Alaya Property

Founder & Principal Buyer's Agent

A free weekly newsletter talking about property investing, savvy money habits and personal development hacks.

Writer

BALI ADOPTION REHABILITATION CENTRE

I’m working alongside my partner to bring more engagement to the social media posts for BARC in an effort to bring more awareness to their mission to save and rehabilitate unwanted dogs on the streets of Bali.

Our work involves:
• regularly posting of creative content
• establishing partnerships with other organizations to bring more awareness to animal welfare in Bali
• managing the donor list and ensuring our fundraisers are successful

Social Media Business Strategist

Telstra

In my role as a Senior Product Manager, I was responsible for finding solutions to very complex problems in the SMS & Mobile industry. Leveraging data was a critical aspect of my role where I developed strategies for billion-dollar companies, with the sole purpose of delivering high-impact outcomes for customers.
Key skills I developed included:
Data Analytics: I made strategic decisions grounded in deep market insights while extracting information from complex data sets (think excel sheets with 100s of tabs).


Complex Problem Solving: The world of SMS & MMS is complex both in its technical nature and in its commercial nature. As the product manager responsible for multi-billion companies, I spearheaded product strategies that were focused on improving user experiences (think reducing scam as an example) and maximizing ROI.


Strategic Planning: I drove long-term roadmaps and portfolio management, ensuring that projects aligned with broader business goals while addressing emerging market trends, which is hard to do with limited budgets and skyhigh expectations from leadership teams. Yet I managed.

Senior Mobile Product Manager

Self-employed

Currently tutoring 8 students (primary and secondary)
Effectively communicating topics to students
Providing constructive feedback to improve student performance

Teacher

Hologo World Inc

Head Of Operations

Billabong High International School, Maldives

I’m an experienced educator currently working in BHIS as a Maths teacher. I’m also actively developing digital content for Hologo and Teaching Tube. We’re currently developing an education product to help schools become more efficient and allow students to learn in dynamic and engaging ways.

Educator and Content Developer

Senior Product Manager - Fixed Products

First rotation - Business Analyst and Project Management
Second rotation - NBN Capacity Planner
Third rotation - Assistant Product Manager

Graduate

Are you worried about buying the wrong property?

Not sure which market is best? Or if you're overpaying?

Worse yet…ever feel like every so-called "expert" is just trying to flog you some nonsense?

If you’ve been nodding along, then I'm glad we're on the same page.

Hey, I’m Adi.

I run Alaya Property, a buyer’s agency that helps investors make data-backed property purchases - without getting railroaded.

You see, I learned long ago that the property market is stacked against everyday investors in Australia.

→ Sales agents work for the seller, not you.

→ Shiny new builds often come with hidden kickbacks.

→ Many investors buy based on hype, not fundamentals, and then it becomes "property doesn't work".

That doesn't make any sense, considering most of the wealthy have gotten that way through property. Don’t you wonder how they did it?

The usual result? Overpriced, underperforming properties that set you back instead of setting you up.

That’s where Alaya Property comes in.

What we do:

We help investors buy smart - so they won’t be relying on the pension later.

→ We deep-dive into market trends, numbers, and long-term fundamentals, because really this is what drives prices.

→ We find underpriced properties with serious potential (not just what’s easy to sell).

→ We negotiate for you so you walk away with equity from day one

And we don’t do it alone.

We’ve got an economist on the team tracking macro trends, spotting suburb shifts before the rest of the industry catches on.

My team is also growing so we have more people on the ground.

This is the exact approach I used to build a $5M portfolio for myself - one that lets my partner & me live a life where we no longer have to worry about money.

We can help you get there too.

Want to find out if we can help you specifically? Here you go.

https://tidycal.com/3e8n2l3/30mins-discovery-call

Adi Chanda

I made *gasps in Indian* $18k in Q1FY24.

Fast forward a year - the same quarter paid off ~60% of my parents’ mortgage.

When they had one, of course - they think they’re so cool with their “we’re debt free” nonsense.

The whole “overnight success” thing is a bit silly, innit?

Because, you see, my little pepito - not a lot happens for a long time, painful period.

Then everything does “all at once” and then people start calling you lucky.

You are lucky in a way - because you're one of the very few who didn't give up before the “all at once” part showed up.

I'll help you build the kind of property portfolio that keeps the pension out of your retirement plans.

Sadly, I had to do my first firing at Alaya Property 🥺

Here are 4 lessons I learned the hard way - so maybe you don’t have to.

1 - Seniority doesn’t equal competency.

I brought them in as our first “senior” hire. I thought experience would solve everything.

But what I actually needed wasn’t seniority - it was depth of thinking and the ability to problem-solve.

You can’t fake that, and you sure as hell can’t teach it. You either have it or you don’t.

2 - Hope is not a management strategy.

Miguel and I ran weekly 1:1s.

We had a Slack channel called “objectives” where we literally documented what needed to change.

We restructured tasks and even paid ridiculous amounts to external contractors to lighten their load.

Every week, it was the same line - “This isn’t me. I don’t know what’s happening".

But I kept telling myself to give it more time because I liked them (they also loved dogs which didn't help).

I felt so much shame in being the person who gave up on someone.

But the hits kept coming - wrong names in contracts, pissed off agents, annoyed conveyancers, poor client feedback - even needing 3 separate refunds to clients.

I just kept praying to all the gods it would somehow turn around.

3 - The “it’s all my fault” mindset is silly on these occasions.

My friend, Haley, wrote recently about how she used to take pride in thinking everything was her fault.

I felt like she was yelling directly at me 🥹

I kept telling myself their underperformance was a reflection of our leadership.

So Miguel and I doubled down - more coaching, more patience, more optimism that time would fix things.

When in reality, no amount of training was going to fix a fundamental mismatch.

4 - Avoidance disguised as kindness hurts people.

My final straw was when team members started calling to say THEY were copping flak from agents, property managers and even B&P inspectors 🫠 

I realised (FINALLY) that my inaction wasn’t actually empathy - it was selfishness pretending to be empathy.

My amigo, Ryan Toppin, said something recently that lives rent free in my head now - “keeping someone who isn’t thriving is actually really unfair to them”.

It chips away at their confidence and sense of belonging every single day.

The whole thing has been humbling as hell for me.

It was an awful feeling finally making the decision, but 4 weeks on, seeing the team thrive again - I wish I’d had the courage to do it months earlier.

If you’re stuck in a similar limbo - torn between accountability and compassion - I get you.

But I think you already know the answer, my friend.

I'm hella bullish on the Brizzy market.

And you 100% need to be too, my guy.

First, let’s deal with the elephant in the room.

(And shut up it’s not me, I’m carrying a bit of winter weight okay. I said - shut up.)

→ Brisbane has gone through monumental price growth in the past few years.

So naturally, the sentiment is “ahh but but it can’t go up anymore because it’s already gone up”.

I feel like there’s a “that’s what she said joke in there somewhere” but I’m unfortunately too mature to know where.

Anywhos.

As someone well versed in primary school level economics, I know one thing is for certain:

Low supply + high demand = to the moon

And boy does Brizzy have some astonishingly low supply.

Add to that 

→ the migration data

→ the 100m freestyle in a few years

→ ridic infrastructure spend

→ and the fact that you can still buy a house for less than a car space in Sydney.

You start to see why it makes all kinds of sense.

As a company that buys dozens of properties a month through dedicated buyer’s agents, even WE are finding it to be a tall order.

Because houses are literally selling in less than 6 hours.

It’s absurd.

So yes, I’m confident that Brisbane has a lot of room to move and will go through a second wind effect, where prices will continue to surge due to the ridiculous pressure on the market.

If anyone disagrees with that, I would love to hear your reasoning.

If it’s a sound reason, I’ll immediately change my mind and start my next post with “I'm hella bearish on the Brizzy market”.

That’s thought leadership after all.

Don't correct me if I'm wrong.

But I think most of us aren’t scared to fail - we’re scared to look like an idiot.

My guy, looking stupid is a fundamental part of - nay, a rite of passage, in the investor’s journey.

You’re going to have people that:

→ don’t understand the decisions you’re making and will criticize you for it.

You’ll feel stupid as a result.

→ will project their fears onto you because their past decisions led to unhappy results.

You’ll feel stupid as a result.

→ judge you because you’re making decisions for the betterment of yours and your family’s future.

You’ll feel stupid as a result.

This is why so many of us get stuck in the same old place year after year, because we let the noise of our environment become in charge of our lives.

The ONLY way to get past this is to build what I like to call a “cone of stfu energy” around you.

Only listen to the people who have done the very thing you want to do and block out the noise from everyone else.

Then take all that knowledge and put it to work.

Do that for 6 months in a row, and tell me your life isn’t fundamentally different.

PS - This is me clapping for myself for being such a visionary, while my team looked on - bored & angry. Leadership!

No alternative text description for this image

This was my first “data report” for clients 19 months ago.

If you’ve ever looked at your “early work” and cringed into your soul - me too, my friend, me too 🥹 

Coming across this last night brought a very cliche / very important reminder:

→ Every single one of us has to start somewhere.

Fast forward to today and I have a whole team behind this, where we produce a dozen different reports every month.

What used to take me staying up all night, now happens seamlessly on a weekly basis.

Now, I love me a lesson, so here’s one to hold onto.

Everyone wants Chapter 7 of someone’s story.

But unfortunately you don’t get to skip the messy part. 

You just have to stick around long enough for that terrible cringe feeling to turn into a beautiful craft.

My guy, Seb, is keeellinggg itttt.

Casually winning offers whilst competing with 50+ others 😌

He’s managed to pull off what I can only describe as a miracle.

If you’ve been following the Melbourne market, you’ll know all about Pakeham.

We’ve been buying there for 9 months and dear god, is it absolutely frenetic there at the moment.

But somehow, Seb managed to buy a house for…$655,000 in October of 2025 lol

Here’s how I think he did it:

→ He speaks French. I would sell someone my house on the cheap if they spoke French. Because rawrrrrr.

→ He played mind games with the agent and vendor and bamboozled them into handing over the keys.

→ Did I mention he speaks French? Rawwrrrr. 

I don’t mean to be Bollywood dramatic, but I can’t express just how ludicrous that number actually is.

To buy something with a 6 in front is purely silliness.

It takes exceptional people skills, deep local market knowledge and the ability to work under insane pressure when there are 50+ others circling the thing you want.

As a result, this client is going to wake up in 12 months’ time and realise that he’s sitting on AT LEAST $100,000 of equity:

→ He can use this to buy another property, without using any of his own cash.

→ He can start a business, and look at boosting his take-home dineros.

Or a host of other things that his financial planner + accountant advise him on.

I can confidently say that his life has fundamentally changed from this moment onwards.

That’s kind of what the right first investment does for you.

It opens doors you couldn’t even see before.

Man I love this shit.

Oh and Seb, my man, you’re one of MY best investments this year 🙂

You know what no one ever tells you?

That leadership is sort of like finding yourself nude in public, and oh boy is it cold out.

I’m trying my best not to let my insecurities drive my decision making.

This article by Jason Andrew (big fan btw) captures perfectly what I’m desperately trying to do - let go of control and build a legacy of leaders who will carry the Alaya torch forward.

For quite a few months, and even now on occasion, I find myself fixing shit because it’s “just easier”.

➝ I find it difficult to not provide a solution when there’s “an obvious fix” swimming around in my head.

➝ I find it hard to just sit in the discomfort of "empowering to find a solution”, and trust that the team will figure it out - sometimes better than I ever could.

Although a 100x better than it used to be, I still find myself making low-level decisions which will rarely move the needle forward.

The irony of my inability to let go is that we’ve likely stagnated in many parts of the business because I’m the neck of the bottle.

Why?

Because I’m scared.

This is hands down the most I’ve ever cared about something. 

Every client, every team member, every person even loosely connected to us is someone I find myself thinking a lot about.

You mix that kind of overbearing care with a neurotic control freak nature, and you find yourself with a business equivalent of a molotov cocktail.

In rare moments, I’m absolutely convinced that no one else could possibly care as much as I do. 

So I “just jump in real quick”.

The article talks about being stuck in the middle of the pyramid - doing work that feels productive, but in reality all it's doing is keeping me from doing the real work - building leaders, not fixing problems.

If I had to be even more honest with myself, I think I know the deeper issue.

It’s trust.

I know I trust my team. I let them make client decisions without ever getting involved. 

But I’m not sure I fully trust myself yet.

➝ Trusting that I can help them grow into the kind of leaders I know they can be.

➝ Trusting that I can step back without everything falling apart.

A lot of days (I think), I nail it.

Other days, I still find myself stuck in the middle, just like this article said.

Jason - great article, my good sir. 

Please try not to yell at me through the screen next time.

This stuff is hard ok 🥹

Open article: The business owner pyramid: Why most founders are stuck in the middle by smartcompany.com.au

The business owner pyramid: Why most founders are stuck in the middle

Only ~16% of properties made it to clients 🥹

Translation = we rejected 5 out of 6 because they were mierda.

Property, unfortunately, is very much a numbers game.

As a company, we get literally 100 of properties across the country sent to us by dozens of agents.

127 to be exact for this fortnight.

After a thorough due diligence and CMA (where you compare house prices) process, that number drops to a measly 20.

Wahhhhh 😩

So in effect, we spend FAR more time rejecting properties (107 of them) than actually doing anything meaningful with them.

There's just so much shite out there in the market, my friends.

There are properties:

→ on main roads or near major arterials - big no no.

→ on train lines / near power lines / schools (because kids are annoying) - bigger no no.

→ near graveyards - I’m not superstitious, but I also wouldn’t want to live near graves. It’s kinda creepy.

We painstakingly go through 35 of these checks - every single time, habibi.

It’s a lot of effort, but it’s also the reason our clients pay us to do the deed for them - it's shit, painstaking work.

Because a lot of the time, it’s not just about chasing some big magical capital growth win - it’s also about avoiding a big mistake.

If I had to boil it all down to a single quippy line - our job is the quiet, unsexy discipline of saying no 5 times, so the client can rest easy with numero 6.

If you’re doing this on your own, I wish you good luck, my friend. 

You’ll need patience, data, and the grit to walk away when every brother & sister is shouting “deal of the year”.

Teaching you how to grow a personal brand that results in more sales | Founder of BeKnown

Growing your personal brand isn’t just a ‘nice to have’, it is a necessity in 2025.

Particularly if you are a founder, professional wanting to generate leads or a 9-5er plotting your escape to become a business owner.

I have had the honour of coaching clients across 40 different industries to grow their personal brand so they can;
—> Become a well respected leader.
—> Create trust amongst their community.
—> Generate leads and opportunities.
—> Book speaking and podcast opportunities.
—> Create impact.
—> Build their revenue while they are at it!

You may be someone who is brand new to LinkedIn or perhaps you have been putting yourself out there…

But still you are thinking;
- Where is my next client going to come from?
- Why do I keep losing to my competitors?
- How can I build more trust with my network?
- How can I generate more sales in an easier way?
- Why am I not creating the impact I could be?

I founded the BeKnown Academy to help cool humans just like yourself get out of your comfort zone to share your value with the world. 

As cliche` as this sounds…

Growing my brand on LinkedIn has changed my life in ways I couldn’t imagine.

I run a fully remote business, working with clients across the globe and have generated over $500,000 in revenue as a one man band.

If you want support with growing your personal brand on LinkedIn, here are 3 ways I can help you.

1. You can download my free guide below to turn your profile from something that makes you cringe to a page that sells for you while you sleep!

2. You can join my 90 Day Dare To BeKnown program and get access to over 30 hours of training and live weekly group coaching calls where I will give you specific feedback on how to grow your brand faster and generate more sales.

3. You can apply to work with me privately, this is a 5 figure investment so only apply if you are serious about growing your brand and generating huge results.

If you got this far I want to leave you with one last thing…

Remember- the universe rewards the brave!

Kateesha Hembrow

Have just spent the last 2 days at the SWISH Sales Coaching legacy health and well-being retreat.

It is really hard to summarise the type of experience I just had…

But I am going to try my best!

Day 1 we had Nam Baldwin who took us through a lot of important tips and strategies around things such as our breath and sleep. We participated in a breathwork session in the pool that had everyone incredibly relaxed by the end of the day.

Day 2 morning we had Morgan Nelson getting us to break our limiting beliefs by snapping arrows with our necks 😅 (more on this another day)! 

Day 3 afternoon we had Jess Cameron. talk all about our relationship with ourselves and the importance of feeling our feelings to actually regulate instead of disassociating.

I had a lot of beautiful realisations this week that I will be actioning over the coming months.

Thankyou Ryan Tuckwood for putting together not only a great few days but an incredible room of legacy builders! 🔥🚀

What do you want to BeKnown for? Grow your personal brand to be a well paid and respected authority that creates impact | Founder and Coach at BeKnown Academy

Again! Another year I see ONE post on International Men’s day.

Again! I will take a moment today to celebrate the beautiful men in my life.

I was going through my photos today just thinking about how lucky I am to have so many incredible men in my life. 🥺

From my Dad and brother.

To business friends.

And mates I have met along the way.

I appreciate you all so much and everything you do.

I could go on a rant around how unfair it is that good men don’t get enough recognition.

But instead I am just going to choose to celebrate them and hope that more people do the same!

So please, take a moment today to share your appreciation to the great blokes in your world! 💙💙

Feel free to tag them in the comments below!

Had the pleasure of hosting a session with the SWISH Sales Coaching Elite crew on "How to Be Known" on LinkedIn.

We covered;
--> The common mistakes I see people making on LinkedIn with their profile.
--> Why your content is not establishing yourself as an expert.
--> What you should know about going viral on here.

Was a fun session today and was beautiful to be able to give back to the SWISH community.

Thanks for having me along Ryan Tuckwood!

I had an awkward realisation over the last few weeks...

Awkward because it felt ironic and hypocritical at the same time...

I have an insecurity around "being seen" a certain way.

I realised my journey over the years people have witnessed me through many phases.

First as a young grasshopper who started out on LinkedIn at the age of 21.

To then becoming the under dog in my mid 20's who actually had some success.

But now I am in a season where I am actually proud and doing really well.

But sharing that... It makes me feel sick.

Because often when you share good news or share that you are actually winning, people project and 💩 all over you.

I have lost a lot of friendships and relationships over the last 18 months.

It has been a really uncomfortable season of growth because what I realised as 'douchy' as this may sound.

Is I am becoming not relatable to the masses.

Because I am willing to do things that 99% of people won't do.

Last week I had the opportunity to partake in a session with Morgan Nelson where we had to break an arrow which had our biggest limiting belief on it...

Moral of the story.

I am ready to win more and keep on sharing it with you to inspire you to step up to your highest self! 🔥 

Thanks Anna Tinsley for once again being one of my biggest cheerleaders 💜🥳

90% of my clients were once strangers that found me on the Internet.

I have done over $500,000 in revenue and crazy to think most of my clients hadn't met me in person or even knew I existed. 

If you are wondering how you can build the sort of connection with people virtually, where you don't have to be physically everywhere...

These are the 7 things that helped me to scale a multi 6 figure agency on my own...

1. Consistency and integrity.
It would be very hypocritical of me to preach growing a personal brand but only post content twice a week. Those small reps mean more than you think.

2. Vulnerability.
Being open about my journey and including the highs and lows allowed people to connect and resonate with me.

3. I put the personal behind personal branding.
What I mean by this is I take time to build relationships, even if it is as simple as a message or meaningful comment on someones post.

4. I help where I can and call people out on their BS.
Ask anyone who has met me or interacted with me, knows that I am going to be direct and call you out on your 💩 but will also know that they couldn't find a bigger supporter than me!

5. I add personality to everything.
Content, comments, messages, LinkedIn Lives. You will see some sass, humour mixed in with strategy.

6. I am shameless.
I am shameless about promoting myself because I know my personal brand isn't about me, it is about helping more people. Visibility = impact.

7. I share value, often.
I am a big believer in giving value freely with no expectations of a return. Not surprisingly, that is the best way to grow your business...

Something else you should know when it comes to growing your personal brand is that most people who engage in your content will never buy from you but they are important, because their connections will buy from you!

Did your clients find you virtually or from real life/ in person experiences?

Oh and if I am going to head to an in person event, you will catch me having an intimate moment like pictured below with my dinner. 🤣

My content has been seen by 402,111 humans on here the last 6 months.

But 5.5 years ago it would have been lucky to be seen by 400.

I could sit here and list out the strategic things you need to do with your content in order to have it seen by hundreds of thousands of people.

But instead I am going to share 7 things that you need to know outside of strategy.

1. Your content is going to suck to begin with, then suck a little less and a little less. My point? Embrace the suck.

2. Before you even think about growing your brand ask yourself, how well do you do with delayed gratification? Because you are not going to see instant results.

3. Know that if you look at your content from 12 months ago and cringe, you are doing AMAZIN SWEETIE! No but seriously if you aren't embarrassed you aren't going hard enough.

4. Know that 95% of people who engage in your content will never buy from you, they are your cheerleaders and their contacts will buy from you.

5. Don't be disappointed if in the early days your mum is the only one liking your content, I promise a random human on LinkedIn will eventually join and before you know it you will have an army of strangers supporting you better than you thought you friends would...

6. If you happen to have a weirdo or hater you need to remove out of ya life, make sure you delete their comment first before blocking them, not the other way around.

7. You need to look at your personal brand like the gym, you are not going to be motivated to post all the time, so you need to rely on discipline. 

Is there anything you wish you were told before you started growing your personal brand on here?

Please let everyone know in the comments!

Are you the worlds best kept secret?

Seething with rage because people less talented than you have become more successful… 

Purely because they were willing to put themselves out there.

Meanwhile you sit in your office;
—> Scrounging for leads.
—> Lowering your prices and dealing with crappy clients that don’t pay their invoices.
—> Constantly second guessing every decision you make leading to analysis paralysis.
—> Wondering where your next opportunity is going to happen.
—> Feeling deflated because you know you have a gift that isn’t being shared.

You need to know there is nothing wrong with you and your gifts.

You simply have been hibernating and nobody knows you exist! 

So here are 7 ways you can put yourself out there;

1. Commenting on posts, sounds simple but it is effective.

2. Sending someone a message that breaks the mould, no generic cookie cutter messages.

3. Posting content that actually has personality and value in it.

4. Emailing your database and writing it as if you personally hand wrote a letter to someone.

5. Being interviewed on a podcast.

6. Speaking at an in person event.

7. Running a LinkedIn live or masterclass.

If you read that list above and go yeah but Kateesha I “feel like an imposter” or “I don’t know how the heck to do the above”.

Comment below “I’m here” and I will ping you a message with something I am cooking 🧑‍🍳 up hehe!

Results don't lie.

Humans do.

If you are sitting here on a Sunday afternoon feeling deflated with the results of your week.

Good chance it is because you are lying to yourself around the actual effort and activity you put into your goals.

Recently, I have begun to meticulously track many areas of my life.

Some may see this as extreme but I believe it is necessary for greatness. 

One big area of my life I have been tracking is my health. 

I am talking every day I track;
--> How much sleep I am getting.
--> When I go to sleep and wake up, as well as how much deep and REM sleep I am getting.
--> If I am eating all 4 meals every day and at similar times of the day as previous days.
--> If I am drinking enough water and taking all of my supplements.
--> If I am doing one self care activity every single day.

You get the point.

This holds me accountable and let's me know where I am actually doing the work.

It is easy for our ego to tell us;
"It is fine do it next week."
"You can relax you have been 'good' recently."
"I will just do that tomorrow."

But we all know where that leads too...

Good thing is, we are one choice away from holding ourselves to a higher standard.

Are you comitting to yourself next week?

Let me know in the comments how you plan on doing that!

taplio

The Battle

Adi Chanda

Kateesha Hembrow

Followers

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Performance ScoreAdi Chanda's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKateesha Hembrow's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Adi Chanda

Kateesha Hembrow

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Adi Chanda's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKateesha Hembrow's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAdi Chanda's LinkedIn Performance