Kevin Thompson’s Active Appreciation Challenge: 10 Messages, Big Impact

Welcome to beyond you'd why podcast, where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually help you discover and then live your why. You see, we believe that knowing your why, that driving force behind every decision you make and every action you take, is the essential first step to really knowing yourself. It allows you to move forward faster and have a bigger impact. If you're already a fan of the show, then you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys, and then we introduce you to somebody with that why so you can see how their why has played out in their life. This show will be more powerful for you if you've already discovered your why. If you still need to do that, head over to whyinstitute.com and discover your why today. It'll only take you about five minutes. Now, let's meet today's guest.

This week, we're going to be talking about the why of contribute to contribute to a greater cause, add value, have an impact on the lives of others. So if this is your why, then you want to be part of a greater cause, something that's bigger than yourself. You don't necessarily want to be the face of the cause, but you want to contribute to it in a meaningful way. You love to support others, and you relish successes that contribute to the greater good of the team. You see group victories as personal victories. You are often behind the scenes looking for ways to make the world better. You make a reliable and committed teammate, and you often act as the glue that holds everyone else together. You use your time, money, energy, resources, and connections to add value to other people and organizations. And so today, I have a perfect example of that. After selling $16.1 million of his own products and services solely through strategic partnerships, Kevin Thompson intimately understands the value of relationships. As host of the Million Dollar Relationships podcast and founder of the Impact and Legacy Collective, he creates positive change on a global scale by facilitating relationships that impact millions of people. His role is the conduit of trust for those he serves. Kevin cuts through the red tape quickly, opens doors that are close to others, eliminates rejection, and guarantees a red carpet reception. Kevin, welcome to the podcast.

Well, thanks so much. I am. I'm excited to be here. And I'll tell you when you read that. And actually, Gary, you know, when you and I spoke a while ago and I did the. I don't know what you would call.

The assessment, I guess, forbios discovery.

Yes. And when I read that, I'm like, my gosh, that just like, all the way to Christ.

Well, let's, let's, let's jump into that, Kevin, then. So, so take us back. Let's see how all this came about. So take us back into your life, Kevin. Where were you born and what were you like growing up? What were you like in high school?

You know, this is really interesting because I had. I went through a similar process like this with a friend of mine a couple of years ago, and we uncovered some stuff that I was like, wow, I didn't realize that. And so, so I was born in this little small community, Darrington, Washington. In fact, I only live today about 40 minutes from there. But it was a really small community where everybody in town knew everybody. And I lived in that community until I was in fourth grade. My father was a real estate agent and he worked about 45 minutes away. And after time, he just got tired of that commute all the time. And so we moved to the town that he worked in so he could be closer to work. So in fourth grade, I went from this community of going to school, going to church on Sundays where all my friends, I knew everybody and just sat along with everybody to now moving into a complete, completely different environment. New school, new people, where I was the outsider, just trying to fit in and stuff. And it was really interesting because, you know, sometimes kids can be cool and, you know, when you're the outsider and, you know, they're as concerned about you as you are about, you know, just trying to fit into, they're like, well, who the heck is this new. You know, and, and so that transition, it. It was not easy. I did make friends and stuff, but it was like, it was, it was like where I came from, this place of, like, it was just so easy. Now I really had to work at it and I did make friends and all that, but it wasn't until. So at the, at the beginning of my dice grade year, my father got diagnosed with cancer. And he passed away at the end of my 10th grade year. And I'll tell you.

Being a 15 and 16 year old, watching your father just deteriorate right before your eyes, that's a challenge for sure. But on the other side of that, the blessing and all that, is that there is not one thing left undone. With my father and I, I got to have every single conversation, as painful as some of them were before he ever passed away. I got to have all those conversations. But after my dad passed away, my mom, she wanted my brother and I to go to private school. And I kind of was like, here I don't Know, and mom was like, well, Kevin, you just try it for one quarter. If you absolutely hate it, you can go back to public school school. Well, I'll tell you what, I was like, okay, I'll totally do that. And I ended up going from this high school where in 10th grade, I had about 900 kids in my grad, what would have been my graduating class to now go into private school. Now, there were 16 in my class. There were like 80 kids in the entire high school. And.

As it turned out, one of my friends, him and his sister went to this school. His mom was a teacher there. And then these other brother and sister that I knew from church, they went to this school. So right from the get go, I had kind of like these friends of mine just running me, introducing me to all the other kids in school. And unlike the experience that I had in public school, it was like, I got back, and then I'm in 11th grade. In high school, I got my license. And by the way, my first car was a 1968 Mustang fastback that I bought with money I'd saved up from running the paper route for years prior to that. So I go to this private school, and I've also got a 68 must say fastback. And I had friends there, four of them, that just started connecting me with all my friends, all the new friends and everything. And it was like, wow. It was like I found my people.

After a quarter spin at the first quarter spin at that school, when mom was like, well, what do you think? I'm like, mom, I love it at this school. I wouldn't even think I'm going back to public school. And that experience of having, like, experienced it when I was a little kid, then getting away from that, that, like, just feeling like I fit in and stuff, you know, getting away from that from 4th all the way to 11th grade, and then in 11th grade, my last two years of high school, finding that again, finding that place where I fit in, you know, and now I look back at that and go, you know what? No wonder you like helping people, helping other people, helping other entrepreneurs just find their people, because you know how painful it is when you're surrounded by your people and you just want to help other people be surrounded by their people. And so that was a huge discovery that I made a couple of years ago from my upbringing in all of this. Yeah.

What would it have been like for you if you didn't have those people, those connections, right, Those relationships to actually speed the process up? And you had to go through what you went through again, Right. So if we were to see you. Okay, now we're in your senior year and there's Kevin walking down the hall. What would we have seen? What were you like?

You know, I had so much confidence in myself and I just, it, it was such a dramatic difference from the experience that I had at public school. And of course, you know, I was pretty proud of myself too for having that car that I bought because, you know, I got a paper route when I was in sixth grade and my dad made me save half of the money from my paper, which I thought was a little bit extreme. And but that dad was like, you're, you save half of the money. And so my answer to that was, well, heck, I'm just going to go get me another paper rep. So I ran two paper.

And so for all those years I did save half of that money. And when it came time when I was 16 and it came time for me to get a car and I was talking, they used to have these auto trader magazines, like actual magazines they would publish with everybody who had cars for sale. And I was looking through these and I would really like to get a car. My dad was like, well Kev, you've been preparing for this for years. You've got all the money you need to be able to buy and whatever car you want to buy. And I'm like, oh my gosh. And because I hadn't even thought about it because I've been saving that money. But now, so my first car, it was a 68 Mustang, fast, black. And I ain't going to lie, as a kid I kind of did a little bit of trouble with it, that car. But I also, all the girls in school, they liked hanging out with me and my friend Scott because he, he had a, he had a 78 Camaro that he had and we had, we had pretty nice cars. And, and so I, I, I didn't have any sorts of dating. And of course that, that really added to my confidence level too. In fact, I remember I took two girls to my senior prom because I was trying to debate on which one I wanted to take. And my friends told them I was trying to make up my mind. Well, they end up coming to me and they're like, hey, we don't think you should have to make up your mind. Why don't we just both go with you? And I'm like, that sounds like a good idea to me. I'm 13 year old on the senior prom.

But I'll tell you for me, Jerry Find and I could tell you so many more stories, especially in business now, of just finding my people and being able to just have those real meaningful conversations. Not the one where we put our mask on and put our dean face on and try to act like we've got it all figured out and stuff, but the conversations with. Where we can say, yeah, you know what, I'm really, I'm world class at this thing that I do here. But man, I've got this thing going on right now and I could really use some help over here. Just being able to have those kind of heart to heart conversations and, and giving others a place where they can have those conversations, where they're not going to get judged by anybody else, where they're going to be met with nothing but open arms is just being able to facilitate that. Where having other entrepreneurs be like, yeah, this is my penalty. And like being.

Feeds my heart to be able to facilitate that.

I love that. Okay, so you graduate from high school, did you go off to college?

I did not go to college. Once mom became the sole income earner that was off the table. I joined the military. I joined the army for four years. And then after that I came back to Seattle and knowing that I wanted to start my own business, not knowing what yet, but I did know, well, if you're going to start a business, it's going to take money. We better get some money together. So I ended up getting myself. I went down to Fisherman's terminal in Seattle and got myself a job on a fishing boat that went to Alaska. And I'll tell you what, I had no idea what I was getting myself into with that choice. That was hands down the hardest I had ever worked in my life. And I did that for seven years. I did that from 88 to 95. But the first year I did that, I ended up, I went up In January of 88, I was 23 years old, Gary. And I ended up staying up in Alaska for 10 months through October. And I ended up coming home at the end of that 10 months was a little over $110,000 in my pocket. That was after taxes, after. And at 23 years old, that was a doggone chunk of change right there.

Yes.

And so I worked in that industry until 95, until almost losing my life when we were in a heck of a. And we got hit broadside with a rogue wave that threw me across the boat. In fact, that's what this scar on my chin is. I threw me across the boat in the railing. I smacked was less Face knocked my front teeth out. It messed me up pretty good. But I will tell you, I was so grateful that I was still on that boat because if it would have tossed me just a couple inches higher into the freezing temperature of Bering Sea, that would have been it right then and there. And so. But I was, you know what, I, I, I counted my blessings and I'm like, you know what, I'm, I'm going to finish out my contract here. I didn't want to leave the guys hanging. But once I finished the contract, I'm like, you have saved up enough. It's time to get out of here while the get good. And so I did. In the following year, I started my very first business, which was a cleaning and restoration company. And so he started that business in 1996 is when we started that business.

And that's not an easy business either, right?

No, that was a lot of work. And Gary, I did not have the first clue about being an entrepreneur. I didn't, I mean, I just didn't even know what I didn't know. And I blew through a little over $350,000 in my first year in business and I still wasn't sure the profit. And fortunately I saw this article by this guy, Joe Polish in the trade publication for that industry and it really resonated with me. And so I sent off for the information he was offering and that resonated with me. So I invested in his marketing material. And long story short, over the next three years, Joe Polish helped me completely transform that business into a buy referral only cleaning and restoration company that serve high end homes, high end homeowners. And I am so incredibly grateful to him for that. Along the way we also started a website, probably one of the ugliest websites on the Internet, getmoldsolutions.com we launched that website in 2000. By 2003, that website was produced in about 15,000amonth for the business. And Joe invited me down to Phoenix. He put on a big annual event every year for the cleaning and restoration industry. Hey Kev, why don't you come down here to this year's annual event and show everybody what you're doing with your website. All right, I think that sounds good. Before you come, what I want you to do is I want you to document everything, what you do and how you do it, put it into a course. Because a certain percentage of the people, once they hear from you, they're going to want your help. And I just want you to make sure that you're prepared to offer that to them. So we did that. And I spoke at his seminar that year.

I didn't have, I mean, I had never spoken public before, much less to a big audience like that. Fortunately, a lot of the folks in that audience knew me, so I got a nice warm reception. Of course, Joe gave me this amazing introduction which certainly helped. But at the end of that presentation, I just simply said, you know, hey, if what I've shared resonates with you, if you believe that I can help you, I would be totally honored to be able to do that. And here's what that looks like and here's what the investment is. And we ended up making $35,000 in sales of that course that I had just created. And I was just like, wow, all right. That was a whole lot more money than I made in the cleaning business in a day. Yeah, no, I mean, my goodness. And so the following year, April 19th of 04, I ended up selling the cleaning and restoration basis. We moved into the publishing company full time. Over the next 12 years, we sold over $16 million worth of that raising. I did almost 400 strategic partnerships just like the one with Joe. And in that process, that is how I really came to understand the value of right relationships. And all of those other entrepreneurs who helped me spread the word about what I was doing, shared me with their audiences, you know, did collaborative projects together. My business would have never grown the way it did if not for their role in that. And I'll tell you what, I was so appreciative to all them for their just like belief and supported me too. It was, it was definitely a two way street. And like I said, I really came to understand the value of relationships.

And now that's all you do, right, is strategic partnerships that.

Well and so now what I do is I actually I kind of help set up and structure strategic partnerships for other entrepreneurs. I get to be this guy who facilitates relationships that impact millions of people's lives. And of course, when you, when you're doing that with the right people, the natural inorganic bio. My product is that millions of dollars in revenue gets created. And.

I love facilitating relationships like that. I love helping bring like minded entrepreneurs together so that they can do far more together than either of them could possibly do on their own. And yeah, and for seven years that's been my full time gig is doing that. And I absolutely love doing wow.

Which is similar in a way to what Joe Polish does.

Yeah, Joe, he, through his genius network, which he's been running that since 2007. So long time now. He. He does facilitate. I mean, Joe, I mean, he was a mentor. And I learned so much from him, for sure, because Joe is the incredible connector of people. And much of what I do now, I learned by just watching what he does, you know. Yeah, and, and what's so cool about this is, especially with everything going on and what's transpired, you know, since COVID hit in 2020, I will tell you that, you know, being a connector and being a conduit of trust for entrepreneurs who are making an impact in this world, there could be thousands of people doing what I do and what Joe does and it wouldn't be enough. I mean, there is so much demand for this of just people who would, you know, be if they were compelled, if, if this was their modus operandi too, to be able to use their gifts and their God given abilities for the purpose of facilitating and contributing to relationships like this. There is such a need for it right now because I will tell you that the more successful an entrepreneur gets, the lonelier it gets for them, the smaller their circle becomes of people that they can truly trust and confine it, and the more they value relationships that they can just truly trust and count on. I mean, I was talking with one of my friends last Friday who he was telling me, he's like, Kev, he's like, man, he's like, I am so appreciative for the role that you hold in my life. And you are one of only two people in my entire life that I've met for as long as I've been on this earth who hold the role that you do as being this conduit of trust. Trust for me. And I'll tell you what.

I can't even tell you how good it makes me feel when I hear, you know, stuff like that from the entrepreneurs that I am privileged and honored to be able to serve. Because that is, I mean, I just love them for who they are and how they show up and for the impact they're making in the world. And my gosh, anything I could do to support and help and serve them, I'm all in. I am just all.

Yeah, and so what, what do you mean by conduit of trust?

So conduit of trust. So, you know, and I couldn't have articulated this back then, not even close, but you know, when we talked about that first strategic partnership that I ever did with Joe Polish all the way back in 2003. So that was 21 years ago, you know, when Joe and I did that. There was no talk whatsoever between he and I that, you know, hey, Kevin, if we do this thing and you come down here and you speak and I put you in front of everybody and you create a course, man, we're going to sell a ton of it and we're going to make a whole bunch of money in doing that. You know, there was never that conversation.

He believed that I had something of value to offer his books because I had figured out how to use the website to help support my business. He was like, you know, Cam, he's like, I'm sure there's other people in the cleaning industry that would really benefit and they might decide that they want to do that in their area too. And so he felt that by me going there and me sharing with his audience, regardless of what happened, it would further the relationship that he already had with, with those people. And in fact, if he thought for one second that putting me in front of those people would have damaged that relationship with any of them, he would have never done it, regardless of how much money could have been made. Because no amount of money would be worth damaging the relationship that he had with all of the people that his business served. And, you know, it took some time for me to figure that out through doing my own strategic partnerships, you know, almost 400 of them over a 12 year period, and having conversations with side partners and finding out what was important to them, what was most valuable to them. Why did they start telling other people about me? Because, you know, the first time I ever did a strategic partner outside of the room with Joe, it was with this guy, Mike Crow. And Mike served home inspectors. And so Mike was like, you know, Kev, I think that thing that you did with Joel, I think my people would really benefit from it too. And so we made arrangements, we set a date and we set up. Back then we were doing teleseminars. Webinar video online was not. There was no such thing as video online back. Back then. It was you, you. We would get people to call in to a telephone number and enter a six digit code to get on the conference line. And that was how we would do presentations and stuff. And so we did one of these teleseminars for Mike's folks. And long story short, in the end we made 68,000 in revenue from that. And it was done. It was the course I offered. It was offered at three. Three monthly installments of 397. So it's 1191 investment spaced over three months. 397amonth so we had all these installments of $397 that came in and I'm like, well, you know, if I was Mike, I would probably really appreciate getting compensated with this. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to overnight him a check based on all these rounds of 397 that have come in. And if we get any refunds or returns or whatever, I'll just take down the checks that I'll be sending him in 30 and 60 days. And so I just put, wrote up a handwritten note saying, hey Mike, thanks so much. Really appreciated doing this with you, man. I think this was a really great success. I'm really looking forward to help with your folks out. And here's your first check. I'll be sending another one to you in 30 days and another one at 60 day. And I put it in an overnight envelope and I mail.

And he calls me the next day, Gary, and he is completely beside himself. And he's like, Kevin, I gotta tell you, I have never had anyone overnight mail me a check before. And he's like, in. Quite honestly, Kev, from start to finish, this whole experience of doing this with you, I mean, my gosh, you know, you told me that you were going to have materials to me by a certain day and you had them to me like four days prior to the date you promised and everything. And like, you kept us in the loop the whole way of like, here's where we're at right now, here's how many people are resident. I mean, you, you stayed in substrate contact. He's like, and he's. I have some other folks that I want to, to introduce you to because I know that they too would really appreciate having the experience that I just had. And you're going to add a ton of value and you're going to help them further the relationships with the people that they serve to. And so through this process, I started finding out what was really important to all these entrepreneurs. And it was really, it was relationships and it was me be that, that just that person that they could trust and that person they did. One of the other things I found out that I could do and be of service to them was I just have this natural God given ability that when I'm talking with an entrepreneur, they're telling me about a project they're working on, they're telling me about a problem they're having, I just automatically default to who do I know that that might be able to help with that? And I will make connections. So I've been doing it for years anyways. I just didn't have a business like I have now where it's my sole thing and, but, you know, I kind of just kind of discovered it all as I went. But yet it's been there. It's been there and it's been materializing for years.

So what do you think, Kevin, is the secret to a great partnership?

I think the biggest secret, the biggest catalyst to any great partnership is it's that both parties are going into it with the intention of how can I contribute to this? It's not what can I get from this? And in fact, pretty much everybody in my world, the people that I love, the entrepreneurs I love hanging out with, their natural and just default go to position is they always show up, want to know, how can I help, serve, contribute, how can I pour into others? I mean, like, they're all amazingly giving and generous people. If anything, they might.

They might be able to use a little bit of work and helping expand their receiving lessons, you know, I mean, that, that's how it was for me. I, I, I was this giving, generous guy all my life, but for most of my life until 12 years ago, I kind of sucked when it came to receiving and, and God forbid, asking for help from others, I would never do that because I wouldn't want to bother people or inconvenience them or whatever. But, but now I, I've really learned, thanks to, to a good friend of mine that, you know, hey, Kev, everybody knows who you are. They know how giving you are. We, you know, so it's okay to ask other people for help, you know, and so now in figuring that out for myself, I get to empower other entrepreneurs that, you know, I, I think I used to think that, like, if somebody's a really successful entrepreneur, they've got this whole giving and receiving thing figured out. No, they don't. 8020 rule still applies. Somebody could run a very successful business and not be very good at receiving. Great at giving, but not good at receiving. And so, you know, a big part of what I get to do is, is help entrepreneurs expand their receiving muscle. And that's kind of cool to watch what happens when they do that too.

Tell us a little more about what you mean there. Expanding your receiving muscle. What was it that you weren't good at that probably a lot of us are not very good at either? What was that?

Yeah, so like I said, I would never ask for what I would, I would not talk about areas where I was struggling because for, for Any number of reasons. Like, like I said, I, I wouldn't want to bother people, I wouldn't want to inconvenience them, or I might even think that, like, oh, my gosh, what would someone think if they knew that about me? You know? And I'll tell you, you know, I mean, if, if, if I were to say, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna run this group. I'm, I'm, I'm gonna host a Zoom Call, and I'm gonna invite a whole bunch of entrepreneurs, and what we're gonna all do is we're gonna come and we're gonna talk about our most pressing problem. The thing that just. And, and nobody's going to show up to that because they're like, I don't want to be that vulnerable. And I certainly just going to get on a group call, on a Zoom call with a bunch of entrepreneurs and start talking about my deepest, darkest challenges. But yet, in the right context when it is, I mean, I do this stuff all the time. I mean, I host these virtual roundtables, and.

At this point, I've done over 400 of them, and it's always small group entrepreneurs, like three, four entrepreneurs clubs, and it's really a curated group. So the only entrepreneurs who get invited to join us for a roundtable is an entrepreneur who is already established. So they are past the point of needing to create cash flow for sustainability in their business. And their focus is now, how do I use my business to make my biggest impact? So they're that kind of entrepreneur. And on the other side, like I said, their default position is that they just show up wanting to know, how do I help, serve, contribute, pour into others? That's just who they are. They couldn't show up any other way. And so when you get that kind and caliber of entrepreneur together in the same place, and I just, I just set a little context at the beginning and let them know, hey, this is how this is going to work and stuff. They get there, nobody knows each other, but yet, two and a half hours later, they're, every one of them, they're all exchanging contact information, they're making plans to follow up. They're already collaborating on how they can do business together, how they can refer business to each other, and it happens every single time. And it's because you give them the right environment and you invite the right people, and then you just let them know by demonstration that, hey, this is the safe place here, and you ain't going to get judgment from nobody. Because we're all dealing with the same kind of stuff and we're all doing the best that we can with what we got.

I love that. So Kevin, who is your ideal client now? Like who do you work with mostly today and who would you like to work with?

So I work with today, the client that I just described, that well established entrepreneur who is focused on how do I use my business to make my biggest impact. And they are also just a giving, generous person. That's just who they are at their core.

Now as far. And I will tell you.

So I'll give you an example.

I just made a connection for a couple of my friends. One of them I've known for eight years. The other one I've known for 13 years. One of them is a venture capital investor. Well, used to be a venture capital investor. Now he's turned more private investor. The other one owns a company that is 20 years old, very successful. He wants to exit from that company sometime in about 10 years from now. They have never done any external marketing. Every bit of business that has come has come through referrals. They are a multimillion dollar company. And he knows that. He wants to get some external marketing in place. That's the first thing. Because he knows that come exit time in about 10 years, that's going to seriously add to the valuation of his company. And the other thing was he wanted, he would like to find an investor. But he'd had a really bad experience in the past talking with venture capital investors. He's like, have. He's like, they treat you so bad, they don't respect your time, they drop the ball at you. He's like, it's just spit. It sucks. He's like. And he's like, we've never taken investment money. But he's like, if I could find the right investor who would just really become a partner with us, I think it would be a really good thing. And I was like, you know, I think I know just the guy. And I like I said, I have a friend of mine who is a venture capital. He used to be a venture capital guy. In fact, the first time him and I met 13 years ago, he told me how he's like, kevin, I hang out with some of the wealthiest people in the world and I will also tell you from personal experience, they are some of the most miserable you'd ever meet. But that is my world. Well, it's not his world anymore and it hasn't been for a long time. Today he only funds and advises good people and if he never made another dollar, it wouldn't matter. And so. And he too has, because of his background, he was less than trusting of people. He's a very private guy. But yet, over 13 years, him and I have become very close, and we've just had enough experience where he's like, kev, anybody that you bring into my world, I just take a call with, because I know you would bring anybody into my world, it wouldn't be worth having a conversation with. And so when my other friend told me about his past experience trying to talk with Macy and how painful it was, I'll tell you what, man, I felt for it. I felt for him because I'm like, man, no, I can imagine how frustrating that would be. And then my other friend, knowing the growth cycle that he saw through over the last 13 years and where he was now, that he could totally relate. In fact, when I sent the message to introduce them, I was like. I told him, I said, hey, the investor guy I'm introducing you to, he probably was that very same guy you were describing me. He had the bad experience. Yeah, he probably used to be that guy, but he's definitely not that guy today. And. And so it just felt so good on both sides of this equation, on both sides of this connection to be getting these two guys together. And last Friday, they got to have a conversation. So this morning I've been texting with both. Well, one of them texted me yesterday and was like, kev, the investor was like, what an awesome conversation that was, man, it was so cool. And then this morning, the other guy was like, kevin, we got to talk in front of. Man, he is so smart, and he was just such a wealth of knowledge. And I'm going to be doing the stuff that he told me to do, so we can start getting ready for some of this. And it just dig my heart so good because I'm just. I love both these guys, you know, and, and, And I told both of them, hey, you know what? I. I don't know what you guys schedule is for the next couple weeks, but I want to make time to connect with you guys one on one, because I just want to get an update because I just want to be really intentional about continuing to serve you and stuff. I just want to, you know, just keep this going and stuff, you know, and. And now I structure this. So, I mean, yeah, I get complicated up front for doing what I do, but I also, you know, the real revenue comes from doing revenue shares or equity deals on the back end and stuff.

But I Don't do it because of the revenue. The revenue is the natural and organic byproduct of actually carrying about the people that I serve that I just love them. And like, they know that. They just know that. They're like, Kevin's got my back. And so they're, they're really, they're, they're happy to compensate me for the role that I hold in their life just because they appreciate that I hold that role in their life for them.

It wouldn't happened any other way.

No, it wouldn't. It would. And a lot of people have seen my models and thought to themselves, wow, that could be really profitable. And the challenge with that is, is the, the intention is out of order, you know, because the intention for me has just been organically, like, I want to focus on the relationship. I want to. I love these entrepreneurs that I get to serve and I want to focus how can I best help them? And the revenue ends up being the byproduct of that. The revenue wasn't the motivation to begin helping them stuff and gotcha. I think that's what really has made the difference. And, you know, and so, I mean, I would just say for your folks here, you know, if anybody listening to this, if they're kind of like, maybe they could make. Maybe they're all about contribution to stuff. Yeah, yeah. And maybe some of what we've talked about here is resonating with them and they're just like, yeah, you know, and I just want to encourage you, man, if you're a people lover like me and you just love serving and you love contributing and you love helping, I mean, there is so much opportunity out there right now. There is such a demand for people like us right now.

That's awesome. So, Kevin, last question for you. What's the best piece of advice you've ever given or the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

Well, so this is pretty simple. So.

I got given a book called the Go Giver, written by a gentleman named Bob Berg. It wasn't just Bob, I can remember his partner's name that helped write that book. But I first got given that book 10 years ago. And it's a really simple book and it's a story. More. It's kind of a story, a parable. It's you will. And so there's not one thing in there, but it is just. It's a whole story of how when we just focus on giving and contribution, that it's all going to come back to us and that, you know, I mean, heck, it even says, you know what? So if we look at we, it even says when the bias, you know, to whom much is given, much will be expected. And the better.

I'm trying to think the right wording here, the better steward we are of what we've been given, the more we will be given to be a steward of. Because the reality is we ain't leaving this earth with nothing, man. We're coming into it with nothing and we're leaving with nothing. And so what happens in between is the impacts that we get to have while we're here on this earth, you know, and I firmly believe that, you know, when we are just focused on making our biggest impact and that is our focus, that the other pieces of the puzzle, they take care of ourselves, you know, that we'll get the revenue that we need. Because, you know, for me, more revenue at this point, I mean, I'm living in the home that we want to live in. We're driving vehicles we want to drive. So for me, more revenue isn't going to change my lifestyle at all at this point. What more revenue does is it gives me options to make a bigger impact, is what it does. It gives me options to maybe put myself in rooms that I might not have access to. It gives me the option to give to other organizations that I that are in alignment with my core values and stuff. And it just allows me to make my biggest impact. Revenue and money is simply a tool. And once we've got our own house in order. I am a husband to an amazing wife. I am a father to seven amazing kids. I currently have six grandchildren, probably some more coming later.

And, you know, I get to be the husband and father that I want to be. And that first is being the husband and father that I want to be. And then I get to be the entrepreneur I want to be too. And I'll tell you, I can't imagine anything more rewarding than that than being able to have that. And you know, I will turn, I have no problem turning down revenue opportunities if it's not in alignment with me being the husband, the father and the entrepreneur that I want to show up as. Because I know if I can show up that way, then that's when I am most powerful and most effective and most valuable to other people and stuff. And so, you know, I, I, I don't work weekends. That's my family ton. Usually I'm take on Fridays. I usually cut off. If I am working, I'm done by 12:30 or I just take the Friday off and make it a three day weekend. That, that's family time and stuff. We just got back from a week long Alaska cruise with, with my family and some friends who came up from Arizona to go on the cruise with us. And we got to take them with us. We got like, it was, they were so thankful and so grateful. They're just like, man, I just can't believe that you guys paid for us to come on this cruise with you. Like multiple times throughout that cruise. They were just, you know, and it was so cool to just be able to share that experience with them, you know, and, and to be able to just, you know, have the resources to be able to do that and say, hey, I want to, you know, it was my wife's friend that they'd known each other since they were kids and her husband that came up from Arizona. It was just so cool to be able to share that experience with them and, and not have to worry about the finances. That, yeah, you know, we want to, we want you guys to come with us and come experience this. And it was just way cool. And I get to do a lot of that stuff. And that's what just energizes me. So this whole thing of just give it, it'll be given back to us.

And that is so in alignment with your why. Which is to contribute to other people's success. Because when they do better, you do better.

Yeah.

And that, yeah, that's the essence of it all. So, Kevin, if there are people that are listening, that want to connect with you, they want to find you, follow you, what's the best way for them to do that?

So I have a website. It's more of a placeholder than anything else. It's@maximumresponse.com.

There'S a little bit there. Some of it's even totally outdated. It's back from my days when I was doing all those strategic parts partnering projects when I had the publishing company. But there is a, there is a Ford there. If people were wanted to, you know, reach out, they could do that. They'd come right to me on Facebook. I'm pretty active on Facebook and here's what I'll do. I'm going to throw this out there because this will be, this will set some context and give a really great reason to have a conversation. So I'm going to issue what I call my active appreciation challenge. Because like I mentioned before, you know, no matter how successful somebody is, no matter how big their business is, no matter how great things look from the outside, look at this. There is not a person on the face of this planet that gets too much appreciate. And I'm going to show you something. So we all have these cell phones with contacts in it. And for the purpose of this exercise, for the purpose of this challenge, it doesn't matter whether we're going to send these messages to family members, to friends, to business associates, what have you. What I want to challenge you to do in the next 24 hours, I want you to send messages to 10 people that you have as contacts in your cell phone. And in that message, you're going to do just one thing. Thing. You're going to let each of those people know one thing that you genuinely appreciate about them. You're not going to ask for anything in return. You're not even going to ask for a response in return. You're just going to send out some love and you watch what happens. You are going to have such a powerful experience that you're going to be like, wow, Kev, that was amazing. And you're going to be like, man, I want more of that. And the whole thing is you're going to realize too that you effected that your actions caused that to happen. And you can make that happen whenever you want. In fact, daily I am telling people, whether it's through email communication, text communication, in person, whatever, I am constantly letting people know how much I appreciate them. And by just making that part of who we are, we just get to give people this experience that they seldom get to receive, which is like feeling appreciated. And Gary, I just want to, you know, tell you I am so grateful that you invited me here today to just share and I'm so grateful that you reached out to me, we got connected and you shared that assessment with me because I'll tell you what, that was such confirmation that like, wow. I mean, this, like you read all that when you first sent me the assessment, after I took it, I'm like, man, it's like, Gary's like, read my money an outcome.

And I just want to thank you for that and, you know, for anybody, you know, if you take that active appreciation challenge, you know, yeah, hit me up, you know, go to my website or hit me up on Kevin the connect or on Facebook and shoot me a message and tell me, I would love to hear about your experience with the challenge and what a great way that would be to start a new relationship.

So I love it. Well, Kevin, thank you so much for being here today. Thanks for taking the time to, to share with our audience and I love what you're doing. It's so perfectly in line with, with alignment with your why. So I look forward to staying in contact as we. As we go on our journeys, because it's been great meeting you and, and hearing your story. So thanks for being here today.

You are so welcome, Gary. My pleasure. My honor.

I really hope you enjoyed today's EP and that through today's guest, you heard how important it is to know your why and how impactful it can be in your life and the lives of those around you. Be sure to head over to whyinstitute.com and discover your why today. Remember, the more you know about yourself, the more you'll know about others. I'm Dr. Gary Sanchez, and I'll see you on the next episode.