Podcasts about hmos

It's been a busy, challenging and exciting few months across my property businesses.In this episode, I'm giving you an honest update on exactly what's been happening behind the scenes. From development projects and difficult tenants to refinancing, new purchases and why I'm shifting my focus back towards high-yielding HMOs.I also share some of the challenges we've faced, including getting a major development back on track after our contractor went into liquidation, dealing with significant tenant arrears and preparing for a difficult refinance.

As the academic year kicks off, thousands of student properties across the UK remain unexpectedly vacant due to oversaturation, poor property standards, or last-minute group fallouts. In this timely episode, Simon reveals an immediate, high-leverage strategy to turn these landlords' panic into profitable win-win property deals. By spotting unlit, advertised student HMOs in September and October, investors can secure properties via purchase lease options, rent-to-rent, or vendor financing—repurposing them for young professionals, corporate workers, or social housing without deploying heavy personal capital. KEY TAKEAWAYS Oversupply and evolving tenant preferences leave many student HMOs completely empty at the start of the academic year, creating highly motivated landlords desperate to avoid a 12-month void. Student HMOs can be repurposed for other tenant demographics, such as young professionals, working tenants, or local council and charity housing schemes. Empty HMOs can be identified simply by walking popular student areas in early evening to spot unlit properties bearing "To Let" signs, then sourcing title deeds to contact owners directly. Deal structures such as purchase lease options, rent-to-rent, and vendor finance allow investors to secure control of these unrented properties using minimal upfront capital. BEST MOMENTS “There are three reasons why properties are not rented to students. Because there's an oversupply, the first reason is properties that are a little bit too far away from the university campus." “The reality is many people who are student landlords, they just know students. They think that only students live in HMOs..." "So you can walk down those roads, looking to see where a property has a 'to let' sign outside the property, but there are no lights on in the property." “When you do landlord letters, don't just do one, you need to do a series of letters, a bit of a campaign, because they might not get the first letter, maybe they're not that interested the first time, or maybe they just don't get around to responding" VALUABLE RESOURCES To find your local pin meeting visit: ⁠www.PinMeeting.co.uk⁠ and use voucher code PODCAST to attend you first meeting as Simon's guest (instead of paying the normal £20). Contact and follow Simon here: Facebook: ⁠http://www.facebook.com/OfficialSimonZutshi⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonzutshi/⁠ YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/SimonZutshiOfficial⁠ Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/simonzutshi⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/simonzutshi/⁠ Simon Zutshi, experienced investor, successful entrepreneur and best-selling author, is widely recognised as one of the top wealth creation strategists in the UK. Having started to invest in property in 1995 and went on to become financially independent by the age of 32. Passionate about sharing his experience, Simon founded the property investor's network (pin) in 2003 ⁠www.pinmeeting.co.uk⁠   pin has since grown to become the largest property networking organisation in the UK, with monthly meetings in 50 cities, designed specifically to provide a supportive, educational and inspirational environment for people like you to network with and learn from other successful investors. Since 2003, Simon has taught thousands of entrepreneurs and business owners how to successfully invest in a tax-efficient way.  How to create additional streams of income, give them more time to do the things they want to do and build their long-term wealth. Simon's book “Property Magic” which is now in its sixth edition, became an instant hit when first released in 2008 and remains an Amazon No 1 best-selling property book. Simon launched his latest business, ⁠www.CrowdProperty.com⁠, in 2014, which is an FCA Regulated peer to peer lending platform to facilitate loans between private individuals and property professionals. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. ⁠https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Jordan Kynoch started investing in property at just 23, with no money, no experience and a long-term goal: to build enough freedom to be fully present when he eventually became a father.Thirteen years later, Jordan owns more than 30 properties across Scotland and Liverpool. The journey involved countless hours on the road, sleeping on building-site floors and using private investment to fund every property purchase—but that hard work now allows him to spend almost every day with his new son.In this episode, Jordan shares the numbers behind his portfolio purchases and property flips, including a six-title deal bought for £192,500 and a derelict house that generated approximately £80,000 in pre-tax profit. He also explains why he is selling some Liverpool HMOs, how he manages projects across different locations and why straightforward buy-to-lets still form the foundation of his portfolio.EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS• Starting in property at 23 with no money or experience• Why becoming a present father was one of Jordan's original goals• The years spent travelling and sleeping on building-site floors• Building a portfolio of more than 30 properties across Scotland and Liverpool• Why Article 4 restrictions increased the value of his existing Liverpool HMOs• The reasoning behind selling profitable HMOs and reinvesting the capital elsewhere• Why Jordan still believes straightforward buy-to-lets work• Finding off-market opportunities through owners, neighbours and existing contacts• Buying six titles in Forfar for £192,500 after negotiating almost £50,000 off the asking price• Spending approximately £70,000 on the refurbishment and producing around £1,800 in monthly cash flow• How changing the layouts added bedrooms and increased the value of the flats• Managing projects remotely using trusted building teams in each investment area• The derelict Errol house bought for £153,000 and refurbished for approximately £70,000• Why Jordan marketed the property immediately before Christmas despite agents advising him to wait• Making approximately £80,000 in pre-tax profit from the six-month project• How Jordan has funded every property purchase using private investors• Why he repays investors at the end of each project instead of continually rolling their money forward• Turning investors away when their requested return makes the deal unworkable• Why smaller, repeatable projects can produce better results than stressful large developments• Building The Style & Staging Co as an additional income stream• Using property staging to help developers, estate agents and homeowners sell• How becoming a father changed Jordan's priorities and attitude towards business• His plans to acquire more portfolios and complete one or two property flips each yearCONNECT WITH JORDANInstagram: @the_style_and_staging_coNETWORKING EVENTSFirst Wednesday of every month

Your first property investment probably won't make you rich overnight — but buying the wrong investment property could cost you thousands of pounds and seriously damage your property investment journey.In this video, Rahim Bah shares 7 alarming things every first-time property investor should know before buying an investment property in the UK.Drawing from his own UK property investment journey, Rahim explains the costly mistakes beginners can make when they focus on emotions, property prices or social media hype instead of understanding the numbers, cash flow, location, financing and long-term strategy.Whether you're completely new to UK property investment, looking to buy your first buy-to-let, considering an HMO, exploring BRRR, or trying to build a property portfolio, these lessons can help you think more like an investor before making your next move.In this video, you will learn:Why you should never fall in love with an investment propertyLearn why professional property investors focus on the numbers rather than emotional decisions, beautiful kitchens or impressive bathrooms.Why cash flow matters more than simply buying a cheap propertyDiscover why a cheaper property isn't automatically a better investment and why positive monthly cash flow can be critical when building a sustainable property portfolio.How location can affect your property investmentLearn what to look for when analysing an area, including population growth, transport links, employment, universities and regeneration.Why property renovation costs can go over budgetUnderstand why unexpected problems can appear during refurbishment and why having a contingency budget is essential.How interest rates can affect your property dealLearn about stress-testing your property investment calculations and considering what could happen if mortgage interest rates increase.Why you shouldn't chase every property investment strategyFrom Buy-to-Let and HMOs to BRRR and other strategies, discover why mastering one strategy can be more effective than trying to do everything at once.Why property investment isn't passive at the beginningUnderstand the work involved in finance, negotiations, viewings, builders, solicitors, mortgage brokers, tenants and property management — and how systems can eventually create more freedom.Property investing isn't simply about buying houses. It's about understanding numbers, solving problems, finding opportunities, creating value and building a better financial future.If you're serious about starting or growing your UK property investment journey, watch until the end and ask yourself:Would you rather spend time learning how to find the right property — or spend the next five years wishing you had started?

Send us Fan MailMost rent-to-rent businesses do not fail because the strategy is “bad” they fail because the setup is sloppy. We get practical about what you actually need before you take on properties, whether you are running HMOs or building a service accommodation portfolio, so you can operate like a real property professional from day one.  We talk through the essentials: setting up a limited company, opening a proper business bank account, and treating income as the business's money until you have planned for tax and costs. We also share a simple “pots” approach for cashflow management, including money set aside for voids and maintenance, so your bank balance stops lying to you and you can pay contractors quickly and confidently.  From there, we dig into the systems that keep things running. For HMOs, we cover tenant management software, room advertising, the DPS deposit protection scheme, tenant referencing, business phone numbers, and getting legal support through the NRLA. For service accommodation, we break down why a channel manager and dynamic pricing tools like PriceLabs matter, plus how data tools like AirDNA can help you assess demand and occupancy. We finish with how we think about building a support team with VAs, viewing help, cleaners, and emergency cover so the business serves your life instead of owning it.If you found this useful, subscribe, share it with a friend building a rent-to-rent business, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What system do you need to put in place first?VALUABLE RESOURCES:Let me help you build your property business, Check out how I can support your investing now.Visit https://www.thepropertyunleashed.com/homeMy Property Investing Community called Property Education To Action,  This is the best place to achieve your property goals and build the life you desire. https://educationtoaction.com Apply here: thepropertyunleashed.com — click Inner CircleSupportive Living help www.socialspaces.uk“Free Goal Setting Masterclass: Build Your Life In Five Days”“If you've enjoyed these episodes, leave us a five-star review”https://www.facebook.com/groups/816926952556608 to meet like-minded property investors and be a part of the community.CONNECT WITH ME:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.fitzgerald.7921Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markfitzgeraldentrepreneur/Linkedin: https...

£10,000 per month in net income is a common goal for HMO investors, but very few people actually break down what it will take to get there.In this #Rewind episode, I break down a simple exercise I use with my mentees to reverse engineer that target, looking at how many properties you might need, the equity you'll need to create and why adding value is such an important part of building and scaling an HMO portfolio.

Most property investors think design is just about scatter cushions and paint colours. Julian Maurice — design consultant, former contractor, and HMO investor — says that misunderstanding is costing landlords thousands. In this episode, Julian breaks down why he believes most investors don't actually understand what "profit" means (hint: gross yield tells you nothing), and how applying Dieter Rams' 10 Principles of Good Design — the same framework behind Apple and Porsche — transformed his own property portfolio. We cover:

What happens when the foundational microbes responsible for helping establish the infant gut microbiome begin disappearing? In this episode of ReversABLE, Josh Dech sits down with microbiome researcher Stephanie Culler to explore one of the most overlooked factors in lifelong health: what happens to the gut microbiome during the earliest stages of life. Stephanie shares findings from the My Baby Biome study, described as the largest U.S. study of the infant gut microbiome, including the striking observation that 25% of babies in the study had no detectable Bifidobacterium at all. Even more concerning, the team found that approximately 76% of babies had low levels of these foundational bacteria, with low or absent levels by age two associated with substantially higher risk of conditions such as food allergies, eczema, and asthma. The conversation breaks down why Bifidobacterium—particularly Bifidobacterium infantis—matters, how human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) act as specialized prebiotics, and how microbial metabolites can influence immune-system development and inflammation. Stephanie explains how antibiotics, C-sections, feeding practices, ultra-processed foods, low-fiber diets, and broader modernization may be reshaping the infant microbiome across generations. Josh and Stephanie also explore whether the microbiome can be "rewilded," why some bacterial strains may be better adapted to the modern gut than older commercial strains, and the potential implications for adult gut health and inflammatory disease. They discuss research into microbiome restoration using targeted combinations of Bifidobacterium strains and HMOs. The episode also tackles a surprisingly nuanced question: is there one ideal diet for the microbiome? Stephanie explains why different microbiome configurations may respond differently to fiber-rich, mixed, or carnivore-style diets—and why personalized nutrition may ultimately depend on the microbial ecosystem already present in an individual's gut. For parents, prospective parents, and anyone interested in gut health, inflammation, the microbiome, immune function, and root-cause approaches to chronic disease, this conversation offers a provocative look at how early microbial exposure may influence health for decades to come.   TOPICS DISCUSSED: The Infant Microbiome And Loss Of Foundational Bifidobacterium Bifidobacterium Infantis, HMOs, Immune Development, And Inflammation Modernization, Antibiotics, C-Sections, Formula, And Ultra-Processed Foods Whether The Microbiome Can Be Restored Or "Rewilded" Stephanie's My Baby Biome Research And Microbiome Mapping Implications For Adult Gut Health, Crohn's, Colitis, Cancer, And Inflammatory Disease Microbiome-Adapted Bacterial Strains And The Persephone Product Diet, Fiber, Fermented Foods, Plants, And The Carnivore Debate Pregnancy, Maternal Microbiome, And Transmission To The Infant Microbiome Conservation, Extinction, And Banking Lost Species   More from Stephanie Culler: Website: persephone.bio Instagram: @persephone.bio TikTok: persephone.bio   Leave us a Review: https://www.reversablepod.com/review   Need help with your gut? Visit my website gutsolution.ca to join a program: Get help now   Contact us: reversablepod.com/tips    FIND ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Instagram  Facebook  YouTube   

From Police Sergeant to £10M Property Portfolio: Rick Gannon's HMO Story | YPN Podcast In this episode of the YPN Podcast, Ant Lyons sits down with prolific property investor and educator Rick Gannon to unpack the emotional story behind his exit from the police force and into property — sparked by a promise made to his son, Ben. Rick shares how he built a portfolio from just 2-3 buy-to-lets into a £10 million business spanning HMOs, serviced accommodation, holiday lets, and multi-unit freehold blocks — plus how he founded and sold his own property management software, GoTenant. We cover:

Send us Fan MailOne wrong assumption can turn a “perfect” HMO deal into a planning dead end. We get practical about UK HMO rules, starting with the basics of what counts as a House in Multiple Occupation and why renting by the room can outperform a standard buy-to-let for cash flow, especially when you pair it with strategies like rent-to-rent.From there, we walk through HMO licensing in plain English: what mandatory licensing usually looks like, why your local council's HMO pack is the only safe source of truth, and what standards tend to come with a license. We talk fire safety expectations, management arrangements, and why HMOs need a tougher setup and more frequent inspections than a single-family rental. If you're trying to stay compliant while protecting profit, this is the checklist mindset you need.Planning is where many investors get caught, so we also dig into Article 4 Directions and how they can stop HMO conversions or make approvals much harder. We cover additional licensing and selective licensing too, including why some councils require licenses for smaller HMOs or even all rental properties in certain areas. Finally, we explore what changes with seven bed plus properties, including sui generis use and how commercial valuation based on rental income can help you recycle funds when the numbers and demand are there.If you want fewer surprises and better decisions on HMO conversions, listen through, then subscribe, share it with a landlord friend, and leave a quick review with your biggest HMO question.VALUABLE RESOURCES:Let me help you build your property business, Check out how I can support your investing now.Visit https://www.thepropertyunleashed.com/homeMy Property Investing Community called Property Education To Action,  This is the best place to achieve your property goals and build the life you desire. https://educationtoaction.com Apply here: thepropertyunleashed.com — click Inner CircleSupportive Living help www.socialspaces.uk“Free Goal Setting Masterclass: Build Your Life In Five Days”“If you've enjoyed these episodes, leave us a five-star review”https://www.facebook.com/groups/816926952556608 to meet like-minded property investors and be a part of the community.CONNECT WITH ME:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.fitzgerald.7921Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markfitzgeraldentrepreneur/Linkedin: https...

Send us Fan MailMost people don't fail in property because they picked a “bad” strategy. They fail because they picked a strategy that doesn't fit their time, their risk tolerance, or the kind of business they actually want to run. We unpack that decision in plain English and use realistic numbers to compare the workload and cash flow behind buy-to-let, HMOs, and serviced accommodation, so you can stop guessing and start choosing with confidence.  We walk through what changes when you move from a vanilla buy-to-let to a busier HMO model, including bills, management, and the higher wear and tear that comes with more tenants and more turnover. Then we get honest about serviced accommodation: yes, the revenue can be higher, but you're signing up for hospitality standards, furnishing costs, constant churn, and seasonal swings. If you want to do short-term rentals well, you need to think in 12-month cycles, not “good month vs bad month.”  We also dig into a route many investors overlook: social housing and supported living. With the right provider and lease structure, it can be more hands-off than HMOs or short-term lets, and the net profit can surprise you once you factor in reduced management and maintenance costs. Finally, we explain back-to-back leasing, a practical way to sit between a landlord and a provider, solve problems for both sides, and earn a realistic margin even when a deal doesn't stack as an HMO or serviced accommodation.  If you want more training and support, visit educationtoaction.com. Subscribe for more straight-talk property investing, share this with a friend who's stuck choosing a strategy, and leave a review with the one approach you're leaning toward and why.VALUABLE RESOURCES:Let me help you build your property business, Check out how I can support your investing now.Visit https://www.thepropertyunleashed.com/homeMy Property Investing Community called Property Education To Action,  This is the best place to achieve your property goals and build the life you desire. https://educationtoaction.com Apply here: thepropertyunleashed.com — click Inner CircleSupportive Living help www.socialspaces.uk“Free Goal Setting Masterclass: Build Your Life In Five Days”“If you've enjoyed these episodes, leave us a five-star review”https://www.facebook.com/groups/816926952556608 to meet like-minded property investors and be a part of the community.CONNECT WITH ME:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.fitzgerald.7921Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markfitzgeraldentrepreneur/Linkedin: https...

Should you manage your own HMOs, or pay somebody else to do it?It's one of the most common questions HMO investors ask, and the decision is often based on one thing: how much money you could save by self-managing.But after nearly 20 years of investing in and managing HMOs, I can tell you there's far more to consider than the management fee.In this episode, I break down what managing an HMO actually involves, the pros and cons of doing it yourself versus outsourcing, and the real cost of management when you factor in your time, attention and responsibility.

Recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival 2025 on Sunday 19 October at Church House, Westminster. ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner made housing a central pillar of their domestic agenda when they were elected. Yet from two disgraced housing ministers to younger generations' desperation about astronomical rents and unaffordable property prices, housing controversies are rarely far from the headlines. The government's rhetoric remains impressive. Rayner, the former housing secretary, put forward the Social and Affordable Homes plan, to deliver 300,000 new homes, with ‘180,000 earmarked for social rent' and claims Labour will ‘build, build, build' – even on the sacred green belt. But despite the promise to deliver 1.5million new homes in England over the five-year parliamentary term, evidence suggests a disappointing failure to get even close to meeting their own housing targets – just like previous governments. So, we seem, yet again, to be stuck in a rut of not enough homes for those who need them. UK housing has been in crisis for a long time. For years, demand has overwhelmed supply, and both rents and mortgages continue to climb. The Office for National Statistics' private rents index shows that renting in England is now 50 per cent more expensive than 14 years ago. London's 2.7million private tenants saw their rents rise by 11.5 per cent in 2024 alone. Some still blame Margaret Thatcher's 1980s housing reforms: the right to buy was sold as a pathway to homeownership and social mobility, but instead led to a decline in social housing and made private landlords rich. One think tank has claimed the policy cost taxpayers £200 billion. However, in Bricking it: The UK Housing Crisis and the Failure of Policy, Charlie Winstanley argues that while the significant economic and social changes under Thatcher shaped the housing landscape today, there are much wider demographic, social policy, financial and industrial shifts that have accumulated to create such an unstable housing situation. A huge increase in migration has also become part of the debate. Is the problem more about too many people rather than too few houses? Meanwhile, shadowy plans to turn residential properties into homes of multiple occupancy (HMOs) to replace asylum hotels add to a sense of grievance, shifting the problem to residential areas without consulting locals. Other factors have created an escalating sense of crisis: eye-watering service charges and ground rent for leaseholders; landlords complaining that Renters' Rights legislation will mean taking properties off the market; politicians pandering to NIMBY voters; labyrinthine planning laws. Is the government going about its housing strategy in the wrong way? How can we solve the housing crisis? SPEAKERS James Heartfield lecturer and writer; author, Britain's Empires 1600-2020 and Let's Build! Helen MacNeil consultant architect, shedkm; founder, Honest Architecture (HA!) free-speech dinners Matthew Torbitt political commentator and writer; senior fellow, The Centre for Social Justice Charlie Winstanley author, Bricking it: The UK Housing Crisis and the Failure of Policy; public affairs & social policy development professional CHAIR Sheila Lewis retired consultant; former housing association chair

Most of us accept the way property works because that's just how it's always been done. Tired stock. Rooms rented as a last resort. Systems held together with spreadsheets and good intentions. We stop noticing it after a while.In this episode of Girls in Property I'm joined by Vann Vogstad, founder of Coho, for a proper conversation about shared living, innovation, and what AI is really doing to the way we run property businesses.Vann isn't building for the money and he says so plainly. He talks about the drive to fix something that's worse than it needs to be, what it actually felt like to sell a business and start again from nothing, and why so many people give up right at the point where it starts to work.We get into why shared living can create real community rather than just cheap accommodation, and why he believes HMOs could become a genuine housing choice for younger and older renters alike. We talk about doing your market research before you launch anything, using AI to buy back time and creativity, and the risk of quietly handing over your judgement to a machine.Because innovation doesn't start with a better answer. It starts with a better question.If you've been settling for the way things are, this one will make you look again.How to Get Involved With The Girls in Property 

If your gut feels out of balance, where do you begin? In this episode, I'm breaking down some of my favorite cultured foods and beneficial microbes—from kefir and cultured vegetables to L. reuteri, S. boulardii, Bifidobacteria, HMOs, Akkermansia, and natto—and explaining how each one supports the gut in a different way. You don't need everything at once. The goal is to understand what your body may need, feed the right microbes, and slowly rebuild a healthier, more resilient microbiome. Episode link: https://www.culturedfoodlife.com/podcast/how-to-rebuild-your-gut-finding-the-fermented-food-your-body-needs-episode-371/ Link(s) I talked about: Article: https://www.culturedfoodlife.com/how-to-start-healing-your-gut-which-fermented-food-is-best-for-you/ Check out these other links: My Story Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbX9Nv9OtGM For health tips and recipes, subscribe to our weekly emails. We'll also send you our free Getting Started Guide: http://bit.ly/2BnHpay Listen to all my podcasts: http://bit.ly/cflpodcast Become a Biotic Pro Member: http://bit.ly/2kkhwS1 Cultured Food Recipes: http://bit.ly/2UIfY2x Health and Food Topics: http://bit.ly/2SdzIOS My Amazon Shop: https://bit.ly/3KdhEge MY STARTER CULTURES Milk Kefir Grains: http://bit.ly/2rQ99PE L. Reuteri Superfood: https://bit.ly/LReuteriSuperfoodStarter L. Gasseri Superfood: https://bit.ly/LGasseriSuperfoodStarter Easy Kefir: http://bit.ly/2MQ1nPV Kefir Soda Starter: http://bit.ly/3YVErTa Kombucha Starter: http://bit.ly/2g2R9hE Vegetable Starter: http://bit.ly/2SzzVem Sourdough Starter: http://bit.ly/2IjaaXK Other items in my store: http://bit.ly/2HTKZ27 STAY CONNECTED Instagram: http://instagram.com/culturedfoodlife/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CulturedFoodLife/ Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/donnaschwenk/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/donnaschwenk

With the rise of AI, it's time to have it interview Michael on all things HMOs!▶︎ Website - www.thepropertyfinancecollective.co.uk▶︎ The Host - With a passion for creative finance and the ability to structure deals for Finance, I love helping first time Developers and Investors to get deals packaged for the finance needed to push Property Careers forward, and to date I have raised over £500 million for Developers and Investors. I first got into property at the age of 18 when I got into Conveyancing straight out of school. I then went into Estate Agency, back into Conveyancing and I then got into brokering at the age of 22. I decided a year and a half later that I wanted to work for myself and try and shake up the market place! At the age of 24 I set up The Property Finance Guy and became the youngest owner of a Commercial Finance Brokerage in the Country, and alongside this I now also have a successful Training Company, educating Investor and Developers on how to raise finance, and a successful Podcast.I am a keen public speaker and have delivered training and speeches to over 1000 investors and developers over the past 2 years.Follow Michael:▶︎ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thepropfinguy/▶︎ Instagram - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thepropertyfinanceguy/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠▶︎ LinkedIn - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-primrose-886a365b/?originalSubdomain=uk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Listen to the Podcast on:▶︎ Apple Podcasts - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-property-finance-podcast/id1448207494⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠▶︎ Spotify - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/7JiDtm7hc0EfSW9LjCXDaO⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠▶︎ YouTube - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/@thepropertyfinanceguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠▶︎ Disclaimer - With the market changing so quickly, the content could be out of date at the time of listening.This Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

What do you do when you've got enough to stop working, but spending it means you can never buy again? And, even once you've built something worth passing on, how do you stop it being sold off the moment you're gone? Rob & Rob answer two tricky listener questions on this week's show. (00:41) Liam has an HMO, a couple of single lets and a construction company. He could replace his income tomorrow by putting his refinance money into two more HMOs, but that leaves nothing to recycle into future projects. Rob D refuses to treat this as a choice between two options. (05:03) Ryan's portfolio is growing and his attention has turned to the generations after him. From wills to trusts, what does he need to be thinking about now? Rob B covers the structures an advisor might put in front of him, and the thing that matters more than all of them. Enjoy the show? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts - it really helps others find us! Sign up for our free weekly newsletter, Property Pulse Got a question? Send it in here Find out more about Property Hub Invest

DOES RICKY GERVAIS WRITE BURNHAM'S POLICIES?! UK IS A DARK, DARK COMEDY! #JonGaunt #JonGauntTV #AndyBurnham #RickyGervais #UKIsASickComedy #HomeOffice #AsylumSeekers #IllegalImmigration #IllegalMigrants  You genuinely couldn't make this stuff up. The Home Office has produced a nine-page guide for asylum seekers explaining that rape is illegal, women have equal rights, sexual consent matters, domestic abuse is illegal and you cannot have sex with children under 16. Seriously?! If the Government believes some people arriving in Britain need to be TOLD these things, isn't that itself a massive warning sign? And what exactly is a pamphlet supposed to achieve? This feels like the ultimate case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Instead of another leaflet, another poster and another Government initiative, why aren't we having the much bigger debate about who is entering Britain, how they are vetted, where they are housed and what happens when they commit serious crimes? There have been horrific cases involving individual asylum seekers convicted of sexual offences. Those crimes have real victims — women and children whose suffering isn't remotely funny. That's why this becomes a dark, dark comedy rather than something we can simply laugh about.  For years, people raising legitimate questions about young undocumented men being accommodated in hotels, HMOs and other facilities have sometimes felt dismissed as racists or bigots. But asking questions about safeguarding, security and vetting is not the same thing as claiming every migrant is dangerous.  Meanwhile, what is Andy Burnham talking about? He's embraced TikTok politics, he's been talking about bread rolls, and today he's announcing another initiative — this time tackling fly-tipping. Of course fly-tipping matters. But Britain also faces enormous questions about borders, crime, prisons, housing and the cost of living. Are our politicians concentrating on the country's biggest priorities — or concentrating on producing the next social-media clip? It increasingly feels like we're trapped inside a Ricky Gervais dark comedy. Except this isn't Netflix. THIS IS BRITAIN. Join Jon Gaunt LIVE and tell me what YOU think. Is the Home Office pamphlet sensible information for newcomers — or does its very existence demonstrate how badly our immigration and integration policies have gone wrong? And has Andy Burnham got his priorities right?  GET INVOLVED. HAVE YOUR SAY. AND DON'T HOLD BACK. Jon Gaunt, Jon Gaunt TV, JonGauntTV, Andy Burnham, Ricky Gervais, UK is a sick comedy, Home Office, Home Office asylum leaflet, asylum seekers, asylum seeker guidance, illegal immigration, illegal migrants, UK immigration, migrant hotels, small boats, stop the boats, sexual consent, UK crime, immigration debate, border crisis, British politics, UK politics, government incompetence, TikTok politics, fly tipping, asylum system, immigration policy, live debate  #JonGaunt #JonGauntTV #AndyBurnham #RickyGervais #UKIsASickComedy #HomeOffice #AsylumSeekers #IllegalImmigration #IllegalMigrants #UKImmigration #MigrantHotels #SmallBoats #StopTheBoats #BorderCrisis #UKCrime #ImmigrationDebate #BritishPolitics #UKPolitics #AsylumSystem #ImmigrationPolicy #LiveDebate This is political blogging and hard-hitting social commentary from Triple Sony Gold Award-winning talk radio legend, Jon Gaunt — former host on BBC, Talk Radio, and Sky News. On Jon Gaunt TV, we cut through the noise and say what others won't. No political correctness. No censorship. Just real conversations that matter.

Send us Fan MailMost people don't lose money in rent-to-rent because the strategy is broken. They lose it because they copy an outdated playbook and make a few expensive mistakes that seem “normal” at the start. I'm Mark Fitzgerald, and I'm laying out the five errors I see again and again when people try to build a rent-to-rent business with HMOs or serviced accommodation, especially when they're chasing their first deal and trying to move fast.We start with the biggest mental hurdle: believing you need a huge pile of cash. Rent-to-rent is a cash-flow strategy, not a refurb strategy, and spending heavily on someone else's property is usually a sign the deal is wrong. I walk through how to think about low-cost setup, why rent-ready HMOs matter, and how furniture leasing can reduce upfront costs for serviced accommodation. Then we get into the numbers that protect you, including using a deal calculator, staying conservative, and refusing to overpay rent just to “win” a landlord.From there, we go deeper into risk control: using the right rent-to-rent contracts (management agreements or commercial leases rather than tenant-style paperwork), and making break clauses non-negotiable so a property never traps your business if the market shifts. I close with what it really means to run rent-to-rent like a business, including planning for tax, VAT, voids, and maintenance with separate accounts so you can sleep at night and scale with confidence.If this helped, subscribe, share it with someone chasing their first deal, and leave a review so more property investors can find the show.VALUABLE RESOURCES:Let me help you build your property business, Check out how I can support your investing now.Visit https://www.thepropertyunleashed.com/homeMy Property Investing Community called Property Education To Action,  This is the best place to achieve your property goals and build the life you desire. https://educationtoaction.com Apply here: thepropertyunleashed.com — click Inner CircleSupportive Living help www.socialspaces.uk“Free Goal Setting Masterclass: Build Your Life In Five Days”“If you've enjoyed these episodes, leave us a five-star review”https://www.facebook.com/groups/816926952556608 to meet like-minded property investors and be a part of the community.CONNECT WITH ME:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.fitzgerald.7921Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markfitzgeraldentrepreneur/Linkedin: https...

What if the foundation of lifelong health begins in the first days of life? In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Stephanie Culler, Co-founder and CEO of Persephone Biosciences, to explore how an infant's gut microbiome shapes immune development, metabolism, and overall health from birth. Together, we discuss how modern lifestyles have altered the infant microbiome, the differences between vaginal and cesarean births, the impact of antibiotics during early life, and why beneficial bacteria like Bifidobacterium play such a critical role in a baby's developing immune system. Dr. Culler also shares emerging research on human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), microbiome restoration, precision probiotics, and the exciting future of personalized nutrition for infants. Whether you're an expecting parent, a healthcare practitioner, or simply interested in the science of the microbiome, this conversation offers valuable insights into how nurturing gut health from the very beginning may help shape lifelong wellness. Key takeaways: The first thousand days of life are crucial for immune system development, significantly influenced by gut microbiome composition. Modern life factors, such as C-section births and antibiotics, have led to a loss of beneficial ancestral microbiota in infants. The My Baby Biome Study revealed 90% of U.S. infants lack some essential Bifidobacterium strains necessary for healthy immune function. Personalized nutrition and the use of synbiotics—combinations of probiotics and prebiotics—are pivotal steps toward restoring infantile microbiomes. Early interventions in gut health can profoundly affect outcomes related to allergies, autoimmune diseases, and even neurological development. More About Dr. Stephanie Culler: Stephanie Culler, Ph.D., is the co-founder and CEO of Persephone Biosciences, where she is pioneering microbiome-based medicines to transform human health. She is the lead author of the My Baby Biome study, the largest U.S. study to profile the infant gut microbiome, and her work spans applications from infant health to oncology. Stephanie earned her Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology and has authored more than 20 scientific publications and patents. Website Instagram Connect with me! Website Instagram Facebook YouTube

The Housing Industry Forecasting Group met this week, and the number came back at 24,000 homes a year. To take real pressure out of the WA market, we would need closer to 40,000. Michael McGowan joins Neil in the studio for a third time to unpack where the Western Australian housing market actually sits right now, past the East Coast media noise. Since the last catch up we have had three interest rate rises, the war in Iran, material supply pressure and federal government changes that have pulled confidence out of key parts of the market. Yet production on site has held up, and nobody has seen a builder on the front page of the paper. In this episode: Why 24,000 homes a year is the realistic ceiling, and the three constraints holding it there: land, workforce and infrastructure capacity from Western Power and Water Corp Construction costs still rising 7 to 8 percent annually, with roughly 4 to 5 percent of recent increases traced back to transport and petroleum-linked materials Build times sitting around 10 months, why the northwest corridor builds faster than the east, and what has to change to get back to seven or eight The Brabham land story. A 375sqm block bought for $185,000 three years ago, the same size block in an inferior location now at $475,000, and buyers given 48 hours to decide Why land supply is so tight: fragmented ownership, market gardens with unknown history, soil that is not the traditional Class A sand, and environmental approvals that can cost you a full 12 months if the fauna study misses The R20 average lot size reform. Around 50,000 lots potentially becoming subdividable, out for public consultation in October, with a 1 July 2027 start if approved The rest of the proposed package: single dwellings out of planning even when not deemed to comply, three storey in R40, and dwellings up to four going straight to building permit Why state policy does not always survive contact with local government. Neil shares the granny flat build permits that got pushed back into planning, and Michael explains what HIA are doing with WALGA across 139 local governments The double brick to brick veneer transition, the $5m matched housing innovation fund loans, and why most major Perth builders are now working on two or three build methodologies at once Renovation activity as the hidden pressure. Four types of renovator all pulling on the same specialised trade base without adding a single dwelling to the market Skilled migration running at around a thousand a year, the growing Filipino trade base in WA, and builders buying and building housing to become landlords for their own workforce Investors leaving the market on the back of negative gearing and CGT changes, listings jumping from 3,000 to 6,000, and why new builds sit outside the proposed changes Victoria as the contrast. Blocks sitting 40 to 50 days, builders quoting six months from slab down, and a state government that has taken the wind out of retail confidence Ten train stations earmarked for a faster planning pathway, and why unlocking high density is the only thing that moves the national numbers Crystal ball. Steady rather than shrinking, 24,000 for the next three to five years, with two asterisks: Trump, and Brisbane 2032 poaching our trades Michael's view is that it is not doomsday. The oven has come down from 240 degrees to about 200. The market is still positive, still undersupplied, and still one of the most attractive in the country. Free access to the Coliving Cashflow Academy Neil is opening up the Academy in exchange for your feedback. Complete the sentiment survey, which takes three to five minutes and can be done anonymously, and you will get access to all 13 modules covering goal setting, HMOs, coliving, rent to rent, subdivisions, renovations, new builds, property management and fire safety. Take the survey here: https://form.jotform.com/262147921124048 Full show notes and links available at thehmopropertyco.com 

#317If you own an HMO in the UK and you're managing it from abroad, this episode is for you.Today's guest is Mithila from Ideal Urban Group (Tel: 07300 204451) — an HMO specialist agency covering Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire, and Greater London.Mithila and her business partner Lisa didn't start the agency because they saw a gap in the market.They started it because they couldn't find anyone good enough to manage their own properties.Check out our shorts on YouTubeOur WhatsApp  groupProperty Engine discounts (Code: EXPAT)Starter: 30 day trialPro: 30 day trial/3 mths 1/2 price, Ultimate: 1/2 price 3 monthsGoalsettingLeave a review37 Question Due Diligence Checklist / Auction GuideOur Sponsors: Finnigan McNeill Property GroupWhy Single-Let Agents Fail at HMOsMost agents who say they manage HMOs are single-let agents who haven't made the leap.Managing a property with six different tenants, six sets of compliance deadlines, and six different personalities is fundamentally different from managing a single let.Mithila handed her own HMOs to one such agent while she was pregnant — and was back on the tools within weeks of having her baby.The agent wasn't documenting inspections, wasn't doing check-ins and check-outs properly, and simply didn't know what the compliance requirements were.How to Tell if an Agent Is Actually QualifiedThe first question to ask is how many rooms they manage — not properties, rooms.Mithila's minimum: 50 rooms under management, enough to be systemised as a business rather than someone doing it on the side.The second question is how often they carry out inspections, and what drives that frequency.The answer should start with fire safety.HMO Fire Safety: What Your Agent Should Be DoingGrade A alarm systems — typically six-plus bedroom properties or mixed-use buildings — require weekly fire alarm testing, zone by zone, logged on site and in a centralised location.Grade D systems — smaller HMOs — require monthly testing as a minimum.Fire doors should be checked monthly to confirm they are self-closing, correctly fitted, and have no gaps.Carbon monoxide alarms must be tested monthly.Fire blanket testing: monthly.Communal area inspections: monthly.Full inspections including tenants' rooms: quarterly as a minimum.None of this is optional — and a good agent should be able to tell you exactly which grade applies to each of your properties.How to Verify It's Actually HappeningThis is the question that matters most for expat landlords who can't just drive past the property.Ask your agent to share inspection reports — with photographs, not just commentary.Mithila's agency uses Inventory Hive, which builds reports around the property's floor plan and flags maintenance issues as it goes.Monthly communal reports are high-level; quarterly reports that include tenants' rooms are more detailed.As Mithila puts it: as long as you know what your property looks like, the report should reflect that.The Software QuestionAsk your agent which systems they use for compliance tracking and tenant communications.Mithila's agency uses Coho — all tenant communications are directed there to create a centralised, evidenced audit trail.WhatsApp conversations with tenants are not an audit trail.Ask specifically: where does tenant communication happen, and can it be evidenced?Questions to Ask Before You SignAsk for metrics on void periods and average relet timeframes.Ask what their revenue yield is across their managed portfolio.Read the terms and conditions — check what's included and what triggers an add-on fee.Ask to speak to a current client directly — not a written reference, a phone call to someone using the agency right now.Anyone doing things well will offer that without hesitation.What to Do If Your Agent Isn't PerformingMithila's advice: document the specific failures, give them one chance to put things right, and if they don't, have the conversation about parting ways.A good agent who isn't meeting your expectations should be able to demonstrate and evidence their performance — if they can't, that evidence becomes your grounds to exit the agreement.The HHSRS Update — June 2026The Housing Health and Safety Rating System was updated on 23 June 2026.It's the tool councils use to assess hazards in rented properties, with Category One hazards carrying significant consequences for landlords.Most landlords didn't know it was updated — and most agents didn't flag it proactively.Ask your agent whether they are aware of it and how it has changed their inspection process.Maintenance: The Landlord-Mindset DifferenceMithila's agency troubleshoots maintenance issues with tenants by phone or video before calling anyone out.Every cost that goes out in maintenance erodes the bottom line, and a landlord-run agency feels that in a way a standard agent doesn't.Ask your agent: at what point do you call a contractor, and what is your approval threshold before you authorise spend?The Rent AuditWhen Ideal Urban Group takes on a new client, they audit not just compliance — but rents.Self-managing landlords and under-engaged agents routinely leave rooms at below-market rates, sometimes for years.Twenty to twenty-five pounds per room under market across a six-bedroom HMO is two hundred pounds a month left on the table.Key TakeawaysA single-let agent is not an HMO agent — the compliance requirements are fundamentally different.The minimum credible agency size is around 50 rooms under management.Fire alarm testing frequency is determined by alarm grade — weekly for Grade A, monthly for Grade D.Always ask to speak to a current client, not a written reference.If your agent can't produce inspection reports with photographs on request, ask why.The HHSRS was updated in June 2026 — check whether your agent has acknowledged this.Not financial or professional advice — always consult qualified professionals.Keywords: HMO managing agent UK, HMO compliance UK, HMO fire safety, HMO property management, Grade A HMO alarm, HMO landlord questions, Inventory Hive HMO, Coho property management, HHSRS landlord 2026, expat HMO landlord, HMO agent vetting UK, UK property podcast

More than 50,000 existing Perth blocks could become eligible for subdivision under WA's biggest planning shakeup in around 30 years. In this solo episode, Neil breaks down the proposed change to R20 zoning and what it actually means for property investors and small to medium infill developers in Western Australia. Right now, an R20 block needs a 350sqm minimum lot size and a 450sqm average, which means you need a 900sqm block to create two lots. The proposal removes the average requirement entirely, leaving only the 350sqm minimum. In plain terms, a 700sqm R20 block becomes subdividable. R20 is the most common suburban code across the Perth metro area, so this hits established infill locations, not urban sprawl. But eligibility is not the same as profitability, and Neil is blunt about the traps. In this episode: The exact change to R20 and why the average lot size has been the thing holding tens of thousands of blocks back Why the position of the existing house matters more than the size of the block The demolition trap. Neil runs the numbers on a $1m block two ways and shows how retaining the front house can turn a $50k to $60k result into $250k to $260k Dual zonings explained, and why one phone call to the duty planner can save your feasibility The other proposed reforms: single houses, renovations, patios and carports out of planning, approval times cut from 60 days to 30, three storey in R40, and parking minimums removed for apartments and granny flats Why state policy does not always mean local councils fall into line. Neil shares the 70 properties currently stuck in planning How to target these blocks before they hit the market using area expertise, letterbox drops and joint ventures with owners The due diligence checklist: verify zoning through the council's Intramaps, speak to a land surveyor before you settle, and get your accountant across structure and GST Timeline matters here. This is a proposal out for consultation, not law, and it is not expected to be implemented until around mid 2027. Neil's message is clear. Treat it as a heads up, not a green light. Free access to the Coliving Cashflow Academy Neil is opening up the Academy in exchange for your feedback. Complete the sentiment survey below, which takes three to five minutes and can be done anonymously, and you will get access to all 13 modules covering goal setting, HMOs, coliving, rent to rent, subdivisions, renovations, new builds, property management and fire safety. Everything learned across a decade in the trenches and a pipeline heading past 400 projects and 2,300 rooms. Take the survey here: https://form.jotform.com/262147921124048 Full show notes and links available at thehmopropertyco.com 

Most aspiring property investors don't struggle because they lack knowledge.They struggle because they never make the leap from learning to actually doing. They've read the books, listened to the podcasts, invested in education, but still haven't completed their first HMO project.In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Michael Taylor, better known as ThePropertyGP. After building a £2 million HMO portfolio in under two years while working as a full-time GP, Michael has helped countless first-time investors bridge what he calls the "execution gap."Together, we explore why so many investors get stuck, the common obstacles holding them back, and how the right support can help you complete your first profitable HMO with confidence.

Mark and Martin Pow return to The Blueprint Podcast Deals, Deals, Deals series after first joining us in November 2025. Based in the South West, Martin started his career as a carpenter while Mark came from a background in car sales. Together they've built a successful property business by combining practical construction expertise with commercial deal-making skills. Now in their second year of the Property Entrepreneur programme, they also share how becoming part of Adam's and Josh's Mastermind groups has accelerated their growth through accountability, collaboration, networking and learning from other experienced property entrepreneurs. In this episode, they take us behind one of their latest projects, The Solways, sharing the real numbers behind a development that released £113,425 of cash, created £572,880 of equity, and now generates over £41,000 a year in cashflow, all while refinancing at a conservative 66% loan-to-value. If you've ever wondered how experienced investors recycle their capital while keeping ownership of the asset, this episode is packed with practical lessons and genuine deal analysis.   The Solways Deal Breakdown Purchase Price: £508,000   Acquisition Costs: Stamp Duty: £40,800 Professional Fees: £31,560   Project Costs: Finance: £71,699 Refurbishment: £336,544 Holding Costs: £15,082   Total Project Cost: £1,003,695   The Results: End Value: £1,690,000 Refinance (66% LTV): £1,117,120 Cash Released: £113,425 Equity Created: £572,880 Monthly Cashflow: £3,426 Annual Cashflow: £41,112 Success and Failure are both very predictable. I hope you enjoy.   Work With Mark / The HMO Agent: If you're an Investor or HMO landlord and want to: Discuss investment opportunities Explore long-term lease options Sell your HMOs, blocks or portfolio Build or scale your portfolio Visit: www.thehmoagent.com Arrange a call with Mark: https://calendar.app.google/Q7DMSzZ7cqtWdUf36   Connect with Mark and Martin Pow. https://www.instagram.com/propertypowbrothers/ www.powproperty.co.uk info@powproperty.co.uk 07816407114   Upcoming Free Live Webinar Britain Is Getting Poorer: Only the 1.8% Are Winning Join Daniel Hill live on Thursday 6 August at 7pm or Friday 7 August at 12pm, where he will be sharing: Why 98.2% of the UK is falling behind, and what it means for property investors. The practical strategies successful investors are using to stay ahead. The five challenges every property business owner needs to solve over the next 24 months.

Send us Fan MailMost investors learn due diligence the hard way, after a “great deal” turns into months of delays, legal costs, or a strategy that cannot be executed. We slow that down and make it practical: a clear framework built around four pillars of property due diligence, with a focus on the one pillar that can quietly make or break everything, the property itself.We talk about how to turn due diligence into a simple checklist you can actually use, deal after deal. The goal is not to overcomplicate the process, it is to make sure the foundational checks are done before you sink time into negotiations or spend money on surveys and solicitors. We also share why a quieter property market can be an advantage, especially if you are willing to get out there, talk to agents, and speak directly with property owners while competition is lower.A big chunk of the conversation is planning use class. We unpack what it means in real terms for common scenarios like standard residential (C3), HMOs (including C4 and when larger setups become Sui Generis), and care-related uses like C2. We also point to practical places to verify the facts, like local planning portals and the property's deeds, and we explain why mismatches between “what it's sold as” and “what it's approved as” should trigger deeper investigation.If you want to feel more confident evaluating purchase lease options, rent-to-rent opportunities, assisted sales, or straightforward purchases, this will give you a grounded starting point. Subscribe for more training, share this with a friend who is chasing deals right now, and leave a review with your biggest due diligence question.VALUABLE RESOURCES:Let me help you build your property business, Check out how I can support your investing now.Visit https://www.thepropertyunleashed.com/homeMy Property Investing Community called Property Education To Action,  This is the best place to achieve your property goals and build the life you desire. https://educationtoaction.com Apply here: thepropertyunleashed.com — click Inner CircleSupportive Living help www.socialspaces.uk“Free Goal Setting Masterclass: Build Your Life In Five Days”“If you've enjoyed these episodes, leave us a five-star review”https://www.facebook.com/groups/816926952556608 to meet like-minded property investors and be a part of the community.CONNECT WITH ME:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.fitzgerald.7921Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markfitzgeraldentrepreneur/Linkedin: https...

From Exam Room to Empire: Building a Practice, Brand, and Wealth with Dr. Po Raval (Doc Dynasty)In this episode of The Pediatric Lounge, the hosts interview Dr. Po Raval, founder of Doc Dynasty, who shares her remarkable journey from launching a solo podiatry practice to becoming a successful entrepreneur, consultant, and physician branding expert.Dr. Raval explains how a podiatrist's successful treatment of her mother's ankle injury inspired her career path. She discusses gaining valuable hands-on experience during training and opening her first practice immediately after residency by leasing an affordable office inside a health club—creating an instant referral base among athletes and active patients.As healthcare reimbursement evolved, Dr. Raval diversified her income through nursing home care, consulting, and business development. She describes how earning an MBA expanded her perspective beyond clinical medicine and led to opportunities advising New Jersey Medicaid and other healthcare organizations on practice operations and systems improvement.The conversation then shifts to the modern realities of physician entrepreneurship. Dr. Raval explains why every physician should develop a personal brand, build a strong digital presence, and consistently create educational content. She shares practical strategies for leveraging websites, search engine optimization, social media analytics, and AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini to generate ideas, optimize profiles, and improve marketing efficiency.Throughout the discussion, Dr. Raval emphasizes that AI should enhance—not replace—clinical judgment. She encourages physicians to think critically, question guidelines when appropriate, maintain authentic relationships with patients, and recognize that building a successful medical practice requires both excellent clinical care and intentional business strategy.Whether you're starting your first practice, growing an established office, or exploring physician entrepreneurship, this episode provides practical advice on building a sustainable career and lasting professional legacy.Episode Chapters00:00 – Welcome and Guest Introduction01:49 – Why Dr. Raval Chose Podiatry04:04 – Understanding Podiatry Training05:29 – Building a Specialty Referral Network07:34 – Launching a Practice on a Budget11:56 – Early Growth and Marketing Strategies14:25 – Adapting to HMOs and Creating New Revenue Streams18:22 – An MBA Mindset: Consulting and Business Growth22:29 – The Modern Practice Growth Playbook26:46 – Reaching the Right Audience on Social Media31:03 – Patient Outcomes, Reviews, and Practice Growth32:35 – Creating an Effective Marketing Budget33:59 – The Story Behind Doc Dynasty37:29 – Batch Content Creation for Busy Physicians39:01 – Using AI for Hooks, Headlines, and Hashtags42:29 – Why Consistency Outperforms Viral Content44:26 – Why Marketing Is Essential for Every Practice47:52 – Patient Retention and Staying Top of Mind50:21 – Negotiation Lessons for Physicians52:33 – AI Tools Every Physician Should Know57:08 – Why AI Still Requires Critical Thinking1:02:00 – Why AI Won't Replace Great Physicians1:03:12 – Closing RemarksSupport the show

The number of properties on the market in Perth has doubled in the last four to six weeks. Some people are calling the top of the run. Neil isn't one of them. Transactions are still running at 700 to 900 a week through REIWA. That hasn't changed. What has changed is stock coming on, and there are good reasons for it. Investors spitting the dummy after the budget changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax. Homes finishing construction and tenants moving out of rentals into them. Owners who bought at 350k looking at 900k and deciding now is the time to cash out. None of that is a falling market. We need around 14,000 properties on the market just to be balanced in WA. The extra stock gets things moving again after a period where it was stagnant. But there's one number almost nobody is watching, and it's the one that matters. Rental listings are still between 2,000 and 2,300. Every single week. For three to four years. Record lows. If more investors drop out of the market, that means fewer rentals, not more. Rents go up. Yields go up. And the standard investor comes back to the market because a higher yield offsets what they just lost in negative gearing. Neil also unpacks what he saw at the World Cup in America, where he watched supply and demand play out in real time. He paid $4,790 for one ticket to watch England versus Mexico at the Estadio Azteca. An hour before kickoff the same seat was $5,500. A can of Stella inside the ground was $19.99 USD. Not enough supply, too much demand, and a lot of printed money in the system. Same forces. Different asset. In this episode: Why more listings does not mean a falling market The rental stat everyone is ignoring while they watch sales listings What the negative gearing and CGT changes actually signal about what the government wants built Why rate cuts and a softening Sydney and Melbourne market are good news for Perth Why 26.6% of Australian housing being lone person households is the real story behind coliving demand The lesson from 80,000 Mexico fans that explains why HMOs work More has happened in the housing industry in the last three months than the last ten years. Neil and Jo bought their first property in 2015 and converted it into an HMO. The business has now delivered over 1,180 rooms to market, with another 800 to 900 in the pipeline, a team of 26, and 80 to 120 houses a year. Want to learn this yourself? The Coliving Cashflow Academy is 14 modules covering everything from what coliving is, structuring yourself like a professional, rent-to-rent, fire safety, new builds, conversions, renovations and subdivisions. Currently $5,000. DM Neil for details.

#309EPC rules for UK landlords are changing from October 2026 — and a recent Nationwide report found that 67% of landlords have no idea it's coming.This episode is here to make sure you're not in that 67%.Energy Performance Certificates are about to get a major overhaul in England and Wales, and if you're a remote landlord managing UK property from abroad, these changes affect what you can rent, what you must upgrade, and how much it could cost you.To break it all down, I'm joined by Tim Kampel of Box Property Solutions, who has spent nearly two decades doing EPCs day in, day out — as a domestic, commercial and retrofit assessor, and as a property investor himself.Tim explains the new four-metric EPC system arriving in October 2026, which will score properties separately on fabric performance, heating system, energy cost, and smart readiness — replacing the single headline rating landlords are used to.We cover the exemptions being removed, so heritage properties, HMOs where even a single room is let, and short-term rentals will all need a valid EPC.We get into the big one: the requirement for most privately rented UK properties to reach EPC band C by 2030, with a £10,000 per-property spending cap.Tim also gives an honest reality check on why EPC deadlines keep shifting, how the rules are being used as a political bargaining chip, and why "proposed" doesn't mean you can afford to ignore them.And crucially for overseas landlords, Tim shares the single most important takeaway of the whole episode: under the new regime, you have to be able to prove everything — without evidence, the work simply won't count.Please note this episode focuses on England and Wales; Scotland has its own EPC rules.Check out our shorts on YouTubeOur WhatsApp  groupProperty Engine discounts (Code: EXPAT)Starter: 30 day trialPro: 30 day trial/3 mths 1/2 price, Ultimate: 1/2 price 3 monthsGoalsettingLeave a review37 Question Due Diligence Checklist / Auction GuideOur Sponsors: Finnigan McNeill Property GroupWhat you'll learn:The new four-metric EPC system coming to England and Wales in October 2026, and what each metric measures.Which EPC exemptions are being removed, and why heritage homes, HMOs and short-term lets are now caught.What the EPC band C by 2030 requirement means for UK landlords, and how the £10,000 spending cap works.Why EPC deadlines keep getting pushed back, and how to plan around rules that aren't yet law.The order EPC improvements should be tackled in, from fabric-first insulation to heating systems, and when that advice isn't practical.Why a recent software change has pushed some properties up to a C rating automatically, and why it's worth getting reassessed.How solar could become one of the smartest ways for landlords, especially HMO owners, to raise a rating and cut running costs.Guest: Tim Kampel of Box Property Solutions — a domestic, commercial and retrofit EPC assessor with nearly twenty years' experience, and a property investor himself.If you own or plan to buy UK rental property, understanding these EPC changes now — rather than in 2029 — could save you thousands and keep your properties legally lettable. Details of how to join our WhatsApp group for overseas investors are below.KeywordsUK property, UK property investment, UK property market, UK landlords, Expat property, UK real estate, Buy-to-let UK, Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), EPC legislation UK, EPC band C requirements, EPC rules England and Wales, Property investment UK, UK rental property, HMO EPC requirements, Heritage property UK, Solar panels UK property, EPC changes 2026 UK, Landlord tips UK, EPC compliance UK, Property refurbishment UK, Non-standard construction UK, How to improve EPC rating UK property, EPC exemptions for landlords UK, EPC and mortgage eligibility UK, Using EPC data for property investment UK, Best energy improvements for UK rental property, Proven ways to reach EPC band C UK, EPC requirements for short term rentals UK, Solar installation cost for UK landlords, Documenting property improvements for EPC UK, Landlord guide to energy efficiency UK, Avoiding non-standard construction in UK real estate, EPC for HMOs England and Wales, What can boost EPC rating in UK homes, Preferential green rate mortgages UK property, Tips for choosing an EPC assessor UKCheck out our new YouTube Channel @ExpatPropertyStory

Most new HMO investors don't struggle because there aren't any opportunities.They struggle because they don't know where to start. They get overwhelmed by all the information, worry about making expensive mistakes, or spend too long waiting for the perfect time to take action.In this episode, I revisit one of the most important podcast episodes I've ever recorded because, if anything, the message is even more relevant today. I walk through the six key areas every new HMO investor needs to understand before buying their first property, and explain why getting these foundations right will save you time, money and a lot of frustration.

Key Topics Covered: 1. From Employment to Financial Independence James shares his transition from project management into full-time property investing. How property income eventually replaced employment income. 2. The Impact of Taking Action Why waiting for perfect conditions can delay progress. The importance of getting started and learning through experience. 3. Building a Foundation with Buy-to-Let Property Starting with single-let properties to gain experience. Using smaller investments as stepping stones to larger opportunities. 4. Why Blocks of Flats Can Accelerate Growth The advantages of buying multiple units in one transaction. Improving cash flow while reducing some of the challenges of HMOs. 5. Understanding Title Splitting What title splitting is and how it works. Creating additional value by converting a block into individual leasehold flats.Expect unexpected challenges like project delays or market shifts. 6. Using Leverage More Effectively How title splitting can reduce the capital required for acquisitions. Accessing larger opportunities that may otherwise seem out of reach. 7. Building the Right Professional Team The role of brokers, solicitors, and accountants in complex property strategies. Why specialist expertise is critical for successful implementation. 8. Creating Wealth Through Strategic Property Investing Using property to generate predictable income and long-term financial security. Building a portfolio designed to create freedom and flexibility. Actionable Takeaways Start investing before you feel completely ready, as experience is often gained through action rather than preparation alone. Use smaller property investments as a foundation for learning before progressing to more advanced strategies. Explore opportunities where value can be created rather than relying solely on market growth. Consider whether larger multi-unit properties could accelerate your investment goals compared to acquiring individual properties one at a time. Build a trusted team of specialists, including brokers, solicitors, and accountants, before pursuing complex property transactions. Focus on strategies that improve cash flow as well as capital growth. Review your portfolio regularly to identify opportunities for restructuring or creating additional value. Think strategically about how property can support long-term financial independence rather than simply generating short-term returns. Resources & Next Steps WealthBuilders Membership: Free access to guides, webinars, and community The Title Split Consultant - Helping you accelerate your property portfolio Connect with Us: Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. Next Steps On Your WealthBuilding Journey:   Join the WealthBuilders Facebook Community Schedule a 1:1 call with one of our team Become a member of WealthBuilders If you have been enjoying listening to WealthTalk - Please Leave Us A Review!

//The Wire//2300Z June 11, 2026// //ROUTINE// //BLUF: IRAN WAR RESUMES AS AMERICAN BOMBING CONTINUES WHILE POLITICAL STATEMENTS CLAIM A HALT TO BOMBING BUT ALSO THE IMPENDING SEIZURE OF KHARG ISLAND. TARGETING OF MERCHANT VESSELS CONTINUES IN THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ. UNREST CONTINUES IN NORTHERN IRELAND.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE------International Events-Middle East: The war continued overnight with renewed strikes taking place around the region. The United States has begun bombing targets within Iran, targeting locations mostly in the southern regions of the country. Mainstream sources claim that approximately 49x Tomahawk standoff munitions were used to conduct the strikes, along with various bombs and other munitions delivered by aircraft platforms. On the Iranian side, missile and drone strikes continued overnight in Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait. Battle damage assessment will take some time, however locals report that American bases were hit with at least some munitions in Jordan. The success of the other strikes remains unknown for now. As of this afternoon many statements have been made by President Trump, involving the US intending to seize Kharg Island at some point. Later on in the afternoon President Trump also stated that VP Vance is scheduled to sign a "deal" (likely a Memorandum of Understanding and not a full peace deal) with the Iranians this weekend in Europe. No further clarification on either topic has been conveyed.Strait of Hormuz: The targeting of civilian vessels by both sides has also continued over the past few days. The United States struck the M/T SETTEBELLO two days ago, which resulted in the death of three Indian nationals. This follows a similar attack the day before on the M/T MARIVEX which was conducted under similar circumstances. After last night's wave of American attacks, Iran has claimed to have closed the Strait to all traffic once again.Analyst Comment: Initial reporting indicates that all merchant vessels are holding tight wherever they are, as the new wave of attacks has reduced the chance of success in transiting the Strait. At the time the targeting took place last night, there were several ships in the Strait, some of which may have been targeted in some way. The situation is still very busy, but at least one vessel was struck off the coast of Oman last night, though which side did it remains unknown.Northern Ireland: Riots continued throughout Belfast overnight, with most businesses staying closed or closing early throughout the city, so as to be buttoned-up before nightfall. Most of the rioting and arson attacks have been confined to migrant-run HMOs, with hundreds of facilities being targeted throughout Belfast once night falls. Most of the less-kinetic protests are scheduled to take place outside migrant hotels throughout Northern Ireland, and similar protests have also been reported throughout Great Britain as mass migration concerns remain a critical issue for much of society.-----END TEARLINE-----Analyst Comments: At this point, it's hard to argue that the war in the Middle East has not resumed, despite contradictory rhetoric never being more than a few minutes away. Even since just this morning, the rhetoric has gone from: dozens of Tomahawks launched overnight, and more are on the way tonight, to the attack has been halted, to the US is going to take Kharg Island, to JD Vance will be in Europe over the weekend to sign a peace deal with the Iranians. Whether or not any of that is true remains to be seen, but it's been a rather wild day already.In terms of missiles and bombs, the situation is much more clear. Fighting is not to the level it was during the initial two weeks of the bombing campaign, however the United States and Iran have found themselves conducting "self-defense" strikes against each other every day this week.As of this morning, the White House has indicated that this bombing campaign is expected to continue for at least three days. However, this afternoon, President Trump stated that tonight's bombing raid was canceled due to the Iranians engaging in "discussions" with the United States. Shortly afterward, Iranian state media denied any sort of agreement being made, and several high-ranking officials have stated that while indirect diplomatic talks continue, nothing is set in stone and there's certainly nothing to sign yet. What all of this means is anyone's guess, but this rollercoaster of a week might be explained by the world of finance. This afternoon, SpaceX announced the final details of their IPO filing, taking their company public. As a result a lot of policy makers were scheduled to make a LOT of money, right around the same time bombs were supposed to drop. Publicly announcing the fact that the war has re-entered the hot-shooting phase might cause some hiccups in the markets, so it's possible that a phone call was made and today's strange saga of statements are yet another attempt to manipulate markets by downplaying the truth of what's happening on the ground. As it stands, the rhetoric of the day describes polar opposites: Either the war is over and a deal is pending signature, or the war is back on, and the bombing is ramping up. Time will tell what the truth is, but so far every single time that peace has allegedly been on the table and moments away...bombs tend to fall all the same.Analyst: S2A1 Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report. //END REPORT//

In this Deals Deals Deals episode of the The Blueprint Podcast, host Mark Barrett is joined by investor, entrepreneur and Property Entrepreneur Board Member Chris Moss. Chris shares how he transitioned from building a £1m buy-to-let portfolio in Newcastle into larger partnership-led developments and block investments in Dublin, contributing towards a €10 million portfolio generating approximately €30,000 per month cashflow. The conversation covers scaling through strategic partnerships, raising investor finance, structuring larger developments and recycling capital to accelerate portfolio growth. Chris shares lessons on building credibility, attracting investors and thinking bigger through long-term wealth strategies. Chris also breaks down a recent development project that created over €900,000 in equity uplift: Purchase Price: €831,000 Refurbishment Costs: €525,000 Total Costs: €1.54m End Value: €2.45m Equity Created: €912k+ Monthly Income: €10,440+ Success and Failure are both very predictable. I hope you enjoy.   Work With Mark / The HMO Agent: If you're an Investor or HMO landlord and want to: Discuss investment opportunities Explore long-term lease options Sell your HMOs, blocks or portfolio Build or scale your portfolio Visit: www.thehmoagent.com Arrange a call with Mark: https://calendar.app.google/Q7DMSzZ7cqtWdUf36   Connect with Chris Moss: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrismoss.1/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/c.moss.11   If your business can't run without you, it isn't built properly yet. At the Blueprint Summer Retreat, 14–16 July 2026, you'll learn how to build a business that runs without your constant involvement. Three days. Real structure. Proven Blueprints. Learn more: https://theblueprintretreat.co.uk/   Want to learn more?

I wanted to talk to a lawyer 'cause, yeah, lawyers are the ones that see stuff that falls the whole way down to the level of legal action. But I wanted to find out what are the main categories of things that wind up in legal land when it comes to broker or EBC (employee benefit consultant) payment agreements. Like, what are the top ways that compensation agreements go horribly awry? For a full transcript of this episode, click here. If you enjoy this podcast, be sure to subscribe to the free weekly newsletter to be a member of the Relentless Tribe. Doug Aldeen, my guest today, rose to the challenge. And let me just state for the record that, while there are a whole lot of brokers and EBCs who would or do engage in some of these practices, there are also many who do not; and/or it might not be the broker/EBC themselves but the company that they work for who is up to some of the things that we're gonna be talking about in the episode today. But I really, for sure, want to support the gang of honest actors, great fee-based, integrity-based brokers and EBCs; and I wanna support them all day long, many of whom listen to the show and are part of the Relentless Health Value Tribe. But let's talk about how the rent-seeking ones roll so that you can spot them. See what they did there. So, yeah … the first kind of ground zero that Doug and I talk about today is just up-front direct compensation agreements, which may be just ridiculously complicated and/or ridiculously expensive compared to what others are charging for a similar group. Where there's mystery, there is margin. That is so relevant in so many situations, and this is just another one of them. So then, after that, Doug and I move on; and we get into three categories of stuff that sits in that undisclosed or maybe even disclosed zone, where just the whole model of payments is problematic on its face. First up (and this is a biggie), brokers/EBCs recommending rent-seeking solutions to their clients. Like, a broker or EBC suggests a solution to their client where the solution itself makes money on a perverse incentive, and then the broker or EBC gets a piece of that action, which might be called shared savings. So, yeah … even if the dollars to the broker or EBC are disclosed, a naive plan administrator might not see that overcharge for what it really is—and Doug gives a bunch of examples in the show that follows. Chris Deacon (post) and Justin Leader (post) also wrote posts about this. Donovan Pyle wrote a whole book about it. Okay … the next big category of typical payment model methodologies that Doug Aldeen (again, a lawyer) has seen plans get themselves into trouble with their EBCs and brokers—the ones who are sharks, I mean, circling the plan like it's a gold mine—this big category is undisclosed payments from vendors who the plan doesn't realize have a business relationship with the EBC or broker. This can also be a whole basket of solutions that the EBC/broker wants to install, which is basically this problematic payment model at scale. And, right, this matters because then the plan doesn't know if this particular point solution, PBM, stop-loss carrier … Right? They think their broker EBC is recommending it because it's the best option for that particular plan, not understanding that it's the right option for the broker or EBC. And these dollars can be undisclosed because, to a certain extent, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, it's a little bit unclear on certain points. There's some loopholes if you go looking for them because you are so inclined. We get into more detail on this later on. After this, Doug offers a really great roadmap with six steps in it for any plan to really think about as they consider. First, the maybe integrity of their broker or EBC and what is being recommended to the plan. And that's important because, look—and we say this in the conversation that follows, but I'm gonna say it again here loudly—if a plan realizes that their broker or EBC is not really serving the best interest of the plan, there are great options out there. There are great EBCs and brokers who are honest, upstanding that really care about their clients, their plans, their members, and doing the right thing. But telling the difference between the not-so-good ones and the good ones takes some diligence, takes some validation on the part of the plan sponsor. It just does. But the amount of dollars that can be saved is millions, and this is actually, saving those millions is actually better for the plan because it's not like those dollars were going in somebody's pocket. It's not like they were being put toward better, safer, lower premiums. These are dollars that can be cut, and the plan is actually better. My guest today, as I have mentioned at least several times already, is Doug Aldeen, who is a well-known attorney who has spent many years in the self-insured space. This podcast is sponsored by Aventria Health Group, and I do want to give a shout-out and a thanks to our 2026 series underwriter Payerset. Thank you so much for your financial support. That helps keep this podcast on the air. And with that, here is my conversation with Doug Aldeen. Also mentioned in this episode are Chris Deacon, Justin Leader, Donovan Pyle, Mark Cuban, Cost Plus Drugs, Aventria Health Group, Payerset, Cynthia Fisher, Lee Lewis, AJ Loiacono, Dave Chase, Nautilus Health, 32BJ, Andreas Mang, Jon Camire, and Tom Nash. For a list of healthcare industry acronyms and terms that may be unfamiliar to you, click here.   You can learn more on Doug's Web site and by following Doug on LinkedIn.   Doug Aldeen is an Austin, Texas–based Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) healthcare attorney. From 1997 to 2006, he served both as associate general counsel and general counsel for provider-sponsored HMOs in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and San Antonio, Texas. During his tenure at Health Alliance Medical Plans in Urbana, Illinois, he had a front-row seat to the US Supreme Court ERISA case in Pegram v. Herdrich. Since 2007, Doug has owned and operated his own law firm that serves the US self-funded market. In 2016, he served as ERISA counsel for the Berkley Research Group, who served as an advisor to the private equity firm Hellman and Friedman that purchased a majority stake in MultiPlan for $7.5 billion. From 2019 to 2024, Doug served on the government relations committee for the Self-Insurance Institute of America during the period when the Consolidated Appropriations Act was being implemented. In 2022, Doug was featured by KXAN television in Austin in an investigative piece that examined the collection practices of a local hospital. KXAN's investigative work resulted in an Edward Murrow award for public service. For the past 10 years, he has published "The Sunday Morning Bathroom Read" on LinkedIn, which features a weekly tongue-in-cheek review of recent events and the implications to the self-funded market in the US healthcare industry. 00:00 Introduction to this episode. 00:59 A caveat for the record on this episode. 02:11 The first problematic payment model discussed in this week's episode. 03:27 The second problematic payment model discussed in this week's episode. 06:16 The conversation with Doug Aldeen. 06:27 Why is reviewing broker/EBC compensation so important? 08:05 The Ohio Potato Company anecdote. 10:28 The first way brokers/EBCs might get paid. 11:45 What "cost of savings" means. 12:31 EP457 with Cynthia Fisher. 14:07 A rent-seeking solution that requires a cost-benefit analysis. 19:16 Why the broker/EBC is sometimes in the dark about vendor kickbacks. 21:46 Where the CAA is unclear. 22:23 EP508 with Lee Lewis. 22:58 EP379 with AJ Loiacono. 24:04 Actionable advice for plan sponsors. 24:57 The second piece of actionable advice for plan sponsors. 25:22 The third piece of actionable advice for plan sponsors. 26:08 Demystifying the commission structure. 27:35 Using a broker RFP from an open source. 27:54 EP484 with Dave Chase. 28:31 Why you should be auditing data and claims. 29:29 EP478 (Part 1) and EP479 (Part 2) with Andreas Mang and Jon Camire. 31:29 The importance of having an "out." 33:11 Why the broker community may be at substantial risk. 35:30 EP419 with Andreas Mang. Recent past interviews: Click a guest's name for their latest RHV episode! Dr Siva and Dr Monica Lypson, Betsy Seals, Patrick Nelli, Lee Lewis, Stacey Richter with 15 experts (EP507), Jerry DiMaso, Dr Ahilan Sivaganesan, Ryan Jacobs  

17 years in the Royal Air Force. Iraq. Afghanistan. The Falklands. Then he walked away — 3 years short of a guaranteed pension — to go all in on property.

Most people spend their lives chasing the next "big thing" in crypto or property, only to realize they're too late to the party. If I had to start my entire property journey again from scratch today, my strategy would look remarkably different than it did 25 years ago. This isn't about following a generic "passion"; it's about the clinical intersection of experience, personal skill, and cold, hard profitability. From why I'd steer clear of leaseholds and flats to the specific reason 50% leverage is the "sweet spot" for long-term survival, I'm breaking down the blueprint for a resilient, scalable portfolio. We dive deep into manufacturing value through forced appreciation, the hidden benefits of inflation on your debt, and the boring—but essential—daily habits that actually build wealth over decades. KEY TAKEAWAYS Prioritise Scalable Assets: Move toward small blocks, co-living, and high-end HMOs quickly to offset rising regulatory and management costs. Focus on Forced Appreciation: Don't rely on market growth; drive value yourself through refurbishments, conversions, and operational upgrades. The "Develop to Hold" Model: Avoid the "develop to sell" trap, which can lead to bankruptcy during market downturns when properties won't shift. Strategic Leverage: Maintain approximately 50% debt on a portfolio to balance the benefits of inflation-eroded debt with the safety of a low-leverage cushion. Reinvest and Restrict Spending: Harness compounding by reinvesting profits and never spending more than 5% of your total invested asset base. QUOTES "I like to be the contrarian. I like to buy things that are unloved and try and guess where the market is going to move next." "Developing is great, but having a purely developed to sell model is quite dangerous." "Manufacturing the value to offset the friction of those extra taxes and regulatory costs is important." "Wealth building is about developing yourself and developing a thousand daily habits." "Inflation has the inverse relationship on debt. It actually reduces debt. Inflation erodes debt." VALUABLE RESOURCES  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/user/progressiveproperty⁠ ⁠https://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/the-progressive-co-founders/⁠ ABOUT THE HOST Mark has bought, sold or has managed around 1,000 property units for himself, Rob, his family and his investors since 2003. He is a system and spreadsheet geek and has developed a complex, confidential deal analyser system of buying residential, commercial and multi-let properties. CONTACT METHOD Email: Markhomer@progressiveproperty.co.uk LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhomer1⁠ Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/markprogressive⁠Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/markprogressive

It's time for your weekly dose of Ask Rob & Rob - let's get stuck into two new questions! (00:42) Fatai is looking to sell up, but with so much global uncertainty, is now really the right time? Rob B looks at what history tells us about timing the market during periods of instability. (04:35) David wants to jump straight into two student HMOs, but is it wise considering he's never ventured into this market before? Rob D explains why going all-in could backfire, and why taking a more measured approach might pay off. Enjoy the show? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts - it really helps others find us! Sign up for our free weekly newsletter, Property Pulse Got a question? Send it in here Find out more about Property Hub Invest

In this milestone episode of The Blueprint Podcast, Mark Barrett is joined by Dan Hill to review the first 50 deals featured on the Deals, Deals, Deals episode series. Across these deals: £30M+ equity created £5M+ profit generated £5M+ annual cashflow achieved We cover: A breakdown of the Wealth Hierarchy and Financial Fortress concepts Real examples of deals across cashflow, profit and equity strategies Key patterns that have emerged from analysing 50+ real property deals A summary of the most common lessons shared by guests Mark's own insights from hosting and reviewing every episode If you're looking to: Achieve financial and time freedom Build or scale your Financial Fortress Understand how different strategies fit together Create long-term wealth through property Then this episode gives you a clear, real-world perspective based on actual deals — not theory. Dan Hill shares his perspective on: The Wealth Hierarchy framework Building a Financial Fortress How to approach deals depending on your level of experience and capital The best strategy no matter what your situation The Big Takeaway is that the best investors consistently: Invest in themselves Understand their numbers Focus on the right strategy And build towards long-term assets Success and Failure are both very predictable. I hope you enjoy. Work With Mark / The HMO Agent: If you're an Investor or HMO landlord and want to: Discuss investment opportunities Explore long-term lease options Sell your HMOs, blocks or portfolio Build or scale your portfolio   Visit: www.thehmoagent.com Arrange a call with Mark: https://calendar.app.google/Q7DMSzZ7cqtWdUf36   The patterns are clear. The Blueprints work. If you want to build equity, profit, and long-term cashflow with structure - not guesswork - join us at the Blueprint Summer Retreat, 19–22 May 2026. See how it works: https://theblueprintretreat.co.uk/   Want to learn more?

What if the key to brain health, immunity and chronic disease isn't in the brain at all - but in the gut? In this episode, we explore human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), powerful bioactive sugars in breast milk that shape the microbiome, regulate immune function and may influence conditions like Parkinson's, autism, IBD, food allergies, eczema and more. We dive into how these "molecular signals from nature" could redefine how we think about inflammation, development and disease with Alex Martinez. Lindsey Parsons, your host, helps clients solve gut issues and reverse autoimmune disease naturally. Take her quiz to see which stool or functional medicine test will help you find out what's wrong. She's a Certified Health Coach at High Desert Health in Tucson, Arizona. She coaches clients locally and nationwide. You can also follow Lindsey on Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram, Pinterest, Mastodon or X, or reach her via email at lindsey@highdeserthealthcoaching.com to set up your free 30-minute Gut Healing Breakthrough Session.  Show Notes

I det här avsnittet pratar Nana om den kraftiga ökningen av HMOs i Storbritannien, där licensansökningar har ökat med över 40% sedan 2018. Vi går igenom varför fler investerare söker sig till HMOs, men också de ökade riskerna .Vill du avgöra om fastighetsinvesteringar i Storbritannien är rätt för dig? www.miracle-academy.se/courses/grundkursVill ni gå med i vår mastermind (masterminden kräver tidigare utbildning eller erfarenhet) mm@miraclepropertiesltd.comVill du ta lära dig om HMO? Kolla in vår kurs inom det!https://www.miracle-academy.se/courses/hmoOm ni vill boka upp ett samtal med oss tryck på Calendly länken https://calendly.com/miraclepropertiesltd/15minMissade du vårt senaste nyhetsbrev? Se till att kolla in det för att hålla dig uppdaterad med de senaste nyheterna och händelserna inom fastighetsinvesteringar i UK.https://miraclepropertiesltd.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=5b6248a33b48fa474db5c8976&id=bb104d26aeTack till alla som lyssnar, betygsätter och ställer frågor. Vi uppskattar er alla!Följ oss gärna

Join Dr. Siobhan McCormack as she welcomes one of the top early-life microbiome scientists in the field, Professor Chris Stewart. Discover the origins of your gut microbiome, the biological superpowers of breast milk, and how lab-grown "organoids" are uncovering surprising ways to protect preterm babies.What We Cover:The Genesis of You: How birth mode and early feeding shape our microbial foundations.Inside the Stewart Lab: Using lab-grown human "organoids" to study host-microbe interactions in real-time.The Magic of HMOs: Why mothers produce complex sugars (Human Milk Oligosaccharides) that feed gut microbes instead of the baby.The "Good" Clostridium: Groundbreaking research on a specific Clostridium perfringens strain that thrives on HMOs to protect preterm infants from gut diseases.Probiotics & Preemies: Navigating FDA regulations and the future of personalized medicine in neonatal care.About Professor Stewart leads human microbiome research at Newcastle University. His lab combines computational biology with innovative wet-lab human organoid models to study global health issues, focusing primarily on the early-life gut microbiome and protecting vulnerable infants.Connect with the Stewart Lab:Newcastle University ProfileGoogle ScholarTwitterNewcastle Neonatal Nutrition and NEC Research (N4)Scientific References & Further Reading:Stewart CJ, et al. (2018). Temporal development of the gut microbiome in early childhood from the TEDDY study. Nature, 562(7728):583–8.Chapman JA, et al. (2026). Clostridia from preterm infants metabolize human milk oligosaccharides to suppress pathobionts and modulate intestinal function in organoids. Nat Microbiol, 1–20.Masi AC, et al. (2021). Human milk oligosaccharide DSLNT and gut microbiome in preterm infants predicts necrotising enterocolitis. Gut, 70(12):2273–82.Beck LC, et al. (2022). Strain-specific impacts of probiotics are a significant driver of gut microbiome development in very preterm infants. Nat Microbiol, 7(10):1525–35.UNICEF UK: Breastfeeding in the UKThis podcast is brought to you in collaboration with the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine.Disclaimer:The content in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or qualified healthcare provider. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast.

John Campbell presenting and discussing should Stormont plan for possible fuel shortages?

John Campbell is in the presenter's chair and also asks have we become too dog friendly?

Key Topics Covered: 1. Design as Custodianship, Not Decoration Julian explains that design is about how a property works, not just how it looks in photos. He links design to long term wealth planning: like pensions, it's too important to leave entirely in someone else's hands. The goal is performance over years: easy lettings, happy tenants, fewer repairs, and a product that holds value. 2. The Big Mindset Shift: Property Is a Business and a Product Julian challenges the word “investment” and suggests landlords are really buying a business. Each property is a living, breathing product that gets used, abused, and needs managing. If you don't treat it like a business, it can quietly become a liability over five to ten years. 3. How Properties Become Liabilities Over Time Poor design and poor maintenance create a snowball effect: worse condition attracts worse tenants, which accelerates deterioration. Julian shares examples of developments becoming hard to sell or even “unmortgageable” due to maintenance and management issues. Legacy matters: many children don't want property, so dumping a problematic asset onto them creates stress, not wealth. 4. Why You Can't Abdicate Design to Architects and Builders Plans can pass planning and building regs but still be awful to live in. Common issues include impractical layouts, no storage, poor kitchen design, and bathrooms that don't function properly. Julian introduces the “good, fast, cheap” triangle: you can pick two, but not all three, and landlords pay the price later if they chase cheap and fast. 5. Practical Design Thinking for HMOs and High Use Properties In HMOs, the room is the tenant's home, so it must support multiple functions, not just sleep. Flow matters: kitchens, waste, smells, and shared spaces can make or break tenant experience and long term value. Lighting and electrics are often done to a builder's default spec, but that can create uncomfortable living and higher churn. 6. Serviced Accommodation Is an Experience Business Short stay guests want something boutique and memorable, not copy and paste. Julian recommends living in your serviced accommodation for a week to spot friction points: heating controls, WiFi, TV, keys, lighting, and usability. Service quality affects reviews, and reviews affect profitability. He references research suggesting superhost status can significantly lift margins. 7. The Commercial Upside: Small Design Changes, Big Profit and Value Gains Julian shares an example where improving presentation helped increase rent by £150 per month, which translated into a major profit uplift. He highlights how many landlords don't know their true profit margin, and confuse turnover with profit. Improving existing assets often delivers faster ROI than buying new ones, especially if older stock is dragging performance down. 8. How Julian Helps Investors: Training and Hands On Support Julian trains investors to become “design aware” and “design led” without needing to be designers. He offers remote consults (including Zoom based reviews), layout planning, electrical plans, materials specs, and project support via WhatsApp. His core message: be involved, be informed, and take control of the decisions that shape income and maintenance. Actionable Takeaways Treat each property like a business product, not a passive investment. Design for performance: durability, usability, flow, and maintenance, not just photos. Don't assume architects and builders will design a home that works, review layouts with real living in mind. Audit your existing portfolio before buying more, older assets may be dragging your returns down. Know your numbers: profit margin, not just rent, and understand how small rent uplifts can multiply profit. For serviced accommodation, test the experience yourself and tighten service, reviews drive revenue. Adopt the custodian mindset: build assets your children would actually want to inherit. Resources & Next Steps Icon Living UK: The creation of living spaces that people love and enjoy Julian Maurice: julian@iconliving.co.uk Download our FREE Pensions and Inheritance Tax Guide WealthBuilders Membership: Free access to guides, webinars, and community Connect with Us: Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. Next Steps On Your WealthBuilding Journey:   Join the WealthBuilders Facebook Community Schedule a 1:1 call with one of our team Become a member of WealthBuilders If you have been enjoying listening to WealthTalk - Please Leave Us A Review!

In today's Sugar Crush, Dr. Rick Jacoby and I unpacked diabetic ulcers-why sugar turns your foot into a hypoxic swamp, how ancient battlefield membranes are now off-the-shelf miracles at Quadratus, and why Medicare finally pays while HMOs stall like lazy rafts. From Sushruta grafting cheeks in 600 BC, to amniotic tissue kickstarting angiogenesis without stitches, we tied it all to the estuary: clean the upstream-diet, glyphosate, light-and the wound closes. Bottom line: call qstemcells.com before your leg becomes lobbyist fodder

Dr. Deb Muth 0:03Today’s guest is someone I’m honored to call both a friend and a mentor, and one of the most trusted voices in medicine for patients with complex chronic illness. Dr. Neal Nathan is a board certified family physician who has spent decades caring for patients who don’t fit neatly into diagnostic boxes. Patients with mold related illnesses, Lyme disease, mast cell activation, and profound nervous system dysregulation. These are the patients who are often told their labs are normal and their symptoms are anxiety or that nothing more can be done. Instead of dismissing them, Dr. Nathan listened and he asked better questions. His work, including his landmark book, Toxic, has helped thousands of people finally feel seen, believed, and understood, and more importantly, has given them a path forward when medicine failed them. This conversation is for anyone who reacts to supplements or medications, for anyone who has gotten worse instead of better with treatment, and for anyone who knows their body that something deeper is going on, even if they’ve been told otherwise. Dr. Nathan, I’m deeply grateful for your mentorship, your integrity, and the way you continue to advocate for the most vulnerable patients. I’m so glad to have you here today. And before we begin, grab a cup of coffee, tea, or whatever grounds you, because this is the conversation you’ll want to settle into. Now, before we go onto this conversation, we need to hear from our sponsors. So give us just a quick moment and then Dr. Nathan and I are going to dive in to his story and how this all started for him and leave you with some nuggets of wisdom that you can help yourself with. Ladies, it’s time to reignite your vitality. Primal Queen supplements are clean, powerful formulas made for women like you who want balance, strength, and energy that lasts. Get 25% off@primalqueen.com Serenity Health that’s PrimalQueen.com Serenity Health because every queen deserves to feel in her prime the right places and then we can get started. All right? So, Dr. Nathan, like I said, I’m so excited to have you here today. Tell us a little bit about how did you start your career? Because you didn’t intend to work with the most complex and sensitive patients, I’m sure when you started out. But what did you notice early on that made you realize medicine was missing something? Neil Nathan MD3:03You know, Deb, actually, I did start out wanting to work with the most complicated cases. My delusional fantasy when I started was I wanted to help every single person who walked into my office. And so when I left medical school, I realized pretty quickly that the tools that I learned there were not adequate to do That I needed to learn more. So I started on a passionate journey of discovery, if you will, in which I started studying with anyone who had anything interesting about healing to talk about. And I want to emphasize that I was interested in healing, not in what I’ll call medical technology. So medical school taught me to be a good medical technologist, but it didn’t teach me about healing. I graduated a long time ago. I graduated from Medical School in 1971. And the word holistic wasn’t even a word back in those days, but that’s what I was looking for over many, many years. I studied osteopathic manipulation, homeopathy, therapeutic touch, emotional release techniques, hypnosis. If it’s weird, I probably have studied it at some point. I wasted some weekends studying things that I don’t think were particularly valuable. And I’ve had some remarkable experiences with true healers that taught me how to expand my understanding of what healing really meant. So early on, when I first started practice, I would invite my colleagues to send me their most complicated patients because that was my learning. That makes me weird. I know that. I love some problem solving. You know, I’m the kind of person who I get up in the morning and I do all of the New York Times kinds of puzzles. That’s. That’s my brain wake up call. So actually I did invite my colleagues to send me their complicated patients, and they did. So, I mean, they were thrilled to have me in the community because these were people they didn’t know what to do with. And I was happy as a clam with all these complicated things that I had no idea what to do with. But it pushed me to keep learning more, to keep searching for this person’s answer. And this person’s answer, that constant question is, what am I missing? What is it that I don’t know or understand? What questions am I not asking this person that would help me to figure it out? So sorry for the long winded digression. Dr. Deb Muth 6:14No, I’m glad you shared that. I’m very similar to you. I didn’t seek out working with the most complex, but as I started that, I was always very curious as well. So I was the same as you. Every weekend I would learn something and hypnosis and naturopathic medicine, homeopathy, and all these quote unquote weird things, right? And there’s always a pearl that you learn from something. You never not learn anything, but some of it, you kind of take or leave or integrate or not. And, and I think it, it makes you a better Practitioner, because you have all these tools in your toolbox for helping people that nobody else has been able to help. And. And it’s just kind of fun learning. I mean, I’m kind of a geek that way too. I like to learn all those things. Neil Nathan MD7:00Learning is my passion. One of my greatest joys in life is going to a medical meeting and getting a pearl. Literally. I’m not one of these people at medical meetings that have a computer in front of me listening. And I have a pad of paper and I’m writing down ideas next to people that I’m working with. So that, oh, let’s bring this up for these people. Let’s bring this up for these people. So it’s like, oh, great. Can’t get right back to the office on Monday so I can start, have some new ideas about what I’m missing. Dr. Deb Muth 7:38Yeah, I do the same thing. I have my pad of paper and I do the same thing. And as I hear something, I’m thinking about a person that’s in my office that I haven’t been able to help, or we’ve been stuck on something, and I’m like, oh, there’s a new thing we can try. And it’s so exciting. I love that. Let me ask you this. Was there a time when you finally thought, like, if I don’t listen to these patients differently, they might not ever get better? Neil Nathan MD8:04That’s a very complicated question. The people that I was treating that weren’t getting better were the ones that got my greatest attention. And one of the questions that constantly troubled me still does is, is this person not getting better because of some feature of themselves, or is it because of something that I don’t know? So I’ve wrestled with that for a very long time. My answer to it now is, For a long time, I’ve been able to see what I will call the light in a person. Call it a healing spark and energy. It isn’t truly light. There’s just something about that person when I work with them where I know this person will get well if I stick with them long enough. And then when I don’t get that, I don’t think I’ve helped any of those people over the years. Yeah, so it was a very long process of really not helping people for five years daily. And I would. I would ask those patients, I would say, you know, I haven’t helped you. We’ve been doing this for a very long time. Why are you still here? And they would say, because you care. And I would. Back when I was Younger, that was enough for me to go. That’s true. Okay, I’ll keep working at it. But as I’ve gotten older, caring isn’t enough. It’s. I’m not sure I’m the right person for you. And so as I’ve gotten older, when I don’t see that spark, when I don’t get that sense of someone, I’m more inclined early on in the relationship to tell them I’m not the right person for you. Yeah, you know, see if you can find someone else who can understand what you’re going through and help you. Because I, I’m not it. Dr. Deb Muth 10:16Yeah, you, you kind of know that you can help them or not. Yeah. Neil Nathan MD10:21I don’t know how to define that sense, but it’s very clear to me. I call it like seeing the inner light of another being. If it’s not there, and maybe it’s not there for me to see as opposed to someone else can see it. Dr. Deb Muth 10:41That’s interesting. So you’re known for working with patients who are highly reactive. They don’t tolerate supplements, a lot of times medications, or even some of your most gentlest protocols. Why are these patients so often misunderstood? Neil Nathan MD 10:59Because they appear to their family and to many other physicians to be so sensitive that the thought process of families and other physicians is often. Nobody’s that sensitive. This has got to be in your head. And that is what is conveyed to those patients. And they’re told it’s gotta be in your head. Go see a psychiatrist or a therapist. But I can’t help you. And unfortunately, we have learned in the last 20 years a great deal about, is making our patients so sensitive. It is a true reaction of their nervous system and immune system, and it is in response to various medical conditions they have. So again, as we’ve been talking about, those were the people that got sent to me for many years. And I, I have never believed that the majority of any. Anything that someone has experienced is in their head. Yeah, Almost everything I look at is real. I may not understand what is causing it, but for me, doubting a patient’s experience is not something I’ve ever done. And that’s what’s helped fuel what I’ve learned and what you learned over the year. That, okay, if this is real, and it is, I’m sure it is, the person in front of me looks like a straight shooter. They’re not hyper reactive. They’re not going off the deep end talking about it and talking about it very straightforwardly. And I’ve got these symptoms. I’VE got this, I’ve got this. And it’s really making my life miserable. Okay, what’s causing that? So I began to work with what we now call very sensitive patients and figuring out what caused that. So over the years, I think we have names for this in medicine. Sometimes we call this multiple chemical sensitivity. People who will go to be walking down the street and someone will walk past them wearing a particular scent or perfume and they will literally fall to the ground or go brain dead or can’t think straight or even have some neurological symptoms. And I’ve seen that happen in my office. I’ve seen patients walking down the hall and having a staff member who had washed their clothes and tied walk past them. And I literally watched them fall on the floor. And it’s like, this is not psychological. This is someone who is reacting to the chemical that they are being exposed to and this is the effect it’s having on them. And so eventually it became clear that all forms of sensitivity, sensitivity to light, sound, chemicals, smells, food, EMFs, touch, were really being triggered by a limbic system that was unhappy. We began to learn about limbic issues before that. Give you a short history of it. I have discovered something called low dose immunotherapy different by Butch Schrader. And there was a long three year period of if someone stuck with it. If I used those materials over time, a lot of my chemically sensitive people would get better. It was the only tool I had back then. Dr. Deb Muth 14:41Yeah. Neil Nathan MD 14:42)Then, I don’t know, 15 years ago I discovered Annie Hopper’s work with dynamic neural retraining. And when I added that to what people were doing, that’s when I had my, ah, this is an Olympic system issue. And this is something we can reboot. And since then, many other people have limbic rebooting programs which are quite excellent and useful. Now I helped a lot of people at that point and it wasn’t until I stumbled on Stephen Porges work with the vagal system with this concept of polyvagal theory that I realized that the two areas of the brain that are monitoring that person’s environment, internal and external, for safety, are the limbic and the vagal systems combined. So when I started adding vagal strategies to the limbic strategies, I helped even more people. And then the first, the third piece of this trifecta was 2016 when Larry Afron wrote his book Don’t Never Bet Against Occam, in which he began our understanding of mast cell activation. And when I read his book, it was like, oh, big piece of the puzzle. And then we realized that those three things. And there’s more, but those three things were treated, Would help the vast majority of our sensitive patients regain their health and regain their equilibrium. This is not psychological. This is really treatable. Dr. Deb Muth 16:19Yeah, I’ve noticed the same thing in my practice and followed very similar paths. As you started out with ldi and lda, and then the vagus nerve things have been by far. I think if I look back, the vagus nerve work has been the biggest changer in our practice as well. I mean, all of the things help, but, like, I can give somebody a vagus nerve stimulator today, and within 30 days, 90% of their symptoms are better. And that just kind of blows my mind. It’s like I’ve never had a tool in my toolbox that has worked that well and that quickly. So. So it really is making a big difference. And I, too, was trained way back in the late 90s with multiple chemical sensitivity people. And some of those clients that I inherited from my mentor are still around. And, you know, they still can’t function at all. They’re wearing gas masks. They can’t leave their house. You know, any smells that even come in without them opening the windows, they are stuck. And no matter what you do, it’s just a challenge. Nothing works for them. And it’s a very sad life that they have to live. Neil Nathan MD 17:30Well, let’s add to that story that you can give people limbic vagal and mast cell treatments, and it’ll really work well to help them, but you need to look deeper, which is what is causing mass cell issues. And in my experience, mold toxicity is by far the number one and various components of lyme disease is a second one, and then a variety of other environmental toxins, infections, and things like that may trigger for some, but you’ve got to go back and get to the cause or else. Dr. Deb Muth 18:12Yeah, nothing works. Neil Nathan MD 18:13You can make them better, but you can’t really get them. Well, you get rid of the cause, and people can completely differently life back. Dr. Deb Muth (18:20-18:21)Yeah. Neil Nathan MD 18:22One of my frustrations with the mast cell world is after Larry efferent’s book came out, it changed people’s consciousness about mast cell activation. Something genetically rare to something which we now know. It affects 17% of the population, so not rare at all. But the clinics that are popping up to do it, and now in every major medical center of the country has a mast cell clinic. But number one, they rely completely on testing to make the diagnosis, and testing is notoriously inaccurate. And second, they just aren’t aware that you gotta get cause. So they’re helping people, but they’re not curing people because they’re not looking for cause. Dr. Deb Muth 19:13Yeah. And if they’re helping people, it’s on a minimal level, in my experience. They’re. You know, most of the patients that we see that have been at those clinics have been dismissed. Once again, told that because the testing isn’t positive and they’ve only done it once, that they don’t have this. But yet they fit all of the pictures. And then when you start digging, you start realizing they really do have mast cell, and. And you can find the answers for it for them. Neil Nathan MD 19:40Yeah. Dr. Deb Muth 19:41Why do you think mold remains so unrecognized in conventional medicine? Neil Nathan MD 19:48Interesting question. You know, I started writing a book chapter on the history of mold toxicity, our understanding of mold toxicity. And it’s. It’s fascinating to me. The mold toxicity is described in the Bible as a fairly long passage in Leviticus where it talks about that. So it’s not like it’s unknown to the universe, but largely, it’s remained undiscussed. Most people are aware of mold allergy. We’ve been treating mold allergy for decades. That we accept fully. I think the answer to your question lies in history a little bit. And I didn’t know this until I started kind of digging into it. There was an episode in the 70s in which a large number of school children in Cleveland, Ohio, got sick, and public health authorities attributed it to mold. About a year or two later, it was discovered that they. The H VAC system in the school had Legionella. Legionnaires disease. And it was then decided that, no, it wasn’t mold, it was legionnaires. And then a number of articles began appearing in the medical journals. Their names were literally mold. The hoax of mold toxicity. And that consciousness pervaded for 20, 30 years where people were reading these articles in which they were being told that mold toxicity was a hoax. That’s a strong word. And it took papers after papers after papers published in all kinds of medical journals, which were began to say, this is very real. This is symptoms that. That we see. It wasn’t until 2003, when Michael Gray and his team published a series of papers showing that these widespread symptoms, which we now recognize as mold toxicity, was real and directly attributed to mold. Now, keep in mind, we didn’t even have a test for mold at that point. Dr. Deb Muth 22:10Right. Neil Nathan MD 22:12So you could say this is mold toxin, because this person was. Well, they went into a moldy environment, they got sick, they went out of the moldy environment. They got well again, but we didn’t have treatments. We didn’t have a test for it. Historically, people were suspicious. Not very scientific. 2005, Richard Shoemaker wrote his book mole warriors, which really began to popularize the concept of this was a real thing. And in it, Ritchie talked about his markers and the visual contrast test. Now, these were not specific for mold, but they strongly, at least implicated that. Now, we had a test that could be helpful. So it wasn’t really until about 2010 that the first urine mycotoxin test came on the market. And at that point, we. We really could tell a person, you’ve got these symptoms, you’ve been living in mold. And now we have a test that shows you have mycotoxins in your urine. Now, it’s not like it’s a theory. It’s coming out of your body. That has furthered it, but not yet in the consciousness of the medical profession at large. As I’m sure you know, the history of medicine, in fact, the history of science, is that new ideas take 20 plus years to really be accepted by the profession. A new drug, a new technology is accepted very quickly because there’s an economic push to it. There’s no economic push to a new idea. So we’re still in the throes of some of us who work in the field. People say there’s no published data that really prove that this exists. And we’re working on that. As you know, we’re working on getting the papers published, but again, working on this history of molotoxism, There are actually hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of papers in the medical literature which really attest to the fact that this is a reality. It’s just that you and I are the only ones reading these papers. Dr. Deb Muth 24:33Yeah, we’re the only ones that care. Yeah. What would acknowledging mold actually forced medicine and the institutions to confront? Neil Nathan MD 24:44First of all, many medical offices and. Dr. Deb Muth 24:47Hospitals are molding, very much so. Neil Nathan MD 24:51And nobody wants to deal with that. It’s expensive. It’s difficult to truly get mold out of a building when it’s there. And so there’s a huge economic push to not acknowledge mold toxicity as an entity. The whole building industry doesn’t want to deal with it. Yes. It is estimated by the federal government that 47% of all molds have visible or smellable mold in them. It’s not like it’s rare. Not everyone’s going to get sick from it. But if your immune system takes a hit from anything and it loses containment over that mold, then you will take a hit from it. And it is also estimated that at least at this moment, 10 million Americans are suffering with some degree of mold toxicity and don’t even have a clue that that’s a real thing and that it can be both diagnosed and treated successfully. Dr. Deb Muth 25:51Yeah, it’s so hard. Like so many of the patients that we see, mold is never on their radar when they come to us. You know, Lyme disease is never on their radar when they come to us. And many of our patients have both. And the argument of there’s no way I could have, you know, mold exposure until you start digging back into their history a little bit. And then they’ll say, well, yeah, grandma’s house smelled and you know, I live in a hundred year old house, but it’s been completely renovated. And until you start having these conversations and really talking about it, people don’t have a clue that these things could make them sick. Or they, you know, I have a lot of clients that renovate houses for a living or that’s, you know, their hobby. And they go in and they renovate these houses and they’ve never worn appropriate equipment to protect themselves and, and then they’re sick 10, 15 years later. But don’t really understand why. Neil Nathan MD 26:47Yeah, from my perspective, it’s about how robust the immune system is. Dr. Deb Muth 26:51Yeah. Neil Nathan MD 26:52That if your immune system is robust, and this is true for Lyme as well as molecules, you could be bitten by a tick, you may have a Lyme or a co infection of Lyme like Bartonella rubesia in your body, or you could be exposed to mold, you could be living in a moldy environment, and your immune system will allow you to function at a high level for a while if your immune system takes a hit. Now the hit recently, big time, was Covid that unmasked Lyme and mold for a lot of people and a lot of people who think they have long whole Covid really have unmasked that they have Lyme and mold toxicity. That’s a whole other subject here. But menopause, childbirth, surgical procedure, any severe infection, any intense emotional reaction, death of a loved one, any of these can weaken the immune system. And then what is already there is no longer contained and we are off to the races of severely impaired health. Dr. Deb Muth 28:02Yeah, that’s what it did for me. I got sick with COVID and maybe about six, eight months later, I started to express neurological symptoms that looked like Ms. And actually had the diagnosis of Ms. But knowing what I know, I said, you know what? Ms. Is something else. Until proven otherwise in my book. And so because I had the knowledge that I did, I went and did all the Lyme testing and the mold testing and hit the trifecta of everything. Lyme co infections, mold, viruses. I just had everything. And as I started down that path of trying to clean it all up, all of my symptoms started to disappear. And certainly it wasn’t as easy as it sounds, and it wasn’t as quick. And I felt a lot worse before I felt better, as most of our clients do. But I think that I’m not the only person that this has happened to. And I think a lot of people get misdiagnosed just simply because nobody’s looking for the other problems that you and I look for and that we know of. And that’s one of the ways our medical system fails the clients they work with. Unfortunately. Neil Nathan MD 29:12One of the things that I teach and want people to be aware of is any specialist who makes the diagnosis that includes the word atypical. So atypical ms, atypical Parkinson’s, atypical Alzheimer’s, atypical rheumatoid arthritis, whatever it is, if that’s the word. What they’re saying is this has feedback features of this illness, but doesn’t really match what I see every day in my office. And when I hear the word atypical, I say, please look for mold, please look for Lyme. Because that is often the case here. Dr. Deb Muth 29:51Yeah, oftentimes it is. You also teach that when patients get worse under treatment, it doesn’t mean they’re failing. It means the treatment might not be appropriate for their psychology. Can you explain that a little bit? Neil Nathan MD 30:05Yeah. I think that many people start understanding about things like Lyme or mold and don’t really have the bigger picture. And so they will jump in with aggressive treatments in people who aren’t really ready for that degree of aggressive treatment. And here we’re going to come back to, if someone’s living vagal and mast cell systems are dysfunctional and not working properly, it is highly likely they won’t be able to take normal doses of the binders we use for mold, or to take antifungals or to take the antibiotics we need for Lyme disease. It’s not that they don’t want to. They can’t. And so what I see is not understanding what you need to do, in what order. If you do it in the right order, you’ll help the vast majority of people you’re working with. And again, that trifecta of limbic vaginal, mast Cell is one piece that a lot of people don’t address. And again, order matters. For example, in the mold world, some people have learned that, oh, I’ll need to give people antifungals to get this mold and Candida out of their body. But if you do that and you don’t have binders on board, there’s a very high risk that you’re going to cause a severe die off and make people really miserable. I remember when we kind of first started this, I was working with Joe Brewer, who’s an infectious disease specialist from Kansas City. And Joe wrote some of the earlier papers on this particular subject. And I was doing, I had a radio show at that point and Joe was on and we were talking about mold toxicity and how we treat it and what we did. And he mentioned that about 40% of his patients had this really nasty die off. And I went, I almost never see a die off. And so when we got off the program, we sat down and tried to compare notes about, okay, what am I doing differently than you, that I’m not getting the die off. And Joe, as an infectious disease specialist would go quickly to his antifungals. And yes, he put people on binders, but he also simultaneously put the lungs in pretty heavy doing antifungal. They got a nasty diure. I never put people in antifungals until their binders were up and running. So from my way of thinking about it, if you use any antifungal, they all work by punching holes in the cell wall of either a mold or a candida organism, killing it. However, by punching holes in it, what’s in that cell leaks out. And that includes mycotoxins. So. So you’re literally, if you’re using it aggressively, you can literally flood the body with mycotoxins. And if you don’t have the binders on board to mop it up, there’s a high risk that you’re gonna be pretty miserable. Cause you’re literally more toxic. Dr. Deb Muth 33:18Yeah, I remember in the early 2000s when they were teaching, if you’re not getting somebody to have that die off reaction, that quote unquote, herx reaction, then you’re not doing your job, you’re not giving them enough. And we would have clients that would come in and say, I’m not herxing. You’re not doing enough for me. And we were always the ones that are saying, you don’t have to hurt to get rid of this thing. I’m a naturopath too. And so preserving the adrenal Function was always very important to us. And we were like, if we cause you to hurts like that, now we’re depleting the adrenal system. We’re creating more problems that we’re gonna have to fix on the backside. And that was the narrative that was being taught back then. And I’m glad that’s not the narrative that’s being taught today, for sure. But people don’t understand. Like you said, you’re more toxic at this point, and creating more toxicity isn’t what we want to do. Neil Nathan MD 34:12It’s not good for healing. Kind of intuitively obvious, but you’re right. Back in the early days, we were taught that just to put a spin, I’ll call it on a nasty Herc’s reaction. Oh, great, we’re killing those little microbes. This is fabulous. Yep. I mean, that’s how we spun it back then. And currently I can’t say that some Lyme literate doctors still believe that, but most of us have realized that. No, that means we’re killing him too quickly. We need to modify what we’re doing so that we are killing it, but not at a rate that our patient is getting worse. Dr. Deb Muth 34:59Yeah, I always tell people we want to kill the bug, but we don’t want to make you feel like we’re killing you at the same time, because that’s what’s going to happen if we’re not careful. So, yeah, how does trauma and emotional or physical trauma and abuse and chronic illness, how do they all reinforce each other? Neil Nathan MD 35:24Our limbic systems have been trying to keep us safe since we were in our mother’s uterus. By again scrutinizing the stimuli we’re being exposed to from the perspective of safety. So none of us have had perfect childhoods. Yeah, some older than others. But depending on what you had in your childhood, maybe you had recurrent ear or throat infections and took lots of antibiotics. Or maybe you needed surgeries. Or maybe you had parents who were both working and not particularly available to you. Or maybe you had abusive parents in any way possible. But through your whole childhood experience, your limbic system is really going okay. This isn’t safe. This is not good for me. This is not right. And becoming more and more hyper vigilant to really be aware of that so it can try to keep us safe, which is okay. Maybe my parent was an alcoholic and okay, they’re coming in now. I’m going to make myself scarce. My limbic system is going to tell you, get out of here. Don’t put yourself in harm’s. Way, if that’s the case. And then as we go through our lives, more things occur. We have heartbreak when we’re teenagers, and we have difficulties with work or bosses or other things. Each insult of safety to us helps to create a limbic system that is more and more hypervigilant. So if you then have a trauma of any kind, it’s kind of like the straw that breaks the camel’s back at that point. And that could be mold toxicity, that could be Covid, that could be the loss of a loved one, that could be a betrayal of some point, any number of things, once that happens. Now that limbic system is super hypervigilant. Now, what that means is, symptomatically for people is we’re going to have symptoms in two main categories. Not to make us sick, but to warn us from our limbic system that, hey, this isn’t safe for you. You got to get into a safe place here. And those symptoms are in the category of emotion and sensitivity. So with any of our patients that we see, if they have become more and more anxious patients, panic, depressed, ocd, mood swings, depersonalization, derealization, that’s all limbic. And if they have any increase in sensitivity to light, sound, chemicals, smell, food, touch, EMFs, limbic. So most of our patients have gotten to that place. And as I’ve said, the vagal system comes along with the limbic system because it does the same job. Those symptoms are a little different. The vagal system controls the autonomic nervous system, and so things like temperature, dysregulation, pots, blood pressure, palpitations. The vagus nerve also controls almost all gastrointestinal function. So almost any symptom in the GI tract is going to have a vagal piece to it. Gas, bloating, distension, reflux, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea. So those are common symptoms in our patients. And it helps us to tease it apart that we can literally tell them these are symptoms of vagal dysfunction. These are symptoms of limbic dysfunction. And I hope I’m answering your question, which is, how does this evolve? It evolves throughout our whole life, and then eventually we get to the point where our limbic system is overwhelmed. And here’s the good news. We can treat this. We can fix it. We have various programs. And honestly, Deb, I believe that every man, woman and child on this planet needs limbic retraining, or at least limbic work. Co did a real number on the whole planet. Yeah, most people live in some degree of fear From a wide variety of causes. And we don’t have to live in fear. We don’t have to let us hurt us, but we do need to recognize that it is limbic, it is vagal, and we can do something about it. Dr. Deb Muth 39:58Yeah, that’s an exciting time for us, I think. You know, I. I agree. Like, the last couple of years have been very traumatic for a lot of people. Our young kids that were traumatized in school, their parents, the grandparents. I mean, everybody has gone through some kind of anxiety or fear around what’s happened in the last few years, and not to mention all the things that they’ve lived with their whole lives. And this just kind of came to a head and I think broke open for a lot of people that were suppressing their feelings up until this point. And it. It just was the perfect storm for a lot of people, unfortunately. And there’s a lot of people that can’t get over the trauma that’s occurred. The lying amongst the government and our families, how we treated each other and pushed each other aside and, you know, broken families apart because of their belief systems. It really did a number on people, and they’re really struggling to get back. Back for sure. Neil Nathan MD 40:56Yeah, we’re in complete agreement here. Dr. Deb Muth 40:59Yeah. Yeah. So many of our listeners, especially women, have been told their symptoms are anxiety or stress or quote, unquote, just hormonal. Right. And from your perspective, what damage does that kind of dismissal cause for people? Neil Nathan MD 41:16We have a fancy word for that, which is iatrogenic illness. Translation is your doctor is making you sick by treating you inappropriately, not making the right diagnosis and not honoring what you’re experiencing. There’s actually a new word that I’ve recently heard called medical gaslighting, in which you describe something to your doctor and he goes, no, this is in your head. There’s nothing really physically wrong with you, and you know that. No, no, no, no, no. I might be a little bit stressed by it, but something else is going on in my body. And they’re telling you, no, we tested you. Usually those testings involve doing a blood count and a chemistry profile, and that’s it. Those tests will not reveal the kinds of things we’re talking about because you’re not looking for the right thing. So it is really common for our patients to have been told that there’s nothing wrong with you. You need to see a psychiatrist because they don’t know enough to understand that the symptoms you’re describing, if you understood what you’re looking at, are very clear manifestations of Things. Things like mold toxicity and Lyme disease, chronic viral infections, a variety of other things. But your doctor has to know this in order to happen. And this is a failure of medical education. So if my message to everybody always is never doubt yourself or what you’re experiencing, it’s real, there’s never a reason to doubt that. If the people around you aren’t believing, you find someone who does. And again, to augment this, part of the problem is if families accompany the patient to the doctor’s office and they hear the doctor telling them it’s in their head, families become less supportive of their loved ones and go, well, doctor said, this is in your head. I don’t know why you feel so awful. And so families need the same point of view of trust your loved one’s perceptions. There’s no reason not to. Malaboring hypochondria is extremely rare. Gets talked about a lot. I’ve been practicing for over 50 years. I have rarely seen, seen anybody with those truly with those symptoms. So trust yourself. Good. Dr. Deb Muth 44:03I love that. What do you wish every clinician understood about listening? Neil Nathan MD 44:13I wish that every clinician had the same curiosity that we do, which is, I might not understand why this being in front of me has these symptoms or is ill, but I’m going to do everything in my power to figure it out. That means I’ll learn what I need to learn. I’ll study what I need to study to figure out why this person is sick. I really wish, and I understand kind of why that’s happened. My wife always thought that everyone was like me, which was Saturday mornings. My great joy in life was getting up early with a cup of coffee and reading medical journals or obscure medical books. That was my joy. She was shocked that most other people don’t. The way medicine actually evolved. We’re burning out doctors at a rate never before in the history of this planet by making them do things that are not in the service of patients, but are in the service of making money. And so doctors are being given seven minutes per visit. If you have a complicated person, there’s no way you could do income. Seven minutes. The way the system is set up, it doesn’t allow doctors to do their job. And then they’re under tremendous pressure to get the charts filled out properly, the way the advent of electronic medical records supposed to be. This great thing is it’s making doctors have to go home and spend two hours at home, not with their family, but getting their charts squared away. And I don’t think all patients realize the Kind of pressures that doctors are under. So to answer your question, I would like doctors to be more curious, but also, the system is broken, and I wish we could fix the system so that every patient could get the amount of time they needed with their doctor to really explore what’s going on and get to the heart of what’s happening. Dr. Deb Muth 46:31I so agree. So agree with all of that. If there was one question you would want every patient to ask their doctor, what would it be? Neil Nathan MD 46:44How would you treat me if I was your sister, mother, relative, whatever. Not what you want to do, theoretically. But if I were your wife, if I were your sister, how would you treat me? I don’t see that happening much, especially with elderly people. I see Doctors going, you’re 80. What do you expect me to do? I’m getting pretty close to being 80. And I expect you to help me because I want to function at this high level for a very long time. There was. It was an old joke that used to be Bella went in to see the doctor, and the doctor, he said, doc, my knee is all swollen and it’s tender and I’m having trouble walking on it. And the doctor said, you’re 102 years old. What do you expect? But, doctor, my other knee is perfectly fine, and it’s 102 years old also. So I once had the opportunity. I had a 100-year-old patient who had exactly that. So that was able to look at his knee and go, we’re going to take care of this. So it’s just older people need to be treated with respect, with the same thing, of absolutely no reason that they shouldn’t get the kind of attention that you would want your grandfather, your father, to have. Dr. Deb Muth 48:16Yeah, I love that question. So I have one last big question for you. If medicine were rebuilt around patients instead of systems, what would you change? First. Neil Nathan MD 48:33I would get rid of the middle man in medicine, the HMOs, the managed care organizations, where they take the profit and it’s being shunted into other areas. So rather than the physician being paid directly for what’s happening, they just get a piece of it that the managed care organization deems appropriate. You know, I grew up in what was called golden age of medicine back in the 70s, where I could do for people what they wanted done. People didn’t doubt that it was in their best interest and that if I ordered a test, it got done. I didn’t have to have someone else authorizing or tell me this is an okay or an appropriate test, I could do it. So I would go back to a. A practice of medicine, direct care, where you. Maybe there’s a system that would help reimburse you for it, but you could go to the doctor and you get what you need, and the doctor decides what you need. Actually, they’re the ones seeing you. Would a clerk in an office 600 miles away decide whether you can have this test or not? Have this test? Test? It doesn’t make any sense to me. I should be able to deliver what you want and need, and I should have the time it takes to really work with you. I’d like to go back to the 70s. Dr. Deb Muth 50:07Me too. Me too. Is there one thing that gives you hope right now for our system? Neil Nathan MD 50:16Honestly, I’m a very optimistic person. My answer is is no. I think the system is broken. I think it is being held intact by people who are profiting from this system. They have no interest in letting go of their profits for it, and they don’t have any interest in seeing that people get treated properly and well. So I think, as I said, the system’s broken. It needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Dr. Deb Muth 50:45I agree. I agree. Dr. Nathan, thank you so much. Not just for the conversation, but for the way you’ve modeled curiosity and humility and compassion in medicine. It is an honor to work alongside of you, call you my friend, and learn from you. Thank you so much for that. For those listening, if this episode resonates with you, I want you to hear this clear clearly, your sensitivity is not a flaw. Your body is not broken. And needing a different approach does not mean you’re failing. Healing doesn’t happen by forcing the body. It happens when the body finally feels safe enough to heal. If this conversation has helped you and you feel seen, I encourage you to share it with someone who needs that as a reminder. Thank you for being here and thank you for sharing with us. Let’s talk wellness now. Neil Nathan MD 51:38So in this context, I just want people to be aware of one of my recent books, which is the Sensitive Patient’s Healing Guide, which talks about this in great detail. And the new second edition of my book, Toxic, goes over the whole mold Lyme thing in more detail. So again, that wasn’t intended to be self serving, but rather there are resources where you can learn even more about it than Deb and I are able to cover in this short interview. Dr. Deb Muth 52:09Yeah, absolutely. And your first book, Toxic, was amazing. So if people haven’t read it, you definitely want to read the second version of it because it is incredible. And Dr. Nathan, if there’s somebody that wants to get a hold of you. How do they find you? How do they learn more about what you’re doing? Neil Nathan MD 52:24A very complicated website. Neilnathanmd. Com. Dr. Deb Muth 52:30Perfect. Well, thank you for today. Neil Nathan MD 52:34You’re very welcome.The post Episode 253 – Environmental exposures, Lyme disease & multiple chemical sensitivities: integrative approaches to healing first appeared on Let's Talk Wellness Now.

Send us a textAttorney Dr. David Feinwachs joined Liz Collin on her podcast. He is former general counsel of the Minnesota Hospital Association. He was fired for asking too many questions after four HMOs in Minnesota were making an extraordinary amount of money from the state Medicaid program. The federal government has put Minnesota on notice: fix the fraud or lose the federal funds. Dr. Feinwachs said a recent filing from the feds is a “bombshell” and could lead to severe consequences for Gov. Tim Walz and his administration.Support the show

Why Traditional Healthcare Falls Short—and How The Lanby Is Fixing ItClick On My Website Below To Schedule A Free 15 Min Zoom Call:www.Over40FitnessHacks.comOver 40 Fitness Hacks SKOOL Group!Get Your Whoop4.0 Here!Chloe Harrouche - The Lanby - Health Conciergewww.thelanby.comPodcast: Get Well, BetterIn this episode of Over 40 Fitness Hacks, Brad Williams sits down with Chloe Harrouche, founder of The Lanby, a modern, patient-led concierge healthcare practice redefining what proactive, preventive medicine can look like.Chloe shares her deeply personal journey into healthcare innovation, beginning with her background in bioengineering and healthcare consulting, and shaped profoundly by her experience being diagnosed with breast cancer at just 23 years old. Despite receiving standard-of-care treatment, Chloe was left with little guidance on how to truly optimize her long-term health. That gap—between traditional medicine and personalized, proactive wellness—became the catalyst for founding The Lanby.Throughout the conversation, Brad and Chloe unpack the shortcomings of conventional healthcare and even traditional concierge and Direct Primary Care (DPC) models. Chloe explains how The Lanby goes beyond access to care by offering trusted guidance, ongoing accountability, and true personalization, integrating functional medicine, nutrition, longevity science, and wellness into primary care.Listeners learn how The Lanby's team-based model works, combining physicians trained in prevention and functional medicine, registered dietitians, and dedicated member advocates who coordinate care and ensure patients feel heard and supported. Chloe details how The Lanby emphasizes proactive monitoring, including extensive baseline lab testing (100+ biomarkers), quarterly progress check-ins, and optional advanced diagnostics like genetics, gut microbiome testing, and biological age assessments—without pushing unnecessary add-ons.Brad relates the model to his own experience navigating cash-based healthcare, DPC, and self-directed biohacking, highlighting how overwhelming it can be to interpret data without expert guidance. Chloe explains how The Lanby helps turn complex health data into clear, actionable insights, reducing confusion and burnout for motivated, health-conscious individuals—especially those over 40.The episode also explores how The Lanby works alongside insurance (favoring PPO, EPO, or alternative cost-sharing plans), why HMOs are challenging, and how the model supports both day-to-day health optimization and coordination during acute issues.Finally, Chloe shares what's ahead for The Lanby, including:A nationwide metabolic health program using continuous glucose monitors“Just the Labs” and “Just the Genes” standalone offerings for non-membersPlans to expand into pediatric care with a holistic, family-centered approachChloe also highlights The Lanby's educational ecosystem—community talks, wellness presentations, newsletters, and her podcast Get Well Better—designed to empower patients with knowledge while providing expert context.If you're interested in online personal training or being a guest on my podcast, "Over 40 Fitness Hacks," you can reach me at brad@over40fitnesshacks.com or visit my website at:www.Over40FitnessHacks.comAdditionally, check out my Yelp reviews for my local business, Evolve Gym in Huntington Beach, at https://bit.ly/3GCKRzV

In search of the next miracle “cure,” Big Pharma has become very proficient at developing highly effective and obscenely profitable drugs aimed at treating rare diseases (think $750,000 per year) at the expense of ignoring newer, safer and effective treatments geared to a wider audience.Alex Martinez, CEO and cofounder of Intrinsic Medicine, shares his amazing journey from being a healthcare attorney who witnessed the good, bad and mostly ugly in Big Pharma to revolutionizing how we care for the human microbiome this week on Spirit Gym. Learn more about Alex's Intrinsic Medicine company at his website. Find him on social media via LinkedIn.Show Notes8:47 “The mission was attractive to me.”12:27 Alex got the education he needed while ground-truthing at the same time.20:50 Why is Big Pharma's disproportionate focus on drugs that treat rare diseases?30:16 Evolutionary biology.39:07 Alex is a very intelligent vegetable.44:42 Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) formulated with information molecules.51:53 The fecal transplant isn't new science.1:06:46 Freediving helped Alex look inward toward the microbiome.1:13:26 “What's inside of us is all around us.”1:25:05 The HMOs in breast milk serve as training mechanisms in a baby's gut.1:36:05 Is it possible that HMOs could work one day like fecal transplants?1:44:47 Where do these HMOs originate?1:50:33 Formulating infant formulas that aren't inflammatory should be the norm but aren't.2:07:29 Creating an ethical regenerative business by integrating humanity into it.2:12:49 Humans are so good at finding comfort in dis-ease.2:25:34 Where probiotics went wrong.Resources BifidobacteriumFructooligosaccharides (FOS)Paul's Living 4D conversation with Dr. Nathan RileyThe Abdominal and Pelvic Brain by Byron RobinsonFind more resources for this episode on our website.Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz), Composed, mixed, mastered and produced by Michael RB Schwartz of Brave Bear MusicThanks to our awesome sponsors:PaleovalleyBIOptimizers US and BIOptimizers UK PAUL15Organifi CHEK20Wild PasturesKorrect SPIRITGYMPique LifeCHEK Institute We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are complex sugars that pass undigested to your baby's colon, where they feed beneficial bacteria, strengthen defenses, and support healthy brain and immune development A systematic review and meta-analysis in Frontiers in Pediatrics found that breast milk continues supplying substantial amounts of HMOs beyond 12 months, supporting gut health and brain development into toddlerhood Certain HMOs, such as 3-fucosyllactose, even increase over time. This shows that the balance of individual sugars shifts across lactation and continues shaping your child's development after infancy Breast milk also contains myo-inositol, a sugar shown to boost synapse formation and neuronal connectivity, highlighting how breast milk delivers brain-supportive compounds beyond traditional nutrients To keep your breast milk as nourishing as possible for your baby, prioritize whole foods, minimize unnecessary medications, and reduce toxin exposure. If breastfeeding isn't possible, screened donor milk is the next best option