Randy Lennon's Entrepreneurial Odyssey: Insights from a Media Mogul

Randy Lennon's Entrepreneurial Odyssey Insights from a Media Mogul

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 146 of the business development podcast. And today we're joined by Randy Lennon from co founding the Spruce Grove examiner at 19 experiencing a stint in law enforcement to working with the Calgary flames and founding a successful media company. Randy has spent six remarkable decades in the media industry.

Stay tuned. You are not going to want to miss this episode. Great.

Intro: Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal. And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world.

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

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 146 of the business development podcast. On today's expert guest interview, we bring you Randy Lennon. Randy's career embodies a remarkable journey, marked by entrepreneurial flair and versatile leadership across diverse industries. From co founding the Spruce Grove Examiner newspaper at a mere 19 years old, to expanding his venture into media, publishing, sports management, and beyond, Randy's trajectory reflects a constant drive for innovation and success.

Under Randy's guidance, the Spruce Grove Examiner burgeoned into a thriving chain of newspapers, solidifying its position as a trusted news source in the Edmonton market. His astute business acumen wasn't confined to media. Randy spent 16 months as an executive with the Calgary Flames. During this time, the team went from seven years out of the playoffs to Western Conference Champions and Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

On the business side, the team transitioned from heavy losses to significant profitability over that 16 month period. Beyond his professional achievements, Randy's role as a sought after business advisor and mentor, coupled with his innovative workshops and acclaimed radio show series, has Reflects his commitment to sharing knowledge and empowering, aspiring entrepreneurs and leaders.

Randy Lennon's legacy transcends borders resonating globally as a beacon of inspiration and excellence in both business and community impact. Randy, it's an honor to have you on the show today.

Randy Lennon: Wow. I was going to congratulate you on 146 episodes first, Kelly, but that takes the cake for for the best intro I've ever had.

I'll take credit for the, for the examiner. Which I still, I believe they still have the Edmonton examiner going in, in, I'm very proud of that because I was only 19 at the time. I'd like to say it was because of my you know, vision and business acumen. It really was just there's a the late Terry Clements.

Who was from Barrhead, Alberta, and he owned the Barrhead Leader. And I was publishing, I was helping, I was actually, it started from me in high school, publishing a community newspaper called the colloquium. If you can imagine what terrible branding that is like, what the hell is a colloquium? You can look it up now though, Kelly.

Kelly Kennedy: Awesome. I was gonna, I was gonna let you define it for us.

Randy Lennon: It's actually a pretty appropriate name, but anyway, in high school, I was doing all this crazy stuff. When I look back, I, it, you know, Emmy Lizard High School in North Edmonton there back in the day, like in the early seventies, they had some innovative educational ideas.

They had these open classrooms. They had, you could create your own curriculum, you know, your, you, you know, it was a community oriented education. And man, did it ever work for me because I spent my grade 10, 11, 12. Publishing a newspaper, running a radio station in the school managing a recording artist.

Putting on shows. And a, a lot of the things that I ended up doing in, in real, quote unquote real life Wow. Later, never went to university. So I, you know, I landed an opportunity to produce a what essentially was a community newspaper for three shopping centers in Edmonton, if you can believe that.

There is a company called Abby Glenn Property Corporation, that owned these three shopping centers. And instead of just publishing a flyer. Which they were doing, they noticed that I was doing this sort of community newspaper. So we combined the two and at age like 18, or I think I was 18, I was suddenly working for Abby Glen property corporation as their publications manager.

Wow. And publishing these three monthly papers, like selling the advertising, writing stories about the community. It was great. And I met this guy, Terry Clements in the, he had a company called West web press, and he had, you know, come from bar head and he started printing newspaper, other weekly newspapers, set up this web printing operation in Edmonton.

And you know, he, he noticed what I was doing and he said, Hey I need an editor for the bar head leader. So I said, Oh, okay. That sounds cool. So I got on my motorcycle with my girlfriend at the time and we rode up to bar head, took a look around and. I thought, gee, I don't really want to live in Barrhead, you know?

And but it was quite an opportunity for at that time, 18 year old to be the, the editor of the Barrhead leader we, you know, weekly newspaper and and I've never been much for diplomacy, but somehow I knew it wouldn't be quite right to say to Terry who grew up in Barrhead, I just don't want, I don't like Barrhead, you know, I don't want to move there.

So instead I said, ah, thank you so much, Terry. It's really not for me. And I'm just going to stick with what I'm doing. And he was shocked because, you know, it was such a great opportunity. Now, you know, today I call myself a lifelong entrepreneur. I mean, we didn't even use the word entrepreneur in the early seventies.

And I didn't know I was when I, my dad was worked on the railroad, he was a union man and we had like a sort of middle class beaver cleaver type family. You can look up beaver cleaver, by the way. And so I didn't know anything about, I didn't have a career path. As a matter of fact, I wanted to be a cop.

I actually applied with the Edmonton police. And I didn't have my eyesight wasn't good enough. So that was the end of that idea. Right. Wow. Anyway, so Terry, so Terry contacts me about three or four months later. He says, look, the Spruce Grove Examiner, which is this fledgling little paper that was being printed.

They hadn't paid their printing bill. They were going out of business. And he said you know, would you like to partner with me and we'll, we'll buy the Spruce Grove Examiner. And I'm like, okay, but I didn't even know what that meant. Now, the, the irony, Kelly. Is if he would have called me up and said, Hey, we'd like to hire you to be the editor of the Spruce Grove Examiner.

I would have said yes, because I could still live in Edmonton. Right. And, but, but he thought I was negotiating with them by saying, no, I'm not interested in bar. So you know, that led to my whole entrepreneurial career out of the blue. I said, so I said, Jim, this is really interesting. I said, well, okay, what do you mean partner?

And he said, well. I'm going to take it over and we're going to put a valuation of it of 10, 000. So if you want to be my 50, 50 partner. You come up with 5, 000 and away we go. And I'm going, Hmm, I don't have 5, 000. So he said I said, well, okay. So I put in the 5000. He says, yes, we'll form a new company and we'll both own it.

And we'll own the Spruce Grove examiner. I go, okay. I sounded good to me. I said, well, Do I still get paid? I don't even know where he said, well, what are you making now? And I said, well, I'm making like 800 a month. He said, okay, well, yeah, you put in the 5, 000, we'll start the company. You can, we'll pay you a thousand dollars a month out of the company.

And and that's how it will work. And I didn't understand anything about the potential upside or really anything about business at all. Okay. So I said to him, hmm, how about 1200 a month and a car allowance? He starts laughing, like car allowance. What are you talking about? He's like, well, the only way I'm going to come up with the 5, 000 is to sell my car.

So I'll need a car. And he just laughed and said, okay, it's a deal off we went. And you know that I learned so much so quickly from him and he was really a mentor. Now, Kelly, think about this for a second. The late Terry Clements was my mentor. He was 35 years old. Yes. You know, it's like, wow. Yeah. Anyway, so that's how it all started.

And we grew it. And the irony is of course at age 22. I already with the, we started the West Edmonton Examiner, the North Edmonton examiner, the commerce news, we were making money and, and I was like thinking, wow, this is cool. But I still wanted to be a cop and part of me writing all the stories and selling all the ads of the Spruce Grove Examiner, I came to learn about this municipal police force called the County of Parkland police back in the day.

And I went on a, I did a story about them and I went on a ride along and I, it was so fun. And they had this auxiliary program. So you could go through a little bit of training, get a uniform and be the second person in the car. No gun. Yeah. And so I, I, it was like a volunteer. It's like being a volunteer fireman.

Oh, well not quite. Cause they're, A lot of these volunteer fire departments are manned fully by volunteers. These were all professionals and they had an auxiliary second man in the car, basically. And I, I started enjoying the time out riding around the police car more than running the company. And so I thought, well, I can always get into business again.

I want to go do this. So I went to the chief and asked him if I could if there was an opening, I said, could I apply? And he looked at me like, what? Like, you're the publisher of the newspaper. You have these newspapers in Edmonton. Like, he thought of me more as a peer. And he, he thought. Well, yeah, you could apply and we could put you through the Edmonton police training.

Although they, they normally just hired ex police officers because they didn't have a training program. He said, well, yeah, we'll take you if you want to, but why would you? And I said, I don't know. I just want to be a cough. Yeah. So that was your passion. My partner, Terry just about killed me. He was like, he was like, you are off your rocker, dude.

And he was right. Like I ended up, he ended up buying me out for next to nothing. Bill, he continued to build it up. It's sold to

Quebec core about three or four years later for a lot of money. And you know, so it was a bad business decision. But I really enjoyed my six years with the County Police, and I had so much free time, I started a, my own television production company, and I started a recording artist management company, and then sort of went on from there.

So, it's, it's like, it's a crazy, when I look back on it now, it's, it's a crazy story.

Kelly Kennedy: It, it is, but it's an amazing story, and I think so much of like, I get that because I think most people have passions long before they end up in whatever they're going to end up in and at least you got to pursue yours. I think there's so many people who never get that chance to end up in the working world and the passion kind of goes out the window or they find new passion, which is what happened to me.

But like, you know, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a pilot. Same thing. Just couldn't do it. And yeah, but. But at the same time, it's like, there's still a big part of me that would love to, at some point, figure out a way to do my pilot school again, right? And I think for you, if you wouldn't have had the chance to go and do the policing, I don't think you would have ended up the man you are today.

I think it is an integral stepping stone to who you became.

Randy Lennon: Yeah, and it was you know, my, I was married. My wife, she thought I was crazy, but, you know, everybody just sort of went along with it. And of course I kind of knew I wouldn't be a policeman my whole life, unless I could be the chief of police, you know, and I quickly got relatively bored with the police stuff too.

So I had all this other stuff happening. The thing that I had, Kelly, that I think very few people do have is I had this, it's like a gene or something. It was the, I didn't, I never doubted myself. Like, it's a very strange thing that still exists to this day. I had so little or zero self doubt, and that really served me well in a lot of ways.

And on the other hand, it was too a fault. I mean, I, I was overconfident to the point of arrogance and you know. You know, I, in my twenties, like if you met me in my twenties, you know, Kelly, you might not like me, my, I was a guy who's poop didn't stink kind of thing. And so I needed, I needed to be humbled.

And that humbling process started in my early thirties and it's continued ever since. Yeah. So some people, that's why when. We do the questions experience now, which is we can get into that a little bit if you want at some point. The, we, we, I've been relatively successful in coaching or helping other people because most people, their challenge is they get in their own way with their own doubts and their own lack of self worth or self esteem.

No, I, I had it in ways that I didn't recognize. But I, you know, I, I a very good thing for an entrepreneur or for a salesperson or a business development person is to have kind of blind confidence in yourself. I like to say that I didn't know that it couldn't be done. And that's a very powerful way to approach life.

Now, most people are the opposite, so I'm able to help people sort of get past what stops them, which, and to, to identify what stops them, which is just their own, just that it's them, they're getting in their own way and they're afraid of what people think of them. They afraid that they're afraid of failure.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes.

Randy Lennon: Yes. And you know, I, I learned and I'm at peace. I have a relatively peaceful life today because of all the things I failed at. Including two marriages, including being a dad, you know, I've, I've been a failure in so many ways and that's where I learned and that's what makes me the man I am today. So, you know, I can look in the mirror and I accept I accept all my, you know, in the, in the 12 step program, they have a step four.

I forget the exact words, the make a moral inventory of yourself. And I suggest that everybody would do that. Write down all the things that they have screwed up or, or that are, that are, you know, that are flaws in their personality. And by doing that you can accept yourself, forgive yourself.

And, and move on.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Would you say that failure is just a necessary part though? And that everybody in entrepreneurship has to overcome failure to be successful or to learn those lessons? You know what I mean? It's just part of the journey.

Randy Lennon: Well, I would say, yes, but not just entrepreneurship life. Okay.

Any, any type of life. And if you want to, whatever it is you're wanting to achieve, whether you're an entrepreneur or you're a civil servant, or you're. Working for a company. You're a nurse. I mean, in order to move forward, you must embrace failure because if you don't, it's the old thing. If you don't try, you know, there's one way to avoid having any failures and that's to do nothing.

Yeah. So, I mean, it's kind of, it's, it's, it's broadly stated. I know in my own life. I mean, even. You know, in, in my book the dirty words, I, I put forward a concept that it doesn't matter what happens. Okay. Then I take it another step and I say, as a matter of fact, it never matters what happens. It only matters what you make it mean and how you choose to respond.

Now you might say, well, of course it matters what happens, especially bad things, you know, like challenges that pop up or like the worst thing ever. Someone close to you dies, you know, like horrible things happen. The point is that at the point they happened, they now are in the past and it's no longer, it probably wasn't in your control in the first place, but it certainly isn't within your control.

Once something has occurred, whatever it is. Okay. So that's why I say it doesn't matter what happens. It only matters what you make it mean and how you choose to respond. That is a sane way of living your life. Insanity is to be constantly looking at what's happening and being upset about it or feeling that you're feeling badly about it.

And because. If, if you, if no matter what happens moment by moment, day by day, week by week, challenges, whatever if it's already happened, it's in the past, so it's only about a how you're going to interpret it. What you're going to make it mean and how you're going to respond. That's the only thing that counts.

That's the only thing that's important.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, no, I agree. And I think so many entrepreneurs were like, we're so in our own heads about, we got to control as much of everything as we can. And so we're a bit of control freaks on a certain level. Right. And we're, and you know, it's that control freak of being like, you know what, I can make this difference.

I can make this happen. I can, I can do this. Like you said, that like unbridled enthusiasm. Is what drives us, but it also hurts us. Just like you said, we can, something will happen and we'll be like, but we could have done it. We could have made it different. And what you're saying is just accept it. It's the meaning we're giving it.

It's because we're not okay with what happened that it's causing us so much pain.

Randy Lennon: Yeah. And, and it causes us to give up because something unforeseen that we didn't expect happens and we have this. Illusion of control. Now, now, on the other hand, like I'm saying, go for it. I, I would have never done most of the, most of what I would call my accomplishments, I would have never achieved if I didn't, you know just blindly go forward and, and somehow think I could control events.

So, however, when things didn't go the way I expected, you know, we can take any example you want where something goes wrong, okay, wrong, like with quotations. If it's already happened. One, the best thing to do is look at it, like, what do you make it mean? Do you make it mean that you screwed up or that, or that life is, is conspiring against you or, you know, this person you know, is against you.

What are you going to make it mean? Whatever happens, you know, good or bad, but particularly bad. It's like, well, okay, it's happened. Well, how do, how am I going to choose to frame it? What am I going to see? Am I going to see that I'm screwed now? And I got, you know, it's time to quit. I never should have gone down this road, blah, blah, blah.

Or. What's the good in it? What's the potential, what can I, what can I learn from it? Or how can I adjust or, you know, is there something for me to learn here? It could, could it be that I'm, I'm in the wrong business and it's, it's whatever happens. Is an opportunity.

Kelly Kennedy: There's not many people that I've had on my show that have had your experience around you that have spent literally their entire adult life as entrepreneurs at this point, what almost six decades or six decades in business or of some level, how?

Randy Lennon: I'm in my six decades, that's what we put on the Lennon media site.

It's like, it's so fun to look back on it and it's, you know, it's, yeah, it's experience was it all successful? Not at all. Like, I mean, if you go on my LinkedIn profile, you'd probably think I'm a billionaire, like all these fantastic things. And I could create, and it's everything on the LinkedIn profile is, is, is exactly true.

However, I could create another version of a LinkedIn profile, which would all be true. And it would show a person who's completely failed in so many ways. And it would, you'd probably read the profile and you go, Not only do I not want this guy on my podcast, I don't even want to meet him. Like I could lay out all the negative aspects of my life.

So that's just me framing and deciding how to interpret. What happened.

Kelly Kennedy: Like, like I said, anybody could look at your, your work history and see somebody who is incredibly, incredibly accomplished, incredibly successful. Honestly, it's an honor to be chatting with you today, in my opinion.

Randy Lennon: Well, you know, thank you for saying that, Kelly.

And, you know, I know the reality, you know, I'm, I'm a big screw up on many levels. Okay. And so accomplishments. Yeah, I've laid them out there. I'm proud of the impact I had working with Preston Manning in Ottawa. I'm proud of the fact that there's a little, there's a weekly newspaper in Edmonton that has employed people all these years and, and people enjoyed reading it.

I, I'm proud of, you know, doing the crazy midnight with Randy Lennon show on cable television, you know, in the eighties, because People got a lot of laughs out of it and, and I'm proud of it all. And you could call them accomplishments. That's a decision you're making. You're, you're deciding, okay, that's an accomplishment.

And I'm not proud of how I managed my own personal life, how I lied, you know, to my wife. And cheated on her and you know, how I conducted myself in business at times, how my ego got completely out of control and, you know, so, you know, there's, it's how you want to interpret it. And, you know, maybe if you're interviewing the Randy Lennon, who's going to share, you know, how he screwed up, maybe that would be better for your listeners or your viewers.

They, they might get more out of them.

Kelly Kennedy: I think there's lessons on both sides and there's no success without. Some type of struggle, in my opinion, and I mean, it's not alone. I've had lots of conversations with people who say the exact same thing as you. And obviously, one of the problems we all struggle with as entrepreneurs is work life balance.

We all suck horribly at it for the most part, right? It's not easy. In your experience, it sounds like you've come to a bit of an epiphany about work life balance. Can you speak to work life balance and how you were maybe able to accomplish that at some point?

Randy Lennon: Yeah, I actually met with, had a beautiful breakfast with someone who I, I would say is truly accomplished in life.

Her name is Ellen Langer, Dr. Ellen Langer. She's the mother of the Mindful Movement. She's had she's been a Harvard professor since the seventies. She's the first female tenured Harvard professor. She's written 15 books and we, I think it was with her or maybe it was on a podcast I was watching with her.

This whole idea of work life balance came up and it's, and it's, it's kind of the same to me as mind body, you know, the mind body soul, you know, the, the connection. I don't think there's such a thing as, as work life balance or that your personal life and your work life are two separate things. And that there has to be some kind of a Chinese wall or something there.

You know, we do the questions experience workshop for corporations and in the workshop, people answer the questions for themselves. And the, and it's very personal. The question, some of the questions are very powerful. You know, what's the one thing that consistently holds you back in life? So they're in a workplace setting.

And when we do the coaching, if they volunteer for the coaching, it gets very personal, very quickly. You know, people are in tears when they start to realize what really does stop them and why, and so on and so forth. That's in a work setting. So a lot of companies and a lot of managers and CEOs or HR people go, Oh, we can't have that.

You know, we can't have that at work. And it's crazy because there is no Chinese wall between your home life and your work life in a corporation. And certainly not as an entrepreneur, it's all intertwined. Yeah. So how do you create balance? Well, I would say that I'm I was a workaholic. In other words, I, I put what I was doing in what we would call work in my businesses.

I always seemed to have that ahead of my family priorities. And I was doing that unconsciously. I wasn't aware of it, really. You know, my wife would be saying to me, Hey, you know, put the phone down. You know, I was doing it before we had, you know, smart phones, but you know, I was still always wanting to take call if it came in and today, I don't know how anybody, you know, you'd literally have to shut the phone off.

It's pretty hard to be pleasant with your, with your family. Okay. So work life balance, it's like, it's all integrated and. It's, it's a matter of setting priorities and I did not prioritize my time and my focus and my attention. On my loved ones on my immediate family, as I could have, and I'm not saying as I should have because it's, it's happened.

It's in the past because of that. I learned, you know, the hard way by, you know, getting divorced twice and putting my kids, I have three boys you know, one of them came through it quite well, the other two have, but, you know, one of them still doesn't talk to me for the last 10 years. I'm sorry. Like, that's, that's a lot of damage and a lot of pain was that came out of all this quote unquote success that you see in my bio.

Yeah. You know, so if, if, if he happened to watch this, he'd probably say, my dad's full of shit. You know, and he's, he's right. Like from his perspective, I wasn't there for him and the way he needed me to be there. So

Kelly Kennedy: I think so many entrepreneurs and like me included, you know, I've been guilty for those things.

I've been guilty for working my ass off and working late nights and, and honestly, just. Trying to just do what I think is important in that moment. When, yeah, when, when the family's there and I need to be spending time there, I've struggled with it. I'll be the first to say I struggle. Many entrepreneurs I've talked to struggle on that standpoint.

And I think one of the things that we try to tell ourselves is it's just temporary, right? Like right now we got the momentum. We're working hard. We're doing everything we need to do. We're grinding. It'll end. And, and in all fairness, on the other side of this, Randy, I've talked to lots of entrepreneurs who did that and it did end.

They did eventually, but I'll tell you what, almost all of them have that divorce story.

Randy Lennon: Exactly. And, and, and my, my wife today is a beneficiary of everything I learned the hard way. So I'm very present with her. I'm much more present with her kids than I was with my own kids. So, you know, like if there's something to share, it's like, it's a couple of things.

Number one is. I myself always said that, Hey, listen, it's just, I got to get through this. And once we close this deal or once this happens, it was always the famous coyotes deal. You know, we were, I worked on the. Phoenix coyotes deal for years and made no money while I was doing it. It was all on spec. And, you know, I was always telling my kids, Oh, when the coyotes deal closes, then we're going to take this holiday or work, then I'll have to, I tell my wife, I, you know, I, I have to spend this time on it because I got too much invested in.

You know what the, when the coyotes deal closed, we were already separated. So, you know, this money came in finally. And, and it was like, You know, so it's, it's, it's really, we don't really have, there is no future, right? I mean, we, we only have now, you know, I love the the, I heard this first from Dr. Wayne Dyer.

I don't know who came up with it. Maybe him or someone before, but the, you know, the past is history. The future is a mystery right now is all we have. It's a gift. That's why they call it the present. Yeah. Yeah. It's a gift. So when we're, when we have an opportunity, I'll say to you, okay, regardless of what's going on and what you're working on, or I'll say to any entrepreneur who is stressed out building or maybe they're not stressed out.

They're just loving it. Okay. They're, they're pursuing what they're pursuing and they have a family. Okay, especially kids, when they have an opportunity to be present in the present, which is a present, grab it. Put the, the, the, whatever you're doing, put it aside. If your child is right in front of you, and I'm talking about toddler.

All the way up to a young adult child, when I did meet with my son, one of my sons who, who hadn't, he sort of put me out of his life for like five years, when I finally did get the opportunity to sit down with him, I made myself a promise. I met him in a restaurant and I promised myself that phone is off and I am going to be 100 percent with him and it's going to be all about him.

I'm, I'm, I'm going to be there, you know, and it, it worked, it was amazing. Like hadn't seen him for a long time and we ended up, you know, we had lunch and ended up spending six hours together and he told me all kinds of stuff. And you know, he didn't ask me really any questions about me or what was going on in my life, which was fine.

I mean, that that's. So when you have an opportunity to be with your wife, with your spouse, your significant other, your child, your parents, you know, your siblings, when you have an, when an opportunity presents itself to be present, it is a present. No one on their deathbed says, Oh, I wish I would have spent more time on my business.

Or I wish I would have spent more time at the office. What do they say, Kelly? What do people say on their deathbed?

Kelly Kennedy: I wish I would have spent more time with my family. Yeah. And I get it. And I get it. Like on all levels, it makes sense. And I know I have lots entrepreneurs who are saying the same thing.

It's like, yeah, we get it. We want to spend more time with our families, but we're not successful yet.

Randy Lennon: Okay. So you said, okay, so let me cut you off right there. So you used a dirty word, which I want to touch on because I, I do recommend everybody pick up my book, The Dirty Words Book. One of the dirty words is but, okay.

So you said, I get it, but what did you say? But what, but I haven't achieved the level of success I want yet. Right. Okay. So first of all, don't ever say the word, but use the word and because as soon as you say, but you're completely negating what you just said, no one says I'll take this man to be my lawfully wedded husband, but it's like, you know, you could say, I take this man to be my lawfully wedded husband and, you know, we have a prenup agreement.

You know, it's okay. And it's fine. You can always substitute and for, but however, let's, let's look at what you're saying. And you're not successful yet. Meaning what exactly?

Kelly Kennedy: See, I think what it is is that there's everyone has it in their mind that a success comes with a certain, a certain bank account, a certain level of success in your business, a certain point in life where I don't know, maybe it's imaginary, but if you're going to feel it, like, I think we're all searching for this feeling of I made it and I know I'm not alone in this and I know there's tons of entrepreneurs who I've talked to feel the same way and it's like, I'll know when I know.

But is it just a moving target from someone like you?

Randy Lennon: It absolutely is. My experience is I made it several times and it was always hollow. Like, I mean, it felt great. I mean, when the coyotes deal finally closed and the money went into the account, I was like, woohoo, but it was like, okay, now I've got a, what do I do now?

You know, it's like, so it's, it's a cliche. Okay. And it's exactly what to be aware of and how to. Live your life. Okay. Life is a journey. It's not a destination. It's so right now. I mean, I'll, I'll share with you. I never, I never made it as such. Yeah. You look at my life and you say, wow, I'm honored to have you on the show.

Blah, blah, blah. I never made it. Still haven't. And guess what? Kelly, if I quote unquote made it. What would I do then spend time with my family, you know, I wouldn't know what to do.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, I know. I know. And I think that that's the entrepreneur problem. I think we don't know what the hell to do with ourselves.

Randy Lennon: Exactly. So, well, so my advice is. Take the opportunity. Remember, think of the present as a present, as a gift. Okay? Take the opportunity. Do you have kids, Kelly?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, four.

Randy Lennon: Okay. Yeah, so any opportunity that pops up, Hey, take two minutes and just be 100 percent there. Your kids don't need you all day long. I mean, as a matter of fact, They, they, they need to get out on their own and make their own things happen and, you know, be developed into their own people.

However, you can tell if you, if you just raise your consciousness a bit, okay, I'm not talking about starting to meditate and all of it. Just be a little more mindful around your kids and notice. When they seem to want to connect with you and bam, take that opportunity for a minute or for an hour or whatever, or just, you know, grab an opportunity and, and sit down at their level and just.

Look at them in the eye and don't say anything. See what happens. You do have time for that, Kelly. Even though you don't have a million dollars in your bank account, or maybe you have, you know, all your credit cards maxed out and you don't know how you're going to pay the bills, you know, on the 15th, the use I've been there so many times.

And as a matter of fact, one of the worst times in my life where I was really struggling, my kids were quite little and I was able to take time with them because I, I didn't know what else to do, you know? So if you have, I mean, those opportunities present themselves, same with your wife, same with your mother, same with whoever, same with your friends, you know our, our, you know, work life balance, even people we're working with in our business.

Like that's their work associates, like take, take a moment and go look them in the eye and say, Hey, how are you really know what's going on.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. You know, like six decades. You know, in media, what are some of the takeaways that you've gotten from that? You know, obviously, you've learned a lot of lessons in that time.

You've had a ton of employees. What makes a good leader?

Randy Lennon: Well, there's a, I don't, I don't remember who the quote is from. This is what I always think of when I'm asked about leadership. When the best leaders work is done, the people say we did it ourselves. So leadership is I, I mean, I'm, I'm proud to put on my LinkedIn profile that I see more in people than they see in themselves.

And so a leader is always looking just like we say, you know something happens. What do we decide to make it mean when I look at a person, I'm looking for what wonderful about them and what is what their potential is and seeing the best in the people you're working with and reinforcing that is, I think, true leadership.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. And I think like, I think things have, have tooken a change. I want to say since COVID, I think a lot of companies are taking another look at like, how do we do better with our people? How can we treat them better? How can we look after them? How can we work on their schedules? I think there's a lot more of a, of an understanding shift happening.

What, what is your takeaway in that time? What was COVID like for you?

Randy Lennon: Well, it was you know, I, It was, it was great for me. I mean, it was awful on many respects and I choose to see what was great about it. I finished my book, published my book took another run at, at the questions experience, which I believe is, is, I mean, everything I've done, I've been, has been my passion.

The questions experience is, I believe, a calling, which is another level for me. That's my own interpretation of it. So however, let's look at what you just said. You know, COVID has companies maybe taking a closer look at their people. Yeah. Right. Well, their people, any company or organization, it is, that's all it is.

It's the people, right. And interestingly enough. In the next couple of years here, or later this year, or sometime, so much of what people do for work is going to be eliminated by AI. It already is happening. So we get to, and I'm an optimist, right? I mean, they said that video was going to kill the radio star, you know, and they said that, you know, beta and VHS tapes were going to shut down the movie theaters.

And all kinds of other examples of that. And you know, in some cases it's true, like there are no more blockbuster stores because things, you know, digital changed it. And there's a lot of possibility for, you know, quote unquote, evil to take over AI and destroy the world and all the rest of it. I'm an optimist.

I believe that when we, as a AI starts to take, really take hold like COVID was just the first taste of it. It's going to be a complete change. So, if you went through COVID and you look back now and interpret what was good about it for you, get ready to start looking for what's good about AI for you.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Well, you know, my company started in COVID. I'm not sure that I would have done it without the big kick in the ass that I got to do it. Exactly. Yeah. So, for me and a lot of younger entrepreneurs, it was a kick in the ass. To get going. I know a lot of companies that started. I've had a lot of people on the show who started in COVID who wouldn't have done it without COVID.

And so on some level, I owe where I'm at today to COVID. Although I'm not a big fan of what happened, but

Randy Lennon: No, well, in retrospect, it was mishandled terribly. And, and, you know, then we all went along with it in the early stages there because we didn't know no one knew. And I give, you know, I'm not so hard on our leaders.

I'm not exactly a big fan of, of our prime minister on many levels. And of course he, and no one really knew. What to do so hopefully we've learned from it and we'll, we'll handle it differently and there's going to be a lot of that with, with AI. It's like, there's going to be mistakes made and you know, we'll, we'll see what happens.

I I think that the type of introspection that was forced on us. By suddenly being alone in our homes is the type of introspection that's going to be forced on a lot of people in the next year or so when they suddenly lose their job or their, you know, their things are going to, things are changing, you know, at a, at a, at a rapidly, you know, an exponential pace.

So, you know, people are going to find themselves. Lost.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes.

Randy Lennon: Especially if they identify with what they do. Yeah. If that's, if they think that what they do is who they are. So it's, it's, you know, we're, we're supposed to be, we're supposed to have been in the middle of a spiritual awakening since like the seventies, you know, it was the dawn of the age of Aquarius.

There's a song like, and. I, I think it's going to accelerate very quickly. That's why I'm excited about putting on the questions experience, because it's a, it's an opportunity for a day to stop, have some fun talking about dirty words, and then answering these incredibly powerful yet simple aid questions for yourself, and then sitting in a group of people and taking turns being coached on, on your answers, it's a great opportunity for, For, for self-awareness and introspection.

Kelly Kennedy: How did you end up starting the questions experience? Take us back to the beginning.

Randy Lennon: It started because you know, one of my businesses in like 19 97, the fall of 1997, I had an internet company and television company combined. And you know, it's, it's an awful story what happened. But I said, you know, I had nefarious partners slash investors who I have forgiven by the way they basically screwed me over.

And I was all of a sudden my own company was forced into bankruptcy and at a point where I thought I was going to become a. com billionaire. Like I owned a company that did one of the first internet television brought the first in Canada. Internet television broadcast, except I didn't, I didn't know enough about business and, and about capital raising.

And that's one of the reasons I went into the capital raising business later to learn about the finance side. Anyway, I suddenly with a new baby was out on my ass so to speak. Literally and figuratively. And I had since 19. So that was 1998 in the spring of 1998. No part. Let me think. Yeah.

19, 1997, 1998, somewhere in there. I had done a lot of personal development. There's a company called Landmark Education that still exists today that. I did a thing called the communication course and the forum. And these are weekend retreat type transformational type of workshops. So I had done a lot of those in the early nineties and I, when I suddenly was without a business and with no opportunity as such, I thought, well, I better, I better, better, you know, take.

Even at that point, my vast experience and create my own workshop basically. So I created a weekend retreat type thing, which was kind of similar to, to what landmark was doing. And I needed 10 people to make it work and I had four people signed up. And it was the week before the workshop, the weekend retreat.

And I thought, I, I better I should, Send them a questionnaire, the four people that have signed up and ask them a few questions to kind of get a feel for where they're at so that I can make the workshop more powerful for them individually, like understand about them. So I sat down with a pen and I wrote down a, these eight questions one after the other, and then I put them into a document and no, I, I don't know how it worked back then.

I think we had email. Anyway, I sent it to them and I said, Hey, answer these questions, send them back to me and then we'll get on the phone and talk about it. And that is essentially where the questions experience started because it turns out we never even did the weekend workshop, but those four people, I did those, what essentially was a coaching session.

I didn't even stab the term coaching at that by talking to them about their answers to these powerful questions. And man, they, they, they all were like, there were tears flowing and things happening. And I realized, wow, there's something powerful about these questions. And that was the start of it.

And it's just developed over the years. So I do it as a one on one coaching thing. I've probably done it with. I've done it with hundreds of people one on one, and then I started doing workshops with it, and we, you know, in, in 90, I mean, 2005, we actually did some public workshops. And then we, we did it again in 2016, 17.

And it was always something off the corner of my desk, you know, it wasn't real. It wasn't my real business. So it was just something, and most of the time, most of the people had done the questions with me. I didn't charge them, right. It was just. And so with COVID, I decided to finish the book, which is the, so the questions experience is this first part of it is just exploring these dirty words, have to, should, try, but, can't, hope, wish, these are dirty and there's a whole bunch of other ones that we can create that are words that we can eliminate from our vocabulary.

Like if you stop saying, but, and always substitute and. It can make a huge difference. I'll tell you one quick example, okay? So, I'm driving to my kids hockey practice. Or game. I forget which. My phone rings. This is like 20 years ago. My phone rings, and it's my buddy. And he goes Hey, we're going down to Brewster's.

This is in Calgary. For have a few beers. Are you coming over? And I said, Oh, no, I can't. Dirty word. I wish I could. Dirty word. I have to take my son, Chris to hawk three dirty words. Okay. Now, why am I saying I can't as if like it's out of my control, you know, it's impossible. No, I could go if I wanted to.

Number two I wish I could, you know, like, what am I doing there? I'm trying to let them down easy. I mean, you know, like I would come, but I, I can't, it's impossible, you know, what, what am I, what is that? Okay. Now listen, here's my kid in the back of the car hearing that. Oh man, I can't, I wish I could, but.

I have to take my kid to hockey. Yeah, he's feeling well. It was a lie, Kelly. That was a lie. It wasn't even true. I could have said, Hey, thanks for the offer. I'm not coming because I get to take my kid to hockey. I get to. Now, first response, which was unconscious and full of dirty words, my son's probably sitting in the back going, Oh, my dad would rather be going to drink beer with his buddies, but he has to take me to off, which wasn't even true.

I was more than happy. I was just trying to somehow let them down easy. It's like when you say to your buddy, Oh, sorry, I can't, or I'll try to be there when, you know, it's like they could take it. Yeah. But. They're fine. So it's, that's a little example of, of the dirty words. So we do the dirty words workshop.

We get everybody thinking about all these stupid words that we use that not only are They're disempowering, they screw up communication because we say, well, I'll try to be there. No, we're not going to try to be there. We're not coming. If someone says, I'm going to try to be there, they're just not being honest with you.

And they, for some stupid reason, trying to let you down easy and said, you know, it's like, there's so much of that in our everyday life. So we explore that. Okay, and we create these words and we say, okay, now when you answer the questions, don't use any of these words. Then we move into there.

Kelly Kennedy: I find that so interesting and like, how did you come to this conclusion about these dirty words?

Because it's like, I think many people say these things all the time and don't think twice about it. What was it that changed your view on them?

Randy Lennon: I, I really don't know. I think like the dirty words book. It has a certain take on it and there's all kinds of books and this is not a new concept. I think for sure, I picked some of it up from Anthony Robbins, you know, in the, in the early late, in the early nineties there when I, when I I actually had the chance to meet him and, and went to all of his big workshops.

And there's very, I mean, it's nothing new. My take on it is just instead of we have just identifying them and comparing them to swear words, right? So there's a seven words you can't say on TV. Which six or seven of them you can. And, and and, and I just say, we, we are very careful with swear words.

Like we're aware of where we can say them and where we don't want to say them yet. A word like bought or should. You know, we're constantly shitting all over people around us are shitting all over ourselves. You know, I should do this. No. Well, why would you say that? I'm going to do this. I get to do this or, you know, I can't.

No, I'm choosing not to do it. It's my choice. I live. I, I'm at, we're all at choice all the time. We're not being buffeted through life. Although it seems that way. And most of us live that way. We're just like buffeted by the winds.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Well, they say 95 percent of what we do is unconscious, right? It's like, it's a very small amount that isn't.

Randy Lennon: Yeah. Yeah. So just becoming caught and believe me, the dirty words concept I've been working with for like, whatever it is, close to 30 years, and I still catch myself using dirt, using those dirty words. Wow. So it's, it's very entrenched.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Deep programming. Yeah. Randy, talk about some of the other work that you do through Lenin impact media.

Randy Lennon: Well, we're doing a series of true life stories. We're doing dramatic adaptations of true life stories. So we have five of them on the goal right now, where we're. Taking there's a very well known Edmonton fellow that I'm not at liberty to say who it is because he hasn't decided yet whether we actually are going to make a movie or a series out of it.

And he, he's partnered with us because our model is a little bit different than the Hollywood model. The, the focus of the story, like if we wanted to tell your true life story, Kelly, if it was at a point where you thought, yeah, I've, I've. Or there's some aspect of it that you think would make a great movie or Netflix series.

You come to us, you pay us a fairly significant fee for us to engage and actually write with you the screenplay with a top Hollywood screenplay writer. And however you retain your rights. To the story and you're the executive producer of your own. You're in control of the process. Okay. So that's what I protracted the people that we've got so far.

And so we complete a screenplay. It's sort of like hiring someone to help you write your book and publish your book. Yeah. And only this is. To create a story, so I would say for you or anybody listening or watching, who do you know whose story just has to be told or would make a great feature film or series?

They can contact me and we can explore whether we think we agree. And if so, you know, we can engage. So we're doing that in my Meridian business, which I'm, which is for sale right now, that's an advisory firm. That's over the years we've raised capital and help companies grow and so on and so forth, and I'm just, I'm ready to move on from that.

So I have some younger guys that are involved. We're looking for someone to step in and take over that's Meridian impact partners. And then we're, I'm going to be focusing on that. I'm also Involved in a group that's going to be doing something with an NHL team, which is confidential right now, which I'm really excited about.

So yeah. And and I live in Guadalajara, which is a perfect weather all year round, except in the summer, it gets a little hotter. So guess what? I get on my, I go to Scottsdale, Arizona, where I store my motorcycle. I get on it in sometime in May. And then I scoot around Western Canada. I'll be in Calgary most of the month of May, we're doing a men's health expo on, I think it's May 9th and 10th and we're going to, we have a booth there for the questions experience and then we're going to be doing an actual questions experience workshop where we're more focused on doing it for in the corporate world.

However, we're do, we're gonna start doing the odd one that's open to individuals. So we're gonna do one on May 25th in Calgary, and depending on how that goes and the response, we'll maybe we'll do one in Edmonton later on in the summer.

Kelly Kennedy: Perfect. Perfect. Where can people find more information on the questions experience?

Randy Lennon: The questions experience? It's tqexperience.com. Or thequestionsexperience.com or right now, if they go to Eventbrite. They can they, they, that event for the 25th is there. Best thing though, would be to contact me directly cause I can send them a 50 percent discount link.

Kelly Kennedy: Perfect. Well, this show will be airing after that. But, me and you can get in contact and you can let me know if you have an upcoming one after that. Let me know and I'll make sure it's in all the links.

Randy Lennon: Okay, that sounds great. Well, especially if it's in Edmonton. I think a lot of your listeners are in Edmonton.

Kelly Kennedy: We're across Canada at this point, so no matter where you go, you'll find somebody. Randy, it's been an absolute honor. Let me just be the first to say, I grew up in Spruce Grove. So I grew up reading the Spruce Grove Examiner. It was my first experience of a newspaper as a kid. I think I got my first job through there.

I think I bought my first car through there. So I just want to say that for me, it's, it's an honor, dude. I, you know what I mean? I grew up looking at your work from a young, young kid. And you did, you made a huge, huge impact. You continue to, and it is an honor to have you on today.

Randy Lennon: It was really, thank you for saying that.

And, and I just tell you one story, I forget who it is now, but somebody that I was doing business with who kind of, I think I felt was kind of like more on a higher level, sort of in whatever business we were doing. Someone that I looked up to, he said, yeah, I used to deliver this, the West Edmonton examiner when I was a kid, he says, that was my first job.

Wow. I'm old.

Kelly Kennedy: No, you made a, you made a heck of an impact and I think it's really cool that, you know, you just still come back just to ride your motorcycle around Canada, I think it's amazing.

Randy Lennon: Yeah. So maybe we'll see, we'll see you in the summer.

Kelly Kennedy: I hope so. I hope to connect at some point. This has been episode 146 of the Business Development Podcast.

We've been graced by Randy Lennon. Until next time, we'll catch you on the flip side.

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

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