How To Create Lucrative Partnerships For Your Business With Kevin Thompson

Direct Response Marketer, Connector – Kevin Thompson

How to start building up your network when you are just starting out. Key indicators to attract your ideal prospect and how to put a system in place to do that for you. What makes a partnership successful. What to do when you?ve found your ideal partnership.

Resources Mentioned in the Podcast:

• Kevin Thompson’s Calendar

Check out PartnershipPlaybook.com for more info!

Thanks so much for listening!

Transcript: Download

Jaime Tardy:	Welcome to Eventual Millionaire.  I'm Jaime Tardy, and I'm really excited to have Kevin Thompson on the show.  He's a direct response marketer, connector.  You can check him out at partnershipplaybook.com.  Thanks so much for coming on the show today.

Kevin Thompson:	You bet.  My pleasure, Jaime.

Jaime Tardy:	So you told me at the beginning, which I thought was awesome, is that you started out doing carpet cleaning, and got into this world.  So tell me a little bit about how that led you to direct response.

Kevin Thompson:	I started in the carpet cleaning business back in 1996.  And after spending seven years working as a commercial fisherman in Alaska to save up money to start that business.

Jaime Tardy:	Go you.

Kevin Thompson:	And so if you've ever seen that show called The Deadliest Catch, that's what I used to do.  Seven years of doing that.  Saved up $200,000 in that process, with the sole goal of starting my own business.  And opened the doors on that business in 1996.  I invested about $80,000 to buy the van, cleaning equipment, that kind of thing.  And over the course of the next year, not knowing what I was doing, I blew through pretty much all of that $200,000.  And so this idea that I hear that entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs will say, "Well, if I just had more money, then I could be successful.  Then I could do what I really" ? not true.  Because I had what I thought was a pretty good chunk of money, and I still didn't figure it out.  

	But fortunately, I was looking through a trade magazine for the cleaning and restoration industry.  I found this article by this guy, Joe Polish, and the article said, "I can show you how to get more clients in a month than you now get all year."  And I said, "Boy, I could use some of that."  And so long story short, I got set up with Joe Polish.  He helped me transform that business; completely turn it around over a three-year period.  And he was my introduction to direct response marketing.  And we haven't looked back since.

Jaime Tardy:	How lucky are you that you picked the same industry that the amazing Joe Polish was in.  You know, it's kind of crazy.  I mean it's insane to see how huge he is now in this space, based on doing that.  So it was like a divine intervention or something that you guys met up.  So tell us how you went from that to doing what you are now.

Kevin Thompson:	So he helped me turn that business around, and what I found out in that process, by 1999, three years later, was that what I really loved was the marketing.  There were aspects of running a carpet cleaning business that I enjoyed, but there was also a lot that I had to do in that business that I did not enjoy.  And so I figured out that like, you know what?  This isn't what you really want to be doing.  And I was working a lot of hours.  But people on the outside looking in, and thought, oh gosh, Kevin, you've got such a successful business.  But I did not feel that way.  

	And so I started really doing some soul searching, and just like - and the next year - actually I guess it was later in '99, I was at a Dan Kennedy seminar, who I actually met through Joe Polish, and I met two guys at that seminar.  I met Yannick Silver and I met Perry Marshall.  And man, I'll tell you what, I am so thankful that I met those guys.  They playing around, doing some stuff on the Internet at that time, and I thought, oh gosh, maybe there's something here for me.  And so with their assistance, I took what I knew from the cleaning industry.  I started this little ugly, probably one of the ugliest websites on the Internet called getmoldsolutions.com, and -

Jaime Tardy:	Sexy.  Woo-hoo.

Kevin Thompson:	Yeah.  Uh-huh.  I mean it's kind of like watching the grass grow.  Unless of course you've got a mold problem, then you're all about what I have to say.

Jaime Tardy:	Totally.  I'll pay you anything you want to get rid of this.  For sure.

Kevin Thompson:	That's right.  And we got that website making about $12,000 a month.  And a couple of years later, Joe invited me to come speak at his big annual seminar for the cleaning industry.  He was like, "Why don't you just show these people what you're doing?"  And I'm like, "Sure."  And so I went down there.  I spoke for about an hour, and after my presentation, I was mobbed by all these people at the back of the room, wanting me to help them.  And Joe saw what was going on, and he's like, "Kevin," he's like, "Here's what we're going to do.  You're going to come back next year, but between now and then you're going to document what you do and how you do it, and you're going to put it into a course so you can give these people what they want."

	And so we did that, and in 2003, October of that year, I went back down.  I spoke at Joe's again.  No formal speaking experience.  I mean just a passion for showing people what I was doing, and we made $35,000 in sales of that course.  And that was a whole lot more money than I ever made in 40 minutes or an hour cleaning carpets.  And so I'm like, "You know, I want to do a lot more of this."

Jaime Tardy:	Heck yeah.  Let's fast forward to now.  Because I really want to get into - the landscape has changed bit time since then to now.  I mean I used to work at an Internet company back in 1998.  It's insane what has changed.  So tell me a little bit about director-sponsored, just marketing in general, online nowadays.  Is it what it used to be?  There's so much more competition.  Give me a little bit of a head sup on what you think is going on.

Kevin Thompson:	Sure.  Yeah, definitely a lot more competition for sure.  A lot more - and also, we'll say pre-2000 - a lot changed in 2007-2008.  And there was a lot of crazy stuff going on.  People making outrageous claims, I mean on the Internet - every industry was full of it, but especially in the Internet marketing world.  It was pretty ridiculous.  And now it's really more about relationships, creating relationships with people, building that trust, building that authority.  You can do it quickly.  In fact, we do it very quickly, usually within one to two days, we're taking people from interested prospect to paying customer.  

	But it is about building that relationship, and especially for the long term, if you expect them to build a long-term successful business, it's going to be all about relationship.  You're building that strong relationship and just letting people know that you, for one, are qualified to help them in some way, and that you're willing to help them, and it's laying out, okay, this is what that looks like.  Here's how I can help you.  Here's what this is going to look like.  And yeah, just building that relationship.  That's critical today for sure.  

Jaime Tardy:	So I have lots of questions on that.  And I was just telling you, we're friends on Facebook.  We have 132 mutual friends.  Like thank goodness we have the Internet to tell us how many mutual friends we have.  But it's a lot, right?  So tell me how you started building up that network.  Because I know a lot of people, especially that are newer online, are like, okay, that's great.  But how do I actually make friends with all these people, or build these relationships and not be like one of those - you know what I mean?  Like oh please, look at me.  Talk to me.

Kevin Thompson:	Yup, yup.

Jaime Tardy:	Because that's not good. 

Kevin Thompson:	That's right.  It doesn't work.  When you try to reach out to people, I mean quite honestly, you know, traditional networking, that's why it sucked so bad, is because everybody who comes into that environment is all about talking about me, me, me, me.  Here, look at me.  Look at my thing.  And everybody's doing that, and nobody's listening to anybody.  And in reality, the way that you reach out to people, the way that you get people's attention is by showing appreciation, not by reaching out with your handout.  And to take it one step further, by showing appreciation - and I will tell you, no matter how successful somebody is, no matter how big of a business they run - I was at an event last year where I heard Jay Abraham speaking from stage.

	And it was actually at an event that Shawn Stevenson put on.  I don't know if you know Shawn or not.  Shawn's an incredible guy.

Jaime Tardy:	Yup, I do.

Kevin Thompson:	And Jay was - Shawn asked Jay, what's the thing that - like, he treasures most, that he values most in his life.  And he's like, "You know what it is?"  He's like, "It's when people come back to me and they just tell me, "Jay, I really appreciate you for showing me this," or whatever, for explaining.  And then he's like, just showing - and here's Jay, who's been doing what he does for years, and his number one thing that gets his attention the most is appreciation.  And that is so true.  And when we just can do that and be genuinely appreciative of other people, I mean you are going to open doors so quickly it'll make your head spin.  Now once you've got the door open, there's specific things you want to do for sure too.

	But yeah, that's how you're going to open doors.  And you can - I mean I've opened so many doors that way.

Jaime Tardy:	Okay, give me tactics on this because people are like, "Great, appreciation.  How do I do that?"

Kevin Thompson:	Yes, okay.  So - you know what?  Okay, I'll give you a quick exercise for everybody.  Because no matter who you are right now, you've all got one of these.  You've got a cell phone.

Jaime Tardy:	Heck yeah.

Kevin Thompson:	Okay, you've got contacts in there, and you've got people who might be business contacts, they might be personal friends, they might be family, what have you.  What I want you to do - you try this out and you're going to have such an incredible experience, you're going to be thanking me for this.  You want to start text messaging some people, and you're going to send some love.  You're going to show some appreciation.  And what you're going to do is be genuine about this.  Let people know - let those - think about something that you genuinely appreciate about that person, and you send a text message and you let them know.

	I don't care if you haven't talked to them in five years.  It doesn't matter.  Send them some appreciation, send them some love.  Don't ask for anything in return.  Don't ask for a thing in return.  Don't say, "Hey can't wait to hear back."  No.  Just send out some love.  And if you will do that to 10, 15, 20 people that you have in your contact list, I guarantee you people are going to - now not everybody will get back to you, but some people are going to get back to you and you are going to have such an incredible experience, and you're going to be like, "My gosh, Kev, this works.  This works."

Jaime Tardy:	Do you do that on - because I do something similar.  I'll - usually people that I've talked to within the last year, but usually I'll send a little thinking of you text with hearts or something.  You know what I mean?  Something to be just like, aw, you're on my mind kind of a thing.  But I don't do it as "like I don't have a structure for it.  It's just sort of when I'm actually thinking of them, which is good because I don't want to lie to them.  But of course, you know what I mean.  Do you have a structure of how often you do that to people? 

Kevin Thompson:	Nope.

Jaime Tardy:	Or anything like that?  Okay.

Kevin Thompson:	What I can tell you is I do it multiple times, and I do it daily.

Jaime Tardy:	Oh, you do it daily?

Kevin Thompson:	I do it daily.  And I can just tell you yesterday, for an example, I was catching up with a friend of mine whose name is Steve Sams.  He owns a company called Bluefish, and I know Steve's got a very successful company.  But I also know one of his goals is he wants to start speaking more.  And I saw a post of his on Facebook not too long ago, where he actually had the opportunity to speak at the Pentagon.  And I saw that, but I hadn't talked to him or anything.  So I just texted him yesterday, and I said, "Hey, Steve.  Saw the photos from the Pentagon.  How's your speaking career going?"  And just used that to catch up.

	And of course, for him, I know that's a hot button.  And so that immediately got a conversation going.  But Steve and I, we already have a relationship, and so that's just kind of a catching up thing.  But I will tell you, I do that three, four, five times a day with different people that I just am continually - it doesn't take much time.  And he was just grateful that I asked.  He's like, "Wow, Kev.  Thanks so much for asking.  I got this big presentation" - actually we mentioned Joe Polish.  He's speaking - Joe Polish is doing his big annual event next month, and Steve is speaking there.  So he's pretty excited about that.

	And I'm like, "Fantastic.  I'll see you there."  So that kind of stuff - and just taking that active role and showing appreciation for people.  And when you do that, like I said, you open massive doors.  People are always willing to talk with you.  And I guarantee you - we'll use the example of Steve - if I ever reached out to Steve and said, "Hey, Steve, I want to run something by you," or, "I've got a favor to ask of you" or whatever, I'm going to get a response just because of the relationship that we have.

Jaime Tardy:	That's awesome.  Okay, cool.  So once we establish that and we've got some sort of relationship going with them, the ask is really hard for people.  So asking for the favor - it's hard to me too.  I have tons of friends, but I'm like, I don't want to ask.  So what are some tips on that-  Because you've had so many - and maybe you could give us some - before we talk about that - how you do the partnership - sort of - you've had 400 or something like that partnerships.  And I'm like that's insane to have that many.  So give us sort of a spiel on you and your expertise in this, and that way we can go into the tactics on how.  Because you've done this a lot, and I want to tell people how much you've done.

	So that way they understand this isn't just you going, "Hey, these are great tips."

Kevin Thompson:	Uh-huh.  Well so we go back to 2003.  That whole experience with Joe Polish and speaking at his events.  You know?  That was my very first partnership; except for I didn't even realize what the heck was going on.  You know?  I was already - Joe and I already had a relationship.  I had so much appreciation for him, and then now that I had kind of figured this thing out, he was like, "Kev, just come down here and share with everybody what you've got going on."  And then had that experience.  And then the next year, he invited me back.  And I had never done anything like that before.  And so a couple weeks before going down there, I had called Joe's office, and I talked with his assistant, Eunice, and I told her what was going on.

	I said, "Joe's got me coming down here to speak and I'm going to offer this course, and I've never done this before.  How does this typically work?"  And Eunice was like, "Well, Kevin, the way this normally works is Joe has invested a considerable amount of money to build the audience, get people there at that even, and usually when somebody does speak and they offer something for sale, well then they just split the proceeds 50/50 with Joe."  And I'm like, "Okay, great."  And so we did that.  And it was the simplest thing.

	I mean, like you talk about Jaime, a lot of people are like - they're asking for this and they're trying to get people to work with them and collaborate with them, and they're just beating their head against the wall because nobody's responding.  But yet this experience that I had with Joe, because of the way it unfolded, it was the most natural thing in the world.  And I didn't even realize what was going on or what had happened.  It was a great experience, and it did launch a new business for me because I sold - that was in October of '03.

	April 19 of '04, I sold my carpet cleaning business and moved into this fulltime.  And so we really kicked off.  But not knowing what was happening, I didn't do another collaborative project until June of '07.  Because I just started marketing my business.  We were doing stuff online, we were doing direct mail.  It was working well.  But it was in June of '07, actually probably about May of that year, I was at Dan Kennedy's, or Glazer Kennedy's annual event, and I had hooked up with this other guy that I had already known, and his name was Mike Crone.  He kind of did what Joe did in the carpet cleaning business, Mike did for home inspectors.

	And we were just catching up.  And he found out what I was up to and what I was doing, and he was like, "Kevin," he said, "You know what?"  He said, "We should introduce your thing to my home inspectors."  I'm like, "Really?  You think they'd be interested?"  He's like, "I really do."  And so - and once again, it was a simple thing.  He just sent out a couple emails to his audience, his subscribers.  We held this event for them, and we did $48,000 and something in sales.  And I was like, "Wow.  What a great experience."  And that's when it dawned on me finally, I want to do a whole lot more of this.

	And with Mike, he was a friend of mine.  He was somebody I already knew.  And my product, we offer it at either two or three instalments of $397, so I do recall vividly when we did that project, I'd never done anything like that before, but I was like, "Well, we've got all these instalments of $397 that just came in.  Let me overnight Mike a check based on his percentage of this.  And if we get any returns or whatever, I'll just take it out of his second or third checks I'll be sending him."  And so I overnighted him a check.  He calls me the next day and he's just going nuts because he's like, "Kevin, I have never had anybody overnight me a check."

	And it made such an impact, I was like, "Okay, you know what?  I'm going to always overnight the check."

Jaime Tardy:	Oh, that's smart.

Kevin Thompson:	So we've done that.  And I can tell you that after that experience with Mike, I immediately realized, okay, you want to do a whole lot more of this.  And I did do a whole lot more of that.  For that next several years, we stumbled and bumbled around.  I did a lot of projects.  A lot of them were nothing close to the experience that I had with Joe and Mike.  

Jaime Tardy:	I bet, right?

Kevin Thompson:	I found myself partnering with people that, quite honestly, I would never do it again.  It was a learning experience.  Some of them were profitable.  Most of them were not.  And like I said, I was stumbling and bumbling, trying to figure this stuff out.  And it wasn't until the end of January in 2010 that I made the big discovery.  Because you know, when you do these collaborative projects like this, and like I did with Mike and like I did with Joe, when I pay them monies, at the end of the year you have to give them 1099s and report to the IRS how much money you paid them. 

Jaime Tardy:	Yup.

Kevin Thompson:	So in January 2010, my accountant did all my 1099s for that year, and afterwards, when he had them all ready, he's like, "Kevin," he's like, "Can I talk with you about this really quick?"  And I'm like, "Sure."  So we made a time to talk, and he's like, "You know," he's like, "Look at this."  He's like, "You did like 36 of these collaborative projects with these people last year.  But if you look at the numbers," he's like, "Eight of them produced over 80 percent of your results."

Jaime Tardy:	Mm-hm.  80/20 rule.

Kevin Thompson:	Yeah, isn't that - I mean - and so I was like, yeah, here that was staring me right in the face, and I'm like, "Okay."  So I really started analyzing this.  What made - and there were some good ones in the other 28 too, but there was a lot of just bad experiences in that other group of 28.  And so I really started looking at what made these projects so successful?  And that was like I had that immediate connection with somebody.  You know?  We both - you know, this wasn't like me trying to talk them into doing something with me.  Some of the projects that I had were, and they were not successful, where I was having to talk somebody into doing it.

	It was all those successful project, it was an equal thing where we were both 100 percent committed and excited to do that project.  And then a couple of things about my partners I've discovered is that one big thing is that they obviously have a good audience of subscribers, of prospects, of customers, what have you.  They've got a great relationship with those people.  There's already existing buyers in that audience.  I used to think that went without selling, until I did a project one time with a guy, and we were all excited.  There were lots of people registering, and he's like, "How is it looking?"

	I'm like, "Oh man, it's looking fantastic.  We're going to have a great time and we're going to have some great results tonight, as long as a good percentage of these people are already existing buyers."  And he was like, "Oh, well none of these people have ever bought anything from me."  And I'm like, "Oh.  Well scratch everything I just said because I don't know what's going to happen."  So but once I figured out what those key indicators were, now I've just been able to attract my ideal prospect.  And I really put a system in place to attract those - not my ideal prospect, but my ideal partner, and just give them a great experience so that afterwards, then they just want to tell more people about me.

	That's what kept me going all these years, and that's how I've done over 400 collaborative projects, just by giving my partners and their audiences, their customers, a great experience, whether they buy or not.  And just making - just treating people like I'd want to be treated, and that's how - you know, it's kind of funny because sometimes people will say, "Well, Kevin, you can't just keep on chasing down partners."  And yet I've never felt that way at all.  I just kind of attract them is what I do, just by being me, just by doing what I do and treating people how I'd want to be treated.

Jaime Tardy:	So let's say you found somebody that seems like an ideal fit for a partnership like this.  Maybe you've only met them once at a conference or something.  Your relationship isn't all that deep.  What would be your steps to actually go and start asking them?  Because that's the piece where people are like, "I don't know them that well, and I feel kind of weird asking them."

Kevin Thompson:	Absolutely, absolutely.  And in a - you know, this could get into a whole 'nother conversation that I - this thing about giving and receiving, Jaime, you know, you're like me.  You're a giver.  You are a giver.  And in the past, [inaudible] [00:24:40] receiving side of it, you know, and asking for what I want.  And there's a whole 'nother discussion there.  But what I can say is if we have value to offer, that is if we know we are a giver, then we owe it to ourselves and to others to become good at receiving too, so that we can give them the experience of giving, which always makes us feel so good.  And if we know we're that way, I'll just suffice it to say that if we know we're a giver, then get good at receiving too.

	Get good at receiving.  Now as far as the actual ask, I don't ask.  What I usually do - in fact, not usually - I always - when I meet somebody, I'm not going to ask them to promote me at all.  

Jaime Tardy:	Yeah, that's sticky.  Yeah.

Kevin Thompson:	Yes, yeah because it just doesn't seem right.  It doesn't feel right.  And they don't even know me.  And so if we have a conversation and I meet somebody and I want to connect with them better, all I'm going to do is I'm going to say - I used to just say, "Hey, why don't we follow up after this event?"  So, if I'm at an event or whatever, if I'm talking on the phone, we'll just do it right there on the spot.  But I'll say, "Why don't we set up a time to talk so I can find out more about you and your business and where you want to go, and find out if I might be able to help you in some way."  And who's going to say no to that?  I mean if you've made some kind of a connection, they are going to be - they're going to respond positively to that.

	So now, once we have that - and I used to, at live events - I go to a fair amount of live events.  I'm in Mastermind groups and stuff, and I've made it really easy now because I don't say, "Hey, let's follow up later," and set up a time to talk.  If somebody meets the criteria where I want to have a conversation with them, I just tell them, "Hey, you know what?  Go to my calendar.  Go to ktcalendar.com right now, when you get a chance.  Set up a time that works best for you, and I will talk with again and we will have this follow-up conversation."  And so I just - and I do this at Joe's 25K group all the time, especially on the first day.

	And then I'll tell people to do that, and by the next morning, I'll ask them, "Hey, did you set up a time for us to talk yet?"  Oh no, no.  Let me do that.  You know?  And so it gets them to take action now rather than put it off until later.

Jaime Tardy:	I love that you have a URL too for your calendar.

Kevin Thompson:	Yeah, you've got to make it easy.  I mean I've got just a time trade calendar, but who wants to - you know, I just got a domain name that I forward right to it, so it's easy for them to go to.  

Jaime Tardy:	That sucked.

Kevin Thompson:	So once we have - now we've got this conversation.  Okay now this is how we figure stuff out.  And I've got to level with you, this didn't come from my brain.  This comes courtesy of my friend and one of my mentors, Dan Sullivan, who owns a company called Strategic Coach, which I'm involved in Dan's group too.

Jaime Tardy:	Nice.

Kevin Thompson:	And he taught me this process, and it is just absolutely brilliant.  So I'll give you a couple questions - and there's a specific outline for this.  And so when you are now having this follow-up call with somebody, and getting to know them, the first question that I'm going to ask that person is, if we were meeting here three years from today - I mean that's a time qualifier.  I like to use three years.  You can use whatever time qualifier you want, but three years is a good one.  If we were meeting here three years from today, what would have had to happen in your life both personally and professionally in order for you to be really happy with your results?

	And Dan calls that - you know, that's part of his DOS conversation.  And that question gets people thinking about - I mean when they start telling you - I mean that gets them talking about their dreams, their aspirations, their goals, where they're wanting to go - they get so excited talking with you about that - and we'll tell you too, when you're having this conversation, if I'm doing it in person, I'm going to have my iPad with me because I'm going to be taking notes.  And if I'm doing it over the phone, I've got a document open on my computer and I'm letting them know, hey, if you hear me plunking away on the keyboard, it's because I'm taking notes on what we discussed right now.

	And I'm also, if you don't mind, I'm going to record this conversation as well, just for my own use, just in case I want to go back and listen to it later.  And when you - just by saying that, or just by doing that or them seeing you doing that, taking notes on what they're telling you, what kind of impact do you think that's going to have on that relationship and on that conversation?

Jaime Tardy:	Yeah, you actually care enough.  Instead of - especially - I'm glad you say that because I've had people typing on their laptop while we're doing Skype calls, and I'm like, "So you are doing something else and not listening to me."  But if you say, "Hey, I'm actually taking notes on this," I'd be like, "Oh, okay.  Well then."  Like, you actually care.

Kevin Thompson:	That's right, that's right.  And you're placing importance on the conversation.  So that's the first question.  Okay?  And like I said, they're going to get all animated and they're going to tell you of so much stuff, you know, and they're going to get all excited.  And then - and I might ask some clarifying questions so I can get more details, especially if they start telling me about their family, and if they start talking about their children, well, I want to know the names of their children.  I want to - I mean this is for as much my benefit because I want to get to know who this person is.

	Because the more I get to know them and who they are and what they're all about and kind of a little bit about their background, the better I have an opportunity to be able to figure out how I can help them.  And even if it's not them promoting me, I mean no matter what, I'm going to leave them in a better spot than they were before they met me.  I'm going to add value to their life somehow or another.  And the more I find out, the more prepared I am to be able to do that.  So that's the first question.  Then the second question we're going to ask them is like, "Fantastic.  You just got through telling me about all these incredible things that you want to do and where you want to go in your life and your business.

	Let me ask you, what's prevented you form making all this a reality already?"  And so now they're going to start telling you about what they perceive as their roadblocks, the things standing in their way, the very real things that they believe are preventing them from getting to where they want to go.  And when they start talking about this stuff, this is the feedback that's letting you know, okay, this is where - you start looking at how I can help this person based on what they're telling me right now.  But don't make the mistake of now getting inside your own head and now like, oh, I want to tell them this.  I want to tell them this.  I want - no.  Don't do that.

	You save that for later.  Okay?  Stay in listening mode.  Stay in listening mode, and if you will follow this process, I guarantee you you're going to have so much - I mean you're going to have incredible results because you do stay in that listening mode rather than trying to like, oh, well I can do this - don't do that.  Bite your tongue.  Hold off.  Just stay in listening mode and you will have your opportunity to tell them all that kind of cool stuff later.  Okay?  And so that's the second question.  Then the third question that you're going to ask them, now that they've told you about the things that are standing in their way and preventing them from getting where they want to go, now you get to ask the question is, "What would it be like, Jaime, if none of that was even an issue?

	What if you didn't have to worry about none of that?"  And now they're going to get all animated again.  "Oh my gosh.  That would be so awesome.  I could do this and this."  And now they start talking about even more than they were originally.  Because now there's nothing standing in their way, and they're going to talk about all the stuff they talked about before, but even more than that because, "Oh, what I really want to do is this.  What I really want to do is this.  Man, I could do this if I didn't have to worry about any of that."  And see, so now you've got all this incredible feedback.  And what I like to do is I mean because I might plan to spend 30 minutes to an hour having this conversation with somebody, and then what I'll just say is, "You know what Jaime?

	It's been so great talking with you and getting to know you.  What I'd like to do, if you don't mind, is I'd like to just take this in a little bit.  I'm going to probably go back and review my notes.  I'm going to go back and listen to this recording and take some more notes.  And what I'd like to do, if you don't mind, is just - can we schedule another time to talk, maybe a week from now or what have you?  And what I'd like to do at that point in time is I'm just going to give this some thought, and I'm going to see if there's just any way I can help you achieve some of the stuff that we've been talking about here."  And who's going to say no to that?  Nobody says no to that.  

	"No, I don't want to do that, Kevin," after they just had this engaging conversation, they're going to want to do that.  And so now what happens is, even if you're brand new to this, it doesn't matter.  You're going to have an incredible experience.  Now you've got a week of leeway, seven, ten days of leeway.  You've already got the next appointment scheduled to talk.  They're going to be looking forward to it.  You're going to be looking forward to it.  Now you've got this week to start talking with people, thinking this over and talking with people and figuring out how - you know, I'll even talk with other people and go, "Man, I had this incredible conversation with so and so.  Here's some of the things we talked about.

	And I've got this call coming up with him.  How do you see that I can best help them and stuff?"  You know?  And if that involved promoting me, then by all means, I'm going to suggest that.  I mean I'll give you a perfect example.  I'm not going to name names because a lot of people know these people.  But last year, I had this very conversation with someone.  They were in the middle of a big launch, preparing for a big launch that was coming up in about two months.  So they were investing a lot of time and effort and manpower and all that in this big launch.  Very busy, as you can imagine.  But I had this conversation with them, and then we had the follow-up call a week later.

	And after thinking about it, I just was able to say, "You know what?  You told me about this big launch you've got coming up.  And I know, man, you guys are so busy right now and you're investing a lot into it, you know, manpower-wise, financially, all of that.  Let me ask you something.  If there were a way for you to bring in a good amount of revenue right now, and it took hardly any amount of time on your part at all, and it could be done quickly within say a week or two, would that be something that you would find beneficial?"  And they were like, "Oh my gosh, Kev, that would be fantastic right now."  And see, if I would have gone with my handout, hey, can you help me?  Can you promote my thing?  No.  I mean they're busy.  They ain't got time for me.

	They don't care about me.  But because it was in the right context, and we were going to give them what they needed, which was an increase in revenue at a time when they wanted to be able to have that expendable revenue to use for this thing they had upcoming, they were all on board and wanted to do it.  And we had great results with that project because this wasn't about me talking them into it.  This was about us together now, it was a mutually beneficial thing.  They were going to get something that they wanted.  I'm going to get something that I wanted.  And I found that out because of having that conversation with them.

Jaime Tardy:	That's perfect.

Kevin Thompson:	And see, I just repeat that process over and over and over in my life.  And of course, you know, once you've done that, and now you've got a friendship and now you've got somebody, you've got a relationship with, now it's just a matter of maintaining those relationships, which I guess - I'm going to give you the example of Steve Simms - not hard.  You know?  Really easy to do that and I will tell you that relationship capital is so much more valuable than any financial capital that we could ever have.  You know?  And I was having a conversation with Joe Polish not too long ago.  

	I mean Joe - you know, I mean you said - I count myself so fortunate to have met him way back just because I owned a carpet cleaning business, because today, him and I are like the best of friends.  I mean we talk - I've got dirt on Joe.  I've got big dirt on Joe.

Jaime Tardy:	That means you're really good friends.  That's awesome.

Kevin Thompson:	But I mean I am so blessed to have that guy in my life, you know?  And I mean when you've got people - and the things is, I've got lots of people like that in my life.  And for me to think that I've got a business that facilitates me getting to have so many incredible relationships in my life, it just doesn't get any better.  And the relationship capital is what leads to the financial capital.

Jaime Tardy:	I love you saying that stuff.  Because I mean that's what - I grew up in the middle of nowhere in Maine, and my audience knows this, and I had no friends, nobody in this industry.  And it's amazing to sort of see how giving and caring and amazing these people are that we've been able to meet.  It's just elevated not only my business life, but my personal life.  Like tons of them are just really, really close friends.  But going back to what you were saying about this before because for you, I know my audience is saying this in their head, right?  So they're going, well this makes sense for you, Kevin because you have the numbers to back it up.

	So if you go after somebody, you're like, I know that I'm going to be able to deliver you this much revenue or whatever it is because it's proven and you know your numbers and that sort of thing.  If we give you this audience, we should be able to get about this result kind of a thing.

Kevin Thompson:	Yup, yup.

Jaime Tardy:	A lot of people, especially newer people, don't have that at all.  So what -

Kevin Thompson:	You bet.

Jaime Tardy:	- can they do?  Because it's almost a confidence thing, right, where you can have these conversations with people, but still saying, "Hey, I can't say that I'm going to give you a whole bunch of revenue because we don't know what the numbers are going to be."

Kevin Thompson:	Yup, absolutely.  You are absolutely right.  So in that kind of - and quite honestly, so I gave you that one example, okay.  I have so many of these conversations that it does not lead to them promoting my product at all.  It just doesn't because it's just not a right fit.  And so, but in those other conversations, what I'm looking at is, okay, based on what they've told me, who do I know that can help them?  Or who do I know ? you know, whatever that is.  And even if I don't know somebody at the time, I don't care because I'm just going to start talking with people and finding out who knows who, and I'm just going to get actively engaged in that process.

Jaime Tardy:	Mm-hm.  You're an advocate for them, solving their problem, even if it doesn't have to do with you.  That's awesome.

Kevin Thompson:	Absolutely.  And a lot of times too maybe there's something that they want to do, that - I mean because I don't want to place barriers on this because all kinds of things can come from this.  I mean I've created product together with people before.  I've done like live events or virtual events, tele-seminars, webinars, what have you, that we turned into product.  And I brought my expertise to it and they brought their expertise, and it was a co-creation kind of a thing.  And they couldn't have done it without me, and so we shared in the revenue that got created.  I mean there's so many things that can come from this.  I mean I have made introductions.  I mean you know, what I've really - so I'll give you an example of this.  

	Several years ago, my friend Brian, Brian Kirch is his name -

Jaime Tardy:	I was just hanging out with him last weekend.  He's a good friend too.  I love him.

Kevin Thompson:	Brian is an awesome guy.  I've known Brian for years.  I met him through Joe Polish too.  And he used to work at Boardroom Reports.  He used to be in a key position at Boardroom Reports.  He had been there for years.  And those guys are a huge, huge direct mail company.  I mean they mail millions of piece of direct mail.  But they don't - at the time; they didn't know the first thing about the Internet.  I mean they're like - they're completely ignorant.  I mean they just don't know.  And so Brian was talking to me and telling me, you know, "We want to do some stuff online, but we just don't even know what the heck we're doing."  And he's like, "We want to do some stuff with Google Ad Words."

	And I'm like, "Well, do you know Perry Marshall?" and he's like, "Well I know of Perry, but I don't know him personally."  I was like, "Well I'm good friends with Perry."  I said, "What I'll do, I'll introduce you guys because Perry and his team," I was like, "They are experts at Google Ad Words."  And so that was the immediately seen thing that came of that.  I was like, "Okay, here's what Brian needs, and here's Perry who is the guy to deliver that."  And so I introduced those guys under that pretense.  But they got to talking among themselves, and they found out some other things about each other, and then they got - what they opened was this unseen thing that neither one of them could have possibly saw, that both of them would have walked right past, had they not been having a conversation like I show people how to do.  

	And as a result of their conversation, Brian and Perry went on to do an event together.  And actually I knew I was doing this interview today, and I thought I might end up talking about this.  I didn't even know how much revenue they did together, so I actually texted Perry this morning, and I was like, "Hey, that first event you did with Brian," I was like, "How much revenue did you guys create?"  And he texted me back and he was like, "Safe figure, Kevin, 200,000."

Jaime Tardy:	Wow.

Kevin Thompson:	And I - honestly, I knew they did that event.  But I didn't even know how much revenue they created from it.  And so to find that out today was really cool because it's several years later now.  You know?  And all because of an introduction that I just made for those two guys.  And -

Jaime Tardy:	That's so amazing.  And they love you because - like you didn't get anything from it, but they adore you - not that they didn't before, but you know what I mean?

Kevin Thompson:	Sure.  Sure.  And so, and what I can tell you, you know, I have never ever - I figured this out now, but I've even had a conversation with Perry Marshall about this.  I was like, you know, he's like, "Gosh, I've gotten really good at connecting people."  And you know, quite honestly, Jaime, anybody can do this.  This is not - I mean if you just start having these conversations with people, you're going to get their respect.  They're going to like you; they're going to want to hear more from you.  And the more people you do this with, the more people you're going to connect, and you're going to build your network.  This is how you build a network.  This is how you have fun doing it.  And as far as getting compensated from it, I've never had - because me and Perry were talking about it.

	And I was like, "You know," I was like, "Perry, it doesn't seem right to introduce two people and then say, 'Oh, and by the way, here's a contract you guys need to sign.  Because if you do something together, I want a cut.'  You know?"  So I've never ever done that.  I've never wanted to be a business or a joint venture, a partner broker or anything like that.  I do get some really nice checks in the mail though because people do send me checks because they go on to do great things and they're just appreciative.  And they're like, "Kevin, this wouldn't have happened without you, and so here's a token of my appreciation.  Thank you very much.  And if you know anybody else you want to introduce me to, I'm wide open to that too."

Jaime Tardy:	Heck yeah.  

Kevin Thompson:	And so it does happen.  And now, you know, I have figured a way, out a way to monetize it, which just works for me.  I don't take percentages of revenues or anything like that.  People offer thank yous that way and stuff.  But I just like being this connector.  And because I'm able to - the big thing, like I said, is giving them the spyglasses, those X-ray spyglasses, so to speak, so that they can uncover those unseen things.  Because that's where the big opportunity is, and that's where the exponential growth comes from.  That's where the breakthroughs come from.  And quite honestly, like I said, anybody can do this, but it's about getting out of your own head, getting out of like what I want.  I want people to promote me. 

	I want people to promote my thing.  Because nobody responds to that.  Nobody responds to that.  Nobody -

Jaime Tardy:	Yeah, and then everyone goes like this.  "Okay, people.  I'm not going to hang out with you as much anymore."  Yeah.

Kevin Thompson:	That's right.  But yeah, you do it this way, you'll have people loving to have conversations with you.  And they'll be looking forward to it, and they'll want to have more conversations with you.  And then you start becoming a connector for people like this, and then a good number of those people are going to be wanting to help you too.  And so even if that person is not a right fit to promote me or what have you, I'll just simply ask him, "You know what?"  So I've made an introduction or helped him in some way, and I'll just say, "Hey, you know what?  

	Based on the conversations we've had," and I let them know a little bit about me and what I do, you know, "Do you know anybody that I should be having a conversation with that might be a right fit for me to talk with?"  And so now they're introducing - "Oh, I do know this guy.  Yeah, yeah, you should be talking to so and so.  Let me make that introduction for you."  And now, when they make that introduction, I mean do you think they're doing it because they have to and so they're going to begrudgingly do it?  No, they're doing it and they're like, "Oh my gosh, hey Joe.  You've got to meet Kevin.  Let me tell you about Kevin.  Let me tell you why you want to talk with Kevin.

	And man, you guys are going to have an awesome conversation.  Take it from here."  And so now that door gets opened and I get to have that conversation.  And in the process of all this, yes, we find people who are like, "Yeah, Kev, this makes sense.  I want to do this.  I want to promote your thing to my audience."

Jaime Tardy:	Yeah.  See this is perfect - it's so funny because I mean I just finished another millionaire interview with an amazing person, and he was like, "Can I do anything for you?  Can I help you?"  I'm like, "Well, I can help you and I can introduce you to so and so and I can do this.  No, you don't need to help" - and part of me is going, I need to just ask for something because they're all being nice, and you know.  And I'm like - super high level people that ask me constantly, "What can I do for you?"  And I'm like, "No, no, I'm good.  Let me do this for you first."  

Kevin Thompson:	Uh-huh.

Jaime Tardy:	Yeah.  So I need [inaudible] [00:46:39] from you.

Kevin Thompson:	So Jaime, I used to be - I briefly mentioned Shawn Stevenson.  I met Shawn Stevenson in '09.  He was at a seminar, actually one of Joe Polish's carpet cleaning seminars.  And there was 500-plus people in the room, and I'm in the back of the room.  And he shared for about an hour, and when he was done, I don't think there was a dry eye in the house.  

Jaime Tardy:	He's an amazing speaker.

Kevin Thompson:	And I was like, "Man, I want to meet this guy.  I want to meet him."  And it just turned out that that evening, I had a mutual friend of ours ended up introducing us.  We'd go out to dinner with me and Shawn and his dad, Greg.  And I get to know those guys really well.  And then I was doing an event at my home here in November of that year, so I invited Shawn up, and him and his dad came up to my home for this event that I was hosting.  And at that two-day event, I mean I just shared a lot more detail about what we've been talking about, this whole partnering and collaborating thing, and I was sharing how I'd been doing that.

	And at the end of that two days, we had all gone out to dinner, and Shawn was telling me, he was like, "You know, Kev, I've got to tell you.  When me and dad got up here the other day and we flew in to Seattle, and it is pouring down rain up here, and we had to drive what was supposed to be an hour to get up to your place from the airport, that it turned into two hours because of the weather and the traffic," he said, "I'm asking dad, 'Okay, dad, remind me who the heck this Kevin Thompson guy is.  I mean why are we going to his house?'"  He said, "But now, after two days, Kevin," he said, "I've got to tell you," he said, "You have just - you have rocked my world.

	And you have shared so much of yourself.  And what I want to know now is what can I do for you?"  And just like, you, Jaime, that's how I would always respond.  "Oh, I'm good.  I'm good."  I just loved giving.  I just loved giving.  And Shawn, he really laid into me.  He's like, "Kevin," he's like, "You know what?  When you provide so much value to somebody, and now they ask you what they can do for you, your answer is not, 'No, I'm good.'  That is the wrong answer."  He's like, "You need to let me give.  And I don't care if you don't have a good answer now, that's fine.  But for crying out loud, then you just say, 'You know what, Shawn?  I don't have a good answer to that question right now, but when I do, I'll let you know.  Is that okay?'  That's your answer."

	And he's like, "Don't deprive somebody of being able to give to you.  And that was just one - I mean I didn't immediately get it.  It took a couple more experiences, one with Joe Polish.  Another gentleman by the name of Jesse Elder had to have a good conversation -

Jaime Tardy:	Jesse's a good friend of mine too.  He's here in Austin.

Kevin Thompson:	Is he?

Jaime Tardy:	Yeah.

Kevin Thompson:	Okay, yeah, yeah.

Jaime Tardy:	I was just at his house the other day.

Kevin Thompson:	I'm actually doing an event with Jesse later this afternoon.

Jaime Tardy:	Are you really?

Kevin Thompson:	Yeah, yeah.

Jaime Tardy:	That's so awesome.

Kevin Thompson:	I've had to have some good conversations with these people to let it finally sink in and be able to receive too, you know, and just let people do for me.  And when we can do that - because Jaime - I mean I've never even spoken with you before today, but I mean you are just such a sweetheart, and of course, yeah, I want to do something for you too.  I want to do something too.  You know?

Jaime Tardy:	Crap, and I have to say yes.  I don't know - at least I have a language to say to you, right?

Kevin Thompson:	There you go.

Jaime Tardy:	This has been so helpful.  I know we have to start wrapping up soon, but oh my gosh, this is so ridiculously helpful, not only for me personally, but also for everybody else that's listening.  I always ask the same last question, and it's what's one action listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of a million?

Kevin Thompson:	Okay.  So I kind of spilled the beans earlier with giving the exercise on appreciation.  Because that's the big thing right there.  And I really - I want to challenge you to do that.  Don't just say, "Oh yeah, yeah, I'll get around to that."  No, I want you to do that.  I want you to do that today.  And you start sending out some text messages, you start showing some people in your life some genuine appreciation.  Just let them know one thing.  I mean I don't even care if you don't even like the person that much.  There's something that you appreciate about them.  And if you need to, start with people who you just really do like a lot, and just show some appreciation.

	Send out some love, and you watch what happens.  Don't ask for a response.  Don't say, "Hey, get back to me.  I look forward to hearing" - none of that.  Just send out some love.  Show some appreciation, and you watch what happens.  I mean I'll give you an example.  There's this gal in my life who I just really love.  I don't talk with her hardly at all.  And not too long ago, I sent her a text and just wanted to let her know.  And just, you know what?  I just want to let you know how much I appreciate you.  You are such a sweetheart, and you are such a giving and caring and generous person, and I just wanted to let you know that I want to acknowledge you for that.

	And she didn't get back to me for three days.  But her response was, "Aw, you made me cry."  And that was so powerful.  And you know, to be able to have that kind of an impact on people by just doing something - you know, this is a thing called - my friend Jesse, he calls it active appreciation.  That's what he calls it.  And you know, I've been doing this in my life for a long time, but until I met Jesse, I didn't have a term for it.  But active appreciation.  And see, when you - see because there's so many things in life that we can't control, but this is something that we totally can control.  And the more we show active appreciation towards people, and we make this a regular part of our lives, the more we get coming back.

	The more we get people just want to do for us.  So you do that.  Do it today.  Do it with 10 or 15 people.  You watch what happens because like I said, when you do this and have this experience, you're going to be like, "My gosh, Kevin was right.  He was right about this."

Jaime Tardy:	I'm so glad you brought that up because you know, when people listen to podcasts, they heard it before, they're going to be like, "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, the podcast is going to finish and then I'm going to forget all about it."  So everybody right now, if you're in the car, you can make a note to Siri or whatever, that you can do it when you're out of the car because don't text and drive - or if you're at the gym or something like that - but make sure you do it today.  Because if you don't actually take action on it today, you're going to forget about it.  So please do what he says.  I highly recommend it.  He knows what he's talking about.  Listen.

	Okay, so where can we find out more about you and everything you're doing?  You're awesome.

Kevin Thompson:	Well, I'll tell you what.  So depending on where you're at in your business right now, if you are kind of in the start-up phase or what have you, or you're wanting to get something going, I've got a website at partnershipplaybook.com.  Right now there's a case study there that you'll get access to.  We're updating that website as we go along.  But if you're - so go there.  Get on my list.  I'll be - I'd be more than happy to communicate with you.  And if you want to tell me about your experience with doing this exercise, that would be a great way to reach out to me.  Because if you want to tell me about that, I guarantee you, you're going to get a response from me.  I don't care who you are.

	If you reach out to me and tell me, "I did it and here's my experience that I had, Kevin," I will respond to that.  And if you're already in a spot where say you do - I don't know - Jaime, do any of your members - are they already - like do they have million dollar business experience, some of them already?

Jaime Tardy:	Some of them do, yeah.

Kevin Thompson:	Okay, okay.  So if you're in that spot, and what I've shared with you is - all right, if you've already got a million dollar business - I don't care if it's in your current thing right now - maybe you're in transition.  Maybe - I mean I've got some people I talk with that they've got million dollar business experience plus over here, but they've got a new thing going over here that they're just getting started and barely made anything with.  And that's totally fine.  

	But if you've got million dollar business experience under your belt, if you are one of these people who is giving, if you are willing to have an open candid conversation like we've been talking about here, about your business, about where you're wanting to go, about what you feel is stopping you, all of that kind of stuff, I'd love to have a conversation with you and find out is there a way that I can help you?  And so we can fast track that.  All you've got to do is go to my calendar, ktcalendar.com, set up a time that works for you, and we'll have a conversation.

Jaime Tardy:	It's so funny that I've memorized your calendar.  I was like, go to ktcalendar in my head.  Like I remember what that is.  So only people that qualify for that though because I know -

Kevin Thompson:	That's right.

Jaime Tardy:	Yeah, make sure that we are clear on that because we only have so much time.

Kevin Thompson:	Absolutely.  Yeah, please don't waste my time or yours because if you don't have that already in place, it just doesn't make any sense for us to have that kind of a conversation.  I can give you help through the website at partnershipplaybook.

Jaime Tardy:	Definitely.  Thank you so much.

Kevin Thompson:	And we'll get you to that place.

Jaime Tardy:	Exactly.  Do what he says first with the appreciation thing, and then tell him, and then we can go from there.  Awesome.  Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Kevin.  I really, really appreciate it.

Kevin Thompson:	My pleasure, Jaime.

[End of Audio]

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Tags: Business Growth, business network, Business Partnership, financial capital, ideal partnership, Kevin Thompson, millionaire interview, network, networking, relationship capital

Categories: All, Business, Business Model, Entrepreneurship, Goals, Millionaire Interviews

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