0:10

Hello and welcome to the Property Unleashed podcast

0:13

with me , your host , Mark Fitzgerald . Today

0:15

I have a special treat because

0:17

I have a guest joining me

0:19

here . I have Luke White joining

0:21

me today . How are you , Luke ?

0:23

I am excellent , Mark , Really really glad

0:26

to be here with you today .

0:27

Oh , it's great to have you on . So I met

0:29

Luke recently at a

0:32

property event . We were both speakers there

0:34

and he had a fantastic story , did a fantastic

0:36

talk Not quite as good as

0:38

me , but I saw him up there . He was

0:40

good . He was good For

0:43

people that don't know about you , luke . Uh , can

0:45

you tell us a bit about yourself please ?

0:46

yes , um , I've

0:49

been in property for probably

0:51

the last five years or so , a bit more um

0:53

and really the the reason why

0:55

I'm in property is because I just

0:58

want to be able to do the things

1:00

that matter with who it matters , when

1:02

it it matters . And property allows

1:04

me to be able to have my time

1:07

to do the things that matter , and so

1:09

that's really really my passion , and

1:11

the things that I enjoy doing really

1:13

centre around my family and my friends

1:15

. I coach football , I coach my older son's

1:18

football team , I'm heavily

1:20

involved in community activities and

1:23

just really building the life that

1:25

my children

1:28

can also do the things that matter to

1:30

them . So we home educate as well

1:32

, my wife and I mainly my wife so

1:34

to allow my kids to really have

1:36

full kind of reign

1:39

and control over how they learn , what they

1:41

learn and the things that they do . Long

1:44

story short , I'm a bit of a rebel , a bit of a maverick who

1:46

likes to kind of make my

1:48

own path in life , and

1:50

and that's what I'm doing and

1:52

that's what I love to do .

1:55

Wow , that's , that's amazing . I didn't know about a

1:57

home education , so I've got to . I've got

1:59

to drill you a little bit on that . I

2:02

mean , how did that come about ?

2:04

So I was home educated until I was seven

2:06

. So with that background

2:09

I knew that it could be effective . Even joining school

2:11

at seven years old I wasn't

2:13

behind . I mean , I wasn't as

2:15

sharp a reader as I would have been , but

2:17

as soon as I got into school I quickly excelled

2:20

through the reading ranks and

2:22

so because of that backdrop I

2:26

knew that it could be effective . And I know the Scandinavians

2:28

do a similar thing , where I don't think their children

2:31

go into kind of organised

2:34

schooling until they're probably about seven years old

2:36

, I believe . So there is kind of that thought

2:38

out there . The Jesuit priests

2:40

do a similar thing . They have that saying give

2:43

me a child till they're seven and I'll give you

2:45

a man . And so I believe that

2:47

as much influence as possible on your

2:49

children , as young as possible , is really

2:51

powerful in shaping the adult that they're going

2:53

to be . And so we wanted to have maximum

2:55

impact and input into their lives in

2:58

those formative years that matter . And

3:00

yeah , they've

3:02

excelled , they've loved it . I'll be honest

3:05

, my oldest , who's nine , when

3:07

she was an only child

3:09

because her cousins were in school

3:11

, she used to express this desire to

3:13

start school . But once the next

3:16

one joined , and the next one joined . I've got three now

3:18

. She hasn't looked back since . So

3:20

, yeah , it's great

3:22

. It really is just

3:24

amazing to be able to do follow

3:27

their own speed , their own steam , follow

3:29

their own interests , because all subjects

3:31

are merged together anyway . Like maths

3:33

is linked to science , is linked to geography , is linked

3:35

to business , and I

3:37

like the idea of , rather than you

3:39

know , compartmentalising subjects . We're

3:42

just learning everything and following

3:44

the , the passion of the kids . So

3:46

, yeah , that's what we're doing . I love that I

3:48

love that .

3:49

See , I was very , very , very close

3:51

to doing that with my uh

3:53

youngest son , who's just gone oh wow

3:56

. So we were really

3:58

debating it at the time as to whether or

4:00

not to to homeschool it now . A

4:02

lot of that might fallen on my shoulders as well

4:04

, which I've got more time freedom , but

4:06

I'm not much of a teacher like I'm

4:08

not very good explaining things , I'm very

4:10

high level . You know , do this and just get on with

4:12

it , whereas you know you need detailed

4:14

person . So you know your

4:16

wife , has she got any background in in sort of

4:18

educating or ? She must have the patience of

4:20

a saint as well .

4:22

This , this is what it is . It's the patience

4:24

I mean . She's always been a teacher

4:26

when she was , you know , before

4:29

she was a parent , she um did

4:31

a lot of . She ran her own drama school

4:33

, even for a while a drama group in

4:35

our local church community growing up

4:38

and um , so she's always been involved

4:40

in in kind of helping

4:43

young people . She worked for local council

4:45

before she became a mother , so

4:47

she worked in the youth offending team . So

4:49

she was always working with young people and helping

4:52

them , really teaching them life skills , more

4:54

than the kind of the regimented

4:56

curriculum , so that I think , put her in

4:58

a good position to deal with her children . You

5:00

know , no one loves your children like you do , and

5:02

so being able to just really take

5:05

that love and that patience that is needed

5:07

and we don't always get it right , don't get me wrong . Sometimes

5:09

we're screaming but you know we're quick to apologize

5:12

and I think that is something that really

5:14

helps them , um , at home and you know

5:16

, because in school they just don't have the time to

5:18

be patient and I don't blame them . Like you know , schools

5:21

do their best but when you've got 30 children

5:23

all vying for your attention , all with

5:25

different needs . It's really hard to meet

5:27

the needs of everyone . So

5:30

, yeah , so she

5:33

, just the love that she has , the experience she has

5:35

of helping young people

5:37

, I think has boded well , and

5:39

just the way she's attacked the role

5:41

and just really , I mean she's about

5:43

to start her own forest school . That's

5:45

how involved she really is in it and how

5:47

much she loves it . So , yeah

5:50

, hats off to her . She's excellent at that

5:52

.

5:57

I think that's amazing and brilliant , because people have said to me well , would you be concerned

5:59

? When I was talking about doing the same thing with Lewis about his social skills

6:01

, I said , well , I'm going to

6:03

talk to him . I'm

6:06

just going to put him in the corner and he's never going to

6:08

interact with anybody else . Kids

6:11

in this day and age , now a lot of their social

6:13

skills are actually online , when they're playing

6:15

games and things like that . He's got a

6:18

VR headset and he's always playing and he makes

6:20

friends with other kids , so he's always

6:22

socializing anyway , aren't they ? But

6:24

I just haven't spoken to anybody

6:26

recently that actually has done it , and it's

6:28

done it with , like , multiple kids yeah

6:31

, three kids , none of them .

6:32

They've never been , never been in the , in the system

6:34

. Um , probably , maybe , when

6:37

they express a desire to , maybe

6:39

we could . But for me , once a child

6:41

can learn or can read and all

6:43

my children can my five-year-old is just getting

6:45

the last scripts of it they can

6:47

teach themselves . To be honest with you , make sure there's books

6:50

there , make sure there's things . They get to the

6:52

point where once a child can read

6:54

and has functional skills and it's the

6:56

passion for learning . You want the children to have

6:58

the passion for learning and you

7:00

know , just like that famous . There's that famous TED talk

7:02

with Ken Robinson talking about how school

7:05

kills creativity , and I watched

7:07

that numerous times . And it's true , because

7:09

in school often you don't get to follow your

7:11

passion , you have to do the curriculum , whereas with

7:13

home , educate . And if you follow the child's curiosity

7:16

, they will never lose their love for learning

7:18

. And that's what . That's what we're finding anyway .

7:21

It is . I mean myself myself at

7:24

school . I got bored easy , you know

7:26

. I mean unless I was into it , unless it

7:28

, unless it was something and I'd

7:31

pick it up . I couldn't pick up other things . I

7:33

just switch off . So

7:35

you just called thick at the end of the day , when you're at school

7:37

and that was it , because I

7:40

couldn't remember or I wasn't interested in

7:42

what people were showing me . but , like I say

7:44

, if it came down to doing um design technology

7:46

, building something or drawing something or being

7:48

quite creative , I was all over it

7:50

and they were just like well , how come you can do that and you can't

7:53

do it , because we're all different . We're

7:56

all the same sort of people . So I love

7:58

that and I love the fact that you know you're

8:00

oldest , at nine years old . Now you can , sort

8:02

of you can . You can actually put together

8:05

what she's doing and what she's interested

8:07

in and potentially , when she actually then goes

8:09

out to do work or get a job or build her

8:11

own business or whatever she chooses to do

8:13

, she's been geared up for that for the

8:15

last you know , 16 years or whatever

8:17

. Rather than you walk out of

8:20

a structured environment into a new environment

8:22

and start from scratch again , aren't you of ? You know a

8:24

structured ?

8:24

environment into a new environment . It's starting from scratch again , aren't you absolutely

8:26

? And I think there's no surprise that . Look , some of the sharpest minds

8:29

in business didn't do that well in school

8:31

yourself . You look at people like

8:33

richard branson because you and richard , I mean , you're

8:35

a bit of higher level than richard branson , but

8:37

you and richard branson you but

8:41

, you know , um , there's loads of people

8:44

, gary vaynerchuk like , there's loads of people who didn't do well

8:46

in school because but but are excellent

8:48

in business . Why is that ? Because they're

8:51

in their passion . They're not thick , they

8:53

just didn't . What the school wanted to teach

8:55

didn't apply to them , didn't , didn't stoke

8:57

that fire in you , whereas now , when you're

8:59

let loose on your passions , the world's

9:01

your oyster .

9:02

The world's your oyster nice

9:05

, but I could talk to you all day about that at the end of

9:07

the day , but we must move on .

9:09

Let's talk a little bit about property , shall

9:11

we ? Yeah , let's do it .

9:13

First and foremost , you know you wanted time freedom

9:15

. You obviously want the time with the family and things . I

9:17

I always go back and say if you'd have said to

9:19

me , you know five , six , seven years ago

9:21

, mark , what would make you happy ? I'd have said 10 million

9:24

and a bank , a mansion and a Ferrari . Why

9:26

? Because that was my mindset at the time

9:28

. That was all I thought . The trinkets

9:30

and the money would make me happy . You ask me

9:32

now it's time freedom . It's time

9:34

spent with people that I want to be

9:37

with , with my loved ones , with my kids . Believe

9:39

it or not , lockdowns and stuff

9:41

that we had . I loved

9:43

them . Why ? Because I love being with my kids . So

9:45

many of my friends were like kids , driving me mad . All

9:48

right , I'm loving it . We're playing basketball

9:50

, we're doing all of this . I'm spending quality time

9:52

with them . Now , the homeschooling was the only

9:54

thing that actually put me off , but that's because

9:56

I was never that good at school anyway . So lisa

9:59

, my wife , took a bit more of a hand on that

10:01

uh we probably didn't do that as well as we

10:03

we could have , but we're too busy having fun and playing

10:05

you did your best .

10:06

You did your best for

10:08

yourself um white white

10:11

property so

10:13

I . So from

10:15

the age of about 16 , I was heavily

10:17

involved in my church community and

10:20

so the papa . At 18 , I went to seminary

10:22

, which is like , where we studied to be like a priest , a

10:24

preacher , pastor , and

10:26

I thought that was going to be my journey

10:28

in life . Now , because of my

10:30

, my maverick tendencies

10:33

, my rebellious tendencies , it doesn't matter where

10:35

you aim this gun , it will shoot Right

10:37

. So , in the church environment

10:40

, in the , in that environment where

10:42

, even though it's the church environment , I still

10:44

had ideas , I still wanted to change things , I still

10:46

wanted to innovate , and what

10:48

I realized is , if they were going to pay

10:50

my salary , they were also going

10:52

to control what I could say . So

10:55

I started to think , even from as young as 20 , I

10:57

said you know what I need to do

10:59

? Something where I can make my

11:01

money entrepreneurially , so

11:04

that when I'm on this pulpit , when

11:06

I'm in church , I can say whatever I want to

11:08

say without fear of losing my job , or what

11:10

would happen if I lost my job . So

11:12

that took me down the road of entrepreneurship and

11:14

that's where I did social media . First

11:17

, I had a social media company . I

11:19

did a lot of freelance youth work . I

11:22

did whatever I could , where I could make my money

11:25

somewhere else . So in the

11:27

church space I could say what I wanted to say

11:29

how I wanted to say it . And that

11:31

led me slowly down a path to

11:33

property where one of the units

11:35

I used to work with young people , as I said , and

11:37

I was in a house . It was like you were basically

11:41

like a security guard , more or less Like you just

11:43

stayed in the house for all day , logged when they went in and out . It was like a basically

11:45

like a security guard , more or less like you just stayed in the house for all day , logged when they

11:47

went in and out . It was like a semi-independent living . So these are all 16 to 18

11:49

year old kids and I was , and I had a lot

11:52

of time while I was there and I happened

11:54

to ask my one of my colleagues . I said this

11:56

house that we're in is it ? Is it owned

11:59

by the company that I work for ? And

12:01

they , she said no , it we . They

12:03

rent this property from landlords

12:06

. They rent all their properties from landlords . I thought

12:08

that's interesting , isn't it ? So then I

12:10

thought do you know what A

12:13

thought that often has been the downfall of

12:15

many people ? I said what if I wanted to do this

12:17

myself ? Then what if I wanted to set

12:19

up my own semi-independent

12:21

unit ? That was the first thing . So

12:24

I said , okay , then I'm going to need the property

12:26

. And then , lo and behold , I had

12:28

a family member extended family member

12:30

who had a property that she was having problems

12:32

with , and I said to her look , could

12:34

I take on your property to run this semi-independent

12:37

unit ? I'll give you guaranteed

12:39

rent . And she said yes

12:41

, and that was how I ended up in

12:43

the property space . But that failed

12:46

as as , as things happened

12:48

, I had two partners before we're due to open

12:50

um , one just stopped answering his

12:52

phone . He still hasn't answered his phone . It's that was 2018

12:55

. He's . I'm still calling him with . We

13:04

are trying to connect . You please hold , we're

13:06

trying to connect . So

13:12

he's gone . I don't know where he is . And my

13:14

other partner , she she said it's

13:16

not . She tried but said it's not really going

13:18

to work , just the two of us . So

13:20

she moved on . So I had this property which I

13:22

had promised guaranteed

13:25

rent for um , with

13:27

no young people to stay in the property

13:29

. And what am I going to do ? Like

13:31

I was , like you know , as I said in the talk

13:33

. You know , I'm looking in the mirror thinking to myself

13:36

Luke , you just this ain't it . You just ain't

13:38

got it . What are you going to do ? And so I started

13:40

to go ahead .

13:41

Sorry , I was just going to say and I've seen

13:43

the pictures this was a high end property as

13:45

well , wasn't it ? We're not talking . You know running your mill

13:47

. This was a beauty .

13:49

Well , the high end property you're referring to , that

13:51

comes later . That's a , that's a future

13:53

failure Come on . Don't

13:55

skip my failures now . Mark

14:03

, this was the very first

14:05

property . This was before I knew

14:07

about rent to rent as a , as a model

14:09

, before I knew , um , about

14:12

all of this . This was just a property . I took

14:14

it on to run it as a semi-independent

14:16

unit for young people leaving , leaving

14:19

care , and so now I'm

14:21

struggling . How am I gonna ? What am I gonna do ? How

14:23

am I gonna make that money ? Um , and

14:25

then then I thought , okay , well , I'm gonna . How am I going to ? What am I going to do ? How am

14:27

I going to make that money ? And

14:30

then then I thought , ok , well , I'm going to have to rent it out . So I was then looking for

14:32

tenants and then , as I started to research more and more online , that's when

14:34

I learned about serviced accommodation and things

14:36

like that . So my first attempt I

14:39

then tried to run it as a as

14:41

because it was five en suite

14:43

rooms . It was basically hmo , but it wasn't

14:45

a hmo yet officially , um

14:48

, and so I then I then said

14:50

, okay , let me try and rent it out on bookingscom

14:52

and airbnb as separate rooms because

14:54

it was really close to wembley , not far from wembley

14:57

. So I thought , okay , let me try and get that tourist

14:59

market . So I tried that for a bit , but again

15:01

, I didn't know any of the systems . I didn't know anything . So

15:03

it was me and my dad trying to clean

15:06

, trying to do turnarounds , trying to do

15:08

it all , trying to leave keys , trying to figure it out

15:10

. I didn't know about , I didn't know

15:12

what I was doing . Mark , right , I didn't . I didn't

15:14

know what I was doing . And it got

15:16

to the point I'm like , nah , this ain't it either , this

15:23

ain't working , either Mark . And then

15:25

, and then I was , by this time I'm

15:27

now two months in the hole with

15:29

money that I owe the landlord , right

15:31

. So I'm like , what

15:34

am I gonna do ? So then I

15:36

um , I I had

15:38

to actually take out a personal loan to pay for

15:40

those first two months . I took out

15:42

a personal loan to pay for those first two months , and

15:45

then I just got personal loan to pay for those first

15:47

two months . And then I just got , I said you know what

15:49

Did the numbers ? I

15:52

said I'll definitely be able to make the guaranteed rent if I just

15:54

rent these room by room as a HMO . And lo

15:57

and behold , the market went up

15:59

a bit . So I rented them out as a HMO

16:01

, got the license , got all started to learn about

16:04

HMOs . Got it all officially

16:06

registered , got everything done I needed to get done

16:08

. Got five tenants in and

16:11

what was that ? Four ? But by month three

16:13

or four . Three stroke four . I

16:16

was OK . I

16:21

was OK and it was a HMO . I had the one property . It was making the guaranteed rent .

16:23

I was making a little bit of money and we were in business it

16:26

was making the guaranteed rent , I was making a little bit

16:28

of money and we were in business , nice , nice , nice I . I didn't realize . Yeah

16:30

, I didn't realize about that one , of course , so

16:32

did you . What was the knock-on effect

16:34

from ? That was like okay , I've had a few problems

16:36

, but I think I've cracked this now .

16:38

Uh onwards to the next one . Yeah

16:41

, so with that . So that was , that

16:44

was a revelation , that was a

16:46

. It was a real moment

16:48

where I thought , okay , I'm in this for real

16:51

now . I'm in this for real , um , but

16:53

I now know , I know

16:55

a few things that I didn't know before , but

16:57

that only tells me that there's lots more that I don't

16:59

know . So that's when I then tried

17:01

to increase my learning by

17:04

going to events a bit more , doing

17:06

a bit more in-depth search online , working

17:08

out OK , how do I grow the portfolio

17:10

, what do I do . And that's when I stumbled

17:12

across Samuel Leeds . I

17:15

love him or hate him , I know he's like Marmite

17:17

, but for me he

17:20

was massively influential in my journey

17:22

and I'm indebted to the kind of the free

17:24

, the freeness , that I learned from him

17:26

, and it was from learning from him . It was sitting

17:28

in one of his free events . Again , I'm not

17:30

affiliated with him , I don't get no

17:33

affiliation , but it was going to sit

17:35

going to his free event and I

17:37

happened to be sitting next to he

17:39

asked one of those questions where it was like , okay , you

17:41

know , put your hand up if you're an investor , you

17:44

know , and this happened to be this investor who was sitting

17:46

right next to me and she asked me a bit about my story

17:48

. I told her the story I just told you and

17:50

she said well , I'm I'm interested in

17:52

investing in HMOs . So

18:00

if you find anything more I'll be interested in . You know I've got . She had a pot of money

18:02

. She said I can do that whole pot towards one or

18:04

separate that up into a few , but

18:07

I'd be willing to invest with you basically

18:09

and that was a free event , that

18:13

would have been just before . That was January

18:16

2019 . That was was

18:18

that January 2019 ? It was

18:20

either January 2019 . Yeah , it was January 2019

18:22

. And then

18:24

it was January 2020

18:27

where I thought I had found something

18:30

and then , obviously , lockdown happened . So

18:32

, and then it was after lockdown where

18:35

we get to the situation which you were referring to earlier

18:37

. So , basically

18:39

, I've got , I've had one property

18:41

really for two years . It

18:44

was one HMO that I had for two years and

18:48

it was after lockdown . So

18:50

we get to January 21 , where

18:52

I reached back out to this . I said , hey , I don't know

18:54

if you remember me Sent her an email , don't

18:58

know if you remember me , but I'm looking to

19:00

invest , to look for properties again . Are you still

19:02

interested ? She said yeah , for sure , when you find

19:05

something , something let me know . And then

19:07

, at the same time , I joined the rent to

19:09

rent success course with Nikki and Stephanie

19:11

, went through that process and

19:14

then , halfway through 2021 , that's when I found

19:16

that dream property which you were referring

19:18

to earlier , which I then

19:20

also became that .

19:21

That became my next failure , but yeah

19:26

, yeah , it's amazing when you , when you actually manage

19:28

to turn something around and then all of a sudden

19:30

you get the rents through , you're paying

19:32

the bills , you're paying the landlords and you've got

19:34

some money left over and it's just like Ooh

19:36

hang on a minute . I quite like this now , um

19:39

, I mean , obviously there are easier ways

19:41

of doing it than than how you got it . My

19:43

friend , absolutely , if I

19:46

had a hat on , I would take my hat off to you

19:48

and basically say at least you took action and you

19:50

had a go . And probably

19:52

in a lot of cases not all cases

19:54

, but a lot of cases can be quite forgiving . And

19:56

I always say what's the worst case scenario is if it's

19:58

filled and we've got people in it and it washes

20:00

its face . Happy

20:05

days . So you know , know , congratulations to you . Then , like you say , you've had that

20:07

, you've been property investing for quite a long time now but

20:09

as the old saying goes , you don't know what you don't

20:12

know , do you ?

20:13

oh , my days , that is it , mark , and as

20:15

you say , I think you're right it can be quite forgiving

20:17

, especially it's relationships , isn't it ? Because , fundamentally

20:20

, it's me and

20:23

the landlord , or the landlord and

20:25

I , we together

20:27

, we come to an arrangement and we

20:30

do our best to uphold our ends of the bargain

20:32

. And if things need to change or if things need to move

20:34

, I've learned just to be

20:37

okay with that , because there's seasons to

20:39

everything and sometimes you're going to want something

20:41

and your landlord's going to be like no , don't , don't

20:43

call me for nothing , like . I've had landlords

20:45

who's like don't , I don't , unless the ceiling's

20:47

caving in , and I expect to see you they're

20:49

holding it up with those two strong arms of yours

20:51

when I get there . That's the only way I'll believe

20:54

you mate right , like somewhere

20:56

like that , and others are like no , keep me informed

20:58

. I want to . You know I want this place to be the best

21:00

it can be , so I want to invest

21:02

in it . I'm happy to fix things and do things because

21:04

I know that you're doing a good job . So

21:07

, as long as you've got that relationship , you understand

21:09

your landlord , you've got a good relationship with them , and

21:12

be as transparent as you can

21:14

and just share what's

21:16

happening , share the wins , share where you need

21:18

help , share what's going on as much as is

21:20

possible and , as

21:23

you say it can , it can be quite forgiving because worst

21:25

case scenario , what's the worst case ? Worst case scenario

21:27

, it's not making money and you have

21:29

to say you know it's

21:31

not working , but I've never had to return a property

21:34

for for that reason . Or , yeah

21:36

, I've never had to return property for that reason . So , yeah

21:39

, it just just keep that relationship

21:41

as honest and as transparent

21:44

and as real as you can . And

21:47

, um , most landlords are

21:50

are cool , are cool with that yeah

21:53

, I would agree with that .

21:55

I think transparency is everything . I think , particularly

21:57

for landlords that work with letting agents and

21:59

things . Then they don't know what they're getting each month

22:02

. You know , not all letting agents are as transparent

22:04

or do a good , good enough job . It

22:07

is massively , like you say , then , about

22:09

relationships , working together with

22:11

people , but I always say it is

22:13

business At the end of the day , it is

22:15

a business to business agreement , and

22:17

as much as I've struggled

22:20

with this myself , removing the emotion

22:23

when money's involved , emotions

22:25

normally start to , you know , come

22:27

up . We don't want to fail as well . We also

22:29

look at ourselves from the outside . If I hand a property

22:31

back , I think I've failed . I don't want to be a failure , I

22:33

don't want people to think of me like that , but I

22:35

look at things as business and business

22:38

have to pivot and they have to evolve . And

22:41

of course , what I would say is

22:43

we haven't had

22:45

it easy . You know what I mean . Somebody

22:47

said to me the other day . They said how are you getting

22:49

on with your property business ? It's not been easy , is it ? I

22:51

think there's been something kicking off near enough

22:53

every year . You know , if it's not Brexit , it's

22:56

recessions , if it's COVID , and then

22:58

it's interest rates , it's utility . I've

23:00

said do you know what ? We're still going , we're

23:02

still thriving , and I can't wait to

23:04

have an easy period . Let's have a few years

23:07

where nothing much is happening . We'll absolutely

23:09

fly ?

23:12

Absolutely no . That's a really good point , I think

23:14

, because even when we think about

23:16

interest rates and people thinking about you know , is

23:18

now the right time to buy , or what have you

23:20

I , and people thinking about you know is now the right time to buy

23:23

, or what have you I always see it like , well , let's say , I

23:25

don't believe it's going to get much higher . Right

23:28

, I could be wrong , but if you

23:30

buy when it's the worst , then

23:32

the only way is down . Really

23:34

, I mean , some people might think , oh

23:36

, it could go . You never know it could go up to I

23:42

. Just for me , I don't think it would go much higher . But the point is , if you have

23:44

worked your numbers out and and work

23:46

the situation out where you can still survive

23:48

in this climate I

23:51

mean , we know property is cyclical

23:53

, so the likelihood is

23:55

that you're in an even better position

23:57

when things change . When , when

24:00

interest rates come down , should they come down you're

24:02

going to have more money to play with , not less . You

24:04

know so I . When everyone's buying

24:07

when it's low interest rates , that's easy . You don't you don't

24:09

need to be good at business , you don't

24:11

need to be sharp , you don't need to be creative , you

24:13

don't need to be anything . When , when interest rates

24:15

are 0.000 or

24:17

minus whatever any

24:19

, anyone in this dog can go and buy a house

24:21

in in that market , right , and the market

24:23

gets flooded and people who are not necessarily

24:26

practitioners , as I like to call it , can still

24:28

end up in the game . But when

24:30

it's like this , but then this time comes and

24:32

it's cut for it , right , a lot of people have probably

24:35

left the market . A lot of people are not

24:37

in the game . Maybe a lot of people may

24:39

now be in in , you know , back in their their

24:42

nine to five and you know tesco , which

24:44

is fine . But the point is

24:46

that they might have to have turned

24:48

their whole ship around because

24:51

they went in when it was easy , whereas if you

24:53

go , if you have that fight or

24:55

flight kind of mentality when it's tough

24:57

, then when it eases up , you're still

24:59

. You're going to win even more and greater

25:01

because you didn't come in when it was easy . Sailing

25:04

, you know , smooth sailing , yeah .

25:06

Love it . Anybody can sail a ship in calm

25:08

water .

25:10

Hey , see , that's what I love you , mark . You just said

25:13

what I said You're

25:15

like in seven words you said what

25:17

took me seven minutes . So thank you for

25:19

saying that , thank you for saying that , thank you for doing those . That's

25:21

why mark's the guy , guys , this is why mark's the

25:23

guy I'll tell you what .

25:25

That's a first for me , because you normally can't shut me

25:27

up . So

25:31

we've we've left everybody on tender hooks

25:33

. Now you've spoken to this investor lady

25:35

. You know things are on the rise , you're making

25:37

money and stuff you're now taking on . So

25:40

you've got this beautiful property .

25:41

I've got to tell everybody , this one , yeah , so

25:44

I've got this beautiful property . It's

25:46

like a one , two

25:48

, three , four , five bed

25:50

, like modern mansion

25:53

, basically . Um , even you

25:55

know so the pictures I didn't even show you mark , which

25:57

I'll give you this inside scoop it even had a basement

26:00

, mark , it actually had like a two

26:03

bed apartment downstairs

26:05

, like that's not even in the pictures , that was

26:07

like a nice little sideline

26:09

, like just it was going to be a games room . I was going

26:11

to put games room down there , like beautiful

26:13

. Anyway . So I have this large property

26:16

. It's probably it was worth at that point about 1.6

26:18

, I think 1.4 , 1.6 . I

26:20

mean just exquisite , lovely property . And

26:23

I found this property on just

26:26

regular right move . It was on for a crazy

26:28

sum . It was on for like 8,000 pounds a month

26:30

. I was like this is crazy

26:32

, no one's going to pay 8 grand . But anyway , I

26:35

put in . I asked for a viewing through

26:37

the letting agent and

26:39

went for the viewing . I looked

26:42

at it , it looked nice , spoke to the owners . They were nice

26:44

people and I

26:46

submitted my offer to the agent

26:49

. I said I know you want you on 8,000

26:51

, but I said I

26:53

can offer . I think

26:55

I said about five grand . I knew I could go up to about five and

26:57

a half , I think . I offered around five to

26:59

start with , or a bit under five , and

27:01

she said , okay , I'll take the offer to

27:04

them , but I'm sure you know it's not

27:06

. I'm sure as soon as the agent says to you

27:08

, but I'm sure they're going to say no

27:10

, right , I'm like , okay

27:12

, you ain't bringing them nothing , are you , susie

27:14

? You ain't

27:17

bringing them nothing . So she didn't even contact me back . I contacted

27:19

her . I said , hey , did you take my offer

27:21

? What was the response ? She said yeah

27:23

, as I thought they said no

27:25

, they really , they really need eight

27:27

thousand . I said OK , no problem , that's

27:29

fine . Fortunately they had

27:31

also advertised the property on open

27:33

rent . And for those people who don't know , open

27:35

rent is where landlords go direct to market

27:38

their properties . They don't use an agent , it's

27:40

just you're directly dealing . Generally

27:42

, you're directly dealing with a landlord

27:44

, not always , but a lot of the time . That's

27:46

the idea of the platform anyway . Of course , me and

27:48

Mark use it a bit differently , but we'll get to that later

27:50

right ? So the landlords are on there

27:53

, the landlords are on there , and

28:00

so they had advertised the property on Open Rent as well

28:02

. So I said fine , then I can go directly to them , since they're

28:04

there as well . And I spoke to them again . I said hey

28:06

, I know . I came around with Becky , I think

28:08

her name was . I came around with Becky a couple of days ago . Did

28:11

she bring you my offer ? They said no

28:14

, she hasn't brought us anything . I said

28:16

, ok , no problem , would you mind if

28:18

I come around for a second viewing ? They said

28:20

, yeah , great , came around there for the second

28:22

viewing , spoke about things . They were

28:24

like okay , five and five and a half . They were like

28:26

okay , um , you know , we really

28:28

wanted seven because of , uh , we wanted

28:30

to remortgage all this stuff . I said I understand

28:32

, but five and a half is the best . And

28:34

I explained to them why . I said , look , I'm gonna have to do

28:37

it as , even to get that number . I

28:39

said I said I can give you 3

28:41

000 if we run it

28:43

as a hmo , um

28:45

, but if you want that extra figure

28:47

, those extra , that extra two and a half , it's

28:50

going to have to be a serviced accommodation where

28:52

I rent this , the whole property , out on airbnb

28:54

and um and and bookingscom

28:57

and all the other otas . So they

28:59

so they were like okay , no problem , okay

29:02

, go for it . So we signed the contract

29:05

. We've got that move in . That's where I contact

29:07

my investor Again . I said I found this

29:09

property , it's beautiful , I

29:11

need one month's rent and I need

29:14

the deposit . So I need 11 grand

29:16

. She said , yep , no problem , lukey

29:18

, send me that 11

29:20

bags , as they say in the ends , send

29:23

me those 11 bags , sent that

29:25

across to the landlord and

29:27

we were in business

29:30

. We were in business . I

29:33

mean this . For me this was like my retirement

29:35

. I'm like this is going to make me even

29:38

paying back each month , paying

29:41

back the investor , investor . I was

29:43

still making like set to make close

29:46

to two grand , over two grand some

29:48

months , that's . That was like um

29:51

, conservatively . So

29:53

once the investor was going to be paid off , I

29:55

was going to be making like 4k . I'm

29:57

like , plus the

29:59

property that I already , the HMI I already had

30:01

, I'm like I made

30:04

it Mama .

30:05

I made it Mama

30:09

.

30:09

I made it

30:12

. I thought I had made

30:14

it . I was listen , I was

30:16

buying Rolex . Okay , I wasn't buying Rolexes

30:18

, but I was in my mind I

30:20

was Rolex , ferrari

30:22

, badger

30:27

, the holidays , 11 months of the year . I had done it , I had

30:29

made it and it was the life . And lo and behold

30:31

, I was right . At first , the bookings

30:34

. Just I mean , I even put the property

30:36

up before it was even ready

30:38

, just to see , okay , actually , before it was even ready

30:40

, just to see , okay , actually , even before we signed the contract

30:42

, just to . So here's a trick

30:45

. This is a good trick for people , not

30:50

even a trick , a good tip , right . If you think that you know you're

30:52

going to sign a contract or you're close to signing a contract , you

30:54

can still put it up on the online

30:56

. I put it up on Airbnb , but I put that

30:59

you have to get confirmation . So not

31:01

instant book , you have to

31:03

get confirmation . So I had to say yes

31:05

or no to the booking . By doing

31:07

that , that

31:14

allowed me to see the demand before I even had the keys , before I even had furnished

31:16

the property . So , by putting it up online , even while we were

31:18

signing and going through the negotiations , bookings

31:20

were coming in or people were trying to book

31:22

, book , book , book , and this was between 550

31:25

pound a night during a weekday to

31:27

up to seven , eight hundred pounds a

31:30

grand on the weekend , because this was

31:32

Wembley , Wembley , this was

31:34

10 minutes walk from the stadium . This

31:36

was when mansion , when you could

31:38

come with a nice big group of people , like

31:40

like up to 12 , 14 people , and just

31:42

have a blast . So I mean

31:46

the highest booking I ever had on

31:48

that property and I know it was a one-off

31:50

, but I like to remember it because then

31:52

it just makes the failure just even greater

31:54

in my mind . And I'm a bit of this , you know , I

31:56

like to just peel the bandage off over and over

31:59

again , right ? So the biggest night that

32:01

I had there was the Euro

32:03

finals . I think it was the Euro finals

32:05

in England and Italy . Yeah

32:08

, that's right , euro finals at Wembley . A

32:11

group from work came together , a

32:13

workplace came together , booked it . That

32:15

was £2,000 for that one night

32:17

and I was like , yes , I know

32:19

the finals don't happen every year and I know

32:21

England won't be in it every year and I know it won't be in Wembley

32:24

every year . So there were a lot of factors , but

32:26

still I mean just I'm like

32:28

what a

32:30

beauty , what a two

32:32

grand in one night . Mark , I know

32:34

it's conservatively

32:37

, you could make a grand 900 night , but

32:44

two grand . I was like mate , let's go . So how did it all end ? How did it all end ? It all

32:46

ended one fateful night when I get a text on my phone

32:49

from a neighbour who didn't have

32:51

my number so had gone through the Airbnb

32:53

booking to message me saying there

32:55

are some individuals smoking weed in your garden

32:57

. I said I said

33:00

what ? I was like okay . She

33:02

was like yeah , and there's actually there's quite a few

33:04

people here , maybe you need to head over

33:06

. I was like , okay , no problem

33:08

, mark . As I'm driving

33:10

to the property , mark , I'm

33:14

passing Wembley Park station , I'm

33:16

just seeing like young

33:18

people , like maybe 18 to 21 year olds

33:20

probably a bit younger coming

33:22

out the station . I'm like tell

33:24

me they're not coming to my yard , tell

33:26

me they're not coming to my property , please

33:29

, but you don't have that

33:31

sinking feeling . I get to the top of the road , there's just lines

33:34

of ubers just dropping

33:36

people off , and this is you've got to remember this is summer

33:38

of 21 , I believe , just summer of

33:40

21 , so we're not even properly

33:42

out of lockdown yet . It's

33:44

still kind of . I think we're

33:47

at that point where we can meet up in two bubbles

33:49

together or some amalgamation of

33:51

that . Right , you're an arm length apart , you're

33:53

an arm length apart , you know masks , all

33:56

of that . And there's like

33:58

hundreds of

34:00

kids just outside the

34:02

property , in the property , around the property

34:04

, just taking the absolute

34:07

liberties . And you have to remember the booking that

34:09

had come through was a young man , had said

34:11

hi , it's me and my four brothers . One

34:14

of my brothers is getting married , so

34:22

all the other brothers and the groomsmen , we just want to stay at the house so we can get ready

34:24

together . You know the whole nine yards , so we can get ready together and head over to the wedding

34:26

. I said no problem , sent me his driver's license

34:29

, sent me his passport , like everything

34:31

seemed legit . I checked him in , even

34:34

I checked him in that

34:36

day , either that day or the day before . Everything

34:39

seemed normal , no issues . And

34:41

when I get there just to see these hundreds

34:44

of kids , I'm like

34:46

blood clots

34:48

, as we say blood clots

34:50

. I'm like what is going

34:53

on and I was

34:55

just like what am I going to do

34:57

? Like the street's going mad . And it was

34:59

a suburban street , you

35:01

know , all expensive houses , but

35:03

all very kind of nosy

35:05

and they don't want much going on in their neighborhood anyway

35:08

. So they were kind of waiting for an opportunity

35:10

and it was just terrible

35:14

. It was that now , to be fair to them , they

35:16

didn't destroy the property or anything , but

35:18

they I couldn't get them out

35:20

that night because when I called the police , the police said it's

35:22

a civil matter , we're not getting involved

35:25

. So I couldn't get them out at that point

35:27

and um , they left the next day , left

35:29

the street in a mess and

35:31

it was just a nightmare . And

35:33

because of the stress and all the drama

35:36

that the neighbors made as a

35:38

result of that night , can you imagine just opening your and I I

35:40

understand you open your curtain 10

35:42

o'clock in the evening , 11 o'clock in the evening , and

35:44

there's just waves of kids

35:46

just down your street , music

35:49

, playing loud . I mean , this is what we call

35:51

a viral party . A friend of mine

35:53

said that they had seen the invite

35:55

on Snapchat . They were Snapchatting

35:58

the invite around . They charged people

36:00

. I reckon they made about 10 grand

36:02

that night charging people like 20 pounds , 15

36:04

pounds for a ticket , just getting people

36:06

in through the doors . They even

36:08

had the giveaway they even had . This

36:11

is where I thought to myself my God

36:13

, they even had a security

36:15

guard at my front door .

36:17

Oh , what

36:20

did you turn up the day ?

36:22

that I turned up security

36:25

guard there in his green little high viz I'm like

36:27

bloody up , like you guys

36:29

took the capital piss . So

36:31

. So that was that . As

36:33

a result of all of that and as a result of not being able to control

36:35

they , you know , they tried , even when that

36:38

one , I kind of rode the wave a little bit they

36:40

kept on trying to do the same thing . They kept on

36:42

trying to repeat the same fate using

36:44

different names , using different people trying to

36:47

. I thought I couldn't realistically

36:49

secure and I didn't know enough how to secure

36:51

that premises to make sure that this

36:53

didn't happen again . And the streets were

36:56

watching , as they say , the streets were watching

36:58

man . So I had to . In

37:00

the long run , after just a few months , I

37:02

had to return that beautiful property to

37:04

the owners , devastated , mark Devastated

37:07

.

37:09

Now , you know , when you rang the police

37:11

, yeah , and they said it's a civil matter

37:13

, did you not say there is , you know , still

37:15

lockdown restrictions , and these are being

37:18

breached massively here .

37:20

I tried everything , mark . I tried everything , mark . I tried everything

37:22

. I was like , yeah , they were like how many kids are in there ? I said

37:24

at least two , 300

37:26

. They're like , yeah

37:28

, well , do they have a booking ? I said I have

37:31

a booking with one person . I said that

37:33

person is not in the property . I'm calling

37:35

him . He's not coming . He's not

37:37

there or he's not coming out . So these other people , I

37:39

said , as far as I'm concerned , I trespassed it , he

37:42

. They said , well , you , you rented out the

37:44

property for that evening . It's

37:46

nothing to do with us , mate . That's

37:49

crap isn't it ?

37:51

yeah , proper , that is . Poor

37:53

, that is well . I'm sorry to hear that . Um

37:55

the crest of a wave reality literally and , as I said

37:57

in my talk , sitting there packing up , I remember . I just Back down to reality

37:59

.

38:00

Literally and

38:04

, as I said in my talk , sitting there packing up . I remember packing up so vividly

38:06

, like I don't think I'm very emotional

38:08

so I might have cried , but I don't remember crying

38:11

. I just remember that experience

38:14

. After that experience it was

38:16

the closest I got to like real , like

38:18

just it's not I

38:21

don't know how to Just real , like sad

38:24

, sadness over property . I was just like I

38:27

just how did I lose

38:29

this ? I just couldn't yeah , like

38:31

very demoralized . How did I lose

38:33

it ? I lost this and , as I said in

38:35

the talk , that's when I had to face

38:38

the fact that I was not good enough at that

38:40

point . I was not yet good

38:42

enough for the game I was trying

38:44

to play , right , and that is the

38:46

reality you have to face . Look , I'm a man United fan . When

38:48

we get battered 7-0 or whatever it was , by

38:50

Liverpool , right , we have to sit there . You have

38:53

to say to yourself you guys just

38:55

are up for scratch right now . No-transcript

39:35

.

39:35

You know exactly Exactly . Well

39:38

it's . You

39:40

don't know what you don't know . It's one of those old sayings

39:42

again , isn't it ? It really is so , so true . I mean

39:44

, when I started out it's the same thing . That's

39:46

why I just thought I need to invest . Initially

39:49

, I wasn't going to invest any money in any education

39:51

or anything like that .

39:52

Why ?

39:52

Because I could find books , podcasts

39:54

and YouTube at the end of the day . So

39:56

why spend thousands ? They're all crooks . I

40:05

spend thousands . They're all crooks . I used to think they're all crooks who just have

40:07

no money . But then , all of a sudden , when you actually find decent education , stuff that

40:09

saves you money and this is the thing you'll make more money spending money on your

40:11

own education than you ever will , fumbling

40:14

and bumbling around on your own . So

40:16

you're sat on the steps you can't

40:18

remember whether you cried or not , but maybe you did

40:20

shed a tear or two after you lost 5,000

40:23

a night bookings . What

40:25

picked you up and what kept you going ?

40:27

my man , just being hearing

40:29

that supportive community and hearing people support

40:31

one another , comfort one another in

40:34

their failings and give them advice . It

40:36

slowly gave me the courage to be able to say

40:38

, all right , I'm going to speak up , I

40:40

can talk it . And then I put

40:42

my camera on one day , walked outside , walked down

40:44

the road and I just said , hey guys

40:46

, this is what happened . And

40:49

, as lo and behold , just the support that

40:51

came just helped me to get back

40:53

on that horse . But community

40:56

is everything to me . And look , this is a narrative

40:58

that's run through my whole life . I told you , from 16,'ve

41:00

been involved in in community work with my

41:02

church and then I'm

41:04

in . Then I worked with young people , again trying

41:07

to help the community , and then working

41:09

with young believers , um , semi-independent

41:12

living , working with children , young people leaving care

41:14

, and then now this community

41:16

again being part of a property community like

41:18

. I'm forever indebted

41:21

to community . For me , community is everything . Like

41:23

it's . It literally is the purpose of

41:25

life , like , what is the point without community

41:27

? What is the point ? And it's the same thing I tried

41:29

to create in my HMOs . Where possible , I

41:31

try my best to foster a community

41:33

there . You don't have to like it everyone , you don't have to talk to everyone

41:36

, or you know , or you don't

41:38

have to go out your way to talk to everyone , but

41:40

if you see them in the corridor you can say

41:42

hi , you know , you can be nice to each other . You

41:44

can empty your washing machine after you've used

41:46

it , knowing that someone else is going to use it . Come

41:49

on , put your recycle things in the recycle

41:51

bin so that there's space in the normal bin , so

41:53

that when you , when you're , when your fellow

41:55

tenant comes out , they don't have to put

41:57

you know , I mean just little things like that . Community

42:00

is everything . I

42:02

, I seriously believe that , and so it

42:05

was that community that brought me

42:07

slowly back to my feet and

42:09

just allowed me to to

42:11

believe that I could keep going and believe I

42:13

could do it again . So , yeah , community

42:15

, that's what brought me , brought me

42:17

back no , that's great

42:19

.

42:20

That's great and I'm I am a massive , firm

42:22

believer in that as well . That you know you've got to

42:24

surround yourself with like-minded people . You've got to

42:26

. You know , people , that anything

42:28

you do in life , anything worth doing , is

42:31

going to be hard . It's going to have its pitfalls . Now

42:33

you may enjoy the hard or , you know

42:35

, you may enjoy the efforts that you've got to put in there

42:37

, but you're going to have your ups , you're going to have your downs . So

42:39

it really is being in a community and now

42:41

maybe you're all striving to do the same thing

42:44

but in different areas or whatever . But

42:46

it is being there for other people , having people

42:48

there for you and of course you know they

42:50

say you , you are , you know the five people

42:52

you spend most of your time with . Well , why do you have to spend

42:54

people time with five people ? Why can't you spend time

42:56

with more people ? And really helps

42:59

you guys and boost yourself . But

43:01

that's why I work very hard on my communities

43:03

. I look at and I I'm quite picky

43:06

with the communities that I'm in as well . I

43:08

like to keep myself in communities . You

43:10

know , you know yourself . Negative people

43:13

, they're everywhere . You can't always get away

43:15

from them , but you don't have

43:17

to surround yourself with them . We have choices

43:19

, don't we ? We can make the choices and

43:21

I always , always say you are through the choices

43:23

that you've made , because we're grown adults

43:26

now .

43:26

You know , we can choose to do something

43:28

different .

43:29

We can choose not to do that , not to do this

43:31

, or we can choose to do it . And

43:36

I have to say hats off to you as well , because a

43:38

lot of people in your situation

43:40

and predicament would have just thrown the towel in and

43:42

said , oh , I can't be asked for this , it's just

43:45

not going well at all for me . Oh

43:47

, Bob , I'm going to try something completely different

43:49

. But you didn't . You stayed in the community

43:52

. You stuck in the community and

43:54

then , you know , you got yourself back out . You

43:56

got back on the horse , as they say , didn't ?

43:58

you back

44:03

on the horse , as they say , didn't you ? Yeah , absolutely , absolutely . And I sometimes

44:05

, yeah , it's so interesting because it you don't

44:07

, you don't appreciate just how important

44:10

people are , until you're kind of in

44:12

a sticky wicket , right , when everything is

44:14

kind of going positive and flowing well , you

44:17

, you run the risk of almost believing

44:20

that you , you know , it's

44:22

kind of just you like , you've done

44:24

this or you can do this without people , but

44:27

you really can't . It's

44:30

just impossible , right . Even my

44:33

landlords , you know , I try to foster

44:35

some type of relationship with them , community with

44:37

them , and I just think it's

44:39

so important , man , and it's important to appreciate

44:42

also those people who have

44:44

been fundamental in helping

44:46

you and being part of your community . I mean , I've

44:49

got this planner that I use each morning and

44:51

it's got a prompt in there and it just

44:53

says who can you say thank you to today , or

44:56

appreciate , or send a surprise note

44:58

of appreciation , and I don't always

45:00

do it , but I try to do it and

45:03

I did it this morning with a couple of people who were influential

45:05

in my life growing up , and I just think

45:09

it's just , it's a game changer , right , it's a game

45:11

changer . And you know , even seeing you

45:13

, the way you operated at the

45:15

event that we met at . You know me

45:17

and you have never met , but

45:19

still you were with one of your friends and you both approached me and you

45:21

spoke to me and you have never met and but still you , you were with one of your friends and you both approached me

45:24

and you spoke to me and we had a

45:26

good laugh and you asked me if I would

45:28

come on the podcast . And you've been

45:30

active in , in , in

45:33

continuing to build your community , even though

45:35

I know you have an extensive network

45:37

, but still someone completely

45:39

new you've never met before reaching

45:42

out and you're just so humble with it

45:44

and you don't have come

45:46

on . We know how successful you are , we

45:48

know kind of the groups you're in , but

45:50

to reach out to someone who you just met , that

45:53

is for me , just . I want to commend

45:55

you for that and just say how much I appreciate

45:57

that because it's just , it's

45:59

everything . To me , community is everything and I consider you

46:01

a part of my community . So I just really want to say how

46:04

much I appreciate that being here and you connect

46:06

me now with your community . It's just , it's

46:08

huge . So I really do appreciate that no

46:11

, I well .

46:12

I thank you for that . That's very nice , very nice thing to

46:14

say . But your network is your net worth at the

46:16

end of the day , and it's not always in money terms

46:18

. A lot of of the time it's psychological

46:20

terms , it's relationships . As

46:22

we said before , it all boils down to relationships

46:25

At the end of the day . I was brought up

46:27

and I will treat people the way I want to be

46:29

treated .

46:30

It doesn't matter who you are At the end of the day

46:32

, that's what it's all about .

46:33

People are what matter . You know , things properties

46:36

will come and go , things , trinkets will come and

46:38

go , but people are what matter , and we're

46:40

only here for a short space of time , so

46:42

why not have fun ? And , of course , I

46:44

mean I listened to you talk and everything . I just thought

46:47

, wow , brilliant , what a story . You

46:49

know , at the end of the day , some people have got a story

46:51

you think , well , you know , it's a good story . When you

46:53

went through yours and the way you did it , with the emotions

46:56

and stuff , I was blown away and I just thought I've

46:58

got to have this guy on the podcast because

47:00

he's got a great story , he's got a great personality

47:02

and it , like you say , it's all about building relationships

47:05

. So no , right back at you as well , I mean

47:07

thank you for coming on , because it

47:10

is and that's what it's all about . And of course you know , if we

47:12

can ever help you in any way , shape or form

47:14

, in the future , or you're stuck with anything , then you know you

47:16

can reach out to us amazing , amazing

47:18

.

47:18

I really appreciate that , mark . I really do , honestly

47:20

.

47:21

No , no , no .

47:21

You're a lovely guy , Marky . You're a lovely guy .

47:24

Don't try me , guys . It's like you said at that event

47:26

. You said Mark's now an honorary brother

47:28

.

47:30

I do say that , listen

47:33

, when I'm on that stage , I cannot be held accountable

47:36

for the things that I say . I mean

47:38

I should be really , but I mean , yeah

47:40

, no , you were right in there in the

47:42

thick of it , mate

47:44

, you are an honorary brother , you wear that with pride . And

47:47

look , mark Luke , all we need is Matthew and John

47:49

, and we've completed the set , haven't we ? The

47:52

four gospels of the property game . Let's go

47:55

. I love it , I am conscious

47:57

of

48:02

your time , my friend , and I always like .

48:03

To end these with some questions . It's like

48:05

a quick fire round , but you can take a bit of time to

48:07

answer if you like you alright for that . Yeah

48:10

, go for it . This is a good one . So

48:12

what's the best advice you've been given ?

48:15

in general , property or in general , just

48:18

in general . In general , best piece of advice

48:20

I've been given , oh , uh

48:24

, just that the

48:27

process is the progress . I

48:30

love that the process is the progress , like

48:32

a lot of the time we have this destination in mind , where

48:35

we think , when we get to there , that will be it

48:37

. But I really try to remember that the

48:39

process is the progress . So every step

48:41

, as you're moving forward , as you're on your journey , that

48:45

is the step , is the reward

48:48

. Right , the fact that you took that step , that

48:50

is the reward . Don't worry about what's out there

48:52

, because that out there is just another

48:54

step . So the process

48:56

is the progress . If you can fall in love with the process

48:58

, you're off to the horses , because success

49:00

or failure , up or down , left or right , you

49:03

appreciate that it's all just part of that

49:05

process . So for me , yeah , best piece of advice

49:07

, yeah , the the progress , the process

49:09

is the progress the process

49:11

is the pro .

49:12

I love that , absolutely love that . Because , as

49:14

you say , we all look at the mountain , it's like , well , I want to

49:16

be up there , I want to my 10 properties , they're all cash

49:18

flowing and doing this and doing all of that , and

49:20

we forget to enjoy the journey , don't we ? Absolutely

49:24

, absolutely brilliant . I love that . I'm going to use that

49:26

. I'm going to nick that . Damn

49:28

it , dang it . So

49:31

if you could sit down and have dinner with

49:33

three people , dead

49:41

?

49:41

Dead or alive ? Who would you like to sit down and chat to ? Oh my gosh , that is an amazing question . Oh

49:46

boy , dead or alive ? Okay

49:50

, I

49:53

think . Oh , oh

49:57

, oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh . Kwame Nkrumah I

49:59

hope I said his name right . He was a

50:01

leader in Ghana . He

50:03

was a leader , one of

50:05

the I don't know which one , but one of the

50:07

a prime minister or president of Ghana back in the day

50:09

, and he was quite influential

50:12

in their

50:14

quest for independence . So that

50:16

would be one Also

50:20

right

50:23

now . I

50:25

am also inspired by

50:27

Pele

50:30

Pele . I

50:32

started down with Pele farming , the chroma , and oh gosh

50:35

. This always gets people thinking . I know I'm taking it , maybe

50:37

I'm taking this too seriously , and oh gosh it

50:40

always gets people maybe I'm taking

50:42

this too seriously , but

50:45

I have to take all Mark's questions seriously .

50:46

Okay , one other person well

50:50

, not all of them who

50:53

do I meet ?

50:55

oh yeah , I mean , how could I forget Kanye West

50:57

? Come on , what were you even talking about , in

50:59

fact ? Kanye west , kanye west and

51:01

kanye west , because he has about three personalities

51:04

, at least . So

51:07

for me , how could

51:10

I forget my man , kanye kanye

51:12

, um kwame and um

51:14

who's the who's the second one ? I said

51:17

pele , pele , pele them three . We

51:19

would have an absolute blast

51:21

. Oh my days , I think that's

51:23

a good table .

51:24

I think that is a good . It's certainly a mixed table

51:26

, isn't it ? You've got all the elements yeah , yes

51:29

, different worlds , that's .

51:30

That's what I like . We've got the music , the entertainment , we've got the political

51:32

and we've got the the , the sporting

51:34

.

51:35

Yeah , yeah yeah , brilliant good

51:37

stuff like that , like that now . Now

51:39

, this doesn't have to be property related either . What's

51:41

your top three recommendations

51:43

for books that people should read ?

51:46

okay , um , so

51:49

there's a book called the power of less by

51:51

a man called leo we

51:53

are too , I think that's his name , babiata

51:56

, but the power of it's

51:58

a phenomenal book it teaches

52:00

what I love is a

52:02

kind of a productivity method which is as

52:05

stripped back as possible , and I use

52:07

this method even to today , where

52:09

it's really about each

52:11

having like what he calls MIT

52:13

most important tasks , and really

52:16

he says they should be about three of them a day , no

52:18

more than three most important tasks a day

52:20

, and they should not take more

52:22

than an hour each . And

52:24

then , once you've completed them , even if your list is longer

52:26

, you know that your day is golden

52:28

. If those three tasks

52:31

have been completed for the day and

52:33

those tasks really the power

52:35

is . If those tasks , or at least one of those tasks

52:37

, are tied to your one goal

52:39

for the year , then you know that

52:42

every single day you're moving towards your

52:44

yearly goal , whatever that goal is

52:46

. So the way I've interpreted this is I've

52:49

made three goals for the year , one in my personal

52:52

life , one health-related and

52:54

one finance-related

52:57

and then

52:59

I set those as targets for the year , and

53:01

then I break them down into monthly goals

53:04

, weekly goals and then

53:06

daily tasks , and so I make

53:08

sure that every day I've moved the needle towards

53:10

one of those goals every day . And

53:13

that was all inspired by that book the Power of Less

53:15

. So that would be my first recommendation the

53:17

Power of Less , the power of less . So that's my , that would be my first recommendation

53:19

the power of less . Um . The next one would be

53:21

, uh

53:24

, the success principle by

53:27

jack canfield . Um

53:29

, I read that when I was like 17

53:31

and that was really where it was first

53:33

cemented into my mind , this idea of

53:36

, um , radical accountability

53:38

. That's where this book really taught

53:40

that and , and really I I didn't

53:42

realize how intentional you could

53:44

be of your life , like , like , how

53:47

, the way he thought about his year , like I mean , this

53:49

might be normal to people who are CEOs or

53:51

been in the corporate world , but this wasn't normal

53:53

to me . To think about your life like , okay , how many holidays

53:55

do you want for the year ? Um , how would you

53:57

break that down ? He would talk about things like he would have

53:59

one weekend away a month with

54:01

his , with his wife . He'd have one summer

54:04

holiday , like he broke it all down . I'm just like whoa

54:06

, whoa , whoa , whoa , wait a minute

54:08

, wait a minute , wait a minute

54:10

. You don't just wake up one day and decide you're going

54:12

to jamaica for a summer , like you , actually

54:14

plan this stuff out , uh , and

54:16

that just for me was like run

54:19

, I'm still not there with that level of kind

54:21

of , and I know , look , they always say man

54:23

makes plans and god laughs , and I get it

54:25

right . But I would still rather have some

54:27

plans that god can laugh at rather than just having

54:30

nothing , you know . So I love , I

54:32

love that book . Jack can't hold the success principle

54:34

. Leo babiartu , the Power of Less

54:36

, and my third book would be

54:38

, third

54:40

book would be . I

54:46

know they're all kind of business success related , but that's

54:48

just how I am .

54:49

I can't sorry , I can only give you what I've got

54:51

. I'm just checking to see if I've got any of those .

54:54

Yeah , the next one I know you do have the

54:57

Compound Effect by

55:00

Darren Hardy . Yeah

55:02

, that book . Just

55:05

because we are

55:08

, fundamentally we're never stationary

55:10

. We're either getting better or getting worse

55:12

. There's no stationary , right , it's just

55:14

there's none . And he really breaks

55:16

that down . It's

55:21

just if there's none , and he really breaks that down . It's

55:23

like the compound effect of little things are either working against , working

55:25

for you or against you . Right and um , he really breaks down how

55:28

, like he gives great examples like having

55:30

two people who are you know , exactly

55:33

the same , like weight for example

55:35

, and then this person , um

55:37

, adds you one or

55:39

few more calories a day to their diet , and this one

55:41

adds a few less calories a day to their diet

55:43

, and where they end up in 10 or

55:45

15 years , it's like it blows your mind

55:48

, like a slight incremental difference here

55:50

in the played out in the long run

55:52

puts them as

55:55

far as the North is from the South . It's

55:57

just crazy . So for me that

55:59

is another , just a great book . And Darren still

56:01

makes some cool videos on YouTube as well . So

56:04

the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy , the Success

56:06

Principle by Jack Canfield and the Power

56:08

of Less by Leo

56:11

Babiartu .

56:13

Love it , absolutely love it . That is great

56:16

. Good books as well . Good choice

56:18

there , good choice . I do like the compound effect and , like you

56:20

say , it's so , so true . Do you have the chocolate bar

56:22

? Do you have the you know the apple ? And

56:25

which one do you keep having ? Because that's . Those

56:27

are the choices that you're making , aren't they ?

56:30

Absolutely Like . The body of the life that you have right

56:32

now wasn't created yesterday . It

56:34

was created over the last

56:37

15 , 20 years , and that is . It's

56:40

a nice thought when you're happy with where you are

56:42

, but

56:45

it's a scary thought .

56:45

when you're not , well , that's it . And you don't accidentally

56:48

get obese , do you ?

56:53

Because you can't accidentally eat anything . Remember

56:55

, I started my talk with that analogy . I told

56:57

you what my friend said to me . I said my friend said

56:59

to me Luke , if you're really serious about losing

57:02

weight , if

57:06

you really want to lose weight , from this day forward , every time you eat a meal , sit

57:08

down in front of a mirror , butt naked

57:10

, right and that is the point right

57:12

when you're putting that food in your mouth and you're

57:15

looking at where that's got you . Hopefully

57:17

, hopefully , that drags you into reality

57:20

, hopefully , accountability takes a big

57:22

slaps you around the face

57:24

.

57:25

That's it , Accountability . You

57:27

know people say , well , I need an accountability

57:30

partner . Just go and look in the mirror , Because

57:34

who's looking back at you is the person you're accountable for .

57:36

Listen , look at your bank balance . Look at

57:38

the car in the drive . Look at where you're accountable for . Listen . Look at your bank balance . Look

57:40

at the look at the car in the drive . Look at where you're , where

57:42

you're living . Look at the person you're

57:44

sleeping next to or with depending

57:47

right . Look at those situations

57:49

that tells you . That will tell you everything

57:51

you need to know about your current state . Right and

57:53

and if you're happy with it

57:55

, fantastic right . If you're not

57:58

, then that should be everything you need

58:00

. Your surroundings will tell you what

58:02

needs to change .

58:04

And you can use the compound effect to start

58:06

today .

58:08

Only £9.99 on the link below .

58:14

Little kickback there Podcasts , podcasts , okay

58:17

, podcasts .

58:19

Podcasts okay , podcasts , have

58:22

you got three ? I

58:26

know you'll try to , we're meant to be wrapping up but you're

58:28

asking . You saved the best questions

58:30

to last right . I love

58:33

podcasts . One of

58:35

the businesses I ran

58:37

was podcast companies

58:40

helping people to set up their own podcast

58:42

. I have a podcast force , in fact

58:44

, where people could actually learn

58:46

how to launch their own podcast , right , which

58:48

I'm not selling today , but I'm just telling you that exists

58:50

. So I

58:52

love them . And my favorite type of podcasts

58:55

are our narrative podcasts

58:57

. So I love they

59:00

take longer , they're real storytelling podcasts

59:02

, but they're my favourite type , apart

59:04

from when it comes to . I have a list of podcasts

59:06

for the information , like the Property podcast

59:09

I listen to , like Property Unleashed

59:11

, obviously , and then there are the others I listen

59:13

to , which is more for entertainment . So my favourite

59:15

one at the moment is have

59:17

you he george's podcast ? That's literally

59:20

what it's called . Have you heard george's

59:22

podcast ? It's by a guy called george

59:24

the poet . I call him george the genius , but

59:26

he goes by george the poet . Um , it's

59:28

like award-winning . It's on

59:30

bbc sounds , it's . It's

59:32

just amazing , it's phenomenal . You've

59:35

not heard , unless you're into narrative storytelling

59:37

. You have not heard a podcast like this ever

59:39

in your life . It is , it's

59:41

one of the just as a creative piece

59:43

. It's just one of the greatest things ever

59:45

ever created this season that he's just done

59:48

. Um was recorded in abbey road

59:50

studio , where the beatles the famous abbey road studio

59:52

, with the , with the bbc concert orchestra

59:54

, like . So the soundtrack that goes underneath

59:57

it , I mean , this guy is just

59:59

phenomenal . So number one has

1:00:01

to be have you heard george's podcast

1:00:03

? That's number one . Number two

1:00:05

I also like um

1:00:08

. Oh my , I switched my phone off

1:00:10

, didn't I ? Uh , I

1:00:12

also like there's

1:00:16

a podcast called startup , which

1:00:19

startup , again , itup , again , it's narrative

1:00:21

. It's by Gimlet Media . Gimlet Media

1:00:23

is an American company that have loads of these type of podcasts

1:00:26

that I like , but the very first

1:00:28

season of the very first podcast that they

1:00:30

launched so this was back in 2014

1:00:33

, is called Startup and it's all about

1:00:35

him launching this podcast company . So

1:00:38

it's an amazing listen . So I'd listen to that as

1:00:40

well . So , startup , have

1:00:42

you heard George's podcast , the first season of Startup

1:00:45

? Have you heard George's podcast ? And what

1:00:47

else do I like ? I

1:00:53

like and that's a lighthearted

1:00:55

one , just for fun . Hmm

1:00:58

, what do I

1:01:01

listen to for fun ? Um , I mean , I'm I'm influenced by quite

1:01:04

a bit of American culture , so this might

1:01:06

not appeal to your audience , but I

1:01:08

like um

1:01:11

. Earn your leisure . Earn your leisure

1:01:14

is a . They are

1:01:16

two guys in america who

1:01:19

started to want to educate um

1:01:21

the communities that they're from with business

1:01:23

advice . So they've now . But they've now

1:01:25

branched out . They cover everything again

1:01:27

. It's even though it's american-based , there's still a

1:01:29

lot of tips and ideas you can take from it

1:01:31

. They talk about property , they talk about investing

1:01:33

, they talk about just the culture

1:01:35

in general music . They've got loads of different , different

1:01:38

things there . So earn your leisure is

1:01:40

my third and final

1:01:42

choice .

1:01:44

Have you ever listened to business wars ?

1:01:47

no , who's that

1:01:52

by ?

1:01:52

now you've got . It's like tesla

1:01:55

versus ford and mcdonald's versus

1:01:57

. Let me write that down and what they

1:01:59

do is it goes through all of it , so they have different

1:02:01

episodes . I love it . I can't find it . You

1:02:03

know , mcdonald's versus Burger King and all of that sort

1:02:05

of thing , and it's all the different places

1:02:07

. So Microsoft and Apple , oh

1:02:09

I love that . And they tell it as a story

1:02:12

and then they play out scenes

1:02:14

like main scenes that would have happened , with two actors

1:02:16

chatting away and things I really enjoy it .

1:02:18

Love that . No , that's exactly what I'm into

1:02:20

and I'll give you a little secret . Um , I

1:02:22

plan to launch a new podcast myself

1:02:25

where I'm trying to well , not , I'm trying to . I

1:02:27

will launch a podcast shortly

1:02:29

and this podcast

1:02:31

is going to merge my love of

1:02:33

storytelling with also

1:02:35

property advice and property tips

1:02:38

. So look out for that . I'll

1:02:41

send you an exclusive first episode Mark when

1:02:43

it's recorded . But , yeah

1:02:45

, that's what I'll be launching because I absolutely

1:02:48

I love podcasts . I'm a huge fan .

1:02:51

That's amazing .

1:02:51

And , of course , let's not forget let's

1:02:54

not , of course , properly Unleashed , as I mentioned

1:02:56

before . I mean , come on , I mean they're already listening to

1:02:58

this was properly unleashed , as I mentioned before . I mean , come on , I mean they're already listening

1:03:00

to this . All right , true , fair enough . Tell your friends . Tell your friends to tell a friend what

1:03:04

goes around comes around .

1:03:05

Share the love , share the love . Um

1:03:07

, I could chat to you all day , mate . I mean it'd be great to get

1:03:09

you back on in the future as well . I always say that to

1:03:11

guests I like so if you're ever on and I don't say

1:03:13

that's because I don't like you , but uh-

1:03:16

but I do like you , so you can come back on again

1:03:18

if you want I appreciate

1:03:20

it . So

1:03:24

if anybody wants to reach out to you , is

1:03:26

interested in podcasting or property

1:03:28

or anything like that , what's the best ways to do that , my friend

1:03:30

?

1:03:30

yeah , the best way would be to

1:03:32

. You can head over to my website , lukewhitecom

1:03:35

l-u-k-e-w-h-y-t-e white

1:03:37

, with a y rather than an I , um

1:03:40

, and you can partner with me on anything . You can

1:03:42

partner with me there on property partner

1:03:44

podcasting , if you want me to speak

1:03:46

at your events . I love to speak , um

1:03:48

, and you never know , you

1:03:50

might hear some of my terrible failures in person

1:03:52

, um , so , yeah , so

1:03:55

, lukewhitecom . Or you can

1:03:57

shoot me a dm slide in the dms , as

1:03:59

the kids say at lukecrwhite

1:04:01

, as you can see there on the screen if you're

1:04:03

watching , but if you're not , it's just at l-u-k-e

1:04:06

c-r . White

1:04:09

, w-h-y-t-e . On instagram

1:04:11

um , that's basically my handle in most places , to

1:04:13

be honest . But , yeah , dms on instagram

1:04:15

, or head over to my website and

1:04:18

, yeah , let's get cooking brilliant

1:04:20

.

1:04:20

Well , do reach out to him , do check him out , do follow

1:04:22

him . He's a great guy . He's got a fantastic

1:04:25

talk . So if you are , are you hosting the events

1:04:27

? Invite this cat along . I tell you now he

1:04:29

will entertain . It is great

1:04:31

to be once again my man . Thank

1:04:33

you ever so much for joining me here today . It's

1:04:35

been an absolute pleasure and an honor

1:04:38

to have you on .

1:04:43

Thanks a lot , mark , and just keep doing what you're doing , and I'm so proud to be part of your community

1:04:45

, and now you're part of mine , so I'll see you again soon .

1:04:47

Brilliant , great stuff . So thank you

1:04:49

very much for joining us today . If you've enjoyed this

1:04:51

episode , please feel free to follow it , subscribe

1:04:54

, share it , put it out there so that

1:04:56

it can help others , and remember to have a

1:04:58

vision yourself . Make sure that you focus

1:05:00

on that vision . You break it down into bite-sized

1:05:03

chunks , into

1:05:08

bite-sized steps that you can win at each and every day . You move yourself forward and you

1:05:10

create the life that you desire you all . Take care and

1:05:12

bye for now .