The Trailblazer Podcast

In this episode of the Trailblazer Podcast I am privileged to be joined by my good friend and corporate magnate – now transitioned property entrepreneur, Nick Rowland. Nick was not like the other kids growing up, due to his severe dyslexia it was always an uphill battle for him in his school days, but refused to let it defeat him. Many of the greats, some of whom I know personally, have suffered with this form of impairment yet go on to achieve inconceivable heights in their respective fields. Nick went on to work for Barclays international and enjoyed a successful corporate career in banking despite never having achieved so much as an O level ( GCSE ) in maths! He has now transitioned in to the world of property, and commits himself to helping as many others achieve as he can. Join me on this podcast to hear this inspiring story.

Welcome back to the Trailblazer Podcast! This week I am absolutely elated to be joined by boxing superstar, and former Heavyweight Champion of the World: Frank Bruno In this inspiring interview, Frank talks about his childhood, and what it was like growing up and how he dealt with suffering the loss of his father at the age of 14. He shares his story, and his motivation to get in to the world of boxing, changing his, and his families lives forever. Frank has travelled the world, and enjoyed many great successes along the way throughout his boxing career, including bouts with household names, such as Mike Tyson. Join me for this unbelievable insight in to this man’s journey to the top, and how he is still now – Changing the world for the better. You will learn: What it takes to become the frontrunner in your field of discipline How to take what life gives you, and truly make the best of it How to stay humble throughout your success, and change lives along the way

Welcome to the latest edition of the Trailblazer podcast. Today I am interviewing my good friend, and business partner from across the pond – Micah Berg. Micah owns a Holiday rental company in Florida, United States called Real Joy vacations. Things were not easy for Micah in his early years, he did not come from a well off background, he served in the military with the US marines for a number of years before deciding it was time to start his own business. Using his military level discipline, he has turned the $200 that he had in his savings account, into a portfolio of 420 Holidays lets in Florida, with an income of $2.4 Million dollars annually. Listen in on this week’s Trailblazer podcast to find out about Micah’s incredible story. Listen now to learn: How discipline plays a massive role in business and in life Why success is never out of reach, no matter your situation What’s going on in the US holiday rental and SA markets

Gordie is part of the touchstone education team, he has been involved in sales for his entire life, previously running a large sales company. He is now involved in building the touchstone brand Abi is managing director for the Paragon Group, she has a large amount of previous experience in senior management roles. They each run their own Serviced Accommodation business. After fearing that property was a difficult venture, Abi attended the SA Masterclass and decided to invest in the Peak District for SA, mainly for the tourism industry, and for her own family to travel to. She now has 2 units, with another 5 in the pipeline, and was the first one in her family to do it. The main thing previously ‘ holding her back ‘ was that she thought property required a lot of money, and experience. She thought it was simply something that was out of her reach. Little did she know she was more than capable of achieving success in property. Abi follows the Rent to Rent strategy, meaning she controls the property, but doesn’t actually need to own any of the properties.   Gordie started the Touchstone Education Serviced Accommodation masterclass 18 months ago,with no previous experience and is now also involved with rent to rent. None of his family are involved in property, so again he was the first to make this jump. He didn’t have a lot of spare time, despite his well paid day job he decided 18 months ago that he wanted to get into SA. Although his day job was well paid, he was exchanging a heck of a lot of time for money. It took him 3 weeks to acquire 2 rent to rent units. He now stands at 28 units, with another 5 going live soon. They earn an average of £1000 a month… EACH. Listen now to learn: Why getting started in property requires no previous experience How to manage and make money from properties you don’t even own Why being the first person to do something is not a bad thing

On this weeks Trailblazer podcast, I am delighted to be joined by Scott Weir, a Mancunian born Scotsman, and a truly inspirational human being. As Scottish as Scott sounds, he was actually originally born in Manchester, and was then moved to Scotland with his parents at the age of 3. He first noticed that life was different for him, when he was mixing with the other children and realised it wasn’t normal to not see your parents all the time. At the age of twelve, Scott often spent his days alone. His mother suffered from a severe drinking problem, leaving Scott to fend for himself. At the worst of times he actually had to steal food, to make sure that he ate that day. He never wanted to admit these things to anyone as he did not want to end up in care. At times, the family would go weeks without power in the house, and no shower. His mother was not optimistic or hopeful for him when he way a boy, she told him not to bother getting a job, and just ‘ sit tight ‘ . To Claim his benefits that would pay for his home and provide his ‘ drinking money ‘as his mother put it. Now many of Scott’s prior peer group have ended up in jail or dead. However, Scott was unwilling to accept this as his future Up until the age of 15, he had four goals in life: Not to get caught by the police Not to get beaten up Stay away from drugs and crime To get some food to survive. These were survivalist instincts and not goals that would ever accomplish anything real for Scott. ‘ To change your life… you have to change your goals ‘ He decided – enough is enough, and set himself four… seemingly impossible goals. He wanted to be smarter than his teachers He wanted an MBA He wanted enough money to pay for things he wanted He wanted to be seen as an expert in his field   Fifteen years later, having accomplished these goals and more. He started his first company ‘ home sure ‘ in 2005. After a horrendous experience with his own single let property. Within 10 years Homesure has brought its main competitor’s market share from 50% down to 2.8%. He runs a Martial arts academy, helping to sculpt the future of the next generation, and this one. Despite the difficulties that Scott has faced, he is grateful for the troubles that he went through as a child as he believes that they have sculpted him into the person that he is today. As you can imagine, the kind of workload that Scott deals with on a daily basis requires a great amount of organisation, and time management. It is an absolute pleasure to be hosting Scott at Touchstone HQ on April 12th, for his ‘ Productivity Blackbelt ‘ training course. He is going to show us the systems, the techniques, and the software he uses. To make sure he never wastes a spare moment.

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

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

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 month 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

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

On this week’s Trailblazer podcast I am so excited to be joined by Andy Mcinnes and Paul Baldry, Both Andy and Paul have led incredible careers in their build up to being full time property entrepreneurs. Andy – an author, and previously a very successful sports journalist for the daily mail, will tell us how he began building his property empire in back 2002. He will explain the mistakes that he made, and the hurdles that he had to overcome to reach the success that he enjoys today. Paul – Has been an extremely hard worker from a young age, his work ethic has been engrained into him since his younger days when he would work 80-90 hours per week, doing maintenance work for a local hospital to pay off his accumulated debt of £25,000. Paul takes us on a brief tour of his career and how he managed to buy 54 properties in 12 months at the age of 28. He now owns multiple letting and estate agencies in the North East of England, which manage a portfolio of over 300 properties as well as his own personal portfolio of over 100 properties. Listen now to learn: -    When to make the jump from your day job into property -    How to ditch your residual wage and build passive income -    A sneak preview of a book designed specifically for property beginners -    The difference between good debt and bad debt -    What it means to leave behind a legacy -    Why successful people get bored

Welcome to The Trailblazer Podcast… Paul Smith, co-founder Touchstone Education, speaks with Dave Deane & Sharon Ring about the exciting next chapter of their life & business as they embark on teaching, coaching and mentoring in partnership with Touchstone Education.  Paul invites them to share a little of their background and upbringing, what has driven and still drives them to blaze their own trail for the Legacy they building for their family. They talk about their property, mobile app and ecommerce (online retail) businesses they operate together and how, after creating freedom of choice in their own lives through the catalyst of an Amazon ecommerce business, they now enjoy sharing their knowledge of building ecommerce businesses with others to help them build a dream lifestyle of their own.  To take Dave up on his offer of sharing more information on the Amazon Ecommerce Opportunity, get in touch dave@touchstoneeducation.co.uk

Welcome to The Trailblazer Podcast… Paul Smith sits down to talk with former firefighter, current Trailblazer, Ian McBain Jnr. Originally from Glasgow, Scotland, Ian now runs a successful property business out of Southend, England, with his father and sister. So what was the catalyst behind Ian’s transformation from fireman to property man? His story is a poignant reminder that life is short, often unpredictable and that opportunities do exist — if your eyes and mind are open to them.

Welcome to The Trailblazer Podcast…   Paul Smith, Touchstone Education co-founder and Dr Demartini discuss how he learned to overcome his problems with reading, learning and writing to one day becoming a public speaker, bestselling author, and mentor. They dive into prioritising your values and how to unlock your true potential.   Highlights from this episode:   Who gave you the permission to be different, not conform and blaze your own     trial? What was the one single moment that changed your life? The actions Dr Demartini took to become the master he is today. Read over 30,000 books lifetime with the ability to read 2 books a day. What is the difference between inspiration and motivation? Subordination, values and development. The free values dictator questionnaire Dr Demartini created so you can determine your true values.   https://drdemartini.com/ The power of saying no. What steps should someone to unlock their true potential? Who should be your mentor? Speed Reading Course   https://drdemartini.com/product/speed_reading_and_learning_dynamics

Welcome to The Trailblazer Podcast…   Paul Smith, Touchstone Education co-founder and The Trailblazer Podcast host, sits down to talk about his own values: how they first formed and the role they’ve played in shaping who he is today.   Highlights from this episode:   Why you need values to blaze your own trail Morals, ethics and values are often considered to be the same. They’re not. Being diagnosed with a chronic illness can lead to great things Your values versus others’ — whose matter more? Self-belief and arrogance — is there a difference and does it matter? Independence of thought What a bad day really looks like Why ‘It’s the norm’ should not be so normal You need a ‘not-to-do list’ Information is not knowledge — so what is it? Why a ‘calling’ feels so personal Aligning your values with a profession The theory of ‘linking’