Nicole Bremner
Investment and Lifestyle
SUBSCRIBE            
Menu
  • SHOWS
    • PODCAST
    • GUEST
  • WRITER
  • SPEAKER
  • INVESTOR
    • PROPERTY
  • ABOUT
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • CAUSES
    • PRESS
  • CONTACT
×

6

15 February 2021

  • lifestyle

    Did you know
    I am partially sighted?
    1 in 20 adults

    will experience significant
    sight loss at some point.

    read more
  • Recent Posts

    • Beating The Imposter Syndrome with Caroline Flanagan #81 2 March 2021
    • The Property Twins, Tonya and Rea, discuss mothering, careers, and property as well as their exciting new venture #80 25 February 2021
    • Fellow Aussie Elinor Moshe on becoming a construction coach and the mistake most people make 23 February 2021
    • Solid Block with Yael Tamar ft. Nicole Bremner : Properties & Sailboats 17 February 2021
    • What innovations will save retail and leisure companies nimble enough to adapt? RLI’s Jayne Rafter joins me #78 15 February 2021
  • Subscribe and follow

  • Instagram

    “If you’re not in the arena also getting your “If you’re not in the arena also getting your ass kicked, I’m not interested in your feedback.
🌟
I want to be in the arena. I want to be brave with my life. And when we make the choice to dare greatly, we sign up to get our asses kicked. We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can’t have both. Not at the same time.” @brenebrown
    Paris doesn’t disappoint. Even a disappointment Paris doesn’t disappoint. Even a disappointment can be turned into a laff (see my story highlight for the too-cold Saint Emilion Cru 🍷😂). Apart from quick visit to the breathtaking Saint Chappelle, more later, and a walk around Notre-Dame we avoided the typical tourist spots and just walked, talked and observed. It was the perfect break, in the truest sense of the word, for us both ❤️
    Poor Norte-Dame. It’s awful to see the level of Poor Norte-Dame. It’s awful to see the level of destruction that the fire caused to this 13th century building. Restoration has finally started and there’s an excellent display of all the internal damage and salvage works on the hoarding. The question is, will Notre-Dame reopen during our lifetimes? It’s hard to see how it will.
    Paris 🇫🇷 This weekend couldn’t come soon e Paris 🇫🇷 This weekend couldn’t come soon enough for us. It’s been intense, to say the least and many tears shed, so perfect to get away, switch off everything and forget (nearly) everything. 
Despite the smell of urine in the air, it’s a beautiful city made for exploring by just wandering. I’m enjoying showing @paul.luetchford around who’s not been since he was a small child. Although he’s much better at directions, not that that’s hard, so is technically showing me around. 
Hope you have a restful weekend 💙

Thanks for taking up the role of insta boyfriend again @paul.luetchford. It’s been a while x
    Am I alone on this? I find myself in something at Am I alone on this? I find myself in something at a pivot point, as the Americans say. It’s a position that many entrepreneurs find themselves but are almost ashamed to admit it. Admission is viewed as failure. It’s the yearning for a job. 
___
The solid, security of the 9-5. A paycheque at the end of each month, health insurance, paid holidays, a pension plan. To go further it’s an HR department, IT department and offices you don’t have to worry about paying for. It’s colleagues and a role you can switch off from at the end of the day and not keep you up in the wee hours of the morning. 
___
The problem is having left employment 15 years ago to set out on my own and raise children, I’m unemployable. I like working my own hours, I’m not great at water-cooler chit chat, I see inefficiencies everywhere and crave the autonomy to press ahead with my own ideas without committee. On reflection I was like that from the beginning of my working career – I constantly saw ways of doing things better. Something my bosses didn’t like hearing from a 20 year old early graduate with only McDonalds, Pizza Hut and a haberdashery factory on her CV. 
___
So where does that leave me now? Probably still unemployable. But burning with ideas, energy and ambition. The only question mark is over the where, what and who. And exciting place to be. Honestly, how many of you self-employed people feel the same?
    Happy 26th anniversary in the business @paul.luetc Happy 26th anniversary in the business @paul.luetchford 🥂

Today isn’t just the day we officially leave Europe but also Paul’s 26th anniversary of advising clients and businesses on how to live their best life with financial security. He started his career advising many teachers and nurses, surprisingly, on retirement planning and now works with a lot of property people in all stages of life best-structure their finances. Please give his company page a follow @seventysevenwm. Tom is doing a great job of launching it with the aim of providing actionable tips and reminders for all areas of wealth management and financial planning. 
Back to this picture taken on a warmer day last year. Paul was so excited to see a memorial to Samuel Plimsoll. As an avid sailor Paul uses Plimsoll lines in business and had only days before explained them to me. Without consulting @google does anyone know what they are? 👀
    A very wise person gave me a great analogy today. A very wise person gave me a great analogy today. He said: 🚴‍♀️
“Your world feels like the velodrome sprint where the riders go so slowly working each other out in this slow poker game of position for most of the race and then right near the end there is this sudden explosion of frenzied speed ending in a winner and a loser. Feels like that explosion is just about to start.”
🚴🏼
While I don’t like to think in terms of winners and losers I do like to think in terms of good and bad and that the good guys come first 🥇
    The one big issue facing property people is not re The one big issue facing property people is not really what they think. 
With 10 years in property and following recent trials and tribulations I finally feel that I’m ready to share some words of experience, perhaps not wisdom, especially what not to do! 
I’m consulting on an exciting collaboration between @seventysevenwm, Elephant’s Child and St James’s Place to assist property people get to grips with what matters in their business and put together the framework needed to scale. Yesterday, together with business advisor Martin Brown and finance expert @paul.luetchford, we met with 3 property businesses to review where they are, the headwinds they’re facing and discuss the framework needed to reach their goals - even if one of them wants to build skyscrapers. 
In these meetings, and one today, there was one thing that these businesses needed - cash. And this was the one thing they felt was holding them back from achieving their goals. Interesting was the range of cash was from £1m to £120m. There was one big difference between the companies who wanted the lower amount and the one seeking hundreds of millions - systems. And that to me is the single issue all property people need over and above everything, including cash. The company seeking £120m has built up systems over the years without trying to grow their business too quickly. Now that these systems are proven raising these eye watering amounts is not a problem. I know I wouldn’t be in the situation I’m in now if proper systems were in place.

What Paul, Martin and myself are doing with the Property Advisory Service is providing the framework to put in place these systems to help property businesses attract the finance they need to scale and reach their goals. If you’re interested in meeting with us, or just Paul and Martin, follow the link in my bio, complete the survey and we will be in touch to arrange a meeting. It’s not a free lunch, but it’s a free coffee. 
Not in property but still would like to see where your business sits against its peers? No problem. Complete the survey link in my bio and receive a complimentary benchmark report from the St James’s Place Entreprenur’s Club.
    In early September I received a call which changed In early September I received a call which changed the course of my property journey. 
___
While I’d had some concerns about the time delays on projects, lack of accounts and the communications I had (and had not) been receiving, I was so caught up in untangling a 19 year relationship along with supporting my three young children that I’d pushed these niggling feelings aside. However the lack of transparency in the situation was completely at odds with my values. During that call the penny dropped for both of us that things were not as they seemed. Something was awry and we had a lot of work to do if we wanted to rescue the situation and engineer an exit for investors in the nine properties within the portfolio. 
____
The situation took a personal toll. I went through the seven stages of grief simultaneously over three areas of my life - career, divorce and the complete upheaval of my family life. It was unfortunate that the time that my property investments needed me my family needed me more. - Shock and denial
- Pain and guilt
- Anger and bargaining
- Depression
- The upward turn
- Reconstruction and working through - Acceptance and hope 
Now I flip between depression through to acceptance on a daily basis. But definitely with a lean towards the "reconstruction and working through" stage. I’ve set aside everything else, apart from family, just to focus on exits for investors. 
If you are a stakeholder reading this please don’t be alarmed. A lot of work has been carried out at a high level since that fateful day in September. We are in a good place now but there is some mess left to clean up. Those in charge of the clearing up are more than capable and progress has been made. 
For those hiding behind fake accounts and WhatsApp groups I pity you. It’s a shame that you are so frustrated in your own shortcomings and failings that you have to dwell on and even fabricate mine. Time will tell.

Thank you for the immense support I’ve received from so many places. When I’ve felt like quitting your messages and calls have kept me focussed. It’s amazing the support often comes not from those you expect but those you don’t. Thank you to the unexpected supporters 💙
    This error message is only visible to WordPress admins
    Error: There is no connected account for the user 438157373.
  • Come for a tour

    We've moved and
    I've decorated our
    new Rochester home.

    Come for and see
    what I've done for £15k.

    let's look
  • Categories

    • Causes (1)
    • Nicole as Guest (2)
    • Podcast (81)
    • Property (7)
    • Travel (3)
    • Writing (4)
  • (c) 2020 Nicole Bremner
    All rights reserved

    • Podcast
    • Property
    • Travel
    • About
    • Contact
    • Terms Of Service
  • Follow us

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS
  • Subscribe

    If you want always know about latest posts, you can subscribe

  • Home
  • About
  • Podcast
  • Writer
  • Investor
  • Nicole as Guest
  • Press
Powered by Himmelen - Premium Wordpress Theme          
×
  • About Nicole

    Ten years ago I was at home raising three children under three and unsure what my future held. Fast forward to 2020 I run a boutique investment company, am a non-exec, best selling author, podcaster and international speaker.

    show more
  • Recent Posts

    • Beating The Imposter Syndrome with Caroline Flanagan #81 2 March 2021
    • The Property Twins, Tonya and Rea, discuss mothering, careers, and property as well as their exciting new venture #80 25 February 2021
    • Fellow Aussie Elinor Moshe on becoming a construction coach and the mistake most people make 23 February 2021
    • Solid Block with Yael Tamar ft. Nicole Bremner : Properties & Sailboats 17 February 2021
    • What innovations will save retail and leisure companies nimble enough to adapt? RLI’s Jayne Rafter joins me #78 15 February 2021
  • Subscribe and follow

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you accept this policy as long as you are using this websiteAcceptView Policy