E159 | How to Build a Lasting Legacy as an Entrepreneur: What Kevin Thompson Gets Right

Most founders who ask how to build a lasting legacy as an entrepreneur are really asking a quieter question underneath it. They have hit the number. They have done the exit or come close to it. And the revenue they worked for did not feel the way they expected. Don Williams, host of The Proven Entrepreneur Show, puts it plainly in this episode: financial success without meaning leaves you hollow. Kevin Thompson of Impact and Legacy Collective has spent his career inside that gap, working with entrepreneurs who want their business to be a vehicle for real impact, not just a scoreboard. What comes out of this conversation is not theory. It is a working account of what entrepreneur mindset for impact not just profit actually looks like when someone builds their entire career around it, one relationship at a time.

Strategic Partnerships for Business Growth: The Story Behind 600 Deals
How did Kevin Thompson build 600 strategic partnerships across a single decade? It started with one partner, one teleseminar, and one decision nobody asked him to make. Kevin and his first partner, Mike Croft, introduced through mutual contact Joe Paulish, ran a training for home inspectors and generated $68,000 in sales. Kevin did not wait for the installment schedule to play out. He overnight-mailed a check with a handwritten note before anyone expected payment. That single act of paying sales partners quickly to build loyalty triggered a chain of introductions that compounded for twelve years. One partner became two. Two became dozens. The approach was never transactional. Kevin describes it as figuring out how to serve someone before thinking about what you might want from them. That is how to build long-term business relationships that convert, and it is also what the Go Giver philosophy looks like in a business development context rather than a motivational one.

Trust and Competence in Business Relationships: The Four-Way Intersection Framework
The most citable idea in this episode is Kevin Thompson’s four-way intersection model. Understanding what are the two types of trust in business relationships is where it starts. Kevin identifies trust in character and trust in competence as the two distinct forms of trust at play in any business relationship. Alongside those two sits a second pair: alignment of values and alignment of interests. What is the four-way intersection of trust and alignment? It is the point where all four of those elements are present between two people at the same time. Kevin’s position as a connector entrepreneur and conduit of trust is built around identifying when that intersection exists and making the introduction before the moment passes. Relationships that would normally take years to produce real results can move in a single conversation when that four-way alignment is in place. This is the operational logic behind Impact and Legacy Collective and the reason authentic leadership strategies for executives who want to build real partnerships should start here rather than with tactics.

Entrepreneurial Authenticity in Business Development: Nothing to Prove, Nothing to Hide
There is a phrase Kevin Thompson shares in this episode that a friend named Jesse gave him more than a decade ago. How does authentic leadership help entrepreneurs build legacy? Kevin’s answer lives in that phrase and in the shift that followed when he finally adopted it for himself. The nothing to prove nothing to hide entrepreneur mindset is not a slogan. It is a description of what it costs to keep performing a business version of yourself that is not real. Kevin is direct about the fact that he did not always operate from that place. He describes a version of himself that had plenty to hide and spent energy managing that. The weight that came off when he stopped is the same weight Don Williams connects to the word sincere, which he traces back to its Greek roots meaning pure and unrepaired. For any founder asking what is the Go Giver philosophy and how does it apply to business networking, the answer is less about generosity as a growth tactic and more about this: when you show up as the real version of yourself, the people who are meant to be in your world find you. The ones who are not, move on. And that is not a loss. That is how entrepreneur relationship building strategies work when they are built on something that lasts.

For information on how to work with Don visit us at https://donwilliamsglobal.com
You can also reach out to Don Williams at https://provenentrepreneurshow.com

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How to Build a Lasting Legacy as an Entrepreneur: What Kevin Thompson Gets Right

Hey, Don Williams here with today’s episode of The Proven Entrepreneur Show. Man, I got a real treat. Okay. I met today’s guest, maybe three weeks ago, and was introduced by a mutual friend of ours, Noah Rosenfarb. Thank you for the introduction. Today’s guest is Kevin Thompson of Impact and Legacy Collective. Kevin, welcome to the show.

Well, Don, I’m glad to be here and I’m looking forward to just having a conversation today.

Kevin and I met through a mutual friend and I did not know Kevin, but I knew of Kevin. You know, we kind of fished in the same oceans and caught some of the same fish and, know, figuratively, not literally, but it took a friend.

Introducing us and the friend said, Hey, you got to meet my other friend, Kevin, because you guys got the same vibe. I’m like, man, I don’t know what that means, but okay. And so he was absolutely right.

They were right. No one was right.

Okay. So impact and legacy collective. Tell us what you do, who you serve, why you do it. Tell us your story, Kevin.

Yeah. Well, so, okay. I’ll start with the, with the, I serve. What do I do thing? I, I serve entrepreneurs who are using their business as the vehicle to make their biggest impact in the world. And I get to be, I got the best job in the world, man. I get to be.

the connector and the conduit of trust for those entrepreneurs. And as a result of holding that position, I get to make introductions that lead to five figure, six figure, seven figure opportunities. And that happens all the time. And I’m to be making eight and nine figure impact too. And I’ll tell you, the way I look at this, Dawn, is this is me just

hanging out with a bunch of my cool friends, doing cool stuff together, you know, making a big impact in this world. And I’ll tell you, I, like I said, I think it’s pretty doggone awesome being me. I got the best job in the world and stuff. you know what? That’s, hey, you probably do too, you know?

And I thought I had the best job in the world.

Okay, so tell us, Impact and Legacy Collective, you’re not just introducing people, what do do?

No, why I bring the right kind of entrepreneurs together, like I just described those kind of entrepreneurs. I bring them together so that they can just have the right conversations with the right people for the right reasons. And, you know, you, the trust that man that that is such a huge piece of that because

There’s this intersection, this four-way intersection that, so there’s two kinds of trust. There’s trust in character and there’s trust in competence. And then there’s also alignment and there’s alignment of interests and there’s alignment of values. And right where those four come together, that intersection right there, that’s where magic happens. And that’s where stuff that, where relationships that could normally take

years to mature and get to the point where that kind of magic can happen. It can happen now, like right now. And, and I love being the guy who facilitates that for an, and obviously I can’t do that for everybody. I can only do that for people who show up a certain way and, and, and they, they have to have their app together too. You know, they got to have a track record of delivering results for clients and all of that kind of stuff. And

And, you know, they’re givers through and through. I mean, they always show up ready to help and serve and contribute, you know. And they’re just, like I said, they want to make their biggest impact in the world. And, you know, I love making introductions, making connections, opening relationships, beginning conversations for entrepreneurs like that, because I’ve seen it. I’ve done this so many times now.

And I’ve seen it and I said, heck, we just got through having an experience like that. And it was pretty doggone awesome watching what took place right there.

It was.

So Kevin had invited me to one of his client calls and I’m one of those people, and I highly recommend this if you’re an entrepreneur, take every meeting. You know, so many times people are like, well, I don’t know what that meeting is about, so I’m going to blow that off. I’m like, man, you don’t know. You may have walked past the gold mine because you didn’t take the meeting. So Kevin asked me to this meeting. I said, okay, yes, I’m going to practice my own preaching.

Great book.

Okay. Somebody invites you say yes. And, spent a couple hours with four unbelievable entrepreneurs. didn’t know any of them. And, it was, an amazing, example of people showing up to give first. And, you know, if you, if you’ve not read the book, the go giver, okay. Kevin is kind

of like the physical manifestation of the go giver.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay. And so, and that’s pretty high praise. but, but that’s kind of what’s happening there. So, okay. I’m going to ask you a couple of questions and, we’re going to wow and dazzle the audience. Then we’re going to sail off and go do something else today. Was there a specific moment in your life or career when you realized you weren’t just building success,

but it was your calling to help build.

legacy. And if so, what happened?

Yeah. So yes, there absolutely was. And so my previous business, I used to own a publishing company that we launched that company in 2003. And I ran that company through, through 2016. And, I.

did I partnered with a lot of entrepreneurs during those 12 years. In fact, almost 600 strategic partnerships I did during those 12 years. And without all those partners, my message would have not got out in the marketplace the way it did. Man, those partners really helped me get my message out into the marketplace and grow that business. And I was so incredibly grateful for all of those partners.

just because of the impact that they had not only on my life, but just allowing me to serve clients through running that business and stuff. So the impact was so much bigger. And, and, and, you know, that’s when I really started learning, and, really came to understand my gift for being this connector and conduit of trust. because, know, I never wanted to be the guy with my handouts and Hey, will you do this thing? Will you promote me and the, and, know,

So I always figured out, how can I serve you? And so I would just have conversations with people. And you know, I love talking with entrepreneurs. I love hearing what they’re working on, what they’re up to, what’s got them fired up, what’s got them jazzed, what challenges they’re facing and stuff. And I always just naturally default to who do I know who might be able to help them. And I just started.

making introductions and people were grateful. And then just after a conversation like that, where they’re like, well, can’t tell me about you and what you got going. How can I help you? Yeah, no. And that would lead to me telling them about that. so and I took such good care of my partners. some of the things that we saw, the very first one I ever did was with this guy, Mike Croft.

And I had met him through our mutual friend, Joe Paulish, had introduced Mike and I. And Mike and I did this partnership together. Mike worked with home inspectors. And we ended up doing this teleseminar and I did a presentation for his folks and did a training for them. And at the end, we made an offer and I said, hey, if you guys, if this resonates with you, it makes sense. If you feel I might be able to help you, here’s what that would look like. Here’s what the investment would be.

And we made like 68,000 in sales from that. uh, and, but we were, we were offering the training we offered it at three monthly installments of three 97. So it was $1191 price point, three, three installments of three 97. And I’m like, well, you know, if I was Mike, um, I’d appreciate getting paid quickly. And, and I liked the guy. And so I’m like, you know what?

I’m just going to overnight him a check. I know I’m going to overnight him a check based on the percent we agreed upon for the installments that have come in already. And, and whatever refunds or returns we get, you know, that’ll come out in the wash in 30 and 60 days. And so I just wrote him a handwritten note and said, Hey Mike, man, it was really great doing this project with you. you know, I mean, it was, I just had such a great experience and I hope it was a great experience for you too. And here’s a, here’s a check for you.

Uh, and I’ll be sending you two more checks in one and one and 30 days and one in 60 days. And I put it in an overnight envelope and I sent it to it. And he called me the next day, Dawn, and he was completely beside himself. And he’s like, Kevin, he’s like, I have never ever had anybody overnight me a check like that. That’s never happened before. And.

He’s I gotta tell you, he’s at the whole experience from beginning to end was an absolutely amazing experience. And he’s I know other people who would appreciate that because man, he’s a, you just made me, he’s I’ve, I’ve got people calling the office and emailing us telling us how even people who didn’t invest saying, wow, thanks so much for doing that thing with Kevin. That was really amazing. You know? And so, Mike, he’s like,

I’ve got some other people I want to connect you with. Can I make some introductions for you? And I’m like, yeah. I said, you know what? I said, if you’re going to do that, I said, you know what? I’ll even share a percentage of the revenue that comes from that too. And I was like, so I said, how about if I give you, if they decide to do something with me, I’ll do the same thing I did with you. And then I’ll give you 10 % as well as a thank you for the introduction and stuff. And it was through doing that stuff, Dawn, is what allowed me that

One partner led to another to another and that’s how I did almost 600 strategic partnerships over those years and stuff. so, and the first like really big introduction I made for these two guys, was Perry Marshall and Brian Kurtz. It was 15 years ago now, actually almost 16 now.

Shocking.

those guys, man, they went on to do so many amazing things together. And even with like, within 10 months, they were hosting this big event together. And, and that’s what first got me thinking, man, wouldn’t it be cool if you could have a business where you could just do that all the time, you know? And, and, and so, you know, that seed got planted and I’ll tell you what though, it, took years to germinate and all the BS and all the stuff.

that I would tell myself of, you know, I mean, so I don’t know how deep you want me to go, but yeah, having the idea to reality, took some, well, I mean, so that was 16 years ago. It’s been my full-time gig since August of 2017. for nine years now, so, so nine minus, so that’s seven years it took to germinate. It took some time for sure.

Well, you know, there’s lot of 20 year overnight successes out there. And so seven is not bad actually, you know, and, and I love that concept of you guys had a deal. He was going to share some revenue, but as soon as you got the revenue, you stroke him a check, put it in an overnight and it to him. And one thing I share with all of my clients that I’m helping grow their sales.

Yeah, right?

is that we want to pay salespeople as much as we can, as often as we can, and as quickly as we can. And that goes against HR, that goes against Harvard Business School, that goes against almost everybody in business. But I’m like, except when you’re talking with people who bring money into the organization, we want to reward them as quickly and as often as possible. Money is a river. It’s flowing from…

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

somewhere, to, someplace else. We want to be where it’s flowing to, not from. And if you treat it like a lake, okay, I’m just going to park it all here and I’ll let a little out here and there. It won’t work as well. And there’ll be a lot of CPAs who’ll argue with me, but let them do your taxes. Let me show you how to ring the cash register because it’s a different thing.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, so I’m going to ask you a question about the hard truth. A lot of leaders, most leaders, I think every leader, if you ask them, they say, yeah, I want to create impact. want to create legacy. But you and I know it’s only a minority that actually live it. People will say it, but not do it. What do you think most people are unwilling to give up that keeps them stuck at just

surface level success.

Hmm, interesting. I’ve never been asked that question before. What were they not willing to give up? Yeah.

or what keeps them stuck where they don’t cross over? Cause it’s very common. It’s cliche with entrepreneurs. I made a lot of money. Maybe they had a big exit and, then their question is, is that

all there is? Was that okay. Because it’s because just the financial piece, I’m not knocking that. That’s why they went into business, but that will leave you hollow. Okay.

Yeah,

if there’s not real meaning, if there’s not that legacy. And to me, legacy is not just how much money you leave. It’s like, what are people gonna miss when you’re gone?

You bet. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So any thoughts on

what people might be unwilling to give up to step into their

Well, so,

so much of this is just, you know, trying to control everything, you know, and, and, you know, we were actually talking about this earlier today, this, this whole notion of just being able to show up and be

Hmm.

ourselves, just be our real genuine self. And most people, especially entrepreneurs, are really scared to do that. You know, they want to show up a certain way because they believe, I need to show up a certain way, especially in business. You know, I need to show up a certain way. I need to have my game face on and what have you, you know. And, no, honey, I’m on a call. Thank you. My granddaughter just came over and she’s going to have lunch with me this afternoon. She’s already, Papa.

Good for her. We’ll put her on the show

too.

Yeah, we should. But you know, we, we, when we just, we don’t have to put that game face on. We don’t have to show up a certain way. We don’t have to be concerned about, well, what would people think of me if they knew that? You know, and when we can just drop all that, you know, my buddy, Jesse, you he said he made a comment to me 12 years ago.

When we first were meeting and, and he said this thing to me, he said, he’s like, Kevin, he I got nothing to prove and nothing to hide. And I, as soon as he said that, I’m like, dang, that must be an awesome way to show up. You know? Cause I, at that time I felt like I had plenty to hide, you know, there was all kinds of stuff about me that I’m like, Oh, I don’t want people to know that, you know? And, and, but now, you know what? Now I do come from that.

Hmm.

place, nothing to prove and nothing to hide. And I’m going to tell you what you talk about having a weight lifted off of you, man. When we can just show up and just be us. That is an absolute game changer.

And the counterintuitive benefit is this, the world will love the real you and will hate the fake you. Now that doesn’t mean if you’re being you, you won’t have some haters. You will. Okay. But, but it’ll be a minority of people who experience you because people are drawn to when I was early on, when I was a brand new salesman.

Yes, yes.

Top salesmen in the country. People would ask me how I do it. I’m like, I don’t really know. I can tell you people like to buy from me and I let them. I would say this, I’m very sincere. sincerity, sincere comes from two Greek words, sin and sera, which basically means pure. And it was, it was a whack stamp put on a vase that would hold water, which meant it had never been repaired. Okay. It’s where you saw it early on.

Today we would use the word authentic, okay, instead of sincere. They’re almost interchangeable, but yeah, if you’ll be the real you, the people who are your fans will find you. And the people who aren’t, they’ll move on and find somebody else and that’s okay. ⁓ If a leader, if somebody comes to you and they wanted to create real legacy,

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

not just revenue. What’s a decision you’d counsel them to make?

even if it

may be cost them in the short term.

Well, I’ll tell you that’s easy hands down focus on relationships and not just business relationships, just all relate relationships in every aspect of your life. Yeah, no, just place a priority on that. And because I’ll tell you what you never know.

who you’re talking with. You never know what experience they’ve got. You never know who they know. And it doesn’t matter who they are. It could be the gal serving you lunch at a restaurant that you like going to and stuff. It could be the gal at the post office. It could be anybody. And focus on relationships. And I’ll tell ya, when we just…

Cause here, I’ll tell you, I, I have been really blessed. I, you know, entrepreneurs in my life, you know, on, especially over the last three and a half, there was, it wasn’t like things weren’t going great before we launched the million dollar relationships podcast almost for April will be four years. I mean, it’s amazing to think that four years has gone by, but there was definitely life before the podcast and life after the podcast. And that podcast.

We’ve released little over 350 episodes now and and we it just continues to attract amazing Entrepreneurs into my life. So I mean, you know, I grew up in marketing I mean I started studying marketing under Joe Polish in 1995 and I learned all about funnels and this and that and and you know I will tell you who would have ever known that the podcast would have become such an amazing

I don’t know, just lead magnet, just people coming into my life. And entrepreneurs, what’s so cool is that nobody comes on the Million Dollar Relationships podcast if they don’t care about relationships. They don’t show up there. And so, and you know, when we focus on relationships and…

Yeah. Yeah.

And I’ll tell you, you know, I’ve interviewed people, you know, running businesses at half a million all the way up to 750 million and everything in between. And what I can tell you is that we are all way more alike than we are different. We are all doing the best we can with what we’ve got. And there’s not a single one of us that gets too much appreciation.

We all want more appreciation. And so for us, the big takeaway is be genuinely appreciative of people and let them know it because you know it just will open so many doors and so many conversations.

Use your words.

Yep. Use your words. And so, you know, one of the things I share with my clients is this, is we have to see things from the other person’s point of view. So much so that our point of view almost doesn’t matter because people will do what’s in their best interest naturally. And so I have to position my offer.

Yes.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. In a way that it’s in their best interest and then they’ll buy it on their own. You won’t have to try and sell it. Okay. Cause they’re going to do what’s in their best interest, but to do that, I have to see things from their point of view. have to put their glasses on. what I see does not matter.

Yeah.

If someone watching this interview wanted to know, they didn’t know if they were truly building a legacy or if they were just staying busy.

Is there a question you’d tell them they should ask themselves?

Well, what? Yeah. What are people? What are people saying about you? You know, what are people saying about you? And are they? What are they saying about you that when you’re not when you’re not around?

that word gets back to you kind of a thing. That’s a really good indicator right there.

I

agree, I think that is the question. Okay, last question. This is the tough, and I’ll ask you some tough ones, but this is the toughest.

Okay.

Kevin, when your

work is finished, what do you hope is different in the world? Because Kevin Thompson existed.

I hope that all of these entrepreneurs that I’ve had the privilege of just either talking with or being invited into their world a little bit. I hope that they all just go on to focus on expanding their relationships and their life and in their world and stuff. That would be an amazing outcome.

That would be an amazing outcome. You’re setting an absolutely phenomenal example for that. Kevin’s been my pleasure to have you on the show today.

Same, same, have really enjoyed it, Don.

Folks, that’s today’s episode of The Proven Entrepreneur Show. We’ll see you next time. Thanks.