Fi Warren-Smith has been investing in property since 2013 but found she wasn’t getting the same returns when the market suddenly dropped in 2015. Since shifting strategy, Fi is now actively climbing the Wealth Spectrum from Green to Blue, with her business FWS Properties. 

How can you change your strategy and find creative ways to approach your business?

Moving from working on the board of a law firm to property investment was quite straightforward, for  Fi Warren-Smith as she was used to working with professionals. "I got into property in September 2013. I bought my first property just before Christmas. 2014 was a good year - I set up 22 rooms [to rent] for myself, and with my partner at the time we had another 10 or so rooms, but in the beginning of 2015 the market dropped." 

“After the market drop though, things became much more challenging.  I happened to go to one of Simon Zutshi’s Property Investment Network seminars. I thought it would be good to learn some new strategies, so I decided to join Simon’s year long Mastermind programme while I was there"

“At first, I didn’t achieve much for the first 8 months. I couldn’t make a property deal in Reading work for me and on one of my mentoring sessions with Simon, we concurred I was actually getting it right but Reading wasn’t the right place to do the right deals.

So I shifted my strategy.

At the beginning of 2016 I started getting deals across. Through trying a whole variety of things, I ended up as one of the top 5 in the Mastermind program. My strategies ranged from buying an office block to terraced flats.”

Fi found a lot of the shift came from immersing herself in a community focused on property investment. 

The change that came from the Mastermind network for me was firstly mindset - I'd never been exposed to such a change of thinking, or intensive personal growth. We were working in an environment where nearly every session was about confronting fear and barriers. It opened me to this world that I now love, and invest quite heavily in changing my own head space”.

“I walked away from my year there with 4 or 5 of my greatest friends”.

As a part of Simon’s Mastermind course, Fi took the Wealth Dynamics Profile test for Real Estate Investors - correlated by Simon Zutshi and Roger Hamilton. 

“I’m a Supporter profile, and I’ve also done the Wealth Dynamics Flow Consultant Certification. Working with Roger also shifted my thinking - I know now, that I want to be a Blue level investor.

At Mastermind I was at Green level, and this year I’ve been growing Blue. It’s taking doing everything differently, and changing my strategy moving forward. 

The Profiling system is a very powerful tool. I’m about to go into a partnership with other Masterminds - one of whom is Lord profile, and the other is a Supporter. I know as a team that we work well, and that makes such a huge difference."

This year, Fi Warren-Smith won an award for Women in Business, recognising her growth in the property investment world, growing her business to £2.5 million.

What has inspired you recently to do things differently?