On today’s episode,
Today, we will be discussing five steps that will ensure an epic 2020. This episode is for everybody who has long been wanting to renovate their property but hasn’t been able to start – yet. Let those accomplishments come to life by following this comprehensive guide. What are you waiting for? Hop on, tune in, and renovate your life.
Listen to Episode 56: 5 Steps To An Epic 2020
Bernadette covers,
- The Game Changer Mastermind
- Step 1: Focus
- Keeps your goals visible
- Step 2: Adjust your mindset
- Create a story that empowers you
- Step 3: Build a strategic plan
- A.C.T. (Action Changes Things)
- Step 4: Build a support team
- Make sure you are on the right path
- Step 5: Review your work
Episode highlights
01:50 – The Game Changer Mastermind
03:30 – Have focus
05:20 – Bright shiny objects
07:03 – Keep your goal visible
09:30 – TED talk
11:27 – Create a story that empowers you
13:37 – Take action
15:26 – Have a support team
17:40 – SheRenovates Facebook group
Transcription
INTRO
This episode is sponsored by our brand new one-day training, The Game Changer Mastermind. Years come and go and dreams of making significant changes in your life and income with renovating can fade if you don’t breathe new life into them.
A new year is always an opportunity to take stock and start with renewed energy and focus. But now we have a new decade and that’s the opportunity to completely change the game. If 2020 marks a line in the sand for you to transform your life or your retirement with renovating property this event is for you. Join a group of ambitious women and their partners for an entire day under my guidance and that of my team.
You will adjust your mindset. You’ll learn our top strategies that are working right now. And you will also build out a complete execution plan to get going on delivering on that story that’s been going on in the back of your mind for what seems like forever. You will leave with a clarity you’ve been craving and a comprehensive step by step plan. All there will be to do is to press Go.
The Game Changer Mastermind is a live event to be held in Sydney on Saturday, the 18th of January and you’ll find more details in our show notes. Now, if you are not in Sydney and you would like us to bring this event to your city there’s an opportunity there to let us know that you’re interested and we will keep tabs. And as soon as we have enough interest we’ll be bringing the event to your city.
The Game Changer Mastermind
Today I am recording this episode from Leeds in England. We arrived yesterday from Berlin and today is New Year’s Day. We had a very big night last night celebrating with extended family. We haven’t seen them for quite a few years. There was plenty of French champagne and laughs and just general goodwill. We had an awesome time and there’s a few sore heads today, but fortunately, I’m not one of them. So let’s get into this.
The topic for today is How To Have An Epic 2020. And I am directing this episode to you if renovating and property has been something that you’ve been wanting to really leverage but have not really been able to get started for whatever reason. And so I’m going to give you a structure to enable you to be able to get epic results in 2020.
STEP 1: FOCUS
This might seem very obvious but the first step to really getting epic results is to focus, to make a decision or create a clear goal and give it your full attention.
Now you might think, “Oh, you know, that’s really easy” but in actual fact attention is something that we don’t have a lot of. Microsoft conducted a study in 2015 and they found that the average human attention span is down to 8 seconds and that’s less than a goldfish. Like we always joke about having a smaller attention span than a goldfish. But we’re there and I blame the amount of time that we spend on social media has a lot to do with this.
Sites like Facebook really work at keeping you on the site. And so what they do is they work at different ways of distracting you from what you’re doing and getting you onto the site so that then they can advertise to you. If you can manage to spend less time on social media then you will find that that has a big impact on your attention span.
Particularly when you’re in property or you’re looking at property strategies there’s a lot of free events, free webinars, all sorts of tips and tricks that pop up on your Facebook feed or your Instagram. But the reality is that they are serving the business owner and I guess that’s a bit cynical, but generally there to benefit the business owner and not necessarily to benefit you. We call them bright, shiny objects – things that will distract you from what you are trying to do. I really believe that it’s a good idea to focus on what you’re planning to do and block out everything else so that you can actually start to get some traction.
Focus is a muscle that you can strengthen with daily practice and some of the things that I would suggest that you practice are quieting the mind. Practice some meditation, some daily meditation even if it’s just 5 minutes to really get your mind settled and able to focus on the thing that you’re working on. You already have enough distractions in your life. You’ve got family. You’ve probably got another job. You’ve got friends. You’ve got lots of things to distract you. Try and keep your mind really settled and you can do that with daily meditation. I actually use an app called Headspace and I find that really effective. And the other app that I’ve just been using recently is one called BrainFM. Go and check those out and start some sort of daily practice that will really build your focus muscle.
The other thing to do is to get daily exercise. Just a quick walk and allow yourself time to think so that you can be really developing your plan in your mind rather than doing it with distractions that serve other people and not you.
And the last thing is to keep your goal visible. I’m thinking a vision board, doesn’t need to be a vision board but something that reminds you of what your goal is every single day.
I actually have my goals. I have more than one but I have those written down and I read them every single day. But choose a method that works for you. One thing I know is that if you are wanting to achieve a result that you are finding challenging, that it’s not going to happen unless you put some effort into it and create a structure. I certainly found this around weight loss that it wasn’t just going to happen by accident. I needed to create a structure to actually support me in that process. Same thing, anything that you find challenging you need to create a structure to support it or support your achievement.
STEP 2: ADJUST YOUR MINDSET
Point 2 is to adjust your mindset. The same old thinking will produce the same old results. Success is at least 80% mindset and if you haven’t been able to crack the code on you what you want yet then your mindset probably sucks. And it’s a negative story that’s going on in the back of your mind that is undermining your ability to achieve what you want to do. Like most of us suffered from “I’m not good enough”, “I’m not smart enough”, “I don’t have enough time”, “I don’t have enough money”, “I don’t have enough skills”, “It’s too hard”, “It’s not the right time”. Whatever your flavour of negativity is you’ve got to shut that baby down because if you don’t it runs your life.
I saw it actually on a billboard yesterday as we’re driving around. Your thoughts create things they create your world. If you are constantly thinking negative thoughts about what it is you want to be or want to achieve then they are undermining your success. So what there is to do is to make up a new story and make up a story that empowers you.
I read a study recently and it was talking about school children and the impact of having Pass or Fail on their exam results. And what it said was – it was written by, actually it was a TED talk and what this particular psychologist said that they did an experiment and what they did was on the exam results they didn’t write Fail. They didn’t write Fail if the child had failed but what they would write is Not Yet. And that has had a dramatic impact on the ongoing results of the child because it’s no longer a negative response. It’s a “not yet”. It’s creating a new story to say “you’re on the road” and “you’re getting there”.
Think about what that empowering story can be for you. I know personally that I often find myself having it. Everyone does it. Having this negative thing going on in my mind and like it can be going on for days and then I realize what I’m doing and I think, “what are you doing?” Like, be careful what you think because that will impact the results that you get. So by immediately changing that story it changes your outlook.
One of the common feedback I get from students is that the story is they don’t know where to start. They’re confused. They don’t know where to start. That is a very good sign. Well, it’s a very typical sign that your mindset is running you. And rather than saying, “I don’t know where to start”, maybe start thinking, well, “I’m going to start somewhere” and just give it a go. Or maybe “I’m going to find out where I need to start” rather than just “I don’t know where to start” because it’s negative and it keeps you in a state of confusion.The second point is create a story that empowers you.
STEP 3: BUILD A STRATEGIC PLAN
The third step is to build a strategic plan towards the outcome that you are wanting to achieve. Now, you might ask what’s the difference between a plan and a strategic plan? Now, a plan is – here are the steps to get to where you want to go. A strategic plan is – here are the best steps so it’s the most direct way for you to get to where you want to go.
Now, if you are planning to do your first renovation there are a few elements to your strategic plan. Firstly, you need to work out how you’re going to fund your projects. So there will be a strategy. Most people when they start renovating don’t have all the pieces, so they need to figure out how they’re going to do it. Then the next step will be “where will be the area that I will choose?” Because some areas are more profitable than others so you’ve got to choose the best area in which to purchase your property.
The next step will be “what type of strategy am I going to choose?” There are quite a few renovation strategies ranging from a simple cosmetic renovation right up to something that has some land in it. A stacked strategy, we call that. So working out the best strategy to get you to where you want to go then there will be you’ll need to have some sort of risk management plan and that will be relevant to your personal risk profile and knowing how you’re going to manage the risk. Then there will be your legal structure which relates specifically to your personal situation, so you get the picture. That all forms the strategic plan and that all goes into the mix to create the recipe for your personal success.
Once you’ve got that sorted out the next thing there is to do is to take action. Have you noticed that we’ve done quite a bit before we’ve got to the actual renovating part of it? And that’s because most of the work in producing a profit from renovating actually happens long before you actually put on the boots and actually start the demolition. I would say 80% of that happens before you actually get to the site. And so the actual renovation part is a small part of the puzzle. It’s an important part but it’s a small part of the puzzle.
And so there is a little acronym that I like to remember when I’m thinking about action and it’s ACT = A for action C for changes and T for things that action changes. It’s important to get out of the planning phase and actually get onto the court. We can sometimes be paralyzed by fear and not take any action and so then the whole exercise is futile. Something that I, naturally this is my job.
STEP 4: BUILD A SUPPORT TEAM
I’m going to add the extra ingredient in this is to actually build a support team. I made reference in the beginning to my weight loss journey and the key to my success was the support team. People who loved me and supported me and that would keep me on track.
If you are struggling with your property or your renovating goals it’s really important to have a support team. Often family and friends, while they love you, may not be your best support team because they don’t understand what you’re trying to achieve and can often be the naysayers that build on that negative story. So it’s very important to surround yourself with people who understand what you’re trying to achieve and support you and are there to pick you up if you falter slightly because the fact is that it doesn’t matter what you do you will always make mistakes. It’s important to make the right mistakes. There are a few mistakes that it’s hard to recover from. The role of your support team is to make sure that they’re not the mistakes you make and to keep you on the right path.
STEP 5: REVIEW YOUR WORK
And the fifth and last tip is once you’ve completed your first project is to review your work. This is an important step that people tend to skip. It’s important because it gives you the opportunity to tweak your process and to refine and to improve it so that you get better and better at it.
That is today’s episode. Now, in this episode I mentioned just having one goal. So if it’s something that you have been challenged by and wanting to get started on and have not been able to do it I would suggest that you keep it to one goal. Once you’ve got your process nailed then you can build and create goals in other areas but I still think it’s a good idea to focus on one at a time because you will get better results. Believe me, I’ve tried it the other way it doesn’t work. So really focusing on one at a time, giving it your full attention and then moving on to the next one once you’ve got that nailed.
I would be very grateful if you’ve not already done so if you would provide a review for our podcast so that we share the reno love and let other people know about the She Renovates podcast. And also come over and join the She Renovates Facebook community. I’d love to see you over there. So until next week. Thank you for listening!