Harnessing Introvert Power in Business Growth Strategies

Harnessing Introvert Power in Business Growth Strategies

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 131 of the Business Development Podcast, and this episode is for all my introverts out there. We are gonna chat about all your superpowers and why you guys could be the best at business development. Stick with us. You're gonna love this episode.

Intro: The Great Mark Cuban once said, business happens over years and years.

Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal. And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world. You'll get expert business development, advice, tips, and experiences.

And you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs. And business development reps. You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business brought to you by capital business development, CapitalBD.ca let's do it. Welcome to the business development podcast, and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 131 of the business development podcast.

It's an absolute honor to be on with you today. Today. We have an absolute rock star rock star show one that I am actually very excited to do every once in a while a topic comes up and I'm like, yes, yes, I get to talk about something that relates to me. And I don't know about you guys, but are you introverted?

Have you struggled with performance anxiety, with stage fright, with imposter syndrome? All of these challenges that we face as introverts. I am an introvert. I've told you guys this a thousand times. I am an introvert who had to essentially learn extroverted skills to get better at my job. And as time went on, I got better and better and better at it.

So today I wanted to do a show. specifically for my introverts. And this one has came at high, high demand. Everybody. I've probably had five to 10 requests to do a show on introverts for introverts. How can introverts be better? How can introverts be more effective at business development? How can they overcome their struggle, their challenges and perform just as well as they think?

think an extrovert can perform. And this is hopefully a misconception that we're going to overcome today. The reality is my introverts, my introverted friends, you have superpowers like you wouldn't believe. And we are going to use them to make you not just effective, but potentially the most effective a business development person can be.

So don't be afraid if you're listening to this and you're like, Oh crap, I'm introverted. I am also introverted. And even though it is a challenge and I still have my moments, business development is a learned skill and you can get better at it. But before we get into the show today, I wanted to give you guys some show updates.

So update number one, as you may or may not know, I Kelly Kennedy, I'm now doing business development coaching right now. It's not group or anything. It is one on one individualized coaching. We're doing it on Mondays and Thursdays. And so if you want to know more about this, feel free to shoot me an email at podcast@capitalbd.ca, or you can go straight to my LinkedIn page, right under my picture.

You'll see book a biz dev session with Kelly Kennedy. And if you hop in there, you guys can even book a free discovery call. And I look forward to meeting. All of you. And I really, really look forward to working with you. We have been a top 100 show in 29 countries worldwide. That's right. We tallied it up last week and we realized we have now been a top 100 show in over a 29 countries across the world.

And that is so cool. And we appreciate each and every one of you. And we love our international audience. So thank you so much. Thank you for tuning into the show week over week, month over month, and sticking with us for all this time. And we look forward to continuing to deliver for you guys twice a week.

We are now on Instagram. I know I'm late to the social media game. La dee da. I'm. I don't hate social media, but I'm not a super big social media fan. I really love LinkedIn. You guys know that LinkedIn is my, my place. If you want to really follow the business development podcast and all the awesome stuff we're doing, you have to check it out on LinkedIn.

And so please do come to our LinkedIn, follow the business development podcast, follow Kelly Kennedy, and keep up to date on everything that we are doing whenever new shows drop. Whenever there's an exciting show announcement, whenever there's a huge accomplishment, you know, Whenever there's something that we need from you guys, like a poll or a, or reviews or nominations, all that stuff shows up on LinkedIn.

So. I'm going to try to start doing all these things on more than just LinkedIn. Obviously, I'm going to try to get this Instagram going, so you can feel free to search the business development podcast on Instagram, give us a follow. We would appreciate it immensely. We want to grow that platform as well.

But like I said, LinkedIn is where my people are at. And so if you haven't followed us yet on LinkedIn, please do come check us out. But we now are on Instagram as well. Community questions, guys, community questions, we've been, we've been falling behind in the community questions world, as you can tell, because we haven't done a community questions episode in a while.

I need your questions. So whether you're new to the show, or you've been with us from the very, very beginning, I want to hear from you and you can leave me a voicemail. If you go over to the website, right hand side of the page, you're going to see a button that says, leave us a voicemail. You can leave any community question there.

So we want to hear business development questions, business questions, things that we can help you guys with, and we can answer live on a show. So please do come over to our website, leave us a community question, voicemail. If you're a little voice shy, that's cool too. We still accept community questions at podcast@capitalbd.ca that's podcast@capitalbd.ca and if you guys head over to that website and you check out the new voicemail, you will see that we have updated the corporate website. So the Business Development podcast has a brand new revamped website. Super cool. You can find all of our reviews, our sponsor information, and all of our latest episodes with links to Spotify, apple Podcast, wherever you want to go, it is all on the website, so come check us out, business development podcast.com or.ca.

All right, and one last thing. So on Monday, I took a trip down to Lethbridge because we have some absolute rockstar sponsors. We have Shawn Neels of Plains Equipment Rentals. We have Colin Harms of Hypervac Technologies, and we have a guest of the show, Jory Evans, who owns Evans Trucking, which is a next level transport company.

And I had an awesome Awesome time. Colin invited me down. We had lunch. I got to meet all these amazing people, the amazing business development community, and I had such a great time. And so I just wanted to give a big shout out to Colin Harms. Thank you so much for setting that up. Colin is amazing. He owns Hypervac Technologies.

They've been a sponsor of our show from really as soon as we accepted sponsorship, which has been super cool. Shawn Neels he's a relatively new sponsor, but he's been absolutely amazing to work with. And he's ambitious and doing great things in the equipment world in Western Canada. And it's an absolute honor to have people like that support the show.

Support me and they've been really with me from the beginning, you know, right from the beginning of this show Colin's been egging us on and supporting us and letting us know we're on the right path and that's been really cool. Colin. And I just wanted to give you a special shout out today for setting that up.

It was an absolute honor to finally come down and meet you and thank you again for hosting me and setting up that amazing, amazing event. All right, well, let's just get into it. As many of you know, I've talked about it on the show many, many times. I am an introvert. I know many of you are saying, but Kelly, you do this show.

You're a business development person. Guys. I was not always great at this, and I would argue that I'm still not always great at this. I have my moments. I have my moments. I still get performance anxiety sometimes. I still get nervous. I still struggle sometimes in the group settings. Like, the funny thing is, is that you never really stop being an introvert, and so we're kind of going to get into that today.

It's not about Not being yourself. The reality is Kelly Kennedy will always appreciate his alone time. I'll always be that little nerdy kid who loves to build models in his garage and just loves to hang out and build things and do things by myself or work on my motorbike or whatever those things are that I can just put on some music and be in my own little world. That is a skill set that has made me really great at what I do. And whether it be business development or whether it be any type of business or any type of task that I really need to just set down to, as long as I can just put my head down and think it allows me to be creative and I can do some pretty amazing things.

Being an introvert or having introverted tendencies has actually been a major, major benefit. In my business development career, and we're going to get into that a little bit later, but I get it. I get it. And this has come from special, special demand. We've had lots of demand on this because I know there's lots of you out there who were like, Oh, meetings freak me out.

Having to pick up the phone and call these people. I don't know. Freaks me out. And I just want you guys all to know it freaked me out too. And it never really stops going away. What happens is you get better and better and better and better at just handling it and doing it until it starts to become normal, right?

We talk about it all the time. Stage fright or performance anxiety or imposter syndrome. It's not about not being afraid. It's not about not feeling like you're enough because the reality is. I've been there. I've been there plenty and plenty of times and I know you guys have been there plenty of times too and you guys are amazing and I just want you to know that there's nothing wrong with these things.

They're very human. You are very normal. Anxiety is normal. You are normal. I literally have a show on this. So feel free to go back and check it out. It's one of my earlier shows, but it's still just as pertinent. The funny thing is, We have this like expectation that all of our business development people, all of our salespeople, they're extroverted, they're good, they can just put themselves in any situation and they will be completely fine.

Mark my words, plenty of them are scared shitless. Plenty of them don't like making cold calls. You know, I would argue most salespeople still struggle with cold calls, extroverted, introverted, or both. Like the reality is there are things that are just hard as a human. That scare us as a human for reasons we don't even truly understand.

That's the funny thing, right? We know that no one's going to jump through the phone and bite us. We know that nose can't kill us. We know this, but we still try to avoid them like the plague and mark my words. This happens to everyone, introverted, extroverted, or indifferent. Okay. So I just want you guys to know, first off, if you are introverted and you were, you are now responsible for growing your company, you're in business development.

You're a founder, you're a CEO, you're a startup. You are the rockstar. You're a co founder. You're just, you're that person now who has to stand up and learn this skill. Business development is a learnable skill. Sales, a learnable skill. Getting good at meetings, a learnable skill. Being great on the phone, a learnable skill.

So mark my words, you are not hopeless. And I hope that when we get through this today, you're not going to feel hopeless. You're actually going to feel like a superhero because that is what you guys and being introverted. is like having superpowers when you truly understand what it really means for both you and your future in business development.

Okay, so I really appreciated this. This is a topic that for me it touches home because I've struggled with all of these things and I've had to learn how to get How to rise above them, not how to, not how to hide them, but how to actually rise above the feelings that I still get to this day, that I still get stage fright, that I still get performance anxiety, that there are still people that I sit down and I'm shaking in my damn boots because they freak me out.

It doesn't happen as much as it used to because I'm getting better and better and better at acclimatizing to it. But that is what happens when you put yourself in that situation over and over and over again. And instead of running from the fear, you run towards it and you embrace it, you grow. And when you grow, the next one isn't as hard.

And the next one isn't as hard. And that bar of what is scary starts to get higher and higher and higher. And I'm not saying the bar goes away because you know what happens? You also rise to that bar and you start to meet with people who are higher and higher and higher on the standard. You start to put yourself in situations that are scarier and scarier and scarier, but as you reach them, what you realize is you had nothing to be afraid of.

You had nothing to be afraid of. It is just an intrinsic fear to us as humans of social situations of, of no, of being rejected. Of, of, of us, of our ego being rejected, right. Of who we are. But the funny thing is about business is that when you're getting nos 99.9% of the time, it's not you personally getting the no.

It's like it's that pitch or that offer in that moment. And that's not even permanent. It's just in that moment. And so what I want you guys to really take away from this is they are not rejecting you. So you have nothing to be afraid of. Yeah. Are you gonna stumble? Sure. Are you maybe going to fall flat on your face?

Maybe. I know I have at least once or twice, but you're going to pick yourself up. You're going to dust yourself off and you're going to do it again. You're going to learn from the experience and you're going to do better because you can and will do better the next time around. So just mark my words with this.

You can overcome your fears, whether you are introverted, whether you are extroverted or somewhere in the middle. You can overcome your fears. Business Development, meetings, social situations, being a good conversationalist. These are all skills that you are going to learn and can learn. And they are teachable, learnable, and the secret to getting better at them is just to do more of them.

of them. I have never found a shortcut for this, guys. There is no shortcut. What you have to do is just keep putting yourself in those uncomfortable situations, but you will get better and better and better at it. And mark my words, I would not be up here talking to you through this microphone. Like, honestly, there are days when I sit here and I do this show and I think to myself, how did I get here?

Because I was horrible. And I'm just, I'm going to be straight with you guys. I remember going to job interviews. Sweating, shaking sometimes, like literally my nervous system just going off the deep end and probably didn't help that I used to drink a lot of energy drinks. I don't anymore, but I remember plenty of times being in an interview and just sweating and shaking and Maybe not even being able to talk or articulate because like things are just not firing right.

I've been there. I've been there. I like it's crazy sometimes that I have made it to this level in my business development career or that I even chose a business development career. But like I said, I didn't really choose it. BD chooses you and I accepted and I decided, okay, I can sit here and I can complain or I can be scared or I can suck at this job.

Or I can try and I can turn this thing around and I can put myself in the uncomfortable situation. I can make the uncomfortable comfortable. And you know what I've realized as a business owner, as a business development specialist, it is the moments of uncomfort that success happens. Success happens in the uncomfortable moments.

Those are the moments that will change your life because they are the situations That cause change. Think about anything in your life. If you didn't, if you want to change anything major in your life, you basically have to do something that you've never done, right? Whether it be, if you want to get fit, you got to work out.

If you don't work out right, you got to eat healthy. If you want to take a new career or jump on a new career choice, you have to go to school or you have to learn, learn about that thing and start doing things that you've never done before. If you want to learn a new skill, whether it be electric guitar, the only way to do it is to pick up an electric guitar and suck for a while.

Until you get better at it, you know what I'm saying? Nothing is going to come easy. So you have to put yourself in that uncomfortable situation as often as humanly possible. And so as I grow as a business development person, as I grow as a business owner, as I grow as a person, what I'm starting to realize is the only way forward is to put myself in as many uncomfortable situations as possible, because those are the situations that are going to take me personally to the next level that I'm going to learn the skills that I don't have right now.

That I'm going to get the opportunities that I don't have right now. They're not going to come to me if I don't put myself in situations that freak me out. And so this is kind of the same thing to my introverts. And I know you're looking at me right now and you're saying, Kelly, but I'm scared. I just, I don't say the right things.

Maybe you don't. And maybe you are scared and there's nothing wrong with that. Do you know what that means? It means that you give a shit. It means that you actually care about the outcome. And you know what that will do for you? That will drive you to do better. It'll drive you to achieve a better outcome.

You will get better at these things over time. Yeah. When you're talking to people for the first bit, you might come across really shy. You might come across nervous, but I think you'll find that by your, say, 50th conversation. I don't know. That sounds like a lot, but. By say your 50th or maybe even 20th conversation, you're not so scared.

You're not so shy. You start to, you start to know what to say. You start to get better at conversation. You start to get better at your product pitch. You start to better understand how to do it. And as you do that, you are just going to get better and better and better and better. and better. So I just really wanted to take some time today and just chat with you and just say, look, I get it.

I get it. Business development is hard and it doesn't matter whether you are an extrovert, an introvert, because we're all afraid. We're all scared of no, we're all scared of being embarrassed or putting ourselves in a situation where we That doesn't reflect positive on us guys. But understand we're all going to end up there once or twice, right?

It's going to happen. We're human. We're going to make mistakes. I still make mistakes regularly. I still goof up pitches all the time, right? Like I'm human. I am human. I may have done it a bajillion times, but that doesn't mean that I still don't make mistakes. There's nothing wrong with making mistakes.

Okay. Mistakes are going to happen. Just work it in, realize, okay, you know what, if I make, if I make 50 pitches or if I make 50 calls. One of them or two of them might not go good. That's okay. Who cares? 48 of them do go good. Think about it from that standpoint, try to stay positive. Try to not focus on the bumps in the road.

Focus on the fact that most of the time, 95 percent of the time, it's going to go great. And heck, maybe even 20 percent of the time, it's going to go. Really, really, really great. And every time that you put yourself in that hard situation, it gets easier. It gets easier and easier and easier. And so, like I said, what ends up happening for you is you grow personally.

And that bar gets higher and higher and higher. The things that scare you would have terrified you before they would have been like, they would have scared the bejesus out of you, right? But you're putting yourself at a new level every time that you overcome that small obstacle. So the next time that you're afraid to pick up that phone, I want you just to pick up the phone, just pick up the phone and make the call.

The next time you're afraid to do that meeting, do the meeting, run towards it. You don't. Offer to offer to host the damn thing. Okay, put yourself in as many scary situations as possible. Introverted, extroverted, whatever you be. And you are going to get better and better and better at your career. You're going to get better at what you do.

And you are going to become so good at business development, relationship generation, and things that really move the needle for your company. So let's just chat about it, okay? What is an introvert? So according to WebMD, an introvert is a person with qualities of a personality type called introversion, which means they feel much more comfortable focusing on their inner thoughts and ideas rather than what is happening externally.

They enjoy spending time with one or two people rather than large groups or crowds. I would probably argue this is most people. Like, I genuinely think that most people are introverted. I would argue that probably 75 percent of the population is introverted. And even the people that you see in the world that maybe come across as quite extroverted or come across as the life of the party, they might very well, when they're not in that situation, be very introverted themselves, okay?

What I've learned over time is to try to almost flip a switch in my brain to just say, right now, we're just going to do our best to be in a situation that's a bit uncomfortable, but we're just going to rock it. And so there is a way to kind of turn it on. There is a way to kind of turn it on. And I think over time, I've gotten better at that.

Like if I end up at a networking event, if I end up at, you know, a situation where I might have to talk or heck, if I'm doing a podcast, I sometimes have to turn this on. It's not like immediate. Sometimes what I'll do, and guys, music is amazing. First off, music is amazing. If you're hearing this show today, I want you guys to know that before I did this show today, I was picking up my boys from school and on our way home, we were just rocking out the whole way home.

I was listening to like, you know, guns and roses. We had a little bit of kiss going. We had some, Sum 41. We were just. We were killing it. I love doing that with the boys. I love introducing them to, you know, classic rock and nineties rock, right? Like just music from our time. And there's nothing that will put a smile on your face and pump you up faster than listening to music that you love music that you really rocked out to as a kid.

And so, you know what, if you're listening to this right now, when this show is done, I want you guys just to put on one of your favorite songs from when you were a teenager, just put that shit on, crank it. And just enjoy the moment, enjoy the feelings that that brings, and then realize that those feelings are on demand and can be brought on demand at any moment for you.

So what's really cool is that you can, you can turn it on by just having some pumped up music that will just pump you up, right? Like there's a reason that when you go into like some sales companies, the first thing they do in the morning is just rock out to a, to a song for the company or corporate song or whatever it is, because it really does get you pumped up.

It allows you to flip that switch and turn it on. On. And so I'm not saying that like extro version can be turned on. But what I'm saying is you can flip that switch that gives you just that little bit more, that little bit more power to just take that next step. And so figure out your way to turn it on, figure out your way to give yourself just that little bit more confidence, just that little bit more.

I can do this today because you can do this today. Me and you both know that. So. Let's chat a little bit about why introverts are freaking rock stars. Okay, introversion is not a hindrance in beady. It can legit be your superpower. And so I wanted to chat about some of the superpowers that introverts have.

Okay, introverts are deep thinkers and hard. Workers. You guys know this. If you are introverted, I know for a fact that if I put you on a project, you're probably going to kill it. You're probably going to figure out how to do it, and you're going to do it so good because you care so much about that outcome, and you're going to think about what are the best ways to make that happen.

Think about what that means when it comes to business development or creating a good deal or great value proposition. It is only going to give you a huge advantage, right? They're creative and imaginative. They can think outside the box. They can find that thing. That value proposition that no one else can think of.

That pricing model that's going to work so much better. That perk of the product that we didn't see or we didn't think about. They're going to find those ways because they're super, super creative. Not to mention they can make amazing, amazing content. That's super, super awesome. They excel at problem solving.

Guys, you know this. Business development is just, you Great big detective work. I talk to you guys all the time. Think about it. Is an introvert going to give up because they can't find the phone number immediately? Are they going to give up because they put the wrong email the first time? No, they're going to figure it out.

They're going to find the right person and they are going to get in touch. They weigh all the options and tend to make strong, smart decisions. Guys, does that not sound like leadership to you? That sounds a whole lot like leadership to me. Okay. They're going to weigh out the best way to handle any situation and allow it to move forward properly.

They value deep, meaningful relationships. Guys, what do I talk about all the time on the show? Relationships are king. They are. They are your secret weapon. Your superpower in business development is to create long, mutually beneficial relationships between you and the companies you work with and your clients.

And guys, that is what introverts do. They are so great at building longterm, meaningful relationships. They are great at self reflection. They don't sit around and wait to get better. They find the ways to get better. They learn in the areas that they're struggling in, which is why today I'm so excited to be talking to my introverts because you guys are hearing this and you're already thinking, I can do this.

I can turn this around. This is a learnable skill and I'm gonna figure it out. I can already see your wheels turning 'cause you guys are willing to learn. You're willing to figure out the best way you're willing to improve yourself, and you're not afraid to look at your deficiencies. Introverted trait which is absolutely amazing.

They are innovative and make great leaders. I told you guys leadership is key. Introverts make amazing leaders because they don't rush to conclusions. They don't jump to conclusions. They look at all the options and they find the best way possible. And while that can sometimes take a little bit more time than an extrovert might like.

It typically allows for a greater decision, a better decision for both the company and the team. They are great listeners. Guys, I talk about this all the time. I didn't get great at business development until I learned to shut up. I told you guys that it took me a while because I was so nervous in the beginning.

And this is one of the things you may see an introvert, and they might be talking like crazy. And And it's not that they like talking. It's that they're so uncomfortable. They don't know how else to deal with it. And so what I found, and that was me, what I found was when I got really great at just being quiet by being literally myself and just asking smart, leading questions, I got better and better and better at my job.

I like 10 X my job. The moment I started to just shut up. Be myself, listen and ask great questions. This is something that is intrinsic to an introvert, but like I said, can also put them in a nervous situation where they talk a lot. But that's that doesn't mean they're extroverted. What it can mean is they're very nervous and they're trying to calm their own nerves by keeping the conversation going.

What they will do if they can listen and use their natural traits of listening and asking great questions, it will give them a superpower edge. And actually people will think they're a better conversationalist. Some of the funniest conversations that I've been in. I've had people tell me that I'm an absolute great conversationalist.

And I'll tell you what, I probably only talk 20 percent of the time and they talk the other 80 percent of the time. That is the secret. Ask great questions and let them talk. Your clients speak. It will make you better. They work well alone. Well, guess what? Business development isn't always a team sport.

And I would argue that most of the time it's not a team sport. And so introverts are probably better for it because they will hold themselves accountable and they will get it done. They don't need somebody leaning over their shoulder. They can Absolutely get that work done on their own. And number 10, they follow process well and hold themselves accountable.

Guys, process and accountability and business development is everything, right? If we can hold ourselves to a process, if we can follow it week over week, month over month, year over year, we are going to win more often than we are going to lose. And that is going to make you a rock star business development specialist.

So as you can see. All of these traits are extremely beneficial in business development, and the odds are that the best business development people that you know are inherently introverts. That takes us to the end of the show, guys. It's an absolute honor to do this for you today. Shoutouts this week, Colin Harms, Shawn Neels, Jory Evans, Shawn Sooley, Alhussein Khalil, Bryan Hayes, Raphael Cervan, Janu Subramaniamm, Jayson Chakkalakal, Tatsiana Zametalina. Aaron Haberman, Mindy Kay McRae Broadbent, Steve Austin, Jerry Luke, and Jenn Bieri.

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

Outro: This has been the Business Development Podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly has 15 years in. Sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development. The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your business development specialists. For more, we invite you to the website at www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the business development podcast.