What I've Learned From This Huge Milestone in My Business

We’re celebrating the 4th anniversary of The HMO Podcast! Can you believe it?

Over the years, I’ve learned so much—not just about podcasting, but about business as a whole.

In this special episode, I want to take the opportunity to celebrate and reflect on those lessons, as many of them will be applicable to your own HMO property business.

Join me as I share the most important insights I've gained over the past four years while building this part of my business. I believe these will be incredibly valuable for you in your own property journey.

Please leave us a quick review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to help us celebrate this milestone!

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Got any questions? Ask us in The HMO Community Facebook Group or follow me on Instagram @andygraham.hmo for daily HMO tips and advice! 

If you want to join my 1-2-1 mentoring program, you can enquire here. 

New to HMOs? Join The HMO Roadmap on a Premium plan and unlock our award-winning library of 400+ resources to help you start, scale and systemise your HMO business. 

Transcript

Andy Graham (00:02.67)
Hey, I'm Andy and you're listening to the HMO Podcast. Over 10 years ago, I set myself the challenge of building my own property portfolio. And what began as a short-term investment plan soon became a long-term commitment to change the way young people live together. I've now built several successful businesses. I've raised millions of pounds of investment and I've managed thousands of tenants. Join me and some very special guests to discover the tips, tricks and hacks, the ups and the downs, the best practice and everything else you need to know to start, scale and systemise your very own HMO portfolio now.

Andy Graham (00:40.662)
In today's episode, we are celebrating! Can you believe it is four years since I first sat down and hit record on the HMO podcast. As you might imagine, I have learned so much over that time, not just about podcasting, but about business in general. And in today's episode, what I wanted to do was take that opportunity to both celebrate, but also reflect on all of that learning because so much of it will be transferable to your own property business. So in today's episode, slightly different episode. I want to take you back on that journey and share the most important things that I have learned over the last four years, building this part of my business that I think will help you to no end in your own property business. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy today's episode of the HMO Podcast.

Hey guys, it's Andy here. We're going to be getting back to the podcast in just a moment, but before we do, I want to tell you very quickly about the HMO roadmap. Now, if you're serious about replacing your income, or perhaps you've already got a HMO portfolio that you want to scale up, then the HMO roadmap really is your one-stop shop. Inside the roadmap, you'll find a full 60 lesson course delivered by me, teaching you how to find more deals, how to fund more deals and raise private finance, how to refurbish great properties, to fill them with great tenants that stay for longer and how to manage your properties and tenants for the future. We've also got guest workshops added every single month. We've got new videos added every single week about all sorts of topics. We've got downloadable resources, cheat sheets and swipe files to help you. We've got case studies from guests and community members who are doing incredible projects that you can learn from. And we've also built an application just for you that allows you to appraise and evaluate your deals, stack them side by side and track the key metrics that are most important to you. To find out more, head to the HMOroadmap.co.uk now and come and join our incredible community of HMO property investors.

Andy Graham (02:39.022)
Okay, welcome back. So today is our fourth birthday. Can you believe it's four years to the day that I sat down and recorded the very first episode of the HMO Podcast. And now four years on, we are 276 episodes in, so far beyond and so much more than anything I could have ever imagined the HMO Podcast would have become.

Today I want to stop and I just want to celebrate this moment with you. It's such a huge milestone for me and my team and us and our community and a huge part of it. In fact, most of that is all down to you guys. You guys who turn up week in, week out and listen to the show and are part of our community and do so much great stuff for yourselves, for other members of our community, for the wider property industry. And we are so incredibly grateful the opportunity that you guys give us to actually do this.

In today's episode, I want to take a moment to reflect on the last four years and share what I think have been the most important lessons that I've learned building this part of my business, because I think that these lessons that I'm going to share will help you to no end building your own property businesses. But before we get there, I just need to say a huge, huge, huge thank you to you guys for turning up week in, week out, listening, supporting the podcast, feeding back on the podcast, sharing the podcast.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think the podcast, a podcast about investing in HMOs, this really niche part of the property sector would be anywhere near as popular and well-received as it was. And I am so truly grateful for that and all of your support. Now, as I'm sure you can imagine, I have learned so much over the last few years while I've been recording, running the podcast. And that is exactly what I'm going to share with you today. And I've got the benefit of hindsight now, something that when I was just starting, I had none of.

And actually it's one of the things that I look back at myself, my younger self, now sort of into my later thirties. And I'm incredibly proud of myself for actually doing. For me, jumping behind a microphone and recording a podcast was so far out of my comfort zone. And that might sound unusual saying it to you guys who listen to the show and hear me talking every week, but that's the reality. Actually, I'm quite shy individual. I don't like to be in the spotlight. I'm not.

Andy Graham (04:56.6)
somebody who enjoys speaking on a stage. So starting a podcast was very much outside of my comfort zone. It was really difficult for me to get my head around doing. To be honest, all I really wanted to be doing was buying property, doing property deals, doing refurbishments, developing. But I could see that that was going to be challenging without looking quite differently at my business, looking outside the box. And the podcast was definitely a part of that process, looking outside of my box, looking for solutions to accelerate how I might get to my ultimate objective. I take you through that journey today, but I had reservations about whether or not I could even talk on a podcast and do it properly, whether people would even listen, whether people would even be interested in listening, whether I had the appropriate amount of knowledge, whether I could think of enough to say, whether I had the time or even commitment to make it a success. And as if that wasn't enough, there was also the possibility of public humiliation, maybe even public annihilation if I got the whole thing wrong and just fell completely flat on my face. 

But of course, despite all of these reservations, despite these could have been excuses, I decided to go ahead. There was enough to convince me to do it. And that was because I firmly believed in the podcast and its ability to help me achieve my ultimate objective. I had to put all of that stuff aside, which often you have to do in business to follow a goal and an ambition. And I got my head down and I figured it out and I put one step in front of the other. And the one thing that drove me, and I suppose this is the very first lesson that I want to share with you today, was my self belief. 

Now, this is something we don't often talk about in business. I think we see so many posts from people on Instagram and we often think it's just about good deal making, it's about who you know. And yes, there are definitely elements of that, things like that that will undoubtedly and unquestionably help you in business, whatever business you're in. But before any of that, one of the fundamentals, one of the real pillars to building good business, certainly in my experience and the podcast is an experience that demonstrates that is having self belief. I didn't have huge amounts of self belief when I sat down and recorded the first episode of the podcast, but I had just enough to believe that I could make it through. Now, I didn't think the podcast would become what it has become, but I did believe that if I did it right and I worked hard, I could make it.

Andy Graham (07:19.82)
into something and that something could help me along the journey, would help me enough to make it worthwhile doing. And during that process, I found out so much more about myself and podcasting obviously, and other elements of business, things that I just wasn't in tune with that substantially helped me achieve many more objectives and goals that I had. So it was that self belief and that's the first lesson that I want to share with you.

You need that self belief to just get started sometimes. I often think back, not just on this experience I started on the podcast, but if I went right back to day dot when I bought my first property, I had enough self belief then, despite knowing very little about property and about how I would do it all and make it all work. I had just enough self belief to convince me to do it. Enough to ignore the naysayers, enough to ignore all of those reservations that I had.

And you need that too. And you should have that too. And that's okay. Sometimes you need that. And I often like the challenge of proving myself wrong, more so than proving anyone else wrong. And I looked at the podcast in the very same way. So was that self belief that actually got me in front of the microphone, very first time hitting record and persisting with the podcast. So that is the very first lesson that I want to share with you today. If you don't have a self belief in what you're doing, if you can't find enough of a self-belief to do something. 

You are simply not going to do it. But in my experience, that is where so many people get to and then they stop. They put the idea down. They never step over that threshold. Good entrepreneurs, they're able to put those reservations aside. They're able to put the possibility of embarrassment or public embarrassment aside, disappointing people even, and can find enough self-belief to just do it. And my advice to you, whether it's buying property, whether it's a different strategy, whether it's doing something for the very first time, whatever it is, find that self belief, believe in yourself and then find ways to validate your belief and justify it and support it. I looked at lots of data about podcasts. I could see what other podcasts had been successful, why they'd been successful. And I was able to get a bit of confidence from that sort of thing as well. And you can do the same, but you must have that self belief. The second lesson I want to share with you today is the

Andy Graham (09:39.502)
power of consistency. I've talked about consistency many times on the podcast, because when you're buying properties, consistency is so much of what you need to do. The podcast is a really good example of being consistent for four years. I have not missed an episode. In fact, for about 18 months, two years of the podcast, I recorded two episodes every single week. And that consistency is so incredibly important because there is a compounding effect to it. There's a compounding effect of everything that you're learning. There's a compound effect of all the value that you're creating. There's a compound effect of the reach that you're getting. And it's the same in business and in so many other ways that consistency creates a compounding effect. And that compounding effect is what? Well, it's the eighth wonder of the world, isn't it? As Einstein said, compounding is the eighth wonder of the world. Now there's no better industry really, in my opinion, to see the pure benefits of compounding than property investment. When you buy property and hold property and continue to do that consistently, then the market will rise, the value will appreciate, the cash flow will generate, you'll buy more property from the capital gains and the cash flow that you're generating and so on and so forth. And of course that is how the most successful people have built their businesses. It's actually not through really aggressive development over short periods of time. It's by buying and holding and doing it consistently over a long period of time. And that is the second lesson that I want to share with you today, because aside from getting started, it's probably the second most important thing that I did, which was turning up week in, week out and sitting down and recording. As tough as it was sometimes, as tired as I was sometimes, as frustrated with other things and dealing with other issues outside of the business or in other businesses and personal stuff going on, matter what's happening, I sat down and I recorded the podcasts and to do that over four years, sometimes more than once a week, that is really, really tough. But if you apply that same attitude to your business, to your property business, then you simply cannot fail. I know it's tough sometimes, but trust me, believe in the power of consistency and compounding and let it do its work. Okay, moving on. The third lesson that I want to share with you today is the lesson about patience and persistence. Again, I've talked about.

Andy Graham (11:58.808)
these on the show before, because as a property investor, I think you have to be patient despite the fact that most of us are incredibly impatient myself included there, but it's really important. And there are a few reasons for this, but the truth is look, success just doesn't happen overnight. We've heard it. You've all heard the cliches, but the truth is that success does not happen overnight. If you're expecting big results, huge things to happen over short periods of time, then you'll almost always be disappointed. It takes that time. It takes time for ideas to mature, for people to find you, to discover it, things to blossom and grow until you actually see those results. They become more tangible. It was no different with the podcast at all. If I'd have taken the stats from the very first podcast episode and assumed that it would never ever change and we'd never be any more successful than that, then of course I would have been very, very disappointed. It would have never become what it has done and provided and enabled what it has done. But combined with that self-belief, combined with that consistency, having that patience and persistence to continue allowed the podcast to flourish. It allowed that part of my business to continue growing. We use data to project and to track. We use data to refine and to improve. And you can do exactly the same in your own property business, but you have to be patient because if you make decisions, impatiently, you risk making mistakes, spending money on things that you shouldn't, overpaying, making the wrong decisions. So be patient, be persistent, keep going despite how tough it is, despite how many times you get knocked back. If you're a property investor, you are going to come across and up against so many more nos than you are yeses, but that is normal. It's important to understand that that is a normal part of building a business. So be patient, but be persistent and do it with a long-term goal in mind. It's important to have mid and short-term goals as well. Keep working towards those smaller targets, but don't lose sight of the bigger objective because if you do, then you risk disappointing yourself. You risk getting impatient, making decisions impatiently and stopping yourself before you ever really get started. Okay, the fourth lesson that I want to share with you today is perhaps on a personal level, the most important one to me.

Andy Graham (14:21.794)
Something that underpins not only everything I've done on the podcast, but everything I do in business full stop. And that is around the idea of authenticity. If you want to succeed, if you want to go the distance, if you want to raise private finance, if you want to do good deals with good people, and if you want to make good money, then I think it is imperative that you're authentic, you're honest, that you're transparent, that you're not trying to be anything that you're not. And sadly, and you only need to scroll

Instagram or on Facebook. There are so many people who are simply not authentic. I think it's one of the worst bits about our industry. I stay as far away from it as possible. I keep an eye on it, but there is so much of that going on and so many people getting sucked into it and so many people doing it. And the temptation is to do it yourself because there are shortcuts there. I'll give you a quick example. The idea of selling passive income in property is almost non-existent despite what anybody tells you, it simply does not exist. The very fact that you have to go and find deals, move money around, sign paperwork, it is not passive. Can it be more passive once it's set up and running? Yeah, sure. With the right systems, processes and people, but is owning property entirely passive? No, absolutely not. Not in any way, shape or form. 

Now that's not just say that it isn't a great business model and that it can give you huge amounts of your time back. It absolutely is and it absolutely can be. But how many people do you see pulling on that idea? How many people do you see talking about the idea of passive income and then selling courses about it? It doesn't take genius to put two and two together to say that a lot of people are simply not authentic. They're not sharing authentic ideas. They're not being authentic about what's going well or not going well in their business or even what they're doing. And this isn't a lecture. I'm not telling you to keep your eyes open and look out for these charlatans. What I'm telling you is that actually the real value is in being authentic. That is where you build authentic relationships. All of our investors, all of the lenders that we work with, they buy into that authenticity. I have just agreed a new kind of finance line with a private facility.

Andy Graham (16:43.226)
And it is so different to working with banks and it is all based on relationships. And that is because for years, including the podcast, I and my business partners have been incredibly authentic about who we are. We haven't tried to sell dreams or present ourselves as being anything other than what we are. And I think that that is so incredibly important. And I know that the shortcut often looks like you should just elaborate on an idea or to be something that you're perhaps not quite or not quite yet, but don't be authentic. Just be true, be transparent, just be you. And I promise you will attract people who value that. And there is nothing more important. You will also value that in them as well. So for me, being nothing but authentic on the podcast for four years, sharing my authentic opinions, ideas, experiences, good and bad has been so valuable and honestly so much more valuable than I ever thought. 

I did it because that was all I was ever comfortable with doing. But actually what I've learned is that that in itself is a superpower. So many people in our industry are not that and so many people are looking for that. So please be authentic. It will resonate with the people that you want to build real connections with. Okay. You'll build trust, you'll build loyalty. And if you want to build a successful business, not just a podcast, but a successful property business over the long term, that is absolutely what you should be focusing on. Number five then the fifth lesson that I want to share with you today is around adaptability. Over the course of the last four years, what I've talked about on the podcast, how I've talked about it, the format that we've done and shared, what we've done around the edges of the podcast to try and help make more people aware of it and to share it and to spread the message further. We have been continuously adapting our approach to that.

And I think that that is the same in any business. Things change, times change, algorithms change, platforms, social media changes. We have had to continually change what we're doing, how we're doing it, who we're doing it for, the way that we're trying to get that message out. And at times that is hard to do. Recording the podcast has never been as simple as just sitting down and hitting record. Actually behind the scenes, there's so much more that goes on to make it all work, function, and get to you guys in the right way.

Andy Graham (19:07.04)
At times that took a lot more time and effort and cost a lot more than we ever thought it would be. And we had to keep adapting and I suspect we'll have to continue adapting into the future as well. But because we did, because we were prepared to do that, the podcast has continued to flourish and actually it just got better and better and better. We've received more listeners every single month and every single year over time. So the lesson is whether you're recording a podcast or whether you're building a property business, you need to adapt.

More so than now have we needed to consider how we're going to adapt the changes in legislation that we are about to face as property investors are huge. The loss of no fault evictions, just everything about tenancy law is about to get turned upside down and we need to adapt to that. We need to make active proactive changes in our business to be able to work with that, not just to get through it, but actually to find solutions to continue thriving.

There are so many examples I could give you, even over the last few years, if we look at the challenges that COVID presented, that inflation has presented, that list trust and the interest rates are presented, you have to be proactive. You have to be prepared to adapt. You need to be looking for those reasons to adapt and looking for the solutions to adapt as well. So that is, that is the fifth lesson that I want to share with you today. Two more to go. The sixth lesson then that I want to share with you today, perhaps not an unsurprising one, but your network really is your net worth. 

It is so simple, but so impactful. If you have a good network of people, they will help. If you can stand on their shoulders, you will be so much closer to reaching and hitting that goal, that target that you have set yourself. Now the podcast is a part of my network. I've got a rather large network. Now I think people from different sectors, from different parts of the country, different parts of the world with different skill sets, different experiences.

And so many people that I could just pick up the phone to and ask for some help and guidance. And that is so incredibly valuable. It's a value that when I was just getting started, I didn't know existed. And now I'm actively and continuously trying to expand and nurture my network. Even now 15, 16 years into buying property, I'm still doing that. But the podcast allowed me to substantially expand my network, reach a greater network, reach more people, reach people in different fields as well. Now.

Andy Graham (21:30.722)
I'm not saying you need to start a podcast to do it. I'm certainly not suggesting you just do start a podcast. There's a lot to think about. But what I am saying is that the value of building your network is so significant that we should all be thinking about it. Building our own property businesses relies on other people. We need a power team. We need people around us to guide us, to support us. You need to be doing the same as well, whether it's through social media, whether it's through getting into the same rooms as people.

Whatever type of networking that you do or like to do and however you do it, it's so incredibly important. Just getting into the HMO community and networking with our online community. That's where it all started for me. I know so many people whose entire network within property has come from that online space. I don't have any friends or I have friends now, but originally when I was starting, I didn't necessarily have any friends or family members in property too. I had no one to provide that guidance or support or experience to me.

I went and found that myself, but so many people have helped me so much along the way and the podcast has really helped me accelerate that. But it really did was just highlight just how important my network is. So if you haven't got a network, if your network isn't that strong, make sure you prioritise it. Start thinking about solutions to build your network and expand your network because it really is your network. Finally, number seven, then this is one that I've learned more and more every single year. And the podcast has really, again, just highlighted how important this is. In some ways, this links back to my earlier lesson around authenticity. 

But the lesson I want to share is that your digital footprint really is your reputation. Things are so different now than they were just 10 years ago. Everything that you do or say leaves a footprint. It's very difficult to ever rub that out. So if you make a mistake, if you don't come across authentic in any way, or form damage your reputation, that could haunt you for a long, long time. And you need to remember that. But equally, everything that you do that promotes you in a good light, in the right light, in the right way, that stays with you forever as well. And the podcast has surprised me on so many occasions. Let me give you an example. I was talking to somebody that I know and he plays a lot of golf and lives in a different country to me.

Andy Graham (23:55.806)
And he said he was talking to somebody, this person, this individual is really close to me, but he was talking to somebody on the golf course, playing around golf with somebody. And this individual was saying how he was starting to invest in a particular type of property. In fact, it was kind of student HMOs and that he'd been listening to a podcast that had been really helpful. He was listening to this guy who's had quite a lot of experience investing in HMOs and he was learning a lot from it. And that individual was talking about the HMO podcast. 

So this person is very close to me, had a random conversation on a golf course in a different country with somebody who is listening to the podcast. And the chances of that conversation happening are so minute, but it just shows you how powerful it is. And that was just one example of that digital footprint. The podcast has been there for four years now, so people can go back and listen to episodes from several years ago. Equally though, there are relationships and deals that I'm doing now.

And unquestionably people see the podcast and they'll probably go and have a listen to the podcast. And some people will be informed by maybe what they listen to on the podcast. Even if the podcast and HMOs isn't necessarily anything to do specifically with maybe something I'm doing over there, maybe a different type of business or a different type of property deal. But the podcast is a digital footprint. It's a place to get either reassurance or comfort in authenticity, in knowledge and in experience equally.

It's pretty transparent. It's hard to hide behind 276 episodes if you're just not a good person. If you're a charlatan, if you're somebody who cuts corners, if you're somebody who just doesn't put time and effort into it, even if it's not the most polished podcast in the world, that's not what it's about. People can see through it and actually people will make decisions based on that. But people, if they can listen to 276 episodes, there's a lot of information there. There's a lot of context for them to make a decision about whether or not.

well-rounded character, whether they want to do business with you, whether they can trust you, whether they feel that you will represent them in the right way and so much more. And the podcast just really highlighted that for me. Of course, podcasts are not the only place we have a digital footprint. Everything on social media now, your website, whatever it might be, just simply messages and emails that you send. If you write something that actually reflects badly, don't get me wrong.

Andy Graham (26:12.738)
We all blow up from time to time. We all get frustrated from time to time. That's not what I'm talking about, but your digital footprint can stay with you forever. So make sure that it's good. Make sure you've got a good footprint and people can see all of that good stuff that you have to show and share. Okay. It's really, really, really important. And you need to do it with intention. It doesn't happen by accident. You need to actually go out of your way to build a good online presence, especially if you want to build a successful property business, if you want to raise private finance, if you want to find more deals, if you want to have more good tenants, all of that stuff. If you've got a good online footprint, if you've got a good online presence, all of the benefits of that will continue to compound well into the future and it will all help you achieve your goals. So there we go. Those are the seven most important lessons that I've learned over the last four years recording and running the HMO podcast. Let me just recap.

The first lesson was around self belief. need to have that self belief despite the reservations, despite the naysayers, despite your lack of confidence, maybe even experience to just give it a go. Just get started. Most people get to the start line and never actually start the race. Don't be that person. The second lesson was all about consistency. Just remember that it's doing the little things, but doing it repeatedly that brings the big results, the compound effect of what you're doing day in, day out will take you and your business levels that you never ever ever dreamed were even possible. But if you are consistent and you're consistent across every area of your business and you give that time, you continue doing that day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out, the results will be remarkable.

The third lesson was all about patience and persistence. I say this as an impatient person myself, but I had to learn the skill of patience. You can learn it and you can learn the skill of persistence as well. Despite how many no's you get, just keep trying, just get up and do it again and do it again and do it again. Success doesn't happen overnight, but trust me, it does happen over time. The fourth lesson was all about authenticity. Perhaps the most important thing to me, it is the foundation that underpins everything that I want to

Andy Graham (28:27.234)
Do and be, but just be real. Build real, build authentic connections. And that will allow you to attract the right people, people that wanna do business with you, and people that will carry you to your longer term objectives. Don't be tempted to cut corners, to try and pretend to be something that you're not. Don't get sucked into all of the hype and BS that surrounds our industry. The sixth lesson I shared with you today was all about your network. Look, I know it's bit of a cliche, but your network, really is your net worth. Invest time and resource and energy and passion into building a really good network. Stand on the shoulders of great people, allow great people to help you achieve great things. Trust me, trying to do it all on your own is going to be very, very difficult. 

And you're never ever, ever going to get anywhere near where you would do with a good network with great people around you. And finally, number seven, I shared the importance of having a good digital footprint. really is your reputation. Build it with intention. Doesn't have to be a podcast. Don't just go and start a podcast, but whatever it is that you're doing online, website, digitally, make sure you're leaving a good footprint because people can see it well into the future. If you create good evergreen information and content and examples of yourself and the work that you're doing, people will make decisions based on that well into the future. And guess what? The results of that will all compound as well.

That is it for today's episode, guys. Thank you again for tuning into the podcast. I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. I hope you found some value in there. I'm sure you have. But thank you more than anything for being here for the last four years with me. I also want to take this opportunity to thank my incredible team who behind the scenes make everything happen. They keep me organized. They keep me in one place. They make sure that the show is ready every single week without fail and sounding as good as it possibly could do despite how terrible I can be sometimes when I'm recording the podcast. Look, I'm not a professional podcast. That was never the intention. I'm a property investor. I love investing in property, but I do like talking about property as well. And they make me sound as good as I possibly could do. So thank you guys for all the hard work that you do as well. Now, don't forget, if you are investing in HMOs and if you want to level things up, then come on over to the HMO roadmap and check out everything that we've got.

Andy Graham (30:45.344)
in store for you. There is so much to help you start scale and systemise your HMO property business. Everything that I wish was available to me when I was just getting started, it would have helped me achieve my goals so much quicker and it would have been so much easier and so, so, so much cheaper. You can join in the starter package. You can cancel anytime you can join in an annual package, get some extra benefits as well. Some really juicy stuff in there and

Look, we've had over 500 members in the roadmap. It really is a fantastic resource and one of our most valuable community assets. So if you haven't already checked it out and you are investing in HMOs or you want to be investing in HMOs, go and see what all of the fuss is about. Head to theHMOroadmap.co.uk and find our section for e-learning. It's the HMO roadmap. Everything you need to know is there.

Of course, if you want to find some guidance and support, if you want to share your experiences, if you've got some useful insights to share yourself, come on over to the HMO community. That's our free group over in Facebook, nearly 10,000 members strong now. And it really is just a wonderful place to find guidance and support, inspiration, motivation, encouragement, enthusiasm, and so much more. That's it guys. Thank you again for tuning in today. And don't forget that I'll be right back here in the very same place next week. So please join me then for another installment of the HMO podcast.