Welcome to episode 233 of the Business Development Podcast.

Over time, iteration reveals more than just your better strategy.

It uncovers your passions and aligns you with your true purpose.

Capital.

Business development didn't start with clarity, but through constant refinement, it's become a company built on meaning, not just motion.

Today, we're talking how iteration can do the same for you.

Stick with us.

You are not going to want to miss this episode.

The great Mark Cuban once said, business happens over years and years.

Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.

And we couldn't agree more.

This is the Business Development Podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world.

You'll get expert business development advice, tips and experiences.

And you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs, CEOs and business development reps.

You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business brought to you by Capital Business Development, CapitalBD CA.

Let's do it.

Welcome to the Business Development Podcast.

And now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Hello.

Welcome to episode 233 of the Business Development Podcast.

And first off, it is April 29, 2025.

We had an election yesterday, and I feel like I need to just address that quickly before we head into today's show.

Now, first off, let's acknowledge that this has been an absolute crazy week for Canada.

And no matter which side you fall on politically, you're likely having feelings, strong feelings, I'm sure.

And what I can say is this.

We must work to stay optimistic.

We have to look for the opportunities and recognize that life and business will continue to move forward no matter who is in power.

Your attitude, good or bad, will make or break you, whether you think you can or you think you can't.

You are right.

I know there's lots of you out there right now.

Literally 50% of the country on either side.

It was like a 50, 50 split for our worldwide listeners.

We got 50% liberals pretty well and 50% conservatives just showing, you know, how split Canada is as a country.

Very much an east, west divide.

And there's a lot of people right now feeling things, you know, regardless of what side you fall on.

It was a 50, 50 split.

Very, very close.

Liberal, minority government.

And there's a lot of people, no matter what side you're on, having feelings today about what that means for your future.

Listen, each one of us have a choice.

Each one of us can choose to show up, continue to move forward, look after our families, look after our businesses, help our fellow countrymen, and just continue to move forward with our lives.

And I encourage each and every one of you.

I know it's really, really easy to end up depressed or feeling bad regarding elections, regarding politics, but understand that regardless of who's in charge, no matter what, you have to move forward.

Your business has to move forward, your family has to be looked after, and at the end of the day, that's all that matters.

So continue to be optimistic.

Continue to look forward.

There is always hope.

No matter what side you're on, there is hope for each and every one of us.

Now let's get into today's topic because I am really, really excited about it.

It's something that I and Capital Business Development have been in the middle of for quite some time.

Behind the scenes, my company, Capital Business Development has been going through a bit of a reinvention or reiteration.

This has become a necessity for me as my the direction of the Business Development podcast and the direction of Capital Business Development has started to become very, very clear.

When I started Capital, I did not know what we were going to become.

I knew three things at the time.

I was good at business development, there was an opportunity to perform it fractionally, and I wanted to change the industry and give back to the business community.

I knew these things, I knew them well.

But like many people who find themselves in a long term career, that jump to entrepreneurship can feel very challenging and very hard.

And you know, maybe it does stay hard, but you get better and better and better at it.

I guess for me, when I got into business, I just knew that I could do a whole bunch of things.

I didn't really know how to implement them or how to make a business out of it or what that business would even be.

And so, so much clarity came from reiteration over time.

The first iteration of Capital Business Development was Direct Business Development services.

So these were just like contracting, just consulting services, hourly rate, right.

Like most people do when they jump into business.

Just price myself offered the service and saw who would buy it.

When I started Capital Business Development, I would incorporate, establish and manage a business development program on behalf of a company, typically two to four days a week.

In the beginning it was actually pretty easy to sell this service.

One, I was way underpricing myself and two, it seemed to make a lot of sense to companies who just wanted that fractional bd.

They didn't want a full time business development person, but they wanted someone who, who could still perform that service at a fraction of the Cost.

So in the beginning it worked really, really well for me, but it had some pretty big holes.

Number one, I was limited to who I could help.

There were only so many companies that could actually afford my services.

Also, I only had so much time each week to perform them.

Typically, I could only work for about two organizations at a time, tops.

Number two, it was expensive for these organizations.

While it was still cheap and I was underpricing myself, I was still very expensive.

Compared to, say, an employee rate you kind of have to be in order to be a consultant or a contractor.

And so it was always a hard pitch, even though once we got in, the results really proved themselves.

In the beginning, it was kind of a hard sell from time to time to explain to people why I was so much more expensive than an employee.

Number three, it got really, really tedious having to deliver over and over and over again, consistently on short timelines, short schedul.

Over time, it was just getting really, really hard for me to manage.

I did it for a long time, it worked well, but I was losing my passion for it, working under those conditions.

Number four, it was not scalable.

At the end of the day, even when I hired help, it was really hard to make money at it because employees are expensive.

And so I would have to consistently up my prices to the point where it just wasn't really making a whole lot of sense.

And so basically, if I couldn't perform the work, I was very limited to what I could do.

So the scalability simply wasn't there.

The amount of people I could help simply was not there.

And last but not least, it simply wasn't profitable enough over time.

At the end of the day, I was basically making an employee wage, running a company, trying to do this retainer based services on an hourly basis.

So it just was not working.

This was the first iteration of capital business development.

And while it was easy to wrap my head around in the beginning, over time I realized that it was not going to work for me long term.

Now, it was during this time that we launched the show you're listening to today, the business development podcast.

At the time I was thinking, how can I share my knowledge with the world and bring more interest to capital?

Well, this was it.

And at the time it was really new and it provided no revenue to the business.

However, I realized how important a show like this could be to the business community as a whole.

And my gosh, I had no idea, guys, how popular this show would be that it would take off, that people would actually care, that we could make a huge impact in people's lives.

When I started the show talking to my wall, I questioned who would even listen, right?

I think I've told you guys plenty of times.

It was episode three that was nearly the end of this show.

Because I was just thinking to myself, what am I doing?

I didn't like that particular episode.

I was.

I think I was sick that day, or I was just having feelings about it.

And episode three was nearly the end.

But I stuck with it.

I stuck with it.

I believed in it.

I wanted to educate and inspire.

I wanted to share my knowledge with the world.

And here we are, 233 episodes later.

Fast forward a year, and podcast advertising was now added as a product.

And this was a massive learning curve for me.

Obviously, I never worked in advertising.

I worked in business development.

And to this day, advertising is still challenging.

Advertising is still an area that is not, you know, a perfect expertise for me.

But I'm getting better and better at it year over year, and I understand the space much better now.

And a funny story from this time, and I have to give a gigantic shout out to.

To longtime sponsor of the show, Rodney Lover of At work office furniture.

Him and Colin Harms of Hyper V were our very first sponsors.

Still to this day, they sponsor the show.

Appreciate them both.

Incredible, incredible people on both fronts.

But a funny story from this is that Rodney reached out to me right in the beginning when I first kind of asked him if he would be interested in sponsoring the show.

And he asked me a question that at the time, I didn't really know what he meant.

And he asked, Kelly, do you want to get into advertising?

And at the time I was thinking, well, yeah, like, I have the show.

I'm building an audience.

I need support.

Like, I need something to fund this show because running a podcast gets more expensive as you go along.

And at the time, it was a really funny question because I didn't really know what he meant by it.

I thought, yeah, of course I want to sell advertising on the show.

Like, duh.

But the funny thing is I didn't understand what he meant by it, and I definitely do now.

What he meant and what he was really saying at the time was, kelly, put your helmet on, kid, because you are about to learn a brand new skill set and jump into a pond that you know nothing about.

So, Rodney, giant shout out.

You saw it way ahead of me at the time, I was literally thinking, yeah, like, I do.

I'm pretty confident I know what I'm doing here.

No, I've had to learn a ton.

And I'm proud to say that At Work and Rodney have stuck with us.

And having At Work and Hyper V Colin Harms in our corner has made all of this show possible.

But absolutely it was an iteration at the time that I didn't see the full ramifications of and that I am still learning to this day.

It was a full skill set that I didn't quite understand that I had to grasp over time, but has made the advertising better on the show, has made me better a better marketer, a better business developer.

But it was a whole new skill set.

And that simple question, are you sure you really want to do that?

Was actually more important than I could have ever imagined at that time.

Now, there's a funny thing about podcasts, and it was something that I didn't realize early on.

Listen, if you launch a podcast in 2025, 2026, whenever you're hearing this in the beginning, it looks like I can do this.

I'll produce the show myself.

It'll have very little cost and it'll have a whole lot of impact.

Listen.

Doing a podcast is a labor of love.

They are typically not ever going to make you rich.

They are, however, going to give you a platform to work from, a platform to educate from, a platform to make a difference from.

If you want to do podcasting long term, listen, and I'm by long term, I mean probably more than, let's call it 50 episodes.

If you want to do more than 50 episodes, you are going to need help.

You are going to need fans who support you.

You're going to need sponsors who get behind you.

You're going to need partners in the space who believe in your mission, who inspire you, who egg you on, who help you continue to push.

Because the longer you're in a podcast, believe it or not, the harder and more expensive it is to keep going and going and going and going.

And so having sponsors is super, super important.

And I did not realize that at the time.

Podcasts cannot continue without revenue.

Mark my words, they cannot continue long term without revenue.

You have to figure out a way to generate revenue.

Your time, the software and programs needed, and advertising are all high, high cost that you are going to need to figure out where you get that money from.

This is where sponsors, you know, people supporting the show, things along those lines, they really will benefit you long term.

You have to have them.

Because the costs of producing your podcasts only go up as your show gets better and better and better partners are critical.

You're not going to make it long term.

In podcasting in business, if you do not have people who believe in your mission, your vision, and what you want to do.

Podcast advertising has taught me that relationships are absolutely everything in advertising.

Relationships are absolutely key because advertising is one of those things where results are sometimes they're great, sometimes they're not so great.

You really need to manage those relationships.

Like I said with podcast advertising, it's so much more about having people who believe in you and your mission and your vision and want to be a part of it than it is necessarily.

But all the results, yeah, they get results, but the real value in podcast advertising is the impact you make in the world.

Consistent improvement is a must in advertising.

You have to consistently be reiterating your ads, be adding more value, be figuring out how to get more eyes on your customers, on your advertisers and your partners.

And you have to be looking to improve always.

Right?

With this show, I'm constantly looking to improve, not just with the show quality, not just with the topics, but also with the advertising and stuff that we do with it.

I don't want to bore you guys.

I want to make sure that if we are delivering ads to you, they're the best possible ads.

They resonate with you.

There's something that's valuable to you and valuable to our advertisers.

So we have to kind of always be working together to make sure that we have the best mix.

The amount of episodes that you advertise on is also critical.

I've seen podcasts that advertise based on one episode.

Oh, come on.

We'll introduce you to the episode, we'll charge you whatever, a thousand bucks, give you the episode, and that's that.

Listen, one episode is not enough to make an impact.

You need to have consistent podcast episode exposure as an advertiser, as somebody working with podcasts, in order to make an impact for your sponsors.

So episode count matters on the BDP now we look at about 50 episodes minimum.

Our smallest packages start there.

Why?

We want to make sure that for every advertiser, we're giving them the best possible exposure.

Consistent exposure over a large number of episodes is required to have success.

This is something we did not know in the beginning, I did not learn in the beginning.

In the beginning, we put them in like five episodes and hope for the best.

That's not how it works.

You need consistent, large amounts of exposure over time to give people the best possible results.

So we have to be looking at larger episode numbers to make it work for people and Continuously improving and adding value is the secret to long term success.

You have to be constantly looking to add value no matter what you do, no matter what your business is, you need to be looking to add value wherever possible.

And advertising is no joke different.

So there you have it, guys.

We were doing fractional complete business development services.

We were running a podcast and then we were selling advertising, albeit very challenging.

Reiterating on pricing, packages and proposals was ongoing the entire time.

But I kept running into the same problem over and over again.

Direct service is expensive, there's no way around it.

Chasing renewals is exhausting.

And I could help the clients only up until the contract was done and then they were on their own.

So my business development services, as great as they were, they were only really effective until the contract was up.

If the client couldn't renew, they were kind of shit out of luck.

Like that was kind of the end of the service.

They could maybe try to internalize that, but many of them just dropped the program altogether because they hired me because they couldn't manage it.

And last but not least, I was getting really burned out by the consistent struggle and simply just not feeling fulfilled.

I wasn't feeling super, super passionate about what I was doing.

It was working, I was good at it.

But honestly, it was just starting to become a real slog.

And what I realized at that time was my fulfillment was not coming from running capital, business development or the day to day work.

It was coming from this very podcast.

This was the place, guys.

It was you, our rockstar listenership, who was reaching out, letting me know that what I was doing was having an impact in your life, helping you get that job, helping you start that business, helping you grow that business week over week.

It was those constant reach outs from our amazing listenership on the show that gave me passion and purpose and it made everything feel great.

My fulfillment was not coming from running capital or the day to day work.

It was coming from this podcast and from helping and teaching business developers and founders around the world.

And listening to the impact that this show was making made me happy.

It was the impact and the purpose this show gave me that was truly driving me and making me happy.

And most important of all, it was showing me where my passion in this space really is.

And what it is, guys, is I absolutely love coaching and teaching business development and entrepreneurship.

And I'm not sure if you've realized this yet, maybe if you've been listening to the show for a long time, you've realized that I have a lot of passion in this space.

But it's so much for teaching, educating and inspiring you guys, right?

Like, that's what I love.

That's truly what I love.

I love that more than direct business development all day long.

I love helping other people.

I love teaching and I look forward to every opportunity to talk and teach on the subject as I can get.

And I started giving virtual lectures every chance I could.

I started doing podcasts as a BD expert, sharing my knowledge.

And I launched my one to one Business Development Mastery program, which I'm sure many of you have heard of thus far, which has been a total game changer for not just me, but for all of my students as well.

And that brings us to today.

So we are going through yet another iteration and Capital Business Development is now evolving once more.

Capital Business Development is now becoming a premium coaching and advisory firm, helping companies build powerful, scalable business development engines from within.

Instead of doing business development for companies, we now focus on coaching, strategy and leadership support, giving businesses the tools, systems and guidance they need to drive their own growth with confidence and most importantly, sustainability.

Instead of delivering BD as a service, we now empower businesses with strategies, systems and tools to do it themselves.

And in addition to this, I'm super excited to announce that we are also launching the founders cohort of the Business Development Mastery Group Program accelerator, which is my first group coaching program.

So guys, to say that I'm excited about this is the understatement of the century.

I'm ecstatic about this new path and I would not have gotten here without reiteration after reiteration.

If you are launching a business or finding that your business and services are getting stale, don't be afraid to try something different.

You are likely closer than you think to something absolutely incredible.

And here are seven tips on iteration that will hopefully help you guys get to your next stage.

And I hope it's something absolutely incredible for you.

Number one, clarity does not come from planning, it comes from doing.

Guys, I couldn't have seen my path and I've said it a thousand times on the show.

The best opportunities, you won't see them coming.

Almost everybody that I've talked to you that's done something incredible and I asked them, did you see that coming?

They say, no, it showed up on my doorstep.

You have to be ready to say yes, you can make the best plans in the world, guess what?

They're probably not going to plan.

And the thing that's going to be incredible for you, you won't see it coming.

Just be ready, keep moving Forward, keep doing.

You will figure out what you need to do next and that opportunity will present it to you.

Number two, you won't get it right the first time.

And that's the point.

Listen, if we were all brilliant and had the best ideas right off the bat, everybody would be successful at business.

Everything would go to plan.

We know that that's not how it goes.

Listen, you just have to get started.

You won't get it right the first time, but you can't get it right if you never start.

Just start.

Whatever you're looking to do, just start.

Trust me.

Number three, the right business model serves you and your clients.

It's a two way street, guys.

It can't just serve you and it can't just serve your clients.

If you're too far in one direction, somebody is getting let down.

Find win win scenarios, find something that's great for you and great for your clients and double down.

You're on the right path.

Number four, let go of what worked when it no longer fits.

Just like the beginning.

Just like when I talked about in the beginning when I was doing the retainer services and it was working but it wasn't fitting, I wasn't feeling passionate about it.

I couldn't sustain it, I couldn't scale it right.

I wasn't on the right path and I had to let it go.

And if I hadn't of let that go, I wouldn't be heading in the direction I'm going in today, which is truly towards my passion, still doing what I'm great at.

You have to let go of things that are not working for you.

Even if they feel good in the moment.

There's probably something better for you down the line.

Don't be afraid to let it go.

You can't move forward if you don't let go of what is not working for you.

Number five.

Your customers will show you the way if you listen.

Ask for help.

Ask people what they need and listen.

Listen over time.

Get feedback every chance you get and iterate.

Feedback, iterate, feedback, iterate.

You will never have it perfect.

Understand that no matter what you do, no matter how great your product and service is, it can always be better.

Always be looking on how to iterate and how to get closer and closer and closer to what moves you forward.

Number six, Reinvention is the cost of staying aligned.

Like I said, I had to find my passion.

Everything that I did along the way led me to discover my passion.

In the beginning it was business development and then it moved to just love teaching through Podcasting.

And then it moved to I love just teaching, period, through coaching.

And now my business, my coaching programs and my podcast are all aligned with things that I'm passionate about.

Reinvention is the cost of staying aligned.

If you're not reinventing, you're likely letting yourself down somewhere along the line.

And number seven, you don't pivot away from your vision, you pivot towards it.

Every change brings you closer to your purpose, guys.

Every single time you take another step, every change to your business, every time you listen to a customer and implement something new, every time you find something that's win win, you're one step closer to finding what drives you, what you're passionate about.

And when you can find that and get alignment in your business, the rest is history.

The truth is, every version of capital business development wasn't a detour.

It was a necessary step towards the business.

It was always meant to be.

If you're feeling stuck in the process, keep going.

Reiteration is not a sign that you're off track.

It's the work that will make sure you end up on the right track long term.

Thank you so much.

You know, I haven't said this in a while.

I think it's time.

To all the listeners of the business Development podcast, thank you so much.

Thank you for your support.

Whether you got on with us on episode two or, you know, you found us at episode 200, I appreciate each and every one of you.

Thank you so much.

If you've taken the time to write to me on LinkedIn, I can't tell you how powerful that is, how much it means to me.

Thank you for every email, for every LinkedIn message, for connecting, for every comment, for following us, for telling your friends and family.

I can't tell you how much that means to me.

This show grows by word of mouth.

If you have a chance today and this episode resonated with you, please do share it with a friend, a family member.

That's how these things grow over time.

But this show would not exist if you guys didn't listen.

And so I just want to say thank you so much.

Thanks for sticking with us.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for believing in me.

Could not, could not, could not do this show without you.

I'm beyond excited to launch our Founders Cohort of Business Development Mastery Accelerator Group coaching program.

I cannot, cannot wait.

You will see it coming up on LinkedIn here shortly.

Our first group is only 10 individuals.

It is limited to make sure that we are getting the highest possible quality.

It is my full $7,500 one on one business development mastery Program broken down into a group format and done over six weeks.

It is powerful if you're in business development, if you run a business, if you have any responsibility at all in growing a business, this is for you.

You're going to absolutely love it and it is priced affordable.

So very much looking forward to launching that.

Keep an eye out for it.

It will be being posted on my LinkedIn here in the coming week.

And last but not least, if you have any community questions for the show, you want them answered on a future episode.

We haven't done community questions in quite some time.

I'd love to one.

Please do send me whatever questions you have to podcast capitalbd ca.

Happy to answer anything and we'll try to get those sorted for you on a future episode.

Shout outs this week Colin Harms, Rodney lover, Carmen LaBelle, Simon Osler, Lauren Graff, Nike Hayes, Jason Chakalakal, Gary Nosworthy, Jeffrey Agapong, Isa Montalvo, Oliver Ramirez, Tristan Keller, Jamar Jones, Susan Paseka, Alionette, Cassiano, Roop Bata, Chardi, Tyson Hunt, Eric Portillo, Rudy A.

Zacharias, Tyler Bentley, Kelsey Watt, Chris Young, Trish Lyons, Rachel Blanton, Nate Simpson and Jason Michaud.

Until next time, you've been listening to the Business Development Podcast and we will catch you on the flip side.

This has been the Business Development Podcast with Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development.

The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your business development specialists.

For more, we invite you to the website at www.capitalbd.ca.

see you next time on the Business Development Podcast.