Accelerate Your Success with Tash Jefferies

Accelerate Your Success with Tash Jefferies

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 92 of the business development podcast. And we may or may not be getting you on Christmas Eve. If it is Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas. I hope you guys all have an absolutely amazing year on today's expert guest interview. We're bringing Tash Jefferies back for an accelerator 101 and she has a gift for each and every one of you at the end.

Stick with us. You are going to. Absolutely love this episode. Stay tuned.

Intro: 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. 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.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 92 of the business development podcast. Holy crap. 92 episodes. We are quickly approaching episode 100. If you're listening to this, you are actually listening to this likely on December 24th, we're recording this about a month in advance, a little over, but you were listening to this on Christmas Eve.

So Merry Christmas to each and every one of you listening, and I hope that you all have an amazing, amazing holiday. On today's expert guest interview, we are absolutely graced to have Tash Jefferies on her 25th birthday. I might be exaggerating a little, Tash, but you look amazing. It's a pleasure to have Tash back.

She is a three time startup founder from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She's done two previous episodes with us. Episode 28, Think Like a Scientist. Episode 34, The Myth of Work Life Balance. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Ryerson University, and she has mentored hundreds and hundreds of founders through accelerator programs around the world.

Tash is a guiding force in the startup ecosystem, and she is going to teach us All about accelerator programs today. Tash, thanks for coming on the show.

Tash Jefferies: Listen, thank you so much, Kelly, for having me again. And happy holidays to all of you listening. Exciting. Oh, my birthday.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, that's crazy. That's crazy.

Thank you so much. You know what I mean? I know that you have a million better places to be, but you were with us today on the business development podcast. And you know, I appreciate you.

Tash Jefferies: I know you do. And I appreciate you right back, Kelly.

Kelly Kennedy: My gosh, yeah, we talked about this a while ago. You know, we've had Colin Christensen on three times as well.

Oh, yes! We've talked about mentorship, we've talked about all sorts of things, but we've talked about founders and startups, but we've never, ever, ever sat down and talked about what you do best, which is accelerator programs. Take us back, you know, you were a three time startup founder. Tell tell me what was that would got you into this ecosystem where you're like, this is this is my passion.

Tash Jefferies: Absolutely. So how everything started and everyone always wants to hear the origin story. So this will be one of my first times telling it. So back in 2015. My then partner and I decided to move from Toronto back to Nova Scotia with the express Like goal of going to San Francisco and Silicon Valley And trying to kick off the startup that we had been working on and building here in Canada So we had been by coastal literally for three years.

So from 2015 to 2018 we had built a technology together, a startup together. We had to wind that down because, again, one of my biggest things is lessons. We weren't able to successfully fundraise. But then he ended up getting into one of the cohorts with a new startup batch 22 of 500 Global, which was 500 startups at the time.

And while I was looking for my next venture, I decided to mentor the founders and they asked me if I was interested. And of course, I said, yes, and I jumped on. So I started being a mentor in 2017 with 500 global and I'm still working on. I started my 2nd. Venture then which was actually going really well.

It gave me a lot of experience. We literally grew it from like zero revenue up to we had like more than a million dollars in contracts within a short amount of time. We're talking about like three months. So we figured out, okay, we're onto something. But then I took that experience and I was like, okay, I want to continue mentoring and it all started with just a chance conversation.

I got a phone call from well, she's now 1 of my really good friends Caitlin from 500 at the time and she was like, would you be interested in. Going overseas is only like a week, but you know, mentoring. And I was like, I'm sorry, where is it? She was like, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Honestly, I, I don't read news on places.

I'm just like, let me do my research. But I'm like yeah, why not? Never been let's do it. And what ended up turning out to be like, what was initially supposed to be a week engagement turned out to be a resident mentor. on the 500 program in Saudi Arabia for three months. So literally I had, I believe it was seven days from the point when I got my offer to when I had to get all my visas and get everything ready and figure out the pack to leave for a Saudi for three months.

So that was how everything began. That was the start of it. And I've been working on accelerator programs ever since.

Kelly Kennedy: It's absolutely crazy and you know, I, you know, before I met you, I didn't even know these things existed. I, you know, I mean, the first experience I even had with an accelerator program when was, was, was my, I'm getting tongue tied, was when I was at the global Edmonton Alberta accelerator that I got invited to by Colin.

And that's where I saw you speak and you were an. Absolute powerhouse speaker. You man, do you ever hold a room?

Tash Jefferies: And I love doing it, Kelly. Honestly, I've been the MC for all of our demo days for our accelerator programs. And so I just love it now. It's I write my own scripts. They're loose. I free, just, just free ball.

And when I get up on the stage and just go with the energy in the room, I love it.

Kelly Kennedy: And it was so funny because we were talking and you were so sick that day and you still just absolutely crushed it.

Tash Jefferies: That's right. You, you met me on the day where I had, I had. Stomach flu or some kind of food poisoning, but like literally I hadn't eaten anything that day.

I was sick the day before And sick the day after but I brought it all together to be able to do the emcee for that demo date. That's right.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah It was absolutely awesome. And that was my first kind of experience and like we actually met a future client through that show So it was a really really cool experience And I was like, holy cow, this is amazing.

And it's so meaningful. And it does so much for these startups and founders. And obviously being in Edmonton is such a big hub for us here. Like we have so many amazing tech startups right here in our backyard.

Tash Jefferies: And I'm ready to come back. We're about to start batch five in January. So keep an eye out.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing, amazing. So yeah, okay. So. You know, who are accelerators for?

Tash Jefferies: Most people have no idea. You're not alone, Kelly. Lots of people, even a lot of my family before I started doing this work, had no idea what they are. So accelerator programs come in many shapes and sizes and flavors, but I'll tell you about our ones and the ones that I love doing.

I'll give two main types because there's two now that I've done that are hugely beneficial. So the first one is a full accelerator program are one that we run through 500 global in Edmonton and Calgary. It's a 3 month long program. There's 3 weeks at the beginning where literally we introduce founders to every component of their business that they would need to be able to grow to be able to receive funding and become attractive to investors.

So we do. Sales, marketing, HR, we talk about operations. We talk about fundraising and that entire process, all the things you need to be investor ready. But we literally take founders through that entire process, like how to acquire customers, all of that. Any, if it's something related to growing a startup, we cover it in that initial three weeks.

Then in the middle of the program for about six weeks, they do, Experimentation. So all the tools that they learn in the first three weeks of the program, they go out and they actually do it and implemented in their business. And we do daily stand ups with our founders where they check in. They talk about there's a concept.

I'll just talk about it lightly. It's called the one metric that matters. We get our founders to focus on that one thing that will move the needle in their business. And then we check in on a daily basis as a team and go through how they're doing and the progress on their business. And last, but not least, the last 3 weeks is where we are focused intensely on fundraising.

So we talk about everything that you would need to know if you are seeking investment. So. What your deal flow needs to look like for getting your investors in how to manage your data room how to manage your cap table and just big picture idea. These are all the words and Concepts that you need to know that investors are going to ask you so if you are looking for venture capital funding family offices, et cetera.

They're going to ask you these con concepts. So it's, it's a lot to explain in a very brief podcast, but we teach all of that. And then it culminates into a demo day at the end of the program. It is very fast paced. When I'm on a program, I'm focused. It's all about our founders. We choose, there's a certain criteria that we use to choose founders.

Basically, if you have customers and you have revenue, then you're a good fit for the, the program. But we look a lot for mindset because as you can imagine a program like that, like everyday check ins, like you, you gotta be on your a game. So we look for people who are super resilient, who are open to growth, who are open to asking questions and being able to deal with rapid iterations and movements.

And of course, taking feedback. So that's what we look like. And I'll briefly, Second type of program accelerators usually do are boot camps. Boot camps are super fast. It's usually a five day program. It's super intensive. And so instead of what we would cover in a three month program, you get little bits and pieces of the main concepts that you need.

Now, the bonus of being a part of a bootcamp is usually the criteria that we need when we're doing a full program is a lot less because again, you're coming for a week. You could be at the idea phase or maybe just have your product or prototype, and that will work in many cases because we're not going to get a chance to actually get the results at the end of the program.

But the great thing about that is that you learn all the tools that you would need to be able to build your startup in your business and. Those tools are invaluable to any founder. I still keep in touch with a lot of the founders that I worked with way back in 2017 and without a shadow of a doubt, the tools that they learn, they use as their startups grow, some have sold and had exits, but they still use those tools and they're able to like, get quick start on the next venture that they build and not have to go through that same level of learning because they've learned a lot from the tools that they've already had.

So those are the 2 major ones.

Kelly Kennedy: It sounds, yeah, it sounds super intense.

Tash Jefferies: Imagine being in one. Listen, founders who have worked with me. Oh, I have to tell you this. This is new since the last program. So and shout out to Shaheel. Shaheel is my my partner in crime. We do the Alberta programs together.

He got the nickname the Godfather because he comes in. He does not play around. Everybody knows. Don't mess with the godfather. And I got the nickname, the hammer. It's because I hammer people until you get results. That's just, you can't show up to my standup and tell me you got no data. You didn't run the experiment because I'm going to be hard on you.

And it's so funny because the results that we got from our founders from the last batch, like were phenomenal. phenomenal. So there you go. It is intense.

Kelly Kennedy: It sounds incredibly, incredibly intense. How do you mentally prepare for that? Like that's got to be really hard on you too.

Tash Jefferies: And you know what? I love it because literally when I'm doing a program, One of the best things that I've learned because I, if you are also a resident mentor, you've done programs globally, I consider myself to be a part of an elite group because there's not that many people that I meet other than ones who I meet on programs, various programs that I work on who do this, but there's not that many who have this experience.

One of the best parts of it is that you get to like funnel your creativity into your founders because one of the biggest parts that I've seen of success for founders is being able to run experiments ideas and take them that they think is going to help them acquire more customers or grow their revenue or get their daily active users up like So I think that's Some kind of metric that's going to move the needle for their business, but being able to come up with those ideas of what to test, where to find more people, who's your ideal customer.

Okay. How do we go out and literally find hundreds of thousands of those? And it requires so much like creativity just to come up with like ideas. Now, because I've been doing it so long, I have a very big Rolodex of ideas and past experiments that I've been able to help founders run. So I, like, that's hard to come up with.

And so it's a lot of the experience and practice and skill and continuing to develop what you do to know what works, what doesn't you know, where can. Founders be to find more customers, etc. But I love it. It is like the most creative time. But like literally it's like three months straight on every day of the week.

I literally don't shut off. I work out every single day of the week though when I'm on them. But then when I'm off programs like right now. I'm done. Like, don't ask me to do nothing. I don't really do anything. I don't answer anything other than important emails. And I go and sit in front of my fire in my she shed for weeks at a time because it is so intense.

So it's like, go, go, go, go, go. And then absolutely nothing shut right down.

Kelly Kennedy: How many of those do you do every year?

Tash Jefferies: I usually do two because I do the Edmonton and Calgary ones. Usually one in the spring and then one in the fall. But then, I do the boot camps in between. Cause those are longer three month programs in Edmonton and Calgary.

But like last year alone, or hold on, last year and this year? Honestly, time runs together. I've done a program. I've done a program in Egypt, Cairo Japan and Nagoya where else Korea, South Korea, like it's so, I never know which programs that are going to do. And then I also do one that's in the U. S. as well. So.

Kelly Kennedy: So, so you've been, you've been really busy in 2020. This was not a cakewalk to two outings a year. I get six months to rest and relax and drink wine by the fire. That was not the year this was.

Tash Jefferies: No, no, no, I did not have any downtime. I'm preparing actually right now for a beach somewhere just before Christmas.

So I'm in the process of doing my Christmas shopping right now. And then it's beach and then it's Christmas. And then I have like a little bit of downtime. Where I go back to Edmonton in the 1st of January, but like, yeah, no, this is not, yeah, 6 months on and 6 months off. Like, this year I didn't get a break at all.

I was doing back to back programs 1 program. Actually, when I was doing me, the Calgary 1, this last 1, I was doing the Japan 1 concurrently. Cause I'm crazy. And so I was doing their program in the daytime, Japan time, coming back, doing my program, my daily check in with my founders, like midnight to 1am for like five days.

And then when I got back to Calgary. It's flipped. I was doing my daytime programming with my founders in Calgary, and then at midnight, I was doing my check ins with all my founders in Japan. So it was quite an interesting year, but I wouldn't trade it for any, anything else in the world.

Kelly Kennedy: It's so wild that you do this literally all over the world.

And that was going to be my next question. Does that mean that business principles are exactly the same all around the world?

Tash Jefferies: I love that question, Kelly, and the short answer is yes and no. So when I say yes, one of the biggest things that I've learned and why I love doing this is Customer experience and what customers expect is the same all over the world, all over the world.

If you don't have the right product, if you don't understand the jobs to be done, which is a big concept that I teach and I love, which is your customers are trying to get something that's important, that's valuable, that means progress in their life. From using your solution. So you need to understand what that is.

That doesn't change. Doesn't matter any country across the globe. That match of your product to what your customers need has to be aligned. That doesn't change anywhere in the world. The only thing that changes as you go from country to country is number one, your channels that you would be using, right?

How are you accessing your customers? For instance, like, what's app is super huge in the Middle East, still trying to catch on here in North America, but in North America. Text is huge along with your social media channels. Right? So, I mean, that is a big thing where you're going to find people. And then the other thing is the cultural component.

So, for instance there's a whole different slew of different types. of jobs to be done that people are looking for. And the basic ones are functional. It actually just does something that they need. Emotional, meaning that they feel a certain way when you get it done. And then social, how they want to be perceived when using your solution.

One of the biggest things that I've discovered from traveling and doing this work globally is that depending on the place in the world that you're at, There might be a certain set of those jobs to be done that are more important elsewhere, for instance, in all of the Asian programs that have done one of the biggest things that are really important, depending on your product are the functional pieces like what is it actually done like people actually want to talk about if there's science involved or if there's some type of technical piece involved, they want to know that that piece is done.

Whereas if you're dealing with North America, for instance, literally your easiest way to get to your customer is Always going to be that emotional. How do I feel when I'm using this product? Right? No one can tell me that Apple is not an emotional brand. People buy Apple products cause they like it. They like this feeling.

It feels a little bit better when you use it. People who use it, there's an emotional attachment to like those products and how they feel when they're using it. So that's one of the biggest differences that I found traveling the world. But the basic principles are the same, how you need to do it and what you need to show the customer.

Totally the same process.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah, I, I think that does sound universal. It's like value, right? How, and you're right. How you show the value or what is valued is different depending on where you are at. But either way, you have to figure out what that is, identify the value and work backwards on how you're going to meet that value.

Tash Jefferies: Absolutely. Which is one of the next big things that I love through accelerator programs, which is why I love the longer versions of them as well. It's because. One of the things that I've come to learn, and I consider myself now an expert in this field, I've been doing this longer than most people that I know and done it globally as well, is that experimentation is key.

Experimentation is one of those things that you have to do in order to be able to crack that nut as far as how do I get to my right customers? And in many cases, the only way you can do that is having a hunch. Actually putting a value on how well you think it's going to work and then test it out. And I'm a firm believer.

We teach this globally as well. You need one week. You can't run an experiment for three days and think you're going to be able to get the data that you need to be able to make a huge decision in your business and also you can't go longer than that. Why? Because in many cases if you're a startup founder or an entrepreneur You ain't got a year of runway to be able to make this thing work.

So yes, better get used to working really fast, testing something quickly and be okay with failing. Failure is a huge part as well. One of the biggest principles that we get founders really comfortable with. It's actually good to fail because now you know what doesn't work and you don't invest a lot of time and money into pursuing something that's not going to grow and move your, your startup forward.

Kelly Kennedy: It's so funny. I, you know what I mean? I, it's funny how there's synchronicities in the show. It, it never seems to fail. I literally just did an episode. I believe it was last week's episode on the power of feedback and how critical it is for the success of your business. And I literally spoke to my own struggles with that because, you know, I mean, I thought I knew it all.

I thought I had it all figured out and it took like. It took a while for me to get out of my own way, I think is the best way to put it.

Tash Jefferies: Absolutely, Kelly. And honestly, experimentation is one of the best ways that you actually teach yourself how to get out of your own way, because the only thing that you're concerned with is How do my customers and how does the market respond to this thing?

It ain't about me, right? I can say I have the best solution in the world, but if it's not resonating with the people who can be benefiting from it, then it doesn't matter. You're not going to be successful and you're not going to be able to move the needle, get additional sales, find new customers, have them love the outcomes after using your product.

Right? So yeah, experimentation is to me, the only thing that helps founders get out of their own way. And being honest about the results that they get and not trying to you know, mask the data, data doesn't lie. It's data. You do something, you're going to get the feedback and be okay with whatever happens.

Like if your customers are telling you, I love your product, but they're telling you it's doing something different than you thought it was. You're like, okay, that's great. So now I have the feedback to be able to go and get more of those customers that it's actually doing this thing for. And lo and behold.

What do you find it works?

Kelly Kennedy: Oh my gosh. Get out of here with that science. It's hard to hear sometimes, Tash.

Tash Jefferies: It is, it is, but it's, honestly, I am here, Kelly, so that anyone listening to this and, like, folks like yourself hear it and do the things that make them successful. Honestly, I consider that my job.

Successful founders is my job, creating them, making them and building successful businesses and products that people actually want and love. Let's bring them to the forefront. So if you do this and you do it properly, you're going to have success. It's just how it goes.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Preach, preach. You got it. And you know what?

I get that I intrinsically, I completely get that as a, as a business development person, I'm like, you got to give them what they want, but as a business owner. It's like, I want to give them what I want them to have, but it doesn't work that way.

Tash Jefferies: Listen, that is the biggest thing that I've seen that has caused startups to fail.

And I honestly, the funny part of it is I can predict them and I see them and I watch them and I always sit back and I'm like, yo, I'm not a betting person, but I wish I would have put money on that because I can call, I can see them as they're happening. People who get too attached to what they've built.

This is not a business of like being a founder or an entrepreneur. It's not about building something that's your baby. It's about, no, I'm here to help people. And guess what? People are going to pay me. So that I can help them. So let's do that. Can we do that to me? That's what success is and I mean, I am not afraid to ask for money So i'm not afraid to go through as I know you aren't either kelly You got to go in and ask for the sale and ask for it and unless you get comfortable with doing that and Giving people what they're asking you for if what you presented isn't the right thing You need to get comfortable with that and say okay.

Well, listen, this is you know Not what I thought I was doing, but this is what you want. Great. I have it. I can make it work.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. And you know what, like I said, like I'm, you know, man, I'm the first one to say, like, I've made that mistake. I've made that mistake. Like literally recently we made that mistake.

I last month was like probably one of the hardest months that we've ever had at Capital. And it was because I wanted to do things the same way I'd always done them because it worked for me in the past, but I was being so myopic and thinking, like, just because it worked for me in the past did not mean that it was going to work for me in the future.

And what I needed to do was be able to see it a different way. And from where I was sitting at the time, I was really struggling to see the other avenues, the other ways, even though they were right in front of my head, even though once we finally did get the feedback. I talked to my trusted circle of people around me and I said, look, where am I going wrong?

Tell me where we're making this mistake. And they're like, here's where, here's where I think you could change this. When we finally did implement some changes, we went more to like a project deliverables based as opposed to an unlimited based proposal. Once we made those changes, I was like, my gosh, why didn't I do this?

Like, of course we could have done this this way, but from where I was sitting at the time, Tash, I couldn't see it. And it's like, it's so we need people like you, we need people like you to be able to come in and say, look, stupid,

you're doing this wrong right now. And I know you can't see it, but just hear me out and talk to other people because I think once you do that, you're going to see it. I'm talking to you founders, you startups, you business owners who were being stupid right now, and I'm not calling you out. I'm right there with you.

I've done it. Understand. There's probably another way. Actually, there's definitely another way and there's probably a better way than you're doing it right now. There's a way that better serves you that better serves your customers and you have to be open to looking at it. And I'm the first one to say that I failed at that.

Tash Jefferies: You know what? And it's so funny. You're saying this, Kelly, because honest to me, that is the role of an accelerator. So one of the stories that I hear time and time again, when founders applied for the program, because for everyone who gets past the initial screen, like there's a minimum threshold of customers revenue that you need to show to be eligible for an interview.

But during that first interview, what I usually hear is something like, you know what, we have the testimonials, we have customers, right? And we're doing well, but we know we're missing something. And to me, that's the benefit of an accelerator program, because when you have experienced season founders, such as, you know, Shaheel and myself, and all of that amazing visiting mentors that we have on our programs, who also are global.

By the way, like we are able to see things in your business that you can't see because you're just too close to it. You're too in it. You're in, you're in it. So you're not taking that step back to be able to view it from the wire wider lens. And we have this process. We call it the 10 K that we do in our programs where we get all of our founders to do a 10, 000 foot view of their business.

So we ask questions like, you know, our customers can't live without us because right. What we do better than anybody else is this so that you start thinking about why are customers choosing you? Why do your customers say they love you and can't live without your service? But we get you to and also another one of my favorite questions is our business will die if.

Because we've got to be ready for all potential solutions here and and issues and challenges and direct them head on. And so I'm always on the lookout for founders who have enough self awareness to be able to understand what's the thing that's going to kill your business is their competitor. Like, do you not have any type of technology protection or.

Or something that, you know, one of the big guys can copy no problem, and then your business is done. Like, I want to see that you have the foresight to understand that and, and how do we deal with that? Because then, I mean, you've got things to benefit you as an earlier stage founder that's going to help outrun them.

If you are listening to your customers and they say, oh, well, we need this. And you're able to bring it up and solve it for them immediately. Well, guess what? You just put a challenge in the way of those big folks. Cause they don't move that fast. You have agility and speed at your fingertips. So let's use the benefits of what you have from being an earlier stage venture.

And it's one of the best things that I tell founders, like we can see things that you can't see. So if you know you're a stock or you're not getting that hockey stick growth that we love to look for in accelerator programs, we can help you get there.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, and you know, you're talking about that nimbleness and I forget what the statistic is, but in service based industries where someone calls you and says, Hey, we need this.

If you're able to deliver a yes answer. And I think it's the first 12 hours. Your your statistic of winning that project is goes up by like 80%. And then from there, I think it's like every hour past that it drops like 20%. Like, it's, it's your ability to deliver quickly. That typically secures your sale in a service based industry.

Tash Jefferies: Absolutely, and it's one of your biggest benefits of being a founder or an earlier stage entrepreneur Like you can say yes, you can fix things without having to go through like, you know Lots of red tape and lots of administrative processes and different signatures. You can just say nope. We're going to do it You need it.

We'll solve it for you and that ability to solve problems is one of your Best tools in your toolkit as an early stage founder and entrepreneur.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, totally. And you know, we talked about that 10, 000 foot view and my gosh, it makes so much sense, but you don't mean being a business owner myself, you're, you've been a business owner.

We're talking to a whole bunch of business owners. I also see the other side of it is. When we created the business, we created it with what we thought at the time was the best avenue to do it. And I think we sell ourselves so much on that because, because that's what we did in the beginning, or that's what worked initially, right?

We sell ourselves that, okay, we, we've got it figured out. It worked this time. We ha we started a business. We've worked for three, five, 10 years, however long you've been doing this and it's worked for you. I think what, what becomes really hard, and it was very hard for me, Was to accept the fact that the way that I did it once and it worked very well was probably not going to be the way that was going to work well for me now.

And the funny thing about that is, the old way that I do it might actually still have a part that makes sense at some point. Like, I think it's the ability to be very flexible with your model that gives you power over time. And I think that that's very evident in businesses that you see that are, you know, 50, 100 years old.

I think you'll notice that with most of those companies, they've pivoted substantially from the businesses they started out. They might not even sell the same products at all in any way, shape, or form that they did 50 years ago to what they're doing today. And their success there has obviously been in their ability to read what the market demand is, and start to offer something that the new market wants versus what their old customers wanted.

Tash Jefferies: Absolutely. And I think what I'm going to go back to, because this is the, so I've worked with hundreds, like, I think I'm getting up to 500 founders that I've worked with across the globe now. And there are two concepts and two things that I tell my founders that I say in every single batch. Any founder I've worked with will tell you that I say this all the time.

The first one is you have to pick your ideal customer profile. Not everyone is supposed to be your customer. You have to find the ones who say, Oh my God, I cannot live without this solution. It is helping me so much because X, Y, and Z. You have to find those you are not meant to sell to everyone your solution isn't one of that one of the things I always Laugh at is when founders say we've got the next big thing We're meant for everyone and I just sit and I'm like y'all gonna fail Everybody does not need your solution.

You're missing something. It is too big a net to cast to say we are bad for the world. Like, come on, get over yourself. So that's the first thing. The second thing is, and I say this like a broken record. Talk to your customers if you talk to your customers. Number one, there's your marketing for your sales and marketing to get more.

You just put your testimonials up. If other people say, oh, yeah, that was me. And, oh, you solved it for them. That's me. They're going to identify and say, yeah, okay, well, then I need to talk to you and at least get on the phone and talk to these folks. So that's the thing, right? But the next thing is, unless you're talking to your customers, you have no idea what their jobs to be done is.

What are, what are you solving for them? And you have to be comfortable with talking to your customers all the time. My most successful founders in the years that I've been doing this are the founders who fall in love with solving a problem for their customers. Yeah, when they love talking to their customers, one of the most successful ones we had in this last batch like literally they Loved talking to their customers every single day.

They came in and told me they were talking They talked to 20 customers and I was like That's impressive because our programs are like full like eight hour plus Like you got to be working on our concept and we deliver content in the first three weeks. Like it's close to eight hours for the day. Right.

But then they're still going out and talking to people. I'm like, that's, that's my ideal founder right there.

Kelly Kennedy: Totally. Absolutely. And you know, what's funny that totally translates not just your customers, but very much to this podcast, because, you know, I mean, if you've reached out to me on the show, or you're been a long time listener, and we've conversated on LinkedIn, you know, that I've asked you probably five to 10 times, especially over the past six months, how the heck do I make this show better?

Tell me what I'm sucking at. Be straight with me. Tell me how I can improve this. What do you want for the next hundred shows? Because A podcast is absolutely no different. We are here to deliver value to you. And I need to know what is valuable to you in order to deliver that value. So thank you to all the listeners who have reached out and said, Kelly, please stop doing this.

Please do more of this. And we want more of this in the new year. One of the takeaways that we have got, Tash, is that I have been asked to ask more guests to give their own best business development advice. And what's funny is you, I did that in the beginning, but what I got more into was the organic conversation because I very much love entrepreneur stories.

I love talking to other founders and other entrepreneurs, and I just love the stories. I really do. That's what I'm all about. But it's important for me to remember that the people listening to the show very much care about how to grow their business. And so in order for me to deliver for them, I have to make sure that I am also asking about the best business development advice.

And so let's just segment right into it. I love it. What is some of the best business development advice that you could give to founders, Tash? People that are, people that maybe have an accelerator, that maybe they're, maybe they're going to start an accelerator program or maybe they're just jumping in.

What is some of the best advice that you can give them to move forward?

Tash Jefferies: So you know how ready I am for you today, Kelly, is that I have been distilling all of this, what, since 2017? What's that, make this six years I've been doing this work? I have been in the process of trying to Still down the top three things that I, I live by and that I preach to my founders.

And I do have three big business development tips. These will work for you no matter what stage of your business that you're in. If you're tech, if you're service based, if you're an entrepreneur, so this will be the Holy grail from now on anybody who hears me on other follow up shows are going to hear it, but Kelly, you get the benefit of being the first.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. I love it.

Tash Jefferies: So very first one, talk to your customers. I say it all the time. The reason why you need to do that is because you are going to understand the jobs to be done of your customer. What do they need done? Why are they really using your solution? Like, let me be honest. I don't just buy iPhone.

Just like we've got pixels and all these other types of things, but one of the reasons why I love iPhone is I can buy a device and it works and syncs with all of my other devices. So I got to do nothing. I'm plugging in. If I have airpods on and a call comes in through my laptop. If I need to take a call, it does it seamlessly.

I got to lift a finger. So there's so much ease. But most importantly, I love it. It's sleek. They're the one of the only ones that still have the smaller phones. I like small phones, but it just feels good to me. So talk to your customer. I'm sure. Apple has more than enough information on me to know why I use their stuff.

But listen, understand why your customers love you. The second one, and this is super important, and especially if you're an entrepreneur before you're a founder. Actually, no, I'll take that back because I've even seen seasoned founders who are doing millions in revenue still don't do this. They don't measure.

You need to measure everything. Even if you think you have a business where it's B2B and you're talking to corporations. You still need to be measuring how many corporations are you talking to in a week? How many actually book that follow up call with you? How many proposals are going out? How many are you closing?

You have to measure doesn't even if it's a long sales cycle and it takes a year for your customers to close if you are not measuring how many people you're calling and contacting on a regular basis Daily basis and doing that measure week on week You have no idea whether it's working, whether it's not.

Are you growing? You have to measure and you have to measure the right metrics. Always measure the metrics that are going to give you an idea of are you acquiring more customers? Are you getting better, faster, easier? To get in touch to the right ones, you got to measure.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes, yes. Can I pause you there quickly?

So, okay, so at Capital, and I talked about this, you know, in the beginning of the show, and it's something that we do now, and you know, when we started Capital, you're right, we didn't have all the data. And so, we have been measuring every single week, the amount of effort we put in. How many calls we've made?

How many digital introductions? How many people we added to LinkedIn? How many followups we made? How many meetings we booked? How many of those meetings turned into a sale for our customers? And now I can talk to a customer for the most part, as long as it's an industry that I'm confident in, and I can say.

We know from our past data that with X number of contacts, you're likely to get X number of meetings. And from that X number of meetings, depending on your industry, your close rate is likely this, which means that they can actually forecast the dollars and cents. That they can get from investing in Capital.

And we even got to a point where if it's a, if it's an industry that we know, we even give a full on guarantee of an X number of results. We'll, we'll work till we hit it.

Tash Jefferies: And Kelly, one of the things that I can say is I know explicitly, because we talked about it, that the reason why you have been able to do that is because you talk to your customers, your customers told you that they wanted, they just wanted a close ratio or one to certain number of leads.

And if you know, you can deliver. Then why are you giving them anything else? Just give them what they're asking for and they're going to be happy on it. And I know also for you and your team It's actually a little bit less effort because you know what you need to do You know how many calls you need to do to be able to get your your results.

So it's like No brainer. Why not? Let's make it easier on you and the funny thing That's how it is for all most founders, they go through that aha moment too.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, it was so silly, right? Because and you know, I know I'm talking to a lot of businesses right now that probably have in house BD. And you know, I mean, I was really working from that was the life and world that I came from.

And in in house BD. It's just an endless moving target, right? It's like, it's like, okay, great. You got five or 10 meetings last month. That's frigging amazing. Good job, rockstar. Make it 20 next month, right? It's never, it's never like, Hey, like this is what we actually need. Because if we hit 10 meetings or 15 meetings or 20 meetings over the next year, we're likely to close five of them.

And if we close five of them, that's probably 10 to 15 million in revenue. And so, yeah, that's your goal. That's what you should work towards. So I was from that world where what I thought was that everybody just wanted these unlimited results. And we, you know, we, we came in and we said, we work for this amount of time.

We're going to get you whatever results we get you from that time. But the feedback that I got back consistently was that wasn't actually what they wanted. And I wasn't listening for the longest period of time. It was funny because we had this conversation. I remember talking to you and be like. I don't know where the heck I'm going wrong, but I yeah, it wasn't long after that we really clued in and we got a lot of feedback from clients.

We figured out where we needed to go with that, and it was on a results based plan, and that works better for absolutely everybody. You're right, me, my client, everyone, but it took a lot of conversation. It took a lot of me getting out of my own way to get there.

Tash Jefferies: And you know what? I mean, that's part of what I would call the magic of the work that I do is that in many cases I'm able to see those pitfalls because I would call that a pitfall of your founder, entrepreneur, right?

Keep doing something and this isn't working. And one of the things that I now develop that I do without a shadow of a doubt in every program now is I do mock intro calls. So I'm a customer and I'll listen to the founder and literally every single one. I can tell why they're not moving things forward.

Why they're not, you know, just by how you're doing things, if you're in a call with a customer and they're not the ones talking and worse yet, they are talking, but then you're not listening. And then I see your notes. We're both on the same call and I'm like, what are you? Do it. They're telling you everything you need to do to close the sale, fricking close the sale.

And so, I mean, a lot of the times, it's just being able to be laser focused, understanding what this should look like. I mean, I've been doing business development now for most of my life and I'm closer to 50 now than I am to 40. So for those of you who are wondering, well, you're listening. 25. 25. I like that.

I love the fact I'm 46. I don't look a day over 40. Some say 30 depending

Kelly Kennedy: I, you know what? If I'm saying 25, you can pass the 25. You're fine. You're killing it.

Tash Jefferies: Well, this is what I'm saying, but it is because I've learned to embrace the skills that come naturally. And I know, like, honestly, understanding people, talking to people, listening to people.

It's one of the things that I love, right? I love relationship building. And so sitting in on those calls, I can see those things. So, I mean, Sorry, Kelly. I wish you you had a tech based business. I probably could have called that out and I would have my nickname the hammer. I call it out quickly, quickly.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, okay. And it's so funny, too, because and and first off, you're talking about founder calls and I feel for them because I recognize in business development, it takes a lot of time to get that pitch right. And it's and the other side is it's also important to remember that the pitch on the phone should always just be enough To get them in person, going to build the relationship that leads to that, to leads to that deal for you in person.

And so where I see a lot of people really fall on their faces, they try to sell over the phone and they give, they just talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and go over all the features, but. You're never going to do that. That's never going to work for you.

Tash Jefferies: That's the founder. That's, that's the typical founder call when we do those founder mock calls.

And that's why I love them because then they're like, I'm not, I'm not selling how much I should. And I'm like, did you stop to ask the customer why did they book the call with you in the first place? That's, that should be, to me, that's one of the first questions you ask on a call because then they're going to tell you what their expectation is, what they think you do.

What they think you can do with your solution. And if you're, if you're not doing that, you're missing the mark, you're missing an opportunity. And so again, it's, it's something so simple, but again, that's why there's people like me who help founders and entrepreneurs do this. Before we get off track, cause I want to make sure I get to my last one.

I said, I had three. So the first one was talk to your customers. The next one was measure, make sure that you have data behind what you're doing in your business. And the last one. We actually talked about it earlier, so it'll be very quick experiments, like, literally, if you think you know exactly who your customer is, and you've been working with 1 channel, do a weekly test, do a mini campaign on another channel, because literally, the only way you're going to understand and improve your results is by testing little things.

That make big movements move the needle in a big way on your business and experimentation is the way to do it. Also, quick note, if you're a founder out there or you're an entrepreneur and you say, Oh, we're doing this campaign and it takes three months to get up and running. That's not a friggin experiment.

If you cannot do and light up an experiment in two hours or less. To me, that's not an experiment and you shouldn't be focused on it again unless you've got three years of runway sitting in the back room somewhere and you're willing to go without a sale or new customers For three years go ahead with a three month project But if you're not you usually have you know In some cases i've worked with founders who've had like 30 days worth of runway Well, guess what your experiments are going to be for seven day cycles And you need to be able to get that experiment up and running And two hours or less.

If you can't, it's not an experiment. Keep on moving. Throw me something else. And that's really the way that you actually experiment those big movements and shifts in companies.

Kelly Kennedy: Can you give me some examples of experiments that they could use to test various theories?

Tash Jefferies: Absolutely. So the first one I hinted at, which was to start with, it's a very simple, let's say you've been your ideal customer you think lives on Instagram, right?

You've been testing your numbers are okay, but you're now finding a drop off if your ideal customer skews younger. They love technology, right? They're interested in let's say health and wellness and Or maybe even business ideas. So that's what they're consuming Then I would say run a test where you do a very simple ad On tiktok because maybe that's where you're going to find your ideal audience do a simple ad go on canva Right you can even use animoto if you want a video You should be able to as a business owner I'm telling you the skill that's going to make or break your business is being able to do things on canva and animoto and all of these like free subscribe like very affordable tools.

Yeah create something in two hours or less Throw it up, put a small budget behind it and test and see if you're able to acquire new customers that way. That's to me That's my go to example because I come across a lot of founders who are like, well, we've been using facebook and i'm like really who's your ideal customer they tell me who they're at and i'm like you might want to try even youtube or try, you know, instagram or try you know tiktok or guess what?

Big, big surprise. You might actually want to go in person locations. Maybe there is an event that's happening and you're going to be able to acquire customers there. So my role is to think outside of the box, understand who the customers are and start saying, well, let's do a mini experiment. Listen, all we need to do is do up a little QR code, which you can do one up.

Print off at any, like you can print it on your computer if you want, right, or staples or whatever, do it up in a half an hour and then take those coupon codes, go talk to people and you're going to be able to know how many did you print off, how many people actually redeem that coupon code, simple experiment, right, offline and online channels, both work for the experiment, but it should be something you should be able to do in two hours or less and have it up and start getting data.

Kelly Kennedy: That's amazing. And a very good advice and on point. One of the other things that I wanted to talk about with you that it came up earlier in the show, you talked about the one thing.

Tash Jefferies: Oh, the one metric that matters.

Kelly Kennedy: One metric that matters. That to me sounds like something very important. And I want to spend a little bit of time on that.

Tash Jefferies: Absolutely. So every time we do programs and we work with founders, We see their KPI dashboard, which is their key performance indicator dashboard. So anything that they measure in their business So let's go back because this is the business development show. Let's talk specifically about this how many Leads you get from an ad how many people click through and book?

How many people are you talking to? How many are you getting follow ups from and how many appointments, right? So you should have a KPI dashboard, at least with those metrics. There might be some at the beginning. Maybe it's, you know, you have an intense product. That's pretty expensive. So you need 3 calls at the end instead of 1.

Whatever that is, that looks for you, you have the dashboard, but 1 of the things we try to get you to understand is. Which is the metric and it's hard to tell. Unless we have a conversation and understand what you're doing, but what is the metric we're going to focus on? That is going to move the needle.

The biggest in your business. In many cases, it's that area in your business where you find the biggest drop off. So, for instance, let's say, you know how to close towards the end of your sales cycle. You're closing anywhere from 40 to 60%. To me, that's super, super high. Sounds like your team is up at that ratio or even a little bit higher.

So kudos, but maybe what you want to do instead is look at where your message is coming in and maybe you're, you know, under a half percent as far as people who are coming in and responding to your ad. So maybe at the beginning of your process is where the biggest drop off is. Let's take a look at that because.

If we can fix that and we have more people at the top of your sales process, then ultimately we're going to drive more revenue and customers at the bottom because you're able to convert well down there. Or it might be the opposite. Maybe you're getting a lot of leads in, but you're not, you're missing something in the sales process.

So again, the only way we can tell you're one metric, you got to have data. You've got to show me what have you been doing? Where's your biggest drop off? And you have to have some idea of where that is. And so then all we do is we experiment where we're going to get that biggest conversion so that you end up getting hot mistakes results.

So wherever the biggest drop off is, is usually the idea of where we need to focus. And for every startup, every business, it's going to be in a different location. But once we focus on that, if we fix that and figure out how to increase those conversions, then everything else on the opposite sides of those are going to flow.

And you're going to, you're going to, you're going to have increases in your business.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Yeah. Okay. That was gonna be my question. It is different in every single organization, isn't it?

Tash Jefferies: It is. And especially for businesses, because like, when we work with founders, we might have initial, an initial area.

So maybe it's at the acquisition phase. So where we're trying to get the leads, we don't have enough leads coming in. And then we fix that. And then that one metric that matters might change after our programs, because we've, we've fixed that. Now we've got that to a point where it's, it's repeatable. We now know that we can bring in five to 10 percent and it doesn't vary outside of that range now, so then we can switch to a new one metric that matters.

And maybe now we're increasing conversions at a different part of the funnel. So, but again, you don't move on until you get some consistency and improvements in that particular metric, but yeah. Varies from business to business.

Kelly Kennedy: Okay. Does this tend to be, do you find that when you sit down with your founders and say, Hey, I think this is where your challenge is that there, is it an aha or is it a, yeah, I know.

Tash Jefferies: So funny. I am lucky in that I've been doing this for long enough. It's usually, it's usually a blind side where it's something that they weren't aware of. And I said, and my response is always tested. I'm like, this is my hunch, but how about we test it? Because if I'm asking you the question and you tell me you don't know, then I'm like, well, neither do I.

So how about we test it and see? And usually that's where it's like, oh man, I had no idea. It's usually something that's just in a blind spot. And so we test it, we get the data, and then we let the data tell us what to do next.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes, yes, you know, I do wonder that because I feel like I feel like most of the time when we as founders or owners look at our business, I think for the most part we can tend to identify.

I think that I could improve here. I think we could do better here, but intrinsically making that change and saying, okay, but now I'm going to address that is a completely different ballgame. Like I think that most companies, and I really mean this, most companies. If they went to a more active business development approach where they started focusing on the relationships, talking to people, really getting to know their customers, getting in front of them, having those face to face conversations, they would do better.

But it's something that I think is intrinsically scary. And it goes against like how you might feel because I also think that most founders tend to be very introverted. And it's one of the challenges is okay. I actually have to go out and talk to my customer. I have to make an interaction. Yeah, you do, but it's something you can learn 100%.

Tash Jefferies: Absolutely. And my question to founders now is always, do you want to be safe or do you want to be successful? Because you can't have both. Like, I mean, intrinsically as a founder, you're taking risks. And to me, if you're not willing to go and talk to your customers and also potentially find out what's wrong with your solution, then you're playing it safe.

Yeah. And you're not going to have success. You have to get out. Like the world is one of those big, bad, scary places. I would never know that I was good at this unless I decided to go somewhere where, by the way, my family completely had an intervention to get me to try to stop me from going to Saudi in the first place.

But that's a whole other podcast, but I decided to go. Why? Because I was like, do I want to play it safe or do I want to be successful? I don't want to just be doing this work. I want to be the. Best at working in accelerator programs and helping founders to be successful. So, therefore, I've got to be constantly talking to founders.

I got to be constantly looking for new solutions and ideas to go on my Rolodex. So they can tell me where they're at and I can see it like that. I mean, one of the things that I try to do is for a founder. Or a budding founder who wants to go into something. I can sit down and make a 15 minute intro call.

The most valuable call that they've had in many cases all year. And that's not for me. That's from founders who, you know, come back to me after that, you know, when they had an idea and then they have the solution and then I'm like, okay, go test it, go talk, this is what you do. They come back and then they're like, we have something, we're ready for funding.

And to see a founder go through that journey from like literal, literally. Quick snippets of things that I can see that are just in their blind spots is one of the most rewarding, rewarding things I've ever done in my life.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, amazing. I mean, can they do that still through tashjefferies.com?

Tash Jefferies: Absolutely. Yes. So if you go to my website, literally book your free consults. And alternatively, I will tell you because again, we're at the time where I'm in my downtime here. Just reach out to me on on LinkedIn. My handle is Tash J very simple T A S H J and reach out to me there.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing, amazing, Tash.

It's been another absolutely killer episode. You know, just given the timing of this, of this show, right, people are listening to this on Christmas Eve, most likely. They're thinking, you know, I mean, they're in their downtime too, but trust me, you know, their business analytical brains are going and they're thinking.

My gosh, what can I do differently in the new year? I'm going to pin you down. What's one amazing piece of advice, just one that you can give people for 2024 to make them more successful?

Tash Jefferies: Love it. And especially if this is coming out during the holiday season, I'm going to task, if you're listening to this show, and literally you can ping me after you've listened to the show.

And if you've done it. Reach out to me and I'm more than happy to hear stories. I'm gonna give you one fun Christmas gift to yourself that is super fun and that is work that doesn't seem like work that you can do in your spare time. Wherever you're at in your house. Keep a pad of paper. Walk with you. If you're an electronic person, open up your, your phone and have a list or some type of whatever you use to make your notes on.

I want you to come up with an experimentation list. What are some quick tests that you can do on your business that you can run for one week? That take two hours or less to put together and actually implement and execute on your business So that is my challenge to all of you. This is your christmas gift.

Think of this as your christmas gift to yourself do your list because And i'm going to give this specifically to the business development podcast, listeners here if you do a list over the holidays In the new year, if you ping me on LinkedIn, I will actually do a review and tell you the top three ones.

That are probably going to be your focus for the new year. How's that?

Kelly Kennedy: I suspect you're going to get a few lists.

Tash Jefferies: I would love them because you know what? It means that number one, you are listening. Number two, you're ready to take it on. And number three, you're ready to get feedback. Cause I'm still, even if you're not in an accelerator program with me, I'm still going to be the hammer.

So it means that you're willing to get some feedback. So kudos to you.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh, amazing. Amazing. Cash. This is always amazing. Hey, you know, and I just want to give you a special thank you. You know, you've been with me really from the very beginning of this show. And. I appreciate you immensely. I appreciate your feedback.

I appreciate your friendship. Thank you so much for supporting us and getting us this far.

Tash Jefferies: You, you are so welcome. And one of the reasons I love to support you is because I love your podcast. I binge your podcasts. There's not many shows that can say that I do that, but I do binge listen to your podcast and go back and comment where I can.

And without a shadow of a doubt, you're also doing what you do on every single podcast. You always make me cry. I do podcasts all the time. No other house makes me cry as consistently . You do Kelly . Yeah. And that's happy tears. Happy tears.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh my goodness. Yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah. I, you know, I, I just decided when I did this show that I wanted to be as real as I could.

Right. You know, it's easy to hide behind that. Oh, I'm Macho. I'm a CEO. I do it all. But the reality is I'm human. I have a ton of challenges. I probably have more challenges than most. And the reality is, is that that affects me in everything that I do, whether it's my business, whether that's being a parent, whether that's being a good partner, it's all challenging.

And I think it's really important because it's like, as a business owner, my gosh, do we ever have a lot of weight on our shoulders at all? And it's easy to shrug it off and to look like you're a superhero or you're standing, you know, a hundred meters tall. But the reality is that every business owner, you know, has gone through a heck of a lot of struggle.

They've had a lot of sleepless nights. They've been scared. They've cried. I'm sure they've gone through a lot to be where they're at. It's not just the, the forward face. You know, everyone can look at you and say, wow, you're doing amazing. And I think like as a podcaster, as a business owner, I get that all the time.

But it's like, I talked to CEOs like Mitch Jacobsen, who's a show coming up here really shortly. CEO of Revita Energy Tea, super successful energy tea business based in Calgary, Alberta, and hearing his story, my gosh, you know, like he, he suffered many crushing blows, crushing blows that he had no one to blame but himself.

And I've been there. And I think it's important that you acknowledge that even though, you know, yeah, sure. It's like, we're amazing. We've done great things, but we're all still human. We all still hurt. We all still have challenges. And I think it's important to bring that to business more so now than ever.

Tash Jefferies: Absolutely. And I think you do that and your podcast show that heart. And that both sides of it, like, I mean, as much as, you know, I travel and I see a lot of things, listen, I have a support network, Andrea, she's been my bestie for most of my life now, like we're talking about close to 40 years. I come back and I'm, I'm just a ball of tears because it gets rough, but it's our ability to get through, see the other side and wake up refreshed and be like, okay, this day is done.

It was a day from hell, but tomorrow it's another day. And I think, you know, having, You know, that that network and support and I don't have the nickname Mama Tash for nothing. I love to be that support for people because I've had it myself. So I always try to pay it forward and make sure people know it will get better.

It can get better, but we got to take that onus on ourselves and we got to put the work in and do it. And you got help there.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. And absolutely. And if you're listening to the show, and this is your very first Tash Jeffries episode, we did one on mental health. It's called the myth of work life balance.

I believe it is episode 34. So feel free to swing on back and catch that because we definitely talked mental health, which is something that Tash is very passionate about. Yeah, it, I just think it's important to be real. And I think the more that I can do that, and the more that I can be honest, and you know, I mean, it's not easy to come up here and say that I made an epic mistake in, in, in the way that we were doing business.

Yeah. That I couldn't see it. Right. But I feel like if I can come up here and say that and say, yeah, I screwed up. I'm going to fix it. I hope that one of you can also do that and find a way to fix it. Because sometimes if you can't be honest with yourself, who can you be honest with?

Tash Jefferies: Absolutely. And I mean, at the end of the day, for those of you who are listening, like I said, I already gave the offer.

You don't have to be alone. If you just need someone to take a look at what you're doing, giving you some feedback. That's why we have folks. Like Kelly here who are making sure you get the tools and the resources that you need. And thank you Kelly for listening to your listeners and actually doing what I love to see, which is listen to your customers.

If they said they want tips, well, we gave a hell of a set of tips on this show alone. So please make use of it, everyone. And don't be a stranger. Ping me on LinkedIn. That's your fastest way to get to me.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, amazing. And you know, one thing that I want to give because this is also the new year. If you guys have business development questions and you know, you don't, you know, someone to ask, ask me, right?

You can get me at podcast at capital bd. ca. You can get me at LinkedIn. For the most part, I connect with most of you. Just shoot me an invite. Ask me a question. For the most part, I'm an open book and I'm willing to help you because I needed that help too. And most of the time, it's not a hard challenge. I think.

We, most of us know what we need to be doing. We just need someone to confirm it. And if that's you, just shoot me, shoot me a question. We have a community questions episode on this show as well. I want to do it every month. So if you do shoot me a question, very likely I may answer it quickly for you, but I may also use it on the show because if you ask me the question, there's probably a thousand other people that have it too.

But this is a community and this community is designed to help and build business. And that doesn't, I don't care whether it's your business or anyone else's business or my business, this all helps everybody involved. So let's be a community. Don't be afraid to reach out.

Tash Jefferies: Love that. And that's from both of us on this episode.

Thank you as always, Kelly, for inviting me to come and just be myself. I'm sure I've used some not so nice podcast words, but they're still pretty, pretty safe, I think. So I think we should be good.

Kelly Kennedy: We haven't been censored yet.

Tash Jefferies: I love that then. Listen, keeping it real. Keeping it real.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh my goodness. This has been Episode 92 of the Business Development Podcast.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Happy Holidays. And we will catch you on the flip side.

Tash Jefferies: Merry Christmas!

Outro: This has been The Business Development Podcast with Kelly Kennedy, Kelly has fifteen 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.

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