From Rock Bottom to Resilience: Bryan Hayes on Climbing Back After Devastating Losses

Welcome to episode 182 of the Business Development Podcast.

And on today's expert guest interview we are chatting with the great Brian Hayes.

We are chatting all about sales, life and mental health.

And my gosh, did this episode not go how I thought it would?

Trigger warning everybody.

We do talk about suicide in today's episode and if you are struggling with any mental health challenges, the suicide hotline in Canada is 988.

You can text or call 24 hours a day.

You are worth it.

You are valuable.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Stick with us.

You are not going to want to miss this episode.

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.

In broad 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.

Hello.

Welcome to episode 182 of the Business Development Podcast.

And today we bring an absolute rockstar expert for you, Brian Hayes.

Brian is a seasoned sales and business development professional with over 15 years of diverse experience across various industries including sales consulting, real estate and fitness.

As the founder and president of Elevate X Sales Inc.

Based in Dallas, Texas, Brian is pioneering the future of sales consulting by integrating AI driven insights with innovative strategies.

His extensive career journey reflects a commitment to excellence from his role as marketing director at NAI Robert Lin, where he facilitated over 50 commercial transactions, to his impactful tenure at Innovative Recovery RAB Inc.

And the Waller Group where he drove national growth and sourced multimillion dollar investment opportunities.

Brian's passion for sales and client success is matched by his dedication to continuous learning and leadership.

His entrepreneurial spirit led him to establish Elevate X Sales Inc.

A company dedicated to redefining sales excellence through a holistic client centric approach.

Whether it's transforming sales teams with cutting edge elearning programs or preparing companies for the future.

With the upcoming AI sales companion ti, Brian is set in helping businesses achieve unparalleled success and thrive in a competitive landscape.

Brian, it's an honor to have you join us today.

Thank you.

That was.

That was quite an introduction I was.

I couldn't have said it better myself, but you said it way better.

Well, thank you.

Was that chatgpt?

That's what that was.

We do use a little bit of help, but, you know, we love a rock star entrance.

We really do.

On the show.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

No, I love it.

I love it.

Whoever wrote it, it was great.

There you go.

There you go.

I'm going to take credit.

Good.

Better.

Your show, Brian.

It's an absolute honor to have you on the show.

You know, we connected on LinkedIn a while ago, and we've kind of been chatting back and forth.

You know, I've had the pleasure to meet quite a few people from Texas, and, you know, I think I've liked every one of them.

So it's an honor to have you join us today.

I'm really looking forward to our convers on sales.

There's a lot to chat about here and there's a lot of new things.

And I know we talked kind of before the show, but I said, you know, there's a lot of new sales ideas coming up.

There's a lot of people getting, like, swamped every day from a whole bunch of people saying they can generate a thousand leads a day or whatever.

You know what I'm talking about.

You got.

Your inbox is full of these things, too.

Yes.

And so I think sales is starting to get this, like, weird place where nobody knows what to trust, especially with the advent of AI especially with the advent of now these virtual assistants that seem to be popping up left, right and center, right.

So, you know, I want to dive deep into that today, but I want to chat a lot with you.

You know, you have a very, very broad marketing experience, sales experience, business development experience.

You've been around the block.

You know what you're talking about.

So we're going to, you know, chat.

And my goal today with this show is really just to help entrepreneurs make good decisions, be able to invest their money safely and in something that is actually going to lead to sales and revenue for their companies because, you know, nobody wants to get screwed, and I don't want anybody to get screwed.

And if we can help even one company today, you know, we've done our job.

Yes, one company.

That's.

That's our goal today.

It, you know, it's a really simple, simple metric.

I feel like.

I feel like one.

I'll be happy.

Yep, yep.

I do that one.

Clock out, go home.

But before we do this, dude, bring us back to the beginning.

Who is Brian Hayes?

How did you end up on this journey?

Oh my.

Well, this journey.

Journey has been an interesting journey.

I will start off by saying, you know, the, the hard part first, which is I'm actually.

My mother was 16 when she had had me and teen pregnancy in Salt Lake City, Utah, a very religious area.

I don't know if you're familiar with Salt Lake City, but that's where the Mormons, the LDS Church is.

And it was difficult growing up.

I was, she was the youngest of four and so I was the oldest.

The her children, of course, and I've got one other sister.

And it was interesting growing up and kind of being.

I was the oddball, honestly.

You know, some people say, oh, I was a black sheep.

I was this, I was that.

No, I was the oddball.

You know, no one wanted to be my friend of sorts.

You know, I had several friends, but it was just different.

I just never fit in.

I really didn't feel like I fit in.

So when I was a kid, I didn't even like the snow.

And I Salt Lake City, Utah snows.

And so I knew I had to leave when I could.

And then I took the first opportunity, took a job with.

And this was 2008 and I had started in home remodeling, construction.

And then 2008, housing market and recession happened.

So I was like, well, false start, let's try again.

And then I transferred over to a smaller distribution company.

They sold specialty art supplies to schools, churches, marketing agencies and sold the actual products that they would use.

And their biggest customer was in Mexico City.

And so they said, brian, we want you to move to Texas.

I was like, well, when are we going?

Like, I'm ready to go and I've been waiting.

And I was 20 at the time.

I had a thousand dollars in my bank account and I was like, I packed up everything in my car and I was like, we're going.

Like, I have to leave.

There's like something's calling me.

And they gave me a choice whether I wanted to go to Dallas, Houston, Austin or San Antonio.

And at the time, 2008, we had Google Maps, but it wasn't as great as it is now.

So it has some street views.

And so I actually went through and went through some of the street views and I was like, yes, I like this.

And moved here, Drove actually straight away non stop.

I was so excited to get here, Worked for the company for a year.

And then they closed down.

The two owners got in a fight, they closed down.

So I'm like in 1400 miles away from home, going, okay, well, I guess I'm staying here because I like it.

And I started leasing apartments and that wasn't typically for me, you know, it was in real estate.

I knew I always wanted to be in real estate, but that was the first entry and I didn't have a license at the time.

Didn't really know what to do and how to get into the industry.

So I sold our lease apartments.

After I decided that wasn't for me, I went to a company called U.S.

trade Finance Corp.

And they did consignment sales for heavy construction equipment.

That definitely wasn't for me.

Just not rough around the edges.

And you're speaking to people that are rough around the edges, so they're going to tell you exactly how it is when you're cold.

Calling construction guy, he owns a crane or excavator, front end loader.

He's going to tell you how it is.

He'd be like, get the F off the phone.

Like, what are you doing?

It's.

And so I just.

I have thick skin, but, yeah, I don't want to get beat up.

A little harsh.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's fair.

So the owner's wife actually came to me and she said, brian, you need to go somewhere where you can talk to somebody in person all day, every day.

I was like, okay.

In high school, I was a swimmer, and so I thought, okay, I'll do something athletics.

And so I went and sold memberships for Lifetime Fitness.

A gym.

Yeah, if you're familiar with Lifetime, we have them here.

Yeah.

Beautiful, aren't they?

They are.

And sold memberships as I was getting some certifications from the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

So I didn't.

I obviously skipped over this part, but I didn't attend college.

And so this was my formal education of sorts.

Yeah.

To kind of come with the trade.

And once I got my certification, I applied for a personal training job at the location I was at.

And they said, no, I don't have any experience.

They wanted me to stay in membership sales.

So I was like, okay, well, I'm leaving.

And I went to 24 Hour Fitness.

It's a larger chain at the time.

They have more locations.

Maybe not now, but worked there for a year.

Got four other certifications.

Corrective exercise performance enhancement, fitness, nutrition and mixed martial arts conditioning.

Trained clients from all walks of life, from attorneys all the way down to single moms and kids in college and just paying with their.

There was one client that paid with her student.

Student loan card, I think it is.

Oh, wow.

I was like, you sure?

And she's like, yes.

I was like, okay.

It's education.

Yeah, yeah.

Those student loan cards, man.

Like, you can't.

You can't escape that debt.

No.

And that's what I told her.

And I was like, okay, if that's what you want.

Yeah.

I was honored.

Oh, to be young and dumb again.

There should be money on this card.

Golly.

But so trained at 24 Hour Fitness.

And then I just.

I wanted to have a better gym, so I went back to the original gym that I sold memberships for.

It's a big, large one.

It's a platinum diamond location.

And I applied again.

They were like, okay, now you have experience.

I'm like, oh, now I'm good enough.

So trained there.

Trained lots of executive C suite.

It's next to Toyota's headquarters.

So I trained several of the C suites, some Chief Technical Officers, CEOs, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and really got to have a conversation about business.

That was the interesting part, because you.

I have to keep them entertained while they're going through pain.

So I was the comedian for the hour.

But that's where I learned the empathy in sales is you need to see it from their eyes.

Like, how would they want to be treated?

And so I always treated my clients.

You know, every client was different.

So I would be different with one than the other.

I'd have more jokes for another.

I'd have less clean jokes for another.

And honed that.

Didn't know empathy, you know, that wasn't a word in my vocabulary at the time, but I knew it was like, I'm seeing it from your eyes.

Yeah.

And that's when I kind of found the superpower.

And one of my clients looked at me and said, brian, you're too smart to be counting to 10.

And it blew my mind.

Changed the whole trajectory of my life.

I went to.

I started being a private personal trainer and trying to do, you know, some sort of business.

Yeah.

And it then came to apparent where I needed to figure out how I can make money without having to not train somebody, but having to actually work that hour.

So I needed to maximize my time.

So I thought, okay, well, where.

Where can I go and get some.

Something professional?

Even without a degree?

And real estate has a.

Not a low barrier of entry, but you need a license and you can practice, and it has education.

So I got my real estate license, and I didn't want to do residential.

I wanted to do commercial.

I think, you know, when you sell residential, it's more of how you Feel.

How does this house make you feel?

You see your family here with things different sales process.

With commercial, it's more of, here's the numbers, here's what it is.

Do you like it?

Does it work?

Does it make sense for your business future?

You know, it's less emotional, it's more logical.

Even though I have empathy based sales, I thought that was a good mix.

Sure.

So I worked for a small boutique brokerage firm that did investment sales for multifamily.

Was there for less, less than a year.

And I was like, I gotta go.

Sourced lots of deals, but they just never executed on any of them.

And I was like, I'm not gonna see the commission that I want to see.

So this is not the commercial I'm thinking of.

So I did research and I looked at the top five firms in Dallas, including cbre, JLL and Nai.

Robert Lynn is the local firm.

And I applied to all of them.

They all turned me down.

And Nai at least gave me a shot.

They, they took a meeting, they took an interview and passed the interview.

Then went to the gauntlet, is what I call it.

It was six interviews in one day and they were all an hour plus long.

And it was just one after the other.

Met with CEO, principal, principal, principal, CEO.

It was, it was interesting and passed the gauntlet.

And after passing the gauntlet, they provided me with.

Because you, they give you a market so you've got like a franchise almost.

So they give you a market of specialty.

And that was the urban market for retail.

So I was downtown, uptown, deep Ellum.

I don't know if you're familiar with Dallas.

It's kind of a trendy restaurant area, party area.

That was my market of focus.

They were like, dive in.

We've never done it.

We don't even know what's out there.

I had to do research on the market to find out what retail properties were there.

And they were like, yeah, that's yours and you're off.

And there's no salary.

It's 100% commission.

There's a draw, but it's 30,000 a year.

Yeah.

So it doesn't cover.

It keeps your covers.

Nothing.

No.

So for the first, you know, year, it was struggle learning a new market.

And it's the most competitive market in Dallas because everyone wants a listing in uptown, in downtown.

And so I was competing with a lot of the hot shots.

And so when someone says that is that reference 30K Millionaire?

Like, I totally get it.

Because I had to pretend like I was successful in order to get some of those opportunities, but got several listings.

I leased for some several high rise buildings in downtown Dallas and had a Mid America apartments.

They're a pretty large ownership group nationally.

And this is right before COVID We signed an agreement where we took over the leasing for 10 different properties.

And not two weeks later, Covid happened.

Completely changed the game.

And mine being the urban market, the most dense, the most highly populated, everyone ran away.

So nothing.

Yeah.

So I did zero deals.

So I get out of this training program and then go in and here comes Covet.

I also had brain surgery that year.

Oh, wow.

During.

Yeah, during COVID believe it or not.

And crazy experience was benign.

So it's fine.

I'm fine now.

But it was still a rough year.

21 was my comeback year.

I proposed to my fiance at the top of one of the high rise buildings.

I changed the lights on the other high rise building.

You know, at the top of the world closing.

I started getting pretty close to closing my 50 transactions.

I did a few in 2022, but the bulk of them were in that year.

So I was just on the top of the world, ready to go.

And then 22 happened.

And I didn't see the success monetarily that I wanted to.

And so I was like, okay, well what else could I do?

And there was an opportunity to work with a group called Sonder and they wanted to do office to residential conversions and that is, you know, construction permitting and all of that stuff.

So it'd be.

Make it a mixed use property where you'd have office, some floors and residential, some floors, hotels, some floors, retail at the bottom.

Right.

And they wanted me to introduce them to some of the owners in, in those markets because I knew them all.

I was calling them and talking with them as I was trying to represent them on the retail on the bottom floor.

Yeah.

And so was able to make several introductions.

We lined up several deals where they would take several hundred contiguous square feet of property of, of the building and do a master lease.

And those commissions would have netted me well over a million dollars each of them.

And I signed up six.

Wow.

Wow.

And so I was flying high in 22, ready to go.

Interest rates started to change and one by one, each of them fell.

And the owners called me and were like, Brian, like we can't pursue this deal.

I know you've worked hard on it, but interest rates, it just doesn't pencil out.

I'm sorry.

One after the other, the end of the year, all of them died.

And I'm at The end of the year going, okay, well, I can kill myself or I can continue.

So I decided to continue.

Oh, man, it was so bad.

I mean, it was.

When you lose that and you work hard and you tell people and everyone in the office knows what is happening, that you're about to make something great happen.

You know, leasing several hundred contiguous square feet and doing something new in a market, the buzz gets around.

You know, my nickname was Big Big fees.

I love it.

I was chasing those big fees.

Yeah, yeah.

I was not missing big fees.

And so it didn't happen.

And I was like, look, I gotta go.

Like, I have to leave.

Like, there's just no way.

So I took the first job that was going to give me a salary.

I never had a salary.

First time in my life.

I'm 30 years old.

Yeah, 32 or 3 at the time.

Never had a salary, took a job.

But it was in.

It was in debt collection.

Very interesting industry.

And it was not for me.

Not that it's a bad industry.

It's just.

It's different.

You know, when you have a conversation, they're like, oh, yeah, what do you do for a living?

Oh, I'm in debt collection.

You're like, don't worry, I'm not here for you.

Calm down.

Oh, my goodness.

I could definitely see that, you know, So I left that company, went to another one to try to figure out maybe it was just that it was real estate focused.

Then it went to business debt collection.

I stayed there three months.

And the reason I went there is they wanted me to focus on marketing and do different outreach.

No, no sales outreach.

None of.

Nothing like that.

And then one day they were like, hey, you want to get on the phone to start cold calling?

Like, yeah, I can do that.

But it's not really what I signed up for.

And they started changing what they wanted me to do.

So I was like, okay, I got to leave.

So I left, took the commission from my last deal that I did at NI Robert Lynn, and founded Elevate X Sales.

Because I was like, well, if I can't find a job, I'm going to make a job.

And I want to do something that I feel passionate about.

And I know I can sell because it's.

So I'm putting my stamp of approval on it.

I'm sick of doing it for someone else.

Not that it's bad to do that.

It's just not what I wanted to do.

Sure.

And it started as an elearning company, Then I switched to making it more focused towards sales Outreach, third party.

And now it's going full circle.

We're going back to commercial real estate and get back on the saddle, and we're going to do marketing for commercial real estate properties because there's a big gap in the market.

They don't do social media, they don't do SEO.

They don't understand that.

And I want to bring life to commercial real estate and kind of do what residential does where they have guided walkthroughs of the house, some actual character.

It's not just, here's the deal.

It's, yeah, well, here's the deal.

And it's all dressed up and nice, and this is how we could look for your business, interviewing tenants, things that nature so long winded, but lots unpacked there.

But I'm excited to continue to pursue forward with my sales career with Elevate X Sales.

And thank you for having me.

No, no.

Amazing.

Amazing.

Man, I can't imagine, like, I was listening to your story where you're talking about, like, you know, the losses of those deals, one after one.

And, you know, I mean, at that point, you've probably already, like, forecast your future, what you're gonna do with that money, what life is gonna be like.

You know, things are gonna.

It's gonna be that boost that you need for your new marriage, dude.

Like, oh, I can't.

You know, I mean, I've had people come on this show who lost their business, lost their investments, everything.

And I always have to ask when I hear a story like that, dude, how did you come back?

What did you tell yourself in that moment?

Because I, you know, I mean, I had that conversation with a gentleman who lost, you know, a few million dollars and literally lost his business, lost his investments, lost everything, and then clawed back, became successful again.

Yeah, but.

But I always, like.

And that's the cool story here.

The cool story here is that a lot of the people I've talked to that had that happen, that is exactly what happened.

They clawed back and they came back because they had the knowledge on how to do it again.

Yeah.

But I do have to ask you, you know, just as a human to another human, that must.

First off, that must have been absolutely horrible, and I'm sorry that that happened to you.

Thanks.

And second off, how were you able to motivate yourself and frankly, keep your mental health?

Okay.

Because I can imagine losing by the time you lost that sixth deal, and you're just like, like, why, that building's pretty tall.

Yeah, no, I know.

I can imagine.

I can imagine.

Talk to me about that moment.

So it really was one thing, and it's my fiance.

I didn't want to impact her because I knew how it would make her feel.

So empathy is very strong with me.

And I put myself in her shoes and I was like, okay, if I kill myself, what is it?

How is that going to affect her?

And I kind of foresaw her life.

Not that I know what she would do, but just my thought of it and I was like, that's not how I want her to live.

And I had to literally decide.

You have to decide.

It's either you're going to do it or you're not going to do it.

And I was like, I'm not going to do it.

And I'm going to find a way.

I'm going to, you know, come lick my wounds, go work at a debt collection agency, chill out for a minute and kind of figure it out.

I thought, you know, I just needed a job and I thought that I would just work there for the rest of my life.

And then eight months later, I'm like, no, like, that's not me.

So you have to figure out who you are.

And it takes time.

But the initial knee jerk reaction of, well, I'm just going to go and off it.

You just have to decide you're not going to.

Because I wanted to see how the story ended.

I didn't want it to end like that.

That was the big thing, honestly.

That's interesting.

Nerv said that out loud.

Yeah.

And thank you for that.

Thank you for being so candid.

Because I can imagine, I don't know how you felt in that moment.

What I can say is I can imagine what that must be like.

And it's not your fault.

And I think that that's like the worst part about the whole thing.

There's like, there's nothing.

There are just circumstances sometimes, Right.

Like Covid is a perfect example.

There are circumstances that are completely out of your control.

That no matter how amazing you are, no matter how great of an entrepreneur, how great of an idea, how great of a business person, how great of a salesperson, business development, you name it, it doesn't matter.

Because it's not about you.

It's a circumstance outside of your control.

And I think as high performance individuals, like, I know you are, I know I am.

I know a lot of my, my peers are.

Yeah, we can, we can internalize that and say, it's our fault.

We did it.

We could have done something different and done it different.

Like, it's Funny, because it's really a high performance.

I just did a show, you know, on, on specifically on imposter syndrome.

And imposter syndrome happens to 70% of people on earth and typically it actually happens to the highest performing individuals.

Most of the time it's high performance individuals who experience imposter syndrome.

It's not, it's not typically the people who just start in a position.

It's usually people who already know exactly what they're doing and are taking that next big step that feel like the biggest frauds and imposters.

So it really is a challenge for high performance individuals.

Yeah.

And it's funny, you, you know, mental health, I mean, we're, we just exited May.

I think that's Mental health month.

That is a big thing.

And I think just the message that I want to get across to everyone, if you, if you're struggling with something like that, it's best to tell someone and look for help.

But you also have to look for your own help for yourself.

Like, you have to internalize it and go, okay, you've got two choices.

Choose.

And choose well, because the story doesn't have to end that way.

That's really what it was.

Yeah, yeah.

And you know, like, what were some of the techniques you used?

Obviously you came from, you know, a fitness background.

What were some of the stress relieving techniques that you, that you utilized in that time to try to build yourself back?

David Goggins is a man that I will, I look forward to meeting him.

He got me out of a very dark place.

He has some content that he posts on YouTube and not a lot of people know this, but I would.

I have a little headset here that I put on.

I downloaded just all of his motivational content, put it in my head and just listen to that on repeat.

Yeah.

Over and over and over and over and over again until I can motivate myself again.

Because I was a trainer, I used to motivate people and that was the hardest thing.

When you're so low, you're like, you don't realize who you are.

Like, you almost forget and you have to remind yourself who you are, what you've done, how you've overcome stuff.

So you have to find something to kind of grease the wheels.

And David Goggins was a great example of overcoming adversity and having that mindset of it's possible.

Like, what if instead of, you know, well, that happened?

That was sad.

It's like, well, what if it changes?

How beautiful is that story going to be?

Yeah, it's going to be much better.

So it's like, what if?

That's what I always think.

And I think that's a really good thing in business.

It's like, what if I do this business venture and it fails, but what if it doesn't?

Yeah.

So you want to try and remain as positive as you can, as cliche as that sounds.

But you just want to really find out what's going to get you out of the muck.

And that's what did on repeat in the shower.

I would reap.

I can.

There's some of his motivational content that's 30 minutes long.

I could say it word for word.

Wow.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's how much he was listening to it.

That was the only way.

It was the only thing I could think of.

It was like, I need to find someone motivating me.

Amazing, amazing dude.

And, you know, I relate to that so much.

And what I always kind of recommend to people that are stuck, like, if you're feeling like your business is stagnant, you're stagnant, you're struggling with motivation.

I always recommend people to listen to, like a new audio book.

Right.

Just something to kind of take them out of their frame of mind or their way of thinking and think just a little bit differently.

Because most of the solutions, they're not.

They're not 100 miles away.

They're most of the time one or two books away.

Yeah.

And, you know, it's no different than that inspiring motivational content from David Goggins.

Right.

Like, it's the same idea.

It's like there is help out there.

It's usually not that far away.

And I find myself where I get into a pickle, where I'm just like, I need to.

I need to think differently.

I need a new idea.

And when I have that moment, that's when I'm looking for a new book or some.

Some type of content to just give me a slightly different direction or frame of mind that I didn't have before.

Because most of the time the good idea, it's not far away.

It's right there.

Yeah, it is.

And you just have to reach out and use the tools that you have.

So that's really what Elevate X Sales was built on, is just, well, I could only think of a few things that I could bring to the world that's a value and that's my experience and what I've done and what I could do.

Not so much what I've done.

It's what I could do if given the opportunity.

And so you just have to create the environment for your opportunity is really what it is.

Totally, Totally.

Man.

This took a different direction than thought it was going to go.

That's the funny thing, right?

Like, people think that these podcasts are just, like, completely scripted and we know.

But no, not at all.

Like, I am surprised more often than not at the direction that their show goes.

It's most of the time quite a bit different than the initial plan that I had.

But, dude, I am so.

I'm so thankful that you joined me today and that you were so vulnerable.

I think it's so.

And first off, you know, just let me say, like, I'm terribly sorry that that happened to you.

I am happy that you are still with us.

I'm happy that you're here on the show with me today, sharing your knowledge, helping the world.

You know, the world needs more help.

Business people need to be more helpful.

We're all in it together.

It's not a competition.

We're all in it together.

It's a big world.

Yeah.

Oh, yes.

Oh, yes.

You're in Canada.

I'm in Dallas, Texas.

I was speaking to someone from Croatia earlier today.

You know, I have.

Someone just messaged me.

It's why you probably heard ding or something.

It was India.

I'm like this ever since I got out of my little circle and I looked out for other ideas and other avenues and other possibilities.

That's really what it is.

Like you said, look for.

It's just one.

Find a way.

You just have to not put yourself out there, but try to do something different.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I could have never.

You know, I mean, and this is like a really good example.

When I started this show, I started it in my basement talking to Bob's basement, thinking, like, oh, my gosh.

Like, who's going to listen to my business development show?

Right?

We got great knowledge.

I know what I'm talking about.

But, like, who in the world is going to listen to this dude?

Over 130 countries so far listen to this show.

I know.

Thanks for reminding me.

So I'm nervous again.

It's absolutely bonkers.

It, like, blows my mind sometimes.

The impact of the Internet age.

The impact and reach that some good advice, some helpful people can have on the world.

You know, I never thought we're so similar, too.

It's so weird.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

Like, that we're like, dude, we're all just trying to make it, like, we're all just trying to be good people.

And win win scenarios.

And I mean not everyone, but most of them, most of the people here are just like, hey, help me help you.

Yeah, yeah.

I got a, I got a message from Australia this week actually and gentlemen reached out.

Super kind was like, dude, like I'm, you know, I was working in business, like in, in his industry for quite some time and then he ended up in a business development role.

And just like, thank God you put out this information because there was just nothing out there specific to business development people, right?

And it's like the whole reason I started this show was when I, when I started my business development career because I always say business development chooses you.

Nobody goes to school thinking they're going to end up in business development.

You get chosen.

It's.

I, I'm gonna, it's like a badge of honor.

But I always say like, I, I had to learn, I had to learn everything on my own scramble, put together my own procedures, my own process.

Just like you have done with Elevate X.

Like, there's not a lot of help out there.

And so my goal was really like, we need to stop safeguarding this information.

If you have something that works, share it with the world.

Because how many companies fail simply because they didn't know how to market or sell their products?

And how much cooler we would be if we all lift each other up instead of like, oh, you're trying to do a business that's gonna fail, you know, instead of doubting.

But that brings up a really good point, is the information is not locked, locked up tight anymore.

You know, and that comes with AI and the interesting thing that that's brought to the industry.

So I know you wanted to talk a little bit about that as well.

Absolutely.

Interesting how the information is not locked up tight in the universities anymore.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, let's just get into it.

You know, one of the things that you're working on is called ti what is ti?

Ty is a sales companion that I'm in the process of getting developed.

It's a, it's taken longer than I thought and it's quite expensive, so that's why it's taking a little longer.

But Sales companion.

Think of it as your Jiminy Cricket, you know, your little guy on your shoulder, kind of your conscience and he's, you know, prompting you, telling you, hey, this has happened.

You should try this.

So if you go to a virtual meeting and they say, no, I don't want your product because X or I don't want your product because the price point, it'll actually flash on your screen a prompt saying, try this.

So it's kind of coaching you.

Live action.

It's grading you.

It's not only is it watching what you're doing, but it'll be watching the client.

So if they kind of sit back, it could say something like, oh, get more engaged because they, they need to lean forward and lean in.

So body language and gestures are very important in sales.

Very important.

Like you need to be able to read the room and some people can't.

And it's really hard to learn that.

So it's really was developed because.

Or it's going to be developed because that's what I would like.

You know, as a salesperson, it was hard to practice your sales.

The only way to practice was to do it.

Call and burn leads.

Like, you could totally mess up and then never be able to call that person again because they'll be like, oh, you're that guy, that girl, that person.

So it allows you to role play, but it'll take from your previous interactions with clients and say, hey, we need to work on this.

Hey, we need to work on that.

So as a true companion.

And it's kind of like the note takers where you invite them to the, to the zoom meeting where it'll take the notes, but instead of taking notes, it's doing different things.

Wow, dude, that's actually really cool.

Like, really cool.

Thank you.

That's a great idea.

Thank you.

I've never.

I wasn't sure what it was before we had this conversation, but that's.

That is actually super, super useful.

Because some of the challenges that we see with our clients at Capital when we have meetings is simply that it's.

We.

We tend to attend the meetings with them to help take it to the next level.

Because like you said, a lot of them struggle with that meeting dynamic.

They're not really sure when to say what they need to say or how to ask for next steps or when to get more engaged.

Right.

So a little prompt like that sounds really, really useful, especially for a lot of these business owners doing their own sales.

Yeah.

And it's not.

It's the companion part I think is the most important.

Like you were saying, it's, we need someone there because your sales manager or the business owner can't be at every single meeting or he has other things he needs to attend to.

So it'll allow for him to know that, hey, it's being taken care of and I'll get a report later that they're all great.

Yeah, yeah.

No, that's.

I can.

I can see this two ways.

I can already see some salespeople being like, oh, shit, they're gonna send a report on how good I handled each meeting.

Yep.

And then there's some like, oh, no, they're recording it.

You don't want to record my meetings.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, yeah.

Yeah.

You're different when the camera's on and it's being recorded.

Like, you act different.

It's just like putting on a suit.

You're like, we're gonna get a sale today.

You know, it's like we're watching time to perform.

Yeah.

And.

Oh, man.

And, you know, we can talk about that because I think that business development and sales, like, we live in a time when everybody's saying, like, we need to be more authentic.

I actually completely agree with this.

I think we need to be more authentic.

We need to be more recognizing of people and when they're not doing okay.

Right.

But I faked a lot of meetings when I was feeling very, very shitty about whatever my current situation was.

But I had to put on a brave face, put on the act, and be Kelly.

Kelly Kennedy, the awesome business development guy who's super fun.

I had to be that guy, even though I was not feeling congruent with that.

And my advice now to business development people is when you're having an off day, don't be afraid to kind of say it.

Don't be afraid to reschedule those meetings.

Like, I'm.

I'm of the opinion now that that was probably the wrong way to handle that situation.

But at the time, I needed my paycheck, I needed to move forward, and I just put on the brave face and did it.

But my gosh, dude, I've done a lot of meetings, feeling like a pile of crap inside.

Yeah.

And there's.

I do the very same thing.

I never made a decision to do it.

I just started doing it.

You know, having your own company, you can kind of do that.

You're the own.

You're the boss, so I think he'll forgive you.

But I would reschedule.

And they're like, oh, you know what?

I'm actually feeling bad too.

Like, what's going on?

And then we get into a relationship building conversation because we have something in common.

Like, we both had a bad day.

It's just odd timing.

And then they become client, you know?

So you never want to know.

You never know how someone wants to purchase, and you never know how someone's going to connect with you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I Think we've just spent so long pretending we're just.

Yeah, yeah.

I love it.

There is something really special about this time that we're heading into.

I'm going to call it the post Covid era, because really, that's what.

That's what seemed to have changed at all.

Yep, absolutely.

There is something about being real and authentic.

And I just want to say, actually, I've watched a lot of your videos on LinkedIn.

Yeah, thanks.

You do a really great job of just being Brian Hayes showing up.

And, you know, I imagine, too, that that's probably a post Covid thing, because we're all kind of playing with this.

How can we be more human in the world on the Internet?

Right.

Instead of just being, you know, a business development person or a salesperson.

Right.

Like, there's people.

There's people behind those titles.

Yeah, we care.

We want to know who they are.

Right.

Yes.

And I just want to say you're doing a great job with your social stuff.

You want to maybe chat a little bit about how you.

How you approach your social media.

You know, I want to say that there's a plan, but it's really, there's.

I'm just looking for something that I think is going to resonate with others that show what I'm trying to do.

So I'm.

I'm not trying to show off.

I'm just trying to show progress.

I'm trying to show movement.

I'm trying to show, hey, I'm doing something.

You know, it's almost like that's my boss is my clients or potential clients, that's your boss.

So you got to show them that you're moving, that you're doing something.

You're not just stagnant and doing nothing.

And, you know, when I look at someone's LinkedIn and they haven't posted, like, for months, it's not that I think bad about them.

I just think, man, you could do more.

Yeah, there's a little bit more than you could do, you know, like, provide something.

So I'm just trying to put as much information out there that about myself and what I'm doing to show that to prospective clients.

Yeah.

So there's no run or reason.

I mean, there's like, I want to celebrate holidays, I want to celebrate things.

But this whole podcast thing, this is all new.

I have 12 of them lined up.

Wow.

Yeah, I was surprised about that, too.

Yeah.

You're number four.

Okay.

Amazing.

I love to be near the beginning.

I wish you were number one, but I got some Practice out of the way.

How about that?

Yeah, yeah, but it's.

There's no rhyme or reason.

I'm just trying to show movement.

And I think that's what we have to do in sales is you just have to show, hey, I'm doing something.

Because you're showing investment time and energy and focus.

You're also putting yourself out there, right?

And I think that that is currency in 2024 and beyond.

There's something that happened.

I don't know when it happened.

I wanna say, like 2023.

I like to say that.

Cause that's when I started this show.

But I feel like a switch flipped, right?

And it was like, look, you know companies, it's time to stop hiding behind your companies.

People wanna know the owners of companies.

They wanna know the CEOs, the executives, what they're doing, why they care, why what they're doing matters, how they're helping the world.

And they don't just wanna hear about it.

They wanna see you.

And so it really is like getting out there and being front and center and basically taking ownership of who you are and sharing that with the world is currency.

It really is.

It's a currency in 2024.

And so I'm always kind of recommending people.

I know it's scary.

Like, take it from me, dude, we talked about this before the show.

You were nervous and I was telling you, dude, I still get nervous.

There's still plenty of times where I get nervous crap.

Like, but.

But it goes away, right?

Like, I've interviewed people that scared the bejesus out of me.

But within two minutes of that interview, I was feeling great.

I was feeling fine.

They were feeling fine.

And you realize that it passes, right?

Like, that fear, that, like fear you have, it's like it's.

It's animal in nature.

It really is.

It, like, probably goes back to our caveman days.

We're running from saber tooth tigers, right?

But we're not running from saber tooth tigers anymore, right?

Like, nothing in business is going to kill you, right?

Like a bad phone call ain't going to kill you.

A bad meeting ain't going to kill you.

A speech ain't going to kill you, but we still internalize it.

Like it's going to kill us and we get afraid.

But what I've found, and, you know, don't get me wrong, like, I still have plenty of scary moments.

I've had plenty of meetings where I get anxiety.

And I'm probably in that for a minute or two at least in that time.

But in my experience, it always passes.

And maybe I'll find the day it doesn't.

But I haven't found that day yet.

Like, oh, it hasn't left.

I'm still.

Butterflies are still there.

It's been three days.

I'll let you know and then go away.

No, that's right.

But you mean I'm always here encouraging people to just take the jump.

Well, we don't want to be judged.

We don't want to be judged.

And we.

And if we are judged, we want to be judged.

Well, and that's the hard part is.

And I tell this to.

I have a young man working with me.

His name's Linus Mueller out of Switzerland.

It was so crazy, so much fun.

I always tell him, don't put your words in their mouth.

Don't take their.

Your perspective and assume that's their perspective.

So don't assume anything.

Manage your expectations.

Understand that there could be another possibility.

Like, what if they're judging me?

Well, what if it's good?

Sure.

So it's just that.

Well, and I think we're our biggest judges.

Yeah.

Like, I'm judging me all the time.

Right.

Like, oh, I've.

I've had plenty of shows where I listen to it.

Like, I'll tell you straight up, episode three of the business development podcast.

I didn't want to release it.

I didn't want to release it.

I didn't like the show.

Nobody noticed.

Nobody noticed.

I made mistakes.

Whatever else, nobody noticed anything.

I have no fear now saying, like, if you guys want to hear the episode that I hated, it was episode.

There was really nothing wrong with it.

I was judging myself.

And I like.

And we all do it.

We all do it.

But, like, what I'm kind of getting at here is I released episode three anyway.

Never got one negative comment from.

Isn't that funny?

Right?

Yeah.

I always say, don't put your perspective in their mouth.

And that's a big thing when you're in sales, because you're going to think, oh, they probably don't like my product, or, oh, maybe the price is too high and they're not going to like the price.

And so you're going to deliver it with that in mind.

People vibe on that.

Like, yeah, like, even though we're states and miles apart, like, I got you.

I can hear your wavelength.

And so people will pick up on that how you register.

And this is our price, you know, so they're gonna.

They're gonna push back on that totally.

So you just don't.

Don't put your perspective out there.

The negative ones, you know well, and.

What you kind of touched on right there in.

In literally the way that you said, this is our price.

There was a massive lack of confidence.

Yeah, a massive lack of confidence.

And I will tell you the difference between closing that deal is saying this is our price versus this is our price.

Yeah.

This is.

Like you said, body language.

Right?

Body language.

The way you say things really matters.

It was funny.

I was actually coaching a guy not that long ago and he's like, I'm sending so many of these emails.

I'm making all these phone calls.

I said, you know, from the email, it kind of sounds okay, but there's a couple things you're saying here that aren't conveying your confidence.

It's coming across with an unsureness and talking to him on the phone and he kind of went through the pitch with me and literally the correction was so minor, but it was primarily to do with the way that he sounded on the phone.

I really need you to come through confident in your product and service.

Like it's something they actually want.

Like they're really going to want to meet with you.

And even in the email, it was like, I need you to stop asking them and let them know that you're available at these times.

Next time.

You'd love to meet with me.

Yeah.

Right.

Rule number one, everyone has.

So stupid.

It's dumb because you look at those two things and you think, well, yeah, but honestly, it's the small intricacies that are hanging you up.

It's probably.

It's probably something pretty minor.

Yes, yes.

And that's the hardest part is to pick it out and kind of going back to what we were saying before.

Look for help, ask people for help.

I had to go outside of my home state, Dallas, Texas or my.

My home town.

Yeah.

Out of the town I live in to find help for elevate X sales.

Because the.

My network, that's your net worth.

Not that they wouldn't help me.

They all said, don't do it.

Go back and get a job.

Like, you already tried, man.

You didn't get it.

It's okay.

Just be a normal guy.

Go work a job and do your thing.

And I had to look outside of country to find help.

And that's just the craziest part.

So you just have to look for.

Look for a tool and then put it together.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, it really is.

And you know, you touched on something that to me seems very, like, obvious, but is really not Obvious.

Can you maybe elaborate?

You talked about empathy.

That's something that is like one of your key traits, empathy in sales.

You hear a lot about people being empathetic.

Empathetic or being.

What is it?

Emotionally intelligent is the other word.

But can we maybe go into depth about how companies can better utilize empathy in their sales process?

Empathy, if you don't know what empathy is, is.

You're.

You're looking outside their eyes and experiencing their life.

Not with your knowledge, not with your opinions.

You need to get to know who they are and pretend for a moment that you were them.

And how would they want to be treated if.

Or how would you want to be treated if you were in their shoes?

And that is the hardest part because we put our opinions in there.

And I'm like, no, no.

No opinions, no knowledge.

You are that person.

How would you feel?

And I think that companies can really benefit from this, especially when they do mass layoffs.

Like, come on, like, I know you want to save some money, but is there another way?

And there probably is, and maybe there isn't, you know, so you have to make that understanding of, well, how would it feel if I got fired?

If I was in their shoes with their life, with their kids, with their responsibilities, not my own responsibility.

And I think people, in order to really do empathy, you have to drop what you have and pretend that you're them.

And that's hard.

It is.

And I had to do that as a personal trainer.

I had to really do that.

And that was the only way I learned empathy.

And how to do it was, you know, envisioning if I was that person doing that exercise, that movement, how would that make me feel if I was self conscious about being in the gym?

Because I know that person.

That's what that person told me.

Yeah.

So, like, why would I put them in that obvious of a uncomfortable situation?

Yeah, it's something you gotta practice.

It's a perspective in life that's really tough.

My poor fiance is like, why don't you do empathy with me?

I was like, honey, I already know what you're saying.

Like, quiet down.

But it's something you need to continue to practice and, like, think about, like, how would it really be to be them.

Yeah.

Not me, them.

And I think you have to ask.

Right?

I think the other side of it is, like you said, you can't think like Kelly Kennedy and I can't think like Brian Hayes because I don't live in your mind every day.

I don't live in your world or your experience.

And so my advice, and I don't know how you feel about this, might simply be to ask.

If you have questions about how they feel about something, don't be afraid to ask because like you said before, you don't know what people are thinking and you can't assume or you'll make an ass out of you and me.

Yes, it's true.

Open ended questions.

And if you actually are curious, like that's another thing with empathy is like, I actually want to know.

I'm not just checking something off my list, like, I want to know because I'm trying to understand you, like, tell me about that, like why and really ask those open ended questions to try to figure it out and just be genuinely like, I just want to know.

Yeah, I'm not just trying to make a sale.

One of the things that I really wanted to chat with you about, Brian, is I wanted to better understand some of the challenges that you're seeing in the sales field.

You know, you've been, you've had elevate X, you're out there working with companies.

What are some of the challenges that you're running into fairly consistently?

What are you seeing on a consistent basis with these companies you're working with?

Are there like a handful of challenges that seem to be coming up pretty consistently?

Yes.

Sourcing contact information for a prospect and then trying to like find a database.

Everyone uses the same database right now.

It's called Apollo I.O.

and everyone's calling the same people, the same type, but it's trying to find, not trying to narrow it down.

It's like, when should I call them and who should I call?

And finding it specifically.

They don't know their data.

They're like, yeah, we want someone that is male between the age of 25 and 45.

I'm like, no, that's not even close.

Like, what are, who are they?

Yeah, like really get into who they are and who is your customer.

That's the biggest, I think the number one biggest struggle.

They don't know their target audience, they don't know how to sell to them and they also don't know how to buy, how they want to buy.

Because some people want to communicate through WhatsApp, some people want to communicate through LinkedIn, some people are texting, hey, give me a call, leave me a voicemail, I'll call you back.

You know, some.

So you just have to figure out how they want to buy and how they want to communicate.

Those are the two biggest ones.

The other one, I think it's less Important, but it's still pretty important, is retaining salespeople like good salespeople.

Yes, that's a big one.

And so they, they're even.

Even if they hired me, they're like, are you gonna leave?

Like, probably.

You say that.

You'Re already priming me.

Man, I'm already gone, man.

You signed that already.

Yeah, but it's, it's capturing someone's attention and keeping it.

Yeah, and that's hard in sales, I think, because everyone's looking for the grab greener grass on the other side.

Sometimes it is greener and sometimes it's not.

Sometimes it's worse.

You just don't see it because you want to see it a different way.

Putting your perspective.

You're putting your, your opinion out there again.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I think one of the biggest challenges we have now, and you know, we talked about this ahead of the show, is that people are getting bombarded with so much stuff that's promising them things that I think me and, you know, are probably not going to happen.

Yeah, but they don't know that, right?

Like, they don't know if they get, if they get someone coming up to them and saying, like, hey, I got this virtual assistant that can get you 50 leads in the next week.

They don't know what to believe and what not to believe.

Do you have any, like, guidelines or rules that you would maybe give to companies to better screen out what is an authentically good move versus what is, you know, a high risk move?

And I think the reason they're so confused is because like you said, with the advent of AI, nobody knows what's really possible and what's not possible.

Yep, yep.

I am looking at my spam box and I deleted, like, at least every day.

I got.

I have received 66 different email, probably AI, most of them AI.

My opinion and my advice is ask them to do it for free.

Like, okay, show me, show me the money.

Show me the real stuff.

Like, make them prove it.

And I don't know how that is for anyone's business, but make them prove it.

And not testimonials.

Oh, well, this person said this about me.

Well, that's, that's great.

It's not me.

Like, prove it for me.

So bring me value and I'll provide you value, which is my time and your ability to represent or maybe your client.

So you have to always bring value.

So when I call somebody, I'm like, hey, I thought that this would benefit you.

Do you have a moment to talk about something that benefits me?

So you're asking for their time, but you're paying for it.

At least that's how it is in Real Estate City.

Okay.

Yeah, I know, man.

Like I.

Like you said, like, my inbox too, is full of it.

And the funny thing is, it's like, obviously I have a business development firm where we focus on active marketing.

So we're not really using AI, right?

Like, we're using old school, real phone calls, real people doing real work.

Like, that's, that's what I've always found.

Just worked and.

Yeah.

Is it, Is it, Does it, does it take a minute?

Yeah, it takes a minute.

There's nothing that's fast.

There's nothing that's going to happen overnight.

Business development is not a race, right?

No, good business development takes time.

I've said that since the very beginning.

But it's effective, very effective, especially with active marketing.

But you know, I use AI tools, right?

Like we use ChatGPT to help us with some copy.

I still throw myself back into it and I always tell people, stop completely copying and pasting because you sound like a robot.

Or you use a word that you're not normally using.

That's right.

That's right.

Yeah.

If there's a word that you're like, I'd never use that.

Put your word in there.

Yes.

But you know, not just that, not just ChatGPT, right?

Like, obviously, running this podcast, I use AI tools.

We use stuff like Riverside, which we're in right now recording this show.

We use opus clips to help us with the clips.

We use other things to help us with the transcripts and our audiograms and other things that we like to put out with our shows.

So there's a lot of tools being used and some of them are very redundant because they have maybe one thing that the other one doesn't have.

So I need to keep the stupid tool even though I'm paying stupid amounts of money for all of these monthly subscriptions.

Right.

And it's driving me bonkers.

And.

Oh, man, Like, I just, I know people are being inundated with these crazy AI tools and they don't know what to go with or what's effective.

And like I said, we're using redundant ones that can maybe do something that other people do.

You have any advice for people that are.

That are using these tools?

It's AI is never going to replace you.

As much as someone says they're going to, it's not going to.

And the reason for that is people buy from people and that's always going to be because they want to hold someone accountable.

So if they're reaching out and saying, oh, we'll reach out and we'll set all these appointments for you, we'll.

They're not going to be quality.

They're not going to be there.

Just probably someone's like, yeah, just messing around because he knows it's the AI.

So use what is not time tested, but use what is authentic and real and it's never going to replace you.

And just use it as a tool.

That's all it is.

It's supposed to help you be a better you, not replace anything.

And that's why I think I really love the idea of your tool, Ty, because that's going to be so cool.

Because that's the problem.

That is a real life problem.

We're doing lots of meetings.

Business owners are meeting with people all the time.

If they had a tool that could be live action with them, giving them ideas on how to better execute a meeting.

My gosh, how powerful.

That's a really great idea.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I need to hurry up because someone's going to take this idea.

Let's open this podcast while you have.

A little bit of time.

This show is probably releasing about four months from now, so you just got to be faster than that.

Yes.

No pressure.

Clock starts today.

Oh, Brian, it's been an honor, dude.

Thank you for coming on and sharing this with us.

You know, I would love it if you would chat a little bit about Elevate X, though.

Can you tell us a little bit about what services you offer, what areas you serve, and then we'll go from there?

Absolutely.

Elevate X Sales is a marketing agency for commercial real estate professionals and commercial real estate owners.

And we're offering a suite of services from just regular social media marketing to doing it for you and setting tours and reaching out to specific tenants in a geographic area that might be interested in a vacant space that you have at your building or then we'll actually do it for you, which is we're actually going to take the deal from the initial online presence, the lead to tour, to closing the deal and facilitating the transaction.

And it's.

We're trying to bring life to commercial real estate.

Bring some not authenticity, but bring some entertainment to it.

Boring.

Yeah.

And everyone knows, everyone thinks it's just about the numbers.

And so we need to add some color to it and really paint a better picture of what it's going to be for your business.

So we're putting out specific content, property tours, kind of like, I don't know if you've ever seen the Property Brothers.

Yep.

Where they actually will go in with their camera and then all of a sudden they're like, oh, and it can do this.

And all this stuff turns and all the walls come down.

I want to do that for commercial real estate.

Very cool, Very cool.

And, you know, obviously you're in Dallas.

We've talked about that.

But is this, like, North America wide?

Like, is there anywhere you wouldn't service?

Well, the only difference, I can practice real estate, and so it depends on which package you decide, but it can be anywhere because the rules and regulations will be upheld when it comes to the advertising portion of it.

But when it comes to the actual execution of the transaction, I can do stuff in Texas, I can do stuff outside of Texas, but I have to have.

I have to facilitate with a broker in that area to do it legally.

So then that becomes sticky.

So we can do it all in the United States, North America.

It depends on what your real estate regulations are.

And we would have to talk about that on a.

On a separate one.

But the other services, SEO Management Online.

Think of it as your online listing in your online presence of your property.

Does it have a social media presence?

Does it even have a following?

Or is it gaining cobwebs?

Like, tell me about it.

You know, let's.

Let's put out as much information to reach as many people because someone might use Facebook, someone might use YouTube, someone might use LinkedIn, but they're all going to be a target tenant for you, so you might as well try them all.

And that's what we're doing, as well as email and cold call outreach and things of that nature.

Yeah.

The reason I asked is that, you know, obviously we have a large North American audience, we have a big Canadian audience and a big U.S.

audience.

And I did just want to know, can you service Canada?

Is that on the table for you?

I would love to.

International.

That is definitely in the plans.

Definitely in the plans.

When it comes to execution of a transaction, I would probably refer that to a local real estate professional there to do the negotiations and the transaction.

But the online presence of it.

Absolutely.

I would fly to Canada just to make some content.

That would be so much fun.

Just not in the winter.

I was going to say we got some nice mountains, but yeah, I would say keep it to spring and summer.

Because it's better for the lighting of the video.

Absolutely, Absolutely.

Brian, thank you so much.

We've been graced today by Brian Hayes of Elevate X Sales.

And thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

Your vulnerability.

I think, I think we probably helped that one or two businesses today.

So I think we did what we set out to do.

Yes.

Until next time, this has been episode 182 of the Business Development Podcast and we will catch you on the flip side.

Bye everyone.

This has been the Business Development Podcast with Kelly 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 at www.capitalbd.ca.

see you next time on the Business Development Podcast.