Interview with Everold Reid (part 1/3)

Hi everyone. Thank you for tuning in to 4X Formula radio, a podcast for real estate agents looking to learn the secrets required to build the dream real estate business. I’m so happy you’re here today. This is a special episode. It’s a little bit longer than normal. I had a unique opportunity to record a podcast with my friend Everold Reid from Ontario. Everold comes from the car industry and he wrote a sales book called “The Reid Method.”

The Reid Method is literally turning the car sales industry upside down and rebooting how dealership should serve their clientele. Everold Reid is a personal friend of mine and we had a history of collaboration on a project that I was working on a few years ago when I owned a brokerage. He is highly creative and operates with the utmost integrity. I’m so thankful that we’re able to record this two part episode together. We have literally witnessed each other at our lowest times and kept in touch as we reestablished our successes and now we both have the same heart to give back to our industries. It’s so cool that we’re on the same path and he lives literally on the other side of the country. Anyway, have a listen and you’ll get some cool insights on our philosophies, strategies and how we want to affect change in our industries.

Kelly Johnston: I’m here with Everold Reid the writer of the book The Reid Method. Everold Reid, we go back quite a ways, don’t we?

Everold Reid: Quite a ways and unbelievable that we are in a familiar place that we were, we had a few meetings and get togethers seven, eight years ago. Yeah. I love Chillowak so I’m glad to be back.

Kelly Johnston: Yeah, that’s exciting. When you told me you’re coming out here to do some training, I thought, “Man, we got to get together.” We got to make sure we get together and we got to record something because I know your story and you know my story a little bit. And for us to be able to talk about that, I think it’s going to be valuable for whoever’s listening and your audience especially.

Everold Reid: Absolutely.

Kelly Johnston: And a man, you have done a lot of my friend! You have an amazing audience. What is it? A hundred countries?

Everold Reid: Yeah, there’s definitely over a hundred countries listening to the podcast. Ah, thousands of listeners. But the core countries are the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Jamaica where I’m from and then a few other countries that are in the top 10. But you know, US and Canada for sure. So it’s good to be back. And I know you back in the day as a big time. We both are hustlers. We both, I know work really hard to get to where we want to be and you know, we’ve both had successes. We both have setbacks failures, but as we were talking off off the mic, that’s how you learn.

Kelly Johnston: Yeah. I don’t think there is any shortcut on the path to success. I look back 22 years in the business now, I’m in real estate for all of The Reid Method listeners. I’m in real estate and I’m creating a course called the 4X Formula and I’m in the middle of it right now. So, as of this recording, I actually don’t really have a following or anybody that cares whether or not what I say at this moment. But I am building that right now and I do believe, you know, 22 years you go through a bunch of stuff and I literally, in my life, like financially have three start overs, like literal, starting from nothing all over again. Business, money, everything. So here we are today.

Everold Reid: Real story folks.

Kelly Johnston: Yeah. This is real stuff. Like, you know, coming from a place of, you know, talking from a high horse or I’m a multimillionaire and do what I do. I’m a superhero.

Everold Reid: No fame or wealth.

Kelly Johnston: I am such a testament to anybody can do it. If I can do it, you can do it kinda thing. And that’s the thing, the reason we really liked working together and grown to be friends is because we share a same mindset as far as, but we’re okay with failing. And I think that’s huge.

Everold Reid: Yeah. You know, I think we both realized that failure is almost a fundamental part of the success path. So, you know, you don’t go out to fail, but you know, a lot of the top super achievers will say that it fail often and fail big because that’s how you absolutely will learn what it takes to be a super successful person. So we both have failed bank, we both have failed multiple times, but none of us have used the failure as this big, oh my God, here we go again. The world’s coming to an end. It’s all about realization and okay, what did we learn from that? Number one. How can we make it better? How can we, what can we change about ourselves? Right? What have we absolutely learn? How can we affect other people? And here we are six years lateré Last time I saw you was six years ago, six or seven, then here we are again.

Kelly Johnston: Yeah. That’s fantastic. I always say, if you’re going to fail, fail forward. Fail forward, at least you’d get up again. You’re a little bit ahead. And who we need to become sometimes, and we can’t necessarily determine that. Right? How are we going to paint the picture? But let’s face it, we’re all rough around the edges. We all need to be smoothened out a little bit, right? And that’s part of what we go through in life. And I think in order for us to influence people in a positive way and be able to give back and turn around and go, “Hey guys, I’ve been down all the wrong paths. I’ve been all over the forest. I found the right path. Let me help you through that. And we can get you through a lot quicker. We can help you avoid some of these other paths. We can get you thinking the right way so that when you go through the path, you can handle it properly. It’s not going to be perfectly paved. It’s not going to have all these nice little light bulbs. It’s not going to be bunch of people standing along the side of the path cheering you on going. And I hope you succeed so much. There’s not that going to be happening. It’s not all roses.”

Everold Reid: Yeah. In fact, I think it’s quite the opposite. And what I’ve learned, you know, writing this book taught me a lot. It taught me that not everybody is going to cheer you on, like you were just saying. Not everybody wants you to succeed in my opinion. Because I saw some people who are downright jealous and I’m not afraid to say even where I work because the things that they would say to you was discouraging. Most people would encourage you. Most people would be, you know, wanting to help you. When is your book coming out? When is the next podcast? You know, and then there’s always the few that will try to put you down. So you have to, you know, realize that that’s going to be a part of your success. To block all that negativity. Block out the naysayers. And even today, Tiger Woods went in the masters again, he’s almost an example. It is a clear example of massive failure on mammoth scale. In many ways, you know, family, financial, professional, personal and to come full circle to win a major that everybody wrote him off from. So it’s another way, it’s another message about successes. Really not listening to the people. You have to be strong. You have to have your core supporters, you know, whether it be your family. I know you and your wife and family are very close. And you have to have your beliefs, right? Those personal beliefs and because that’s what carries you through sometimes when you’re in the car driving by yourself, you know, between appointments, what are you actually thinking?

Kelly Johnston: Absolutely. I did a podcast recently called self doubt versus why not me and you got to have that “Why not me?” The thing is when we look at the people that we believe are successful and there’s so many different ways! Social media can kind of skew that a little bit these days too. People are really just showing one kind of part of themselves. So we can get fooled by that. We can kind of go, “Oh man, that guy is just so amazing.” But he’s just showing that part of him, right? We don’t know all. We don’t know the struggles he’s going through. We don’t know the challenges and the self doubt and all those things and all those voices that are in his head, right. And, and we all have it, but at the end of the day, everybody puts their pants on the same way. Everybody gets up, they look in the mirror. They figure out how they got to do their hair. Everybody’s got to go through that stuff. And knowing that is born with extra advantages over you. You’ve got it within you right now, today. You just need to develop it.

Everold Reid: And what you’re talking about is, when you mentioned everybody is born a certain way, you don’t really know what’s behind the faces that you see on social media or on the screen. It reminds me of when I was interviewing Les Brown and I did not know… Like this episode that I did with him was supposed to be 30 minutes. It went on for an hour and 10 minutes. So we ended up having to split it into two episodes and what we learned about him was, I don’t think half the world knew because we were having a conversation on the show and it led to such… It led him to talk about and to share so many personal parts of his life. You know about the fact that he was battling cancer for 21 years and he’s got, you know, kids that are sick and this and that, and it was so personal, so down to earth that he actually got very emotional on the show, which I did not expect. I was literally sitting there in shock interviewing him.

Kelly Johnston: And here you are, you’re think you’re interviewing a superhero basically!

Everold Reid: Yeah! And here I’m thinking, the guy, he’s a multimillionaire many times over. He’s traveled the world. He’s spoken to millions of people. He’s got 1.4 million Facebook followers, but he’s still a human being with problems just like the rest of us. So you just don’t know.

Kelly Johnston: That’s so encouraging. I know the days when we were working on some stuff together and then we had these ideas and we had these dreams and you know, they didn’t work out in some ways and for lots of different reasons or whatever. It doesn’t matter. But I don’t think at any point in that, even when we’re going through stuff, it’s funny audience, whoever’s listening, just so you guys know, we all went there, Everold and I went through some stuff like financial. We’re not going to get into on this episode, but at the same time, pretty well.

Everold Reid: Yeah.

Kelly Johnston: And we both kind of recovered from that. So there was that little bit of time that we kind of had to go through what we had to go through. But you know, at the end of the day, here you are, you’ve written a book, you’re helping hundreds of thousands of people now. People are listening to your podcast. You’re giving value now. These people are now going, “My goodness, this is stuff that I needed. You’re helping me now.” So you went through that, but you’ve turned around and you went, this is not just about me anymore.

Everold Reid: No, no. And even part of my therapy, so to speak, my self therapy is actually now writing. It’s actually creating good content. It’s actually giving back and helping people. I find that keeps me focused on the bigger picture. While I’m overcoming diversity, whether it be family health situations, whether it be financial situations, you’ve got to have a goal to something. So for some people it’s sports, working out. You know, it’s different things. For me, I think you and I have kind of found our calling or purpose so to speak.

Kelly Johnston: Yeah, I believe that.

Everold Reid: I think that purpose, largely is about, we have actually overcome so much in different parts of the world. I mean, we live on two different coasts of Canada, right? People imagine that, you know, and it’s not even the entire country! To get from almost the middle of Canada to one coast, it’s still a five hour flight. It was a long time. And in three hour time difference. The thing, what I always admired about you and your family is authenticity, and that’s a word that I use a lot in what I teach. Because if you’re going to be successful, you have to deliver value. You have to be authentic and you have to deliver, you know, build those raving fan clients. That’s how you build a raving fan client. And I’ve always found that you and your family have always been that, you know, regardless of your successes or highs or lows, you’ve never really changed who you are.

Kelly Johnston: No. And other than just figure out things you need to fix and find patterns that maybe we all get into them, right? Whatever was going on in our past or, you know, things that were said to us, we were four years old to a teacher that spoke to us in grade two to some friends that we had when we’re going through puberty and all those insecurities that you’re going through and things that were said or a girl that turned you down when you asked her to dance or whatever it is. Like all these little nitty gritty things and they all build up to a makeup of all of a sudden, who you are.

Everold Reid: Who you’ll become, absolutely!

Kelly Johnston: So you’re sitting there and you’re going, well, this is who I am right now. Like, so what ends up happening is we have some habitual patterns in there and even habits that we don’t even know we have, right? And sometimes we need to get rid of some habits and replace them with some new habits. But until we start to look internally in yourselves and it’s hard to do… It can be ugly.

Everold Reid: Oh, absolutely! Sometimes some of these realizations come and smack you in the face, really really hard. And one of the things I’ve learned is not to ignore the mining details because the details matter and the details, it’s just like any other self discipline or any other disciplines. Whether it been working out, you know, your diet or your work habits or paying attention to financial details. If you don’t, they’ll come bite you in the ass in a big way. So we’ve all learned from all of that. I think we are now at a place where we’re saying, okay, so what do we do with this now? And the book was a result of me wanting to do much more than what I was doing. Yes, I could earn a multiple six figure income selling vehicles or selling whatever. Advertising. But that wasn’t all that I wanted. As a matter of fact, that was boring to me, okay. It was okay. With 30 years almost experience now, what do you do with this experience? What do you do with 25 years experience? You don’t just sit there anymore. You can do something with it. And that’s what we’re trying to do is to develop, which we have fortunately developed courses and we are developing a lot of different content to give back to people based on real life experiences that will leave multiple times gone through.

Kelly Johnston: It’s interesting. You know, I actually did car sales. I don’t know if you knew that or not. Early nineties it’s a long time.

Everold Reid: I know that’s when I started to.

Kelly Johnston: But yeah, I worked in a Chrysler dealership and I remember back then it was all about the ups. And it was all about, you know, getting the deal done. You know, you got down to the numbers and the competition of that, there’s always that board of who’s got the top sales. I don’t remember ever thinking at that time in my early, early, early, early life involved in sales, I don’t remember ever thinking of the buyer of a car has a client. And I was listening to one of your podcasts recently and you were talking to Ryan Holtz and when you’re talking, you’re using the word client. And you’re talking about selling 200 cars a year. And he was all impressed with that and he held on that for a little while.

Everold Reid: Yeah! He goes “But do you find time to do anything else?” I go “Trust me. I don’t know either.” (laughing)

Kelly Johnston: But it came down to systems. He was talking about throwing the ball ahead and… But the idea of treating your clients like clients, telling them when it was time to make a move up to the next vehicle. And building value into that. The client thing was huge with me because you’re selling a product. Like you can’t get around it, you’re selling a product. Our business, a little bit different, in the real estate business in my mind, and I say this to people all the time. I’ve had people come in and talk to me, “Oh gosh, I don’t know if I can be a salesman.” I’m like, “Fantastic, awesome. I don’t want any salesman. I want people who develop relationships with people. Who become an advocate for the general public. Somebody that’s in their corner, we’re going to find solutions for those people and we’re going to make them happy and we’re going to help them make a great decision.

Everold Reid: Yeah. And it was after returning, after I left the advertising business that we were in. I went back to the automotive space. It was a big eye opener for me because I went back and I’m like, “This actually frankly sucks. The way that they still do business.” You know, it’s like they have these really ultra modern facilities and they had the cars, had all the new technology, smart phone technology. The marketing is all different now. But the sales process was still in the 1970s. And I said to myself, there’s no way I’m waiting for clients to walk through the door. I’m too old for that nonsense. I’m not that guy who’s going to sit there and wait for people to come in.

So I started, you know, and this bug me to this day because I was asking for the database, I was asking for some portfolio to manage and they wouldn’t give it to me for like months, months until the dealerships, well two dealerships, they were not doing well. They were actually losing, salespeople losing clients from the portfolio like crazy because the portfolios from both dealerships were not being managed. And I saw that from day one and I said, let me clean that up and I can help you to turn things around. And literally after that, that’s what they did.

And I created systems and I didn’t know in the very beginning what this reaction would be. I knew what the result could be, but I didn’t know why. And so I thought, okay, they had a system where they would send out renewal letters or upgrade letters six months in advance and then it became a year in advance. But when I sent out those letters for six months and one year renewals, there was immediate response from clients. But what I learned from the responses over thousands now, I think I’ve done about 10,000 letters if not more over different campaigns, like three or four year. What I learned initially from those clients is that the reason we thought we were marketing to them and the reasons that they were actually changing cars, it’s totally not the reason they were actually doing.

We thought, okay, let’s upgrade a client because we can give them a lower payment or we can give them more car for the same payment or we can give them more features, more safety, more technology. You know, and they’ll pay only $50 more a month. And what I learned from that was, it wasn’t it. That may be the reason they come in. They react. But they would all say, “Oh my goodness, we didn’t know we could do to this or we didn’t know we could upgrade our lease. Half of them didn’t know. And then they also said, it was all circumstances. People’s lives change.

Kelly Johnston: Sure.

Everold Reid: So it was their circumstances that was driving them to come in. Whether it be, you know, kids off to college, you know, I’ve got a baby coming into the family. Okay. Another driver or kids now got sixteens, gotta got a driver’s license, needs another car. Moving, you know, divorce, everything. It was a lot of circumstantial decisions.

Kelly Johnston: So how do you become top of mind when these life changes happen? From the client’s perspective? Like making sure that you’re top of mind with them when those changes happen?

Everold Reid: So here’s what happens. And this was also the second thing we learned in the research. And it was research that I did, which is actually in the book. It’s while you’re learning that okay, it’s not about the decisions you think about them saving a penny on their payments. It’s about circumstances. The second is to stay in what’s called consideration mindset. Okay? So by communicating with these clients, whether it be via email two or three times a year, whether it be via an upgrade letter two or three times a year, or whether it be full in them or meeting them in the Service Department or whatever business you’re in, it doesn’t matter. You know, real estate, talking to them once or twice a year going out and taking them out to an event. It’s to stay in their mind. It’s to be in consideration. So when the time comes for them to make a decision, the person that they are going to most likely call first is the one that they’ve actually been in touch with. Because they are obviously more comfortable already. So, this has now come full circle where a good 60% of our clients, if you don’t call them now in two years to upgrade their cars, they’re like, what happened? So now it’s become an expectation and most actually like it.

Kelly Johnston: So what’s happening is you’re actually training your consumers?

Everold Reid: A hundred percent. They’ve now come to expect a new car every couple of years, every 18 months. They like it. It’s now become this habit of, if you solve this problem and you just call me and say that the problem is solved or, and… You almost get to intimately know your client’s personal situations to an extent, you know? It’s an individual cm, you know, on each of your clients. What their work status is, how much they drive annually, how many people are in their household. You know, what they like to do on the weekend. Do they have a cottage. Do they have young kids? Do they have a boat? You actually know this stuff. So when the time comes, I can know one of my clients, Mr. Dunn, who only drives 12,000 kilometers a year, what his needs are versus somebody who drives 40,000 kilometers a year. How to then target those people. It’s all customized.

Kelly Johnston: It’s absolutely awesome. So now what you’re doing is you’re adding a little level of service that is somewhat customized to them, personalized to their needs. What happens? There’s so much noise out there. Would you agree with me on that? Like there is so much messaging coming at people every day. Every day. Every day in every aspect of it. And for them to sort through all that in their brain and decide what is most important to pay attention to because that would be a lot to do, right? They’ve got to kind of go through this whole thing. There’s all this stuff coming at me and then I’ve got to decide where I’m going to spend and they naturally do this now. They go, “I need to ignore all these things and I need to pay attention to certain things.” You’re commanding attention on those things because it’s personal to them.

Everold Reid: Yes. And the fact that you are taking the initiative as the professional, if you’re the professional in the field, you know, whether you’re a doctor, lawyer, dentist, you know, automobile salesperson, you’re the professional in the field. You should be the one to deliver the advice or to initiate the advice. To say “Here’s a solution.” It’s not a problem yet, but let’s not even make it a problem.

Kelly Johnston: Yeah, exactly! So what you’re saying is, you’re basically saying to them, “listen, I’ve been thinking about you. I’ve been thinking about your family. This must be happening in your family right now. Have you thought about this? Could this be a benefit to you?” So it’s outwardly focused.

Everold Reid: Yes. So the four components must be included for you to even have a chance to have this type of command over your client’s habits. It is, number one, value. If there’s no value in the discussion or in the proposal, you’re just taking advantage of them. So don’t do that. That’s number one. Cause then you’ll lose them forever. You have to be authentic, right? And you have to create solutions. So solutions driven, value based and the value is, this is where people, you know, missunderstand value. A value is not about giving away the store or given away more for less. Value is in the fact that you can solve this problem, so that they don’t even have to work think about it, right? It’s in the time you’ll save them. And so solutions driven, value based, authenticity and convenience! Because it’s convenient for them. Make it easy for him. Because people are so busy today. What’s everybody’s biggest commodity? Time. Nobody has the time.

Kelly Johnston: I have an insurance lady that calls me up. She was, “Your insurance is coming due on your vehicle in about two weeks. Do you want me to come to your office and do the paperwork real quick for you?” I’m like, “Yeah! Abso-fricking-lutely! Can you come in between my 11 o’clock and 12 o’clock appointment and meet me at the office?” She’s like, “Absolutely, I’ll meet you there.” And she comes. She’s got the paper’s car ready to go. I signed it. I give her a check. I’m done. And you know what she’s doing. She’s making sure I’m sticking with their company.

Everold Reid: Of course! But you know, even if you could get cheaper insurance for 100 bucks a year…

Kelly Johnston: I don’t even think about that!

Everold Reid: But you have to get up and go out of your office to go sit and talk… Forget it!

Kelly Johnston: It doesn’t even enter my mind. Like game on! I don’t want to think about it.

Everold Reid: Yeah, exactly!

Kelly Johnston: Hey! I hope you enjoyed that last episode. Here’s the reality that you may or you may not know. The top 20% of real estate agents take home 80% of the money out there. While the bottom 80% are fighting over 20% of the scraps that are left. Do you have a desire to be on the top 20%? If you’re working hard and not sustainably making 6 figures of income and beyond, the problem is not you. It’s your system.

I struggled for years until one day the light bulb came on and I figured out how to simplify the real estate business. If you want to learn my secrets, that anyone can implement immediately, that I still use everyday, that pays me multiple 6 figures every year, go to 4xformula.com right now.