In this episode, Chris breaks down the four investment areas commanding the most money, time, and mental resources at Serious Land Capital right now. Against a backdrop of nearly four years of deteriorating real estate conditions and accelerating AI disruption, the framework cuts through shiny object syndrome to identify where durable ROI actually lives. Each area connects back to a single thesis: the operators who compound across these four buckets are the ones still standing at the finish line.
Key Takeaways:
- Business Education Requires Full Commitment, Not Sampling Joining a mastermind or program only pays off when you apply the framework completely at least once before judging its fit for your business.
- AI Upskilling Is Priority One Through Ten Under the assumption that today’s models are the worst they’ll ever be, every knowledge worker’s highest-leverage move is building AI capability now, before the gap between adopters and non-adopters becomes permanent.
- Real Estate Still Has a Long-Term Moat Food, shelter, energy, and entertainment all require physical real estate, and human willingness to underwrite risk (something AI can’t replicate) keeps the industry viable even through multi-year down cycles.
- Mindset Investment Is the Differentiator Most Operators Ignore A $20,000 mastermind commitment in a tight budget year reflects the core belief that consistent psychological development separates operators who compound results from those who plateau or quit.
- Physical Health Is the Infrastructure Everything Else Runs On Daily workout habits, sleep optimization, and nutrition aren’t lifestyle choices, they are operational prerequisites that make every other investment category perform.
Listen to the full episode for the specific frameworks, mentor sources, and tactical reasoning behind each investment decision.
(Podcast transcript below)
Welcome to Get Serious, we’re at Serious Land Capital. We have successfully funded over six and a quarter million dollars worth of land deals with industry leading 41 % operating margins. Today, I wanted to go over the areas of my life as it relates to personal and business, really the mix of the two where I’m investing the most.
both from a monetary perspective, time perspective, probably most importantly, as well as just a, you know, underlying focus of, you know, mental resources toward each one. Because I think, again, in today’s day and age is just such a common refrain. You’ve heard me talk about and write about before and so many other people. It’s just, you know, we are at a turning point for humanity and
A lot of people are just having to come to grips and reconcile with themselves on what value they’re going to continue to bring to the marketplace, both in the advent of AI as well as just so much political and macroeconomic uncertainty. And, you know, again, just trying to figure out, okay, what place are they going to hold within that? And also understanding, you know, relatively
limited resources that most folks are working with where to invest those hard earned dollars or rapidly diminishing dollars as well as time in order to get the best possible ROI both for your immediate term, medium term, longer term as well too. I just wanted to walk you through my frameworks.
on the areas that I’m focusing on, probably not a big surprise for, for, for many of you, but I think the nuance and the actual tactics, defining the choices is probably going to be most informative and might help open up some other, opportunities or focus areas for yourself personally. So the number one, and there are four.
by the way, three really that probably most relate to the business side, but I’d be remiss if I don’t mention four here. And this is like a bit in a consistent refrain of mine for several meetings and just daily reflection on what my current goals are and our business’s goals. So again, I really wanna give you guys the…
most up-to-date information and what we’re thinking about day-to-day here. So number one, just business in general, strategies and tactics. I know you might’ve been thinking it was gonna be something way more particular here, but again, these overarching ideas are not quite as informative as the actual thoughts behind why.
we’re choosing them and how we’re actually applying them. know, business and, you know, again, the strategies and tactics here that can mean so many things. So when it comes down to actually choosing who do you learn from and what are you applying, like that’s far more valuable here. So, you know, for general business practices, I mean, you can take the…
uh, Alex Hermosy model, like what acquisition.com does, you know, the a hundred million dollar offers leads money models, all of that can apply, you know, as they advertise to any single business model, um, within the world, uh, you know, especially bootstrap models, which is by far the, um, uh, majority of, of businesses, but you know, still even VC or P funded, um, uh,
companies would still be able to utilize the techniques therein. And, again, as it relates to actual investment here, so like, do you actually put your money where your mouth is? Yeah, I mean, if we’re looking at
dollars that I’ve spent personally as well as through the business toward furthering my own and our team’s education when it comes to just general business strategies. This is probably the bucket where most of those dollars have gone. spent thousands of dollars on hermosy opportunities in and of itself. can consider.
Real estate learnings, especially within the land game, we’re land funders, right? We’ve been within land and real estate as a larger umbrella for several years now. So all of those masterminds and in-person events would all fit within this bucket or other online coaching. Back in the day, we had joined Travis King’s mastermind for a while.
You we originally got in the land investing space learning from stuff that are already tipster, like a lot of folks who came into the space, you know, late 20 2010s, early 2020s. So all of that. You know, was, you know, heavily invested from, you know, again, a monetary as well as a time perspective. And, you even going back further from more recent years,
Yeah, again, I’ve joined various business related masterminds or in-person events going back 10, roughly 10 years or so, it is when I’d become more just serious along the entrepreneurship, journey. so that’s just been a constant reevolution, and training process in order to grasp all of the kind of latest.
skills and techniques and, again, you can easily run into shiny object syndrome or, you know, start on a certain pathway. And then, you know, once you hit a couple of speed bumps, quit and try something else. Like that’s the routine, you know, 90 plus percent of business owners or humans in general will follow. They don’t stick with anything long enough to reap the actual rewards. So the key game plan here is just to understand, okay,
learn and apply what one particular person is or, you company is trying to teach, try to be their best student, apply it at least once, like to a letter. And this is just a rule for all these different kind of groups of investments, investment topics that I’m mentioning here is, yeah, just apply it all the way through.
And, um, you know, then you can, uh, determine what might fit better, um, personally for your own situation or your business’s situation, but, um, you, you gotta give things a real shot, uh, in order to see whether they, uh, they, they flower or not. So that, has to be overarching there. um, you know, sometimes I’ve applied that better than, than others, especially within the land space. Um, uh, you know, have.
clearly built up actual success in the midst of mostly tough markets, more often than not since we’ve been in this space. Again, I would consider it a tough market since mid 2022, for the most part nationally here. So like we’re approaching four years of just really rough conditions. So like you really have to apply.
the granular level techniques in order to achieve anything within this space. And again, you can see how many people drop out from just a lack of patience and lack of commitment. So those are kind of the avenues in terms of land related items, but a lot of just time spent outside of monetary, like I will just consume.
and try to learn from so much, you know, real estate related data and content. guys hear me talk about and, you know, write about it all the time and historical, housing and so forth. Like I’m just doing this in my spare time. because, know, that’s the only way you really gain an edge here, to determine, okay, where can I say, well, other people are sagging, where, where, where is the alpha? Where’s the puck heading, within business. So again, I really want to stress that it’s.
an amalgamation of your investment into these spaces. It’s not just purely, okay, what size checks are you writing to learn from people? It’s like, where are you spending your time? Arguably that’s the more important factor as it is. Like what are you continuing to learn and develop yourself within? And also within your business, like what’s the main thing that you’re learning on a day-to-day basis? Yeah, it’s mainly like business strategies and tactics. Yeah, that’s like.
you know, generally the majority of, of what we’re, working on and, applying there. So those are a handful of examples I would mention to, know, just general personal, finance or, you know, wealth development. again, you guys have seen me, mention and also write about building the Sharanthrovats, money coach skill within Claude, using co-work.
And, um, again, Sean is now the CEO of acquisition.com, managing partner with, uh, uh, Alex and Laila Hormozi, you know, Sky worked at Goldman Sachs and a couple of billion dollar exits within the real estate space. Um, and, know, came alongside a number of other higher level, uh, in investors, especially institutional investors, you know, my, um, uh, core business partners worked on Wall Street for, for many years too.
connections within that space and learning from them. these are the type of folks that I’m trying to pick up clues and hints and strategies on how to manage money. Just writ large, even outside of like earning it within a business context, but it’s like, okay, how do we manage like the actual money pile that we’re trying to develop for a personal net worth and.
you maintenance, uh, effectively for, the sake of, of, of your family there. So that was another huge investment area. would really trigger the turning point for me within that realm. So again, it was like roughly 10 ish years ago was reading, uh, money master the game by Tony Robbins. Um, so I know Tony’s like obviously huge within the, you know, psychology space, self-help, cetera. Um, but the guy is connected with,
some of the biggest movers and shakers from money standpoint, that book in particular was just very, very targeted towards, what are the best investors in the world doing with their funds and how are they structuring their portfolios in a pretty downside protected way? And that was when I first learned the rule of don’t lose money when it comes to investment. that was another…
key point as far as where I would focus learnings from here. There could be a handful of others, but in general, that should give you an idea on how I’ve been approaching it and how long I’ve been iterating within this particular area. And this will be, again, a continued, like you always have to have a beginner’s mindset, my core mentors say, and I try to embrace like.
Most people like people who are coachable and you’re only going to service yourself if you retain some openness to taking in new info and playing at higher and higher levels. Like inevitably you’re going to have to continue to learn more. So these are always open-ended areas to continue to develop in. Second, this one’s obviously newer because it hasn’t been around as long. AI. You guys have heard me talk about this, write about it now for months and months.
This is again, like from an investment standpoint, both monetary as well as just time, like it’s arguably number one or close to it some days more than others perhaps. But, you know, I don’t necessarily need to rehash all of the, you know, how pro AI we are. Again, I’ve commented on this.
ad nauseum here. Um, but I would reference at least again, what we’ve been doing. You know, we learned really most of our skills from Kellyn Faulkner and her on the common business team. Um, you know, again, I, uh, can reference the, the link attached to this podcast. You can sign up for her bootcamp later this, uh, this, April, um, depending on when you, uh, uh, listen to this, um, as you know, probably the highest ROI.
entrance into developing, highly, highly leveraged AI skills, both for your own personal life, as well as business. like she’s been our primary mentor, her and her team, they are truly world-class here. So like, and we have spent thousands and thousands of dollars, learning from, from her team directly too. again, put your money where your mouth is. and I have to reference, that, and again, from a time perspective, like my team and I, are.
constantly on claude co-work, running into usage limits routinely here, just trying to figure out, how much more can we push these systems, especially when the capacity for all these AI companies is like continuing to be constrained, especially in relation to energy constraints and what’s going on and chip availability and so forth. Again, very uncertain times, right? So, but at the same time, was by far the most powerful technology humans ever created.
I don’t think that’s an overstatement at this point, especially if you’ve actually played around with these tools and understand their capabilities. So as it relates to real estate, particularly, because this is something I go back and forth with often as well too. And I think it’s hard not to, it’s just, again, we’re in just a really tough real estate market. Again, there’s pockets that are certainly have
still higher seller demand, know, again, pockets of the Northwest or North, and Midwest parts of the US, especially. Even then, like looking at that, a lot of those areas are still are becoming overvalued in terms of price appreciation in relation to income levels locally. So, you know, again, still got to be cautious and real estate is hyper local.
But those are really the areas where it might still be easier to dispo and still have very quick turnover within the real estate space. But again, it’s supply constraints. So it’s harder to develop volume within those areas because there’s just less to inherently work with. Plus the regulations tend to be significantly higher in those areas as well, or at least significantly more red tape.
timelines, et cetera. so that there, there’s certain trade-offs to be, noted there. but like it’s, it’s definitely hard to be, you know, optimistic and really bullish within the real estate space right now. like we’re, we’re, just getting punched in the face, like on a near daily basis with other news that comes up. just like, yeah, we’re just spending again in like close to four years straight of just worsening real estate cycle.
on average here, again, like Biopool has like really continued to diminish nationally and doesn’t seem to have bottomed out even four years in, like this is long, rough cycle that we’re in. so, you know, being able to look into the future and still see that the best times could still be ahead, like it’s just, harder to do, but nevertheless, as it relates to AI,
I think the pieces start to fall more in line with why that can still be the case. And again, I would reference one of Hermozi’s recent videos where he was just really pounding the table of like learning AI, like pretty much any worker in the world right now, especially any knowledge worker, like.
their number one priority should be upskilling themselves within AI. I don’t even think being facetious, but like really, priority number one through 10 and even beyond that because of how much leverage there’s gonna be. and again, this is one of the money model masters, entrepreneurs, small business owners that the world has produced.
more recently. so like that, opinion certainly holds weight. And, you know, we had already come to that conclusion prior to Hormozi mentioning that anyway here. But the core thesis in relation to this too, is just, know, again, under the assumption that right now is the worst AI is ever going to be. And so you guys have these near magical capabilities of claude cowork.
for, for instance, or even what you have to PT and some of the other models can do, or, even the new model that entropic, hasn’t even released publicly yet because it was so good at, determining, bugs within the cyberspace, that, it, was a security threat to, to release publicly because it was finding like deep, deep bugs, that
hadn’t been figured out for like 40 plus years in some instances. So like these models are just insanely powerful. And again, this is like base case, the worst it’s ever gonna be. So we can only assume that, you know, even if it’s not as rapidly improving, like it’s probably almost assuredly still going to improve over time, only gonna get better. And so we can make the reasonable assumption that intelligence and labor will…
eventually only cost the energy it takes to produce it. Labor, especially within the context of physical labor, like assuming a lot of these AI models are then applied into sophisticated hardware and robots and so forth, that can start taking on a lot of the tasks around the world. And that’s lagging a bit further behind compared to
you know, AI is it exists within the digital space, but we can work under reasonable assumptions and look at current progress that those two will be paired more as time and, you know, technology continues to develop. So like, I’m just working under the assumption that, you know, everything in my head, everything in our heads has a rapidly diminishing shelf life. Again, innate intelligence or everything that we’ve learned like that.
the quality of that to the marketplace is going to continue to diminish. So you might have a moat now, you might have moats for within that space for months, maybe even some amount of years, but it’s hard to anticipate that lasting even within our lifetimes. At really best case, I would anticipate much shorter than that given how good these models have become in such a short period of time.
so with all of that in mind, like, and again, we’re kind of anticipating this technology continues to approve and, we’re able to overcome the uncertainty within the, macro economy and so forth. And we’ll still have like an optimistic future as humanity. That that that’s just underlying assumptions. Like what will still remain valuable. And this is like within hormones, these words as well too. It’s like, you know, for the time being at least medium term, humans will probably still have bodies. So like food nutrients.
still going to have value. People are still going to need a place to live, potentially work, you know, and, you know, gather together here. So that’s another avenue. People are going to, you know, have a desire and really a need to be entertained. Like if most of our base needs are taken care of, you know, labor is not nearly as valuable or necessary to do from a human standpoint.
Um, what else is there in life? And, know, he’s pointing out, yeah, I mean, the entertainment industry, think about it, you know, live sporting events, um, uh, you know, certain, uh, TV programs or movies or, you know, other, any, any digital distractions or even, um, you know, gathering places like, uh, you know, insert yourself into some of those activities, like meeting other people for, I don’t know, picnics or, uh,
farmers markets or to go play some basketball or tennis or what have you. Weddings, for instance, all of that can fall within the entertainment sphere. And then obviously, energy is still going to be necessary in order to cover the costs of running these AI models or the physical infrastructure that might embody them.
So what you might note as a common theme for all of those is that they do require real estate in some form or fashion. So that’s what I keep coming back to is that as rough as the market is, and maybe for some time, there is still this longer term moat that comes back to the industry that we have chosen where value
will still be able to be made as it relates to necessities for human beings for the foreseeable future. And it’s like one of the few industries that you could actually say that about. So very key to note within that. for another piece,
as it relates to that too. Hermosy mentioned this too, of all Ravikant, you know, similar kind of framework too is that, you know, even as powerful as AI may become and,
you know, ability for it to solve problems and, um, you know, enact work, uh, just on the physical environment. Like it doesn’t necessarily have innate desire for anything. Um, and therefore it doesn’t have an incentive to undertake or underwrite risk. Um, so like the ability to take risk and underwrite risk is still a human endeavor. Um, and you can still carve out a moat.
with your capability to do that, whether that’s from a sweat equity standpoint or a capital standpoint. You know, incurring risk is still an area that we will be able to produce value and still contribute to the world there. So I want to mention that in relation to AI and why, again, I’m still so bullish on real estate.
even in the midst of such difficult market conditions. like, again, shiny object syndrome, every entrepreneur runs into this too. Like you can look at other industries and all these vibe coding startups. now there’s, think there’s like, yeah, this one solopreneur has already built up a billion dollar business, one operator, no other employees, I think selling GLP-1 drugs online.
Um, you know, just through all this AI leverage and like, there’s all these opportunities to, take advantage of, um, will those opportunities still be as available in the future? Very unclear. Um, or people just trying to like arbitrage AI plays to take advantage of, you know, different,
Problem solution pathways across so many different industries. It’s harder to say how long that might still exist. And so I’m reminded of another quote that goes something along the lines of like, no one cares what the score is at halftime.
You know, only at the end of the game. So, you know, just remember, like, pick your pathway and stick with it and understand that, you know, the longer term potential and the longer term moat availability that you might be working with or, you know, build ability may still be much better over the coming years and decades, even if short term.
it’s just a much rougher place to operate within. So that covers the AI space. Next is mindset. Human psychology, you can consider it by many names here. Often I think this is poo-pooed as an idea or could be attributed too much to certain woo-woo.
paradigms and lines of thought or like, you know, the secret type stuff of where, know, if you visualize it and, know, give yourself affirmations that thing, you know, the universe will just orient itself around your desires to produce it for you. I don’t buy that. that that’s not my approach to mindset at least, or how, how I would define it as, to me, the mindset is really the core.
Thinking that you you as a biological organism are continuing to embody in order to produce the lines of thinking that lead to the behaviors that Continue to evolve you to push and achieve
anything that you might, put your mind toward. So, you know, to boil it down further here and almost anytime I would define mindset, like it, there’s like maybe a slightly different, take on it, but I kind of liked the wording when I just went off the cuff there. hopefully I can repeat that in the future.
But to me, like the mindset piece, anybody who invests in areas like this, and this is actually, I joined this mastermind this year, which is like the biggest, or it was a big check, like 20,000 in like really rough market conditions. have a new kid on the way and just, budget is just tight. But it was with a really special group of people and very, very high level operators. And I was like, okay.
this is the bet that I’m going like the bigger monetary bet and also a time bet that I’m making in this particular vertical that is a core focus of mine. Because I’ve continued to believe that the people who invest in mindset are inevitably the people who come out winning in the end here. Because I think, you know,
pretty much anybody who consciously is attempting to invest into psychological improvements to themselves, mindset, self-help, call it what you will. Those are the type of folks who have an optimistic viewpoint for the future and are looking to both build themselves up and ideally, most of the time, contribute.
uh, to those around them. Um, like you, you, might have a couple shysters out there. might have a couple, uh, know, tire kickers. Um, but most of the time that I’ve joined, you know, mindset oriented groups or, you know, spend time around folks who really put a lot of effort into this space. Like they tend to be the highest performers, um, whether currently
or are trending towards the highest performance within their fields, like within a business techniques, tactics, strategies, investments, personal health and relationships, and within the AI space, they’re trying to achieve their potential, which, as sometimes nebulous as that sounds, I think like,
continue to invest within the mindset space, like that might be the most critical differentiator for, you know, who’s going to come out ahead versus who’s going to fall behind within this tumultuous and AI forward world. Because if you don’t have the strong mindset to continue to show up every day and compound your results on a consistent basis and maintain your
goals and your company’s goals for evolving and adapting and having a beginner’s mindset, so to speak, inevitably you are going to falter or you won’t necessarily have what it takes to work through the difficulties that arise for anybody. Or you might just get tired of the game.
Um, and even if, know, you’re able to achieve a lot of material success, as you might say, um, you know, won’t have the fire to continue to realize your own potential and still push forward. and, uh, you know, might be passed up by others. So that kind of comes back to that, you know, half time quote, like, yeah, some people might really, really jump out ahead. They’re, you know, the, the, hairs in the race, but, um, you know, so some of these tortoises, right. With, with the better mindset.
will end up ahead or win at the finish line. So that’s, I think the overall synopsis when it comes to that mindset piece here.
And, you know, again, as it kind of relates to, and I know I had mentioned this in a recent writing, it’s like. You know, what do you choose to believe in? What what do you what are you willing to live for? What are you willing to die for? And, know, I’d written about, you know, again, in this time where AI and the macro uncertainty are like such opposing forces here, and it’s just going to require leaders to arise and.
Walk the tightrope of leaving themselves and their fellow, you know, humans to a more optimistic, you know, future for us all. Like I just firmly hold on to that belief and that mindset of like all the talent and all the skills that I’d built up through my almost four decades on Earth here. Or one, two,
for almost five decades rather, sorry, doing math, was like all leading up to this point so that it could be one of those core leaders to help us achieve our collective potential here. And so that is a very powerful frame of mind that can keep you moving forward in the midst of, again, so much uncertainty and tumultuous.
problems and scenarios throughout the world. so I, I want to reiterate that and share that again and, kind of reflect, you know, have your yourself reflect back on your own situation and really determine, okay, what type of mindset are you actually encouraging and maintaining on a daily basis and what additional work and frameworks can you keep, keep in mind here? So, that’s that piece. Fourth piece is really all mentioned, you know,
more, more quickly because it’s, mean, it’s absolutely critical. but as it relates to like business and so forth, it’s more of like a kind of underlying, backdrop of performance, which is really just, you know, physical mental health. yeah, and it’s probably the area where I feel like I’m doing the best at, with, with, within my life, in comparison to other areas here, but like, it’s just,
It’s really just been built up from just relentless habituation of showing up every day and getting, getting the workouts in, you know, eating basically the same thing every day, getting to bed on time. It’s all the boring habits that, um, you know, no one really wants to talk about, or, you know, they, they might, but, everybody’s looking for the shortcut of, you know, again, look at how many people are going to use the GLP ones. mean, no, uh,
no shame on that. They’ve been tremendous for society here, but like it is a shortcut approach, right? to, you know, start more, more start to rapidly lose weight and, you know, folks can take the performance enhancing peptides and whatever, and just like, you know, the easier paths, supplements and what, what have you, like, yes, I, I take advantage of those too, but like critically.
It’s the boring habits of showing up every day. Like those are the big blocks that most people just do not want to move. And I’ve invested thoroughly into this. Like I’ve worked with a trainer, you know, again, paying pretty significant amounts of money. Plus from a time standpoint for multiple years now, to keep my, workouts on going, like from a sleep perspective, have, you know, super fancy mattress and you know, eight sleep, cooling cover, one of the best purchases I’ve made in a long time, but you know, this is really pricey stuff.
Um, to, uh, to, put together, um, you know, the, the food side, like, you know, just from a time and focus standpoint in the protein fiber, et cetera. Um, it just takes, you know, day after day amount of, you know, conviction and determination, um, in, order to stick with it. That’s why, you know, so few people are good at it, which again, it’s like lessons for those other three areas that, I mentioned to is, you know,
the best rewards in life come when you put the time in. So like that baseline physical, mental health, you know, paradigm and area of investment for me, like sets what lays the groundwork for everything else. Everything else would fall apart if I didn’t have that. like, again, a lot of people just like shove it to the side. We’re just treated as an assumption as it relates to.
you know, actual business development and so forth, and areas of, you know, quote unquote, investment to make. But it bears worth mentioning because of just how critical it is. You know, you could say like just relation, like interpersonal relationships are kind of interwoven between all of these. So I there wasn’t like a clean category to put that in. But like
let me at least throw a caveat, some nuance in like that. Yeah, that’s absolutely key. If you’re not investing within relationships, like according to the studies, like that is the number one factor for longevity through life is maintaining close and positive social relationships. I don’t let that be forgotten here. So just make sure wherever you’re investing that you’re also taking advantage of building and maintaining those types of.
relationships here. I wanted to mention that. So hopefully this is a good roundup for how we’re thinking about and, especially myself, in investments to be made, how it’s orienting toward the future, why I think some of these bets are better to make now, especially in the current time that we’re living versus others here. But you can see they’re pretty widely encompassing across most areas of life.
but it’s also like, what tactics within those are actually the most useful? What frameworks are the most useful? And you can also use like really negative frameworks within each of those and like negative beliefs that could just tear you down as well too. So hopefully you could hear my underlying optimism and growth perspective.
as it relates to all of those for where I think you’re going to get your best results. So with all that in mind, you can subscribe and share again, check out below if you want to join a Kellyn’s effortless business bootcamp starting April 21st here. You can use my link below. And if you do sign up, you’ll get a private session with me teaching you Claude cowork and skills you can apply to your business within five minutes. And I will
guarantee your payment to the bootcamp personally. So if you don’t build something useful within the first week of attending, I will reimburse you personally. that’s how much or how bullish I am on the capability of AI. Like it’s just obvious. So hopefully that comes across loud and clear. Looking forward to next time everybody take care now, bye.
