Ep41 - Greg Reid

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Yeah, the secret of success is to surround ourselves with people that are getting the results that you want for yourself. And then here's a big word today.

Yet attitude means how can I proactively change the way I think? How can I proactively increase my life? How can I proactively create better relationships and better work situations for me to enjoy it and welcome to the Gap, the Get Attitude Podcast. The Gap Bridging the gap from who you are to who you want to be and from where you are to where you want to go. Hello, my name is Glenn Bill, keynote speaker, founder of the University of Attitude and author of the international best selling book the ABCs of Attitude. I've been fortunate enough to help tens of thousands of people Get Attitude, the secret formula to success in your business and in your life in this podcast and is going to help you get yours. So let's get some. I want to welcome everybody. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review. And I'm telling you we have a guest today that is going to blow your mind. We are covering Love adversity booster number eight, love adversity. And this gentleman, Mr. Greg Reed, is somebody that you are going to want to listen to, you're going to want to share this podcast. And if you got people that are down in your life that aren't sure that they can make things happen, you're going to want to forward this podcast to them. Greg is going to talk to us about three Feet From Gold, which is a tens of millions of sales with that program. He's been in 100 different books, 45 different languages. He's got an honorary doctorate degree from Lamborghini. He is currently trending on Netflix. He is an international keynote speaker and most of all, the coolest thing that he does or that he has done is he has a walk. He has a star on the Walk of Fame. So ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor and it is your pleasure to be listening to the one and only Greg Reed. Greg, welcome. Welcome to the Get Attitude Podcast.

And then the crowds go wild.

You can feel it. You can feel it. Now, Greg, tell us where you're Talking to us from today.

Yeah, the mean streets of San Diego, California. A little beach town community called Carlsbad.

Oh, fantastic. Yeah. Now is that close to Coronado?

Well, it's in the same city, absolutely. So it's a little bit more north. But I gotta tell you, it's one of the greatest little spots you could ever imagine anyone ever driving through. You got to stop by, say hi and I'll take you through the library.

Very good, I'd love to do that. Tell me, where did you grow up? Where were you born? Are you originally from there? Did you move there?

No, I'm born and raised. I'm one of the few, I always go west coast. Another little beach town community called Del Mar, miles away from me. And so I've always lived really close to a coastal lifestyle.

I love it. So were you always, and I'm guessing like guys, gals, Greg Reed does a lot. Were you always add high energy and always doing 50 different things at once, Was that always your attitude or is that something that you morphed into?

Nah, I used to get in trouble for it in school, like all of us, and now I get rewarded and paid. So it's one of those funny things. When I was a kid, I'll tell you a quick little story. 17, I was leaving the house and my dad goes, go to college, we'll send you anywhere in the world you want to go. I said, no, I go, I just want to get into sales and marketing. I go, I love communicating, I love the idea of closing sales. And he looked at me and said, son, you're never going to make a living talking to people. Here we are now, all these years later, and I'm glorified for it. So go figure, right?

And obviously you're not making a living, you are making a freaking fortune talking to people. So you know what, your father was right when we talked to you.

And more importantly, I'm making an impact and a difference. And you know, it's kind of interesting when you get into personal growth. The pesky thing is that growth part, right? Because we're always learning and growing and we always say, you know, if I could impact one person's life, I've done my job. Well, once you've done that and done it tens of thousands of times over, a million times over, it starts changing its paradigm. Now it's like, how can we make the greatest impact in the greatest way possible, right?

And you know, number seven on our attitude boosters, which I forgot when we were talking earlier, is grow or die. So as is what happens with most of our guests. You are probably going to talk and hit on all 10 attitude boosters, but we're going to focus on loving adversity, and we're going to walk with you on this journey called Three Feet From Gold. So as far as I'm concerned, let's get there, because I know the content is ridiculous. Tell us what Three Feet From Gold is all about and how it's changed your life, your business, and how it could change the people who are walking on the beach maybe right now, sitting in their car, crying and depressed because maybe they've got a financial or a personal reversal going on in their life. People listen to the get out of Attitude podcast because they want attitude. So share with us about this wonderful thing called Three Feet From Gold.

Well, I'll start with this. Have you ever heard of a book called Think and Grow Rich?

I have, yes.

All right, so in 1908, Napoleon Hill was given a letter of introduction from Andrew Carnegie to meet all of his friends. He sat down and wrote the first ever formula for success. 100 years later to the date, the Napoleon Hill surviving family grandkids and the foundation gave me that same exact type letter. And so I have a Willy Wonka ticket to meet any human alive. And the very first project we did was called Think and Grow Rich. Three Feet From Goal. It's the story about Arden Darby who literally gave up three feet away from the largest strike in history. And the moral is, how many times have we or someone we know quit one class short from a degree or sales or marketing? It's easy to quit, but it's the people that persevere and go that extra little bit. They're the ones that come out on top. First there's a dream, then there's a challenge, and then comes victory. We only tell the stories and write the songs about the people that kept going. And Three Feet From Goals is a classic little parable to help separate the 95% who dream of success to the top 5% who do it.

And so what do you think when you talk about love? Adversity, Right? So I love adversity. The more shit that goes wrong, the better for me because I know it separates us. It separates us from the masses. Tell me, number one, do you love adversity? And number two, how do you look at adversity? Do you. And number three, if it's okay, what do you do to overcome adversity? Or what would you say, hey, here's a couple things you should try. You should Consider, you know, what's the formula to get through whatever adversity is going on in the life of the people that are listening today?

Yeah. First of all, I embrace the fact that I have survived 100% of every adversity I've faced so far.

Great.

So I'm batting a thousand. I've got pretty much confidence that this too shall pass and I'll get through it. But more importantly, I also am a realistic. Every time I've crashed my car, I've got a better car. Every time I lost my apartment, I got a better house. And every time I've got divorced, I met a better spouse. So the bottom line is that every time something weird happens to me, I'm that oddball that goes, woo hoo, you know, something good's coming around the corner and I start looking and capitalizing on it. I'll tell you the first story of Three Feet and Gold. I interviewed a guy named Dave Lineager. You might not know him, but you'll know his business.

I know ReMax.

Yeah. He goes, I wanted to get started in the industry, but, you know, it was brutal. He goes, all the money ran out. For three years, every phone call that came in was from a bill collector. He goes, I had the courage to pick up the phone and call the bill collectors and said, look, all the money's gone. I'm broke. I have 50 grand, but I'll send you 50 bucks. Don't give up on me. He says, I called every bill collector every month until the fourth year. Someone finally believed in me and bought the first business called ReMax Real Estate. He goes, man, how many people's lives were changed because I wouldn't quit? And how do we know someone listening to this isn't about to give up on their own dream? Because Visa was calling them this morning.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fantastic. That's. I mean, they had over, what, 120,000 agents. And, you know, the real estate space is it as everything is everything. It's like the disruptors are now getting disrupted. I was with a client just yesterday and he said, here's the question you need to ask yourself. How do you disrupt Amazon? Right? And it's like, I don't know about you. My guess is. And I have books with Amazon, but there's a lot of people not happy being a customer of Amazon, and they're doing everything they can to get out of it. And it's like, wow, what a question. What is your thought about creating disruption? The companies you've represented, when it Comes to disruption, being disrupted. What's your thoughts on that? For those people that, whose companies are getting disrupted, who are maybe getting fired, laid off, downside, a lot of that going on. Give me the whole thought on disruption and what that means to you and what it looks like.

Well, it's adaptability and adjustability. And that's what it comes down to. If you're not willing to adapt and adjust, you'll end up getting stuck. And that's what we've seen time and time again. Look, there's no. Back in the day, Sears, Roebuck was exactly Amazon, and now there are no more. Everything has a life cycle. And if you don't adapt and adjust the going times, that you'll end up dying and shrinking. The reason why Amazon is growing so much is they're constantly adapting and adjusting to the modern times. I'll give you an example. When I grew up, my favorite Toy story was called Toys R Us. I mean, everyone grew up with Toys R Us, and they went bankrupt because they would not adapt and adjust. Could you imagine if Toys R Us started their own little Comic Con? But it was like a Toy Con and they became the leading, you know, competition for Legos building and things of this nature. They would still be the giant conglomerate, but if you're not willing to adapt and adjust, you'll end up just getting stuck and perish right.

Now tell me, when you mentioned about being a little kid, did you have any siblings that affected your attitude?

No, not really. But I had a brother, a little brother. But the fact of the matter is we had two different outlooks on everything. I was one of those entrepreneur kids, realized really quick as a child that my neighbors wanted their yards mowed for 10 bucks. So I hired the neighborhood kids for 5 bucks to mow it for me. And that's just the mentality I've always had.

Yeah, that's cool. Now, did you get professionally trained in college or did you say, yeah, I'm working, I'm starting my own business. And what I'd love to know is what was your first business where you maybe, let's say, made a million bucks or. Tell me about the first time you made $100,000.

Well. So back to the original story. I never went to college again. My dad wanted me to go. I wanted to get into sales and marketing, but I had a bucket list of 80 different items. And a year ago, I got the last one off where I got a couple honorary PhDs where Conino, Lamborghini and I flew to India and we were Awarded these degrees where we did the university commencement speeches all around the country. And to answer your question, from age 20 to, I was only in one business. I was in sales and marketing. And I grew my business, I started my own, and I grew up and sold it for my first millions of dollars when I was 39. And what's interesting about that is that people said, hey, how did you do it? You know, look, I'm doing these things like there's no Santa Claus. Look, I cannot really read. I can't write. I'm dyslexic and I can't spell. Play me Words with friends, you'll win every time. But I'm an award winning author with a star on the walk of fame for being so. And here's how I did it, right? Work your strengths and hire your weaknesses. Stop bitching and complaining about what you don't have and find a way to fill that gap. So I found the greatest ghostwriters and copy editors that could take my gift of gab and create it in a way people would want to read. And here we are, 100 titles later.

Yeah, that's cool. So tell me about. I mean, everybody listening on this. And we have a few celebrities that may have a star on the walk of fame, but I doubt it anyway. How cool was that? What was the project that maybe put you over the edge, that maybe all of us know, what could we look up on YouTube to go, holy crap, that's why he's at. What was that whole experience like, man, when they told you you're gonna have a star and tell us some of the projects that went into the critical mass to make that happen?

Well, again, there's been a ton of it. But recently when I was awarded the star, it was really cool. I did it alongside Frank Shankwitz because I helped make his dream come true. A lot of people know of a nonprofit called Make a Wish Foundation. Sure wishes to terminal kids. Well, I was interviewing him for one of my books, and I asked him what his wish was, and he said, no one ever asked him. I said, well, I will grant your wish. Anything you want, I'll give it to you. And he says, I just want my story to be told so my grandkids will know I did something. So he signed over his life rights, and I said, I'll make it into a major feature film, but just know, I've never made a feature film. But he trusted me. And it took six years, millions of dollars. But we just finished it last year and we made the official Ballad for the Oscars this last Oscar season and we're trending worldwide right now on Netflix and the movie's called Wish Man.

Wish Man, Really? And is he the founder of Make a Wish?

Yeah. And so I got the right to tell his story. So think about from my perspective. Here's Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich. I was given the opportunity to follow in his footsteps and to share his message to a modern society. And then the founder of Make a Wish, I was honored to be able to tell his story to the masses worldwide, to millions upon millions of people. And the reason we do this is because I think more people now are following a movement than gurus.

Sure.

No one wants to follow another guy on top of a soapbox telling you you should do this, you should do this. So I like to put the spotlight on other people and really honor them in a huge way.

So who are some like, who's the most famous person you ever, ever got to interview and what was the best thing they taught you?

I don't even think you grasp the context of that question, so. Oh wow. I don't even know. So it's so funny. I created something, it's called the switchboard.

Right.

Because this is my little thing that actually connects people. So I have access to everyone from, you know, the guy who invented the elevator to space to the guy who started nascar from Presidente Vicente Fox. Just came to my last event, Edward Snowden. I just did a private Skype and hiding in Russia, you know, I've got taught the Pulp Fiction dance with John Travolta during Grammys night all the way to. I proposed to Halle Berry last year on stage. I don't know, there's so many. But what's cool is they're just cool people.

Yeah.

And you know, that's the whole thing. How do you surround yourself with, you know, kick ass people that are doing what you want to do.

And so for those of us, you know, I always. One of the things I certainly know and I know you know that Americans especially have no idea how attracted they are to celebrity. Right. It's like, ah, they'll do anything. So like, how do you keep your shit if you're a normal guy like us and you meet a celebrity and you don't want to screw up that encounter. Right. What's the advice for normal Joe? And then all of a sudden Haley Berry's walking down the street or whoever it might be. What would your thought be? What would your coaching point be? Hey guy, if you run into celebrity here's how you're not going to screw it up. Here's how I would approach things. Any thoughts on that?

Yeah, I mean, everyone's got a different approach. By the way, in Hollywood, unfortunately, you do want to do a resume interview. I mean, I won't do it, but that's the way that they teach you to do it. So you go up and tell that person all how your resume, which I would never do. That's what want you to do. For myself, I always ask usually unique and, you know, mind altering questions. And by doing that, you get a different response. I'll give you an example. One of my greatest interviews, because it was so weird, was the guy who started nascar. And I was sitting in his office with all these lights and cameras, and I'm from San Diego. I don't even know what NASCAR is. We don't have it down here. And I had no idea how big it was. And I was sitting in his office and the interview was going bad. And so I stood up and did a pattern interruption and says, you know what? This is the worst interview I ever did. He goes, what? I go, I just wasted all my time flying across the country. I think I'm done. And we stood him and started taking off our microphones. I go, hey, by the way, let me ask you something. And he goes, what? I go, you know when you got that first cardboard check, you know, with a million dollars on there? I go, what did your mom say? And he goes, you know what? She told me to take out the trash. She didn't even care. But my dad, he was proud of me. And he sat down and just started relaxing. And then he reached in his pocket and he pulled out a tattered piece of paper and he go. I go, what's that? And he goes, it's the Cowboys ethics code of the West. This is how we created nascar. And he goes, what do you mean? He goes, I never left home without it. This is how I did it all. And I go, describe it. And he says, well, it says, speak less, but say more. Do what's right, right for the brand. He goes, for example, when Winston cup was so big, kids were coming out and we didn't want to promote smoking, so we got tied as the sponsor and we started adapting and adjusting, and this is what grew. And as I walked out of that interview, which turned out to be spectacular, the vice president of NASCAR pulled me aside and says, I've been working with him for 25 years and I never knew he had that piece of paper in his Pocket.

That's good. And I always tell people in the interview process or in sales and marketing, what you always want people to say is, oh, my God. Nobody's ever asked me that before. That's when you know you're getting ready to strike gold. Right? So tell me this, how do you define attitude and what does attitude mean to you?

Well, again, Abraham Lincoln had a great quote, says people are as happy as they make up their minds to be. And I believe that to be true. So if you meet me today, tomorrow, last week, whatever, I always have the same attitude. You know, again, as a kid, I was yelled at because I had a prima donna or the pink cloud syndrome. But that's how I live my life. I choose to look for what's possible. So, for example, if there's a big pile of horse poop, I know there's a pony somewhere, and I'm always looking for the pony.

Now, who do you think affected your attitude the most in your life?

I've had great mentors in my life, and one person was really huge. And it sounds cliche, I almost feel weird saying it, but in my case it's true, is my mom. She was a great teacher of mine and she would tell me I could do anything I put my mind to. And I was crazy enough to believe it. Again. Look, I barely graduated high school. I can't read, can't write. But I pulled off more accomplishments than a lot of people because I'm crazy enough to think that I can do it. But the way I do it is I surround myself with people that have already accomplished what I intend to do. And I asked them for feedback. Here's the greatest. Aha. From three feet from goal. Have you a string theory? The guy who invented string theory. If you ever watch Big Bang Theory, Sheldon was trying to figure it out. The guy who created it told me a greatest lesson. He said, successful people seek counsel and failures listen to opinion. I said, what's the difference? He goes, opinion is based on ignorance, lack of knowledge, or inexperience. Where counsel is wisdom, knowledge, mentorship. If you go to a family friend and say you're going to write a book, they might talk you out of it to protect you. Plus they've never written a best selling book. If I go to Jack Canfield, who wrote Chicken Soup for the Soul, he's going to say, before you get started, here's what you want to know and give me counsel. If we would spend our activity only seeking counsel and ignoring opinion, that's the day your life would Change.

I love the fact. And it is cliche. Yeah. I learned it from my mom, right? So when I keynote speak, I just did a huge keynote right before all this hit. And I just looked at him. I do this thing about motherhood and I'm like, you know what, Let me just give you the. Just lead like a mother, right? Lead like a mother, love like a mother, and have loyalty like a mother. What was your mother's name? I'd love to know her name and her maiden name. And what was her story in general? Where did she come from?

Yeah. Dr. Mary Gail Heinrichsen. And what's really cool about her is at 50 years old, she didn't even have a high school diploma. She was an entrepreneur who made millions of dollars. And just like me, she kind of won it. And she decided to go back to school and got a GED and then got her diploma. And then she got a bachelor's and then she got three masters and then a PhD and now she's a clinical psychologist.

Wow. And so she was a millionaire before she did all of that.

Oh, yeah.

And what business was it?

Temporary help industry plus real estate. So when she was 20 something years old, she was like one of the first women ever to walk into a bank to get a home loan. And they said, well, where's your husband? Says, well, he's probably at work, but I'm just doing this myself. And the realities are it was hard for her to even get loans at the very beginning because it wasn't done back in that time in the 50s. And what's interesting is that she always looked at what's possible and not the obstacle in front of her.

What was the most adversity you've ever faced, either personally or professionally? And how did you get through that?

Well, every project I take is adversity because I don't know anything about the industry when I start. So, for example, when I wrote my first book, it was called the Millionaire Mentor, I was turned down by 268 publishers, agents, distributors in a row. And the 269th one said, we'll do your book, just change the title. The beginning, the middle and the end. Again, I can't write. So I got a ghostwriter who breathed life into it. And it went on to become a global best selling, international book selling gadillion copies. And that was the platform to start me to 100 books later. But if I would have quit after 50 or 80 or 100 or 212, I wouldn't have got to where I am and it's the stickability factor that always keeps me going. Making a movie, I didn't know what the hell I was doing. Again, it took six years. Trials, tribulations, ups, downs, everything. But now we are a success people, when you look at the success, they have no idea the journey behind it. And I never tell people when I'm in it. Here's what I learned. If you tell people the drama that you're going through, when you're in the middle of it, you're just bitching and complaining. But when you come out the other side and tell people what you just went through, you look like a hero.

Yeah, ain't that the truth? And that's Zig's old saying that, yeah, when you bitch and complain, 80% don't care and 20% are happy that you're actually going through it. Right?

Absolutely.

Nobody cares about that. And so you know what an. I love how you said, you know, when we have that imagery of bridging the gap and, quote, crossing that bridge, I almost feel like you were never at the foot of the bridge because you always saw yourself at the other side of the bridge. You know what I'm saying? Like, was there any time in your life where you said, woe is me, or I can't do it, or, man, I'm in a really shitty position? Like, has that ever been in your mind or in your life ever?

Well, all of that, except I just don't listen to it for more than seconds. The whole idea is, we all have stinking thinking. Look, here's a fact. A guy named Bob Proctor, for being the Secret. He and I wrote a book together, Think and Grow Rich Thoughts Are Things, where we interviewed everyone from Holocaust survivors to the guy who started JetBlue Airlines to find out how thoughts become things. And we realized that thoughts are not things. Only thoughts backed by action become things. Harvard scientists proved to us that we have 64,000 thoughts a day. Majority of them are called ants, automatic negative thoughts. They're the reptilian part of your brain to protect you, to keep you safe. So if you walked out of a cave, a dinosaur wouldn't eat you. Well, the bottom line is that if you know 64,000 thoughts, majority negative, everything would be chaos for life. If thoughts were things, sure. But it's only the thoughts we take action on become our reality. So I'm very careful not to buy into the thoughts, and I take action towards the positive.

That's good. And if you're listening, we are here with Dr. Greg Reed. And man, you've been dropping some bombs on us. And if and for those of you who are sitting there searching and saying, how do I get from where I am to where I want to be and from who I am to who I wish to become, you can find Greg. It's. It's Greg Reed TV now. Correct. Is that Greg reed.comgregory.com and he's got go to Instagram.

Greg has read. Follow me.

Good. Boom. We got it up there. Well done. That's Jason, my producer, bringing it home. Right? You see that, Greg? Is that good?

All right, well, magic time.

It's magic time. And I love the red coat because that's the color of attitude for us. The color of fire, the color of passion, the color of love and the color of attitude. So that's an awesome blazer. I have one myself. But I really like the black trim on that lapel. Very nice. We are getting ready to do Knowledge through the decades. Greg is a influencer. He's a worldwide sensation. Best selling author, filmmaker, published in over 100 books. This guy spit knowledge. And if you have been listening, I am sure that you got some attitude from Greg today. And boy, can't we all learn to adapt? Can't we all learn to embrace what Greg's telling us? Just one thing I didn't get to that I wanted to make sure we did was this thing called CPC that I think our gappers, that's what we call them, our gappers, they need to know this. So please tell us a little bit about what's going on with cpc.

Yeah. A year ago, I wrote a book called wealth made Easy and interviewed people worth a hundred million to a billion dollars for three years. Just sat down with the most top 1%. And I realized that they taught me something called CPC. It stands for clues, patterns, choices. This is the single most powerful tool that I can use in business and life today. And I'll share with everybody. It's about accountability and responsibility for every single thing that happens. Stop blaming other people. And it works like this. If I go out on a first date, I'm a single guy and the woman shows up 20 minutes late, that's a clue. If I go on the second, third and fourth date and she's 20 minutes late each time, that is a pattern. Now it is my choice. I deal with it, adjust it, yell at her, break up with her, whatever. But it's not her fault. She's just late. It's not my job to change her. How many times have we seen someone with a bad reputation in business, then they cheat a friend of ours and then we do business with them because we think it'll be different this time. And when things go sour, we're mad at that person. We saw the clue, we saw the pattern, but we made the choice. We got to sleep in our own bed. It's the same thing as seeing a rattlesnake rattle bite your kid's sister and then you go to pet it, it bites you and you're mad at the snake. It is time to start having accountability and responsibility to pay attention to clues, patterns, choices.

I love it. And we talk about attitude, awareness, and it's important to look at the clues, patterns and choices of others. But isn't it really the most important look at the clues and patterns of yourself. Oh my God, I'm eating a whole cake again. Oh my God, I just drank a half a fifth of scotch. That's a pattern, right? And so that's like a million dollar piece of business advice that our gappers just got for free. So that is, I mean, that's just so cool. So now we're going to do this thing called knowledge through the decades. Okay, this is just fun. We can edit this out. I'm gonna put you on the spot. I just want you to speak from your heart and your gut. And what we do is we take you through your life and you're in your 50s, so we're gonna take you from zero to 50 and we're just gonna walk you in decades and ask you what the attitude lesson of that time in your life was. And, or maybe it's not in your life, maybe it's in somebody else's. So what we're. What I want to ask you, Greg, is this. I don't know if you remember, but you're nuts enough that you may remember being born. But what's the attitude lesson of newborn of birth or of a nephew or niece or a baby that you ever saw? Do you have, I think you said you have a child, right?

I have an 8 year old kid. And I would say it's the naivety of that. Everyone's born in this world. They're not Christian or Muslim, they're not black, they're not white or nothing. We're trained. So every thought that we have is something that we've been conditioned to. And so when I think of a newborn, I think of a clean slate, of an opportunity. Let them think on their own and give them all the information so they can choose wisely.

Right? That's beautiful. We haven't had that answer. We've had a lot of people. I love it. The naivete and the clean slate. And you know what? Who's to say that every morning that you wake up, you just shouldn't be reborn and start with a clean slate and get rid of all the crap that has been hitting you? So that's beautiful. Now, you were 10 years old. I'm sure you were very annoying. That puts you in about 33rd grade. I'm sure your teachers are like, what am I gonna do with this kid? Do you remember being 10? I'd love to know what school you were at. If you remember, your teacher would love to know if you got her name. And what was the attitude lesson you learned at 10 years old? I think that put you in about third grade.

Yeah. She had an initial P. I don't remember. Like Mrs. P. I don't remember her name. But I do remember it was again here in San Diego along the beach. It was really cool because our view was the ocean where we could go watch the sails, that whales come by and things of this nature. But I also remember all my report cards. I was always feeling fearful because I knew I would get such bad grades. Remember, I got D's, F, C's my entire life. I've never had a straight A report card ever in my existence of being on this planet. And I always thought that I was what people claimed I would be on my report card. But I knew in my heart of heart I wasn't. They were defining me as. And it was a frustration feeling of going, yeah, but that's not me. And right now, there's a thing, like on the Internet that says, look, just because a fish cannot climb a tree doesn't mean the fish is stupid. It's just not in its element. And that's how I felt.

Yeah. And I think I'm certainly. I'm sure you studied Les Brown. One of his big sayings is to never let somebody's opinion become the definition of you. And for our gappers out there, some of you may be suffering. What may be holding you back from crossing the bridge to who you want to become or to where you want to go is maybe it's quite possible that you feel just like Greg did, is that other people's opinions, other people's projections, that's what's holding you back. But you feel deep, deep down inside that, you know what? I'm not what other people say. And I am more than how I'm being defined. So I'm going to go Create my own definition. And Greg, you knew that at 10, which is lucky for you because there's people walking around our age who still fight that, you know, which is crazy.

And by the way, Les Brown baptized my son.

You gotta be kidding me.

He's one of my closest friends.

Oh my gosh. Well, I attended a four day deal with Les and he, he's, you know, he's, he's just so powerful. And he walks up and he puts his hand, he says, you anointed. You are anointed. You need to do this side of you. You need to do this, Glenn. Bill, I'm telling you. And then he opens his eyes like, you know, and I'm like, oh, shit, I better get, get on that stage, baby. But yeah, I, I, I came strong to Les thing. He, he recognized me and he's. Yeah, just. God, he's unbelievable. He's meant so much to me, period. So now you're through puberty, you're through high school, barely. And now you're 20. Can you remember number one, your 20 or 21st birthday? And love to know what you were doing at 20, which I think I know the answer. And then what was the attitude lesson, man, if you walked yourself back to being 20, what did you learn?

I was a party unbelievably messed up 20 year old. So it was interesting. I remember my 21st birthday, going into TGI Fridays or whatever. And I was so proud because I was getting drinks for everyone and the bartender was so mad at me because I'd already been going there with a fake ID for years. I was actually 21 because you could have got me in all this trouble. And then when I was 24, I got sober and by the way, just celebrated 32 years.

Congratulations. Only control.

You asked that defining moment, but I forgot it until you just asked.

Oh, that's awesome. So that 21st birthday was obviously a shitstorm. And that was your. I'm sure. No wonder you're so happy, right? No booze for that long. That's such a huge, you know, I always believe I've been through aa and I've taken a lot of people to aa. I still drink, but it's like, why do, why aren't we teaching that in high school?

Like the principles, if nothing else, it's the process and the steps. Like I'm not a bible thumping guy, right? Not a big AA guy. I just happen to believe for myself that's what I needed. So I never project and I very rarely share even what I just did. So that was a sneak glimpse of something that.

That's cool. Well, and we're grateful and congratulations. Because, you know, I know that that's my guess is half of my listeners probably wish they had the token. Okay, so the 20s were good. And so now you're clean, you're clear, you're like, I'm going to start to kick some ass. And then, boom, you hit 30. So, like, what. Where were you at 30? What were you doing at 30? And what was the attitude lesson at 30? I'm guessing that's when you were ramping up hard.

Yeah, 30s was. 30s were great. 30s, the 40s. Well, actually, all of it's been great. But the 30s were awesome. I was running a company. I got headhunted in my same industry, and I was like, late 20s, early 30s, and they put me in charge of like, 68 employees plus a whole manufacturing thing. And they gave me this giant office, a company. Ferrari, a Porsche, stock options. And I remember I had this giant office, and I put a conference table as my desk. And then I made stairs where you had to walk up into my office because it was all that ego. And this girl, she was 18 years old, and she walks up and she goes, is this your office? I go, yeah. She goes, is that your red Ferrari? I go, yeah. She goes, is this your table? I go, yeah. She goes, your penis must be this big. And I looked at her, I go, look. I go, I don't know you. I go, but you just changed my life. And I go, thank you. And I wish I knew who it was to this day.

Awesome.

And she walked out, and I called the staff and said, come take this table out thing. That's the day everything changed. That's the day my life changed. Because I went. I stopped living a dream that I saw on, you know, Wolf of Wall street type of stuff.

Sure.

And I started becoming the person I wanted to be rather than the person I wanted the world to be. Projected.

Yeah. Man, that is like, so powerful. So one of the things I always tell people is, and your world changed because. Not at a Tony Robbins seminar, because a normal person walked in and said something to you. And I think that a lot of us have had our lives changed. When somebody makes an offhand comment who's not famous, who's not considered, you know, a prophet or whatever, just a normal, everyday Joe has said something that, boom, changed your life. One of the things I want to do is get those stories and publish that, because it's so true that what you say to somebody could be life. Changing. And I think we all need to know that we have that power within us each and every single day, without even trying.

And everyone you meet will know something you don't know. But back to the Tony Robbins thing. It actually was an interesting story about that. So when I was working at that corporation, I was listening to personal power. And I remember at the end of it, it says, like, you probably started this with other people. You're the only person left. And I decided to quit that cream job and start my own business. And that's how I made the millions. And it was so scary. So I literally gave back the cars and the thing, and I just went all in. And when I went to sign the lease for my first place, they gave me a signed parking space. And as I pulled in, it said Tony Robbins on it. I go, what? And he was walking up. I go, what is this? He goes, yeah. He goes, I'm leaving to a different place, but my whole office is staying here. You're getting my spot. And I go, dude, I just listened here. I'll go. What's the odds that I started this because of this? And he looked at me and goes, 100%. He goes, Keep going, Greg.

You gotta be. That is great. Well, that's certainly the law of attraction and the secret, right? All wrapped up into one. Wow. Unbelievable story. I love it. So the 30s were great. You're rocking and rolling. You got your own thing. And then you go, oh, shit, I'm turning 40. My guess is you didn't really care that you were 40, but would love to know again where you were. Do you remember your 40th birthday? Who is around you? What were you thinking and what was going on in your head? And what was the attitude lesson at 40?

Well, 40s were great. I mean, again, I just. At 39, 40, right. At that age, I sold that business. So I had a boatload of money and nothing but free time. And it was really interesting for, you know, I took years off. I retired and basically played tennis and golf and just kind of goofed off. And then someone said, hey, how did you pull that off? Not being able to read, write, and being all this stuff. This is why I listened to these tapes and I went to these seminars and stuff. And they asked me to speak at a university here in San Diego. And then they passed me around like a joint at a Grateful Dead concert. Every university. And finally a kid came up and said, you should write a book. And I go, man, that's a great goal, because I've never really Read one. And so I went and went on that mission where I got turned down 268 times and completely transformed my life. And here we are today. So the 40s were the most pivotal time.

Yeah, man, that is really, really cool. And again, the message that it's never too late to change, it's never too late to start, and there is always something else, right?

Yeah. I want to share something that's very powerful and it has to do with less. The only thing I did differently is I honored my mentors by following through. And this is what I mean when I be a speaker. I hunted down less before I knew him. I said, Mr. Brown, I go, I want to be a great speaker. Would you give me one nugget of something I could do different? And he did. I applied it and I found him a month later. And I said, Mr. Brown, I met you a month ago. I asked for a nugget. You gave it to me. Here's what I did. What should I do next, sir? What's the chance of him giving me that second nugget? 100%, because no one's ever done that. And now Les calls me for the nuggets. But the bottom line is that we've created this synergetic thing by honoring your mentors, by following through.

Yeah, that is so cool. And so attitude booster number five, whether you know it or not, is have a mentor copy him or her and understanding how to approach a mentor, understanding what to give to a mentor, understanding how to be of value to a mentor, that's all in month number five, which I think currently we're producing right now, which is cool. So what a great story. And I encourage all of our gappers. The first thing you should do is go find a mentor, get a nugget and then act on it, which is great. So we're going to round this thing down because we're about done. And you've been so giving. And man, you've been dropping big, big bombs on us today. It's been so great. And I know that you're going to change some gappers lives. And I hope you guys all look up Greg Reed. I hope you all hit him on LinkedIn. I hope you all message him and tell him how much and hit him on Twitter how much when this goes. And Greg, this will probably hit in two months. What it meant. It'll be hopefully fun for you to get some new feedback. So now you turn 50, right? Who were you with at 50? What restaurant did you go to? If you did what did you do on your 50th birthday? What was going through your head? And you said, okay, I'm half a century now. What's in store for me for the next half? Tell us the attitude lesson of turning 50 and what's going on with you now.

I can remember that one because it was a surprise party. I went to a fancy hotel and all my friends and family were there, and it was one of those fancy brunch type of things, and it was spectacular. My former wife gave me a Corvette.

Cool.

For my birthday, and it was pretty amazing. And by the way, I got the greatest ex wife in the world. I know people don't say that in California. You don't have to hate each other. We kind of still dig each other in a great way. We got a kid together. And so I've got a really amazing ex wife. If you ever want to interview someone, she'd be next on your list.

What's her name?

And Alan Reed. Just absolutely amazing. Thought leader Ellen Reed.

E L L E N A L.

L Y N. Oh, Reed. R E I D. And what's interesting is at that, you know, from that time of my 50s, I'm 56 now. I've got more things accomplished that I had in the works, know, in my 40s. So now it feels like everything's coming to fruition. So all these accolades, all they are is a byproduct of my 40s of planting the seed. It's like a fruit tree. I planted a boatload of fruit trees when I was 40, and now I'm getting all this fruit.

Yeah. Well, that's great. Well, you have given us fruit. We. We are eating the nectar of Greg Reed. It's so powerful and we are so thankful that you shared your attitude with us, that you helped us navigate the bridge, helped us bridge the gap, helped us get from who we are to who we want to become, from where we are to where we want to be. If you listen to this podcast, please subscribe, please share, please follow Greg, please buy his books, please listen to his stuff. I know you got stuff on YouTube. I've been checking out some of that. Unbelievable, incredible speaker. I loved the story you told about. I think it was Evander Holyfield at the United Nations. Right, guys, check out that on YouTube. It's unreal. And so, Greg, I'm just so grateful to you. Is there any one last thing that you'd like to leave our gappers with? One last thought, one last word of encouragement, and then we're going to let you Go enjoy San Diego.

Yeah. The secret of success is to surround ourselves with people that are getting the results that you want for yourself. And then here's a big word today. What does that mean? Look, when I want to be a best selling author, I went to Barnes and Noble and I bought every best selling book. I didn't want to be a great writing author. I told you can't write. So I went to those people and said, hey, how did you get that bestseller status? And I duplicated that effort and here we are today, right when I went to Africa to climb and summit Mount Kilimanjaro, I did not ask a dope smoking surfer here in California to take me to the roof of Africa. I found the Sherpa. The porters that have climbed it 900 times, wherever they put their boot print, I put my boot print. I followed successful actions. What that also means, if I was going to open a brand new restaurant chain, even though my close buddy and mentor of mine started Chuck E. Cheese, I probably wouldn't ask him because he did it 40 years ago. I'd say who's doing in and out or five guys or getting the results I want for myself today. And duplicate those same efforts with their own spin. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. The secret is to simply do it for yourself and put a new hubcap on it.

I love it. I love it. Well, Greg, thanks for giving us a new hubcap on our attitude. We do appreciate you. God bless you and much success to you. And if I can ever be a service, let me know.

Keep smiling.

Alright, thanks guys. We'll see you later. This is Glenn Bill with the Get Attitude podcast thanking Greg Reed for his time. This podcast is a part of the C Suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-suiteradio.com.