Last week’s post on ecological goal setting seemed pretty well received, so thanks for the kind comments and engagement. The natural next step is to follow up that deep thinking around setting the right kind of goals for YOU, with an implementation plan. That’s what I’m going to outline here.

First a quick summary of the week that was. Alongside progressing my own goal planning work and a couple of days delivering mentoring, there was a big focus for our team on optimising occupancy across our existing SA portfolio. As many of you know, January is never the kindest month in the SA industry so even more reason to dig deep. Here are a couple of the actions that bore fruit for us this week:

1) Sent a bulk text message to 2018 guests for whom we felt would have a reason to be back in our area at some point this year (and offered a wee discount on the first night)

2) Called and emailed a selection of our best repeat guests who we knew would be returning to work on the 7th (ie the construction trade).

So, back to the implementation plan. In the last post I wrote about how to set psychologically optimised goals that are congruent ie your conscious and unconscious mind are aligned in relation to the goals you set.  

In the goal setting process it’s easy to get excited in the now by writing down a big goal but the science of achievement requires us to connect the dots between a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) and what exactly we need to be working on quarter to quarter, month on month and how we’re using our time each day.

The big rationale behind artful implementation is to take the time to do strategic planning now so that at no time during the quarter are you at the desk on a Monday morning wondering what to do to get started (or at least it will be significantly minimised).

An implementation plan prevents that brain fog, but sadly making this investing the time to create such a plan is the most common part of goal setting that people skip. It’s often looked at as too much like hard work-  and you know what, it is hard mental work! Most good things do require some uphill struggle, but it’s also where we can get most clarity. I heard a brilliant quote this week from one of the greats that ties into this point, it goes;

 

“People have uphill hopes, but downhill habits”

– John C Maxwell

In other words, we all want the things that require ‘uphill’ efforts, but are we willing to put in the work that builds the ‘uphill habits’ that will get us there?

You need to take your BHAG and translate it into a project plan. This part of the process is uncomfortable, which is why people skip it but having a well thought through plan will keep you aligned, in the zone and knowing what you have to do next. BHAGs don’t manifest on their own, it takes real intentional work to dream them up, plan the road map, and then of course execute.

Here’s a quick summary of the process for artful implementation that I’ve been taught and continue to use each year. (Chris and I do invest multiple hours in goal planning in the opening weeks of Jan)

IT’S TIME TO BUILD THE FOUNDATION OF YOUR YEAR!

STEP #1: List your key projects

taking everything into account, list 5-20 projects that would have an immediate impact on your business. With this list you are thinking up all the growth driving activities that move you closer to achieving the BHAG (ie various strategies and tactics you want to try that would/could result in a net positive to the business).

STEP #2: Now eliminate all but 3, and ask yourself:

– are you able to complete each one in a 12 week period?

– can you complete these with your current resources ie time, people, money?

STEP #3: BUILD THE OUTLINE PLAN

Now for each project, build the outline for your implementation plan by completing a handful of answers to these 4 foundational productivity questions:

 

For project 1

#1 What specifically needs to happen…to get started? To continue? To finish?

#2 How can you measure progress? (ie no. of viewings/offers per week. Booking revenue, occupancy by month..) When answering these questions think about what can be ritualised/repeated.

#3 What deadlines need to happen within 12 weeks? Think it through and allocate deadlines you can put into your diary.

#4 How can you stack multiple layers of accountability onto this project. In other words, who all can you inform, involve, make a pledge to etc that will help you follow through on your promise. Think mentors, family, advisors, peers).

Do the same for Projects 2 and 3

STEP #4: 12 WEEK PROJECT PLAN

The final stage to this is creating your 12 week project plan where you literally create a grid with 84 days and then populate it with dates, specifics and deadlines (as per your answers to the Q’s above) to work to each day and week. Schedule this stuff in using the mechanisms that work for you, phone, outlook calendar, a wall chart or whatever. Allocate sufficient time and protect it in your diary.

And there you have it.

 

Happy New Year!

In last week’s post I shared the Intelligent Reflection process that Chris and I do each year. Here are just some of the reasons why we complete that reflection process before diving into setting any goals:

*Being a business owner makes you very tough on yourself, but intelligent reflection offers a way out of that.

*It gives you energy and inspiration to continue marching towards your goal, even in the face of feeling you’ll never be done.

*Most entrepreneurs have a lack of awareness of how much they’ve actually done and achieved in a year (in other words we get caught in the trap of looking at the out of reach summit of the proverbial mountain rather than congratulating ourselves on looking back and seeing how far we’ve come).

*It acts as a powerful post mortem analysis on mistakes that you can take valuable learning from

*It’s a way out of the ‘insanity cycle” ie doing the same thing and expecting different results

*You can surprise yourself with some easy wins ie getting clarity on something that got you great results and can be replicated going forwards.

So what about actually setting goals? I’ll take a safe bet that most people in the property community will punctuate this time of year with making resolutions and/or setting goals. Often, these will be ambitious financial based targets which may include numbers of properties, monthly cash flow increase from their BTL’s/SA’s/HMO’s, number of new build developments and so on. In themselves, nothing wrong with goals like those, in the right context that is and with the appropriate alignment at a deeper level. However, without the right psychological alignment, goals like these can fall flat and fail to get off the ground. Therein lies the problem.

I’m about to share one of the biggest insight’s I’ve ever learned on goal setting, here it is – don’t chase after goals that your subconscious mind doesn’t really want. Now, you may be thinking, What on earth are you on about? But if you’re interested to understand this concept and transform your goal setting and achievement, bear with me.

Here’s what I’ve learned over the last few years from a specialist psychologist for entrepreneurs. Our unconscious mind has one sole job – to push us away from pain and towards pleasure. And because of this primitive fact, the subconscious controls our mental valve on motivation.

In other words, one seriously needs to consider the secondary and tertiary consequences of pursuing a goal because the subconscious will slam on the breaks if it thinks PAIN is in the future. As a simple example, if we start the year saying I want to double my income from property, but as time and activity goes by the brain realises that in order to actually double the income it would mean significantly more time sourcing/viewing/travelling…(you fill in the blanks of the secondary consequence) and less sleep/more stress/less time with family (tertiary consequence).

What I’ve just highlighted can’t be underestimated, it is a major cause of feeling ‘stuck’ during the year, chasing after what you THINK are the right goals for you. Self sabotage arises from pursuing certain goals when the unconscious mind doesn’t get the same excitement as the conscious mind, because it’s worried about pain. But with alignment, motivation happens intrinsically, it isn’t something you need to will into existence.

So what’s the answer?

ECOLOGICAL GOAL SETTING

This is the real gold dust. This is the stuff that’s been taking me a while to embed but I’m really starting to see the power in it year on year. You may wonder what is meant by ‘ecological’ in relation to goal setting.

 

Meaning of ecology from the online dictionary

‘the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms.’

In the context of goal setting, the purpose of ecology is all about alignment between the conscious and unconscious mind. Having also learned about highest values from Dr John Demartini, I liken this alignment concept to his work on values ie we have to balance out our capitalist goals with our other highest values. We will thrive more in business when other parts of our life thrive too.  

So to optimise chances of goal achievement we must run the goal setting through a filter of well formed conditions.

These conditions include the following:

#1) The goal must be stated in positive terms

#2) The goal must be initiated and maintained by you

#3) The goal must use sensory based descriptions of outcomes and steps

#4) The goal is ecological in every sense ie think through how it will affect other areas of your life

#5) There is more than one way to achieve the goal

You can see this is a completely different process compared to just writing out a list of exciting things you would like to have or happen. Thoroughly thinking through goals like this is designed to set your unconscious mind building a map, a reference place and foundation for what’s involved in achieving these goals.

I appreciate this is a lot to digest so if you got this far, well done. Even better, if you choose to act on this and implement it with your own goal setting you will be doing the work to set yourself up for a great year ahead.

We’ve been toying with the idea of holding an online walkthrough session of the advanced goal setting process for those keen to implement it for themselves- Hit reply/PM me and let me know if you would be interested in that.

Wishing you all a 2019 of good health, growth and fun.

The final week of the year and the first week of the new year offer us the time to pause for reflection and design, with intention. 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 but it contains absolute gold for you if you choose to invest the time to work through the following 6 part questions for yourself and your own last 12 months.

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.

Happy New Year, and wishing you health, wealth and happiness in 2019!

PART 1

*What are my personal current strengths?

*What are the business’ current strengths?

*What were your biggest accomplishments this last year?

*What marketing won this year?

*What was the best thing your 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 last year (what was it we were focussing on? What were we trying to grow? What were the conversion rates we were trying to improve?)

*Products/services sold in 2018?

*2018 gross revenue?

 

*2018 Expenses?

 

*Split into 3 categories- what percentages were:

Marketing _

Operations _

Salaries _

 

*2018 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 2018 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 2018?

Being in the property investing community, I’m sure I speak for many of us when I say that it can be quite easy at times to measure wealth on objective scales ie like no.of properties we own, actual equity in the properties, monthly net positive cash flow from our BTLs/HMOs/SA units etc etc.

Whilst monetary wealth is super important to create in order to afford us freedom of choice, to look after our health, our loved ones, to enjoy our leisure time, indulge at times, and to give generously etc….there is another crucial measure of wealth. And to paraphrase the words of one of my favourite virtual mentors, here it is,

 

“Wealth is not a state of bank account nor a material checklist, it’s a state of mind and of being”. – Darren Hardy

 

And here’s my take on what Darren meant by this – At this time of year, as we surround ourselves with loved ones, and the afford ourselves the time to really engage with them, it’s the perfect time to consider how wealthy are you really? To love and be loved. To feast, drink, laugh and be merry with your family and friends. That’s a real and meaningful measure of wealth.

So wherever your property journey got you to financially by the end of 2018, take the time to consider your wealth in other areas of life, and be intentional about making the most of your time with loved ones at this magical time of year.

 

P.S. During this exact week last year I shared a post about “Presents Or Presence This Christmas’ which may be appreciated at this time.

http://adaeroproperty.com/week-51-presents-or-presence-this-christmas/

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

 

Welcome to December folks. Two weeks ago I shared a post on finishing the year strong and how you can ‘Fixate on breaking the tape’. If you missed it you can find that post here

A few things Chris and I are pushing on to finish the year strong include:

-onboarding 3 new SA units in the week ahead

-sourcing and analysing mixed use commercial sites (ie shops and uppers) with a view to securing a deal for early 2019

-direct booking marketing for our SA units ie flyer drops, email and text message campaigns, phone calls and referral requests

-optimising our accounting software and processes for better reporting and analysis

Whilst we still have 3 busy weeks to realistically hit our final 2018 goals, many of us are already thinking about 2019. For the last 3 or 4 years I’ve completed a pretty comprehensive year end review and year ahead planning process (more on that later) and this week I read an article by Tony Robbins about creating an extraordinary year. So. I thought I’d share the topline of that article here for those interested.

Robbins says, “Transforming into the person you want to be in 2019 is not difficult so long as you have the dedication, focus and correct tools at your disposal”.

STEP #1 FEED YOUR MIND

I’m going to paraphrase Robbins here – ‘feeding your mind is all about perspective, you’ve got to bring something new to it otherwise you’re going to keep feeding off the same old beliefs, same old thoughts, same old emotions that have not gotten you the level you want”.

So don’t just hope things will go your way, we need to learn to condition ourselves to believe they will. In other words, this relates to what we are telling ourselves (our internal dialogue) and that is influenced by what we put in front of our eyes and into our ears. It’s not a coincidence that the leaders in this personal development space say the same thing.

Darren Hardy shared in a post this week that thoughts inform expectations, which drives your creative process, which drives you to produce the results you ultimately realise. What informs your thoughts? What you put in front of your eyes and ears. See, same thing!

So, you’ve got to guard your mind from limiting messages and simultaneously feed it with positive messages by reading empowering material ie autobiographies of role models and selectively choosing what information and news you let in.

Robbins recommends a book that he read as a teenager called The Magic of Believing by Claude Bristol. It’s not one I’ve personally heard of but it’s now added to the audible list.

STEP #2 STRENGTHEN YOUR BODY

So step 1 is about strengthening the mind, it’s equally crucial to strengthen the body. ‘Priming your physical self can set the stage for the change you want to see mentally and emotionally’ says Robbins. ‘If you go for a really intense run, music blaring and heart pumping, your body and mind will both be energised and clear, and you’ll be able to better focus on what you want”.

STEP #3 FIND A GREAT ROLE MODEL

Robbins advocates that, “If you want the best year of your life, you need to decide to find a great role model who is already getting the results you want.” In other words, to accelerate your journey, rather than just try to do it yourself you want to model someone who’s already getting results.

STEP #4 TAKE MASSIVE ACTION

To simply summarise this step (and Robbins reminds us it’s simple) – Make a huge step forwards. So what is that for you…..? Build out your website. Reach out to a prospective investor. Find a deal and offer on it. Book a big family holiday that will bring everyone together.

In short, get clear on what action to take and take it. Every week.

STEP #5 GET OUTSIDE OF YOURSELF

Instead of focusing 100% on your goals and what you want to achieve in 2019, Robbins reminds us to also find a way to add value to others. “As corny as it sounds, the spirit of living is giving, and it’s what makes us feel alive” he says.

By helping others figure out there problems it has two primary impacts:

1. Your problems will lessen in intensity
2. Your life will have more meaning

“Life is not about me; life is about we. So it’s not just growing, it’s growing and contributing beyond yourself that makes your life meaningful.” – Robbins

So, there are 5 high level steps from the big man himself. If you’re looking for something more tactical go ahead and message me and I’d be happy to share the process I run through between Christmas and New Year. The process is simple yet thorough and looks like this:

-Reflect on the last year

-Inventory of the present

-Create a vision for the year ahead

Message me if you want in on this.

And here’s the final Robbins quote to finish on – “If you want the best year ever of your life, you’re going to have to come up with a vision. What do you want? What’s going to be different next year? What do you want to change and what do you want to transform?”

Today (Nov 22nd)our friends across the pond are celebrating Thanksgiving, hence the prompt for this week’s post. It’s a shame we don’t mark the occasion in the UK as it’s a great opportunity to openly express gratitude- towards family right through to our respective property businesses and beyond.

And why is gratitude so so important? To explain I’ll borrow and paraphrase words I heard from someone I’ve been following for over 10 years – ‘Happiness is not derived from the outside ie material things, it’s derived from the inside – and the way we do that is through gratitude of what we already have. Only then can we nurture what we want more of.’ – Darren Hardy.

If you’re interested, here are a few tips on practising gratitude that I’ve picked up over the years from reading/following the work of thought leaders like Darren Hardy and Shawn Achor (AKA ‘The Happiness Guy’).

*Focus on what you HAVE not what you LACK

*Take the focus off yourself and turn it on others

*Be intentional about giving thanks to people each day

*Swallow ego and express gratitude

*Practice gratitude every day to feel the benefits over a longer term

Writing a post on this topic is also a great opportunity to unashamedly express massive gratitude for key people who have and are influencing and supporting the ongoing journey of continuous growth – my amazing and supportive wife Emma, awesome business partner Chris, our Ops Mgr Louise, all of our mentors, our power team on the ground, all our paying guests and this brilliant property community.

And here’s one final thought:

Whilst this week is great for taking inventory of everything that might appear on our gratitude list, I also challenge you to think about how often YOU appear on someone else’s list- not just today, but throughout the year. Quite a re-frame isn’t it?

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Here we are in the final 44 days of the year. Well over 300 days down and we’ve all invested a massive amount of energy and dedication to put ourselves in the position we are in, and we want to finish strong.

Wherever you stand with your property goals, what can you do to make sure you have that final big sprint to finish the year strong and go into 2019 with confidence and momentum?

I looked back at my 2017 posts and realised that I wrote a similar one around the same time last year, just using a different reference. Clearly it’s something I think about around this time each year and I’m sure I’m not the only one. This time round I was prompted by a recent message I heard from Darren Hardy who referenced the true story of a runner who was able to consistently lead the field but who always lost in the final stretch of the race. His coach, who had observed and analysed the runner’s race habits and results, pinpointed the problem – in the final stretch he was always looking over his shoulder at the competition and in those moments would be overtaken.

The coach’s advice that proved successful was to ‘fixate on breaking the tape’ and ‘don’t look over your shoulder. You can’t be afraid when you are out in front and alone. When you look over your shoulder you switch focus from the positive goal of winning to the possibility of someone overtaking you.’

This same thinking is what we all need to apply to our respective business situations in the final weeks of the year, if we want to finish with a winning feeling. In other words, to really focus on our goals and protect ourselves from distractions.

In a quick google search I found an article looking at the science and technique in the 100m sprint race. To the very point I’m highlighting, here was the same message,

‘One important aspect of the 100m is to always stay focused on yourself and the track ahead of you. Glancing to your left or right to see where your competitors are will only slow you down.

“You should be able to run 100 meters like a horse in the Kentucky Derby with blinders on,” Ato Boldon says. “Nothing in the 100 should ever cause a sprinter to look to his left or right.”

Ato Boldon knows that full well. He glanced over to Namibia’s Frankie Fredericks in the 1996 Olympics and fell behind him, which got him bronze rather than silver.

“I know more than most that you can do it,” Boldon says, “but you have to spend the rest of your life telling people why it cost you a medal in the Olympic Games.”

And here are a couple more fitting analogies about the ‘final stretch’ i.e. in the NFL, the most points are scored in the final 2 minutes of each half; and in the retail industry 25-40% of annual sales happen in the final 45 days of the year. In other words, the race for the year is won or lost in the final push.

So if you want to finish 2018 strong, focus on breaking the tape and don’t let the hysteria of the upcoming Christmas season break your focus.

Here are 5 STEPS TO MAXIMISE THE END OF THE YEAR:

(This is a shortened extract from last year’s post and you can read the full post here: http://adaeroproperty.com/week-48-breaking-the-2017-finish-line-tape-with-massive-momentum/ )

Step #1 AWARENESS

*Have full awareness with what you’re doing and how you’re operating in the final stretch of the year.

*Do the opposite of others i.e. at this time of year, most people are starting to eat unhealthy, drink more, take the foot of the work pedal but if we want to differentiate ourselves we have to do the opposite – step up the exercise, keep the diet in check, plan effectively, don’t sell yourself short

STEP #2- STACK UP MOTIVATION WITH WHYS

*Figure out WHY you want to have an amazing end to the year AND build MASSIVE MOMENTUM going into 2019, and write the reasons down.

*Look at these reasons regularly and use them to push you through while others are easing off.

STEP #3- WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING AND PRIORITISE

*Best way to get rid of the overwhelm and fuzzy thinking is to write everything down. Get it out of your head and onto paper.

*What GETS SCHEDULED GETS DONE

*Write out clear expectations for your business for end of the year and clear tasks for each person, whether it’s just you or if you have a team – it’s about working more strategically and intentionally rather than doing loads of hours so we can all be more present with our family.

STEP #4- CELEBRATE WEEKLY PROGRESS

*Celebrate weekly progress rather than focusing on perfection or living in ‘the gap’ i.e. focus on what completed or how far you’ve come in the last year, be grateful what done rather than living in the gap of where you think you should be”.

*This next bit of advice is gold, and my favourite quote of the podcast – “You are exactly where you need to be, to learn exactly what you need to learn, to get the lessons that you need to get to build an amazing future”. Don’t beat yourself up, bet on yourself.

STEP #5- WHAT IS YOUR GAME CHANGING HOLIDAY ROUTINE

*The ritual you create to solidify getting back in the zone.

*It’s hard to build momentum when you take breaks, but at this time of year you need to, and when you do you’ll want to be fully present. So to allow yourself to be fully present during down time, maximise what you do leading up to the break. You’ll then feel amazing taking time off with your family.

*In advance of taking your time off, think about and write down a ritual to get you back in the zone.

What are you doing to keep your focus on breaking the tape?

 

I wasn’t surprised to see multiple doom and gloom articles in the press last week following the Budget. Headlines like “Four-pronged attack on buy- to-let investors will net the Treasury almost £12bn by 2024”.

However in amongst all the doom mongering I did spot a more positive article pointing to ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ – ie that even though the buy-to-let sector are being hit by higher taxes, lenders are competing hard to offer cheaper mortgages, often not much more expensive than the lowest residential fixed rates. Here are some short form highlights from that article:

THE ARRIVAL OF CHEAPER BTL RATES

*Data released by the banking trade body UK Finance shows that the number of new buy-to-let mortgage completions was down by 13% in the year to August. This means that the remortgage market has become the new battleground for banks ie they are cutting rates to attract existing landlords to remortgage.

*Leeds Building Society has launched the Easy Start Mortgage which offers landlords 3 a month of interest free period before reverting to a 2.82% for the remainder of the 5 year fixed term.

*The lowest rate is a two year fix from Sainsbury’s bank at 1.4%

EASING OF LENDER REQUIREMENTS

*Most lenders require monthly rental income to be 125% of the mortgage payment but some banks are starting to lower this with Nat West leading the way with the lower requirement of 100% coverage for landlords with income of £75K+ (whether this is from property or not).

*Age limits – Many lenders stipulate that customers have to be 75 or under by the end of the mortgage, however smaller lenders are beginning to remove the maximum age limit making it easier to hold a buy-to-let property as an income generating asset in retirement

NEW ENTRANT CUTTING APPLICATION TIME TO 24 HOURS

*New entrant Molo Finance will offer buy-to-let mortgages through a mobile phone app and would be able to make formal offers within 24 hours of application vs the industry standard of 18 – 40 days. See more here https://molofinance.com/

So, as you can see, definitely not all bad news, and there were plenty of positives to come from the budget, (as summarised in last week’s post, if you missed it you can look up HERE), particularly for those choosing to invest in commercial property and serviced accommodation.

 

One other legislation related snippet from this week’s reading to share was an article from YPN on this topic:

SPENDING MONEY ON PROPERTY REPAIRS TO OFFSET THE IMPACT OF SECTION 24

In short, spending money on necessary repairs can mitigate the impact of section 24 for private landlords who will be pushed into the higher tax rate of 40%. By way of a quick example, for a basic rate tax payer the tax benefit of a £10K refurb before section 24 was £2K (ie 20% of £10K that could be offset). With Section 24 in full force, if the landlord is pushed into the higher rate of 40%, the tax benefit of that £10K refurb is £4K.

So it’s well worth timing larger repairs with the phasing of Section 24.

EXAMPLES OF REGULAR REPAIRS THAT CAN BE OFFSET AGAINST REVENUE

*Replacement of kitchens and bathrooms

*Decoration and replacement of carpets

*Upgrading of glazing, plumbing, electrics

*External work to improve kerb appeal

*Replacing boiler

All to say that with disruption comes opportunity. Have a great week ahead.