From Maximum Fights to Fashion Heights with Dave Pavelich

From Maximum Fights to Fashion Heights with Dave Pavelich

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 118 of the business development podcast. And on today's expert guest interview, we are chatting with Dave Pavelich founder of Conxeppt, a high end sustainable fashion brand based right here in Alberta, Canada. He was also the vice president of Maximum Fighting Championships, the regional marketing manager for gateway casinos, and has had a very prestigious marketing career.

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 you're expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to Episode 118 of the Business Development Podcast. And on today's expert guest interview, we have a super, super exciting guest. One with an incredibly varied career, an impressive career, and I look forward to chatting about him today. Today, we're talking with Dave Pavelich. He stands as a beacon of innovation and strategic brilliance in the realm of brand development.

And creative direction with a career spanning from the adrenaline charged world of professional sports to the intricate landscape of luxury branding. Dave has consistently pushed boundaries and redefined industry standards. Beginning his journey as the vice president of the maximum fighting championship, he orchestrated captivating live events and brokered game changing broadcasting deals, setting the stage for his subsequent success.

Transitioning seamlessly into roles such as regional marketing manager at Gateway Casinos and Entertainment and vice president of sales and marketing at Voran Group Ventures, Dave's entrepreneurial spirit and keen eye for marketing trends have consistently driven growth and profitability. Now as the founder and creative director of Conxeppt Ventures, Dave continues to sculpt brands into masterpieces.

Offering a perfect blend of style, substance, and strategic brilliance in an ever evolving landscape, Dave Pavelich remains at the forefront, shaping legacies and inspiring progress with each endeavor. Dave, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show today.

Dave Pavelich: Kelly, what a brilliant intro. Thank you so much.

I'm very excited to be here. I'm very excited to, to chat with you and and your listeners.

Kelly Kennedy: You know, we talked about this multiple times at this point, but. You have had one of the most impressive marketing careers that we have seen grace our stage just yet. Yeah, it's very impressive. And you know, like I said before, congratulations on an amazing career.

Dave Pavelich: Thank you so much, Kelly. I really appreciate that. It's you know, marketing is one of those worlds that's ever changing. So if you're not changing, you're you're, you're stagnant and you're staying still and you're going to get lost in the shuffle. So it's always exciting to, you know, To keep growing, stay on trends, and you just gotta, you know, be on and, and have conversations with people like you to keep you younger and keep you fresh.

Right? So that, that's, that's the name of the game is to keep growing and to never stop learning because that's what happens to a lot of people in a lot of different careers is they kind of get into the position and they get complacent and they think they know it all and they don't listen to the next generation.

And then they get lost in the shuffle. So you gotta, you gotta keep that youthful energy around you.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, that career has just progressed, you know, into the founding of an absolutely amazing fashion company. And we're definitely going to get into that later today. But you know, take us back to the beginning.

You've had an incredibly, incredibly impressive marketing career. Like I said, probably one of the most impressive that I've seen on the show yet. And yeah, I would love to hear your journey. You know, how did you end up the Dave Pavelich you are today?

Dave Pavelich: You know, I, I would have to attribute a lot of that to the way I was raised and the way I grew up.

My father, Mark Pavelich, his father Matt Pavelich is the first ever. NHL referee in the Hockey Hall of Fame. His brother Marty Pavelich, won four Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings. He's actually the last remaining Detroit Red Wing from that season that's still alive today. He's 94, 95 years old, still skis in Big Sky, Montana.

So what was instilled in me from a very young age was hard work. Those were the times where hard work beat everything else. It was about saving your money. It was about hard work is about showing up and doing more than than everybody else around you. And just, you know, showing up and putting in as much effort as you can.

And I have to attribute a lot of that to my father, Mark Pavelich, who started the Maximum Fighting Championship. He actually legalized the sport in Canada. Wow. So from a very young age, I was 11 years old and my father, even at five, six, seven, he's never treated me like a child. He always treated me like an adult. So at 11, I felt like I was 16, 17 years old because the conversations we had was about, you know, hard work You know, saving money, investing properly, building your own business, be your own boss.

That's what was, you know, those were the conversations we had at dinner time. And so he always brought me to these meetings. So when we were, when we were growing up, I would go to the corporate partnership meetings, right. And he always gave me a lot of a leeway to actually build those those deals myself.

Of course you would look at them, but I was always at the table from a very young age. So 11, 12, 13 years old, I was out flyering cars. I was doing all the, the guerrilla tactics of marketing that people would probably be doing in their twenties. I started doing that at 11. I was knocking on doors, flyering cars, going B to B, talking about the shows, the fights in the area is really strategic FSA targeting, but doing it.

On our own and showing up so that I kind of started from a really young age. At that point, 13 years old, I got my first job. Cause I was like, you know, I don't want to just work for you, dad. I want to go and out. So I was a bus boy at a restaurant while I was learning the business. The only job I could actually get hired for, cause at the time it was 14 I was getting paid under the table.

Yeah. And from there I worked there for a few years, of course, handled the marketing side of marketing promotions. It was when I was 13, 14 with my dad coming up with different ideas on how to structure and how to get eyeballs with a very little budget, right? Learning that at a young age. And then actually when I was in high school, I worked in while I was doing that, I worked in a clothing store.

So I started off as a sales rep at a clothing store. And because of my business background where, you know, it was just, you know, Entrepreneurial spirit in my family household. I just had a knack for business. So at 16, I was the manager of that clothing store and it was, it was called Paradox at the time.

It's still around. It's called opulence now, and it's across the, across the way with Zol. And Zol was a mentor of mine when I was, Really young, 14, 15. And he just instilled in me how to buy the right clothes, how to pay attention to trends and things like that. So I started managing that store. And of course, when I was 18 years old or it might've been 17 or 18, my dad offered me the position of vice president, you know, and a lot of people will say it's nepotism of course, but I feel that my dad never really treated me like a normal.

Human. Like I had to put in more work than anybody else. I mean, he wouldn't have given me that job. You know, a lot of times working with families a lot harder than working with the strangers because they expect so much more and probably give you a little bit less. Yeah. So I learned a lot from that and became the vice president and our goal, you know, we were competing on the grand on the grand stage.

We're the third. Third biggest organization in the world at the time. So you had the UFC and then you had Pride Fighting in Japan and, you know, we kind of algumated both of their unique differences and put it into one. So we actually are, our fights were in a ring and my job was to bring in as many eyeballs.

across the platform because I, I helped sign a deal with Mark Cuban which HD net, which turned into access TV. So we were live broadcast across the world and we had international fighters from everywhere. And my job was to get eyeballs from all of these different markets, but our budget was very small.

So that's where I learned how to take a small budget and make. Such a big impact out of these campaigns. And still to this day, when I went into corporate marketing in the casino business, a lot of other marketers would spend money like, like it's the business's money. But for me, I spent money like it was my own money.

So I was very, very strategic with how I spent every single dollar. And you know, when, when you're dealing with executive teams and you're saving money and bringing more. people through the door, your career progresses further pretty quickly.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Wow. That's like, that's absolutely amazing. And first off, I just wanted to Acknowledge, I totally get what you're saying with regards to like family businesses.

And I, you know what, I agree with you completely. I don't think that any business owner puts somebody in a position without thinking that through about 18 times, right? And so if your dad chose you, even if you were 18, and I was also young when I got into my career, If he chose you, it was because you were the right person for the job, you know, regardless of being his son or not.

Dave Pavelich: Exactly. No, I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Yeah. And then when I was 18, we started doing shows in Ontario as well. So we had to move out, move myself out there. I went to school out there and finance and marketing. And then from there worked in the casino business as we sold the My dad was getting tired of the business and sold and sold off the business and became into the casino marketing world.

And the reason why I picked that career is because I would go to Vegas so much as a kid, because it's the fight capital of the world. So growing up in the fight business, we had over 186 fighters come from, from the MFC to the UFC back and forth. We actually managed fighters. So I was there all the time.

And the casino business just. You know, it had everything I was interested in. A casino in Vegas had high fashion. You'd had all the big stores in there, had all the best restaurants and best chefs. You've had all the best entertainers in the world. There was a 24 hour gambling city. Casinos may be a little bit different in Canada to Vegas, but it still held all of the aspects that I enjoyed.

From hospitality to fashion, just the way corporate executives dressed in the casino business. It was just, you know, it just fit my personality and I started doing that and it was, it, it was very, very fun. And until COVID hit, of course.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yeah. So tell me what happened when COVID hit.

Dave Pavelich: I'd been working in casinos for about six years and then COVID hit.

All casinos were closed. You know, I kind of waited for a quarter, and we were still closed after three months, and then one of my mentors Terry Bandera, who you know, I attribute a lot of my career to, to as well, I learned a lot from him he started off, actually, he's a serial entrepreneur, but he actually automated the first drilling rig, so the first, we call it a smart rig.

And so in the oil industry and he has multiple businesses. And at that point he was moving from that business to help out as the COO of Voran Group, Voran Group Ventures. And this was a cleaner and disinfectant that we manufactured in Canada that was used in the aviation space, but it was, it's a residual killer residual killer product.

So what it would do is it, it would actually leave a microscopic layer on the surface and would actively kill pathogens. And I thought, you know, Hey, it's COVID you've got this product. I'm going to jump into it. Let let's, let's go. And their whole thing was they were launching nationally. And my background with launching nationally recognized brands, it was a perfect fit for me.

So I did everything from, you know, logo to the brand to launching the brand to coming up with the marketing campaigns on how we're going to attract eyeballs in the decision makers. So all very strategic ideas and campaigns into that, into that business. And he thought I was the right fit for it.

And I took the bull by the horns. Where, you know, preparation meets timing. And I took that position and it was great for my career. It was a lot of fun. And then, you know, while I was still in the casino all the way back to bring it the full circle, I started Conxeppt. There at the casino. So it was a side business.

It was a passion project at the time. And then I grew the business so much in those five years that it was no longer feasible for me to be in an office anymore, to, to work on other people's dreams. Not that I didn't love it. I'd loved it, but it was just time for me to to go out. I spoke to my wife.

We had a serious conversation because you know, a salary is very tough to leave to let go of. Especially, you know, I always say, you know, a salary is the drug they give you to forget your dreams, you know, so you kind of fall into that that cycle, but I was fortunate enough to have that, that my wife works has a great position as well.

So we were at the point where, you know, we don't have kids yet, so it was time for us to, to branch out and go on our own. And then from there, I've been building those businesses for the last year and a half on my own.

Kelly Kennedy: Wow, man, that's unreal. And you know, like, it's, it's a, it's a big jump. And I was, I was having a hard time understanding it when we first met, but it actually makes so much more sense now.

You, your passion for fashion started when you were just a kid.

Dave Pavelich: Yes, absolutely.

Kelly Kennedy: And it makes so much sense. Why? And you know, I mean, even if you look at the progression of your career, every single position that you spent in your career, you were dressed nicely.

Dave Pavelich: Yeah. Yeah. I would say that, you know, I probably get that for, I was dressed nicely and I got bullied for it in school, to be honest.

Like I'd go shopping with my mom. My mom is a very stylish person. She's French Canadian. You know, when, when, if you go to Montreal, everybody's got, I would say it's the fashion capital of Canada. Everybody looks good. They go out, you know, you go to the grocery store, people are dressed up. It's, it's a little bit different than it is here in Alberta.

So I had that fashion sense from my mom and we would go Shopping, you know, in for junior high clothes, and I would be buying turtlenecks and slacks and, you know, people at school would be like, you're like, where are you going and making fun of me and things like that. And I still just like that to this day.

So.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah, no, man, it makes so much sense. Okay, well, Okay, you launched, you launched your business. Tell me a little bit about what it was like to launch Conxeppt. You know, when you took that jump, tell me a little bit about what that moment was like, because you're absolutely right. Walking away from a salary and probably a pretty damn good salary is not an easy choice for anyone.

And we have a lot of listeners, I'm sure who are in that, that in between space right now. And you know, what would you say to them? What was it that motivated you to take your life? In your own hands and say, you know what? I can do this. I'm going to, I'm going to go for it.

Dave Pavelich: You know, it's an unpopular opinion that I have because a lot of people will tell you the opposite.

A lot of business people will tell you the opposite that I'm about to say, but for me and my family, it just, it felt the most comfortable to do, but a lot of people would say, you know, if you want to start a business, you've got to jump in 100 percent and you've got to go full, which I agree with to an extent.

However, You got to pay your bills. You got to be realistic. Right? So I launched Conxeppt. I was still at the casino. It was a passion project. I started very small. You know, I, I, I took appointments after work. I continued, you know, I, I worked seven days a week, six days a week, really built that business and I didn't leave.

Any salary position until I was making more money with Conxeppt than those salaries, which is an unpopular opinion. A lot of people will tell you, you can't get to that point unless you, you know, quit and, and, and go full, full tilt with the new business. However, you know, if, especially if you have kids, you've got responsibilities, you know, you're going to have to sacrifice more so your time and your, your leisure.

And for me, all I did was work, workout, eat, work. You know, and that's just kind of the, the cycle I put myself in, but it didn't feel like work because again, it was a passion project, right? That it, it really, it, it, it motivated me, kept me disciplined. I had fun doing it. I had a great time meeting people while doing it.

I grew my network. Doing it. So to me, it didn't really feel like work. It, of course it is work. I mean, the bigger you get, the harder it is where from an administrative standpoint, you know, you've got invoicing to do, you've got, there's a lot more to the business, but at first growing it, I just had such a blast doing it that it didn't feel like work.

And I was fortunate enough to have a wife that didn't demand, you know, I was very, I always am very structured with my time. So I would always, you know, book time off for my health and book time off for one on one time with my wife, you know, and I think that that's really important to do while you're growing that business is to ensure that, you know, at least once a week you're having uninterrupted dinner and really catching up with your significant other, you know, because, you know, as an entrepreneur, every second of the day can be used to work towards your goals, right?

So it's, it's about balancing your life to the point where you're still, you know, planting seeds and watering those relationships and not forgetting, you know. Life is also a social construct and it's about the relationships you have with one another, whether it be with your clients or your friends or your significant other.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. You touched on something that I, yeah, I totally get you, right? Like, you know, starting the business development podcast and capital for me was the same thing. It's like, I could devote 100 percent of my time to that and it not feel at all like I'm stealing from anything. But then you start to recognize you are stealing a little bit from everything.

And Yeah, you know, tell me a little bit about some of the techniques that you've used in order to essentially prioritize, you know, your social relationships, because I know, you know, for me, that's been a struggle. And for most entrepreneurs that I've met, that's been a struggle. You know, what are some of the techniques that you used in order to balance your life a little better?

Dave Pavelich: You know, I read to be I'm going to paraphrase a little bit, but I read the, I forget if he was a professor at Harvard. And he had a business. I don't remember who the person was, but I read one time that, you know, every single Tuesday at four o'clock, no matter what it was, his whole team knew that he couldn't be bothered that that time he would stay late Monday.

If there was any issues, you would know that Tuesday he wouldn't be available and Wednesday he would be. But On those days, he would have uninterrupted time and he didn't let anything. It could be a 911 issue, but at that time, he spent time with his wife. And when I read that, you know, it really hit home for me.

So it's all about, you know, time management and ensuring that there's that one special day a week that you put aside that no matter what, I'm not gonna take any calls. I'm not gonna take any emails. I'm gonna spend this time with you. So I've kind of, I've, I've used that Conxeppt into my own life of just controlling my, my calendar, right?

Just control the controllables. And then at that specific time, don't let anything bother you, no matter what it is. You've gotta turn it off because you'll no, no matter what, a text will come in, an email will come in, it'll distract you. And you'll, you'll never, you know, you, you, those relationships with that person will be damaged from that, right?

Because people feel like you're not, they're not important to you anymore. Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. , right?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah, I know, like for us at our house, what ended up kind of ended up, well, what ended up happening was me and Shelby ended up working together a lot more. And you know, I mean, I think that there's a lot of people who think, well, you know, someone in the, in the household can own a business and it just be theirs.

But in my experience, that's absolutely impossible. Like I rely so much on Shelby and her feedback and her input into what I do at capital and what I do on this podcast. I don't think it's possible to separate your business and your family. I, I, you know, I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I, I haven't been able to see how that's done yet.

Dave Pavelich: No, I, I, I would agree with that. I mean, I'm in, I'm in interesting business. I'm in business. In businesses that my wife is also interested in, right? So fashion business, she's designed and helped design some, some jackets for our, our, our women's custom clothing line as well. Right? So she's involved. We talk about business all the time.

She works for the government of Alberta. However, she also has her own successful blog online of fashion and fashion blog online. So, you know, there's a lot of, of mutual interests, you know, we're, we're best friends, like everything that we do, we kind of do together anyway, whether it be, you know, all the things that we're interested in from fashion to culinary experiences to travel, you know, it's more of a, more of a person that we spend all day, every day together, other than the fact that she's at work where I'll be growing the business.

But. She's still involved on the business side as well. So I agree with you. Absolutely. And I grew up in a household that was like that, you know, my mom was the accountant in the household and my mom was out driving when we went flyering cars or knocking on doors at businesses, she would be in the car and I'd be the one going in, so she'd be driving me, right?

So I've always had that That connection within my family, where everybody kind of does their, does their part and helps out because it takes, it takes a community in a village to grow a business. Yeah. It's not a just one man show. Yeah. Right. So, yeah.

Kelly Kennedy: And yeah, like, you know, I mean, so much of the things that you discussed, I'm sure are business related.

It's just the way that it goes. You know, most of the conversations in our house, you know, for better, for worse end up. stemming back to business in one way or another. But you know what? It's also glue that holds you together on the same, same thing. If you're both passionate about it, like it sounds like your wife is very much in the fashion industry.

If she's working fashion blog, she understands, she gets it. It's probably something that you guys share a passion in then.

Dave Pavelich: Well, one, 100 percent she does. Yeah, we, we definitely share that passion. A lot of times, you know, she'll, she'll tell me if if the quality is missing, right. She helps out with quality control, right.

The picking the details and the buttons on on ready to wear garments and things like that. So yeah, it's definitely a team effort.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know what they say, right? Behind every strong man is an even stronger woman.

Dave Pavelich: I would have to agree with that one.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, me too, me too. You know, okay, I know that I would get some flack if I didn't ask you.

Tell me about some of the absolute amazing things that happened to you while you were doing the fighting championships.

Dave Pavelich: Oh, there's, there's so many. So, you know, while we were doing the fights, I mean, we started before George St. Pierre really started getting big, right? So I got to see George St. Pierre's career, you know, from one and oh, two and oh, three and oh, four and oh, we flew to Montreal to watch him.

We had him come. To Edmonton for seminars and helped us grow our brand here. So, you know, just seeing George St. Pierre's career from the absolute start to the finish and for what he did for Canadian MMA and combat sports in general, was just a great thing to be involved in. You know, I was 13 years old.

Jason McDonald was the first fighter ever from. Alberta to be in the UFC and he fought the likes of Rich Franklin, which was the UFC middleweight champion at the time. He grew up on the ranks. So 13, 14 years old, I remember being a corner man. So I would, I would hold the spit bucket in the UFC. So just being backstage at the UFC, you know, holding that bucket.

You know, being in the corner, just seeing the adrenaline, seeing the, the intensity that the show in the sport produces just from, from ringside is, it was an incredible journey from, from a very young age. You know, having dinner with Anderson Silva. You know, and him being such a respectful person. And just like, just soaking in that, that martial arts wisdom is another highlight.

I would say signing the deal with Mark Cuban, right? We actually, part of our contract with that was that we, he had to come to Edmonton. And he had to sign the contract in person. So, you know, sitting next to, to Mark Cuban while signing that contract having a great dinner and we had all these, you know, he was at River Creek casino at Sage at the time.

And we, we had this private room and we had all these expensive wines for him because, you know, he's a billionaire. We just want to make sure, you know, he walks in with a t shirt and jeans. It looks like a good old Alberta boy. And he's like, Hey, can I get a Corona, you know, super, super laid back guy, awesome guy, you know, and you know, he would go through his cell phone.

He's like, Hey, do you want, do you want Jay Z's number, phone number? Or, Oh, how about Oprah Winfrey? So he, he was flexing on me with this contacts and he's just He's just a pretty, pretty down to earth, special guy to be around. So that was definitely a highlight. I mean, I've met so many people, you know, Gene Simmons came to the shows, you know, the late great Ralph Klein was one of our, he was always in the front row of our shows in the fight business, you know, he always supported the sport helped us, you know, get the legalized Bill Smith was the mayor mayor at the time, but just being around those kinds of people at a young age was great.

He actually might, my sister sang the national anthem when she was like seven or eight at our show. She was an incredible singer and, you know, seeing Ralph Klein, you know, shed a tear during the Oh, Canada. You know what? The fights was great. Just seeing the amount of fighters whose dreams came true. You know, coming up the ranks, Benson Henderson, who was a former UFC champ and went on to be a Bellator fighter as well.

And he actually grew, grew his career in the, in the MFC. So seeing somebody start again from scratch in our organization and to grow to be world champion is pretty incredible stuff. Yeah. That's just off the top of my head.

Kelly Kennedy: I was gonna say, off the top of your head, that, you know what I mean, if you're going deeper would just, would just be, wow, like, it's just unreal, dude.

It's unreal. Your, your life experience, man, like, how do you think that being in the room with such great, amazing people shaped you? Like, I can't imagine as a kid, you know, you know, and not even just as a kid, like, I get that you were in like 18, 20, and some of the, probably even a little older in some of these scenarios, but, you know, I mean, you're standing next to giants.

What was that like for you?

Dave Pavelich: Yeah, well, you know what? It's, it's humbling. It's humbling to see, you know, a lot of times, what I think, what I think happens when you meet celebrities for the first time is like, you kind of go crazy and you don't know how to handle yourself. So it kind of teaches you to, you know, relax that they're just normal people.

At the end of the day, they're just normal people. They want to have conversations. They want to connect. And you know, it's just a to sit and listen to the wisdom. It is an incredible experience, right? So it's basically I would, I would sum it up to it's a humbling experience. You know, it allows you to, to have calm nerves and, you know, to not be stressed under kind of pressure situation or what would seem to be a pressure situation and just to To ask questions because everybody likes to answer questions.

No matter what, ask questions, you know, don't, don't be scared. Next time you, if you do run into a celebrity, ask them a question. They'll probably be more inclined to have a conversation than for you to just say, Hey, you know, Take a picture with me or this or that, you know, like be, be more involved in, in the life and they're humans just like you.

So imagine you walking down the street and somebody's just like grabbing you and Hey, take a picture with me. Right. So it's just. That's what it taught me.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, no, you know, you hit the nail on the head too. And it's like, you know, you put it that way where it's like, would you like that? The answer is like, of course not.

We're all, we're all people and we appreciate being treated as such. So, okay. One of the things that you touched on, and you know, you've had an absolutely amazing career in marketing. We have a lot of people listening in marketing, maybe just getting started. And one of the things that you had talked about, which really shaped your career, was working with a small budget, but making a big impact.

Can you talk a little bit about maybe how you did that?

Dave Pavelich: Absolutely. So there's a few scenarios. So I'll use it in, in three different scenarios. The first one being with the MFC. So with the MFC with the small budget is we had to do a lot of out of the box thinking. Right. So how do we tell the story of these fights?

Right. So what we did is what I was good at is creating storylines. And I've always been a wrestling fan, you know, watching the WWE growing up. Sure. No, it's almost like a soap opera for men. It was a lot of the story lines that I liked and things like that. So I would actually find for the undercard because our Our main card was full of, you know, world class international fighters, but for the undercard, I would try and tell stories with the fight cards because that's what sells.

It was stories that sell. So, you know, at one time I had a brother versus brother. Matchup where they just didn't like each other for a while. Yeah. And then they trained at separate gyms, and then they came in and had a fight. So, you know, radio stations, pr, they picked that up because it's, it, it brings in eyeballs, it brings in listeners.

It's an interesting story. So that earned media that we receive from those kind of matchups or I had one time I had a bar. Doorman at a bar and he, he, we wanted to fight another doorman or a bar manager from somewhere else. I never just allowed these guys to come off the street and fight though.

You, you gotta remember that is like these guys, I still, you know, they had to go to a martial arts gym and they had to train, they had to, to, to become an athlete. Actually one of them was a former athlete hockey player at the time. So just kind of matchups like that. Or we'd bring in Adam Braywood, which was a CFL.

Star, he fought for us one time. So bringing in that CFL and we were doing like what, similarly to what, you know, Jake Paul and this crossover boxing is doing now, we were doing that back then we had CFL players coming in. We tried to get George Laroque to come fight for us, right. Things like that, things that would earn us a medium.

And then once we became a little bit more international, another thing is, is I would actually, I would take, so we'd have fighters, let's say from Atlanta or we'd have fighters from the Midwest. Well, I would advertise in their communities because again, it's all about connecting to the viewer. So I wouldn't spend my marketing budget in New York if we didn't have somebody from New York fighting there.

I see. Right. So I would make sure that I'm picking, Those exact places to start because Facebook was just becoming a thing at that, at that time, I think 2006, 2007 is when really Facebook ads started coming out. So we would strategically buy ads in the communities that are, we were ahead of the game because nobody was even buying Facebook ads at the time.

But because I was younger and I grew up where, Social media just launched. I took advantage of that. So we grew our social media following pretty early. We were on YouTube really early. We were on Facebook doing ads in our, in our areas and SEO or excuse me, FSA targeting in those areas pretty early. So that's the example I would use from, from the fights is really telling stories from the casino side.

You know, I had every time somebody hears of a corporate company, whether it be like You know, third party videographers or cinemographers or branding experts. When they when they see a corporate company, the price always goes up because they're not that, that, that corporate company is not spending their own money.

However, when I started, I had built relationships with videographers. So, and I had bulk. Purchases with them before, right? So I actually leveraged my relationships, which a lot of people in that position probably couldn't have done. So I was just kind of lucky on building those relationships in my other careers that I was able to get a significant discount on content.

Creation just from my relationships. So I would, I would use and leverage those relationships to have a significantly more impact, create a lot more content for a lot less money. So, and that's why people hired me as I had the network, the ability, the skills and the branding eye, which you can't teach.

Right. So I would say that for the casino and then for Voran group, another one that we did, so We are a new company. We're launching throughout camp Canada and we were B2B, right? We were we weren't doing direct to consumer. We were B2B. We were looking for wholesalers You know cities like actually like the people who purchase for the city.

Yes, you know things like that so what I created and because my wife is a Blogger she would get all these PR packages from L'Oreal You Other beauty brands, Armani. So I would see all these really cool PR packages that they would send over. So I had the idea of, okay, why don't we build a PR package, not completely Expensive, but let's, let's build a very cool one.

Not just here's your disinfectant, but let's have a personalized leather. Let's have our wipes, our disinfectant, a little gift in there for them. And we would send these for free to our decision makers in these companies. So the CEO of Staples Canada, the director at Bunzel or the city of Edmonton. So we would drop these off, find all the contacts.

In those specific rules. And then we would send off these PR boxes, which costs us probably about 25 to 30 a pop. So on the grand scheme of things, it was quite cheap to get those eyeballs of those decision makers. I would also go on LinkedIn beforehand, make sure I added them like some of their posts. So when my name came up, they would recognize it.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. My gosh. Yeah. It's, it's all. It's all about the story, isn't it? When you really think about it, marketing is about creating a great story, because that's what people love.

Dave Pavelich: Absolutely. It's all about storytelling. It really, really is. Never, well, there's been if you go, and I always say, you know, it's not always about your product, right?

If you go on Red Bull's Instagram account, you barely will see a can of Red Bull. It's all about lifestyle. It's about skiing. It's about ATVing. It's about pedal biking down the mountains. It's about extreme sports. It's about doing the wild thing, right? And that's, that's the Red Bull brand, right? You gotta, I think it was a old, again, Harvard Professor, but I can't quote the person's name, but he said, don't, don't sell the drill.

Sell the whole, right? So how you make that whole and the experience of making that whole, like it's going to be a lot easier, right? Things like that. So it's, it's not about the product all the time. It's, it's the story on how you position that product and sell that product.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. You know, you talked about essentially.

You talked about Facebook, but, you know, obviously we're going back a number of years now. For organizations that are looking to get the most bang for their buck on their digital ad spend, on their marketing spend, what are the things that you would recommend to them today?

Dave Pavelich: Are we talking about B2C or B2B?

Kelly Kennedy: You know what? I think primarily we're talking about B2B, but if you wanted to spend some time on both, that would be amazing.

Dave Pavelich: Okay, for B2B, I, I've been saying this for about a year now, that LinkedIn is where Facebook was about, you know, 15, 20 years ago. A lot of people that are no longer on Facebook are actually on LinkedIn and it seems more like a business community.

However, it's still great for both B2B and B2C in my opinion. A lot of, everybody that's buying typically has a job. And most people, if you're, if you're looking for a job, you're on LinkedIn and if you're, and if you're growing your career, you're on LinkedIn. So it's about, about creating LinkedIn content, but really going further than just posting a video or posting a is I would say, dive into the programs that LinkedIn provides, right?

Answer the questions because these, there's questions that pop up on LinkedIn. Now create a conversation around those. It's about, it's about connecting with your fellow business experts and become an expert and have conversations. Show why you're the expert in that field and talk about it. And You know, at first it's going to feel like you're producing a lot of content for free, but the seed you plant today will grow tomorrow.

Yeah. Right? So it's about those small actions that you're taking today on the LinkedIn space.

Kelly Kennedy: Do you think that spend it like advertising spending on LinkedIn is a worthwhile budget or worthwhile use of money?

Dave Pavelich: I think there's, there's a bunch of different variety. Which is nice on LinkedIn because you can have, you know, automated messages go out, which creates a conversation.

You got to really be the, the second message should not be automated. In my opinion, a lot of people have like three or four automations. I think one automation, if there's a reply, You must get in there yourself to talk to them and create that that human relationship, but it just it gets the ball rolling.

So there's those kinds of aspects to linked in that I find really beneficial to start conversations. But I do think that Spending money on LinkedIn is well worth it right now as well.

Kelly Kennedy: Awesome. Awesome. You know, what's your take on AI? Obviously, you've been through it from the very beginning. You know, what do you think is going to be the impact of AI on marketing and advertising moving forward?

Dave Pavelich: I think it's going to replace a lot of jobs. Especially in the copywriting field in the content writing. However, I do think you have to humanize all of these texts. I think, you know, a lot of the what it spits back out at you is getting a redundant, so it definitely needs that human aspect to edit.

I think it's going to make teams smaller, but it's going to make teams more robust and able to do more work. I feel like it's going to, It's going to be more of an assistant than the actual job itself.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, I agree. I agree completely. And I think I love what you said about putting yourself back into it because I mean, I don't know what you I'm sure you and me both get the same amount of crap messages on LinkedIn, right?

But so many of them are automatically you just know this is written by AI. There's no human in this whatsoever. And there's zero chance that I'm responding to it.

Dave Pavelich: Exactly, exactly. I would even, you know, go further to make sure that the first auto automatic message is it's sent out automatically. But whoever wrote it should be human.

Kelly Kennedy: It has Feeling it has personal, you can feel it as opposed to like, I'm not, I'm reading this.

Dave Pavelich: Yeah, you know, like marketing is all about emotionally connecting with your audience. If there's no emotion, there's no sale. In my opinion.

Kelly Kennedy: I love that. I love that. And I agree completely. And it's the same thing with business development, right?

It's about creating a person to person relationship. And you do that by being human. You know, Dave, bring me into Conxeppt. We, you know, thank you so much. I think you've given so many amazing insights to our listeners regarding marketing, you've had an absolutely amazing marketing career. Now I want to get into your entrepreneurial career.

You know, we're moving into Conxeppt. You followed your passion. You started a high fashion company. Bring us into Conxeppt. What is it?

Dave Pavelich: Conxeppt launched in 2018 and you know, when I first launched Conxeppt, it was a fully custom suits brand. And the reason why is, and I'll, and I'll be completely honest with your, with your audience is one, I wore suits to work every single day.

So something that I wore, it was part of the person I became. Right. I was, you know, I worked in finance for a while. I wore suits every day. I became this person that enjoyed wearing suits. I enjoyed mixing and matches my, my shirts and ties. And, you know, when it, When I moved back to Alberta, cause I went to school in Ontario.

When I moved back to Alberta, I would be wearing these suits and I'd go, you know, pump gas or something and be like, somebody would be like, Oh, are you going to a wedding? You know, because people didn't really dress up here in the, in the outskirts. Right. So I always, I felt like, you know, I was, I was a young business person, right?

So sometimes as a young business person, it's hard to get taken seriously, you know, especially if you're wearing a t shirt and jeans especially if you're. You're, you know, trying to build a career in, in a new industry. So to me, the suit was almost like my armor. You know, I put it on as a young guy. I felt good.

I look good. And you know, the, the confidence that it gave me being in a suit, I felt empowered by it. I felt like I could go out and land any deal or make anything happen in that suit. So I really want to give that to the next generation of people. Is the suit, but also, and again, this comes back to me, be completely honest.

The reason the suit is and custom suits is because I didn't have to invest any money into inventory. I could invest in the fabric swatches. And then it was all made to order. So there was no, there was no overhead for me. I didn't have to start my brand by going to buy a thousand t shirts. And then if you don't sell those top thousand t shirts, you know, you're, you're out of money.

You're out of luck. So to me it was all about being strategic on how I start the business, lowest cost possible, biggest award.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, and that's, that's what I got from it. You know, I mean, I've, I've been through your website to me. What it screams is high value.

Dave Pavelich: Exactly. And it helped me build a network as well.

Right? So whether, you know, however I want to do business, I may have different angles of my business, whether it be the clothing business or consulting business, or at that point, you know, the marketing business, it would allow me to get in rooms, people would, you know, from there, once you have conversation.

Oh, what do you do? Right. It helps me build that network even further. So it kind of all fit into the business sense and it allowed me to create better relationships in my, in my business world as well.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, absolutely. And I love what you said about how a suit is like armor. I was 23 when I got into business development, so I'm a little older today.

I'm 35, but yeah, man, it was hard in the beginning. And I totally agree with you. I remember putting on, you know, my, my dress shirt, my tie, my suit. And feeling like a million bucks. And when you're young, I think it is really important. I think dressing nice is almost more important when you're younger, because you need that armor.

You don't have the life experience to give you the armor yet. And you're absolutely right. A nice suit is like wearing a suit of armor.

Dave Pavelich: Yeah, I completely agree. And, and the nice thing with it is when, when you deal with Conxeppt, you know, there's a lot of suit companies and you know, anyone makes a good suit, a good quality suit, especially like even when you're comparing suits with like Tom Ford, where you're paying 10, 000 for a suit.

At that point, you're paying for the name. When you're looking at a suit, you're looking at the quality of the fabric. And there's just, There's just a level of quality that you get to that there's not much further you can go up, right? So I always use the best quality fabrics. I've created a business where I made sure that the fabric mills I get my fabrics from.

You know, our family operated or they're small businesses or they create the best product out there possible without the brand name behind it so that people are getting a really good product and then they get my design eye to it. Right. I've been, you know, again, around fashion my entire life. I've been watching runway shows.

The way I design a suit is probably. different than the suit you would get from Hudson's Bay or, or, you know, Simon's or things like that. I, I have, that's, that's what you're paying for at that point is, is our eye and how we, we fit you. We put it into that, to your shape.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Did you learn all of the fitting side of it?

You know, when you were a kid, when you were working at West Ed?

Dave Pavelich: I did. Yeah. We sold suits at, at, at West Ed, so we sold some suits and there'd be, you know, these were. Versace or I heard Bickenberg, which is a cool brand out of I believe Denmark or Sweden, but we would sell these high end suits and I would sit there and measure or make sure to pin them.

So I would learn how to do that, how to shape it right. Even when we sold jeans, we sold we would hem them right. So it's about getting the length in there and. You know, making sure that the thigh, depending on how the fit the person wants. So I was always used to measuring the body and then, but of course, when you're selling a suit, you've, it's, it takes time.

It takes years. And that's, that's another thing during the business while I was growing it, I spent a lot of money fixing people's stuff that didn't come out perfect. But to me, that, that, that was important because there is other companies that don't fix it. And for me is I'd rather invest in my business for the longterm and made sure that every single one of my clients are completely happy.

Even if I had to remake the entire suit from scratch, I would do that in the early part of my business. I would still do that today, but there's a lot less mistakes now. Right. So it does take some time to build and learn and invest. And if I didn't have that career, that salary where I was making money, yeah.

I don't know if I could afford to do that, you know, when you're starting out. So I think that that's, what's important is having that base so that you can fully invest properly into the business. And really it's all about the quality that you're putting out.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. And then obviously a lot of challenges came with starting this organization for you, which is, you know, dealing with suppliers.

Tell us about like some of the challenges that you faced in, you know, dealing with international suppliers.

Dave Pavelich: Yeah. Suppliers is is tough dealing, you know, a lot of times it's shipping costs, you know, since COVID the shipping costs are astronomical. It's almost, I would say about 60 percent more than it was pre COVID, right.

You're dealing with that which is, which is huge. You know, you're dealing with different parts of the world, having holidays at different times, you know, like you're, you're wondering how many times a year is going to change and affect my my supply chain. Right. So that's another thing also from a cultural aspect, you know, when you're doing international business.

You know, I, I've learned this from, I just took the TAP program, the trade accelerator program with Edmonton global here in Alberta. So you, you learned a little bit more about international business and there was they made an example of a car, a Mercedes car that they they launched in Asia and I, I believe it was called Nova, but Nova in the language, the Asian country, they launched it.

It's. Translated to no go. So there's a lot of like different things that you have to learn when you're doing international business and the culture aspects that, that you need to really study before you launch a t shirt that might say something or, you know, that kind of stuff. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of tricks to the train that you have to learn, but.

Customs is another one, right? You know, ensuring you're doing the right custom declarations on each item, right? There is one jacket I want to make that had fur on it, on the, on the lapel. And, you know, I have in Portugal, you know, it doesn't, they don't have too much fur, they didn't have enough at that point.

So I was going to buy an old jacket from here at a vintage store, send it. Cause we only need a little bit of fur and I go to ship it out and they're like. Luckily, I have a good relationship with the guy at at the mail shop at Pac Mail because he was like, Oh, you can't send this because you know, it's endangered or you know, you're not, you, you need the right paperwork to send this off or you can get fined 10, 000.

So just like little things like that, that you need to know the laws to like who would have known that sending a vintage fur jacket could have cost me 10 grand, right?

Kelly Kennedy: No, that's it. Unless you're like, unless you know, you're not going to know. Yeah, exactly. Wow. And you know, you were just in Asia. So tell me a little bit about some of the stuff you guys are doing down there right now.

Dave Pavelich: Yeah, we had an incredible time in Asia. I, I brought my wife with me. So it was a half business trip, a little bit of a vacation. It was my first time in Asia. We went down to Thailand. Of course, we make suits, right? So we make European suits and who wears I mean, those who wear suits, what sports do they typically play?

They play golf or they play tennis in the summertime, right? So our our vision for this summer of 2024 is to have a ready to wear line and it's going to be a golf line. So fair play by Conxeppt. For golf and then Conxeppt sports for the tennis line. So we're going to be launching that this year. We went out to Asia, met some suppliers and some manufacturers, you know, some of the same manufacturers that make quality garments for Pantagonia, you know, brands brands that are worldly recognized.

So it was great to to be in Asia, you know, it was nice to skip winter here in Edmonton cause you're from Edmonton as well, Kelly. So it was minus the day I left, you know, it was plus 11 the whole time in December, the day we left, it was like minus 20 and then it was minus 40 for two weeks. So we missed all that.

And then we came back and it was plus 11. So that was a nice thing to skip winter, but we made some really nice relationship. You know, I really enjoyed the culture there in Thailand. You know, a lot of friends told me, you know, be careful what you bring down there, like don't wear your jewelry. Don't wear that.

It was the safest country I've ever been in, you know, at nighttime on some of these islands, beautiful art stores with statues and they're all outside. There's no vandalism, there's no homeless people, you know, it's, you know, You know, sometimes we go to these countries and we kind of bring our Western beliefs with us and we, you know, we're like, Oh, well, you know, they don't live in this big house like we do here or they don't have this and that, but they look so much happier.

They, they're the food that they eat is, is fresh food, fresh fruit. You know, they're, they spend time with their families. They're not always rushing to the next thing. They walk a lot, which is super healthy for us as humans and living in Edmonton. You know, it's not a very walkable city, especially if you live in the suburbs.

Right. So we're never really walking. So just seeing that different lifestyle that they live and appreciating and it's a humbling experience, right? I went to I'm a little bit off track, but I'll tell you a story as I, we went to a a market and if you're vegan, you probably want to pause this. We went to a market where.

You know, animals are there and you get to actually pick them while they're alive. And you pick the animal and they'll cut the chicken. And, and the reason why I'm telling you this story is because I've never killed an animal. Mm-Hmm. . But I'm a meat eater. Yeah. So I'm a bit of a, I'm a bit of a hypocrite.

I've actually never seen an animal die. I'm a city kid. I grew up in the city. I'd never really been on a farm, never saw an animal get shot, never been hunting. Yeah. So to me, you know, I'm a meat eater and I always called myself a hypocrite because I love animals and it really gives me a hard time to see an animal get hurt.

However, if I'm eating the meat, I should probably see it. So I wanted to just live that experience. Yeah. So we, we, we went to the market and you know, they picked, you pick out the chicken and they do their thing and they unplugged them and then you eat that chicken. But the humbling experience that you have And you know how our parents used to like say grace and say thank you for your food and it really brought that emotion to me.

So like before I had that meal, I sat down and I, you know, thank the universe and thank the person, the chicken, to give their life for my food. So You felt a lot more connected to the food, which I, you know, for us, it's like you just go to the grocery store and you kind of feel disconnected and you never see what actually is behind the door.

So I want to experience that myself. Long story short is there's a lot of different cultural things that happened there that I was really humbled to experience and really enjoyed it actually.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah. And I agree with you completely. There's such a disconnect between us and our food these days. Yeah, I can, I can respect that.

That makes a lot of sense. You know, even as a kid, you know, I grew up kind of half and half, like, you know, I had family on farms. So we did, we did all of that. We did the butchering, we did all sorts of things. So I was connected to that from a very young age. So I totally understand what you're saying.

It's a completely different experience when you actually have to see where your food is coming from. And I think most people just want to put their head in the sand and pretend but The reality is everything that you eat. You should be thankful for it because yes, most likely something had to die so that you could do so.

Dave Pavelich: Absolutely.

Kelly Kennedy: Dave, this has been absolutely amazing. I do want to spend some more time on Conxeppt. I think that you offer a wide range of of products. And I would just love to chat a little bit about what are all of the products that you guys sell at Conxeppt.

Dave Pavelich: Absolutely. We make everything. So we've got first of all, so Conxeppt the clothing and culture part of, of Conxeppt, the is custom completely custom clothing.

So we make custom suits, custom shorts custom short sleeve shirts, custom tuxedo shirts, handmade tuxedos, anything from formal wear we actually make. But we also make top coats. And vests. So cashmere top coats, great for our winters here. Lots of tweeds. We make women's clothing, informal wear. We make women's casual clothing as well.

We will be getting into custom denim as well here in Alberta custom shoes. Custom leather. So we right now we make leather jackets, leather bags, things like that. Completely custom, sustainable, made to order, zero waste, right? So we're really big on the environment and ensuring that we're not wasteful at all.

And same with our ready to wear line. Once we do launch the ready to wear e commerce side of the The line, it will be limited pieces. We're not going to be ordering a thousand pieces of anything because we don't want to have that waste. We don't want to be a fast fashion brand. We want to slow fashion back down.

And I always say that it's fashion is full circle, right? So fashion started off being completely custom and it went into self bridges was the first one, and he's like, well, it takes so long to get these custom. And some people need clothes. today and they're not planning properly. So he actually invented the department store where you can come in and buy all of all of the things, which was so innovative at the time that you can get ready to wear today clothing.

So that came in like for the last hundred years, that's how we've been shopping the exact same way. But with that comes a lot of waste now, piles of clothing that are just, especially when it's, it's plastic at the end of the day, a lot of these synthetic fabrics, Our polyester in their, in their plastic.

So it's, it's, it really is wasteful for us. We use all natural. Fabric. So all natural wools and linens, however Conxeppt is also a consulting business. So I I have a team of SEO experts. I have a team of branding experts and we're marketing consulting team, and we do business with a lot of different varieties and part of that business.

I have a contact and they do paralysis and it's a way to take that waste and generate heat or energy out of the waste. So we're actually working on right now a few different projects where we can help out these big fast fashion brands and actually get rid of their way. So it's one of my big ethos is sustainability and ensuring that we're not wasteful and ensuring that You know, we're helping out the environment.

So I've got projects on the consulting side of Conxeppt that are integrated into the clothing business of Conxeppt, really trying to make a better impact around the world.

Kelly Kennedy: Dave, I know that you know, people hear custom and sometimes it freaks them out a little bit. They hear custom and the dollar signs just pop up, but I don't think that's the case with what you're doing. Go ahead with that.

Dave Pavelich: Yes, you're absolutely right. A lot of times people think, you know, quite expensive when they hear custom. However, I worked many years on the back end, building the relationships that needed to be built to keep the price low. So concepts is the intersection between affordability and quality.

Right? So that was my main goal with Conxeppt is not to, is to provide quality for the best price possible. And the reason the way I did that is building the relationships with the fabric mills. So when I, when I go there and build these relationships, I'm the direct buyer from the mill. There's no middleman in between.

A lot of these clothing stores might have two to four people making money on these. I go straight to the source. I get my. Fabric there. And then I have a relationship with the tailor shop as well. So I am actually doing all the hard work behind the scenes. A lot of, a lot of these companies that are selling customs will have middlemen handling those relationships for them.

So they're paying. A few different more, a few more steps so that it increases the price. So that was my whole goal with this is to ensure that I have the price low and my price ranges for a two piece suit about $1188 and we actually have group pricing. We do a lot of weddings. So we have if you're buying 3 to 5 suits, we have conversations on the price as well.

So we can always help out in that in that area.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. So at the end of the day, it's, it's high quality materials. For a high value price. I absolutely love it, Dave. This has been absolutely amazing. I just wanted to thank you so much for joining us today and telling your story. What an amazing story it is.

What amazing marketing advice. We appreciated having you immensely. So thank you so much for coming, Dave.

Dave Pavelich: Thank you so much, Kelly. I appreciate it. And continued success to you. 118 shows, you know, that's, that's not an easy task to do. So you know it. Like everybody else you know, consistency wins the game. So great job. And thanks for having me on.

Kelly Kennedy: Thank you so much until next time. This has been episode 118 of the business development podcast. We have had founder and creative director of Conxeppt with us, Dave Pavelich. It was absolutely amazing. 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.