BROADCASTS.com

Luke Stronach. He\u2019s spent the last few years raising money for his farmland fund. He\u2019s got one single family office as an investor. He\u2019s currently 44, he\u2019s taught finance, and most of his background is in low-income housing. He\u2019s really looking forward to coming to the show and he\u2019s a listener.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 The Fish That Ate the Whale
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013\xa0 Stewart and Lynda Resnick
• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Duolingo
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 7
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? \u2013 If you want to have a meaningful life, you should be doing meaningful things

\xa0

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:20 \u2013 Nathan introduces Luke to the show
• 01:46 \u2013 Luke shares what he likes about The Top
• 02:04 \u2013 Luke has raised less than $10M for his farmland fund
• 02:15 \u2013 Luke is currently in the process of moving to Atlanta
• 02:20 \u2013 Luke is about to close his first farm
• 02:28 \u2013 Luke\u2019s second orchard is under contract
• 02:34 \u2013 Luke wants to develop a 100 acre orchard in Georgia
• 03:06 \u2013 Luke mentions what farmland investors are looking for in a farmland
• 03:24 \u2013 Luke\u2019s first orchard had good irrigation
• • 03:43 \u2013 It has 600 acres and was almost $2M
• 04:41 \u2013 40% of North America\u2019s farmland is leased to farmers
• • 04:50 \u2013 Investors buy the farmland, lease to farmers who rent per acre or have a revenue share agreement
  • 05:35 \u2013 Many farmers are cash flow farmers
• 06:00 \u2013 There are differences across different crops
• 06:45 \u2013 Luke shares the farmer\u2019s perspective on crops
• 07:01 \u2013 Average rent per acre
• • 07:40 \u2013 The farmers growing rice and corn are renting at $250 per acre
• 08:00 \u2013 Luke\u2019s return on his $2M investment
• • 08:50 \u2013 The return will always depend on the yield which varies
• 09:06 \u2013 People look at farmland investing as a way to lock value into the land
• 09:12 \u2013 There are people who are after the yield and there are those who are not
• 10:05 \u2013 Luke shares what happened in 2007-2009
• • 10:10 \u2013 S&P 500 lost 50% of its value
  • 10:46 \u2013 Historically, farmland has done well with inflation
• 11:00 \u2013 Luke\u2019s opinion regarding inflation
• • 11:14 \u2013 The returns in farmland can be attractive
• 11:57 \u2013 Farmland is not as big as commercial property
• • 12:03 \u2013 Farmland investment is a hard space
  • 13:10 \u2013 It is a persistence game
• 13:40 \u2013 Luke is currently in Alabama
• 14:00 \u2013 Nathan wants to study Luke\u2019s field and work with Luke
• 17:17 \u2013 There are so many things to do in Georgia and Luke will keep Nathan busy
• 18:08 \u2013 Luke makes software for farmers
• 18:59 \u2013 In Episode 450 of The Top, Nathan had Robert Leclerc, the founder of AgFunder
• 19:23 \u2013 The Famous Five

\xa0

3 Key Points:

• The farmland investment industry is a hard space and requires persistency.
• People look at farmland investing as a way to lock value into the land.
• If you want to have a meaningful life, you should be doing meaningful things.

\xa0

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling \u2013 Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip \u2013 Nathan uses Drip\u2019s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal\xa0\u2013 Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn\u2019t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible\xa0\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox\xa0 \u2013 The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf \u2013 Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11\u201d secure even when he left it in the airplane\u2019s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks \u2013 Nathan doesn\u2019t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives