How I Built My Property Empire With Gavin Gallagher

An inspiring guest joins Kevin today, one who faced many hardships when the 2008 financial crisis hit the property industry. Gavin Gallagher joins Kevin to discuss how he was affected by the recessions, lessons he learnt and how he aims to use his story to inspire others of what not to do. Together they discuss trials and tribulations of family businesses, why it is important to not build your identity around your financial success and how the worst advice you can take in property would be ‘go big or go home.’ KEY TAKEAWAYS Getting into a family business can be complicated. There is usually a lot of politics involved and it is not always easy. When you are young going into business, you may not realise it but you don’t have a clue how business works.   When you find yourself in a situation where you have success after success you may find yourself getting complacent. You start to forget that it shouldn’t be that easy to make money, you have to have discipline.   If you notice that business is declining, you are likely to go through a phase of complete denial. The biggest mistake you can make is to sit back and weather the storm. You should be acting quickly to rectify the situation, reducing your outgoings and taking cuts. There should come a point where you realise that you need to make adjustments, by this stage the adjustments are going to be painful.   You mustn’t build your identity around financial success. If you run into difficulties, it completely shocks your whole world. If or when business begins to slow down and you find yourself in financial trouble, suddenly all of the material things can get stripped away. If your identity is built on something that cannot be stripped away then it is an awful lot more powerful.   Many people wish to get into property investment but you first need to understand whether or not it is good for you. Check your skillset first before entering the industry. You have to be able to free up the time to be able to follow through with a deal. You have got to have the mindset and a small network of people that will help you add value to properties.   The worst advice you could ever listen to would be in property investment would be “go big or go home”. That is the kind of advice that sinks ships. You have got to be more careful and understand that this is a cyclical market that goes up and down.   Think about the four E’s. Your ego and your emotions are two things that can sink your ship. Your ego can get too big and your emotions can get involved allowing you to get lost in a deal. Then there is the Economy and Events. The economics of today is not necessarily what they’re going to be in a year. Unanticipated events such as Covid-19 has huge effects on the world economy as well as the property industry.   BEST MOMENTS “I had what was called ‘normalcy bias.” “ When you start making money so quickly you begin to quickly think ‘how can I spend it?’” “It was like death by a thousand cuts.” “That is a really difficult thing to accept.” “Start with the end in mind.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES https://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk https://kevinmcdonnell.co.uk   ABOUT THE HOST Kevin McDonnell is a Speaker, Author, Mentor & Professional Property Investor. He is an expert when it comes to creative property investment strategies. His book No Money Down: Property Invest talks about how to control and cash flow other people’s property to create financial freedom.     CONTACT METHOD https://www.facebook.com/kevinMcDonnellProperty/ https://kevinmcdonnell.co.uk/   ABOUT THE GUEST Gavin has been a property investor and developer for over twenty years. He has experienced two major recessions and has a feeling we are about to enter a third. Gavin got caught badly in the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and spent the better part of a decade in damage control and paying off debt. The collateral damage from being careless and over-leveraged taught Gavin some powerful and often painful lessons. Today he is motivated to share these experiences with others in the hope he can elevate their game, shape their investing habits and help avoid some of the mistakes he made.   Contact: Instagram @gavinjgallagher  Website:  https://www.gavinjgallagher.com Twitter:   @gavinjgallagher   progressive, property, investing, rent, housing, buy to lets, serviced accomodation, block, auction, home, financial freedom, recurring income, tax, mortgage, assets: http://progressiveproperty.co.uk/