I've been land investing since 2017. In that time I have seen multitudes of people come into the space. The one thing all these investors have in common... excitement! Ready to take over the world.
They see the outsized potential of how land investing can radically change your life.
However, at a recent land conference with hundreds of my peers, there was a pervasive and common thread amongst those I spoke to...disappointment.
Disappointment not because their business was failing nor had their investment thesis not paid off, but because they had not experienced the success they believed they should have by this point in their business journey.
So What the hell is going on here?
Here's my hypothesis. If you are a land investor like me, you're likely in the same Land Investing Facebook groups, have the same friends, and are advertised to like me. So what do I see?
Go from $0 to $10 Million Through Subdivides
Quit Buying. Make 6-Figures PER DEAL Wholesaling
Direct Mail is Dead: Text, Cold Call, RVM are the future! You're missing leads!
New Legislation! Texting is Dead (Here's a link for your next direct mail campaign)
Why You Should Be Building a Personal Brand to Sell Land
Don't' Build a Brand - Build a Team Instead: Outsource Everything.
Why You Should Be Building an Email List
Don't Focus on Small Deals - Waste of Time: Go Big or Go Home
Build a Note Portfolio (You Won't Regret It)
Sell All Your Notes (Cash is King)
New Listing: $1.5 million Luxury Estate
Here's Johnny... He Just Made $700,000 on His First Flip!
I don't know about you, but I see these things and say to myself,
"Holy Hell...
Should I be subdividing everything
And wholesaling everything else
I gotta start texting
But I also need to send more mail
How do I hire 3 virtual assistants at once
Why don’t I have an email list yet
I need to sell everything on terms to build my notes
Scratch that, I better sell all of my notes ASAP
Damn, I haven’t had a million dollar deal listing before,
...and f*** you Johnny."
And just like that, I become resentful of my peers. I become resentful of the process. I wonder why am I not at that level? Why don't I make enough to have 5 employees? Why can't I find these deals? Am I not good at this? Is this as good as it gets?
So here you have 100 investors at this conference who have all seen versions of these headlines all year long. Now they're sitting through a weekend of presentations of how others in the group are crushing it using a variety of the approaches outlined.
Between sessions I had a chance to chat with many of them. And there was a common thread. No one would come right out and admit it, but between the looks on their faces and the shrugged shoulders I could hear what wasn't being said.
Because it's what I often ask myself:
"Am I actually any good at this?
Am I just wasting my time?
Should I go back and get a job?
Maybe I’m not cut out for this."
The comparison trap subtly sinks in it's teeth.
Hey, I Get It
If you had caught me just a mere 2 years ago, it would have been in the hallway of a surgery wing, waiting to help fix the next broken pelvis, hip, ankle, forearm, you name it. I was a medical device sales rep in the trauma division for Stryker... a title I would have killed for when it was bestowed upon me. However, after 4 years of being on call 24/7, missed holidays, anniversaries, weekends, and constant anxiety, I couldn't wait to lose the title.
It’s said that every job looks cool until you get it. Nothing could have been more true for me.
Fast forward to today. I’m in my chosen career path of land investing and it provides me everything I asked for when planning my exit from Stryker:
Total autonomy - I get to work where I want, when I want, with who I want.
In fact I get to work from home, lots of times in my pajamas or jeans and boots if I'm feeling dressy. I’m just down the hall from my wife who also works from home. Although the coffee isn’t free, it’s a lot nicer than what I used to get and my dog gets to go to work with me every day. Zero complaints here.
No more midnight cases or 5 AM wake ups on a Sunday to drive 200 miles back and forth across the same metroplex in a single day, never knowing when it will end. These days, I mainly work 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. Sometimes earlier, sometimes later. I now have the freedom to choose my hours and no one is calling me to be in the hospital ASAP only to cancel the entire case after hours of work to get there. Some old hospital contacts do still call, but I can ignore those now.
No more having to service my least favorite customers because the company says so or my quota depends on it. If I don't want to buy or sell land from someone, adios! Easy as that.
Unlimited Pay Potential - no matter how good the pay was, I would always be capped and have to share the pot with the other reps in my territory. Gotta love office politics.
I knew I would make less money initially when I left my job, but with the extra time to dedicate to land, I knew I would make up that delta. And I've been correct in that matter. And I get 100% of what I kill.
Bonus... as a business owner you get a whole lot more say over paying taxes. No more working for free for 1/3rd of the year.
Building Something for Myself - I never liked the feeling of killing it in a role, knowing that the company was getting the better end of the deal.
Now I can focus purely on building a better future for me, my wife, and our family. Build equity for me, not the multi-billion dollar company I repped.
There's plenty more to write on the benefits of land investing and owning your own business. I think it's vitally important if you want true freedom in your work life, you must get ownership somehow, someway. But I digress...
So here I am. I've been able to be a full time land investor for 2+ years without having to go back and get a job. I've made more money in that time than I would have as a sales rep, and I even have more "passive income" from my note portfolio than many of my paychecks.
Yet, I too have battled this overwhelming sense of dread, disappointment, and failure.
Luckily, I’ve come up with a game plan to address these feelings when they rear their ugly head.
What Works For Me (to avoid the comparison trap)
The Mountain of Evidence Behind Me
With each upgrade, we become so accustomed to our new level in life that we become numb and forget all the ground we have covered thus far.
It’s an interesting dichotomy. I would convince myself that I’m not a successful entrepreneur because I’m not at the level of financial abundance I’ve set for myself. But in those moments I’m discounting just how far I’ve come.
When I first found the land investing niche in 2017, I had moved into my Dad’s spare bedroom, was $30,000 in debt, with not one failing business on my hands, but two. I was depressed and just a skeleton of myself. Those were my darkest days and the shame associated with that time creeps in from time to time.
If you told the Jake of 2017 that in less than 7 years he would be a full time land investor, working from home, with his wife and pup, having sold millions in land, created millions in equity and passive income for my future…I might not have believed you.
If you told the Jake of 2020 that in less than 2 years I would be able to walk away from the grueling life of a trauma sales rep, I might have believed you, but that life would still seem so far away and so unlikely to happen.
To remind myself of how far I’ve come I do a few things…
1. I keep an active excel spreadsheet of every land deal I have completed by the year. Each year I have not only completed more transactions, but the dollar figure has also risen. It’s going up and to the right - what more could I ask for?
2. I write in a journal each morning three things that I’m grateful for. Many times this includes that I get to work on what I want, when I want, where I want, and with who I want. Or that I don’t have to fix grandma’s broken hip on a Christmas morning this year. It’s an easy way to appreciate where you’re at and the progress you’ve made.
3. I read a lot of history books. I love learning about the Old West, The American Revolution, Mountain Men & Longhunters, World War II, Native American History, early Homo Sapiens, etc. When you read about how our ancestors had to live and what they had to endure on a daily basis just to stay alive, it shows me how blessed I am, how much worse things could be, and that I have no room to complain from my climate controlled office in my spare bedroom surrounded by technology, a full pantry, and a hot cup of coffee in my hand. It’s just not that bad.
Could any of these work for you?
Talking It Out (Who's Your Mirror)
I’m my worst critic. Who’s the worst critic of my worst critic? My wife.
She’s my mirror. When I am stressed and feeling like a failure, she’s there to remind me of the progress made.
Luckily for me, she came into my life at my lowest point. She showed up when my net worth was in the red, and my confidence was even lower. She stuck by me through the grind as I worked my way out of the hole I dug for myself. She saw my potential then and she still sees it now.
Because we have shared these experiences and she was my sounding board for my hopes and dreams of being a business owner and land investor full time, it’s easy for her to echo back to me “hey, remember when this was all you wanted?”
Who is your sounding board? Who’s been there for your come up? Who can you go to remind you of all the progress you’ve made? Who will hold you accountable, but also show where you’re being unfair to yourself?
Find you one of those.
Refocus On What Works in My Business
There are tried and true methods of success in every business, the land world is no different.
However, everyone’s business is unique. I think only after spending so much time trying to model how I operated after others, that I found what works for me: a little bit of everything.
I’ve been tempted to call my model of land investing the hybrid model, because as long as I can make my margin, I’ll make it work. I have gotten a deal by nearly every means, funded deals in more creative ways than I could count, and sold deals in every way imaginable.
What this has taught me is not only how to be creative in structuring deals, but also what I like and don’t. What works for me, might not work for you and vice versa. What I like, might be something that’s uncomfortable to you and vice versa.
Example, I’ve gotten dozens of deals through text message marketing in the last year. However, I despise doing it myself. And I don’t want to hire that out and manage a VA or team of people to keep doing that either. So I quit.
Have I cut off an arm of my business? We’ll see. I can tell you I have more on the board in the first month of this year than my whole 18 months of texting which I brought in through ways I enjoy more.
Only thing that matters is are you looking at deals? How are you going to go about it?
There’s 9 ways to skin a cat and 9 to the 9th ways to build your business. Find what works for you and what you enjoy.
Unfollow Where Needed (Does it Serve You?)
Underrated move: The Unfollow.
This is the No Vote in your social feed. Just like we need to ensure we’re feeding our bodies to perform our best, we have to start curating our social feeds to what nourishes us and leave out what makes us feel guilty and crappy about ourselves.
Personally, I was listening to far too many land and real estate investing podcasts and in too many groups that I started to feel pulled in a plethora of directions. I felt like I needed to implement everything, all at once into my business. What I really needed was to pull back, unfollow the noise and find my own voice.
I ended up muting most of the guru’s in the land space and unsubscribing from most of the podcasts I had listened to for years. It was no longer feeding me. They had become a distraction and a source of internal frustration.
By no means is it anyone’s fault - this was my reaction to seeing and hearing what was going on around me. And when I’m already in a lack of confidence mindset, seeing other’s supposed success and the next latest and greatest strategy does not fill my cup, it drains it.
There’s an argument to be made for cheering on those around you making moves and living their best life and I’m all here for it. Honestly. But are there specific posts or people that make you feel a certain way? Or are there podcasts that distract you from your goals and take away from what you’re trying to accomplish?
If it doesn’t serve you…say goodbye. At least for a time. Doesn’t have to be forever.
Grain of Salt (Nothing is ever as good as it looks)
To take the above one step further… Nothing is ever as good as it looks. Especially on social media. Especially from those trying to sell you something.
We all have to do it. You have to build your credibility and authority, I get it. However, from my first hand knowledge, there are those that might not be lying, but definitely stretch the truth. Then there’s others that are just a scam. @Ballerbusters or @Coffeezilla on instagram is where you just might see your favorite new guru get busted for his ponzi scheme or fake crypto token.
On top of that, even if you see someone excelling financially or physically or wherever you’re currently trying to improve - remember that you’d likely not want to trade places with that person.
I try to remind myself that his bank account might look better than mine, but what about his home life? What about his friend circle? What about his athletic ability?
Yeah she might look better in the gym than you, but how does she feel about herself? What sort of mental conditions are we not privy to through our screen?
Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, just came out and said, "My mind is a storm. I don't think most people would want to be me. They may think they'd want to be me but they don't know, they don't understand."
It’s never as good as it looks. Appreciate what you have.
The Good is in the Getting
“Will Smith writes in his biography that:
- Becoming famous is amazing.
- Being famous is a mixed bag.
- Losing any amount of fame is miserable.
Same with money. I think for a lot of people the process of becoming wealthier feels better than having wealth.”
The fun has to be in the come up, when you’re on your way.
I often think, if I got everything tomorrow that I have hoped for and been working towards all this time, how would I feel?
Probably amazing…for a moment. Because then you have to ask, well where do I go from here? And when you reach the top, I have to imagine the next level has diminishing levels of return.
So I try to remind myself of this mindset. When I think back on my life at 80, I want to have accomplished all that I’ve set out to. However, I think I’ll look at these times when I wasn’t sure it was going to happen, when I was struggling but improving as the fun times. This struggle is what makes the result worth it.
There’s no sweet without a lot of sweat. In the sweat is where the magic happens.
Slow down and enjoy the process. If you know where you’re going and are confident you’re going to get there, what’s the worry for anyway?
In Conclusion
In conclusion, the journey of a land investor is filled with highs, lows, and unexpected turns. It's easy to get caught up in the comparison game, constantly measuring our success against others in the field. However, as I reflect on my own path and the experiences shared by my peers, I'm reminded that success is a personal journey.
In the world of land investing, there's no one-size-fits-all approach. Each of us must find what works best for our unique business model and personal preferences. It's crucial to celebrate the progress we've made, even if it feels incremental, and appreciate the freedom and autonomy that comes with this path.
As we each navigate our entrepreneurial journeys, let's not forget that the real value lies in the journey itself. The struggles, challenges, and even the moments of doubt contribute to our overall growth and fulfillment.
So, here's to embracing the process, finding joy in the journey, and appreciating the lessons learned along the way. Thank you for exploring this with me, and may your path continue to be rewarding and fulfilling.
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