The Property Unleashed Podcast

Software Engineer Turned Property Investor, Matt Fletcher's Transformation & Success

• Mark Fitzgerald • Episode 242

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Ever wondered what it takes to transition from software engineering to property? 

Join Mark Fitzgerald and  guest, Matt Fletcher from EvoStar  Property as he shares intriguing insights on his transition to the property industry, starting from his experience during the dot-com bubble to establishing a Rent 2 Rent & Lettings and Management business in South Yorkshire and now as part of The Ultimate Serviced Accommodation Training program Matt is building his short term rental business and flying along with our support.


Whether you're a budding property investor or just curious about the field, you're bound to learn a thing or two from Matt's unique career progression.

Imagine leaving a full-time job to build your own property business. That's exactly what Matt did. He faced challenges, of course, but his story is testament to the potential success in the short-term rental market. Matt stresses the importance of a single-minded focus on one strategy before expanding to others. He also shares his thoughts on the need for systems and processes in property investment and the benefits of service accommodation. 

But there's more to property investment than just choosing a strategy. 

In our final segment, we talk about the crucial role of training and accountability in the service accommodation realm. Matt shares his success story in scaling his business and highlights the value of a supportive community and long-term approach. 

He also offers advice, book recommendations, and his perspective on the power of social media, clear vision, and daily action in achieving success. So, ready to venture into the world of property industry? 

Join Mark and Matt's now and let his  journey inspire you.

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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Property Unleashed podcast with me, your host, mark Fitzgerald. It's fantastic to have you joining me here today. So today I have another special guest. I like getting the guests in. I like seeing people that are smashing it out there, that are building and growing their property businesses, and today I am joined by Matt Fletcher from Evo Star of Property. Great to have you on the show, matt. How are you today?

Speaker 2:

Great Mark. Thanks very much for the invitation. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

No problem. So Matt himself has a Lettings and Management business in the South Yorkshire area. Is that right? Yes, that's right. Good, good, good. I should have done my homework on that one. And he's been growing that and building that. He also now is moving into the commercial side of property and the service accommodation side, which is where our paths have crossed. But for people who do not know you much, can you tell us a little bit about yourself please, matt?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, of course. So I have always had a fascination with computers and problem solving from a very young age and I basically progressed with that through school. I took every opportunity to tinker with computers, did my A-levels in computing and took it on further to a software engineering degree. I graduated from that Happy as Larry. I couldn't wait to get going.

Speaker 2:

I graduated at a time I don't know if you remember this, but there was something called the dot-com bubble and a subsequent crash. So this is when all the tech companies anyone with a website, really a flashy website, but no real business model investors poured into it. It was a huge speculative bubble, basically, and that all came crashing down right at the time when I graduated. Perfect, perfect. So I was desperate to get going. I was applying to jobs. I had a stack of printoffs a printoff every job. I applied to a stack like that showing my parents look, this is what I'm doing, I'm working every day to try and get a job in this field. I was getting no bikes. Companies didn't want someone with no experience because they were all shedding employees. They were getting rid of them. So I said I basically got sick of this. I wanted to get going as fast as I could and I said the next job, wherever it is in the country that comes up, I'm just going to apply everywhere I was applying to, like I based in the Midlands. I was applying to Edinburgh, cumbria, sussex, wherever it was and someone took a chance and offered me an interview and it was right down in the South Coast. So off I went, packed my bags off, I went to start my career down there and cracked on. I really enjoyed it, learned a lot, did six years down there before I probably got a little bit homesick and moved back, basically progressed that career, took every opportunity I could.

Speaker 2:

If I ever felt like I was hitting a glass ceiling or there's no way to progress in that role, then I would be looking for a new role basically and changing jobs and kind of working my way up that career ladder, as you know from your past. So I did that for sort of 10 years, kind of felt like I reached a glass ceiling again and so at that point I took a step into contracting, which is basically where you will come into a company and work with them for a period of time might be three months, might be three years on a long project, and so I worked really hard just to be the best kind of developer that I could possibly be in that career and did that for another 10 years until I reached the point where you know I loved the problem solving aspect of it. I love building something that wasn't there before you know, something that was maintainable, it was scalable, it was documented, it was efficient, you know performance and it met the requirements and I'd love doing that. But, as you know, think other things come into it. Corporate politics gets tedious. Team in fighting all these bits around the edge where you like, you put up with it because you enjoy the core part of the job. But then something kind of switched whereby I it was starting to get repetitive basically. So I've done this problem before I'd solved this business solution. It was just doing it in another way and it lost its appeal at that point, almost like a switch really.

Speaker 2:

So I felt like I'd achieved everything in that career that I wanted to and started looking at business books, reading business books, listening to podcasts like mad every day. So I had a sort of three hour commute at one point, three hour round trip. I had a podcast after podcast going and I was just honing in on what I wanted to do next, and eventually I landed on property. So I started going into the property podcast and the property books and I had already had property in the background at this point, just as a kind of pension.

Speaker 2:

My pension options were never brilliant with just happened to not be great with contracting and the jobs I picked. But like you say, like you've said before, you don't know what you don't know. Now I was. I had a property sitting there in the background on a repayment mortgage just ticking along. I thought you needed to save up a deposit every time before you could progress in that career, and so this learning just opened up my eyes to the possibilities of all the different strategies you can do in property. It was amazing. I really got into that, and so the next, the next thing really was just to decide how to build this up alongside software, and so that was the next thing, sort of said to the wife look, this is what I'm thinking of doing, and she was on board look at like she got it straight away.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, so we looked at the strategies. From that point on we decided, we kind of evaluated each one. For example, we looked at deal sourcing and with deal sourcing, as you know, I felt there was a lot of upfront work you have to do there without necessarily having a successful outcome. So you can, you can end up doing a lot of work and maybe the deal will fall through and you won't get paid. It's kind of lumpy money, whereas I I was thinking building a repetitive cash flow that you could forecast out for sort of three to five years made a lot more sense. So that's the model we ended up going after. We basically set about doing some mentor and training and starting with the rent to HMO model.

Speaker 1:

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. So it's got you all the way into property and I I completely resonate with you. When you work for other people, you're sort of pigeonholed into what you're doing, aren't you? And it very much feels like you know you want to get more creative. Why? Because you learn. You know, you learn what works, you learn how things work and you know how you can make things better.

Speaker 1:

But in a lot of other people's businesses you get stuck. I certainly was stuck. I had all of these sort of ideas. Now, some of them were probably crazy ideas, but they wouldn't even listen to the ideas, and a lot of them were because of the experience, because of where you are. So I'm totally with you on that one, and it's nice to sort of break free from that and be able to do something for yourself. Ways you can put those ideas and you can try them out and if they don't work but it's basically having our freedom, isn't it, to do that sort of thing. And I know that you've now recently just transitioned everything. Now you are full time in property, aren't you?

Speaker 2:

Correct. Yeah, so that's this year. I went part-time down to sort of half the week, which was an amazing feeling because I'd been context switching constantly for what felt like years. So you know you've obviously got your job going on. Most of my work in recent years has been remote, so that's fine. You know you can work from your own office and in your own time pretty much, but there's a hell of a lot of context switching. So it would be.

Speaker 2:

You know, maybe I haven't approached this in the way that many people do. I kind of employed people to work with me while I still had my full-time career. Most people, or many people, tend to replace their income and then build the business. I was kind of doing both in parallel. So you know, I was having daily team calls with you know the software and I have a daily team call with my team and I'd get problems coming in about you know this HMO or whatever and I say, well, this is what needs to happen over there. And it was just a lot of context switching which was getting a little draining after a while. So to have that to go part-time half the week I could focus on one, half the week I could focus on the property was great and then, like you say, became full-time this year and, yeah, I can just flat out focus on property, which is just an amazing feeling.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, what it is. I mean property is not a nine to five unless you make it a nine to five job. So there are times I mean there's anti-social hours, don't get me wrong as well. There are things, you know, that can happen at any time. But it's not per se. You have to clock on at nine o'clock. You have to work till five o'clock Sometimes when things are difficult. You wish it was.

Speaker 1:

In general, you know you can sort of dictate your own hours and stuff, can't you? Particularly if you've got a team as well, and I do love the fact of being there to help and support people. But I can imagine as well if you're, you know you're doing your computer side of things and then you're doing your property and it's trying to put those hats on simultaneously. It's got to be very, very tricky and very, very difficult to do. So you've been managing and looking after and building up the HMO properties and that side of the business.

Speaker 1:

And of course you know our paths crossed when you decided then that you wanted to move into the short term rental sector as well and start adding that to your bucket.

Speaker 1:

And I always like to say I like to have a bucket with lots of little taps just pouring revenue streams in, and I completely understand the deal source inside of it as well, because I mean I get so many deals even now coming across my desk that I can't do them all and I obviously I'm always asking if anybody's interested or anybody's looking for any particular deals and I always thought, well, I could actually make a business out of this. But again, there's a lot more to it than just saying, oh, here's a deal, here's an investor, happy days, you've got all the running around to do. Then it falls out of bed, people change their minds and all of those sort of things. So I like the residual income that you can get on a month on month level. So, of course, you know you've you've transitioned into SA, you've got a bit of commercial that you're looking at and things like that. Now, what made you want to go into the short term rental space?

Speaker 2:

So it was very deliberate. I always knew that SA was a great strategy. I've stayed in many essays myself, but it's I always knew it was a noisy business. There's a lot of moving parts If you want to succeed in this. I believe when you're starting out, you live or die by your reviews and your customer service and effect.

Speaker 2:

So you, you, I feel like you want to be smashing this out of the park when you do this, okay, I'll don't bother because you know there's competition. I guess that's kind of me generally in life. I don't want to do anything half-assed. It's got to be done to the best of my ability or don't do it. So growing SA alongside all the other things I felt like was a step too far. However, because, like we're talking about, I went full time in property. I know I could, I can get away, I can do whatever I need to do at any time to make sure that we can smash it out of the park, basically. So build, build a great SA business and give it the focus it needs to grow. So that was the reason. It was a deliberate reason to to wait, basically until the time was right and the time was right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great, that's great. Well, I think so as well. I mean, I'm exactly the same. It was, you know, get the get the rent to rent side of it with the HMOs. I like the HMOs that they're quite steady away. Yeah, there's problems, but you can put systems and processes in place for most of those things. And I always thought well, service accommodation, it is busier, it is a busy business, but of course there's potentially more of the upside on what you can earn as well. So they're great strategies. But I always say to anybody starting out and if you are looking at starting out and listening to this or watching this, it is pick one, give it everything you've got, build that up, systemize that and then move on to the next one If you choose to. Some people don't, some people do.

Speaker 1:

I came into service accommodation was basically because there was a block of units, had three properties in it and I was a bit like well, they're single let's, can't do anything with those, so it's got to be essay or nothing. So it was a choice of. This is a really great opportunity that we can systemize and we can, we can have it there, so why not? And then, of course, I was buying my own single let's and they just well, interest rates went through the roof right at the wrong moment, pulled all of my mortgages out. So it's a case of the only way to make these to work and stack is to do service accommodation, and they've done all right with contractors in. So, yeah, I like that. Diversification is there and things. Now, of course, you came and joined us at the ultimate essay training program I've got to ask about that, of course which is run by Graham Graham Linnley, who's our resident essay expert, and he certainly is the expert in that field, isn't he?

Speaker 2:

He really is. Yeah, he knows this model inside out and he scaled it to such a level that there's nothing he doesn't know About running that business. So, yeah, what a fantastic guy to lead the training.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So I mean just obviously for your feedback and stuff like that. You've obviously gone through the training, which, for people that don't know, is video training. It basically takes you from knowing nothing to being able to systemize and scale a six figure and above service accommodation business. And of course, Graham is on the weekly or weekly started the monthly calls. We have a couple of calls every month as well. So how have you found, you know, going through the training? Because now you obviously you've got three service accommodation units, haven't you? Since you know, starting with us, You've got those set up. You've got, you know, 75% occupancy. Basically, on average there You've got 10 out of 10 reviews. Has has joining the training and obviously being guided by Graham, has that really really helped you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, 100%. It was exactly what I was looking for basically. So whenever I attempt to do something like I say, it's never going to be a flash in the pan. I'm going to do this properly and it's going to be a business and it's not going to be running around, you know, flapping, making calls, things are going to get the balls going to get dropped. Basically, I'm not interested in doing that approach and Graham and your training, basically a training program is all built around that.

Speaker 2:

So it's in the name. You know it's about scaling this business, but you know Graham's done it, you've done it. It's it's not about doing it once. You know and remembering all the lockbox numbers and you know, remembering all the guests name. You got to have your systems in place if you're going to do this properly. And maybe I was a bit negative earlier saying it's a noisy business. Yes, it's noisy, but there's no reason why you can't systemise all this. You know it doesn't all have to be done by yourself. You know you get your team in place, you build it up and actually at the minute it's not very noisy for me at all. I'd say my HMO is a noisy because we've got some longer stays in the minute and you know they're happy and they get in a great service. So so yeah, it's all about systemising and the training really pushes you in that direction to build it as a sustainable business.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I saw in a few of the coaching courses where you were obviously giving us updates as to, you know, sorting out the properties and getting them up and running and things, and Graham does actually hold you accountable to getting them set up, getting them on the systems as quickly as possible, doesn't he?

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, oh yeah. It's like having a mentor. So Graham will hold you accountable. If you say you're going to do something, you know whatever it might be, well, say, well, why can't you do that tomorrow? You know what's holding you back. You know why are you setting this for two weeks time? And you say, well, well, because I need to go and buy stuff. Well then you know, go and do it now, send someone to do it. You know he'll hold you accountable and that's a great thing because it makes you, it makes you reconsider. You know you could do this faster. You could be generating revenue faster. You know you could be filling your pipeline while you're doing that.

Speaker 2:

It's no good focusing on this, setting up this one unit. If you're neglecting your pipeline. You know what you're gonna do when that unit's online. Well, then you're gonna have to start looking for units. So you already you know you get behind if you don't pay attention to that pipeline. So, yeah, I'd say the accountability calls are fantastic. So everyone comes in with an open mind, everyone's really friendly and is looking forward to hearing what each other have been up to and maybe suggesting, like the the participants suggest to each other. You know, oh, I've hit that problem. Why don't you think about doing this, or this is what we did. Maybe that'll work for you. So I really like that about the course.

Speaker 1:

It's a great little community as well, and that's something that's very, very important to us. And, of course, you guys make the community what it is as well is getting in there. It's it's the people that are few steps ahead of you that will turn around and say, yeah, we are that and this is what we don't. Like you just said. Then it works out really, really well and, as you say, once you've sort sort Systemized what you're doing, how you're looking at approaching your business and I love the fact that you've come in and you've sort of had the long game approach.

Speaker 1:

So a lot of people, like you, say they just want to get their first unit. Then they forget everything else while they're setting that unit up, and it really is a case of not everybody's got a budget To be able to get other people to do things. So everybody does start from a different starting point, which is, I mean, you look at Ellie who's smashing it out there with the property she's got, but every time I keep seeing her she's got a paintbrush in her hat. Yeah, but that's because that's where she is with her budget and everything, and that's fair enough, but it's really not the best use for a time. She would. Actually, it would be better time just get paying a painter to do that. You'll make the money back once the properties or operation and be getting out there to get some more properties, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

It is. It is, and I understand you've got to be in the trenches sometimes. Yeah, that's that's what I did with the rent to HMOs. You know I was there whatever time of day it was. Come on, let's go. We've got to get this room ready. If that means painting it tonight, and that's what we're doing. If that means running around, find some furniture and put in, that's what you've got to do. When you're starting out that you've got to, then, as you progress, resist that temptation because you're capable of doing it.

Speaker 2:

You know you could sort that problem out in you know, half a day or whatever, but that half a day you spent paying that room, like you say, will be better spent Talking to landlords, talking to leads, whatever it might be, building your business. So you go. It's difficult, you know. As an entrepreneur, you've got to resist that urge, haven't you, to do the, I guess, what they call the low val, low Revenue value tasks and and go after the income generating tasks. Where you are, what way you should be focusing really is as the owner.

Speaker 1:

Definitely I've done it. I've done the same thing. The first few properties I got. They were pretty good, but they needed a lick of paint. So I always thought to myself, well, what's the quickest way I can do this? Because a painter can go in there. And he was saying it'll take three days and all of that. And I thought it won't, we can do this in a day. So I can roll for Britain. I just can't cut in Tricky part, but I'll roll all day long.

Speaker 1:

So I used to hire a decorator and say to him I'm gonna roll, all I want you to do is follow me, just cut everything in. And we used to. I used to get, we used to go in there, I used to blitz it. But again I got to the point where I had about five properties by that time, six properties coming on, and it was just like I can't keep doing this. This isn't the best use of my time anymore, but again it's. It's having that sort of knowledge to be able, or somebody there, or a mentor or a coach, to say, mark, get your head out of the trenches now, put your head up. You're above, not above the work. I, you know, I don't want anybody down, but you're above doing that in your business. You should be getting some. You should be out there getting and negotiating the deals. But it is difficult so sometimes to have that sort of nerd to just have the obvious pointed out to you, because when you're in the trenches it's very difficult to see out of it, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

100%, 100%. Yeah, it's like you say. It's not that it's anything's beneath you, it's that, if you know, if you're serious about growing this business, you can't be spending your days painting walls, otherwise you're gonna spin your wheels and you'll be stuck in in that in that area for a long time. So, yeah, it's all about kind of trying to zoom out as soon as you can, really To build that business out in scale.

Speaker 1:

Nice. And if there was one thing I'll ask this before we move on if there was one thing from the training that you've gone through and everything that really stood out for you, what would that be?

Speaker 2:

So what? I'm really detail orientated person. So when someone's explaining something to me, already in my head it's operating like 100 miles an hour, thinking well, yeah, but what about XYZ? You know the detail is all there, okay, so, so, so, graham, and you go into great detail about every aspect of the business. You know, holding your hand through the whole lot, basically. So Everything is there. You need to progress, okay, so all Graham's knowledge is laid out in these videos along with you know they're company, whatever it might be, calculators and things. There's no reason why you, you cannot do this course. You, you cannot do this. Anyone can do this. Okay, all you've got to do is execute. What's what's that? Basically, it's simple as that.

Speaker 1:

That's it. Let's take action. It's all right learning anything, and you, you've taken plenty of action, so I like to take my hat. I would take my hat off, for my hair still grow. I like to take my hat off to you because it is just follow, and the people that are successful on the training course are the ones that just take the action, aren't they? They're the ones that are pushing themselves out there and, as we say, you only fail when you stop, because there's plenty of people out there at the moment that need your help, that needs support, that need this service that you can do with short-term rentals or HMOs or anything. There's a whole host in in every area. It's no one area works better than others. I mean, in our group We've got people all across the country, haven't we all over the place that they're doing deals, that are building businesses?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely yeah. And I Instinctively thought that my area wouldn't be great for essay because it's not a tourist location. So you would think, well, maybe you'll get some people visiting family, but but no, when I actually did the research piece, you know there's lots of hotels there. There's lots of businesses here. You know people work away from home in the week. They need accommodation. So don't assume that doesn't work in your area just because you're not in a tourist like seaside resort or something like this, and you probably find that your competition actually Might be lower because of that reason. Maybe people think it's not gonna work and you can smash it out the park and become the best in your area. So, yeah, fantastic.

Speaker 1:

That's good advice. Good advice you should have your own podcast, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm the first podcast I've ever done.

Speaker 1:

Oh well, you're doing everything. Well, no, it's good. It's good to have you on. We've been trying to do this for a little while, isn't we? So it's been good. So what's the future for your good self? What are you looking at? Do it. How big do you want to be? Is that you know what's?

Speaker 2:

Washer plans. Yeah, so I'm. I'm always thinking of the long-term I. I would like to build up my sort of mid to long-term goal. It's to move into commercial to residential conversions. I find that really interesting. I've seen some. They've been done and I could recognize how they might have been done better. Maybe reconfiguring them might made them more lucrative or providing a better Class of conversion might have helped in that particular area. So that's one goal getting getting to that and the ultimate goal would probably to be to be to build something from scratch like. So, developments now, everything I've seen about developments is it can make or break you and some of it sounds like hell, but it would be nice to just, you know, leave that legacy. Maybe one day you know there's nothing there and now there you go, there's, there's a building there, that that we've created. So Maybe that's the path, a very far away goal.

Speaker 1:

No, I like that, yeah, because it is a legacy piece that you put a building there. I've never, ever thought of it like that, that when you go back and look at all of these old buildings and they say was built, you know, in 1901 and things, I've never thought, that whoever built that has actually made a mark, so to speak, because once that building is still here and operational, they've left a little legacy piece. I like that. Now you've got me intrigued and interested in building something.

Speaker 2:

You have a little plaque Fitzgerald towers, you know in there that lasts for hundreds of years, you know.

Speaker 1:

I like that Fitzgerald towers. Let me write that one down. Hey, we could be on to build a village. Let's build a village. No, that's good, that's good. So, um, yeah, I mean, you're active at the moment. I oh, so to say, take my hand up to people that I've stayed the game, so to speak. I've stayed in the game. I've stayed pushing themselves forward, your, you know you're being very active in the group and the community, which is great. You've had your head down. You've been a busy man as well. You've got potential deals lined up in the pipeline as well, haven't you?

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah, we're looking at a JV and doing another unit in the next sort of two, three weeks, which would be great to build that out. And once you've done a JV with someone and they're happy, that obviously is great for your reputation, because I've done JVs in the past not SA but often it leads to doing bigger things in the future with that same person or other people. You did what you say you were going to do and it's all working as you said. It would so great. Well, let's do some other things. So, yeah, I'm really excited to get that over the line and scale from there.

Speaker 1:

And how long did it take you to get your first SA unit? You got three, didn't you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think it was probably just fortunate timing. There's nothing special I did, I would say, over anyone else. It was just reaching out to, as the training helps you with reaching out to the right type of property, basically. So these particular properties look like they fit the bill in this area and they ticked all the boxes I was looking for for my guest type. So it just happened to work out.

Speaker 2:

That's not to say there weren't challenges. I mean, it didn't look like it was going to happen for quite a lot of that. There was a lot of backwards and forwards with contracts and I wanted to make sure it was operating in the correct fashion and all above board. So I wouldn't really do this without signing the right contracts. I wouldn't advise that at all. So in the end we managed to keep it going, kick it over the line and, yeah, when we got the keys, it was just all hands to the pompom, let's get this online now, which my wife loved because I basically handed it over to her. As you're the operations manager, you know off you go. Happy days.

Speaker 1:

So she was there watching. We do videos and things like that as well, don't we? And, of course, you had all the contracts at your disposal, which you can tweak it and use to your heart's content. But you basically focused I mean, some people will say, well, I can't take three properties on how can I handle that? You basically just systematically said, right, just one at a time, let's go through these, let's hit them all, and then, one at a time, we'll get them all online as well, wasn't it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was. It was a risk. Okay, it was a risk and I'm usually pretty risk averse. On the risk of a scale, I'm pretty risk averse but all the research we did led to the conclusion that this was the right thing to do. Having multiple units helps from a booking point of view. So if you need to juggle bookings around, having three identical units is ideal because you'll not be letting someone down. If you need to move them, whatever that might be a maintenance problem or God forbid, you shouldn't have the double booking, but if something were to go wrong or whatever, you could move someone around. So it helps from a long-term vision point of view. Well, I mean, there's no reason why we couldn't have taken one unit and built from there. It was a risk and it was a lead, but it's not for everyone. One unit is a step in the right direction, a great step.

Speaker 1:

I think if you get one unit, happy days, but if you get three units it's seriously happy days. Obviously it's three amounts of work, but it's just again, at the end of the day, when you're looking at starting your service accommodation business, you want more than three or four or five units anyway. So if you can find one person to work with, take three units on or anything like that, then I would just say all you've got to do is just know what you're doing and then just systematically go through it. And of course I know from listening to what you were saying when you were taking them on. You knew the steps that you wanted to take.

Speaker 1:

You asked any questions about anything there, but it was really let's just take these on one at a time, get through this and then, like you say now and it is easier than you expect it can be very busy and I think it depends on how you manage your units. So if you're looking at like weekend bookings, midweek bookings and all of that, then it is busy. It is a lot busier, a lot noisier. I tend to just work with contractors as much as possible which book it out for a couple of weeks or three weeks or four weeks or six months and those sort of things and that sort of. I mean, we're in a similar area at the end of the days and that sort of suits the area as well. But like you say just touching back onto that it's not as noisy as you thought it was once you've got those systems in place, is it?

Speaker 2:

That's right, yeah, and the training will help you with this. So James obviously been through a load of software systems and products, methodologies he's had to go through. He's had to learn the hard way to build his business. So why not just take his advice and save your time and energy and build on what he's done? If these products are working for him and he is however many hundred units they'll work for you. So just take that and get on with it. And that's what we did, basically. So we get the software in place.

Speaker 2:

It wasn't all at once. You got to be realistic. You can't do everything at once. So get it up and running, maybe. Then get your channel manager up and running, get your photography spot on, get your description spot on and get your pricing spot on. You're not all going to do that in one day, but you can plan to do that within a week or two, even if you're busy. So, yeah, it's all there, just crack on. Based. And let's not forget as well, in many of these deals, we're helping the landlord. So we're taking our property, we're keeping it in top condition, way over and above probably what tenant would. It will probably be dilapidated after a long tenancy, whereas we're going to keep it in great condition. We're going to touch up the paint work, replace bits, keep it all immaculate because we want the great guest experience. So that helps the landlord. Their asset is kept in top condition. So it's not their doing your favor, you're doing them a favor, really, in a way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and how did you feel when you started getting your first bookings?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, brilliant. Yeah, it kicked off pretty much straight away. We got a lot of business through the OTAs, a few long stays, so we had some people visiting from abroad. We had American family, saudi Arabian family. Yeah, we just did whatever we needed to. So when we discovered they didn't really speak English, we translated everything to Arabic. Basically, it translated all our welcome, information and everything just to help them out with the local area, and it's been really successful.

Speaker 2:

We had a lot of work bookings as well. So people working away in the week and repeat bookings so they know they're going to have a nice day and everything will be there for them. So, yeah, really happy with the bookings that are coming. We haven't really although we started a bit reaching out to companies that are local and others to say we can host your guys and they'll get a great service. They'll be able to eat and drink together, watch TV, wash their clothes if they need to, or cook a meal. We haven't really even pushed that piece of work very hard at the minute because the OTAs have been providing a lot of business. Now you need to be careful with that. Obviously, you can't rely on the OTAs long term in case you get booted off the platform for whatever reason. You've got to be diversified and get your direct bookings. But yeah, we've seen great success just straight off the bat from the OTAs.

Speaker 1:

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. That's always good. One of the other questions I always like to ask people is what made you want to come and join us? Because obviously, the training environment there's plenty of different training providers and things like that out there. We all do our own due diligence and homework on things. We're glad you did. But yeah, what made you think that's the one for me?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I'm a details person, so it looks like the clues in the title business builder on the face of it, so that is attractive immediately. You're building a business great. I'd seen you speak on the PIN circuit. I had the same sort of values as you, followed you on social media and listened to the podcasts and things, so I knew that anyone that's doing if you're doing this training it has to be of a certain caliber, because that's the type of content that you do. You have a certain standard and you don't drop below that. Anything you put your name to. I already know it's going to be a great standard. And then, yeah, just like you said, do a bit of due diligence. It looks good. Great, let's do it.

Speaker 1:

Happy days. Well, as I say, glad you did, I'm glad you're getting the results that you want from it as well. So if you've listened to the podcast before, you know that I like to ask all my guests a little handful of questions more, because I'm interested and sometimes I get some great answers and results and it's like books and podcasts and all sorts of stuff that I can look up and enjoy as well. So if that's all right with you, are you okay if I ask you a few of these questions? Yeah, of course. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. So what's the best advice you've been given?

Speaker 2:

Best advice I've been given. If you're just getting started, I'd say the best advice is to do one thing every day that moves you forward. So write down one thing every day that moves you forward. That might be making a phone call to the agent, it might be doing a viewing, it might be on right move or whatever software you're using. It might be listening to a podcast anything that moves you forward. And then, when you look back in a month or a year, you've done 365 days that have moved your business forward. Even when you've not felt motivated, you've still done it. It's not hard to do one single thing a day. So I'd say when you're starting out, that would be the best piece of advice. Maybe I might sneak another one here, which is once you're established, remember to resist the urge to delve into the minutiae. So try and zoom out and keep sight of your long-term strategic vision. That will pay dividends.

Speaker 1:

No, I like that. That's good, that's very good, and it is very, very easy to get caught up, as we said before, in everything. So, yeah, one step at a time, and I believe the power of reviewing the last month, potentially the last, if nothing else. You should review at the end of the year, your year, just to see how far you've come, and if you haven't moved, then you're not taking the right steps, you're not doing the right things, you're not taking the right actions. But you should be a different person Each and every year. There should be a different map. There should be a different map Because otherwise, if you're not growing well, you're dying at the end of the day or you're just not moving yourself forward. So I love that. That's brilliant. If you could sit down and have dinner with three people, alive or dead, who would you like to sit down and have dinner with?

Speaker 2:

One would be Winston Churchill. So it took him 40 years to become Prime Minister. I know he overcame depression, he overcame anxiety, he overcame a speech impediment. We know him as an amazing orator. He bloody-mindedly practiced constantly to get over that speech impediment, which you wouldn't believe, and I really admire when someone is courageous and persistent in the face of overwhelming odds. So if you imagine, like 1940, that must have been an incredibly dark time. Britain pretty much stood alone. Lots of his party didn't like him, the opposition didn't like his warmongering and he was pretty much alone. But yeah, I really admire that Because that would be one of Winston Churchill.

Speaker 2:

Definitely Elon Musk, huge fan of Elon Musk. So he's got a natural technical ability. He's basically a rocket scientist now and an expert in manufacturing. Not many CEOs would sleep on the assembly line to get the job done, in fact. I think that's amazing. But also the way that he's hyper-intelligent, that he can also articulate to non-technical people his vision, what his goals are. And I love the fact that he does the iterative development thing. So he fails fast, tries to learn everything he can as quick as he can and applies it to the next iteration.

Speaker 2:

So there too, and the final one I'd say would be my granddad. So he's passed away now. He passed away when I was young. He was an XRAF pilot really gentle, modest, kind man, and he used to take the time to play chess with me when I was young. When you are like 7 or 8, you make silly mistakes In chess, for example. He used to encourage me, not by letting me beat him outright, he would just offer up a little piece or an opening that would teach me more about the game. Just an intellectually patient grandfather. He's a lovely man. Yeah, I think that would be amazing.

Speaker 1:

That sounds like a really good day. Just off topic, have you read the Elon Musk book by Walter Eidzigson?

Speaker 2:

I've read the first one by Ashley Danse I think it is. I'm crossing my fingers to get the latest one for Christmas present.

Speaker 1:

It's a beast, but Walter Eidzigson. He wrote about Einstein. If you are somebody who's done something in the world he's wrote about loads of different people he is the guy that you want to write a book about you. So as soon as I saw that one I haven't read it yet, I've got it I'm going to start it after the book I'm reading now. It's supposed to be really, really good.

Speaker 2:

Amazing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'd love to read that. So that's cool, that's cool. So is it a top three podcast or go to sort of podcast that you enjoy?

Speaker 2:

Yes, I used to spend like three hours in the car every day pretty much, so I'd listen. My tastes have changed over the time. I've listened to a hell of a lot of podcasts, but right now it's obviously yours, mark. I find that very motivational about mindset and getting things right. I listened to High Performance podcast that one. I think it's High Performance.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

And Property Entrepreneur. Obviously that's a really damn hell podcast. I find that really inspiring.

Speaker 1:

Brilliant, that's good. I like those, especially the first one. Do you have a top three books that you'd recommend to people? They don't have to be property books, they can be about anything that you like.

Speaker 2:

Yes, definitely. There's one called 4000 Weeks. I think it's by Oliver Birkman. I think that's right. I was bowled over by this book. This was just like a random purchase on Amazon that I saw and hadn't been recommended it at all.

Speaker 2:

4000 Weeks is basically our average time on this planet. I know that sounds depressing, but when you start reading this book it's every page is kind of laced with gold. I had to like stop. I had to almost read like a page or two, then stop and digest it was. It talks a great deal about fulfillment, focus, not neglecting the present in hope of some delayed imaginary future, so sort of be present in the moment and enjoy what you have. It talks about overwhelm and not resisting the urge to clear out all the unimportant tasks first. No, you should be making way for the important stuff first and it's just a great book for mindset and life and that's the way I've moved in my books and my podcasts into growth, mindset and this kind of direction. So I find that brilliant. 4000 Weeks sorry, I don't know. Yeah, give it a go, it's got. It had great reviews on Amazon. That's why I looked into it and that's a good one.

Speaker 2:

It's the Rules of Living Well by Richard Templar. That's kind of the opposite, where you can just dive in and out, you can pick a page and it and it's like a rule for the life. You know again a mindset kind of living well, doing the right things in life, standing up for what you believe, and things like this it's it helps you live a rounded life. I really like that one. The, the. The final one is a non Kind of mindset one. It's it's true story. It's called inter thinner by John cracker. It's Actually found that book by one of his others, called into the wild, which I really enjoyed, and it's about. It's a true story about tragedy on Everest. Basically the author was part of an expedition that set off for the summit late. They were caught in a bad storm and it's a real page turner really. I'll not give away anything in case anyone's not ready, but they actually Did a film on it as well to do the film based on his book called Everest. So Definitely worth a read if you've not read that one.

Speaker 1:

Brilliant any more.

Speaker 2:

Probably I've got a bookcase over in back with about a thousand books.

Speaker 1:

No, that's great, no, that's brilliant. I I haven't read any of those. So and that's the reason I love doing this, because all of a sudden it's just like, right, I'll get on Amazon after this and I'll start ordering all of these books, but I like that. Four thousand week, yeah, four thousand week, that sounds really, really good. So I think that'll be my, my next read after my Elon Musk marathon session. I'm gonna read over Christmas Cool, cool, cool. So If anybody you know it's sat on the fence thinking of getting into service accommodation, wanting to get into, you know, building their own business, what would you say to them?

Speaker 2:

There's nothing stopping you doing this. Okay, you don't need any more qualifications or knowledge than anyone else. Just get the training done, execute, execute the training and you're halfway there. Okay, it's as simple as that. So, yeah, definitely recommend getting the education and then forcing yourself to take the action. Gotta take action.

Speaker 1:

Brilliant. Thank you for that. I hope you got any final thoughts that you'd like to leave our Listeners with, or our watches, depending on how they're listening or watching this before. Before we wrap this one up, Keep listening to Mark's podcast.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'd say just you got, you're gonna this. This property business is all ups and downs, okay, like there, the key is to not taking a bad day to heart. Okay, so we're gonna have that days where something falls out of the box, something falls out of bed, the deal doesn't happen, or you've had to make a tough call or a bad decision. Something went wrong. Just Wipe the slate clean and go again the next day. If you can do that, you're basically destined for success. There's no two ways about it. Don't let a bad day upset, upset the apple cart. Basically, just crack on, keep going.

Speaker 1:

No problems, only solutions, as Danny Hill says.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so brilliant, brilliant, matt. Well, I'd like to thank you ever so much for coming on. As I say, with the guests that I enjoy and I like speaking to and if I've ever Forgot to say it to a guest as well, I always reach out to them afterwards. But it'd be great to get you on in the future, potentially next year, see how things are progressing, seeing what you're up to, if you're up for that, 100% definitely brilliant, brilliant. Well, you've broken your duck now. You know you don't? You forecast episode and it's been a good one. So, yes, thank you ever so much for coming on. Thank you for your time today. It's been an absolute pleasure, pleasure.

Speaker 2:

Pleasure, not Thank you, brilliant stuff.

Speaker 1:

So if you've enjoyed today, please feel free to follow, like, subscribe, share it with somebody that maybe needs to hear this. Do feel free to reach out to me on social media if you have any problems Facebook and LinkedIn, instagram, all of those things. I'm the one with the blue tick, so you know it's me. And, of course, do check out the property unleashcom for further training, support and help if you need it, but make sure, if nothing else, you have a vision. You know what it is that you want to achieve. You know what it is that you want to be doing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you break that vision down into a goal. You have on a goal and an ejection over the 12 bunch. You break that go down into bite size chunks and you make sure that you take action on those, as Matt was saying, each and every day. Move yourself forward, be a better version of yourself year on year, and you will start to build the companies, the businesses and the life that you desire. Thank you very much for joining us here today. You take care and bye for now.