[Hayden West] ​​​​​​​Believing in Yourself Can create the lifestyle you desire

Welcome to Exit the Matrix Stories of Success with your host Jane Slack-Smith, where we celebrate the incredible journeys of individuals who've transcended their limitations and achieved extraordinary success.

Hello and welcome to the next episode of ExitTheMatrix.au Stories of Success, and today I am so excited about having someone a little bit unusual to our previous guests on the podcast because this is all about looking at the ways of doing things differently, looking at the matrix that exists of limiting beliefs, of conditions, of societal norms, and thinking a little bit outside the square. And my guest today is Hayden West. Now Hayden's 33. He's a father of two. He's a husband. He's a carpenter. He runs his own business. And I have run across Hayden in property groups across the the internet over the last couple of years. And as most of you know, you know, I've spent 20 years in helping people create property wealth and investment and in really boring meat and potatoes type property strategies. And often when you get into these groups, there's all these conversations and there's a lot of people who are, you know, speculating and really, really risky. And there's others there that are just too scared to take any action. And what I've always appreciated about Hayden's comments is, you know, he's like, gets he has a crack, he has some real great rounded advice. And from someone so young, it's always struck me as someone that I think I would like to know more about his story. So hence I have invited Hayden along today. Hello Hayden, and welcome to Exit the Matrix.

Thanks for having me, Jane Slack-Smith.

Very excited to have you here. Now, I guess, you know, what we, we try to look at here is, is those kind of like sliding door moments, those times in your life where you're like, you had a choice and you did things a little bit differently. So I'd love to go back into your history, not that far away, and just recreate for me, you know, where was that sliding door moment for you?

Yes, I suppose for me it was, you know, I was probably about 21. I'd just finished my apprenticeship as a carpenter and I did work for— he was a small builder. We didn't have like a large expanse of different crews and everything like that. And we didn't meet a lot of new trades. They were always the same kind of trades that would come in and work on the house. And then pretty much probably 6 months after I finished my apprenticeship, he started to wind down into retirement. I was subcontracting for him then at that time. So I had an ABN active. But instead of getting another job, I sort of stepped out on my own and started my own little business up and been working for myself ever since I was 21.

So you left school at what?

It was end of 11.

So 16? Yeah, 16. You did the apprenticeship, and as apprenticeship, and you finally got through, it's like, great, job for life, got a carpenter I work for, business, I'm all set. And all of a sudden the rug is pulled out. I guess the norm would have been that you go and work for someone else. Starting your own business at that age was, was pretty brave. Did you have any apprehension at that stage?

Uh, a little bit, yeah, for sure. Like, you can't— you know, I was pretty young, so you can't say it was just like all easy. But, um, I didn't really see I had much other choice, to be honest, because I didn't really know anyone.

Yeah.

Um, I didn't know really how to do an interview or anything like that for a job, like a position or anything. So I started to just go and knock on like real estate agent doors and stuff like that, just see if I could pick up some of their maintenance work and yeah, just get my foot in the door with some other local businesses pretty much. And it all sort of went from there.

So tell me about, I guess the thing that I love and I can't wait to get to, you know, the big reveal to where you are now, but you know, that kind of journey that you went on, how did you know you're a property investor now, you and your wife and you know, you, you have a lifestyle a lot of people are gonna be envious of when they hear about it. But what was the kind of journey, you know, how did you start creating that kind of mindset and that type of abundance in your life for yourself?

I don't think it was like anything for me. It's always been fairly natural. I think like as we've talked before, you know, privately or whatever, it's always sort of come relatively easy to me. I know it's going to sound a bit, a bit obnoxious or whatever, but it's, it's come relatively easy to me in the fact that, uh, if I decide to do something, it normally works out pretty good. Yeah, for me. Um, and I didn't really understand why when I was looking around at friends and, you know, other people that I ran into through life, they were all complaining that it was all really hard and difficult and Like, I was only 21, 22, not earning very good money, and I was thinking, like, this is a pretty good life. I don't know, I don't know how it's so hard for all of these people that are, you know, 10, 20, 30 years older than me. Like, what's, what's happening for them, you know?

Um, if you could pinpoint it now, is there something that you feel that you had a little bit more self-awareness or, you know, get up and go, or you know, something that was different to all the other people who were kind of slogging it out?

Um, definitely. So I think some more self-awareness, especially being young, like that was, that was something that was pretty obvious to me that other people sort of, they didn't know why they were working. They didn't even know why they were doing a job, or they didn't know what they wanted to do with their money or whatever it was. Nobody really had a plan or anything in place or a vision of what they wanted what their life to sort of look like. But it didn't take me very long, even in my apprenticeship, I think I saw I was sort of going, I don't want to do this for the next 50 years. Like, this is genuinely hard work. And while it's okay while you're, you know, 16, 17, 18 doing that sort of stuff, for me it was like, I don't want to be doing this even when I'm 50. Like, that's, that's too hard. That's too, that's too hard work. And we just managed to get there a lot quicker than that.

And tell me, you know, you, so, yeah, I mean, it's, it's not like it's easy when you say things come easy to you. You're running a business. Yeah, you're on the tools. You've got a big job. But how did, how did you and your wife or your partner back then, how did you start thinking of that big vision? Because it was obvious that you didn't wanna work forever. Did you have, did you create an active vision in your mind of what you wanted to create or was it just like, start saving?

Start saving, buy a house was the big one. So we bought our first place and it was a rundown piece of crap. Like they normally are for a first house. Yeah. We did some quick little renovation stuff on it, obviously being a carpenter that helps. And then I think it was maybe like 12 or 18 months later. We paid about $50,000 or $60,000 off the mortgage. Our mortgage was only $230,000 or something like that at the time, but I sort of just thought, well, we'll use that money. We'll buy another place that can cover itself at least and not sort of give us too much hassle in the way of our personal lives and doesn't take away too much cash from us. And we did that and it worked out really well. Like I mean, it didn't, didn't grow a lot very fast because it was obviously my first investment and you're sort of buying the bottom of the market and whatever you can do, but it was great for a bit of confidence building, I think.

Yeah.

Because it was just taking that step and, you know, again, it was only a $230,000 house that we bought. But yeah, it's just the, the action, I suppose that gives you that confidence. And slowly over time, we bought a couple, um, and we just thought, okay, this is working, this is where we, we should be putting our money and what we should be focusing on. And, and we just kept pushing harder in that direction.

Now a quick word from our sponsor, Your Success Club. Your Success Club is a group of vibrant abundance seekers. If you subscribe to exitthematrix.io, we are going to drop you into the club room, which has lots of of goodies, resources, and a free gift just for subscribing. Now back to the podcast. It really is just that stepping stone, isn't it? You know, you get the, the first one's often the hardest. And that, I mean, let's be honest, you know, we're talking, um, you know, we're both based here in Australia, but we're talking about the fact that of the 23 million people, not many— I think there's something like 11,000— get past maybe 5 investment properties. So there's not that many role models. Were you just having a crack and trying it out yourself, or were you in groups, or you're getting mentoring, or reading books? Like, how are you trying to get— getting that confidence built up?

Definitely books were a good one, but I'm not a big reader, so I probably— when I say books, I probably only read 5 or 6 books total, and then I sort of thought, By the time I got there, I was like, oh, everyone's talking about the same stuff. So I think I've got that now.

Yeah.

Yeah. I don't need to waste my time.

There's nothing new in getting it right. Right.

I was like, oh, I don't need any more books. That seems it's all pretty basic from here. Yeah.

Yeah.

Didn't really have any mentors other than my parents. They, they, they like property as well. So dad's always a good one to bounce stuff off and ideas and whatever. But in terms of coaching and things like that, as I've said to you, like I've never had a coach. I've never had anyone sort of wrangle or anything like that other than, you know, parents pretty much.

And tell me this, you know, you're having a, you're, you're, you know, buying these properties, saving a lot, you know, were your mates going, how you doing this? Or were they sitting there blowing it off and going, ah, There's Hayden, he's not coming to the pub again this week.

Yeah, a few, a few both. Like, I mean, I've still got mates that don't understand like how I can be just wandering along the beach or something on a Wednesday. They still don't understand they're working, you know, 5, 6 days a week, maybe doing fly-in fly-out, you know, 3 weeks on, 1 week off and all this sort of stuff. And like, they were, they, a lot of them were earning more money than I was. When I started my business and I was just thinking, how are you not able to do this? Like you're earning 50% more than I earn. Like what's wrong with you? You know? So, I still get it now. So yeah, definitely.

So, you know, I guess fast forward, you're 33 now, you've got a significant residential property portfolio, but when we were talking about this a bit earlier, you shared with me that you actually bought into I guess, a gated community, a community where there's a lot of people go, don't go there, you know, like, don't, don't do this. So, you know, you, you went against what most people say as well, you know, how did that work out for you? And, and how did, uh, I guess, how did you make that initial decision that everyone else is saying no, but I think this is a, this is something worth looking at?

Yeah. So I think by that time we bought, probably 3 or 4 standalone houses and they were, they were decent enough buys. But the problem I saw in the market was, uh, everyone wanted them. Right. So it just, it was slowly becoming harder and harder to actually get a genuinely good deal. But then I noticed units and things like that. Nobody was paying much attention to them. And then these little things in the gated community were a bit of a mix of a standalone house. And a unit and literally nobody was paying attention to them. Nobody wanted them. Uh, I know a lot of real estate agents and things, I was talking to them about them and they said, nah, they're crap. They don't go up in value. You know, they're hard to rent and all this sort of stuff. But they're sort of like little standalone houses on 350 square meter blocks or something. 3 and 4 bedroom homes, 2 bathrooms in most of them. Um, and we were buying them below land value. Like for the size. And they were about 10 years old. People that bought them off the plan in 2007, '08, '09, somewhere around there, um, paid $360,000 to $380,000 for them. The cheapest one we bought was $205,000.

$205,000. Yeah. That's a lot of loss for someone.

Hey, it is. Yeah. And, um, The first one I knew that people, some, like, people were losing money on it. The next few that we bought in there, I obviously knew they were losing. I didn't really want to go into their story. I know a lot of people always, they ask the question, you know, why are they selling? And I don't really care why they're selling. They're just selling. Like, it's not my, it's not up to me to make that decision. And, you know, we're just out there trying to find a good deal and these things were Crazy. Like you couldn't even build the building for what we were paying for them, let alone buy the block of land.

And you could rent them and they were making money for you.

We've only had a couple of days vacant, like total since we've owned them. So they're easy to rent. Really easy.

You got the residential properties and then obviously a lot of people then look to commercial and they look at it and go like me, hmm, that's too risky. I don't understand it, but You stepped in and embraced that challenge as well. Hey.

Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I think, you know, it's a great space if you genuinely looking for some cash flow. The growth's amazing if you get it right. And I think it's actually easier to make money in commercial property in terms of growth than it is in residential. You don't have to sit around and wait so long a lot of the time. The renovations don't have to be as big. If you want to really do something nice, it can be as easy as a new lease in a commercial property, and it can add hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you get it wrong, you can definitely lose. You know, it's not all upside, but if you get it right, do the research. Yep.

And I guess for, you know, those mates of yours who are wondering why you're standing on the side of the bridge on a Wednesday afternoon, what's life look like now? You know, what have you created? You're 33. You've got You've got 2 little kids, you know, what's life look like?

It's great for me and my wife and my family. You know, I can sort of pick and choose the hours that we work. You know, I can take, I take every Friday off. We have long weekends every weekend. Sometimes I'll be home at midday or something like that and we'll head over to the beach and, you know, get Thai food or something for dinner with the kids. With the kid and go to the park and all sorts of stuff like it. We don't have massive expenses and ambitions and things like that. We like new cars, you know, we don't want to have breakdowns and stuff like that. So, you know, we own our house outright. We're pretty simple sort of people and yeah, we've got a lot of freedom, a lot of choice. We could probably stop working if we wanted to, but I don't know what else we'd do. To be honest with you.

You're too young to stop working.

Too young. Too young.

So, but I mean, you know, and your business that you run as well, you know, you're, you're looking after lots of doors for rental managers, property managers. So you've got a, a, you know, you're an active business that keeps you and, and staff active too.

Yeah, for sure. And look, I'd always have, I like earning money like most people do. So, you know, and it helps me invest pretty much in something that I You know, like doing more than, than working for sure these days, but it creates that extra cash flow and allows us to save and do that and do what we love.

So for those people that you looked back at when you're like 21, 22, 23, and they're 30, 40, 50 years old and they're going, geez, this is so hard. And, and you're, you know, you're buying in the bottom of the market, you're saving up, you're putting money in, you're improving the properties, you're pulling out equity, you're buying the next one, you're looking for opportunities, you're doing the research. Like for those people who are still sitting on the fence going, you know, it's all too hard. You know, I can't have the life that I want. And you know, it's, it'll take decades to do that. What would be your thoughts that you could share with, you know, I guess where you've come from and what you've achieved?

Yeah. I'd probably say it doesn't take decades, but it probably takes at least one. Like it's, I don't think you, you know, unless you do something really amazing in a business or something, I don't think you're going to get there much quicker than at least a decade. So definitely takes time. But it's, it's so achievable. It really is like, it's a great country. We've got a great opportunity here. You know, everywhere you go, there's people doing stuff. There's properties to buy or businesses to buy or get involved in. There's just opportunity everywhere if you look for it.

Well, I really appreciate your time, Hayden. And I, what I just love about, you know, the way you show up in, in these Facebook groups in property investing, you're like, you just cut to the chase, you know, it's just like, mate, you're having a lend or, or, you know, people are sitting there going, it's not possible, or I'm about to go buy 5 properties. You're like, maybe not. And you know, it's, it's always kind of a very, um, metered and considered response. And I think the thing is, you know, I think it was Warren Buffett that said if you're investing in it exciting, you're doing it wrong. Yep. Boring kind of works, right?

Boring. Yeah. Like I've said to you before, you know, I talk to a lot of people who are looking to start investing now and they come at me with like all these random crazy ideas, like rooming houses and all this sort of stuff. And it's like, you've only got your own home. You really want to go into like some specialty area in real estate, just buy something that's boring and understand what it is you're doing and get a bit of cash flow and some equity behind you. And if you want to have a play, do it later when you're set up. Like you don't need to go crazy at the start to, you know, have a really good life. You'll probably find out you don't need much more than 5 or 6 properties anyway, and you'll be fine.

Very inspiring, Hayden. Now, just for fun, this question I ask everyone, what is something bizarre or unusual that people would not know about you?

Um, I am pretty active, um, but I can watch every ball of a Test match in cricket.

5 days?

5 days without a problem. But if the footy is on, I'll fall asleep before it's finished.

How is that possible?

I just think it's so boring. I can't, I can't get around it. Like AFL, rugby, whatever it is, I just, I cannot, I cannot get into it.

Never have been able to, so I might, I might have to share something that people don't know about me either. For my 7th birthday, I asked for a cricket scoring pad, and we used to go and spend all weekend watching my dad play cricket. And cricket's like, ball, ball, strike. Yeah, it's so exciting. So, uh, yeah, I could kind of, I could kind of relate to that. Well, look, I really appreciate your time, Hayden. Thank you for coming on Exit the Matrix: The Stories of Success. Your, uh, your story's inspirational. And, and I think, you know, what I love about it and what I really take from this is that, you know, people are served up opportunities to have a choice. You know, you could have gone and found someone else to work with. You know, you left school at 16, you're 33 now, and you're sitting back going, you know, I'm kind of comfortable. I've created something. I did the hard work. I did a bit of research. I did hear what other people were saying and made my own decisions. And, you know, you, you've stepped outside the norms of convention. You run business, you have time to spend with your young family. So completely inspirational. I really appreciate you sharing your story with us.

No worries. Good to be here.

Banana pie, banana pie, banana pie, banana pie, banana pie, banana pie.

Thank you for listening to Exit the Matrix Stories of Success. Make sure you subscribe to future episodes at www.exitthematrix.io. Until next time, here's to your success.