I will never forget that experience because I was on the verge of losing our house.

We had personal guarantees on the loans and that was the worst time in my life.

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 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 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 326 of the Business Development Podcast and on today's show it is my absolute pleasure to bring you Chris Young.

Chris is a seasoned business development strategist, creative marketing mind and the newly appointed executive director of the Edmonton Destination Marketing hotels.

Representing over 50 hotels in the region.

With more than 2 decades of experience spanning law, private capital markets and professional business services, Chris brings a unique blend of corporate insight and entrepreneurial drive to every project he touches.

Through Lateral Thought Inc. And a portfolio of ventures like Convos Media and Convos Method, he's helped countless professionals, from lawyers to accountants, build visibility, grow their client base and align their marketing efforts with tangible revenue goals.

As the host of this professional life, Chris doesn't just talk strategy, he lives it.

His mission is clear.

Empower service driven professionals to reclaim their time, amplify their impact and turn business development from a dreaded chore into a strategic edge.

Whether he's building podcasts that close million dollar deals or leading destination wide tourism initiatives, Chris brings sharp focus, unstoppable energy and a passion for authentic connection.

He's not just shaping conversations, he's shifting the way professionals grow.

Chris, it's an honor and a privilege to have you on the show today.

Pleasure is all mine.

I Kelly amazing podcast.

So happy to be on your podcast and that was an amazing introduction.

Oh, thank you very much dude.

I, I, I've had the pleasure of knowing you for at this point, probably coming on almost two years, which has been incredible.

I'm grateful and thankful to have you in my circle.

You know it was a funny introduction because it was Colin Harms, a mutual friend of both of us who made the introduction and he's an incredible individual and you guys actually go pretty far Back.

Yep.

We go way back to my private capital raising days.

And yeah, Colin's amazing, super successful entrepreneur who lives and breathes everything he talks about.

He does.

Oh, yeah, yeah, man.

And you know, we have to talk podcasting because we're both podcasters.

I have to say thank you.

I was actually a guest on this professional life for 2025.

So if you're hearing this, go on back.

Check out this Professional Life with Chris Young.

I am, I believe, the first episode of 2025, which was an honor and a privilege on my side.

So thanks for having me.

I really enjoyed our conversation.

It was amazing.

Yeah, a lot of great insights.

We talked about personal branding, authentic personal branding, which is a huge topic for 20, especially in the.

In the professional services space.

As more professionals get onto platforms and figure out how do they adopt this digital strategy to build their brand?

Because that's the differentiating factor for a lot of those professionals.

Well, and you're.

You're truly an expert in that space.

And so honestly, I can't wait to chat with you about that today because I think, you know, people are hearing this in 2026, and I think lot of people hearing this episode are probably struggling with that very challenge right at the moment.

They're hearing this episode because there's been a shift.

It's been going slower, but it's accelerating and accelerating and accelerating.

And learning how to build your personal brand no matter what you do is going to be a very valuable skill as we head into 2026 and beyond.

Yeah, you know, the, the big, the biggest mindset shift that professionals need to take, and this is where they struggle is crossing that invisible border.

Call it from that traditional mentality of this is my professional hat, and it stays on when I'm doing my work and then I take it off.

This is my personal hat and that's when I'm at home and, you know, out with the kids and doing stuff.

And it's the blend of that, and that's where that authenticity comes in.

And I think a lot of more seasoned professionals, they struggle with that.

How do you blend those two together?

And once they do figure it out, it's a game changer for their business.

Yeah.

Honestly, I don't blame them though.

Right.

Like, most of us, I do not know most of us, most of us went to school thinking we were going to be something.

You're a perfect example of this.

And I can't wait to dive into your story.

But a lot of us went to school thinking we're going to go do something.

And we're going to do that, and we're going to be able to separate business life and, and personal life and kind of just do our own thing, because that's how it was done forever, right?

And then suddenly it was like Covid happened.

And suddenly it's like, no, that's not enough anymore.

It's great that you're great at what you do, but now we need to know and see more of you.

We want to know who you are, and I think all of us are struggling with how to handle that.

It's funny because, you know, you started your podcast before me.

You launched your show back in 2021.

2022, was it?

Yeah, it was probably 2022.

2ish when I really started trying to get more consistent.

It's funny because I wasn't even thinking about brand building when I started this show.

You know, I started mine in 2023.

So, you know, I mean, you beat me to it.

And at the time, I just wasn't even thinking about brand building.

I was thinking, how can I get more of myself out into the world?

How can I share my knowledge with the world?

It turned out that there was a way that I could do that through teaching business development, through having these entrepreneurial interviews that would help people.

And I just decided, you know what, what a great way to just shine some light on what I was doing, which at the time was capital.

Business development still is on a certain level, but it was like, how can I get more eyes on what I'm doing?

Oh, well, I'll just share some knowledge with the world and see what happens.

I wasn't even thinking about personal brand building.

It wasn't until I'd like, interviewed like five to 10 different people in the space where I'm like, holy shit.

Like, this is.

This is a real thing.

This is really happening and it's super important.

And so if I didn't see it coming, I'm sure there's many, many, many people who are still like, what the heck do I do?

Yeah, well, and you know, for me, the influences were actually stem from YouTube.

Right.

I, you know, and I'll tell talk about my story in a second here, but, you know, I always want to be in the film industry.

And when YouTube came on, I actually started thinking, well, how do I leverage this platform to do stuff?

Yeah.

And initially it was just making videos, funny videos with my friend and uploading it.

But as I decided to bridge that gap with my business development side of my work, that's when I Thought maybe I could teach some things about business development on my YouTube channel.

And then that led to, oh, these influencers are, like, doing podcasting.

Then it's like, well, why can't I do that?

So initial my first few episodes was just talking about, you know, business development concepts in a podcast.

Then I'm like, how do I expand my network?

Maybe I should just start interviewing some other experts, because I don't know, know all of it.

Yes.

And.

And that's through that process was when people started saying, hey, you.

You're pretty good at podcasting, or you're good at asking questions and really like your style.

And to be honest, I didn't even think about personal branding until those comments start coming in.

Yeah.

When people are like, hey, you're really good on camera.

You're really good at talking about this.

You're very knowledgeable in this.

And that's when I started really thinking about what does it mean to have a personal brand?

And that also forces you to be authentic because, you know, there's only so much you can make up before people see through it.

Yeah.

And so at that point, that's where my blend of personal and professional came in.

And I've just continued that since then.

I wish I could sit here and say, dude, I had it all planned out.

I knew exactly what was going to happen.

Everything I did was strategic, and I would be lying through my teeth, dude.

I had no idea what a personal brand was until, like, let's call it 2024.

Like, I wasn't even paying any attention.

I already 100 episodes into the show before the concept even, like, really set hold in Me, where it's like, oh, you're actually doing something.

You're actually building a personal brand here.

Right.

Like, and I can't be alone in this, man.

Like, I can't be that late to the party.

And it's funny because I was in the party before I realized that, holy crap, like, I'm actually doing something here.

I think that's why I can't blame anybody who's struggling with their own brand building right now, no matter what you do, because I think it's a such a foreign concept that you're building yourself, not the company you work for, not the company you built.

It's about you.

And I think everybody is struggling with, oh, crap, I don't want to be in the limelight.

That scares the bejesus out of me.

What.

What if I say the wrong thing?

What if I do the wrong thing?

And it's like, I Kind of hate to break it to people because by the time you're hearing this, it doesn't really matter.

You're not really going to have a choice.

You have start embodying this.

But one of the things that I have learned along the way, Chris, is that it's not as scary as people make it out to be.

I think people are really afraid of something that rarely happens.

Yep, yep.

Yeah.

And we've talked about this a few times too.

You're right.

It rarely happens.

And if you're authentic, it is.

You can't get away from that.

I also think about it, and when I coach some lawyers who are a little bit more seasoned, who are hesitant, you know, I, I always ask them to think of that, go to person for whatever they're doing.

And everybody in every industry has that person in the legal field is.

It's the.

Oh, you need to talk to so and so.

Because they are, they are the litigator when it comes to oil and gas.

Yeah.

Or that corporate lawyer.

Yeah.

Go to for anything.

Franchising.

So then you go back and say, how did they do that?

Well, they built their personal brand.

Because a lot of times in the legal field, you don't say, oh, I go to that law firm because of that.

It's.

I go to that specific lawyer for their expertise in that.

Yeah.

So then when you break that down, it's like you've been building your personal brand all along.

We just have digital technology now to get you scale up, how you get out there and how you get known.

So that's the difference.

But people have been doing it forever.

Yes.

Well.

And you know, like, the video aspect of it is something that I've really struggled with.

And it's funny because we do this podcast and the podcast people say, oh, Kelly, you're so public.

You know, we see you on the podcast, we see the clips, but I'm like, no, this is still very intimate.

Right.

This isn't me talking to, you know, thousands of people.

This is me talking to Chris Young.

Right.

Like, it's still not the same.

It's not the same.

There's a degree of separation.

And I've always struggled with the speaking directly to camera level video where you're like, you're podcasting, let's call it, but you're speaking to the audience specifically.

I have struggled with that, man.

I still struggle with that to this day.

It's something that you're incredibly good at.

I admire that about you.

Your YouTube videos are incredible.

You know, your production quality is Incredible.

Talk to me a little bit about the process that took you to that spot.

Comes from a lot of my teaching background.

So here's a bit of history of.

Of my journey into my wild career.

I actually graduated from the University of Alberta Faculty of Education.

So I started as a school teacher.

I did that for five years.

And what's been interesting is that as I've progress through the private industry in various business development roles, that education component has always stuck there.

So there was a bit of a natural fit for me to take that same approach in developing curriculum, developing lesson plans, to actually use that as a framework to build out my videos.

So a lot of videos on YouTube that I see, I take a concept and I break it down to introducing, you know, the history of it, and then what is it about?

Some case studies about it.

And then finally I wrap it up with, here are the five key learning points.

Right?

Yeah.

And so I really put my teacher hat on when it comes to that.

And that's.

That's the process.

And then you just fill in the blanks to fill out the video.

But that's essentially it.

Yeah.

How do I want to educate my audience?

What are.

How can I apply the concepts to what I know about my audience's struggles and challenges?

Yes.

I love that I came to that same kind of conclusion accidentally when learning how to do my show plans, because with my Wednesday shows, they're always educational.

Right.

And so, like, I have zero teacher background is not my world at all.

But I did.

I did end up doing something similar where it's like, you know, you have to introduce the subject, you got to go a little bit of background on the subject, and then you got to kind of speak to the challenges people may have or maybe having, and then you have to kind of give them some action items or something they can work on.

And I always try to give that from my own experience wherever possible, because I think everybody's got their own take on it.

But your experience is what's authentic to you.

And so if you want to be authentic, you have to speak to what you know, not necessarily what everyone else knows.

And I, you know, the reality is at this.

At this point, we've done so many episodes of the show that I do start to delve into topics I don't have a lot of experience on.

So I'm having to rely a lot more on research than I did in the beginning.

But I always give the references, and I do tend to mention, like, hey, like, I'm learning, too.

Like, you're Learning together.

But.

But yeah, it's been.

It's been a journey, man.

And I want to chat with you about video specifically because I think for a lot of our listeners, that is going to be the thing in 2026 that everybody's trying to do more of is how do I put myself out there on video?

So I really can't wait to dive deep into how you go about doing that, how you work yourself up for it too.

Right.

Because there's definitely a challenge and I know by the time you've done as many as you have, it's probably a lot less.

But take.

Eventually take us back to the beginning, but before we do that, you have one of the most incredible journeys of almost anybody I've had on this show.

And I'm not even saying that.

I'm not even saying that.

Just blowing you up.

At the end of the day, I would have never seen the path you went on from the place you started from.

And you alluded to that really briefly by speaking.

You started in education.

Take me back, man.

Like, you're a serial entrepreneur.

Now you're an executive.

You're running, you know, one of the biggest hotel organizations, if not the biggest hotel organization in Edmonton.

But you started out a school teacher, man.

Take me back.

How.

How the heck do you make that transition?

Actually, it goes a few years before that because in high school, I fell in love with film and I started volunteering for a community broadcast group here in Edmonton.

They had a one hour spot on the Videotron Community Channel, Channel 10 at that time.

That ages me a little bit.

But, you know, I really love the technical aspect of it.

This group, they got some grant funding and they were able to get the latest camera gear.

And I got to play around with that camera gear.

But it's just this love of film.

Right.

I.

And I grew up.

My top favorite move of all time was back to the future is.

Yes.

Is up there.

Top gun is another one.

Amazing.

So Spielberg, Bruckheimer, like, they were just.

I love their stuff.

There was something about the film industry that I really got attracted to.

So I decided I want to get a career in film.

Growing up in a traditional Asian household, though, filmmaker was not on the list.

If it wasn't doctor, dentist, pharmacist, engineer.

It was kind of frowned upon.

Right.

And the.

And I don't blame my parents for having that mindset because in Asia, it's very competitive.

Right?

Getting a job is very competitive.

Stability and status is number one in Asia.

And so that's what they grew up with.

And their idea is you're looking for stability, you're looking for retirement.

Having a good retirement, you should focus on the jobs that give you that best opportunity.

So from that standpoint, I agree 100 with him from the western world.

Growing up here in Edmonton, you know, you're taught to think outside the box, be creative, push the boundaries.

And so there was a huge conflict personally that I, some will say a psychologist probably say I still haven't resolved yet.

Maybe I'm slowly resolving that.

But it was a big battle in my household when I said I want to go into filmmaking.

I got pre accepted into New York Film Academy and Vancouver Film School and my parents just.

Nope, they said, they gave me the speech and they said, why don't you do this?

Go to university, get a degree, have your foundation and then what you do thereafter, go ahead, go to film school.

What they don't tell you is when you do that, by the time you're done university, you're so burnt out.

It's a four year intensive degree.

You're so burnt out, you're now on the path of trying to get your first job.

You meet your future significant other in university.

That was in my case, fourth year education.

I met my wife.

And then you go buy a house, you move to a different city, you get a loan for a new car and now all these bills are there and you're like, well, I gotta stay teaching.

There is no time to do film school thereafter.

Could I have probably.

My life had shifted so much by that time.

Film school was basically off the table.

What's interesting is when I Look at when YouTube came in, that was.

I would have been the prime target to upload video to YouTube when it first started.

Yeah, How I know this is that peers of or same generation of Asian filmmakers in Southern California are now uber successful on YouTube.

Millions of followers, they've got Netflix deals and some of them even showed up in the big movie Crazy Rich Asians.

Oh, wow.

Timing.

We all talk about timing.

Bill Gates is a great example.

Had he have been born a year later or a year before, he wouldn't have been head of Microsoft.

And so timing and a bit of luck.

Film would have been an amazing industry to be at that time.

I didn't do that.

I didn't do well in school, let's just put it that way.

So I struggled through it, but I did get my bachelor's degree in education, came out, became a teacher, did that for five years.

And I, after five years, my wife and I took a Year off, we traveled in Asia.

Upon return, I didn't want to go back into teaching.

And that was when a close friend of ours said, hey, there's this private capital industry that's just growing here in Alberta.

There's a lot of private investment deals going.

You'd be good as a salesperson.

And I'm like, I have zero finance background.

And he's like, it doesn't matter.

You know how to talk to people, Chris.

He's like, I see you do it every day, so why don't you come and give it a try?

And so yeah, I ended up working for a real estate developer and we raised capital for first few projects and that led me to a huge opportunity to raise capital for two Hilton branded hotels across from the International Calgary International Airport.

Wow.

And I love that one because every day I, every time I go down to Calgary, drive back to Calgary, live there for 19 years, but you see the hotels, I see those two hotels and it just reminds me of the two years it took us to raise the amount of capital to build that.

But just being a part of that process and also getting to know the four owners behind it and their amazing entrepreneurial experience and the businesses they own and how they were, they were immigrant entrepreneurs and they literally came to Canada with the shirts on their back and that's it.

And they, they have built this multimillion dollar empire now and they do a lot for the economy here in Alberta.

So anyways, I was very inspired by what they did and started my own consulting company thereafter in the private capital markets.

But when things slowed down, my business partners and I decided to call it a day and I did a switch and went into corporate surprised, but I ended up getting a job at Dentons.

The largest law firm in the world.

Yep.

And, and I want to preface this before though, I invested a lot of money into two franchises in Calgary in the zero to five year old child education industry.

I end up losing everything in that business.

My wife and I and another business partner and his, his wife.

We invested a lot of money and no matter what we did, we threw a lot of bucks behind the marketing.

We redid the two play centers.

Nothing worked.

We came in to a bad time in the Calgary economy.

Energy was slowing down.

The moms who were paying premium to come to our stores had to go back to work because the husband's salary got cut in half.

Yeah.

And so you know, everybody in Calgary that big houses, two cars, right.

Wanted to took lavish trips and you know, to keep up that lifestyle, the mom had to.

Or the dad, you know, whoever stayed at home had to go back to work.

So we lost a good chunk of our membership.

Wow.

I will never forget that experience because I was on the verge of losing our house.

We had personal guarantees on the loans.

Yeah.

And that was the worst time in my life, in my professional career.

And I think part of it, too, is taking that massive hit to my ego.

You know, I had all this success coming up, and all sudden, nothing I was doing was working.

And this was in 2015.

Yeah, it was.

No, 2016.

So we bought the business, the franchise in 2015.

Yeah.

And we had to shut it down in 2018.

Oh, my goodness.

I was working in oil and gas in that time.

So, like, we've talked about this plenty on the show, but, you know, for our listeners who are maybe hearing this for the very first time, 2015 was probably the worst oil and gas downturn that Alberta has had in probably 20 years.

Like, it was horrible.

I watched, for instance, we did a lot of business in Nisku Leduc industrial area.

Half of that place was gone.

Like, people had built these massive modular buildings for building mods, for oil and gas facilities.

Gone, Just empty.

Right.

Like, buildings worth probably 20, 30 million dollars just empty overnight.

So, man, I feel for you.

I can't imagine what that must have been like in that time.

I. I gained, like, 40 pounds.

I.

My doctor, I did my blood test, and they're like, you've got a cholesterol problem.

You've got blood pressure problem.

And, you know, and we had three young kids at that time.

And, you know, in hindsight, you know, I look at that.

I was like, that was such a stupid investment.

Like, I.

But hindsight's 20 20, and you just gotta roll with the punches.

But it.

It got to a point, Kelly, where I was using my credit card to meet the minimum payments on our line of credit.

Yeah.

And then it got to the very end where I finally had to reach out.

And thank God I have loving parents who have done really well for themselves.

And I didn't want to do it, but.

But I said, dad, I have no choice here.

We could lose the house.

And so he was good.

He's like, nope.

He's like, let's not.

He's like, I don't need my grandkids starving here.

Yeah.

And so he.

He bridged some capital for us just to get by the next couple months.

And, yeah, it.

I've never been in, and I never want to ever go back into that position, which is.

Which is what keeps me going now, which has given me a lot more wisdom in how I choose the projects I take on, how I choose the roles I take.

Because that feel.

I never want to have that feeling again.

Yeah.

And to.

And it was interesting.

It's not.

It.

It was a few years later that my wife and I finally.

We kind of got ourselves back on solid footing.

Yeah.

We plan a financial plan to pay off all the debt.

And it wasn't a few years later, when we start check.

When our kids were a little bit more articulate about, you know, what they're feeling and stuff.

And they said, yeah, we could tell mom and dad that the thing things were, you know, you were very happy at one point, and then not so much.

Right.

And that's how they explained it to us.

And that hit me really hard.

It was like, you know, the kids, they feel it.

They may not know what's going on.

And you tried to shield them from it, but no, they knew something was going on.

And what's interesting is that since then, they've somehow been very mindful about budgeting, and we haven't really been, you know, we.

We haven't taught them a lot about budgeting.

We've had the, you know, here and there, we'll.

We'll chat about how to be mindful of budget and make sure you don't overspend.

Yeah.

But I think that experience, they realize, like.

Like, let's not waste money.

Yeah.

And now they still say, hey, if that costs too much money, mom and dad, like, let's not do it.

Yeah.

Of course.

Now we're like, no, we have budget, and, you know, we're gonna support you.

Things like soccer and.

And volleyball that they do.

But it's interesting how they've learned a lot through it, and.

And I hope that makes them better, you know, giving them that advanced wisdom when it comes to ventures and investments.

I think, like, in my mind, one of the things that I've struggled with the most is, you know, I mean, I've had money and I've been broke.

Like, I've.

I've been on both sides.

And I can tell you that one of the worst feelings for me personally is when I'm in.

In over my head in debt.

Like, honestly, it's like it taints everything you do.

There's almost nothing that can come good when you owe people a ton of money.

I think you're.

One of the best freedoms you can have is to be as debt free or have as little debt as humanly possible, because it is a massive weight and it is traumatic and I think what you went through, it's left scars that will never go away.

Yeah, yeah, it was a hard to rebound but I, you know, there was an opportunity at Dentons again, I didn't know about Dentons even though it was the largest law firm in the world.

Yeah.

But it was one of my contacts in my network that said, hey Chris, I see this opportunity, you know, is this something you'd think about?

And of course for me at that time it's like any job I would take.

Right.

I've got bills to pay.

I only have a few months bridge and I don't want to go back to my parents for more money.

They're, they're, they're getting close to retirement at that time.

Yeah.

I'm like, there's no way I'm going back to them for more money.

So yeah, I threw my resume in and it was a long six month process.

I've never been through a, an interview that long that took that long.

But yeah, it was to lead the business development for Dentons for their Edmonton Calgary office and a bunch of national practice groups they wanted to try.

An outsider, frankly had zero law firm experience and I'm starting to see a pattern here in my career.

I have zero experience in the industry and I get, I get a position in the industry and then it opens up my eyes to all these other opportunities.

Yeah, yeah.

But I'm very thankful.

The director at that time, she's now gone on to be the chief marketing officer at Denton's.

I was very, you know, grateful that she, I say she took a gamble on me because again, zero law firm experience.

Yep.

Some entrepreneurial experience, some business development experience.

Sure.

But yeah, it was great and I spent four years there.

A lot of ideas, a lot of initiatives that we pushed.

But it was interesting because that entrepreneurial bug came knocking on my door again after four years.

Yeah.

And I decided, you know what, maybe it's time for me to go back out on my own.

I've been smart up to that point just to get back on solid financial footing.

Yeah.

And so, but before I took the leap, I made sure I had a few contracts in place.

I had a couple of people that I started building relationships with that had projects they wanted me to work on.

So I made sure that was in place before I made the leap.

And so yeah, so three years in, still doing a little bit of consulting, but now taking on this position at EDMH to run an organization that has a lot of opportunity represents hotels and the whole.

Our mandate is to fill hotel rooms in Edmonton and find ways, different ways to do that.

Whether it's through events, through attracting business associations to come to Edmonton to do their thing, whatever it is.

That's our mandate here at edmh.

So, my goodness.

Yeah.

And it's interesting how you got that job too.

And I'm really excited to kind of chat about that too, because I love, I love synchronicity, man.

I do, I do.

And I've interviewed.

By the time this interview comes out, I've probably interviewed about 180 different people.

Wow.

And the synchronicity of people's lives, just how everything that came before leads them to where they are today.

And many of the them didn't choose it, by the way.

Many of them could have never seen the opportunities coming.

I think there's just so much about life that the most incredible opportunities you'll never see coming.

I know that's been my experience, dude.

If I could, if I, if, if I could predict all the incredible things that have happened from this show, from starting my own company, from the people I've met, I couldn't have predicted any of it.

Frankly, I wish I could say that I could sit down and write a five year plan and it all goes to plan, but it rarely ever goes to plan.

That's just the way it is.

But the thing is, the plan I had, most of the time, what happens is better, right?

Yeah.

Like the universe has a better plan for you.

And I genuinely think, like, in your experience, all this hardship you went through, everything you learned along the way, all the positions you took, made you the perfect candidate to be the executive director.

So it's just, it's very interesting.

You have to, you have to admit that it's very strange.

Yeah, it is.

And you know, a good friend of mine, she.

She's a CEO of an other organization.

She.

And she said to me, you know what, Chris?

Sometimes things happen for a reason.

And it's the universe.

Universe's way of telling you, yeah, you should be going down this path.

And.

Yeah.

And she's like, yeah, you'll hit some stumblewash.

Which I did, you know, even during the last three years.

Right.

You know, I thought I'd be doing something and building something on the consulting side and, and it didn't quite work out with another business partner of mine.

He wanted to go to another direction, which is.

It's his prerogative.

But it kind of threw a wrench into my plans.

Right.

So even amongst the last Three years.

I hit what I would call my midlife career crisis.

I'm in my mid-40s now.

And yeah, it hit me hard, actually.

I, I, it, it made me sit and hit the reset button.

Yeah.

To figure out what is it that drives what I do.

And I don't think we often do that enough as people going through our careers.

Yeah.

I don't think we take time to just pause and say, hey, is this purposeful work?

Does this, you know, check, check the bucket, check the.

Hit the list for me to.

What excites me.

We always talk about it, right.

What gets you up in the morning.

We, we all talk about it, but I don't think we actually, at least I didn't really sit and dive deep to figure out what is it?

And yeah, so I did do that end of 2024.

So not too long ago, I did sit down and I bought probably three books on careers and, and I had spoke to not only yourself, Kelly, but some other business coaches that I know.

I just had these conversations with him.

Yeah.

Just to see.

And one question I asked him was like, what is it do you think makes me different?

And what was interesting was everybody said, your creativity.

Yeah.

And another good friend of mine who's, who's actually at Denton's, we had lunch and she said, chris, I, you're good at bd, but I don't think you're great at BD or like, you don't love bd.

And that was a big eye opener for me because all I've been doing since I left teaching was bd.

Yeah.

But I reflected and said, yeah, you know what, Chris, you're not great at bd, you're good at business development.

But there's a huge difference between good and great.

And what I think she meant.

But what I interpreted from her statement there was that great means that you can't wait to get up the next morning, put on that BD hat, call 10 people, build all these things, get it going.

Right.

And I said, yeah, that, that's right.

I actually don't, I don't feel like waking up and doing that.

But what I did find and talking to a career coach, we kind of dialed down to what it was.

My creativity.

Yeah.

I love doing creative things.

Me too.

I love thinking of different ideas.

And what I'm good at, not great, but what I'm good at is taking those ideas from concept to execution.

So that's where I landed on.

Right.

I'm like, that's, I think what for my personal brand, it's creativity, being a creative thinker, being a strategic thinker, and then taking those concepts from start to finish.

And since deciding that and since realizing that everything I've done has been actually fun.

Yeah.

Talking to you on the podcast, this is.

This hits my creative juices, right?

Yes.

This EDMH job that I've now started, finding out the things I get to do hits that creative checklist, and it gets my juices.

Like, I've only.

This is my third week at EDMH as executive director, and I feel like I've been running for, like, three months already.

Yeah.

Because I'm so excited about the job, and everybody I talk to, I'm throwing ideas at, and they're coming along for the ride.

So I think it's important for people to hit that pause button and reevaluate what is your purpose, what drives you to do it.

Because it might not be what you think it is.

And I think that's where people get stuck.

What were some of the steps that you took in order to get clear?

There's an exercise which is very common in the strategic world.

Is that why.

And you ask why four or five times to try to really dive down to what is really that core purpose.

So it's.

I like business development.

But why?

Oh, I. I like coming up with ideas.

Because business.

Then I can do cool things with that.

Okay, but why?

And right.

So you keep going down to the point where you then figure out, oh, it's because.

Create creative things.

Make me happy.

Right.

Yeah.

Makes my juices flow in this world.

So.

So that was one thing I did.

There was a handbook.

The name of it eludes me right now, but it was.

It asked a lot of questions about what you're good at, what the market needs, and what are things that got you the most return.

And you map all this out, and then out of all of it, it's kind of like a Venn diagram where you find that thing right in the middle, and then you're like, oh, well, that.

Well, that's my thing.

So that.

That was another very handy book.

I gotta remember that.

I have to send that to you because it was actually a really good book.

Yeah.

So that was another.

Another strategy, you know, to.

To try to dive deep and figure what that out, what that true purpose for yourself is about.

I read a book a while ago on branding called Badass yous Brand by Pia Silva.

She actually interviewed her too.

But the show was incredible, and her book was incredible.

And it had me honestly retake a look at Almost everything that I do.

And we're going to be doing some pretty big revamps here at Capital just because we all need to evolve.

Right?

Like, I think that's kind of what you're getting at, is that, like, you can love something, you can be exceptional at it, and you can still eventually get bored of it if it's the same thing you're doing over and over and over again.

Like, honestly, if all I ever did was business development, I would go crazy, Chris.

I would.

I'm great at it.

I really am.

But, you know, over time, I want to be more than that.

Right.

I want to be more than just a business developer, which is why now I'm a podcaster, which is why now I'm a coach, which is why I'm always looking for the next big thing.

Because we have to grow.

Because you're right.

It's like you can be exceptional at something, but your passions change, your purpose can change.

Like, people don't talk about that, but the thing that gets you up in the morning can change.

Right?

Like, I'm a dad now, too, so I totally, like, understand.

I want to be a great parent, but it's hard because I'm also an entrepreneur and a podcaster who works all the time.

Yeah, right?

Yeah.

There's a lot my life will change.

I absolutely know that.

And it has to change because you can't be doing the same things forever.

But I want to say that, like, you are a shining example of how you can use past experiences to evolve into something greater than ever.

You know, like, everything you've done throughout your career has led you to where you're at today.

To be the perfect executive director for Edmonton destination marketing hotels.

Right.

Like, you are the perfect person.

That why you were.

And it's funny, too, because you got to tell the story.

You were actually recruited for this job even though nothing on your resume showed that you were the perfect candidate for the job.

But in this interview, I could tell you you were the perfect candidate for the job.

So do you want to talk about that really briefly, just so our people can hear this, this.

This.

This.

This funny scenario?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you for those kind words.

I hope the board is listening here.

Yeah.

No.

So in the midst of my midlife career crisis, as I was doing through all this work, this actually this opportunity came up with the.

And.

And I'll say now because they've hired their new CEO, but the Edmonton screen industry associate office and this opportunity came up for their CEO position and they are an advocate for The Edmonton screen and multimedia sector.

And what jumped out at me obviously was my film background.

And I looked at this as I think this has come full circle.

I think, wow, it's time.

I can't be.

I can't be Steven Spielberg.

Yeah.

But can I be an advocate for the industry and get involved in that form?

Absolutely.

So I created actually a five minute video that I submitted with my resume to the recruitment firm that was looking for the CEO.

And the feedback I got immediately was, wow, you're the only one that created the video.

More people should be doing this.

We could tell your passion, blah, blah.

And so I kind of made it through the first round through the recruiter and then of course they came back to me about a month later.

There was a lot of delays to getting that meeting with the board of esio and they said, unfortunately, the board has not shortlisted you.

And what I since learned was that they ended up getting this rock star candidate.

And of course at that time I was not happy.

I was like, of course didn't even get a chance to get in front of the board.

I've since learned who the candidate is and they announced and he's actually starting, I think he started this week and I've reached out to him actually already saying that we should have a coffee because I think both our organizations can work together.

Yes, but he's a rock star in the industry.

He comes from Calgary and he's.

I think he moved to Edmonton, but he was part of, I think Calgary.

The Calgary film commissioner for the Calgary economic development.

The part that focused on the film industry in Calgary.

And Calgary's film industry has just skyrocketed.

They've got studio filming, students, everything.

He was part of all of that.

Okay.

For many years.

And he was one of the key members that brought the last of us to film in Alberta.

Very cool.

Since learning that, I'm like, okay, I'm fine, I'm fine for not getting the job.

I'm like, yeah, hands down, I would have given him the job and not.

Well, either way, it sounds like a pretty cool friend to have.

I think.

So.

Hopefully I did reach out and once he gets settled down, I hope I have coffee because both our organizations can work together.

Of course.

Anyway, so I was kind of upset about that.

I then refocused.

I said, okay, this whole creativity, I want to write a book, I want to get my consulting side ramped up, just focusing on creative strategy.

And through that the same recruiter reached back out and said, hey, we've got this other position.

That we think you could be a good fit.

I never heard of edmh.

I didn't know what they did.

I had no interest at the beginning.

I said, no, thank you.

I'm focusing on my creative, strategic, creative consulting business.

Yeah.

And they emailed me.

One of the recruiters emailed me, maybe you should apply, Chris.

And then they called me for the third time and said, so what do you think?

We haven't seen your application in.

I think you should apply.

And so I had my reservations, I said, look, I don't hit any of the checklists that the board's looking for.

Yeah.

So I don't understand how my resume lines up with this opportunity.

And they said, look, we really think they need a business development type person with your experience, with your knowledge to, to do this.

And so I finally said, okay, I'll apply.

So I submitted my resume, got shortlisted, did a bit of written response, got shortlisted and then got invited to meet with the board, had a great interview with the board, got asked to come back for a second interview.

And it was in that interview they said, look, for that second interview, we want you to present your two year vision for our organization.

And that's when I spent literally the week researching, looking into the industry, looking at what could potentially affect them, what I could do to think boldly to come into this position.

And I rehearsed that thing.

Kelly, let me tell you, my kids will tell me.

I was downstairs in the basement.

Hello, board members.

This is my, you know what I think.

And, and yeah, I got the job.

They liked it.

One of the board members said it was one of the best presentations she's ever seen.

Wow.

I'm super happy.

And I'm happy that the recruiter was persistent.

Yeah.

On it because, yeah, I, I probably wouldn't have taken this opportunity otherwise.

So I'm very thankful that they were persistent and I'm thankful, thankful for the board, for, you know, going through that process because I've been in so many job interviews where it's like, Chris, you don't meet the checkbox sort.

Yeah, I've been there.

I didn't want to go through that again for this.

That's why I was, I pushed the recruiter, I said, I don't meet the checklist.

So.

So tell me why, tell me why you think I fit.

So that's the story.

Yeah, it's, it's an incredible story and I think, I think it really does hammer home what we talk about on the show all the time, which is that the best things in Life, you might not see them coming, and that's for the best, right?

Like, yeah, the funny thing is, you are the right person for that job.

It's the right job for you, and you would have never picked it.

You have to, like, think about that from, like, a standpoint of, like, you wouldn't have even applied had someone not pushed you to do it.

But they did.

And now that opportunity is yours and you're going to do incredible things with it.

You know, we're coming to the close to the end of the show, Chris.

I want to spend a little bit of time chatting a bit about.

About social media and professionals and brand building and content creation, because we talked about it briefly ahead of the show.

And I think.

I genuinely think this year it's 2026.

I think people are really refocusing on what's important.

Like, obviously, I'm a great lawyer, I'm a great accountant, I'm a great professional of any type.

Isn't that enough?

They're asking that.

Isn't that enough?

But they're seeing maybe not.

There's a competitor stealing all of their clients because they have a YouTube channel or they have a podcast.

You know, you've been teaching people on this for so long.

And so I want to spend some time with you.

I want you to spend some time talking to your people, talking to your executives, your accountants, your lawyers.

What do they need?

What do they need?

Where are they falling on their face right now and what can they do to change it?

It's one question they need to ask themselves.

And I always pose this to the lawyers I've worked with.

We assume every lawyer is competent.

They continue to practice.

They have high standards set by the law society.

So if everybody's a competent lawyer and there's so many of them out there, what makes you different?

The old adage was always, well, we just do it better, right?

We're a bigger firm, we have more people across different practice areas.

That's why we're great.

Yeah, but everyone has that.

Every big law firm has that now.

Every lawyer says they're great at law.

There's different ways to interpret law, of course, there's different ways to fight it.

And some lawyers are naturally more talented than others.

But at.

For the majority of them, what makes you different?

And so I always challenge them with that question.

And what, what does make them different is their personal brand.

Yeah.

Their personality.

And the best way to get your personality out there in today's world is the digital mediums out there.

And it doesn't even have to be podcasts.

Podcasting was just one that I introduced to Dentons and Heather Barnhouse.

If you haven't listened to her podcast, Women in Leadership and Entrepreneurship podcast by Heather Barnhouse, I would say the most successful.

And I'm going to tout this and give credit to Heather for being consistent with it.

But she was the only lawyer out of 200 lawyers that I pitch podcasting to who took me up on that offer.

And she has since built her personal brand out there in that niche of women in leadership and entrepreneurship.

She's been invited to a million speaking engagements because of that podcast.

She's been invited to sit on boards, she's invited to different associations because now they know Heather's the expert in legal when it comes to women in leadership and entrepreneurship.

Go figure, right?

Yeah.

So I always look at it and say that's there's many lawyers that have female leader clients, female entrepreneur or female owned business clients, but they're choosing Heather because Heather's out there and she has a great personality through her podcast that you can just grasp that she really cares about her clients.

You can feel it.

You can feel the people behind the voice.

Exactly.

And she genuinely wants to find out more about that business.

And strategically, her first few episodes, we invited her current clients on and that built a lot of goodwill.

And non clients, or call them prospects, looked at that and I would guess they went, I wonder why my lawyer isn't interviewing me for a podcast.

Yeah, that's right.

That was my whole strategy.

No other lawyers doing it.

Heather, I think you should do it.

That's your she told a funny story.

And I'll share it here.

She was at an event that she accidentally went to.

So speaking of the universe.

Yeah, it wasn't her area of law, but she went anyways because Heather's a great BD person that way.

She just loves building relationships.

Out of the blue, this lady in the crowd said, let's hear from Heather Barnhouse.

And Heather's like, who is that?

And so she connected with the lady and she's like, I don't know you.

Are you.

You're not a client of the firm?

Lady's like, no, I'm not a client, but I've listened to your podcast and I love everything you say on your podcast.

And she's like, I want to do business with you and I want to learn more from you.

And so that's my message to the professionals out there.

And you don't have to be an influencer.

That podcast doesn't have tons of followers, doesn't have tons of listenership, but as long as you connect with that one right person, that will in itself pay for all the work and time you spent on that podcast.

Yeah, Yeah.

I was in an event in the city the other day.

I don't go to a lot of events.

If you know me, I, I'm like the business developer who really avoids public engagement.

We gotta change that, Kelly.

But it was funny because I was at an event and I got recognized randomly from a listener of the show and he's, Kelly, I listen to your show all the time.

Like, oh, this is why I don't go to these.

But thank you so much for listening.

It was really, really cool.

It's.

It's a cool experience to see that you've really helped people.

I, I think that's been, honestly, for me, the biggest, the biggest value that I've gotten out of the show has just been how many people have reached out and mentioned, you know, your show has helped me get that job, it helped me land that client, it helped me revamp the bd.

We do.

I love listening.

It.

It's a really cool experience.

I would say that, like, if you have any inkling at all to share your expertise with the world, take that leap.

Because the reward is so much more than like a monetary reward.

It's.

It really is.

It does give you purpose.

Yeah.

Well, and it, And I caution, not caution, but I do say it doesn't have to be just podcasts.

Right.

Short form videos are big now.

LinkedIn is really pushing short form videos now.

Even if you hop on your phone camera and just talk for a minute about one subject.

Yep.

Doesn't have to be crazy.

You're just getting out there and your personality will come through and you will build that relationship before you even know and have met your prospect.

And that is where I think digital media has that advantage.

Oh, it's.

Dude, at this point, everybody should be marketing on social media.

You don't even have to pay for it at this point too.

Right.

Like, you can use things like LinkedIn groups, you can use your own pages.

You can, you can literally start adding your potential clients, audience.

Right.

Like, there's no better way.

It's better than any billboard you could imagine.

But one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about because you have coached a lot of people, a lot of executives and lawyers and accountants who are a big camera shy.

Right.

Like, we.

Dude, I, I talked to you.

I told you ahead of the show that I've Struggled with the camera.

The camera has been something that even I've struggled with.

And at this point, we're 300 episodes into the show.

Right.

Like, I still struggle with the camera.

What advice do you give to these professionals to push through that fear?

Because that fear can be crippling.

One of the best exercises I have done with some of the lawyers, none of them are shy to talk to their client.

So they have that one executive who they get all the legal work from for that one company.

So I always say to them, imagine you're just talking to them, that one person.

You're taking them out for coffee.

Imagine you're sitting there in that coffee shop.

How would you talk to them do that?

So you're on camera.

That's what you should be thinking about.

You know, I'm talking to that one executive, telling them about this legal issue, and how would you say it?

And.

And it's.

Then you're not, like, scripting it.

You're being natural.

And so I always try to get them to think of that.

And it's just one client.

When it's one person, you're less nervous.

There's less tension there, thinking you might say the wrong thing.

So just imagine you're sitting there at a coffee shop with your client, the one client, and just talk to them.

Yeah.

And see what happens when you hit the record button.

And so when you put it.

Bring it back down that way.

Have them visualize that moment.

It makes it less scary, and it makes it more natural for them to say what they are.

You know, what they have.

Knowledge.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's so funny because I think I hear my voice everywhere now.

I'm not, like.

I'm not, like, pumping myself up like, I produce my own show.

So I'm hearing my voice always.

Right.

Whether it be authentic Hustle, whether it be the bdp, whether it be me on, you know, this professional life.

Right.

Like, the.

The reality is I hear myself, and now it's not so weird.

But, man, in the beginning, I really struggled hearing my own voice, whether it was on, like, video, whether on a podcast.

It's kind of strange when you haven't heard yourself, isn't it?

No one loves listening to your voice.

You're probably as old as I am, Kelly, to know that.

You know, back then when we had answering machines.

Yes.

And you had to record your message on your answering machine, and every time you came home and that red light was blinking because there was a message, you hit the play button, and you'd always hear your voice.

First before the message.

I hated that because my dad never wanted to.

He's like, chris, you, you put the voice message thing on.

Yeah.

You put the message on.

And I, I, it's like, oh, that's not how I sound, is it?

Yeah, yeah, that's how you sound.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's tough.

No one likes it.

Is.

It is.

But understand, it gets better.

You get used to it.

So, like, if you struggle with hearing your own voice, I did too.

Probably so did Chris.

We all struggle with that.

Just push through.

You'll be fine.

Chris, I want you to lead us into, you know, what you're doing right now.

Obviously, we've talked about a couple different things.

We've talked about the Edmonton Destination Marketing Hotel, which now you're the executive director of.

And then we've also talked a little bit about Lateral Thought, which is, you know, your consulting business where you, where are you still doing both?

And obviously, I get it, like, at this point it's 2026, so.

Caveats.

He may or may not, but, but do you want to talk to maybe both of those and who your ideal clients are?

Yeah.

You know, obviously I have to balance this out.

You know, executive director role is.

It's a role I take seriously and I know there's a lot of time commitments, but I also have one or two clients right now on Lateral Thought because I want to keep them.

They're great contacts to have.

And it's also that work that I love to do.

Right.

It's that strategic planning.

One of them specifically is actually podcasting.

And so I still really love that work.

Funny enough, through that I got recruited by Go Auto.

Oh, really?

Yeah, they've got some, the, they're building up a YouTube.

I can't talk too much about it.

Yeah.

But let's just say that there's going to be some short videos coming out with me in front of vehicles.

Cool.

But again, that's another fun thing in the media space, in the film space I love to do.

Right.

I talked to my board at EDMH and I got approval for that just because I'd be representing a couple brands right now.

But, yeah, those are things I'm doing.

I'm, I'm also continuing with my book.

I kind of mentioned it as I was going through the midlife career crisis.

I started writing a book about creativity and getting my creative thought process.

So I've trying to ironically put a set process in place on how to think more creative creatively.

And I, I can't wait for that to Come out.

Obviously it's been delayed a little bit with my new role here, so I'm going to slowly work away at it.

But the majority of it I have already done and I can't wait to come out with that because everybody always said, chris, you always think so creatively.

I, I want to think creatively like you and, and you can.

If we all have it inside of us.

It's just, how do you unlock that?

And I think by presenting it in a bit of a process kind of way, it can help people unlock that creativity that's already inside of you.

And so those are a few things I'm working on now, aside from edmh.

Now, of course, EDMH is going to take up all my time right now.

Yes.

But it ties into all the creative things I do.

It's weird as a bd.

And you will know this, Kelly, everything connects with each other and there's always an opportunity for that collaboration.

And even my work at edmh, there's an opportunity to connect with clients of mine or initiatives I'm doing through lateral thought.

I keep all those channels open because you never know which one comes to fruition and which one will benefit the whole ecosystem within your, your career.

Well, and by the time, you know, in your case, by the time you've been doing this for 20 years, you've met a lot of people and you don't know where those, like, synchronicities are going to happen.

I still have synchronicities from my oil and gas days, you know, 15 years ago, that are relevant today to what I'm doing today.

Right.

So if there's one thing that business development has taught me, it's that you need to meet as many people as you can.

And you don't know, like you said, where the connections are going to happen, but they are going to happen.

And it can happen 20 years later.

It's pretty, it's pretty incredible.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Chris, we're coming to the end of the show.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Dude, I know there's a lot of people listening right now who heard your story, who heard basically the rock bottom moment that you hit where you had ask for, ask for support.

And I just, you know, I want to speak to anybody because, you know, you've been through it.

You pulled yourself out the other side.

You've had extreme success since that time.

Like, congratulations, it's been an amazing journey.

What if somebody's listening right now and they're in that rock bottom moment?

They're either Having to ask for a loan.

They're on the verge of losing their house.

Entrepreneurship has been hard.

Maybe it didn't go to plan.

What would you say to them right now?

Just to help them, help them through this moment?

A bit of tough love is to say, don't let your ego get in your way.

I let my ego get my way.

I should have asked for help a lot sooner.

Same with the business.

Six months before we closed down.

I should have reached out to the bank.

I should have reached out to my former business partners on the capital side and just talk about the struggles you're going through.

What I found was my discussion with the bank.

You know, it was late, but they were very supportive.

I had this notion that, oh, my God, they're gonna take my house.

They're gonna come down hard.

Because we've all heard the horror stories, right?

But when you have a genuine conversation with your network, everybody, you know, they don't want to see you fail.

And everybody genuinely wants to help.

And so I will say this is.

Is.

I should have asked for help sooner, but my ego got my way.

I was too proud, right?

Like, oh, my God, Chris, you're.

It's the entrepreneur curse.

Yeah.

You had so much success.

You built this.

You raised so much capital.

If I talk to people, they're going to think I'm not that good anymore.

And that's not the case.

People understand people.

They will do whatever they can to help, and you never know where that help's going to come.

So people who are feeling that right now, which, you know, we're going into some uncertain times, have those conversations ahead of time.

Don't wait till you're using your credit card to pay a line of credit, minimum payment and trying to seek out other credit cards.

Don't wait till that time.

And that's.

That's my biggest advice and learning point from that talk.

Now, have the conversations now.

And it's not like you're looking for help, but you never know what other ways people have for you to look at your situation.

And there might be a solution sitting right there that could help you.

So don't wait.

Yeah.

Amazing.

I love it.

And, dude, you've been doing this game longer than me.

You have an exceptional podcast.

It's called this Professional Life.

It's also a YouTube channel.

Chris is exceptional at both of them.

You are, you know, right now, you're on the receiving end, but the reality is you're an incredible host yourself.

And I just wanted to shout that out.

Where can people find that podcast.

Chris.

Yeah, that podcast you can just go to YouTube and look up the at this Professional Life and you'll find my channel and it'll have all the links to the podcast link as well.

And of course, on Apple, Spotify and Amazon Music, you'll find this Professional Life podcast amazing.

That takes us to the end of today's show.

Chris, it's been an honor and a pleasure.

Thanks for joining us.

Kelly.

My pleasure.

It was great.

Thank you for having me on your show.

You bet.

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 this 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.