Welcome to Episode 55 of our podcast, Courageous Conversations, hosted by Leanne Pilkington.
In this episode, our guest is Andy Reid, Owner/Managing Director at Simplify Marketing, Director at Sold By Auctions. Andy talks about his early career in hospitality management, moving to Australia with his wife and beginning his property career, his experience with depression and anxiety, how he dealt with his mental health obstacle, what lockdown was like for him in Melbourne, and his plans for the future in the real estate space.
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01:00 – Andy’s background into how he got into real estate (engineering to hospitality management
02:30 – Meeting his wife and moving to Australia with her in 2010 (before the London riots happened)
03:00 – His wife’s father-in-law owned a real estate franchise in South East of Melbourne, she convinced him to give real estate a crack. Then moved to auctioneering in 2012.
04:00 – Starting his own auctioneering business in 2017
04:45 – The impact of COVID-19 on Andy’s auctioneering gigs and how he adapted, including Andy’s experience with depression and anxiety outside of auctioneering
06:30 – Parenting while having anxiety and depression; recognising you are feeling different to normal and owning it
07:30 – The world doesn’t stop when you’re feeling down; how Andy separated himself from his depression while being an auctioneer (playing the part like an actor)
09:00 – Andy’s advice for anyone else struggling with similar mental health issues; having a ‘mental PT’ or someone you work in a partnership with to combat the struggle with knowledge
10:45 – Don’t drink alcohol, coffee, etc if you have mental health issues; it blocks the production of serotonin (i.e. what helps you get out of bed in the morning)
11:30 – The defining moment that stopped Andy from drinking alcohol again
12:30 – Having difficulty sleeping and looking for ways to treat this through medication (and how the stigma of ‘taking pills’ influenced this)
14:00 – Different ways of dealing with depression depending on the kind of person you are or your daily routine.
15:00 – “Every single one of us is wired differently in some way, shape or form. And then all the doctors have to work off is probability. They can only show you the door. You’ve got to walk through it yourself.”
16:30 – How the first and second lockdowns in Melbourne affected Andy, each having a different impact (the first = how do we do this, the second = do we have the mental fortitude to handle it)
18:15 – Starting his own podcast during the COVID lockdown; recognising the same trends in the mental journey he went through in people around him
19:00 – The reason why Andy did his podcast episodes live instead of pre-recorded (The Silver Lining)
20:00 – Travelling to England for personal matters during lockdown, and finishing the podcast while there
21:00 – Reflecting on recognising what we need and how to target it or expel negativity from our system
21:50 – Andy’s experience with hotel quarantine; using the time to continue The Silver Lining series and researching coaching
23:30 – Andy’s upcoming coaching business launch
24:30 – Learning how to hear what’s actually being said, not just what you’re hearing, from his parents who were police officers
26:00 – Andy’s coaching business: Inspiring Action = EQ + IQ (i.e. knowing the trade that is real estate but also having the emotional intelligence to be good at said trade)
28:00 – Finding his place in the real estate industry from originally having no interest in it; using his role as a vehicle for people to move on with their lives.
29:00 – Connect with Andy at andy@andyreid.com.au or via social media