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As you know, I had a little downtime over the later part of the summer. During this time, among other things, I managed to catch up with a bit of reading…or rather listening to audiobooks. I love reading books that help me see things in a different or new light, so today I wanted to share just a few nuggets that I picked up from 3 of the books I read this summer.
As you will see, it all starts with why…
Resources mentioned
Property Deal Tips & How to Reach me By Telephone
Free Dom Tokens…might be worth something one day: Dominium referral link
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Property Investor Toolkit – here is the book link on amazon.co.uk & amazon.com in case you would like to get yourself a copy to accompany this series
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Transcription of the show
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 on the show again today.
As you know, I had a little downtime over the later part of the summer. During this time, among other things, I managed to catch up with a bit of reading…or rather listening to audiobooks. I love reading books that help me see things in a different or new light, so today I wanted to share just a few nuggets that I picked up from 3 of the books I read this summer.
As you will see, it all starts with why…
Property Chatter
I have struggled lately to stay on top of my personal reading goals in truth. Two of the major times that I read, or listen to audiobooks, are when I am exercising and when I am commuting.
A persistent and chronic ankle injury meant that my exercise time was severely curtailed, and I had not been ‘in transit’ as much as I used to be this year. That excludes long haul plane journeys, where I prefer not to read for some strange reason lol.
Anyway, the summer break, along with a return to some form of regular exercise and some time in a car travelling around various projects, allowed me to catch up on a few titles in the library.
The Better Than Before book by Grechen Rubin ignited a bit more personalisation into my habit-forming strategies, which helps a lot…after all we don’t all have to be members of the 5am Club to be a winner do we?
Give and Take by Adam Grant, as I alluded to last week, helped me to see people in categories as givers, takers, matchers…as well as the odd ‘faker’ too! This latter book really has allowed me to change my approach in certain ways, especially as a giver myself… The book explains that some of both the worst and the best performers in business and society are also givers. Learning what separates the shining lights from the burnouts was quite revealing to me, so I am grateful for the insights from this book. As you will hear, it enabled me to fine-tune how I give myself, without turning into a taker in the process.
However, the main theme that I wanted to spend a little time focussing in on sprung out of Simon Sinek’s Start with Why. You may have seen Simon’s viral video about Millennials in the Workplace? Well, it’s not that one…not directly at least, although what I am going to talk about is also referenced there.
Simon previously gave a TED Talk, referencing what he calls ‘The Golden Circle’, which is all about leadership and engagement in the workplace. However, the real meaning of The Golden Circle is more fully expanded in his book, mentioned just now.
If you have listened to me babble on for any period of time, then you will know that I always say start with the ‘why’ or our purpose, before the ‘how’ or our strategy or the ‘what’, our plans and individual tasks, when it comes to property investing.
Start with why…we both know that the right place to start now don’t we? Well, I was perhaps a little smug in my apparent ‘I know this, I get this’ thinking, as I was listening to the book unfold. In fact, I almost stopped listening, believing I didn’t need any more telling ‘it starts with why’ thanks Simon.
However, something told me to stick it out…not that it was boring, just that I thought I could get more by reading something new instead. Then, in the last chapter, it hit me…a new way of looking at ‘our way’. Perhaps I knew this subconsciously, who knows, but the way Simon explained it made perfect sense and more importantly, allowed me to reassess my own ‘why’ at the same time.
Simon explained that he beat the odds with his small business as a consultant in getting past 3 years of operation, despite the odds of business failure being staggeringly high at 90% or more. However, he then hit a wall in the fourth year, as he had ‘crossed over’ as he put it.
This cross over is where the ‘why’ or real purpose that gets you started eventually gets replaced with the ‘how’ and ‘what’ and so things become a little bit routine, mechanical or, well ‘business-like’, which I know seems like a strange phrase to use in a critical way.
You see, our why is a feeling that comes from deep inside of our limbic brain…this part of our brain is not connected to the language part. This is why it is so difficult to put into words our why at times, as we often just feel it in a hard to express way. Simon uses the example of Apple quite a lot in the book and that’s kind of helpful when you think about it. Apple are enablers of individualism, rather than serving large crowds uniformly as he puts it. More importantly, you either identify with Apple or you don’t; it’s quite clear-cut really. This goes to show how a why can attract or repel people too. That’s a good thing by the way 😉
OK, so some people might have bought an iPhone and then gone on to replace it with an Android, I get that, perhaps for them Apple’s why did not really matter or hit home. But for those that return to Apple and their products repeatedly do get it…it’s how they feel about the company and the brand, not really about the features of their products. Apple are changemakers who enter into established industries by stealth and shake them up, in a kind of individualistic, rebellious way. They are a 1 in 10 company in terms of units sold and so also appeal to around 10% of the market, so strictly speaking a minority player. Yet they are the biggest company in the world as measured by market capitalisation. As Simon explained repeatedly, almost to the point of nausea, it is because they live out their ‘why’ on a daily basis. Whether they stay on top of the perch or close to it depends on how closely they stick to their why and avoid the ‘crossover’ that I mentioned earlier. To be fair, they probably did that once before, then SJ returned to remind them of their why!
OK, so what have Apple got to do with you and me as property investors I hear you ask? Well, we too have a why; a purpose too don’t we?
The statement that really helped me to see things differently was when Simon explained that you cannot understand your why by looking forwards. You can only understand it by looking backwards.
That really took me by surprise, as our purpose really is a forward-oriented pursuit. It has to have a forward-facing outlook; however, we can truly only get to it by looking back to start with. Or by joining the dots to quote Steve Jobs.
You see, our purpose is closely aligned to who we are at the very core and our life experiences along the way. We have probably developed and lived out our why for some time and when we look back we really can join the dots if we look closely enough.
Let me illustrate with my own case using The Property Voice as an example.
I formed what was the start of The Property Voice five years ago. It started as a curated news feed service aimed at sharing quality, yet filtered information and educational resources to property investors back then. There were some clues as to my purpose in that incarnation too.
Going back further, I have often written or shared insights with people in various ways and in various situations, even before being involved with property. I have a thirst for knowledge and a natural curiosity to learn new things…perhaps only to one or two levels deep but still. Then, I was asked to mentor people within several different organisations, as people tended to reach out to me…I did not really know why at times, as I really was nothing special. The organisations and situations ranged from young people in not-for-profit organisations, to family members, to colleagues and peers and most recently to my fellow property investors. Mmm…there’s something in that I realised.
Going back further still, I remember at school, I used to fight the bullies. Well, perhaps I could back then…if not now, even if I wanted to! But it wasn’t about fighting per se, it was about sticking up for the little guy, making a stand and standing up for injustice. Another clue perhaps…
These small insights into making a stand, sharing knowledge with others and using my voice far more effectively than my pubescent fists was how I helped to help bring about a new beginning in others. That’s in essence exactly what The Property Voice stands for: quality, curated information on a one-to-many basis, that is either free or low-cost, which levels the playing field and enables property investors to start their own ‘new beginning’ along with the info, resources and tools that they need to step out on their own.
Where my why got a bit blurred was in two areas: commercialisation and giving too much. These are of course two sides of the same coin! Fortunately, by getting back in touch with my why again, I can align the commercial element by only working with a handful of people at any one time and choosing to only share information in low and no cost ways and mostly in settings from a giving point of view, to set some workable boundaries.
You see, it’s not about the commercials first and foremost, although I have found that will come naturally, as I have a steady stream of people that now want to mentor, invest or otherwise partner with me, so that I can choose who and in what way I do. This also feeds into my own property business as fee income helps to provide seed investment into projects and other forms of partnering offer up different ways to leverage and scale my property business too.
In the recent past, I tried to scale up a training business, which was linked to my why, but which lacked the smaller, personal touchpoints that I value so much. You see, what gives me a buzz is witnessing a turnaround, whilst having a lifestyle business and trying to help dozens of people all at the same time both lead to burnout and also a lack of focus on what I should have been doing. Therefore, I probably had a bit of a cross-ver moment around a year or two ago, but now I think I am back and in tune with my why once again…thank you Simon!
This approach works for me, even if it doesn’t work for everyone…but that’s the point: it is MY why that counts to me. However, what is your personal why, that’s the important thing to take away from today isn’t it?
I had a discussion with my wife earlier this week, where we talked this concept over. I was of the opinion that a why cannot be about the money; she felt that it could be, although I hasten to add that hers is not either. However, I would probably say that having a why that is not specifically financial is going to help with that limbic brain connection than something like money ever can, but that’s just my opinion. Money is a quantifiable thing and that makes for having a decent tangible goal that you can aim aim…but getting in touch with your why; if you can do that, it will energise you and motivate you far more than a financial goal ever will I suspect. If you are about to ask me how do I get in touch with my why; well you can perhaps start by looking back and trying to join the dots…
In conclusion then, between Grechen, who is helping me to personalise my habit forming, Adam, who is helping me to still be the giving me but with more clearly defined boundaries and limits and finally Simon, who has helped me to look back, before looking forward, and so get back in touch with my inner why…I kind of feel pretty satisfied with the 3 Audible credits spent over the summer to be perfectly honest with you!
OK, so that’s perhaps more along the fluffy end of the scale in terms of the shares on the podcast, but we need that balance of the Yin and the Yang in business and well as in life, don’t we?
Before I go today, just a quick word about The Property Voice Apprenticeship. Thank you to those of you that made contact after last week. Whilst I have not finalised the selection process, it does looks like I will be able to have my small group to work with over the next 100 days or so. However, feel free to register your interest for a future The Property Voice Apprenticeship programme…assuming the inaugural one turns out OK that is 😉 And just to reinforce the point of today’s episode, this is EXACTLY in line with my personal why as well. Just sayin!
OK, that’s me done for this week. The show notes can be found over at www.thepropertyvoice.net. Or, 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!
Once again, all I want to say is thank you very much for listening once again this week and until next time on The Property Voice Podcast…it’s ciao-ciao.
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