Overcoming All Challenges To Succeed In Rent 2 Rent

And property allows me to be able to have my time to do the things that matter , and so that's really really my passion , and the things that I enjoy doing really centre around my family and my friends .

I coach football , I coach my older son's football team , I'm heavily involved in community activities and just really building the life that my children can also do the things that matter to them .

So we home educate as well , my wife and I mainly my wife so to allow my kids to really have full kind of reign and control over how they learn , what they learn and the things that they do .

Long story short , I'm a bit of a rebel , a bit of a maverick who likes to kind of make my own path in life , and and that's what I'm doing and that's what I love to do .

I mean , I wasn't as sharp a reader as I would have been , but as soon as I got into school I quickly excelled through the reading ranks and so because of that backdrop I knew that it could be effective .

And I know the Scandinavians do a similar thing , where I don't think their children go into kind of organised schooling until they're probably about seven years old , I believe . So there is kind of that thought out there . The Jesuit priests do a similar thing . They have that saying give me a child till they're seven and I'll give you a man .

And so I believe that as much influence as possible on your children , as young as possible , is really powerful in shaping the adult that they're going to be . And so we wanted to have maximum impact and input into their lives in those formative years that matter . And yeah , they've excelled , they've loved it .

I'll be honest , my oldest , who's nine , when she was an only child because her cousins were in school , she used to express this desire to start school . But once the next one joined , and the next one joined . I've got three now . She hasn't looked back since . So , yeah , it's great .

It really is just amazing to be able to do follow their own speed , their own steam , follow their own interests , because all subjects are merged together anyway . Like maths is linked to science , is linked to geography , is linked to business , and I like the idea of , rather than you know , compartmentalising subjects .

We're just learning everything and following the , the passion of the kids . So , yeah , that's what we're doing . I love that I love that .

A lot of that might fallen on my shoulders as well , which I've got more time freedom , but I'm not much of a teacher like I'm not very good explaining things , I'm very high level . You know , do this and just get on with it , whereas you know you need detailed person . So you know your wife , has she got any background in in sort of educating or ?

She must have the patience of a saint as well .

She worked for local council before she became a mother , so she worked in the youth offending team . So she was always working with young people and helping them , really teaching them life skills , more than the kind of the regimented curriculum , so that I think , put her in a good position to deal with her children .

You know , no one loves your children like you do , and so being able to just really take that love and that patience that is needed and we don't always get it right , don't get me wrong .

Sometimes we're screaming but you know we're quick to apologize and I think that is something that really helps them , um , at home and you know , because in school they just don't have the time to be patient and I don't blame them . Like you know , schools do their best but when you've got 30 children all vying for your attention , all with different needs .

It's really hard to meet the needs of everyone . So , yeah , so she , just the love that she has , the experience she has of helping young people , I think has boded well , and just the way she's attacked the role and just really , I mean she's about to start her own forest school . That's how involved she really is in it and how much she loves it .

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

Kids in this day and age , now a lot of their social skills are actually online , when they're playing games and things like that . He's got a VR headset and he's always playing and he makes friends with other kids , so he's always socializing anyway , aren't they ?

But I just haven't spoken to anybody recently that actually has done it , and it's done it with , like , multiple kids yeah , three kids , none of them .

They get to the point where once a child can read and has functional skills and it's the passion for learning . You want the children to have the passion for learning and you know , just like that famous . There's that famous TED talk with Ken Robinson talking about how school kills creativity , and I watched that numerous times .

And it's true , because in school often you don't get to follow your passion , you have to do the curriculum , whereas with home , educate . And if you follow the child's curiosity , they will never lose their love for learning . And that's what . That's what we're finding anyway .

So you just called thick at the end of the day , when you're at school and that was it , because I couldn't remember or I wasn't interested in what people were showing me .

but , like I say , if it came down to doing um design technology , building something or drawing something or being quite creative , I was all over it and they were just like well , how come you can do that and you can't do it , because we're all different . We're all the same sort of people .

So I love that and I love the fact that you know you're oldest , at nine years old . Now you can , sort of you can .

You can actually put together what she's doing and what she's interested in and potentially , when she actually then goes out to do work or get a job or build her own business or whatever she chooses to do , she's been geared up for that for the last you know , 16 years or whatever .

Rather than you walk out of a structured environment into a new environment and start from scratch again , aren't you of ? You know a structured ?

You look at people like richard branson because you and richard , I mean , you're a bit of higher level than richard branson , but you and richard branson you but , you know , um , there's loads of people , gary vaynerchuk like , there's loads of people who didn't do well in school because but but are excellent in business . Why is that ?

Because they're in their passion . They're not thick , they just didn't . What the school wanted to teach didn't apply to them , didn't , didn't stoke that fire in you , whereas now , when you're let loose on your passions , the world's your oyster .

That was all I thought . The trinkets and the money would make me happy . You ask me now it's time freedom . It's time spent with people that I want to be with , with my loved ones , with my kids . Believe it or not , lockdowns and stuff that we had . I loved them . Why ? Because I love being with my kids .

So many of my friends were like kids , driving me mad . All right , I'm loving it . We're playing basketball , we're doing all of this . I'm spending quality time with them . Now , the homeschooling was the only thing that actually put me off , but that's because I was never that good at school anyway .

So lisa , my wife , took a bit more of a hand on that uh we probably didn't do that as well as we we could have , but we're too busy having fun and playing you did your best .

Now , because of my , my maverick tendencies , my rebellious tendencies , it doesn't matter where you aim this gun , it will shoot Right .

So , in the church environment , in the , in that environment where , even though it's the church environment , I still had ideas , I still wanted to change things , I still wanted to innovate , and what I realized is , if they were going to pay my salary , they were also going to control what I could say .

So I started to think , even from as young as 20 , I said you know what I need to do ? Something where I can make my money entrepreneurially , so that when I'm on this pulpit , when I'm in church , I can say whatever I want to say without fear of losing my job , or what would happen if I lost my job .

So that took me down the road of entrepreneurship and that's where I did social media . First , I had a social media company . I did a lot of freelance youth work . I did whatever I could , where I could make my money somewhere else . So in the church space I could say what I wanted to say how I wanted to say it .

And that led me slowly down a path to property where one of the units I used to work with young people , as I said , and I was in a house . It was like you were basically like a security guard , more or less Like you just stayed in the house for all day , logged when they went in and out .

It was like a basically like a security guard , more or less like you just stayed in the house for all day , logged when they went in and out . It was like a semi-independent living . So these are all 16 to 18 year old kids and I was , and I had a lot of time while I was there and I happened to ask my one of my colleagues .

I said this house that we're in is it ? Is it owned by the company that I work for ? And they , she said no , it we . They rent this property from landlords . They rent all their properties from landlords . I thought that's interesting , isn't it ? So then I thought do you know what A thought that often has been the downfall of many people ?

I said what if I wanted to do this myself ? Then what if I wanted to set up my own semi-independent unit ? That was the first thing . So I said , okay , then I'm going to need the property .

And then , lo and behold , I had a family member extended family member who had a property that she was having problems with , and I said to her look , could I take on your property to run this semi-independent unit ? I'll give you guaranteed rent . And she said yes , and that was how I ended up in the property space .

But that failed as as , as things happened , I had two partners before we're due to open um , one just stopped answering his phone . He still hasn't answered his phone . It's that was 2018 . He's . I'm still calling him with . We are trying to connect . You please hold , we're trying to connect . So he's gone . I don't know where he is .

And my other partner , she she said it's not . She tried but said it's not really going to work , just the two of us . So she moved on . So I had this property which I had promised guaranteed rent for um , with no young people to stay in the property . And what am I going to do ? Like I was , like you know , as I said in the talk .

You know , I'm looking in the mirror thinking to myself Luke , you just this ain't it . You just ain't got it . What are you going to do ? And so I started to go ahead .

I took it on to run it as a semi-independent unit for young people leaving , leaving care , and so now I'm struggling . How am I gonna ? What am I gonna do ? How am I gonna make that money ? Um , and then then I thought , okay , well , I'm gonna . How am I going to ? What am I going to do ? How am I going to make that money ?

And then then I thought , ok , well , I'm going to have to rent it out . So I was then looking for tenants and then , as I started to research more and more online , that's when I learned about serviced accommodation and things like that . So my first attempt I then tried to run it as a as because it was five en suite rooms .

It was basically hmo , but it wasn't a hmo yet officially , um , and so I then I then said , okay , let me try and rent it out on bookingscom and airbnb as separate rooms because it was really close to wembley , not far from wembley . So I thought , okay , let me try and get that tourist market .

So I tried that for a bit , but again , I didn't know any of the systems . I didn't know anything . So it was me and my dad trying to clean , trying to do turnarounds , trying to do it all , trying to leave keys , trying to figure it out . I didn't know about , I didn't know what I was doing . Mark , right , I didn't . I didn't know what I was doing .

And it got to the point I'm like , nah , this ain't it either , this ain't working , either Mark . And then , and then I was , by this time I'm now two months in the hole with money that I owe the landlord , right . So I'm like , what am I gonna do ? So then I um , I I had to actually take out a personal loan to pay for those first two months .

I took out a personal loan to pay for those first two months , and then I just got personal loan to pay for those first two months . And then I just got , I said you know what Did the numbers ? I said I'll definitely be able to make the guaranteed rent if I just rent these room by room as a HMO . And lo and behold , the market went up a bit .

So I rented them out as a HMO , got the license , got all started to learn about HMOs . Got it all officially registered , got everything done I needed to get done . Got five tenants in and what was that ? Four ? But by month three or four . Three stroke four . I was OK . I was OK and it was a HMO . I had the one property .

It was making the guaranteed rent .

That was like okay , I've had a few problems , but I think I've cracked this now .

. So that's when I then tried to increase my learning by going to events a bit more , doing a bit more in-depth search online , working out OK , how do I grow the portfolio , what do I do . And that's when I stumbled across Samuel Leeds .

I love him or hate him , I know he's like Marmite , but for me he was massively influential in my journey and I'm indebted to the kind of the free , the freeness , that I learned from him , and it was from learning from him . It was sitting in one of his free events .

Again , I'm not affiliated with him , I don't get no affiliation , but it was going to sit going to his free event and I happened to be sitting next to he asked one of those questions where it was like , okay , you know , put your hand up if you're an investor , you know , and this happened to be this investor who was sitting right next to me and she asked

me a bit about my story . I told her the story I just told you and she said well , I'm I'm interested in investing in HMOs . So if you find anything more I'll be interested in . You know I've got . She had a pot of money .

She said I can do that whole pot towards one or separate that up into a few , but I'd be willing to invest with you basically and that was a free event , that would have been just before . That was January 2019 . That was was that January 2019 ? It was either January 2019 . Yeah , it was January 2019 .

And then it was January 2020 where I thought I had found something and then , obviously , lockdown happened . So , and then it was after lockdown where we get to the situation which you were referring to earlier . So , basically , I've got , I've had one property really for two years . It was one HMO that I had for two years and it was after lockdown .

So we get to January 21 , where I reached back out to this . I said , hey , I don't know if you remember me Sent her an email , don't know if you remember me , but I'm looking to invest , to look for properties again . Are you still interested ? She said yeah , for sure , when you find something , something let me know .

And then , at the same time , I joined the rent to rent success course with Nikki and Stephanie , went through that process and then , halfway through 2021 , that's when I found that dream property which you were referring to earlier , which I then also became that .

I quite like this now , um , I mean , obviously there are easier ways of doing it than than how you got it . My friend , absolutely , if I had a hat on , I would take my hat off to you and basically say at least you took action and you had a go . And probably in a lot of cases not all cases , but a lot of cases can be quite forgiving .

And I always say what's the worst case scenario is if it's filled and we've got people in it and it washes its face . Happy days . So you know , know , congratulations to you . Then , like you say , you've had that , you've been property investing for quite a long time now but as the old saying goes , you don't know what you don't know , do you ?

And if things need to change or if things need to move , I've learned just to be okay with that , because there's seasons to everything and sometimes you're going to want something and your landlord's going to be like no , don't , don't call me for nothing , like .

I've had landlords who's like don't , I don't , unless the ceiling's caving in , and I expect to see you they're holding it up with those two strong arms of yours when I get there . That's the only way I'll believe you mate right , like somewhere like that , and others are like no , keep me informed . I want to .

You know I want this place to be the best it can be , so I want to invest in it . I'm happy to fix things and do things because I know that you're doing a good job .

So , as long as you've got that relationship , you understand your landlord , you've got a good relationship with them , and be as transparent as you can and just share what's happening , share the wins , share where you need help , share what's going on as much as is possible and , as you say it can , it can be quite forgiving because worst case scenario , what's the

worst case ? Worst case scenario , it's not making money and you have to say you know it's not working , but I've never had to return a property for for that reason . Or , yeah , I've never had to return property for that reason . So , yeah , it just just keep that relationship as honest and as transparent and as real as you can .

And , um , most landlords are are cool , are cool with that yeah , I would agree with that .

It is massively , like you say , then , about relationships , working together with people , but I always say it is business At the end of the day , it is a business to business agreement , and as much as I've struggled with this myself , removing the emotion when money's involved , emotions normally start to , you know , come up . We don't want to fail as well .

We also look at ourselves from the outside . If I hand a property back , I think I've failed . I don't want to be a failure , I don't want people to think of me like that , but I look at things as business and business have to pivot and they have to evolve . And of course , what I would say is we haven't had it easy . You know what I mean .

Somebody said to me the other day . They said how are you getting on with your property business ? It's not been easy , is it ? I think there's been something kicking off near enough every year . You know , if it's not Brexit , it's recessions , if it's COVID , and then it's interest rates , it's utility . I've said do you know what ?

We're still going , we're still thriving , and I can't wait to have an easy period . Let's have a few years where nothing much is happening . We'll absolutely fly ?

That's a really good point , I think , because even when we think about interest rates and people thinking about you know , is now the right time to buy , or what have you I , and people thinking about you know is now the right time to buy , or what have you I always see it like , well , let's say , I don't believe it's going to get much higher .

Right , I could be wrong , but if you buy when it's the worst , then the only way is down . Really , I mean , some people might think , oh , it could go . You never know it could go up to I . Just for me , I don't think it would go much

higher . But the point is , if you have worked your numbers out and and work the situation out where you can still survive in this climate I mean , we know property is cyclical , so the likelihood is that you're in an even better position when things change .

When , when interest rates come down , should they come down you're going to have more money to play with , not less . You know so I . When everyone's buying when it's low interest rates , that's easy . You don't you don't need to be good at business , you don't need to be sharp , you don't need to be creative , you don't need to be anything .

When , when interest rates are 0.000 or minus whatever any , anyone in this dog can go and buy a house in in that market , right , and the market gets flooded and people who are not necessarily practitioners , as I like to call it , can still end up in the game .

But when it's like this , but then this time comes and it's cut for it , right , a lot of people have probably left the market . A lot of people are not in the game . Maybe a lot of people may now be in in , you know , back in their their nine to five and you know tesco , which is fine .

But the point is that they might have to have turned their whole ship around because they went in when it was easy , whereas if you go , if you have that fight or flight kind of mentality when it's tough , then when it eases up , you're still . You're going to win even more and greater because you didn't come in when it was easy .

Sailing , you know , smooth sailing , yeah .

Um , even you know so the pictures I didn't even show you mark , which I'll give you this inside scoop it even had a basement , mark , it actually had like a two bed apartment downstairs , like that's not even in the pictures , that was like a nice little sideline , like just it was going to be a games room .

I was going to put games room down there , like beautiful . Anyway . So I have this large property . It's probably it was worth at that point about 1.6 , I think 1.4 , 1.6 . I mean just exquisite , lovely property . And I found this property on just regular right move . It was on for a crazy sum . It was on for like 8,000 pounds a month .

I was like this is crazy , no one's going to pay 8 grand . But anyway , I put in . I asked for a viewing through the letting agent and went for the viewing . I looked at it , it looked nice , spoke to the owners . They were nice people and I submitted my offer to the agent . I said I know you want you on 8,000 , but I said I can offer .

I think I said about five grand . I knew I could go up to about five and a half , I think . I offered around five to start with , or a bit under five , and she said , okay , I'll take the offer to them , but I'm sure you know it's not .

I'm sure as soon as the agent says to you , but I'm sure they're going to say no , right , I'm like , okay , you ain't bringing them nothing , are you , susie ? You ain't bringing them nothing . So she didn't even contact me back . I contacted her . I said , hey , did you take my offer ? What was the response ?

She said yeah , as I thought they said no , they really , they really need eight thousand . I said OK , no problem , that's fine . Fortunately they had also advertised the property on open rent . And for those people who don't know , open rent is where landlords go direct to market their properties . They don't use an agent , it's just you're directly dealing .

Generally , you're directly dealing with a landlord , not always , but a lot of the time . That's the idea of the platform anyway . Of course , me and Mark use it a bit differently , but we'll get to that later right ? So the landlords are on there , the landlords are on there , and so they had advertised the property on Open Rent as well .

So I said fine , then I can go directly to them , since they're there as well . And I spoke to them again . I said hey , I know . I came around with Becky , I think her name was . I came around with Becky a couple of days ago . Did she bring you my offer ? They said no , she hasn't brought us anything .

I said , ok , no problem , would you mind if I come around for a second viewing ? They said , yeah , great , came around there for the second viewing , spoke about things . They were like okay , five and five and a half . They were like okay , um , you know , we really wanted seven because of , uh , we wanted to remortgage all this stuff .

I said I understand , but five and a half is the best . And I explained to them why . I said , look , I'm gonna have to do it as , even to get that number .

I said I said I can give you 3 000 if we run it as a hmo , um , but if you want that extra figure , those extra , that extra two and a half , it's going to have to be a serviced accommodation where I rent this , the whole property , out on airbnb and um and and bookingscom and all the other otas .

So they so they were like okay , no problem , okay , go for it . So we signed the contract . We've got that move in . That's where I contact my investor Again . I said I found this property , it's beautiful , I need one month's rent and I need the deposit . So I need 11 grand .

She said , yep , no problem , lukey , send me that 11 bags , as they say in the ends , send me those 11 bags , sent that across to the landlord and we were in business . We were in business . I mean this . For me this was like my retirement . I'm like this is going to make me even paying back each month , paying back the investor , investor .

I was still making like set to make close to two grand , over two grand some months , that's . That was like um , conservatively . So once the investor was going to be paid off , I was going to be making like 4k . I'm like , plus the property that I already , the HMI I already had , I'm like I made it Mama .

Just I mean , I even put the property up before it was even ready , just to see , okay , actually , before it was even ready , just to see , okay , actually , even before we signed the contract , just to . So here's a trick . This is a good trick for people , not even a trick , a good tip , right .

If you think that you know you're going to sign a contract or you're close to signing a contract , you can still put it up on the online . I put it up on Airbnb , but I put that you have to get confirmation . So not instant book , you have to get confirmation . So I had to say yes or no to the booking .

By doing that , that allowed me to see the demand before I even had the keys , before I even had furnished the property .

So , by putting it up online , even while we were signing and going through the negotiations , bookings were coming in or people were trying to book , book , book , book , and this was between 550 pound a night during a weekday to up to seven , eight hundred pounds a grand on the weekend , because this was Wembley , Wembley , this was 10 minutes walk from the stadium .

This was when mansion , when you could come with a nice big group of people , like like up to 12 , 14 people , and just have a blast . So I mean the highest booking I ever had on that property and I know it was a one-off , but I like to remember it because then it just makes the failure just even greater in my mind .

And I'm a bit of this , you know , I like to just peel the bandage off over and over again , right ? So the biggest night that I had there was the Euro finals . I think it was the Euro finals in England and Italy . Yeah , that's right , euro finals at Wembley . A group from work came together , a workplace came together , booked it .

That was £2,000 for that one night and I was like , yes , I know the finals don't happen every year and I know England won't be in it every year and I know it won't be in Wembley every year . So there were a lot of factors , but still I mean just I'm like what a beauty , what a two grand in one night .

Mark , I know it's conservatively , you could make a grand 900 night , but two grand . I was like mate , let's go . So how did it all end ? How did it all end ?

It all ended one fateful night when I get a text on my phone from a neighbour who didn't have my number so had gone through the Airbnb booking to message me saying there are some individuals smoking weed in your garden . I said I said what ? I was like okay .

She was like yeah , and there's actually there's quite a few people here , maybe you need to head over . I was like , okay , no problem , mark

. As I'm driving to the property , mark , I'm passing Wembley Park station , I'm just seeing like young people , like maybe 18 to 21 year olds probably a bit younger coming out the station . I'm like tell me they're not coming to my yard , tell me they're not coming to my property , please , but you don't have that sinking feeling .

I get to the top of the road , there's just lines of ubers just dropping people off , and this is you've got to remember this is summer of 21 , I believe , just summer of 21 , so we're not even properly out of lockdown yet . It's still kind of . I think we're at that point where we can meet up in two bubbles together or some amalgamation of that .

Right , you're an arm length apart , you're an arm length apart , you know masks , all of that . And there's like hundreds of kids just outside the property , in the property , around the property , just taking the absolute liberties . And you have to remember the booking that had come through was a young man , had said hi , it's me and my four brothers .

One of my brothers is getting married , so all the other brothers and the groomsmen , we just want to stay at the house so we can get ready together . You know the whole nine yards , so we can get ready together and head over to the wedding . I said no problem , sent me his driver's license , sent me his passport , like everything seemed legit .

I checked him in , even I checked him in that day , either that day or the day before . Everything seemed normal , no issues . And when I get there just to see these hundreds of kids , I'm like blood clots , as we say blood clots . I'm like what is going on and I was just like what am I going to do ? Like the street's going mad .

And it was a suburban street , you know , all expensive houses , but all very kind of nosy and they don't want much going on in their neighborhood anyway . So they were kind of waiting for an opportunity and it was just terrible .

It was that now , to be fair to them , they didn't destroy the property or anything , but they I couldn't get them out that night because when I called the police , the police said it's a civil matter , we're not getting involved .

So I couldn't get them out at that point and um , they left the next day , left the street in a mess and it was just a nightmare .

And because of the stress and all the drama that the neighbors made as a result of that night , can you imagine just opening your and I I understand you open your curtain 10 o'clock in the evening , 11 o'clock in the evening , and there's just waves of kids just down your street , music , playing loud . I mean , this is what we call a viral party .

A friend of mine said that they had seen the invite on Snapchat . They were Snapchatting the invite around . They charged people . I reckon they made about 10 grand that night charging people like 20 pounds , 15 pounds for a ticket , just getting people in through the doors . They even had the giveaway they even had .

This is where I thought to myself my God , they even had a security guard at my front door .

They kept on trying to repeat the same fate using different names , using different people trying to . I thought I couldn't realistically secure and I didn't know enough how to secure that premises to make sure that this didn't happen again . And the streets were watching , as they say , the streets were watching man . So I had to .

In the long run , after just a few months , I had to return that beautiful property to the owners , devastated , mark Devastated .

He's not there or he's not coming out . So these other people , I said , as far as I'm concerned , I trespassed it , he . They said , well , you , you rented out the property for that evening . It's nothing to do with us , mate . That's crap isn't it ?

After that experience it was the closest I got to like real , like just it's not I don't know how to Just real , like sad , sadness over property . I was just like I just how did I lose this ? I just couldn't yeah , like very demoralized . How did I lose it ?

I lost this and , as I said in the talk , that's when I had to face the fact that I was not good enough at that point . I was not yet good enough for the game I was trying to play , right , and that is the reality you have to face . Look , I'm a man United fan .

When we get battered 7-0 or whatever it was , by Liverpool , right , we have to sit there . You have to say to yourself you guys just are up for scratch right now . No-transcript .

But then , all of a sudden , when you actually find decent education , stuff that saves you money and this is the thing you'll make more money spending money on your own education than you ever will , fumbling and bumbling around on your own .

So you're sat on the steps you can't remember whether you cried or not , but maybe you did shed a tear or two after you lost 5,000 a night bookings . What picked you up and what kept you going ?

And then I put my camera on one day , walked outside , walked down the road and I just said , hey guys , this is what happened . And , as lo and behold , just the support that came just helped me to get back on that horse . But community is everything to me . And look , this is a narrative that's run through my whole life .

I told you , from 16,'ve been involved in in community work with my church and then I'm in . Then I worked with young people , again trying to help the community , and then working with young believers , um , semi-independent living , working with children , young people leaving care , and then now this community again being part of a property community like .

I'm forever indebted to community . For me , community is everything . Like it's . It literally is the purpose of life , like , what is the point without community ? What is the point ? And it's the same thing I tried to create in my HMOs . Where possible , I try my best to foster a community there .

You don't have to like it everyone , you don't have to talk to everyone , or you know , or you don't have to go out your way to talk to everyone , but if you see them in the corridor you can say hi , you know , you can be nice to each other . You can empty your washing machine after you've used it , knowing that someone else is going to use it .

Come on , put your recycle things in the recycle bin so that there's space in the normal bin , so that when you , when you're , when your fellow tenant comes out , they don't have to put you know , I mean just little things like that . Community is everything .

I , I seriously believe that , and so it was that community that brought me slowly back to my feet and just allowed me to to believe that I could keep going and believe I could do it again . So , yeah , community , that's what brought me , brought me back no , that's great .

Now you may enjoy the hard or , you know , you may enjoy the efforts that you've got to put in there , but you're going to have your ups , you're going to have your downs . So it really is being in a community and now maybe you're all striving to do the same thing but in different areas or whatever .

But it is being there for other people , having people there for you and of course you know they say you , you are , you know the five people you spend most of your time with . Well , why do you have to spend people time with five people ? Why can't you spend time with more people ? And really helps you guys and boost yourself .

But that's why I work very hard on my communities . I look at and I I'm quite picky with the communities that I'm in as well . I like to keep myself in communities . You know , you know yourself . Negative people , they're everywhere . You can't always get away from them , but you don't have to surround yourself

with them . We have choices , don't we ? We can make the choices and I always , always say you are through the choices that you've made , because we're grown adults now .

Oh , Bob , I'm going to try something completely different . But you didn't . You stayed in the community . You stuck in the community and then , you know , you got yourself back out . You got back on the horse , as they say , didn't ?

And I sometimes , yeah , it's so interesting because it you don't , you don't appreciate just how important people are , until you're kind of in a sticky wicket , right , when everything is kind of going positive and flowing well , you , you run the risk of almost believing that you , you know , it's kind of just you like , you've done this or you can do this without

people , but you really can't . It's just impossible , right . Even my landlords , you know , I try to foster some type of relationship with them , community with them , and I just think it's so important , man , and it's important to appreciate also those people who have been fundamental in helping you and being part of your community .

I mean , I've got this planner that I use each morning and it's got a prompt in there and it just says who can you say thank you to today , or appreciate , or send a surprise note of appreciation , and I don't always do it , but I try to do it and I did it this morning with a couple of people who were influential in my life growing up , and I just

think it's just , it's a game changer , right , it's a game changer . And you know , even seeing you , the way you operated at the event that we met at .

You know me and you have never met , but still you were with one of your friends and you both approached me and you spoke to me and you have never met and but still you , you were with one of your friends and you both approached me and you spoke to me and we had a good laugh and you asked me if I would come on the podcast .

And you've been active in , in , in continuing to build your community , even though I know you have an extensive network , but still someone completely new you've never met before reaching out and you're just so humble with it and you don't have come on .

We know how successful you are , we know kind of the groups you're in , but to reach out to someone who you just met , that is for me , just . I want to commend you for that and just say how much I appreciate that because it's just , it's everything . To me , community is everything and I consider you a part of my community .

So I just really want to say how much I appreciate that being here and you connect me now with your community . It's just , it's huge . So I really do appreciate that no , I well .

I was brought up and I will treat people the way I want to be treated .

And , of course , I mean I listened to you talk and everything . I just thought , wow , brilliant , what a story . You know , at the end of the day , some people have got a story you think , well , you know , it's a good story .

When you went through yours and the way you did it , with the emotions and stuff , I was blown away and I just thought I've got to have this guy on the podcast because he's got a great story , he's got a great personality and it , like you say , it's all about building relationships .

So no , right back at you as well , I mean thank you for coming on , because it is and that's what it's all about . And of course you know , if we can ever help you in any way , shape or form , in the future , or you're stuck with anything , then you know you can reach out to us amazing , amazing .

And look , mark Luke , all we need is Matthew and John , and we've completed the set , haven't we ? The four gospels of the property game . Let's go . I love it , I am conscious of your time , my friend , and I always like .

But I really try to remember that the process is the progress . So every step , as you're moving forward , as you're on your journey , that is the step , is the reward . Right , the fact that you took that step , that is the reward . Don't worry about what's out there , because that out there is just another step . So the process is the progress .

If you can fall in love with the process , you're off to the horses , because success or failure , up or down , left or right , you appreciate that it's all just part of that process . So for me , yeah , best piece of advice , yeah , the the progress , the process is the progress the process is the pro .

I'm going to nick that . Damn it , dang it . So if you could sit down and have dinner with three people , dead ?

He was a leader , one of the I don't know which one , but one of the a prime minister or president of Ghana back in the day , and he was quite influential in their quest for independence . So that would be one Also right now . I am also inspired by Pele Pele . I started down with Pele farming , the chroma , and oh gosh . This always gets people thinking .

I know I'm taking it , maybe I'm taking this too seriously , and oh gosh it always gets people maybe I'm taking this too seriously , but I have to take all Mark's questions seriously .

We would have an absolute blast . Oh my days , I think that's a good table .

most important tasks , and really he says they should be about three of them a day , no more than three most important tasks a day , and they should not take more than an hour each . And then , once you've completed them , even if your list is longer , you know that your day is golden .

If those three tasks have been completed for the day and those tasks really the power is . If those tasks , or at least one of those tasks , are tied to your one goal for the year , then you know that every single day you're moving towards your yearly goal , whatever that goal is .

So the way I've interpreted this is I've made three goals for the year , one in my personal life , one health-related and one finance-related and then I set those as targets for the year , and then I break them down into monthly goals , weekly goals and then daily tasks , and so I make sure that every day I've moved the needle towards one of those goals every day

. And that was all inspired by that book the Power of Less . So that would be my first recommendation the Power of Less , the power of less . So that's my , that would be my first recommendation the power of less . Um . The next one would be , uh , the success principle by jack canfield .

Um , I read that when I was like 17 and that was really where it was first cemented into my mind , this idea of , um , radical accountability .

That's where this book really taught that and , and really I I didn't realize how intentional you could be of your life , like , like , how , the way he thought about his year , like I mean , this might be normal to people who are CEOs or been in the corporate world , but this wasn't normal to me .

To think about your life like , okay , how many holidays do you want for the year ? Um , how would you break that down ? He would talk about things like he would have one weekend away a month with his , with his wife . He'd have one summer holiday , like he broke it all down .

I'm just like whoa , whoa , whoa , whoa , wait a minute , wait a minute , wait a minute .

You don't just wake up one day and decide you're going to jamaica for a summer , like you , actually plan this stuff out , uh , and that just for me was like run , I'm still not there with that level of kind of , and I know , look , they always say man makes plans and god laughs , and I get it right .

But I would still rather have some plans that god can laugh at rather than just having nothing , you know . So I love , I love that book . Jack can't hold the success principle . Leo babiartu , the Power of Less , and my third book would be , third book would be . I know they're all kind of business success related , but that's just how I am .

It's like the compound effect of little things are either working against , working for you or against you .

Right and um , he really breaks down how , like he gives great examples like having two people who are you know , exactly the same , like weight for example , and then this person , um , adds you one or few more calories a day to their diet , and this one adds a few less calories a day to their diet , and where they end up in 10 or 15 years , it's like it

blows your mind , like a slight incremental difference here in the played out in the long run puts them as far as the North is from the South . It's just crazy . So for me that is another , just a great book . And Darren still makes some cool videos on YouTube as well .

So the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy , the Success Principle by Jack Canfield and the Power of Less by Leo Babiartu .

I said my friend said to me Luke , if you're really serious about losing weight , if you really want to lose weight , from this day forward , every time you eat a meal , sit down in front of a mirror , butt naked , right and that is the point right when you're putting that food in your mouth and you're looking at where that's got you .

Hopefully , hopefully , that drags you into reality , hopefully , accountability takes a big slaps you around the face .

That will tell you everything you need to know about your current state . Right and and if you're happy with it , fantastic right . If you're not , then that should be everything you need . Your surroundings will tell you what needs to change .

I have a podcast force , in fact , where people could actually learn how to launch their own podcast , right , which I'm not selling today , but I'm just telling you that exists . So I love them . And my favorite type of podcasts are our narrative podcasts .

So I love they take longer , they're real storytelling podcasts , but they're my favourite type , apart from when it comes to . I have a list of podcasts for the information , like the Property podcast I listen to , like Property Unleashed , obviously , and then there are the others I listen to , which is more for entertainment .

So my favourite one at the moment is have you he george's podcast ? That's literally what it's called . Have you heard george's podcast ? It's by a guy called george the poet . I call him george the genius , but he goes by george the poet . Um , it's like award-winning . It's on bbc sounds , it's . It's just amazing , it's phenomenal .

You've not heard , unless you're into narrative storytelling . You have not heard a podcast like this ever in your life . It is , it's one of the just as a creative piece . It's just one of the greatest things ever ever created this season that he's just done .

Um was recorded in abbey road studio , where the beatles the famous abbey road studio , with the , with the bbc concert orchestra , like . So the soundtrack that goes underneath it , I mean , this guy is just phenomenal . So number one has to be have you heard george's podcast ? That's number one . Number two I also like um .

Oh my , I switched my phone off , didn't I ? Uh , I also like there's a podcast called startup , which startup , again , itup , again , it's narrative . It's by Gimlet Media .

Gimlet Media is an American company that have loads of these type of podcasts that I like , but the very first season of the very first podcast that they launched so this was back in 2014 , is called Startup and it's all about him launching this podcast company . So it's an amazing listen . So I'd listen to that as well .

So , startup , have you heard George's podcast , the first season of Startup ? Have you heard George's podcast ? And what else do I like ? I like and that's a lighthearted one , just for fun . Hmm , what do I listen to for fun ? Um , I mean , I'm I'm influenced by quite a bit of American culture , so this might not appeal to your audience , but I like um .

Earn your leisure . Earn your leisure is a . They are two guys in america who started to want to educate um the communities that they're from with business advice . So they've now . But they've now branched out . They cover everything again . It's even though it's american-based , there's still a lot of tips and ideas you can take from it .

They talk about property , they talk about investing , they talk about just the culture in general music . They've got loads of different , different things there . So earn your leisure is my third and final choice .

And they tell it as a story and then they play out scenes like main scenes that would have happened , with two actors chatting away and things I really enjoy it .

I'll send you an exclusive first episode Mark when it's recorded . But , yeah , that's what I'll be launching because I absolutely I love podcasts . I'm a huge fan .

Tell your friends to tell a friend what goes around comes around .

So if anybody wants to reach out to you , is interested in podcasting or property or anything like that , what's the best ways to do that , my friend ?

I love to speak , um , and you never know , you might hear some of my terrible failures in person , um , so , yeah , so , lukewhitecom . Or you can shoot me a dm slide in the dms , as the kids say at lukecrwhite , as you can see there on the screen if you're watching , but if you're not , it's just at l-u-k-e c-r . White , w-h-y-t-e .

On instagram um , that's basically my handle in most places , to be honest . But , yeah , dms on instagram , or head over to my website and , yeah , let's get cooking brilliant .

It's been an absolute pleasure and an honor to have you on .

You break it down into bite-sized chunks , into bite-sized steps that you can win at each and every day . You move yourself forward and you create the life that you desire you all . Take care and bye for now .