There are plenty of hot-shot coaches out there who’ll sell you the dream and tell you how wonderful everything will be, once you sign up to work with them.
I’m here to tell you, that’s certainly NOT the case. If you want to get serious in the property game then with the right attitude, you 100% have the chance of making it. But please don’t expect it to be all rosy.
As with anything in life, you have to take the good, with the bad.
Getting Started With Property
There are no shortcuts. Sure, there are systems and processes you can implement. As well as several areas of your property business that you can automate, to save time – but don’t mistake these for ‘shortcuts’.
Even the wealthiest person on the planet (hello, Elon Musk), won’t be able to give you a quick-fire ‘golden nugget’ that’ll make you successful, without you needing to put the hard yards in first. This is relevant to every industry across the board – but the property space in particular, which still has many misconceptions associated with it.
In my early days of sourcing properties (when I didn’t have a team to support me), I was up at 4.30 am every day; and still continue to be an early riser.
There are days when I feel exhausted, or simply want to lie in, at least until the sun comes up. Sometimes this can feel like a lonely place, especially if you’re the only person in your family or household who is entrepreneur-minded. Your loved ones may support you, but they might not always understand your epic scale of commitment – and this can be tough.
I cannot even tell you about the number of times I’ve missed out on get-togethers with friends or social nights out (when it felt like the entire world was having fun without me). But that’s the price you sometimes have to pay when it comes to securing your and your family’s future.
The Journey Won’t Be Easy
Not everybody sees this, especially when your work involves trips to Dubai and the sunny landscapes of Portugal. They see the filtered Instagram updates – where a pair of sunnies may be hiding tired eyes. Or a post about a massive hotel acquisition, that’s backed with months of stress and sleepless nights.
It’s the behind-the-scenes effort that makes all this aspirational success possible. Never forget this on your journey to building a property empire. Nobody ever gets it ‘ready-made’.
It’d be naive to presume that you won’t come across naysayers down the line, or peers and competitors who might just want to straight-up bring you down.
Take me, for example. The engagement I receive on all my social media content is not always friendly. There are still occasions where I’m not just criticised but outrightly insulted (when all I’m trying to do is help others) – but it happens regardless; and will continue to happen.
Fortunately, this is just a minority of the online population – however, you’ve got to be prepared for criticism, at any point during your journey. Building, scaling and marketing a property empire will require you to ‘put yourself out there – when you do this, you’re inadvertently opening yourself to judgement. And the comments may not always be what you want to hear.
It’s so easy to let this knock your self-confidence, or make you isolate yourself – for the fear of further judgement. Your mental and emotional stamina will be tested like nothing else for sure; but this is the making of an inspirational leader – who continued to put their neck on the line, in an attempt to actually change their life.
Even if you were to read every book published on the subject, and listen to every podcast to has ever been recorded for our industry – I can guarantee that you still won’t be prepared for everything.
As such, you’ve got to be ready to do some learning ‘on the job’.
Getting Into The Property Market
Our industry relies on relationships with people. Whether they be guests, suppliers, landlords or investors – people by nature are unpredictable; so, it’s impossible to predict exactly how every scenario in your business is going to pan out.
And so, it baffles me to see coaches who are selling ideas of the ultimate ‘laptop lifestyle’ (with minimal groundwork nor preparation) when I know first-hand how intense the ride can be. It’s absolutely fantastic, don’t get me wrong – but you’ll certainly get bruised a bit along the way.
For me, this is about setting the precedent. I have written avidly about the joys of building a property empire; but it’s important that I paint a realistic picture of all the behind-the-scenes graft, too. Not only does this add to the credibility of all the hugely successful property leaders out there, but it’ll put you in good stead in the early days of your journey (something that I wish I’d had).
As far as I’m concerned, the benefits of working with the property business are like any other – the industry itself opens up opportunities for you that you’ll struggle to find in any other sector. But be prepared for the hard work and hiccups it’ll include, too. Don’t bury your head in the sand when it comes to the ‘real stuff’.
Check out our programs if you want to get more serious about your property journey, enrol in our learning programs with some of the best coaches in the property market.
