Fear Kills Growth: Playing It Safe is the Fastest Way to Lose

Fear Kills Growth: Playing It Safe is the Fastest Way to Lose

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode two hundred and nine of the Business Development Podcast. And on today's very special two year anniversary show, I want to build you up. There's a lot of fear going on right now about the potential trade war, the North American trade war. Canadians are scared. Americans are scared.

Mexicans are scared. And today, I just want to build you guys up. I want to show you guys that you are enough. Your businesses can survive and not just survive, they can thrive. Stick with us. This is an episode I think we all need right now.

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 209 of The Business Development Podcast.

My gosh, 209 episodes, guys, and this is a very, very special episode for a number of reasons. But the number one reason is It is our two year anniversary show of the business development podcast, guys. That's right. Two years since I started talking to myself in the basement and my gosh, a lot has happened.

Hasn't it? We have done some stuff. Two hundred and nine episodes of the business development podcast. Our rockstar community interviewed at this point, guys, well over 100 expert guests. It's been a ride. It's been a ride. And it's been incredible. And I just want to start the show by thanking each and every one of you, my rockstar community, many of you have been with us from the very beginning.

And I could not have made it this far. And we cannot continue to grow this show without your support. And so thank you so much. Thanks for sticking with us. And thank you for being here on this two year celebration of the Business Development Podcast. And my gosh, guys yeah, some stuff happened. Hey, I don't know about you guys, but me and Shelby were glued to the TV Saturday with a feeling of doom and gloom.

Like many, many, many of you as some of you around the world may know, there has been. The the discussion of a possible trade war between USA, Canada and Mexico, which is a mess a total mess, guys, and people on all sides are afraid, not just Canadians, not just Mexicans, but Americans too. People everywhere are afraid about what the repercussions of a North American trade war could have.

And let me just start by saying, I am not in support of a trade war at all. I am completely in support of free trade agreements around North America. I don't support tariffs. I don't support anything like that because I think as North Americans, as the continent of North America, we need to figure out a way to get along.

We're friends, guys. You know, we're friends. Canadians are friends, Americans are friends, and you know what, my Mexican brothers, you guys are also friends. There's no reason. That we should not be able to get along, and I do hope for the best here. And today's show is about motivating you guys. At the end of the day, that's what I do best, and so that's going to be my contribution here, guys.

It is not all doom and gloom. It is not all doom and gloom. Let me just start the show by saying that. There will be people who come out the other side of this better than ever, regardless of what happens. That's just the nature of business. It's the nature Of commerce. It's the nature of the world.

Okay. Mindset is going to play a gigantic role, no matter what happens. You know, right now we're actually recording this on the fourth, which means there was actually a 30 day reprieve. I'm hoping that cooler minds prevail. I am hoping that President Trump and Prime Minister Trudeau managed to figure out their differences.

And hopefully we can move forward without tariffs. I think that that's the right move to make here. I support no tariffs. I support free trade across North America. And I love my American brothers and sisters. I love my Mexican brothers and sisters, and I love my fellow Canadians. And at the end of the day, I want the best for all of us.

And I genuinely believe that free trade and free commerce across our great nations is the right move forward. And I really do hope, like I said, that cooler minds prevail here and that a deal is made. But either way, guys, I get it. I get it. You're afraid. You know, like I said, I was in, I was in a mood.

Some of my best friends were in mood. Some of the people that I talked to have been scared about what this means for their businesses. As you know, as a Canadian, as an American and as a Mexican, there are a lot of goods crossing our borders. At all times, at all times, you know, United States is a gigantic customer of Canada.

Yeah. Canada is a gigantic customer of United States Mexico, both with Canada and United States. Guys, we, we need each other. That's the truth. We need each other. And so there's fear on all sides. However, here's the thing. We've been through shit before, haven't we? And guess what? We're going to come out the other end of this.

Look, I want to take today's episode to lift you up. And I get it. I know it's scary as someone who's been dealing with, you know, the emotional rollercoaster of this past week of this past weekend, I know how easy it can be to enter a defeated scarcity mindset of a bad situation. But here's the thing. You do have a choice and you do have options.

No matter what side you guys are on, you can take control of your situation and move forward with optimism and a desire to succeed as a 36 year old Albertan. I have lived through the Great Recession of 2008, the oil and gas downturn of 2015, COVID of 2020, and yes, soon, potentially, the tariff threats of 2025.

Guys, we have been through it. As millennials, we have been through it. And guess what? We're still here, aren't we? We're still out the other side. Many of us, our businesses, are out the other side of COVID. Many of us in Alberta suffered, you know, immense challenge during the oil and gas downturns of 2015. I saw plenty of businesses go out of business, guys.

And I saw plenty of them truck on right through, okay? They don't affect everybody equally. And I truly believe that great business development, a great mindset, a positive mindset, a heavy focus on account management can really be the difference here between surviving and thriving during a downturn.

There are winners and losers in each recession, and there will be winners and losers even if the tariffs move forward. Okay, in a recession or a threat of any type, the immediate feeling is we must hunker down. I see this everywhere. I'm sure the morning meetings in, you know, probably 50 percent or more of businesses on Monday morning in Canada was we need to tighten the belts.

We got to figure out what we're going to do if suddenly we can't sell the United States or if our United States customers stop buying and vice versa. I imagine there were conversations on the other side of the border for the 25 percent retaliatory tariffs at the end of the day. There was a lot of fear.

I guarantee on Monday morning, and I know a lot of the discussions were probably how can we cut costs? How can we keep the status quo going? What if I told you that this response is actually more likely to damage your business than to help it? Now, hear me out here. I know it's the automatic knee jerk response.

In how many situations in life is the automatic knee jerk response the wrong action? I can tell you that for me, if I make a knee jerk response, nine times out of 10, I make the wrong response. I think this is the exact same scenario. And I want to talk with you guys about that today. And I want to give you potentially some alternatives to use instead.

Okay. Think about a stock market downturn. If you get scared. The moment that the markets go down or there's a crash of any type and you sell all of your stock at a steep discount, you lose, you totally lose. And many of us lost in COVID and other situations where we got scared at the end of the day, we didn't know what the world looked like.

We had stock, the stock markets were crashing. We get out. Well, when we get out like that, we lose. Okay. And smart money is in there buying everything at that time. If you read, like, any investment book, it'll tell you to buy when everybody is running for the hills. Because when everybody is running for the hills, that's when you are getting the best deal on whatever stocks you want to buy.

Once again, we're talking about, obviously, good value stocks. Hopefully, stocks that are, you know, winners most of the time. But here's the thing. When people get scared, they make bad decisions. And when people make bad decisions, There's a lot of other people who benefit from those bad decisions. Now, look, a downturn in any type has the exact same winner loser scenario.

Okay. Now, are you seeing the similarity between what people do in a recession and what people do in a stock market crash? And I get that they do tend to be linked. So I get it. But what I'm saying here is, is that. If you make knee jerk rash decisions with your business, you are likely going to make a negative bad decision that can have long term impact to your business.

Okay? In a recession or downturn, the businesses that hunker down, they, they can lose. They tend to lose. Okay? And the businesses that push forward, they hire, they develop, they advertise and grow, they tend to win the day. If you can play your cards right, you can actually do more than just survive during a downturn, guys.

You can actually thrive. So let's just talk about that today. Today I want to inspire you. I want to give you guys some options. I get it. I get it. You're scared. We're all scared, okay? But we still have to make great decisions. And those knee jerk, tighten the belt decisions, those are decisions that have long term negative consequences to businesses.

And I've seen this over and over again. I saw it in 2008. I saw it heavy in 2015. And guys, in 2015, a lot of Albertan business went out of business. Because they hunkered down. They didn't keep advertising. They let go of half their staff. They stopped doing business development and they just held the status quo.

Well, guess what? When you hold the status quo like that, you actually put yourself in danger. You're no longer diversified your customers. You don't know what's going to happen to them. You lose one customer and it's all over. So it's really, really critical guys that we are diversifying, that we are doubling down.

On growth during a downturn, heck, maybe even more than ever. And we're going to chat about that. So how do we survive this mess? Number one, don't fire your business development and sales teams. OK, don't do this. Don't tell them to stop. Double down. Tell them to work harder than ever. Tell them we need diversification more than ever.

We need sales more than ever. Have them be your advocates, guys. Have them be your advocates. Nothing is more demoralizing as a sales team or business development team than being told to basically stop doing your job. To hold back. To, you know, it's, it's hard out there. Don't give them that. Don't tell them it's hard out there.

They get it. They understand it's hard out there probably better than many business owners. Okay. At the end of the day, we need to motivate our sales teams. We need to motivate our business developers. We need to let them know how much we value them and how critical they are in this hard scenario at the end of the day, guys, a motivated business development and sales team is a powerful business development and sales team, and.

Believe it or not, with these positions, having them motivated, having them feel valued, having them understand how critical their role is, and what their growth goals are, and what their targets are, just makes them more powerful. Business development and salespeople, we are powerful. We are driven. We are motivated.

We want to win. Set us up for success, okay? Set us up for success. New opportunities are out there, and you need to be actively searching for them. Okay? You have to be actively searching for these opportunities, especially in these downturns, guys. Especially in something as scary as a potential tariff trade war.

Okay? On both sides. We have to be out there looking for that new business, okay? Because we're going to get into it after, but your current customers can leave at any time for any reason, and we have to be prepared for that. And the way that we prepare for that is by finding new opportunities. We can't quit that.

Do not, do not let go of your sales and business development teams. Double down on them during a downturn. Incentivize your teams to perform better than ever. Okay, we get it. We get it. It's like you don't have to tell people how scary it is out there. I think as a leader, guys, you guys have to lead. What do I mean by that?

You have to be the most optimistic in your business. If you are the founder, the CEO, the president, you need to be out there. Motivating your teams. Okay. You can't be sulking in your office. You can't be bringing that negativity to the Monday meetings. Okay. Bring positivity, show them you're fighting on their side, show them you want to succeed.

And you're going to do everything possible to support them in your own success. Okay. At the end of the day, we have to incentivize our people and the carrot is more powerful than the stick. Don't scare them into submission. Be the optimist in the room, incentivize them in positive, uplifting ways, and you will get better results, okay?

Don't try to scare your people into the ground. Lift them up to the sky. Your customers can leave at any time for any reason. I'm going to repeat that because it's really critical, and it's even more critical to understand in this situation, okay? I don't care how long your customer has been with you. I don't care if they're the best customer in the world.

Things like this, recessions, downturns, you don't control how they run their company. Even if you make all the right choices with your company, and you uplift your people, and you double down on business development, and you work on growing as opposed to dying in this situation, that does not mean your customer is going to take that same approach, and their business may fail.

Their business may have to make hard choices or heck, they might just be making that belt tightening choice and your company doesn't make the cut. Do not over rely on one or two customers. Okay? They can leave at any time for any reason. And that is absolutely critical to remember in this situation. Find new opportunity.

Double down on your business development. Double down on optimism. There is a way out. Number two, account management is absolutely critical. And I know we don't talk about account management a ton on this show, but let me tell you what, when I worked, you know, in the oil and gas sector in 2015, it was because of my account management skills that we were able to survive, that we were able to come out the other side of the organization I worked with, because before that time I had been doing business development and account management kind of hand in hand.

And I had made some really great relationships over those 10 years and those relationships paid off massively when we went into a massive oil and gas economic downturn. Why? Because I could call our customers and I could say, Hey, I get it. You're in rough shape. Let's have a real honest conversation about this.

I want to come out the other side. You want to come out the other side. How can we help each other? And I was able to use my account management skills to essentially broker great agreements, agreements that work great for our organization and work great for their organization to help us support each other through the downturn.

The company I worked for survived and is still around today. Many of their competition did not survive. They did not come out the other side of that recession. And so account management is actually more critical than ever. Now, understand, even though your customers can leave at any time for any reason, that is not a reason to not do account management.

OK, we still have to. Double down on our account management skills as well, right? We have to reach out to those customers. We got to show them that we look after them, that we care about them, that we want to create mutual win win scenarios for both of our organizations. It is absolutely critical in a downturn to reach out to your customers, to show them that you care about them.

Meet with them at least quarterly, guys, at least quarterly. More if you can. But if you're doing account management. Meet with your customers at least quarterly, understand their challenges, understand their situation, and try to create solutions that are win win for you and them. At the end of the day, that's what businesses want.

They want win win scenarios where they can make it, and you can make it, and that you're ultimately going to be able to continue to provide the valuable products and services that your customers need, and that. You can depend on your customer to buy those valuable products and services. So figure out how to work together.

And this is done through effective communication. And I would say at least quarterly, if not more than that. Let your customers know proactively that you will work with them right now if you were hearing this show and it is, you know, February of 2025, you need to be reaching out to your customers immediately and saying, Hey, I get it.

Things are volatile. Things are looking scary. Let's book a meeting and let's chat about what I can do to support your business. What can I do right now proactively to help you if these tariffs move forward? It is critical that we are showing our willingness to help, that we are showing our willingness to play ball with our customers.

The companies who show their willingness to work with their organizations and their customers are the ones who are going to benefit the greatest from this situation and put themselves in a much better place. As we move into a potential recession, proactive support guys, proactive support is absolutely, absolutely critical.

Take this opportunity. to get ahead of the problem with your customers. Okay. Number three, find partners to support. You look for mutually beneficial partnerships. Here's the thing. There's services that you offer. There's also other services that you might be complimentary to start to look for those partners.

Start to reach out to companies that you work with to to friends of your business, to partners of your business, to chambers of commerce, to, to help and support. There are lots of organizations out there, guys. Who are designed to help and support you keep your ears to the ground. Listen to what economic help is available to you.

Governments will be putting out grants on all fronts to support business in a downturn like this. If this moves forward, there will be economic supports. There will be community supports and you will have friends in your line of business who you can partner with to help you come out the other side. Do not try to take this on yourself.

Do not try to take on. The whole world yourself, there is help out there. Start actively seeking it, figure out what supports are there and apply for them immediately. Do not wait. Network. OK, take the opportunities to talk to people about your business. If you've been putting this off, if you've just been doing the status quo, running your day to day job and you have not been networking, you have not been commenting on LinkedIn, you have not been adding new people and making new connections or going to trade shows or going to community events.

It's now time to do so. Okay, start to expand your network. You will be surprised how many opportunities are actually out there. If you are willing to push your comfort zone and put yourself out there as an expert in your field, as a leader in your field and say, Hey, look, here's what I do. What do you do?

And start to figure out what the synergies are in your community. Take this opportunity to network. Take this opportunity to get to know businesses. Business owners and people that you have not been able to meet before. Join a business group. There's lots of business groups popping up. Join a business group.

They are there to support each other and you are going to need support as we potentially head into a trade war. You are going to need support. You don't have to be in this alone. Find that support. Number four, use social media to your advantage. Okay, guys, we have a tool that nobody has ever really had before.

Okay. And that is the power of social media. And I'm specifically talking about LinkedIn. LinkedIn is absolutely powerful for B2B business networking in 2025 and beyond. Leverage it. Leverage it, get your LinkedIn premium account, set up your profiles, right? Start to post regularly, start to participate regularly on LinkedIn, make it a part of your everyday tasks.

Okay? Participate on LinkedIn, connect with potential customers, introduce your products and services, attach your brochures, ask for meetings. Make real connections on LinkedIn. Here's the thing, guys, we need to work on both our personal and corporate brands on LinkedIn. We've talked about this plenty of times.

I have lots of shows on personal branding. Make sure that we are leveraging our personal brands as we head into 2025. Get started on it. Share your expertise with the world. You are an expert in something. Learn how to utilize video. Learn how to utilize audio clips. Learn how to create great content in a program like Canva.

Guys, we have so much stuff. At our fingertips, so much ability to make an impact, but we have to take action. Okay. And I get it. I'm right there with you. I struggle with video. I am not afraid to say that I will yell it from a rooftop. Okay. Video is something that I struggle with to get the motivation to set up a camera, to record something great, to edit it and put it out there to the world.

But guess what? There is no more powerful medium than video. So. I have to deal with it. You have to deal with it too. Figure out how you are going to share your knowledge with the world. Be a benefit and you will draw people to you. That's the thing, right? The thing about social media, personal branding, it's all about benefiting the world.

And the more that you can benefit the world, the more the world rewards you for benefiting it. So, Take action. Start to utilize your social media. Set up your LinkedIn's right. Do social posts at least a couple of times a week and start to build that personal brand. It will absolutely help you. And remember Video is king and value is what is important.

Number five, improve your skills. Okay, now is not the time to coast. Now is definitely not the time to coast. Start reading books again. Start learning things again, right? If you don't know how to use Canva, it's a great time to take an editing class. If you don't know how to create video, it's a great time to learn that skill.

If you want to start a podcast, Now is the time. There is no better time than when we have economic uncertainty to take that big leap and stand out from the crowd. Take action, guys. Take action. If you're listening to this show, you are an action taker. I know it. I know it. Because people who don't take action, they don't listen to a show like this.

Today is your day. If you've been waiting for a call to action to start that podcast, start that video series, learn that new skill. This is it. Today is the day. Take that action. Consider coaching guys. Consider coaching, right? You know, I'm a business development coach. There's lots of business coaches of different disciplines.

Figure out what skills you are lacking in or what skills would provide the greatest benefit to your business and look into it. Okay. Coaching is incredible. Many of the things coaches teach you, you already know what you actually need is that push. You need that accountability partner. You need that person to just help you take that step in your life.

And that is what coaching is for. It is incredible. If there is a discipline that you've been looking to learn, now is the time. Take that action, invest in yourself, and push yourself to the next level because you are going to need it as we head into a new phase. That can make the difference between surviving and thriving in a bad situation.

Number six, look after your mental health. Okay, we have to look after our mental health. Seriously, I, I'm just going to tell you right now, Saturday, I was feeling like a sack of crap. I was like, Oh shit, we're in another gigantic mess. This is going to be horrible. This is potentially going to be worse than the 2008 crisis.

Like, my gosh, what are we going to do? And it's so easy to end up in that headspace. Actually, I knew in that moment I had to do this show for my for my two year anniversary, that this show, this motivating show had to be it. But I had to get through my moment. I had to get through my woe is me moment. And we're all having woe is me moments.

Maybe you're in it right now. Maybe, maybe it's been a whole week of the woe is me moment, guys. But we have to get out of that mindset. That mindset will not be what you need to survive this thing, OK? The longer you stay there, the more damage it is going to do to you because you are not going to take action.

The problem with being in that situation is we take no action. The solution out the other side of this mess is taking action, taking positive action, moving the needle for your business. for yourself, and it comes down to controlling your mental health. Find a way to disconnect from the mess, guys. Find a way.

Look, life is going to go on. Life is going to go on. No matter what happens. Okay, we have to make sure that if it is going to go on is going to go on in a positive way for us. It might be a great time to to kill your news app guys. It might be a great time to just disconnect from politics. And I get it.

Like as Canadians disconnecting from politics right now, we're in such a friggin train wreck with our country. It's a tough one, but here's the thing. It doesn't really matter what happens, does it? Because no matter what happens, you have to survive. Your business has to survive. Your employees need an employer and your family needs a leader.

Okay. It is time to lead. It is time to disconnect from the negativity, start filling your feeds with positive things, and start to uplift your mental health because it is going to be a challenge if you are constantly getting bombarded with negative things. Avoid negative news, okay? You have to avoid it.

Avoid negative people. They're also going to bring you down. Surround yourself with positive people. Be the optimist in the room. It will help you. Exercise if you need to, and I'm not going to tell anybody to exercise at the end of the day. I struggle with exercising, so I totally get it. But here's the thing.

I do know that for me, when I exercise, it helps me with my mental clarity. I simply feel better. I simply feel better. And even though, you know, finding time to do so as a busy entrepreneur, as a parent as a partner is incredibly challenging. It might be what we have to do in this moment to try to keep that optimism up.

So if you can find time to exercise, it will help you. Put your business, family, and employees first. Here's the thing. At the end of the day, your business needs you. Your family needs you. Your employees need you. We have to rise to the occasion as leaders for them in these moments. Okay. Be the leader in the room.

There's going to be lots of negativity going around your organizations, guys. There's going to be lots of negativity everywhere you go. Be the shining light in your room, be the shining light in your organization, and you will lift people up. People need to be surrounded by people who lift them up. And it is the way to lead in a bad situation.

Remember that positivity is contagious, create positive environments and avoid negative environments. And I'm going to say just quickly on the negative side, if there's somebody who's being consistently negative and bringing your team down, you're going to have to get rid of them. The negativity is toxic.

It will destroy your business. It will destroy your team. You need to surround yourself and your employees with positive people and positive influence. Your mindset will make all of the difference in this situation, guys. You can choose to stay positive. You can choose to double down on success creating tactics.

You can choose to make the most of a bad situation. And I am confident that each and every one of you will make the right choice. I believe in you. You got this. We got this. All right. Wow. Let me just start by saying, guys, I did not think that my two year anniversary show would be this. I didn't. I did not think.

But I can't think of a more powerful message than to do this show, this particular episode on my two year anniversary. On a certain level, I think maybe it was meant to be. We needed some positivity. We needed to be uplifted in this moment. And I'm happy that my two year anniversary could hopefully be that show for you.

Listen, we're all in this together, whether we're American, whether we're Canadian, whether we're Mexican, we're all friends. We're all more alike than we are different. Let's keep together. Let's look after each other and let's come out of this thing better than we're going into it. Show update guys, just a quick one.

We're sitting at two years of the business development podcast. We have released. 209 episodes we are listened to in 145 countries, and we are a top 100 show in 40 plus countries around the world. I could not have seen this coming. I could not have seen that that is the impact this show would have on the world.

It is an honor and a blessing. And I just want to say thank you to my rock stars out there around the world. You are all incredible. I love you all. Thank you so much for sticking with us. And thank you for telling your friends and family. And I just ask that you could continue to do that for us, continue to support us in all the free ways you can, you know, follow us, like us, subscribe, come check us out on LinkedIn.

I appreciate and welcome the communication and feel free to reach out to me anytime, podcast@capitalbd.ca or come connect with me on LinkedIn. I'd love to chat with you there. Shoutouts this week, Jillian Schecher, Marcela Mandeville, Amin Samji, Gary Noseworthy, Susan Poseika, Dan Goldin, Rich Cohen, Sean Howard, Maureen Codispodi, Colin Harms, Rodney Lover, Michelle Sami Wehbe, Lauren Graff, Vijayan Swaminathan, Bryan Hayes, Daniel Monzen, Jake Karls, Tash Jefferies, Colin Christensen, Tony Gray, Kapil Kalra, Stephen Morrissey, Carmen Leibel, Tatsiana Zametalina, Jayson Chakkalakal,

Chris McArady, Micah Dixon. Jemia Zagiel, Tim Zagiel, Ross Huartt, Sean Schroeder and Kenani Brandon. Until next time, you've been listening to the Business Development Podcast and we will 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.