Buying Land: The Best Kept Secrets Of The Real Estate Industry with Jack and Michelle Bosch

Episode 317: Buying Land: The Best Kept Secrets Of The Real Estate Industry with Jack and Michelle Bosch

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Real estate investing can be so complicated, and the need for right education and experience are keys to being successful in this field. Real estate and business coaching experts Jack and Michelle Bosch talk about buying land and the best kept secrets of the real estate industry that can help you grow your business to promising heights. They also introduce The Ultimate Boardroom, a mastermind they designed for business owners seeking growth. Discover more nuggets in this episode, so don’t miss out!

I have two guests and they are some outstanding, phenomenal business people. Imagine if you came to a new country to learn a new language and start a new business. Do you think that’d be a little bit of a challenge? Here are some people that have come from different parts of the world, came to the United States of America, and started in the regular way that we all started out. Most of us had a job and figured out that was going nowhere and then decided to jump off into entrepreneurial-ism. That’s where all the fun started. They have a great story to tell. They’ve been very successful. Let me introduce Jack and Michelle Bosch. We’re going to talk about a mastermind that they’re putting together. How are you all doing Jack and Michelle? 

We’re doing great. Thank you for having us. 

We’re doing awesome. Thank you, Mitch, for having us. 

I met Jack at another mastermind group that was fantastic, but it was dealing with creative real estate strategies and it was very niche. It was mostly about finding new products, where to find products and how to maximize your profits. We talked a lot about all that stuff and it changed my life. I become a believer in mastermind groups because when you get to sit in the room with a bunch of other successful people who are not your competitor and you can stand up in front of them or they can stand up in front of you and show the numbers and the results and openly be transparent not only the books and the finances, but be transparent about the struggles, not just business struggles but also family and personal struggles mixed in with business. 

As we know businesses without life and we all have lives outside of business so they co-mingle and they get tangled up. I want to bring them on because I was talking to Jack and he’s telling me about this mastermind group that he’s putting together. I thought, “This would be fantastic for everybody here at 1000houses.com because this covers everybody.” This covers anyone who has a business. I want to invite you to tell us a little bit about what your mastermind is about. 

The Ultimate Boardroom is a mastermind designed for the business owner out there that is growth-oriented, seeks growth, but that is at a level that no matter what he’s doing in terms of he can’t put any more hours, any more energy and any more effort. They’re completely either exhausted or overworked and they’ve hit a ceiling of what can be done but they want growth. They know they want that growth, but they don’t know how to go about it. We started with four pillars. The Ultimate Boardroom is about looking at four pillars of growth, which are pretty much business fundamentals. You’ll find as in any business. If you want to grow you have to be looking at these four things. That is the leader themselves and trying to find out what is the why for the leader, for the business owner. The who or the team that is coming on board to help you create this growth and sustain this growth. 

The processes, the strategies and pretty much all the tactics that come with the how in order to make this rocket ship go. Most of us start with the tactics because that’s the nature of the beast. When you’re in business as an entrepreneur, you need to pay your bills, you need to do payroll, you need to find cash, cash flows and point. You say yes to everything. What you find is yourself trying to get the momentum going but there’s nothing to sustain that momentum. I think that’s where the Ultimate Boardroom comes in in terms of guiding business owners and entrepreneurs through first leadership development. Because only when you are at a level of leadership can you comprehend and understand the need to develop yourself in this area. 

If you want to extend that capability and capacity as a business owner, not just in front of your family and your business, but as a leader in your industry, there is some leadership development that needs to happen. From there, we go and walk you through the second pillar, which is looking at what is your corporate identity? What are your core values? How are you going to attract the perfect team to come on board that aligns with your mission and your vision? From there we go to the strategy, let’s look at all the things that we’re doing. Are they the biggest bank for the buck? Are they the biggest pumpkin? If not, we need to either stop doing them or identify the one piece of the area of the business that you absolutely love to do and that will give you the highest margins, impact, 10x growth in terms of revenues, profits, impact and meaning. 

Even non-monetary things like meaning. The Ultimate Boardroom is the name of our mastermind that has a coaching aspect to it because one of the things we realized, Mitch, you and I were in the same mastermind. This mastermind was specifically about figuring out ways to get more deals in the real estate space. I’ve been part of many other masterminds. In other masterminds it was all about getting more, how to do the marketing for internet marketing. It’s always about the niche. What masterminds are great at is allowing somebody to stand up and say, “This is not working in my business.” Have the group of the mastermind come in and say, “I’ve seen this before and that happened to me,” or “I just went through and here’s how I fixed this.” They’re great at saying, “Here’s the relationship that I have. I know somebody who can help you fix this.” You can fix the burning issues that are happening. 

If you think about Mitch, entrepreneurs are like gladiators. Have you’ve ever heard of that beach from Roosevelt? Entrepreneurs are the man in the arena. We need protection and support, but because of this gladiator in it, it’s a paradox. We’re the ones that least have it and we are constantly bombarded with all kinds of noise and pressure from the daily grind of our business. A mastermind offers that opportunity to break away, step away from all the noise and the pressure and discuss important things about the business that affect important things about your life that affect your business. Because we’re not fragmented individuals, we’re whole people. However, when we look at fixing things, we looked at either fixing our marketing, our least conversion or specific aspects but not a holistic. 

Masterminds are great at fixing the burning issue. What Michelle said and I 100% agree is where they not good is looking at the business from a higher stand, from a 10,000 feet level and say like, “Let’s look at that. What pieces of your business are broken in the first place so that the hot button issue happens in the first place?” When we looked at each other and when we created the Ultimate Boardroom, we want it to solve both issues because we didn’t want to put another mastermind where everyone gets there burning issue is solved. We also wanted to create something that every time they look at their business from a 10,000 feet level and say, “I don’t have this and that piece.” Which is refractive by those four pillars that Michelle talked about, the Why, Who, What, and the How. We not only wanted them to identify that these are certain pieces missing, but we want it to give them the guidance on how to fill them because that’s the process we have gone through. 

It’s an ongoing process that you go on as your business reaches the next level. You’ve got to go back in and you got to fill holes again. It’s something that will never end, but most people are not even aware that you have to do it in the first place. What we have done is we married the two concepts into what we call a Business Coaching Mastermind, which is a mastermind with the coaching aspects where when we meet, we spend a part of the time on sharing these concepts that helps people identify their gaps and help them fill them. Masterminding where they can figure out whatever the burning hot issue in their businesses that are falling apart and have that fixed and talk about marketing strategies if that is something that they need help with. 

This topic is very near and dear to me. I’ve been in business myself many years doing the same thing. I’ve tried to get big and tried to automate. I tried and failed three times. I tried by myself out of my own head and own wit. Looking back after being to several mastermind meetings, it’s no wonder that I failed because I didn’t know what I didn’t know. There was this big reservoir of knowledge that I had no way to even pull from because I wasn’t even remotely aware that the reservoir was there. I found a set of words pretty interesting. You said a feeling of complexity. Would you talk to me about what that means? Because I think when you mash all this down, this is a perfect three words to describe. When an entrepreneur taps out, he can’t work any more hours of the day. He can’t handle any more orders. He can’t write any more contracts. He can’t deposit any more money because he’s in his own way. Will you tell me what ceiling of complexity means to you in this group? 

The ceiling of complexity is a term that was coined by a gentleman by the name of Dan Sullivan. It means that you as an entrepreneur or not you, out there the entrepreneur, you have certain skill-sets and you have a certain capacity of entertaining complexity and things. You are where you are in life. I love what you said that you tried yourself when you didn’t even know that there was a reservoir. That’s what happens to every business owner out there. They’re out there hustling and they’re trying on their own, particularly the beginning investor is going to be somebody that makes it on pure ego, test like going for it and it says yes to everything and makes things happen. At some point in time they get to the level where they have so many raving customers and clients that they can’t handle them all themselves anymore and they need to do a switch from being the operator to become the manager, the owner, the visionary, the leader of the organization. Usually, what happens is when they hit that point, when stuff starts falling through the cracks, the employees, if they already have some, start becoming stupid. They have no guidance. 

When you’re overworked and tired, everyone around starts feeling they’re stupid. 

You’re like, “Can’t these guys figure this out?” How hard is it to do X, Y, Z and so on. When an entrepreneur starts saying those things, that’s a clear sign that they hit the limit of what they can currently entertain in terms of their business. That’s the point where they need to stop for a moment and start gaining more ability, growing as a leader, looking above the horizon or above what they can see and learn the tools that take them to the next level. Those tools are there because $100 million businesses didn’t happen by accident. 

There are clear tools and structures of principles behind these businesses and at that point the entrepreneur has three choices. Choice number one is do nothing and continue to be frustrated forever and have a business that is not as his capacity, very frustrating, and not predictable. They make good money but it’s a pain in the buck. Option number two is to shrink back and become a very simple small business again where everything is under control, everything is overseeable. It is frustrating not to have lived up to your potential. Option number three is to figure out what are these tools, what do I have to do as a leader in order to grow beyond that and put in the four pieces because it’s always around those four pillars, that stuff starts happening. If they make that choice, those are the business owners that we can help and we can work with. 

Buying Land: Ceiling of complexity means that an entrepreneur has a certain capacity of entertaining complexity.

I want to tip my hat to you, Jack. I’m going to buy about 100 houses in my hometown. Maybe I’ll wholesale about 40% of them. I’ll probably retail about 10% of them and I’ll probably own or finance the other 50 houses. I couldn’t have done that without your help. When you told me that you were going to make this mastermind, I knew firsthand that you’d be successful at helping people because you had helped me change my life. Because of you and because of the conversations that we had, a lot of the input that you gave me, I won’t see fifteen of those 100 houses. I won’t see them when I buy them and sell them. I won’t see him probably ever. 

I might see some pictures of them float across the meeting room table, but I’ve never been to that. The things that you told me and the discussions that we had allowed me to own a business and have a life. Isn’t that what you’re talking about? Is to own a business, reach your maximum potential. My maximum potential is not 100 houses. It may be 150 or it might be 200, I don’t know because if I keep improving just the processes that you helped me learn how to put in, then who knows what my potential is. 

The greatest part about it is it doesn’t require me working harder. In fact, the less I work and the more I got out of my way, the more volume we did and the more money we made, which I found to be completely astounded. I’m always thinking about it, but I don’t have to think about it anymore. It runs itself. I went hunting for ten days in a place where my phone wouldn’t work. I came back and I had bought more houses than I used to buy when I was here and I sold more houses than I used to sell when I was here. I found it quite gratifying. I’ve found it rewarding and most of all I felt like I was getting my life back and I was having the best of both worlds. 

I was able to grow and start to feel like a real businessman. At the same time, I was able to spend time with my family and get my rest. When I show up to work, I’m invigorated. I looked forward to going to the Thursday meetings even though I don’t have to. I look forward to going because I’m rested and I got my energy back and I’m ready to try to help the guys see what their problems are and see if I can chime in but I don’t have to go. That’s why I knew you’d be good at this because you were good at helping me. I was excited about it and I wanted to put you out in front of the audience out here because it doesn’t matter what business you have. You’re going to hit a ceiling of complexity at some point, especially if you started the thing from the ground up. 

I watched a man speak that started a chain of restaurants here and it’s gone all over the state of Texas. The people that took it over from him, they got to inherit a three-generation set of systems that have been proven for years. The entrepreneurs go out and originate something from dirt. A lot of times, especially I know I didn’t like it, I outland my own mental capacity. I couldn’t handle it anymore. It was getting bigger than I couldn’t even fathom. When you started adding some extra zeros to the ends of the column and I started to get confused, that’s just me. I brought some people in and it helps me help me solve not only that problem, but I have salespeople, I have acquisition people. The whole thing is a whole different animal and I haven’t been to my office. I talked to him on the phone every now and then when I need to, but my business is running. I wanted to thank you for that. I’m looking forward to your mastermind. 

Thank you very much. I’m very humbled by that. I appreciate that. You said some great things, not just about us, but about the principles of business growth. The entrepreneur starts something from scratch. Most entrepreneurs are not trained to grow this. I love what you said about outrunning your mental capacity because that’s another description of the ceiling of complexity. I’ve never heard anyone say it like that, but on your permission, I will adopt that, that’s brilliant because that’s exactly what happens. You feel like you’re constantly running. You have created a business that’s too complicated or too many tentacles for you to be able to do that. That has part to do with the entrepreneur’s personality, which is typically in one direction of a quick start, a visionary wanting to do certain things and at some point in time, you’ve got to bring in somebody. At least you got to be able to put some other pieces in place while not forgetting your vision because otherwise you’re working in the trenches. 

You said, “How are you training your people?” I said, “Jack, I don’t train people. I have a secretary.” She walks in and we interviewed her. I said, “You’re hired. There‘s your desk and the phone. Call me when you figure out something you don’t know how to do.” She’d call me and I wasn’t available because I was out doing stuff. That’s how I train people. I sat them on the chair and showed them the phone. It was horrible. Jack says, “You’re going to have to train them.” I said, “I don’t want to train them. I don’t like to train them.” He says, “You don’t have to train them. You got to get someone else to train them.” I’m quiet in my track like, “There is an idea, but how do you do that?” 

I got people training people and I’m not the trainer because here’s the other thing I figured out. One of the reasons why I wasn’t growing in certain directions is because I hated that part of it. I hated training people. I hated as far as training my employees. If you want to learn how to buy and sell real estate, “I don’t mind training you at all.” If you want me to train you how to run the office and set the set the file cabinets up and do the spreadsheet, print out the reports and everything. I hate it. It’s not me. I’m not going to do it. Therefore, it didn’t get done. I finally managed with a lot of help from Jack and a couple of other people to sit down and build a team where I don’t have to do the things I don’t like to do. I just got to make sure that they’re getting done. That’s all. 

There’s a process. There are amazing integrators out there, the right who that you can bring into the business to help you create an onboarding process, a training rhythm. You train in batches. You hire one week all the salespeople and you train them all at once. You do ongoing rhythms of training depending on the different functions and the different departments in the business. The visionary is not that person. That’s not your genie. It would be completely dissatisfying and you would be very unhappy if you had to do that day in and day out. What you’ll find is that most business owners out of need and necessity are doing those things because they don’t know that perhaps they were looking at these four pillars systematically starting with you as a leader and then going into the who. Those people if you bring on board as part of your team are the ones that help you then figure out a better strategy, tactic, process and better system. 

I fell back in love with my business. If you guys want to fall back in love with your business, if it’s just gotten to where it’s out of hand and you want to fall back in love with your business, learn how to work on the business instead of work in it. Anything else you want to add, Jack, Michelle before we go? 

I would say if you’re already going to be in business and you’re spending a bunch of times building this business, why not use this business? Why not use the enterprise to sculpt yourself as a leader and grow? Not just in your business but also in your family life, your community and your industry. 

At the end of the day, you have certain goals and certain frustrations in your business. At the end of the day, we all want to be happy. We all want to have fun doing what we’re doing. First of all, thank you for having us again and secondly, you mentioned that you fell in love with your business again. That’s exactly what happened to us when we implemented that. Because we also had some theories where we made good money, but we weren’t enjoying what we’re doing anymore. It’s because that’s when we discovered that we were missing some of these pillars. We’re very good on the automation and systemization of things. We’re taking vacations and having a business that was running, but when we were coming back into the business, we weren’t enjoying it necessarily all day long. 

By discovering those four pillars and what’s underneath them, each of them has a set of different pieces that you can work on and put in place. Putting in the basic pieces in place, all of a sudden, we started falling back in love with our business and started feeling we had a real business. Because you have a real business if the business doesn’t rely on you. That’s a very good distinction somebody made. If you cannot leave your business for two weeks at a time and come back and everything is as good or better than when you left, you don’t have a business. 

You have people that help you. 

You are making money and you have people helping you make money. The true business is a business that doesn’t rely on you, that that lives your vision and lives under your leadership where people are hand-selected, such that they enjoy working in it and where everything is buzzing where they don’t need you to there on a day-to-day basis. As a matter of fact, ultimately things work better if you’re not there. One little anecdote. When we go on vacation, we tell our team, “If something urgent comes up, texts us.” Because I still have my phone there. I’m reading a book. I would be taking pictures of my daughter on the beach. 

We go for three weeks and we don’t get a single text. That means if I don’t get a text, I don’t need to check my email because there’s nothing in my email that’s urgent enough for me to have to check it. That’s our definition of freedom and at the same time, our people stay for years and years with us. They love it. It’s a beautiful situation to be in a beautiful business in life to have. Everyone that reads this, if you already have a business, if you’re already doing six figures a year, if you’re already making good money but you’re frustrated with where you are and you want to reach that next level, you feel this ceiling that applies to you, then contact us. Set up a phone consultation with us where we can see if we are a matched for you. 

Buying Land: You have a real business if the business doesn’t rely on you.

Jack and Michelle will make sure that you’re matched. They don’t want anybody come that does not go to benefit. Take the time to talk with them, 1000Houses.com/UB. I was talking to my wife, we’ve gone on vacation and she knows that I had worked so hard to talk to you a lot about implementing this stuff. At one point during the vacation, towards the end of it, my wife said, “No one’s called us for anything.” I said, “Yes.” She said, “I think I’m depressed.” I said, “Why are you depressed?” She goes, “They don’t need us anymore.” I said, “No, that’s a celebration for a drink. Bartender, come over here. Let’s have a drink. Did you hear what you just said? You’re depressed because of this business is running without you. We need to pop a bottle of champagne. We’ve been here for a few days and no one called us for anything.” 

It is a weird feeling at first. 

I love you guys and I know you’re going to help a lot of people. You’re going to have more of a formal setting. You help me informally so I can imagine what this mastermind is going to be like. There’ll be plenty of sharp people in the room. 

That’s our number one thing. We want to keep the quality. This is not a beginner’s program. It’s a program for people who already have a business. We talked to every single one of them ourselves. We do have a sales floor for our real estate business, but this is our heart piece. This was something that we care about. 

This is our 10x growth in terms of impact which is amplifying other leaders. 

We came to the same conclusion of when we go on a regular basis to the four pillars, we identify that this is something that is close to our heart. We talked to every single person that is interested in it and see if it’s a good match. We only have our great people in there that are doing something, can share because the spirit of it is one of sharing your good, bad, and the ugly so that everyone can help each other avoid any kind of pitfalls and celebrate the successes together. 

Go to 1000houses.com/UB, as in Ultimate Boardroom. Thanks a lot, Jack and Michelle. I appreciate you being on. It’s been great. 

Thank you, Mitch.

Important Links:

• 1000houses.com/Landprofits 
• 1000houses.com/moat 
• 1000houses.com/grow 
• 1000houses.com/pro 
• 1000houses.com/aof  

About Jack Bosch

Jack Bosch is a fairly recent immigrant from Germany. He came over to the US from Germany in 1997 literally with 2 suitcases and a bunch of student debt and Prior to the year 2000 Jack had never been involved in Real Estate and did not know anything about that subject. He started in Real Estate investment in 2000 and over the course of 3 years developed and perfected an investing system that allowed him to do 3,203 deals, making millions of dollars in the process. He has done deals all over the U.S., without even looking at most of these properties. His students are now doing deals in the US while living all over the world. Jack just recently started sharing this unique system with the public in 2008.