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

Famous Five:

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

Time Stamped Show Notes:

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

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.

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11" secure even when he left it in the airplane's back seat pocket
Freshbooks – Nathan doesn't 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

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