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Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
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Alan: Good morning, afternoon or evening, everyone. Welcome to Episode 4 of Thought Leader Retreat. I’m your host
Alan Brymer.
Today, I’m going to be speaking with Kevin Madison. He’s a strategic marketing consultant from KGM Group with clients
such as GNC, QVC, Sky Magazine, and others.
We’re going to be talking about direct response marketing, and getting the response you want from as many angles as
possible. In other words, you have so many assets available to use in getting leverage for your business, that you may
not even be aware of all of them.
So let’s take a look inside as we go in this episode. But first, here’s what going on with me personally. I had to rush back
from lunch, well, a nice lunch I had with a good friend of mine.
Speaking of comics, Kevin, he is a creator of an independent comic that he has been doing for years now, Brian
Clevinger, the comic is called Atomic Robo. I’m not sure if you’ve hear of that one.
Kevin: Wow.
Alan: It’s always very exciting to see someone who’s able to support themselves as an artist, just through their art. That
has grown in leaps and bounds since he began it years ago, and it’s fun to catch up with him. He happens to live right
here in Richmond with me.
Do you hang out with people in the comics industry as well? I know you’re into them.
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
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Kevin: Well, I’ve been able to find myself hanging around a lot of people that are in their early to mid-30s that have the
same love and passion as I do for the comic-related movies. We’ve gone as far as getting T-shirts and everything and
hats whenever there is a premier, so to answer your question, yes.
Alan: Isn’t it so funny? It used to be a dorky thing to read stories about super heroes, and now they’re the blockbusters.
They’re as pop as it gets. It’s funny how times change.
Kevin: It does, without them Hollywood would probably be on its last leg.
Alan: It’s interesting too, no matter what type of content someone creates, it could be your own music, your own
comics, your own fiction, or which is probably more applicable to our listeners, your own informative articles, right, your
own training videos, your own speeches, your own book…whatever it is, there is always the need to promote it. About
two-thirds of success is great promotion. Obviously, you want to create great content and of course we cover that here.
Let’s not forget the marketing aspect as well, because even if it’s the greatest stuff in the world, no one is going to beat a
path to your doorstep unless they discover it in the first place, would you agree?
Kevin: I concur 150 million percent.
How Kevin Got Started at General Motors
Alan: I don’t think that’s possible, but I’m flattered. Why don’t you tell us a bit about your
story Kevin and how you got started?
Kevin: It’s pretty simple. Man, I was basically working at General Motors. Let me first say that I was very grateful, very,
very, very grateful. At the age of 21, I believe, I’m getting a job that started out $50,000 a year, so at that time and place
in my life, I was extremely happy and grateful, and thought I had just hit the lottery.
Alan: What planet did you get this job on?
Kevin: It was planet Earth, man, and General Motors, at least back then, was known to pay very well and they did. I
believe it started out at $25 an hour, $26, something like that and being that I worked third-shift, they had what was
called a shift premium, which was an extra $2.11, so I was close to $30 an hour starting out.
I was elated. I was happy and again, I thought I hit the lottery at such a young age and still living at home and - yeah, it
was great. There’s something to say for time, when just the everyday monotony of doing the same thing over and over
kind of gets to you.
To make a long story short, and not to make this some kind of long peroration, but after four years of doing that—during
that time I had a daughter—I went to college, the University of Cincinnati, so I’ll shout out to all the Bearcats who might
be listening.
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
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She and I had a daughter, my girlfriend at the time, and after years of being able to provide for her well through my
employment in General Motors, it just started to wear on me mentally. I began to grow weary of the kind of
conversations that I would have with co-workers.
It was always - not all employees, co-workers that were there, but a good number of them, Alan, a good number, but it
was about the lesser side of life, what was happening to them, instead of being grateful for having such a good job.
It was always something to complain about, and then on top of the fact that for eight hours a day, there were no
windows, my only outlet was a 15-minute lunch break that by the time I got to the part of the building where I could exit
to go outside, I had to start walking back, to get back on the job and continue building cars.
Alan: Were you ever tempted to start smoking, just so you could go out and have a break more often?
Kevin: No, but you know what man, what I did do was I was very innovative with my antics, as I like to say. I used to do
some of the most lewd, crazy, looney-bin stuff that would have even upper management looking at me, like, “What is
wrong with this kid?”
I was the guy who, of course I was young, and during that time I was very fit. I was extremely fit, very well-built and had
muscles on top of top of muscles. I would do things like run around the plant, and jump up on a beam and start doing
pull-ups in the middle of…
Alan: Everyone is like, “What is he doing here?”
Kevin: Oh man, and given that my mom was in upper management, she was actually head of labor on my shift. She was
like a bigwig, so every single thing that I did, it was looked upon very closely and judged, because of who my mother was
in the most asinine way, as I like to say, because everything I did, they made it to be such a bad thing. Now, of course,
looking back…
Alan: Exercising? That’s not proper! For royalty in our company?!
Kevin: Right, especially not in a car plant.
Alan: Obviously, you weren’t going to last long. What happened?
Kevin: My friend, I’ll tell you exactly what happened. It was June of 2004, and I was standing at the gate, and many
people may or may not know, when you work in a manufacturing plant like that, you basically have these turnstiles that
have a red light and a green light, you either come in - green means go and red means basically it’s locked.
I remember one particular day in June 2004, I was standing at the gate and I looked around, and I saw everyone, grown
people, full adults tapping their cards, waiting and gathering like a herd, looking up at the light to see when it would turn
green, so we could go and enjoy our life.
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
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I looked at that, and I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me. I feel like cattle.” I feel like cattle, and that particular day, it was
on a Friday, actually, I said when I walked out of the door that Friday, now this was literally an immediate thought that
came about at that very moment.
I had always titillated and excited myself with the thought of leaving one day, I always had that fear as well, that brought
me back down to reality of you can’t leave this job, it’s $50,000 a year, what are you going to do?
At that given moment, that particular day, June 2004, I made the decision standing right there and I literally said, “This is
the last time I’m coming in here.” Now, this was no full warning to my mother, not to my girlfriend, my brother, nobody,
it was a decision I literally made right there. I said, “I can’t take this. I’m not coming back.”
I received a lot of backlash. My mother being who she was, she got on my behind a lot. There was a lot tension created
from my very whimsical decision of just leaving a good job, a coveted job that many people would have done nearly
anything to have.
I just couldn’t do it in my spirit, my sanity, and as far as my time, the most precious asset that each of us have, it was not
mine. I made that decision that Friday in June 2004, I said I’m not coming back. I have not been back since and that was
over 10 years ago now.
Strategic Marketing Based on The Strategy of Preeminence
Alan: Yes, here we are 11 years later. Tell us about what you do right now?
Kevin: Well, as you made mention in the intro, I’m a strategic marketing consultant, the basis of everything I do pretty
much comes from or derives from I learn from a mentor of mine, Jay Abraham, Strategy of Preeminence.
Direct response marketing is the methodology in what I use to create leverage in my client’s businesses that allow them
to not so much be worried or compete with other peers in their industry in their respective fields, but create leverage
that allows for them to appear and become the top of mind, absolute preeminent choice of their ideal audience. That is
what I do now and again, after leaving General Motors, it was a long journey in getting to this point.
A lot of reading, a lot of trial and error, and network marketing, and jumping from company to company, but those were
all lessons learned in the building blocks to getting to what I am now, which is I feel operating at my purpose and my
naturally God-given gift of thinking, absolute thinking, creating ideas of leverage, just using my God-given mind to think
and create windfalls of results for my clients who I take on.
Finding Clients Through Content Sharing, and Flying Business Class
Alan: So here you are now a strategic marketing consultant. How do you differentiate yourself?
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
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Kevin: I really don’t, believe it not. This may sound contrarian, but I don’t differentiate myself, man. I let providence
move about. I don’t know if our mutual friend has shared with you how I am or my philosophy of life.
I’m a very firm believer if you work on your gifts, they will make room for you. In saying that, providence moves about in
my life in every facet, business, personal, socially. The opportunities that are meant for me literally, and not to sound all
woo-woo, and Sedona, Arizoniaish…
Alan: Cosmic portal?
Kevin: Right. I am literally guided in the right people and who I’m supposed to work with appear. They manifest
themselves in some way, whether I’m - now I do fly business class every time I fly, so I meet a lot - probably 90 percent
of my clients that I have met, while traveling, or because of me sitting in business class.
There’s a reason why that particular person in business class sat next to me, or that particular person sat behind me and
maybe I needed to help them get their bag, and I complemented them on their bag, and that led to the short walk up
the tarmac tunnel where you exit the plane, that led to an exchange of a business card, that led to a conversation, that
led to an affinity for one another, that led to six-figure contract.
It’s just a small series of events, the serendipity at its best that I rely on. I don’t do a lot of promotion, but I do a lot of
sharing, and I guess you can consider sharing promotion, but I do it sincerely without any want.
The things that I share, the things I post, the content that I lay out on my or any other media platform, I do it without
want. I do it because I was able to accrue knowledge from a lot of great individuals who asked nothing of me early on,
nothing.
Besides, me understanding the fact that most human beings even with information laid out on a silver platter that would
change their life immediately really take action. I can give away, which I do a lot of the best stuff that I’ve done, that’s
generated millions of dollars, and know that it will still be worth that much a year, two, three, four, five years later,
because most people won’t take action then.
Case Study: How Creating A Culture of Fun Led to $970,000
Alan: Let’s talk about it. Can you give us an example that you’ve done to help out one of your clients to grow their
business?
Kevin: Yes, yes. In fact, there’s many cases, but my favorite is we decided that the industry that he was in very boring.
We established off top, and I let it be known that there’s nothing sexy, fun, or exciting about your industry.
What we’re going to do is bring some fun into the industry of small machine parts manufacturing. Just the sound of it is
ugly. What we did is just a simple strategy, all we did is we inculcated fun in every facet of communication, from
management to employee, from management to distributor, from management to sources, management to logistics, all
the people who had a part in this business running, right in Independence, Ohio, which is right outside of Cleveland.
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
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What we did was in all of our communications, we stopped talking like a machine parts factory company, and started
talking like a human being, and started letting them know about our quirky weekend. We started talking to them as
though they were actually human beings talking to another human being, none of the industry jargon.
We started incorporating jokes and little side notes in all of our means of communication, whether it was invoices. In our
invoices, what we would do is we would insert a little envelope or a little tab that told a joke with the tie back to what it
was that we offered.
We always kept it, we didn’t make it so unrelatable that it was like, okay, what’s this. We also put in a personal insertion
of something that was funny, comical, but tied it right back to why they’ve chosen us.
Just in that means of communication with people as though they were human beings was enough to change the
response of every single person related to that company, whether it was from an employee standpoint, whether it was
from a truck driver standpoint, whether it was from a distributor standpoint.
It allowed them to feel as if they were doing business with a human being, and the beautiful part about it is that in about
nine months, just that practice alone generated just a bit over $970,000.
Alan: What? How do you track it back to that?
Kevin: Orders increased man. Affinity for us or for my client increased because they were able to humanize and bring a
softer element to an industry that usually just talks in code and numbers, 2,000 units of this, 4,000 rivets, I mean it was
stuff that was just unsexy.
What we did was, we started saying, let’s leave actually what they’re doing business or what they’re communicating us
for, let’s leave that for the very bottom. Let’s make the entire invoice absolutely fun. Let’s actually put a coffee stain,
cup…
Alan: Circle.
Kevin: Circle, yes, on the invoice and put a sticky note to it that says good cup of joe, but I was too lazy to print another
one off, stuff like that. They thought I was crazy for doing that, they’re like “That’s unprofessional.”
Well, that unprofessional, the particular invoice series that we had done for that period of time when we first used that
strategy, I remember, I was actually in - literally in the office when the phone call came from one of the clients of my
client, he said, “Dude, I just..” And now, mind you, when they called before, all the conversation was, “Hey, Rick, how
are you? Hey Joe, hey John, whatever how are you?” It was very structured, very straight to business.
This particular time all he said was dude, this invoice is absolutely great, I love it and they begin talking as friends. Now
mind you they had been doing business, if I’m not mistaken, for four or five years prior to that and they never knew
anything about one another, but a coffee stain circle on an invoice with a tab that says, great cup of joe, but I was just
too lazy to correct it.
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
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Just one simple element like that, changed the trajectory of that relationship. That led to larger orders, more consistent
orders, to the point where that is actually who bought out my client’s company.
Alan: That’s interesting. I can see how it would affect response. It captures someone’s attention immediately with the
coffee-cup stain, that’s direct response, right.
Kevin: Um-hmm.
Alan: It builds an affinity between that company and them.
Kevin: Yes.
Alan: Most invoices I get if it says due in 14 days, then I stop paying attention immediately and come back to it 13 days
later.
Kevin: Yes, or not at all in some cases. Not the best of decisions, but in some cases not at all because what evokes - in
people’s minds, the fastest way to evoke disconcerted feelings is to give them bad news, and usually a bill is bad news
for a lot of people.
Alan: That’s right.
Kevin: It just makes it so that why don’t we just look at common sense. As a marketing consultant, I don’t look at being
complex. I don’t look at being razzled, dazzled to be the coolest which a lot of - even in the marketing space, you have a
lot of - in the big advertising marketing space with companies with superfluous budgets that can pretty much pay for
another Earth, if they wanted, they do things to be cool, to be known, to be talked about on social media or the morning
shows the following morning.
To give an example, Super Bowl Sunday. Very rarely do you see ads that truly honor the consumer that they’re trying to
connect with. They don’t honor them. They want to entertain them, but entertainment doesn’t last but a minute,
because if I see this movie that was hilarious, I’m going to see another movie the following week, that’s just as hilarious
and there is no loyalty in terms of what makes that one more special than this one. It’s just another one.
Alan: That’s right. In fact, I can’t even remember who the company is half the time. Like the one had Lawrence Fishburn
in it the Super Bowl ad.
Kevin: Right.
Alan: I don’t even remember what the car company was, I just remember dying a little inside, seeing Morpheus in a car
commercial or Bob Dylan in a car commercial.
Kevin: That’s right, that’s right.
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
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Alan: It sounds like you changed the whole culture of that company. The existing customers for sure with paying
invoices, but from what you said, it sounds like it applied to finding new customers and even applying to
communications with employees which can improve profitability enormously as well from the inside, although we don’t
talk about it as much.
Changing The Internal Culture of a Company Through Content
Kevin: Well, I’m glad you asked that question, Alan. The first thing that I teach and impress upon my clients is that the
first - your base asset, yes, is your customers, clients, or patients, depending on the sector of business you’re in, but I
said it’s not the people who pay you money.
I said your first priority, or your first customer, client or patient that you need to focus on and appeal to the most is the
people who make and yield you the money, not the people who pay you money, but the ones who actually are
responsible for helping you yield it.
For the longest time, as most manufacturing companies and plants do, just as my experience with General Motors
affirmed, most manufacturing companies treat the employees, basically the people responsible for the revenue
generation, as cattle, as cattle.
I had to try to kind of change the culture, the ethos within my client’s company off the bat, because what I saw when I
first observed and did my walk-through and just did my observation, I noticed that the employees, they didn’t smile,
they spoke to upper management just as a “hi” and “bye”. There was no comraderie. It was just those are our workers,
and this is our business and this is what we do.
I said “Well, this is one thing that we’re going to have to do. This is going to take a several week process, but it’s a
process that if you do it, and abide by every last one of the tenants that I express and share with you, you will see a
change in your company culture.”
To make a long story short, not only did we see a change in culture, but you had actual employees coming and smiling,
happy to be at work, because there was no more dictum to follow, there was no scared or fearful thoughts of getting in
trouble, if they turned up their music, or if they wanted to bring a George Foreman grill and cook in the employee area.
There were no more restrictions.
I said, “How about you guys allow them to do all the things that you guys have restricted?” If they don’t compromise the
safety, if they don’t compromise the integrity of the company, why would you guys stop them?
Alan: That’s so interesting. I would normally be talking with a guest about outbound communication, but let’s talk about
the ways that this company communicated their new beliefs, their new values to their employees.
How exactly did they do it? The days of the memo are gone. Probably no faxes. Are we talking about emails, newsletters,
meetings?
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
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Kevin: I went old school. I went old school, man. I said, “Of course you have every last employee’s physical address.
We’re not going to create an industry newsletter. We’re going to create an employee newsletter.
We’re going to let these people get to know you guys. All they know you guys is as upper management, but first name,
Scott, Rick. All they know of you guys as their boss. We’re going to create an employee-based newsletter, and you’re
going to send it to their homes. You’re going to send it to their homes on the day that they’re paid, so that it becomes
concomitant to receiving something good from you.”
When we did that, you had employees coming in, “Oh my gosh, Rick, I saw your dog, or I saw that you fell over and your
kids - on your kids’ skateboard in the driveway, or in the garage…” I mean, I’m just going off the cuff, this was what four
years ago now.
It changed the culture of the business, because they felt as though they were included from the top on down, instead of
just the top to the top. They didn’t feel as if they were segregated to only confer and gather and talk amongst
themselves as employees and then you have management. No. We made everything seamless.
Having that internal employee newsletter gave a very strong tie to upper management to where there was no more
separation. There was no more us versus them.
Alan: That makes sense, because an organization of that size is its own entity. It might as well be working in harmony
with itself the way any organism would.
Kevin: Right, we’re not talking a huge staff. His work force, I believe, was like 313 people, but enough to where people
feel isolated. People feel as if they’re not heard, they’re not appreciated. So it was small, but large enough to have that
prevalent thought of us versus them.
Alan: I can see that. Even on a small scale, a business is a reflection of its owner or of the management.
Kevin: That’s right.
Alan: So if the business owner is complaining about some aspect of the culture, what he or she is not mentioning is their
hand in creating that. There’s a lot of companies where they value fast turnaround for example, “Oh, I’ve got to
outsource this. I need someone fast!!!”
Kevin: Right.
Alan: Why? Why, because you waited until the last minute to ask them to do it in the first place? I always say you have
anything sooner, if you ask for it earlier.
Kevin: You ain’t lying about that, man. You ain’t lying about that.
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
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Alan: We intend to attract the complement or the people who go along with those values, but in your case, you helped
them to not only change their values, but communicate them and I congratulate you for your success with that. That’s
really cool.
“Fun” Pays Off…How Culture Can Be a Main Factor in Selling Your Company
Kevin: I appreciate it man, and as I mentioned a few minutes ago, that’s client was bought out by one of their clients
and the reason why the acquisition even occurred and the main linchpin behind them feeling as though that was a smart
acquisition was because they said this company has a great sense of unity. That was the determining reason why they
said, we want to buy you guys.
Alan: No kidding.
Kevin: Yes, that was it man.
Alan: It wasn’t all - it’s about the numbers, it’s about the bottom line.
Kevin: The numbers made sense, but the reason - remember they were doing business years prior to me even coming
on board as their consultant, but when the culture and this took a matter of I don’t know, two, almost three years I was
with them, but in a matter of a short period of time as that, in terms of business, in under three years, we went from
changing the culture and the ethos of the company from a relationship standpoint.
And from a consumer standpoint, from a distributor purveyor standpoint, every facet, every angle that they interacted
with the public or with their internal necessary components, and people that they needed to run.
Everything changed, man, the culture changed. They required no capital outlay that was ridiculous. It required nothing
that you’re scared you’re going to lose your shirt. It required hardly anything in comparison to the benefit that came out
of it.
Alan: That’s awesome. I appreciate you sharing that. Let’s skip ahead, Kevin to the brain pick section of this week’s
episode. I’m going to ask you a couple of rapid fire questions.
Kevin: Sure thing.
What Thought Leaders Have Influenced You?
Alan: The first one is, for you personally what thought leaders have influenced you, or that you follow, and how so? You
mentioned Jay Abraham earlier. Who else?
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
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Kevin: He’s definitely one of them. Malcolm X is one of them. I would have to say without a shadow of a doubt, Mother
Theresa man, Mother Theresa. A lot of people feel that she was this very meek, very wholesome little old woman, but
no, actually she ran her entire life with an iron fist, but a loving iron fist.
I love her philosophy. I love how stern, but yet how soft, and how pliant she was with the condition of the human spirit
being broken and just people needing love and nurturing, but yet, an iron fist. I just love her entire way and approach to
living. Who else…
Alan: Well, it’s interesting that of the three people you’ve mentioned, the majority of them are civic and social leaders,
and not just business leaders.
I think that’s very important, because I have a lot of friends who are in business and training and that kind of thing. You
see from time to time posted on social media, “You hang out with - you become like the five people you hang out with
the most.”
Kevin: Very true.
Alan: It is true. “So are you hanging out with rich people or poor people?” I see that, and I’m like “This is pre-supposing
that…”
I don’t know, it’s like - sometimes I’m a dick, I respond to them like, “Well, how would Mother Theresa fit into this? How
would Jesus Christ fit into this?” He didn’t seem like he had a lot of money, or the Buddha, or whoever.
I like that you’re pointing out that kind of leader, because those are the ones that shape our society.
Kevin: Literally, man, literally. Another thing I like to say I’m - for title sake to give an illustration so that people can see
it vividly, a lot of people have this idea, this concept that Jesus was this absolute - people have to remember, if you’re a
Christian, or if you believe in the one they call Jesus, a lot of people have it misconstrued, thinking that he was this kind
of different human being.
The reason why story says that he was a human is because he had to experience, and it was meant for him to experience
what it was like being a man, going through having all the human emotions, the ups and downs, the highs and lows. You
cannot tell that Jesus did not act and pretty much get in the ass of his disciples when they did something stupid, but he
did it in a loving way. That’s just my take.
For me to look at the idea and the stories, the examples of Jesus, when I do study the ancient scripts, I literally look at it
in a very pragmatic sense, that okay, they paint the picture of this person that literally was ethereal and perfect. That’s
the idea, but I’m looking at what would God really, really want us to gather from the lessons of Jesus. He was a real
human being, and when you’re a real human being, there ain’t no fake in that, there ain’t no perfect.
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
______________________________________________________________________________
12
He was Jesus, the man. Therefore, I know for a fact that when he was hanging with his buddies, his crew, his homies, i.e.,
the disciples, I know when some of them said something stupid, I know he did not say this very reverent, nice thing to
them every single time. He got in their behinds, I really do feel that.
Alan: I can picture him face-palming at Peter sometimes. A bearded dude that calls out bullshit and hypocrisy sounds
like my kind of guy.
Kevin: Right, and I know he did, man, but again, people have this whole idea of that in their minds, it must be correct,
because they’ve been conditioned and bombarded and inundated since the time they came out of the womb with this
image.
But as I like to call myself, an evolved Christian, where I don’t claim any kind of denomination or anything, I believe in
God, period, I like to think that Jesus was a flat-out man, a homie that I could hang with, that would say, “Kev, come on
man, chill out, that’s bullshit.”
Look at him, it’s like this cat really means chill out because he cares about me. Evidently, he sees something in me that
I’m not doing or that could lead to harm, hurt or danger and he’s telling me this because he cares, he loves me, that’s
why he’s my homie. That’s why I’m willing to die for him. Do you think the disciples were willing to die for him, just
because he was so nice?
Alan: It makes sense to me.
Kevin: No.
Alan: No. Now, I’ve got something for you to try. This is what I do when I go bowling. Don’t take this the wrong way.
Every time I go bowling, they ask for your name, right, so when you type it in the computer and it shows your name up
on that screen…
Kevin: Right.
Alan: Sometimes they showcase you if you get a strike or whatever, so I always say my name is Malcolm, so when I get a
strike it says real big on the screen “Malcolm X!”
Kevin: I’m taking that one, dude. I’m taking that one.
Alan: People are like what if it says - what is you get two in a row, there’s no Malcolm XX. I’m like, “Well, I don’t usually
do that well, but if I did, I’d say my name is Rated.” I’ve always wanted to see “Rated XXX” up on the screen.
Kevin: We’ll take care of those, Malcolm or Rated I am, I’m taking that one.
“If You Work on Your Gifts, Your Gifts Will Make Room For You.”
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
______________________________________________________________________________
13
Alan: Back to the topic at hand. What is a really good quote from a thought leader that you have been inspired by?
Kevin: Oh man, that’s a lot, brother. That’s a lot. I would have to say - I mean again, whether you’re a believe or not and
to the listeners as well, you know Jesus is such a rich repository of examples and good words, but the phrase that was
used over 2,000 years ago. If you work on your gifts, your gifts will make room for you. That’s probably one of my
favorites, brother.
Alan: Work on your gifts, meaning you’ve got certain strengths, you’ve got certain gifts, focus on those? Improve them?
Kevin: Meaning you have something, a special quality, an element about you. If you lined up 100 men, 100 people that
can stand toe to toe, eye to eye with Alan Brymer, you guys can have the same exactly skill, but inside of you is that
element that only you and you alone have.
No matter how good or talented those other guys are, because it’s your gift, because it’s that special quality, element
that you’ve been given, you will outshine even the best of them.
That’s what I mean, where you will be seen for what uniquely is yours to give and purvey to the world and then we’ll
make room for you, just like when I do business or I find myself in situations where I’m attracting clientele or these
people in very esteemed positions, owners of companies, and business leaders and so forth, even in business class, I
don’t tell them what I do. Probably nine times out of ten, they tell me everything I do. I just ask questions.
Alan: No, I can tell you live this because when I asked you how you positioned yourself, you didn’t have a 30 second,
tightly-worded elevator speech. You basically said, “I’m Kevin Madison, I’m full of Kevin Madisonness that no one else
has.”
In other words, like everyone I’m a collection of gifts, and strengths, and characteristics, and interests, and passions, and
values, and results, and what does that have to do with you and what you need and how could we work together?
Kevin: That’s it, man, that’s perfectly put, man. I just don’t - I don’t promote myself, brother. I allow again providence to
move about. When I’m sitting and talking with someone, like I landed a very - a very good client, Morellifit, he is the
creator of Hit Max, which is a very up and coming and they are moving a fitness company.
We actually met in the lobby of a hotel, man, and how he became a client was, we were at dinner, and we left the lobby
of the hotel, we went to dinner. We’re in San Diego, and during the course of dinner, all I did was ask him questions.
All I did was listen to his answers, sincerely want to know more behind the answers he was giving and ask deeper
probing questions. He came to the conclusion himself, and he simply said, “All right, what does it take for me to hire a
guy like you?” There we were.
Alan: I love it. Basically you were what he was looking for and enough time and exposure is going to demonstrate to
people what you are. And you can’t fake it, but it does take time and it does take listening.
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
______________________________________________________________________________
14
You could even apply that to content marketing, everyone who’s listening, your values and your personality can and
should be coming out in your blog posts, podcasts, episodes, videos, speeches, all the content you’re producing.
Kevin: That’s right, man.
Alan: Even if you can’t define it, it exists, and people will sense it, and if it’s their style, then they will respond.
Kevin: That’s right.
Kevin’s Report,“The Sacrosanct Six: The Core Principles to Constructing Your 7 Figure-a-Year Business”
Alan: So Kevin, I appreciate your time, we’re going to wrap things up, but can you tell us real quick how people can
reach you online and a little bit about the free resource that you’re offering to our subscribers.
Kevin: Well Alan, just like the scenario I gave you with my small machine parts client several years ago, I have chock full
report that delineates and describes many of the processes that I’ve used, it’s six core processes that I use with every
single one of my clients, no matter what industry, no matter what size of their business, company, or practice, but the
report that I created is called the Sacrosanct 6.
That’s spelled S-a-c-r-o-s-a-n-c-t 6, Sacrosanct 6 and that can be found at Thekgmgroup.com, and it’s a report that after
being released for about a month, I started to get emails, emails from a guy in Arizona who owns a couple - not Arizona,
I’m sorry, New Mexico, he owns ice cream parlor stores, and he just send me an email random. I didn’t know who the
guy was.
He said, “Dude, because of this report, it’s all things that I was familiar with, but you put them together so concisely well,
it’s yielded me an additional six figures to my bottom line in just a couple of months, this report.”
Another guy who basically was starting on his business who was looking for every resource - he couldn’t necessarily
afford high end training, he said he read it, and he said he followed it to a T.
He created an app on the iTunes network and he said that app now generates him enough to where he is able to quit his
second part-time job, and now I believe if I’m not mistaken, he doing apps and building apps full-time.
So this report, I tell you without any want or any means of acquiring you as a client, listeners, the Sacrosanct 6 is
definitely one of the best pieces that I’ve ever written that describes how one builds a seven-figure a year business,
following them to the T, you will love it.
Alan: I can tell you’re proud of your work. I will check it out. Good practical information conveyed concisely. You’ve got
me and you know what, I’m going to pitch that to my comic book writing friend, because the Sacrosanct 6 sounds like a
comic series led by Mother Theresa. Am I right? A super hero…
Kevin: That’s right man. Interesting way of putting it man.
Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm
How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales
______________________________________________________________________________
15
Alan: Oh man, I’ve had a lot of fun today, Kevin. I really appreciate your time and for sharing your story and your
inspiring message with our listeners. This has been a lot of fun.
Kevin: I appreciate you Alan. It’s been a blast, man, and our mutual friend is one of the best dudes that I know online,
man, and I really appreciate him connecting us, man.
Alan: He’s talking about Justin Christianson, everyone, who was our very first guest here in Episode 1 of Thought Leader
Retreat.
If you’ve enjoyed hearing what Kevin had to say as much as I do, then check out the Sacrosanct 6 and make sure to apply
the things that you’ve learned today, not only in your outbound communications with the world, but your internal
communications with your team and yourself.
Thanks everyone. Have a great week. We’ll see you again soon, Kevin.
Kevin: Love and light, my friend.

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How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales, with Kevin Madison

  • 1. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 1 Alan: Good morning, afternoon or evening, everyone. Welcome to Episode 4 of Thought Leader Retreat. I’m your host Alan Brymer. Today, I’m going to be speaking with Kevin Madison. He’s a strategic marketing consultant from KGM Group with clients such as GNC, QVC, Sky Magazine, and others. We’re going to be talking about direct response marketing, and getting the response you want from as many angles as possible. In other words, you have so many assets available to use in getting leverage for your business, that you may not even be aware of all of them. So let’s take a look inside as we go in this episode. But first, here’s what going on with me personally. I had to rush back from lunch, well, a nice lunch I had with a good friend of mine. Speaking of comics, Kevin, he is a creator of an independent comic that he has been doing for years now, Brian Clevinger, the comic is called Atomic Robo. I’m not sure if you’ve hear of that one. Kevin: Wow. Alan: It’s always very exciting to see someone who’s able to support themselves as an artist, just through their art. That has grown in leaps and bounds since he began it years ago, and it’s fun to catch up with him. He happens to live right here in Richmond with me. Do you hang out with people in the comics industry as well? I know you’re into them.
  • 2. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 2 Kevin: Well, I’ve been able to find myself hanging around a lot of people that are in their early to mid-30s that have the same love and passion as I do for the comic-related movies. We’ve gone as far as getting T-shirts and everything and hats whenever there is a premier, so to answer your question, yes. Alan: Isn’t it so funny? It used to be a dorky thing to read stories about super heroes, and now they’re the blockbusters. They’re as pop as it gets. It’s funny how times change. Kevin: It does, without them Hollywood would probably be on its last leg. Alan: It’s interesting too, no matter what type of content someone creates, it could be your own music, your own comics, your own fiction, or which is probably more applicable to our listeners, your own informative articles, right, your own training videos, your own speeches, your own book…whatever it is, there is always the need to promote it. About two-thirds of success is great promotion. Obviously, you want to create great content and of course we cover that here. Let’s not forget the marketing aspect as well, because even if it’s the greatest stuff in the world, no one is going to beat a path to your doorstep unless they discover it in the first place, would you agree? Kevin: I concur 150 million percent. How Kevin Got Started at General Motors Alan: I don’t think that’s possible, but I’m flattered. Why don’t you tell us a bit about your story Kevin and how you got started? Kevin: It’s pretty simple. Man, I was basically working at General Motors. Let me first say that I was very grateful, very, very, very grateful. At the age of 21, I believe, I’m getting a job that started out $50,000 a year, so at that time and place in my life, I was extremely happy and grateful, and thought I had just hit the lottery. Alan: What planet did you get this job on? Kevin: It was planet Earth, man, and General Motors, at least back then, was known to pay very well and they did. I believe it started out at $25 an hour, $26, something like that and being that I worked third-shift, they had what was called a shift premium, which was an extra $2.11, so I was close to $30 an hour starting out. I was elated. I was happy and again, I thought I hit the lottery at such a young age and still living at home and - yeah, it was great. There’s something to say for time, when just the everyday monotony of doing the same thing over and over kind of gets to you. To make a long story short, and not to make this some kind of long peroration, but after four years of doing that—during that time I had a daughter—I went to college, the University of Cincinnati, so I’ll shout out to all the Bearcats who might be listening.
  • 3. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 3 She and I had a daughter, my girlfriend at the time, and after years of being able to provide for her well through my employment in General Motors, it just started to wear on me mentally. I began to grow weary of the kind of conversations that I would have with co-workers. It was always - not all employees, co-workers that were there, but a good number of them, Alan, a good number, but it was about the lesser side of life, what was happening to them, instead of being grateful for having such a good job. It was always something to complain about, and then on top of the fact that for eight hours a day, there were no windows, my only outlet was a 15-minute lunch break that by the time I got to the part of the building where I could exit to go outside, I had to start walking back, to get back on the job and continue building cars. Alan: Were you ever tempted to start smoking, just so you could go out and have a break more often? Kevin: No, but you know what man, what I did do was I was very innovative with my antics, as I like to say. I used to do some of the most lewd, crazy, looney-bin stuff that would have even upper management looking at me, like, “What is wrong with this kid?” I was the guy who, of course I was young, and during that time I was very fit. I was extremely fit, very well-built and had muscles on top of top of muscles. I would do things like run around the plant, and jump up on a beam and start doing pull-ups in the middle of… Alan: Everyone is like, “What is he doing here?” Kevin: Oh man, and given that my mom was in upper management, she was actually head of labor on my shift. She was like a bigwig, so every single thing that I did, it was looked upon very closely and judged, because of who my mother was in the most asinine way, as I like to say, because everything I did, they made it to be such a bad thing. Now, of course, looking back… Alan: Exercising? That’s not proper! For royalty in our company?! Kevin: Right, especially not in a car plant. Alan: Obviously, you weren’t going to last long. What happened? Kevin: My friend, I’ll tell you exactly what happened. It was June of 2004, and I was standing at the gate, and many people may or may not know, when you work in a manufacturing plant like that, you basically have these turnstiles that have a red light and a green light, you either come in - green means go and red means basically it’s locked. I remember one particular day in June 2004, I was standing at the gate and I looked around, and I saw everyone, grown people, full adults tapping their cards, waiting and gathering like a herd, looking up at the light to see when it would turn green, so we could go and enjoy our life.
  • 4. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 4 I looked at that, and I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me. I feel like cattle.” I feel like cattle, and that particular day, it was on a Friday, actually, I said when I walked out of the door that Friday, now this was literally an immediate thought that came about at that very moment. I had always titillated and excited myself with the thought of leaving one day, I always had that fear as well, that brought me back down to reality of you can’t leave this job, it’s $50,000 a year, what are you going to do? At that given moment, that particular day, June 2004, I made the decision standing right there and I literally said, “This is the last time I’m coming in here.” Now, this was no full warning to my mother, not to my girlfriend, my brother, nobody, it was a decision I literally made right there. I said, “I can’t take this. I’m not coming back.” I received a lot of backlash. My mother being who she was, she got on my behind a lot. There was a lot tension created from my very whimsical decision of just leaving a good job, a coveted job that many people would have done nearly anything to have. I just couldn’t do it in my spirit, my sanity, and as far as my time, the most precious asset that each of us have, it was not mine. I made that decision that Friday in June 2004, I said I’m not coming back. I have not been back since and that was over 10 years ago now. Strategic Marketing Based on The Strategy of Preeminence Alan: Yes, here we are 11 years later. Tell us about what you do right now? Kevin: Well, as you made mention in the intro, I’m a strategic marketing consultant, the basis of everything I do pretty much comes from or derives from I learn from a mentor of mine, Jay Abraham, Strategy of Preeminence. Direct response marketing is the methodology in what I use to create leverage in my client’s businesses that allow them to not so much be worried or compete with other peers in their industry in their respective fields, but create leverage that allows for them to appear and become the top of mind, absolute preeminent choice of their ideal audience. That is what I do now and again, after leaving General Motors, it was a long journey in getting to this point. A lot of reading, a lot of trial and error, and network marketing, and jumping from company to company, but those were all lessons learned in the building blocks to getting to what I am now, which is I feel operating at my purpose and my naturally God-given gift of thinking, absolute thinking, creating ideas of leverage, just using my God-given mind to think and create windfalls of results for my clients who I take on. Finding Clients Through Content Sharing, and Flying Business Class Alan: So here you are now a strategic marketing consultant. How do you differentiate yourself?
  • 5. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 5 Kevin: I really don’t, believe it not. This may sound contrarian, but I don’t differentiate myself, man. I let providence move about. I don’t know if our mutual friend has shared with you how I am or my philosophy of life. I’m a very firm believer if you work on your gifts, they will make room for you. In saying that, providence moves about in my life in every facet, business, personal, socially. The opportunities that are meant for me literally, and not to sound all woo-woo, and Sedona, Arizoniaish… Alan: Cosmic portal? Kevin: Right. I am literally guided in the right people and who I’m supposed to work with appear. They manifest themselves in some way, whether I’m - now I do fly business class every time I fly, so I meet a lot - probably 90 percent of my clients that I have met, while traveling, or because of me sitting in business class. There’s a reason why that particular person in business class sat next to me, or that particular person sat behind me and maybe I needed to help them get their bag, and I complemented them on their bag, and that led to the short walk up the tarmac tunnel where you exit the plane, that led to an exchange of a business card, that led to a conversation, that led to an affinity for one another, that led to six-figure contract. It’s just a small series of events, the serendipity at its best that I rely on. I don’t do a lot of promotion, but I do a lot of sharing, and I guess you can consider sharing promotion, but I do it sincerely without any want. The things that I share, the things I post, the content that I lay out on my or any other media platform, I do it without want. I do it because I was able to accrue knowledge from a lot of great individuals who asked nothing of me early on, nothing. Besides, me understanding the fact that most human beings even with information laid out on a silver platter that would change their life immediately really take action. I can give away, which I do a lot of the best stuff that I’ve done, that’s generated millions of dollars, and know that it will still be worth that much a year, two, three, four, five years later, because most people won’t take action then. Case Study: How Creating A Culture of Fun Led to $970,000 Alan: Let’s talk about it. Can you give us an example that you’ve done to help out one of your clients to grow their business? Kevin: Yes, yes. In fact, there’s many cases, but my favorite is we decided that the industry that he was in very boring. We established off top, and I let it be known that there’s nothing sexy, fun, or exciting about your industry. What we’re going to do is bring some fun into the industry of small machine parts manufacturing. Just the sound of it is ugly. What we did is just a simple strategy, all we did is we inculcated fun in every facet of communication, from management to employee, from management to distributor, from management to sources, management to logistics, all the people who had a part in this business running, right in Independence, Ohio, which is right outside of Cleveland.
  • 6. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 6 What we did was in all of our communications, we stopped talking like a machine parts factory company, and started talking like a human being, and started letting them know about our quirky weekend. We started talking to them as though they were actually human beings talking to another human being, none of the industry jargon. We started incorporating jokes and little side notes in all of our means of communication, whether it was invoices. In our invoices, what we would do is we would insert a little envelope or a little tab that told a joke with the tie back to what it was that we offered. We always kept it, we didn’t make it so unrelatable that it was like, okay, what’s this. We also put in a personal insertion of something that was funny, comical, but tied it right back to why they’ve chosen us. Just in that means of communication with people as though they were human beings was enough to change the response of every single person related to that company, whether it was from an employee standpoint, whether it was from a truck driver standpoint, whether it was from a distributor standpoint. It allowed them to feel as if they were doing business with a human being, and the beautiful part about it is that in about nine months, just that practice alone generated just a bit over $970,000. Alan: What? How do you track it back to that? Kevin: Orders increased man. Affinity for us or for my client increased because they were able to humanize and bring a softer element to an industry that usually just talks in code and numbers, 2,000 units of this, 4,000 rivets, I mean it was stuff that was just unsexy. What we did was, we started saying, let’s leave actually what they’re doing business or what they’re communicating us for, let’s leave that for the very bottom. Let’s make the entire invoice absolutely fun. Let’s actually put a coffee stain, cup… Alan: Circle. Kevin: Circle, yes, on the invoice and put a sticky note to it that says good cup of joe, but I was too lazy to print another one off, stuff like that. They thought I was crazy for doing that, they’re like “That’s unprofessional.” Well, that unprofessional, the particular invoice series that we had done for that period of time when we first used that strategy, I remember, I was actually in - literally in the office when the phone call came from one of the clients of my client, he said, “Dude, I just..” And now, mind you, when they called before, all the conversation was, “Hey, Rick, how are you? Hey Joe, hey John, whatever how are you?” It was very structured, very straight to business. This particular time all he said was dude, this invoice is absolutely great, I love it and they begin talking as friends. Now mind you they had been doing business, if I’m not mistaken, for four or five years prior to that and they never knew anything about one another, but a coffee stain circle on an invoice with a tab that says, great cup of joe, but I was just too lazy to correct it.
  • 7. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 7 Just one simple element like that, changed the trajectory of that relationship. That led to larger orders, more consistent orders, to the point where that is actually who bought out my client’s company. Alan: That’s interesting. I can see how it would affect response. It captures someone’s attention immediately with the coffee-cup stain, that’s direct response, right. Kevin: Um-hmm. Alan: It builds an affinity between that company and them. Kevin: Yes. Alan: Most invoices I get if it says due in 14 days, then I stop paying attention immediately and come back to it 13 days later. Kevin: Yes, or not at all in some cases. Not the best of decisions, but in some cases not at all because what evokes - in people’s minds, the fastest way to evoke disconcerted feelings is to give them bad news, and usually a bill is bad news for a lot of people. Alan: That’s right. Kevin: It just makes it so that why don’t we just look at common sense. As a marketing consultant, I don’t look at being complex. I don’t look at being razzled, dazzled to be the coolest which a lot of - even in the marketing space, you have a lot of - in the big advertising marketing space with companies with superfluous budgets that can pretty much pay for another Earth, if they wanted, they do things to be cool, to be known, to be talked about on social media or the morning shows the following morning. To give an example, Super Bowl Sunday. Very rarely do you see ads that truly honor the consumer that they’re trying to connect with. They don’t honor them. They want to entertain them, but entertainment doesn’t last but a minute, because if I see this movie that was hilarious, I’m going to see another movie the following week, that’s just as hilarious and there is no loyalty in terms of what makes that one more special than this one. It’s just another one. Alan: That’s right. In fact, I can’t even remember who the company is half the time. Like the one had Lawrence Fishburn in it the Super Bowl ad. Kevin: Right. Alan: I don’t even remember what the car company was, I just remember dying a little inside, seeing Morpheus in a car commercial or Bob Dylan in a car commercial. Kevin: That’s right, that’s right.
  • 8. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 8 Alan: It sounds like you changed the whole culture of that company. The existing customers for sure with paying invoices, but from what you said, it sounds like it applied to finding new customers and even applying to communications with employees which can improve profitability enormously as well from the inside, although we don’t talk about it as much. Changing The Internal Culture of a Company Through Content Kevin: Well, I’m glad you asked that question, Alan. The first thing that I teach and impress upon my clients is that the first - your base asset, yes, is your customers, clients, or patients, depending on the sector of business you’re in, but I said it’s not the people who pay you money. I said your first priority, or your first customer, client or patient that you need to focus on and appeal to the most is the people who make and yield you the money, not the people who pay you money, but the ones who actually are responsible for helping you yield it. For the longest time, as most manufacturing companies and plants do, just as my experience with General Motors affirmed, most manufacturing companies treat the employees, basically the people responsible for the revenue generation, as cattle, as cattle. I had to try to kind of change the culture, the ethos within my client’s company off the bat, because what I saw when I first observed and did my walk-through and just did my observation, I noticed that the employees, they didn’t smile, they spoke to upper management just as a “hi” and “bye”. There was no comraderie. It was just those are our workers, and this is our business and this is what we do. I said “Well, this is one thing that we’re going to have to do. This is going to take a several week process, but it’s a process that if you do it, and abide by every last one of the tenants that I express and share with you, you will see a change in your company culture.” To make a long story short, not only did we see a change in culture, but you had actual employees coming and smiling, happy to be at work, because there was no more dictum to follow, there was no scared or fearful thoughts of getting in trouble, if they turned up their music, or if they wanted to bring a George Foreman grill and cook in the employee area. There were no more restrictions. I said, “How about you guys allow them to do all the things that you guys have restricted?” If they don’t compromise the safety, if they don’t compromise the integrity of the company, why would you guys stop them? Alan: That’s so interesting. I would normally be talking with a guest about outbound communication, but let’s talk about the ways that this company communicated their new beliefs, their new values to their employees. How exactly did they do it? The days of the memo are gone. Probably no faxes. Are we talking about emails, newsletters, meetings?
  • 9. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 9 Kevin: I went old school. I went old school, man. I said, “Of course you have every last employee’s physical address. We’re not going to create an industry newsletter. We’re going to create an employee newsletter. We’re going to let these people get to know you guys. All they know you guys is as upper management, but first name, Scott, Rick. All they know of you guys as their boss. We’re going to create an employee-based newsletter, and you’re going to send it to their homes. You’re going to send it to their homes on the day that they’re paid, so that it becomes concomitant to receiving something good from you.” When we did that, you had employees coming in, “Oh my gosh, Rick, I saw your dog, or I saw that you fell over and your kids - on your kids’ skateboard in the driveway, or in the garage…” I mean, I’m just going off the cuff, this was what four years ago now. It changed the culture of the business, because they felt as though they were included from the top on down, instead of just the top to the top. They didn’t feel as if they were segregated to only confer and gather and talk amongst themselves as employees and then you have management. No. We made everything seamless. Having that internal employee newsletter gave a very strong tie to upper management to where there was no more separation. There was no more us versus them. Alan: That makes sense, because an organization of that size is its own entity. It might as well be working in harmony with itself the way any organism would. Kevin: Right, we’re not talking a huge staff. His work force, I believe, was like 313 people, but enough to where people feel isolated. People feel as if they’re not heard, they’re not appreciated. So it was small, but large enough to have that prevalent thought of us versus them. Alan: I can see that. Even on a small scale, a business is a reflection of its owner or of the management. Kevin: That’s right. Alan: So if the business owner is complaining about some aspect of the culture, what he or she is not mentioning is their hand in creating that. There’s a lot of companies where they value fast turnaround for example, “Oh, I’ve got to outsource this. I need someone fast!!!” Kevin: Right. Alan: Why? Why, because you waited until the last minute to ask them to do it in the first place? I always say you have anything sooner, if you ask for it earlier. Kevin: You ain’t lying about that, man. You ain’t lying about that.
  • 10. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 10 Alan: We intend to attract the complement or the people who go along with those values, but in your case, you helped them to not only change their values, but communicate them and I congratulate you for your success with that. That’s really cool. “Fun” Pays Off…How Culture Can Be a Main Factor in Selling Your Company Kevin: I appreciate it man, and as I mentioned a few minutes ago, that’s client was bought out by one of their clients and the reason why the acquisition even occurred and the main linchpin behind them feeling as though that was a smart acquisition was because they said this company has a great sense of unity. That was the determining reason why they said, we want to buy you guys. Alan: No kidding. Kevin: Yes, that was it man. Alan: It wasn’t all - it’s about the numbers, it’s about the bottom line. Kevin: The numbers made sense, but the reason - remember they were doing business years prior to me even coming on board as their consultant, but when the culture and this took a matter of I don’t know, two, almost three years I was with them, but in a matter of a short period of time as that, in terms of business, in under three years, we went from changing the culture and the ethos of the company from a relationship standpoint. And from a consumer standpoint, from a distributor purveyor standpoint, every facet, every angle that they interacted with the public or with their internal necessary components, and people that they needed to run. Everything changed, man, the culture changed. They required no capital outlay that was ridiculous. It required nothing that you’re scared you’re going to lose your shirt. It required hardly anything in comparison to the benefit that came out of it. Alan: That’s awesome. I appreciate you sharing that. Let’s skip ahead, Kevin to the brain pick section of this week’s episode. I’m going to ask you a couple of rapid fire questions. Kevin: Sure thing. What Thought Leaders Have Influenced You? Alan: The first one is, for you personally what thought leaders have influenced you, or that you follow, and how so? You mentioned Jay Abraham earlier. Who else?
  • 11. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 11 Kevin: He’s definitely one of them. Malcolm X is one of them. I would have to say without a shadow of a doubt, Mother Theresa man, Mother Theresa. A lot of people feel that she was this very meek, very wholesome little old woman, but no, actually she ran her entire life with an iron fist, but a loving iron fist. I love her philosophy. I love how stern, but yet how soft, and how pliant she was with the condition of the human spirit being broken and just people needing love and nurturing, but yet, an iron fist. I just love her entire way and approach to living. Who else… Alan: Well, it’s interesting that of the three people you’ve mentioned, the majority of them are civic and social leaders, and not just business leaders. I think that’s very important, because I have a lot of friends who are in business and training and that kind of thing. You see from time to time posted on social media, “You hang out with - you become like the five people you hang out with the most.” Kevin: Very true. Alan: It is true. “So are you hanging out with rich people or poor people?” I see that, and I’m like “This is pre-supposing that…” I don’t know, it’s like - sometimes I’m a dick, I respond to them like, “Well, how would Mother Theresa fit into this? How would Jesus Christ fit into this?” He didn’t seem like he had a lot of money, or the Buddha, or whoever. I like that you’re pointing out that kind of leader, because those are the ones that shape our society. Kevin: Literally, man, literally. Another thing I like to say I’m - for title sake to give an illustration so that people can see it vividly, a lot of people have this idea, this concept that Jesus was this absolute - people have to remember, if you’re a Christian, or if you believe in the one they call Jesus, a lot of people have it misconstrued, thinking that he was this kind of different human being. The reason why story says that he was a human is because he had to experience, and it was meant for him to experience what it was like being a man, going through having all the human emotions, the ups and downs, the highs and lows. You cannot tell that Jesus did not act and pretty much get in the ass of his disciples when they did something stupid, but he did it in a loving way. That’s just my take. For me to look at the idea and the stories, the examples of Jesus, when I do study the ancient scripts, I literally look at it in a very pragmatic sense, that okay, they paint the picture of this person that literally was ethereal and perfect. That’s the idea, but I’m looking at what would God really, really want us to gather from the lessons of Jesus. He was a real human being, and when you’re a real human being, there ain’t no fake in that, there ain’t no perfect.
  • 12. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 12 He was Jesus, the man. Therefore, I know for a fact that when he was hanging with his buddies, his crew, his homies, i.e., the disciples, I know when some of them said something stupid, I know he did not say this very reverent, nice thing to them every single time. He got in their behinds, I really do feel that. Alan: I can picture him face-palming at Peter sometimes. A bearded dude that calls out bullshit and hypocrisy sounds like my kind of guy. Kevin: Right, and I know he did, man, but again, people have this whole idea of that in their minds, it must be correct, because they’ve been conditioned and bombarded and inundated since the time they came out of the womb with this image. But as I like to call myself, an evolved Christian, where I don’t claim any kind of denomination or anything, I believe in God, period, I like to think that Jesus was a flat-out man, a homie that I could hang with, that would say, “Kev, come on man, chill out, that’s bullshit.” Look at him, it’s like this cat really means chill out because he cares about me. Evidently, he sees something in me that I’m not doing or that could lead to harm, hurt or danger and he’s telling me this because he cares, he loves me, that’s why he’s my homie. That’s why I’m willing to die for him. Do you think the disciples were willing to die for him, just because he was so nice? Alan: It makes sense to me. Kevin: No. Alan: No. Now, I’ve got something for you to try. This is what I do when I go bowling. Don’t take this the wrong way. Every time I go bowling, they ask for your name, right, so when you type it in the computer and it shows your name up on that screen… Kevin: Right. Alan: Sometimes they showcase you if you get a strike or whatever, so I always say my name is Malcolm, so when I get a strike it says real big on the screen “Malcolm X!” Kevin: I’m taking that one, dude. I’m taking that one. Alan: People are like what if it says - what is you get two in a row, there’s no Malcolm XX. I’m like, “Well, I don’t usually do that well, but if I did, I’d say my name is Rated.” I’ve always wanted to see “Rated XXX” up on the screen. Kevin: We’ll take care of those, Malcolm or Rated I am, I’m taking that one. “If You Work on Your Gifts, Your Gifts Will Make Room For You.”
  • 13. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 13 Alan: Back to the topic at hand. What is a really good quote from a thought leader that you have been inspired by? Kevin: Oh man, that’s a lot, brother. That’s a lot. I would have to say - I mean again, whether you’re a believe or not and to the listeners as well, you know Jesus is such a rich repository of examples and good words, but the phrase that was used over 2,000 years ago. If you work on your gifts, your gifts will make room for you. That’s probably one of my favorites, brother. Alan: Work on your gifts, meaning you’ve got certain strengths, you’ve got certain gifts, focus on those? Improve them? Kevin: Meaning you have something, a special quality, an element about you. If you lined up 100 men, 100 people that can stand toe to toe, eye to eye with Alan Brymer, you guys can have the same exactly skill, but inside of you is that element that only you and you alone have. No matter how good or talented those other guys are, because it’s your gift, because it’s that special quality, element that you’ve been given, you will outshine even the best of them. That’s what I mean, where you will be seen for what uniquely is yours to give and purvey to the world and then we’ll make room for you, just like when I do business or I find myself in situations where I’m attracting clientele or these people in very esteemed positions, owners of companies, and business leaders and so forth, even in business class, I don’t tell them what I do. Probably nine times out of ten, they tell me everything I do. I just ask questions. Alan: No, I can tell you live this because when I asked you how you positioned yourself, you didn’t have a 30 second, tightly-worded elevator speech. You basically said, “I’m Kevin Madison, I’m full of Kevin Madisonness that no one else has.” In other words, like everyone I’m a collection of gifts, and strengths, and characteristics, and interests, and passions, and values, and results, and what does that have to do with you and what you need and how could we work together? Kevin: That’s it, man, that’s perfectly put, man. I just don’t - I don’t promote myself, brother. I allow again providence to move about. When I’m sitting and talking with someone, like I landed a very - a very good client, Morellifit, he is the creator of Hit Max, which is a very up and coming and they are moving a fitness company. We actually met in the lobby of a hotel, man, and how he became a client was, we were at dinner, and we left the lobby of the hotel, we went to dinner. We’re in San Diego, and during the course of dinner, all I did was ask him questions. All I did was listen to his answers, sincerely want to know more behind the answers he was giving and ask deeper probing questions. He came to the conclusion himself, and he simply said, “All right, what does it take for me to hire a guy like you?” There we were. Alan: I love it. Basically you were what he was looking for and enough time and exposure is going to demonstrate to people what you are. And you can’t fake it, but it does take time and it does take listening.
  • 14. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 14 You could even apply that to content marketing, everyone who’s listening, your values and your personality can and should be coming out in your blog posts, podcasts, episodes, videos, speeches, all the content you’re producing. Kevin: That’s right, man. Alan: Even if you can’t define it, it exists, and people will sense it, and if it’s their style, then they will respond. Kevin: That’s right. Kevin’s Report,“The Sacrosanct Six: The Core Principles to Constructing Your 7 Figure-a-Year Business” Alan: So Kevin, I appreciate your time, we’re going to wrap things up, but can you tell us real quick how people can reach you online and a little bit about the free resource that you’re offering to our subscribers. Kevin: Well Alan, just like the scenario I gave you with my small machine parts client several years ago, I have chock full report that delineates and describes many of the processes that I’ve used, it’s six core processes that I use with every single one of my clients, no matter what industry, no matter what size of their business, company, or practice, but the report that I created is called the Sacrosanct 6. That’s spelled S-a-c-r-o-s-a-n-c-t 6, Sacrosanct 6 and that can be found at Thekgmgroup.com, and it’s a report that after being released for about a month, I started to get emails, emails from a guy in Arizona who owns a couple - not Arizona, I’m sorry, New Mexico, he owns ice cream parlor stores, and he just send me an email random. I didn’t know who the guy was. He said, “Dude, because of this report, it’s all things that I was familiar with, but you put them together so concisely well, it’s yielded me an additional six figures to my bottom line in just a couple of months, this report.” Another guy who basically was starting on his business who was looking for every resource - he couldn’t necessarily afford high end training, he said he read it, and he said he followed it to a T. He created an app on the iTunes network and he said that app now generates him enough to where he is able to quit his second part-time job, and now I believe if I’m not mistaken, he doing apps and building apps full-time. So this report, I tell you without any want or any means of acquiring you as a client, listeners, the Sacrosanct 6 is definitely one of the best pieces that I’ve ever written that describes how one builds a seven-figure a year business, following them to the T, you will love it. Alan: I can tell you’re proud of your work. I will check it out. Good practical information conveyed concisely. You’ve got me and you know what, I’m going to pitch that to my comic book writing friend, because the Sacrosanct 6 sounds like a comic series led by Mother Theresa. Am I right? A super hero… Kevin: That’s right man. Interesting way of putting it man.
  • 15. Episode #7: Kevin Madison at ThoughtLeaderRetreat.com/kevinm How Creating a Culture of Fun at Work Led to a $970,000 Increase in Sales ______________________________________________________________________________ 15 Alan: Oh man, I’ve had a lot of fun today, Kevin. I really appreciate your time and for sharing your story and your inspiring message with our listeners. This has been a lot of fun. Kevin: I appreciate you Alan. It’s been a blast, man, and our mutual friend is one of the best dudes that I know online, man, and I really appreciate him connecting us, man. Alan: He’s talking about Justin Christianson, everyone, who was our very first guest here in Episode 1 of Thought Leader Retreat. If you’ve enjoyed hearing what Kevin had to say as much as I do, then check out the Sacrosanct 6 and make sure to apply the things that you’ve learned today, not only in your outbound communications with the world, but your internal communications with your team and yourself. Thanks everyone. Have a great week. We’ll see you again soon, Kevin. Kevin: Love and light, my friend.