Building a bulletproof property mindset

0:02Hey everyone, it's Rob B here with Rob D and you are listening to The Property Podcast and you are going to change your mindset today. We are going to share the techniques that we use, not have read about, we actually use that have transformed our lives. We're going to give you them and we're going to ask you to start implementing them today.

0:24Welcome to The Property Podcast. In case you don't know, we run a business that buys more than£100 million worth of property for our clients every year. You can find out about that at propertyhub.net slash invest. And we've been in property and in business for a long time, longer than I prefer to think about most of the time. And during that time, things have not always gone well. Some things have gone very not well. What's brought us through and keeps us going is our mindset. And the same is going to be true for you. If you're investing in property and you haven't had a setback yet, then buckle up.

0:51It's going to happen. But this episode, we're going to give you all the tools you need. It's time for our new story of the week now, and it comes from Halifax Building Society, where we are seeing prices up by 0.4 % in a month of July. That's strong growth. In fact, Halifax say it's the strongest that they've seen this year so far, and that puts us up 2.4 % for the last 12 months. It's really interesting data, and when you dig into the report, it talks about the strength of the Northwest and Yorkshire markets. We will talk about house prices more and get all the data in our next market update, But it's really pleasing to see such strong numbers in what has been, sentiment-wise, a poor-performing market.

1:33It kind of goes against what we were expected to see. So if this continues, then positive news ahead. But it's no surprise to see that the areas bringing this average up are the Northwest and Yorkshire. And both have seen increases in prices of over 4 % in the last 12 months. So that's clearly the places where people are most confident right now. And yes, it's the Southeastern London that's performing the poorest at the moment. But we'll talk more about this and much more in our next market update. You can say a lot of things about the Property Podcast, but one thing you could not say is that we've ever tried to sell you the dream.

2:10One thing we've been saying since pretty much our very first episode is property investment comes with challenges. It's a long game where the winds come so slowly, you can barely even feel them happening. But the setbacks, the annoyances, they can really hurt. and when these things happen it's on you there's no boss to fix your problems no hr department to step in when something goes wrong it's on you and that is why having what we've come to call a bulletproof mindset is one of the most important attributes you can have as a property investor and rob i think it's easy to hear that and go oh yeah mindset blah blah i know it's important but it really blooming is i think it's the most important thing not just in property and life if you get the mindset part right then life does get easier it unlocks another level it really does I consider my mindset to be my greatest strength in the success that I've had I feel incredibly lucky that I have the mindset that I have but I do believe that you can work on it Rob we talked before we went on air about one of the things that we're going to discuss today and we were debating is it nature and nurture and you quite rightly pointed out that there's a few things you've personally worked on that weren't natural to you but now they feel like a habit because you've trained yourself you've worked on it and that's the whole point of this podcast right is to help people identify things that they can work on and train on that's right i don't think you can flip a switch and change your personality but let's say that you've got a genetic minimum and maximum you can shift within that range and at first it is work because we've all got habits and ways of thinking and ways of reacting that have just become automatic and ingrained over the years.

3:48So it takes time to undo that. But I've done some of this for myself. And at first it was work, but now it's just normal. It's become a new habit that's overwritten the old one. So I've seen the power of this. I've spoken to many investors who've been on a similar journey and have said the same thing. And it's just as well, Rob, it's a journey worth going on because property inherently is going to throw up problems. And recently it feels like it's been throwing up a few more than usual. Yeah, it's not coincidence that we've decided to do this podcast now. I think this is a really important time to make sure you're mentally sharp because as we've demonstrated over the recent months, the opportunities are great, the numbers are strong, it's a great market to operate in, but that is because sentiment is so bad and sentiment in the UK property and the UK in general unfortunately and with all that sentiment it's much easier to follow along and put up this bulletproof mindset to go no I'm not going to let sentiment get in the way of my goals my dreams I'm not going to let the noise be my investment guide I'm going to be the one to make the decisions that is easy to say but harder to do especially when you might get one podcast in your ears for half an hour each week trying to gee you along and keep you focused but what are you going to do for all the other hours in the week and there's a lot of noise out there so we're going to go through some of the things that will really help you really make a difference and this is an episode I think you probably want to come back to every now and again especially if you're going through a tough period so maybe save this one because this will help you and being completely honest it's going to help you not just in property but in life in general this is not just a property thing this is a life thing it obviously will work in property but if you adapt this in all areas of your life, you will see real transformation.

5:31And let's start with language. This is a funny one because I pick this up with the team if I hear them use a certain language. And they do, they've adapted. But if someone new joins the team and they're not using the right mindset language that we use, I'll quickly pick them up on it. And they almost juggle when they do hear me say some of this stuff because it is funny, but it also is very important. Yeah, I can't remember us ever having problems in our business. No problems. We don't have problems. We have challenges. Because problems are bad and challenges are exciting and fun. So it sounds like a silly little thing, but it does actually work.

6:09And what that is really driving at is seeing every issue as a puzzle to be solved, not some kind of disaster. And it matters when you're talking to other people. That's why we do it within the team. But it matters when you're talking to yourself as well and the thought patterns that you've got in your head. because when something happens it's really easy to go oh my god this is a huge problem and to really spiral and if you're not careful if you start talking that way either to yourself or to someone else and they indulge you and they start oh no how terrible and immediately it's become this huge thing and you are in crisis mode rather than problem solving mode and rob i think the power of language including self-talk is avoiding getting into that oh no this thing has happened to me what am i going to do how terrible life is you're going to get straight into like right right, it's happened.

6:53What am I going to do about it? And putting yourself back in the position of control. I completely agree, Rob. And related to that is when people go, oh, I can't. Well, you probably can in most circumstances. So why not change it to, how can I? How can we solve this? Because most puzzles are solvable. Most challenges are solvable. Might not be easy, but there can be a solution. And if you force yourself to start thinking of those solutions, then it starts to unlock a way of thinking one of my favorite quotes is from Henry Ford and it's if you think you can or you think you can't you're right and one of the probably annoying things I do is when someone comes to me and says oh I can't do that I then unfortunately quit back with well with that mindset yeah you can't and that absolutely makes me annoying and I apologize to my children it's going to be some counselling bills for me later in life but that's what I'm not into I can't especially as a first response if you've gone through all the options every potential solution and you've exhausted that list then I might accept I can't but until that's been done I'm not interested sounds brutal right but that's just how you've got to get to I think you've got to try and push towards these extreme levels yeah another really good one along those lines that I've stolen from someone else is what would it take so what would it take to solve this problem with my tenant whatever it is but asking what would it take there'll always be something even if what it would take it sounds outlandish at first and you can't quite figure out how to do it by that point you've got yourself into problem solving mode because there'll always be something and then you're in the right frame of mind to work back from there and solve it and i think being able to flip mode like that is so important because like you say if you believe you can't then you can't very much related to this is deciding on what actually to give a crap about because most things just aren't worth your time.

8:48You can invest your time into those things if you want, if you choose to, and it's a choice. That is the point. It is a choice. So I absolutely get it. If something happens to your loved ones or yourself in a major way, then absolutely, you can give a crap about that. But your property having a damp issue is not something you need to be stressing over, losing sleep over. It's just something that happens. You're getting a flat tire. Doesn't matter. A question to ask yourself, and this is how you can catch yourself, is will you care about this in five years' time? Will I give a crap about this in five years' time?

9:26Would you even remember that flat tire or that bit of damp in one of your properties in five years' time? Never mind give a crap about it. When you start to think that way, it's like, oh, you catch yourself. And then suddenly by catching yourself, you're training yourself over and over. it's that self-awareness it's that capturing the moment and going i'm bothered by this should i be yeah it's amazingly powerful and again the quicker you can get to that realization the better because most people get there in the end about most things but the quicker you can get there the less time you're spending torturing yourself about it unnecessarily this is something that i've really practiced i used to let things bother me used to dwell on things all the time so i've really really practiced this and now i notice it happening in everyday situations for example if I'm on a flight and my two-year-old's kicking off and screaming.

10:15This is not a pleasant situation to be in. But at the moment now, I'm immediately thinking, yeah, this isn't pleasant, but it's a moment. It'll be over very soon. And literally later today, I won't be thinking about this anymore. So being able to project forward that way is a really great way to not be bothered about things that are unpleasant or a minor inconvenience or whatever it is. Basically, get to a point of giving everything the amount of attention, the amount of brainpower that it deserves. Another thing that you should be doing today, don't procrastinate on this one, is control your inputs.

10:44We've talked about this before. I'm not going to stop talking about this one. This is important. You control your inputs, your media inputs. You think that you need certain things in your life. I've had people tell me, oh, I need to watch the news. No, you don't. You choose to watch the news. The only news that goes on in my house is Sky Sports News. And that's it. There's no news. And if there is a big media story, if there is something happening in the world, you will hear about it. You will. So it's not that you're turning yourself off to what is happening in the world and you're out of touch.

11:21You will hear about it. People will discuss it. You will come across it on the internet. it it will happen but you don't need to watch a segment of media for 30 minutes or more every day to be just re-informed of all the negativity that's happening in the world you'll hear about it anyway don't go to that concentrated place also there are certain social media platforms out there that are more negative than others i left facebook i can't even remember how many years ago so many years ago because it's just a load of people moaning so i got off it same with twitter loads of negativity and bitchiness and it's like I'm off that as well I'll go on Instagram occasionally because there seems to be generally a positive place and LinkedIn as well it's not the greatest platform but at least it's not negative that's a choice some people say oh well I have to be on that platform because of xyz I'm a podcaster it would be in my interests to be on social media a lot more but I can't be bothered with it for one and I don't want to go on it all the time because it distracts me from my goals and it also some of the platforms I've discussed can be quite negative as well.

12:29Has that hurt the podcast? No not at all. Has it benefited me? Absolutely. You can absolutely control your inputs. Don't delay on this one. This is one you can do today. Some of the things you need to work on and their habits but this is one that you can make a life-changing decision today and I promise you it'll benefit you. what social media platforms are you going to cut out if you do watch the news stop it and you'll find life goes on and you'll be absolutely fine and actually you'll probably be a bit happier yeah and have you ever heard anyone regretting stopping watching the news or reading the paper or whatever no of course not it always ends up being a positive and i think that this is particularly important right now because there is such a mood of gloom in the uk in general no one is feeling very positive about how things are going and therefore it is all over social media people have discovered that they can get a lot of engagement and a lot of views putting out endless stuff about what a disaster the UK is and maybe it's true maybe it isn't but what are you going to do about it the problem is I think a lot of the time it's masquerading as information and it looks nothing like information that you feel like it's something that's important for you to pay attention to and yet you need to like broadly know what's going on but unless something has just changed specifically and you need to know what it is because it's going to affect your business and other than knowing broadly what's going on so you can decide like you know is it bad enough i'm going to leave the country if not then reading all this stuff is not going to help if you're not reading it to make a decision to do something useful then all it is doing is bringing you down and we talked about different modes earlier i think reading that kind of thing just puts you in doom and gloom mode and feeling like well what's the point everything's out against me and that's the opposite of the frame of mind that you need to be in to actually achieve anything something else that really works and remember this stuff all works we don't bring you the fluff we don't bring you the stuff that we've read about this is the stuff we do another thing that works is gratitude sounds a bit cheesy because you've probably heard this from others but if you are having a tough day stopping to think about things you are grateful for in your life really does mentally shift you I'm not saying it solves everything but it makes just that moment and part of that day a bit better are starting your day this way as well.

14:40I don't do it every day, but I'll do it most days. Most days when I wake up, before I pick up my phone, before I do anything else, before I get out of bed, before I do anything, I'll just think of a few things I'm grateful for. And that's a great way to start your day. It really is. It's like, okay, I'm setting the day up right. Jordan Peterson says, make your bed to set up your day. And that's great. But I think even more powerful is thinking about things you're grateful for. And you can make your bed as well. And then, wow, you're really off to a flying start. Don't feel grateful about how great your bed looks.

15:13But I think a lot of these things we've talked about already cluster under something where the fancy word for it is metacognition, like thinking about thinking. Because we talked about language. We talked about gratitude. We talked about, will this matter in the future? Catching yourself. So much of this comes down to catching yourself in the moment and putting these interventions in place to change how you're thinking while you're thinking it, rather than wallowing for any length of time. And I think that is a mental muscle that's worth building that makes all of these other things more effective.

15:41And there are different ways of doing it. A lot of people swear by meditation. It's not something that I've ever done consistently, but I totally see the benefits. However you do it, finding that way of being in the moment, almost like zooming out for a minute and thinking, hang on, what am I thinking here? Why am I thinking this? What question can I ask myself? What language can I use? What can I do? Whatever to change that put it into perspective and then move on that is the real skill here and it's not easy it's not something you can change from one day to the next and it's not something that anyone ever gets perfect at but it is something that you can get better and better at over time another important mental habit to form is acting like a winner or a different way of describing this is self-belief believe that you're going to succeed believe that you will win at the things you want to do, especially if it's a big long-term thing.

16:29That's the stuff to have the belief about because then it all starts to feel more achievable. You do the daily actions to achieve the big audacious goal, but have those big audacious goals in life, property, financial, and beyond, but then have the belief and reinforce it that you can do this and you will do this. This is a tough one. I actually don't know how you teach self-belief Rob I feel I was very fortunate when I was younger I was the oldest child I had people around me telling me I could do whatever and achieve whatever and I just believe them and then I believe them myself I appreciate not everyone has that I don't know if that was the thing that made me that way or whether it was just locked in already I don't know how you teach self-belief but I think it should be something you just force on yourself as much as you can until you start to believe it.

17:18So even if there's a little noise in your head going, no, you can't. Just keep making the other voice a lot louder going, yes, I can, and I will, and I'm going to do this thing, and I will be successful at it, and I'm going to work day in, day out until I achieve it. The further out it is, the easier it is to do, because if you're saying, in six weeks, I'm going to have a six pack, or in six weeks, I'm going to have 50 grand from zero to go and invest in property, that's tough. Even for the most mentally resilient people, that's going to be a hard stretch, But if you go in X number of years time, I'm going to have this portfolio or I'm going to have this outcome or whatever it may be, then it's a lot easier.

17:55Even if it does seem massive right now, you do the daily habits, have that belief around the big audacious goal. And when you put the two together, it becomes really powerful. I think there's a few things you can do to build your self-belief. So one of them is to collect evidence. So find situations where you've done hard things before. Maybe it's in a completely different domain. oh well i could do that so surely this isn't that much harder and find examples of things you've done to build this logical case to yourself that yeah i can do it another thing to do is to test yourself in small ways and break your own stories and your own mental barriers so i first signed up for a marathon because it felt to me literally impossible i've seen people do it i know it's not impossible we're all human so surely you can do it but i don't see how it's possible so i deliberately did that and went through all the training and everything just to break my own story and and redefine what I believe was possible.

18:45But I think the most powerful thing you can do, Rob, that kind of ties into that, is being around the right people. If you spend time around people who are already doing or have done the thing that you want to do, then it's hard to believe it's impossible because you're surrounded by evidence of people who have done it and are doing it every single day. And it also helps that people who are achieving things and are doing things tend to be happy, tend to be action takers, tend not to spend their time complaining, which comes back to fixing your inputs as well yeah surround yourself with action takers positive people can do attitude people happy people people who make you smile people who make you laugh they're the people you want to hang around with people who have trodden the path that you want to go on they're all the type of people you should be working to be around get away from the negative people the people who bring you down the people who just doom and gloom that zap your energy why are you giving them time and i know people have listened to this podcast and have acted on this when we said this before but it's so important they thanked us for it as well so they're not just oh they've done it and it's been difficult they've seen that difference that it's made you know who the good people are most people are good people that's the great news and a lot of people are positive just by what the media tells you so stick with them hang around with those people.

20:05Find your tribe. Get away from the complainers. And again, if you just do this one thing, a lot changes. That's the great thing about today's episode is you absolutely can do it all. But if you just implement just one of the things we've talked about today, you're going to see improvement. And this has not been a rah-rah episode. This has not been a come on, let's go episode. And we do them from time to time as well. This is more important. This is about the long game. If you implement these things now, do them consistently, the long game is going to be so much better for you. This is about investing in you, investing in your mindset, because it's going to pay off more than anything else.

20:42Your mindset will hold you back, and your mindset can set you free. It is that important. You often, in most scenarios, are the reason why you've been a success, and also the reason you've not been a success. The reason you've hit your goals, and the reason you've not hit your goals the majority of the time despite the stories we tell ourselves is down to you so with that in mind if you build this bulletproof mindset you are going to be so much more successful in life so go away decide which of these things you're going to start implementing just do it one by one and start to notice the difference so we always finish with hub extra the part of the show where we bring you a little bit more some kind of resource or tool that you can put to use and what we're going to do this week is round up some of our favourite mindset resources.

21:29So there'll be books in there, there'll be a podcast episode in there. Go to the show notes for this week's episode and you'll find those listed for you and you can pick up whatever catches your eye. Hopefully hearing this has sparked something in you but it's the kind of thing where you need to hear it again and again and occasionally someone will just say something in the right way at the right time that will unlock something for you. So hopefully these other resources we're sharing will have that effect on you. So that's just done for another week. We will be back of course on Tuesday with Ask Rob and Rob back with the Property Podcast, same time, same place next week on Thursday morning.

21:59And you can see our beaming smiling faces looking back at you in the Sunday Times in the home section as well. So whatever you choose, hopefully all of them, we'll see you there. Take care, have fun. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.