Kemi Egan – Co-founder of Freedom Property Academy

I only check emails at pre planned times. It’s the only way to stop email taking over your life and reacting to other people’s demands constantly.

Kemi Egan is an entrepreneur, real estate investor, coach and author. She is the founder of Freedom academies, author of The Power of Real Estate Investing; 7 Steps to Make Money & Create a Lifetime of Wealth and host of Turbo Charge your Success Podcast. She is an in demand public speaker, trainer and coach and is a leading expert in wealth creation, strategic business growth and Investing.

After growing up in a financially challenged family with addictions and violence prevalent Kemi made the step to attend the university. However, after losing her best friend to domestic violence at 21 and ending up homeless it quickly became clear that traditional advice no longer works.

Kemi set about finding out what it was that the successful and wealthy people in the world knew that she didn’t. Within twelve months of making the decision to commit to investing in herself and her future Kemi raised $1m joint venture finance to buy a real estate portfolio of $2 million while homeless. Her life was transformed and she is now on a mission to help as many people as possible to transform their life.

She went on to Co found Freedom Academies and Freedom Property academy to take all the knowledge, experience, success and failures she had and create a step by step program to help other take control of their finances, create wealth and live the lifestyle of their dreams.

Where did the idea for Freedom Property Academy come from?

A few years ago I was homeless and I knew I wanted to create wealth and make a difference so I started researching what all successful and wealthy people knew that I didn’t. I quickly found that to access any quality information and coaching it was thousands and thousands of dollars and you had to have the time and money to be away from work for days. I made the commitment that when I had changed my life I would show as many people as possible how to do the same in an ethical, affordable and accessible way. So we founded Freedom academies and Freedom Property Academy to take Real estate Training to aspiring entrepreneurs in their own home.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

Because I work across many time zones the time of day I get up varies a lot. I protect my morning routine fiercely because that helps me have a successful day. So first thing I visualise and use my dream board. I then spend 45 minutes stretching or doing Yoga or Pilates whilst reading or listening to an audiobook.

I then chat with my assistant and plan the day. From there anything can happen, that’s one of the blessings of being an entrepreneur absolutely no day is the same. Productivity is crucial though so the only really consistent things I do is that I only check my email once a day at best to make sure that doesn’t take over my life and I group tasks into bunches. So I’ll record a few podcasts at once and things like that.

How do you bring ideas to life?

Notebooks and delegation. I love notebooks, I’ve always been a fan of stationary but in particular I love Moleskin notebooks. These help me put my thoughts into physical form and start laying the groundwork for an idea to blossom. Once I know the direction of a project and what I want to achieve getting great people to do what they do best is key. So if we are converting building I explain my vision and let the architects and engineers come up with how to make it work.

What’s one trend that really excites you?

I love technology and its ability to really maximise our productivity. Whether it’s making communication quicker and easier or even making it easier and cheaper to get your products and services to customers.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

I only check emails at pre planned times. It’s the only way to stop email taking over your life and reacting to other people’s demands constantly.

What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?

I’ve never been employed, I’ve only ever had my own business. The worst time being self-employed definitely came when I was a Physical Therapist exchanging time for money. I was working my backside off and doing a great job but still not earning much at all! Now I know that was because I had clients that were price sensitive not value sensitive. So, if someone wants that cheapest ‘widget’ then trying to sell them the best quality ‘widget’ is never going to work because they just want to save money. They didn’t value my skills and I didn’t value myself. Once you learn to value yourself and what you have to offer you can command greater prices.

If you were to start again, what would you do differently?

I wouldn’t go to University / College. In the modern world college only has a place if you want to carry out a highly specific career. For example become a doctor. Otherwise there has never been a better time to make your mark in the world and create wealth for your family but it doesn’t require letters after your name.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Ask for feedback. Get feedback from your peers/mentors/the market. Some of the greatest insights into your business you will ever get come from people outside, often in different industries and niches. There is one caveat to that though! Only listen to either a) Your market – the people that you want to buy from you or B) People that have been there and done what you want to do time and again. Anyone else is just guessing and unless they would in theory buy from you or they have specific knowledge their opinion will just confuse and distract you.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.

Joint Ventures and Partnerships. In my first year building a real estate portfolio I raised over $1 million joint venture finance from people that had available money to invest but no time or knowledge of how to. In my case I was looking for funding but whether you want an introduction, mailing list or whatever someone out there has it. You just have to find out who has it and how you can add value to them in order to make it a win-win-win. That’s a win for you, a win for your partner and a win for your customers. Even things like utilising partnerships with Amazon are amazing, they have the infrastructure, customers, platform all you need to do is put your product there. Don’t try and reinvent the wheel, find out who has what you need and go get it!

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

I’ve failed hundreds of times and actually I partly prefer to fail because I learn the most and ultimately use those failures to go on to make a greater difference and more money in the long run. One failure in particular was a big conversion project we did in the first 18 months of investing. It ran over time and over budget and didn’t hit the projected return on investment we had expected for ourselves or our investor. After spending a few weeks sweating and trying to avoid the conversation I sucked it up and had a coffee with the investor and fully explained the situation. We came to a pretty good solution that suited everyone and carried on as great friends. The lesson for me was that actually there is nothing that can’t be figured out you just have to be brave enough to confront your challenges and not hide from them.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

At the moment there is a movement in the market for homeowners to sell their properties without a realtor or an agent to save fees. The alternative is usually a fairly basic house listing website. I think there is room in the market for a hybrid service utilising technology to lower costs and make sure homeowners are receiving value but actually getting service as well. So a combination of DIY and traditional marketing.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

I took my mum to see Lionel Richie at the O2 in London. While it wouldn’t have been my first choice she had a great time and getting to spend quality time with your family is irreplaceable.

What software and web services do you use? What do you love about them?

I love Evernote for how smooth and effective it is for managing everything in one place. The mobile App Asana has recently become crucial for me as I manage teams across the world, it’s fantastic as it allows you communicate with other members of your team without a million emails and you can get a grasp on where a project is at in one quick look.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Brian Tracy – Goals. I love this book and my copy is curled at the edges and written all over. Brian shares how to set massive goals and more importantly how to create the correct mind-set that achieving these goals is not only possible but probable! The examples of how goal setting has changed the trajectory of people’s lives, careers and wealth are incredible.

What people have influenced your thinking and might be of interest to others?

Brendon Burchard – A high performance expert
Simon Sinek Author of Start With Why – a great example of someone training others to build businesses that matter and make a difference in the world, not just money.

Connect:

Freedom Academies on Facebook:
Kemi Egan on Linkedin: uk.linkedin.com/in/kemiegan/en
Kemi Egan on Twitter: @KemiEgan
Kemi Egan’s Book “The Power Of Real Estate Investing” :http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U6EVUGI