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Today on What's Right: Are we in a recession? Trump attends National Association of Black Journalists ABC's Rachel Scott takes wild swings at Trump Is it wrong for Trump to question Kamala Harris's racial identification? Thanks for tuning into today's episode of What's Right! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and make sure you leave us a 5-star review. Have personal injury questions? Visit Sam & Ash Injury Law to get free answers 24/7. Connect with us on our socials: TWITTER Sam @WhatsRightSam What's Right Show @WhatsRightShow FACEBOOK What's Right Show https://www.facebook.com/WhatsRightShow/ INSTAGRAM What's Right Show @WhatsRightShow To request a transcript of this episode, email marketing@samandashlaw.com
Today on What's Right: Are words worse than physical violence? The fatwa on Salman Rushdie How the woke left and radical islamists agree on speech Sam's experience with a state-sponsored terrorist More on the Trump raid Thanks for tuning into today's episode of What's Right! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and make sure you leave us a 5-star review. Connect with us on our socials: TWITTER Sam @WhatsRightSam What's Right Show @WhatsRightShow FACEBOOK What's Right Show https://www.facebook.com/WhatsRightShow/ INSTAGRAM What's Right Show @whatsrightshow
Video on BitChute:https://www.bitchute.com/video/PVLUxdY3aeQE/ Video on Rumble: https://rumble.com/vr2a3l-current-evenets-dec-5-2021.html Video on Odysee: https://odysee.com/@chycho:6/Current_Evenets_Dec5_2021_chycho:4 Introduction Segment on CensorTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZdjdId4xx8 ***SUPPORT*** ▶️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/chycho ▶️ Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/chycho ▶️ Subscribe Star: https://www.subscribestar.com/chycho ▶️ Streamlabs at: https://streamlabs.com/chycholive ***FORUM*** ▶️ Discord: https://discord.gg/MXmS7B9 APPROXIMATE TIMESTAMPS: - CensorTube Introduction (0:00-7:12) - Left and Right Are the Same Crap, Don't Fall for the Political Duopoly Pushed by Centralized Power (7:19-9:55) - Moronic Support of Medical Tyranny (10:41-13:15) - Why It Is Appropriate to Call Government Covid Injection Medical Tyranny Mandates Fascism (13:54-6:59) - Funniest Price Action in Wall Street's History Happened when Jack Dorsey Resigned as Twitter's CEO (16:59-21:00) - This is Not Financial Advice, Shorting the Shit Out of the Markets in Mid November 2021 (21:05-22:25) - New Tech is where you want to be, Fascistic Silicon Valley Platforms that Censor are dying (22:51-25:33) - We Are Living in the Most Important Period in History, These Are the times That Define You, Be Proud of Who You Are (25:33-27:40) - Bitcoin, Crypto and NFTs - Short Introduction to NFTs: They are Not Currency, They Are Collectables with Utility (31:10-38:29) - The Supply Chain is Broken, Be Careful with the Markets (39:22) - My Snacks for Today: Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chips and Apple (41:31) - World War 3 has Started: Centralized Capital vs Humanity and More Proxy Wars Between the Great Powers (43:31-45:04) - Covid Mandates Are About Centralized Capital Acquiring More Power by Impoverishing Humanity (45:04-47:44) - Local Currencies Are a Possibility, and Cryptocurrencies Have a Part to Play in This (47:45-48:54) - Armenia and Azerbaijan Conflict and the Collapse of the Turkish Economy and Currency (Lira): War is Coming (49:04-52:57) - ...more random discussion... - There is Going to be Hell to Pay with the Moronic Covid Variant: Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell & Pedophiles in the DNC (55:44-1:01:43) - ...more random discussion on the economy and Covid... - Why Would the Elites Depopulate the World? There is Something Big Coming, Be Prepared (1:06:40-1:10:44) - Covid Injections Have Revealed Peoples True Colors, Insanity of Society (1:11:07-1:13:40) - Purpose of Vaccine Mandates & Passports: Multi-prong Attack on Humanity, Technocrats Want Total Control (1:14:26-1:18:20) - It's Easier to Fool Someone than to Convince Them That They Have Been Fooled: Those That Complied Were Foolish (1:18:20-1:19:44) - Fauci Is a Bureaucrat with a God Complex, Do Not Take Health Advice from Bureaucrats: Where is the Early Treatment? (1:20:54-1:22:06) - ...more random discussion... - Those Who Complied and Participated with Covid Mandates & Injection Will Pay a Heavy Price (1:30:06-1:32:44) - How to Become Antifragile: Decentralized Your Life and Resist Medical Tyranny, Covid Mandates & Technocratic Fascists (1:33:25-1:37:30) - What Will Happen if there is a Total Blackout: Be Prepared, Do Not Play Musical Chairs with Your Life (1:39:29-1:41:35) - The Moronic Covid Variant: Centralized Power's Pandemic Narrative is Collapsing, Be Prepared (1:43:10-1:45:21) - When Applying for a Job, Ask about Salary and Benefits at an Opportune Time (1:45:30-1:47:19) - Covid Mandates and Injections Are Not about Health, It's about Control, Politics and Wall Street Profits (1:47:19-1:48:18) - Something is Seriously Wrong with Covid Injections & Mandates: Look into Jessica Rose's Research into the VAERS Data (1:48:38-1:56:01) - ... and more... - We Must Hold Corporate Media, Politicians & Bureaucrats Accountable for Their Crimes Against Humanity (1:58:17-2:00:55)
Video on BitChute: https://www.bitchute.com/video/QaSkFCXdiTHf/ Video on Rumble: https://rumble.com/vqlmsm-resisting-tyranny.html Video on Odysee: https://odysee.com/@chycho:6/Resisting_Fascism:4 Introduction Segment on CensorTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1ibqY4R6bg ***SUPPORT*** ▶️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/chycho ▶️ Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/chycho ▶️ Subscribe Star: https://www.subscribestar.com/chycho ▶️ Streamlabs at: https://streamlabs.com/chycholive ***FORUM*** ▶️ Discord: https://discord.gg/MXmS7B9 APPROXIMATE TIMESTAMPS: - CensorTube Introduction (0:00-7:12) - Left and Right Are the Same Crap, Don't Fall for the Political Duopoly Pushed by Centralized Power (7:19-9:55) - Moronic Support of Medical Tyranny (10:41-13:15) - Why It Is Appropriate to Call Government Covid Injection Medical Tyranny Mandates Fascism (13:54-6:59) - Funniest Price Action in Wall Street's History Happened when Jack Dorsey Resigned as Twitter's CEO (16:59-21:00) - This is Not Financial Advice, Shorting the Shit Out of the Markets in Mid November 2021 (21:05-22:25) - New Tech is where you want to be, Fascistic Silicon Valley Platforms that Censor are dying (22:51-25:33) - We Are Living in the Most Important Period in History, These Are the times That Define You, Be Proud of Who You Are (25:33-27:40) - Bitcoin, Crypto and NFTs - Short Introduction to NFTs: They are Not Currency, They Are Collectables with Utility (31:10-38:29) - The Supply Chain is Broken, Be Careful with the Markets (39:22) - My Snacks for Today: Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chips and Apple (41:31) - World War 3 has Started: Centralized Capital vs Humanity and More Proxy Wars Between the Great Powers (43:31-45:04) - Covid Mandates Are About Centralized Capital Acquiring More Power by Impoverishing Humanity (45:04-47:44) - Local Currencies Are a Possibility, and Cryptocurrencies Have a Part to Play in This (47:45-48:54) - Armenia and Azerbaijan Conflict and the Collapse of the Turkish Economy and Currency (Lira): War is Coming (49:04-52:57) - ...more random discussion... - There is Going to be Hell to Pay with the Moronic Covid Variant: Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell & Pedophiles in the DNC (55:44-1:01:43) - ...more random discussion on the economy and Covid... - Why Would the Elites Depopulate the World? There is Something Big Coming, Be Prepared (1:06:40-1:10:44) - Covid Injections Have Revealed Peoples True Colors, Insanity of Society (1:11:07-1:13:40) - Purpose of Vaccine Mandates & Passports: Multi-prong Attack on Humanity, Technocrats Want Total Control (1:14:26-1:18:20) - It's Easier to Fool Someone than to Convince Them That They Have Been Fooled: Those That Complied Were Foolish (1:18:20-1:19:44) - Fauci Is a Bureaucrat with a God Complex, Do Not Take Health Advice from Bureaucrats: Where is the Early Treatment? (1:20:54-1:22:06) - ...more random discussion... - Those Who Complied and Participated with Covid Mandates & Injection Will Pay a Heavy Price (1:30:06-1:32:44) - How to Become Antifragile: Decentralized Your Life and Resist Medical Tyranny, Covid Mandates & Technocratic Fascists (1:33:25-1:37:30) - What Will Happen if there is a Total Blackout: Be Prepared, Do Not Play Musical Chairs with Your Life (1:39:29-1:41:35) - The Moronic Covid Variant: Centralized Power's Pandemic Narrative is Collapsing, Be Prepared (1:43:10-1:45:21) - When Applying for a Job, Ask about Salary and Benefits at an Opportune Time (1:45:30-1:47:19) - Covid Mandates and Injections Are Not about Health, It's about Control, Politics and Wall Street Profits (1:47:19-1:48:18) - Something is Seriously Wrong with Covid Injections & Mandates: Look into Jessica Rose's Research into the VAERS Data (1:48:38-1:56:01) - ... and more... - We Must Hold Corporate Media, Politicians & Bureaucrats Accountable for Their Crimes Against Humanity (1:58:17-2:00:55)
During COVID season, it's getting harder to meet someone new! Right?Are you interested in meeting your future ex-husband/wife in the gym?If so, listen in as I discuss the pros & cons of using certain tactics foryour future boo--all while working out.
If there was ever a time for personal stress in our lives, it may be now. Right? Are you stressed out? Here's a short message on stress.
As a human being, it’s nearly impossible for you to stop thinking. Here are some quick “thought” facts for you. You’ll understand the weightiness of these a bit later… You have about 70,000 thoughts each day. 90% of those are repetitive thoughts. Half of your thoughts are automatic. (Your unconscious mind is trying to be efficient.) The majority of your thoughts are negative. (We have a negativity bias to keep us safe from saber-toothed tigers and other dangers) Thoughts are powerful. I often say that you get what you focus on. And since your focus comes from what you think, in essence, your thoughts will determine your outcomes. Especially those repetitive thoughts. You might be wondering, Where do these thoughts come from, anyway? Good question. Your existing neurology is made up of everything that has happened in your life experience, especially before the age of 5-7 years. Before then, you were like a sponge, soaking up whatever your caregivers told you. Repeated thoughts then became beliefs as the brain sought to make connections between those internal thoughts and your external experiences. Yes, for better or worse, the unconscious mind essentially seeks to validate repeated thoughts. That’s why it’s so important that we think good thoughts. The brain is going to do work to give the essence of what you focus on, in other words, what you think about! So we might as well make it something good. Right? Are you getting a glimpse of the power of your thoughts? A client had been having some struggles with her business. In talking about it, she revealed that she met each day with dread. That’s no way to productively tackle challenges. So we worked to change that. Within just three days of doing some thought work before going to bed and upon waking, she saw a shift. She became empowered by changing her thoughts! You are significantly more powerful than you think you are. And it has everything to do with your thoughts. This work is not hard to do, and you don’t have to go from zero to 60 all at once. Start by asking, “How is it that I want to feel?” because just thinking about it will create a tiny shift in the right direction. Then you can build momentum from there. To change your thoughts, utilize these tools: When you have a thought that doesn’t serve you, reject-delete it. Practice pattern interrupts when negative thoughts arise Use our free resource to rewrite negative thoughts Play the ABC game Make a list of all the things you love about the people in your world Make a list of the things you love about yourself Change your thoughts; change your life. Thanks for listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below Use the “I have a question” button Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn Links from today’s episode: Episode on Rewriting Negative Thoughts ABC worksheet Rewriting negative thoughts worksheet To help out the show: Leave an positive review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews help, and I read each and every one. Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher or Libsyn
On this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart Podcast, I welcome Christa Gurka on the show to discuss marketing. An orthopedic physical therapist specializing in Pilates-based fitness, rehabilitation, injury prevention and weight loss, Christa Gurka’s reputation speaks for itself. With two decades of experience training those of all ages and fitness levels, the founder/owner of Miami’s Pilates in the Grove, which serves the Coconut Grove and South Miami communities, believes in offering her clients personal attention with expert and well-rounded instruction. In this episode, we discuss: -Why you should design an ideal client avatar -How a small marketing budget can make a big impact -Crafting the perfect message to attract your ideal client -The importance of continual trial and error of your message -And so much more! Resources: Christa Gurka Instagram Christa Gurka Facebook Pilates in the Grove Christa Gurka Website FREE resources A big thank you to Net Health for sponsoring this episode! Learn more about the Redoc Patient Portal here. For more information on Christa: An orthopedic physical therapist specializing in Pilates-based fitness, rehabilitation, injury prevention and weight loss, Christa Gurka’s reputation speaks for itself. With two decades of experience training those of all ages and fitness levels, the founder/owner of Miami’s Pilates in the Grove, which serves the Coconut Grove and South Miami communities, believes in offering her clients personal attention with expert and well-rounded instruction. Read the full transcript below: Karen Litzy (00:01): Hi Christa, welcome to the podcast. I'm happy to have you on. So today we're going to be talking about three strategies for marketing for cash based practices. And the good thing about all of these strategies is they don't cost a lot of money, right? And that's important when you're starting a business. You know, we don't want to have to take out a bunch of loans, we don't want to have to spend a lot of our own money. We want to try and start up as lean as we can. And so I'm going to throw it over to you to kick it off with. What is your first strategy for marketing for cash based practices? Christa Gurka (00:43): Perfect. So one of the reasons I just want to start with saying why I'm a little passionate about this marketing thing is because myself included when I first started, I really kind of, I felt like I started backwards almost like from the ends. And I think it's really so helpful for people to learn to start kind of from the beginning. Right? So my very first strategy that I think is really, really important is to have a real good idea of who your ideal customer or who your target audience is. And I get often some pushback from people saying, well, everybody can use my services. Of course everyone can use physical therapy. Absolutely. And that doesn't mean you have to single anybody out. But you know, I think Marie Forleo said it or maybe somebody said it to her, but when you speak to everyone, you really, you speak to no one and so slew thing, your who, your ideal customer is, how they feel, how they think. Christa Gurka (01:45): It's very, very beneficial. So if you want, I can kind of go through like a few questions that I use to kind of narrow down who that person is. So one of the things to know when we go through our ideal customer, we actually give this person a name, an age, a gender demographic, married, not married, retired, not retired, education level, median income. And when we do anything in our business now, so we are ideal customer, her name is Georgia. And so we say every time we have a meeting we say, well what will Georgia think about this? Well Georgia like this, so we're Georgia not like this. So that's the very first thing. And we refer to that person as their name. And then you want to go through like what are their biggest fears about whatever problem they're looking to solve. Christa Gurka (02:40): People buy based on emotion. And so get into the underlying source of that emotion is really, it can be very powerful. So what are their fears? What do they value? Right? Cause when it comes to money, people paying for those, it's not always a dollar amount. It's more in line with what do they value? And if you can show these clients that you serve, offered them a value, the money, the dollar amount kind of becomes obsolete. So things like that. What could happen, what would be the best case scenario if this problem were solved for them? What would be the worst case scenario of this problem were never solved. So in terms of physical therapy, let's say generalize orthopedics, right? Back pain. 80 million Americans suffer from back pain. Yeah. So an easy one to start with, an easy one to start with, right? Christa Gurka (03:35): So let's think of, you know, back pain, it's so general, right? But if you can say, what is the worst thing that can happen because of this back pain, right? So maybe the worst thing that could happen is this person loses days at work because they have such bad back pain, they can't sit at their desk or maybe they have such bad back pain that there performance drops and so that cause they can't concentrate. And so now maybe they lose their job or they get emoted because their back pain. So the worst case scenario is maybe they're not, they ended up losing their job because of back pain. So you kind of take it all the way back. And then if you could speak to them about how would it feel if we were able to give you the opportunity to sit eight hours at a desk and not think of your back pain one time and what would that mean to you? So really kind of under covering a lot, a lot, a lot about who your ideal customer is. It's my number one strategy. Karen Litzy (04:39): And I also find that it's a great exercise in empathy. So for those that maybe don't have that real innate sense of empathy, it's a way for you to step into their shoes. And I always think of it as a what are their possible catastrophizations? So if we put it in the terms that the PT will understand, like when I did this number of years ago, I sort of catastrophized as this person. What would happen if this pain didn't go away? I wouldn't be able to take care of my children. I wouldn't be able to go to work. It would affect my marriage. My marriage would break up, I would be a single mom. I would, you know, so you can really project out really, really far and then reel it back in, like you said, and say, well, what would happen if they did work with you? What is the best case scenario on that? So yeah, I just sort of catastrophized out like super, super far and it's really helpful because when that person who is your ideal client then comes to you and you're doing their initial evaluation, you can ask them these questions. Christa Gurka (05:51): Yeah. Yeah. It's very powerful. And I love how you brought in, like you empathize with them and you know, and by the way, a lot of our clients do catastrophize, right? And we have to reel them, we have to reel them back in. So that was a really great point. I also think it can be sometimes on the flip side where somebody maybe comes in and their goal is very benign. Maybe it's, I really want to be physically fit. I want to look good. Right? So you kind of think, well, what's the catastrophe if that doesn't happen? But maybe, maybe they're in a relationship where they're a partner. Aesthetics is a big part of that. And maybe they feel insecure and they feel if they don't present well to their partner, their partnership may dissolve whatever the case may be. So now you're getting to an underlying, it really is more emotional than physical, right? So now you're being able to empathize with them in that way and speak to them in those terms, give them positive things that maybe they don't even realize they need. Karen Litzy (06:53): Exactly. And then it also seems like once you're in those shoes or walking in their shoes, in their footsteps, however you want to put it, that’s when that person does come to you, you can have a conversation with them that's maybe not so much centered around back pain, but that’s centered around their life. And that's when people make that connection with you. Right? So when we're talking to patients who are not sure that they want to start physical therapy, if we kind of get them, they're much more likely to come and see us. So it's not about the back pain, it's not about the knee pain. It's about how are we going to make a difference in their life. And if we can make that, like harking back to what you said earlier, it's an emotional experience and people tend to buy things based on emotions and their gut feelings and how they feel. So if we can tap into that in a really authentic way, then talk about a great marketing strategy. Christa Gurka (07:58): Excellent. Exactly. Karen Litzy (08:00): And then, okay, so we've got our ideal customer, client avatar. Now what do we do? Christa Gurka (08:10): Great. Now what? So you've got your ideal customer, right? And so by the way, people also sometimes think like, well, I don't want to pigeonhole myself into this, right? But by the way, your ideal customer may change. It's okay first of all to change. And he doesn't have more than one. You can have more than one. Certainly we have more than one in our business. And by the way, you may start out thinking about one ideal customer, but the people that keep coming back, maybe somebody else and you're like, Oh, obviously, maybe I have to rethink this. Right? And again, it doesn't mean that you can't serve someone else. It just means that when you're thinking about marketing and stuff, you're going to go after everything should funnel into one specific thing. So then the next step in the marketing is, okay, so where do these people live? Christa Gurka (08:59): And I don't mean live like literally what neighborhood do they live in? Where do they live in terms of getting their news information? Where do they live in terms of being on social media? Where do they live in terms of, you know, what do they value as far as like personal or professional life? So one thing I see is, you know, people you know are like, well, I'm gonna put an ad in the newspaper, that's great. But if you live in an area where nobody reads the newspaper, then you're putting your money somewhere that you're not going to be seen. Or maybe the flip side is, well, I'm going to do a lot of stuff on Instagram. Well, if you were, your clientele is over 65 studies show that most people over 65 are not on Instagram. That doesn't mean they're nobody is, it just means, you know, or vice versa. Christa Gurka (09:50): If your client is 25, they're probably not on Facebook anymore, right? So, then again you can be, this is why it won't cost you a lot because you can narrow down where you are going to spend your money, right? Also, if you're running Facebook ads, which will then go on Instagram you can narrow down in your audience when you build out your audience to be very, very, very specific based on are you a brick and mortar establishment? So are you trying to get people to come in to your place? Right? So you want to say, well, if people are not, if you know that your ideal customer's not convenience as important and they're not going to travel more than five miles, you shouldn't market to people that live or work outside of a five mile radius from your studio. Right? So that's important to know as well as also maybe your customer gets their information from friends or relatives, you know, or like someone said, you know, you need to go see Karen, she's been really great for me and that's how they get to you. Christa Gurka (11:00): So how can you then get in front of your client's friends, right? Maybe you could do an open house, invite a friend, bring them in. Let's do one-on-one, you know, just kind of like a talk, right? Maybe you could bring them in if, say your ideal customer, let's say your ideal customer is in their sixties, what are some things that people in that age group are going through? Maybe you can have a talk about that specific thing. Not necessarily a therapy, but now you get everyone to kind of come to you. It's not even about what you actually do cause you can need them based on where they are. And most people, by the way, they say there's the numbers range, but usually they have to see you about seven times or have seven points of contact with you before they're comfortable buying from you. So these are just way to get people to know, like, and trust you and then they'll buy from you. So that's strategy number two. Once you know really who your customer is and they could take a couple years to really start to peel back all the onion of that, then the next thing is be where they are, be in front of where they are. Karen Litzy (12:13): Yes, absolutely. And, I love that you mentioned the different types of social media and who's on where, because like you said, this is something that isn't going to break the bank because you have narrowed down exactly where you want to spend your money. Right? So we're taking who that ideal person is, where finding out where they like to hang out, what they read, who they're with, all that kind of stuff. So that when you build out a marketing campaign for your business, you kind of know who and where to target. Christa Gurka (12:49): Right? Exactly. Yes. And even so, even with Facebook, yeah. When you build out your audience, right? So you can have a variety of audiences. You can create lookalike audience, which I'm sure is like a whole podcast onto itself, but you can also target people that like certain brands. So when I do my ideal customer, I'm like, well what brand do they resonate with? In other words. So I would say that our brand is a little more towards Athletica versus like Lulu lemon. And that's not to say one is better than the other. It just means that's who my generally customer is. And why, what do they value? They value that customer service. You get, you know, Athletica has like a, you can take anything back all the time, right? So when you build out a Facebook ad, you can also target, that's right. They've bought from Athletica online. Right. So now you're reaching people. So you kind of near just keep narrowing it, narrowing it, narrowing it down, which can be, you know, other interests is your client. Do you do pelvic health? So obviously women, although men do it right, if moms can you target people that like mom influencers on Facebook or on the internet. So these are all just ways that the more you know about them, then you can use that in your marketing strategies afterwards. Karen Litzy (14:15): Absolutely. Fabulous. Okay. So know who the person is, know where they're hanging out. What's number three? Christa Gurka (14:23): Okay. So number three to me is the most important, the most, most important. And that really is messaging. So when you're working with your ideal, when you're working through that ideal customer you know, workbook getting to them, to you for them to use their own language for you. So I see this very, very commonly, and I am sure you can attest to it too. When physical therapists, we love what we do. We are passionate about movement and anatomy and biomechanics but you know what, the general population has no idea what we're talking about. None. Zero. Yeah. And so oftentimes I feel like, and by the way, I'm not saying I did this for a long time too. I think that we're trying sometimes to get other practitioners to say, Oh, that's a really good therapist. So we're talking about pain science and biotech integrity and fascial planes and the general population. Christa Gurka (15:32): The end consumers, like I have no idea what you're talking about. So you need to speak to them at their level based on what their problem is. And kind of like how we spoke about before. It's not always the back pain, it's what the back pain is keeping them from doing. Right. it's not always, let's take pelvic health for example. Right? A lot of pelvic health issues or not necessarily painful. Okay. So say you have moms, this is super, super common stress incontinence. They leak, they leak when they jump and they go to CrossFit and they're embarrassed to start with a jump rope because they, it's not, why? Why do women go 16 years after childbirth? Because you know what? It's not really painful. So they don't consider it a problem. Like physical therapy is not going to help me with it. So, but if you say to them, Hey, that might be common, but that's not normal, and guess what? Christa Gurka (16:25): There's a solution to that, you know? That is something that will resonate with them. Do you like things like, do you feel, do you worry when you're out at a restaurant as it gets later and later that the line at the bathroom is going to be too long and you stop drinking because you're afraid to wait in line for the bathroom? Right. So some women will be like, Oh yeah, I totally do that. Right? Are you afraid to chaperone your child's field trip? Because the bus ride is going to be three hours and you don't think you can hold it three hours on the bus without a bathroom. That's terrible for a mom. She can't chaperone her kids field trip because she's embarrassed that she might have to go to the bathroom. So using their language. So I like to send out surveys very frequently. Christa Gurka (17:09): Google doc is super easy. Survey monkey and ask them things like, what are your fears about whatever it is you're trying to sell. Right. what are your fears about exercise? What are your fears about back pain? How does it really make you feel? Okay. what are your, like maybe even if you could pay and if money was not an issue and you could pay anything, what would that look like for you? How would that make you feel and starting to, then you start to use that language. We've all seen marketing campaigns where you're like, yes, exactly. Totally. That's how you need to get into them. Right? And so maybe maybe as a physical therapist, it's tough for us because we're like, well, no, their hamstrings are not tight. It's not hamstring tightness. It's neural tension and it's the brain and the nervous system, but they don't, they don't understand. Christa Gurka (18:06): So you got to get them in. What they feel is that they have hamstring tightness. So you got to tell them that you can fix their hamstring tightness. And then little by little you explained to them that it's neural tension, right? But if you start off with neural tension, they're going to go somewhere else. And so I kind of like, I use this example a lot if you, cause I think we can all relate to this. We're on tech right now, right? Okay. So if you have, I have a Mac, I have an Apple. If I go to the Apple store, cause my computer crashes or my phone won't turn on and I go talk to what are they, what are the genius bar, the genius bar. And the guy's like, you know, so what I see here is the motherboard has this month and this software program, you only have so many gigabytes. Christa Gurka (18:50): I'm like, can you fix my computer? That's all I want to know. And if he says yes, I'm like, I don't care how you do it. So whether you use taping or I use myofascial release or somebody uses Pilates or somebody uses craniosacral therapy, it doesn't matter to them. So the end consumer, they just want to know that you can solve their problem. People have problems and they want to know that you have the answer to solve their problem. And that's it. So messaging is really, I think, crucial. It's the crucial point of the puzzle. Karen Litzy (19:28): And now let's talk about messaging. Let's dive into this a little bit further. So I think we've all seen different websites of healthcare practitioners, physical therapists and otherwise that kind of make us go like, Karen Litzy (19:43): Oh boy cause it's in cringeworthy in that it comes off as a little too salesy, a little too slick, a little too icky. So how can we compose our messaging to avoid that? Unless maybe that's what their ideal patient wants. I don't know. But yeah, how can we craft our messages that are going to hit those pain points, get that emotion going without being like a salesy, weird gross Christa Gurka (20:18): So the other thing I think that's important to understand is people's buying patterns. And when people say no to you, maybe they're not saying no to you, they're just saying this. It's not a value to me at this time. So one of the phrases, one of the things that I've really restructured, cause I used it, take it very personally, if someone will be like, no, I know and I'd be like, what you mean I could totally help you? And now I'm like, you know what? It's basically I look at it like if I'm at a party or I'm having a dinner party and I serve or Durham and I'm like picking a blanket and be like, no thanks. I'm like, okay, walk away. So I say therapy with Krista. No thank you. No problem. Let me know if I can help you in the future. Christa Gurka (21:04): Right? So the way that I say it is if you just speak honestly to your customer, honestly, to your customers. Nobody can be you at being you. So be your authentic self, whatever that brand is for you. And whether it's your company or you yourself, and let that come through in your messaging. Right? So in other words, like if your messaging is also about mindfulness and positivity and looking past the pain and what is your relationship with your pain or dysfunction that should maybe come through in your messaging that you're more holistic, that you're not going to be a treat them and street them type thing. But maybe if your messaging is, Hey, we're going to treat you and street you and you'll be out of here in 15 minutes, you're going to attract that type of customer. So either one is fine, but I just say really be authentic. Christa Gurka (21:59): And the other thing is, I would say send your website. I don't put a lot, a huge amount of stock in my website to be perfectly honest. I do love my website. I'm a very like, analytical person. So the colors and where everything sits is important. But I don't think as, I'm not a big believer that as much selling goes on your website as a lot of people may think, I think it's a place where yes, people are going to Google, someone gives you a reference at a cocktail party, they're going to Google your website, but they're basically going to look like, does this resonate with me? So what you want to hear is, you know, that tagline at the very beginning, you know, is does that tagline, the first thing that they see, does that resonate with that person? Right. So we use, because we're Pilates and physical therapy, we will, right now our website's a mess because it's got coven. Christa Gurka (22:47): We're close, we're not close. But helping people heal with love, every twist, every turn and every teaser. Teaser is a plot. He's exercise. So we stuck that with love in there because that is part of who we are. We are a community. We care about our clients. So you're not just going to come in here for like two things. We want to help you where you are. So that's, so if someone's like, yeah, that's cheesy for me, then it's okay, they can go down the street. Right. and we don't, I used, by the way, this has come with like 10 years of testing. You just got to test it. You got to test it and you got to see like who does it resonate with? Send it to a bunch of people and ask people for their honest feedback. Give me, you're not going to hurt my feelings. I need to know like, what do you see when you see this? What, how does it make you feel? So ask people their opinions and not physical. Karen Litzy (23:45): Yes. Yes. And you know, I just redid a lot of the messaging on my website and I sent my website from what it was and I'm in a group of female entrepreneurs, none of whom are physical therapists. I sent it to them, they gave me some feedback, I changed a little things. I sent it again, they gave more feedback, I changed some more things and now I feel now they're like, Oh see this sounds more like you. So before what I had in my website is what I thought was me. But then once I really got like had other people take a look at it, they're like, Oh, no this sounds more like you. And yeah, I love that tagline on the front. Like the tagline on the top of my website is world-class physical therapy delivered straight to your door, Christa Gurka (24:28): Which is short and concise and what you do. And it's what I do. Very easy. Perfect people. Oftentimes I see these like tat and they're like, you know, they had their elevator pitch. I'm like, what's your elevator pitch? You know, people talk about, Oh, what's the elevator pitch? I'm like, if you cannot describe what you do and like two sentences or 10 words or less, how do you think other people are gonna if you can't understand it for yourself, how are other people gonna right, right. Like you said, that takes time though. It does. It does take time. I struggled with this for a while, but me always, yes, but I think as physical therapist, one of the reasons we struggle is for a number of reasons. One. If we're business owners, we tend to be overachievers, right? We tend to have weak temp. We're bred from a certain mold. Christa Gurka (25:18): Right? the other thing I think is physical therapist, we're very analytical. We're very left brains, right? We are, I mean I think it's what makes me a really great physical therapist. But then the flip side of that is we're perfectionist. Everything has to be analyzed. And so we get so caught up in like the details of analysis and we went to PT school. So we have to show how smart we are. But being smart also means understanding what your customer's going to understand. And so you kind of have to swivel out of that. So sometimes even in groups when I'm like, when we see people like, Hey, what do you guys think of my website? I'm like, don't ask us, we are not your customer. Go ask your customers like what they think of your website. And so when I was in a group, you know, my coach challenged me to narrow things down as well. And they used to say things like, if you were running through a desert and you like and you were selling water, what would your tagline be like what would you, what would your board say? And you know, people will be like ice cold, dah dah dah. And he was like, just say water. If someone's running through a desert, all they need is water, water will suffice. Water will suffice. Clean water less is more free water. Even less. Yeah. Karen Litzy (26:42): And I remember, this is even years ago, I was doing like a one sheet, like a speaker one sheet. This is a lot off topic but talking about how we need to tailor our message to our ideal audience. So I had, you know Karen, let's see PT and I remember the person was like, does that mean like part time personal trainer? And I was like no physical therapist. Like you need to write that out then because the average person like PT. Okay. Does that mean part time personal? Like what does that even mean? So it just goes down to or sorry, it goes back to kind of what you said of like we have to speak the language of the people who we want to come to see us. Right? And the best way to do that is on our websites is we just have to simplify things and it doesn't mean dumb it down. It just means like simplify. And I'm going to give a plug to a book. It's called simple by Alan Siegel and it's all about how to simplify your language, your graphics, and how everything comes together to create a site that people, number one are attracted to and number two want to hang out at. Christa Gurka (27:53): Right? Exactly. And there's a lot of testing and I'm a big thing like testing. It's just testing, testing, testing. We test our sales page, we test even now with like some of my coaching stuff, working with other female business owners, testing, sometimes going in and testing, switching a graphic, have what you have above the fold. So the fold for those of you that don't know is like when you're on a website, it's you don't have to scroll. So everything is above where you have to scroll. I'll call to action a CTA right at the top. Changing phrases, you know, not using broad language like confidence, like what does confidence actually mean, but maybe making it more specific using language so that that's a really good thing. Helping or like, you know, reading yourself a back pain so that you can live the life you desire and deserve. Christa Gurka (28:57): Right? So changing little, and you can change that by the way, mid campaign, mid launch daily. You could change it if your Facebook ads are so one of the things, if you're, if people are clicking on your ad, but when they're not converting on your sales page, that usually means that either the messaging and your ad is really off and they're, once they get to your sales page, they're not understood. There was a disconnect between what you're offering or your messaging is great, but your sales page sucks. Or vice versa. Maybe nobody's clicking on your ad. Then whatever you're trying to sell them there does not resonate with them, right? So there has to be a connection. And usually when people don't buy, there's either a, with your offer or a problem with your messaging. Christa Gurka (29:49): So test means put it out there, see what kind of feedback you get, and then it's think of it as, okay, what we do in therapy, right? So this, what do we do when we get a patient in, we assess, we treat, and then we reassess, right? So what's going on? Let's try a treatment in here. Let's reassess. Is it better? If it's not better, what do we do? We go back, assess again, and then do another treatment and then assess, right? Reassess. So in marketing it's the same. So let's say you wanted to do, let's say you're working on like a sales page on your website, right? A sales page. I know it sounds salesy, but it's basically your offer, right? If people are getting there, so you see people you can track. By the way, with Google analytics, like people coming to your site, if a lot of people are coming to your site but they're not clicking on the call to action or they're not following through to check out some, there is some disconnect there. Christa Gurka (30:56): So maybe it's the messaging. So then maybe try to change the messaging, tweak the messaging, and then watch the outcome again, maybe people get all the way to the checkout and then abandoned cart. Maybe it means that something they got confused with something at the end. Maybe there's the customer journey wasn't right. They got to the end because they put something in the cart and then maybe your checkout structure is off or something like that. So test it and then just retest until your numbers are like, now we hit it. And by the way, it's taken me. I mean I'm still testing. Hmm. It seems like it's a constant reinvention. Constant, constant. Because the market keeps changing. Especially now. By the way, by the way, right now I don't know why there are. So at the time of this recording, we are in the middle of COVID. So when people come back, your messaging, okay. Is going to have to change, right? So we need to be aware of that. Karen Litzy (31:49): Yes, Absolutely. All right. So as we start to wrap things up here, let's just review those three strategies again. So who is your target market is number one, where are they hanging out? Where are they living? Not physically their address, but you know, where, what are they reading? Where are they hanging out, what are they doing online, what are they doing offline? And then lastly is making sure that your messaging clearly conveys part one and part two. And how you can solve their problem. Awesome. So now if you were to leave the audience with you know, a quick Pearl of wisdom from this conversation, let's say this might be someone who's never even thought about any of this stuff before. What did they do? Christa Gurka (32:40): So in terms of like, never even thought about marketing before or going into brand new, brand new out of PT school are, or brand new, like they want to kind of dive in and start doing their own thing, but they want to do it in a way that's efficient and that doesn't break the bank, right? So I would definitely say, Christa Gurka (33:17): Start with the end in mind. So that's from a great book, right? So so start with the end in mind meaning, but don't start at the end. I think a lot of people confuse that with, they start with the end in mind, but then they go right to the end and they go to marketing, right? So I like to equate everything back to physical therapy, right? So when we learn about developmental patterns, we all know, like we start with rolling and then Quadruped high kneeling, right? So if you take a patient that's injured and has a neuro, you know, and motor control problem and start them in standing off with multiple planes, you've missed a bunch of it, right? So you start marketing without understanding who your ideal customer is and finding out what they think and how they feel. Christa Gurka (34:01): You're going to spend a lot of money and you're not going to know why it's not working. You're just going to think Facebook ads doesn't work or I'm not good enough, which is a very common thing, right? So take the time to do the work. The ground work. Nobody loves to learn rolling patterns. But why is it important? Because if you work from the ground up, you take the time to instill these good patterns underneath. So take the time to do that. And the other thing I would say is just decide, you know, don't go through analysis paralysis. Decide and move. And the only way you're going to know is you got to put it out there. So you know, Facebook lives, Instagram lives. That's, you know, we didn't maybe start when social media was big, but which, so by the way, I have to make a point that I think that's why it's harder for us. Christa Gurka (34:52): So our generation did not, we didn't have, so I didn't even have a computer when I went to college. Nope. Like, so we didn't start with, I didn't have a cell phone like, so it's very different for us because this next generation coming up, they're comfortable on social media. We may not be, but the truth is, it's like everything else, just do it. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. So, and you know, if no one's what, well, I'm afraid no one's going to watch it. But who's watching it now, if you're not putting it out nobody. So you're no worse off. Right? So just do, create an action step. Like, you know there's a book and now I forget who the author is. It's called the one thing, right? And you just focus on thing. Focus on one thing that you can do today to improve on understanding your ideal customer. If you're already past that, what can you do today to understand more about your messaging? Karen Litzy (35:50): Easy. The one thing you could just, just choose one doesn't have to be a million things you don't have, it doesn't have to be perfect. No, and it doesn't have to be perfect. Just one thing. Just one thing. Awesome. And now last question is the one that I ask everyone, and that is knowing where you are now in your life and in your business and your practice, what advice would you give to yourself as a brand new physical therapist straight out of PT school? Christa Gurka (36:19): Woof. Mmm. I would probably say be open to the possibility. Yeah. Yeah. Just be open to possibility of what's possible. Yeah. Karen Litzy (36:35): Excellent advice. Now Christa, where can people find you if they have questions they want to know more about you and your practice and everything that you're doing? What the deal? Christa Gurka (36:44): So my business is Pilates in the groves, so they can always find Pilates in the Grove. All has everything about our business. But they can find more about me at christagurka.com. I have some freebies up there. So that's like Christa Gurka is more really about kind of business strategy. Okay, great. Like launch you know, mindset, that kind of stuff. And then the Pilates and the Grove website really if you want to look at what we do, brick and mortar wise, do it. But like I said, the websites kind of a mess. Right? Karen Litzy (37:21): We understand it's exceptional times. And, I know that you have some free resources and some freebies for our listeners, so where can they find that? Christa Gurka (37:33): Yep. So there is a link which we can either link up in your show notes, right? Or we can, so there's a marketing quiz that I created that basically will put people at, it'll kind of just give you an idea of where you are. Are you like a novice or are you a pro? Have you got this stuff down? And I could probably be calling you for advice. And then based on where you are, it kind of tells you kind of what you should focus on as well as then we have that lead you into. I have a social media and a Facebook live checklist. It kinda just gives you kind of a little bit of, I find structure helps me. So learning how to batch content, learning to say that like, okay, every Monday I'm going to do a motivational Monday post. Every Tuesday I'm going to do a Tuesday tutorial post. I think it just helps me map things out. And so I think it helps business owners also feel less overwhelmed when they can have a calendar. And we have national days. It has like a bunch of national days that pertain to our industry already built out for you, which is easy. Karen Litzy (38:35): Awesome. That sounds great. And I'm sure the listeners will really appreciate that. So thank you so much. This was great. And again, the thing that I love about all these strategies is it takes very little money to accomplish them. Just some time, which right now I think a lot of people have a lot of time. So thank you so much for taking the time out of your day and coming on. Thank you. And everyone, thanks so much for listening. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy, and smart. Thanks for listening and subscribing to the podcast! Make sure to connect with me on twitter, instagram and facebook to stay updated on all of the latest! Show your support for the show by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts
Are you Right? Are you Left? Liberal or Conservative? These are questions that we hear far too often in political debate and its time to talk about the problem with polarizing politics.
Today's episode I'm going to be talking about how bad do you want it. So I speak with a lot of folks, whether it's about um, finishing their dissertation or it's about they want to start a business cause then I'm starting my own business or any number of goals. Um, and, you know, it comes to a point where they say like, you know, I've been doing this, this, this, this and this and I've been putting all this work and time into it and I'm not seeing any results. And so, they may start or you may start to question yourself and say, is this even worth it? Maybe it's not for me. And ultimately what it comes down to is you answering a question. Do you want it bad enough? There are so many people. Um, I've watched their careers in different arenas and it took them so long to get started. Like one of them or like just get the recognition that they deserve, I guess. Um, one of my like favorites is Jennifer Lopez, right? Alright, Let's see. First you see her on like In Living Color as Fly Girl. And I would say like her big break came as um, as Selena when she was, she was cast in place in Selena in the, um, in the movie. And she sung the songs or I don't, I don't know if they will let her sing. I can't remember. Anyway, but she did and that movie was huge. Right. And then from there she continued, she was in Anaconda. I feel like these movies were right around the same time and I think as Money Train. And then she just started going in her acting career and then she started to record music. And while folks were like, okay, we see you as an actress, we don't necessarily see you as a singer. Like it's cute that you're doing these like little pop songs and you know, like can listen to it and the car. Love Don't Cost a Thing. Um, I'm blanking on other songs right now, but to get what I'm saying. And people like Jamie Fox and other people kept like making fun of her and saying she can't sing. Right. But she was still, I mean, she was still getting recognition for acting. She was getting recognition for her fashion. Um, we all remember the infamous Versace green dress. Um, but yeah, she was getting recognition in that way, but you would see in like interviews and stuff that she was like, you know, it really hurts my feelings that people would talk about me and I can't sing and I've been singing since blah, blah, blah. And she's been making all of this traction doing all these different things. But I still feel like folks didn't see her as his like huge superstar that she actually was right. Because while she wasn't getting like all of the , I mean, even Mariah I carry right throwing shade of, I don't know her, um, like all these folks, but like her career has lasted for 20 plus years and not only lasted, we're not talking about like she's barely hanging in there. Susan has been making money, money. I mean movie after movie roles have gotten more, um, complex. Even she, I mean she still does a little romantic comedies and stuff, but she also does more like, like for real acting roles. I mean she stays in a movie. Um, and she stayed recording and can sell. I mean she just wrapped up her us leg of her tour for her 50th birthday. I mean she's 50, she looks 20, um, right and sold out all over. Alright. Whatever she does is successful. And um, I think about her often cause I feel like you just may seem like a tangent now, but I think about Jennifer Lopez often when I get stuck in my own head and I'm like, oh, this isn't happening fast enough, it doesn't matter all this work that I'm doing, it is not making a difference. And I just think about like she's been out here grinding for years and years and` years and success is not going to always look like the way we think it's supposed to look like. Right. And you have to ask yourself, are you, are you, do you want things to look a certain way because, because you want other people to think something. You want other people's admiration. Are you doing it for your ego? Right? Um, people been talking about like vanity metrics. Are you doing it for the likes of the followers? Right? Are you doing it for those things or are you doing it because it's just something like as a goal you actually want to achieve. You want the result that you're after and it comes to a place of which one do you want most more? Um, being honest with yourself about that. And then, two, really accepting what it looks like to really have the thing that you're working towards. Like really looking at other people who are doing the things that you want to do, who have accomplished the thing that you are going after. Like what did that look like when they accomplished it? Now? What their life looks like now, but what did it look like when they finished? So, um, for most of you listening, we are talking about finishing your dissertation and I want you to even think about your chair or someone you admire in the field, right? You may see them on Twitter or you may have a conversation with them or you may see them at conferences or what that and it just looks so, I mean, it looks like they livin' their life, right? They get it. And every time you look up they're getting this award or not award and, or they're announcing this or they're publishing this and that and they have this book coming out. It may look like that now, but I mean, scroll back on your timeline, scroll, scroll, Scroll to the time that they defended and if that, if they were still posting when they were as a doctoral student, if there's anything that you can find, or even if you can talk with them about when they finished their dissertation, when they graduated, ask them who that person was. What did that person look like? What thoughts or feelings of frustration did that person have? Right? How much were they publishing then? How do they feel about their abilities? Then what are people saying about them then? Because you keep trying to compare yourself to someone who is two, three, 10 20 years ahead of you. You're comparing yourself now to that person who they've worked up to be instead of preparing yourself to who they were at the same moment that you are. And I can sit here and say, no, you shouldn't compare yourself to any one else. And, that's what we do as humans. And so if we're going to do that, I just wanted you to get the message of don't do it to who they are now or who they pretend or present to be on social media. Look at who they were at the same level that you are. Okay. Um, so that was complete. I just didn't want it to share that cause I, that wasn't even in my notes without j lo, but I do every time I look at her career, I've been watching her youtube channel and I'm just like, that's so amazing. And to finally get to a place where you don't even care that folks can't see it. When you have outlasted them, you have outwork them, you have have outperformed them, you make way more money and it's not about that. I just, I think that's very interesting though. Like most of the people who talked about her are not even, they're not even, no one even knows what they are anymore. But for my own story, um, I have two. One is when, um, which is episode 19, which, so I won't go into much detail about it in this episode, but I definitely say check out episode 19 where I talked about my first semester and failing my first semester and going to talk with one of the professors there and how he, I felt like at the time completely just, I dunno, crushed my whole world, pretty much told me, you don't need to belong there and he didn't understand. Um, and how I was ready to quit. How I was ready to go, like find another job and think like this, this phd program was not for me. I'd definitely want you to listen to that episode to hear what I've learned from this situation and how I had to, I asked myself, do I want it bad enough and how I had to get over myself and continue to go after completing the goal of getting my phd. The second situation that I think a lot about is, um, when I was getting into even like realizing that I could have my own business, right. This was years and years ago of I saw this other woman online and she had, she was doing so many things and she was documenting her process of like quitting her job and traveling the country and what would it be like to live out of a suitcase? Right? She wasn't even thinking about starting a business, but then that morphed into a business because other women started to ask her like, how did you do it? Um, and at one point she had offered free videos. Like, I mean, not videos free calls she said that she was gonna give 10 free calls to women. Um, and that she wanted to talk to them. That it would be completely free and just to help and not to sell them anything, which sounded it was a lie, but that's not the point. Anyway. So I, I, I signed up cause I was like, I'm going to do it. I'm going to be brave. I'm going to take a step and I'm going to sign up for this call. No, I don't know what I'm supposed to talk about. But I mean, she's been talking about helping other women. So of course she would have all the answers right. And I'm just going to take this step of calling her. And so we got on a call and she was like, well, what can I help you with? And I dunno, I was stuck. I was like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't even know what I'm supposed to ask. I don't even know what it means to start your own business. I just see other people doing it and I just want that. Um, and she was like, well, I'm looking at your website and you know, you don't post you, you're not, there's no, this maybe you posted. Um, like three things at the time I was doing youtube videos about random things. I can't even remember. I can't tell you. Um, and she was just like, I don't even, there's nothing I can even do to help you. You're not, I dunno, I just remember leaving the phone call feeling dejected. Is that a word? Feeling like how dare she I've been working really hard. She doesn't know how much it took me to even get on a phone call with her. She doesn't even understand how much it took me and how scared and how much thought it had to even make those youtube videos. She didn't even give me any um, props or like Kudos for even showing up. She just, I just was pissed and I remember thinking like, I'm going to prove her wrong. She told me I wasn't going to be successful. I can even tell you she actually said that or not. But this was so long ago that I don't remember. But I just remember having this attitude of like, I'm going to prove her wrong because she doesn't know what she's talking about. I'm going to get it together. And I was all motivated and I wrote out all of these plans about how that's going to have this awesome business and how, you know, wisdom would be like, how, how can you know what to do now but you didn't know what to do before the phone call? But you know, motivation is a whole different thing when you like when you're determined as a whole different thing. But I was, and I wrote all this thing, these things out and I did some stuff. And a whole year went by and I was still in the same place that I was when I first scheduled that call and it came back around that she was offering the calls again and I had to sit down and be real myself. How bad do you want this business? You say you want so bad and maybe you can relate to that. Maybe you're sitting there with your dissertation, maybe you started your own business and , you're just like, I'm in a place, I'm stuck. I don't even know. I'm overwhelmed. I, I, I don't know what to do. And you, you're thinking that you should quit or give up or you know, throw in the towel. And that's what I want to talk about today of like what happens when you're at this point and how to get out of this point, especially when you're, you know, especially like thinking about dissertations and stuff like that. Cause you've come too far to only come this far. I know you've seen that across the internet and I don't even know who originally said that. You know, Internet quotes goes, it's hard to find the original source, but either way. Um, so the first thing I would say in terms of what you have to become aware of, because in order to solve a problem, you have to know what the problem or problems are. And so I want to talk about that. So the first thing is becoming aware of your ego and checking your ego. Um, I use this quote, I say this quote a lot from Eric Thomas to hip hop preacher himself is that you owe you an explanation. I'll say that again. You owe you an explanation. So like me going back. So that story about the business coach or even about that professor, I kept saying like, they didn't do this. They sent me up. I'm like, you know, they didn't do this. It wasn't supportive. They should have did x, y, z. Instead I should have been like, what did I not do? How did I not show up? What did I not say? I had to answer to myself. Because you can't control other people. You can only control yourself. And so you have to look at you and say, what did you not do that caused this result that you're at right now? So you're feeling stuck and overwhelmed. What did you not do? And not in a "woe is me" or a shame spiral. It's more about being real with yourself and being honest and saying, man, I could have showed up. I didn't show up in right. Like I said, I was going into, um, those times that I schedule it. Um, I didn't post on Instagram. Like I said I was going to do for my business. I didn't read those articles that I got, um, from so-and. So I blew off my accountability partner and I didn't write, I didn't show up to my coaching call that I signed up. Like what did you not do? Like being a really real about that. Right? And checking your ego. Um, the second thing that like that would help you become more aware of your problem is really thinking about what results have you been producing. I honestly believe like you probably like you've put, been putting in time and you've been putting in energy and you've been doing all of the things in your life. But my results are not showing up, I believe because I did it like you know my story, I talked about it in last week's episode about how I was spending all of these hours and hours. Like I did that for my dissertation and I did that for my business. And both of those things came to a point where I had to be like, okay, we cannot keep putting in all of these hours without having anything to show for it. So let's be really clear about what was results are we trying to produce. Right? So it's not just a matter of I'm going to show up to this writing group and I'm just gonna write, I'm gonna work on my dissertation. But like exactly what is it that you're going to work on? Like are you going to work on your - Like you're going to have a completed problem statement or you're going to have a completed outline for chapter two. Are you going to write an edit your chapter, the re like are you going to really think about which methodology is going to be best? Like how by the end of that time that you're working, what will you tangibly have by the end of that time? That's how you need to be focusing your to do lists and how you need to be thinking about structuring your time. Because it's not enough to sit there and say I'm working on it cause you'll be doing all of these things. Oh let me write this. Oh let me read this. Oh let me go check this email. Oh let me go check this post. That's you spinning your wheels without actually doing anything. So switching your mindset from a to do list who are results lists, like what will you half do, you know, etc. And then the third challenge, which is probably part of the problem, is doing it alone. We as humans are not meant to be alone, but you probably think it's better if you do things alone. You probably think like, nobody's here to help me anyway. Right? Going back to my stories, like no one's gonna help me. Um, or you don't have something that you believe in that's bigger than yourself. You have to believe in something bigger because that's going to come to a point where you get really clear on what you want to do, what you need to do, and you start getting some results. But then you start looking at who you are right now or where you are right now in way where you're trying to go or who you're trying to become. And you're going to be like, man, I don't, I don't know if this is going to work. I don't know. And then you're going to have to believe in something that says, I don't think I can do it, but with the faith of whatever, whomever, I'm going to get there. You have to believe. And that's something, something for Scott, whatever is helping you to get to that point. So being aware of your ego, getting results, focused and finding something bigger and giving yourself something to believe in is really going to help you understand really where you are, the problems you're having and the challenges. But I want to take it, um, a step further and really talk about like what it means to, um, figure out if you want to bet enough and how to get there. So, you know, um, if you've been around any length of time I have the get it done framework is three steps, three areas where you focus on that I use with my clients that I use on myself, not just with writing dissertation but like all areas of life. Um, that I say I asked myself whenever I'm out of alignment or, um, uh, I'm stuck on something. What are these, what is three areas looking like and am I, is there something I'm not paying attention to? So the first one being mindset. Remember I talked about your ego and like getting really putting that in check you you ha like yes, that's important. The first step is getting real about what did you not do? What is the explanation you owe yourself? But then the tangible thing that I do every day is I need a mechanism to become aware of my thoughts because I believe that your thoughts control your, your emotions control your actions, what you actually, what you do every day. And those behaviors and actions that you take everyday create the results in your life. So before when I said how do you get results focused, when you figure out this is where I want to go, then you have to come back, takes a few steps back and be like, who do I have to be in a, who do I, how do I have to think in order to get those results in my life? Where does my mindset have to be? So every day to get there because just can seem like, well that's a big thing you said tangible. So everyday what I do is I do a brain dump. I just write for like five minutes. I just write down all the thoughts that are coming to my mind, comes to my mind. And I used to then call the model, which was by Brooke Castillo from the life coach school. If you're a client, you should be using your daily pages to help you through this process. But I pick a thought and I look at that thought and I said, when I see this thought or I say this thought to myself, how does that make me feel? And this feeling when I feel this way, what do I do as a result of feeling this way? Then those are my actions. And so the actions that I take, what is that given me in my life? So, um, an example would be say, I think I can't do this. That's my thought. I can't do this. My emotion that I would feel from saying I can't do this. It's defeated. I feel defeated because I can't do this. And because I felt defeated, I may then do my actions would be like, well, um, I may, uh, not show up to my writing group. I may not read anything because I can't do this. I feel defeated. Right? I may not show up to the writing group and then because I didn't show it to my writing group means I didn't do, I didn't make any progress on my dissertation. That's the result I have. So lack of progress can relay all the way back up to the thought of, I can't do this. So I, that's, that's really quick and dirty. We could talk more about that. Um, we talk more about that. Um, when I'm with clients and whatnot, we talk a lot about mindset. When you work with me, that is mainly what we're working on is mindset because you can only go as far as your mindset will allow you to, and that may seem like a lot in life. I don't need to do that. Just tell me what I need to do. I could tell you exactly what you need to do, but you want to do it. You know exactly what to do right now, but you're not doing it. And the reason why you're not doing it is because of your mind. You're not managing your mind well enough. I have given people exact detailed outlines for their dissertations. I had told them like exactly what to do when they sit down. I have walked them through step by step, sitting in a chair, open your laptop, pull out a document, put this sentence there, do this. Like I've given them that and they still can't do it. Why? Because of their mindset. And if you don't have, if you're not having something, a way to work through that, all the doubts and stuff that come in, you won't get to your goals. You won't. So I'll get off of that. So that's the first thing is mindset. The second part of the get it done framework is systems. So what are your systems? Any a clear plan. So what are you trying to do? I didn't trying to finish my dissertation proposal. When are you trying to finish it by? I don't know. November 30th great. What's going to be your schedule to get you there? When are you going to write or, or, um, do dissertation things? Do you have a clear schedule? I always suggest that my clients have 10 to 15 hours a week. No more than a four hours in one day that you're working and that you do something, you break up things in small chunks because you do not need to be working. If you're doing something more than 10 to 15 hours a week, you are wasting your time. You're most likely procrastinating. You're most likely doing everything else, but what you're supposed to do, you're not focused. Yes. Yeah. You're not doing things for yourself to fill yourself back up. And I'm, I'm willing to bet that some you feel awful. You look awful now like in the weight per se, that you just look probably look real tired cause you feel tired and so get on a really clear schedule that you actually are here too. And then have a clear routine, a routine that when you sit down to work on your dissertation or Your Business or whatever, that you know you do the same steps. Like when I sit down to work on like this podcast for instance, I know I need my laptop out and my laptop, I put my microphone into my laptop, I have a piece of paper, I write out, this is what the script is going to be in the script has a formula like up a story. I'll tell you where you may get stuck in and I'll tell you what to do and then I have something I want you to do as a result of the episode and I change it up a little bit, but I know that those are steps that I can follow to getting going. What are the steps that you follow no matter what? When you're sitting down to write or you're sitting down to do whatever your goal is? Yeah. Do you open up your laptop? Open up a document? Because what I tell my clients is open tab, open up a new document, set the timer on the phone for 10 minutes, brain dump everything that you have, no matter if it's related to the dissertation or not. Take a five minute break and then reread what you have and start to edit it into something. Because my thought is that once you start to brain dump, you're already in the mindset of like you're supposed to working on a dissertation. Your thoughts will naturally go towards your dissertation, but for whatever reason, if it doesn't, then that's not gonna happen for that day. And you can put that down and come back so it later. Or are you gonna just wait until your next writing schedule. But I mean writing date, but that's why it's important to always be on a schedule because your brain knows and has built in time for you to make progress. Even if one of those days or whatever, you're not feeling it or it's not happening. Maybe you have life going on. So systems. So we talked about mindset and systems and then the last part of the get it done framework is community. Again, we're not meant to be alone. So having a way to have some weekly support and accountability is helpful. So if you have a writing group, is it really being honest with yourself? One, is it really supportive and help them keep you accountable or is it more like social hour or does it make you not feel comfortable in some way? Um, and there's another r, are there some things that you can do? So are there some parameters that you can set? Um, do you all need to be more persistent? Do you need to like hold off talking or put a timer limit on talking? Is there a way that you can build in to share wins with them? They'll be like, yes, I got approved to collect data or yes, I found the right methodology. Like who are your group of people? Yeah. And it's important to be around people who challenge you and is also important for you not to be the smartest one in your circle. Because if you are, if you're the smartest or the most dedicated or the most consistent one, you're in the wrong circle and you need a new circle, you need a new writing group. Um, because again, you can only go as far as your mindset and your mindset is highly influenced by those you spend the most time with. So whenever it comes to your dissertation and you're with the same writing group, but they're not really to as serious or dedicated about it, didn't you that we'll feed or rub off on you. So how can you find a group that's going to challenge you and support you? A hold you accountable and you feel like my bad, I don't, I don't know. That's I what I have and I'll have access. I got to take what I have and I want to offer you an opportunity to join right away. It's my weekly writing accountability group. Folks. Uh, most folks are working on some form of their dissertation, but other people are using it just so they know that they have dedicated time to do dishes. Uh, planning for the week, meal prep for the week. We, um, we meet twice a week, but I just encourage people to come at least once a week. So we meet on Sundays from four to 7:00 PM eastern standard time and we meet Wednesdays 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM eastern standard time. Um, it's encouraged that you're there the whole time, but if not, because life happens and that starts to get late. We understand people leave early or come in and out. Um, but it's that time is there for you. We start off each call with something about mindset or a some productivity tip or just sharing like what's going on in that week. We spent a good 15, 20 minutes just catching up with one another, encouraging one another, and then we spend the rest of the rest of the time just talking. I mean, excuse me y'all. Yes. So this live, most of the time after that 15 or 20 minutes I'm working, everyone keeps their camera on so you can see other people working because there's something about the brain and being able to see people, uh, working away or typing that tells you like, oh, I need to get back on it. And then if someone sees you doing something else, probably send you like a private message. Like, hey girl up, you do it. I'll probably, I'm most likely I'm doing it like, Hey, what you doing? You look like you're like watching TV. What's happening? You need to talk, you need to check in. Cause you know, sometimes people are going through a lot and they just need somebody to talk to. And then we, I like sometimes we'll have conversation if I have time because I'm also doing work and things. And so, um, catch up with people to help them through that and be supportive. And usually I find like a good 15-30 minutes of talking, people can then get start working and you would be surprised what you can get done in an hour or two hours or three hours. Like people are writing whole dissertations up in here. And so we, the Check-in Sundays and Wednesdays are usually the days where we're like, oh shit, we need to get something done. Sunday is like the beginning of the week where you're like, okay, I'm going to have this plan, I'm going to get done. And then Wednesday night comes and you're like, oh, I haven't done anything. I should. I have assignments. And so those have, we have found, I mean we've been doing this almost a year now and found that those two days work really well, especially while we're in the middle of the semester. So if this sounds like something that you would love to join, you want to be a part of, just the link will be in the show notes or you can come on over to Instagram and DM me at @MarvetteLacy, or you'd go to the website, Marvette lacy.com. Links will be there for you to sign up. We would love to have you. Um, and that's gonna do it for this episode. I didn't intend for it to be this long. The latest ones have been long. You're welcome. But that is how I'm going to wrap up. Um, and so next week, do something to show yourself some love and I will talk to you then. Bye for now.
Quick show notes Our Guest: Raymond Camden What he'd like for you to see: CodaBreaker.rocks His JAMstack Jams: Jekyll and Netlify His musical Jam: Hatchie Raymond's post about serverless functions and MailChimp from 14:15 Other Tech mentioned HarpJS Zeit Transcript Bryan Robinson 0:00 Hey everyone, welcome to another that's my jam stack episode. Today we've got the pleasure of chatting with a developer advocate who specializes, according to his website, on JavaScript serverless and enterprise cat demos, I'm talking, of course, about the amazing Raymond Camden. Raymond, thanks for coming on the show. Raymond Camden 0:16 Thank you for having me. Bryan Robinson 0:18 No problem. So I guess I'll start this off by tell us a little bit about yourself and kind of what you do for work and what you do for fun and that sort of thing. Raymond Camden 0:25 Sure. So I am a developer experience engineer, for a very large financial firm that is really picky about where I'm allowed to say that I actually work there. So if you're curious, you can go to my LinkedIn and just know that you wouldn't leave home without me. Bryan Robinson 0:47 Leaving breadcrumbs behind you. What What will you do for fun outside of work? Raymond Camden 0:52 Oh, shoot, write code. play a lot of Just Dance. I'm really, really good at it. Trust me, I'm not lying at all. I do some Lego. My girlfriend and I are working on the Death Star II. And we've been working on that for less, like, month or two. And we're on step like 50 of 2000. So it's, it's a process, but it's a fun process. Bryan Robinson 1:19 Nice. I think I think I saw on Twitter a couple weeks ago you were flying with just dance and actually pulling that off in an airplane. Raymond Camden 1:26 Yeah, not not scoring very well. But uh, yes, I did play it on an airplane. Bryan Robinson 1:32 Cool. So I guess what was your entry point into this idea of kind of jam stack or static sites or whatever we want to call it to make sense? Raymond Camden 1:40 Sure. So I've been doing back in work for a very, very long time. I started web development and like 33 or so I did some JavaScript way back then I did some front end work. And if you were if you have been around that long, you know, wasn't quite as fun back then. Raymond Camden 1:59 So I retreated to the back end where you didn't have to worry about browsers and you just output HTML and put it down. I did a cold fusion for about 10 plus years. This was a not a free app server, not an open source one but a very practical one that had a really great community. And I was very privileged and lucky to be in that community for a while. But like for the longest time like that there was a problem that my solution was to throw an app server at it, whether it's cold fusion or NodeJS or PHP or whatever. Raymond Camden 2:35 And back, I think in 2014 or so like 5 or so years ago, I ran across a little thing called harp JS. And it was this idea of a static site generator and I played with it and like a light bulb went off and I was thinking about all the sites I built with cold fusion network dynamic talking to SQL server and like the data was changing, like once a year, and I'm like, you know what, I don't need that anymore. And again, like light bulb moment realizing that it's not 100% solution, but for like a lot of what I built in the last 10 years, this would have covered a good part of them. Bryan Robinson 3:20 Yeah, very cool. Actually, I think, you probably don't remember this now. It's been multiple years probably been like four years. But you spoke at DevNexus. I was actually speaking at DevNexus that year. And I think you gave a talk on static sites that year. Like, more dynamic static sites, you know, via all these different third parties. I guess kind of out of curiosity since that was before JAMstack was even a thing how do you see the the landscape kind of shifting you know, you've been doing this for a while now, five years at least, you know from that story, so like, what's, what's changing, what's changing for the better, that sort of thing? Raymond Camden 3:54 So I was definitely against the name JAMstack because it felt like marketing crap. It felt like, got come on it's a static website. That being said, I'm definitely coming, coming around on it. Because when you say static people think so many things that are just not true anymore. So giving it a new name without like the history and without the connotations, of oh, it does nothing. You know, I'm in favor of that. And if I have to explain what JAMstack means, then then so be it. Bryan Robinson 4:26 Yeah, it's what you can do. The types of things, just the strategies, you know, people are finding all these ways to kind of add dynamic back. And then you have platforms like Netlify, which are just amazing and putting so much in there. I don't feel like I'm working with static sites anymore. I feel like I'm working with an app server that's just a heck of a lot simpler in production than what I've had to work with in the past. Bryan Robinson 4:57 Nice. So okay, how are you utilizing these static site? And new dynamic static sites? professionally? Personally? I think your websites probably built in a static site generator, I assume. Raymond Camden 5:11 Yeah. So professionally at the company that I shall not name. They're not using that at all. Well, I definitely can't speak for the whole company. Maybe somewhere else. So personally, like every site I build pretty much is using it. My blog has been static for two or so years. I've gone through two engines. But before that, it was WordPress for a while. And before them, it was my own custom blogware written in cold fusion. But yeah, my my static site now is over 6000 pages. It's a significant build, but I've had to play something new. It takes Netlify about 10 minutes to run that but yeah, that that was a process because I kind of couldn't do the simple brochure ware type static site thing I really had to think about. If I change a header that impact 6000 pages, if I change my blog theme, if there is like a recent post thing that impacts every single page, so I had to think about stuff like that to kind of make mine perform well and build well with the size that I have. Bryan Robinson 6:31 Now, I will say like, really, interestingly, 10 years ago now, I was working in MovableType, which had that whole rebuild process every time too. And that was like, I worked on a blog that had not quite 6000 but like, we're talking thousands of blog posts, and it was taking like 40 minutes to build. So hearing 10 minutes is still like a breath of fresh air compared to that old school methodology. Raymond Camden 6:56 Yeah, and I mean, certainly like if I switched if I switch to the engine I was using previously it'd be faster, but I really didn't like it. I'm trying not to. I'll definitely name names. But I wasn't happy with that engine even though it was faster so I'm using Jekyll now it's not the fastest, but I really liked using it. Yeah. Bryan Robinson 7:17 Jekyll was my was my big entry point into static site generator. So I totally get that. It's it's super, I think it's super, super developer friendly. Cool. So uh, I'm gonna put this in strong quote, right, but like, what's your jam in the jam stack? What's kind of your favorite thing to be working on? What's your favorite product or framework or obviously you just mentioned jackal, but anything else on top of that? Raymond Camden 7:40 Definitely a Jekyll. Definitely Netlify I for hosting with the fact that they have severless functions rolled in they just added analytics. I swear I don't work for them. But like so to me, like Netlify is the gold standard. So every single other service out there I compared to them, so you can use Amazon s3 to host your site site as well. But they definitely don't have the features that you get with netlify. Iwill say, I know Zeit. They have some good services as well. I just haven't had the chance to look at them closer yet. But my blog and a couple of my little side projects are all on Netlify right now. Bryan Robinson 8:25 Do you find that using this new methodology using stuff like Netlify makes it easier to do side projects? Have you done more side projects since adopting this workflow? Raymond Camden 8:34 Yeah, not just static, also like codepen, copen, really good; code sandbox as well. So if I am just doing a real small demo, I'll do codepen or code sandbox. If I'm building a site with HTML and all that, then I will do Netlify for that. I've also use Surge in the past as well. I still kind of like Surge where, if I know I don't want to keep the site around, I just want to real quick, put it up there and show it type thing. Whereas for Netlify, I tend to not use them for one offs, if that makes sense. Bryan Robinson 9:13 It does actually search was my first data coast that I used and I kind of went when Netlify came, I was like, Oh, I gotta try this new thing. But that's gonna take a lot of effort. And finally did and now I've got so many one offs in there that my admin's a little bit junked up with the one offs and so like, I totally get that command line interface just put it up there, leave it alone and you never have come back to it. Bryan Robinson 9:33 You kind of talked a little bit earlier about like the ease of it but what what kind of made you fall in love overall with with the methodology Was it the ease? Was it the developer experience? Was it how fast it was? What's kind of your big jumping off point. Raymond Camden 9:50 So ease at first, and when I used Harp, it is a very simple static site generator. So it was very easy to use because it didn't have a lot of features. And I tried it on a few like very small sites. Raymond Camden 10:02 I definitely, if I talk about that excites our JAMstack now, I don't necessarily always say easy because there's still a good deal of complexity like like my blog has a capital P Process to to work with it. Somebody I forget their name, but I saw like a video like two years ago, and he was talking about static sites and he made this awesome point that you've got the same complexity, but the complexity is on your local dev server, not production. Raymond Camden 10:32 So like my blog, there still again that that Process, and it was work and it was complexity and all that but like when I publish, I don't think about it. So when I was on WordPress, and WordPress is an amazing platform. It was my first time using it. I was just blown away. But like out of the box, it just does not work. It works not configured to actually run in production. I was kind of surprised by that. Like I did good traffic. But I don't get like huge company traffic and I really had to work to keep it up. And even after I did the work on the weekend, PHP with died, MySQL would die, whatever. And as much as I love my blog, I absolutely do not want to think about it, you know, on the weekend. Bryan Robinson 11:20 So So you come from a backend perspective. Do you miss anything about having your own server? Like, obviously you don't want to be working on PHP on your blog on the weekend? But is there something that you miss about that experience? Or are you perfectly happy working in the cloud, aka someone else's server? Raymond Camden 11:35 I don't miss crap. No, no, I mean, I still write a lot ofJavaScript client side. I still do server side JavaScript for serverless functions and stuff like that. So yeah, I'm totally fine. Bryan Robinson 11:50 So you've been I think I've seen you writing a lot about Vue recently. Right? Are you are you seeing that that pairs really nicely with with kind of these these other services, or have you had any tricky points around that. Raymond Camden 12:01 No, it's just fine. And I can't imagine any further framework being more friendly to the back end. I know that there are some generators that will use like React and some use Vue on the server side. So if you're already familiar with that, then you can do that. Gridsome is VueJS one that has been on my queue to look at more Just haven't had time yet. Bryan Robinson 12:25 So I guess Tell me kind of on the other side of things not in technology right but what's what's your what's your jam right now in terms of like music, what are you listening to what what powers your day? Raymond Camden 12:36 My favorite band right now is Hatchie. They are kind of Shoegaze and they kind of have an 80s or 90s feel to them. But they're a new band. They just had an EP released. I can't remember the name but look up Hatchie. Friggin love em. Older stuff. I mean, I've been a Depeche Mode and Cure fan for a long time. I'm very old, so I was around when they were fresh, and a lot of Just Dance. I enjoy pop music when I'm dancing to it, not necessarily as like good music, but I will enjoy dancing to it On Just Dance OMG by a artist I can't remember his name, but Snoop Dogg is in it as well as a track called Narco. That's very good. And literally five minutes before this podcast started, I was listening to Lights by Ellie Golding and I love that song. Raymond Camden 13:35 And I'll say, buddy of mine, Bryan Rinaldi we run a music newsletter called Coda Breaker. And that is a static site using a serverless functions that it's at codeabreaker.rocks. That's a new definitely those new TLDs. Last time I went to register and I was like "oh! dot rocks" that's like perfect for a music site. Bryan Robinson 13:56 Very cool. And is that is that have a player is that just like lifting stuff out? Bryan Robinson 14:00 The site actually use Serverless to get the past letters, newsletters and you serverless to make that sign up a bit easier. So you don't you don't have to leave our site to sign up for the newsletter. Bryan Robinson 14:14 Very cool. Raymond Camden 14:15 And I blogged about that will process as well. Bryan Robinson 14:17 I will grab that link and I'll toss that in the show notes. at you. You mentioned being old. I wouldn't classify you as such but you've obviously been been working in this industry for a while right. Would you compare anything that was happening now in terms of like, rendering statically. Small scripts being hosted to like the real old school methodology like I remember, I wasn't, I wasn't doing it professionally, but I was, you know, high school kid working on stuff and like, copying, pasting like CGI scripts into my CGI bin and having no clue what they did. But just putting them out there. Raymond Camden 14:51 Like my first couple of sites, so it'd be all static and be a couple of things that be dynamic, and typically that was a contact form that would POST to a Perl CGI script that would just read it, mail it, and then like spit out really basic HTML to say thank you for your submission. I did a lot of those I took a lot of website counters that would spit out an image that would go up as you as every person visited the site. Yeah, so I vaguely familiar. Yeah, I mean, one thing I don't miss was how slow things were back then. Like you know, I'm much more inclined to build stupid crap now. You know, my your ability to play now is a heck of life easier compared to how it was back then. So I'm really happy about that. Bryan Robinson 15:44 So yeah, I don't want to take up too much more of your time. So I'll ask Is there anything that you're doing right now that you want promote young anything out there will will do that? Raymond Camden 15:51 I definitely CodaBreaker.rocks. We have like 30 subscribers, I should say. So. Bryan, and I and we both picked two songs each week or each newsletter. So there's four like newish songs. And then we pick for a kind of random old or just weird or just for fun type stuff. So it's about twice a month, it won't fill up your email box. And I'll give you some new music or some interesting music to rock out to. Bryan Robinson 16:19 Very cool. Very cool. Well, I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today. And, and maybe we'll have you back once people actually listen to the podcast, so that'll be great. Raymond Camden 16:28 Awesome. Thank you. Transcribed by https://otter.aiIntro/outtro music by bensound.com
What do Boots on the Ground Do for Sellers (022) Steven: Steve and Jill here! Jill: Hi! Steven: Welcome to the House Academy Show, entertaining real estate investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala Jill: And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny, Southern California. Steven: Today, Jill and I talk about what do the boots on the ground actually do for sellers. Jill: I would like to say, "What don't the boots on the ground actually do for sellers?" Jill: Isn't it kind of amazing what you guys have had to do- Kristine: Yes! Jill: ... for some of these sellers?" Kristine: Absolutely, yes. Steven: If you're looking for a real, good, solid definition of how we use, or this concept of boots on the ground, listen to the show from yesterday. We really define it in pretty good detail about why real estate investors need... or, should utilize some version of boots on the ground, and represent you as the investor purchasing the house. This show is all about what the boots on the ground do for the seller, to get us to the point where we've purchased the house. And there's a lot of stuff. Jill: There is. And I'd like to add, if you're just finding us today, this is Kristine and Ken [Bonn 00:01:04] and they are our boots on the ground for the whole Phoenix MSA. Steven: Right. Jill: And, maybe more. Kristine: That's coming. Steven: And the truth is, we just opened this studio, and these guys were out here having fun with us for a couple weeks, and we decided to do this five episodes today for this week, the 4th of July weekend. Jill: Exactly. Steven: Or week. I guess it's going to air next week, by the way. Jill: Yeah. For the 8th of July week! For the 8th of July week! Yay! Steven: Before we get into it, let's take a question, posted by one of our members on the online HouseAcademy.com community. It's free. Jill: Andrew asks, "What cities are best to flip houses?" Steven: So, this is a good question. There's so much... We do data-driven, data-centric acquisitions, and there's a lot of large companies... Not a lot. There's about five really large companies out there, for whatever reason, believe that there's about eight or ten MSAs that are great to do this in, and it's all based on statistics, and how fast the properties are moving, and how little they need to do to them, if anything, to resell them. Steven: I personally think that's possible and plausible. But the best deals I've ever seen, both in land and in houses, are when somebody goes off and it's some crazy market that they know really well, and purchase and sell property there because they know it well, or their partners know it well. So, what's the best places to do this? If you want to do it just purely by the book, by price per square foot, Phoenix, Dallas, I think Charlotte's up there now, Seattle, it's real easy to do. Jill: Vegas. Steven: Yeah, Vegas, for sure, and some of the communities in Los Angeles. But I'll tell you, the real money is in smaller MSAs that fit the same criteria that you know more about. Jill: [inaudible 00:03:05] I've known what you're looking for, right? Steven: Yeah. Jill: That's the whole thing with House Academy. That's what we do, and what we share is how to go into a large area and look at, line up all the zip codes, or however you want to get into it, even subdivisions, pit them against each other, and stuff will rise to the top, and you'll know. Jill: So, it really does work almost everywhere. Steven: The fundamentals are the same. If you have a property that's priced, when you go to sell it, priced 20% below what it's actually worth, retail, you're going to sell it fast. I don't care if it's in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, or in downtown Scottsdale. Jill: Yeah, it's funny. I just yesterday had a woman reach out to me online and was asking... because we fund deals for people of all kinds, all over the country. She's like, "Would you be interested in this apartment complex?" She went into detail about the type of units. Jill: I'm like, "Hold on. Stop right there." Steven: Good. Jill: I don't care about that. All I care about is what are the numbers? She's like, "It's not your normal thing." Jill: And so I said, "Do I normally do apartments? No. But," I said, "If you can find a deal that's under priced by this much, you've kind of got a guy in your back pocket, who you have a buyer lined up, and all you need is money to close a deal we can get in and out real fast, that's what we're looking for." Jill: So, at place for all property types, not just houses, and lots of locations. Steven: Okay. I have a lot to say about this. Jill: Okay. Steven: These one off deals, that people do this. I got a golf course deal two months ago. Jill: That's true. Steven: They almost never work. When you send out line to offer campaigns- Jill: That's true. Steven: ...and you have a acquisition machine, and a pipeline under you, you're very used to looking at deals that you've generated yourself, you got there first, it's a great way to do properties. Steven: But, these opportunistic deals come up all the time- Jill: True. Steven: ...because of this show. I don't remember ever buying one. Jill: No, you're right. And, [Jay 00:05:00], I want to know, you're right, because I was pretty much shutting her down. Because [crosstalk 00:05:05]. Steven: Because we talk about this all the time. Jill: I know, exactly, because the point is, however you found it was probably wrong. You're doing it probably wrong. Here's what I look for to kind of help you. Please don't come to me with these. Steven: Was it a big building? What was so special to her about this building? Jill: She didn't have any money. Jill: For some reason, she saw something in this, because it's unique, maybe it's near her. She wants to get into apartments. She's just, this is her thing. Steven: Oh, she wants to get into apartments. Jill: She wants to get into apartments. And when I said, "I need A, B, C, D, and E," it's probably like, "Well, okay, thank you Jill. Nevermind." Jill: Which is what I was I was going for. I didn't want to like, shut her down, but I know she's not doing it right and I was trying to help her and educate her the right way. Steven: Okay. Jill: Yeah. Thank you. Steven: Today's topic, what do boots on the ground do for sellers, or in Jill's case... Jill says, "What do-" [crosstalk 00:05:54]. It's what they don't do. Jill: It's what they don't do. Steven: This is why you're listening. Go ahead, Jill. Jill: Well, I guess we can... If we go back to yesterday's call, we had mentioned that, to back up for a second, the boots on the ground we are indeed the eyes and the ears for our investors there locally within that given area that you're in. So, that initial engagement that happens with the sellers, it literally comes from us. So, understanding again, the need of where the sellers are coming from and then also at the same time being able to know, okay, this is in the areas that they're going to need a little bit of extra more help on, or not. Gauging the support for the sellers is something that we absolutely do. So, just to sort of re-cap from yesterday's call. Jill: But, to get down to the actual tactics of what exactly happens and how we support sellers. So, not... as I was mentioning yesterday, there's not one size fits all. So, we take on the call and there's a seller who has interest in selling their property. That starts the initial, okay, let's understand the engagements required. We run through the process with them. We've had lots of different- Steven: Let me take two steps back first. Jill: Yeah. Yeah. Ken: Sure. Kristine: Yeah. Steven: Jill and I, from our central office send out thousands and thousands and thousands of blind offers that are all priced real specifically. There's a lot of science that goes into it. And, because we have a great relationship with them, they get... that generates, once the sellers open those offers, they either call the number on there, or they email. And, in both cases it goes... because we have a great relationship with these guys, it goes to them. Jill: Directly. Steven: Directly. So, that gets the ball started. So- Kristine: Yeah, [crosstalk 00:07:37] Jill: All right. Steven: ... from that point- Jill: Also, say, are all the callers happy and ready to sell? Kristine: No. Ken: We wish. Jill: Yeah. Kristine: Goodness. You have some good story here about what have people told you. Jill: Right, so, we're always excited to get a call, okay. Always excited to answer the call, and you're really cheerful, and then you have someone that says, "Get my name off your list!" Or, "Never send me the letter!" Jill: We have the ones that, "Hey, I'm interested in selling my house, but it might be five years out." Jill: And then, you have the ones that, "I'm in a time crunch, and oh, by the way, I need to get out within 60 days." Jill: So, it's definitely, yeah. Ken: [crosstalk 00:08:17] Jill: Yes. Exactly. [inaudible 00:08:18] Jill: I'm sure you've heard those calls come in, too. Ken: I have? Jill: I mean, what do you ... the different types of calls that were coming in [crosstalk 00:08:26] Ken: Yeah, and like, "You really shouldn't call my wife that name!" Jill: Yeah! Ken: Yeah, I think the name of the game is just be cheerful and accommodating and, "We'll take you off the list," if it's that caller. Jill: Yes. Ken: Hopefully it's the other call that we like, which is, "Hey, I got your purchase agreement and I'm interested," and we set it up from there. State, "When can we come see the house?" Kristine: Yes. Jill: Yet. So that kicks off. It's kind of saying, "Okay. That's our start button." So- Kristine: So, how fast do you do that, because that's what I tell people, too. We all know time kills deals, especially in these situations, so- Steven: Yeah. Jill: Yes. Kristine: How are you guys like when the call comes, when you're already looking at your calendar thinking, "I got to be ready to hit these guys tomorrow." You need a signed purchase agreement and get some photos and, yeah. Jill: Right, right. Yeah. So, for the callers that are absolutely interested in selling, they're excited, they want to ... The first thing the ask is, "I got your letter. Your offer seems acceptable, but is this really real?" Kristine: Wow. Steven: Yeah. Jill: That's typically what they ask us. Is this really a real offer? Kristine: Okay. Cool. Jill: And so, what's great is that there was a huge presence through [Rand 00:09:35] Academy and House Academy, and that definitely [inaudible 00:09:40] builds there address. Ken: Yeah, it bolsters their confidence. Jill: Right. And their confidence [crosstalk 00:09:46] Kristine: That's cool. That's good. Jill: So, there's a brief moment there, you're going to be having to explain, okay, who we are. And then, their next question is, "Okay, what's the next steps?" Ken: Right. Jill: So then, you have about, I would say there's a good, probably, typically seven to 10 minutes of where you're going through the motion of who we are, and then at a very high level, here's our next steps. Kristine: Perfect. Jill: So, I think, as far as if ... Do we want to just dive into the next steps? Is that- Kristine: Yeah. This is great! Jill: So, we explain to them, "Okay, the next steps is we've sent you that offer, but we need to ... Now let's schedule a house visit." Jill: And so, there's times where scheduling a house visit, they actually may have a tenant at the property. So there's coordination there as an FY, you coordinate with the owner of the property and their tenants, and be able to come visit the house. Jill: In other cases, and most of the cases what we've found is a lot of the houses are vacant. So that is- Steven: Yeah, I've had that some, too. Jill: Yeah, which those are great! Kristine: Isn't that amazing? Ken: They're great! Jill: Yes, it's a lot easier to manage. Jill: I want to pause and say, this is one of the things that people think that you can only find these driving for dollars. Jill: No, you don't. Jill: This is a good example. We're not driving for dollars. We're uncovering great assets that are empty, ready to go, and just with our direct mail, and that's so much easier. Kristine: Yes. It has. Exactly. Explaining the process that starts with, when you schedule a house visit, and then at the same time, if there's an opportunity where we can also start to pre-plan for a home inspection. Ken: Right. Kristine: We do that within ... so we're on the call seven to 10 minutes, and then shortly thereafter, we're starting to ping our home inspector to come, and start to schedule- Ken: Right. Make the schedule. Kristine: Yeah. So yeah, and- Ken: I think one other critical thing is, when we go and we visit with them, if this is definitely something that we think is viable, is we want to get a signed purchase agreement. Jill: Yep. Kristine: Right. Yes. Steven: I'm so glad you brought that up, because first thing, I've had this job that you guys have and I failed at it dismally, by the way, so thank you, but one of the first things I always ask is, "Does that purchase price work for you?" And if the answer's no, then we can just stop. Steven: Or, we'll bring Jill in, maybe, and there may be a little bit of room in there based on the asset value and the current conditions, but I think it's imperative to say, "Let's not waste any time." Jill: Right. Steven: And get it signed. Ken: Yeah. Kristine: Yes. Yeah. I would say, also, one of the questions that come up is, because we do seek to get the purchase agreement signed at that first visit, one of the questions that comes up is, "Hey, after your house visit and take a look at the property, what if you guys are wanting to offer something less, and now I just signed a purchase agreement. I can't get out of that purchase agreement." Kristine: So, within the purchase agreement, we definitely put some notes, as far as, these are the ... I don't know if you want to call them contingencies. I mean, we say here are some things that we are looking to confirm and validate on our end, [inaudible 00:12:51], or back taxes, because you may not know at that given time you sent the letter. Kristine: Another thing is the state of the overall property in itself. So, are you going [crosstalk 00:13:00] Jill: Was there a fire last week? Kristine: Yes. A fire that just happened? Ken: Right. Jill: Very. Kristine: Right. So there's some things that's stated in the purchase agreement that we state up front, that pending X-Y-Z checks off, then we're good with that offer, but if there is problems, then we'll just go back to the number and talk through it with them. Jill: Why do they think that there's no surpri- Are they ever surprised by this conversation? Are they like, "Well, I get it. I would feel the same way." Kristine: No. Typically- Ken: It depends. Kristine: It depends. So if there's another investor calling and saying, "Hey, I want to ..." they know the process in that. Kristine: We've had times where it was realtors, who are ... They are wanting to sell our property, and they know the process inside and out. There's others that it's a, you know, a couple who are early 80s, and the last time they've dealt with a sell of their property was 25- 30 years ago. Jill: [crosstalk 00:13:56] Wow. Ken: [inaudible 00:13:57]. Kristine: So, they're totally [inaudible 00:13:57]. Kristine: And again, going back to my motto of, there's not one size fits all, there really isn't, and just gauging that during an initial call of what the seller, and what's required for them. Jill: That's great. Ken: I think most sellers have, well, all sellers have some trigger point. All right? And it's always different. It could range from, "If you guys could, really, I could use some help clearing out my basement," to "I have to get cash out of this thing in two weeks!" Ken: And there's a lot of different things that trigger, whatever [crosstalk 00:14:32]- Steven: I think we [inaudible 00:14:32] one recently. Ken: ... where we had we had to get the back taxes paid, because it was going to go into a state of, potentially, judicial foreclosure with county, so [inaudible 00:14:43]- Kristine: We were hustling. Ken: ... it was a time-sensitive thing. Kristine: Yeah. Ken: And that's what makes this program so unique, this BOG program. Kristine: Right. Ken: Because we are small and agile enough to address these custom seller requirements. Kristine: Right. Jill: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Kristine: Yeah. Ken: So, I guess we can move to once we get a signed seller agreement. Right? Ken: From that point on, we're scheduling our home inspection, which we could probably do a show just on. Find the right homes. Jill: Give us a few good minutes on this, because I'm sure everybody listening would love to know. They think you just go on Yelp and pick a guy, call him, and it's cheap and easy. Right? Ken: Yeah, right. Yeah. Kristine: Yeah. Ken: Lucky for us, we went through a few and we found a fantastic one that seems to ... At this point, you almost [inaudible 00:15:31]. Jill: Yes. Kristine: I'm surprised that he does. Ken: [crosstalk 00:15:33] great. He gets out there right away, gets a schedule, and his reports are so thorough, almost too thorough. Right? And we appreciate it, but I think he's kind of learned our style, and we've learned his and so forth, but- Kristine: Yeah, I would, also, add in finding a good inspector, that one of the values of [inaudible 00:15:50], the one we have right now, is that his prices are fixed. Ken: Yeah. Kristine: If your property is a thousand to 2,500 square feet, this is my price. If you have a pool ... Having that cost up front, there is no guessing. Kristine: We had inspectors that the costs were ranging two, to five, to six million dollars more than our inspector now, and those costs would change, it seemed like, on the fly. Kristine: So again, looking for an inspector, I would look for one that ... again, that was [crosstalk 00:16:22]- Jill: Consistent. Kristine: Yeah, consistency. And then with reviews, obviously, looking at the reviews. Ken: What is the average? It's about, what is he? I think he's 300. Kristine: Yeah, about 380, I'd say, 380 to 420. That seems to be the average cost with [inaudible 00:16:36]. Jill: And that's the full inspection with termite. Kristine: Yes, with termite. If there's a pool, I think they usually add about 50- 60 dollars more for a pool, because you're inspecting the equipment. Kristine: And then, the time he's there, it's I would say, on average for like a 2,500 square foot home, it's about four hours. Jill: Okay. Ken: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Steven: That's great! Kristine: So. Ken: Yeah. Kristine: Yeah, I [crosstalk 00:16:53] hours. Jill: And he usually does it just like that night, doesn't he? [crosstalk 00:16:56] get them fast. Ken: And he is [crosstalk 00:16:55]. Steven: Yeah. Kristine: Yes. Jill: You guys have found such a good guy that I've seen when the bill comes through, we're like, "Hey! It's [inaudible 00:17:04]! Pay it fast!" Kristine: Pay it fast. Yeah. Jill: Because we want to keep him happy. Ken: Yeah, yeah. Kristine: Yes. Ken: And he's great. He'll go through super thorough, with her [inaudible 00:17:10] and I'm in, and he pulls us in. He takes us to every critical point that he feels is an area of concern. He's great. Kristine: Yep. Jill: Yeah. Okay, so we've gotten a purchase agreement, we've scheduled an inspection, we've now completed the inspection. Ken: Yeah. Kristine: And so, yes. Jill: You guys have take pictures. I have to say [crosstalk 00:17:30] you were, things that we do is that when you guys first walk in there, you're walking around, you get on your cellphone just taking pictures and uploading them for us, so we just kind of get eyes on it, because we do not, nor will we ever ... for us, back here, see the property. Ken: This is all building up. What they're doing is building a case for whether, or not, we're going to buy the property. Jill: Right. Ken: We still don't know if we're going to buy the property, yet. Jill: Right. Kristine: Yeah. One thing I would note, as far as the pictures. Always ask if you can take pictures in the [crosstalk 00:17:58]. Jill: Oh. I didn't know that. Kristine: [crosstalk 00:18:00] again. Yes. Jill: Well, give me a story. Why? Who? Why? What happened? Kristine: Well, again, in the vacant houses, it's great. It's not a problem. Jill: If the care. Kristine: But then, there's homes that you walk in, and it's absolutely lived in, and so you get into rooms and there's things on the ground. They are not shoes should be in the picture. Jill: We know what you guys did last night. Kristine: Yeah. Yeah. And so when you go in- Jill: Well, again, that looked like lingerie. Kristine: Yes. Yeah, yeah. [crosstalk 00:18:35] have sleep there. Jill: Wow. Kristine: And again, [inaudible 00:18:36] There's some that if they have dishes in the sink, they don't want you to take pictures. They want a clean home [inaudible 00:18:43] dishes in the sink. So- Jill: I didn't know. Kristine: Yes. So that's, always ask- Jill: It's good advice. Kristine: [crosstalk 00:18:48] you can take pictures, and all of them have allowed us to take pictures in their property. Ken: Yeah. Kristine: So, just maybe not that view, make it this view. Jill: Right. Kristine: Right. So, yes. So now, as Steve said, at this point we still haven't decided this is the house we're going to purchase. So, we completed the inspection, we've got the report, and at the point, the four of us are looking at, okay [crosstalk 00:19:13] Ken: [crosstalk 00:19:13] Kristine: Yeah, review. Here are the keys [crosstalk 00:19:15] Ken: [crosstalk 00:19:15] Kristine: Right. Here are the key things that we see are probably the most problematic, when it comes to the other side, which is going to be the resale of that property. And we just start to go through that and prioritize if there's something that's urgent. Kristine: One thing I would say is key to learning that we've had so far, with regards to the experience of home inspections, is I would say, the investment in, for example, of replacing carpet. I think initially we go in, and we're like, "Well, we'll get the carpet cleaned. It's probably going to be sufficed enough, and then you guys would come in, "Well, if we just get the carpet replaced entirely for [inaudible 00:19:50], or whatever, that's probably a better bet for the resale side of it." Jill: Exactly. Ken: Yeah. Jill: And some of them are not going to do any of that at all, because it's in that condition that we know there's going to be slip, another investor who's going to buy it. Kristine: Right. Ken: Yeah. Kristine: Exactly. Yeah. Ken: Yeah, yeah. Ken: Again, oh go ahead. Steven: No, go ahead. Ken: I was going to say, one other thing, because we have seen this, right? Is things like HOA transfer fees. Jill: Oh, gosh. Kristine: Yes. Ken: There some things- Jill: Little things you got to- Ken: ... that we got to show- Jill: And you're right. Ken: And so, then we get to the end, and- Jill: And now we've all learned that we ask that- Ken: Yeah. Kristine: Yes. Jill: ... and respect that. Kristine: Yes, and so the checklist of things to do, and questions to get answered up front, I say has been beneficial, and we continue to build on that checklist as we learn. Jill: Solar panels. Steven: At this point what really happens in reality is, I call Ken, and I say, should we do this deal, or not. And everything you've seen, and a lot of times before, I can give you a couple examples, before it even gets to that point, he calls me and says, "Look man. We should stop right here. This is a mess. There's army jeep, there's one case, there's like military [inaudible 00:20:54] back here. It's a pretty good indication that we don't even need to go into this thing. I know it's priced right. I know it's got a huge lot. It was in [crosstalk 00:21:01]." Steven: And he just talked me out of that immediately, because of the neighborhood, not so much [crosstalk 00:21:06]. Ken: Yes. And that's the thing. I mean, that's the whole key to this whole thing is boots on ground is you can get there physically, see it, and you know [crosstalk 00:21:15], so- Steven: Feel it. Jill: Yeah. Steven: I really don't even know if you guys know that we do this, but he's like, "We should actually do this deal," or "No, we shouldn't." Steven: And sometimes we disagree. And sometimes there's other stuff that goes on, so I think there's sometimes they see stuff, then Jill talks me into doing the deal. Jill: Yeah. Steven: We haven't done a bad deal, yet. Jill: Mm-mm (negative). No. Steven: I think we're actually overly conservative. Ken: Yeah. Jill: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Steven: We've done a bunch of deals together and when I think back, looking back on it, because now I really realize what you guys are capable of. There's a few deals that we turned down, I probably could have turned okay. Jill: True. Steven: [crosstalk 00:21:48] house- Jill: I like that. We aired on the side of caution, and now we're going to, like, "Woo-hoo!" Kristine: Exactly. Yeah. Steven: Right. So we got the inspection, Jill and I say, "Hell yes! Let's do it." You guys agree. We go to escrow, right? Kristine: Right. Yes. Yeah, so again, meanwhile well, we're having this conversation, negotiating, okay are we going to do this, or not. The sellers are pinging both of us. What's the status of [inaudible 00:22:09] Kristine: The constant communication is what you'll find majority of the sellers are going to be looking to, to provide to them, because they're planning on their end. They're trying to figure out how, especially the one's that are living there, how are they going to ... The time you want to need to move, they need extra help to come in, family members. So they're starting to plan on their end- Ken: And there's even silly situations. Not silly, but people that ... There's a trust set up. Remember we had one that was a trust set up. Steven: Yeah. Ken: Where they got to get signatures from other parties of the family, and people that are in the trust, and so forth. And so, there's coordination on the seller side, for sure. Kristine: Yes. So we're constantly keeping them informed. Ken: Informing. Kristine: Yeah, in the loop of what's going on. Jill: Will you explain about, then, escrow to your role? Kristine: Yes. Jill: What you do then? Kristine: Yes. Yes. So, that's another thing is- Jill: To help the seller. Kristine: Right. So, establishing [inaudible 00:22:57] for a second, establishing relationships within your local market, specifically your inspectors, specifically with repair people that are going to help you with the house, and then escrow. So we've, fortunately, we've definitely had our experience of [crosstalk 00:23:14] good experiences and bad experiences. Kristine: We seem to have found a really good escrow company now to help us through that process. So, at that point, we've now said okay, we've explained to the seller we're going to escrow. A lot of times they don't know what that means, so there's an element of educating them what that process is going to be about, and informing them that the escrow officer is now going to be contacting you, requesting information from you, and they have a direct interaction and engagement with the seller. Jill: Do they call you all the time? I imagine, now that I know you ... for the sweet, little lady, or couple that haven't sold a house in 30 years, I would be calling you after every like, "She told me to send my taxes, or my whatever. Do I do that?" Kristine: Yes. Yes. Jill: Okay. Ken: Yeah. Kristine: And now, when they're calling me, it's "Hi Kristine, this is so-and-so. I'm going to put you on speaker phone." Jill: Oh. That's so cute. Ken: [crosstalk 00:24:09] Kristine: So my husband can hear, or it could be the opposite. I never [inaudible 00:24:12], so I'm going to put you on speaker phone so my wife can hear. Jill: You really are holding their hands through the whole thing. Kristine: Yes. Yes. Jill: That is so valuable. Kristine: And I can tell you, with that couple, that particular transaction was definitely one that required, and not to be negative about it. It required the most hand-holding. Jill: Yeah. Kristine: And there's an element of, I got to know them on a personal level, as well, and so it's just gauging when you have to cross that line, and now you're talking about their family verses some other folks, where they are not going to have that conversation with you. But that particular one, yes. There was a lot of [crosstalk 00:24:45]. Jill: Wasn't that where you were for Christmas last year? Just kidding. Jill: You got invited to the Christmas dinner. Kristine: Yeah, yeah. Exactly. I think so, yeah. Kristine: So, I got to know ... There was once, I had been working with them for so ... Because they were the ones that lived out of state, so finally they're in Arizona where we're starting to talk with them, and it was the day that I was going to go meet them. Kristine: And, when I met them, it was that classic situation where you envision what they actually are going to look like, and you get there, and like, "Oh, my goodness!" I think the husband could barely walk, and so the wife was helping him. So, but it was good. I got to meet them on a more personal note, and it worked out for them. Jill: That's what this is about, I really think, at the end of the day that what we [crosstalk 00:25:28] Steven: [crosstalk 00:25:28] Kristine: Yes. Jill: Yes. Steven: There's a personal connection. Jill: And making it easy for them. I tell my whole staff that. You know that's my goal in all of our transactions and in life is to make this easy. Kristine: Right. Right. Yes. And I would say, they get to the point where they absolutely fully trust you, so as you say an escrow officer is going to make contact with you, they're trusting in that you have found a good officer to work with them, and they're trusting that the person they're going to work with, they can also trust, as well. So, yeah, building a trust in the communication I say has probably been the most key to our success. Ken: [crosstalk 00:26:06] crucial. Yeah. Jill: That's good. So how does it end? So, it goes through escrow, and then on closing day, do you have any funny stories or anything about- Kristine: Right. Yeah. Ken: I think it's a classic ... We think we're going to close here and there's one last thing, and this, or that, or whatever, there's always that anticipation. Right? Are we going to really close on this. Our agent says we're going to close. But other than that, I don't think I [crosstalk 00:26:31]- Steven: On the acquisition side, every deal we've done through you guys went really well. Ken: Pretty good. Yeah. Steven: It's closed when it should. Ken: Yeah. Steven: Here's the economics of these deals. These deals at the end, and we're going to talk about what the BOG is, how they're involved with the actual, the buyers and smart button. Steven: The economics is we net between, let's say, $40,000 and $100,000 on these deals, and we split it. We take 33%, between 33 and 40 percent. They take between 33 and 20 percent, and the financial partner ... We've got tons of financial backers that come in, that just write the checks. So, we don't put any money into these deals. They don't put any money in. They just put sweat equity. They're a partner in the deal. We're a partner in the deal, because we put the whole thing together. We've got money people, so everybody really wins financially. Steven: And I like to think the seller wins. Do you put that in your head when you're like, look, I mean, do they see it that way? Or, do they see it like you guys are taking me for a ride? Ken: I don't know. I think most of them, I think initially there's the trust isn't there, because let's face it. There's a lot of letters that come in [crosstalk 00:27:39] and so, I think, once we get past that ... I think really the critical, Kristine mentioned it, is once that escrow officer starts making that call and starts gathering the information from them, then you can see they start to, "Okay. This is really going to happen." Jill: Yeah. Kristine: Yes, so- Ken: And so, I think they love the whole, "Man! This is going to happen. This is an easy button for me." Ken: At least that's been my, I think for the most part, our experience. Jill: Yeah. Kristine: Right. Ken: They want to be done with it. Like you mentioned, there's a trigger somewhere, whatever it may be. Jill: Yep. Ken: And they're ready to go. Kristine: Right. Yeah. Jill: Perfect. Ken: All right. Kristine: I would say, one other thing I was going to add. Jill: This is good. Kristine: In the spirit of closing, yeah. Jill: This is good. Kristine: You can see all my little tips and tricks here. So, we're in the actual day we're closing. We're physically getting the keys, and there's times where they physically want to hand you over the keys. Jill: Aw. Kristine: And then, that situation that you mentioned- Jill: It's like, "Can you come, can you meet me at Denny's at 2:00?" Kristine: Yeah. And then we have the ones that are just, you know, "I left it underneath the rock, next to the door," and so those are easy. Jill: That's so cute. Kristine: I'd say, for us, when I think of it, the goal of the Boots On Grounds is that, even down to at that very last day, we continue to ensure there's a good experience. That they've had a good experience with the whole process. Granted it's not going to be the case all the time, but that we strive to provide a good experience for them. So, whether it be the extra communication we provided, or anything extra we provided for them, we strive for a good experience. Jill: That's good. Kristine: Yeah. Ken: Thanks. [inaudible 00:29:08] Steven: So now we own it. We as partners, all four of us, own a house that we paid probably a couple hundred thousand dollars for, that's probably worth 300-ish. Some number like that, or 250, or 260, or 270, and none of us have put any money in it. Jill: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Steven: And I think that's pretty cool. Ken: It's very cool. Steven: Tomorrow we talk about getting rid of the damn thing. Steven: Join us the next episode called What the Boots On the Ground Do For the Buyers. Jill: And, we answer your questions posted on our online community found at HouseAcademy.com. It is free. Steven: You are not alone [inaudible 00:29:43] ambition. Steven: So, I think you have to probably have some announcements still, or- Jill: I do. I do. Happening in like in an hour from now, by the time this is hitting, if you go to LandAcademy.com, check it out, Jack, A-K-A Steve [inaudible 00:30:02], right, will be doing a live Facebook informative thing, talking about Land Academy and House Academy and everything in between. Steven: You going to give something away like you usually do? Jill: I don't know. We haven't talked about ... This is kind of more of a business one. So, thanks, now maybe I have to. Jill: So, and we're going to talk about ... actually it's going to be really, seriously, it's about discussing how to get started flipping land houses, and we're going to be covering [crosstalk 00:30:27] and doing due diligence. Steven: Oh, yeah. Okay. It's all a business thing. Jill: It really is a business thing, and I'm not just ... Yes. Not just, you're so good. Jill: Wherever you're watching and wherever you're listening, please subscribe and rate us there. Jill: We are Steve and Jill. Steven: Steve and Jill. Information. Jill: And inspiration. Steven: To buy undervalued property.
On this episode we answer this question A question for you, Hollywood, and I won't doubt this'll hit a nerve, but let's talk "support clubs" for a moment, shall we? It's sort of a two part'er. Part one: Some cats decide to get something together and ask around with the various big outfits if they'll get their ass beat should they sew something on. The BIG outfit says go ahead but, you'll sew this small patch on your upper chest signifying we approve. Also, we pull your strings. You come when we call. Blah, blah. Maybe not a "support club," but none-the-less... Right? Are you hip to something like that going down? Part two, the full on support club: Many of the larger outfits have "support outfits." I'm not going to name names, but any of the big clubs have satellite (so to speak) chapters of a different name running the same brand name colors(Yellow and red. Red and black. Blue and white. Etc. Etc..) The question here being, why would an individual want to prospect for a support rather than simply hooking up with a big boy sponsor and running the Colors (patch) for reals? I would write that it kind of smacks of "wanna be" shit, but I don't want to get my ass beat either. Would you care to comment? I'll understand if this is all super secret 1% stuff and can't be shared with motorcycle riding hippies, but I didn't think it would hurt to ask. Get your copy of New Age Of Biking & Brotherhood https://amzn.to/2BMc4Rv Kindle Version https://amzn.to/2wKvKQd Author Page on Amazon amazon.com/author/jamesmacecari One time Paypal Donations to the Channel - paypal.me/insanethrottle For all your daily biker news - http://www.harleyliberty.com Join us twice a week on Motorcycle Madhouse free podcast http://www.harleybikernews.com For all your motorcycle needs hop on over to our motorcycle superstore https://www.amazon.com/shop/insanethrottle All of Insane Throttles Social Media in one place https://linktr.ee/motorcyclemadhouse If you would like to become a patreon and supporter of Biker Angle and Motorcycle Madhouse visit our Patreon Page https://www.patreon.com/insanethrottle Join us on Facebook and get involved in the conversation at http://www.facebook.com/insanethrottle --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/motorcyclemadhouse/message
There's a saying "the youth is wasted on the youth" I finally understand it. For those of you over 50, it’s good to know what you're up against when it comes down to finding your mate. You are no longer a desired commodity. You have to get rid of the mindset that you are who you once were. When you get older, you're no longer young, bright, and cheery anymore. Right? Are you getting what you want? Are you just wasting time? When you're out, you need to smile and bring out the flirting. Use your assets. Don't be lazy. Put on your nicest clothes, show your assets, and go out there. Make the attempt. Just a thought. Get Your Free Daily Advice about Life, Relationships and Personal Transformation ===> START HERE: bit.ly/2KkQdzA
There are some people who absolutely love running, and others who flee screaming from it. They hate how it feels, and they think it's a poor form of exercise because it overly stresses the body, causes tons of injuries, and doesn't even help you lose weight. Right? Are these objections accurate? Today I talk with competitive runner Jason Fitzgerald to get his answers. Jason is a USA Track and Field certified coach and has finished in first place in marathons and obstacle course races across the country. He’s also the owner of Strength Running. Today on the podcast, Jason and I discuss some of the myths about long-distance running that keep people away from the sport, why runners often neglect strength training (but shouldn't), and what programming should look like when first starting out with running, as well as when you want to get more competitive.
What's the use...it probably won't work! Right? Are you kidding me? No way......give me 60 seconds and you too will be a former Pessimist! Chris www.OnTopoftheWorldRadio.com
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