19 minute read
Feature: Epic Sitdown
Epic Sitdown with Kevin Snow and Donnie Boivin
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Donnie Boivin, CEO, and Founder of
Success Champions & Kevin Snow Director of Operations sat down to share their story of how they met and began building the empire of Success Champions. It’s a fun tale of two guys who were just coming up in business who met at a timely moment and realized success could be found by partnering up. Through a lot of bump & bruises, fuck ups, and mishaps they have been able to build an awesome set of companies and impact thousands of lives.
Luckily, Chad Jackman Success Champions operations manager was around to bombard, harass and laugh with Donnie & Kevin as he interviewed the two.
Chad: What’s next for y’all for leveling up? Donnie: Probably the next thing is taking success champions global. I think we are still just scratching the surface with all we’re doing here. I haven’t used and abused Kevin enough so I’m still unsure what his capabilities are… but I really think we’ll have some new things coming down, like taking the podcast down the road, doing some shows, taking the Badass Business Summit to 3 times a year or quarterly. I think Success Champions Network is what we’re going out for. Kevin: I think those things will also help Success Champions grow. Those were the two things that popped into my mind. As we’re growing our chapters and our members and into other countries, we will have the ability to bring a bunch of chapters together for local events and mini summits all around the country and in other countries, which other organizations like us don’t do unless they are in a top tear membership and they are helping run the organization. We want that to be our standard practice. Donnie: For sure. I think the goal was not to localize people meeting each other. We want people to meet each other all over the world. A lot of fun years ahead of us! Patience will become key. I want to change a hell of a lot more lives. But at the end of the day, I’m like, we should be 10 times where we’re at now. We still got a lot of growing pains to go through. Chad: So who is Kevin and what is his favorite drink?
Donnie: Kevin, in all seriousness, is a small-time country dude that grew up a little more when he hit the National Guard. I think Kevin, when we first met, was in a very similar place as I was, just trying to figure out what he wanted to be when he grew up. To us both, building this all together has helped us learn what we are good at and what we want to do moving forward. At the end of the day, I 100% say that Success Champions wouldn’t be what it is today without him. As for his favorite drink, I would say Rain energy drink. He says he only drinks one a day but I swear he’s cracking one open all the time. Kevin: I do like my Rain drink. Alcohol wise, bourbon. I’ve developed quite the taste for bourbon. And Guinness, I love that dark beer.
Find me an Irish bar that has black and tans and I’ll be happy. Donnie: Have you ever had a snake bite? It’s Guinness with a cider on the top. Kevin: I have. Didn’t like it.
Donnie: I’ll drink anything that’s free and cold, but beer shouldn’t have the ability to let your spoon stand straight in it. I did drink a real Guinness over in Ireland, and it’s a hell of a lot better than the U.S. version.
Chad: So how did you two actually meet? Kevin: Donnie swiped right. Donnie: lol that’s
started working together because of the emails. I remember the sales call and he was explaining how it worked and I understood the context. He walked me through step by step how it worked and then I think hiring him just for emails gave me a shot to see what he was capable of. He will always go ten times over you’re your expectations and overdeliver. It was often the case that I am rolled around and he was still building stuff for me. Was it Thanksgiving? Kevin: Yup. Donnie: This badass is home with his family doing nothing but working on the “Our relationship went from zero business summit. 100% not true to sixty. We were both in that Kevin: That’s because Kevin: We did meet online though. innovation phase. I would work with clients and then jump in we wanted to have a summit in April and we decided we wanted Donnie: We did my truck and then call Donnie to have a black Friday figure it out, was it a saying, “ok, what do you think of sale for tickets. So, veterans group? this idea?” and, that was how the I’m like, “I guess I know what I’m doing Kevin: Yeah, it was. One that we are not active in anymore. first six months of conversations went.” at home.” My family is like, “why don’t you get to have holidays Donnie: I think you with us anymore?” jumped on a post I and I’m like, “well, had put out on one of the groups. We had one I work for this ass.” Our relationship went from conversation and then nothing came from it. zero to sixty. We were both in that innovation Kevin: We met and had virtual coffee and I left phase. I would work with clients and then jump in because I thought Donnie wasn’t even close to my truck and then call Donnie saying, “ok, what what my market was going to be. Met a fellow do you think of this idea?” and that was how the veteran and thought it was awesome but didn’t first six months of conversations went. think anything was going to come of it. Then, a Donnie: I think you got to use Success couple of months later, we reconnected because Champions as a Guinea pig to learn a bunch of you wanted to know more about the email stuff. different things and new technologies. I’m always Donnie: I was getting out more podcasts and for trying something new. stages and getting more exposure and wanting to Kevin; it totally solidified me on transitioning get into courses. I had a pretty good handle on the from the whole sales process thing to focusing on outbound stuff but no handle on the inbound. I how automation integrates with it. remember we had talked about doing emails so Donnie: As things progressed, we became mutual in my mind you were the email guy. It was the sounding boards for new ideas. Kevin learned asset I needed. Plus, I thought you were a sucker to speak Donnie and how to present things so I so I thought you’d come along for the ride. We didn’t let my ego get in the way. Some days it’s like
a married couple because I know how to press every single button on this guy.
Kevin: We do occasionally finish each other’s sentences.
Chad: Well that segues nicely into my next question. So, what is it like to be in this bromance? Donnie: I think anybody who runs a business knows how lonely it can get. If you’re trying to make the decisions all on your own, all the calls on your own. Early on, we did a lot more together than we do now, just with everything we have going on now, but we would just meet over zoom and work, with no agenda, and just get things done. We both come from the office world sitting around other people. I’m less of a people person than I used to be. I still like to interact with people though, so it’s been really cool hanging around Kevin to help me grow up as a business owner and learn more. But it’s also given me the knowledge that somebody’s got my back when we’re going into something new. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve reached out to Kevin and been like, “Hey, what are you doing?” and he’s like, “what am I supposed to be doing?” and I’m like “I’m in the middle of this meeting and we’re talking about technology, here’s the zoom link to jump in” and he’s always jumped. He can’t help it, I’m his favorite client! It’s been cool, he’s been down to meet the family and not a whole lot of people meet the family. For some reason, they even liked his ass. I will say Kevin has thick skin. Kevin: I think one of the cool things about our “relationship” is that it’s not just Success Champion stuff. We’ll call each other with “Hey, this is going on with this client” and we’ve become that sounding board for stuff in general. Donnie: I think I’ve helped Kevin learn empathy. He can be cold-hearted, it’s just how he’s built, and he’s become a sounding board for me in different ways. Being an entrepreneur, you can quickly become an island and we’ve found that there’s someone else to rely on and depend on, and shit gets done. Kevin will work until it’s done. I’m pushing that limit these days though. Kevin: One of the best compliments I’ve ever received, I was at the Summit last year and someone came up to me and was like, “I don’t know what you did, but Donnie told me once that he was never going to let anyone come into his company and he wasn’t going to give up any control. He would never find anyone he could trust enough to let them help run his business. I don’t know what you did, but he’s doing that with you. Donnie: Thanks for sharing. Kevin: It was cool to hear.
Donnie: It’s easy for me to let the world know what happened. You did what you said you’d do, and then 10 times more than my expectations. And you’ve been able to take my visions and turn them into something. That’s a rare gem! That’s hard to find when working with other people. Most people in this world will just do “good enough”. He puts up with last-minute ideas and shenanigans. It goes back to, without you, there’s absolutely no way where we could be running all these chapters, and not without Chad. There’s just too much to be done for one person. My job is to be out front with people, not to be in meetings. I only ever mess them up anyway. Chad: So, most embarrassing moment ever. Go! Donnie: I don’t even know that I have an embarrassing moment with you. Chad: No, it doesn’t have to be together, just you personally. Donnie: I have no idea!
Kevin: I’m sure I have something. Nothing is popping into my head. I know when I was younger, high school age, the whole concept of
standing in front of a crowd was just horrifying. And you had to do public speaking, that onesemester course. I can vividly remember doing the speeches and literally shaking. I don’t know if that is embarrassing or not, but that was something way out of my wheelhouse. Little did I know then that I was a huge introvert, but I can remember standing up there and barely being able to get through the speech. Donnie: I live my life out loud. I tell all the stories. I have no clue.
Kevin: I can’t imagine you getting red-faced and embarrassed about something. Donnie: And that’s my MO, I’ve got thick skin. I did a cancer auction once, and they needed a dude. They had made these candy bras and women stuffed dollars in your bras. They needed one more guy to help out, so I joined, I didn’t care. The only guy who made more money than me was the guy who got naked, walking around in this bra and his speedo. Chad: I’d make the same amount of money, but they’d be begging me to put the clothes back on. Ok, here’s a fun little game. Are you guys familiar with the shoe game? Okay, they play it at weddings a lot. Basically, it’s who’s better at what, and then at the same time, you guys have to say who you think. Let’s see…Who wears the pants in the relationship? Donnie: Me.
Chad: Who is the better driver? Donnie: Me, for sure.
Kevin: Funny thing, neither of us have cooked for each other.
Donnie: I think it’s good for people to know, we’ve been working together for three years, and we’ve only met in person once, and that was this past summer. Chad: That’s nuts, I didn’t even know that.
Kevin: That was the first time we had interacted for more than 20-30 minutes.
Chad: Who is the pickier eater? Donnie: Oh, me for sure.
Kevin: Donnie.
Donnie: Kevin will eat some crazy stuff. Kevin: Vegetables are not crazy! Chad: Vegetables are what my food eats.
Kevin: Donnie doesn’t do anything that’s cooked in juice, like stews or braises.
Donnie: I don’t do cooked tomatoes; I don’t do pasta. I’ll do cooked tomatoes if I cook it and there are no cooked tomatoes in there. Keep it simple.
Chad: Who wakes up first?
Donnie: Oh me, for sure.
Kevin: Donnie, definitely.
Chad: Who stays up later? Kevin: Me, for sure.
Donnie: Me. Chad: Who is the better air guitarist? Donnie: Kevin.
Chad: The question was actually “shower singer, but…”
Kevin: Well, hey, we did have a podcast listener who said they could listen to us in the shower in the morning.
Chad: Alright now. Who is better at talking their way out of a speeding ticket? Donnie: Me. Oh me, for sure. I just did that on the way here. Chad: Who is the better cook? Donnie: “Most people in this world will just do “good enough”. He puts up with last-minute ideas and shenanigans. It goes back to, without you, there’s absolutely no way where we could be running all these chapters,”
Donnie: That’s true.
Chad: Who spends more time staring at their phone? Donnie: Me
Kevin: Donnie, yup. Chad: who’s more likely to start an argument? Kevin: Me.
Chad: Whose more likely to end an argument? Donnie: Me.
Chad: who’s more likely to save money? Donnie: Kevin.
Kevin: We’re just now getting into where we talk about money stuff. Chad: Who is clumsier?
Donnie: Kevin.
Chad: Who is chattier?
Donnie: Me.
Chad: Who’s funnier?
Donnie: Me, for sure.
Kevin: There are different types of humor. Donnie: Who’s cold and dry and has no personality? Chad: Who is messier?
Donnie: Me
Chad: Who is more dramatic?
Kevin: Donnie.
Donnie: Probably. Chad: Who is more organized? Donnie: Keven, for sure.
Chad: whose more adventurous?
Donnie: Oh, me for sure.
Kevin: I’m all for them, I just don’t normally instigate them. Chad: Who is the better secret keeper? Donnie: I think that’s a tie. I don’t think we’ve let the cat out of the bag anywhere. Chad: Who would last longer on a deserted island?
Donnie: What resources do we have? I don’t know. He’s been longer in the military so… Kevin: Donnie would be the skipper, and I would be the professor. Donnie: Nah, you’re more like Gilligan. Chad: Who is needier when sick?
Donnie: OH that’s me. When I get sick, my wife wants to leave me. I’m like a 2-year-old. Chad: Ok, last one: who is more likely to scream at the sight of a spider? Kevin: I would say me, I would jump in Donnie’s arms if I saw a snake on the farm.
Donnie: We have orb spiders here that make 8 ft webs. They are like twine, and you can’t find the spider anywhere. Scares the crap out of me. Kevin: Once my parents thought it was a great idea to bring me to the reptile section at the zoo…not a great plan. Chad: Okay, so name something that taught you to see and understand things differently? Donnie: Running a business. I mean, no one ever tells you how hard it’s going to be. I think alongside that, you meet yourself a lot along the way. When you wake up and realize nobody else is left in the lane but yourself, you learn pretty quickly and figure it out.
Kevin: For me, I go back to getting commissioned as an officer. The business I had going on at the time was really the first tier. After I went through the commissioning process and did officer stuff, the focus was on the ability to make decisions but
see what the second and third effects will be and building what we call in the military, branches, and sequels off of that decision, which wasn’t a skill I had before but I think everything we do with Success Champions Networking the ability to have an idea and then think, “okay what impact will this have?” This sometimes leads me down to analysis paralysis. But I think it’s helped us avoid some disasters at the same time. I think that’s a huge skill I didn’t have before joining the military. Chad: What is your daily routine? Donnie: I’m still up at 4 am in the morning. I don’t work out as much as I used to, just kickboxing. But I’m still up, reading, journaling, taking care of the farm. Sitting by the desk at 7 am, gunning it. I probably do more meetings in a day than most people do in a week. I will regularly have 10 – 30 messenger conversations going on between Facebook and LinkedIn. It drives Kevin bonkers. Then I’m done at 9 pm at the latest. Thursdays I take off at 2 pm and hang out with the wife and do farm stuff and then on weekends I do business in the morning and farm in the afternoon.
Kevin: I’m actually in the process of adjusting my routine. Normally I would get up at 7 or 7:30 am and be at my desk at 8:30. I’m trying to push my day earlier to be able to work out in the morning. By night, I’m mentally beat and I’m just going to have a beer instead. My day is usually: Get up, do emails, lately it’s been meetings between chapters and really cool clients now that are referring me all the time. So it’s a lot of meetings as well, between the chapters, Donnie and I working on stuff, champions, meetings with other clients. I take a break around 4:30 pm and get away from the screen. I will eat, make dinner. Then around 6-7 pm, I will watch Mash, that’s a daily routine. Then I’ll hop back on the computer and do the bulk of my creative stuff, building out automation or emails or creating pages, because I don’t get interrupted by anyone other than Donnie. During the day there are too many interruptions that I can’t actually get stuff done. So I’ll work from 7 am-midnight, then go to bed. Sometimes later. If I’m in the zone, I’ve been known to work till 2 or 3 am.
Donnie: There are not many people I meet who will put in the work that we are willing to put in. It takes a lot of hours to pull off the vision we have. It takes work but it is more than hard work, it’s finding the right badasses who geek out at the stuff you suck at. Chad: So, I was gonna ask what’s your favorite memory working with Kevin, but then we all know that all the memories are equally precious to you. Donnie: I don’t know the favorite memory. It’s been a fun ride. You never know what you don’t know. I think anybody who is running a business is thinking through what they need and what they need help with. Working with Kevin…he’s one of those guys that’s working as fast as I am and constantly coming up with new ways to say “Hey look at this, I got this idea”. At the end of the day, it’s been a lot of fun. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows though.
Kevin: Oh no, we fight like brothers.
Donnie: Especially when Kevin gets in his onetrack mind and all of a sudden he’s all offended by everything I say. Kevin: Donnie and I have gotten really good and reading each other’s moods and personalities. Sometimes Donnie will be like, “okay, you’re getting really frustrated right now” and I’m like “don’t tell me how I feel!” If someone would have told me 5 years ago I would be starting a Kevin: “After I went through the commissioning process and did officer stuff, the focus was on the ability to make decisions but see what the second and third effects will be...”
networking organization with an HR head from Texas and we would have a podcast that is in the top 25 on iTunes I would have been like, “yeah, no”. But it’s been a really cool experience. It’s been a natural evolution of what we were doing at the beginning and I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve learned a ton. I would not trade the last 4 years for *almost* anything.
Donnie: I would 100% agree. Even in the beginning of January 2020 nobody could’ve convinced me I’d be running networking groups. It’s funny because we actually scrolled through our Messenger chat to March 17, 2020, to find the original “Hey Kevin, I’ve got an idea” which I hit him with at 4:27 in the morning to launch the networking groups. With everything we’ve built together, I think we took all of that and packaged it up, and put it into Success Champions. To wrap this thing up, you better hold on tight because Kevin and I are going to change the world and how the world networks. And I really believe there will be a podcast episode of SCN vs BNI on Business Wars. I think that we will become a global brand that people will come to know, embrace and love. It’s going to be a badass ride.
A Note about our cover photo. If the last year has taught us anything, it is that we have to be adaptable. This is a composite photo from two different shoots. Neither of the subjects were together (they have only met in person once). We wanted the feature article to show them together as a team, so we did what many of us have been doing all year, we used technology to bring people “closer.”
