Blue Sky Thinking: Embarking on a Journey of Positivity with Colin Harms

Blue Sky Thinking: Embarking on a Journey of Positivity with Colin Harms

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 106 of the business development podcast. And on today's expert guest interview, we're bringing back Colin Harms to chat all about blue sky thinking and how your outlook on life can have a monumental effect on your success in business. Stick with us. You're not going to want to miss this episode.

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: Welcome to episode 106 of the business development podcast. And today we welcome back to the podcast. Serial entrepreneur, Colin Harms. Colin's entrepreneurial prowess extends beyond traditional boundaries. He's an avid blue sky thinker, constantly pushing the limits of innovation and creativity, whether navigating the complexities of business ownership, strategically planning acquisitions, or steering hypervac technologies through unprecedented times.

Colin's ability to envision and explore innovative solutions sets him apart. His blue sky thinking not only fuels his own success, but also contributes to the broader entrepreneurial landscape, making him a forward thinking force in the business development sphere. Join us today as we delve into Colin's unique approach to business where the sky's not the limit.

It's just the beginning. Colin, it's a pleasure to have you back on the show.

Colin Harms: Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Kelly Kennedy: Dude. You know, I always appreciate you. I appreciate you for a lot of reasons. You know, you've been an early supporter of the business development podcast. You've really been with me since the very beginning.

I remember crossing, I think it was my 21st episode and you sent me, you know, I talked about this in the last show, but you sent me this thing that showed, Oh, 21 episodes. You're now in the top 1 percent of podcasters. And that was, man, it feels like forever ago. You've been with us from the very beginning.

And not only have you been with me, you know, encouraging me and supporting me throughout this, but when sponsorship became available for the show, you hopped on board immediately. And dude, I appreciate you and HyperVac technology so much. You know, your support has allowed us to continue to grow and to advertise and to reach new customers and and listeners.

And we appreciate you immensely. And so, you know, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for all you do. And it's an honor to have you back on the show.

Colin Harms: Oh, well, thanks for having me. And as you, you talked about the sponsorship there, maybe I can delve into why we support you. I would love. Yeah, so, so from day one, I, I believe things happen for a reason.

And it wasn't just by chance or fluke that I, I came upon the podcast. I was really searching for a podcast or some learning outlet that I could, I could tune into and follow. And, and when I did come upon the business development podcast, that was it. It certainly changed the way we did business. In my particular business I'm in now.

It really paved the road to new beginnings and to different, different ways of doing business which even my partners have said, you know, they can see the difference in the way we do things. We're not just throwing a dart at the board or trying to follow some, you know, the way it was done in 1970 in a book or take somebody else's advice.

We love the relevancy of every single show. And every expert you have on it's been so good. And that's what, when the partnership. Opportunity came available. We jumped on it. Like we said, of course, we're going to support something that has really changed the way we do business. Like, I don't think we would be as successful.

I know we wouldn't be, had we not got behind you and your show and and stayed on That's the honest God's truth.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh man, like, I can't even tell you how much your support has meant, how much the support, you know, of not just yourself, but Atwork Office Furniture and Maverick NDT jumped on as well, and you know, we've had, we've had some great support on this show, and it really does allow us to continue to grow into the next phase of the show, right?

Podcasts like this, especially business podcasts, they do hit a point at which, yeah, we get a lot of organic growth, but there does come a point where you have to advertise and you, you know, you have to upgrade your equipment, you have to upgrade your systems and your process and all of that costs a small fortune.

And so having people who are, you know, willing to step up and give us that financial support to help us achieve those goals. It helps us immensely and we really appreciate those partnerships. And so, you know, thank you so much. Thank you for, you know, you never had to and yet you did. And I appreciate that immensely.

Colin Harms: Yeah. And you know what for the listeners I would encourage anybody who has a budget and can do it and put it into your budgets is look for avenues like this, where to support. These are ones that make a difference, right? They're really making a difference. It's not a one time difference for this is going to help out on a Saturday.

This is something that's going to help not just the business, but all the employees that work for those businesses, you know, when a business prospers, all the employees that are working there and the vendors and the suppliers, right, they all prosper because of it. And that I think far too easily, we overlook what, what the economy actually is and what makes it turn.

Right. And it's us, the people. Right. It's a support groups that make it turn you'll, you'll see our support long into the future. Absolutely.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Amazing. Thank you so much, Colin Harms and HyperVac Technologies. We appreciate you guys immensely. But there is a real deal reason that I brought you back today.

And, you know, in our last show, Say I Did With Colin Harms, if you guys haven't listened to that, you need to go back. It's episode 70. And we really get into the backstory of Colin Harms and you know, how, how he became you. of the leader that he is today. However, there's something about you, Colin, there's something about you as a human, and you are one of the most positive people that I've ever met.

I don't think that me and you have had any interaction ever where I didn't walk away thinking, holy crap, that guy's like the most positive person on planet earth. And you keyed it in, in that episode, say I did, where you said that you take on the attitude of blue sky thinking. You know, first off, before we start today's show, for people that haven't met you, can you go back and just give a brief introduction, doesn't have to be long like our last one, just give a brief introduction into who you are and maybe take us into blue sky thinking.

Colin Harms: Sure, I'd love to. I, I'm one of those people that I think success stories come out of not tooting your own horn, but telling a real relevant stories that make sense to people and it resonates with them. I just come from a small town and I had one goal in my life coming out of high school.

Just, I, I had taken on a mentor that I worked for and I saw him work hard and I saw him reap rewards. Didn't grow up with a family that had education or, or had the funds or the means to go through with it. So I didn't I just took the what you'd call the school of hard knocks. And, and I love every moment of it.

So I just went through, you know, working in restaurants, moving on to working for a food distributor. I, I believe I've been giving. Given phenomenal opportunities by people who believed in me along the way. Many times I remember getting hired in different positions where people said, you know what somebody gave me a chance and I just feel like I should give you a chance what that meant, what that really did for me.

Was instill confidence and knowing that I could go after really whatever it is that I wanted to go after. And so that's kind of what propelled me through. I, I went from restaurants to garbage, garbage for like 17 and a half years, once again, meeting some of the. Best people I could have ever met and people that were, were maybe I've learned some of my best attributes.

I believe are believing in people and wanting to see the best in them. And they brought me along and not that I didn't have to do the work. I certainly did. Just, they, they gave me an opportunity. And that's what I do now, is give people opportunities. And that brings me now to, you know, the serial entrepreneurship of a simple ink cartridge filling business ATM business into real estate, and now into HyperVac technologies where we manufacture air duct trucks.

And I promise that about less than 1 percent of the population even knows what that is.

Kelly Kennedy: It's true. It's true. They have to Google it.

Colin Harms: And then when I tell people, they're like, so could you come clean my ducks? No, I can't, but I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll sell a check to somebody who can. Oh, so that's where I come from.

You know, I'm a family man, I'm married and I have two kids and, and I honestly, Kelly, I, I'm no different than anybody else. I have challenges, but I honestly wake up every day and I grasp life as good as I can. And I go after it. And there's not too many days that I don't even remember, right. Where I don't laugh and I'm not having fun.

And I look forward to challenges, especially in business. Right. And I think it's because it's just an, it's an innate ability to, to figure things out and to, and to, and to want to find a solution that's the proper solution and do the, do the right thing for the right reasons.

Kelly Kennedy: You know, but. We talked about like some of the challenges that you've had in your last episode, right?

Like we talked about obviously that big layoff from, from the garbage company that you worked at, where you literally dedicated your entire working career to. And you know, what I remember mentioning at that time saying, you could have made a choice there to just say, you know, screw this. Like you could have took a shitty attitude to it.

You could have just been like, okay, I'm done. Went and got just a regular job somewhere else. But instead you got inspired.

Colin Harms: Yes. Well, and you know what, you know, what's interesting is I'll probably never forget it because it was May the 4th and the big jokes, May the 4th be with you and all that. And I'm like, of course that happens on that day.

And, and, and it was monumental because, you know, I've seen the movies and I've seen the things in the news where somebody shows up and they, they basically hand you a box and walk you to the parking lot. Yeah. And I, I was. Maybe there's something wrong with me that way. I was like, it's finally happening.

Like I I've, I knew this day was coming. I've seen it happen to so many people around me. And, and they literally took the keys from my truck and I had to call a friend. They said they would, they would get me a taxi and I'm like, hell no. I said, I'm going to get a ride home with a friend. And, but I remember that being a defining point for me.

And, and I had, I never once thought that things would go wrong from that day. I just thought, you know what? I don't know how they're going to turn out. They'll turn out good. I don't know which way that's going to go or how that's going to happen, obviously, cause it was so fresh. But I just knew it was all blue sky ahead.

Right. And that's kind of where those moments took place.

Kelly Kennedy: You know, what I'm interested in here. Because I know you now was that the moment at which you took a pot like were you always or were you just always positive was that always your attitude even, you know, for the for the prior 17 years were you just always this, you know, blue sky thinking Colin who everything's going right and, you know, you look at the positive outcomes pretty much everything.

How, you know, was that was that a moment that defined that next part of your life or have you always been this way?

Colin Harms: I think I've always been positive for sure. Yeah. Right. Like I, and it'll sound simple. I re I really enjoyed washing dishes in a restaurant and then I enjoyed being a line cook. Like I just, I, I enjoyed every aspect of that.

And, and I enjoyed buying a car. I enjoyed buying my first house. I enjoyed exploring how you could do more with that and buying revenue properties. Even the bad times, like the, the unfortunate situations or things don't go right. I've just been able to say, Hey, like. There's a silver lining in this, right?

There has to be like, this isn't where it all ends. You know, and, and like I said, is it's not that like people say, well, harms things just go right for you. Well, they don't, right. It's just the perspective. And, and if you will like we chatted quickly about it is you can look through a stained glass or you can look through a clear glass window.

Right. And I'll use this analogy that, that I had heard or read about is if you're looking through the window and there's laundry hanging on a clothesline and it's white linens and you look and you're like, geez, I just washed those and, and I thought those would come out a lot cleaner. Right. You know, and then you look again and you realize that the glass is dirty.

Right. How many times are we looking through that same glass at different situations, right? And I'll use a conversation I had this morning somebody said, Hey, it sounds like maybe there'll be a political change and I'm not going to get political that I can promise you it could be a change on both the American side and the Canadian side.

And I said, yeah, yeah, it sounds like they're probably, probably will. That will come sooner than later. And he said, do you think that'll be better? And I said, well, that depends on the people. Right. Right. It's all how we look at it. It's all how we, like, I, I honestly believe we can thrive in any environment.

Yeah. We just have to want to. Yeah. But, but what happens is I remember particular results of an election a few years ago and I have friends in business just like me and. It was end of the world. They were ostrich head in the sand. And they said, this is it. I'm moving out of Alberta. I'm moving out of Canada.

Wear to

where's that perfect place. Right. And so I, I kind of look at it that way, Kelly, like it's, it's not always been blue sky, but but I do think I live what I would call a blessed life. Maybe I have a blessed outlook on things. And that's probably the easiest way to put it. For sure. When, when I had to sink or swim and I did because I didn't have a job after all those years and I didn't, didn't have a nice corporate salary and I didn't have benefits, they actually cut my benefits off that day.

I'm like, Oh, you want to get like, got to the, get to the chase. They did. But that was the day where I'm like, you know what, it's, there's better days ahead. And, and one of the things is I remember vividly, I don't remember a bunch about my childhood other than I do remember, and this will be very simple is laying, laying in the grass or laying by a swimming pool as a kid and watching the clouds go by, right.

And I would always watch the clouds go by in the blue sky. And I mean, fortunately we live where it's predominantly blue sky. And, and, and we border Montana and they call that the land of the big blue sky. And, and I, I think about it often is I look up and I, and I'm just like, you know what, like, it's all blue sky.

Like it makes me smile. It gives me a purpose and, and that's where it came to. And I thought like when we bought this business. We had a meeting quite a few meetings starting out and we were going through titles and I'm not a big title guy. I don't, I, I'd rather lead without a title if you can. And as we were, we had a guy kind of leading the meetings and as we went through our personalities and, and my least favorite thing of taking sticky notes and putting it on a wall and all that stuff is not my, my jam.

But at the end of it the facility facilitator said you are a blue sky thinker, right? Cause, cause we were in infancy and I, and I remember it, my partners will laugh. Like we were, we were a few days into the business and I was like putting little sticky notes about acquisitions and this, and they're like, Holy.

Harm's like, we haven't even closed off one month yet. And, and he, he actually said to me, seriously, he said we need more people like you. Right. He said, everybody's not like that. And he said, but it's an actual, not a title, but it's a role. Right. That you need to move into and it's blue sky thinking and or a blue sky thinker.

He said. And, and so we didn't really develop it there. I took it from there, right? And then actually some encouragement from you as well, right? To develop that more. And I've really been doing that. And I, and I think that's probably where the next 10 to 15 years of my life will be.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. And I think that.

Honestly, knowing you, you're going to inspire a lot of people. I know that for a fact, just, just knowing you and who you are and your attitude towards things, I genuinely think you will. And you know, one of the things that I find interesting about it is I think that me and you both. Tend to default to positivity.

I genuinely do. I try to find the best outcome. I, you know, I don't, I, I, yeah, I have shit days. I have shit days like anyone else, but I don't stay there. I don't live there. I find my way out. I claw my way out one day at a time because I don't want to be there. I want to be. happy. I want to be looking to the future.

I want to be hopeful. And that is my default, right? And I, and I would say that your default is also the same thing, which is I think why we get along so well. I agree. But also, but also over and above that, you know, I recently had Ben Spangl on the show. And, you know, he was a mindset and performance coach.

If you guys want to go back to that, that's our New Year's show for 2024. It's an amazing episode. He's very inspiring. He's very motivating. But one of the things that Ben talked about essentially was becoming aware of what your automatic programming is. And Colin just kind of, just kind of touched on that by talking about our filters and the filters that we see life through.

And most of us didn't choose our filters. I think that that's like the first place that I want to start. And I want to say that if, if you know, if you struggle with positivity or what we're calling blue sky thinking here, it's, it's probably the filter that you've been programmed with from a kid, you know, from, from things you didn't choose from, from life experiences that maybe you didn't choose.

But you now can choose, you can choose to clean the window, as Colin said, you can choose to clean the window and start to take control of your life in that case, and I, you know, I don't know how you feel about it, Colin, but I think that, that, you know, professional therapy can really help people, you know, start to identify what these filters might be.

Colin Harms: Yeah, I agree 100%. You know, as I talk to people, and that's what I do probably best is, is. I guess, listen, right? Learning to listen. And then like you touched on therapy, that type of thing. I think for too long people have felt there is no outlet and, and you know, maybe it's not the right thing or the cool thing to do, or people will look down upon you.

Yeah. I think now. People are embracing it and saying, I need help, right? I, I just need some assistance. And I think as an employer you know, offering that to, to your employees is, is not putting your thumb down on them or saying, Hey, you need to be better. It's how can we get you better?

Right. Because I think far too long, like, and I grew up in the garbage environment, like literally in the garbage industry where, you know, in the beginning, if you had five people standing in a shop. You know, the, the regional manager would come through and fire all of them. Well, obviously you don't have anything to do.

You don't need to work here. Well that environment's not so good anymore, but, but let's just say, you know, four or five of those people were, were dealing with different situations or whatnot, and they probably were. Yeah. Right. I think we live more in an environment now where, how, how can we help people get to the next step?

Right? Because I think we lose people in our lives without even realizing it.

Kelly Kennedy: No, I, I agree completely. And I think the focus on like, you know, I mean, I, I really value my employees. I really do. Like, they're great people. But, you know, just like, just like I have had hard times, they have had hard times. And yet, they may not want to talk to me.

And that's okay. Right? Like, I, you know, I'm their employee, employer. You're their employer. You, they don't necessarily want to look. Vulnerable in front of their employer, but you don't know what your employees are dealing with on a day to day basis. And, you know, at capital, I do create a very open door policy.

And if anyone wanted to talk to me and, you know, I mean, for the most part, very open, but the reality is I understand that reluctance because, you know, there would be things that I wouldn't want to tell my boss. If it, when I'm saying that I'm dealing with my life that are very personal or that are, you know, really hurt.

And so I think we, as. As business owners, as leaders have to be open to the fact that you don't know everything about what's going on in your employee's life. And because you don't know, you have to give them the benefit of the doubt. You have to say, you know, he looks like he's having a tough day or, you know, that project didn't get done exactly on time or.

This isn't quite his normal level of work. Well, I think what you need to do is, is ask yourself, could there maybe be something going on or could they be struggling with a challenge?

Colin Harms: That's right. Yeah, no, I, I really like that. I think too many times, like, you know, I just came in my head here is I grew up in the eighties and nineties as a kid, right.

And, and into high school and there was always that children's helpline, right. If you're going through something like they would, there'd be commercials, call the children's helpline. You know, they, they never had that for adults. Right. That we knew of. No. And that's, if you think about it, right. If there was, if it was that simple where somebody knew, Hey, confidentially.

And, and I know they're trying that now. But really I think things could have been different and will be different if just call the adult hotline, whatever, well, that's probably not a good one, the adult hotline,

you might get, you might get the wrong person on the other end.

But you know where I'm going.

Kelly Kennedy: I know where you're going. Yeah. A hundred percent. It, yeah, it is one of those things where I think there was such a stigma or shame about somebody or an adult needing help, right? Like there's, we've, we've stigmatized, we've stigmatized it. I don't know why, but at some point, you know, it was all about, well, you know, if, if you go get help, you're not tough.

And it's like, come on. Like. Of course you need help. You're a human. It doesn't matter how tough you are.

Colin Harms: That's right. Well, and you know what, as we talk about it, like I had a few things, you know, how I can tie in blue sky thinking with that as well, right? Because, you know, in my workplace you know, how does that relate?

Like, is he the happy jovial guy that just roams around and says hi to people, but But no, like I have a few, few points I can make with it. Like, you know, what is blue sky thinking and why, why would you want that in your business? Well, there's a few things it does for you and for your business. It, it, you know, create creativity enhancement, right?

It creates or encourages out of the box thinking. And I know out of the box is kind of cliche and getting old, but it, but it does, right? It gets you out of the normal thinking. It brings innovative ideas. What do we do every day in our business? Problem solving. Yeah. Right. If we're not problem solving, we're probably not selling or we're probably not doing right.

We have nothing going on. It, you know, promoting exploration of unconventional solutions, right? Like I love the word unconventional. There's a few words, like I've been writing down words just on a pad of paper and kind of focusing on them. And one of them is unconventional, right? Cause how do, how do we go as a person, as a, as a people, a province, a business and get the same results year after year because we're doing it a conventional way, right?

So in my own business, in my own life, how do I do things unconventionally? Right? While blue sky thinking, we got to think out of the box. We have to do things different. Everybody has those, excuse me, phrases. Oh, do different. Well, then do it, right? Are you doing it? I, one thing I call it to headline inspiration for innovation, right?

Stimulate breakthrough concepts. Like you, you think, Holy, you see these businesses, they're finally doing that. Well, why do we say they're finally doing that? Did, did I think about it before and not do it? What stopped me from doing it? Right. I believe me, like I'll go back into my corporate world. Most of my day was taken up based off of what would write my resume, right?

I'm going to manage a PNL. I'm going to go through the human resources. What are the, what are the, what are my biggest losses? What are my biggest opportunities of the day? Right. I think in corporations, we all went through that. There was no time they would say, Oh, we need to innovate. Oh, you left three minutes at the end of the meeting open for innovation, right?

And, and, and wonder why nothing happened. Development, right? Whether it's in, we're a manufacturing company. If we're not leaving more time open for development, right? Research and development than we are anything else. We already know what we're doing. Do we really need to have a meeting to talk about what we do and what we do?

Well, no, we're doing it well. Right? Let's talk about what we could do. I really love the term collaboration, right? Being able to collaborate. But when you collaborate, are you collaborating to get a bunch of ideas and take it for yourself? Or are you collaborating to celebrate each person? Right. It's kind of like you said, people won't say things because they're afraid they're not going to be whether it's mental health or whatever.

Let's think about that as collaboration. If you're in a room and you have 5 people and you collaborate and 1 person takes that and owns it, have fun collaborating next meeting, right? It's not going to happen. You know, risk taking, I love risk taking my wife, not so much but she's used to it as long as there's more wins than losses but that blue sky thinking really, really goes out there.

Right. Like I was saying with my partner, this is where a few days into the new business and I'm talking about mergers and acquisitions, they're like, they're holding me back in the pen. Right. It's like, I just want to ride for eight seconds. Just let me ride for eight seconds. Right. Yeah. But I think that's like even speaking of that Kelly.

So I looked back in my notes of this business where we were in these first meetings and actually I laughed because I did have acquisitions on there and and, but, but 99 percent of the things that I had written or put on my little post it notes, we've done in two, we did it in two years, not three, right.

And had it not been written down. That's no different than me not picking up that phone and phoning. Yeah. I'm not saying, Hey, Hey, what about this? Hey, what about this? Hey, what about this? Because time goes fast. Yeah. Right. Like we're already at the end of the first week of the year and I know people go, that's nothing.

No, it's something. Yeah. Right. I think I told you a friend of mine, they did an acquisition and they took it took place the first day was January 1st. Which is most people's day to go, Oh, we've got one day left. Then we're going to, we're going to hit it hard or we're going to coast. And I'm like, Holy Frick, that is epic.

Like they did it. Oh, it was so good. Right. So good. I'm, I'm actually jealous. I want, and my wife would say, that's not a good idea. We're not going to cut into our, our, our holiday time and do an acquisition. So you could start on the first, cause you know what would happen the five days before that. You're working on that acquisition, but, but it's the risk taking it's the employee engagement.

It's giving you a competitive edge, right? Long term vision. Like I, I hear about different cultures, like the Chinese have a hundred year plan, right? When in business, I'm like, we talk about three months, right? We're worried about that. Like, like I heard this morning, like what's going to happen if the government changes.

You're you're worried if you're worried about that, you don't have a five or 10 or a hundred year plan. Yes, right. Yeah So yeah, so that's that's a whole lot of info. I was spewing out there But I'm hopefully I'm tying it into you know, blue sky thinking and and how I think it correlates with business.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, I think I think that you have to you have to take up a blue sky thinking attitude in order to have long term business success.

I think maybe you can have some short term wins, but there's going to be hard days. There's no way that in your journey of entrepreneurship, business development, and That you're not going to run into, you know, a week, a month so hard that you're like, why the heck do I do this? If you can't have a blue sky attitude to say, you know what?

Today's hard. Tomorrow's hard. This month has been challenging, but you know what? I have good, I have a good feeling about tomorrow. I have a good feeling about next month. It's going to be great. I know it. Cause I'm going to enact some change. I don't think you can succeed with long term without having, you know, a positive attitude and a blue sky thinking and, you know I'm not sure that Colin Christensen would necessarily agree with me on that, but I know Colin Harms does.

Colin Harms: Yeah, I sure do. Well, and you know what, as you were saying it, I was thinking about. What if you're a coach of a team, right? Not even a coach, maybe the business manager, the general manager, right? I think those people are blue sky thinkers, right? They're, they're making plays for the future. Right. You know, me watching from the sidelines or the bleachers going, why the heck did they do that?

Right. Well, they're making a play for the future. They're a blue sky thinker. They might not know they are. Yeah. Right. I actually, my favorite teams, I wish they would rename the GMs blue sky thinkers. Right. Then it would make a lot more sense. They're planning for two years from now or, right. Or to not get fired before the end of the season.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, for sure. For sure. No, I do think that, like I said, a positive attitude is one of those things that you really have to find within yourself. You know, do you have any tips on how to help people with their outlook? I know that we had suggested potentially, potentially some professional counseling or therapy to help people address some of some of their preconceived notions, because I think a lot of people are struggling with self worth.

With self belief, right? I know every single one of us at some point has struggled with imposter syndrome. I have not yet met an executive yet. Who at one point in their life wasn't in a room and said, do I deserve to be here? You know, what, what tools have been in your toolbox, Colin, to help you not just, not just stay positive, but, you know, help you get through some of the more challenging times.

Colin Harms: My biggest thing is, and that's my mindset as Ben had touched on in the last episode, right? He talked about mindset more than anything, and, and I really. Strive on improving my mindset. Right. And I think that's possible. The things that we put in is what comes out, right? Whether we're eating that, if you, if you eat crap, you're going to feel like crap.

So I, I overwhelmingly listen to positive things, right? One of the, one of the things I listened to, whether somebody's spiritual or not Joel Osteen, he's probably the most positive person I've ever heard ever. Yeah. And I make sure that I do listen to him. Because he, he empowers me to believe there's, there's always a way.

And I, everything that I read, almost everything that I read will be in that same vein, right? It's how do I move ahead? How do I stay positive? And that's, what's inside of me, right? The people that I, you know, I surround myself with, I try to be around positive people. I don't like negative talk. It's very hard, but I've, I've been, if I find myself in a situation where it's a gossipy situation or, you know, people are just talking trash or it's, it's a waste of a conversation.

It's not that they're not good people. It's just, I don't need that conversation. I find myself separating myself from that type of environment and I find myself winning and I'll even use it at home cause my kids are in university and, and they're experts in all things right now, just due to their age and I will, I will find them where I'm, Oh, I just continue to say, Hey, like, why are we being so negative here?

Right? Like, whoa, like, let's, let's take it back a notch. Like, maybe there's a different way to look at that. And I, and I think if we can, as people, we go through a situation and we can just stop and ask ourself, what's really happening here? Right? Like, is this, is this as big a deal as we're making it?

Or how can we change it? Right? And, and like, I'll even give an example. I went to the same gym for about three years every day, the same time, same person and no results and I'll blame myself. I'm not going to blame the person I went with, but we, we did, we did the same thing like literally every day.

Like we walked slow, we talked slow the conversation wasn't great wasn't fulfilling. And then one day last September or sorry, August, I saw an ad. For a fit body bootcamp, which sounds really weird. And I'm like, like, I'm not a female. Is that who goes to these things? I didn't know. And so I signed up and, and I like, I'm not timid.

I'm not shy, but I can tell you what at 4:50 that morning when I had to be there, I didn't know what I was walking into and I signed up and I, and I walked in and I immediately just started talking to people. And that's who I am and you know what, now I go five to six days a week and, and there's a culture there.

That I love and I think what I was missing where I was going, I was just in the wrong place. Wow. Right. And, and now I'm seeing results that I hadn't seen in, in quite a few years. But is it because of those people or whatever? I think it goes back to the mindset. Yeah, right. I had to set my mind where I wanted it to be.

And then, you know, this morning I was thinking about it again. Like, like how do we stay on an even keel? And, and you've probably heard it. It's like a thermostat, right? Your internal thermostat. So if I go and I set my thermostat and it's on 22 degrees, right? It can, it can drop below. It can go above due to the outside elements or whatever the environment around us, but if you're, if it's set correctly, it's going to go back to that.

Right. So I think the same thing with our minds, right? If we do it like a thermostat analogy, right, no matter what's happening in the environment around us, if, if we actually have our mindset on that, that's where it's going to go back to. It has to, it has to find its way back to where it's set. Yeah, so I can go through a shit storm, if you will and, and, you know, maybe it's a day, maybe it's a week, maybe it turns into three weeks and it usually doesn't, right?

I don't, I don't know why I said three weeks. It's never happened to me, but, but I can automatically watch myself going back to my set point. Yeah. So now, now what I have to do though, is not allow it to be set there for the rest. of my days, right? Now I have to move it. I have to move that needle. But if I move it too much, then I'm living a fake life.

Yes. Right? Yeah. But little incremental gains, I think, is where it gets. And I get a new set point.

Kelly Kennedy: I think it's every choice. Every time that you choose to take The positive road to turn the other cheek to look to the future with hope. I think every one of those choices moves that needle a little bit more, a little bit more.

Yeah, I don't think that I know there's people listening right now calling. They're like blue sky thinkers, positive people. They're not real. They don't get this. They don't get my challenge. Yeah, we do. Believe me, we do. We do. What I'm suggesting to you is, it's not, don't look at it as this monumental task.

Look at it one simple choice at a time. You know, maybe that person comes into your office this morning and gives you shit. Well, you can choose to go and give him shit, or you can choose to say, you know what, he must be just having a bad day, but You know, I'm going to choose to turn the other cheek on this and your little, your little set point just went up one little.

Yes. And I think if you can make that choice more often than not, that set point is going to keep getting higher and higher and higher until your default is positivity until your default is positivity. And that has monumental health benefits, mental health benefits, and frankly, it will change your life.

Colin Harms: That's right. And you know what? I, I think for me, I needed to get to a point where I was just as happy for somebody else or happier when good things were happening to them. Right? Like a good situation. And, and you'll, this will resonate with you as I had an opportunity to go to the the outdoor hockey game.

Yes. In Edmonton. I remember. And, and you know what? Yeah. When I got the tickets, I was like, this is going to be amazing. Right. And then, you know, situation changed and somebody else got to go to the game. Right. And you know what? It didn't, it was a split second decision done. I was just as happy. Right. For you, Kelly, you went right.

And, and, and I don't mean to do that because it's on the show. It's if you can do that with every aspect of your life, like shift on the fly. Yeah, right. And actually be that person and be that happy, right? Happy is kind of a funny word or be fulfilled maybe is a better word. You know, you can see that silver lining in everything.

Kelly Kennedy: And you know, you didn't know this at the time. But like me and Shelby had not had a chance to go and do anything in quite a while. Like she was very pregnant at that point. But I remember kind of just looking at me like, Hey, like, you know, we haven't got to go do something. Collins offered us those tickets.

Would you want to go? And like, we had an amazing time, dude. It was such a great time. And I don't think you recognized at the time. Like you couldn't have known that, but it was, it was like the best thing for us at that moment. And so thank you immensely.

Colin Harms: Oh, you're welcome. Well, and you know what we touched on it earlier off mic is my, like my, my farmer analogy, right?

What. What gives me blue sky thinking, what gives me this mindset is if we can sow enough seed every single day, we're going to reap a harvest every day, right? Like a farmer sows in the spring and he reaps in the fall. I, I, I just want to sow every day. Right. And if I can do those things, like they call it, pay it forward or whatever that may be, just do the right thing for the right reason.

And with no strings attached. Right. Like even with, you know, I, I do the walk around and, and I'm kind of the culture creator, you know, in our environment here I'm not doing it with a string attached, right? I'll, I'll talk to somebody and ask about them and we'll joke or, you know, I'm a pretty jokey guy.

But I don't ever want to do it with a string attached. I don't want to go to them and say, Hey, this is going to happen, but you're going to do this. Right? Because all that does is that, that, when I attach a string or a cable to something that anchors me to that. Yes. Right? Yeah. And now I'm accountable for that.

Right? So I want to be, I want to watch what I'm accountable for. And that may hold me back. Right? But I, I just want to go out there and you touched on it cause I call you the hope dealer. Right? Is, is that's a great way to be in life. Right? If you can deal hope. That's what, that's what the world's missing and blue sky and hope and all of those things are.

What's that.

Kelly Kennedy: I love, I love that one. By the way, I remember showing Shelby. I'm like calling, called me. I hope either. She's like, well, you are.

Colin Harms: Well, and, and you know what? And that's exactly what you are. Yeah. Right. And so like anybody even listening to the show, like, I bet you, there's so many people out there that now realize they are blue sky thinkers.

The reason it hasn't been cultivated is there hasn't been a platform to work with it. Right. And if I was in an environment doing a, a perform on a business. Maybe now I could sell that. But I think it would be, you'd have, okay, you have your CFO, you have your CEO, you, whatever those titles are and blue sky thinker, Ooh, what's that guy?

Right. Like in the, in the corporate world, we used to call that vice president of lunch and dinner. Right. And, and there was a guy that kind of did that. And he worked in mergers and acquisitions and I'm like, geez, that's a good, that's a good spot to be in. Yeah. Right. But I think more it's blue sky thinking so, and even in our personal lives, right, I think we have to be a blue sky thinker, right?

Like how can we possibly get there, right? Like in, in here's a, here's another thing is really helping me understand other people is I think. When we were chatting the other day, I said about music, I'm, I'm trying to listen to different genres of music, whether it's classical or coffee house music they have on serious radio.

And some people really don't like that. And some people love it. Yeah. Well, I want to listen to it because I want to, I don't want to look through stained glass. I want to look through somebody else's glasses, right? Oh, why do they like that? I can understand people better. I could probably work with them better.

Right. I don't right away have a wall go up. And now sometimes when that wall goes up, that's not about them. That's about me. I'm closing myself off to them. They probably have no idea. Right? So if I can open it up more, more blue sky relationship, right?

Kelly Kennedy: One of the interesting things that, you know, we had a recent conversation on, cause I was talking to you about ad placement for the month, right?

Right. And you did something that I've never seen before. It really kind of made me think because I hadn't come across it in marketing, but it was, it's actually brilliant. Yeah. But I was asking you what shows to put your, to put your ads in and just said, Hey, like you have any selections that you want?

You said, Kelly, put me in everything that has nothing to do with what we do. And I was like, and I was like, what? That doesn't make any, but it actually makes perfect sense because everybody's advertising in what you do. It's the people who don't know what it is that need to know what it is the most, which was a hundred percent.

It was a really funny take, but it actually made a lot of sense and I'd never come across that approach before. But I feel like once again, without a positive outlook, most people wouldn't have been like, well, that's, that sounds a little risky. I don't know if I'm going to take that right.

Colin Harms: Yeah. Well, and you know what, because I, and where I come about it is.

I was filling something out and it was it was very basic for the business. And then it said, what industry are you in? And it gives you like these horrible type, like a manufacturing. Okay. Well, there's a lot of manufacturing. Like, am I making Gore Tex gloves on my, no, we're building trucks, right? Yeah.

How, how the heck is anybody. That I need to get to going to find me because of manufacturing they're not and, and vice versa. So I'm glad you you understood what I was saying because I want to be seen like anybody that's where I think sometimes I'll go to trade shows. Right. To, to promote our business.

And that's fantastic. I'd probably do better at a farmer's market, right? Carrots, peas, potatoes. Oh, air duct trucks. That's interesting.

But you know, and we wouldn't go there, but it would, it would certainly draw a crowd, right? Cause everybody's attracted to the same thing. And so, so I'm glad, and yeah, I hope you put me in those spots.

Kelly Kennedy: I did. So basically, look for Colin at the very next Home and Garden show next to the vacuum.

Colin Harms: That's right.

Kelly Kennedy: Be perfect. You know, I wanted to touch on Colin, because first off, You know, we talked about this in the last show, you got into vac truck manufacturing with zero prior experience in that industry. And I know that most people would look at that and say. Nope. Nope. Like most people would not have success doing something they'd never done before.

Not only did you have success, you guys have become the leading vac truck manufacturer in North America, which is bonkers. That's correct. And congratulations. And then, and then I remember talking to you, you know, one on one once and saying like, well, Would you do that again, just between me and you? And you're like, not only would we do it again, we're going to do it again.

So, so take us into, you have a new organization. Can you introduce HyperFab to us?

Colin Harms: Absolutely. So, so what happened was the current industry was hyper vac technologies, which we manufacture air duct trucks and vacuums for industrial purposes, that type of thing. It's, it's actually very exciting regardless of how it sounds.

Yeah. It's very innovative as well. And so we really, we, we inherited the name by buying it. The hypervac name and one of the sticky notes, actually, that we had in the, in the beginning was the blue sky thinking was why don't we fabricate ourselves? And, and once again, it was, well, let's walk before we run type thing, which makes sense, right?

It's just, you have to put something out there. You have to cast a vision, if you will. And, and I said, well, we'll just. You know, we'll call it hyperfab because we like the hyper name. So, so once again, we fast tracked it and we, we came to a point where we said, you know what, we should just order some, the equipment we'll figure out what, you know, how we're getting it done now.

And why don't we just do this ourselves? And so we, we built up a business case internally where, you know what, if we do this ourselves, we bring it in house. We'll, you know, we'll still actually make money doing it as opposed to paying somebody else. And we don't mind paying vendors, but we wanted the control.

We want to know how this is done. And we thought we could so we, we, we my business partner, John started researching this fiber laser equipment and and we said, well, we think we should do it. And it was no small investment. Like it was actually massive. And so we ordered it and, and then we said okay, how does this work?

And they said, well, we, we have to pay for it all up front. And then they'll start building it and then they'll ship it to us. Oh do we, do we get to see it? And they're like, oh, here's a video. And, and, and this is where I think the blue sky has rubbed off on my business partners, they're all like, looks good.

Okay. And, and so, so we went to our bank and our bank actually said we're not going to finance any of this equipment because we can't see it. Once you get it, we'll finance it. So we're like, holy, okay. Yeah, let's do it. So, so we ordered it and it was like eight to 10 months out and then it had to get shipped to us, had to come in the ocean.

We had no idea like it gets to the port then what happens. But we're, we're very, we're not. Careless but we're very risky, I guess we said, let's do it. So so we did. And then, so for that, for sure, sick first six months, I said to John, I'm like, do you know who you're talking to? And he says, well, it has to be in the middle of the night because of the different times and that, and the guy emails a lot.

I said, well, if I was going to get a million dollars, I could probably email someone for a year sporadically in the middle of the night and keep them thinking they're going to get something. So, so, so long story short, we, we did our investigation, our due diligence as much as we could lo and behold, it showed up at the port in Vancouver.

It was from the one pieces, 38, 000 pounds. Wow. And we, we figured out how to get it to Lethbridge and offload it and put it in our facility and we're, we're, we're using it. And, and here's the interesting thing that happened as we started talking about hyper fab. We had a number of vendors. One day this fellow walks in the door and I was there and he had a piece of paper and I thought it was an invoice.

And I said, Oh, Hey, I didn't even know his name at the time. I just recognized him. And I said, Oh, is that for John? And he says, you are John. And I said, Oh, okay. Is it an invoice? And he said, no, it's a resume. And I said, a resume. And he said, well, I heard you guys are, you ordered laser equipment and I know how to operate that equipment and I really like your facility and you guys.

Oh, so, so we ended up hiring them, which was phenomenal because we were, the other end of it was like, who's going to operate this stuff, right? This is not like. Using a bandsaw, right? So about two weeks after that we got a phone call from his boss, the guy who had hired. And and you know what? I, I'm not that person.

I don't want to, I don't want to steal staff. We weren't out there. We didn't even place an ad. I don't, I never want that to happen to my business. So I would never do that. So his boss called and asked if he could have a meeting and we said, yeah, sure. And we thought, okay, shit's going to hit the fan. Cause he was a vendor of ours and he came in and we said how can we help you?

And he said, I'd like to apply for a job. So we hired him too.

Right. So, so, so it's a little bit of, if you build it, they will come. Yeah. And we have a culture and we're getting known for it and we were very proud of, of what we've built and what we're building. And I think our vendors see it, delivery drivers see it. But so that that's hyper fab. So now we're, we're going the next step which we'll call hyper coating.

Yeah. And, and we'll end up powder coating our own equipment as well. Wow. And it, and, and so what's happened now is words got out. Like we bought one of the largest lasers in Southern Alberta. And it's, it's phenomenal what the machine can do and what our operation can do. And now people are coming to us and saying, well, can you do this for us?

And we're like, well, we're not really doing anything for ourselves yet. We're getting there, but it, it immediately now we're, we're moving into a whole new line of business and that's the hyper fabrication business. And, and we're going into fabricating and in what I love about it, Kelly is I'm not a welder, I'm not a fabricator.

But I can certainly think about it and, and help bring it to fruition and see something that to me is exciting. And if you put the right people in the right places, people are the right people in the right seats, we can make this thing fly and it can really fly high. And, and it is, it's taken off and you know, it's just the beginning.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, and yet you've, you've managed to do it. Despite, like I said, like most people would tell you not to do an organization of which you don't have experience in, and yet every single time you take that leap, you figure it out, and I do wonder how much of that has to do with That you don't have that self limitation that you don't have that limitation that says, I don't think I can figure this out or I, you know, we don't have the expertise yet to do this.

It's like you've eliminated that that like thing in your head that tells you don't do that. And you're like, and you default to Yeah, we'll figure it out. I can do this. And you've been successful with, you know, with two different ventures net now doing that, and not just successful, but becoming leaders in the space.

And so There's something to it, Colin. There's something to blue sky thinking that, that's powerful.

Colin Harms: There, there is. And you know what? We were chatting about it a little bit earlier. The we're moving into the cleaning and restoration business. It's got morphed from one specific business that, that hit one sector too.

I was invited to a conference and I went down there and, and I've just been learning to listen and not talk cause I, I can talk a lot. And, and I've learned to ask the one question I continue to do to our customers. And, and, and that question is just like, what are you missing out there? What are you not getting serviced by?

Yeah. And you know what, there is yet to be a day in a conversation where somebody hasn't, it's taken a bit, I have to prod a little bit, like they're like, what do you mean? And we just had one, which is a very, very large. Franchise company in the U. S. and I asked them and basically at the end of the conversation, he said, I have asked our current vendors and manufacturers to do this for years and they just keep on giving me the same thing.

And he said, is it possible to have this? So I came back and I said, you know, can we do this? Right? And absolutely we can do that. Why wouldn't we? Right? So now we've gone back and we're working on this right now on a demo unit, and we honestly believe it's going to change the landscape in that industry because they already want it.

Right? And then, and then it's not like we actually had 1 person say, could you build 1? And we're like, absolutely we can, right? Like this isn't, it's just a few different modifications. And then he said, if you could, could you build 200? I'm not talking about 200 pop bottle lids. We're talking about 200, you know, basically trucks for one company.

Kelly Kennedy: That's, that's the funny thing about innovation, isn't it? Like, I think companies think that, okay, we don't have to, you know, someone else can lead the charge and do this innovation and we'll catch up. The problem with that mindset or that attitude is you're going to have to do it anyway. And so if you're going to have to innovate anyway, you should lead the pack.

Because at least that gives you the best chance of success long term. If you're always playing catch up, you're always behind and you're losing out on those benefits, and yet you're going to have to innovate anyway.

Colin Harms: Well, and you know what I, I find and I don't want to be one, that there's multiple companies that do the same thing in the same industries.

And they call innovation, okay, I'm going to innovate and I'm going to do a podcast, but I'm going to do exactly what Kelly's doing with a different microphone. Okay. That's not innovating, right? Why do we continue to do the same thing, but a little different spin on it? No, innovation is actually changing, right?

And is it because we're adverse to change? Is it people don't like change? Or is it because, you know, a manufacturing facility doesn't want to put the the risk or the funds out there to see if it's going to work? I don't know, but, but I for sure want to be in the forefront of leading that pack of, you know, what are, are, are all the darts going to stick in the board?

Absolutely not. That's probably a good thing though. Yeah. Right. Cause you can, you can, you can chase two rabbits. And my dad taught me that one early, early on. I think I was a little scatterbrained. He said, son, I don't think he called me son actually. But he said, Colin, if you, if you chase two rabbits, they're both going to get away.

Yes. Right. And I've used it in business and that's innovation to me, right? Like let's, let's, we, we need to know what we're doing and what we're going after and we do, but if we fail to innovate, we will fail.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes, yes, I agree. And I think that everybody is forced to innovate. It's just if you if you can do it first, you're going to have the most success.

You know, yeah, you're gonna have lots of failures, but you're going to benefit from those innovations that you're going to have to make anyway. And if you have to make them last. You're, you're getting the least amount of benefit from the innovation. And is it really innovation if you're last two being the other side of it, right?

Colin Harms: Well, it's not. All you're doing is what somebody else did just later. When you asked me, you know, would we do it again? And I said, yes, we will. Right? What, what, what it has done for me and what blue sky thinking does for me is, and I think this could help people and I, and I would hope it does, is too many times we get stuck.

Like I did. You know, I did my time 17 years in the, in the garbage industry, phenomenal. Like I I've learned so much and the opportunities that were there, but 17 years is a long time. Will we own this business for 17 years? I don't know. But what I do know is the fact that we, we dove into it. We took it, we grasped it, we're, we're challenging it.

We're, we're winning. I can look across the street and say, what do they do? Oh, that's interesting. How does that work? I, I, I no longer, and you know what it is, is I think when you start out and you're younger, maybe, maybe everybody does it and they're looking for a job. You immediately search whatever industry that is restaurant industry, right?

As an entrepreneur and a business owner. I think I did that, right? I would franchise Gator or, or whatever, right? Maybe I'm going to open a booster juice. Now it's kind of like, Oh, like maybe talk to an accountant and say, which business really does well financially, who has a great income statement and can I go after that?

Kelly Kennedy: You're understanding change, right? Yes, that's right. Like, the goal is the same, but your understanding of how to achieve it better has improved. Yeah. Right? Well,

Colin Harms: and you know what? I, I would rather have a well rounded business life of, well, geez. Okay, for six years we were doing that. Yeah. Right? Maybe next we build boats.

I don't know. Right, or maybe we're in some other industry completely.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, and, you know, I mean, I'm already seeing that with my own organization, right? Like, I think, I think it's rare for organizations after a period of time to even be doing the thing that they initially started business doing, I think.

You know, the market dictates change and the need of change. And I think that most organizations that want to succeed long term have to figure out how to adapt to that. Do I think that we will do direct business development forever? Probably not. Probably not. Because I bet you there will be a better way.

We'll figure out a better way. And that won't, that won't necessarily be the best. line of business for us, but we're always looking for the next thing, right? Like this year we're doing coaching, you know, we have a very successful business development podcast, which we help people for free. There's lots of different avenues that did not exist even a year ago.

And who knows what's going to exist two years from now or a year from now, even, but I think you always have to. And you do, you look to the future with positivity saying, I don't know what's coming, but it's going to be great. And I do too. And I think that that is the way that you have to, as an entrepreneur, look to the future.

Because the world isn't always going to be exactly how it is today, but it can be better tomorrow. And it's, it has to do with your mindset.

Colin Harms: Yeah, a hundred percent. I agree. And, and that's what I love about your podcast is the variety, I guess we'll call it a variety of Professionals you bring on and I love to listen to every single one of them, right?

And I love to hear their perspectives and where they came from in the underlying thing on, on all of them though, is that ability to adapt and move and, and, you know, think positive about, about their future. Right?

Kelly Kennedy: No, that was something that, you know, and I get a lot of comments on it, both sides, you know, obviously I delve deeply into the story.

I love the backstory of all the entrepreneurs and experts that we get on this show, because I think the backstories are just as important as where they are today because it led them to where they are today. And most of the time they're very, very interesting, right? And You know, I got asked today, or for instance, I had an interview actually before you Colin, and the person that I interviewed said, man, like that was one of the best interviews I ever had.

He's like, it felt so personal. It felt, it didn't feel like a business interview. It felt personal. And I said, Well, why shouldn't it feel that way? Why can't business interviews feel personal and feel good? Why do they have to feel like this rigid, hard thing? Yeah, feel good. They can be fun. It can still be a great journey and a great adventure without it being so boring.

Colin Harms: That's right. Well, and you know what? You can look at it like take Richard Branson and one. You know, a Necker Island, right? And how he does things. And then you could take somebody just in the corporate world, on the other hand, and two totally different dynamics. Which room do you think I would be in?

Well, probably Richard Branson. Yeah. Right? Where, where you say yes more than you say no. And you know what? It just popped in my head, too, is if somebody is looking in, in, in trying to find something out there, I would encourage you to watch, if you're in the corporate world, I would encourage you to watch.

Watch the movie with Ben Affleck. It's called Company Men. It's a few years old, but it, it's about how corporations work, how they build up, and how they dismantle. And people get handed their box and, and basically it can destroy somebody's life or it can be the best thing that ever happened. Mm-Hmm. . The other one that I, I had watched recently was the Blackberry biography movie.

It was on the rise in the fall of Blackberry the telecom amazing for entrepreneurs to watch, like absolutely amazing. You can see how, how, how things start out of nothing and turn into something great and without foresight or, you know blue sky thinking how they can disintegrate in a matter of, you know, a year as well.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. All right, man. Well, anyway, that takes us to the end of our amazing episode on Blue Sky Thinking. Colin, you know, I always like to ask, and you've given so much great advice on this episode, but Let's inspire somebody today. If there's somebody sitting on the fence, you know, this is an early February show and they're, you know, they're looking to take a leap in their life.

They're looking to take a jump, whether that be to start a business or, you know, take a chance. What piece of advice might you give them?

Colin Harms: Biggest piece of advice I would do, and it's very quick, is go to your calendar, wherever you are, and mark a date on it, right? And do everything you can possibly do to meet that deadline.

Right. And, and, and every day from now until then, I don't care if it's six months from now or six days from now, every breathing moment that you have, think about how you're going to make that happen. Right. And, and, and it will happen because if we don't, if we don't focus on it, right, we give power to what we focus on.

If we don't, it's just going to go away. And next year you're going to have a New Year's resolution that will repeat itself. The only problem is with that, you're a year later in your life. And you're going to have all that weight that you carried the whole year along. So I would just say shed the weight, tear it off, tear down the rearview mirror, right?

And full steam ahead.

Kelly Kennedy: So in other words, say I did.

Colin Harms: Say I did. That's right. And the other one is to say yes. Right. Learn to say yes more than you say no. And you'll have to figure out a way.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Colin, it's a pleasure as always. Thank you so much until next time. This has been episode 106 of the business development podcast.

We were graced with Colin harms for some blue sky thinking until next time, we'll catch you 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.