“A dream written down with a date is a goal.” There’s a lot to look forward to in this episode as a world-renowned filmmaker, best-selling author, and keynote speaker is here to bring fresh topics to the table. Meet man-of-all-work Greg Reid, and in this long worthwhile episode, he will walk us through his life story. Greg shares a thing or two about his career and gives us useful tips on how to juggle work yet still create a positive mindset where we can thrive and defy odds. Be ready to mark all the key topics because this talk gives so much value!
[1:59] Who is Greg Reid, and where did all the fun start?
[2:21] Surround yourself with people that getting the results you want and try to duplicate the process
[4:54] A bad case of “the one’s eyes.”
[6:20] The problem with people is that they always focus on the negative
[6:54] How to have a mindset shift and focus on a positive mental attitude
[7:31] People are as happy as they make up their minds to be
[9:30] How did he keep on going amidst the rejection?
[10:27] You can’t credit without credit and experience without experience
[20:00] Leverage everybody out there, figure out what you’re not good at, and subcontract
[28:28] Always take in council and reject the opinion
[30:22] Learn to train yourself when there’s a problem and look at the dominant thoughts
[37:41] What favorite thing stood out the most to him in his journey?
[42:08] How important is freedom of speech amidst everything that’s happening in the world today?
Resources:
Greg’s Website- www.badasseryfactory.com
Mastermind Group-https://mastermindgroup.com/
The Millionaire Mentor by Greg S. Reid- www.badasseryfactory.com
Greg’s Instagram- www.badasseryfactory.com
Please visit: www.badasseryfactory.com
For Self Development ONLY, join our Private Group:www.badasseryfactory.com
Transcript
Andre Popa: Who's a badass? That's right. You're a badass. Welcome everyone to the weekly show where we will go deep into the human dynamic and what makes us all extremely special. We're breaking the stereotypical mold of the badass on a Harley with tattoos. We're re-branding the badass with any human being that's happy and free. One can have all the money, houses, the Harleys and tattoos, Lamborghinis, yet if they're not happy and free, what's the point? Let's push some buttons and start some shit. Welcome to the weekly show, Who's A Badass.
Welcome, everybody. This is the Who's A Badass Show. I now will introduce to you guys a friend of mine that's a complete badass. Most of you guys know him out there in the social media world and the book world and the author world as just an amazing connector. I think there are other people out there that are connected, but this guy knows everybody. When we're talking about connecting, he's got a gift at pulling people in and out of his enthusiasm and his heart. As I'm getting to know him better and better, man, it's all heart, very talented but it's all heart, the one and only—welcome to the Who's A Badass Show—Mr. Greg Reid.
Greg Reid: Absolutely. It's interesting. I guess we do go way back – take back my day – and it's tiny and it's also awesome how we reconnected and now, our synergies are colliding. Your friends have become my friends. My friends have become your friends. That's what it's all about.
Andre Popa: Well, you know the game. It's funny how we're already getting into a conversation. We're about to talk energy and vibration, but it's your tribe. If we all exist at a certain level of power if you will, so those people are going to connect no matter what. That's the beauty of all this.
Before we get into the crazy conversations that we're about to have—obviously, your audience already knows who you are—but tell us a little bit about Greg Reid. Where did it all start? Where's the beginning?
Greg Reid: First, I'm the least qualified guy to do what I do. Let's check that out.
Andre Popa: Checkmark!
Greg Reid: I'm dyslexic. I can't spell very well. I can't read very good, but I'm an international best-selling author. Go figure. I make movies yet never made movies, and it's interesting because I realized a secret for me was surround yourself with people that are getting the results you want and then just duplicate it for yourself. Also, you work your strengths and higher weaknesses. I got amazing ghostwriters and editors who can take my gift of gab and then actually craft it in a way people sit down and read it. If our people sit and wait for the bad case of the one size, I'm going to take action once I learn this skill or whatever. The best time to take action is the moment it strikes you and then surround yourself with people who can make that dream become truth or reality.
Andre Popa: Amazing! Where were you born? Let's go back to Mom, Dad, family, all that fun stuff.
Greg Reid: I don't have a rags-to-riches story. Sorry, everybody, I don't have one.
Andre Popa: You were born rich. Damn it!
Greg Reid: I was born in the mean streets of Del Mar, California—West Coast! It was interesting. I had a yuppie life and things were good. I didn't have one of those down and out on the street and work your way up. We're very fortunate and very successful. In fact, I am the poorest guy in my family.
Andre Popa: Damn!
Greg Reid: I know. It's a different dichotomy.
Andre Popa: Incredible. Got it. You appreciated a certain level of success or money or lifestyle if you will, and you just made it better from there, becoming entrepreneurs. It was entrepreneurship, something promoted in the home and you're like, "Yep, that's what I'm going to go do," or you became that out of the journey?
Greg Reid: Out of the journey. My parents had the nine-to-five but very high-level corporate jobs, I mean, at a high level. When I was 17 and graduated high school, I remember my dad pulled me aside. He said, "Son, you had to go to college, you had to go to school." I said, "No, I want to get into sales and marketing." I'm full of crap. I want to be with these sales guys because I find friends, something I believe in, I can project it. I think I could make a great income. He looked me dead in the eye and said, "Boy, you're never going to make a living talking to people."
I remember the first time—I was 20-something years old—I sent in my W-2 where I made $100,000. I said, "Dear Dad, remember when you said..." and now, it's a running joke in the family because that's my thing.
Andre Popa: Nice.
Greg Reid: Yeah.
Andre Popa: Amazing! Got it. You said the concept of entrepreneurship and that rags to riches, then it was very similar. Gosh, I want to remember what you said because it was spot on. I believe Tony Robbins uses "Stop shooting all over yourself." You used something like this just a minute ago. What was it?
Greg Reid: Yeah, a bad case of the one size.
Andre Popa: The once size, bingo! Beautiful.
Greg Reid: You know what's interesting? The thing that holds people back is their butt; it's something that they sit on. They said things, they go, "Oh, I go do that too!" I find it just fascinating to me. The only difference between certain people who have success and those who don't, took action the moment it strikes you. How many times we had a million-dollar idea in the shower? By the time we brush our teeth, it's down the drain. Ten years later, you're seeing them happen. The only difference between you and them is that one person took action. It's action in the law of attraction that makes your dreams a reality. Think it, feel it, get off your ass, take action, and do it.
Andre Popa: Amazing! Do you believe anybody and everybody out there can do what you're doing, meaning, can everybody take action and get results, or does it take like, "Oh, you got to be born with this DNA to be an entrepreneur," or everybody can do it?"
Greg Reid: Well, first of all, I'm not a psychologist. I'm not a therapist. Everyone's different. At the end of the day, I believe that I was born with a different type of energy level. I'm positive. I'm happy. That's just how I've been my entire life. It's innate. It's not something I try. It's not my work. It's just who I wake up and I am. By doing that, you attract, and like you said early, you resonate with other people of like mind, and it's a reason that community builds.
Look behind me is this thing, it's PMA—positive mental attitude. I believe if we can live in a constant state of that, our challenges will find a solution, but most people live and they dwell on the negative. Have you ever noticed we got ten things going on in our lives, eight of them kick-ass and one of them ehh, and one sucks. All we focus on is the suck. "Hey, good job paying the rent, Reid. Hey, nice job doing up the car this week." You don't give ourselves celebration for the victories we do enough. For myself, I celebrate those eight so strongly that it helps pull me through the tougher times when they come my way.
Andre Popa: Beautiful. Has that always been you, like you always wake up happy, or is that something you have to learn through self-development of how to create these systems throughout the day and have a focus on the good ones to get through the bad ones?
Greg Reid: No. I think, again, it's just who I am. I have full foresight. It's called always good philosophy. I remember I was going to the grocery store and there was a checkout person. People were going through and she kept asking people, "How are you doing?" If you will say "Fair, fine," or the double negative "Not bad."
Andre Popa: Not bad, ooh, yeah!
Greg Reid: They go, "How're you doing?" I said, "Always good." She stopped and looked at me, and she goes, "How can someone always be good?" I said, "Abraham Lincoln said it best, 'People are as happy as they make up their minds to be.'"
Andre Popa: Amen. Incredible. Let's talk books. You've had a lot of success in writing books. However, you wrote them and I want to hear about it like what it takes to write a book nowadays. You've had a lot of success because you got rejected first how many times?
Greg Reid: You know what's interesting? We're at home—and I rarely get to share this—when I did my first book, it was called The Millionaire Mentor. I was turned down by 268 publishers, agents and printers in a row.
Andre Popa: Come on!
Greg Reid: The 269th one said, "We'll do your book, but change the title, beginning, middle and the end." I told you I'm all dyslexic.
Andre Popa: Now, that's good.
Greg Reid: I got a ghostwriter who recrafted it. It went on to inspire people around the world, which started my career. One quote from that book was shared 37 million times already and it says, "Hold up dreams," and says, "A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true."
Andre Popa: Amazing!
Greg Reid: It's on coffee mugs, T-shirts, but that's my quote from a book that was turned down 268 times. Here are all the rejection letters. Check this out.
Andre Popa: Wow!
Greg Reid: They're all the people that told me, for all the reasons why I wouldn't become an author. Guess what? I don't take that personally because I'm dyslexic. I can't spell very well. I realized if I could surround myself with someone that played at something I struggled at, I think good things could happen. Here we are now, 138 books later, in 45 languages and featured in every bookstore on the planet.
Andre Popa: Most people, probably including me, would have given up on somewhere in the 50th rejection, maybe 40th because I'm hard-headed like, "Fuck you! You're going to reject me," and that's most of society as well. You can be positive—I think I'm positive—but how did you keep going all the way to the 269th?
Greg Reid: I didn't hope. I didn't wish. I didn't believe. I knew I was onto something; I just didn't know how to do it. Once, I wanted to have a pool in my backyard. I don't know how to dig a pool. Even though I got a spoon, there's got to be a solution. I kept asking people until they told me about a backhoe. The whole thing is I just kept asking the right people. I learned a very valuable tool. As you surround yourself with people, you have respect for, not we have influence over. I went to the bookstore and I called every best-selling author. I said, "How did you do it? What's right?" They told me and I actually did something crazy and applied that wisdom. By doing so, we continued to have success.
What's funny I find today is that the people that are in that little box, all the people who rejected me are now my friends and published my works and seeing just on a post-it note saying, "Hey, I got a new book." The whole thing is you can't get credit without credit. You can't get experience without experience, and I get that too.
Andre Popa: Incredible. If somebody wanted to write a book today, what would you say the first three things to do like, "I got a book and I got a spoon, but there's got to be an easier way, a better way, or a bigger way?" What does somebody do?
Greg Reid: I'll recraft this one question for you because most people come out and say, "I've been working on a book for six years, what should I do?" Here's my solution: stop writing. That's it. Then what happens, you hire a ghostwriter and editor, somebody who's an expert in your chosen field of endeavor. If you go to upwork.com, you run an ad for 500 bucks and say, "Hey, I'm looking for a ghostwriter to take my awards and craftsmen away," and you interview people, you'd be shocked! How many people with PhDs in literature from Malaysia and China and the Philippines that will answer that and actually craft it in a positive way. That's what I would recommend you do—get out of your own way so that they could take it and put it into book form.
It's interesting that my latest big best-selling book is called Wealth Made Easy. The guy who really wrote it with me is Gary Krebs. He's the former publisher of McGraw-Hill Publishing Corporation. The big question: who can write a better book, me or that dude? Surround yourself with people that are getting the results you want.
Andre Popa: Genius. Then do you self-publish, or do you get a publisher, or are there different opportunities in either direction?
Greg Reid: There are only three reasons you write a book: ego that you just want to tell your story so your grandkids know you did something; two, for leverage, which means you use it to open up doors of opportunity—let's say, you're a real estate agent and you do a book or you're a featured expert so you can get more listing because you're qualified expert—or three, to become a leading authority in your chosen field. That's it. You got to, first of all, know where you go. Unfortunately, a lot of people ask this question, they go, "It's the same thing." I say, "Hey, I want to be an actor." What does that mean? Does that mean you want to be an actor for your local college? Does it mean you want to be a TV actor? You want to be a stage actor? You want to be in a movie? They're completely different. Telling that you want to be an actor but not knowing where you want to go would be malpractice.
What I would do is, first, to sit someone down and find out the reasons they want to write a book, and then I can answer that question accordingly. If you just want to publish your poems about your kitten, then, yeah, publish it. That's pretty much a way to go. If you want to be an expert and use it as leverage, I give you more of a hybrid publishing company. If you want to become an authority, I recommend you go to the Big House. It's very different.
Andre Popa: Got it. Now, that was very well answered because, for me, I have a question of – because I hear both, "Oh, you could only self-publish," then I hear "No, you got to use a publisher." I hear both. Obviously, you've had a little bit of experience in books so I thought let's ask you about it. With all this information, whether it's through books, through your posts, through events—the Secret Knock, we'll talk about Secret Knock—obviously, you're good at social media. I think you have a lot of great posts, great photos, great energy, you know how to use it, which is going to piggyback us into the Twitter concept of what just happened yesterday because a lot of people got shut down and all of a sudden these people are opening up like, "My account's not back up yet." I texted Elon, he's not responding, hopefully soon." Let's talk about Secret Knock and then we'll go into social media and how you're maximizing that today, and then we'll go into Twitter.
Greg Reid: Okay, but you're dropping like a thousand things. First of all, back to publishing. The whole thing is that we wanted to self-publish. The reason a lot of people do that in today's world is the control and the finances. Let me be very direct. There is no money in books. If you do it to get rich in books, it's like winning the lottery. That's not a thing. If you use it as a leverage piece to open up the doors of opportunity and other engagements, it's amazing.
For example, I have not made millions of dollars in books. I've sold millions of books, but I haven't made millions of dollars. Yet, I've made millions upon millions of dollars because I've been in books. It's really interesting to understand the reason, again, why you're doing something, and then understand the doors of opportunity.
Look, if you're a publishing company, here's the way it works in New York: take emotion aside. If you go to them and say, "Hey, I want you to publish my book, Random House." You can say, "Great." Well, it doesn't make a difference how great your title is, how great the book is. They're thinking, "How do I get my money back?" They took your book on and they gave you a small advance, call it 50 grand, and then they're going to spend another $50,000 re-editing and packaging and then printing and then PR. They said they got 150 grand. Well, just because you got a great book and you think it's awesome, if no one buys it, they just lost $150,000.
Andre Popa: Sure.
Greg Reid: What they're looking for is, "Hey, how many social media presence do you have? By the way, are you going to be out speaking 75 times next year where we can bring books and sell them in the back of the room? By the way, are you going to get on any major TV shows?" Because if you go to them with that, it doesn't make a difference quite frankly about the super content of the book. It meant the difference where you'll sell the books.
Andre Popa: Exposure.
Greg Reid: Exactly. When I went to Barnes & Noble to be a best-selling author, I didn't go to the best-written book section. I'm dyslexic. That wasn't my goal. I went to the best-selling section. I said, "I know this secret." I think people – once they have that clarity, then they can have the blueprint, and then we can give the directive so they can go exactly in that direction. Is that fair enough?
Andre Popa: That's beautiful. First of all, you got to figure out why you're writing a book and I like the concept of ego, et cetera, leverage. Obviously, most of my audience are entrepreneurs at some level. I know everybody has a book inside. There are quite a few that need to get them out. I hear what you're saying about when they look at you in the publishing houses, they want to know traction. What traction are you going to bring them?
Greg Reid: How are they going to get their money back? Look, a publishing company prints your book and gets it out. That's it. They're not a sales company. Most people go, "Oh, my publisher didn't do anything to sell my book." That's not their job. Your job as the authors that go to the publishers and say, "Hey, man, do it." Think about it. If they keep 80% and you only get 20% but you have to put in all the workouts, all the legwork just for the ego of saying that you're published by Penguin, understand that that's your risk/reward ratio.
In today's world, just so you know, a lot of them are doing a buyback program. What that means is this: I'll sit there and say, "Hey, we'll publish your book, but you have to guarantee you'll sell 10,000 copies within, say, 18 months." Then if you only sell 8,000, you have to buy the other two back at cost. They can't lose. They're basically winning or winning. If it runs, they make money. If they don't, they think – that's another way that people are opening up the doors of opportunity, but we got to take the emotion out of it. If we sit there and say, "It's got to be my voice. It's got to be my thing," you're pretty much dead in the water. What we want to do is make sure: Is it sellable? Are people going to read it? Is it translatable?
Look, no big words were ever harmed writing my books, but they were also able to be translated in every single language around the planet because they're so simple, basic, common sense, knowledge shared in the way that we're doing right now that ever opens the door.
Andre Popa: Amazing!
Greg Reid: Okay. Next!
Andre Popa: Next! I like that. Bullet points! We'll go to social media for a minute because you brought up the concept of the publishing houses. They want to see followers' engagement, what do you have out there, how big is your list, et cetera. Let's talk social media and how important it was for you coming up on your success journey, et cetera? Did you leverage—same thing—did you leverage people, Upwork, whatever, VAs to help you with social media, or was it just your gift?
Greg Reid: Oh, no. I hired 20-year-old kids to make me look way cooler than I do. Do you think I'd pick out this jacket? Give me a break! The whole thing is surround yourself, again, with people that are experts in their chosen field. Get out of the way and let them do that. It's funny. Even when I do media now, I hire amazing PR companies. They say, "Well, give us a list of questions you want to ask." I go, "No, you supply questions so it makes me think differently so I'm not talking about crap over and over."
The whole thing, for me personally, is to grow and expand by surrounding yourself with people that are getting the results you want. It's going to be a repeat, repeat, repeat.
Andre Popa: Got it. You figure it out quickly what you're really good at and then you just subcontract it out the rest.
Greg Reid: Everything, 100%. It's so funny when I made my movie, Wish Man, I never ran a camera, I didn't do catering, I never sold any costumes, I made a movie. The way you do that is by producing. It's so funny when Frank Shankwitz, founder of Make-A-Wish, I asked him what his wish was and he goes, "I want my story to be a movie." I said, "Well, sign over your life rights, I'll make it a movie. Just know, I've never made a movie." He trusted me and it took years. What I did is I took action.
I believe that the universe rewards momentum. I took out an ad for someone to write his screenplay on a secretive website that no one's ever heard of. It's called Craigslist. For $25, a guy answered the ad, wrote the movie, directed the movie, produced it with me, and we won awards all around the world. And the moral is I believe that God of the universe rewards those who take constant massive action. Then we surrounded ourselves with people in Hollywood that won Oscars, Emmys and Golden Globes and asked them for the fine details, and here we are today.
Andre Popa: Amazing! You did the same thing in movies, you did exactly, did in social media and books and everything else. Love that. I think the biggest message Greg is giving you guys the biggest tool is leverage. Everybody out there, figure out what you're not good at and subcontract. Let's talk. Isn't there another movie that you're coming out with or working on now?
Greg Reid: Yeah, we've got the release of Purple Case. We did a short. Basically, it's a TV pilot and we made it into a movie short, put it out in the film festivals. We swept. We won so many awards.
Andre Popa: Wow!
Greg Reid: Now, on June 21st, we're going to do the world premiere at Mann's Chinese Theater up in Hollywood. Again, what we're going to do is just tricky. We're going to bring in all the different showrunners, the people that actually pitched these networks, have them in the audience, show it, everyone will love it, and then we'll show screen after screen of every award we've won saying, "Hey, here we got third-party validation, people. Here it is on a silver platter. Who wants it?"
Andre Popa: That's good.
Greg Reid: We did the homework for them so they can just take it and go.
Andre Popa: Incredible. I love the concept of taking massive action, momentum, the universe rewards what you put out there, et cetera. Do you believe you are an opportunist, a creator? These ideas of what you just did at the end here with the awards and showing, et cetera, where's that from?
Greg Reid: I don't have an answer for that—just a damned load. All of a sudden, I go, "Well, what's common sense? Does that make sense?" Because, again, during the COVID years, I mean, things were shut down and no one's working. What we did is we hired a film crew and actors and all this stuff to go make this thing because everyone's out of work. We got a million-dollar project for less than 80 grand.
Andre Popa: Wow!
Greg Reid: The way we did that was because everyone was available. I saw an opportunity but it was a win-win for everybody. To me, I don't believe that one side has to win and one side has to lose. I truly believe we can all come out on top, and everyone has the potential for the upside.
Back to something you were saying earlier because I already heard everyone now. Listen, I'm saying it because you're going, "Work your strengths and higher weaknesses. If that's working for you, blah-blah-blah." First of all, work your strengths and collaborate your weaknesses. For example, many times I go to ghostwriters and say, "Hey, I'll share the profits. It's my idea. You write the book. When it comes out, I'll be the dancing puppet out on stage. I'll do all the work. I'll do everything and you and I will share the profit." Why wouldn't you do that? There are many ways of doing that.
Even right now, you might have a great idea for a logo. Someone else makes T-shirts in their garage, another person makes a website. Come together. Start a company where you all three come together and prosper. There are many ways to do it and it doesn't take a lot of dough.
Andre Popa: Love that. I love that because earlier, I said that what you do, you do it from the heart, and it's just so obvious, "Yeah, you want to make money. Yeah, you're a crazy entrepreneur, but you do it from the heart." I feel that. For me, that's rare because a lot of guys out there, gals are about them. It's very different. I appreciate the collaboration because that takes a different level.
Greg Reid: Absolutely.
Andre Popa: Tell us about now bringing people together. Events—you're obviously very good at bringing people together. Collaboration and this phenomenal thing you got every single year, Secret Knock, and then you have other events, but I believe Secret Knock is the biggest. Let's start there. I'll tell you because I just went to the last one. The people that you had there speak outside of Steve Sims, that's probably at the bottom. You had some really, really interesting cats, and we're talking multi-billionaires to politicians, to a kid that's building shit in the metaverse, you are connected. Tell us about it, please. How?
Greg Reid: All right. This is interesting. Twenty years ago, when I went into this industry, it was pretty amazing how some of the successes came through the trials and tribulations. After a few years in—it was very interesting—I had a golden opportunity. I worked with the Napoleon Hill Foundation. Everyone knows Think and Grow Rich where I had an opportunity to write the Think and Grow Rich series. They gave me basically a Willy Wonka ticket to meet anyone. What happened is that people kept saying, "How do I meet your friends?" I started an event in my living room with 12 people and they said, "Do I need a ticket to get in?" I go, "No, just when you come to the door, do this secret knock, pam-para-bam-pam" and became a joke. Well, they left, told their friends and it took off and took off and took off.
We did everything that George Costanza did the opposite way. Instead of that same brochure you see with the round circles of people's heads in there and they tell you what you're going to learn how great it is, we said, "Well, come to our event. It's 3 grand to go and we will not tell you where it is, who will be there, nothing." We just changed it. By doing that, we changed the paradigm. In fact, Inc. Magazine called this the greatest event you cannot go to. We just took it away. We made it more about collaboration. In fact, we have no name tags as you saw; we have none of that stuff. Everyone is treated equally. When the mics went out, we said, "Hey, sorry, we're going to wing this thing. We'll speak up. We'll do what we got to do. If water runs out, someone run to 7-Eleven, get some water and bring it back."
We're around positive, like-minded people, and I think that's what's missing. If you came up to me and said, "Hey, I'm working on a project and I got that contact," you open up your phone and go, "Boom! Done," and it's a connection. That's what we can get back to.
Andre Popa: Hmm, the connection. Obviously, there are people that are phenomenal at connecting like you, and there are people that are just not. Is the connecting part—going back to the heart—is there something that you can teach in a few words for people that are shy, not able to get out there, shake a hand? Especially today with social media, we're so behind our phones and our computers, people are becoming introverted in a weird way, is there something that you do where you're like, "No, fuck this. I'm going to go talk to that person?"
Greg Reid: Specificity, I think it's what's missing in today's world. It's not shyness, it's not that stuff; it's specificity. For example, someone comes up to me and says, "I'm looking for this." I'll sit there and say, "Great. When do you want it and what are you willing to pay?" If you can't get that question, then they don't want it bad enough. If they did, then you know the direction to take him to. If someone came to me and said, "I want to write a best-selling book." "Great. When do you want it done and what are you willing to pay?" They say, "Well, I want it done for free and I want it done in three months." That's not going to happen, but they simply say, "Sometime this calendar year, I got a budget of 50 grand." Now, all of a sudden I can go to my phone and say, "Here are some great ghostwriters for you." I mean, people aren't too specific like that; they pussyfoot around.
I'll give you another one. This is how I get access to everyone to answer your big question—specificity. If I want to get to the founder of NASCAR, I'm going to reach out and say, "Listen, I need 12.5 minutes of your time. I'm working on a new book called XYZ. I'll pay my own cost and expense to get there. From the moment I open the door till the moment I leave, I'll start a stopwatch, it will be 12 and a half minutes, ask your question, poh-poh-poh." The chance of them coming from their office to the break room to meet me is so high because it's specific. Unfortunately, people say, "I want to pick your brain." "I don't want my brain picked. I want to take you to lunch. I want to buy you dinner. I want to have coffee. Book a Calendly event schedule." It's not going to happen. I believe if we have specifics, things will happen.
I'll give you another one. I get on stage, there are 10,000 people, a long line. "I love you. I want to work with you. How can I be of service to you? I don't have 30 minutes for a resume," compared to "Hey, I love your talk. I saw your Instagram. You got a million followers. I dig your memes. I make memes. Let me send you one of mine if you like it. Maybe you'll use me." Eight seconds, I know who you are, what you do, you got my cell phone where you can contact me. More people need to go to that type of mentality and everything will change.
Andre Popa: Basically, people today don't know how to communicate?
Greg Reid: With specifics. It's always pussyfooting around.
Andre Popa: Because of fear?
Greg Reid: Whatever it is. I'll go with you on that. All I'm saying is that they don't know what it is that they want. Again, what do you want? When do you need it? What are you willing to pay? You'll get no specifics.
I'll give you another one. Someone comes up and gives you – I believe there's a big difference between counsel and opinion. Opinion is based on ignorance, lack of knowledge and experience like all your damn family, friends who have never done what you want to do.
Andre Popa: That's right.
Greg Reid: Counsel is based on wisdom, knowledge and mentorship. If my family, friends, I go to them and say, "I'm going to write a best-selling book," they're going to talk me out of it to protect me because I'm dyslexic, and they've never written a best-selling book.
Andre Popa: That's right.
Greg Reid: But if you got Jack Canfield who wrote Chicken Soup, he's going to say, "Great. Sit down. Here's what you need to know. I'll give you counsel." If we would spend our activity only seeking counsel, ignoring opinion, that's the day your life's going to change.
Andre Popa: Beautiful. I'm actually taking notes, "...versus opinion." Yeah, I love the concept of opinion. I believe unsolicited advice/opinions are an attack on the spirits.
Greg Reid: I will share one little nugget because honestly, I'm inspired to do it.
Andre Popa: Sure.
Greg Reid: One of my favorite interviews I did was with a guy named Steve Wozniak, and he started the Apple computer with Jobs. I said, "How did you and Jobs have so much success?" He said, "We embraced our lack." I go, "What do you mean?" He goes, "We didn't run from what we didn't have; we ran toward it." I said, "Give me an example." He says, "Well, when these little microchip processor things came out, they were so expensive, we can only afford one chip." He goes, "Job sold his car. I sold my calculator. We pooled our money to buy one of these things." He goes, "Hewlett-Packard made machines that go from point A to point B with 20 chips. They had all the money." He said, "I pull away five and get it to work with 15. I pull away five, get it to work with ten. Eventually, we went from A to B using our one chip." He goes, "We were not trying to be innovative or cool or aerodynamic. We can afford one freaking chip."
He goes, "By embracing that as an opportunity, we found the shortest, cleanest path. By doing that, we changed the way people do personal computing for the rest of the world for the rest of their life." He said, "Where could you be in your own chosen field of endeavor if you stop looking at everything as your greatest challenge and obstacle, but it could just be your greatest blessing, your greatest opportunity in disguise?"
Andre Popa: That's deep. At your house—and this was at a different event recently—you said something very, very powerful that I took home with me. It's something I do and I believe in, but you maybe took it to a different level for me. You mentioned the idea that you learned to train yourself when there's a problem. When there's an obstacle, you don't focus on the problem or the obstacle; you automatically only look at the opportunity or the solution. Do you remember that conversation?
Greg Reid: Yeah, absolutely. You know what's interesting? It also goes down to our dominant thoughts. I got a new book out right now Chris Heller called Dominant Thoughts. Bob Proctor and I wrote a book called Thoughts Are Things. We realized by talking to science professors and physicists that we have 64,000 thoughts a day. The majority of them are an acronym called ANTS—automatic negative thoughts, the reptilian part of the brain that protects to keep you safe, so if you walked out of a cave, a dinosaur wouldn't eat you.
Well, the same thing, I said, "Hey, if we have 64,000 thoughts a day and the majority are negative, then everything should be chaos and drama in our lives, but it's not." If only the thoughts that we took action on yet we all have these stinking thinking creep in, so I created something called an APE, an automatic positive experience, and it works like this. Get a song by Billy Joel. If someone cuts me off on a freeway, I sit there initially and go, "You son of a – in the middle of the night," and it just takes me right there. It took years of training, but to me, I picture a giant ape standing over an anthill squashing them suckers. Because if you don't know how big that ape is, too many ants can overtake it.
Andre Popa: Hmm, so amazing! You are a walking phenomenal book of wisdom. I love it, I really do. Events—I want to go back to events for a quick second because a lot of people today, speakers, at the event, you were so in your element at Secret Knock then at your home, do you love the stage? Is that one of your favorite parts of what you do?
Greg Reid: I get to play. That's to me like going and playing.
Andre Popa: Got it.
Greg Reid: A hundred percent, that is in the element and it's also doing what I feel I excelled the most in. I'm not focusing on that; I'm focusing on the deliverable. That's what, again, in this industry, that whole fake-it-till-you-make-it mentality is so detrimental, I believe. As to me, it's surround yourself with people that are doing.
For example, at Secret Knock or any events, these events that we're part of, even with Steve Sims you mentioned earlier, the whole thing is, if you want to start a clothing line, here's the founder of UGG boots; talk to that guy. If you got anything for a board game, here's a guy who did Pictionary. If you want to be on TV, here's the guy who formed E! Entertainment. Where could we be by surrounding ourselves with the people who are actually accomplishing and doing what others were talking about? That's the repeat record that we're going to keep saying.
If we start focusing on that and looking around us and going, "Why am I listening to all these people for their opinions, and how do I start surrounding myself with these other people?" Here's your answer: attend Steve Sims' event, attend these cool different things. More importantly, with specificity, start reaching out to these people that you think are out of your sphere because the most successful people are the most available. I'll say it again, the most successful people are the most available.
If you're at the top, you're a happy-go-lucky refresher, cool. If you're at the bottom, you're happy-go-lucky, you're learning your way. In the middle, you're a pain in the neck. You're filled with ego. You're edging God out. It is easier to get to the founder of the billion-dollar empire, Remax Real Estate Corporation than your local Remax office down the street.
To me, I believe as a kid, we got in trouble for cutting the line at lunch break or whatever, but in today's society, that's what we should do. For myself, every time I'm working on a project, I go, "Who's already done that," and I go directly to that source.
Andre Popa: Incredible. For most people that want to get into the event space because it's out there and everybody wants to do their own event, et cetera, is that something you recommend like, "Go do it, fuck it up, flop your first couple and learn from it?" What would you recommend for people saying, "I'm going to put on my own event regardless of the industry?"
Greg Reid: Again, everyone's their own person. I don't need these people so I can't give a blanket statement, but I will say this: just plan for not doing a lot of free events. When you do a free event, the way it works is that you get 100 RSVPs. You have to cut that in half and then cut that in half, and you're looking at about 20 people. Unfortunately, they stack up an event with 500 people. Then as a speaker, we're told 500 people are coming and then we show up and there's only 20 or 30. We want to be very cautious of underpromising and overdelivering. Here's a little tip on what I do. I'm going to tell you guys a little secret.
Even at Secret Knock—here it is, all we do—I've even confirmed that I know paid admission, 300 people, I will only put 250 seats out. Then what happens is when people come, they fill it up full. Now, if anyone cancels or they didn't show or whatever, no matter what, it's going to look full.
Andre Popa: That's right.
Greg Reid: Then as I keep chairs around the edges when people come in, we're pulling chairs from the thing, put them around the table so it looks "Holy crap! This thing is amazing!" Either way, you're covered, but there's nothing more frustrating than having 20 people with 300 chairs out. Start with those 20 and then understand you can always add.
Andre Popa: Genius. Yeah, because I think we've all been to those events and it's frustrating because you said being on stage and talking to 20 where you have 500 seats, it's a horrible feeling. Beautiful. That's what I was looking for is nuggets from your experience.
Greg Reid: Even in speaking. My mentor was a guy when I first started, his name is Les Brown, he's this motivational legend guy. I said, "Give me one nugget that I could do," and then I actually applied it. I found him a month later and asked him for the next nugget. Here is a nugget: the microphone. He says, "Look, when most people are brand new, they take the microphone, they hold it at the end, they go like this. Now, you're covering your face, the whole bit, you're not connecting." He goes, "Hold the microphone at the end, speak like this, and now, all of a sudden, you're connecting with the audience. They consume you, but you also have the mannerisms, a simple little thing. Go look at every picture of Les Brown, you'll notice that's how he's holding it.
Then for myself, I realized, every time I spoke on stage, behind me there's always a black curtain. Everyone wears black and they're like talking heads on them. I started wearing yellow jackets and red jackets and blue jackets and green jackets. That one simple thing, I'd walk on the stage and people go, "Holy crap! Look at this guy." You don't know why, but subconsciously you're attracted, and that's the reason why because, all the sudden, I'm popping off.
Then I always get off first before anyone opens up and I walk the stage, and here's a reason why: I look for what I call hot spots. For example, the whole room can be dark, but you have one spot on that stage where the spotlight is sitting right directly in the cranium. What I'll do is whenever I'm walking around and pull my talk, every time I want to make a point, I'll come right to that little spotlight, and everyone needs—Ting!—a mentor.
Andre Popa: Hire me!
Greg Reid: Exactly. Simple little techniques but they really, really work.
Andre Popa: That's genius. What's cool about listening to Greg, guys, he's been at this game a couple of years now. The experience is what's amazing. What's out of your journey? What's been your number one thing that stood out like, "Man, if I could do that again," just what's been your favorite?
Greg Reid: That's picking your favorite child. I think that one right behind me. I was at the United Nations General Assembly floor at the Novus Summit, standing at the same podium that every pope, president, world leader that put out the exact same thing. Speaking to an audience was mesmerizing. I almost wished I could take it back so I could do it even better because I was so nervous. It rocked. It was great. At that moment in time, I think that was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had.
Andre Popa: That's cool. That's a big one—United Nations. Looking forward and with everything you've done now, obviously, you have a lot of plans for the future. You're growing, building, et cetera. What's the most exciting thing that you're working on, whether it's for this year or the next 10-20 years? What's the biggest? What's most exciting?
Greg Reid: Well, there are different things. The biggest thing is I'm working on another major feature film, which is huge, and that's probably the biggest thing. My favorite thing I'm working on right now is the Mastermind Group NFT. I own the domain name mastermindgroup.com. One of the things that frustrates me about this industry is that so many people do these mastermind groups and they sit in the living room in a semicircle cellular crap. That's not what a mastermind group is. A mastermind group is when people come together as a collective and they follow a certain system. For example, you sit in the opportunity chair and say, "My name is so and so. I'm working on this. Here are my talents. I'm having struggles here. What should I do?" Then the group goes around and asks clarifying questions. You don't walk into a doctor's office and say, "Give me drugs." He's going to ask a question or two.
The main thing is ask qualifying questions, and then people go by and offer a suggestion. Then the next time you're in the chair, you say, "Last time I was here, I told you I was struggling on this. You gave me your recommendations. Here's one thing I did. What should I do next?" Now, all of a sudden, you're actually got progress because you're moving forward, and that's what we're creating.
I generated the Mastermind Group NFT. Right now, we're looking for our first 33 founding members. Already attached, we have Larry Namer, founder of E! Entertainment; Carole Baskin, everyone knows her. We've got one of the top TikTok and Instagram stars on the internet. We've got Rob Angel, founder of Pictionary. All these amazing people who are once a month come together as a collective and say, "Hey, here's what I'm doing. Here's what I'm working on. Nothing's going to be sold. We're going to make a real mastermind group." That's what I'm most excited about.
Andre Popa: NFT—is there an NFT behind it?
Greg Reid: Yeah. An NFT, for people that don't understand what this is, a non-fungible token, it's nothing to do with art, just so you know. They just happen to adopt it, but it's a smart contract. A smart contract is a contract that will live for infamy on the internet without being able to be adjusted, changed, manipulated or stolen things of this nature. Eventually, your car's registration and the vehicle, van, and all that will become an NFT. When you sell it, there is the blueprint. It's like asking for a carfax when you buy a car, you've got the history, the same type of thing will follow.
What I did is I made a smart contract for a mastermind group and I'm using an NFT as the good claim that you can buy and sell your position as we go and grow. Right now, we have 33 original founding members, half of them are gone. By next week, I'll be done and then I'm going to open up to the public with a thousand of them. It's pretty exciting.
People watching this are going, "I want to be part of something and be part of the cool kid group, mastermindgroup.com."
Andre Popa: Mastermindgroup.com, beautiful. Let's piggyback on that. For people to find you, obviously, on Facebook, no-brainer, Greg Reid, and Instagram, the same. What's your main website where people can get all this information?
Greg Reid: Gregreid.com.
Andre Popa: That's it?
Greg Reid: Instagram is I got an S in there—gregsreid. If you go there and you DM me, I respond to everybody.
Andre Popa: He does.
Greg Reid: My only response is I don't want to talk about the kids, the weather, what should I eat for breakfast. If you go, "Hey, what's a good business book I read" or "What's a great connection," I promise you, I'll get back to you right away.
Andre Popa: That's cool. Greg Reid, yes. On Instagram, it's gregsreid and that's the handle. Before we wrap, I guess, talk to me about—because I know you love opportunity, you love entrepreneurship, you love America, et cetera—how important is freedom of speech and what's happening in the world today with all this banning and shadow banning, people getting their accounts shut down, and more importantly, what happened yesterday with Elon and Twitter.
Greg Reid: Well, that's a deep question.
Andre Popa: I know.
Greg Reid: First off, Facebook, I've had my own challenges, just so you know. There are so many people that have stolen my identity that Facebook shut me down because they thought I was the fake me. If you go to YouTube, there's a TV show called Famous and Catfish where they did a whole highlight of things about this stuff because so many people are still in the identities. I believe that there's this fine line. Even if you're your own stuff and you're just being true to your own self, you can still have challenges. The fact of the matter, when Twitter was shutting down the president of the United States, when they're letting ISIS have an account was so asinine and insanity. To me, there's nothing else quite like it. It is time that we get our country back.
It's the same thing, even with Elon Musk, whether you're a fan or not, I'm a huge fan. I think it's absolutely phenomenal that the president of the United States at the State of the Union Address talked about every car dealer going into EVs, but not mentioning the person who actually started the catalyst of it all. I think it's adding insult to injury, and I think we got to get our country back. Whether you agree or disagree, that's the beautiful thing about free speech, at least you can get your viewpoint out. It's the hate speech that is the thing that drives people crazy.
Andre Popa: So well said. Obviously, I come from communism and we came to the land of the free. Then when speech is not free, you got a problem. Love everything you said. Please send Greg a message, send him a "thank you," maybe something you've picked up today—changed your business, your life, et cetera—let him know because that's what feeds people like us is the fact that our stuff works.
Greg, thank you so much for your time. It was literally freaking amazing. I've actually learned from today's conversation, which I really appreciate. I will see you at one of your next events, buddy.
Greg Reid: Absolutely. Thank you, Steve Sims, for putting us together. You're a champion and birds of the same feather flock together.
Andre Popa: That's right.
Greg Reid: Thanks for having me on.
Andre Popa: Boom! Thank you, brother. Have a phenomenal day. Everybody, send Greg Reid a phenomenal message. Thank you again.
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