How to Stay Upright Without Losing Your Balance
Do You Also Wake Up Wondering What Fresh Chaos Will Land Today?😵💫
Has this become a daily ritual for you too? Taking a deep breath as you reach for your phone, bracing yourself for whatever curveball has emerged overnight from the world beyond? Wondering about your industry, your business, your team?
At the start of last year, we had a strategy. It was a good one, we thought. The numbers made sense, the plan was solid, and we knew from our mentors that we were on the right track. And off we launched. 🚀
Thankfully – at least we got one under our belts successfully! And then came a new government, shifting tax structures and policy changes. By the end of the year, it was clear that what had worked perfectly well earlier in the year no longer would.
It’s not just our story, or the property industry. Every industry is experiencing this. Supply chains are being disrupted. AI is changing the shape of everything, too fast for us mere mortals to keep up. Global markets are in flux, and consumer habits are evolving.
Whatever your business, the assumption that things will “settle down”is probably the most dangerous oneyou can make.
Change is constant, and we must learn to ride ongoing super-waves. 🌊
Global Weirding… It’s Our Whole World, Not Just Weather☀️🌪️
I came across this article last week about global weirding. It’s a climate change term that means that in addition to things getting hotter, weather events are becoming more extreme and unpredictable. One week, you can be sweltering in a heatwave and the next, knee-deep in floodwater.
Global Weirding. What a great term – it applies in so many contexts right now! 🔄
Whatever you do, the business conditions you relied on a year ago may well be unrecognisable today. In my world of residential property investment, investors were focused on interest rate decreases and mortgage renewal affordability. Fast forward a few months, and the conversation was shifting to rental reforms, changes to capital gains tax, and higher stamp duty land tax regulations (with sneaky new requirements hidden away in the fine print).
Whatever your industry, the cycle is the same: the way things worked before are unlikely to work anymore.
Shifting From Shock to Strategy⚡➡️📈
I don’t know about you, but sometimes it gets exhausting. We know we must adapt, but the constant unpredictability, market shift whiplashes, and endless recalculations can leave me calling for a timeout…except there is no referee in this game!
The only way to stay on top (more or less) is to watch closelyfor what’s coming and move early. Waiting for stability is a certain losing game.
Fortunately, leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors don’t need a crystal ball to predict the future with supreme precision. The most effective among them are prepared and ready to move as the moment arrives.
Through decades of entrepreneurship, we have learned that instead of bracing for impact, we lean into the movement. This is how we do it:
- Curiosity over certainty. Instead of chasing one ‘right’ answer, we ask better questions: What’s changing? Where is this leading? What’s the next logical step? What else? What else? And what else, again? 🤔
- The interconnectedness of everything. The Butterfly Effect in other words. Something big going down in another part of the world will, more often than not, have some kind of impact on us. 🌍 What could be the impact?
- Watching for red flags. 🚩 We plan for different scenarios. What could possibly happen (best case, worst case, and some in-betweens)?
Spotting the Early Warning Systems🧐🔎
The clues are always there if we are alert enough to keep our eyes and ears open and watch for patterns. We clue up like this:
- Look for the leading indicators. What’s happening in global finance, politics, and technology that might ripple through our industry next?
- Talk to people outside our usual circles. Some of the best insights and perspectives come from these conversations. 💡
- We follow the news(but do not let the drama pull us under)… Staying informed without doomscrolling ourselvesinto a pit of despair! 😵💫
If we wait to shift until the changes are obvious, it might already be too late.
Why We’re Shifting Into Commercial-to-Residential and Title Splitting🏢➡️🏠
When the ‘Buy-Refurbish-Sell’ approaches stopped making sense in property investment, we pivoted to ‘No Money Down Refurbishments’. Now, with higher materials and labour costs and inflated property prices here in the South-East of England, residential refurbishments are simply no longer attractive investments.
So, we’ve started our shift into small-scale commercial-to-residential conversions, mixed-use developments, and title-splitting leasehold blocks.
Why? Because these strategies are not yet overtraded, and work creatively together, offering:
✅ More exit strategies (rent, sell as a block, split and sell individually, or refinance)
✅ Stronger profit margins compared to standard residential flips
✅ Alignment with government priorities, like increasing housing stock via permitted development rights
We’re already on a different playing field, invested in intensive training and new mentors to help us hit the ground running. Things move too fast to be waiting around while we figure things out! ⏳
Staying Grounded in the Shifting Sands🏖️⚖️
So, what keeps us steady?
For me, it’s values. Honesty, integrity, and kindness are more than moral choices, they’re practical business strategies.
✅ Being honest. In business, trust takes years to build and seconds to destroy.
✅ Being kind. Treating people as I would want them to treat us. People who stay grounded in decencyare the ones others want to work with.
✅ Being brave. It can be scary looking ahead, but that’s where our futures lie.
✅ Being grateful. Taking time to stop and reflect, each day. Noticing all the beautiful and miraculous things that bless us in our particular bubble. 🙏
Navigating Unthinkable Change🚀
There’s no roadmap for where we’re going next, but that doesn’t mean we can’t prepare and be ready for even the strangest of futures. And we don’t have to do it alone.
📚 The books I have recommended below have shaped how we think about uncertainty and possibility. I highly recommend them, and I hope they open up new insights for you too.
🤝 Tap into mentors and coaches – they help us see what we might otherwise miss. 🧑🤝🧑The value of supportive communities (both professional and personal) is huge.
And amidst all the strategy and planning, stop and make spaceto take in the simple, delightful things.🌹
Because the one thing we can control is how we show up for the present– no matter what tomorrow holds. 😊
My Future-Prep Reading List:📖✨
These books have profoundly influenced how we think about change, strategy, and staying ahead:
📌 Wilful Blindness by Margaret Heffernan – Why we ignore the obvious at our peril. If you only read one, make it this one! Margaret’s other book, Unchartered, is excellent too.
📌 Imaginable by Jane McGonigal – How to widen your peripheral vision and extend your imagination further… so you can see the future coming and be ready for anything.
📌 Thinking the Unthinkable by Nik Gowing and Chris Landon – How smart leaders handle disruption and turbulence. In the same vein – more corporate and government-oriented.
📌 Seeing Around Corners by Rita McGrath – How to spot inflection points in business before they happen and leverage them to your advantage.
📌 The Mind of a Fox by Chantelle Ilbury and Clem Sunter – An older book, but still one of the best on practical scenario planning.
📚 Get them from your favourite bookseller! 🛒
I hope you find them as valuable (and as fascinating) as we have! 🚀