The British Blacktrepreneur Podcast
Welcome to 'The British Blacktrepreneur' My name is Jason Lazarus
This podcast aims to promote black businesses, in the UK, educate entrepreneurs on all things business, and inspire you on your entrepreneurial journey. Growing up, business was just foreign to me, I knew nothing about it, I was taught that being a consumer and working a job was the only way to really succeed in life. My West African would preach ‘Education, Education, Education’ which I hated at the time but have grown to appreciate how invaluable knowledge is. My goal is to curate conversations with Black Entrepreneurs in the UK to find what their ‘WHY’ is. Furthermore, I’m on a mission to get black entrepreneurs podcasting! I’ll be dropping in my expertise about podcasting whilst bringing on inspiring guests to keep you going on your entrepreneurial journey.
The British Blacktrepreneur Podcast
Stephanie Taylor: Teenage Mum to Property Mogul
Meet Stephanie Taylor, the co-founder of HMO Heaven and Renter Success. Listen as she unveils her awe-inspiring journey from teenage mom navigating the choppy waters of financial uncertainty to a business tycoon with a multi-million pound property portfolio. Get ready to absorb practical tips on how to kickstart your property venture without a large initial capital and unearth the secrets of the rent-to-rent business model.
In this candid discussion, Stephanie dives into the magic of connections and funding as the cornerstones to her business's success. She shares her real-life experiences from her rental property investments and how she transformed these into a thriving business. Hear about her exciting podcasting journey that opened up a realm of opportunities, from cultivating deep friendships and strategic partnerships to hosting events and speaking engagements. Towards the end of our chat, we delve into her inspiring book that offers pearls of wisdom for readers.
Stephanie takes us back to her early coaching days and the challenges she encountered on her road to success. Learn about her battle with imposter syndrome and how she now champions others to bolster their confidence. She shares a heartening story of how she helped someone augment their confidence and their performance in meetings. Being a successful black woman in property, Stephanie reflects on her unique journey in carving out her own niche in the industry. As we wrap up, she emphasizes the critical role of effective money management in any successful business and offers her insights on cultivating a rent-to-rent mindset for success. So, get ready for an exhilarating journey into the world of property with Stephanie Taylor!
Because I think when people see some people who've been successful since they were 19, they were selling sweets at school or they've always had that entrepreneurial way about them. They've always known that they would be in business. And I think when people see somebody like me, who was a teenage mom, who was low self-esteem, who didn't think that they had any business savvy, and then their 40s blew up but not only that, I did it in a short period of time I think it gives people the inspiration that you could do this and it doesn't actually take as long as you think it will.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the British Black Entrepreneur. This podcast exists to promote black businesses in the UK, to educate black entrepreneurs on all things business and to inspire you and your entrepreneurial journey.
Speaker 1:Here is your host, Jason Lesericks.
Speaker 2:That was the voice of Stephanie Taylor. Stephanie Taylor is the co-founder of HMO Heaven and Renter Success. Stephanie went from financial uncertainty as a teenage mom to building a successful business and a multi-million pound property portfolio. Stephanie debunks the myth that you need large sums of money to get started in property. She shares her amazing insights through her inspirational book talks and YouTube channel. She's been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, the Telegraph newspaper, Property Investor Today and many others. Her book, Renter Success her six-step system to get you started in property without buying it is a number one Amazon bestseller with over 165 star reviews.
Speaker 2:Stephanie launched Renter Success to inspire others to get started. Her passion now is to help others to realize that, no matter your starting point, yes, you can. Stephanie and I had a phenomenal conversation. She is excellent. She has so many, so many resources to offer. I can't even get all my words out right now. She does such a great job of interviewing. She's clear, articulate, knows exactly what she's talking about. She's a speaker. She's also got an amazing book and I can't wait to dive into today's episode. So if you want to know how you can go from minimum wage to a millionaire, you want to know how you can get started in the Renter Success system and this is the interview for you. So, without further ado, here she is. It is Stephanie Taylor. Stephanie Taylor, welcome to the British Blattrapunner. How are you today?
Speaker 1:Jason Lazarus. It's amazing to be here.
Speaker 2:I know recently you went to Italy. Tell me a bit about your trip. What were you up to? What were you doing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was an amazing trip because it was a post lockdown, but there was still the words we have to stay inside. We had to stay inside it while in Italy for a few days and then come out. But I went there for my cousin's wedding. It was a fantastic affair. You know what? The Italians really know how to do a celebration. There was so much I mean food, but just dancing and just merriment. It was just incredible, absolutely incredible yeah.
Speaker 2:Now at today's conversation, we kind of want to get people to understand how they can rent to rent successfully. You're an expert in this. You've written a book on it, You've got a podcast on it. You've got a wealth of knowledge. But I kind of want to dive straight into your origin story, Give us a bit of background into maybe your early years, your family life and just kind of the first initial steps into you getting into rent to rent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I will. Well, I had my son, alex, when I was 18, and so I was a single mom, teenage single mom, and I was on benefits for a while I was on I think it was, yeah, 94 pounds, 80 every fortnight from the post office. There was no bank transfers and all of that. Back in those days you queued up and got cash and I used to have to monitor my money to the penny. Going to the supermarket was stressful, just in case, because I kept changing the price of things and I needed to know exactly how much everything would be. So I made sure I have enough. But from there to now, ok, there's been a lot of years of past since then. My son is now 30.
Speaker 1:But it's taken quite a long time for me to really get the confidence to move forward in lots of different respects. But about six years ago I found the world of coaching and thinking differently and it's just made a huge difference in my life. So what happened since then is I started in business, and business seemed very complicated. So I actually started in property, which I thought would be more straightforward, because I could see around me ordinary people are doing property and they're making money from it and I thought, well, if they can do it and they're ordinary, maybe I can do it as an ordinary person.
Speaker 1:And I didn't feel like I could do business as an ordinary person, as I thought. But what I found since I started is A the property strategy. There's a way to make money from property without buying it and that's the strategy of rent to rent and there's an ethical way to do it and you can make anywhere from over 500 to over a thousand pound per month per property managing properties on that basis. And for me that was a total revelation and I became evangelical about telling people look, you don't need to struggle as I did for decades. Money, you know, you can create money. You can make money through business and through property and it's a really simple business model.
Speaker 2:So let's explore that business model, then, and try to delve deeper into it. How would one get started in the rent-to-rent? I know there's education, you've got a book out, you've got your podcast, which we're going to get to as well, but just you know someone who's a complete novice in this. What things would they need to do maybe study or look at, in order for them to get a grip on, if this is attainable for them to do Basically?
Speaker 1:I'll tell you the basics of it. You rent a property from a landlord or a letting agent and you pay them a guaranteed rent. You tidy the property up a bit. You then charge the tenants a higher yet still affordable rent and you make the money in between. Once you've paid the rent and paid the bills, the rest is your profit for the business and that's over 500, usually from 500 to over a thousand pound per month per property. So it's a really efficient business model. Little money is needed to get started, you've got recurring monthly revenue, you can be profitable quickly and you've got the names and addresses of your perfect customers. Those are the HMO, that's House of Multiple Occupation Landlords, because the properties that we specialize in I have shared properties that like what you know as student properties, where each person has their own bedroom and they share the kitchen and also they share the bathrooms, but sometimes they might have an ensuite.
Speaker 2:In terms of your podcast and your book. I wanted to kind of talk about the podcast first. How has that been beneficial for your business and what type of a show would you say that you have that really helps your audience?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, the podcast has really blown our business up. Because what happens with the podcast is people can tune in and they can binge listen. So when they're going on the I Love Podcast, listening myself, you're going on a long drive, you can just tune in and you can get a lot of aspects, like when I listen to your show. So people who can know you a little bit can really go deep in a podcast and go next level. And what I find is when people get in touch with me after listening on the podcast, they already feel like they know me.
Speaker 1:They already feel like they know what we offer and they already feel like, yeah, I want to jump in, I know everything about it. So a podcast is a great way to really connect to your audience in a deeper level, on a more personal level, on an intimate level. You're literally in their head, in their ears.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's incredible and I think you're sure you've had some great gifts on lots of people that have got a wealth of knowledge and a plethora of ideas to really help people in rinse of rink. Go ahead, Stephanie.
Speaker 1:I was just going to say. The other thing is the connections, because when you reach out to invite people on your show, you develop a connection with them. Sometimes it can lead to friendships, but other times it's partnerships. Like recently, I invited somebody on my show. He's got over 50,000 followers on Instagram and he's now invited me to host an event for him. So, and another connection that came through the podcast led to me getting us a paid speaking gig and obviously we have people, because when we do the podcast, my sister and I do it. Although I'm the main host, to be fair, she's only made one appearance, so I think I can say I do it. So when I do the podcast, I do say to people if you want to get started, we've got a free guide and masterclass and I have a unique link for the podcast. So I can see that lots of people are listening to the podcast and then taking me up on the free guide and master class and some of those people also go on to work with us on a paid basis as well.
Speaker 2:What would I need, maybe as a cash upfront, or what kind of capital might I need in the beginning, or what assets would I need? What do I need to get started and from that starting point, what might be that next step for me?
Speaker 1:Great. Well, you need about 600 pounds just to get all the insurances, all the little bits and pieces that you need to get set up to be legal. But you don't need it all at once. Some of it you need as you get your first property and some of it you need from the beginning, so you can stagger out the way you pay for that. The other things you'll need is one month's rent and one month's deposit, like you would if you were renting a property. But you can sometimes need less, because if you pay the owners of the property later in the month and the tenants pay you at the start of the month, that really helps your cash flow, means you don't need as much. But it's good to have some buffer. So it's good to have at least one month's rent, one month's deposit, and if you're refurbishing the property, you'll need some money for that as well. So it's a really low startup costs in terms of the business. Now, what? One month's rent and one month's deposit will be different in different parts of the country and different for different properties. But the other thing that I say to people is you don't have to wait till you've got it all in place.
Speaker 1:Have a bit in place, yes, but then a lot of the people who joined the Rent to Rent Kick Sator program. They found that family and friends also invested in them as they see them moving forward. So I know that some people took a bounce back loan as they were starting up their business. When they started their business they didn't know the bounce back loan would be coming, and that came. Other people, as I say, have borrowed money. Other people have sold things. Other people have joint ventured with a friend. We've had somebody on the podcast recently, conrad Guider, and he joint ventured with his boss. They put half the money each and did it together. So there are lots of different ways. Once you get started, you find momentum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's really incredible what you've done and how people love being successful and making those links and connections. And just kind of speaking on links and connections, some of the connections, how has that kind of helped you in terms of your own knowledge and enabled you to carry on and still have a successful business yourself?
Speaker 1:Oh, I've met some incredible people and the other thing is the art of reciprocity. Some of the people who I've invited on my podcast have much bigger shows than me and have invited me on their podcast and, as a result of podcasting myself, I've become better at being a guest on other people's podcasts. And recently and that gives you a bit of confidence and recently I was on the Pat Flynn's Ask Pat podcast, which is a very big podcast. So, and as I say, I've had people get in touch and want me to do speaking gigs. I've had companies get in touch you want to offer, you want to partner with us, like software companies that deal with property. So, yeah, it's been so many opportunities have come as a direct result of having the podcast.
Speaker 2:That's good and I really want to get into your book now. Incredible what you've produced. I know it's all linked up together your book, your podcast and also your business. So what's the inspiration behind the book and what are some of the things that people can take away from reading that material?
Speaker 1:Yeah, why we put the book together is we have a program that the program is working with us three months, step by step, meeting with us weekly.
Speaker 1:Not everyone wants to or is able to invest in that, and we wanted to have something that anybody who wants to get started in this strategy see whether it's for them can get involved in, and so the book is a way that for less than 10 pounds, it includes the full rent to rent success system. So it describes each step of what you need to get started and to be good at rent to rent in an ethical way. So many people can get started just by the book. And then for the people who want to go the next level, with all of the how to and the templates and the copy and paste and, of course, with us working together with you for three months to really help you and push you forward with the implementation. Then we've got the Kickstarter program, but we've been blown away by the response to the book and we've got 197 five-star reviews on Amazon. I was on there earlier, that's why they had the precise number and, yeah, it's just been incredible.
Speaker 2:No, it's amazing. I mean you're impacting many lives, obviously with the five-star reviews and the success you're having. So you know, I hope those sales keep increasing and people get lots of insight and knowledge from you and your company. I wanted to talk a little bit about the makeup of your business and I know you work with your sister, nikki, who you've mentioned briefly. So how does she compliment the rent-to-rent success and how do you guys kind of work together as a duo?
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, my gosh. Well, anyone with family can know it Can have it's highs and lows working with family. But I love working with my sister because she I'm a big vision, I have the ideas, I'm all about a quick action, implementation, marketing I am. But Nikki is all about the detail. So she's about the contracts and the detail. She's the one who makes sure that, operationally, that everything that I sell is delivered in the way and to the standard that we want it to be. So we're absolutely a team. It wouldn't work without me, it wouldn't work without her, and I'm just so. It's just such a blessing to be able to work with my sister.
Speaker 2:I want to kind of go back a little bit to when you first started coaching, because obviously you're doing it on a massive scale now. What were the early days like of the coaching? You said that your life blew up more or less in your 40s, so I'm assuming just before then or when you kind of first started. How were you helping out clients initially?
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh my gosh, it was so hard because I had so much imposter syndrome. I thought what would people say if they see that I'm out here trying to say that I know something, trying to say that I know anything? What would they think if they see that I'm selling a teaching program or a course? I was very and I'm naturally a shy person, but through the coaching that's another thing that I can help people with. Within coaching it just comes out a lot. The tools that I've learned really can take you from being someone who's quite anxious, like I was, to somebody who's confident and can deliver in all sorts of different situations that a lot of people would find stressful. And now people actually won't believe me if I say that I'm actually a shy person because they say no, stephanie, you seem so confident, you seem so at ease. But those are just learned skills and I've only learned them recently, but I love sharing them with other people.
Speaker 1:Recently I worked with somebody, a man.
Speaker 1:He's in his 40s, he's an engineer, over 20-odd years experience, really knows his stuff and a lovely guy.
Speaker 1:But what his struggle was was that when he had an in-person meeting he would replay in his mind all the times where he hasn't been able to express himself fully in the meetings, and that would cause him to get nervous and not express himself fully in the meetings.
Speaker 1:And so what we did was went through a process there and created a new way of thinking and therefore being, and he's told me that not only is he able to now perform well in meetings, but recently he went to an event where it was a big property networking event with lots of people he'd never met before On a topic he didn't know very much about, and he said he was able to go in there and be confident, be furious with people, engage and make conversations and not feel at all nervous. And that was just through that process that we went through. And you know, there's so much magic in our brains, there's so much magic inside us, and we've got so much power and we only use a fraction of it. It's like with our iPhones or our computers we only use a fraction of what's there, and what coaching does is help us make tiny shifts that bring about incredible shifts in the results that we get, and that's why it excites me so much.
Speaker 2:In terms of your business. How have you been able to implement that in your in-render and strategy when dealing with contractors or builders? You know, this is what Stephanie wants, this is what the company wants, this is what Nicky wants. So how do you kind of go about making that happen when it's obviously you're naturally a shy person as well?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think when you're dealing with other people, it's really important to think about what do they want and how can we both get what we want. I think when you come at it like that, it's really easy to work with people. But also it's really important to be able to have the difficult conversations and you can say what you think when it is disagreeable, without being disagreeable. Like you can say, I don't feel comfortable with this, or this is not what we paid for, or this is not what we asked for, or we won't do this without actually being disagreeable. I think for women in particular, it's harder to be. What I mean to say is you can be disagreeable, but people then don't like disagreeable women, so in a way that they'll tolerate it more from disagreeable men. So what I find is to be able to say what I mean, and mean what I say without being disagreeable per se while I'm saying it. So that's how I get around it.
Speaker 2:Do you think that being a black woman, having a blog sorry, having a book and a podcast and being in property that in and of itself that's like a USB for you Is that carved out the space for you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's amazing. It's amazing, Jason, and do you know what I'm co-hosting next week? It may have gone past by the time people are listening to this property insiders event. It's Kasim Ali Balogun and he's property by Kazi on Instagram Got a massive following. He's an absolutely lovely guy. He and Giovanni Lopez got this amazing event. It's all these black developers, black property developers who are. We're going to go behind the scenes with them and that's what this event's about.
Speaker 1:And so, to answer your question, I felt so proud when I saw it and I am so happy myself to be, to be an example, because I think when people see some people who've been successful since they were 19, they were selling sweets at school or they've always had that entrepreneurial way about them. They've always known that they would be in business and I think, for when people see somebody like me, who was a teenage mom who was low self-esteem, who didn't think that they had any business savvy and then their 40s blew up, but not only that I did it in a short period of time I think it gives people the inspiration that you could do this and it doesn't actually take as long as you think it will. The thing that blows my mind the most is actually, it's harder to be broke and living paycheck to paycheck than it is to be running your business and creating value. And what I found is, as we've started up all the different businesses, your problem then becomes how to manage the money efficiently, because you've now got the problem of not having enough money, but of having the money come in in a way that makes sense. And I just want to say another thing on this. You know tax, for example. If you have a limited company, you can take profits from the business and put it into a pension.
Speaker 1:For us, what we're thinking of is because we're going to have a big portfolio of properties. You know you can't take anything with you. I don't just want to leave it to my son. I have a son, but he's now started investing in property himself. He's still started stocks and shares investing. These are all things that we've been able to share with him, that we've learned in the last six years, and we know that he will become a millionaire on his own right because he's young. So if he continues with his investing, that will just happen because there's so much time for him.
Speaker 1:So what I was going to say is that, yeah, so what we're doing is we're setting up an accommodation and education trust for vulnerable young women that's going to be able to deliver the sort of housing that is not usually afforded to people who are vulnerable.
Speaker 1:The best housing goes to excuse me, the best tenants by best. It's usually the ones with the most highest paying job, the lowest risk, the best credit, and they're not the people who are struggling, and so we want to be able to provide housing for those people, but also not only housing education about the things that I would have loved to have learned or known, that were even possible possibilities when I was young, because I was going to say I was smart in some respects not in that respect, but I could have taken it on had I been exposed to it. So, with having the education trust to show people, show the women, how to create it for themselves and how to be able to buy their own property, so yeah, so that's how we're looking at it, so that we can really leave a legacy behind long after we've moved on.
Speaker 2:That's incredible, and I kind of want to touch on some of the challenges and pitfalls, maybe, or things that you have to face, maybe maybe on a daily, weekly or monthly basis that come with the territory of having a property business. So what's some of the things that you faced that are like, oh, this is quite difficult or we're going to have to circumvent this in a different kind of a way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the fantastic thing about business is that there's challenges. That's what kind of makes it exciting. And what's happened is I've learned to be about a problem solver. So when I first started in business, you know, every problem seemed like a size 10 problem and level 10 problem. It's like how, like how do you start this business? How do you get the landlords on board? How do you sell it to the tenants? Each thing was like a level 10 problem and once we got over it, now all of those issues are non-issues for us. That's a level zero problem. But now we've got other problems which are our level 10 problems.
Speaker 1:So what are the kind of things you? There might be a dispute between the housemates, there might be somebody who can't pay their rent. There might be a landlord who doesn't want to fix something that needs fixing. There might be, you know, your staff might get sick, so there's always something. But the amazing thing is now I know that I can solve any problem, because when I first started out I thought I had to solve every problem myself, but you soon realize every problem has already been solved. There's somebody out there for whom your level, my level 10 problem is somebody else's level zero problem. There's not even a problem for them. So now I just realized that I just need to know who to ask or you know a resource to find out. There's always somebody who knows, there's somebody for whom this problem is their expertise. And so now I know I can solve any problem because I can access the information and I have the. I've got the resilience to be able to get through anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I want to kind of go back a little bit, because we were I did kind of touch on the process of the rent to rent and you know you've already mentioned about how you know the certain amount of money that you need and once you have the money, you've got your buffer and you're kind of getting into it. The next step in terms of now acquiring the properties or speaking to the landlords, what's that step like for people? What are they going to do once they've got that money in? And now they're thinking right, I've got my three, four grand. For argument's sake, whatever it might be, how do I get onto this next step now to really make it happen?
Speaker 1:Yes. So you need to be able to talk to people about what you do. So what I really, I think, advice people to do is to have their own social pitch. That's what I call it that you can tell everybody that you know what you do and that you can convey to a landlord or to a letting agent what you do in a way that's simple, short and compelling. So example of ours is that for landlords. We can say to them that we offer guaranteed rent, freedom from tenant management and total peace of mind. That's the very short summary of what our offering is for a landlord, and once you have that, you can expand on it and talk about it for longer, or you can just say it very succinctly and it's just as easy as you ask me what my name is.
Speaker 1:So when people first start, they're obviously very nervous about saying I'm in property or I do this or that. So what we encourage them to do and part of what we do in the Kickstarter is we ask them to do their pitch, their social pitch, so that they can tell people friends, family, work colleagues everybody's going to be asking you what do you do? That's, you know, one of our brick questions. So you've got to have a compelling answer so that people know. And I think the other thing that the other thing is you need to be able to express yourself. That's number one. And number two is that people get very anxious about it.
Speaker 1:Going to speak to letting agents I certainly did when we first started and anxiety affects people in different ways. Some people become overconfident and a bit bolshean sort of turn up on the BS levels, so your BS radars will be going off and other people then come to shy and hesitant too hesitant and like they don't know what they're talking about, they can't get their words out. So what I say to people is if you're not anxious, then you've got nothing to worry about. So that's all cool, you can just be yourself. If you are anxious, what I say is to lean into curiosity. Curiosity is a fantastic way to handle it, because when you're curious, you're asking questions, you're listening, you're focusing more on the other person. And when you're focusing more on the other person, it's hard to be anxious, to be anxious and you need to focus on yourself. So when I'm focusing on you what your needs are, what you want, how I can help you that really helps. So that's my top tip for building up that know, like and trust easily is use curiosity.
Speaker 2:I can the early days when you were managing money as a teenage mom I've seen now you know, becoming a millionaire and being able to manage large amounts of money and large properties and big responsibility. Did those early years of diligence and sacrifice enable you and help you now to manage things that are much bigger?
Speaker 1:I was very bad at managing money. I was actually probably better when I was managing the 94 pound age from the post office than later on when I got myself a professional job and still wasn't that well paid. I had lots of expenses with my son and I got into credit card debts and bank overdrafts and I was a bit chaotic and I had bad credit. But I pulled it together. You asked me, do I think it helped?
Speaker 1:me I think what it did is it's made me more empathetic, because I can understand where people are, that they literally might not be able to see that I could do this. I just couldn't have taken on my head that I could do this. So I think it's made me more empathetic and I think it's made me feel like I've got no time to waste, because that was all that, all those decades of life that went past like that. Now that I've seen the light and the lights been switched on and, you know, light up, my life's blowing up I feel like every day I'm excited to be here, no matter what challenges are on our desk that day. I feel lucky that I've got these challenges. I feel delighted with myself that I sometimes look in the mirror and think, wow, what happened to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's incredible. I mean, it kind of lends on to the next question I had for you, which was you know what would you tell your 20 year old self? You know, I know that you're older now than that not older, but you know older than 20. And you know what would you kind of say to yourself at 20 years of age?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say you've got everything you need inside you for success. And I know that she would never have listened to me and believed that, because she would have seen all of everything that was wrong with her and she would never have believed that she had everything she needed. But when you've got everything you need, it's like a seed, but you do have to tend the seed and water the seed, and part of the way you do that is with what you say to yourself and the words of encouragement you give to yourself, because you, we're all speaking to someone every single day. We're all speaking to someone every single day and if that person is encouraging and pushes us and encourages us, picks us up when we fall down, we're going to go far. If that person is always whipping us and saying what you're trying to do, that for you could never succeed at this. You're rubbish at that.
Speaker 1:I think you should not give up. I think you should give up. I don't think you should get up. I don't think you should try. I think that's the voice that we're giving ourselves, and we need to be giving ourselves the voice that we would give to our best friend or to our child. So I think I would say to her I've got everything you need inside you for success.
Speaker 2:And if someone's out there they want to get into rent to rent, obviously they've got you've got so many resources for them to use their book, their blog, but your podcast and your business. But we did speak, didn't we, earlier, just about mindset and people believing that they could do it, and you shared some incredible anecdotes and stories about you know, self-belief and seeing themselves, seeing yourself and able to do it. I mean, what would you say to someone that is in that position where you know they might not have a lot, might not have a lot of money, maybe there is a lot of debt, but they want to get rid of that and get into it? Is there any words of encouragement, affirmation, what could they do in order for them to see I can do this?
Speaker 1:I think sometimes it's really good to see an example. And Daniel Josephs came on the podcast and he lost his job just at the beginning of lockdown, march 2020. His wife was pregnant. He sees himself as a shy guy and he went on over the course of 2020 to get four HMO properties great cash flow. He's gone on to get more properties since then and he came on to the podcast and did an interview and you can see that podcast episode and the story at rent to rent successcom. Slash Daniel oh, sorry, slash Joseph. It's Joseph Daniels, slash Joseph and it's just good to see there.
Speaker 1:So I would encourage people yes, you can. If you've got bad credit, it's to work towards, first of all, getting your income higher than your expenditure. That's the first step. Then you know assessing so you can start paying off. Look at what you can pay off and how you can pay it off. And once you get yourself into that position and you're in a solid foundation, you're then in a position that you can move upwards. But we've got to take things. We always want to get to the top of mountain in one leap and we've got to remember it step by step. Nobody gets the top of the mountain in one knee. Everybody gets there by stepping and you can just take the very next step in front of you and then the next step, and then the next step. I didn't get from you know no self belief at all to rock solid, and even now I've still got my moments of where, where I don't feel confident or comfortable. But yeah, life gets, life gets easier.
Speaker 2:He let people know where can they find you website, your social media. I want them to really get excited about rent, to rent, success, hmo heaven and all the things you have to offer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you. So for my, the properties development company that's at hmo heavencouk, we've got rent to rent success. If you're interested in getting started in property without buying it the ethical way, that's at rent to rent successcom. And then, finally, if you want to blow up your life, or if you're curious about what your true desires are for your life, it's at blowupyourlifecom.
Speaker 2:Stephanie Taylor, thank you for joining me again on the British Black Trip and.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2:All right, folks. Well, I hope you enjoyed that interview with Stephanie Taylor, ceo and founder of HMO heaven Rent to Rent Success. Go check out her podcast, check out her book, check out her website. She's doing amazing things in the rent to rent system. So what? I hope you enjoyed today's show here to promote education and inspire. We hope that inspired you today. We hope you've been educated today and I hope that you like the fact that you promoted Stephanie in the best way possible. All right, take care folks, see you next week.