Last Monday night at 10:01pm, my flight arrived at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
I’d taken a short 2-day trip to Los Angeles so I could get together with my good friend Sean Stephenson and his dad Greg (Sean’s the one in the wheelchair above).
I went on this trip for a specific purpose, yet I came home with far more than I ever expected.
While in LA, Sean introduced me to a few of his friends, and let me tell you, he’s got some INCREDIBLE friends.
On Sunday morning, we went to the Santa Monica Farmers Market for some great food.
And that’s where we met up with Sean’s friends.
We spent the better part of the day relaxing in the sun, eating great food and having some incredible conversations.
Talk about an experience.
As I was on my flight home, I couldn’t help but think of a goal that I’d written down several years earlier.
That goal was – to spend quality time with inspirational people on a regular basis.
And today, I’ve FAR exceeded that goal.
Not only do I spend quality time with inspirational people on a regular basis – I get compensated for doing so.
And the interesting thing is, I do it without effort.
If you joined us for the recent Lifestyle-Business Blueprint event, you heard me talk about this.
I’ve designed my entire life this way.
I’ve designed my entire life so that my business and my personal life are integrated.
As a result, my business is a natural extension of the person I am, and the way I see myself interacting with other people.
So let me ask you…
What would it be like if you had the same thing?
What would it be like if you had a business that fit in perfectly, and provided you with the kind of lifestyle that you truly wanted to live?
What if you were the author of your own Lifestyle-Business Blueprint?
Because the fact is – there’s nothing standing in your way – other than the decision to have this kind of life.
Dedicated to your success,
Kevin Thompson “The Automatic Income Coach”
I got an interesting email the other day, and because it brings up such an important point, I had to share it with you.
My comments will follow.
Here’ it is…
Hi Kevin,
I’ve been one of your subscribers for about six months now, and I have to say, you have a very unique way of looking at life and business.
I always enjoy reading your emails and blog posts.
You seem like such a compassionate person, who truly cares about helping other people.
But it seems to me that you make it difficult for people like myself to get in touch with you, and I was wondering why.
Hope to hear back from you soon.
Sincerely,
Beverly
= = =
Hi Beverly,
Thanks for the email, and the compliments.
You’re right, I’m definitely driven to help others, and trust that you’ll find my answer to your question instructive.
I remember being at a seminar years ago when I heard one of the presenters say, “Every time you say yes to one thing, you’re saying no to something else”.
This comment had a profound impact on the way I viewed my business from that point forward.
You see, when most entrepreneurs start their first business, they’re on Cloud 9 – excited about the vision they have for their new business.
But within a short time (usually 6-12 months), they find that their business has become about a whole lot more than just doing that thing that originally had them excited.
At this point, they tend to get pretty disappointed, but will continue to do the work anyways.
Before they realize it, they start adding – and adding – and adding to the list of things they now have to do in order to make their business grow.
They now find themselves working more hours than they never imagined, and the overwhelming majority of their time is spent doing things that they don’t even enjoy.
Long story short – they’re miserable, and they don’t see any way out.
And let me tell you, when you’re a miserable business owner, there ain’t NO hiding it.
You end up sabotaging your own business, because your potential customers can sense that something is wrong, and they shy away from you.
They can’t quite put their finger on what the problem is, but they find themselves being repelled, and in the end, they choose not to do business with you.
To prevent this from happening in my own business, I long ago decided what I would do… and what I would NOT do in my business.
The fact is, I wanted to attract the kind of people who felt like they had a connection with me, and believed that what I had to offer was a right fit for them.
To accomplish this, I knew that I had to focus my effort on doing ONLY the things in my business that I enjoyed most.
That also meant that I’d have to be very deliberate about what I would NOT do.
As my business grew, I wanted to enjoy the process.
I wanted my business to be a natural extension of the person I am.
I wanted my business to perfectly fit in with the kind of lifestyle I wanted to live.
By structuring my business this way, people can see that I’m extremely passionate about what I do, and the impact I’m having in this world.
As a result, (assuming they’re a right fit) they naturally want to be a part of what I have to offer.
They’re naturally attracted to me.
And yes… I’ll admit, running my business like this doesn’t allow me to have personal one-on-one contact with everyone who happens to find out about me.
But thanks to technology, I can get the relationship started.
I can open the lines of communication, just as we’re doing right now.
Then…
Assuming you like what you’ve received so far, I make it easy for you to take our relationship to the next level.
I recently got the controversial letter above, sent to me via email.
I’ve reprinted it here, in its entirety – though I’ve censored it in order to protect the identity of the organization that sent it to me.
So…
Can you see why I’d suggest that this letter was controversial?
It came to me courtesy of an organization that’s supposed to be a consumer watchdog group.
In fact, this organization is well known in the area of protecting consumers from unethical business practices.
In many cases, this organization is the first place a consumer goes when they feel they’ve been wronged in a business transaction.
Yet, as you can see, they actively solicit money from business owners, and offer said business owners memberships in the organization.
Hmmmm.
Makes you think, doesn’t it.
Now, I’m certainly not going to be the one who makes unfounded accusations.
But I sure did think that this would make for some really interesting discussion.
While this particular letter isn’t asking for money, this organization DOES actively solicit business owners, asking them for money, in exchange for membership in the organization.
So, my question is this:
Do you think that an organization that’s funded by business owners can give non-biased information to the public in regard to those business owners?
Can they give non-biased information to the public in regard to the business owners who have chosen not to give them money or be a member of the organization?
What are your thoughts?
Post them below.
Dedicated to your success,
Kevin Thompson “The Automatic Income Coach”
Brock’s been having trouble sleeping at night, so last week we took him to Overlake Hospital for a sleep study.
Being that he’s only 18 months old, I didn’t think he was gonna be too keen on the nurses attaching all these electrodes and other pieces of monitoring equipment to him.
To be honest, I thought it was gonna be one heck of a battle, but Brock proved me wrong.
Sure, he fussed a little bit, but overall, he was a really good sport.
The little guy did extremely well, even though he was totally outside his comfort zone.
As I watched his reaction to the nurses wiring him up for sound, it brought back memories of the many times I’ve been outside my own comfort zone.
At first, it feels kind of awkward.
You feel a little out of place.
You wonder if everything will work out alright.
I can remember one specific time that I was thrust outside of my comfort zone – BIG TIME.
In 2000, my friend Joe brought me up on stage at his seminar, in front of 500 people.
Prior to that, I’d never done any public speaking, so you can imagine how awkward that experience was for me.
But when it was all said and done, it wasn’t that bad.
No one chastised me.
No one belittled me.
No one teased me.
In fact, after I left the stage, many people approached me and thanked me for sharing.
Talk about a pleasant surprise, even if I was so nervous that I couldn’t remember what I’d talked about.
These days, I get outside of my comfort zone all the time.
In fact, I pretty much live outside my comfort zone.
Am I suggesting that you do the same?
Not necessarily.
But here’s a simple exercise for you to try, and I guarantee it will make you feel good.
Next time you’re out and about, at the grocery store, the gas station, a restaurant or wherever, I want you to go out of your way to compliment a complete stranger.
Compliment them on their clothing, their hair, their shoes, whatever.
Just compliment them on something.
Yes, it might get you out of your comfort zone, but it will also make them, and you feel REALLY good.
So go ahead – try it.
And once you’ve had the experience, who knows, you might decide that you want to get out of your comfort zone more often.
Oh, and just in case you we’re wondering…
Turns out that Brock is just a normal little boy who likes to make use of his entire bed at night.
He doesn’t have any sleep disorders at all.
Have fun with this little experiment, and let me know how it goes.
Dedicated to your success,
Kevin Thompson “The Automatic Income Coach”
I ended our discussion by asking a question of you, and challenging you to answer it.
The question…
“Why do I share so many stories and experiences with you”?
After looking at all your responses, you clearly understand why.
When you look at a lot of other people who have online businesses, you’ll immediately notice that the overwhelming majority of their communication is spent trying to sell us stuff.
Now, don’t get me wrong here.
I don’t have anything against selling.
Everyone knows that you’ve got to sell something in order to make income, and if that’s the case, why do I spend so little time trying to sell stuff?
Why in the heck would I concentrate most of my efforts on simply telling stories and sharing experiences, like the one I shared with you yesterday?
And you gotta admit, that was one heck of a story.
How many people do you know like Jeremy, who have been in 24 weddings?
The reason I share so many stories is actually quite simple.
Because you took the time to come to my website, give me your name and email, and ask to hear from me, it means that you obviously thought that I could help you in some way.
But, even at that, when we first started this relationship, you had no idea who I was.
You had no idea if I was for real.
You had no idea if I was qualified to help you.
And that’s because you didn’t know me.
At this point, depending on how long you’ve been with me, all that’s probably changed.
But in the beginning, all of this was true.
So…
The reason I share so many stories and experiences is because I want to give you and I the opportunity to get to know each other.
The way I see it, I have no right to ask you to buy ANYTHING, until you and I have a relationship where you know, like and trust me.
And that being the case, I spend very little time trying to sell stuff.
Instead, I spend the majority of my time building on the relationship that we’ve started.
That being said, I’m going to let you in on another little secret.
Whenever I do tell you about a product or service that I believe you’ll get value from, I ALWAYS get compensated very well.
And rightfully so.
Because we have a relationship, you know I wouldn’t steer you wrong.
When I tell you about a product or service, you know that it must be good, otherwise I wouldn’t waste my time letting you know about it.
You also know that I would never do anything to jeopardize our relationship.
So…
There you have it.
Now you understand why I tell so many stories, and share so many life experiences.
I realize that I’ve been extremely candid here, and some would even say that I was letting the cat out of the box, so to speak.
But hey, that’s how friends treat each other.
Because you own a business too (or aspire to own a business too), I trust that me being this candid will give you some serious insight in how you do things in your business.
Dedicated to your success,
Kevin Thompson “The Automatic Income Coach”
I had to run to my bank yesterday afternoon, and as I’m standing at the counter, waiting for the teller to process my transaction, I notice something that I hadn’t noticed before.
A small sign with 5 unique little factoids about the teller.
On this visit, my teller was Jeremy, and one of his factoids proudly announced, “I’ve been a groomsman in 24 weddings since the year 2004”.
Needless to say, this caught my attention… big time.
I immediately counted on one hand the number of times that I’d been a groomsman in someone’s wedding.
Twice.
And that’s over the period of my entire life.
Twice in 44 years.
This guy’s been a groomsman 24 times in less than 6 years.
No matter how you look at it, that’s a unique accomplishment, and yes, it compelled me to begin a conversation that never would’ve happened, if I hadn’t read his little factoid sign.
My curiosity was piqued and I had to know more.
How did he accomplish such a feat?
How did he get invited to be in so many weddings?
Is he trying to set some kind of world’s record?
And there’s a HUGE lesson here, when it comes to you, and your business.
See if you can spot it before I reveal it.
Back in 2003, I was down in Tampa visiting my friend Chet.
We were heading from Tampa out to Clearwater Beach to stay at his condo for the weekend.
On the drive out, he asks me, “So Kev, what did you used to do before you owned a cleaning and restoration business”?
‘Oh”, I reply, “I used to be an Alaska Fisherman”.
He then went crazy, asking me all kind of questions about fishing in Alaska -what was it like? – was it dangerous? – how many years did I do it? – weren’t you scared for your life? – did you make big bucks?
We then spent the entire hour long drive talking about what it was like to be an Alaska Fisherman.
When we arrive at his condo, Chet says, “I can’t believe that I’ve known you for several years, and you’ve never told me this before.
You need to start sharing this story with people”.
That’s when I began to learn how powerful our life’s stories REALLY are.
And yes, you too have stories to share.
Stories that will make people curious.
Stories that will let people get to know you.
Stories that will create a bond with people.
And just like the teller at my bank, when people hear your story, they’ll be compelled to get to know you better.
If you browse my blog, you’ll see that I do very little selling in my communication with you.
For the most part, all I do is share stories.
Have you figured out why?
If so, post your answer below.
I’ll be back on Monday with the correct answer.
Dedicated to your success,
Kevin Thompson “The Automatic Income Coach”
This video shows the incredible relationship between Brock and his coach.
I first found this video several years back, before my own son Brock was born.
If you were with me then, you might remember me sharing it with you.
But now, at this point in my life, it has a whole new meaning.
Not only because I’m a father to Brock, who’s now 21 month’s old, but because my commitment to those I coach is SO much more than it was just a few short years ago.
These days, as a coach, I’m operating on an entirely different level.
This video illustrates the kind of coach I strive to be.
Dedicated to your success,
Kevin Thompson “The Automatic Income Coach”
