Speaker 1One of the bigger things that I've learned from people of really all levels in the industry is their focus on mentorship of basically, and you talked about this, how you have people reach out to you all the time and ask you for feedback on certain things. I feel like that has been the thing that has come up the most across all episodes is that people who have been successful in the industry are not afraid to ask for help and they're not afraid to lean on others who have been there, done that. Hey, what's going on, everybody? Welcome back to the Land Development Podcast. I am your host, Ryan Glick. Well, we made it to the milestone episode 200 with this episode today. And if you've been following along on my email list for the podcast, you probably have been seeing me tease that we're going to do something a little bit different for this episode. Plus, as you're looking at the title for this episode, you probably know what we're doing differently here. But a friend of mine and prior guest on the show, Ken Mitchell, and I'm sure many of you are familiar with him on LinkedIn as well. He was on episodes 85 and 130. But he floated the idea to me that, hey, how about we turn the tables on this episode and he can interview. And so I was like, all right, that sounds okay after he talked me into it and seemed like something we could do as a bonus episode for the big milestone 200. And so that's what you're going to get in this episode. So Ken leads the conversation. He's got some questions that he digs into about the formation of the podcast, my background, family conversation. We get into all sorts of things. He even put a couple of hypotheticals out there that you might listen into and maybe laugh at as far as what I would do. I would do with $10 million if I had to invest it into real estate, some different things like that, which makes the conversation really interesting. And I really appreciate Ken for coming up with this idea and sitting down with me and having this conversation. So with all of that said, I just want to say before we get over to that conversation, just thank all of you really quick for tuning in. I mean, getting to episode 200 would not be possible without all of you continuing to listen in. So even though I'm sitting here recording to episode 200, I'm not going to be able to listen to a, you know, to a microphone and a camera and not necessarily to anybody listening to me live, you know, hearing that feedback and seeing the numbers and the growth that we've continued to have over the last almost three years is what motivates me. It keeps me going. And so I'm really grateful for all of your support. So with that said, let's go ahead and get over to my conversation with Ken Mitchell
Speaker 2interviewing me. So Ryan, in order of your 200th episode. I'm going to turn the tables on you. This is Ken Mitchell out in Colorado, known as the land detective. I've done one or two, I think I've done two podcasts with you and I've recommended a number of my colleagues to be on your show. And I think they've been interesting for sure. But I think all of us have this question. Well, who's Ryan and why is Ryan doing these podcasts and what is Ryan really up to? And so a lot of questions, I'm going to try and answer those questions by putting you on the spot and reversing the interview. So the land detective is going to interview Ryan today. I'm going to start out. I want to know a little bit about your background. You and I have talked about this a little, but you're kind of the mystery man behind the microphone. So let's hear it.
Speaker 1Yeah. Well, my background is largely in technology, so, which is kind of interesting, right? Running a land development podcast. With a background in technology, but I've always been very entrepreneurial, like just going back forever. It feels like just running different businesses with some buddies of mine and me over the last probably 15 to 20 years. And, you know, going back to 2020, a friend of mine, his family's owns a bunch of land up in the Midwest and in Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, some of the Midwest states. And they do quite a bit of development. And so he and I both have known each other for a number of years, and we're just kind of, we're always looking for problems to solve. We're problem solvers. That's what we've been our whole lives. And so that's how I got introduced to the industry was through him and basically getting into the industry on the technology side of trying to help solve some problems in the land development space. And, you know, it just, it's kind of led up to where we're at now with the podcast, and I'm sure we'll get to that. We'll get into more of the details of how the podcast even came to be. But yeah, my background is largely in technology. And I guess one other thing I'll add too, because I don't really, I guess, talk about it much on the podcast, because usually the podcast is so focused on my guest and not me. But, you know, I'm also, I'm a family man, you know, so I have married, I have three kids, and that's very important to me as well. So that takes up a lot of my time of, you know, kids activities and everything. And they're, they're all just growing up. So fast as I'm sure anybody who has kids can relate to. It's just, it's kind of wild.
Speaker 2Something I learned about you the other day is that you have a real job besides being a podcaster and you have a company that provides a very important product. And I think it's on, yeah, I think it's on the cup you gave me. So I'm going to do a brief promo. It's probably backwards. So hold this up to the mirror and you can tell what it is, but tell me a little bit about your company because you do something that a lot of builders and developers take advantage of. I was not aware of.
Speaker 1Yeah. And I, you know, I'll be, I'll be cautious a little bit with this and that, you know, I, when I started the podcast, one of the things that was really important to me was not peddling my company to everybody because that would be a really quick way to turn everybody off and, and feel like that's, uh, you know, that's the sole purpose of this. Um, you know, my company is, we had a couple of things that we aimed to solve when we started and that was around helping developers. Manage their lot inventory, get, get that data out of spreadsheets and into a place where they can manage it. And anytime they're updating pricing and status and any other attributes on each of the lots, it's automatically keeping their website up to date with an interactive map. And so those, those are really the two main things that, uh, we focused on and yeah, that's, it does provide a, you know, value to the industry and to the developers that make use
Speaker 2of it. Well, since you're a humble guy, I'm going to put that up one more. Time because product, I thought it was really cool. I've, I've seen it and I didn't know that you were involved with that. So I, the next question, what has worked on the podcast? What, what are the things that have really worked in your mind?
Speaker 1Yeah. Some of them I think about quite a bit because I listen back to every episode because I'm a big critic of myself. And so I listened to the interviews. Cause I like to find out like, where did I forget to ask a follow-up question or where did I, could I have gone a different angle with certain things? Because I'm trying to provide as much value as possible to, you know, everybody who listens in. And one of the things you hear a lot when you have a podcast is you should, you need to get on big name guests. Like you need people who are really popular because that's how you help it grow. But the fact of the matter is that the feedback that I get from people is they like guests who they can relate to, who they can hear from that are doing similar projects to them or who have gone through similar experiences, or maybe they can avoid costly mistakes that these other developers or others in the industry have made. And so I think that's probably been the biggest thing has been the having on people that others can relate to.
Speaker 2We're grateful for that. I really think we're grateful for that. Something you probably don't know, Ryan, is that I spend an hour or two a week with complete strangers that I meet on LinkedIn that have a question. For me, and I'm a regular guy, I'm not a big, successful national developer. I'm just a guy in a home office doing my thing. And I find that that's very meaningful to them to hear from someone at their level. So now I want to ask you the opposite question. What hasn't worked when you bomb? What, what hasn't worked for you on the podcast?
Speaker 1That's a good question.
Speaker 2If you feel like you bombed and don't mention names.
Speaker 1No, no, I won't. I won't mention names, but things have definitely changed. You know, I'm, it's coming up on when this releases, it will be just about three years since starting the podcast. And so over that time, things have really changed to the point where in the first year, it was tough finding people to get on the podcast. I mean, it was hard just trying to, you know, trying to encourage people to get on and share their voice and share things in the land development community in a lot of places tends to be pretty, uh, tends to be pretty. Private, like not a lot of, there's a lot of developers who just want to operate in the shadows a little bit behind the scenes. And, and I completely respect that and understand it. So I never, if somebody is not interested, I don't, I don't press it, but I would say when I run into the biggest issues or when I have run into the biggest issues, a lot of times it has to do with the motivation of the guest on the show. And so is the motivation to teach and educate, you know, the listeners of the show or the Or is there something else? else there. Because I can tell you when I first started the podcast, I mean, it's probably, I mean, pretty obvious that I started the podcast initially because I thought, oh, this could be a marketing channel for me, right? Maybe I can meet people and I can learn more about the industry. But very quickly, I realized just how powerful the podcast could be just from an information standpoint. And I separated it from my company. So it's kind of its own brand and everything like that, because it provides so much more value than just being some podcast under a tech company, because there's not as much value there to the listener. And so by doing that, it showed people that I was really committed to the podcast itself. And it's this own thing. And I think, I guess that's a long way of me getting to answering the actual question. But it's- Answering it of the issues that we ran into are, number one, me not being prepared enough for an interview. I like to go into the interviews without doing too much research in some cases, because then I ask better questions. But I do think that it can be helpful to actually do a little bit of that research that I've learned over time to make for being able to dig into some of that experience that the guest has on the show. So I think it's twofold there. It's not always easy. Picking guests, and especially as the show has gotten a lot bigger, I get a lot of inbound requests to be on the show every week. And I can't say yes to everybody. And so now I have to start being a little bit critical of like, all right, who's going to be someone that will provide that value to the audience? Because that's my number one goal with the show is value to the audience first. And then secondary to that is making sure my guests can get some exposure for what they do or involved in. But it always starts with making sure there's value. So yeah, I think it's preparation, number one. And then yeah, number two, just making sure I'm picking the right people to represent the industry on the show. Hey, guys, I wanted to share something with you really quick. With us hitting this milestone episode, I wanted to put together something of value from all of the interviews I've done so far. And there have been so many great conversations with people from throughout the land development industry. And so I put together a new land development playbook, that's called Land Development Playbook. And it's a playbook that I've been using for a long time. That includes 41 lessons from 130 interviews over the past nearly three years. Each of these lessons includes the guest and the episode it came from, along with a link that will take you to the exact point in the conversation where this lesson was discussed. You can download a copy of the playbook at landdevpodcast.com slash playbook. That's landdevpodcast.com slash playbook. All right, let's get back to the show.
Speaker 2Now I'm going to give you a tough one. It's a really tough one. I want you to think about this for a minute. If you were to have one guest for your dream podcast, that would be maybe right now out of your reach, that would just be an automatic no. Somebody that you really felt like would be, you'd just be so excited to interview, you just couldn't wait. Who would that be? Oh, man, that is tough.
Speaker 1Because I do have a list of big name people that I think at some point I'm going to get some of these people on the show, knowing that they're not necessarily going to be, maybe they won't provide as much value as someone who's out there doing these projects and stuff day in, day out. But there are still some big names out there. Man, I don't know. I'm trying to think. I've got to give an answer here. I can't. I can't skate by this without giving you an actual name of somebody. I'd love to get the CEOs of all the major builders on the show to talk. I think that can be a challenge at times, though, because when you're a public company, I don't think you see a lot of public company people doing long form conversations versus maybe a little shorter clips on a big media station or something that's maybe just two minutes. It's a lot easier to answer two minutes of questions. Than 45 minutes or whatever. But I think somebody, I would be interested in talking with some big landowners that, and maybe some of these athletes that you see are owning, they've bought up a lot of land. So they've made their fame and their money initially by building some sort of celebrity status in sports. But then at some point, an advisor or somebody told them, that getting into land would be a good investment. And so instead of wasting the money on other things that maybe don't appreciate in value, they get into land. I would be interested in talking with someone like that and finding out what their plans are with it, or why are they getting into this industry? And do they plan on going from land to land development, actually developing things? Or are they purely just buying up land because it's an asset they've been told? Maybe it's farmland or whatever type of land. I think I saw in the land report, I try to tune into just different articles and stuff. And I think I saw in the land report, one of the Paul brothers, I don't know if it was Jake Paul or which one, they bought a significant amount of land and they were featured on one of the articles. And so that would be the type of person I'd be interested in kind of understanding someone who probably hasn't been involved in this industry or anything. And now they're all of a sudden a really big landowner in the industry. What's going on in their society? What's going on in their psyche? What's going on in their mind?
Speaker 2So for those of you that are listening, we need to work collectively to get that guy for Ryan, because I think I would be excited to hear you interview that person as well. I'm going to make a suggestion to you also that you think about having a dinner podcast where you have the setting is kind of a faux dinner, where you have a couple of like, who are the dream people you want to have at the table? You know, like four to six people kind of in a round table? And again, it would be the same question I just asked you times four or six, or maybe a highlight film. Maybe you get four or six of your top, what you feel are your top presentations, maybe the most number of hits and get them together.
Speaker 1Well, I think, I think one thing I'll, one thing I'll add there, Ken, is that I think what this is showing me too, is that I, I need to build that list of, of specific people. I tend to, I tend to be a very, you know, I'm, I'm very consistent with the episodes, right there every week. I never, never miss a day, but, you know, I get into this rhythm of where I'm, I'm like churning through all these episodes and everything. And I'm looking out, you know, three months on just different guests that I've been lining up and everything, but, you know, spending more time on thinking about some of those big names and some different types of episodes are things that I really should spend more time doing. So no, that's good. Good feedback on that.
Speaker 2So now I want to ask you personally, because you're, you're doing this because it's truly interesting. I think one thing that you and I share is that beyond the money, beyond everything else, uh, the satisfaction of doing deals, doing real estate, you're just interested. You're fascinated by the business. What are some of the most important things you've learned? I think you probably learned, you learned something from every guest, just like I learned something from every phone call that I have with somebody at my level. That's doing the business every day. I always learn from them. They think they're learning from me, but I'm actually, I'm taking a lot of information from them. What are some of the more important things that you have gotten out of your own podcast from your guests?
Speaker 1Yeah. I get a lot of people who ask me, or they assume that I do development projects and I tell them like, you know, maybe someday I will do one cause I'm learning a lot, but every episode I just realized how little I know, like how many things I don't actually know about the industry. But I think one of the bigger things that I've learned from people of really all levels in the industry is their focus on mentoring or mentorship of basically, and you talked about this, how you have people reach out to you all the time and ask you for, you know, feedback on certain things. And I, I feel like that has been the thing that has come up the most across all episodes is that people who are, who have been successful in the industry are not afraid to ask for help. And they're not afraid to lean on others who have been there, done that in this space. That's definitely the top thing that I've heard. Other than that, I've, I've learned a lot of things just about, you know, more specific to the industry about challenges that we face, you know, challenges that developers are running through and realizing that it's not, there's not a ton of like isolated issues. There's common things that are happening across the country there's different ways that different states and cities are solving some of those problems. But you know, we still have a challenge in this country right now with, you know, providing some sort of, you know, affordable, attainable housing. And you've got people with a bunch of different ideas on how to solve it. But I realized how hard that is. You know, that's something I've learned. It's, it's not as easy as snapping your finger as easy as saying, you know, the government should solve it or whoever should solve it. And so I think those are probably the two, two of the things that I've learned for me across all the episodes I've done so far.
Speaker 2You know, Ryan, I think that's really important. What you just said. said, because I see, I'm active on LinkedIn because I enjoy it. I enjoy the camaraderie and the intellectual stimulation. But what I see quite often is people putting out there, it's like, wow, you know, I did this deal and I made this amount of money and it was so easy. And, you know, call me or write me about my method of success. And they've done two or three deals. They haven't run into the deal yet that takes them down. And so I think the impression I see oftentimes, because there's a lot of people, I guess, proponing that it, with the proposition that it's, you know, here's a simple and easy way to do this, to make money, to be independently wealthy. It's also a good way to be independently poor. And your podcasts are a part of that. They teach people how to be independent. And I think that's a good way to be independent. More aware, how more to be more scared and to be more prepared to enter the business. So now I'm going to give you another hard one. If I gave you $10 million, I just handed you a check for $10 million. And I said, Ryan, you can invest this however you want. It's got to be a real estate. You got to figure out what you want to buy. Are you going to buy one thing? Are you going to buy five things? What asset class is it going to be? Are you going to develop something? Are you going to buy something that generates income? I'm curious after 200 episodes, what your thoughts are if I just gave you $10 million? Oh, I hopefully
Speaker 1nobody makes fun of me for whatever I say here, because remember, I'm not a developer. So, so don't, don't call me out. There's probably two. I mean, I feel like the, and I don't even know if you'd call anything safe, in real estate, like you were just saying, but I feel like investing that into farmland would probably be one of the more maybe conservative routes that you would go just based on how it's grown historically and everything. So that might be one of the more conservative, but to do an actual development project, I've always liked, and we don't have many people on this asset class, but I've always liked the concept of more of the like small bay industrial asset class, mainly because of the stories I hear about it and the tenants and everything. But I do, I think about that as well, from the standpoint of it's important. You know, you think about the types of businesses that are tenants of small bay industrial, and you kind of wonder how will those companies, you know, fare in the coming years as things may change in our society and stuff. But I feel like that might be an asset class that I would be interested in getting into. I don't know. I wouldn't know enough about it, right? If I had that money, the first thing I would do is go find somebody who has developed quite a bit of that, asset class, and I would be talking to them about possibly doing a joint venture. That's also something that I've heard a lot of people talk about is you don't have to go at it alone in your first deal, you know, find somebody who has done it before and work with them. So I don't know if that's a good answer, but those are probably the two that I'm interested in.
Speaker 2It's a great answer because you brought up something really important, and that is find someone else who has something that you're missing. If you have the expertise, find the money. If you have the money, find the money. Marry yourself to someone that can make it achievable and safe because they complement with an E your skills and abilities. No, that's a very, very good answer, I think. Now I'm going to ask you that question again. I'm going to give you $10 million, but I want you to build a community because that's more my space. What does the community look like?
Speaker 1Well, I think, man, this is also a really good one too because you have so many different flavors of what these look like. And I've had some good conversations lately, not like even outside of the podcast with people who have different beliefs in what a community should look like because we have a lot of people on who build these single family residential for sale communities that whether it's a big master plan or it's maybe 50 to 100 lots per phase that are getting built out and you have the traditional streets running through, you have the sidewalks and you have a front facing garage. But then I've heard the other thought process on this where from people who are more interested in having more of a almost like an alley concept in these developments as well, where the garages actually are on the backside of the house and you encourage more of your community to actually come out on the front porch or and actually communicate with each other and talk and not just sit inside their houses or leave right from their garage and drive somewhere. I also am a very much a data person. And so I have to believe that you wouldn't just go build something either. You're going to find out in the market that you're in that you're going to find out what people actually want to buy. And can you build it for the price that they are able to actually spend? Because I could go build a single family community, but if the price point is going to come out at a spot that people aren't going to be able to afford, then it doesn't make much. Financial sense to go do that type of project. But I'm partial to single family communities because that's I live in one of those and maybe some townhomes mixed in with some single family detached, mixed in with potentially some, you know, multifamily, you know, that's some rentals in that space that are within this, you know, the master plan that would be developed. And for the money you told me, I'm not going to be building a master plan for $10 million. But but, you know, those are things I think about, I guess, as I'm thinking about that type of
Speaker 2project. Brian, I think you're closer than I think you're closer than you think. Because what you're talking about doesn't happen. It doesn't have to happen in a master plan. That's generally where it happens. But I think one of the things that frustrates me is that if somebody has got a smaller tract of land, they're concerned about mixing product. And I live in a community like that, that is single family homes, and condos, and it works quite well. It actually works. And it's not a large tract, there's only 41 units total. So the next question I have is, where are you going with the podcast? Like when you started, you probably had a plan, I'm going to go this direction. Are you still on that line of thought? Or are you thinking you want to go 10 degrees this way or 20 degrees? Where you're, where you're heading in your mind?
Speaker 1I, when I started, I didn't necessarily know 100% where it was going to go. And I think pretty quickly, I realized that the most important thing was releasing an episode every week that provided some sort of value. Because you see, what you see a lot in podcasts, if you go out there and look, you'll find, I mean, there's millions of podcasts out there. And I don't remember the average number, it's something like six, like the average number of episodes that every, that a podcast is six, because there's so many that just, they, they're amped up, they start going, they do, maybe they release every week, maybe they release every other week, but after about six episodes, they stop. And so you never know what it could become. And so for me, that was the most important thing was I, I made a promise to myself that I was going to release an episode, at least an episode every week for one year to just see what the growth look like of the show. And once I got to that point and it was growing, not like hockey stick growth or anything like that, but it was steadily growing. We steadily would get, you know, we're getting quite a few new subscribers to the show every single month. You know, Spotify is our, is by far our best platform where people listen in and then Apple, and then we get quite a few on YouTube now as well. But I would say that the plan is still the same. However, there's been more, there's been more interest in trying to find opportunities to like, you know, ladies in land and dudes in development, for instance, that was something that I never planned on doing. It just kind of, it just happened because we had some common objectives that we're going after. We're serving the same industry. But I think there's an opportunity to do some other type of content as well that I'll probably explore in the future, but more so on the YouTube side of things, more content around actual look into some projects. And so I'll probably play around with some of those things as I have time to do it. Because yeah, this is something that I have been doing the last three years as almost like a side thing to a certain degree, right. On top of everything else I'm doing. So yeah, I would say definitely heading similar direction and it's working. So I'm not going to necessarily change the route of what we're doing, but there are some additional things that I'm going to play
Speaker 2around with. One thing you don't, I don't think I've ever told you this, but I've been having a discussion for a long period of time with Rodney Hall, who's a head hunter in the land game. He's one of the most nationally recognized and respected. And Rodney and I have had an ongoing dialogue about, we really need a university of land where people can be exposed to real practitioners, not a university in the traditional sense, but exposing people to the old guys, the older women in the business that really have a lot of years of experience, but up until recently have not had a good to bring that knowledge and that information to the younger practitioners. I think more so than anyone else I've seen arise, you're doing that with your podcasts. And to me, that's a public service. I really wish you continued success because I do feel it's important. And that's why I always make the time when you ask me for a recommendation for someone or to speak myself, it's super important to me. I want to ask you, what do you think is the most important advice for podcasters? You're now an established podcaster. You've talked about it a little bit about what's important to you, but what do you think is the most important thing?
Speaker 1I'd say the two, I mean, the two, one of them, the most important thing to me is consistency. Don't overcommit if you're not going to be able to do it. You don't have to release an episode every single week, but whatever you do choose, stick to it, at least for enough period of time to test whatever you're trying to test and see if you have enough people to do it. And I think numbers can throw people off as well, because if you're doing a podcast on a super niche thing, you're not going to, your goals can't be to have Joe Rogan type numbers because there's, you're not serving like just individual consumers at that point. You're, it's a business to business type of podcast potentially, or if it's a super niche to consumers, there's only so many people who are interested in that thing. So I think you also need to be realistic about what your target number should be. And I think that's a really important thing. And I think that's a really And then the last thing I would say, and I'm, this one stresses me out the most is probably the audio quality and which can be a real challenge sometimes too, because when you have guests on, you can't control their environment. You can't control how, you know, how they come through and the sound and everything. And so you end up spending quite a bit more time in post-production trying to edit it to make sure that people will stick around and listen. Because one of, one thing I've learned is that one of the first things that will turn people off and have them stop the episode right away, even if it has really good content is if the audio is really bad, they won't even give it a chance. And so invest, invest in something. And it, and I've found that even just regular like earbud headphones and stuff will give you pretty good audio quality versus other ways. So those, I would say those are probably the main pieces of advice of just, yeah.
Speaker 2Uh, you know, probably that's why I turn off certain podcasts, you know, because they're annoying in some way. I'm a big Spotify user as well. Um, and I want to make a comment about your comment about this being a niche. Um, what I've discovered is that it's not, I, I started getting active in LinkedIn about a year ago, really active. And I thought, no wonder what it takes to be sticky on LinkedIn. And then I was looking at my numbers the other day and I had like 3.2 million impressions over the last year. That's amazing. And I went from like eight or 900 content, uh, contacts to almost 5,000. And I used to feel kind of lonely. You know, how many land guys are really out there? There are a ton of people that touch land in so many ways. I have people that I'm actively engaged with who are in agricultural that has a big, uh, regenerative agriculture. Uh, for some reason, a lot of forestry people, we, I have a lot of interaction with forestry people. I don't know why, maybe because I've got a forestry degree, but I have found that the universe is much larger and I don't feel so lonely anymore. I really enjoyed LinkedIn for that reason. So I'm going to ask you, uh, where do you see yourself in five years?
Speaker 1You know, I think with, with the actual podcast in the next five years, I mean, I want to continue to see it grow. I'd like to see the, I don't think we'll, we'll increase the volume of episodes or anything like that, because I have one thing I've learned as well is that the weeks where we would tend to have like a bonus episode or something like that, and we might have three episodes in a week, that's hard for people to consume that much content at times. And so, and so I try to be cautious about that as well, but sometimes we get, we have some bonus topics we want to put on there. So I would say just continuing to be consistent with our, you know, one interview episode a week throughout the year, doing our episodes every other week. And that's been working really well for us. And, um, I think just continuing to have more people. I think the thing that keeps me going is I get people reaching out to me and sending me messages, unsolicited messages, right. Um, of just telling you that, Hey, I've been listening to the podcast. I really, really enjoy it. And there's no ask in the message. It's not like they're reaching out to me, trying to get something or whatever. They're not trying to get on the show. They literally listen to it and they've got value out of it. And when you see things like that, it's not like they're reaching out to me trying to get something or whatever. It can kind of bring things full circle because like we're doing right now, we're sitting here recording with just you and me to a camera and a microphone. And we don't know for sure who's going to be listening to this or who's going to be watching this. And so, you know, some, that's super helpful to actually be able to put a face to some of the people that are actually listening in. And you know, that you're, you know, the stuff that you're doing, not necessarily me myself, but the guests I'm bringing on and the platform is providing some sort of value to the industry. So I just want to, I just want it to keep, keep growing and keep producing consistently episodes. Do
Speaker 2you see this eventually taking precedence over your other work?
Speaker 1Possibly. I mean, I know there are some several different media, I guess, media groups that have been created out of something very similar, right? They start as a, maybe a YouTube channel or a podcast. It could, I mean, I haven't really, I mean, we of course have, as everybody knows, who listens in, we have sponsors on the show. And so there's, there's a little bit of revenue being generated for the show and everything, but yeah, I think it would have to get quite a bit bigger in order for us to be able to, to be able to do that. And I say us a lot of times just, but it's really, it's me that's running, running the podcast. I just am very, very much a us, we type of speaker when I talk about things.
Speaker 2I want to get into family a little bit because I had a thought I was in the dentist chair earlier and I was thinking about questions to ask you. And I had a very, my mind was free ranging as it often does. And I thought, I wonder if when his kids come home, if he drops into podcast mode and says, well, you know, tell me about your day in kindergarten and what effect did that have on you? Do you ever find that that persona drifts over to your wife or your
Speaker 1children? Oh, I'd, I feel like it, I don't know if it does. I think what does, I mean, what does happen is it's very common that I won't always look at the schedule when I schedule podcast episodes and they have like an early out at school and I'll be here recording and over to my left is the door and they'll be standing there staring at me through the glass while I'm recording an episode. And, you know, I'm trying to, trying to give, you know, hand signs to them to let them know, like, you know, give me, give me another 10 minutes or 15 minutes or whatever. So that happens quite a bit on the show, but yeah, I don't know that I peppered them with questions and stuff. Like maybe I do. And I don't even realize I do it.
Speaker 2You should ask them that question. And I'm also curious, does your wife listen to your podcast? Do your children listen every now and then? Do they, are they interested? Is it a, is it a family thing or is it a youth
Speaker 1thing? I think it's a me thing. I don't think, I think my wife listens to it. I for sure don't think the kids listen to it. Um, I mean, I have, we play around with some of this stuff too. Like I've set up mics for my three kids and me and we've recorded an episode together where I just, where I do play the podcast host and I just ask them all a bunch of different questions and stuff. And that's, that's actually pretty fun and pretty funny, comical, and just some of the stuff that they say and everything. And, um, yeah, so I don't think they do. I should, I should ask them, but I, I don't think they listen.
Speaker 2Okay. Now, I'm going to dig a little bit more, a little bit more personal. Cause I think you've got a lot of people you're on the other side. I'm going to ask you, so what do you do in your spare time? What do you enjoy about life? What are things that are meaningful to you? One of the things I coach a lot about is, is how to just have the optimum life. Everything I do every day, I'm trying to have the most fun, the most adventure, manage my finances, make a little money and so balance. Tell me what that looks like for you.
Speaker 1I'm probably not very good at that right now. I need to get better in that area. I, my, I'm very much a homebody. I mean, because I'm, I'm working, I'm doing the podcast, doing kids activities and probably the, my hobby, it was probably just health and fitness. I mean, I just, I make that a priority every day to do something, you know, whether I'm riding the bike or running or lifting or whatever it is. And then also the same thing on the nutrition side, just because I've found that, and I, this is actually something else I've heard from multiple guests on the show over the years as well, is that your health is so important to how well you feel and perform in the workplace. And so I've heard multiple people talk about how that's the main thing that they've prioritized that has helped them be successful. And so I hear things like that and I, I notice it myself, or if I'm not, um, if I'm not physically active and, and I'm sitting in this chair right here, for too many hours a day and not doing other things, I think that's probably one of the bigger things for me, but. I would say right now, just at the age of my kids, most of my, most of my personal hobbies that I've had in the past, aren't really things anymore. Um, it's more so it's more so just practicing different sports and stuff with the kids is probably where I would spend any of my extra time outside of, you know, working.
Speaker 2Sure. What are you best at? What's your game?
Speaker 1Uh, you're talking about best at as in like the what sport? I mean, probably basketball. Basketball is always my, yeah, it's always my favorite, favorite sports. I've got one I've got my, my middle son who's 13. He he's really big into basketball and he's at the point now where he's getting, getting closer to being as tall as me. And now when we, we play one-on-one he can actually win some of the games. And so it's, it's competitive now, which is pretty fun to have. And I'm trying to get my daughter who's a little younger into basketball as well. We'll see if that works out.
Speaker 2Uh, just one word of advice. The worst sports injury I ever had was challenging my stepson to a foot race on the beach. And I looked at him, and I said, you may think I'm old, but I still got, I still have blinding speed. And after he passed me, I pulled a muscle in my leg worse than anything I've ever done in my life. So be careful when they get a little older. Yes. You, uh, you might think about having on a podcast, somebody that is fitness oriented that works with executives, because I know I follow one or two guys and their advice has been exceptional. Um, really, really there's, uh, people out there that are really good at helping you integrate your physical being with your mental being with your career and your wife and your family. And some of those people have really given me meaningful advice. Uh, one of the thing, have you ever thought about taking the podcast? And I know you're concerned about some sound quality. Uh, let me ask you this first. Where the heck are you? Where's the little box that you're speaking at? Where is that? Are you in Hawaii? Are you in Nebraska? Where are you? Yeah. Well, good question.
Speaker 1Because I do get a lot of people who assume I'm in Texas because I did early on have a lot of guests from the state of Texas. And so a lot of assumptions, uh, with that, but no, I'm located in the Des Moines, Iowa area. So right in the Midwest.
Speaker 2Is there a lot of development activity
Speaker 1in Des Moines? There's quite a bit. I don't have, I mean, the, the volume is not the same, but there's consistently development going on here. All types. We have a lot of, so Des Moines has, is the cross section of interstate 35 and 80. And so there's a lot of semi-traffic that comes through the Des Moines area. So we have a lot of industrial here. Um, quite a, quite a bit industrial, but yeah, there's, there's a lot of growing communities in the suburbs around Des Moines. And so there's quite a bit of residential development going on here for sure.
Speaker 2I think your format, I know you're worried about sound quality, but I think your format could also work well outside of your box. that you're operating in. And every now and then, perhaps you might take a show on the road. You know, maybe go to a local home builder and talk to him about unique challenges and things of that nature. I want to suggest to you that early in my career, custom home builders were rampant. We called them pickup truck builders and they built out of their pickup and they were everywhere. And they pretty much disappeared because of the rise of the national builders, the national product identity. But I think an interesting guest would be a custom home builder in your area because they have very special trials and tribulations. They used to build more affordable homes in the mid-range and they've had to give that up to national builders. So where you see custom home builders now is primarily in the upper luxury end. And that's kind of a shame because a lot of the innovation I think was coming from those custom home builders that were trying out new things and providing a laboratory. So anyway, boy, you run through my list of questions. I actually, I think this turned out way better than I expected. It's been really interesting to have this discussion with you. Tell me what else is on your mind. I mean, tell me what you're thinking at number 200. That's a lot. Like you, I quit at six episodes. I started a podcast about my morning walks with my dog, Joey, who, as you know, died a year ago. And after six episodes, I thought, you know, who wants to listen to an old guy walking with his Australian shepherd every day? So I gave up. I didn't feel it was important. It was fun for me, but I didn't feel like I was saying anything important. So give me your thoughts on, as you approach the 200th episode, I guess you have that, or is this? This is, yeah, this, this, this will be, this will be 200.
Speaker 1Yes. Yes. Okay.
Speaker 2Give me your thoughts looking back.
Speaker 1I think it's, I mean, the time goes fast. I think that's, that's one thing I've realized, and that's just everything in life just goes fast, but you know, that's probably the biggest thing. And then I, I think I've started to plan more. I'm planning more for what I want to do. I'm looking at what, you know, episode 201, 203, all the way out. I'm looking out where does episode 300 land? What are some goals? What are some goals that I want to achieve? And I'm looking at what, what are some goals that I have before we get to that point? I think I'm, I'm looking out a little further than I used to. And so right now that's, that's a lot that I've been thinking about. And I do want to touch on, I, one thing that connects us as well is the fact that, you know, I have an Australian shepherd now as well. And I know we've talked about that before, but the you know, every time I always think about Joey, I always think about that when I'm playing with his name's Apollo and he's about a year and a half old now. Is that right? Yeah. A year and a half old. And so we, we're starting to build our own memories, you know, and I've heard a lot of the memories that you've had with, with Joey and everything. And so that's, uh, that's also on my mind, you know, with everything I do, because he, as I'm down here recording, that means that the door is shut to come down here. So he can't come down here and start like, you know, trying to get me out of my chair to go play with him. So always on my mind there as well.
Speaker 2You don't have a picture of him on your desk, do you? I don't think I do. You owe me a photo.
Speaker 1Yes. I'll have to, I'll have to send it.
Speaker 2I'll send you one. Yeah. I'm surprised you have any free time. My Australian shepherd cost me eight to 10 miles a day. Otherwise I couldn't live with him. He was just too edgy. He always had to be doing something and he always had a job. So my advice to you on your 200th episode is to find a job for your Australian shepherd. You know, talk to Sean Flannery about getting some sheep, ask him for recommendations. He's kind of a subject matter expert on that. But that's, that's interesting. That's really interesting. Well, Ryan, that's, that's really all I have. I just, I wanted to thank you for what you're doing for the industry. I wanted to thank you because I now consider you a good friend. I would come to you for advice. I would come to you just to hang out on the phone when you had time. We did that the other day and it was, it was really, really cool to be able to just hang out with you. So this was a great experience. It was a lot of fun for me and I hope it, you know, I hope, I hope people get a little bit of joy out of watching this.
Speaker 1Well, I appreciate it. I appreciate you. You're the one that recommended this. And so I, I thought it was a good idea. I will say it's, it's always more challenging when you're sitting on the other side of the mic. I think asking the questions and having most of the time filled up by the guest makes my job relatively easy compared to the guests that come on the show and everything. But it's, yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this and for being on the show. And, and likewise, you know, anytime I've reached out, you've always been there to help and stuff. So, I mean, it's just, yeah, kudos to you for everything you're doing for the industry as well.
Speaker 2All right, Ryan. Many thanks. All right. Thanks again. See ya. See ya.
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