A few months ago, I decided to start a podcast for people like me: expats investing in UK property. Years ago, I considered a career in radio production, making programmes like the BBC’s Crossing Continents, which would combine two of my passions: travel and broadcasting. The idea of making a podcast came to me a couple of years ago, but for refugees rather than property. My wife and I have long talked about our dream of doing something for refugees, but we would need time and financial independence if we were to make a real difference.

When we reviewed the state of our pensions five years ago, we knew something had to change so we cashed in as much of our pension as we could (without incurring penalties) and shifted our focus towards property (Subscribe to Expat Property Story for more details).

We would like a nice home with a garden (my wife constantly reminds me that our tenants have nicer kitchens than we do!), enough money to pay for children’s university fees (higher for expats!) and money to live on so that we could throw ourselves into our refugee project once we go back to the UK.

The best way for us to achieve this is by building a property portfolio. In July 2021, a friend of mine suggested I start a property blog. But as a reluctant user of social media, I was initially dismissive:

“I like my privacy. I don’t really want to be in the public domain…” I answered.

“You don’t have to tell people who you are,” my friend countered.

Of course! Why didn’t I think of that before? We’ve had The Secret Footballer, why not The Secret Podcaster? I’m well aware, though, that no one ‘s trying to guess who I am!

So I reinvented myself as “The Expat Property Guy”. Instead of a blog, I would start a podcast. After all, I have been an avid listener of podcasts for years, I have some experience of broadcasting / recording and I have become passionate about property. It made perfect sense.

I started to research how to podcast. I soon came across the term ‘crickets’ which refers to the idea that you can have the most perfectly produced podcast in the world, but with no listeners, the only sound is that of crickets.

So, to promote the pod, I opened accounts on Instagram (Expat_Property_Story) and Twitter(@ExpatPropGuy);

It has taken me two months to get to the stage where I’m ready to invite my first guest (my day job has slowed me down) and it's so much work that I’m beginning to understand why most podcasts don’t make it to double digits. But I have already learnt so much from this experience, although my social media is still all over the place as I write this!

So that’s how I became The Expat Property Guy!