Natalie: Today on the show I'm speaking with Kevin Thompson and he shares his inspiring story from nearly dying on one of those deadliest fishing boats, to inspiring people to get their message after the internet. So, stay tuned.

Natalie: Hi! I'm Natalie Ledwell and this is The Inspiration Show. And today my special guest is Kevin Thompson. How are you, Kevin?

Kevin: Very good, Natalie. How are you?

Natalie: Fabulous! Fabulous! Now, you have a really awesome story that I just needed to share with our community. So, why don't we start with your story first and your background, leading you up to where you are now?

Kevin: Okay! Great! Great! Well! Tell you what Natalie, when I was a little boy, my dad, he passed away when I was only in 10th grade. But when I was a little boy, my dad always raised me with this great work ethic if you will. And one of the things I remember him always telling me is, "You know Kevin, the harder you work, the more successful in life that you're gonna be." And of course I get that because that was his experience, you know. And growing up, he really instill this really good work ethic in me that you know, like I never want to be the guy on any job or do anything, and of course when I was a little kid I worked on the farms on my little agrarian. I never want to be the guy who did pull his own weight, you know. I always want to be a guy that, like all the other guys respect and they crank in, "You're a hard worker, you know." I always want to be that guy, make me feel good.

Natalie: Yeah!

Kevin: And then, out of high school, I graduated in 1983. And I didn't really know what I was gonna do. My dad passed away. I knew that now that my mom was the sole income earner for our family, the plans that I had to go to college, not gonna happen. She just couldn't afford that. So, I end up joining the army, not really knowing what else to do. So, I spent 4 years in the army, came back home to Seattle after that experienced and I was like trying to figure out, but one thing I did know I want to be an entrepreneur. And I was talking with my buddy Scott at the time because I thought, I said, "I need to get money to be able to start my own business." And we're having this conversation. He said, "Kev, if you wanna make a bunch of money, all you need to do is go up and get a job on the fishing boats." Of course we live in Seattle and so, fisherman's terminal is right downtown Seattle. And he said, "Go, down there, talk to the guys on the boat. Get yourself a job. Those guys up in Alaska they make tons of money, you know." And I'm like, "I'm young, I'm naive, I've got this great work ethic that my dad instilled in me." I'm like, "Sounds like a good idea."

Natalie: Perfect combination.

Kevin: So, I go down to Seattle, the fisherman's terminal and I land myself a job on the fishing boat. And I actually spent the next seven years of my life and if you've ever seen that movie, The Perfect Storm?

Natalie: Yes.

Kevin: So, okay! That movie or that show on Discovery Channel called The Deadliest Catch, that's what I used to do. And in fact some of those guys on that television show, they're actually friends' of mine. I've known them for years because they live by me. And if you can picture that, that is just insane work. I mean the conditions, the weather, the hours. We were working anywhere for 24 to 36 hours straight, sleep for 6 hours, get up and do it again. And we would do that for 2 weeks at a time. And yeah, it was pretty good money. In fact as a young kid, at 22 years old, I mean that was more money than I've ever made in my life, you know. I was probably making about a hundred and twenty thousand a year take home. And I'm like, "That's pretty good money for a young boy, you know."

Natalie: It is.

Kevin: But like I said it was grueling work. And after a few years, after seven years of that, it really took its toll on me. And I was really starting to wonder, you know, "Man, is my dad right?" Because, man, yeah, I work hard and I'm you know making a good income and stuff. But I was also, you know on that boat for three to four to five months of the time. I missed out on a lot because you know I am out at sea working, making living while my family is home and I'm not there. I'm not there to enjoy a lot of that time with them because I'm providing and stuff.

Natalie: Right.

Kevin: And in my last year of fishing, it was 1995. That particular year in Alaska had just been brutal. The weather had been brutal. Several boats had gone down that year. I lost a couple of my good friends at fishing accidents that year. And on this particular night, we were in one heck of a storm and quite honestly, when you're in weather like that, the only thing I can even do was just concentrate on my job which is to get the catch onto the boat. I would never ever look out on the horizon; at the big picture because I didn't wanna see what that was part.

Natalie: Yeah! Right!

Kevin: My job, Skipper up in the wheel house, he watch the big picture and he let us know if we're in any real danger. And I'm working the way down there and all of a sudden I hear over the intercom system, I hear Skipper's thundering voice and he's like, "Kevin, dock!" And I got to tell you Natalie, before I could even react, we got hit broadside with this huge wallowa that picked me up like I was nothing, like I was a toothpick and just threw me all the way across that boat. And I'll tell you, I didn't know what was going on and I was just engulfed by this water. I hit the railing on the other side of my face. In fact, I don't know if you can see but there's a scar here, that's from that accident. My teeth or actually my front teeth are filled in to this day because they broke in that accident too. And I was pretty messed up but I'll tell you, all I could even think at that moment was, "Thank God, that I was still on this boat." Because if I would have been tossed over that railing in that storm, that would have been it. There's no evidence Skipper could have got the boat turned in time to save me, they wouldn't have found me. I would have been done. And I tell you, in that moment, that's when I realized that, "You know what; I'm just not willing to do this anymore. You know I'm not willing to put my life on the line for a paycheck."

Natalie: Yup!

Kevin: And I finished up my contract with the company. I didn't wanna live paying it. But once that contract was over, I quit fishing and I never return to Alaska's fishermen again. I took the money that I'd saved. I started my very first business which was a carpet cleaning business of all things. And I did not know the first thing about business. I open the doors on that business in '96 which was thinking to myself, "If I could just make a bunch of money in this business then everything else would just kinda take care of itself." And of course, you and I now know, you know that making money doesn't solve all of our life's problems. In fact it could give us more if we're not you know, very clear about what are our intentions are. But I got help with that business; I did get help after losing a lot of money. In fact, pretty much going through all the money I've saved in the last dive. I blew through it before I ever figure out how to make a profit because I was trying to do it all on my own with no help.

Natalie: Yeah!

Kevin: And I finally got some expert help through a gentleman name Joe Polish to help me turn that business around and even when I turned it around and I got to the top of the industry in that business, I was in the top 1% of that industry thanks to Joe. But even at then, I'm looking at this business that I've created and "Yeah! Once again I'm making a great income." But I'm like, "At what cost?" Because I'm working on Sundays in 1999, I'm sitting in my home office, paying bills, going over the inner math books again on a weekend when I should have been spending time with my family. And I'm like, "This is totally ridiculous. This is not what I want for my life." And for the first time ever, I took out a piece of paper and I started to write down, "What do you want?" I mean I've never really given that much thought. I just wanna make a bunch of money.

Natalie: Yeah!

Kevin: And for the first time I started to write, really formulate what do you want from your life. And so, some of the things on that list, I still got that list to this day. I wrote down that, "I did not wanna work on weekends anymore. I no longer wanna work more than 40 hours a week in my business. In fact, if I could do it in less, that would be great. I wanna use my business to make a difference in other people's lives." And I really, I didn't see carpet cleaning, "Yeah! I mean, I did some school stuff for I mean people get happy when their carpets get clean." But you know what, that wasn't the difference that I wanted to make in people's lives you know. And also I wanna hang out with inspiring, awesome people. And the other thing that I remember on my list, "I wanna live a life of a millionaire." I mean, "Heck! While we're at it; let's just say what we really wanna do."

Natalie: Yeah! I saw some big things out there while we're making a list, you know why not?

Kevin: Right. And so, in quite honesty when I made that list Natalie, I had no idea how I was gonna make that happen. I have no idea. But I will tell you one thing that I felt really good at, because the first time in my life, I was crystal clear on what I wanted. At least now that I knew what I really wanted, that was the starting point and I was really happy with that.

Natalie: Yeah.

Kevin: And it didn't take long, in fact, it was later that year in 1999, I actually attended Dan Kennedy seminar, right around that right now back in Phoenix, Arizona and I still remember it was at the Embassy Suites at Camelback Drive, and I was at that event. And at that event I met two people, I met this guy by the name Ionic Silver and I met another guy by the name of Perry Marshall. And those two guys in 1999, I just connect with those two guys, they were these two just down to earth guys that kind of start having these conversations with me and I was like, "Wow! Look at these guys!" These guys are using the internet and using technology to build a leverage their effort and do some really awesome stuff. And I'm like, "You know what, maybe there's something here for me." And so, I started learning some stuffs from these guys and what I did was I took what I knew from the carpet cleaning business and I started my very first website, still in place until this day. It's a little website called getmoldsolutions.com and all it was was a website who helped people who had a mold problem in their home. I mean not a very exciting topic but topic unless you've had a mold problem; you're all about what I had on.

Natalie: Yeah!

Kevin: And long story short, I got that website to where I was producing about $12,000 a month and people start asking me, "How are you doing that?" And so, I started teaching people. And in 2004, I actually ended up selling my carpet cleaning business. I found that I enjoyed working with people and teaching people so much that I wanna move in to that full time. And what started with a simple, "You know here's how I'm doing what I'm doing online with this little mold website has now grown. Here it is. Where are we at now?" 10 years later it's now grown, into this whole thing. Here's how you structure of this knot knot. You know you can use technology to leverage your efforts, to get your message out there in a really big way. But what I really focus on is not working with people who like, "Kev, I just want a business like yours that puts money into my bank account. I don't really even care what I do. I just want money coming into my bank account." And quite honestly, that's not even my message at all and that's not the kind of person I wanna work with. What I wanna do is I wanna work with the person who like, "You know what Kevin, I were you back in 1999. I've got this stuff that I wanna do but I just don't know how to do it. But man, if I can do this and if I could affect people's lives in this way, if I can make a change by doing what I do and do it in a way that only I can do it and if you could show me the infrastructure of how to do that, man, that would be awesome!" And see, that's what we've got to now at this point in life.

Natalie: I know. See, that's not the reason I have you on the show because your story and our story is very similar. You know we worked but we didn't have anything dangerous although we did have a nightclub at one stage which was Borderline. But you know we tried so many different types of businesses and just sort of slogging along, slogging along and it wasn't until we sort of came across the internet when, "Wooah! Okay!" It's like we've been living with our head in the sand. And the thing is if you are someone that has a message and here's what I'm finding. I'm finding equal amounts of people at the moment that have a message and that need a message. And so, and for me, you know actually I was just at a seminar for the last few days. I'm talking specifically about this, how we're in this perfect storm at the moment. So, if you have a message to get after, the internet is definitely the most effective way to you know not just inspiring people locally, your inspiring people worldwide. And you know what, and now it's like we're all focusing on, "What is our contribution?" And now we talk, last year like about December 21st, how there's sort of an awakening happening around the world at the moment. And I think a lot of us are unconsciously saying, "Yes, I have this message I wanna share." And then other people are waking up and going, "I know there's something else and I'm looking for that." And what you do actually helps people to marries those two people up, marries those two communities up. And you do it in a way that really is coming from n intention of love and contribution which is fantastic. And you know so many other things like you know having your intention when you talked about that list that you renovate your business, a very similar list that Glenn and I wrote. We got introduced to a network marketing business and we're, "Wow! This is awesome!" And write out a very similar list of affirmations and things that we wanted but then, we didn't know it but mind movies ended up being the vehicle that got us there and the internet is such a game changer, and the work that you do and the people that you work with. And that's the other thing too, if you have a message and you need to get it out, you need to have that structure, know how to do the online stuff, being in an environment when you're in a group of people that actually can help you and support you when maybe no one else in your life can, that's in itself priceless. You know you can't pay enough money just to have someone to sound some ideas and everything off as well. So, Kevin, the work that you're doing is awesome and I'm so glad that you were able to share your story with us cause I'm sure that there are many people that can actually relate to that as well. So, if we wanna send people somewhere to find out more about you and the work that you do, where can we send them?

Kevin: What you would just do, send them to my website at automaticincomecoach.com/mindmovies.html and they can find out more about what we're doing and how we might be able to help them and find out if what we have to offer is a right fit for them.

Natalie: Great! So, automaticincomecoach.com/mindmovies.

Kevin: That's correct.

Natalie: And if you click on the banner to the side there guys, you'll actually go through to that website from there as well. So, thanks again Kevin. I know that you're travelling at the moment and you're in some hotel room somewhere, so, I really appreciate your time.

Kevin: Absolutely! You are very welcome Natalie. It's a pleasure.

Natalie: Wonderful! Now guys, look I encourage you to share this video and the information in it and you can do that by clicking the Facebook and the Twitter share buttons above. And if you haven't done so already, make sure you put your email on the box above there; I'd love to send you my Manifesting with the Masters Video E-Course. Includes masters like Bob Proctor, John Assaraf and Joe Vitale. It's valued $87 but of course I'd like to send it to you for free but you have to put your email on the box to get that. So, until next time, remember to live large, choose courageously and love without limits. We'll see you soon.