Adapt to Thrive: The Evolutionary Path of Successful Businesses

Adapt to Thrive: The Evolutionary Path of Successful Businesses

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 133 of the business development podcast. And on today's episode, we are chatting all about embracing change. Change is going to happen. Some of the largest companies on earth are doing something completely different than they did when they started. Do you want a 50 or 100 year company?

Well, it's time to make change your friend. Stick with us. We're going to chat all about it.

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 133 of the business development podcast. My gosh, has it been a week and we are going to get into it, man. I am so flipping excited. I want to start today's show with a little show update. Cause it's been a little minute. Since we've done one, we are at 159, 064 downloads. As of this recording, we are 15 and a half months into the adventure.

That is the business development podcast. We have just crossed over 2000 followers on Apple podcast and Spotify. And so my listeners out there in the world, I know there is way more of you than that. Give us a follow on Apple podcasts and Spotify, and let's keep improving this reach. It allows us to reach far and wide and be able to get new audiences that we could not have gotten without it.

So we appreciate your follows. Thank you so much and continue doing so. Guys, my gosh, we were nominated. Quill Inc, because of every one of you, we were nominated podcast of the year. So remember with nominated, we haven't won yet. But we were nominated. So we're entering a judging phase with three other shows for podcast of the year and best interview podcast 2024.

And you are amazing. It is because of you, our rock star listenership, our amazing rock star guests that we got this nomination. We are deeply, deeply honored. Last year, we won best business podcast 2023 from Quill Inc and man, would it be crazy cool to win either best interview or podcast of the year?

Both of those are super, super cool. And we are honored and grateful and thankful for each and every one of you. We could not have done it without you. I always say we have the best listenership on the business development podcast, and this just proves it guys. You are amazing. We could not do it without you.

And just this morning woke up once again, to something that you guys did for us nominated for top 40 under 40 for the EDify magazine here in Edmonton, which is super, super amazing, always cool to be a top list at all. And it is once again, nomination it's going to judging. I haven't won anything. But it's super cool to recognize that I'm part of a list.

You know, I'd probably a gigantic list of amazing people, but it would be a total honor to win top 40 under 40 for EDify here in Edmonton. So man, it's been a day. It's been a week. Really? It's been a crazy week. Not to mention we're just about to roll over 160, 000 downloads. We'll probably roll over that this weekend here.

And it's just amazing. It's amazing to see the growth of this show. It's amazing to see the growth of our community. The amazing business development, community, entrepreneurial community that we have here on the business development podcast. You are a worldwide community. We are listened to in well over a hundred countries around the world.

We've been a top 100 show in 29 countries worldwide to date, including my country of Canada. And it's just been amazing. This journey is amazing. We could not do it without you, the growth of this show and where it's going and how it is evolving. And that is. So much to do with our topic today, and I'm very, very excited to get into it.

But before I just wanted to give a gigantic thank you for all your support. And if you want to continue to support this show, there are some really easy free ways that you guys can do it. You guys know, I love doing community questions. But it does require questions to do so. And so if you have any questions regarding business development, you guys can always email us a question at podcast@capitalbd.ca, or you can actually go to our website.

Our website is becoming this really cool place. I just revamped it. So you guys should definitely go check out the business development podcast website, and obviously that's business development podcast .ca or .com, wherever you're at. And if you go there on the homepage on the right hand side of the screen, you will see a little button that says leave us a voicemail and if you want to leave me a voicemail, that would be amazing.

I love hearing your voices. Feel free to leave me a voicemail. Let me know if you have a question for an upcoming Community Questions episode or if there's a show topic you would like me to cover that you think I have not covered yet. That is the best way for me to get them. And if you just want to let us know what's going on, what's going on, who you are, why this show matters to you, that would be super cool.

And you know what? If you do that, if you leave me a voicemail on why this show matters to you, my gosh, I will share it here on the business development podcast. So it's a challenge to each and every one of you listening right now. If you love this show, if this show has changed your life or improved your life, I want to hear from you and I will share it on the show.

Cause I think that's super, super cool. And. Just before we get into the show today, we have now updated, like I said, the business development podcast website, and there is now a Coach with Kelly button. And so if you want to do one on one personalized business development coaching with me, Kelly Kennedy, we have a program to really help you just to set up like the best business development flow for your company, to be able to coach you through it, how to set it up, how to overcome those objections, how to get better at business development.

I want to be your partner in this. So feel free to reach out. We always do a free discovery call before any type of coaching program. So you can book in for a free discovery call right off our website or right off my LinkedIn. If you just go to Kelly Kennedy on LinkedIn, you'll see a button there that says book biz dev sessions.

And from there, you can book a free discovery call with me. And I look forward to having that discussion. with you. All right, my gosh, got through it all. It's been a week, guys. There's been some stuff. There's some things that are evolving and changing at capital business development and the business development podcast all the time.

And that leads us into today's topic. And I'm super, super excited about it, which is super funny because I was not always on this evolution bandwagon. But I wanted to chat today all about embracing evolution in in your business. Okay, business evolution is the key to long term business success. All companies should be reviewing services, products, processes, and finding ways to innovate as often as possible.

Many companies who stand the test of time are very different from the companies they begin with. I talked about this in an earlier episode way, way, way back at the beginning of the business development podcast, but what I was talking about was. If you look at any company that's been around 50, 100 years, it's very likely the product or service or whatever it is they are selling today is vastly, vastly different from the product and service that they started the company with.

And so in my mind, in what I see in the world is that companies that succeed are. They're adaptable. They have the ability to adapt. They're changing all the time, and they are looking for the best way to evolve to meet new market needs, right? The funny thing about when we start our companies is we start our companies thinking we know exactly what the market needs.

We know exactly what our product and service is. And so we release that out to the world. But over time, and maybe you got it right. Maybe in the beginning, you were dead on. You had exactly the product or the service that the world needed at that time. But remember, guys, it's always just at that time, your product, your service, no matter how amazing it is.

Times change, needs change, customers change, everything changes. And so why would we think that keeping our companies the same, offering the same boring old products and services month over month, year over year forever was going to work? You guys know that's not true. You know, it's not true. And so innovating and evolving as a company isn't just necessary.

It's. Absolutely required to your long term success to your long term success in business. And yet so many of us are absolutely shit scared about change. We're scared about the new technology or that new thing that's going to disrupt our industry, right? Man, guys, it couldn't be further from the truth. It couldn't be further from the truth.

And so what I'm hoping for. My goal with this episode is to inspire you all to start thinking, how can we evolve? How can we get better? And not just make it a reaction, but make it a proactive choice to always be evolving, always be looking forward, and always be adapting to client needs so that you Can have a 50 or 100 year company as well.

I couldn't really talk about this without talking about my own company. And I really wanted to start this out by saying Capital Business Development as a company has evolved many times and is continuing to evolve all the time. And guys, we're like four years old, okay? We are not a super old company. I talk about this all the time on the show.

You know, I'm amazing at business development. I'm still learning all the time on the entrepreneurial side of things. I learned, I swear to God, just as much as you guys do from all of our amazing rockstar expert guests we have on the show. And I am not afraid to admit it. I am not afraid to admit that I don't know everything and that I have a lot to learn when it comes down to entrepreneurship.

But I can tell you that capital business development is nowhere near the company I thought it was going to be or how we started, right? It's not even close. When I launched Capital Business Development, I didn't even really know what we did yet. I knew that I had a great service. I knew that I knew how to do business development, and I knew that I could help companies, right?

I knew that I could help companies grow, but in the beginning, I didn't know how to do it. I, I was basically learning just like, just like any new business owner and I went into starting Capital Business Development just as like any employee would. I basically went out as like a rogue independent business development contractor and said.

If you pay me, whatever, 100 bucks an hour, 125 bucks an hour, I will do your business development for you. And we operated like that for like a full year before we started to realize like, this doesn't make any sense, right? We're not able to scale this or grow. And are we really even offering what it is our clients need?

And so over time, we evolved and we realized, okay, no, that's not really what they need. What they need is to achieve a goal. Yeah. They need to achieve a revenue goal. And so we started to get smart about it. We started to take statistics. We started to figure out what does it actually take for our customers to achieve their revenue goals.

And then we started sitting down with them proactively and saying, look, you want to grow by 5 million. And guess what? It's going to take this many opportunities for you to do that. And based on your closure rate, we're going to need this amount of meetings. And so then the company evolved into now we do contracts based on actually achieving revenue growth goals, which was a much better value proposition to the customers than just saying you're going to pay me X amount per hour to achieve that goal for you.

It also allowed us to put teams on it. It allowed us to scale capital, still evolving. There's still things changing all the time, right? Obviously the launch of the podcast was a huge, huge evolution. I had no idea when I launched this show, who would listen or that there would be so many of you out there listening or that the, the demand for a show like this would be so high.

I had no. Flippin idea, but that changed everything for me too. And that was, that was not just an evolution of Capital Business Development, but it was actually an evolution of Kelly Kennedy because I had never done anything like this. I had never been this forward facing. I was scared shitless. And you guys know, I talk about this all the time on the show.

There's a lot of things that freak me out right like social situations like I always say I'm like the introverted beady guy right like I had to overcome I had to learn how to become better more extroverted to be able to handle these outward facing situations and now yeah I sit in front of this mic and I come to you guys week over week month over month year over year and I love it.

But it was hard. It took a lot of time. It took a lot of bravery, honestly, on my side to be able to even do this in the first place, to be able to put myself out there and teach you guys and inspire you guys and educate you guys. And so much of that is about me evolving as a person. And as I evolve on this show, you are evolving with me.

You're seeing it happen live. You're seeing it happen every week. The new things that I'm learning. Thanks The new steps we're taking with this show, the new things we're implementing. It is a learning and evolutionary process, right? This show is amazing. I love doing this show, but I could have never known, right?

I could have never known the opportunities the show would present me. The amazing people that I would meet along the way, the amazing stories I get from you guys about implementing the stuff that you learn on this show, right? It's such a An unexpected, amazing experience really is the best way to put it, but it is an evolution of my company, of my brand, of Kelly Kennedy.

There's so much changing all the time, right? How about the launch of coaching, right? The newest thing that we are working on here, you know, at Capital Business Development. What we realized was business development, direct business development is amazing. And for a lot of companies, the ones that can afford it, it is the best option.

It offers them a really all in one package. They can step back, let Capital Business Development really handle that business development task for them, really do that hard work, that heavy lifting to get them in the room. But what we realized was, is that unfortunately, that also alienates a lot of amazing individuals and companies who still need great business development, but they can't really afford that direct, that direct business development need, right?

And so that's where the evolution now is going into coaching. And we're investing heavily in the coaching. And we very much look forward to the future of what that brings. Not just for individual business development people, and companies, and, and leaders who want to coach with us, but for all of the companies and all the people that they teach from that point forward.

It really is a stepping stone into The future of business development into making business development better. And it is the cheapest, most effective way for us to do that. And we're always looking for what is going to be the cheapest, most effective way for us to change the world. Because at Capital Business Development, I started out wanting to change things.

I wanted to make business development better. I wanted to make it more attainable, I wanted to make the knowledge more available, and I wanted to make more people amazing at business development, because the more people that we had that were amazing at business development, the better, like, think about it, think about it from a standpoint of exponential growth of companies, right?

How many companies have died just because they didn't have good business development? They didn't have somebody in their corner advocating for them, shouting their name from the rooftops, saying, you need to check out this company, and they died. And how many companies could have changed the world, could have done amazing things, but never had the opportunity to?

It really is a chain reaction, the work we're doing here on the Business Development Podcast, right? And coaching will be the next evolution of that. Of that chain reaction to really just amp this thing up and really take it to the next level. But as you can see at capital, I'm always thinking, how can I take this to the next level?

How can we do this better? How can we get better and more effective at business development? How can we train people better? How can we give better advice? How can we Take the show to the next level. How can we take the company to the next level? I'm never stagnant. I'm never sitting here saying, okay, we did a great job.

I'm just going to put my hands in my pockets and ride this out. That is not how I think. However, however, guys, that is not how I always was. And so I wanted to kind of take some time and chat with you guys today about. Why you might be afraid. Okay, I get it. I get it. If you've been an employee for a long time, and you've been doing something the same way for a long time in an organization, okay, as organizations, we can struggle sometimes, I think, to motivate our employees and to keep them realizing that change can actually be good.

I think they've heard it so much and I think they're afraid of it. I think a lot of employees are afraid of change, but the reality is is that everything changes, right? Putting our heads in the sand and saying, like, this is the process. This is the way that we do it forever. That's not the solution because it is.

The problem is, is the outcome is constantly changing. The needs of your customers are always changing. And sometimes the processes that we made to solve one customer's needs do not solve future customers needs. Right? And so we need to be evaluating our processes, our thought processes, our procedures, the tools that we use at least every year, if not considerably more than that.

Okay. Like we really need to be looking at our companies at everything that we do in our organizations and ask ourselves. Is this redundant? Do we still need to do this? Does this still actually solve the challenges for our customers? Because I think you'll find that if you do this review once a year, you're going to be axing a lot of processes, of programs, of things that you guys have used in the past that are now maybe arbitrary.

or a new program that you guys are using also does that old thing, but now you're paying for both. We're seeing that happen a lot on the AI front because things are evolving so quickly, especially on the podcast side, like things are evolving so quickly on the podcast side that you were paying for entire programs like six months ago, that now one program has bundled in.

With all of these other systems that they're also selling at a cheaper cost or the same cost, right? So we're constantly evaluating what tools are we using? What tools are effective? How can we do this more effective? Right? You guys, I've talked to you guys about this on the show. I just went through like one of the hardest things that I've had to do on the business development podcast since inception.

And that was literally learn an all new recording program and production program, because the one that I was using originally, it was great. But it wasn't going to take us to the next level. It wasn't going to let us compete at the next level that we really needed to compete at. And so I had to learn from scratch a brand new recording software.

And I'm still learning it, honestly, I'm still learning it. I'm getting much, much better at it. But what it's going to do is, in the future, allow us to be able to produce a much better, higher quality show than we ever could have before. And will this be the end? Probably not. I imagine that in a year or two years, I'll be doing the same thing over again because technology will have changed and I will need to adapt and overcome to take it to that next level because I'm not OK with being stagnant.

And I think as leaders, as professionals, as executives who want to be the best of the best, you can't be OK either. You have to be constantly driving for how can I improve this company? How can I improve my systems? How can I make myself better? How can I become more efficient? Because it really is about you.

It really is about who do you want to be? Are you okay with just being mediocre or average, or are you going to be the best? Well, every company out there should be gunning to be the best. You should always try to be the best in what you do. And that is going to take evolution. That is going to take change and a willingness to change and not just a willingness to change.

But a want to change a drive to change a drive for evolution. Okay, change is not scary. It is actually necessary and exciting. It is all about your mindset. Okay, it's all about your mindset. And so what I want you guys to do today for my people, my business development rock stars out there who are like Kelly, I hate change.

Change scares me. We've been doing this the same way forever. Think about it. You've been doing it the same way forever. How boring. How boring. There could be something so amazing that could change your whole position, that could change your whole company. It could flip it right on its head. It could make everything you do a million percent better.

Wouldn't you want to know about it? Don't you want to learn that? Don't you want to learn that skill to really elevate yourself and your organization to the next level? You guys, we know the answer is yes, but the only way you're going to get there is to change your mindset and say, I'm not going to be okay with just being mediocre.

I'm not going to be okay with just living the status quo. I am going to be better than the status quo. I am going to be a leader in my organization, in my market, and I'm going to make the choice to do that. By embracing evolution, by embracing new process, by embracing new tools, by not being afraid of AI, but embracing AI, finding the ways to let technology help you, because it is advancing so fast.

We are in We are in like a industrial revolution, okay? We really are, you just can't see it yet. You are in something right now with the advent of AI that will be just as impactful to the world as the industrial revolution was, right? It is the difference between plowing your field with a horse or plowing it with a John Deere tractor.

Mark my words, we can't see it yet. We can't really understand the true power of AI, but it is that substantial. And it will be that substantial to your organizations. And if you do not start embracing it, you will be left behind. There is no two ways about it. Without evolution and change, you will die. Do you hear me?

Without evolution and change in your organization, without embracing it wholeheartedly, You will die. It may not be tomorrow. It may not be next month. It may not even be next year, but you will be outpaced. You will be lapped and you will become redundant. You have to adapt and whether you like it or not, you will be forced to adapt.

So, If you're going to be forced to adapt anyway, why not just make that your policy? Why not just make that your ethos for your company? We adapt and overcome always. We're always looking for the next big thing. We are always embracing future technology. And we don't just wait for it. We hunt it out. Okay, don't run away.

Run towards. Run towards technology is the future. Adapting your process is the future. Adapting to real customer needs and what they want and what will drive their businesses forward is what you have to do. It's what you have to do. It's not what you want to sell. It's what people want to buy. Okay, it doesn't matter what you sell.

And that's what's so funny. I think we so forget that. And even I've forgotten that. But it doesn't matter what you sell. It doesn't matter what you want to sell it for, how much you want to sell it for, how great you think it is. The only thing that really matters is what does your customer need? What do they want to buy?

What's important to them? What solves their problem? What are they willing to pay for and how much are they willing to pay for it? Okay. That is all that matters in business, which means that. Since your customers are changing all the time, whether it be demographic, whether it be industry change, whether it be who knows what, you have to change with them.

You have to adapt with them. You have to listen to them. You have to listen to what they are telling you. And you have to say, okay, I'm going to find a way. I'll figure it out. I'll figure out how to solve that need. And by doing that, you will pivot and you will survive. And the people who do not do that will fail.

They will, mark my words, they will fail. And so if you want to stay ahead, figure out what your customers need, and start adapting to it. If they want you to be more efficient, find ways to be more efficient. If they want you to cut costs, find ways to cut costs. But always be trying to do this in a way that is smart for both you, but also solving the customer need.

And obviously if you're hearing this, you are hearing that there's no way, you're not getting out of this without changing, you're not getting out of this without evolving, there is no two ways about it, you have to evolve to survive. And so evolution is no longer an option, it is a necessity for survival, okay?

But remember, Don't just change for the sake of change. Okay, there's also the opposite paradigm to this. And I wanted to spend a minute there because I see a lot of people adapting something just because it's the new cool thing. Okay, it doesn't really make them any more money. It doesn't really fix their processes or do anything for them.

They just want to say, I've done this. Okay. Don't do this. Okay, don't do this. Look, you know, you're like me. We're organizations. We have very limited budgets. I know you do because I have an extremely limited budget, especially when I spread it out between coaching the business development stuff at Capital and this podcast.

I have an extremely limited budget. And I am constantly thinking, what can I cut? What can I ask? How can I take these expenses back? So that I am making sure that we are being as efficient as possible because money don't grow on trees and it definitely don't grow on trees a capital business development.

Okay. So we are always looking for ways to cut costs. Remember just to implement something for the sake of implementation is not the correct way to go about it. Okay. There's going to be lots and lots of technologies for you to implement, but make sure. That whatever you do implement, whatever the new process is, it's either going to make you money or save you money.

And this can be done through financial means. This can be done through time savings. But look at everything you do. How is that going to impact the bottom line of your organization? And do not implement a technology that will not impact your bottom line by either making you money or saving you money or saving you money by being more efficient.

You have to look at it. You have to look at it from a standpoint, justify, can this make me money? How is it going to make me money? Where is it going to save me money? Okay. Find that option and then implement, do not just implement technology for technology's sake. Or you will just be burning holes in the ground and spinning your tires and going nowhere.

Okay. Don't be afraid to axe old processes and redundant systems. With everything that you implement, it changes the whole paradigm of everything else you do, okay? It is a system. All of your processes have a process flow, okay? And every new technology, AI, system you implement, It actually impacts every other process and flow in that system, okay?

So remember, every time that you implement a new technology, a new AI tool, a new CRM, a new something along those lines, ask yourself, did this make something else I do redundant? Did this replace something? Does this new technology also do the same thing that some of my older technology does so that I can cancel that bill, okay?

We have to be constantly finding ways to innovate. And evolve, but don't forget to remove the redundant systems. Don't forget to replace somewhere back in your old technology lineup and your old tech stack. Don't forget to replace that and remove that cost, okay? Because if you don't need it anymore, you don't need it anymore.

You got to stop paying for these things. And in a world where We are constantly being bombarded with new subscription services. Well, that's the solution, guys. You have to be constantly evaluating your systems and make sure that you are cancelling any subscriptions that you no longer need that have been made redundant by the new systems, okay?

Don't be afraid to axe old process. The new process will become the process sooner than you think. Don't be afraid to embrace it, okay? The faster you embrace the new process, The faster you can move on to something bigger and better than before, okay? And then remember to embrace new opportunities as they present.

You likely will not see the best opportunities coming. Guys, this podcast, the podcast that you are listening to right now, Is for me that it's that opportunity that I never ever saw coming and it became so much more than I ever thought it could be and it's still becoming more and the fact that you guys are all out there listening is just the amazing testament to embracing opportunities as they present themselves to you.

Okay. I could have never seen this podcast coming. I could have never seen the people that I would have gotten to meet because of this podcast, the opportunities that would have presented themselves, and continue to present themselves because of this show, because of the work we do at Capital Business Development.

The coaching, the coaching could never happen without this show. This show has been a catalyst to us realizing that there's a much bigger market out there of people who need this support. So it really is. A testament to saying I am open to new opportunity and I will not just shut it down. Some of the best opportunities that you will ever have.

You haven't had the opportunity to see them coming. They will just show up on your doorstep and they're waiting for you to say, okay, I'm in. Let's do this. So remember that. Be open to new opportunities, be open to change, be open to that, that big deal when it knocks on your door, even if it's not a typical deal, even if it's not what you do today, be open to embracing opportunity because some of the best opportunities you will ever have, you will never see them coming.

All right, guys, that takes us to the end of our show today. I absolutely love doing this show with you. This is such a fun one, and I really hope that you all choose to embrace opportunities moving forward, that you embrace evolution, and you stop running from change, but you run towards it. Shoutouts this week, David Fair, Rodney Lover, Collin Harms, Sean Neels, Shawn Sooley, Jake Karls, Dominick Rotella, Keith Bilous, Kamil Szczekot, Roxanne Kasianchuk, Sean Collins, Jan Hnat, Jenn Bieri, and Tatsiana Zametalina. It's been an absolute honor to be on with you guys. Until next time, this has been the Business Development Podcast, and we will catch you next time. On the flip side.

Outro: This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020. His passion and his specialization. Is in customer relationship generation and business development. The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your Business Development Specialists.

For more, we invite you to the website @ www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.