Month: October 2021

The title of this post poses an important question but one that is often overlooked by many investors, my past self included. 

What I’m referring to here is a big challenge that comes up regularly round the monthly mastermind tables – and that challenge is figuring out where to start ie what strategy and what location. When someone begins to invest in their property education it’s very common to become overwhelmed with the choice of property strategies, because they are all great. And by wanting to do everything it can very quickly lead to getting results in nothing. Can you relate? 😊

That’s why I thought it would be helpful to share some examples and strategic questions that can help you pinpoint a strategy to focus on and get started with. And more than that, I truly believe that of all the property strategies there will be one that aligns most closely with who you are and the type of investor you want to be. I also believe that typically everyone has some kind of unique competitive advantage, although they may not see it initially, once identified it will allow them to get going a little bit faster and with a bit more ease than the next person. 

In my own case when Chris and I first joined forces and went through a number of courses in 2016, we tried to do about 4 different strategies all at once. For 3 months we were busy idiots scratching the surface with multiple things but not producing meaningful results with any of them. 

When we did decide to focus on one thing (that being R2R serviced accommodation) results came pretty quickly. They were short lived however as our first outing in SA was not a success – but that’s not what this post is about, back to finding a unique competitive advantage. 

When I look to help early stage investors identify where their unique advantage may lie we typically start by looking at what they know (ie career to date) and who they know (people in your network) to see what comes up. 

In my case it was digging up the ‘what I know’ that led to reminding myself of a timeless entrepreneurial business principle I was taught by some mentors 2 years previous. By applying this principle of finding the demand first to our R2R SA strategy it completely changed the game for us. [If you want to read about that in detail I cover it all in my book Predictable Property Profits 😊].

SOME EXAMPLES FROM OTHERS

What I always find fascinating is to see what unique competitive advantages pop up for people when we go through a series of questions and answers. 

We’ve had people:

*identifying potential sources of SA demand within their existing network 

*uncovering people in their network to JV with in some way

*realising they can combine what they already know with a certain property strategy and get started with more focus and confidence than previously expected

*realising they can use what they know from their career to pinpoint investment areas

…..the list goes on.

What I’m getting at here is that I firmly believe all adults can find a little something that can help them along their property journey purely based on who they are and what they’ve done. 

To explore this for yourself, think about what you already know from your life journey so far and how you could apply that to one of the property strategies you are aware of.

Alongside that, think about who’s in your network who could be a potential end user of a property strategy or someone who could help you in some way. Think back through all your networks – school, university, different jobs, sports groups etc. 

Property is a people business and when you see the various property strategies as ways to solve problems or help people fulfil a desire then it can really help bring clarity. 

QUESTIONS FOR FINDING ALIGNMENT WITH PROPERTY APPROACH & STRATEGY

Going back to the point I made earlier about wanting to do all the strategies, one of the ways I’ve found to help arrive at a decision is to first get clarity on what kind of property business owner you want to be. That can help narrow the focus and rule out certain approaches and some of the strategies. Here are some example questions:

*How do you want to be involved in your property business?

*What kind of tasks and activities do you want to be doing in your property business?

*What kind of tasks and activities do you NOT want to be doing in your property business?

*What kind of property people do you want to be engaging with regularly? Eg residential agents or commercial agents or homeowners or business owners? (you get the idea)

IN CONCLUSION

Thinking through the answers to questions like the ones above can lead you to that focused starting point we all need or the next strategy to focus on for growth. 

I’d love to hear if going through these questions for strategy alignment and identifying a potential competitive advantage brings a few lightbulb moments. 😁

You want to finish 2021 strong, right? Whatever happened up to the end of Q3, there’s a good chance that you reset some end of year goals as we crossed over into Q4. Well, now that October is nearly over how are you tracking? Are you making progress on what you know you should be doing?

I first shared the following set of questions at the beginning of 2020 and thought we could all benefit from running through them again now. So, if you’re interested in making sure your good intentions for your property business don’t dissipate, here are 12 questions to check in on yourself with. I first learned these from Darren Hardy and having noted them in my journal I’m going through them now for my own benefit. I hope you can benefit from asking these of yourself also.

12 QUESTIONS TO CHECK IF YOU ARE DOING WHAT YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD TO GROW YOUR PROPERTY BUSINESS

[the short sentences in the parentheses highlight the harsh truths that may be going on inside your head, hopefully not however 🙂 ]

#1: Do I have a weekly calendar with slots booked for my most valuable priorities, before each new day starts? [so I can create rather than react]

#2: Do I allow too many interruptions during the day from friends, family, customers, prospects, team members to interrupt my flow and deep concentration work? [because it’s a welcome relief from the hard work of creating and finishing something]

#3: Do I talk a lot, extending conversations into longer chit chats when unnecessary? [because it’s seemingly justifiable to delay the hard work of creating]

#4: Do I multi-task? [even though I know it reduces my intellectual ability and causes me stress and anxiety]

#5: Do I love the adrenalin buzz of being overly busy? [in order to feel a sense of importance and self esteem even though it’s at the demise of my actual productivity]

#6: Is living in chaos and constant motion more comfortable to me than stilling my mind and single tasking? [because I might fear to be alone with my own thoughts]

#7: Do I find it really difficult to say no? [because I am too needy for approval and lack the self confidence to stick to my own priorities]

#8: Do I often find myself in a crunch to finish projects because I’m in over my head? [because I allow myself to be everyone else’s whipping boy/girl and don’t protect my own priorities]

#9: Do I spend hours needlessly on social media? [to escape and distract me from what’s most important]

#10: Do I waste time doing repetitious, non-vital and inessential tasks? [because I haven’t put systems in place to automate or eliminate]

#11: Do I maintain control of nearly everything because I believe no one else can do it as well? [which makes me an egotistical and delusional narcissist]

#12: Do I believe I can’t afford to hire someone to help me? [because I don’t actually value my time, my family and my health appropriately]

If you’ve read this far you might, like me, have thought woah- those questions can be quite harsh and cutting. They are, but answering them for ourselves can only help by shining a light on what we need to keep us progressing in an optimal fashion. For me personally, I’ve noted some actions needed under questions under 7, 8 and 10. 

Have these questions shone a light on something helpful for you?

This week has been mastermind week – four packed days, working with different people each day, different business plans, different geographic locations, different respective goals and challenges, yet one overarching and clearly shared theme – to create more of the life they want through the vehicle of property. 

A couple of weeks ago Darren Hardy shared a post about the 3 things that the top 0.1% successful people have figured out access to, these being:

1. Counsel – ie the right coaches and advisors
2. Connections – ie being connected to a reference group that help them reach their goals
3. Strategies- ie access to the kind of strategies that allow them to execute at a much higher level than competitors

Point no.2 really resonated with me because of the incredible yet almost unnoticeable impact it can have on us over time. You will know this already, but it’s worth reminding that as a social tribe species we raise or lower our performance to match the pace, expectations and performance level of our reference group.

Just let that sink in a moment and think about who is in your reference group?

Property entrepreneurship can often feel like a lonely and isolated journey. For the first 8 years of my own property journey I didn’t even have a property reference group, no property friends, no community and certainly no mastermind. And boy did it feel lonely at times. No one to ask questions to when I was second guessing myself, no one to discuss property ideas with or celebrate little wins with. No one to match my performance level to. If only I’d been part of a property mastermind group back then, progress would have been so much faster and the journey so much more enjoyable.

By way of a little glimpse behind the scenes, here’s just an overview of what was being shared and discussed in our mastermind groups each day:

-ideas to overcome obstacles or capitalise on opportunities

-inspiration and belief

-support and challenge

-power team contacts

-strategies and tactics to level up

-mindset development

-resources and tools

-potential JV opportunities

-laughter and friendship

This is what makes these days so powerful and why I love them so much. And when we underpin it all with the key pillars of productivity, like specific process based goals stacked with accountability amongst your reference group – this is how phenomenal progress and results happen. 

Who you spend your time with influences the person that you will eventually become.Ask yourself – are you raising your performance to match the pace, expectations and performance level of a suitable reference group?

This week I wanted to take a moment to highlight something incredibly important and powerful for property entrepreneurs as we journey along the rollercoaster towards our big goals, dreams and our whys. 

Most people in property are aware of the importance of having a clearly defined WHY – that deep rooted and compelling reason why you want what you want. Well, once we’ve figured out the why its crucial to stay connected to it and keep it alive by experiencing it in smaller versions throughout and over the years until we are really living the full why. 

I remember hearing the same sentiment being delivered by entrepreneur and speaker Ed Mylett in one of his videos, he said;

“Touch Your Dreams! The more you go and touch and experience your dreams, the more FAMILIAR you become with them! The more familiar you are with them the more your mind starts to gravitate towards them.”  He went on to say that the more you do that, the more you start to ‘believe you belong there’. 

So, here’s a short video from Chris and I about touching your dreams – we’ve just had the last week doing exactly that and it has been so incredible to experience a slice of our dreams, to reconnect to our why and to re-energise our enthusiasm for it all heading into the final sprint of the year. 

What will you do to ‘touch your dreams’ before the end of the year?