Sometimes, you have one of those big, deep conversations that really makes you smile from the inside out with delight. Last week, I had one such conversation. One of the current TPV Apprentices outlined a BIG vision, goal and plan to me that had been lying dormant within her for a couple of decades. However, stimulated by the process she is going through, it had sprung back to life. The flame within was burning brightly and would not leave her...a sure sign that this was her true purpose or calling. I also recall a couple of similar stories where people have a vision, goal or dream bigger than themselves...including my own.
Of course, not everyone has that big, scary dream to start a £100m foundation or fund but we might have an vision to develop something just that bit bigger than ourselves. This is what today's episode is all about. Plus you get to hear a snippet from the lady that inspired this episode in her own words...
If you need a little inspiration right now, then this week probably won't disappoint...
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Transcription of the show
Sometimes, you have one of those big, deep conversations that really makes you smile from the inside out with delight. Last week, I had one such conversation. One of the current TPV Apprentices outlined a BIG vision, goal and plan to me that had been lying dormant within her for a couple of decades. However, stimulated by the process she is going through, it had sprung back to life. The flame within was burning brightly and would not leave her...a sure sign that this was her true purpose or calling. I also recall a couple of similar stories where people have a vision, goal or dream bigger than themselves...including my own.
Of course, not everyone has that big, scary dream to start a £100m foundation or fund but we might have an vision to develop something just that bit bigger than ourselves. This is what today's episode is all about. Plus you get to hear a snippet from the lady that inspired this episode in her own words...
If you need a little inspiration right now, then this week probably won't disappoint...
Property Chatter
Welcome to The Property Voice Podcast, helping you to navigate safely through the world of property investing. Get the low down and updates, insights and outcomes on all matters property, with a splash of entertainment along the way. The Property Voice, a voice to trust among the crowd. Now, let's get started with your host, Richard Brown.
Hello and welcome to The Property Voice Podcast. My name is Richard Brown, and as always, it's a pleasure to have you join me again on the show today. Well, what's been on my mind is really following a conversation I had with one of the latest apprentices, and you're going to hear a little bit from the apprentices later in the program. And we had a call, I think it almost two hours, probably plus or minus two hours, late last week. And I know that it had an impact on them and it certainly left a mark and an impact on me as well. And it was really around the topic of doing something that's bigger than ourselves. And now and again, you just get those types of conversation. And it happens a lot in this business because it genuinely is an opportunity to make big change.
This is not the only way to make big change, but it's certainly one way. And so I wanted to talk about that a little bit today. I have my own story and I have a few references as well that I'd like to maybe share. And it isn't necessarily the same for everyone. This isn't an everyday conversation, but it does come around now and again, maybe with a full moon, that sort of timeline. We have these deep, meaningful, impactful conversations with people. So let me illustrate the point. So the conversation on Friday, I was talking to one of my apprentices, one of my mentees, and we're having the conversation because they're on the program that we're working through. We're roughly two months into just over three month programme. And there was something new that came up into their thought process, which they put down into writing.
We go through a bit of a process of improving on a business plan over the period of the program, usually concentrated in the first part of the program. And this lady had basically talked about developing a fund. I had not really heard about that before in our previous conversations. Some things that happen that part of my role really is to test people's goals and make sure that they're viable but also, get them to dig deep within and really find what really motivates them. And it turns out this, this lady has a goal to develop a fund which would actually be a community based fund, let's call it a community case, excuse me, community based self build fund. That's why it's hard to say. Whereby people can actually not just get housing but actually create and contribute to building the homes themselves, but with the assistance of other people in the communities.
So it's pretty classical sort of community based housing. Everyone learns a skill, if you like, and mucks in to be able to build these homes. They will live in them afterwards. They will pay for them. They won't necessarily buy them outright, there'll be maybe a rent payment or something of that order and then it will be self sustaining, self fulfilling, setting a standalone type of thing. So the fund that she had in mind was about a hundred million pounds and that's what really got my attention because "where did that come from?" So we're having this conversation and here's the thing, this is where it came from. It was a thought, a seed germ of an idea, that cropped up with her roughly 20 years ago when she was studying a master's, she said, and it just hasn't left her.
And that's always a good sign, a good indication that perhaps there's a deeper purpose that's lying within, because it won't leave you alone. Trust me, I know this. And so we're having this conversation and this has now appeared on the business plan. Of course, we're talking about it. How can this be possible? How can you go about this? Of course, it's something bigger than herself, quite obviously, because it's about providing community-based housing, providing access to skills, providing this ecosystem and it's very laudable. Definitely beyond her own needs, let's say that, it's giving back into society, giving back into the community and we're just having this conversation, we're really talking about it and she was talking about how I challenged her and that often happens through this process. When you start to talk to other people who you can trust to share your innermost thoughts with, as it were, and maybe say those things that maybe haven't said.
In fact, the other thing that really struck me about as she said, she hadn't vocalized this goal, this vision, for those 20 years. It's the first time she'd actually uttered the words out loud to anyone else rather than keeping it within her own mind, her own head and her own thoughts. And that's part of this process really. We get to talk to someone, where you can share this sort of thing and test it. Does it make sense? Am I really barking up the wrong tree here or is there something in this? And in all honesty we talked it through because I think it's brilliant. The vision... I think it's great that it's been with her for so long i.e. that it has left and of course, she hasn't actually started fully to implement that yet.
I'm sure she is working towards that in other ways, but it has not been a dedicated or focused thing. So we're talking through that in a very safe environment. And in all honesty, I thought it was a fantastic idea. And I am now a cheerleader, cheerleader rather. And so I'm very supportive of the idea and hasten to add, it won't be easy by any stretch of the imagination, to achieve the goals that she's setting out for herself with this vision. But to some extent it's a calling, I think. That's what I understood from really talking to her and getting to know her, roughly a couple of hours conversation. We're supposed to talk about a range of other things, but we actually spent so long talking about this vision and that's what it does to you.
It's deep. It can spark you into different direction of thought that perhaps you had, rather than the regular routine of "I want a property portfolio to replace my income or provide for my retirement or even leave as a legacy for my own family", which by the way, is something bigger than ourselves. You don't have to have a hundred million pound fund as a goal for it to be valuable at all. But providing for someone else, including your own family, and including the next generation is also something bigger than ourselves. And that's where I'm going with this whole theme today, so that was one example. I can give you another example. Our previous apprentice program, there was a gentleman there who, according to gentlemen, is a young man and his vision is to develop a fund.
Again, sounds familiar here doesn't it? But in this case it's to support athletes who wouldn't otherwise gain access to elite funding programs. And we started talking about, "Well what would make a difference?" And really we started to quantify that in terms of how many people he could support, what sort of funding level it would need to support them and over how long. And we came up with a number, effectively, that would in today's prices, make the difference that he's looking to achieve. And it would be around about 60 million. These are big numbers, a 100 million, 60 million. And in the second person's case, that would be, you could imagine it would be a lifetime's work potentially, if he's going to build the money for himself and his own net worth. Of course we start to think laterally once we have these lofty goals.
So does it have to be our own net worth? Does it have to be a giving pledge type of a territory that we need to head into? Well, the answer is no. Just like with property, we can leverage other people's money to buy a property, we can leverage other people's money to help us with these sorts of goals. It doesn't necessarily mean that all that money needs to come from us and that needs to be our net worth. It's can be a foundation, it can be a fund, it can be a collective effort. Now it's the second example and that was something that happened a little while ago. Another example is somebody I work very closely with, with my business, has a goal to support people gain access to housing, which they wouldn't otherwise have. A tenant buyer model, which kind of breaks the mold a bit really.
As an investor, usually what we want to do is own the asset, retain the asset, derive an income from it and obviously enjoy all the fruits of capital growth as well. Wealth creation, classic wealth creation. But this particular person, their goal was to provide access to housing, which was not necessarily open to certain people. So tenant buyer, or that kind of thought process, was the model and that's what she was setting out to do. There's a number of reasons now, where that's not quite as attractive as it perhaps was, taxation being one of them. So she needs a little bit of a rethink but another laudable goal, another... something bigger than ourselves goal that she had. And I really just wanted to finish this part with my own examples because... and I guess in my own case, I can talk about the journey.
I can talk about the illustration, if you can imagine, of climbing a mountain. So we're going to climb a mountain. We're going to set off at this mountain. Now we might know where the peak is. A 100 million fund, 60 million fund, certain number of tenant buyers that need to be served or want to be served through whatever means. That's if we know the peak. Sometimes we're climbing a mountain and it's foggy. The clouds are low. We can't see the peak, but we were determined to climb this mountain any way. And I know I'm using a strong metaphor here, but hopefully you get my point, but maybe what we can see is the first base camp that we need to get to. We can see that ahead of us and that's where we're making a path to.
We're now ultimately, we're climbing a mountain and we're going to go up in stages from base camp to base camp as we go. But of course, here's the thing, once we get to say base camp one, on this mountain adventure that I'm now taking you along with me, we get a different vantage point. And that's what happened in my case. I started out with relatively... I wouldn't call it totally selfish but self-interested goal to plug a hole in my pension. I wanted to plug a hole in my pension to provide for my family and my wife and I in retirement and that was my goal. It was still bigger than myself, but it just wasn't a really big goal. But guess what? Once I got to base camp one and I'd fix the hole in my pension, I had a different vantage point.
I could see something. I could see base camp two at that point. So I set my sights, if you like, on that one. And that was becoming financially free, financially independent actually, so I didn't have to work again and indeed the same with my wife, so that she didn't have to work again. So freeing ourselves from the corporate chains, freeing ourselves from the matrix or the rat race or the hamster wheel, whichever analogy you want, became the next goal. And it was still bigger than myself because it was extended obviously to my wife as well. Anyway, set off on that path and guess what, reached base camp two achieved that particular goal. Then I had a different vantage point again. Bearing in mind here we can't see the peak at this point in time. It's clouded over and it's foggy.
So set my sights on base camp three. Base camp three then became a certain lifestyle and supporting our family and a couple of generations beyond us, that we could leave a legacy to. So here we go, set off towards base camp three, that's what we can see ahead of us. Still can't see the peak at this point. Reach base camp three, achieve that particular goal. And we know that just by time, it will achieve the sort of goals that we set ourselves. But guess what? Once we've got to base camp three in this example, now it doesn't matter how many base camps there are, it's just for an illustration purposes. But once we got to a base camp three, I could see the peak and the peak in this particular case was a peak that I could always see within, because in my own case, I'm in my mid fifties now, but in my thirties I always had this vision, this dream, of developing a foundation, loosely calling it a "HELP Foundation" and reason being that HELP spelled something out.
It's "Housing, Entrepreneurship, Learning, Poverty" and poverty is closely aligned to debt as well. So that's always been on my heart and it won't leave me alone. Just going full circle back to the first illustration that I talked about today. It won't leave me alone. It just... it was with me the whole time. It was kind of bugging me but I had limiting beliefs. I could see... I had limiting vision, I could only see base camp one. I only thought I had the capability of getting to base camp one. But as I'm climbing this mountain, base camp by base camp, I could see a different vision as I was progressing. And that's what happens to us as we go along this journey. We realize that we're capable of much more and we start to believe in ourselves.
We start to see further than we probably could have seen before. So I went from base camp one, plugging a hole in my pension, to base camp two which is financial independence to base camp three which is financial freedom essentially. Living this lifestyle and also providing a legacy for our own family. That was already bigger... it was something bigger than ourselves by that point. But then I could see the peak and in my case it was this foundation. I know I need a certain net worth to realize the dream of my foundation and to help a certain number of people, literally with the acronym I came up with. I needed a certain sum of money to get to that particular point and that's what I'm striving for and that's the other thing. When the going gets tough and I've had me tough moments over the last year in particular.
I think we all are right now obviously, with coronavirus et cetera and the fallout from that. But I'd had a bit of a knock last year as well. And it's what keeps you going. This is the fuel that keeps you going. This is the drive, the inner fire, if you like, that keeps you going. Because to be honest with you, having reached base camp three I definitely had enough. We definitely had enough. We could lead the lifestyle that we wanted to live a lead we didn't have to do anymore. We didn't have to push any harder. And yet something inside of me, there was a flame inside of me that would not go out. It was burning brightly and it was just driving me forward. Why was this? Why could it not stop? My wife even said to me at one point, "We have enough. Why don't you just stop this? Why do you sort of put yourself through what you're putting yourself through?" And the answer was, I have this vision, I have this purpose and it's something that's bigger than me and that's what's driving me forward.
So the point of today's message is, is not that you have to have these massive visions. There's no judgment here. If you've got a more simplistic vision and it is more of a self interested one, let's say, there's no judgment. That's okay. There's no problem in that. But I think sometimes, within us, there is something bigger. There is a flame that won't go out. There is a burning desire that won't leave us alone. And some of the clues to that are that it stays with us for a period of time. If you feel that there's something inside of you that's burning that won't leave you alone, that's kind of bugging you if you like.
Maybe you've got one of those kind of visions within you. Because I think... I read a book many years ago it was called, "Seeds of Greatness" and it talks about that some people have this seed that grows within us. Some of us have it thrust upon us, if you like, this greatness. But I believe we all have a bit of greatness that's within us and we can actually push onto the next level. So whether you can see the peak of the mountain top like the first three people perhaps that I illustrated, in the example, albeit that it was a little bit dormant, certainly with one of those people to begin with. Or whether you're a little bit like me and perhaps you just can see base camp one and just rest in the knowledge that you can climb the mountain base camp by base camp.
Whether you can see the peak or whether you just can see the next base camp, the next milestone that you need to reach because it is possible. And when you get to a different vantage point, you see the world differently. You're a different person. This is crucial. You're a different person once you've got to that point in time. You have more capability because you've reached that point at the mountain. You have better vision because the site ahead of you is clear. The path ahead of you is clearer. And so I would encourage you to dig deep and find your inner purpose if you like. And even if the bigger purpose is top of the mountain or whether it's base camp one, it doesn't matter, just have it within you is my message for you today.
And it's a message of hope, really and inspiration despite difficult times. I think during difficult moments, like recessions, people are made. People actually, even if you're going through a hard time, you can turn it around. If you're starting out, you can make it happen. I just want to share that story with you because the conversation that I had on Friday really stuck with me, it just wouldn't leave me alone over the weekend and I just thought, well this is what I want to share with you today. And again, I didn't have... this is unscripted, I don't have any text here to share with you. I just wanted to share those stories. So with that very much in mind, what I wanted to do now is cue up a little bit about a feedback session with the latest apprentices on the TPV apprentice program.
They're just going to share with you, 64 days in if you like, where they're at, whether they've had any ah-hah or breakthrough moments and you're going to hear for yourself that there's at least one, which sounds a bit familiar to what I've been talking about now. So I hope you enjoy that and I'll just come back in a minute.
Well here we are. It's 64 days into the latest TPV or The Property Voice apprentice program. We found a very interesting call. We had a special guest on the program, on the call today who shared all about going full time in property and perhaps we'll hear a few words from Ian as well as we wrap up, but the familiar voices, the four people who are on the apprentice program, the usual drill, we're just going to go around the table, get a little bit of feedback, just a quick summary about them and what they're aiming to achieve, how they're intending to achieve it, and maybe some learnings or insights that they've had throughout the program, to get to this stage of the program so far. So without further ado, Monica, would you like to lead us off?
Hello everyone. My name's Monica. My major goal or get to coming on the program was to shift my existing HMO portfolio towards something a lot more passive, significantly more passive actually. In terms of my ah-hah moment, since the last review. Well, it's been really looking within myself, not just about financial, my financial goals really, but why I'm here, what I want to achieve on a personal level and in terms of my contribution really to my community, which means a lot to me. I've always had within me a goal to develop a community housing scheme. It's always been something for probably 20 years. It's been right from my university days, dropped in me really. And I think in my discussions with Richard, we've really been able to tap on that really. And it's something that I'm going to give birth to. And it's mainly about just providing sustainable housing for people that they themselves build and develop. It replicates itself really. So that's been very important in the last month or so I've been grappling with. So yeah it's been progress for me personally. Very challenging, no doubt, but progress.
Yeah. Thank you. Monica. I was wondering if you were going to introduce the word challenging in that summary. We had a very extensive and deep conversation and I'll ask once in a while. I'm really pleased that you shared that. This experience isn't just about money, it's about lives and purpose and lifestyle and other things much more beyond that so I'm really pleased to hear you share that and I'm looking forward to see that unfold. So thanks Monica, really appreciate that. Next up we have Daniel.
Hi everyone. I'm Daniel based in Bolton, Greater Manchester. The quick outline for my goals was to do one commercial conversion every six months and to get the future grand kids and kids into private education. I was previously doing this using my own cash but with help from Richard and the other apprentices, we're going to obtain finance to double up my conversions in order to do two every six months. So the breakthrough moment, I'd say, is the goals. The goals that we've had, have been clearly structured, in order to really hone in on them just to make sure you definitely get them done, which it's been brilliant for me. And also the resources that we've had, helping out on finding deals and things like that really, it's helped massively. Well, thank you Richard.
You're welcome. You're welcome Daniel. I've really enjoyed it too. I think you've got a massive thirst for knowledge and it's always a pleasure because every time we get together I've got a massive long checklist of things of resources to send your way if we haven't covered in the call. But it's been great just to watch that growth and to see those goals really taking shape. We appreciate that.
No problem.
Thanks for that.
No worries. Next up we have Silvana.
Hi there. I'm Silvana. At the stage of the program I have a more clear path that I want to follow and mainly my attention is concentrated on putting place an action plan, by defining my strategy, to start with is going to be flips and then setting up my targets, my KPIs and then I'm working on building my team already and obviously I'm also sharing the group calls and the webinars. I'm trying to learn from my team buddies and also I'm educating myself with obviously this training and all the stuff that is available. Books as well. And I just want to be ready as soon as the occasion comes up. Thank you.
Perfect. Thanks. Silvana. You said earlier yourself, didn't you, that you feel like a sponge with so much knowledge and information to take in, but actually just to reflect back to you, you've already learned a lot and you've already taken so many massive strides, I would say, in terms of taking control and ownership of your future. It's not an easy thing that you've done. You're working full time in this area. You've got a couple of twin strategies, flips and investor services for example and you're already well on the way to putting the foundations in place to underpin those and we're only 64 days in. So it's amazing to see that growth and that confidence blossoming in you. I've really enjoyed it.
Thank you.
You're welcome Silvana. Thank you so much. And I guess that leaves us with Martin then.
Hi everyone. I'm Martin. I live in London and my goal from the program is to replace my consulting income from my full time job. Principally, that will be initially through HMOs and topping up the properties that I already have and at this stage of the game, my one to ones and the areas I've been focused on getting more knowledge in. Working on my area analysis, where will I like to buy my next properties? Should I do that myself, or shall I engage a sourcer, to get more specific and use their expertise and knowledge in that area rather than using a lot of my time, which is quite precious because I'm still working full time. And also Richard sent me some commercial finance assessment tools which are more relevant to commercial type finance, which HMOs would be, as opposed to normal buy-to-let mortgages for example. So I am digging into that. There's quite a lot there to digest and I look forward to working with Richard on the next steps.
Brilliant, thanks Martin. And I think equally I've actually learned from you as well by the way, this isn't just a one way street. I think your grasp of personal finance in general. I'm envious of. We were chatting briefly, someone was saying don't invest in an asset class, specifically Ian was talking about don't invest in an asset class if you don't understand it. And I know that you've got a real wide grasp of different asset classes and it's been interesting to learn from you as well in that regard, so thanks for giving as well as participating in this program.
Thank you. Thank you Richard.
So we have a new voice, which is Ian, whose yet again joined us on the apprentice program and shared me amazing insights during the course of this call today. But Ian I'll just hand over to you if you want to say a few words at all.
Yeah, thanks Richard. Yeah, so once again I have had the privilege to share my little story and my experience and knowledge with the new apprentice group Everybody here has got different backgrounds and pursuing different strategies in property, got those different personalities and they're all in different places on their journey. But it's great to see people working together and sharing their experiences and helping each other. And I think that's sort of the enduring value really of this apprentice program. And I'm looking forward to seeing them develop and grow under Richard's guidance and with each other's encouragement in the future.
Brilliant, thanks Ian. Well, thanks once again for your share earlier and in fact my key word here with this is sharing because I think you're a very giving person. Out of probably the entry requirements of getting into my community is that you need to be kind of a giving person in some respect. We can give in different ways of course, but you've been very generous in giving your experience and the knowledge that you've had and I really value the contribution that you've provided to this group and to other groups as well. So thanks Ian, I really appreciate that.
Thank you.
So there you go. 64 days in. A few relieved looking people having shared again this latest update. It's not always the most comfortable thing, but it's also part of our personal growth of course is to, even in a small way, it's a little platforms isn't it? So we're just growing, each day that goes by. We'll have another one of these in approximately a months time and hopefully you'll be able to monitor and hear yourself, the progress that people have been making for what is a relatively short period of time.
Of course, it's a hundred day program, but I'm enjoying this. Thanks so much for your contribution, your participation, all of you. It's a pleasure and delight to see the growth and the change and the transformation and what I really get a kick out of, is just to see the realization that you can actually achieve all that you want to achieve in life. And as Ian eluded to, it's different for different people, but we can still come together, we can collaborate, we can contribute, can support one another in a program like this, so it's a pleasure to have you. Thanks so much guys. I really appreciate that.
There you go. I really enjoyed this session. You probably hear there was a lot more interaction between the chats and I've obviously got to know the apprentices really well over the couple of months we've been working together and we were joined by Ian, who is very generous in the time and the knowledge and experience that he's shared with the apprentices too and it's fascinating to see the growth and the development and the progress of the apprentices over the course of this program and it's really inspiring to me to be honest. I'm learning from them as much as they're learning from me. This is not a one way street. Obviously I've been in this game a little while now and hopefully I can pass on my knowledge and my experience to them to help them along the way. But hopefully you're getting a bit of a fly on the wall insight as well, into their progress, their development.
You can see or you can hear the differences in their goals perhaps in the way they're going to go about things. But there's a common thread. There are some shared values or shared principles that they hold. It's part of how you get onto the program like this because it's not for everyone, that's for sure. But I'm enjoying it. I think they're enjoying it. I'm looking forward to sharing with you the next update will be in approximately a months time. Hopefully getting some value. Just listening to that and maybe some inspiration, maybe some hope and maybe some encouragement to start your own mountain climb. Who knows? But there we go. The show notes are going to be over the website, thepropertyvoice.net. If you want to speak to me or you can email me podcast@thepropertyvoice.net. I'd be very happy to hear from you.
There's also a phone number on our website if you want to give me a call. I'm doing quite a lot of lives as well at the moment. Wednesday lunchtime live. You'll find the link in the show notes if you want to join in with that during the lockdown period. It's just a way for people in the community to get together. We have an interesting number of people in the community, people who are listening to the podcast, they join in with that too. But I guess all that remains to be said is, thank you very much for listening once again this week. Until next time on The Property Voice podcast.
Thank you for listening today. Now head over to thepropertyvoice.net for more inspirational content and get updates through our mailing list. Join us next time on The Property Voice podcast. And if you enjoyed the show, please don't forget to rate us on iTunes.
That's all from me this week, remember if you want to talk about anything from today’s show, or just talk property investing more generally, email me at podcast@thepropertyvoice.net, I would be happy to hear from you! The show notes can be found at our website www.thepropertyvoice.net
Thanks very much for listening again this week, so all that left to say is ciao ciao!