Scott Picken discovered his greatest opportunity when his property sales company was struggling most. As a result, he has transformed a challenge with his property sales company into a fast-growing tech company, Wealth Migrate, which is on a mission to revolutionize the property industry.

Five years ago, Scott was running his property sales business, International Property Solutions (IPS) when he was invited by social entrepreneur and futurist, Roger James Hamilton to be a speaker at the Fast Forward Summit in Johannesburg.

At the event, Scott realised that a change in his mindset could quickly shift the fortunes of his business. He joined Crystal Circle, Roger’s high level mentorship programme for entrepreneurs, and put in place three keys to unlock a brand new opportunity.

KEY 1 - FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER

Roger remembers, “When I started working with Scott, he was marketing Australian properties to South African investors, which was a real challenge because the property market had gone South with the crash. I suggested that rather than trying to convince people to buy what he was selling, find out they wanted, then offer them that.”

Scott connected with his top clients, who had stopped investing with him, and found out they were still willing to invest but for higher returns than he was able to give them in Australia.

So he went looking for deals globally that would fit their criteria, and found them in the US. Within a matter of months he negotiated with a US developer and brought 20 investors together to secure a great deal at a high return.

Scott says, “The deal really got IPS on track to become Wealth Migrate. People began to trust that I’d secure deals that worked for them, not just the developer.”

KEY 2 - EXPAND YOUR CUSTOMER

As Scott rapidly turned IPS around, he listened to Roger’s views on the future of the property market. Roger predicted the global property market would eventually become like the stock market, where anyone could buy in to shares in a property for as little as $100. Scott started becoming a futurist himself, learning about property crowdfunding and, on Roger’s invitation, joining think tanks with Richard Branson on Necker Island and Singularity University founder Peter Diamandis in Los Angeles.

That led to Scott deciding to focus fully on the growth of Wealth Migrate, which is now leading the way as a global property investment platform. Operating like an online investment site for shares in properties instead of companies, investors in any country can co-invest in property projects in any other country.

Scott decided to define his customer as not only those who were wealthy, but everyone who could see the value of property investing, at whatever level of affordability they were at.

Scott recalls his own pain when first wanting to invest ten years ago: “My (now) business partner was buying medical centres, and at the time I didn’t understand why. He told me ‘No matter what happens, people need doctors, doctors never leave, and they tend to sign long term contracts.’ No one had ever taught me how to make money like that.”

“I asked if I could get involved, and he said, ‘Sure, it’s $5 million per person’. So that was that. He invested AU$40 million dollars with 7 friends, and today they’re worth AU$700 million on the Australian stock exchange. And the reason I missed out wasn’t because I didn’t want to participate, I just couldn’t afford it.”

KEY 3 - SOLVE A CUSTOMER PROBLEM, THEN A MARKET PROBLEM

Scott persuaded some of his property investors to invest in Wealth Migrate, and he began by listing projects that IPS had secured. Then he began to be approached by more investors, and by more property developers.

He realised that with Wealth Migrate, it was not just solving a problem for investors who didn’t have the money to do an entire deal on their own. It was also solving a larger problem of liquidity in the market. Developers were approaching Wealth Migrate as a fast way to raise funds. Scott says:

“During the 2008 property crash in London, there were opportunities to buy at 50 pence on the pound. I needed 10 million pounds to close an amazing deal, but couldn’t get my clients to act fast enough. I realised, in order to succeed, we needed to build a platform that enabled us to have the same buying power of institutions. I hadn’t even heard of crowdfunding!”

Today, with Wealth Migrate, he is making that dream a reality: “In 2015 we got invited by the World Bank to do a crowdfunding event in Beijing, and in less than 6 months we had an office with 8 people in China.”

“We’ve got members from 105 different countries, had 65 million dollars go through the platform, have investors from 42 countries, and the thing I'm most proud of- we have a reinvestment rate of 70%. Over the last 12 months we’ve grown by 1.93% per day. So there’s clearly a problem we’re solving!”

Imagine if Scott had continued to go down the path he was on, instead of realising that he was on a wave that had already ended, and there was a new one to surf.

What could you do to shift your mindset, and unlock the keys to your next opportunity?

As for Scott, he is on the way towards his big mission: “Our aim is to empower 1 billion people to invest by 2020, and to make investing as simple as a swipe of the finger, from as little as $1.”