The final few days of the year and the first week of the new year offer us the time to pause for reflection and design, with intention. I hope you look back on your 2019 and acknowledge all of the incremental progress that has been made on your journey in property investing. It is important to think about the past year intelligently because past performance is the best predictor of the future.

This is a short post that is becoming a mini tradition for me to share at this time of year – and it contains absolute gold for you if you choose to invest the time to work through the following 6 sections to answer questions for yourself and your own last 12 months in property.

This intelligent reflection forms the most important part of the year end review and planning process. In my questionable opinion it’s essential to punctuate this time of year with such a process. I am starting this exercise myself now and it forms part of the overall review and goal setting process that I invest significant time in over the first couple of weeks of each year. I will follow this up with my summaries on the goal setting process next week.

Happy New Year when it comes, and wishing you health, wealth and happiness in 2020 and for the decade ahead!

PART 1

*What are my personal current strengths?

*What are the business’ current strengths?

*What were your biggest accomplishments this last year?

*What marketing or business development won this year?

*What was the best thing your property business created for you?

*What was the most extraordinary value or customer experience that you created? (who did we really move the dial for?)

 

PART 2

*What were the most important lessons learned?

*What were your weak points, what do you need to improve?

*Are there any threats to your business or market?

*Any missed opportunities?

*What are the current weaknesses of your business?

*Were there any ways to improve customer service in the last year?

PART 3

*Specific metrics for your business this last year (what was it you were focussing on? What were you trying to grow? What were the conversion rates you were trying to improve?)

*Products/services sold in 2019?

 

*2019 gross revenue?

 

*2019 Expenses?

 

*Split into 3 categories- what percentages were:

Marketing _

Operations _

Income/Salaries/dividends _

 

*2019 net profit

 

PART 4 (need to compare year on year, power of measurement)

 

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your:

 

*Lead Gen –

 

*Lead conversion –

 

*Customer fulfilment (following through on the promise)-

 

*Human resources (are they the best people in their roles)-

 

*Financial Systems (how clear on numbers month on month)-

 

*Market research –

 

*Satisfaction of the people in the business –

 

*Satisfaction with your work life balance –

 

PART 5

– Write a  letter to yourself (having reflected on each section). Write it as if you’ve gone back in time and are writing the letter on 1st Jan 2019 explaining the bumps, scrapes, wisdom to come. This works on the idea of reconciling expectations from a year ago with where you really are today.

 

PART 6

What single word would put a name to 2019?

Just before Christmas 2017 I shared a post about ‘presence’ over presents at Christmas [link at the bottom]. As a father, husband, son, brother, uncle, godfather and friend, I’ve gradually come to realise over the years that the magical time of Christmas is an opportunity for so much more than giving and receiving presents.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to give presents, and my kids in particular love opening them but what I’d really like to teach them by example, is how to be fully present and create rich memories.

 

As a large family we’ve been incredibly blessed with good health however this year has thrown us some challenges with one of the family going through chemotherapy. I’m overjoyed to say that it has been successful and celebrating together this Christmas with all of my family will be particularly special.

 

After a fantastic year in our property business and after pushing hard to finish strong all December I am looking forward to some awesome down time this Christmas. Not just relaxation but I mean really intentional memory making time with the ones I love.

 

I wanted to share a few ideas I picked up about we can all enhance the time we have with our loved ones and create enriching and lasting memories.

 

Here they are:

 

#1: CAPTURE THE MEMORIES

-make a conscious effort to pull the phone out and take some quality pictures of your loved ones laughing, playing, dancing etc (be sure not to bury your head in texts or social media, get back to that family party and really be there). Then after all the events, compile your photos into an online album to share with all those you created the memories with.

 

#2: FEEL THE MUSIC

-in advance of a family/friend gathering ask them to each send you a few of their favourite songs. Create a playlist for the gathering then enjoy the awesome atmosphere that you created.

 

#3: SPREAD THE LOVE

-write out a selection of thoughtful question prompts directed towards each of your family members/friends attending a meal with you. For example, “Something I love about [Name] is……”

“Something thoughtful {Name] has done for me is….”

“[Name] makes me laugh when he/she does….”

-have a few of these on each placemat and have everyone complete them to be read out later.

 

#4: BOX OF QUESTIONS

-write out a selection of questions that you would love to ask to learn more about your loved ones and put them into a little box

-during a family/friend meal have different people pick out a question to answer, this will prompt super engaging conversations

 

#5: TIME vs TRINKETS

-in place of impulse buying gifts to bulk up what’s under the tree, write out a Christmas card with a selection of experiences you will share with that person next year (I love that one).

 

#6: DON’T JUST GET TOGETHER, GIVE TOGETHER

-It has been said that families who give together make lasting and meaningful memories together.

-This might be organising a financial donation to a chosen charity, giving out soup and sandwiches to the homeless or any number of different chartiable things.

-This year my wife and I have organised a surprise dress up night with a twist, a little like a secret santa but with a big difference. For the name we picked out of the hat we have to buy a full outfit for them from a charity shop for £20 or less, and they have to wear it for the party night. There will be 17 of us so we will be donating in the region of £340 to various charities by buying up old clothes and random accessories, and then after the party we will be donating all the goods to Cancer Research for them to sell on again.

 

 

I hope some of these ideas resonate and help others out there to be fully PRESENT this Christmas and to create enriching memories.

 

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas

Click here to read the 2017 Christmas post 

 

 

I don’t know about you, but I love stories that carry an important message. One such story I discovered this week was the bedtime story of the ‘Raven Who Would Rival The Eagle’ by the Greek storyteller Aesop. 

 

If you haven’t heard the story, please google and look it up- it’s been adapted into a poem by W.T. Larned.

 

For speed and convenience, here’s a very quick summary:

 

-A raven sees an eagle swoop down from the sky, snatch up a sheep and fly off. 

-What a meal he thinks to himself, I could do that.

-The raven picks out a fat looking sheep from the flock and landed on her back.

-He tries to fly off but cannot lift the heavy weight.

-The shepherd hears the commotion and rushes over.

-The raven is captured in a cage and has neither a feast nor his freedom.

 

WHAT’S THE MESSAGE?

Some might say the message is about the risk of being over confident, but I prefer the interpretation I heard from Darren Hardy, which was this- if you’re a raven, don’t try to be an eagle, just be the BEST YOU! You can’t be someone else but what you can do is learn the mindset and action steps they used to create their success, and the resilience and grit that they applied consistently.

 

I’m sure everyone who reads this will have a version of this at some point in their lives, trying to copy or be someone else. What’s yours? And what does being the best you look like?

 

For me, back in 2014 the eagles I tried to copy were software entrepreneurs. I struggled like hell to build a software business, something totally alien to me. I was definitely the greedy raven but the proverbial sheep (the software business) was too heavy for me to lift. 

 

But thankfully my little story has some pretty cool outcomes. I applied the same principles I learned in starting a software business and used them to start a serviced accommodation business from scratch, that was profitable on day one! I found a way to be the best me doing something I really enjoy, and will continue to do all my life- investing in property. 

 

I’ve also come to recognise that part of being the best me is to share what’s delivered results for me so that others may grow and become the next best version of themselves. Everything I’ve been referring to with my little story above about applying a powerful approach to serviced accommodation, and now other property strategies, I’ve shared in my new book. 

 

It’s called Predictable Property Profits and it launches very soon so please look out for the notifications. In the book I share all the detail behind the approach I’m talking about, and there will also be some great bonuses available with the book on launch day. 

 

Until then, I encourage you to think about the message in the fable of the Raven and the Eagle- what does being the best you look like?

This week I was reminded of a great metaphor I first heard almost 10 years ago- that of being like a ‘river’ and not a reservoir or even worse, a swamp.

 

‘A river is free flowing and abundant with life, a swamp is motionless and stagnant. Rivers have traditionally been the focal point for settlements, trade, progress and expansion. Swamps = smelly back waters where people don’t want to live’. This was the reminder from mentor Darren Hardy.

 

When I was recruiting full time and commuting to work I distinctly remember discovering two key resources that shifted my thinking and opened my mind to actively leading with value. The first was John C Maxwell’s 15 Laws of Growth, and in particular his 15th Law- “The Law of Contribution”. This was my first introduction to the abundance mindset of believing that we will keep on receiving so long as we are dedicated to personal growth and always have much to give. We should “be a river not a reservoir”. In other words pass on knowledge rather than keep it to ourselves.

 

The second resource was an article in Success Magazine called “The Monchu Method of Networking”. As I read it I instantly recognised how neatly it applied to the world of recruitment. [That was back in 2011, and now with property as my focus the same method is equally applicable]. In short the article was about identifying circles of people who we want to help succeed and people who could help us succeed. The underlying message was about making a conscious effort to serve our various circles with value each day.

 

I remember how that article really resonated with me and walking to work that day I began thinking about how I could proactively better serve the people in my market. I forget to whom my first offering went and what exactly the article was, but the process grew into a habit as I began intentionally looking for opportunities to add value to other people’s lives. 

What exactly is leading with value?

In short, leading with value is all about genuinely seeking to add value to others and building a relationship before ever asking for anything in return. That value could come in all shapes and sizes from information, advice, or even something as simple as listening to what someone has to say.

 

What about you, are you a river or a swamp?

 

If you’ve been learning things over the last 10 years, have you been sharing what you learn with others?

 

The 2 key things about a river are 1) they have a fresh source of input; and 2) an outlet that allows the fresh input (water) to flow through it. Swamps on the other hand just pool water in the lowest lying areas.

 

You are no doubt getting new input, ideas and insights from what you read, events you attend, courses you work through but are you letting it flow through you to make room for more new ideas? By doing so you won’t be losing anything, on the contrary, you’ll be gaining by sharing what you learn and reinforcing it. 

This distribution outlet might be a conversation with your family or training your team on how to run your property business more effectively, or….you fill in the blanks 

 

How could this philosophy benefit you in your property business, what about with family and friends?

 

With whom are you going to share new ideas to keep things flowing THROUGH you and keep you from becoming stagnant?