They’re Rejecting the Opportunity, Not You: Kevin and Kim’s Story

You picked up the phone for a stranger once, and it felt like an ambush. That’s exactly how Kim Souza describes the call that eventually became her marriage and her business. She’d clicked an ad on a pay-to-click site, completely cold, no social media relationship, no prior trust built, and a man named Kevin called to welcome her to the business. She hung up thinking, who is this guy. Years later, they tell that story on stage together as Kevin and Kim, and the gap between that first cold, suspicious phone call and where they ended up is the entire session.

Kim’s part of the story starts earlier than the phone call, with a degree in accounting, a full-time job, and a daughter, Ashley, diagnosed with autism at three and a half. She describes going straight into research mode, learning that early intervention mattered more than almost anything else, and then hitting the wall every parent in that position hits: the therapy that actually worked cost more than she had, insurance wouldn’t cover it, and the public school option wasn’t built for what her daughter needed. Bills piled on bills. Kevin quit his own job because no daycare would take Ashley. The stress of that, more than any business ambition, is what sent Kim looking online for income in the first place.

Why does “no” feel so personal when you’re new to this?

Kevin’s own backstory runs the other direction, decades deep in direct sales starting as a teenager, and it centers on a specific memory: inviting forty people to a home meeting, then another forty to a second one, and hearing no from every single one of them. He took it as rejection of himself. He became, in his own words, a loner for years because of it, convinced that everyone who knew him secretly couldn’t stand him.

They’re rejecting the opportunity, not you.

That’s the reframe that took him decades to actually believe instead of just repeat. Nobody who tells you no has run the numbers on your character. They’ve looked at an offer and passed on it, which is a completely different thing, and confusing the two is what quietly ends most people’s businesses before they’ve really started.

What do you actually say when you don’t have results to point to yet?

Kevin has a specific answer for anyone brand new who’s worried they have nothing to offer, and it’s built entirely around posture instead of proof.

“I just joined. But I’m following successful people. And I’m looking for two or three people in my life who would like to follow those people with me.” That’s the whole script. You don’t need a result yet. You need a direction and an invitation. Kevin’s argument is that this line works precisely because it’s honest, it doesn’t pretend to be something it isn’t, and it still gives the other person something concrete to say yes to.

Break the script down and it’s really just three moves, in order:

• Say plainly where you actually are right now, including that you’re new.
• Point to the people you’re choosing to follow instead of pretending you’ve figured it all out alone.
• Ask for a small, specific number of people willing to follow that same direction with you, not a crowd.

What actually changed once the two of them combined their stories?

Kim brings the discipline and the reason, the daughter who needed real help and a system to pay for it. Kevin brings decades of getting comfortable with rejection and a stubborn belief in following people who’d already done the thing he wanted to do. Neither piece alone gets the family where they ended up. Kim credits a specific event where they got completely clear, not just on goals, but on intention, deciding in advance that a decision was already made before the numbers caught up to prove it out.

Here’s the part worth sitting with if you’re the one making the case to a spouse or a partner right now: Kim didn’t wait for certainty before she acted on her daughter’s behalf. She said yes to the plan first and found the resolve to make it work second. That order, decide first, build the proof after, is the same order Kevin describes needing thirty-eight years to learn on his own.

The full session goes further than what’s above, including the rest of their story together. Watch it in full, free, when you Create your free account.

The full session transcript follows below.

Transcript

One, two, three, five. All right. Wow. Whoa, this is fun.

I'm too short for these tears. Well, you know, it's really, really exciting. This is the first time that we were asked to speak here at the event. And I'll tell you what.

It is exciting. We are thrilled to be here and honored and humbled and able to serve the crowd. Look at everybody here. It's amazing.

I didn't think I'd be able to see everybody, but I can. We'd like to talk about our story today a little bit. And I'd like Kim to start, my lovely bride. So you go right ahead, honey.

Thank you, sweetheart. You know, my story starts before I met Kevin. I want to share my heart with you and how I first came to get online looking for money. I didn't realize that I was listening to those voices of the system.

I had no idea. I never thought about it and never realized I was actually in that box until one day. But, you know, I went to college, got a degree in accounting, actually after I was married. Got married first, got the degree, bachelor's, worked a full-time job, and was doing what you're supposed to do.

And then I had a baby. That was the first time I realized I was in that box. Because I didn't want to go back to work. And I had no choice.

I made more because I was the one with the degree. I was the main income provider. So I had no choice. I had to leave her.

Whether it was with my husband, her dad, or it didn't matter who it was with. I didn't want to. And I never thought of that before. I thought I was going to be a career person.

But ever since I had her, my heart's been at home, not at work. And it's true. It's always kept me a little off focus. But when she was three and a half, excuse me, I got that wow that makes you cry.

Thank you. Thank you. She was diagnosed with autism. And so I immediately went into research mode because I didn't know anything about it.

And I got online, of course, to look for information. And I found early intervention is the key. That makes a difference on whether or not they're going to be. Able to be a member of society and not have to live a sheltered life and always have assistance.

And I looked for what they say was the best course of treatment. And when I looked at the price tag, it was my entire year salary. Every penny that I made all our income would have been spent on therapy. The insurance company did not want to pay anything.

And, uh, I didn't know what to do. So I had to just do what I could get what I could for her. But I had to put her in public schools and get the little limited amount of therapy they gave, which is not enough. And I didn't realize that the system was broken.

You know, like Justin and he talked about the school systems. They're broken. They're not meant to serve the special needs kids in the way that they need it. They're not geared to help autistic kids.

In the way that they need it. But I just did what I could do. I got what I could get for her, but I can never get what I really wanted for her. And then things got so stressful that, um, her dad had to quit work because we couldn't even find daycare that would take her.

She wasn't potty trained. She was way too old to not be potty trained. The daycare I talked to would not even accept her. So he quit his job.

So because we had the. You know, child care issues. My job almost covered the monthly expenses, but not quite. So I thought maybe if we're just really, really tight, we'll get by.

But then the car broke down. You know, life happens. And so I relied on credit cards. I thought, well, he'll go back to work as soon as she's, you know, full time in school.

And she's, you know, he'll be able to go back to work, then we'll pay off these credit card bills. The bills mounted up and it got ridiculous. And so became added stress of financial problems and paying one credit card with another and all that kind of stuff. I'm sure a lot of you can relate to financial stress, so that added to the stress.

And that's what drove me to look online because I needed more income and she started having seizures when she was nine. And so I took her to the neurologist and I just got another bill in the mail that day. It was much more than I thought it was going to be. And I'm still so completely stressed.

And I need another job, I need more income, but I'm already away from her all day long. I can't take another job, be away from her longer. I need to be home more with her. So the only thing I could think of was I heard people can make money on the Internet.

I don't know how, but I've heard you could do it. So I turn on my computer and started looking and I found a few things, you know, I didn't think I had any money to spend. So I started doing little things like surveys, pay to click. And I got a couple little tiny checks, you know, $10, $15.

And then I realized $25 a month is not going to make a dent in my bills at all. And then I learned about residual income. That's the ticket. That's what I need to do.

Do something where I can build it up and I have this income coming in every month. Because I was sick of doing the surveys. I didn't want to do them anymore. So I started looking for a business that would have residual income.

And I clicked on an ad on a pay to click site and signed up. I was cold traffic coming into this funnel. Completely cold traffic. I wasn't on Facebook.

I wasn't on social media. I wasn't signing up with someone I knew, liked and trusted. So I come in this cold funnel and I sign up for this business that paid a measly 10% commissions. And I didn't even know any better that that wasn't, you know, wouldn't do that now.

But I signed up. And then I get this phone call. And I recognized the name because I had seen an email, a welcome email to the business. But I was not expecting a phone call.

I was new online. Didn't know anything about it. And the things that I had done, like surveys, people don't call you, welcome you to the team. So I still didn't have all that trust and belief in this online world.

I get this phone call. Hi, Kim. This is Kevin Souza. Welcome to the business.

And I was like. Who is this guy? And he's like, I'm here to help you. I want to help you get started.

And I was like, if I need any help, I'll let you know. He now tells me he thinks that I was a snob. I said, I don't have a snob wound in my body, but I was cold traffic. I had no clue who he was.

I didn't have that know, like and trust factor. You know, now we, we get people in. I'm a social media. They already know us when they sign up.

So that's why he had the impression I was a snob because I just, I hung up the phone and I turned to Ashley's father and I said, that man from the internet just called me. And we still joke about that to this day. You go ahead. Well that's how we met.

Yeah. That was, uh, in 2008. It was a week after I turned 50. And, um, which was seven years ago.

It was also exactly a week after I retired from the job market for the rest of my life at age 49 and 364 days, I was able to leave my job for the rest of my life. This is before Empower Network was even an idea. Um, yeah, I need to get up even though I have a bad hip, but I'm going to back up a little bit. I have about 13 minutes here, so I'm going to go real quick.

When I was in high school. Almost 40 years ago. Um, I was a performer on stage and I had a choice between football or drama club. I chose drama club and got beat up because I left the football team, but I wanted to perform.

I always wanted to be on stage like we are now. We fought to be here. You know, you can fight to be here and that's what you do. You fight the forces of evil to get here.

Right? Yeah. Well. Uh.

My forte was singing and acting. So I went to New England Conservatory of Music for one year, studied voice. And somebody said, Kevin, you going to sing today? Well, I got 12 minutes left.

Yes, I will sing a quick song, but it has nothing to do with singing a song in general. I'm singing a song for two guys in this room today. Zachary Forsh and Chris Jones. These guys don't even know I was going to do this.

And there's a reason for that. My sons, who are both 37 and 35, they were born on the same day on October 27th, 1978 and 1980. On October 28th, 36 years ago, Chris Jones was born. On October 28th, 22 years ago, Zachary Forsh was born.

So. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Chris and Zachary. Happy birthday to you. You rock.

Okay. Thank you. I didn't do that so you could hear Kevin's voice. Kinda.

But everybody's been asking, you going to sing? You going to sing? Well, there it was. Okay.

Maybe in future events, we can do other things. I do impressions, cartoons, sound effects. I could talk with my mouth shut. I'll do it once and then I'll continue my story because I still have 10 minutes.

Hey, who sent out the lights? Wow, did you see that? He can actually talk with his mouth shut. Nobody can get away with that.

That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.

That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.

That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Nobody can gag me.

Did you just curse? No. Okay. Anyway.

So, right after high school, I went to New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and one of my fellow students who saw me in Allstate Chorus the year before, because I had a solo there, said, hey, Kev, remember me? No. Yeah, I'm Paul Hawkins. We sat next to each other.

I'm a bass, you were a tenor. Of course, I'm a bass. I'm a baritone now. And he said, I got this business on the side.

Want to check it out? This was 38 years ago. It was the big A. Sure.

I'll check it out. I need to make some money. I was making 40 bucks a week as a part-time security guard at college. So he showed me these circles.

This is you. And you buy a couple hundred dollars' worth of soap and stuff. And you help six others. And they help four others.

And they help two others. And you're making two grand a month. Whoa! I'm in.

I'm in. Right? I was brought up in an average family, five of us, five kids. My sister and I from my first dad, who I never met.

And the other three from the dad who adopted my last name to a Portuguese name, Sousa. Right? By the way, to the Portuguese team. Appreciate you guys.

You inspire me. And so I call up mom. I just got in this business called Amway. All right?

I know. And I'm probably not supposed to mention business names here. So if you guys need to edit that out, go right ahead. But I'm supposed to do two home meetings.

Can I come down from Boston to New Bedford, Massachusetts at your house? Sure. So I invited 40 people to the first meeting and 40 people to the second meeting. Every single one of them said no.

Every one of them. That hurt. I thought they were rejecting me. That's why it hurt.

That's why a lot of people, whether you're in this room or on the livestream, don't approach your next person to show the next person this business, because you think they're rejecting you. They're rejecting the opportunity, not you. I didn't realize that as a 19-year-old wet-behind-the-ears guy. I thought all my friends, relatives, neighbors, school teachers, you know, people I worked with in my first job as a dishwasher, all couldn't stand me.

They said no to me. So I thought either they're all right, they're all correct, and I'm wrong, or my dream is right, and they're wrong. I became a loner at age 19. I separated myself from everybody I knew, moved to New Hampshire, made a life for myself there, because everybody hated me.

I was there for a warped attitude. They didn't hate me. They just rejected the opportunity, Kev. Grow up!

But I had a lot of years of growing up to do. Little did I know that I had decades to grow up. So what did I do? I listened to cassettes.

There were cassettes back then, guys. I read books. First book I ever read, Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Sewing by Frank Boettcher. Those were the first three books they recommended we read. And I read them with fascination. Oh my word!

I just sucked it all in. But did nothing with the business. Why? I was afraid of the no's.

The people who said, no, I'm not interested in that. That's a scam. Well, you think you can make money at that? Ha!

I'm not going to put myself in a position to be rejected by others. Eighty people in my life were rejected. But I learned. Here's the smart thing I did.

I listened to cassettes. I read books. And I went to every single meeting that existed. And little did I realize, although I knew it back then but over the years, that I was washing my brain.

They're brainwashing you. Thank the Lord! My brain's getting washed. It needed serious cleaning.

It still does. We don't all have what we want in life yet. Because we wouldn't be doing this business, including Dave Wood. He would still continue doing this business if there were things in life that he, if he's all set, doesn't want anything more.

Okay? But what do you want? What do you want? What do you want?

You want change over the years. Especially when you do nothing. And then complain that the business doesn't work. No, you didn't work.

What do you want? What do you want? What do you want? Become obsessed with what do you want when you talk to other people about this business.

And you'll bring in 34 people in the last 40 days like we did, personally. It took me 38 years to become an overnight success. Right? Success.

How quick is success? Vroom! And then somebody will say to me, No, I've been trying to do this business for about 13 years. I haven't made a dime at it yet.

Well, that's because you haven't worked it yet. Ooh, truth hurts, doesn't it? It's not even work. Finding out what people love to have in life and offering them the opportunity to achieve it.

That's not work. That's fun. You're empowered even when you're not making a cent. Yeah, well, how much money are you making?

They'll ask a newbie. Well, here's what you tell them. You know what? I just joined.

But I'm following successful people. And I'm looking for two or three people in my life who would like to follow those people with me. You win or out. Think about it.

That's posture. You could be zero. You just got in. Not making a dime.

But you're following leaders and winners. And you're looking for two or three who will follow them with you. So next time somebody says, How much are you making? People I'm following are rich.

You want to follow them with me? There's your answer. After 50 years, a brother I never knew existed found me because of a blog post I wrote about my biological father whom I never met. Because of this business, my stepdaughter has taught me a two-syllable word, okay?

I now have more patients than a hospital. She had gone to public schools all her life. But because of the income we've been able to earn with this business, public schools have glorified babysitters with respect to autistic children. I don't blame the teachers.

I blame the system who aren't willing to spend the money for the special needs as well as they should. But we found out it costs just under three grand a month to put a child in an autistic school where experts can help her live her life to her fullest potential. And because of Empower Network, we accomplished that. We.

Lots of times people say, Kevin Sousa, Kevin Sousa. Kevin Sousa is not successful. Kevin Sousa is not successful in this business by himself. It's Kevin and Kimberly Sousa.

I'm going to say something real quick. Go ahead. I'm going to say something about the power of events. You know, we went to an event.

I think it was the Chicago. I could be wrong. But David Wood, we were soaking up the training. We were learning from him.

And he was really helping us to get very clear on our intentions. And not just our goals but our intentions. And he really helped us get very clear. Of course, the events teach you the power of belief.

Come away with that belief. You're going to get that intention. And we came away from that event. And we went home.

And I'm like, we're going to do this. We were so clear. We were so sure of our belief. I went to this autism center.

I wanted to put Ashley in. It cost around three grand a month. So I want to get her on the waiting list. And I looked at them and I said, we have an opening.

And I hesitated for just half a second. And I was like, okay, put her name down. We're going to do it. And she said, well, do you have the money?

Yes, we can do it. That was like in June. And then school started in August. When I got home and told him, he was like, what do you mean?

We're not making enough money yet for that. I said, we have on our intention. We're going to do it. We're going to do it.

There's no question. She started school in August. That was our first $10,000 month. We did it.

The power of an event. Sorry to take your time. You didn't take my time. You are my time, baby.

You are my time. Behind every good man is a good woman. Thank you. Guys, if you have a bride or a significant other, give them the biggest hug in the world right now.

Right now. Because you know what? I got 20 seconds left. Og Mandino wrote a book called The Greatest Salesman of the World.

And in one of the scrolls in that book is on love. I memorized all 10 scrolls, all 10 of them. Now, I don't have time to do all 10. I don't have time to tell you about the first couple of words in the scroll about love.

I will greet this day with love in my heart. For this is the greatest secret of success in all ventures. Muscle can split a shield and even destroy life. But only the unseen power of love can open the hearts of people.

And when it comes to fighting the forces of evil, I will make love my greatest weapon. And none on whom I call can defend against its force. One, two, three. Forces of evil.

We love you guys. Thank you so much. Give it up for Kevin and Kim Souza.