreher, June Hong, and Maira McDermott about the specialness of zines and their relevance as underground publications for activists, artists, and writers in search for total creative freedom and publishing options.Transcript:Elie Katzenson:This is Method To The Madness, a biweekly public affairs show on KALX Berkeley celebrating Bay Area innovators.I am Elie Katzenson. I am here with the organizers of EBABZ, which stands for the East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest, which is coming up this Saturday, December 8th at Omni Commons in Oakland.It's from 11:00 to 5:00. That venue, Omni Commons, is located at 4799 Shattuck Avenue, which is super close to the MacArthur Bar, and there's a drop off on the sixth bus line in addition to other bus lines. For now, I am here with Jill, June, and Mira. Hi y'all.Mira:Hey.Jill:Hey.Elie Katzenson:Let's start by talking about what a zine is.Mira:A zine, in my opinion, is really anything you want it to be. It doesn't even need to be printed. You can have online zines, digital zines. It's anything that you feel really passionate about or interested in that you want to share with other people, and you just kind of put together this little book.It doesn't have to be a traditional book shape. It can be any shape you want. Staple it, copy a bunch of pages, hand it out. That's a zine.Elie Katzenson:Zines are interesting because, as I understand it, historically they've been and they continue to be like an underground publication used a lot by activists, artists, and writers that are looking for the ability to self publish, which affords them total freedom.There's a lot of identity exploration that maybe traditional publishing houses wouldn't allow for that space, and so you have lesser represented communities exploring their identities.With this, I'm thinking queer people, I'm thinking like there's a lot of diasporic exploration, mixed identities, mixed ethnic identities, anarchist groups, a lot of unique politics are getting space. Then kind of nontraditional relationship models. I've seen some like polyamory and nonmonogamous related zines.Really valuable information that isn't able to get exposure elsewhere, in zines gets massive exposure. These fests, which take place across the country, they are really hubs of, this is a big word to say, but like revolutionary information sometimes. It all starts it seems on a small scale, but this work can have major repercussions in a positive sense for a lot of people.Mira:In my personal experience it has been revolutionary, because through zines that's how I have found the words to work through my own gender identity, and that was revolutionary for me.Elie Katzenson:What Mira just said is proof of why zines are so important. In your experience why are zines so special?June:I think the beauty of the zine is, as Mira said, the total freedom and creative control you can have over your publication, and because you don't have to go through the process of a publishing house, and you self publish, you can really make it anything you want it to be.Jill:I also love the element of like speed and spontaneity. An event can happen and you can make a zine about it immediately. I think it's so great for like activism, or current events, because you can react, and share your ideas. Any idea, super quickly.Elie Katzenson:When I think of something like writer's block, or like fear of showing your work, zines, in this punk way, emphasize the naturalness and the power of your first response,and sort of like first thoughts. How do you let go enough to just say like I'm going to put myself out there. I'm going to put my work out there. How do people do that? I'm so impressed by that with zines that I've seen. They're very thoughtful, but they're not over-thought and they're not manicured to the point of perfection.June:I feel like that's such like a classic problem with creative work or like an issue is at what point do I feel comfortable enough to like share my work. With zines I feel like there's such a broad spectrum. Even the range of zines that I've seen some look definitely more spur of the moment, first draft, made photocopies, and published versus zines that look more like traditional books.I feel like the answer to like when do you feel comfortable? Like how do you get over that hump? Like is this getting over your own perfectionism to publish is something that zines kind of help with, because it is so easy to make. That's one less barrier for you to like put your content out there.Elie Katzenson:How zines have been seen more in the mainstream, and so you're talking about the first draft zine, which is a little more, not less marketable. Then you have commercialized zines that maybe are a little less substance oriented.Maybe a little less political, a little less extreme, a little more surface level, and I've been kind of curious about what the dynamic is within the zine community in regards to content.Is there more collaboration in the same community? There seems to be maybe a little bit more friendship. I know that treating your zines is a big part of what you do when you table.Jill:I've had really good experiences making friends through zines, and even making friends zines on Facebook groups, and then traveling to those people's fests, and let me stay at their house.I've never met these people, and there's just a level of trust that comes in I think when you're sharing your work that's really personal. You kind of get to know someone and then they're like, "Yeah, I've never met you but I think you're not going to murder me, so come stay at my house for a weekend."Thinking specifically about when I went to Omaha Zine Fest, and the organizers of that fest were super sweet. I think there's just a lot of camaraderie in the zine community, because we're all just kind of doing the same thing. Not the same exact thing, but we all have the same passion for this art form.Elie Katzenson:This is the ninth year of EBABZ. As I understand it, it was kind of born out of people enjoying Portland Zine Fest, and San Francisco Zine Fest, and thinking that there was enough artists and creators in the East Bay to have a fest here, and even the organizers nine years ago are different than the organizers that are y'all, right?Mira I know that you kind of had like this sub-zine fest, The Bay Area Queer Zine Fest. I think that the space that EBABZ creates, not only at The Fest, which I've been to a couple of years in a row, but the work that you're championing and really like helping proliferate, how can people and the community of the East Bay in general help EBABZ thrive and help zinesters thrive. How can we support the creation of this work?Jill:Volunteer.June:Yeah.Mira:Show up day of. That's really important still.June:Please volunteer.Jill:It's crazy. My boyfriend especially lately has been in awe of all of the work that we've been doing. I think with events like this you don't realize, you always think, "Oh, someone's in charge."No one's in charge. We're just kind of making all this up as we go, and like working together and like figuring out how to get stuff done. Like I'll come home from our meetings working sessions and he'll be like, "Oh what did you do today?" I'll tell him and he'll be like, "What? Like you're doing so much stuff. That's so cool."So yeah, it would be great for people to get involved.Elie Katzenson:What kind of things can people do?Jill:So much, so everything, from all year long, we have different events. Mira's always really good, and June at like planning, fundraising events, getting in touch with like different organizations, figuring out how we can work together, teaching people how to make zines, like workshops like that.We also do planning stuff throughout the year. We have to like send out applications. We have to figure out like what are our mission statement is.Mira:There's administrative work, but all the way to like really fun poster makes.June:Yeah, make a flyer. InstagramMira:Follow their Instagram y'all.Jill:There's fun stuff happening. Voluntaring looks fun if you follow the Insta.June:I think a lot of people are afraid to volunteer, because putting yourself out there is always really scary. Also maybe in capitalist society in general, there's the concept that you have to pay a lot of time in a place before you have any power or say, and so you think that you shouldn't be there helping, or deciding how things are run because you're new, but EBABZ is a democracy as far as I can tell, a major democracy, and people are really welcome, and like radically welcome. It's radically inclusive.Jill:A friend of mine reached out to me and said they were too busy to volunteer but they know this person who's in high school who was looking for like some way to get involved with zines.We brought them on, and they have just gone for it. They reached out to like all the different high schools in the area to ask for people to get involved, share their zines. Any level of effort is appreciated.Mira:For sure. I feel like that can happen in such different ways too. Like so as we said, there's like many different capacities in which you can volunteer, but also like we all started volunteering at the same time three years ago, and how I showed up was I just saw like a volunteer meeting on Facebook.I just like showed up without really knowing that much about The Zine Fest. I'd like gone the previous year, but my friend had posted it on Facebook, so I was like, "Yeah, well I'll just like show up, and now I've continued to stick with it for the past three years, so you never know how it's going to go.Elie Katzenson:Tomas is one of the organizers who I think is not strictly active anymore, and he was talking about the idea that a zine more than maybe certain other mediums is really like a one-on-one interaction between the creator and the reader.What makes a zine one-on-one interaction? Why is that one-on-one interaction really essential, especially when you're talking about subject matter that is frequently very intimate, and life changing I guess I would say, because I think so much of reading zines is related to identity, and people find a sense of belonging that maybe they're not experiencing as frequently in reading fiction.Mira:In my experience it's been kind of like handing someone my diary, and they just happened to be standing right in front of me sometimes making really awkward eye contact. It's terrifying, but that's just kind of what it is.I don't know. It's really cool to have these one-on-one interactions with people even if it's not in person, and then have them give you feedback, or tell you that, "Oh, this zine meant a lot to me, because x, y or Z," and then it's like, "Oh, I'm not alone in what I'm feeling. Wow, this feels great." There's like solidarity with other people over just, I don't know, stuff that maybe you felt like you were alone in.Jill:There's those kinds of zines. I feel like that with a lot of mirror zines, and a lot of per zines, that are like diary type zines, but there's also the zines where it's more communal, and I feel like rather than like a one-on-one, it's this feeling of entering into a group just through reading.I'm thinking of ones that are collaborative that community produces, or ones that maybe share like history of like a place or a thing that you weren't familiar with. It's like you're entering into this world more of a shared base instead of one-to-one. It's one to a bunch. Even if you've never met those people, or seen those people.Elie Katzenson:When people think about getting involved in community, it seems like you have to be a people person, and really enjoy being extroverted all the time, etcetera. What's interesting about Zines is there's face for everyone, and there's sensitivity to whoever you are.You are just radically accepted and loved, and that respect is just so special. I don't think that's really a question, but I think it's something that I want people who maybe aren't familiar with zines, or who haven't participated in an event where zines are shared to know that that is really the environment that is created at a fest.Like Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory where you're going to find the level that you want. Maybe you find the blueberry early, and you get rolled away, or you make it to the end and you get your gobstopper. You know? So.June:Yeah, totally. That reminds me of how earlier we were talking about how to support zine communities and stuff, and we talked about volunteering, but also what I found that has been super important to me within zine organizing, and the Oakland art community in general, is I found that people are so supportive and welcoming, and down to help you out with your projects.People's generosity and acceptance has really blown my mind. It's super inspiring to see people be making things and helping other people make things, and being able to express their selves, and creative projects through helping each other out. That's another way to support is help a friend make something.Elie Katzenson:Totally. I read this newsletter, it's called The Creative Independent. I'll have to send you a link, because it's really great. They interview an artist every day, and sometimes they talk about in different art worlds there's more competition than others. Right?One of the pieces of advice that I read today was about being confident in charging for your work. People can pay for your work, and I don't know why that seems so radical to me, because it can feel so hard to say like, "No, that costs money, or that Zine is 10 bucks." You have really made something, and that's like a sacred exchange.Mira:It's hard sometimes, but I feel like the time that I'm most able to stick out for myself and my work is when people just try to take it off the table like it's free.It's the only time I'm really adamant like "No, I put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this." That happened at zine event that I'm tabling at. It's hard to put a price on something you've created, but sometimes it's necessary because you have to even or you have to pay your bills.Elie Katzenson:Right? I mean even beyond breaking even though, right? It shouldn't just be, I just had to pay for my materials. It's like, "No, it's okay for me to make money off of a work that I made."Jill:Totally. Yeah.Elie Katzenson:But why does it feel so hard to do that?Mira:It can be hard to do because money obviously is not like the end-all-be-all of the world, but you also need it to survive, and pay the bills. It's something I do think about is why do we not hesitate to buy a five dollar coffee, but you have a problem with buying a five dollar zine, or something like that. I don't know. Not that it's always necessarily like that, but-June:Yeah, I think it is important to keep in mind value and the effort that people put into making creative work that isn't necessarily sold in a store, and for some reason that seems more official. Okay to give money to.Mira:Both as organizers charging for space, and on the zinester side of the table, charging for these things filled with ideas. We've been conflicted with anticapitalist sentiment too. Then like charging for things.If I'm making something that's against consumerism, and then I'm charging for it, like, "Oh, what do I do? What's happening?" It's all about valuing yourself, and your ideas and-Elie Katzenson:Right. You still have to function in the environment that we were functioning in, [crosstalk]June:It's not that we like money, but-Mira:Yeah.June:Give me my moneys.Mira:Yeah, that's, yeah. Personally I feel like that's been really hard.Elie Katzenson:It's interesting to me, because the price that you're charging the zinesters is quite fair in my opinion. I think it's what, 50 bucks if you're accepted?June:No, not even that.Mira:It's less.June:That's for a double.Mira:For a half table we have a sliding scale, 20 to $40, and then if you have a full table, it's 50 to 75 I want to say. We also-Elie Katzenson:You've always employed a sliding scale?Mira:Always a sliding scale, and also if people have financial struggles, they could email us and we waive the fee.Elie Katzenson:Wow.Jill:Some zine fests are not like that. It's really nice to be able to be a part of one that is like that.Elie Katzenson:I want to talk about The Fest schedule in general. I know the Rock Paper Scissors Collective did a memorial fund, The Rheo Memorial Fund, where they were giving away grants of $100 for people to make zines.You could apply for this zine scholarship. That was really special, because again, $100 means a lot. Be it to EBABZ if they can get a table, or just being able to make 50 copies of their work.Okay. So again, reminder the East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest is this Saturday, December 8th it's from 11 to five at Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck avenue. It's free to get in. No admission. All these tables you can buy zines and peruse.I know that there's some workshops happening. Can you tell me a little bit about that?Mira:We have three different workshops. They're each about an hour long. We have writing from the margins, creativity, and embodiment for artists of color with Fatima Nasir. This one sounds awesome. It's a writing workshop, meditative practices, some brainstorming, and sharing stories.Elie Katzenson:What Times that?Mira:That one is at 12 and then at 1:30 we have mixed media sticker making with Raphael Tapra the third. Sounds extremely fun. You just use a bunch of stuff and make stickers. Very DIY. That's at 1:30 until 2:30, but you can stop by. It's kind of like an in and out situation.Elie Katzenson:Awesome.Mira:Or you can say the whole time. At 3:00 we have letterpress basics with Christie Holahan, and she's gonna show how this tabletop water press works.Then everyone's going to get to make good thing. They're gonna choose a phrase, and then everyone's going to let her press that phrase.Elie Katzenson:Cool. What part of Omni are they doing those in? Do you know? Cause it's like those two big rooms, right? The entry room, and then the larger back room.Mira:It's in the entry room and it's way in the back. You'll see these big wall partition screen things.Elie Katzenson:Oh cool.Mira:It's behind the partition.Elie Katzenson:Awesome. Couldn't have asked for a better workshop description. I was reading online that you are doing something new this year. I think it's called a zine store.June:Yeah. So the zine shop is something new that we're trying out this year. Mostly in response to how we were feeling that we wanted to include as many people as possible, because there are a limited number of tables, but we do get a lot of applications.For people who either didn't get to table, or just have like one or two zines, and don't feel like they can fill a table, they actually still have time to drop off their zine at five Friday at E.M. Wolfman Downtown. It's a bookstore. The organizers will be there the whole day selling them instead of having all of those people having to table.Jill:Another thing we're trying different this year one of our organizers had this cool idea. At all these fests, it's always a person behind a table, and it is super weird. I'm sure for anyone who's been to an event like this, or a craft show before, when you're walking around, and you're like, "Do I make eye contact? Do I not make eye contact? I want to look at this stuff. But I don't want them to feel offended if I don't buy the stuff."It's this kind of tense relationship sometimes. Sometimes it's really fun and you make good connections and you have a great time. Sometimes different personalities, some people feel awkward.One of our organizers was like, "What if we move the zinesters out from behind the table." It creates a more like open layout, and visitors can kind of like file through and peruse without having to have these tense eye contact moments.The tabler will still be there, but it's off to the side, and it creates more opportunities for organic conversations.Elie Katzenson:That's interesting.Jill:Yeah it's our first year doing it. So we'll see.Elie Katzenson:Oh I'm really excited to hear that, because I'm totally used to the awkward dynamic. I just put that Mona Lisa smile on my face for like an hour.Jill:Yup. Same. It's like part of the thing.Elie Katzenson:Yeah.Jill:We still have tables like that, so you will get an opportunity to show your Mona Lisa smile. But yeah, it'll be cool.Elie Katzenson:I think sometimes I personally want to engage in conversation, but I'm conscious of taking up too much space, or maybe they need to spend time with other people and I'm scared of taking too much attention, but sounds like people are maybe more open to speaking than I think that they are. Right?Jill:Yeah. We should mention that we're only using the wheelchair accessible rooms, and it's kid friendly.June:We have the childcare room, but we do not have childcare. BYO Care. You can use the room. That's what Rebecca said. BYO Care.Elie Katzenson:It's wheelchair accessible and you can bring your kids. You can't bring your dogs.June:No.Elie Katzenson:I know. My life is not fair.Jill:You can't have it all.Mira:You really can't.June:After The Fest, there's a EBABZ after party that's happening from six o'clock to around 10 o'clock at Classic Cars West slash Hello Vegan Eats. So yeah, come through.Mira:There's going to be like 10 djs.June:I think it's going to be like six.Mira:Six to 10.June:Six to 10 djs.Elie Katzenson:If you each had kind of one last sentiment or thought to put out into the world as an EBABZ organizer, or something that you'd like to put out there for the end of this interview.June:Just every year. I'm so grateful for zine community, the applications we receive, and the care that is taken in those applications. Also my fellow organizers I'm super grateful for it, because everyone really tries their hardest. Put's a lot of effort into it. Also, yeah, I'm eternally grateful to Aura for introducing me to this community and I think of her.Jill:I went to cal, and I was super DIY, and in high school I feel I was super punk into all this stuff. Then you grow up, and you have to get a job and you have to make money. I have a mortgage now.I start to get out of touch with all my roots and this happy community and what matters in life. Coming to Zine Fest, and volunteering with Zine Fest, reminds me of all that stuff, and keeps me connected, and keeps me grounded in reality, and what's good.Mira:Sort of to echo what both of you were saying, I think organizing EBABZ has been one of the most fulfilling things I've ever done. For that I am eternally grateful to Aura for getting me involved. Also if you come to The Fest, please bring caffeine for the organizers.June:Yes.Jill:I don't drink coffee.Elie Katzenson:The East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest is taking place on December 8th from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM at Omni Commons, which is located at 4799 Shaddock Avenue in Oakland. You can follow EBABZ online on Instagram at E-B-A-B-Z-I-N-E fest, or visit them at their website, EBABZfest.com. Thanks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What’s In This Episode: If you're like Jill, you love marketing but hate sales. If you have brands you really love though, do you trust them? And when you notice they are selling to you, what's your reaction? Are they marketing well or poorly? What's the difference? Brad thinks that when marketers are trying to convince you of something you don't really need or want, those are bad examples. But when you believe in what you sell, you want other people to believe in it with you. And when you're really good at marketing (like Apple), you can clearly craft an identity around your brand that makes people feel good.  "Offer what they need, but at a higher price." - Brad Rachael Kay Albers, founder of RKA Ink and host of Awkward Marketing, is going into her tenth year of business. She's looking to scale up and be more of the creative director for her business, but she has her hands in all aspects of everything. She needs to hire more people for her team, but she needs more money to do so. But to do the sales she needs to do, she needs to be doing less work. RAISE YOUR PRICES, RACHAEL! "Charge what you're worth." - Jill So, do you sell products or experiences? Guest: Rachael Kay Albers is the founder and creative director of RKA ink. Her sweet spot is the space where business, marketing, and design meet. She is also the host of Awkward Marketing, which blends storytelling and comedy with marketing and business advice for entrepreneurs who want to build epic, unforgettable brands online.

Top 3 Places Investors Get Stuck (CFFL 562) Transcript: Jack:                      Jack and Jill here. Jill:                          Hello. Jack:                      Welcome to the show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about the top three places real estate investors get stuck, those bottlenecks. And they're different for everybody. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill:                          Okay. Andy asks, "I love the idea of sell before you buy. I've used Craigslist for vague ads to see how much interest there is before I buy a piece of land." Jack:                      Awesome. Jill:                          "When you get replies to the ad, how much information do you divulge? I do not want to give out the APN or address, but what if someone wants to drive out to look? Can you give them directions to land you do not own?" Jack:                      Sure. What I'd do is say, "Thanks for calling, but the property's sold. We sold it, but tell me, why ... I buy property in this area all the time. Why don't you give me your information? I'll make sure you're on a list because I constantly get properties in that area." Jill:                          Yeah. Jack:                      I used to do this before the internet. I used to do it in the classified ads. Jill:                          Yeah. Did you do it with ... Jack:                      Yeah. Jill:                          ... properties and stuff too? Jack:                      The rental property. Jill:                          Yeah, that's right. Jack:                      That's how I learned. Jill:                          How this works. Jack:                      I actually came up with this myself. I would put a fake classified ad for a rental house, and just see how many calls I would get. Off the Sunday paper, one ad. Remember that? Jill:                          Yeah. And then you're like "Well this is a good area." Jack:                      The first one I did, and I never did it again after that for rental houses. I got 140 calls. Jill:                          What does that tell you? Well I'm just going to say ... Jack:                      Massive lack of rental property in that area. Jill:                          Well here's the thing too, Andy. You'll know pretty darn quick if you have six voicemails on the first day, like well I guess I need to go buy that, and see how many more I can find. Jack:                      Exactly. Jill:                          So even if you don't get back to them or call them back, you'll know, but be, Jack said he's great. Get their information cause you know they're interested, so there's your buyers list. Jack:                      And then you can say, as far as giving them directions and stuff, you never want to mislead. You want that customer to be a customer for life, so you want to say, "No, I don't have prop ... property's sold." Here's the general area. Stop in the grocery store that's over there or whatever. Get that person to say, "Hey what's it like?" The person who's behind the counter. Jill does this all the time. She'll call local business right off of Google Earth, and ask them about, before we buy property. Just be a social butterfly about the whole thing. Jill:                          It's so funny, I know. Could you step outside and look across the street? Seriously. Jack:                      I know. Jill:                          I have done that. Jack:                      I know you have. Jill:                          They're like this is the weirdest thing on the planet, but okay. I would do that. Jack:                      And then they just fall in love with her like everyone. Jill:                          It's so funny. I have no fear. Jack:                      I know you don't.

Painful Truth About Land Investing (CFFL 550) Transcript: Jack:                      Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill:                          Hi. Jack:                      Welcome to the show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about the painful truth about land investing. Jill:                          That was a long pause. Jack:                      I just do that to freak you out. Jill:                          Painful truth. Jack:                      Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on landinvestors.com online community. It's free and hopefully we can confuse Jill more too. Jill:                          I could have got a cup of coffee at that pause. That was long. Alright Joshua asks, "In the course Jack speaks about only mailing to an owner one time, even if they own more than one property on my list. When mailing such to such an individual, does anyone change the wording and only let them know if you are interested in any of their properties? If you are still only mailing to one of the properties, will you take extra time to research which property you would be most interested in?" This is a good question. Jack:                      This is a great question. Jill:                          "And put that AP in and pricing in your offer? Or do you just go with the first property on the list when doing the data scrub? I think about sending one total offer to the individual or possibly one offer per different lot acreage." Okay that's the end of the question, I know what I would say. Jack:                      Go ahead Jill. Jill:                          So, well here's how I would cover that. For me, it's about time and efficiency. I'm not going to do any research on the properties until I know if they're even in my ballpark range. So I'm going to bother and do that. I am going to probably just pick the first one honestly and scrub the rest of them because here's why. When and if the person reaches back out to me, one of my questions I always ask is, "Is there anything else that you have?" That covers it right there. And they're going to go, "Well as a matter of fact." Like this just happened to one of our members Luke. He's like a guys got 600 acres, it was that kind of thing. Luke sent him a letter about one, and found about 600 more acres. Now they're doing a bigger deal and they're going to do all this great stuff. And that's it, that's how you do it. Luke didn't and I don't ahead of time pick the prettiest one, and I really want this one. So I'm only sending in an offer for this one. But I'll still ask about the rest of them. I don't do that much ahead of time. And two, because what if you're sending out 6,000 letters, because some of our people are at one time. Are you really going to go through and spend that much time. Just get them in the mail. Price them right, get them in the mail. What? Jack:                      You're cracking me up. Jill:                          I am. And then see who's serious and then look at it. Jack ... Jack:                      That's great advice Jill and now I'm going to tell you actually what happens in our company. Jill:                          Oh no. Oh no here it goes. That's all pretty Jill skipping along the top way. That's really not at all what we do. Jill is now so far removed. Just kidding. Jack:                      If you'd like to know what goes on in our house. Jill:                          Oh gosh. Jack:                      And in our company, check out the show Darma and Greg. It's on during the 80's or 90's, 80's right? Jill:                          I think it might've been 90's too, because I think they tried to do ... Jack:                      They live in California, she's a total hippy and her husband Greg is the corporate attorney and he just looks at her constantly going, what? Jill:                          She wants ice cream for d...

Flirt To Convert II (CFFL 538) Transcript: Jack:                      Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill:                          Hey there. Jack:                      Welcome to the show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about Flirting to Convert. Two. Jill:                          Two. Where the- Jack:                      A lot of years ago we did a show called Flirt to Convert. It was really popular because, I think- Jill:                          It's just funny Jack:                      they want to hear Jill's take on flirting- Jill:                          Thanks Jack:                      to convert, let's just say. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on LandInvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill:                          Okay. Noam asked, "Hi Everyone. What templates do you chose to work with in order to complete a sale on terms, and where do you get them? For terms deals, I know I need a land contract, promissory note and purchase agreement (is this accurate?) I was going to use Rocket Lawyer or a similar website. Do you recommend going the Rocket Lawyer way? Do you mind sharing your own docs? Do I need to notarize my signature on any of these docs, or only does the buyer? Thank you." Jack:                      All good questions. Jill:                          All good questions. Jack:                      So, the program, the educational program that Jill and I provide on how to flip land which is on LandAcademy.com provides a library of contracts and agreements. They're examples. Jill:                          So you have all ours right there. Jack:                      Do you want to use those verbatim? No. You want to put your own twist on it, and make sure that the specific situation is reflected in there. Jill:                          Right, but the meat's there. Jack:                      Do you want to use Rocket Lawyer? Yeah, I've heard all kinds of good stuff. I've never pulled agreements down from there, but I'll tell yeah, you're doing the right thing here, asking this question on LandInvestors.com because everybody is- I mean there's people all over our group, hundreds of people that do agreements all the time so, someone's going to have a real good, up-to-date answer. We've been using the same agreements for quite some time, and it works for us. So, you're in the right hands, let's say. Jill:                          Exactly. Jack:                      If you have a question, or you want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on LandInvestors.com. Today's topic, Flirt to Convert, at number two. This is the meat of the show. Jill, I know you have a tremendous amount of experience in sales, even right up to the last 20 seconds. Jill:                          What the heck? Jack:                      Me and the kids joke about it. If she's talking, she's selling us something. I don't even know I'm being sold something. Jill:                          Oh boy. Jack:                      She's selling me on putting her paja- Jill:                          We don't have a thing on you. I need to come up with one about you. Jack:                      She's selling me on putting my pajamas on. Jill:                          That's hilarious. Jack:                      She's selling me on what to eat for lunch today. Jill:                          No. Jack:                      When they were little. It's a compliment. Jill:                          No. Thank you. That's just called good parenting. And picking your battles. Jack:                      That's a good point. When is it sales, and when is it too sales-y, like used car salesmen, or when is it like- Jill:                          That's a good one. Jack:                      Or when is it healthy, helpful? Jill:                          Can I talk now?

5 Stages of Wealth (CFFL 533) Transcript: Jack:                      Rental neighborhoods, it works very, very well to put in the paper. Jill:                          Okay. Jack:                      To like in a newspaper, actually. Jill:                          Oh, okay. Jack:                      If you're trying to rent a house. Jill:                          Got it. Jack:                      So you can test it that way and, but even long before you even buy it, you put it right in there, and leave out a few of the details, like the APN and things like that, and just see if ... If 50 people call you to rent a house that you haven't bought yet, there's a pretty darn good chance you're gonna be okay. Jill:                          Exactly. Jack:                      Same thing with the sales in Craigslist. Jill:                          Yeah. Jack:                      You'll get an indicator real quick. If two people call you in three weeks, you want to run away. Jill:                          Right. Jack:                      Never have for sale property. Jill:                          Correct. Jack:                      If you have a question, or you want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on landinvestors.com. Today's topic, the five stages of wealth. This is [inaudible 00:00:46] to the show. This is also a topic I wrote- Jill:                          Yeah. Jack:                      Because I don't think Jill would ever want any part of this. Jill:                          Well, I want to hear what your things are, and then I have something I want to add that what this made me think of. Jack:                      This came up because I wrote the outline the other day for a book that I'm going to release in about three months, called, "Wealth," or, "Your Wealth." I haven't titled it yet, but it's things that I wish as a young ... I'm not a young man any longer, but I wish someone would explain this to me when I was younger. Number one, here's my five, and then Jill's going to hopefully have some stuff to say, and maybe she'll debunk the whole thing. Number one, secure revenue source, i.e., get a job. All right, nothing's gonna happen unless you ... I don't care who you are, or what you are, unless you're a trust fund baby, you've got to secure an ongoing revenue source. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, trust fund kids [crosstalk 00:01:47] have a built-in- Jill:                          Probably need it even more. Jack:                      They have a built-in revenue source, that's interest income or whatever. So, secure a revenue source, number one. Number two, remove any debt or don't accumulate, better yet, don't take on any unless it's business associated debt and you actually know how it's gonna go. Jill:                          So that's stage two. Jack:                      Number three ... The five stages, yeah. Begin to accumulate equity. There's two ways to do this, save the money, saving money from your revenue source that you have, your job. Or, number two, invest it, and turn it. Number two is how fortunes are made. Number one is how you live a lonely little life of savings. Jill:                          Yeah, right and under your mattress. Jack:                      Yeah. Number four, now you're accumulating- Jill:                          Step four, or stage four. Jack:                      Number four is, start to plan with this accumulated equity for your non-working years, or also known as, retirement. So, now you put your stock [inaudible 00:02:46] away and you're planning your exit. That's a whole stage that gets completely overlooked by the vast majority of people, even wealthy people. And finally, number five, which is my personal favorite, create a legacy revenue stream for people after you're gone. It may be in the form of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,

How to Generate $100K per Deal (CFFL 517) Transcript: Jack:                      Jack Butala, Jill DeWitt. Jill:                          Hi there. Jack:                      Welcome to our show. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how to generate a hundred grand per deal. I feel very qualified to discuss this. Before I get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on landinvestors.com online community is free. Jill:                          Okay. Vlad and Nadia ask, "So, my husband and I are new members to Land Academy. I really enjoy the material in the course so far. But now that I'm actually getting starting to research which county to target, I'm getting a bit discouraged. Maybe because I hate taking risks. Or at least I'm willing to take a risk if I see some logic in my decision. I've been spending a lot of time reading the forums. I feel states like Arizona, New Mexico, California, et cetera are targeted a lot. Should I even bother with these popular states? I'm getting the feeling that there's much more competition now than even just two years ago. Maybe if it wasn't as expensive to send a mailer out, I wouldn't stress out as much and just give it a shot. I'm looking for a word of encouragement or any advice you're willing to share." Jack:                      You go first Jill. Jill:                          I didn't think it was expensive. No. So, you know what, so here's where I'm coming at this from. These are all valid, good points. I first question commitment. And I see, how do I say this - Jack:                      Waffling? Jill:                          - Yeah. And getting in her own way. Jack:                      Yep. Jill:                          So, I'm trying to think of another example of what something that in a whole different business. You know what. Every business has risks. Every business you want competition. Competition is healthy. And in the real estate world, there's a lot of competition out there. Let's be honest. That's okay. That's why you need to do it right and be efficient and be the best and have the best property at the best price. And there's nothing to think about. And that's where we are. And that's what we share. Jack:                      We have a handful of members, actually now way more than a handful, and I ask them because I talk to them regularly. They do a ton of deals. And almost all of them started with nothing. They have a little bit experience flipping houses or some other business, and it didn't work out. So, the light bulb went off. They heard this show. Or they talked to Jill or whatever. And light bulb went off over their head, and they're making six figures every month. And it's because they just get it. It sung to them. And this is clearly not singing to you. I'm trying to be nice about it actually. Jill:                          That's what I - Jack:                      It either works or it doesn't. I feel compelled to quote Dr. Phil. You know, you either get it or you don't. And if you don't, that's okay. Move on. I mean there's a lot of fish in the sea. Jill:                          Yeah. Jack:                      I'm not a big Dr. Phil fan by the way. But that is pretty damn good advice. Captain Obvious type advice. Jill:                          Exactly. Well you know, it's kind of funny. Makes me think of when I run into, we go, Nell and them will be in investor group settings. And the majority investors don't understand the whole direct mail thing. And they can't wrap their heads around it. And I tell them in there. And I'm like, "Yep." And usually my parting comments are, "Yeah, but who am I to say 15, 16,000 deals later, maybe I don't know. It's just a test." And they go, "Wait a minute." I know they think about it later. But - Jack:                      Where's the risk in sending out ... spending $500 to send out a thousand offers on houses or boats or whatever you choose.

Land Leases Feed Families for Generations (CFFL 498) Transcript: Jack: Jack Butala Jill DeWit. Jill: Hi. Jack: Welcome to our show today. This episode, Jill and I talk about land leases and how they feed families for generations. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members. On landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill: Okay. Jered asked, "I could use help from my fellow Land Academy peers. My CPA just sent over her LLC's tax return for the first year in the land business. She claims we need to pay taxes on the full profit of our term's deals up front. So if we purchase the land for $2,000 and sold it for $8,000 with payments over five years, she claims the IRS is clear that we need to pay the taxes on the $6,000, the 6k profit up front. With over 25 terms deals, that adds up to way more in taxes owed than revenue generated and would quickly put us out of the land business. We showed her the IRS tax code 453," this is smart, "with the unimproved land exemption but she claims it does not apply for certain reasons. Do any of you pay income tax on just the installment income as it comes, not all up front? Has this been approved by another CPA or am I or my CPA missing something?" Jack: Jered, this is an excellent question and all week I've been saying, we choose the hard questions for a reason. I want you to promise me and I want you to send me a note at jack@landinvestors.com. Promise me that you're gonna go get a new CPA today. Jill: And that's the answer to the question? Jack: I can answer the question. I can get into this in great detail. I've gotten this question over the years. I had a former partner, Park McClusky, quite honestly who had the same problem with his tax person and he solved it by getting another one. It has to do with their- you have two choices on how you file. How you keep books. On an accrual basis and a cash basis and I'm not gonna get into it because I don't want to expose myself from a liability standpoint, but your CPA is wrong. How could you pay money that you haven't made yet? Jill: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's what I think too 'cause what if the guy defaults on January 2? Jack: That's right. Exactly. Jill: That's not. You can't. Jack: So sometimes professional consultants like that are very, very, very academic and brainy. And they are extremely risk adverse and they have their nose in a book to the point where they don't even know what reality is. Jill: Right. Jack: A lot of professors are like that. And this person is wrong. Jill: Right. Jack: If you have a question or you want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on landinvestors.com. Today's topic, land leases feed families for generations. I love this. Jill's got a beautiful story for us. This is the meat of the show. Jill: So we met this girl, we were at an event, where were we? I can't remember where, were we in Long Beach? I can't remember where we went. Jack: Yeah, exactly. Jill: Okay, it was a big investors group but they got all the investors from all over southern California really together. And they do this like twice a year. So I said, "Come on, Jack, let's go check it out. Let's just see who's here. See what this is all about. It's not just one group. It's all of the groups combined." Jack: I love these, I love going to these events by the way. Jill: You're being sarcastic. Jack: My answer to Jill was, "Oh my gosh, pick me. Can we go to another one of these? I love to talk to people about real estate." Jill: I know, but I drug you anyway. So that was funny. So anyway. So we arrive at this event and well it looks- well here's, this is the way Jack rolls too. So we get to the event, he's gotta eyeball it first and see if we're going in. Jack: That's right. Jill: So we're standing in line and Jack has to kind of peek in the room, do a quick little walk, check out the food and the beverage situation,

Land Leases Feed Families for Generations (CFFL 498) Transcript: Jack: Jack Butala Jill DeWit. Jill: Hi. Jack: Welcome to our show today. This episode, Jill and I talk about land leases and how they feed families for generations. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members. On landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill: Okay. Jered asked, "I could use help from my fellow Land Academy peers. My CPA just sent over her LLC's tax return for the first year in the land business. She claims we need to pay taxes on the full profit of our term's deals up front. So if we purchase the land for $2,000 and sold it for $8,000 with payments over five years, she claims the IRS is clear that we need to pay the taxes on the $6,000, the 6k profit up front. With over 25 terms deals, that adds up to way more in taxes owed than revenue generated and would quickly put us out of the land business. We showed her the IRS tax code 453," this is smart, "with the unimproved land exemption but she claims it does not apply for certain reasons. Do any of you pay income tax on just the installment income as it comes, not all up front? Has this been approved by another CPA or am I or my CPA missing something?" Jack: Jered, this is an excellent question and all week I've been saying, we choose the hard questions for a reason. I want you to promise me and I want you to send me a note at jack@landinvestors.com. Promise me that you're gonna go get a new CPA today. Jill: And that's the answer to the question? Jack: I can answer the question. I can get into this in great detail. I've gotten this question over the years. I had a former partner, Park McClusky, quite honestly who had the same problem with his tax person and he solved it by getting another one. It has to do with their- you have two choices on how you file. How you keep books. On an accrual basis and a cash basis and I'm not gonna get into it because I don't want to expose myself from a liability standpoint, but your CPA is wrong. How could you pay money that you haven't made yet? Jill: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's what I think too 'cause what if the guy defaults on January 2? Jack: That's right. Exactly. Jill: That's not. You can't. Jack: So sometimes professional consultants like that are very, very, very academic and brainy. And they are extremely risk adverse and they have their nose in a book to the point where they don't even know what reality is. Jill: Right. Jack: A lot of professors are like that. And this person is wrong. Jill: Right. Jack: If you have a question or you want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on landinvestors.com. Today's topic, land leases feed families for generations. I love this. Jill's got a beautiful story for us. This is the meat of the show. Jill: So we met this girl, we were at an event, where were we? I can't remember where, were we in Long Beach? I can't remember where we went. Jack: Yeah, exactly. Jill: Okay, it was a big investors group but they got all the investors from all over southern California really together. And they do this like twice a year. So I said, "Come on, Jack, let's go check it out. Let's just see who's here. See what this is all about. It's not just one group. It's all of the groups combined." Jack: I love these, I love going to these events by the way. Jill: You're being sarcastic. Jack: My answer to Jill was, "Oh my gosh, pick me. Can we go to another one of these? I love to talk to people about real estate." Jill: I know, but I drug you anyway. So that was funny. So anyway. So we arrive at this event and well it looks- well here's, this is the way Jack rolls too. So we get to the event, he's gotta eyeball it first and see if we're going in. Jack: That's right. Jill: So we're standing in line and Jack has to kind of peek in the room, do a quick little walk, check out the food and the beverage situation,

What Land Buyers Really Want Jack Butala: What Land Buyers Really Want. Leave us your feedback for this podcast on iTunes and get the free ebook at landacademy.com, you don't even have to read it. Thanks for listening. Jack: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill: Hey. Jack: Welcome to our show today. This episode Jill and I talk about what land buyers really want. Jill: Can you tell me what I want, what they really really want? Sorry just thought about that. Jack: First let's take a question posted by one of our members. That was a blast from the 80s. No like the 90s that's the Spice Girls. Jill: Yeah it was. Jack: Let's take a question posted by one of our members on landacademy.com our free online community. Jill: By the way I think one of the Spice Girls lives really close to us in LA and we'll leave it at that. Jack: Really? Jill: Yeah she's married to a soccer player. Jack: Oh. Oh yeah. Jill: Yeah. Speaking of Spice Girls. It's not like I see her in the grocery store but she's there. Okay. So Chris asked, "I have purchased my first properties and the notaries have the put the signed deed to the mill to me." Yay. Jack: Awesome Chris congratulations. Jill: "I should have them in a few days. Can I start marketing the properties right now or do I need to wait until the deeds are recorded at the county office?" Oh, I like these questions. Jack: Can you answer that? Jill: Absolutely. Jack: Without putting us in prison. Jill: You're so silly. You know me so well. Of course. When the deeds are signed the ink can actually still be wet but they are signed. The property is yours Chris. Market away. You are only recording them now. You can get these deeds back and put them in your safe and then record them like later on like right when you get to sell them. Jack: Please don't do that. Jill: No I know. But I'm just saying don't do that but you could do that. Jack: Legally and philosophically one hundred percent correct and ethically correct. Jill: Right. The point is ... Jack: It just causes problems. Jill: You're having it recorded. It's signed in your hands and that's your proof that you own the property. You have it recorded so it's public knowledge. That's the key and you want the assessor to know where to send the proper tax bills. You don't want to have the old owner be still be getting the tax information when it's really now your responsibility. Jack: Yeah, see that's why. Jill: So you want to catch all that up. But the big picture is, okay now can I really go out there and put it on my website and start selling it? Do I really own it now? Is it okay for me to do that? The answer is yes and heck yeah and you better do that. That's the goal. You want to do that. You want to have it in a perfect world it might even be sold before you even have a chance to get it recorded. Jack: Good point. Jill: Because that's the goal here and that's what Jack and I do sometimes. It's great when that happens. It's nothing better than sending in two deeds to be recorded at the same time like here's the deed for when I bought it. Oh, then number two now please record this one second because here's the deed of me selling it. How cool. Jack: Now keep doing exactly what you're doing because you're headed right down the right path. eventually you're going to have a group of A list buyers like Jill and I have. I don't know there's probably ten of them maybe a little bit less. When we get a deal in when the mail comes back and we have a signed offer, what we do is actually I'll make a phone call or send an email out to one of our A list buyers whose bought property just like that in the past, and I'll say hey we've got some more. I trust you so here's the APNs, we haven't purchased them yet, we're not fending it off. They're coming in we're just about to move forward on it but I want to let you know first and see if you want to buy all the properties and I'll put you...

What Land Buyers Really Want Jack Butala: What Land Buyers Really Want. Leave us your feedback for this podcast on iTunes and get the free ebook at landacademy.com, you don't even have to read it. Thanks for listening. Jack: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill: Hey. Jack: Welcome to our show today. This episode Jill and I talk about what land buyers really want. Jill: Can you tell me what I want, what they really really want? Sorry just thought about that. Jack: First let's take a question posted by one of our members. That was a blast from the 80s. No like the 90s that's the Spice Girls. Jill: Yeah it was. Jack: Let's take a question posted by one of our members on landacademy.com our free online community. Jill: By the way I think one of the Spice Girls lives really close to us in LA and we'll leave it at that. Jack: Really? Jill: Yeah she's married to a soccer player. Jack: Oh. Oh yeah. Jill: Yeah. Speaking of Spice Girls. It's not like I see her in the grocery store but she's there. Okay. So Chris asked, "I have purchased my first properties and the notaries have the put the signed deed to the mill to me." Yay. Jack: Awesome Chris congratulations. Jill: "I should have them in a few days. Can I start marketing the properties right now or do I need to wait until the deeds are recorded at the county office?" Oh, I like these questions. Jack: Can you answer that? Jill: Absolutely. Jack: Without putting us in prison. Jill: You're so silly. You know me so well. Of course. When the deeds are signed the ink can actually still be wet but they are signed. The property is yours Chris. Market away. You are only recording them now. You can get these deeds back and put them in your safe and then record them like later on like right when you get to sell them. Jack: Please don't do that. Jill: No I know. But I'm just saying don't do that but you could do that. Jack: Legally and philosophically one hundred percent correct and ethically correct. Jill: Right. The point is ... Jack: It just causes problems. Jill: You're having it recorded. It's signed in your hands and that's your proof that you own the property. You have it recorded so it's public knowledge. That's the key and you want the assessor to know where to send the proper tax bills. You don't want to have the old owner be still be getting the tax information when it's really now your responsibility. Jack: Yeah, see that's why. Jill: So you want to catch all that up. But the big picture is, okay now can I really go out there and put it on my website and start selling it? Do I really own it now? Is it okay for me to do that? The answer is yes and heck yeah and you better do that. That's the goal. You want to do that. You want to have it in a perfect world it might even be sold before you even have a chance to get it recorded. Jack: Good point. Jill: Because that's the goal here and that's what Jack and I do sometimes. It's great when that happens. It's nothing better than sending in two deeds to be recorded at the same time like here's the deed for when I bought it. Oh, then number two now please record this one second because here's the deed of me selling it. How cool. Jack: Now keep doing exactly what you're doing because you're headed right down the right path. eventually you're going to have a group of A list buyers like Jill and I have. I don't know there's probably ten of them maybe a little bit less. When we get a deal in when the mail comes back and we have a signed offer, what we do is actually I'll make a phone call or send an email out to one of our A list buyers whose bought property just like that in the past, and I'll say hey we've got some more. I trust you so here's the APNs, we haven't purchased them yet, we're not fending it off. They're coming in we're just about to move forward on it but I want to let you know first and see if you want to buy all the properties and I'll put you...

Rick Rosenthal (Transparent, Bad Boys, Halloween II) discusses wearing multiple hats in both film and television, and the efforts of his production company, White Water Films. We talk about: Selling vs. Not Selling Scripts Bonding in Television vs. Film Producing vs. Directing in Television Working on ‘Transparent’ Script Notes and Editing for the Long Haul in Television Improvisation and Mapping Out Seasons in Television “Is this Story a Movie or a Series?” Today’s Movies and Budgets Producing vs. Directing in Film Investing in Productions and Setting Expectations Balancing Film and TV Projects Casting Big Names Building and Maintaining Relationships Quotes from the show: "You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make a duck wear a saddle. I thought that sort of summed up Hollywood well for me." “Television needs… to sort of look at the way novels are structured and layered, and [how] things are set up and developed over time. Most television hasn’t been like that.” “Your role as a producer… is to make sure that the ship doesn’t hit the rocks, or at the very least, doesn’t hit the rocks under full steam. Yet, at the same time, you have to give a certain amount of creative freedom to get dangerously close to the rocks.” “Investing in the movie business is this strange combination of buying a painting and going to Las Vegas.” “If you do good work, that’s what it’s all about. It is about good work, but it’s also about understanding the advantage of having really strong personal relationships with people.” “…If you really care bout the process, then the outcome will take care of itself. Even if it doesn’t appear to be the outcome you want, you don’t know that outcome, that loss as it were, isn’t pushing you to a greater level of process.”

Steve's Arizona GunSlinger Hot Sauce Business Failure Jack Butala: Steve's Arizona GunSlinger Hot Sauce Business Failure. Every Single month we give away a property for free. It's super simple to qualify. Two simple steps. Leave us your feedback for this podcast on iTunes and number two, get the free ebook at landacademy.com, you don't even have to read it. Thanks for listening. Jill: This is Jill DeWit for Land Academy. Welcome to our cash flow from Land Show. In this episode, Steven and I talk about 1 of his biggest failures, it hurts that I'm a gunslinger. Steven, I can't wait for our listeners to hear about this story, so they don't make the same mistakes. Steven: It hurts me, it's a bad memory. Jill: So sorry about that. Steven: I'll share it for you. Jill: I hate to put you through this, but hey, before we start the story, let's take a question from a caller. Steven: Dale, from Vancouver asks, "So really, you don't need a real estate license to do this? Can you please explain?" This is an interesting question Jill, you want to take it, or do you want me to? Jill: I want you to take this. Steven: It happens a lot. Jill: It comes up a lot. You figured this out years ago, and I like your explanation. Steven: I'll give the short answer first, and then I'll tell you why. The answer is you can do it with a license or without a license, and in that effect, there's almost no difference at all. Somewhere along the line, probably a lot of years ago, somebody planted this idea in the American public's head that you have to have a real estate license to be an investor, and nothing could be further from the truth. You don't need to have a dealer license for a car dealership to buy a car, it's the same thing, so no. Very, very, very intelligent people make this mistake. It happens weekly to Jill and I, that people are running out getting a real estate license so they can be a real estate investor. The truth of it is, this is my pain, a licensed real estate agent is kind of subject to a different liability situation, or risk situation than an unlicensed person, because theoretically a licensed real estate agent, at least on paper is more experienced and they should know better. In reality we know it's really based on experienced and that's about it, so no, you don't need a license, but here's my recommendation. Real estate is cool, in most places it's pretty inexpensive. Out here it's about 500 bucks for 2, 3 weeks of education. I always recommend going to real estate school. More education is always better in everything, not just not this. Go to school. Hey, maybe you might decide to take the exam at the end and become an agent, and decided that it's for you, but at the very least you're going to spend 3, 4, 500 dollars and get a tremendous amount of value in a real world experience and learn about stuff. Jill: It's true. Steven: Then at the end decide, so no. Jill: Well I did this way too. Steven: Jill and I are not licensed. Jill: We're not licensed, but [crosstalk 00:02:41] Steven: Nobody here is licensed. Jill: As an investor, it's you buying your own assets, you're not representing somebody else to. Steven: Right Jill. Jill: It's different when you're representing somebody else. That's where the difference is, but people somehow they ... For some reason it gets blurred, and I don't know why. Like I'm buying something for myself and my company basically. Steven: Yeah, I think the blurriness comes from ... I agree with you, it's very blurry. The blurriness comes from the fact that there's a huge machine. There's a huge economic, political machine of people that are very, very interested in having as many license reorders as possible. If they're 1 of the top 5 largest special interest groups in Washington. That's what these fees are about, and these mandatory associations. Realtors have to spend a lot of money just to be licensed,

Steve's Arizona GunSlinger Hot Sauce Business Failure Jack Butala: Steve's Arizona GunSlinger Hot Sauce Business Failure. Every Single month we give away a property for free. It's super simple to qualify. Two simple steps. Leave us your feedback for this podcast on iTunes and number two, get the free ebook at landacademy.com, you don't even have to read it. Thanks for listening. Jill: This is Jill DeWit for Land Academy. Welcome to our cash flow from Land Show. In this episode, Steven and I talk about 1 of his biggest failures, it hurts that I'm a gunslinger. Steven, I can't wait for our listeners to hear about this story, so they don't make the same mistakes. Steven: It hurts me, it's a bad memory. Jill: So sorry about that. Steven: I'll share it for you. Jill: I hate to put you through this, but hey, before we start the story, let's take a question from a caller. Steven: Dale, from Vancouver asks, "So really, you don't need a real estate license to do this? Can you please explain?" This is an interesting question Jill, you want to take it, or do you want me to? Jill: I want you to take this. Steven: It happens a lot. Jill: It comes up a lot. You figured this out years ago, and I like your explanation. Steven: I'll give the short answer first, and then I'll tell you why. The answer is you can do it with a license or without a license, and in that effect, there's almost no difference at all. Somewhere along the line, probably a lot of years ago, somebody planted this idea in the American public's head that you have to have a real estate license to be an investor, and nothing could be further from the truth. You don't need to have a dealer license for a car dealership to buy a car, it's the same thing, so no. Very, very, very intelligent people make this mistake. It happens weekly to Jill and I, that people are running out getting a real estate license so they can be a real estate investor. The truth of it is, this is my pain, a licensed real estate agent is kind of subject to a different liability situation, or risk situation than an unlicensed person, because theoretically a licensed real estate agent, at least on paper is more experienced and they should know better. In reality we know it's really based on experienced and that's about it, so no, you don't need a license, but here's my recommendation. Real estate is cool, in most places it's pretty inexpensive. Out here it's about 500 bucks for 2, 3 weeks of education. I always recommend going to real estate school. More education is always better in everything, not just not this. Go to school. Hey, maybe you might decide to take the exam at the end and become an agent, and decided that it's for you, but at the very least you're going to spend 3, 4, 500 dollars and get a tremendous amount of value in a real world experience and learn about stuff. Jill: It's true. Steven: Then at the end decide, so no. Jill: Well I did this way too. Steven: Jill and I are not licensed. Jill: We're not licensed, but [crosstalk 00:02:41] Steven: Nobody here is licensed. Jill: As an investor, it's you buying your own assets, you're not representing somebody else to. Steven: Right Jill. Jill: It's different when you're representing somebody else. That's where the difference is, but people somehow they ... For some reason it gets blurred, and I don't know why. Like I'm buying something for myself and my company basically. Steven: Yeah, I think the blurriness comes from ... I agree with you, it's very blurry. The blurriness comes from the fact that there's a huge machine. There's a huge economic, political machine of people that are very, very interested in having as many license reorders as possible. If they're 1 of the top 5 largest special interest groups in Washington. That's what these fees are about, and these mandatory associations. Realtors have to spend a lot of money just to be licensed,