Does your mind tend to overcomplicate or overthink things? What about when it comes to your property investing business- whether it be starting a new strategy or growing to the next level, does your mind over complicate or over think it? I certainly have done (and occasionally still do 😊). So, if you can relate, I hope this question I’m about to share helps you reframe things.
Here’s where it came from – One little question buried inside a 16 minute podcast really jumped out and caught my attention this week. I had to pause my gym session, grab my phone and type out a quick few notes.
I was listening to Pat Flynn talking about how he’s been able to succeed in the endeavours he’s chosen to focus on. In his 5 point summary about that he referenced a question credited to Tim Ferriss and that’s the one that got me thinking about it’s application in property.
Here’s that brilliant question – “IF THIS WERE EASY, WHAT WOULD IT LOOK LIKE?”
This reframe helps to counter over complication. So when the subconscious mind slips into overcomplicating things making things harder than they need to be, this question helps you to refocus on not just how am i going to get this done, but what are the simple ways or easy methods to do so.
The reason I love this question is because it reframes the mind to get you thinking about what the minimum things are you can do to get the maximum results. This isn’t to say we’re lazy and looking for the laziest way to get there. In most worthwhile pursuits we’re probably going to have to work really hard but the key here is to direct that hard work at understanding what are the first dominos I should knock over that will push all the other dominoes forward.
So in the context of starting a property strategy, you could be asking yourself, what are the highest leverage first steps I can take to get this flywheel moving?
By way of a quick practical example, when I think about how ‘IF THIS WERE EASY WHAT WOULD IT LOOK LIKE?” applies to SA, what I see is having the demand piece of the equation sorted in advance. When you have found the end user demand, and you’ve established some commitment for an accommodation solution, then the rest is relatively easy. The rest of the equation can slot into place far more easily than if you were basing decisions on hope and guesswork. When you have validated the guest demand it will inform you exactly where the property needs to be, what price point it needs to be, what kind of spec the property will need and what kind of service offering you’ll need to go with it.
Without that key piece of the puzzle, SA can feel incredibly difficult to get started without some expensive mistakes. I’m talking from personal painful experience here [and I’ve written about it in detail in my book Predictable Property Profits] – all about how starting with demand made our second SA business far easier than the first one, which was based on guesswork.
So how else could you apply this powerful question to your property business?
If starting and growing a property business were easy, what would it look like? Some of the answers that come up for me are:
-learning how to do the thing from someone who’s already done it and got the results you want
-having regular coaching and accountability to keep you executing on the right things
-using the right power team experts to keep you safe – ie architect, solicitor, accountant, broker etc
-leveraging other people to help you get more done ie team members, VAs, freelancers, agencies
So I’m curious to read what comes up for others (and I hope this prompts some creative thinking and reframed perspectives) – in the context of your property business, ‘IF IT WERE EASY WHAT WOULD IT LOOK LIKE?”