Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kevin Thornton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kevin , appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

My first life coaching client that I ever received that wasn’t a friend or family member came for a great investment I made. There’s an organization called Therapy for Black Men and they created a directory for the men in need of therapist and or life coaches.. That investment gave me nationwide exposure to people in need of coaching. My first client reached out to me and stated he found me in the directory and based on my bio and photos he thought I would be a good coach for what he was looking for. He never had a father figure so he was looking for a coach to help coach him through manhood. We still speak till this day.

Kevin , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a proud graduate of Eastern Michigan University with a degree in Health Administration and a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology from Argosy University. I was working in corporate America but was feeling unhappy with the career. I knew it was a greater purpose placed on my life but didn’t know what. In 2010, I was listening to the Michael Baisden Show and he had Iyanla Vanzant on there. For those of you reading this who don’t know who she is, Iyanla is a spiritual life coach who has been on Oprah and wrote several books. On this particular day she felt led to offer the first 100 men to email her a free 9 week coaching session with her and her team. I was one of the eventually 128 men who she and her team helped. During those 9 weeks, I learn about myself but more importantly, I realized my dive assignment. Once completed, I took an online course to get certified as a life coach and the journey began.

As a life coach , i help my clients with personal development issues, while being their accountability partner in helping them achieve their goals. What sets me apart from other coaches is that I have been coached and that helps me be more sympathetic and empathetic to the clients journey. Additionally, I continue to have a coach as I’m always a work in progress. Additionally, I am also certified in holistic health coaching, which i coach people with nutrition and eating habits.

What I’m most proud of so far in my business career are two things:

1. I had 5 clients all lose 60 pounds each under my coaching. They were we able to get off some of the medications due to the weight loss.

2. My client never had a bank account, lived on his own and had no vision of a career. Now he has a bank account, he has his own apartment and getting ready to start culinary school to become a chef.

I also have an e-commerce store on etsy. www.etsy.com/shop/coachkevinfinds I have journal, my books and tshirt and hoodie for sell.. The hoodie say ! Am Love and that is my daily affirmation that I speak to my self. We are all created in the image and likeness of God and God is love therefore I am Love.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2017, I was bitten by a brown recluse spider, which is a very poisonous spider. I eventually had to go to the ER and that how i found out what happened to me. i had to have emergency surgery to get the venom out of me but they did tell me if it go to far they may have to amputate my leg. Luckily, they didn’t have to but it kept me in the hospital for 30 days. I had no visitors or calls for the entire time I was there. How I received that was god wanted me to rest and also he wanted direct access to me without distractions. Once out of the hospital I was bedridden for a little while but I had no income coming in because everything I did was fee for service. The frustrating part is now I have to start over from scratch but I was not going to give up on the divine assignment.

Once I was given permission to work, I got a job serving to help bring in money as I began to build up the clients again. Once the clients starting coming, i used the money from serving to start creating and e-commerce because I learned through this situation that I need to create passive income to go along with my service based business. 6 years later, I doing better than ever.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

From my incident from the spider bite, I became comfortable in still working, even though I was putting things in place to have passive income. I realized that I had trauma from the incident that has caused me to be fearful to not allow myself to have to start over again. This unhealed trauma is preventing me from reaching the highest potential that God has for me. I had to release the fear and replace it with knowing that I have done everything possible that it will not happen again.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kevinlthorntonconsulting.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thewellnessarchitect
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/KevinThornton
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-thornton-99374b6
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/mrkevinthornton
• Youtube: @kevinthornton5939