The Economics of Trust: Kevin Thompson on Income Claims, Compliance, and Legacy

You’re standing in front of a prospect, and the moment they ask what you’re actually making, something in you tightens. Say too little and you sound like you have nothing. Say too much and you’re suddenly worried you just said something that could come back on you, or worse, on the whole company. Kevin Thompson, the corporate attorney who represents the company, opens this session by naming that exact tension directly, and then spends the rest of it giving the room an actual answer instead of a vague warning to be careful.

He’s been at this event before, and he starts by pointing out how much bigger the room has gotten since he last spoke, calling what he’s watching a serious contender instead of the underdog he met the first time around. Then he gets to the real subject: trust, and why it’s worth more than the pay plan.

Why is trust actually an economic asset, not just a nice value to have?

Kevin frames the whole talk around an idea borrowed from Stephen Covey Jr.’s work on organizational trust: trust isn’t a soft, feel-good extra bolted onto a business. It’s a measurable cost driver. In a company where people trust each other and trust leadership, decisions get made faster, there’s less bureaucracy, and things simply move. In a company running on suspicion, everything slows down, because nobody wants to move without checking first.

Our number one asset, every company’s number one asset, it’s not the technology or the computers or the office building. It’s not the pay plan. It’s the trust that it amasses and builds in the community. Period. If there’s no trust, there’s no business.

He draws a line between two kinds of trust worth knowing. Organizational trust is internal, people inside a business trusting each other. Market trust is external and rarer: a stranger sees the logo and simply assumes it’s legitimate before you’ve said a word. That second kind is the one that actually compounds, and Kevin’s point is that it never happens by accident. Companies that reach it made a deliberate decision to build a professional, ethical sales culture on purpose, long before the market started handing them credit for it.

What are you actually allowed to say about income, and what has to come with it?

This is where the talk turns practical, and it’s the part every affiliate in the room actually needed. Income claims are legal, Kevin says plainly, and prospects deserve an honest answer to the only question they’re really asking, which is what’s in it for them. But the moment you talk numbers, the Federal Trade Commission expects you to also show the average earnings, with a link to the company’s income disclosure statement attached, whether you’re posting on Facebook or handing someone a printout face to face.

He’s upfront that there’s a double standard here. An eighteen-year-old signing up for tens of thousands in student loan debt for a degree that might be outdated by graduation gets no disclaimer at all, while affiliates in this profession get held to a stricter bar. His answer isn’t outrage. It’s a shrug and a directive: that’s simply the environment you’re operating in, so operate inside it cleanly rather than resent it. The company had already built a short compliance training for every new affiliate by the time of this talk, filmed conversationally in David Sharpe’s own house specifically so people would actually sit through it instead of tuning out.

What separates a company that survives from one that actually lasts?

Kevin closes by naming the choice every fast-growing company eventually faces: stay in survival mode, chasing growth however it comes, or move into what he calls legacy mode, where the brand itself becomes something people vouch for to friends without being asked. He quotes the explorer Ernest Shackleton, whose crew survived a year and a half trapped in Antarctic ice under his leadership without losing a single life, on what winning is actually supposed to mean.

“The chief end is to win it honorably.” That’s the line Kevin leaves the room with, and it reframes everything he said about disclosures and compliance training. None of that paperwork is the point. It’s the proof that a company chasing real growth is willing to slow down just enough, on purpose, to make sure the win is one it can stand behind ten years from now.

If you’re building something you actually intend to still be proud of a decade out, and not just chasing whatever the fastest close looks like this month, this is the framework worth sitting with. Trust compounds slower than hype does. It also doesn’t run out.

The full session goes further than what’s above, including Kevin’s full breakdown of product positioning versus pay plan positioning. Watch it in full, free, when you Create your free account.

The full session transcript follows below.

Transcript

I'm near a money grab machine. I'm calling Jerry. It's like a money lobster. Just gonna get some You're uh Your next speaker.

He's uh, he's the corporate attorney. So you guys are tired. This is the nap portion if you guys want to snooze a bit He's been here before he's a great guy. He's actually a lot of fun.

Let's give it up for mr. Kevin Thompson everybody Give it up for him How you doing I Noticed you guys were kind of dragging in this morning Taking your time Means yeah, you guys had a good time last night. I take it right good I tell you, you know for those of you that were in Atlanta last year I had the privilege of speaking a year ago who was there in Atlanta? All right It's grown a little bit hasn't it?

That's just a little bit. I tell you based on some of the numbers You guys are gonna more than double a year from now It's pretty exciting So congratulations to you guys But no seriously, it is such an honor to be here for the second time I was talking to Dave would and I was telling them, you know I really appreciate getting the invitation for the second time and Dave told me he goes Kevin. I'll be honest with you I didn't give you a lot of time in Atlanta because you being a lawyer and all we thought you were gonna suck And he goes you get you can take a little bit more time tomorrow.

So that was that was nice of him That's one of the things I love about the Dave's they're very honest Even if it means being brutally honest But no, you know, I'm an attorney I represent a lot of startup companies in this profession and it's been such a pleasure for me to see this company grow from its humble beginnings to the organization that it's maturing into and You know, there was a time when you guys were the underdog, you know, just a little internet thing. These guys have a unique 100% payout idea Maybe it'll work a little bit But I think right now You're more than the underdog you guys are a serious contender.

So congratulations You know, I competed in the decathlon in college and I'm a very competitive person the same with my wife she's a three-time Olympic trial qualifier and You know the closest that I can get to that competitive spirit is working with young companies I mean the entrepreneurs that I get to work with they're crazy Right. They are they're they're different shades of crazy. They they want to change the world That's right. That's right They have a unique product a unique service a unique opportunity to throw a pay plan on it and they make it go and it's so Fun for me because you know what the marketplace this country we need more people stretching growing learning chasing prosperity We do we need more people like you We need more people like you.

So at the last talk in Atlanta I talked about the factors that separate the good companies from the companies that really don't make it You know, and we talked about leadership and we talked about product and compliance and whatnot, but today we're going to talk about the one thing that makes companies truly great, what separates good companies from the really great ones. And we're going to talk about trust. If I were to title this talk, I would title it The Economics of Trust. Stephen Covey, Jr.

wrote The Speed of Trust, and in that book he says there is a quantifiable economic benefit to trust. When an organization has trust, decisions get made faster. Things get done faster. There's less bureaucracy, which means costs go down.

When you have an organization with suspicion, you don't really trust each other. The salespeople don't really trust the company. They don't trust corporate. Things get done a little slower.

And so what separates the smaller companies from the really great companies, it's trust. You know, with me and my firm, we're based out of Nashville, Tennessee. I love Nashville. Anybody here from Tennessee?

Wow. My people. That's great. You know, Nashville's great.

It's called Heartbreak Town because people go there with a dream and a guitar, right? And some make it and some don't, but there's a lot of passion in that community, and I love that. But we built our firm out of Nashville, Thompson Burton. When it came time to finding a partner, I wasn't looking for somebody that was just good.

I was looking for somebody I trusted. So I found a person. I found somebody who was incredibly talented. I found somebody who I trusted, a military man, Walt Burton.

He has nothing to do with MySpace, but we're building a firm and having a good time doing it. Our number one asset, every company's number one asset, it's not the technology or the computers or the office building. It's not the pay plan. It's the trust that it amasses and builds in the community.

Period. If there's no trust, there's no business. So how do companies, how do companies in this profession go from being like everybody else to taking it to that next level where you build what's called market trust, right? Market trust is where when the logo is on something, when the consumer sees the logo, they say, that's legit.

That's called market trust. Organizational trust is, you know, that's a lower tier level of trust. That's where the entity itself, people inside the business trust each other. But when people in the community start to trust a brand, that's a big deal.

And so how do companies in this profession go from one level to the next? And the answer is, I thought about this for a long time. The answer is pretty simple. They invest considerable resources and they purposefully build a professional and ethical sales culture.

I'm gonna repeat that. They purposefully build an ethical and professional sales culture. It doesn't just happen by itself. That's true.

And these Dave's are committed to doing that. It doesn't happen on accident. I work with a lot of entrepreneurs. Some entrepreneurs make it, some don't.

The ones that don't really make it, they just think, we got a great product, we got a great pay plan, go. And it doesn't really happen, right? There needs to be a little bit of premeditation. So the ones that are doing really well purposefully build an ethical and professional sales culture.

So we've got this compliance thing, right? So how can companies, build a professional sales culture? Well, they can take some ownership in how the field operates. They can take some ownership in how the field is properly educated.

Now, here's the good news. The good news is, you guys have a platform. You've got a model and you can do some amazing things with it. And when you're out there building your businesses, you represent the brand of this company.

The bad news is, is that you all, the person to your right, the person to your left, you guys represent the brand of this company. It's the same thing. It's a double-edged sword. 99% of you can do things textbook, crispy, or perfectly clean.

Squeaky clean. It's that 1%, as this organization grows, that can potentially lead to some issues. And so Empower Network, with the growth curve that it's on, has decided to make some investments in good old-fashioned compliance training. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's going to roll. It's going to roll out, I think, no later than two weeks from now, possibly sooner. So when a new prospective affiliate enrolls in the business, they're met with 20 minutes of training, maybe 25 minutes.

Now, I know the last thing that your prospects want to see is a lawyer in a suit talking about corporate compliance. Right? Seriously, you see lawyers give speeches. It's like watching Eeyore give a seminar.

I lost my tail. Well, let's talk. Compliance. I know that.

I know that. We try to be a little different. And David Sharp knows that. So David Sharp said, let's do it in my house, do it conversational, to where, you know, it's in a format that's easy to understand, easy to digest, easy to watch.

And so we accomplished that. And that's going to roll out here pretty soon. Some of the topics that we cover, and we only have time to go over a couple, we're going to talk about income claims. And here's the thing about income claims.

The good news is, they're legal. You've got to make them. I make income claims. My son makes income claims.

He was telling, I give my son, he's five years old. He's the oldest of three. So those of you that are good at math, right now you're thinking, damn. Yeah, me too.

My wife and I didn't really think that through. So we've got three kids. My son is under the age of five. And I tell Luke, Luke, if you clean up the playroom, you get $5.

Luke tells my daughter, Sienna, who's almost four, you clean up the playroom, I'll give you $3. You clean it up a lot, you can buy a pony. I'm like, he's brilliant. He's brilliant.

Little misleading, but the effort's there, the spirit's there. Income claims, it's normal. You've got to answer the question, what's in it for me? You're meeting with a prospect, they want to know, what's in it for me?

Bottom line. But when you talk numbers, you've got to show the average earnings. That's the trick. That's what the Federal Trade Commission wants whenever you discuss numbers, whether you're doing it on Facebook, for example, and you're talking about the money that you can make in this opportunity.

You've got to provide a link to the income disclosure statement. You don't have to remember this right now. The compliance training's come out, it's all right there, but this is an overview. You guys like to hold those checks, put a link to the income disclosure statement.

Face-to-face, hand over a PDF. Now, there's a little bit of a double standard. I know what you're probably thinking. You're thinking, so wait a second, there's an 18-year-old kid, and you get $50,000 in student loans for an education that might be outdated when they graduate.

They don't get any disclaimers. You'd be right. You'd be right. But as my grandfather always said, just deal with it.

It's just the way it is. So when we're dealing with consumers, the Federal Trade Commission, they want to see some disclosures. Another issue is the positioning of the product, and this will be the last one that we talk about, how you position the product versus the opportunity, because in reality, you all are affiliates, at least most of you, I think, and you all are charged with selling the information, selling the platform, not just selling the pay plan. Although the pay plan's lucrative, and that's a good tool when you're recruiting affiliates, but at the end of the day, it's about introducing this unique technology platform, this unique information, into the marketplace.

And so as you're out there talking to folks, you've got to talk about the value of the product. The emphasis of your marketing strategy, the emphasis of your message, should be weighted towards the actual product. And the good thing is, you've got a pretty cool product. It's not like you need to hide it or anything.

I mean, it's an amazing technology platform. And here's another thing. It's very common for people. Compliance was the buzzword.

It was the buzzword in 2012. And it still is the buzzword in this profession. It's very common for people to talk about ethics and talk about integrity, but it's an entirely different thing to actually commit to it. Because the companies that want to go from good to great, they want to make sure that people are being fully transparent about the potential.

They want to make sure that people, when they get in this business, they're getting in for the right reasons. And they want to put measures in place to make sure that happens. You know, there's a funny story back to my son, Luke. And he said, Dad, when I get older, I'm growing a mustache.

I didn't know what was going to come out of his mouth next. And I said, Okay. Why do you want to grow a mustache? And he says, Because it'll make me tough and I'll be able to beat you up.

Okay. In the mind of a child, right, all his cartoon characters, they have facial hair. They're tough. So there's really no correlation.

Right? In the mind of a child, when they see the facial hair, they think, Tough. It takes really, and I explained to Luke, it's the character. It's what they do that separates the heroes from the people that are not heroes.

It's the decisions they make. It's their actions. The same it is with companies. It's easy to talk compliance, but at the end of the day, are you living up to those values?

In this company, they're investing some resources to make sure that they are. And that's very impressive. And I want to applaud the company for that. There's a great quote that I saw recently by a guy that I really studied a few years ago, Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Ernest Shackleton was a British explorer. And he set out to explore the last frontier. And for you Trekkies out there, I'm not talking about outer space. He set out to explore Antarctica.

And he got his ship, the Endurance, it was stuck in ice. Him and 22 other people. They were out there for a year and a half in Antarctica. And through his leadership, through his heroism, through his character, not a single person died.

He's a really remarkable person. And so when he says things and he writes things, I pay attention. And he wrote this quote that I think is appropriate for this kind of segment. He said, Life to me is the greatest of all games.

The danger lies in treating it as a trivial game. A game to be taken lightly. A game in which the rules don't matter much. The rules matter a great deal.

And even to win the game is not the chief end. The chief end is to win it honorably. Now, that's right. That's right.

We got a Marine in the audience. The chief end is to win it honorably. Now, in this profession, there's a lot of companies out there. A lot of them are fantastic.

Some are not. And the reality is the federal government is only so big. They can't catch all the bad guys. So if you measure winning, by dollars, there's a lot of folks winning.

But are they doing it honorably? And the answer is, in some cases, unfortunately, it's no. Right? But now for folks that want to be in business for a long time, they want to build that market trust.

They want to go from survival mode to legacy mode. They want to do it honorably. They want to do it to where when people see that logo, when they see that brand, they think, man, that's a great company. I trust those guys.

I heard somebody was in that business. They had a good experience. I heard somebody said no to an affiliate. They were treated with respect and love and they were still appreciated.

That's a good company. Right? That doesn't just happen. That takes purposeful decisions by the company.

And so, you know, my parting words with you all, if I were to take my lawyer hat off and put on a friend hat or a concerned citizen hat, it would be, you know, there's a fire in your gut. You're here for a reason. I really enjoy meeting with folks like you because you're different. You just are.

You know, you are. More people, more people should try to keep up and focus on their own prosperity instead of keeping up with the Kardashians. Right? I'm serious.

And so, you know, if it's weird to fly out to a seminar to get some good information, to get some motivation that could potentially change your life, if that's weird, to hell with it. Who wants to be normal? And so my parting words would be this. Whether this is the end of your journey or if it's just the beginning, be great at something.

Right? The world needs more people out there pushing themselves. That's the cure, in my opinion, for a lot of ills. People that are just willing to be prosperous, that are willing to grow and develop and become the best you that you can be.

If you end up and you go back to be a teacher, be the best teacher that you can be. But make that decision and make that commitment. And with that being said, it's such an honor to be here again for the second time with you guys. You guys have been a wonderful audience.

Thank you so much. If you want to see the average earnings, please visit the page at www.empowernetwork.com forward slash income dot php.