The Property Unleashed Podcast

Throwback Thursday: Escape the Rat Race Building Your Path to Financial Independence

• Mark Fitzgerald • Episode 327

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In this throwback episode Mark Fitzgerald shares his journey from corporate manager to entrepreneur, outlining a practical 12-month strategy for leaving the 9-to-5 grind while building a sustainable business. Taking control of your financial and professional future requires careful planning, focused execution, and a shift in mindset.

• Understanding your minimum financial needs is crucial before quitting your job
• Calculate your "life balance" figure and practice living on it while saving the difference
• Focus on mastering one business idea rather than pursuing multiple opportunities
• Build at least 3-6 months of savings before leaving your job
• Use your current job as a means to an end while building your business
• Treat each day as a new beginning rather than getting caught in negative spirals
• Set specific timeline goals with dates for your business milestones

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Property Unleashed podcast, a show about property, entrepreneurship and personal development. This show is designed to give you the foundations and building blocks to move forward on your journey and live a more inspired life. Hello and welcome to the Property Unleashed podcast. My name is Mark Fitzgerald and it's fantastic to have you joining me today. I just wanted to start by letting you all know that I plan on making this a weekly podcast, so we're going to be looking at really every Thursday morning for a new episode to be released, and I would also like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who have listened to the podcast, subscribed and also been kind enough to leave a review. Your support has been humbling and it really is what this is all about. So, again, cheers for that, guys. So today's show is an absolute belter.

Speaker 1:

Quitting the nine to five. I don't know about you, but I used to really enjoy my corporate nine to five job. Well, for the most part anyway, until really I just didn't. I was a manager and, to be fair, I love the challenge and the chance to make things better and make things happen. But, like with anything in life, you get bored, and if you haven't got, I don't know anything to look up to or try to strive for. Then you know, as humans we need to be able to focus on something. We need to know whether we're doing a good enough job. Otherwise you're just going through the motions and I think that's where it all goes wrong with a lot of jobs. You end up, doesn't really matter how passionate you are, just going through the motions and that's no good for you and that's no good for you and that's no good for the employee. And really the employee should know that to keep his staff focused, to keep his staff motivated, they need to take the time to develop their people, in which case you'll have more loyal people. You know people change jobs at left, right and centre at the moment, which you know back in the old days was never even heard of. But you do need to have a common purpose with the company, to be able to strive and all push in the same direction, and I really do feel and believe that that is missing in jobs and society today.

Speaker 1:

I used to love building teams of people who worked well together, but with that also came its challenges. It was fun and it kept me motivated for a really good length of time, but as time passes and things change, you start to feel less and less valued by your employee. Well, I did. One of the main problems is the big wigs at the top, loose touch of what got them there and how to do things in a way that keep people interested and content. I appreciate you can't please everyone, but you to do things in a way that keep people interested and content. I appreciate you can't please everyone, but you can conduct yourself in a way that at least shows the teams that work for you that you appreciate them. That's why I see so many people now wanting to get out of jobs, wanting to do things for themselves.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you're not in that category and you absolutely love your job and have a spring in your step, well, I have admiration for you. You know I'd love to still be in a position where I was completely in love with my job and more than happy to be there. You know, if you are listening to this and that is you, then fair play, because I was like that for so many years and it was a great feeling at times. You know this is not a doom and gloom podcast at all. This isn't one to say you should never get a job and you should never work a nine to five, because there is a time and a place for everything. And if you enjoy that and that makes you happy, there's nothing wrong with you. You know it's not for everybody, but if you found the place where you are at your best and you're happy and you're in a workplace with, you know, maybe it's the people around you that you love to be around. Maybe it's not, maybe maybe you just enjoy getting up the corporate ladder. You know, trying to find that next step, going for that pay rise, that is brilliant. And everybody has to have their own path in life that they're driven for, has to have their own path in life that they're driven for.

Speaker 1:

I used to work hard. I was a loyal employee and I was making things happen and hitting targets when we had all the parts. But through lack of opportunities, my enthusiasm disappeared and I just found myself going through the motions day to day and that is no way to live your life. You can end up just feeling stuck with nowhere to turn. I bet many of you listening can relate to this. You know it's a bad place to be when you can't make things happen and you're unhappy and you feel trapped. It's not at all where anybody should find themselves.

Speaker 1:

You also have to be very careful that you do not get caught in the financial trap of credit cards, of loans, of debt, just to have the nice things here and now. It's all too easy to get caught up with having the latest phones, the newest cars, the biggest house and find yourself in such a predicament that, before you know it, you cannot afford to do anything other than turn up for that job, because it's your lifeline to keeping everything that you think you've worked so hard to build. But in theory, in a way, society may have tricked you into doing. It's all too easy to get these loans and these credit cards that make you feel financially trapped and you've got to get away from this. You know, if you want to leave your job, if you want to start a business or just start something for yourself that gives you more time, freedom, you need to stop letting yourself fall into the traps of having the latest gadget.

Speaker 1:

It's crazy, and it's by getting ourselves or it was for me anyway, by getting myself into this situation that meant I had to be the good little worker that kept turning up to pay off all the debt that I had built up during my life. Now I've been lucky in the sense that I have spent a lot of the years making sure I didn't get into debt. I got into debt when I was younger, but I've tried to stick well clear of debt ever since. It's all too easy to find yourself in a really bad position, and while this podcast isn't about finances and debt management, I do have some good tips and tricks that I can share with you on future episodes of how to get out of debt in the quickest possible way. So, while I left my job through voluntary redundancy that wasn't the plan. I had a plan of 12 months to get me out of my job and to make sure that I had more time, freedom and I was building a business for myself and for my family. And the legacy piece is the massive piece. It's what drives me to go on. You know the reason I do the deals I do now and the reason that I actually build the businesses I build now is a legacy for my children. So it's a bit of peace of mind, not only for me in later years in life, but also for my children.

Speaker 1:

So you want to quit the nine to five job, but you don't know where to start. Let me help you with that. I would say the best place to start is with you. So look at yourself, your situation and your finances and I know I've spoken a lot about finances here but really get them nailed down. Get the last six months bank statements you know. Go through them, see what you're spending money on, where you can cut back. You don't have to be completely frugal in the sense that you cannot live your life, but get it in check. Make sure you're not paying for things you're not using. Make sure if you can downgrade things or even switch things over, that'll save you a few pounds because at the end of the day, what you really need to know is what your lifeline, or your life balance, as I like to call it, is.

Speaker 1:

What is the minimum you could live on for six to 12 months if you had to, to start your own business? When I did this for myself, I was completely and utterly amazed. You know I was probably thinking easily a thousand pounds more than I actually needed to survive. So it can really enlighten you and it can change your whole mindset on how you can get out of your job and move yourself through the motions of starting your own business. So once you know this figure of what you can live on, try and live on it. Spend a couple of months living on that figure and see how it feels, see how you get on. You will make mistakes and things will pop up that you didn't expect. But put it into motion and have that faith in the fact that you can actually live on that amount of money and then start saving what you're not spending. So if you're still earning the same amount of money but you're only using let's say, for argument's sake half of it, the other half you put into savings start saving. That's your nest egg. That's what's going to build you a company and we're going to use this money or we're going to have this money in the background later on. That is going to be a complete and utter game changer.

Speaker 1:

The next thing that you need to do is you need to know what you're going to do. So if you're listening to this podcast, you're either an entrepreneur, you want to be an entrepreneur, you're into property or you're just into businesses. Any which way, you need to have that one business idea. One, not five. One Concentrate on something, be the best at it, make sure you nail it before you move on to do anything else. That is probably one of the hardest things as humans that we try and do, because we look at different opportunities all the time and I was always looking at different things, as I've said in previous episodes. But once I finally nailed it down to one item, one business my life changed. I've become an expert in that business. I have become a professional. I have businesses that are set up. How many times do I want to say business in this podcast? But you get where I'm coming from. So the next thing that really is important is how much time a week can you dedicate to your chosen idea? You need to be able to set time for this. This is the life changing part. This is the part that you shouldn't have any actual trouble finding time for Now.

Speaker 1:

If you've got a big family or you're on your own and you've got children to look after or people to care for, it can be very, very challenging and difficult. If your children are up early, then maybe you have to stay up a bit later at night and stick an hour or two in the diary to make sure that you're moving forward with your plan. If you can get up a bit earlier before everybody else which was always my idea, which was to get up a couple of hours earlier in the day and make sure that I got the most important things done that day, which was my business and was moving me forward in my own personal education. So you need to set time aside to be able to put your plan into fruition and make sure that it happens. As the great Jim Rowan says, you know, change your thinking to change your life. If it's not working for you now, stop doing it. Change what you're doing and find something that does work for you and does help you progress and move forward.

Speaker 1:

So if you've even just done those two tasks, you've got your finances in order, you know what your strategy and your plan is to achieve. Then we can go back to that money that you're saving. So over the time and it will take time, let's not beat around the bush here it takes time to build anything, to grow anything, and under no illusions. Yeah, you can do things. You can get things done quite quickly. It depends how much time you have and how much you can actually put into it. But what you will find is, over time, your knowledge will grow, your business will grow and also your finances will grow. Because if you are saving this money, if you are living, you know to that figure that to a point is your financial freedom figure then you are growing your finances in the background with the money you're saving whilst you're still working. So it is a means to an end.

Speaker 1:

The job is a means to an end. Don't try and rush out of the job as quickly as possible. Use the job to your advantage. Go to work, do the best job you can do, earn your money, live on that financial freedom figure and save the rest. And what you really want to be looking for is at least a minimum of three months savings that are your financial freedom figure. So you could survive for a minimum of three months with no work if everything stopped and you wouldn't have to worry about anything. You wouldn't have to change the way that you're living now. You could live for three months without having to worry about having a job, and that is massive. That mindset gain you'll get from that is humongous.

Speaker 1:

Six months is an absolute joy to have. You have six months of money behind you, knowing you can pay, you could live your life the way you're living it. You can pay everything that you need to pay and you've got six months of money there need to pay and you've got six months of money there. Your mindset will be completely focused on the task at hand. It is massively freeing to be able to just focus on what you need to focus on, to focus on building that business, to focus on getting those deals, rather than worrying about oh my God, I'm running out of money. I'm running out of money. Six months is a long time and as long as you don't rest on your laurels and you keep pushing and you keep getting out there for those deals, they will come along.

Speaker 1:

Property or business is a numbers game. You know if you need clients, if you need customers, you need to be putting yourself out there time and time and time again and eventually you'll reap the rewards. And a lot of the time it happens is it all goes very, very quiet and then you know it's like buses. You know three come along at once. So none of this can't be done while still having a job. And it gives you the opportunity. My plan, this was my plan for the 12 months. It was basically get the education that I needed, learn what I needed to learn, or however you want to do it, make sure you've got some money behind you backing you.

Speaker 1:

If you've got the job that you hate, it's a means to an end Practice being the best person you could be at that job, because obviously, when it's your business, you want to make sure that you hate. It's a means to an end Practice being the best person you could be at that job, because obviously, when it's your business, you want to make sure that you can still roll on and be the best person in the business. So don't slack off and give yourself bad habits. Make sure you're focusing on it. Make sure, when you do leave your business or your company or whatever you're working for, that they're really sorry to see you go. You know they're not smiling and saying that they're happy to see the back of you. You want them there saying, oh my God, you're not going, are you? What am I going to do now? Because you know, then, that you've contributed in such a way that if you put all of that effort into your own business, you're onto a winner and by having your finances your own personal finances in order, you'll have not only a bit of money to live on, you'll also have the money to grow the business quicker than if you're starting from scratch.

Speaker 1:

I was lucky enough to take voluntary redundancy, which gave me that lump sum, which gave me that figure to be able to live on. I had six months worth of money and I had to make things happen in six months or it was a case of going back to work. Now that is the worst that can happen at the end of the day. Now, that is the worst that can happen at the end of the day. But I wouldn't jump the ship too early. The opportunity came for me to do so and I did. And if it does for you, make those decisions. You know, don't go off of what I'm saying here. You have to make your own decisions, but you've got to do what's right for you.

Speaker 1:

I see a lot of people jumping ship too early and then they spend more time trying to find work, trying to find a job, than they are actually focusing on building up their own business because they've ran out of money. So make sure that's not you, and even stay in the job longer if you can, then you need to for that money if you're happy to do so Now. On the flip side to this, we're obviously coming out of a situation at the moment where a lot of people have lost their jobs, and if you're one of those, I'm very sorry to hear that, but now may be your time. Now may be the time to start that thing for yourself, that that business, as I keep saying, you know, if, if you've got the time, put it to good use. Don't sit around watching netflix. You can do that later on. Build yourself a business. If this is what you want to do and you think to yourself I haven't got any money to start a business, then look around you and see, follow people that have built businesses from nothing. There's books and books out there of people that have managed to build something from nothing and, yes, it may take years of hard work, but start now. You know when was the best time to buy a house? 10 years ago. When's the next best time to buy a house? Now, do it now. Okay, everybody now needs to think of this new era that we're coming out of. Now. We're coming out into a new world. Look at it as the rebirth of you.

Speaker 1:

I certainly have this year. I've decided this year, coming out of this lockdown, that I am going to be a different person. I'm going to be a leaner, meaner, fitter person and I am going to be different, completely different. I've read books, I've got fit, I've lost weight, I feel great, I've maintained my businesses and you know, 2021 is going to be a big year. We've started a podcast and I'm here to help people. I'm here to help you. If you need help, reach out to me and if I can in any way, I will support and help you and give you a few ideas on what you can do in your own situations. We all have 24 hours in a day and it's all about how you use them.

Speaker 1:

I always thought I was too busy and I still have days where I plan out what I want to achieve and it all goes out the window. I feel like I achieved nothing and can sometimes be a bit down on myself for that. But now I reset, I look at what's happened, how I can change that and make sure that the next day doesn't get lost like the day that I've just had and that puts a spring in my step. No point in beating yourself up over it. All this will take time. That is why you have to enjoy it.

Speaker 1:

When I look to get fitter and lose some weight, my old mindset was to eat healthily, exercise daily, and then something would happen. Or I would find myself too tired to cook and I would order a takeaway and eat some junk food. Then you feel you've let yourself down and then you know that week you're thinking to yourself well, I'll start it all again next week. So then you end up eating more junk and you just get yourself into a vicious cycle. What you've got to do is each day is a new beginning and treat it like that. If you've had a bad day, put that to the back of your mind and move to the next day in a more positive manner. Make sure that you don't get caught in a spiral of days, weeks, months and before you know where you are, you're a stone heavier and you're thinking to yourself I've just wasted all that time. So take action now.

Speaker 1:

Finances get them in order. Plan business opportunities, business ideas, whatever it may be. Get it nailed. Goals what do you want to earn? Where do you want to be in 12 months? How much do you want to be earning in 12 months time? Write it all down, draw out the plan, the roadmap, follow it and pursue it and put it in your diary.

Speaker 1:

Different dates by this date, I want to have my first deal. By this date, I want to have such and such money coming in. By this date, I want to be handing my notice in. By this date, I want to have left my job and write it in your diary. I did it in mine. I stuck a smiley little face in December of 2019 to say I was going to be out of my job by then. I was out of my job before that, but when I got to that date, that still made me laugh. All right, guys, I'm going to wrap this up now. As I said, I hope this helps. If you want to follow me on Instagram or Facebook, please do. I shall put some links in the show notes. It's always a great way to connect with people.

Speaker 1:

If you enjoyed this episode and would like to write a review, that would be fantastic. As I said before, if you didn't, then don't bother. Also, don't forget to subscribe and, like I say, drop me a message, let me know what your plans are, let me know what your future visions are. I'm always interested. Okay, guys, you all take care of yourself, and bye for now. Thank you for listening, guys. I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Please subscribe and share the podcast with others, and if you could take a minute to leave the show a review, that would really mean a lot to me as well. Lastly, why not head over to the Property Unleashed Facebook group, and if you do, I'll see you there. Take care and make sure you keep focusing on your vision. Bye for now.