009: Toyin and Tobi Ayandare
Welcome to the Trailblazer Podcast, This Week. We have Toyin and Tobi Ayandare. Two incredible individuals, who have indeed… Blazed their own trail.
Two previous highly paid consultants in their respective fields,
Toyin and Tobi made the leap into property about 10 years ago, and began seriously investing in property 6 years ago, they now make multi million pound commercial deals, and run a large, successful SA business.
The main decision makers for their jump into property full time, were their 2 beautiful children now ages 5 and 8, the lack of ‘ job security ‘ , and a desire for a different life.
Toyin:
Toyin enjoyed her time at school, although she has always had the entrepreneur ‘ bug ‘.
Her first business was actually buying snacks at the school gate, and brought them into school and sold them to her friends at twice the price that she paid for them. She was 7!
Her initial plans were to be a doctor and then, an accountant, when neither of these chosen career paths worked out for her, she went to university and gained a masters in sociology, and another in business.
Tobi:
Tobi also did well at school, receiving good grades. His goals were to gain employment, and work his way up, as opposed to entrepreneurship. Toyin had some work convincing him into the entrepreneurial world, they are both now so glad they had the courage to make the jump.
Listen now to learn:
- Why job security isn’t a real promise
- How property can change home and business life
- How to focus on the more important aspects of life
008: Richard Maguire and Jack Porter-Smith
On this week’s Trailblazer Podcast, I am delighted to be joined today by Richard Maguire, and Jack Porter-Smith.
Richard, originally from the Cotswolds and now lives in Birmingham, with the primary focus being of expanding and developing his property business.
Just over 2 years ago, Richard received the terrible news that his father had developed heart failure. He was unable to spend time with his father and tend to the care of his family due to the restrictions of his work at the time (store manager for Tesco). So he decided to resign from his 15 year career with Tesco to head off and make new memories with his Mother and Father.
After Richards dad sadly passed at the age of 63. He knew that he take to new direction in live and decided to invest in serviced accommodation training. After attending other training courses, around the UK, he decided to join the Touchstone Masterclass… To ‘learn what he didn’t know‘ and ended up being blown away by the information given from the trainers. Following the masterclass Richard attended our Serviced Accommodation Mastermind Programme, and then eventually progressed on to our Monaco Mastermind Grand Prix retreat. Richard’s business now stands at 115 serviced accommodation units.
Jack Porter-Smith:
Out of school, Jack’s ambition was to join the police service, however as he was only 15. He had to join the special constable police service, and continued to do this on an off for 6 years whilst forging another career path elsewhere,
However doing the police work, he discovered it wasn’t for him. He says that the biggest struggle for him, was being a very small part of a very big machine.
Whilst working part time as a special constable, Jack worked with us in the family business. At 16, he was introduced into SEO, PPC, online advertising, and internet marketing in general. From there, he gained qualifications with google, then moved into work with an agency in Glasgow as a PPC executive. He learned huge amounts of career sculpting information at this job.
In 2009, when he was 19. Google approached him, to offer him the opportunity of becoming a top contributor. In order to offer Jack this role, Google had to see that he demonstrated good use of their product, and was using it to benefit others. They provide top contributors with special insights and up to date information, as well as inviting Jack out regularly to their Worldwide headquarters in San Jose.
After providing several talks and training sessions with google, and presenting to hundreds of people he is now at the top end of googles infrastructure.
He then went on to work as part of the web team of a large clothes retailer in the UK: M&CO. Here, he helped the company quadruple their website revenue within just 2 years. This was the biggest eye opener for him, as to what his skillset was capable of achieving.
He then outgrew this position, at the age of 21. He moved on to be head of marketing for a Glasgow based company called Peach digital, he stayed here for 3 years. Working with clients as big as the NHS.
Eventually Jack made the leap from employment to entrepreneurship. Now with 5 years under his belt, running his own business, he has an office in Toronto, with 10 staff. Achieving a turnover in 2017 0f 4.3 Million Dollars
Richard and Jack now mentor with Touchstone, and have joined forces to develop an advanced serviced accommodation systems and growth course.
Listen now to Learn:
– How creating passive income can be life changing for you and your family
– How monstrously quick scaling of your business is possible.
– How having good marketing skills can significantly sculpt to path of your business
007: Olivia Conlon
Olivia owns and operates a property staging business, this means that they specialise in dressing serviced apartments, holiday lets, showhomes… you name it!
When Liv was younger her parents were both very into property, and investment strategies, so she had inspiration from a young age to do something more.
She was 16 when she left school, her first job was starting the property staging company. She was the only one of her peers to do so. She is 19 at the moment, her business has now flourished into something very substantial. ‘ the best time to start a business, is now ‘
Watching her mum and dad strive for something else was a huge factor in her wanting more. She knew a lot of unhappy people who hated their job, and she didn’t want to be one of them.
Last year Olivia’s business became a family one, with mother joining and making the booming business a mother/daughter duo. Liv was struggling to keep up with the demand of work, and she needed and extra set of hands after all, who can you trust more to operate in the business, than your mum.
Ali ( Olivia’s mother ) had been investing in a property in the wrong way for a substantial amount of time, until she attended a better standard of training courses, she began to achieve the results she was looking for. Initially beginning with simple buy to lets, which generated healthy cashflow, she broadened her horizon into the world of property flipping ( buying, refurbing, and selling on for a nice profit). Up until joining Olivia, she had always worked in the corporate sector. One day she decided to take the leap… she was finished making other peoples dreams a reality. She wanted more time with her family, and property is a vehicle that allows her to do that.
They are both new venturing out of the UK and taking on projects in Marbella! Working on Holiday homes and Serviced apartments out there. Clients don’t always want to use Property stagers for their businesses, some people just want to improve their home, the potential is truly uncapped.
Listen now to learn:
– Why you don’t have to follow the conventional system from school
– Why working with family can be a great decision
– How you can add furniture, to your mortgage
– How you can get into property staging for yourself
006: Mike Cruickshank
On this weeks podcast It is my distinct pleasure to be interviewing my good friend, and self build property expert – Mr Mike Cruickshank.
Starting from the beginning, Mikes schooling years were rather unconventional, as his father was in the police force, his family were constantly on the move.
He went from grammar schools to comprehensive schools, and everything in between, incurring extreme changes in school rules and behaviour.
Coming from a humble background, Mike was certainly not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father was set in his ways in the sense that ‘ if you didn’t have the cash present ‘ then you couldn’t afford to buy it, meaning the family never had a mortgage, nor any form of loan. It’s for this reason that the lifestyle lived by Mike and his family was always a simple one.
Leaving school, Mike started an architectural apprenticeship as he wanted to get out into the world and he wanted to earn..
His parents told him to get an education at school, and get a decent secure job. There was no encouragement to blaze his own trail.
After his architectural work, he moved on to work for the local council as a building inspector. He was then promoted to building control officer, from each of these steps he gained a wealth of experience in property construction at a young age.
He was told you should only stay in a job for 3 years.
Year 1: you’re learning your trade
Year 2: you can begin to implement your own ideas
Year 3: it begins to get repetitive, you are not growing!
He still abides by this advice today at the age of 62, he boasts a QBE ‘ Qualified by experience ‘ and refuses to head towards retirement,
He was then introduced to the world of commercial property through managing projects for large construction companies and the gave him a spark.
He helped grow scotframe timber from 2 million pounds worth turnover per annum to 38 million per annum.
Through this job he assisted people self build their own homes, and has helped thousands of self builders achieve their dream.
Mike has done the full project himself twice over, building family houses in Aberdeen, and in Donegal.
He now runs a course with us at Touchstone Education, teaching you that self build is absolutely achievable for you, and how you can do it for you and your family.
7 million people are interested In self build. If you choose to self build instead of buying a pre-built house you can expect to save 20-30% on what you would spend on a pre-built house, whilst designing the specifications of your forever home.
What would you do with the extra cash?
Listen now to learn:
How to think like a Trailblazer and highlight the positives in a ‘ bad ‘ situation
Why Self build is absolutely achievable for you
Why age is just a number
How starting on the corporate ladder can bode useful for later life