How to Maintain Your Enthusiasm and Revenue Stream During a Plague (LA 1293)

How to Maintain Your Enthusiasm and Revenue Stream During a Plague (LA 1293) Transcript: Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Happy Friday. Steven Butala: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWit: I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny, Southern California. Steven Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about how to maintain your enthusiasm and your revenue stream during a plague. This is a fun show for me, maybe not so much for Jill. Jill DeWit: Why do you say that? Steven Butala: Here's the thing, here's the thing: we've been kind of life interrupted now for, what, five months, six months? It's hard to maintain your enthusiasm, let alone your revenue stream during a pandemic. There's a lot of stuff. Here's really what the juice of what we're going to talk about today: if you own your own company and you're an entrepreneurial spirit and you just don't know any other way, you're very used to adapting and overcoming whatever comes into your field of vision or whatever you need to overcome. Steven Butala: So, this year for a lot of us, I include myself and Jill in this, it's an adapt and overcome to a pandemic. So, maintaining my enthusiasm and our revenue stream has not been that much of a challenge. It's had its moments, but I think for some people, and this is really who this show is for, it just destroys their mindset. It's a lot to deal with. Steven Butala: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: Austin wrote, "Hello. I have been quoted $200 for a two-document mobile notary signing in New York City. The notary said that it was higher priced due to COVID. What has your experience been as far as pricing a notary as post-pandemic? Also, is there a big geographical difference as well, such as a hundred dollars for Los Angeles and $50 Maricopa? Thanks, Austin." I have not experienced this. I'm wondering if it's a particular notary. Steven Butala: I think this is more of a New York problem, New York City problem than anything else. Jill DeWit: That's what I think. I have an in-house notary here in our office, we're in Los Angeles area, or I can still go, and they never closed, to my local UPS shop where you can drop a package and for the same $15, get a signature notarized. It never changed. I could walk in, I have to have a mask on, big deal. Steven Butala: The bigger question here is for me, and this question is very appropriate for the topic today, reading way below this question and what this is really about is how the world has changed because of this pandemic/plague that we're in and why people feel like it's okay to double their prices on stuff. Jill DeWit: That's kind of not nice. Steven Butala: What? Jill DeWit: It's kind of funny. No, you're right. You're not wrong. Steven Butala: It's not just pricing. It weans its way- Jill DeWit: Could you imagine? Steven Butala: It trickles its way and weans its way into everything. I mean, I have never walked through a Home Depot in my entire life and been told where to stand and that I'm not doing it right. It's like- Jill DeWit: Could you imagine? Steven Butala: ... in one week, the people that maitre des or servers and stuff have just been allowed to, and this is never going to change. This is my theory: I think it's here to stay, have been given some power to treat- Jill DeWit: Oh, like TSA. Steven Butala: Yes, like TSA, perfect example. Jill DeWit: TSA- Steven Butala: Well, TSA, those people- Jill DeWit: People that couldn't get jobs anywhere else got TSA jobs. Steven Butala: That's right. Jill DeWit: That's kind of saying this, a lot of it. Steven Butala: Let's say it. Say it. They have some, and boy do they use it. Jill DeWit: They can't carry a weapon or anything, they can just say, "Stop, go back through the metal thing," but whatever. Oh, that's kind of funny.