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Dylan Rush
I had three or four deals only under my belt within land investing when I decided to leave my corporate job. First One was a 30k profit, second one about 20k and the third one was $15,000. And since then I'm at like $189,000 in profit. I think the sky is the limit.
Brian Lubin
Welcome to the Action Academy Podcast.
Podcast Announcer
Stand back while I celebrate freedom, the.
Brian Lubin
Show where we help you achieve financial independence with the mindsets, methods and actionable from guests who've already earned their freedom.
The flags of freedom fly.
Choose to do what you want what you want with who you want with who you want, when you want, when you want with another episode today. Now here's your host, Brian Lubin.
Podcast Announcer
Oh, man, we got Dylan Rush in the building.
Brian Lubin
What is up, brother?
Podcast Announcer
How are you doing? How are you feeling?
Brian Lubin
What's going on?
Dylan Rush
Hey, Brian, thanks for having me. I'm pumped to be on the podcast. I've listened to so many of these podcasts over the years and to be on one is pretty humbling and pretty cool. And especially this one, this, the Action Academy program that you've built has really been life changing. It's pretty surreal to be here with you today, dude.
Brian Lubin
It's so fun. Now these are my favorite episodes to do. So for people listening, we have another Action Academy member here, Dylan. He left his corporate job through land investing and now is doing some other really cool stuff which we'll get into in the episode. These are my favorite episodes to do because now we're over a year deep in Action Academy and even doing these strategies that we talk about, it just takes time, right? So it's like now that we're a year deep, like people are starting to be able to come on the podcast and talk about the stuff that they're doing because we're not a get rich quick type of deal. Let's yo. If you want to buy 100 units or if you want to replace six figures of corporate, like it takes a second and that's even with the right stuff.
Podcast Announcer
Dude, remind me, like, how did you even get involved?
Brian Lubin
Were you just listening to the podcast or how did we even get connected? And when did you join? I think it was over a year ago, correct?
Dylan Rush
No, it was actually sooner than that. So it was probably August for sure, the fall of 2023. So I am not even a year in. And to be honest, I was probably the typical Action Academy member where I was very interested in financial independence. I read all the books, I listened to all the podcasts and I finally started to start taking some action. My wife and I, when we got engaged, started going ham on the debt pay down for some of our student loans. There were months where we were chunking thousands of dollars a month towards those student loans. And from there it turned into financial independence and really trying to max out retirement accounts. And that was great. I don't regret that. But really, I came to the realization that most wealthy people build their wealth through real estate or through business. And if they're smart, they combine the two. My wife and I house hacked a duplex a few years ago and turned the other unit into an Airbnb. The long term tenant was paying like $550 a month. And then in our first month as a short term rental, we made $5,000. So from there we were like, okay, we might be onto something with this whole real estate thing. And after a few months of continuing to learn and educate myself, I came across the Action Academy podcast. And eventually I booked a call with you. I was sold. I know. I ran it by my wife and she was like, don't you already know everything you need to know? But like any good husband, I went with it anyways and joined the Action Academy. And I just knew that I needed that community, that thought like me that took action like I did that I couldn't get from my inner circle. So Action Academy has genuinely been the rocket fuel for me to think bigger and really solve for like $50,000 problems as opposed to $500 problems, and really just has been one of the biggest inflection points of my life.
Brian Lubin
Dude, that means so much. And this is the reason why we do it. This is the reason why all of this exists. And what I like highlighting, just like we did with Landon, who who also left his corporate job, you didn't start with crystal clear clarity. You didn't start with just coming out the gate saying, oh, I want to.
Podcast Announcer
Do multifamily, I want to do business acquisition, I want to do self storage.
Brian Lubin
I want to do land flipping. Like, that wasn't even on your radar. So if you could go back to. To Dylan in August, which is crazy to think that you replaced your job, like not even a year, that's insane. But to go back and talk to that guy or talk to somebody that's listening to this and analysis paralysis is preventing them from even getting started doing one thing, let alone finding their thing. What's some advice you can give them on their clarity journey?
Dylan Rush
Yeah. Yeah. So Dylan in August was working a corporate job. I had a 45 minute commute one way. I now have two kids, so that was just tough in and of itself and knew I just needed to surround myself with the community. And I had already flexed the action muscle in terms of from a real estate standpoint, but really started to understand the value of your network when I joined Action Academy. Started having a ton of calls with other folks in the group. And like you said, I didn't even know what land investing was when I joined Action Academy. And I heard Ron, either on your podcast or within the millionaire vault that you have, that's when all the light bulbs started to go off where I was like, okay, I can't flip houses with a wife and two kids. Life's just too busy right now. But what I can do is put my kids to bed at 7pm and then go Price county, send direct mail at till midnight and just grind and go through that sprint and that journey. So yeah, the rest is history. I'm sure we'll get into the, the land investing journey here moving forward. But yeah, it's been great and Action Accounting has really provided that clarity that I needed to really go from not knowing what an asset class was to now I'm, I'm running the micro tribe for land investing. Part of a pod that we eat, sleep, breathe all things land investing. And I'm well on track to, to meet my bhag, my big hairy, audacious goal for 2024 because of land investing.
Brian Lubin
What's the BHAG?
Dylan Rush
So it was $250,000 in net profit. So net profit meaning after all private capital partners are paid out after closing cost fees, all that good stuff. So it's 250k. And I truly thought that was a big, hairy, audacious goal. And I think in the next months, I know looking back, it's small and especially as I surround myself with guys like Brian and Landon and Jake and the rest of the people in Action Academy, they're even on to bigger and better numbers than that. It just goes to show that who you surround yourself is so important and allows you to think bigger.
Brian Lubin
Dude, I love every bit of that and I love your. The clarity journey is so sloppy, it's messy and it just takes rolling up your sleeves and getting into it. And that's what you did. Like you, you took action just like Landon, just like everybody else. You were just moving and shaking and then that's where you eventually had that light bulb moment. That was the same with me. I was analyzing businesses, I was looking at Laundromats and I was Almost to the finish line with the laundromat. We were about to close on one that was just like, wait a second, I don't want to do this. I don't want to deal with this clientele. This isn't what I want to do. I don't want to do multi family. I picked up a freaking podcast microphone. Everything changed for me. So, Dylan, a question that I have for you specifically is you say you have two kids. How old are your kids?
Dylan Rush
Three years old and one year old.
Brian Lubin
Okay, so you have two young kids in the prime of their spend time with dad years. Right. Especially the 3 year old. My question to you is for talking to somebody that's maybe listening to this and the reason that they haven't joined our community or a community or done anything at all and is because they're like, I don't have time. I'm working this job. I come home, all my excess energy, all my excess effort goes towards my kids, my family. I don't have time to do any of this other stuff to do. Coaches, mentors, investing, anything like this. What's some advice that you can give to that person? Because I think almost 80% or plus I think of Action Academy has multiple young children. So I was always curious whenever we hear that on an intro call and what your advice would be.
Dylan Rush
Yeah, it's certainly some good pushback. Like, it's a good question to ask yourself. But if you're busy and you're. You want to be a mover and a shaker like you, you're going to be busy. It's just a matter of how you deal with it. And I heard a quote, I think it was by Ed Milette, and it was like, if you don't chase your dreams, how are you going to tell your kids to chase their dreams? And that really resonated with me as a father. And I was just like, okay, if I don't go for it, if I don't figure out what I need from a clarity standpoint, and then if I don't take my big swing, when am I going to do it and how am I going to tell my kids to do it someday if I never chase my dreams? So that's. That really resonated me, that quote. And yeah, that's how I approach everything. And. And I'm busy. Like, I'm exhausted. I just furnished an str. Got that live within the last week. So, like, I'm pedal to the metal all the time. But to be honest, I love this stuff. I'm having A blast. I'm learning every day. And it's fun when you're, when you do it with people that you're surrounded with who are like minded, like the people in the pod or the micro tribe or within Action Academy.
Brian Lubin
Yeah. And I think the cool thing that pushed me over the edge, like a quote that pushed me over the edge was somebody said, I think it was back in 2019, 2020. I'm trying to remember who said it. They said something to the tune of, oh, so you think that you're going to be less busy later on. Like when you build bigger businesses, you build bigger portfolios, like you've got more responsibility, your kids are getting older, you're doing sports and all this stuff now, then you're gonna be less busy. Like time is the only thing that doesn't go away. It's, you're not busy, you're just poor at managing your time. And I was just like, oh, got it. So it's the hiring of the coach, it's the investing into the community, it's even joining a free community or going to a free group or just being intentional about relationships that gives you those buyback moments where you learn how to scale, you learn how to partner, you learn how to leverage, you learn how to delegate and elevate and automate. And now all of a sudden it's just like Jake, who's a mutual friend of both of ours at Action Academy, he's over in Japan sending out automated mailers for his land investing while he's visiting and traveling around Japan. So it's absolutely insane, man. So walk us through. So you said quarter million in net profit is your goal. So what did you get to in net profit from your land investing? To leave the past corporate job and now what are you doing today? Because I think what you're doing today is actually very cool and something that we should talk about on this podcast.
Dylan Rush
Yeah, yeah. So like you mentioned, I was working a corporate job. It was okay. I worked with good people, but I knew I just wanted to make an impact. So right now I'm back in my old high school. It's a private school. The easiest way to explain it is I'm fundraising. They have some new capital projects that they're, that they have going on and it's been great and it's way better from an hourly standpoint. It's way better from a faith family fitness standpoint. So it's a great situation there and it allows me to focus on my land investing business as well and just allow for more time for that, I would say I probably had four or five deals, maybe three or four deals only under my belt within land investing. When I decided to leave my corporate job, I think the first one was a 30k profit, the second one was about 20k, and then the third one was probably $15,000. So at that point I had proof of concept and I was like, okay, this other opportunity that'll be better from a work life balance standpoint, I can take that new role and then go all into my land investing business. And yeah, since then, I think I'm at like $189,000 in profit. I was running the numbers before this call, and I think that equates to seven deals. So my average deal is about $27,000. And I think the sky is the limit. I'm still going through the growing pains of turning this into from a deal shop to an actual business. I've hired an acquisitions manager. I've hired a va. So going through the growing pains, as I'm sure you did, Brian, with Action Academy, and so going something new every day.
Brian Lubin
Yeah, yeah. Now we have a team of five, a team of six now. And I was like, wait a second, why aren't we perfectly efficient yet? And then I have to remind myself, how much experience do I have managing a team of six? Because that just came out of nowhere. Before, it was just me and Caitlin for a year, and now it's like a whole team. I'm like, oh, okay. There's multiple people, multiple personalities, multiple ways of thinking about things, and we're all communicating in all these different ways. Okay, now it's processes. Now we need to have calls on the calendar. It's different Devils man. And I just wanted to highlight that because I think it's so cool that you not only left your job, but you were like, hey, you know what? I still want to work. Like, this land investing thing is awesome. And that's providing me the financial ability to go take this other job for less pay, but with more flexible hours, more impact. It fulfills me. It's my way of giving back. And you get to do that and have a blast while you're still doing your land investing. And if that's not passionate income, I don't know what is. A lot of people think, you know, I only join Action Academy if I want to go, like, quit my job and just gallivant around the world. But I'm like, dude, if you just want to freaking pick your kids up from school, I think that's a wonderful Example, I think that's so cool what you're freaking doing with that. What's some advice you can give to people about defining that end destination? Because that's the first thing we do together is you're like creating your vision of what happens after. So what was your vision when you joined in August? And then how is that kind of shaped and shifted since that point?
Dylan Rush
Yeah, and that's a great point. Part of the reason I, I loved Action Academy really at the start is because you make us all sit down and do our vivid vision of what you want your life to look like. And for me, my. Yeah, you have to. You have to. And for me, my vivid vision, it started with my faith, it started with my family and really started there and wanting to make an impact. And then as I got down into the vivid vision, it became, okay, what do I want my revenue numbers to look like? What's my asset class going to be? And to be honest, I should probably adjust that vivid vision because I didn't even know what land investing was when I probably wrote that vivid vision. But now it's so. There's so many things that I can do because of land investing. It's opened up so many doors for me. I've been on a podcast before. This is my second podcast. I would have never dreamed that when I started Action Academy. So it's been such a blessing. And if I could give someone any advice, it would be just follow your heart and where you can make the most impact. And for some people that's, I want to quit my job and travel the country in a van. And for some people it's, I just want more time with my 3 year old and my 1 year old and my wife and just to make an impact with my community around me. So that's what it is for me. And you just got to understand what that means for you as an individual.
Brian Lubin
Yeah. And I just think it's so cool because you knew exactly where you wanted to go. And the reason people don't do visions is because they're like, I don't know how to get there. That's the point. And that was my issue when I was making my first visions was I was making them so quantifiable and they were like, stop talking about what the metrics are and talk about how you feel. What are you doing? Where are you at? Who are you with? That type of stuff, like the emotional aspect and then the rest can be painted in later. And that's why it's so cool. Like, you had an idea of what your number was and you had an idea of where you wanted to be and you were flexible in the approach. And that you heard a podcast and you heard a guest speaker one day, that changed everything for you. I'm curious, besides the flexibility, was there anything in particular that drew you to lane investing? What was it that Ron said? What was it that we talked about where you were just like, light bull moment?
Dylan Rush
Yeah, for me, it was just the biggest thing was probably flexibility. And it's funny looking back at it, because whenever I would listen to the real estate podcast, like when the wholesalers or the flippers came on, I was like, oh, I'm a buy and hold guy. I'm never going to be a wholesaler or a flipper. And that's what I'm doing now. Like, now I'm flipping vacant land.
Brian Lubin
Really?
Dylan Rush
It fit my strengths too. Land investing did. So, like, I'm. I'm good within Excel and in spreadsheets, and I like doing data and research and talking to title companies and doing my due diligence. Like, that stuff's fun to me. Other people hate it. And I don't even mind talking to sellers. A lot of the sellers and landowners are really genuine, awesome people, and I've just been able to develop rapport with them and offer a good service for. For them. I'm able to close quickly, close in cash, take something that maybe they don't really care about, or they haven't visited the land in five years. And I'm offering cash in their bank account in two, three, four weeks. So solving problems that way. So that's what drew me to land investing. I can't really swing a hammer. I'm not super handy. I can't flip a house. But what I can do, like I mentioned earlier, is put my kids to bed and get after it and do it remotely.
Brian Lubin
Yeah. What I love about land investing is that simple scales fancy fails. And when it comes to wholesaling, I feel like to the point where I don't even want to talk about wholesaling. Like, I tried to intentionally not have any more, like, wholesalers on the podcast, like, nothing against it. And my buddy Mike DeHaan does it and they crush it at because they actually run it like a business. But for the most part, it's just got such a bad rap and there's so many people that do it the wrong way. And then when it comes to flipping, there's so many ways, especially for a beginner to get caught in that. And so when I saw land investing as like a vehicle that we could introduce. I was just, huh, let's give this a shot and see what this looks like. Because it seems pretty simple. You buy dirt, you do nothing to it and you sell it for profit. That makes sense to me. Even as an investor, that makes sense to me because you're, you had a wonderful presentation where I was just like I was about to invest, but I had to put it somewhere else. It's just, it's, that's a simple term, that's an easy sell to an investor. And speaking of investors, you actually just funded one of your largest deals ever with another Action Academy member. So walk us through that process. Like how did it feel, how did it go? And advice that you can give to other people for maybe raising private capital for their first deal.
Dylan Rush
Yeah, so this was such a huge, cool success story within Action Academy. And so it's a 23 acre property. I got the lead via direct mail. We ended up closing on it for 83,500. And to be honest, when I got the purchase agreement, I wasn't sure how, how I was going to fund it, but I knew I had options, maybe within my own inner circle. And then one day, a member of our Action Academy, Cheryl, she hopped on a call with me and she had questions about land investing. She was looking to learn and to do land investing herself. I helped her out a few times and we built a connection. And I mentioned that I had a deal under contract and she said, hey, if you need someone to fund that, I totally would, I can fund it. And little did I know she ran a very successful Amazon business that I think grossed million dollars plus annually. So I had the deal and she had the capital in it. I think this example really goes to show that if you help someone without expecting any anything in return, like good things happen. And it was also a great opportunity for Cheryl to learn the process of closing on the deal, the title process, funding, finding comps, etc, so then we ended up listing this deal at 165,000 and we got an accepted offer, all cash, no contingencies, for 11k over the asking price of $176,000. To be honest, when I saw that offer come through, it was emotional. This is my biggest deal yet. That type of money is still life changing for me and I hope to do bigger deals in the future. But I just took a few minutes before calling my wife and then calling Cheryl just to soak in the moment and just take pride in what I had done and just the success and just the pressure that comes with using other people's money and then having just a super successful deal that closed it within three weeks from the time Cheryl wired her money on the buy side to the time she'll get her money on the back end.
Brian Lubin
Dude, three weeks, that's insane. Like, how cool is that? And now how do you feel for your next one after doing that?
Dylan Rush
Yeah, like anything, it just takes reps. And I, I'm not naive enough to believe that every deal is going to be that quick and that seamless. But now I know how to engage capital partners. I've started posting more on social media, just telling people what I'm doing. And it's crazy. In the month or two that I've been doing that, I have so many people both within Action Academy or online or in my inner circle that are like, hey, that's super interesting. If you ever need capital, let me know. And it's crazy because I've never actually pitched anyone to raise money for my deals. It's all been organic, which is really cool. And just goes to show you got to do cool stuff and share it online and that's so important. Just a huge success. And now I plan on using private capital for as many deals as I can going forward.
Brian Lubin
Yeah. And I want to highlight what you did correctly, which is something that a lot of people mess up on even within our community. So you'll have person A. Person B. Person A is doing the strategy that you did where it's I am just going to lead with value. I have no expectation of return. I'm going to go and just help as many people as I can and just smile while I do it and just be glad to help. And, and that's an across land investing, multifamily self storage. Another wonderful example of this is Ben call in our community where he goes and he absolutely crushes and just helps so many people. And then people invest with him without him having to ask because he just leads with so much value. And that's the first way to do it. Person B doesn't talk to anybody. Completely disappeared. It's just lurking around. And then all of a sudden their acquisition machine works and they get a deal and they're needing to raise a million dollars in capital to take the deal down. And then they're messaging us or they're posting on the Facebook, hey, I've got this deal and need money like, or hey, I can't find any capital partners. Like, how many people were you helping? How many people were you talking to? And it's just bananas to me. And so I like highlighting how you did it, because that's what I do through doing this podcast and through doing Action Academy. Eventually I would get to a point where I buy a hotel and I have to raise capital to take down this hotel or this small business. And then it's going to be. I'm not even going to have to post about it. Like, it's going to get funded without us even having to make a post because of Action Academy. And if people just did that, took that one thing away from this podcast, like, that would make them millions of dollars. Sincerely, millions of dollars.
Dylan Rush
Yeah. And really the. The whole progression of my land investing journey too. Like, my first few deals, I funded myself because I could. Then I had more deals than I have capital. And so that's where Cheryl and others have helped me out. And now I almost have more capital than deals. Like, I have the credibility, I have the proof of concept. I, when I go to actually pitch investors someday, I have the Cheryl example. That was a huge success and hopefully some other deals by then as well. So, yeah, just the proof of concept helps give confidence. Like, hey, other investors have invested in Dylan and have gotten great returns and have had a really great experience.
Brian Lubin
And then also, like, people are looking for different things. There's different ways to add value. Like, you are able to add value through, like, her investing with you. Like, some half of our members have a lot of liquid cash and they're looking to invest and they're looking to have passive returns because maybe their active income is so crazy. And so that's why it's such a cool value exchange. So speaking of that, let's talk a little bit about your action pod, because I'm obsessed with y'.
Dylan Rush
All.
Brian Lubin
I would venture to say that you're one of the most aggressive and best ran pods in Action Academy. And Jake even sent us Yalls weekly tracker where you're tracking your gross profit, your actions, your goals for the year, and you guys have your scoreboard that you're updating weekly, which we're like very shortly about to implement across the rest of the community. What makes Yalls pod work as opposed to a pod that doesn't? And for context, for people listening, what we do is for the accountability side, you need people in the trenches with you. So we do groups of five where you meet once a week for an hour. They create the time amongst themselves. And those are your people in the trenches with you that are going through the deals together. So that's the Action pod that we talk about.
Dylan Rush
Really. We formed our pod organically. We were all in different pods and then we were in a group chat and we're like, hey, we're all doing the same thing. Let's talk to Caitlyn on your team, Brian, and see if we can form our own pod. And we did. And like you said, we track all of our lead measures every week. We just had a call last night and I shared with the group, hey, I sent out 3200 mailers this week. I have a PA that I should get the next day. So stuff like that, like, I know what Brian's doing, I know what Jake and Landon are doing each and every week, and we very rarely miss those weekly calls. And it's really extreme accountability. And accountability is a funny word too, because people outside of Action Academy, they think of accountability as like a bad thing. Whereas within Action Academy, within our pod, accountability to me is not. I never doubt that like Jake or Landon are going to do their job. And it's more so just like knowing that you have people around you who are doing the same thing and you're able to share the wins and losses along the way. Like I said, we're in a group text as well. Like we text probably every hour it seems, and I love it. We're all eating, breathing, sleeping, land, investing, and we're even going to get together in Cape Cod in August. And the crazy thing is I've never even met these guys in my life in person, and I consider them some of my best friends, which is a crazy thought to have, but it's true. These are my boys and we'll stick together for the long run.
Brian Lubin
Hopefully that's the best pod. And now that we're getting larger, like in the beginning we had people a little bit more mixed and matched, like you were saying. But now that we're getting larger, we can start really pairing people up based off of asset classes or at minimum if it's commercial. In commercial, like that makes sense. If somebody's doing mobile home parks and somebody else is doing self storage, makes sense to have them in a pod together. It's not like that. Dramatically different. But for what you guys are doing or for what our small business acquisition peeps are doing, like, I'm. Like, it's almost more sense to do asset specific pods. And I'm in a pod myself where it's just online community owners, like that is what they do. Like, we're all buying real estate, we're all buying businesses like mergers and acquisitions. But People in my pod, like, half of them are doing, like, 400, $500,000 a month, and so speak to that as well. Like, when you see, like, Brian come up and he's got this piece of land under contract for, like, maybe a 200, $300,000 spread, or you see something like that, how does that make you feel? Does that motivate you? Does that piss you off? Because sometimes people are like, oh, like, that may make people feel bad or wrong. And for me, I get excited. I'm like, oh, I'm doing the same thing as you. Like, you're doing this? Of course I'll do this. What's been your experience with that?
Dylan Rush
Yeah. When you're surrounded by them, you start to see them as just normal people, and it's. I don't mean this in a bad way, but okay, if Brian and Landon can do it, so can Dylan.
Brian Lubin
I can do it. And.
Dylan Rush
Yeah, and when they text us like, hey, I got this deal to buy for 250, sell for 500k, I'm first of all, my mind's blown. But I'm also like, hey, I can do that as well, and I'm pumped for them. And if I was in potentially another group, and I would be where I'm at Now, at the 190, 200k profit mark, I'd think I'm killing it. And now that Landon and Brian have taken the charge from a profit standpoint, I'm like, I got to get some deals. I got to catch up to them, and I'm certainly cheering for them every step of the way and want what's best for them, and I'm pulling for them. But, yeah, it's just. It's crazy. And I would never thought that before getting into Action Academy, just how important your circle is and who you're talking to, and it's. It's been awesome. I love those guys, and I'm looking forward to staying connected with them forever.
Brian Lubin
And the coolest part of it is they're doing your entire year's worth of goals in one deal in the same amount of time, energy, and effort that it would take you to do. Yep. For that one deal. And it's the same thing. It's the same thing that applies in everything else. The 40 unit is the same as the 10 unit or, like the 400 unit. It's the same.
Dylan Rush
The.
Brian Lubin
The commas and the zeros change and the team changes. But I got this really cool advice from Chris Powers, who was on the podcast. He does industrial real estate triple Net lease. And he was saying, like, as the deals get bigger, you have more sophisticated people that you work with. And he was like, yes, you may view it as more like macro risk if you have like PG on it. But the bigger the deal, the more sophisticated eyes get on it. And the more sophisticated investors and the more sophisticated property managers, the more sophisticated landscape companies get on it. And it's the same thing with land, I would venture to assume is you guys, when you're doing those types of deals, like, you're dealing with people that are like, hey, yeah, let's not do like a quarter million, I'll give you like 2 million, let's do this. Curious about your experience with that.
Dylan Rush
Totally, totally. Like, my 100k profit deal that I just explained was the exact same Prof. Process as my buy for 10k, sell for 25k. It was legit, the same amount of work. Luckily, that big. And it's crazy, the big profit deal actually closed in three weeks as opposed to maybe, I don't know, one and a half, two months with the smaller deal. And yeah, and you hear that a lot from other folks in real estate. They started off doing single family or the one to four units, and then they're like, yeah, once I went to commercial, I was like, why didn't I start this early?
Brian Lubin
Earlier, all over and over again. Like, it's never, oh, I wish I would have done this later. It's can't believe I didn't do this sooner. And that's even the guys and girls that have maybe even had a bankruptcy or they've gotten screwed or kicked in the nuts a couple of times. Like, even those people are like, dude, this is so much different because then you think about things completely differently. So that's a question I have for you is back from August to today, what have been some fundamental mindset shifts that you've had that you can pinpoint and be like, wow, I can't believe I used to think about this and now I know this to be true.
Dylan Rush
Yeah, great question. And there's probably two cliches that I hear on podcasts all the time or and certainly did when I was just starting to learn about real estate and investing and all that, and that's your network, is your net worth or change your mindset, change your life. And to be honest, I always thought that was complete bs. I was like, that's not true. So I can just change my mindset and all of a sudden I'm going to be wealthy. And as I've gotten to the other side of things, I'm just like, wow, those cliches are cliches for a reason. Like, it's absolutely your network is your net worth, the people who you surround yourself with matters and just what you believe can be done will change your life. So like I talked earlier about my big, hairy, audacious goal for 2024 was 250k and now I'm sitting here halfway through the year and I'm just like, that was too small, but back in January I thought that was huge and if I would hit, that'd be a huge win. And yeah, just since I've joined Action Academy, it allows you to be surrounded by a community of people interested in the same thing you are. And it's crazy to think that I would have been happy with 50 grand in profit for the year when I first started land investing. And now I'm doing a 70k profit deal with none of my own money. So my mind is still blown from that, but looking forward to bigger and better things within land investing and just investing in general.
Brian Lubin
So in closing, what is your goal for the next three years now? How are you changing your vision? How do you think you're going to adjust your goal? What about your 2025 goals? What's next for you? And then walk us through your, your process of changing this and transitioning this from a deal shop to an actual business.
Dylan Rush
Yeah, and that's a great question. And I, I realized initially that I needed more leads and really had to spend the marketing dollars to get more leads. And so I added cold calling plus direct mail. Next week I plan to start texting and ppc. So pay per click. So really trying to go from okay, I'm just going to do direct mail now to being like, okay, I need more leads for my acquisition manager who I just hired because now I have someone who's trying to close deals while I can't or I'm too busy. I hired a va. So I'm really going through those growing pains in terms of how do I take this from a deal shop to an actual business. And now that I have the people in place and I'll continue to scale from a people standpoint, I'm trying to skate where the puck is going and hire the people. Maybe before I should and maybe before I have the leads that are coming in that weren't an acquisition manager. But I know that towards the end of this year into 2025, I'm going to need someone on the sales side and potentially more VAs to handle everything. That comes in. I haven't put together goals for 20, 25 quite yet, but I think it's very realistic that over the next six months, like I could do another 250, 500k and it could be just a handful of deals that get you there. Gosh, it could be one deal. And I've seen that because I've seen that within my pod already.
Brian Lubin
So how we do it and how you can mitigate the risk with the hiring thing, because that's what we're doing too. Like right now we're gearing up for 500 members and that's why we hired Mason on the team. There are different people that are coming on our team and I'm like, okay, like what positions, what roles do we need to where. Not only are we feeling comfortable at 500 members, but we're like, dude, this is overkill for 500 members. Like the 500 members will feel more intimate than the 300 today. And then at that point we can scale up to that from a, like a marketing and sales perspective and absorb that easily and then it's okay. Now what's 750 members look like? What's a thousand members look like? So what we do is we're just very conscious about the cash that we keep in the bank. In the your first year here, I would stockpile a bunch of cash and what you do is you look at the positions that you have and you look at their salaries and how much that they're going to cost for the year. And for each position that you're looking to hire, you save up three months of their salary and you give them a 90 day roadmap for how they're going to perform. And after that, 30, 60, 90, and they're hitting their certain KPIs and benchmarks like, like each hire is just a calculated 90 day bet and if they hit it, then cool. You should be profitable within 90 days on your investment for that person. So that's how we do it. So right now we're saving like multi six figures in cash for these positions that we're gearing up to hire. So that's how you avoid getting burned by it. It's just front loading the cash and front loading the positions and the vision. So hopefully that helps because that applies in land investing as much as it applies with everything.
Dylan Rush
Absolutely. And it's so cool to hear as you level up, like the Brian Lubins of the world and the Dylan Rushes of the world, they're having the same problems, but just at a Different scale. And luckily, I'm part of a community where I have all the. The answers to my questions that I can ask Brian or I can ask a Ben call and everyone in between. They're all going through the same stuff. And that's why community is just so important.
Brian Lubin
And that's why I went to Hormozy's thing where he's like, oh, don't even say any of these problems until you're doing a million a month. I'm like, okay, so it never ends is what I'm saying. Like, the game never ends, so you might as well enjoy playing it. Enjoy the profit that you're making today. Enjoy the jump to the next profit. Enjoy the jump, because it never stops. Then nothing matters unless it's under 50 million. Like, all right, cool. Got it. And so, in closing, man, where can people find you if they want to learn more about what you're doing? If they want to invest with you, if they want to talk to you about Action Academy or anything? Dude, like, where can people find you?
Dylan Rush
Yeah, I'm on Facebook, but primarily I'm on Instagram, and I just started posting probably three months ago, just sharing my story. I'm trying to be the humble beginner like you always talk about, Brian. I don't have all the answers in the world. I'm still learning each and every day, but I'm starting to share it more. And really just looking to inspire people and educate people potentially. And then selfishly, yeah, I'm looking for private capital for these deals, and I'm happy to educate people on how that all works and. And all that good stuff. So I'm on Instagram @d r u s c h5 so drou5 you can find me. And I only have 100 followers, so if you could help me out, that'd be awesome. Awesome.
Brian Lubin
Guys, go follow him. We'll put it in the show description. And Dylan, dude, thank you so much for being you. Thank you for being a valuable asset to the community. Love watching you win. Love winning alongside you, man. And super proud of you and can't wait to see what you do next, brother.
Dylan Rush
Thanks, Brian. Appreciate you having me on.
Brian Lubin
Guys, it's been Brian and Dylan with the Action Academy podcast signing off. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is unfortunately the end of today's podcast episode, but.
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Episode Title: Why You Should STOP Wholesaling And START Flipping Land ($189k Profit In 4 Deals) w/ AAC Member Dylan Rusch
Host: Brian Luebben
Guest: Dylan Rusch
Release Date: November 11, 2025
Podcast Theme: Millionaire Mentorship For Your Life & Business – Replacing high-salary jobs with business and real estate cash flow.
This episode features Dylan Rusch, an Action Academy community member who transitioned from a corporate job to a lucrative career flipping land, achieving nearly $190,000 in profit across only seven deals in less than a year. Dylan and Brian break down the practicalities, mindset shifts, and actionable strategies of land investing, emphasizing why it offers a compelling alternative to wholesaling houses. The conversation details Dylan's journey, overcoming time constraints as a parent, leveraging the power of community, and growing from deal operator to business owner—all while serving as a blueprint for listeners wanting to achieve similar freedom.
“Since then I'm at like $189,000 in profit. I think the sky is the limit.” – Dylan Rusch (00:15)
“The clarity journey is so sloppy; it’s messy and it just takes rolling up your sleeves and getting into it.” – Brian Luebben (06:25)
“If you don’t chase your dreams, how are you going to tell your kids to chase theirs?” – Dylan Rusch, quoting Ed Mylett (07:55)
“…Stop talking about what the metrics are and talk about how you feel. What are you doing? Where are you at? Who are you with? That type of stuff, like the emotional aspect and then the rest can be painted in later.” – Brian Luebben (14:29)
“I can't really swing a hammer. I'm not super handy. I can't flip a house. But what I can do…is put my kids to bed and get after it and do it remotely.” – Dylan Rusch (16:20)
“To be honest, when I saw that offer come through, it was emotional. This is my biggest deal yet. That type of money is still life changing for me.” – Dylan Rusch (19:08)
“We very rarely miss those weekly calls. It’s really extreme accountability.…Accountability to me is not—I never doubt that like Jake or Landon are going to do their job. It’s more so just like knowing that you have people around you who are doing the same thing and you’re able to share the wins and losses along the way.” – Dylan Rusch (24:09)
“If Brian and Landon can do it, so can Dylan.” – Dylan Rusch (26:36)
“I’m trying to skate where the puck is going and hire the people. Maybe before I should and maybe before I have the leads that are coming in…towards the end of this year into 2025, I’m going to need someone on the sales side and potentially more VAs…” – Dylan Rusch (31:50)
“Those cliches are cliches for a reason. Like, it’s absolutely your network is your net worth, the people who you surround yourself with matters, and just what you believe can be done will change your life.” – Dylan Rusch (29:46)
On Taking Action:
“The clarity journey is so sloppy; it’s messy and it just takes rolling up your sleeves and getting into it.”
– Brian Luebben (06:25)
On Raising Kids and Chasing Dreams:
“If you don’t chase your dreams, how are you going to tell your kids to chase theirs?”
– Dylan Rusch (07:55)
On Community Value:
“If Brian and Landon can do it, so can Dylan.”
– Dylan Rusch (26:36)
On Scaling Up:
“The game never ends, so you might as well enjoy playing it. Enjoy the profit that you’re making today. Enjoy the jump to the next profit. Enjoy the jump, because it never stops.”
– Brian Luebben (34:30)
On Mindset Cliches Becoming Reality:
“Those cliches are cliches for a reason. Like, it’s absolutely your network is your net worth…”
– Dylan Rusch (29:46)
On Lead Generation and Scaling:
“I realized initially that I needed more leads and really had to spend the marketing dollars to get more leads. And so I added cold calling plus direct mail. Next week I plan to start texting and PPC.”
– Dylan Rusch (31:15)
Dylan’s journey from a conventional job to flipping land highlights the power of intentional community, the compounding effect of action, and the necessity of evolving both mindset and business systems. The episode is an inspiring, tactical resource for anyone considering investing in land or searching for the next step toward financial freedom.
For more actionable insights and stories like Dylan’s, find all recent episodes of Action Academy and join the community.