April 2015 was the month when this podcast all began. Here we are 6 years later with almost 300 episodes, 400,000 downloads, 10 full and mini-series, 62 YPN magazine articles, (almost) 3 books and countless other blogs, forum responses and social media content stages later.
So, let’s mark the occasion with a mini-celebration shall we? 🎉
Will we make it to 10 years? Well, that largely depends on you...why don’t you let me feel your love, or at least your thanks and appreciation 🤗
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Transcription of the show
April 2015 was the month when this podcast all began. Here we are 6 years later with almost 300 episodes, 400,000 downloads, 10 full and mini-series, 62 YPN magazine articles, (almost) 3 books and countless other blogs, forum responses, and social media content stages later.
So, let’s mark the occasion with a mini-celebration shall we? 🎉
Will we make it to 10 years? Well, that largely depends on you...why don’t you let me feel your love, or at least your thanks and appreciation 🤗
Property Chatter
Welcome to the property voice podcast helping you to navigate safely through the world of property investing, get the lowdown and updates, insights and outcomes on all matters property with a splash of entertainment along the way to a property, voice. The voice to trust among the crowd. Now, let's get started with your host, Richard Brown.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of 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, today's our birthday, my birthday, or the property voice birthday, basically, it's our birthday. And the name, the property voice is about six years old. So it's about because it came into existence really slightly before April 2015. But I think the voice came to life in April 2015, the very first episode of the property voice podcast was recorded or released rather, on the third of April 2015. And I listened to it just now actually, just to find out really what it was sounded like back then. And it was kind of interesting. I can't, I can almost remember recording it. I certainly remember, I believe there were 17 takes before I was satisfied enough to release it. It wasn't very polished. It was heavily scripted. Actually, when I first started, I don't have much of a script these days. But when I started, it was heavily scripted. I had a guest so-called guest host in the name of Canada, who was a robot, quite frankly. And that was a text to speech, robot, you know, voice sort of translator. And all I could really do is get closer to ask a couple of key questions. And then I would answer them if you like to try and bring a brand of interactivity to the podcast. I do remember those early days of podcasting and being very, very frustrated, not very confident. being heavily scripted and maybe a little bit wooden, if I'm honest, in how I actually presented. Maybe that was better than in some respects because now I have noticed as a few on and ours that occasionally slip into the that was probably one that into my talking because I'm thinking as I'm going rather than having this particularly heavily scripted, I've got a couple of talking points. But I'd like to cover off with you. Anyway. So third of April 2015. That's when it all began in terms of the property voice podcast. Prior to that, there was I had a news feed service, in which I was sharing information, a kind of a cause I blog. So the origins of the property voice, certainly, where were spawned before April 2015. But let's say the official start date, certainly, other podcast is April 2015. And in fact, April 2015 was a very, very busy month for me. So not only did I launch a podcast, to also launch my first book. So property investor toolkit was also launched in April 2015. That went to Amazon bestseller status, I'm happy to report it as you remember, back at the time, saying I've got Amazon bestseller status. And Rob Benz I think I was talking to at the time is some of you might know Robin from the property, property podcast. And he says to me, I see you got to number one is a free book. Initially, when I released the book, I launched it as a free book. I didn't really think anyone was counting free books or pay for books, but apparently, people were. So then I switched it to be a paid-for book and it still went to bestseller status.
So I'm actually pretty chuffed about that. And it also filled a lifelong, almost lifelong dream really, of wanting to write write a book I, I always I often say that that book was 30 years in the making. Now it's not that 30 years before I knew I'd write a book on the property, but I kind of felt I had a book in me. And yeah, it took a little while to get it out of me onto paper. But so I did so that was April 2015. There have been one or two podcasts since then there have been one or two books since then. So just to give you some stats, actually, the approaching I think it was 300 episodes now of the property voice podcast. And I you probably know by now I usually take a couple of weeks off a year-round about summertime around about Christmas time. So that's why it's not quite 52 times six, though it's approaching 300 episodes and in terms of the number of downloads that are approaching 400,000 now Unless you look for a little while, I was used to say as it's around about 300,000 downloads, actually, it's now approaching 400,000 downloads. So I know it's not the highest volume, listen to podcasts that you can get. I'm not sure it's on any top anything less these days. But thanks for sticking around, I really appreciate you. If if you've been sticking around me for a little while, some of you might have been there for all, you know, 300 episodes, who knows. And if that's you, you deserve a medal. Thank you so much for sticking with me through thick and thin. During the time, if you'd like we've had together on the podcast, there have been different formats. I've mentioned cases, my co-host, for example. I've done a, I think seven series. In fact, I know, I know, it's seven series, I've got it written down in front of me. So the first one was, also in April 2015, obviously, shortly after launch, when I launched a series called property investor toolkit. So it coincided with the book complemented the book if you like. And that was all about the foundations of property investing. And that's interesting because I kind of feel like I should return to my roots a little bit, some Six years later, or the start of the seventh year, maybe with another series on I won't call it foundations, and it won't be exactly the same content. But I kind of feel that I should revisit and sort of circle back and do some of the foundational stuff of property investing, think maybe my thoughts have expanded or have evolved, have been added to generally speaking over the year. So I think it'd be good to return to that. So I'm thinking that might be the candidate for the next series, I haven't done one for a little while, been a little bit scuppered, actually, with COVID, etc. In fact, just between you and me, the series that I did have planned or earmarked to do in 2020, was all about our call to go around the regions. And I was going to go on a roadshow around the regions of the UK. And I was going to cobble together people and do a live type of q&a. If you can imagine question time, that type of format, and then do some, you know, interviews with some of the local property boards in each of the regions. And what's the low down and it's each particular area. I had that planned actually, but a certain virus. So cold and scuppered that plan might return to that one day, but not anytime soon, probably. So I'm thinking about doing the foundations again, you know, back to basics property 101 styles, what do you think? Is that a good idea to go back and recover that? Or do you think you know, someone who some of the more recent listeners? Do you listen to the back catalog?
Do you go searching for relevant episodes for you and where you're at, I don't know, is the honest truth. So it'd be useful to hear that. But in terms of the, the series, just that, you know, so property investor toolkit, April 2015, was followed by property cycles. And I really enjoyed the property Cycle series. Because cycles, you know, it goes deeper than you might imagine. There are multi multiple cycles to cover. So that was October 2015, which had a big series really on property financing. It was big, I had a lot of that was the first one where I had interview guest interviews, subject matter experts, as I call them, who joined me on the series. That was a lot of fun recording that that was in September 2016. And that was followed by prop-tech. So did a whole series on Prop tech. That was that didn't start until January 2018. So there was, you know, 15 months gap, actually, between the start of property financing the start of prop-tech, actual property financing was quite a long series. So probably went quite a long way into 2017, actually. But the prop-tech one Yes, I have had it said to me that perhaps that was a bit heavy going for some. And I'm trying to break through a couple of barriers occasionally, with what I do in terms of my content. Sometimes that means being a bit progressive, sometimes that means taking a few risks. Sometimes it means you know, going a little bit against the grain actually. So I do try and do that. And maybe the series on Prop tech was an example of that. But I really liked it. And of course, that also spawned the second book that I wrote, and I'm just going to check when it was released. That was on December 18. Actually, so the year 2018 was the prop-tech year. I think I've dedicated that year to the subject of Prop tech. I was immersed in it, I was surrounded by it. I was you know, deeply ingrained in it. I was writing about it. It was is very much front and top of mind. It was for a season. I think that I've kind of moved on from there, although it's been reinvigorated more recently because my book prop Tech has been translated into Korean. Actually, it's been launched in Korea and there's some wonder For people change who's done the project over there is an amazing job. We've got it translated into Korean, I have a copy of the book quite close to me sent me. He sent me a batch of them. So if you speak Korean, I've got a couple of spares if you like one, then the next series was women in the property.
In March 2019. I wanted to bring a bit of diversity into the onto the agenda, that, you know, just we're just talking about one dimension of diversity here. I might venture more into the area, I don't off diversity. Actually. That's another idea I've got for a theme. I don't know how appropriate that is, for me to say that, but what do you think is appropriate? I obviously don't want to cause any uproar upset by you know, bringing that in. But I just want to showcase people from different backgrounds and contexts and upbringings and speaking with different accents, etc. So diversity is very important to me. And the women in property was also important to me, it's great to showcase some wonderful women and what they're doing. I was joined by Helen Pollack has co host. So that was another experiment there. Helen joined me in that series and really enjoyed that. And that was in started March 19. The next series after that was actually property heavyweights. The internal working title for that was deca millionaires. So we kind of had it that unless you're worth 10 million or more, you can't be on that series. So we didn't fact-check with everybody. We didn't ask them to show us their net worth statement or anything like that. But that was kind of the unwritten rule. So if you know, if you want to know what the heavyweights really mean, you could perhaps check that out that started in July 2019. I really enjoyed that series, again, I was joined by Helen his co-host. So that was good. And the most recent series on the podcast was full-time in property wanted to do a series on that. And it was really a contrast. Because the property heavyweight series was all about names, if you like people who should be known or would be known in property circles, then the full time in property series was for you everyday people really, that was my intention to showcase people who've just made it to go full time or aspiring to go full time. Because also there was some people in that category on that series, who I call everyday people. So it's not that they're ordinary. In fact, they're extra ordinary. But I just wanted to showcase that was quite a good contrast. I felt anyway, I don't know what you felt. And that was started in May 2020. So it's obviously been almost a year since we've had a series. So I'm kind of feeling that rydoo one. So get let me know your thoughts on series, I'm thinking of perhaps going back to the property 101 style. I don't think I can do around the regions and diversity, which is something that is on my mind, actually. But if there's something on your mind, why don't you let me know. In fact, on that, in that vein, on the topic of it being my birthday, my sixth birthday, it's sometimes hard to keep going I'm going to be very honest with you. And I've tried to engage different, you know, formats in different times. I had the your voice section in the early years, where I was encouraging people to write in, or actually there was a voice message service I used to have, people would literally leave a voice message with a question or something of that order. But there wasn't a lot of engagement. There wasn't a lot of feedback. There wasn't a lot of interaction. So we're going to drop that after a while because it was kind of hard work, really. But at the same time, I don't get super loads of feedback. Maybe I should search for it in a different way. Then the way I do I don't really ask for it, I suppose. But now and again, people do drop me the odd message I've got I've got the regulars who dropped me a message some of you send me things I heard you say this, this might be interesting. What about this topic, Richard, have you thought about it? Or they're just you know, just chatting, just, you know, getting in touch and saying things so I had my regulars and you know who you are. Thanks for that. It really does make it worthwhile to hear from you. And help keep me going. But it'd be really encouraging just to get a bit of feedback from time to time. Even if you think well Richard, that wasn't very good. You know what you've just been doing? You know, say that? I don't mind? Well, my a little bit. But yeah, I can take it all on board, I'm sure. So what would you like to cover? And there was a couple of mini series as well. I forgot to mention that. Actually, in terms of the podcast, there was the how you should spend x mini series. So how should you spend 10,000? What would you do if you had 10,000 in property, and 250,000 in property, and then a couple of intervals in between? So it was a mini series on that there was a mini series on property horror stories. I didn't expect it would be as long as it was but I think there were at least seven episodes in the end on property horror stories coming from different angles. And I have a few ideas of taking that on a little bit further. And then most recently, we had the mini series around this sort of 2021 sprint Challenge around our goals. So that was a bit of a quick sprint, there was an extended version of something I've done from time to time, I've had the odd episode on the what I call The Diary of a property investor. And that's where I'll just share an update of some of the things I've been up to periodically, maybe a six month interval, sometimes a one year interval. I'm not rigid about it. But the the goals challenge was sort of a massive, you know, version of that, in a way.
We've got different other formats of the podcast as well, there was the long form musings one, which is now called sound bites. So the sound bites one is just whatever I want to talk about, basically. And then there was the holiday shorts mini series as well, where I was literally taking a holiday. And I pre recorded a bunch of forum questions and answers to share whilst I was away, as well. So there was even a secret page in there at one point, I don't even know if that secret page is still available. But yeah, there was a secret page at one point. So that's the, sorry, the podcast is just going to talk about the book next. So two books have been published, I'm currently writing the third one working title is property finance, I'm not sure I'm gonna change that and put it up, put it to the vote, and asked whether it should be property finance and property financing. And the series on the podcast was property financing. But I think the book will be property finance because if you were to go and Google property finance, you've probably put in property finance, you probably wouldn't put in property financing. So that should be out the spring. That'd be the third book if you like what I've written so I'm very, very pleased about that. It's there are over 60,000 words, on paper at the moment, whether that's too many, I don't know. But there's a couple more chapters to write. So that might be getting a bit of a sort of a scalpel. And trim that back a bit. Who knows. But I'm very excited about that book, I've really enjoyed writing actually. And it's not going to be the typical book on property financing, that you might imagine, I can assure you of that. And the best way of showing you is probably the typical book on property financing might have things on buy to let mortgages, bridging finance, development, finance and commercial loans, probably will, that's just one section out of three sections of the entire book. So I think three or four chapters were actually four chapters. And the book is at least 18 chapters. So that gives you an insight of how broad I've gone and gone, how wide I've gone on this topic. And the other the other two, there's one section called traditional financing, or institutional financing. There's a second section called, what's it called alternative financing. And there's a third section called creative financing. So I've really enjoyed it, I hope you do, I can't wait to share it with you. And if you want to know when it's going to be launched, just drop an email to Karen admin at thepropertyvoice.net and ask to go on the Advanced booklist. And you'll be one of the first people to hear. So that's how you find out about them. And then the other bit of content that I guess I've been working with, besides podcasts and books is the magazine articles. I'm a columnist for YPN magazine. And it's funny enough, it's coming up to my fifth birthday writing, I forget that you know how long I've been writing for YPN Jane in a narrowed you know, in particular, who I've been working with, and of course at the property, property YPN been amazing to work with over the last five years. So really enjoying that, in fact, they chase me for this month's article, so need to get that done. But I just did a bit of account back there and the 62 articles as well. You can get all of those subscription-free, just drop us an email admin at thepropertyvoice.net asked to go on the YPN subscription list. And you can see every single article that I've ever written. So there are some really interesting ones in there, even if I do say so myself probably can't say so myself. But I'm going to anyway. So there's the there's the YPN column as well. So it's quality content. In addition to each there's a bundle of blog posts, there's a bunch of forum contributions are out there. There are a few videos and stuff on the YouTube channel. The stuff on social media share from time to time, so there's plenty of content, there's dating back for probably half the time I've been in property. Counting back the time is about 12 years now being sort of active in property. So there are lots happened in that period of time. There's been a lot of change. There's been a lot of development and progress has been some highs has been some lows. But yeah, I just thought today I just sort of celebrate if you like the the birthday of the property voice and it allows me to let you know what's going on a little bit here. And I was thinking well as I was preparing this weather I you know, have I got a favorite episode, those sorts of things. What about what was what series that I enjoy the most? What was the high what was the low I decided I wasn't probably going to go in that direction. I think I've enjoyed a lot of what I've done, I think in terms of series have really enjoyed the heavyweight series, I guess probably was aspirational in many ways. So enjoyed it for that reason. I enjoy, I find it I've enjoyed the oddball soundbite episodes where I really just come from left field sometimes. I remember the one I caught I called woo-woo, Wednesday, for example, which is just what it felt like at the time, and done a lot of mindset stuff.
So stuff, which is not directly related to property. I stumbled across the podcast where I spoke about Bitcoin back in 2017. Well, you can hardly call me a pioneer in 2017. But you were certain weren't mainstream at that point in time. So that, you know, that was a little bit off the beaten track of property, as well. So there was a bunch of things that I really, you know, enjoyed doing. I enjoyed the most when it's, it's almost the last minute, and just this creative spark comes out. So I don't quite I don't always enjoy the series as much, funnily enough, because it takes a lot more organization and planning to do a series than it does just to sit down on a Monday evening with a glass of red next to me and think, well, what am I going to talk about with you guys today. And, you know, I quite like that spontaneity, that creativity, and perhaps a little bit of pressure that comes out of not really knowing what I'm going to say, I have been thinking about it, by the way, I've been stewing on it over the weekend, sometimes to take some notes. And I think this topic, that topic is not completely random and off the cuff and last minute will not always anyway, but the series is a bit more planned and measured. And sometimes it's also a lot of work because you end up front-loading a lot of the interviews and then you drip feed them over time. And you know, if you're into this game of content sharing, and that's probably the right way to do it, in all fairness, but I, you know, I'm writing at the moment so that a lot of my energy creative energy is going into writing. So that's one of the reasons why I've kind of held off doing a series anyway, I do digress, there's plenty of the property voice content out there. I've named checked and referenced quite a lot of it. If you didn't know that already. Somebody was following me on Instagram, by the way, follow me on Instagram, on the property voice on Instagram. Wherever you follow me at the moment, make sure you follow me on Instagram, because it's it's I'm increasingly using it I need to use it more, share more. But that will be the sort of first port of call for you know, regular content, certainly on social media. So please follow me on Instagram. But somebody commented the other day Oh, I commented, I'm writing a book and I wrote 7000 words this weekend I've written I think 6000 now in 68,000 words for this book so far. And this is what I didn't know you, you were writing a book? And I said, Yeah, yeah, I'm writing this book. And actually, it's my third book. And they were Oh, I didn't know you've written any books. Of course, you know, people don't necessarily know. So I'm kind of telling you those two books one in that one in the in the waiting, it will be out this spring. That is my intention. That's my goal. I'd like your input, actually, on a few bits, maybe a couple of proofreaders, maybe I'm going to get some views on the on the cover, perhaps the title and subtitle. So I want you to get involved at some point in time. And so that's that. The other thing I would say is this it's probably been a while not probably it's been a long time since I've asked for people to leave reviews. And I'm going to do that now because I don't labor the point. But I would love it if you would leave a review for the property voice podcast off iTunes but it doesn't have to be iTunes people listening to the podcast on various downloading streaming devices or podcasters generally. So just wherever you listen to the property voice podcast, what do you leave as a review, hopefully, it's a nice one. But you know, if it's not a nice one, well, fair enough, that's your opinion. But it'd be great to get some reviews and the reviews helps drive people towards podcasts. I know it's a bit of a niche, the this format this particular topic, and I'm really really grateful by the way for you. If you know listen to this podcast you take time out to tune in. A lot of people aren't doing commutes at the moment. So if you're still listening, even though you're not doing a commute, then you know even more credit to you. I really appreciate it. But if you are commuting or traveling and you've got got the headphones in or you're at the gym or you're running or you're walking the dog, whatever it is you're doing and you're listening to to my podcast every single week, or just occasionally I just want to thank you, thank you for listening. I really appreciate it six years, the motivation can run a bit dry if I'm being completely candid with you. So reviews is going to help you know to drive the motivation, a bit of engagement now and again is going to drive you to know me to do more suggestions you know things that I can do which I would like to do which you would like to do will help no invite me to keep going. I don't know if I'm going to do another six years. In all honesty, I was thinking about it. Well, do I want to get to 10 years? Do I want to get to 12 years? I'm not entirely sure. So what would be great is to get a bit of encouragement in that respect. If you enjoy the podcast in general, let me know. Let the world know for a review. And equally if you've read any of my books, for example, leave a review, please, that'd be fantastic. If you would be kind enough to do that.
It's all I can really ask, isn't it because the most expensive content that I've put out there is my books and I think that if you bought the full-color version of the prop-tech book, it will cost about eight quid I think something like that. So it's not going to break the bank is it the content that I put out the podcast is free. My articles and YPN are subscription-free. If you write in you know, the first book is about three, three pounds of engineers price for coffee, pots, that book you can get for, I think, a fiver for the black and white version. So it's a low-cost material, but hopefully not low quality. And that's certainly not my intention. So yeah, give us a bit of a boost, it would be great to do that. But there we go, I just wanted to wish myself a happy birthday. That's what I really wanted to do today. So happy birthday to me, happy birthday to the property voice podcast. And thank you so much. I really am grateful for each and every one of you for listening in for writing in for joining in and making a contribution and making it all worthwhile, really. So I'm going to shut up now I'm gonna let you get on with your, whatever it is you're doing is gonna say your evening because it's an evening for me right now when I'm recording this, but I'm gonna let you get on and do whatever it is you're doing. Thanks for being around. I really appreciate it six years down, not sure how many more I've got in me. But you know, with a bit of help, and a bit of motivation and encouragement will hopefully go for a little bit longer yet. So maybe the seventh birthday will be celebrated. There we go. So the show notes are going to be over the website, the property voice.net if you want to talk to me rather than Karen, my assistant Karen is on admin at thepropertyvoice.net Richard me podcast at thepropertyvoice.net you want to talk about anything from today's show or property and generally speaking, a bit of forewarning. I'm kind of getting a bit buried with emails at the moment. So if you have written to me and I haven't responded is that's the reason. There's a lot going on at the moment. The spring challenge. The latest apprentice program is just launched. I'm writing this book. Yeah, there's quite a lot going on. So got quite busy. So if you've sent me a message you haven't replied send me another one. Just to remind me. That would be great. Well, Whatsapp is my sort of thing of choice these days. But you need to know my mobile number to get me on WhatsApp. So there we go. What else can I tell you? That's it really. Thanks a lot for listening. And until next time on the property boys podcast is Joshua.
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.