May 12, 2013
Podcast from: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/lifestyle-podcasts/how-to-make-a-living-on-the-internet/
[00:00] About Kevin Thompson
[13:05] The Four Reasons of Getting Into Business
[16:45] Kevin's Behind-The-Scenes Tour
[30:22] End of the Podcast
Ben: Hey folks, it's Ben Greenfield here, and this is honestly a little bit of a weird podcast for me to be recording for you because usually, I talk about stuff, as you know, like fitness and health and wellness and most recently sex and libido, it's kind of interesting because I also get a lot of questions from folks about what it is that I do, how do I put food on the table, pay the bills, that type of thing, and the fact is that a lot of what I do is online, and sometimes it gets hard to explain, how you actually make money online. How do you log in your computer and use the Internet and use the browser to actually do something like replace your day job or supplement your income or something like that. I decided, rather than me trying to explain this to myself, to actually hook you up with one of my friends. His name is Kevin Thompson, and the reason that I want to talk to Kevin is because his story is one that I think is super interesting, specifically in that he worked as an Alaska Deadliest Catch fisherman and had let's just say a pretty bad ass job, but he had some things happen as he was doing that drove him to be where he's at right now, which is basically putting five figures plus into his bank account every single month since he started into this scenario that he's going to explain to you. Let's go ahead and meet Kevin and hear his story. So, Kevin, you're here on the call, right?
Kevin: I am here, can you hear me alright, Ben?
Ben: Awesome, I can hear you just fine, and you're not too far away from me actually. You're over on the other side of Washington State, right?
Kevin: Yup, I am. I'm in the little town of Arlington, Washington, about an hour north of Seattle.
Ben: Nice, so I know that you agree to take all of us on this guided behind-the-scenes tour of this business that you've been using to put more than 10,000 bucks a month into your bank account every month. Since the year, I think it was 2000, for the past, more than a decade you've been doing this. Before we even jump into that, how did you get started in all this, man? How'd you go from being an Alaska Deadliest Catch fisherman to getting paychecks online?
Kevin: [laughs] Well it's kind of interesting is that the whole reason I started fishing up in Alaska in the first place was so that I could save up money to start my own business. That was the goal, and I spent seven years doing that, and actually when I take everybody on the tour of this business, I'll share a little bit more of that story 'cause it is a pretty crazy story, but long story short, I started that job in 1988, and my last year in Alaska was 2005, and that final year, I almost lost my life. I was very fortunate that I did not die, and like I said, I'll tell the whole story when we take everybody on this tour because it really does relate, because my dad, he raised me with this work ethic to be a really good worker. He always taught me, he's like you know, Kevin? The harder you work, the more successful you'll be, and I believed that for the longest time, and even though my father passed away when I was only in 10th grade, even when I was fishing in Alaska, I always thought to myself would my dad sure would be proud of me because, man, this is some hard work.
Ben: Yeah.
Kevin: But after almost losing my life, I decided okay, you know what? You've got enough money together, let's just call it a wrap on this section of your life, and I finished up my contract and came back home here to the Seattle area, and I started my first business, and for me quite honestly, Ben, I started a carpet cleaning business. Simply because I knew this guy who was in that business, and he made pretty good money at it, and I thought well gosh, you know what? That's what I want to do, I want to have a business where I made good money, so let's get into carpet cleaning. And I'll tell you, it was for all the wrong reasons. I mean you know, Ben, and that's why most people get a business because they think they can make money doing the thing they're going to do. It has absolutely nothing to do with this whole idea of actually being passionate about what you do. Like wouldn't be awesome if I could have a business built around that? You mean I could get paid for that, and I can be the hero? And most business owners don't get into business for those reasons. A few of us do, and when we do, we excel. I mean look at you, you love doing what you do. You love the role and the place that you hold for all the people that follow you, all your clients, all your subscribers, all your followers.
You love doing what you do, and of course, it shows and you get compensated for that and everybody wins. But most business owners, they don't do that, and with this carpet cleaning business, the first year, I was actually failing miserably. But the second year in that business, I met this guy, Joel Polish, through a trade publication for that industry, and he did show we had to turn that business around, and in three short years with his help, I found myself at the top one percent in that industry. And of course, it's all relative. The top 1% in that industry may be gross sales of 250 to 300,000 a year but you got so much overhead. You're not getting very much, and you know? This is not what I want 'cause I was working my tail off, I was working 14, 16 hours a day. I was working six and seven days a week, and finally one Sunday morning, I just lost it, and I was in my office once again on a Sunday morning, doing the end-of-the-month book work, paying bills, whatever, when I should have been at home with my family.
Like I said, I just completely lost it, and I'm like you know what? If this is what business is all about, I don't care how much money I can make. This is not worth it because this is not what I wanted, and for the first time ever, I took out a piece of paper, and I started to write down what I really wanted to be true of my life. A few things, I didn't want to work more than 40 hours a week. I wanted weekends off, I wanted to be able to have time for my family and for other things that were important for me. I wanted to hang out and spend time with inspiring people. I wanted to get a lot of satisfaction from my business, and of course, I wanted to live the life of a millionaire. In that moment, I didn't really know how I was going to accomplish all that, but for the first time ever, I felt so good because at least now, I was clear on what I wanted, and so the hope that I could actually maybe get that now, and for the first time being clear, at least I felt good about that. And quite honestly, it didn't take long. It was later that same year in 1999, I actually found myself attending a seminar down in Phoenix put on by this guy, Dan Kennedy, and I met two people that event. I met this guy Perry Marshall, and I've met another guy by the name of Yannick Silver, and both of those guys were doing some amazing stuff online, using the Internet, using technology to leverage their efforts, and I was just like wow. Maybe there's something here for me, and so I started playing around. I started my very first website, I took what I knew from the carpet cleaning industry, and I started this little website called getmoldsolutions.com, and that's the website.
That website is still there, still in place to this day, still putting money into my bank account, and that's the website. I'm going to take everybody on the behind-the-scenes tour of, and I'll tell you, not exciting websites. But I will tell you what, if you have a mold problem in your home or in your place of business or if you're concerned about mold and you end up on my website, you are all about what I have to offer. And of course, nowadays, one thing's led to another and to another and to another, and in the process of doing what I do, in 2003, I had the opportunity to start showing some other people what I was doing, and that was my first foray, if you will. I can't believe I just said the word foray, wow. Where did that come from? My first experience of teaching other's this stuff, and of course along the way, I have purposely and intentionally, structured my own business, so that it completely supports the lifestyle that I want to live. And because I've gotten so good at doing all of that, I've also gotten very good over the last 10 years plus of teaching other people to do the same exact thing, and of course, Ben, you and I both know 'cause we've both experienced it that the internet and technology, they are incredible tools that allow us to leverage our efforts, to get our message out there in a big way to be able to serve a whole lot of people, to do what we love doing and provide value to other people, the people we serve, in a way that only we can, even though we might have all kinds of competition talking about the same kind of topics as we are.
We're the only ones doing it in the way that we do it, and we have a unique value to offer, and of course, when we do this right and we are able to provide that unique value to other people and they gladly compensate us for that, and we get paid really well for doing what we do. And so for me, having been able to spend the last 10 plus years of my life teaching this kind of stuff to other people, I mean it's been a dream come true for me because I just live it in my own life and to be able to teach it and share it and now have the opportunity to share it with some of your folks. It's just really exciting to me, and I'm very honored, humbled but also excited to be able to take everybody on the behind-the-scenes tour that we've got coming up and show them some amazing stuff and just totally rock their world when they see what kind of stuff is really possible.
Ben: Yeah, I think it's going to be cool. When you were telling your story, for almost a decade, I was personally running personal training studios and gyms and loved it. I loved my job a lot. I helped people all day long lose fat, do triathlons and run 5Ks, get nice looking muscles fit into their fitted jeans and their tight t-shirts, and I love watching people's bodies change, but for me, it was five years ago when my kids were born. That was basically my impetus to realize that going to the gym at 5 a.m. in the morning and leaving at 8 p.m. wasn't going to cut it. Even though I love my job, I had to figure out a way to actually still make a living, but be able to spend time with my wife and my family and my kids. So I moved almost completely into the online sector after that and found a way to still be able to help people out, doing what I do now but basically spend a lot less time away from home and fewer hours working. I mean it's one of those things, and I think this is the case for a lot of people out there, Kevin, and this was a case for me, too. It wasn't as much about the money, granted and I know you're going to show this to us when you take us behind the scenes, but it's not about necessarily the money and making five figures a month or something like that. As much as it is or at least as much as there is the time, being able to see your kids grow up and do it you want to do. Play guitar and drink red wine and learn how to cook. Enjoy some other things in life.
Kevin: Absolutely, well you know, Ben? You get because you and I, we are both entrepreneurs, and so we get this because as entrepreneurs, there's four specific reasons that we got in the business for ourselves in the first place.
Ben: Alright, sorry to interrupt folks there for a second. We actually lost Internet connection, as ironically as we talk about making money online. So if Kevin's voice sounds different here for a second, it's because I called him back on his landline. So you were launching into the four things, Kevin?
Kevin: Yeah, so we both get it because we are entrepreneurs, and as entrepreneurs, we get into business because we want to be able to have complete control over four specific areas of our life, and those four areas are how much money we make, how much time we're going to work, who we're going to spend our time with and then also how much fun we're going to have. For me, in my life and in my business, I've structured things so that all four areas of my life in that space… I rate everything on the scale from one to ten. I think a nine or ten, and to be safe. I put everything about a nine 'cause I think there's always room for improvement, but I tell you what. Long story short, it's pretty dang good being me and just from what I know of you, it's pretty good being you. I mean we've structured our business this way, and essentially, that's what I show people how to do.
If somebody is interested in becoming an entrepreneur or being able to take control of their own financial situation, be able to do things on their terms, the way that they want it to, all of that kind of stuff, and get into doing what we do and creating our own personally economy, that's what I get the pleasure of doing is showing people how to make every one of those four areas of their life, nine or a ten on a scale of one to ten. When we get those four areas taken care of, life just flows. Life just flows because we're in control of how much we work, but also we enjoy our work so much, and like what you were talking about, you enjoyed your work before you switched over to using the Internet and using technology to leverage your own effort. You enjoyed it before, but I can tell you from personal experience, and I know you'll agree with me on this, that even though you really enjoyed doing what you do, if you wouldn't have made a shift, if you wouldn't have made that change and you would have not been able to have the kind of relationship with your wife and with your children that you wanted to have, even though you, at that time, enjoyed your work so much, eventually you would have gotten to the point where you didn't get satisfaction from anyone because now, there's this push and pull going on.
Now there's this push and pull like when you're at work. You're kind of feeling guilty because you should be spending more time with the family, and then when you're with the family, you're like dang, I got all this stuff at work I want to be doing. When we structure it the way that we structure it, there is no push and pull. It's just our life. It's what we do, and we enjoy our work as much as we enjoy our time away from work, and quite honestly, I don't know about you, Ben, but for me, there's not really any distinction between when I'm at work and when I'm not at work. It's just my life.
Ben: Yeah, 'cause you're doing what you love doing. Now tell me a little bit more, because I know that right now, I know for folks listening in, this is just a teaser almost in terms of the content that we want to give folks, as far as like to step by step way to put together, like an automated online business. So you've mentioned a few times this behind-the-scenes tour that you're going to do. So tell me a little bit more about this, and while you're telling me about it, by the way for people listening in, I'm going to be sharing and put links and everything up over at Ben Greenfield Fitness for you to be able to get access to this, but fill me in on what exactly it's going to be, Kevin, that you're going to hook my listeners up with.
Kevin: Okay, so what we're going to do on this behind-the-scenes tour that were hosting is I'm going to share a little bit of my own personal story, and the reason I do that, it's definitely not to focus on me because our focus here in doing this, Ben, is to focus on your people that are interested and doing this business, and this is all about them. This is certainly not about us, but the reason I do share my story is because I will be sharing some pretty amazing stuff, and I want to be able to put it all in context to let everybody know that hey, you know what? It wasn't like we were just raised under some golden sun or whatever that we actually figured some stuff out here, and now because we've actually figured some stuff out, we were able to change our lives. And like I talked about, my father raised me with this work ethic, thinking that success had to be followed up or had to be predicated by hard work, and there had to be this give and take of really hard work and in order to have success, and the thing is it's not true at all, and it's not that I don't work. I do work but I enjoy my work. It doesn't feel like a four-letter word, if you will.
That's what I want to show people on this, and what we're going to be doing is I'm going to take a behind the scenes of one of my businesses, my Get Mold Solutions website. I'm going to show them all the nitty gritty details of how this stuff works, how we actually go about building a subscriber list, how we go about maintaining the relationship, and then we start by making an incredible offer for people so that they want to give us their name and email address and begin the relationship. So I show them like how to structure an offer, how to find, and we really kind of start in the real beginning. It's like okay, why do you want to do this in the first place? Why do you want to have a business of your own? What attracted you to the Internet in the first place, and it needs to be more about I want to become an overnight millionaire because the fact is that's not realistic, and there's a lot of people to tell that. It sounds good, but it ain't going to happen. I'm here to let you know, and if that's where you're at, I'll let you know that I'm not even your guy. Don't waste your time with this if you think that's really possible because, quite honestly, it's not that. And we're going to start from the standpoint of I want to put you on a firm foundation, and yes, I will show you the body, but let's do this right, okay? I want to put you on a firm foundation, I want to show you how to build and structure a business around your passions, around your already existing unique abilities, and by the way, everybody's already got this stuff.
I mean on the surface, people might say oh, I don't. I'm not passionate about nothing. Trust me, once you start getting into this and when you really start to realize that you know what? If I could do something big, a great way to look at this is start thinking about if money were an issue. If you were making plenty of money and that weren't even an issue, what would you be doing? If you could be doing anything you wanted to be doing and you were really enjoying to do it, would provide value to other people and get compensated really, really well for doing it, what would that look like? And start giving that a little bit of thought because that's the rabbit hole. I'm going to take you there, and then I'm going to show you just some of the how-to stuff of how we how we make an additional offer, how we attract people to us, how we build a subscriber list of people who have raised their hand and said yep, I want to hear from you and then how we build on that relationship and how we use technology to do all this stuff because, Ben, like we've been alluding to, when we start using the Internet, we start using technology, and the cool thing is you know what? I'm still no geek.
There is so much I don't understand about technology, but I know enough to do what I do and get by, and I'm going to show people a lot of this kind of stuff and how fun it can really be because the great thing is that when we leverage technology like this, and quite honestly, the big promise that I make that I'm going to show people on this tour is I'm going to take you on a behind-the-scenes tour of my business that has put in five to ten thousand dollars a month into my bank account since the year 2000. But the reality is, and I don't usually tell this to people up front because when we start talking about what's really, really possible, I mean for a lot of people, that five to ten-thousand-dollar figure is even a stretch. They're like oh yeah whatever, you must be ripping people off 'cause it's all perspective. If you've never made that kind of money, you're like is that even really possible? Can do that without ripping people off? Do you have to be illegal to be making that kind of money? Well I got news for you, Donald Trump, whether you like the guy or not, he's pretty ethical guy, and there's a lot of people that make a lot of money and they do it very ethnically. The way that you make a lot of money is by serving a lot of people, and the more people you can serve, the more money you're going to make. So the trick is being able to use technology to leverage your efforts, so you can serve a lot more people while not having it take up all your time, and that's where the technology part comes in, and that's the part that I get to show you and that's what we're going to do on this behind-the-scenes tour.
Ben: Awesome, well I'm stoked to just teach people a little bit more about how to do what it is that I'm doing, that you are doing, and again, it's not something that I really talk about much 'cause this is like a health and a fitness podcast. The more time that you create for yourself, the more time you are going to have to devote something like health and fitness, whether you're training for an Ironman triathlon, whether you're trying to get a better body, whatever the case may be. I think that this is actually something that makes sense even though I haven't really talked about it before to people. So what we're going to do is over at bengreenfieldfitness.com, right there in the show notes for this episode, there is going to be an article from Kevin. It's actually a pretty helpful article. I'd recommend that you read it because it delves into some of the aspects and the mentality and the tools behind making money online, and they'll also be a link there to be able to get in on this behind-the-scenes tour that is going to happen on Tuesday, May 14th. And so what we'll do is put a link to that, and Kevin, if people are working or busy or anything like that on Tuesday, May 14th, if they go there, is there going to be a way for them to get access to the replay or whatever if they can't actually attend the call?
Kevin: Yes, absolutely. So what you need to do is just go there, even if you can't make it live, register because that way if you can't make, I'll be able to send you the recording of the behind-the-scenes tour that we're going to be taking everybody on, and still get you the information. So yeah, we'll leave that up for a couple of days, so that you can access it any time during that window that you have time to be on and go ahead and grab that recording.
Ben: Perfect, alright cool. Well folks, I hope that you really get something out of this. Again, I'm going outside my own comfort zone, talking to you about something aside from fitness and triathlon and fat loss, but when I met Kevin and I saw what he’s doing, and he's actually a guy who's doing this ethically 'cause there are a lot of unethical Internet marketers and spammy people out there. Kevin's doing this right, and he's a good guy, and I stand behind what he does. So go ahead and head over to the show notes, and you'll be able to access the behind-the-scenes tour that Kevin are putting together. You're going to get to hear a little bit more about Kevin's story from being a Deadliest Catch fisherman to a carpet cleaner to finally go on and leading a really, really fantastic lifestyle. So Kevin, thanks for coming on the call today.
Kevin: Oh you bet, I'm going to share a quick little story since it perfectly ties in with what you're talking about. I've actually got a client right now. He's a finance guy down in the Bay area, down in California, and he never had used the Internet or technology for growing his practice at all, and he's also a triathlete but it's just a hobby for him. He's a father, he's got two children and all that kind of stuff, and when I was talking with him, he was telling me how he'd really like to compete more because I've got a friend who's a triathlete. Of course you are, Ben, and we were talking about Jesse and his wife being over in Kona. You guys compete over in Kona and stuff at the Ironman, and I got to talking with my client about that. I was like you never go, have you ever competed at Kona at Ironman or anything? Oh no, no, no, I don't have time for that 'cause you got to do some serious training for that. I just use a little small stuff, and he's like the thing is I got my business to run, I'm a father, and he's like I need order to train for something like that, something's got to give.
Long story short, we started talking about this, and we started laying this thing out for him, and he comes to the realization. He's like Kevin, you know what? Now that I'm able to automate a bunch of this stuff in my business and apply it to what I'm already doing there, he's like I'm freeing up my time. I'm finding myself with a bunch more time now. I think it's time for me to man up, and he's like I think I'm going to go for this Kona thing, and I'm just like you know what? What an awesome, awesome testament because it's not like that desire wasn't there before. He did want to do it, but he felt he didn't have the time, didn't have the resources in his life to be able to put in the training in order to even go there in the first place, but now he's got that extra time, now he's realized that you know what? This is something that is important to me, and I'm going to man up, and I'm going to do this Kona thing.
How cool was it for me to be able to have a small role because it's like you said, its way more about the money. This isn't about the money, this is about him now, and he is so fired up about this. So that's the kind of stuff we're going to do, and Ben, you know what? You went out on a little bit of a limb here, but I will tell you what. I am looking so forward to doing this because when anybody who participates on this tour with us, in the end, you're going to be the rockstar Ben, and they're going to be thanking you for hooking us up and stuff, and it's going to be my pleasure to make that happen for you, and so when you register for this tour and afterwards, let Ben know what you thought because I guarantee you, Ben, you are going to be the rock star.
Ben: Well I'm going to be happy if I just have even a handful of folks who were able to write in or leave a comment under this show, or let me know in a podcast that you're making whatever. Maybe it's an extra 500 bucks a month, maybe an extra one to two K, maybe it's an extra five to ten thousand a month, but for me, I think it's going to be pretty dang cool when I can start getting feedback from folks, and know that maybe I did help you spend a little bit extra time out there training for Ironman triathlon or whatever you're doing. Cool, thanks for sharing that story, Kevin. That was good.
Kevin: Alright, well hey, it was my pleasure being here, and we will look forward to speaking with those of you who join us for this tour on Tuesday, and I will talk with you guys then.
Ben: Cool, thanks Kevin. Talk to you later.
Well, we already shattered the fitness paradigm and talked about sex for much of this week (specifically the “Sexy Back Summit” and my infamous “Sexy-Time Shake Video”).
So why don't we just keep on breaking the rules, and talk about money too?
Here's why: I've been getting lots of questions from you about how I personally make a living on the internet. And until now, I never really realized that you were curious about that!
So what the heck…let's talk about making money online in today's audio interview.
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We're going to start in an unconventional way.
I want to introduce you to my friend Kevin Thompson (pictured right with his TEN KIDS), who is able to explain this stuff way better than I ever could.
As a boy, Kevin’s father always told him, “The harder you work, the more successful you’ll be”, and for much of his life, Kevin believed those words.
His father’s advice even compelled him to work for 7 years as an Alaska's Deadliest Catch Fisherman, where Kevin put his life on the line for his paycheck…every single day.
For seven long years – that’s exactly how Kevin lived his life, and there were quite a few times when he wondered if he’d even make it through the day.
And then something crazy happened…
One night Kevin's crew found themselves in the worst storm they’d ever seen, and he almost lost his life when he was thrown across the boat like a toothpick by a HUGE rogue wave.
Had that wave thrown him a couple inches higher, it would’ve tossed him right over the railing of his boat, into the freezing temperatures of the Bering Sea…and he would have died right there.
That’s when Kevin decided it was time to make a change.
He knew there had to be a better way to make money.
WITHOUT working his fingers to the bone the entire day.
WITHOUT putting his life on the line for a paycheck.
So in the year 2000, Kevin began developing an automated system for making money online, and in the process proved his father extremely wrong. Since then, Kevin has quietly used this system to put $10,000+ a month into his bank account – month after month and year after year – even during a time many would say is the worst economic climate we’ve ever seen.
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Now let me tie all this together by pointing out the fact that I own an relatively successful online business in which I've combined my business with my personal passion for fitness and health. I coach, I write, I consult, I create products, etc., etc., etc.
That’s exactly why you and I are communicating right now.
The only challenge is, my focus isn’t on showing others how to do what I’ve done.
However, the guy I interview in today's audio podcast is absolutely brilliant at showing you how to have massively profitable automated business – in a legal, moral and ethical way (which I highly respect).
And he explains it way better than I ever could.
In today's audio, you're going to learn about a free live call with me and Kevin on this Tuesday, May 14th at 5pm Pacific time, during which Kevin is going to pull back the curtain and reveal exactly how his automatic system works. He's also going to show you how this method of making money online is legal, moral, ethical.
As Kevin mentions during the podcast, he and I are getting together for a one-time only event where Kevin is going to reveal to you every tiny detail of how to make money online in an automated way.