Month: June 2020

The mid way point of 2020 is here, can you believe 6 months have gone so quickly? And in those 6 months our world has quite literally changed. What lessons will you take out of half one and what will you choose to focus on and implement in half two?

Just as we were about a week or so into lockdown, I shared a post with the quarterly review that I do, and it was very well received by those who read and completed it. So here we are again, another quarter of the year elapsed, this one like no other we have every experienced with a full 3 months in lockdown- managing immense change in our businesses, homeschooling for the first time, making new decisions, creating new routines, adapting, assessing what we truly value and so on. 

Timeless research has proven that humans are purposeful beings, in other words we need a meaningful purpose to strive for. It’s so important to stay connected to our vision for what we are striving for with our property investing, and reviewing a logical time period like the previous quarter is a great way to do that. In amongst all of the uncertainty and reactive challenges we have worked through during lockdown, it could be easy to lose our way or fall into a mental fog with no direction. In a time like this it’s more important than ever to acknowledge our progress in 2020 so far and reassess our direction moving forwards.  

Reviewing each month and quarter is about investing past experience into future preparation and focus – ie your past decisions, successes, failures, lessons. That’s where the good stuff comes from.

I’ve been using a 6 Step review process for a couple of years now and find it to be a powerful way to positively acknowledge incremental progress, and to extract the gold that will pay future dividends. I learned this from entrepreneur Peter Voogd and I consciously do this at the end of every 90 days. It only takes 30 mins, a small investment in your future self. 

Give yourself the gift of reflection this week by answering all the questions under each of the 6 headings.

Section #1 – OVERVIEW

• What went well, what didn’t?
• When was I in my zone, when wasn’t I?
• When was I at my emotional energy peak?
• What caused me peace of mind?
• What frustrated me?
• Did I do what I said I was going to do?
• What systems have I put in place?

Section #2 – PSYCHOLOGICAL

• What have been my biggest breakthroughs?
• What have been my biggest frustrations?
• What have been my mind-shifts?
• What have been my biggest disappointments?

Section #3 – TACTICS

This section looks at what were my top 5 wins from last quarter: financial, family, adventure…?

Getting down to business metrics ask yourself:

• Did I hit my business income goal last quarter?
• What were the top three marketing campaigns or sources of income last month?
• What were my top income producing activities?
• What are the biggest ways I’ll be producing income this next month?
• How did I add value to the marketplace, could I have added more? 

These will likely be related to your highest values but only you will know.

• Did I leverage technology?
• Did I maximise my reach?
• What will exponentially grow my reach this next quarter?
• What did I do to stay adventurous and feel fully alive?

To help keep you going with the nitty gritty march of each day it’s important to mix it with the things that energise you. In previous quarters this would have included things like getting in a game of tennis once a week, or maybe a mini break with Mrs W. This last quarter however it’s been related to exercise, creating outdoor chillout space and trying new local food delivery options, like some great authentic tapas last weekend, yum.  For those with freedom in their highest values this will be particularly important, however it will be massively challenged compared to previous summers. We will all need to be creative about what little things we can do from home/locally to create mini rewards during the months ahead. Whatever it is, choose something and schedule it.   

If you aren’t consciously making a decision to put things in your diary that will keep you alive and vibrant, even in these times where less free movement is allowed, you will become complacent.

Section #4 – RELATIONSHIPS

I love this one:

• Who did I connect with and reach out to last quarter?
• Did I take care of my current relationships and did I reach out to people who can cut my learning curve in half- i.e. people who I can partner with in some way that’s relevant to your business?
• Did I leverage partnerships?

To add to this, based on what’s currently happening, who can you make a conscious effort to connect/reconnect with virtually? My wife and I have really valued engaging in more family and friends zoom calls based around coffee mornings or drinks evenings.

Section #5 – TEAM

Think about questions that will help with your team review:

• How was my team engagement?
• How was my speed of communication?
• What feedback can I give them?
• What do they need in terms of skill development?

If you have a team, what can you do to help assure and engage them in during these uncertain times?

Section #6 – LEGACY

• What did I work on that was legacy focused? In other words something that you work on now but won’t get paid until long into the future, or something that you don’t reap the benefits for until way later, ie creating things that you value but that you get paid 6 months or more down the road. Note that if you just do this kind of work for the rewards/benefits you will lose steam, it’s important to engage in legacy work for other reasons, for something bigger than you. As a side example, part of my family legacy work last year and ongoing now is taking conscious time with my boys to teach them one key life value each month.

Peter Voogd recommends spending 80% of your time on profit making activity, creating systems etc that makes sure you have the money coming in for you and your family now. Then 20% of your time on legacy focused things. Eventually when you have built the business you want you can switch focus to investing 80% of your time on the legacy side of things. Isn’t that an exciting prospect? To spend 80% of your time on something that helps a cause you believe in or adds value to the world in some way, and not worry whether it pays you or not.

Conclusion

I challenge you to invest 30 mins each quarter to do this. WHY? Because high achievers always ask better questions, and they are always investing their past mistakes/lessons into their future preparation.

Hit reply and let me know if you complete the review for yourself.

With a title like that you might be thinking, ‘What on earth is he talking about…leverage your future self?’. Well, bear with me and I’m confident it will make sense and pay off for those who read on.

Firstly, Happy Fathers Day to all the Fathers out there. On this day of showing appreciation to our fathers, I encourage you to answer the following question in your own mind – 

What is a lesson, piece of advice or example from your dad that has shaped you into the person you are today? 

For me, it’s been the lessons of work ethic, entrepreneurial endeavour and family focus that I have absorbed through my Dad leading by example, and in him sharing his stories of business.

So back to the quirky title of this post, and it leads on from this theme of getting advice. For this week’s post I wanted to revisit something I wrote and shared around this time last year. Instead of thinking about advice from your father, or a mentor figure, we’re going to delve into advice from your future self. The two techniques I’m going to share will require you being a little more open minded and certainly being proactive….if you’re interested, and if so I’m confident it will serve you well. They come courtesy of Darren Hardy, one of my favourite authorities in the personal development and business leadership space.

As we fast approach the midway point of 2020, I am turning this exercise on myself in thinking about the second half of this year and beyond.

TIP #1: YOUR BEST MENTOR IS YOU 10 YEARS FROM NOW

Here’s how to leverage that concept – add 10 years to your current age and fast forward in your mind to that time. Visualise how you are living out your best life ie what you have already accomplished, what you are now working towards, how you speak, how you act, what behaviours you demonstrate, what choices you make.

The you 10 years from now, knows exactly what to do right now. So, if you’re up for it, take the time to visualise the future you, and in your minds eye ask questions of your future self and take your own advice.

As Hardy advocates, “Your goal is to live up to the person your 10 year future self knows you can be.”

So in the context of your own property investing journey, what does this look like? Are you wondering what your next move should be? Are you re-setting your goals based on our new reality? Or maybe it’s your first move in property that’s the question. You might be wondering what property strategy to allocate your time, energy and resources to. The answers will come by asking yourself things like how you want to be involved in your property business, the kind of conversations and activities you want to engage in, and how it all aligns with your highest values and your financial goals. Only you can answer those questions and in particular your 10 year future self will know what to do now. Give it a go.

[By the way this is a more customised take on another effective exercise you may have heard about where you can visualise your own private boardroom of advisors and you choose whoever you want sat round the table ie Branson, Gates, Bezos, Buffet, Huffington…. and you imagine what advice they would give you.]

TIP #2: GIVE YOUR FUTURE SELF A GIFT

This second tip is super effective for helping you deal with tough ‘in the moment’ decisions. For example, you’ve got an hour scheduled in your diary to call and email leads to generate direct bookings to your serviced accommodation properties – you could get stuck into those calls or you could start google researching various search terms to ‘kid’ yourself you are busy.

Everyone will have their own version of this in their business and personal lives. In the moment you are doing battle with emotions to overcome this and give your future self a gift ie in the example above it would be the gift of more direct bookings. In other words you want to be thinking, how can I be a hero to my future self by doing X task in the present. 

A simplified example might be that even though you are tired after cooking a big meal for the family, by clearing the kitchen before bed you can wake up to a fresh start the next morning (your future self will thank you for it,  especially when the head is a little dusty from the night before 🙂 ).

What you’re doing is flipping the conversation in your head so that instead of the task being drudgery in the moment, it feels honourable because you are not putting off something your future self will have to deal with later.

This is not rocket science, it’s the essence of delayed gratification. You’ve heard it before packaged in different ways but more often than not we need reminding of what we know more than we need new information, and sometimes hearing it from a slightly different perspective is what it takes to finally action it.

I recall a quote I first heard from Dan Pattrick, of Dapatchi, which really resonated with me, and it follows the same message. Here’s the quote –

“Do something today that you will thank yourself for tomorrow”.

Can you imagine the positive ripple effect from being intentional about living that quote each day?

What are you going to do today as a gift to your future self (and if you have kids, as an example that will shape them)?

Aren’t the months flying by? This week I was hosting some of the monthly Platinum Mastermind sessions – two fantastic days working with great people serious about progressing their dreams through property. 

I have to admit I love masterminds. I have been part of different mastermind groups since 2014 and have found them to be hands down one of the biggest competitive advantages in my corner. 

If you’ve read ‘Think And Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill then you will know that being part of a mastermind group has long been identified as a common denominator amongst many of the world’s most successful people. 

If you haven’t come across the term before then here is a brief explanation – a mastermind is essentially  a group of like-minded individuals working together to improve- whether it be their business, trying to make more money, or achieving something else important in their life. In his book, Napoleon Hill described it as,

“the coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people who work toward a definite purpose in the spirit of harmony.”

He went on to say, “no two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind.”

This ‘third mind’ is what makes a mastermind group so powerful in helping it’s members access a higher level of thinking, its the collective intelligence at work. 

Billionaire steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie credited his entire fortune to his mastermind group. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone had their own small mastermind group.  And these groups aren’t just for business people, one of the most famous mastermind groups of all time was the ‘Inklings’, an authors’ group with members like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Owen Barfield.

All of these now well known names understood this powerful concept that Tony Robbins has referenced many times, “The quality of a person’s life is most often a direct reflection of the expectations of their peer group.”

In the same sentiment, here’s another fitting quote I read just last night in MJ Demarco’s Millionaire Fastlane book, 

“When you associate with people who empower your goals, you create a wind at your back and build momentum. Positive people nurture your growth, sooth your failures and invest in your dreams. Good people are conduits to your dreams, not just in motivational fuel, but in extending your opportunity reach.”

SO, HOW DO YOU GET THE MOST OUT OF A MASTERMIND?

The 3 steps below summarise key points I’ve learned and observed having been in around mastermind groups over the last 6 years.

#1: Invest in yourself and become part of a mastermind group

• Sounds obvious but it has to start somewhere, and it comes as no surprise that studies into the wealthiest show the no.1 place they like to invest is back into themselves (ie their development).

#2: Open your mind.

• There is always more to learn, and too often people get caught up focusing too much on what they already know, or have maybe heard before, rather than being open to the new ideas or subtle nuances that can make a big difference.  This is often one of the biggest things that hold people back. As you get more and more experienced there is a danger that you can feel like you know everything and that can close you off to learning from people that maybe aren’t at your level yet but who are doing some things right, maybe in a different and unique way and what will happen is you’ll still be stuck doing the same thing in the same way and won’t be open to new shifts and new breakthroughs. The true value is in the one idea you can implement straight away and get a massive return. 

So an open mind and being an eternal student of the game is key. 

#3:  USE WHAT YOU LEARN

• Sounds obvious and simple but it’s essential. As referred to above, a mastermind is not about tons of new content but each time you attend, it’s about picking out and actioning the one key idea to get a return, then everything on top of that is gravy. It’s then about putting the conditions around you to keep taking more of the right kind of action. 

By way of anecdotal examples, I remember back in 2016 I’d first heard about capital allowances around the same time from two different property mastermind groups I was part of. Actioning that one piece of knowledge more than paid for my investment to be part of those groups. 

I was listening to an entrepreneur podcast last week and the host gave an example about the power of masterminds for him – he wanted to be around other software entrepreneurs so found a suitable mastermind group to join. In the first session he heard about start up grants being offered by Stripe and Amazon and by taking action on that one idea he had successfully won a six figure amount in grant funding to support the development of his software. That clearly paid for his mastermind several times over. 

If you are part of a mastermind group, what is one big idea you took away from your last meeting that you have implemented/are implementing?

Last week I posted the question “WHAT WOULD BE YOUR BIGGEST QUESTIONS TO ASK AN ARCHITECT/DEVELOPER?”

I then caught up with my developer friend Kenny Martin for a chat and to discuss some questions that had been requested by a number of people in these property communities. We thought it would be fun, and helpful, to record the conversation to share with other property investors who are considering development.

Kenny and I were on the same mentorship programme and various courses back in 2016/17 and since then he’s accomplished  a lot. He has always run his own architect practice, Block Architects, and pivoted into developing his own sites with JV partners a few years ago. He’s now developed 60 houses and counting so knows a thing or two. 

I picked out a handful of the questions to put to Kenny and we recorded the whole thing. 

Below I’ve captured a topline overview of our discussion and if you’d like to dig into more of detail you can watch the recording (link at the bottom).

Q. WHEN IT COMES TO INITIAL DESIGN – HOW MUCH DOES A DEVELOPER RELY ON THE ARCHITECT?

A. In many cases the developer often relies on the architect too much. A developer can’t expect the architect to understand the specifics of the business model behind the end use of the building. At the beginning of a project, and before any drawings are done, the developer and architect need to work hard together to hone in on what the business plan is (ie the desired end building and how it serves the people using it) and how that will impact the building design.  It really does depend on the experience of the developer because the experienced ones will know this stuff already. 

To help clarify what is being delivered by an architect it’s wise they use a fee appointment document at the beginning of the project – this will outline what is required and what is being provided. 

As a developer you need to understand the varying degrees of service available from the architect and you need to understand what it is you’ve actually paid the architect to do. 

For Kenny’s full response watch from around min 16. 

Q. WHERE DO YOU FIND THE LAND AND HOW DO YOU CALCULATE HOW MUCH IT IS WORTH?

Kenny said it all comes down to relationships and networking – letting multiple people know what you are searching for and the proactive process of asking for referrals. Kenny refers to a number of referral sources and types of people he speaks to around min 29.

In regards valuing the land we joked about how the go to formula of yesteryear of a third for profit, a third for build and third for land is something that just can’t be applied these days. Clearly there are so many variables and appraising a site is no mean feat. 

Having established realistic comparables from other houses built in the last few years Kenny will work backwards from the GDV to establish the land value. There is a fairly involved appraisal process he goes through to establish key aspects for example: a build cost from the foundations up, ground works, foundations and utilities – and these will all be specific to the site. (For more detail on that watch around min 39. ) 

Q. WHAT KEY THINGS HAVE YOU LEARNED BY MAKING MISTAKES?

A. Be sure to invest the time to build solid rapport with JV partners and a clear understanding of what each other wants and brings. Outline the roles and responsibilities within the partnership as it relates to the various parts of the project. 

Kenny also points out as a learn is that whilst developers can be attracted by the upside of selling what they’ve built, it’s important to also think about creating the opportunity for future recurring revenue. In other words, not to sell everything you develop but retain some assets to let for ongoing income. 

What’s important, is it about the lumps of cash or is it about creating freedom through cashflow?

(For more on this part of the conversation watch from about min 56.)

Q. WHAT SHOULD AN INVESTOR/DEVELOPER LOOK FOR IN AN ARCHITECT AND WHAT ARE THE TOP THINGS TO ASK WHEN LOOKING TO WORK WITH ONE?

A. Don’t make a decision based on price but rather look to understand what the value of their service is. You’re looking for value rather than a transactional price

-Ask for testimonials and references to see their past work – you want to assess their ability to deliver the quality that suits your project on other sites they’ve done. Physically walk round buildings of their past work)

-Get a feel for what people who use the building think about it – that will give you an idea of how well the architect met the brief. 

-Assess their communication ie willingness and time to respond

(For more on this part of the conversation watch from about  1h 3 min.)

Q. I’M LOOKING FOR AN ARCHITECT WHO CAN WORK WITH ME AS PART OF A TEAM AS WE MOVE INTO DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS, SOMEONE TO HELP WITH GUIDANCE RATHER THAN JUST A TRANSACTIONAL AGREEMENT. ANY SUGGESTIONS?

Kenny suggested to start local and ask for referrals. Look for the architects who have experience in the same kind of developments you will be doing. Bear in mind that some architects will do ‘at risk work’ ie putting time into things without a guaranteed fee/payout so do respect that the architect will either require a fee or a stake in the project. Kenny very honestly pointed out that a fee rather than a stake in the project is going to be the cheaper option for the developer. (check out min for more detail). 

(For more on this part of the conversation watch from about 1h 9 min.)

As promised, to hear Kenny’s full answers and get all the detail from our conversation check out the RECORDING HERE Whilst a long video there are nuggets sprinkled throughout. 

Was that helpful? What follow up questions might you have on this topic?