Say I Did with Colin Harms

Say I Did with Colin Harms

Kelly Kennedy: ​Welcome to milestone episode 70 of the business development podcast. And on today's exciting episode, we have serial entrepreneur, Colin Harms with us. He is currently the president of Hypervac technologies and really cool. He has implemented a lot of the strategies we talk about on this show. Stay tuned.

You're going to love this one.

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 70 milestone episode 70 of the business development podcast, and I am super, super excited for the guest we have today. It's a listener of the show. He's been with us since the very beginning, and he has implemented all of our business development steps to great success.

Today, we have Colin Harms. Colin is a serial entrepreneur hailing from Lethbridge, Alberta. He embodies the value of hard work and determination that was instilled in him by his family from a young age. His journey in the world of business development has been nothing short of remarkable. Starting as a dishwasher and evolving into a lifelong mentorship that spanned an incredible 35 years, his mentor, a successful restaurateur, taught him the invaluable lesson of showing up every day and going the extra mile.

Lessons that would shape Colin's future. Colin's career took unexpected turns from managing restaurants before the age of 20 to selling food products to restaurants for a national provider. However, his pivotal moment came when he joined BFI, a garbage company, and grew to love nurturing customer relationships and saving accounts over the next 17 years.

Concurrently, he ventured into real estate, becoming a licensed agent in Alberta in 2008, building a successful career through strong relationships and strategic planning. In 2020, Colin's entrepreneurial spirit led him to acquire Hypervac Technologies, North America's leading air duct truck and portable vacuum manufacturer, during the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Despite having no prior knowledge of the field, Colin's curiosity and dedication led transformative success as he navigated the complexities of business ownership during uncertain times. Colin's story is a testament to perseverance, adaptability, and a relentless pursuit of growth, making him a valuable guest on the business development podcast, where he will inspire you and educate listeners with his unique journey and wealth of experience.

Colin, you know, it's a pleasure to have you on. Thank you for coming.

Colin Harms: Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Kelly Kennedy: Dude. When you reached out to me and let me know, you know, I mean, you've been with me from the beginning. Frankly, I appreciate you immensely because you, you have like been a vocal fan of the show since the very beginning.

And I mean this, like me and you started talking for the very first time on February 25th. I couldn't have had four episodes at that time.

And I just, I appreciate you immensely and, you know, along the way you've provided me a lot of encouragement. You're one of those fans who's definitely reached out and let me know that I'm doing a good job. And I appreciate that immensely because it's such a lonely world, the world of podcasting, you don't hear from too many people.

So I appreciated that. And I think it was my 21st episode, you sent me like a congratulations, you've made it to the top percentile. And I was like, what? I had no idea, but he sent me this. video that was like explaining that if you had 21 episodes or above, you were in the top percentile of podcasters. So it's been, you know, we've been doing this journey together.

It's not just you.

Oh, goodness. Yeah, it's awesome. But you know, you reached out to me, I think it was about two weeks ago. And you said, Kelly, look, I've been implementing all of the steps. I've been listening to all of your shows and working on implementing each one of the lessons in it. And we've been having amazing success.

I've now switched to 100 percent business development. I've hired an operations guy to kind of do what I was doing. And now I'm doing this full time and it's awesome. And I was like, okay, you got to come on the show because we have to hear your story. And then I want to know what it was like to Actually implement this for your business and for our listeners to understand how to do it.

Colin Harms: Sure. It's should we start at the beginning?

Kelly Kennedy: Absolutely. Take me back. Take me back to the very beginning.

Colin Harms: Okay. Let's let's go back to 1988.

Kelly Kennedy: That is my birth year, Colin.

Colin Harms: So

now I feel a lot older, but I'm 50. So here's how it all started. And it was pretty exciting. And I think my entrepreneurial spirit started that day. My mom had taken me into a restaurant to pick my brother up cause he had quit his job. And we were sitting there and the owner of the restaurant came over and said how old are you?

He just looked at me. He said, how old are you? And I said, I was 14. And he said, do you need a job? And 10 minutes later, I was washing dishes, literally. Wow. Which was amazing because I had one goal in mind. I had two years to save up some money to buy a car. Yeah. I'd be turning 16 and my dad made a deal.

He said, son, whatever whatever money you have, I'll match it when you turn 16 and you buy a car. So we fast forward two years and the day I turned 16, I said to my dad, here's the address. I found this car. We need to go buy it. And I said, it's 3, 400. And he said, well. You don't have 3, 400. I said, you're right.

I have 1, 700 and you have 1, 700. That's the deal we made. And true story, my dad had to go get a loan for the 1, 700. He said, well, I never thought you would actually do this. So, the whole part was my dishwashing job was two hour shifts. It was four to six and, and I was making like 3. 50 an hour or something.

But I just figured it was simple math. Just do the math at three bucks an hour. I got to work a lot of hours to buy a car. So I just learned. You know, to multiply that money out, how am I going to make this happen? And the fellow that owned the restaurant, he had owned a number of them. I had heard his story.

We really got along well, even though I was a kid. He mentored me that way. And he just, you know, he just brought me along and he said, Hey, you can move from this step to this step. You know, from dishwasher to cook, to line cook, to kitchen manager. You know, to managing the restaurant, the lounge, that type of thing.

I just learned my way through and, and you know what, I love that job and I loved it so much that this is the weird part. He's still one of my best friends. He was in, he was the best man in my wedding. And people said, is that your dad? I'm like, no, it's just my dad was the one doing the ceremony because he's a pastor.

And and anyway, and so now. I still see him three or four times a week. We have a coffee. He still owns the restaurants. Years later, he's 80, he turned 81 yesterday, but we just go through business and he, I wouldn't say he's a mentor anymore. He's more of my greatest cheerleader. Sure. He's just always been there for me that way.

So that, that's, that was my career into working. I have a social insurance number. I could get paid. And I just, I love doing it. And I never once thought I come from a family of just working people and that's what we knew. My dad had immigrated to Canada for Mexico when he was 14. So you just know you just go to work, right?

That's what you do. So when I graduated high school we just didn't know post secondary. That wasn't even a word we talked about. It was just like, well, I guess I can go. Do more stuff. Yeah. So, so that was my, my restaurant experience which led into, and you can, whatever, just cut me off or do whatever you have to, as we're going.

I had a conversation with a guy that sold food to the restaurants. He, he, I was his customer. And he said, Hey, I'm leaving my job. I think you should apply for this job. You, you would be really good at it. And so I applied. And I remember, you know putting on my dad's suit, I think, and driving up to Calgary to this big office and having an interview.

Yeah. And I, and I get this job. And that was selling food to restaurants and seniors homes. And, Kelly, this honestly happened. I left there. They offered me the job. A few days later, they said, okay, you're going to meet a guy in this parking lot. He's going to hand you a laptop and a list of customers to go see.

Yeah. And, and you just go fulfill their orders. Yeah. So that was like the wow. The day it all happened. And so I took it. I'd never had a laptop. I felt pretty cool. I had a pager. Yeah. Didn't know how to use any of that stuff. And, and, you know, what though? Just such a great experience. Like I love the company.

Like I actually, I loved working there. I was proud to work there. That was back in the day. If you were a customer sales rep or distributor sales rep, they called us. We had to wear a tie every day. You know, but it felt good. I felt important. And, and they just trained us like it was so, so we, you know, we transferred to that and then, you know, I'd been doing really good.

Like I was getting bonuses, like I had benefits. I had a car allowance. It was just a new way of doing things.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, totally. I I apologize. I cut you off there for a second. I I'm really interested. So like you said, you know, back then this is the nineties, right? Is this like the early nineties? Okay.

Yeah. So back then, you know what I mean? You got sales training. Tell us what was sales training like in the early nineties.

Colin Harms: So our sales training was really funny because it wasn't it. Every Friday I had to drive, I had to drive to Calgary to the head office and they would bring in food suppliers.

You know, distributors and show us, Hey, here's the latest seafood. Here's, you know we're going to take a meat cutting course. We're going to go through these plants. They didn't really do training. They just basically said, here's the product you have now go represent it. Gotcha. And you know, there was a, like an army of us.

Out there that would go and do that and it was competitive, like, it was kind of like you know, the sheep and the wolf or whatever you wake up in the morning. And I remember there was a guy that was quite a bit older than I was and he was my top competitor. And, and he had been in the industry like 40 years and I would walk into a hotel and he'd be like, morning, Colin, I'd be like, morning, Frank and and, and we would see each other, follow us to all these accounts.

Kelly Kennedy: Run to the concierge.

Colin Harms: And, and, and I just had one goal is if I could ever beat that guy.

That's what I got to do, right? I got to sell more tomatoes. And that's how simple it was. I was selling tomatoes and and stuff like that. And you know what we within 4 years, we just slaughter the market. Like, we just became the number 1 by far. Like, it wasn't even, I think we went up 80 percent in business.

Kelly Kennedy: Wow. Wow. That's crazy. And so you were essentially just like hopping in your car, driving from like place to place restaurant, selling tomatoes.

Colin Harms: Yes. Seriously. I get in my car. I had a list of restaurants and people and like we didn't have cell phones, right? It was a pager, you know, Wally called. He needs a bag of onions.

And, and you know what? But I, it was insane for me, the amount of money I was able to earn. What I was able to do, you know, I got married when I was 25 and it was just like, and people would say like, how is he doing this? And I was just like, well, it's just work. That's what you do. And that's where I started to read books.

Right. I was like, how do I get better at this? And I just, you know. Go to the bookstore, they had a book, you know, and, and yeah, self help books is what it was. And I listened to whatever I can, you know, CDs, I would order CDs and I know that sounds cliche, but I did. And then I would, just like I said, with you, Kelly is the stuff you're putting out today.

It's like a living book for me. I don't have to go back, you know, to something that was written in the seventies or eighties or earlier. That's why I love your show is every week. I'm like, Oh, this is like a brand new book. Just arrived in the mail. I'm going to implement this on Monday morning. Listen to it on Sunday and implement it on Monday.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh man.

That's amazing. And I talk about it all the time because I wasn't sure how this show would be received to be honest. Like, you know, I mean, it's 2023 and I'm telling people to do things that we did, you know, in the early 2000s or in, you know, the nineties. And I'm saying, look, you know, I get it. We live in this technological time, but like people still need people.

People still need relationships and relationships still trump everything else. And I feel like I'm struggling a little bit with that message. And that the struggle really is the fact that We live in a time now when people are, they want everything to be easy. They want everything to just happen. You know, we wanna be able to put out all this passive marketing strategy for our phone just to ring and it's just not how it works.

You know, maybe one day, but we're not there today.

Colin Harms: I, I agree a hundred percent. And, and you know what? It's that whole relationship building thing. Like, so when I was in that job with a food distributor I'd come across an ad again. Paper ads were everything, right? Yeah. I remember. And, and there was an ad advertising for a sales position with a, with a garbage company.

And that's when we conversed and I said, that's when all the, everything turned to garbage. Was I applied for this job. I loved the job I was in and I interviewed for it. And the guy had said, his name is Tom, and he said it's a retention salesperson position. I said, sounds good. And he's like, do you know what that is?

And I said, I have no idea actually. And he said, you need to retain accounts, build relationships with customers. A new national public company had come to town. And they feel that we've been overpriced for years and he had no competition. And, and so then he, he said what it would pay and it was less than I was making.

And I just felt compelled to take the job. I'm like, you know what, I should take this job. Like this sounds like a great change. So I accepted it and yeah, that's where things turned to garbage.

Kelly Kennedy: So, was it just like you needed a change at that time? What inspired you to take that position over one that paid like when it paid less?

Colin Harms: Yeah, like I was a little redundant. Like I, you know, it was more door to door, but restaurants, you know, hotels, hospitals, that type of thing. I was selling the same case of tomatoes every week for four years and it was good, right? And then You know, I'm selling Campbell's soup literally, right. And I'm, and I'm winning these trips and I'm doing this stuff.

And I'm like, I'm not really getting ahead. Like, like I kind of looked at it and said, well, what more can I do? I could become a sales manager. I could have a team under me. At the, at that time, I didn't want to move away from Lethbridge. You know, we were having kids and stuff. And so I just said, you know what, maybe I'll, I'll try a different job.

And, and I think that's the entrepreneurial part of me was, it's, I always use this thing as if it's Wayne Gretzky, I'm a big oilish fan and we'll get into that when we talk about Hypervac. I look at a guy like Wayne Gretzky and when is the best time to retire is when you're at your absolute peak, right?

I really believe that is if you're an athlete or, you know, if you're going to sell your business, I don't think you wait for the downturn. Right. Like if there's opportunity or offers or whatnot, you really need to consider it. And so that was me at that, at that job, I'm like, Oh, I think I'm at the top of my game.

I want to, I want to go play for a different team. So, so, so I got into the garbage world and I was mesmerized by it. One was people said it's mafia run. You know, and I'm sure I think it is,

I did do a trip to New York and it's pretty

but, but once again, there's these corporations out there that take a guy that I had a grade 12 education. They never once thought of that because most of them. Maybe it is a mafia just grew up on the streets and make it happen. But you know what, Kelly? They honestly, like they come in here and you're a retention salesperson.

Okay. So I just start retaining accounts and building relationships. And I did that and then it was like, what more can we do? And then our company got acquired and so there was an asset freeze and I was so young I didn't even understand what these things mean and they're like that means we can't buy equipment and at that day we can't buy garbage bin so you can't actually sell so you're going to have to, you know go up to Calgary and see what they can help you with.

So I said, well, what if I get my, my license to drive these trucks and then I can help out that way. Cause we, we weren't allowed to do anything while the company was being taken over. So that was the day I, I called it like the Schwann's ice cream. Like I, I had a picker truck full of garbage bins and I would just drive farm to farm and sell them.

And I would pull in with a bin and say, Hey, do you need garbage removal? And, and we built up quite a business doing that. The business was acquired and I ended up staying with the company the existing company and they divested a bunch. And then they, you know, I, I worked my way into a promotion for operations manager.

So I did that as well as sales. Business development, what wasn't the thing back then, like it is now you just kind of shoot from the hip and go and, and you know what, and then fast forward, like I was there 17 years three, three mergers happened and I stayed for all of them. And then in the, in the latter years, I watched as things were divested and, you know, I'll use an example like today I could wake up and I would have.

You know, normal workplace and tomorrow I wake up and 400 people across the board were let go, right? Because there's just synergies and people are gone and you come from oil and gas.

So I wondered if like, when is my day coming? Like I worked my way up to a district manager and then we're operating a landfill, which I knew nothing about, but learned about it. And then May the 4th, 2017 came. I just left the night before I was at an Oilers playoff game. I drove late in the night and I got the call.

Hey, when are you going to be in the office? I said, Oh, I should be there right away. What's up? And I pulled up and it was kind of like a movie. Oh, today's the day. And I walked in, I walked down the hallway. I looked in the boardroom, knew which guys were sitting there and 10 minutes, I was back outside. Oh man.

And and so I phoned my wife and I said, Hey I just got let go. And she's like, from what? And I'm like, well, my, my job of 17 years, and she says, what are we going to do? And I go, whatever we want. And, and you know what, I, I don't know why, but I, I felt like it was the greatest thing that ever happened.

Not to say, not to say I didn't have a lot of questions and you know, why now, like, why no lead up to this? What are we going to do? It just meant to me as I can go do whatever I want.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes, right. Can I, can I pause you there for a sec? Yeah. 100%. There's a lot of people that losing a job after 17 years would be emotionally destroying, just soul crushing.

I just, how were you able to, how were you able to take a positive spin on something like that? I 17 years of your life. That's a long time. You know, that's your, that's half your career and you lose your job. Yeah. And you were able to spin it. Is that just who Colin harms is, or how were you able to do that?

Colin Harms: I think it is. And I think it was part of what. You know, I was developing my mindset to be, to be ready for anything. I'm a human being. So in that 17 years in, in a bunch of acquisitions and people leaving and good friends, you like, you make a lot of good friends because your friends are your business.

I think I was just prepared. And, and over the time I had said, you know what, maybe it's time for me to be doing something different. When's my day coming and it never came. And then I was always involved in real estate as well. Right. I, I was doing that as a side hustle, I guess. And I said, you know what, I'm just going to dive in and, and go for it.

And always wanted to buy a business, right. Had some small startups in there. You know, personal coaching, which we had talked about offline that type of thing, always helping people, always wanting to do more on the side or at night or on the, on the weekends. And Kelly, honestly, I just thought this is the greatest day ever.

But when I, when my wife got home from her work, she wasn't thinking this is the greatest day ever. Like a hundred, a hundred percent security was done. Right. Like the benefits were cut off that day. Like there was no more paycheck. You know, I, I'm, it's not like we're sitting on a pile of cash. But but I knew I just needed to get hit the ground running.

And I, I remember making phone calls to, you know, friends and business acquaintances and just saying, Hey, this just happened. And and I said, this is really exciting, like in a weird way, but I can't wait to see what happens. Yeah, and, and, and I don't want to go into the details, but the way, the way I was let go and whatnot, it kind of ends on any corporate story that way.

The next two years I was fighting them, I guess, in a way on a severance. And at, at the end of the day that where it ended was, they said, you're like 42 years old. In the last two years I had to produce all these records for them. Yeah. You've actually made more money than when you were working for us.

So let's just call it a day. And Bye. And, and I said, okay, I guess I just walk away and you know what I did and, and, and they said, if you walk away and you sign this piece of paper, there is no coming back. And I said, yeah, a hundred percent. Why would I ever, why would I ever come back? I'm not, I'm not that guy.

Yeah. And you know what? It felt great to walk away and be done with it. And yeah, the rest is history.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, you appear to have done pretty well for yourself despite it.

Colin Harms: Yeah, I've had a number of people, you know, that I worked with that it's happened to them since. Right? And just like you said, like, not the same situation like really devastated.

Some never recovered, right? Like mentally they're kind of spinning out of control and, and, and it is devastating for them for sure. And then I, you know, I try to like help them and walk them through it and how can we get you going somewhere else or on a new path? And, and it's not really that easy for everybody.

No I don't, I don't think I have any advantage that anyone else has other than I wake up every day and, and, and, I mean, I've sent you messages early in the morning just because I wake up every day, knowing that no matter what happened yesterday, tomorrow's a new day.

Kelly Kennedy: You know what I think is the difference and you know, I'm not, I'm not, you know, hating on people that just take a career position if that's you and that's your life.

Absolutely. You know, I power to you. There's nothing wrong with that. But I think you put a lot of value and trust in other people when you do that. And the person that you need to have the most value and trust in is yourself. Right. And I think when you're a career person, you know, if something happens at the business, it's happening to you, somebody's doing that to you.

But correct me if I'm wrong calling, but I feel like you took accountability for your life at that moment. And you said, look, whatever's happening next, I'm going to make sure that it happens under under my rules.

Colin Harms: Yeah, that's exactly right. And I implement that every day, even now, because I mean, We run a real business, right?

It's a living, breathing document every day. Lots of great days, lots of not great days. But no matter what happens, that's just what you have to do. Right. Total. Roll, roll with the punches. You know, we make mistakes. I make mistakes and how do I not do that? And I, and actually I find myself every day, you know, almost every day I go home and I walk my dog and I reflect on what could have been done different.

But the difference is I'm a hundred percent accountable to me. Yeah, so, so when something goes wrong, I can't hide and say, Oh, I guess that'll go away. Sorry. Sorry. We lost that account. We'll get another one. Everyone I lose is actually impacts me. Yeah. Right. And it's a direct result. So I can either sit there and let it go away.

Or I can do something different and go after it tomorrow.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. You can make a choice every day on what action you're going to take. You know, if you're a business owner or an employee, you can choose, I'm either going to put in the effort today and make it different, or I'm going to do the same old, same old and just coast, right, we all have to choose.

Colin Harms: Yeah, and I heard one of your I was listening last night again to your question and answer period. And the one thing you said that really hit me was if you're doing business development and you're cold calling and you said, I think it went, if you call somebody and you don't get an answer or you get a rejection, it doesn't mean that's forever.

You said pause, give them a week. I love the way you said it. Give them the week off . Yeah. And call 'em the week after. And I'm like, yes, that's exactly it. Like, but I think what happens, even in our life, we hit a roadblock and we just stop. Right? Yeah. And then I'm gonna implement that one into my life, even where No, shoot.

Like I don't have to just stop. Like I'm just gonna give that a week off and I'm gonna revisit it in a week. Even a personal thing I need to do. Right? Like, I, I got off track on something. Well, give it a week off and come back a week later and hit it again. And that's, that's business development, but that's also personal development.

Like, it's so much deeper than just, you know, account management, right? It's like personal. If that makes sense. I don't want to confuse it, but yeah, no, no, no. That's how I took it.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think what I was kind of getting at with that was you don't want to be a pushy person. The reality is if you call somebody, you miss them and you got to leave a voicemail or you got them and you know, they're like, Hey, I'm super busy this week.

No big deal. Like sweat off your back, man. Like don't take it personally. Or if they say, Hey, I don't know if this looks like a good fit, but you really want this company. That person is just one person. There's still lots of other people you can reach out to with that company. You know, just because you get a no from one person doesn't mean that you need to give up.

It just means you need to try someone else and, you know, maybe give it a week.

Colin Harms: Well, and I think that's such a integral part of business is when you're looking at a problem, even right. It's, it's, I love it when people say, no, like people that work with me that I, Oh, that, that can't happen. How come? Why?

That just won't work. Well, how will it work? Like, how about we look at another thing and then it's a little bit like I'm a dog on a bone, right? How can we do it faster? And like I was saying to you as well, because I watched this show like pre World War II. And they were doing it then, so I think in 2023, we could do better.

Yeah. Don't tell me no.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Honestly, I don't think, I mean, you know, I mean, you know, we talked about this before. I don't think there's anything that people can't do if they don't, if they choose to do it. If they choose to try. I don't think there's almost anything that we can't do as humans.

So it's just making that choice. And you know, I mean, whether, whether you choose to quit your job and start a business or whether you choose to, you know, crush it and make 20 sales calls today, the only thing stopping you is you making the decision. That's right. Right. So, I don't know. We're always trying to kind of inspire people to kind of take that leap.

And, and at the same time, We almost all need a little kick in the butt to do it like, you know, for you, you lost, you got, you got let go. For me, I found out that they weren't sure what the future looked like and I needed to make some hard choices. And you know, everyone I talk to you for the most part has had to have a little kick in the butt to do it.

And I hope that maybe this show is the little kick in the butt for you guys listening who are, you know, maybe you're on the fence and you have a great idea and you want to just do it. Or maybe you've, you've done all the steps. You just haven't quit your job and jumped yet. Once you jump, you will have no choice but to figure out how to make it work.

And that will give you the motivation you need to make it work. Believe me.

Colin Harms: Yeah. Yeah. I agree a hundred percent. And we had touched on offline on, on Nike says, just do it, which is great. They make billions of dollars off that slogan, which I think is. And, and under under armor says I will, and it's plastered all over hockey arenas and baseball and football.

And, and that's the brand I came up with. I did based on the premise of just do it. I will. I did. Right. Yeah. Well, if you can't, if you can't say I did. You're actually not there. Right. And it's a little bit harsh. Like maybe it's mean, but, but ask yourself that question every day. Did I do what I said I was going to do?

Did I make the dials? Right. Did I, did I show up at work on time? Not late. Did I, you know, finish the projects I said I was going to do. And it doesn't matter what vocation you're in. Just ask that question. And I bet you're going to have a resounding heartfelt, harsh answer of no, I didn't. Yeah. And then if you look at your results, it's pretty easy to do the math.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. And then you kind of have to ask yourself to, you know, I mean, especially if it, if you want to take an entrepreneurial jump, what happens if you don't, right? How are you going to feel about that? If you never. Act on it. If you never take that step, are you going to be able to, are you going to be happy?

Are you going to be able to live with that decision? Because you're going to have to. And so sometimes trying something and maybe it not working is still better than never trying it at all. And you got to kind of juggle that in your head.

Colin Harms: Oh, and you know what? I'll use an example. Back as reading a Calgary sun and in that Calgary sun, there was an ad that said SMS text messaging.

This is before. We did it like we do today and it was for real estate. It said, text this code, receive information. And so I said, holy, this is amazing. I can't believe this could actually happen. So I went home and I contacted the company and I said, I want to do this. I want to do this, but I actually want to own the company.

And so we got, we got chatting and I put a couple of guys together and you know, a couple of months later we owned the district, the franchise for Western Canada. But we have no idea what we were doing. Right. So we put this money in and we were doing presentations and, and we got some things going, some things, not a lot lost, lost more money than we got going.

I'll put it that way. And, and I ended up walking away from it. And now I look like. Geez, there's a hurricane in Florida and then you can text this number to the Red Cross and give money. Well, I'm thinking, geez, I guess I could have been a billionaire by now, but but, but, but Kelly didn't have his podcast.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh, goodness. Yeah. Yeah. I'm worried about what I'm worried about who my Kelly is going to be that didn't have the podcast.

Colin Harms: Well, isn't, isn't that true though? Like those, if. I look at over the things, like you said, if you don't try it or you're gonna regret it, right? Yeah. I, I've tried, right? I had a, an inkjet filling store that I tried with some friends and it, it turned out okay in the end.

Great experience. That's why I keep telling my wife. It was a great experience. Yeah, we didn't lose anything, but we learned a lot. And she always says, but we didn't gain anything. I'm like, well, not financially, but experience is worth the world. Then we have the text business that I walked away from and left it with my partners and, and those guys haven't done much with it.

And I wish they would have but it's, it's taking that step and saying, you know what, I'm going to try this. Yeah. And then, and then I never look at it like, did it fail? Well, I didn't, I didn't have any systems, right? So of course it didn't, it didn't move ahead. And that's what it was. We just didn't have systems.

Yeah. And I just keep on trying those things.

Kelly Kennedy: If you could do it again, you know, you chatted about systems. If you could do it again. Or if you're talking to an entrepreneur who's maybe struggling, they don't have any systems, and they're wondering why their business isn't growing, or they've hit a peak or a cap, and they don't know what the heck to do.

Do you have any advice for them?

Colin Harms: I do. And I could speak to myself even right now, because we're implementing these systems weekly. Do whatever you have to do. Talk to whoever you have to talk to. If that means bringing other people on board with you, don't wait another week. Immediately start doing it because what you're going to do is try to do it yourself, but here's the harsh reality.

You don't know, or you'd be doing it. And that's me looking in the mirror. If, if I don't know it, or if I can't get past a hurdle, I have to get help. Right? And, and that doesn't always mean you got to have pockets full of cash, right? Or you're going to go borrow a bunch of money. Start phoning people like Kelly.

When I started reaching out to you on your podcast, I needed something. Okay. Right. It was like a genuine, I'm telling you the truth. Like I need, I'd finished reading the book traction and started implementing it and I'm like, man, like Kelly is traction, but real life, like every week the book gets delivered and I can implement these things.

And I'm not just saying that to you. I've, I've sent you messages. Yeah. Had I had those systems before I'd be a lot further than I am now, but on the flip side, and that's when I hear words on the flip side I wouldn't have the experience I'd have right now.

Kelly Kennedy: True. True. And it's like sometimes knowing what didn't work is almost more valuable than knowing what does.

Because at least you're not repeating the same mistakes over and over and over again.

Colin Harms: I agree. Like, it's just, it's such a good point is we talk with our staff all the time as well, right? I don't care when we have, I really don't care when we have problems or things go wrong, but I do if we repeat it. Yes.

Right. Like, but it's going to repeat itself if we don't deal with it immediately. Yeah. Right. So that's part of those systems. Right. Do we have a system in place? And so for all the entrepreneurs out there, you're hitting a roadblock or you're, you just don't know what to do next, or you wish you would have, or you wish you could have, you know what?

Yeah. I'm not going to tell you to just do it, change it to an, I did right at the end of today at five o'clock on Friday, ask yourself, did I do these things? And write them down. And you know what, when you, when you, when you realize that you didn't, you get tomorrow.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. You talked about writing them down and I love that Colin.

I, you know, I talked to so many people now, especially younger people. We're like, yeah, no, I don't know. I first thing I asked you guys keep a notepad. Well, no, you know, I have my phone or I have my computer and it's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Go get a notepad and at the beginning of every day, I want you to write, you know, your company you're working for.

Nice. I love it. I love it. Colin's showing me his notepad. Write down the date. And things to do today and start listing the most important things that you need to do today. And I think you're going to find you're gonna be able to list four, five, six, really, really easily. And if you can try to accomplish those things, sometimes having a list of something that you can check off is incredibly motivating.

It is for me anyway. And so I don't start a workday now without having a things I need to do today with like between one and 10 things that I like to check off as I go. And what I like to do. Is I put the things that I, you know, I mean, I'm in business development. I've been doing it forever. I still struggle with cold calls.

Like you're not alone out there. Nobody wants to sit down at a desk and be like, all right, today, I got to crush out my 20 calls. But. If you get it done and you just start, they get easier and easier and easier and easier. Like, I can't tell you how many times I sat down and call and I was like, I don't want to do this today.

I do not want to make these calls, but I got through the first five or six calls and suddenly seven, eight, nine, 10 is gone. You know, you're at 15, you're at 20. And next thing you know, you did 30 because. Once you get started, it becomes easier and easier and easier with each one. But the hardest call is those first five.

So just get them out of the way and you're gonna find you're gonna be able to crush them out. But that's almost anything you do that you don't like doing. If you just start it, you're gonna find that you're probably gonna finish it.

Colin Harms: Yeah. Well, and you know what? One of the, one of the things my wife and my kids are integral in, in my success as well.

Cause it's their success is my daughter brought me this sticker and she says, dad, put this on your computer and I'll show you, it says slay the day or slay your day. slay your day. Yeah, because, because she hears me all the time. Say that, right? Get up, slay your day. Let's go. Right. And we were talking about planners and writing notes.

And these are just things out of my desk. Like I had no idea what our conversation would be. And these are the things that I do. Right. I have a productivity planner. That's what it's called and it has checklists in it, right? Then I have another thing, which is part of my day, part of my role with Hypervac as, as an owner and, and an employee even is I'm director of blue sky thinking.

And my partners gave me that because they're like, Oh, you're always so blue sky. And if you're in Colin's world, it's all blue sky. And you know what though? That's a sales thing. I think. It is. Right? Yeah. It's like, well, hey man, shit hit the fan. Sorry. And well, I bet it's a good fan. Right? So, so then I have this book though, which is a giant book of ideas.

I have that same book. And so they're on, they're on my desk. They don't get opened every single day, but they're there. Right. And, and, and like you said, I'm driving all the time and I'll just use Siri to put notes in my notes on my phone. Right. And then I take those notes and I'll put them down on the pad of paper.

Like I have pads of paper everywhere. Yeah. But, but most thing are because the I did moment in your day is when you take your pen and you cross something off. Totally. Right. Or you put a checkmark beside it. Yeah. And that's, I think that's the difference between the people that reach their successes and don't.

Yeah. Right. We no longer live in an environment because it moves much too fast to just let it happen.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. No, totally. Totally. Have you find, or have you found that since, okay, so let me just kind of like flip this on its head a little bit. So when I was an employee, Regularly, I couldn't wait for the workday to be done, right?

My problem now is I struggle to quit working. Does that ever happen to you? Every day. It's like the exact opposite problem. Like now that I have like my company and we have so much stuff going on, whether it be the podcast or capital business development or you know, whatever else we're cooking up at any given moment.

My gosh, I'm like trying to find hours that don't rob my family so that I can work just a little bit more.

Colin Harms: And you know, it's funny, like even with our new business, I have customers from the Virgin islands and everywhere in between, right? And these are people now that they text me, they call me, we're all in different time zones.

Yeah. And, and my wife will say like, Oh, who are you texting? Oh, I'm just a customer in New Jersey. Oh, who? Well, you, you wouldn't know him for sure, but I'll give you like, even this morning, right? Like, I think it was 5:30 our time. So this guy's name popped in my head and I'm like, you know, I'm just going to text that guy.

He's in New Jersey. He's already rolling. And I just said, Hey man, I just want you to have a great day in Tom, Tom's river, New Jersey. Wow. And he replied immediately. Right. But so my day starts working that way, but then I'll, you know, I'll be sitting on the couch or we'll be doing something at home and, and with real estate still involved in my life, it's a nonstop evolving wheel.

Like it's just turning it and, but my family's become accustomed to it and it, you know what? It's really provided a lot for our family and it's not, I'm not that 10 X guy just all about money, but without it, you don't really have much. That's right. So, so my kids, I mean, they're 22 now, 21 and 22. They've come to realize, I used to say, Hey, I got to go show a house and I'm going to do this open house on a weekend.

But the result is we're going to go to Disneyland. I always had something attached to it. Yeah. But that was more for me too. Sure. Because I, I knew what I could make happen. All I have to do is go work a little harder. I just have to be great. And, and always having business involved. I work to be very strategic and multi, I don't know if it's multitasking or just using my time properly to make it all happen and still get home, still go to my kids games, which I always did.

I was at every game, you know.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. No, totally. I totally agree. And I find too, you know, I mean, talking to you and like kind of reading over a lot of the questions that we had before the show, you start your day quite early.

Colin Harms: Yeah. I, I actually, my alarm, this is funny you say that because I just changed my alarm today.

It was set for 4:20 and I changed it to 4:19 because I'm not a 420 guy.

I thought about it. Because I was like, what if somebody says, Oh, I get it. And I get it, but honestly, so alarm goes off at 4:19 and I'm at the gym by five. And I just go to a bootcamp but I do it five days a week. And so my day starts early and people are like, well, why do you don't have to do that?

And I'm like, well, I just like some weird thing in my mind actually tells me that I actually have a coffee in my hand. By 4:47, I've done my, or sorry, 5:47. I've done my workout. I'm driving back home. I have a McDonald's coffee in my hand, but in my mind tells me, you know how much I'm going to have done by 7 am. Right. And then it's like, and I have freedom, like, like there's tons of freedom in my life. Like I, I don't punch a clock, but I probably put 10 to 12 hours in a day throughout my day. Yeah. But I never once, like my wife will say, do you ever get tired? And I'm like, I am tired and she's like, well, you're not stopping, but I, but I, I, I don't look at it.

I think, and I don't want to sound cliche. If you do what you love, you'll never work another day in your life. Well, true. There is a lot of validity to it, right? Yes. I have customers that will fly in and they'll say, Hey, I realize you're not open on weekends, I work all week and can we fly in and meet you on a Saturday for an hour?

Yeah, sure. Saturday. If it ends in Y, it's another day. Yeah. Yeah. So, so to me, it doesn't really matter if that answers your question, right? Like it's, it's real, but I, I, and if there's something I don't like, I, I've now, you know, I'm, I'm an entrepreneur and I work for myself. I have some partners. I look at like negative things like, okay, how do we fix them?

Right? Or is it ever going to be positive? Maybe not, but how are we going to move on from it? And I compartmentalize it and move on. We don't revisit it. Right? I really hone in my skills on not bringing up the dead stuff. Right? If it's gone, it's gone. I can't change what happened yesterday. I can only change to what's ahead of me.

And I focus on that.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes, and you know, you, you talked on compartmentalization and I think when you're in business development and I, you know, I mean, if you have, if you're struggling with your mental health, 100 percent find help, I, you know, I mean, I completely agree. You know, life tough. I've been through some shit.

Life is tough sometimes. And if you need help, go get it. But however, there is a flip side on the business development side of it where You have to put on a bright face. You have to put on a pretty face for the world. And it, fair or not, it doesn't really matter. It's just, unfortunately, the way it is.

And so, you know, it can be really tough, but sometimes compartmentalization can definitely help. And I know that I've done it plenty of times in order to do my job on a day that was tough.

Colin Harms: Well, and, and you know what? It's cliche too, but fake it till you make it. I've changed it to, face it till you make it.

Yeah, face what's ever in front of you until you make it and then you move on. And, and, and I have a friend or associate that's going through a tough time in business right now. And I heard this week that things aren't going well for them. You know, so I've just made it a part of my day as I fire him a text every morning.

Hey man, things are going to get better. And, and he just sends back a little blurb or whatever. Right. But, but it's that thing on how can I help people that way get, get to more. Just fulfilledness or happiness or get over that next hurdle, whatever it may be, because that helps me, Kelly, right? Like, honestly, when I send those texts, I'm not doing it to get a pat on the back.

I'm doing it to help somebody because when I help somebody, it's helping me. Sure. Right. And I learned through every, every conversation I have that I think that's the biggest part of business development. I have the opportunity to talk to a variety of people from all over the world, literally. And, and not just, I'm not going for the sale.

I want to know who they are. Yes, right. Like what makes this relationship tick? And what's going to make it go off like a bomb, right? Okay. How do I stop that from happening?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and then that's it. And if you can establish those relationships, it can give you an opportunity before the bomb blows, right?

Like a lot of companies don't realize that if you don't have a relationship with your customer and something goes wrong, you're probably just going to lose the customer and you're not going to know why and they're never going to tell you. Okay. If you have a relationship well built with that customer, they will likely notify you when they're unhappy, why they're unhappy, give you an opportunity to do better and fix that or resolve that situation.

And then they'll be thankful that you did. And then they'll keep you as a customer, right? But if you haven't taken the time with good account management to establish that relationship and to build a trust and a friendship, The opportunity is gone and you lose, you lose a fortune, frankly.

Colin Harms: Oh, for sure.

And, and I have so many examples of that happening in the present day, even, right? Right. Where, but, but I think being a business owner versus employee my mindset is different where I need to fix this. Right. And I realize they're not all going to stay and they don't all stay. They're not. And, and, and maybe we fire some customers as well, which we've had to do.

But it's, how do we do that? Continue on in our day. You know, today I'm going to hit noon. What's going to happen at noon. What's going to happen tonight. And, and just when those things happen, how am I going to react to them or respond to them? Yeah, right. Yeah. And in every situation is different. So I have to have a variety of, I don't want to say it that way of tricks in my bag.

Like, what am I going to do to deal with this?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. And, and I think importantly, how do we resolve a situation to a customer's? Satisfaction. I think as businesses, sometimes we can decide that this is good enough. Let's give them this and that will make this problem go away. But you have to understand that if you try to resolve it your way without their input, you did not resolve it to their satisfaction.

And you could have done, you could have bent over backwards in your mind, but to them it wasn't what they wanted. The communication wasn't there. And maybe what they wanted was even less than what you gave them. But ultimately, It wasn't what they wanted. So you have to be able to have a dialogue with your customer to understand what is, what would they consider a satisfactory resolution, whether or not you can meet it or not, you've got to make that choice, but you need to figure out what to them is satisfactory, because if you resolve it without that discussion.

You may still lose them.

Colin Harms: That's right. And I find in those circumstances too, when you lose them, you do lose them forever. Yes. Right? I don't think you can go back and fish in that same pond. You may as well just move on. And like the old, old term people, when I was learning sales, it's like, Oh, you got to go there.

There's a lot of old money there. Right? Yeah. Well, and I, and to me. I didn't really like the term old money because old money didn't like young salespeople. No, it did not. They were going to give, they were going to give me the what for and teach me everything, how they got to where they were. Yeah. And I'll give you a great example.

And I was working in the garbage industry. And so I was in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. Right. They'd, they'd given me the medicine hat territory as well. Medicine hat was oil and gas. It was old money. Right. So I was like, Oh, these guys don't like me. I'm coming from Lethbridge. And they're like, you know, why are you coming here?

So Kelly, what I did was so simple. I got my business card and on one side it had my name and my Lethbridge address on the other side, I had my medicine hat address for the office there. Yeah. And I would go in and I'd be like, hi, Kelly, I'm calling. I'm the garbage salesman. And I'd put my card down with the medicine hat side up.

Boom. That's it. I'm in.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's awesome. That's smart.

Colin Harms: And then when I'm in Lethbridge, I'm there like, Oh, medicine hat. Yeah. I go there.

Kelly Kennedy: Don't worry about that.

Colin Harms: Because I didn't want them.

Kelly Kennedy: Sorry. You go ahead. I was going to say, no, I want you to take us into today. I want you to take us into Hypervac technologies. What was it like acquiring that company and, and bring us that story?

Colin Harms: Sure. So what happened was I was at my accountant doing, signing off on my year end for real estate. And I always ask the same question.

Cause I think I've read this numerous times as, Hey man, is there anybody want to sell a business or someone want to retire exit strategy? And he said, you know what? I have this customer or a client that is really sick of the wind in Lethbridge and he wants to move and just sell his business. And I said, what does he do while he manufactures air duct trucks and commercial portable vacuums?

I said, I have no idea what that is, but could I have his phone number? Yeah. And he gave me the phone number and his name, honestly, Kelly, I went outside, I phoned him for my truck and I drove straight there. Wow. And, and I called a client of mine who was looking for a business that I thought maybe this after looking at it.

Would be a good fit for him. And I I have no idea why for me. Cause I just looked, I liked this international business and I have no idea what it is, but I'd like to learn it. Yeah. And six months later we owned it. We bought it, we took it over. And that was February, 2021. And I put in a small partnership team together.

Yeah. And, and I remember the, one of the former owners saying to me, a big part of the business is allocating chassis cabs and then outfitting bodies to them, and he said, there's going to be a problem. He said, you're not going to be able to get vehicles. Because Stellantis, who owned Chrysler has said they're going to be shutting their plants down and then COVID.

And I said, Oh, that's not a big deal. He hasn't met me. I'm the best salesman there is. And he just kind of looked at me and about a week later, I was learning the business, they, they had stayed on for a bit and I was like, Oh, like there's nothing, like, like the pipeline is dry. Like you can't even, they're not making vehicles.

So, so, so we said what do we do? We don't even know this business. And so, so I said, well, let's, let's just build bodies. Because at some point, the manufacturers are going to start building chassis again, and it's going to require a lot of capital. So we started building these bodies and everybody in the industry said, those guys are going to go broke.

They're crazy. Even the former owner said, this is ridiculous. Like you never do that. Yeah. It's like you're hedging. Right? Yeah. And so, so we did it and but the vehicles didn't come. Right. So, and then COVID hit and then the supply chain, right? Like a barge goes sideways in a canal and we're no longer getting compressors, like, I'm not sure how it's connected, but yeah, but I'm like, okay, so, but meanwhile, I'm making phone calls.

I'm answering the phone and I'm telling customers. It's going to be okay. I'm going to take care of you. We're going to find them. We're going to build them. And the biggest thing that I learned was I had to do business development. I had to pick up the phone and I had to phone literally Kelly. We're in an environment where we used to be able to deal with Ford or Chrysler.

This is what we need. They build them a month later, they show up. And this was all new to us to having nothing to me, scouring the internet and phoning every car dealership across North America, literally, and while trying to make a relationship. Yeah. I was explaining a business that I had just bought.

Without telling them that I was, you know, as green as green could be and saying, how can we get these vehicles from you? Yeah. So in year 1, we actually beat the previous year. Wow. We ended up with more and the logistics to make it happen was kind of like. This is fun, right? Like, how do we do this?

And, and I had these relationships with people from, you know, South Carolina to Seattle starting to do business. That's what I would call business development in, in that aspect. Yeah. But still I was selling. Yes. Right. So, so, I mean, we were a new business, not like I was going to go hire a bunch of people.

We took over one. They had zero systems. They didn't, had never taken an inventory ever. They built to order. Right. Almost like a restaurant. Sure. In manufacturing. Yeah. They didn't like to extend themselves. So what we did, we sat down as a partner group and one of my partners said, Hey, I'm going through this traction with my other business.

And he says, we should read this book. So we all read it and then we ended up. Searching more and finding a guy that actually teaches EOS. Yep. And, and so we started working with him and that really helped because those were the systems we needed. Yeah. And, and you know what, we got through year one we got through year two, we're almost at year three.

And Kelly, when I came up on your podcast, the truth be told, like, honestly, it was like the Kelly playbook. I was like, okay, shit, it's not on until Sunday. So I'm, I've got like six days to make this happen. I got to get a website guy. Like, let's go. Like we need to make our website better. Okay. That's going right.

And that's evolving. Okay. Now I, I went to a conference and we had this old material and then Kelly told me that if you're selling tires, don't have a picture of a car because people think you just sell car tires. That's right. Okay. That's really good because now we don't just sell this. So we revamped all of our marketing, right?

And it works because now we're, we, Kelly, I'm not joking because of that one move. We have been I was invited to a conference in San Antonio. I met a guy and because we changed our marketing that way, I got invited there. And we are now entering the cleaning and restoration business which is a 220 billion market in the U S per year.

And we're, we're predominantly us, but I honestly, I don't, I wouldn't have been there. Like, I honestly would not have been there. And we're working with our engineers on new innovation to meet the demand there because we had the right marketing materials. Then it was, you know, and then it was like, okay, conferences.

We're at this conference and in New Orleans and we're, we're kind of the big show there, but I think we're the best of the worst, right? If you will, like, I'm like, eh, we're, they think we're fantastic, but I, I think we're like in, you know, pre world war one, like we could do better. And then you're talking, you had the fellow on about robots.

Yeah. Right. And then he says, you know, like robots and I'm like, oh shit, we don't need robots. And then he says, well, do you have a Roomba in your living room? Holy freak. He caught me with that too. I'm like, I'm like, I do. So we have robots. So, so I honestly, I come back to the office and I'm like telling the story about the Roomba.

Right. Yeah. And I'm like, just imagine in our assembly facility, if we had a robot, we didn't require a human to be, because we're going through COVID. We have people testing and the whole thing. Everybody went through it. We did very well, but what if we had a robot that could move this from here to here in our assembly facility, we would never have another sick day.

Right. Okay. Check that off. We're working on that now. Marketing materials. Check that off. Like it's, it's a, it's honestly a living, breathing document that I'm, that I'm living by the podcast. And anyway, it's through you and all the people you're bringing on. Right. It's like every week I'm like, Oh, Oh, videos.

I need better videos. You're right. We still, we brought in a video producer and he's like, we're getting 800 hits a day on this one video. And Kelly, this is the thing in, in the world of truck manufacturing, we did a video and this is going to be super boring for people. How to grease your whale tail door latch.

Kelly Kennedy: But someone's going to need a video.

Colin Harms: Hundred hits the first day. Awesome. I'm like, you know what? That's that's preventative maintenance in that world, right? That's going to save them money and time and everything else. But we did it and then we did another one a week ago and they're really well done and it was on, it's a, it's a maintenance thing on how to install an alternator on an engine in a vacuum truck.

Wow. Right? Yeah, not sexy. But guess what? We we've implemented QR code. We have a QR code on the box when they get it shipped to them. They scan it. The video pops up, shows them how to install it.

Kelly Kennedy: Wow. That's so cool. I love it. I love it.

Colin Harms: And I'm not joking. It's it's come because if you don't implement these things.

Yeah, I just keep sitting, I can have meeting after meeting after meeting with our operations people and with my partners and get nowhere just to have another meeting. Right? Like, my least favorite is, oh, that's, that's, that's a placeholder for another day. No, my blue sky thinking is a placeholder for another day.

This matters.

So what we've been able to do, though, is go into an industry that we never knew. And, and here's one of the scariest things that happened. Three months after we were allowed to cross the border, there's the largest conference in the industry and we're going to Colorado and there's me and my business partners and the entire industry.

It's all eyes on us because they heard the company sold. There's new owners. They are going to come at us and and I'm like, what do we say? Like, we don't, we know industry, but we don't know this industry. So, Kelly, we're there, we're in Colorado. And I remember the 1st person that asked me, he's like so what's your background?

And I said just business. So you just bought a company and you don't even know about air duct cleaning or whatever. So that's 100 percent correct. I said, but I'm here to find out what do you need that you're not getting from the industry. Yeah. And, and from that moment, and I'm good friends with the guy now, I continually ask the question, how are you not getting served?

In the industry, right?

Kelly Kennedy: Like by having that, go ahead. Sorry, I was just by having an outside perspective, you can come at it from a different angle that they're not used to.

Colin Harms: Yeah. 100%. Like when I was in San Antonio, I sat with these guys and mesmerized by, I'd done my background going into the meeting. And these are, these are people that outside of my realm, where they look at it and they go, it's the American dream, right?

If we can have one, we could have 600 locations. And they go do it. Right. I always say the Canadian dream is, is somebody, I'd say to you, Hey, Kelly, this is the best thing you could ever imagine. And you say, well, what's in it for you? Okay. But the, the American dream is what's in it for all of us. Yeah.

And it's a different perspective. So, so I go down there and these guys are like, Oh, we have 600 locations. And I'm like, like one company. Yeah. We have 2000, right? Serve pro. We have 2000 locations. And, and so I just, I sat with them because they're, they're asking me, they're not judging me. And I finally just started saying, what is it that you're not getting in the industry?

Is there some, and they started just opening up like, well, we go to the, to our supplier and they supply the same thing and it breaks at the same point. And we know it's only going to last this long. And so I, that's the business development part is like, I'm like, reaching out and saying, well, what, what could you do?

So I'll give you a very quick example. Hurricane season is, is huge for these companies, the restoration companies. And I just said to him, well, Hey, you, you, you have a hurricane, you're going to do mitigation. What don't you have? And they just start telling me, I'm like, well, there's nobody supplying this.

No, we've asked so many times and they're like, this is what we got. Oh, okay. So I don't, I don't have to compete for this business to start, right? It's one thing to innovate and have to compete. Yes. It's another thing. It's not that I don't have to compete. But, but it's, nobody's listening. And I think everybody, like even everybody listening to the show, I bet if you go in your own industry, I bet people aren't listening.

Yeah. Like who's asking the question. They're, they're bidding an RFP and they live in an RFP brain. Well, that's what it is. They told me exactly what they want. Yeah. What are the things around? Like, like read between the lines. Like, what do they really need? Because when you can serve a market that's in between the lines, I think that's where the real money's made as well.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah, the differentiators.

Colin Harms: So anyway, that's in. I think I put it in in my questionnaire with you is I kept calling ourselves a disruptor and I got a little bit of heat back from some customers. What are you doing? You're doing the same thing to what everybody's always done. Right? And then I heard somebody say what separates you from your competition.

And that's when I said, you know what? We don't want to be a disruptor. We're going to be a separator, right? We're going to be so far separated from them. They don't even know.

Kelly Kennedy: That's right. That's right. Yeah. You need to find your niche always, right? Like the money's in the niches.

Colin Harms: Oh, it is, right? That's right.

Kelly Kennedy: That's where it is. You what you're good at and, and focus your time there and do it. You know, you did something, Colin, that Most people would advise you not to, which is start or buy a business that you, you don't have experience in for the, for the listeners listening, like, you know, when you've done this and you've made it successful and I don't think it was all luck.

What advice would you give to people? If they wanted to do that again, or what lessons have you learned from doing this? That if you did it again, you would do differently.

Colin Harms: I'll start with the lessons when I do it again, cause we will we will immediately focus on what systems need to be in place.

Like when we hit the ground running, right? Whether it's day one, cause you have time ahead. You have time ahead to plan. So when you take over that business or you start one, if you think you're going to add systems as you go. It's probably going to give you a whole lot more sleepless nights than you need.

Yeah. Just put the systems in place. And if there's a playbook, like I'm going to encourage Kelly to make a Kelly playbook, right. And, and seriously, like show the ebook. I don't care what it is. Just make it diarize it. You're going to start a business or you're going to buy one. Here's the. Parts that you need chapter 1 to 12 if you do these things, you can build them the way you need them for your business, but that's the number 1 thing.

And if you're looking at something, maybe stop looking at. What's right in front of your face, right? Like, if you're an entrepreneur, I, all I can do is encourage you. It doesn't matter if you're going to have an excavating company or a manufacturing company or a coffee shop, just do it. Like, like, get out there and do it.

If you understand business principles. You might actually change your life completely by trying something that you never thought possible, or even knew, I honestly, I had no idea what air duct cleaning was, let alone how do you manufacture the trucks that do it amazing. And, and, and it's kind of funny because now when I tell people in my sphere, they actually say arms, what the heck I know you should come check it out and we just built a new building and you should see it, Kelly.

Like, it's phenomenal. It's just that, that pride of ownership and that what can we do next and how can we move it to the next level?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, that's amazing. And you said you have like a ton of international customers. Hey, like most of your business is in the U. S. you said.

Colin Harms: In the U. S. and we actually we just shipped out a large order to Saudi Arabia as well.

Kelly Kennedy: Wow. My gosh, the logistics in that.

Colin Harms: Yeah, and I'll tell you one quick story. I got a call and the guy said he was from Guam. And I was Googling while he was on the phone and I'm like, Oh, that's in the middle of nowhere. And he said, I'd like to buy a truck. How fast can you provide it? Yeah. And I'm like, okay, I've, I've gone from how do I cross the border with COVID to selling a truck during COVID into Guam.

Amazing. Kelly, we did it. Wow. Within three weeks, we had a truck delivered. I figured out how to get it to the port in East LA. And then from East LA, it's going to go into a container and it's going to get shipped there. And, and now we're actually, I'm headed to the Virgin Islands in a month. Cause they just got, they got decimated and it's not good in that industry.

They've invited us down there and I'm going to see what kind of business is down there. And they actually asked a quick question. They said, Colin, do you have anybody that can train people on how to use this equipment? And the guy that I hired to replace me has 15 years experience. And so I phoned him.

I'm like, Hey, Kent, do you want to go to the Virgin islands? And working vacation. And I said, well, we're going, I'm coming and I'm going to do business development and you're going to train these customers. And like, it's like just this crazy opportunity, right. To go into that niche market. And to help them, right?

Cause they're in a time of need. And they don't know how to do things or what, what to do. But Kelly, just think of the opportunity. What, what else is there? And I'm going to come back, go on. There's all these untapped industries.

Kelly Kennedy: Yep. Yep. Absolutely. I also want to touch on something that I think people might be a little bit shocked about right now.

Sure. The fact that you were the owner of the company. And you are doing a hundred percent of the business development. I think people seem to think, well, I'm the owner. Why should I have to do that? Why should I have to do the business? But I'll just hire somebody to do it. But you know, why did you make that choice?

Why didn't you just hire somebody to do business development, Colin?

Colin Harms: I think cause I love it. Yeah. And in part, so my business partner, John, he's the operational side and I just said, you know what? And honestly, I'm not joking. It's since February when I started listening, I kept saying to my business partner, I'm like, I got to get it just straight business development.

Like I said, business. And I kept telling people, I actually remember telling somebody somewhere, did you know business development is not sales? And they're looking at me like, what are you talking about? And I'm like, it's not like, I'm, I was so enamored by this. I'm like, I've been doing this all wrong.

Like I need to flip the switch. And, and so, so, so what I did was I invited the guy that I hired to the conference, the one conference. And I said, Hey do you want to come to this conference? We'll pay for you and you can help represent us. And I'd kind of had his background and he said like, really? I said, yeah.

So, so it was. Like a live interacting interview, right? I'm going to see how he does. And, and we got along, like, I'm going to go have beers. How does he act? Right. How does he treat the customers? Right. Through a Hypervac shirt. And, and we got along great. And then a few months later I said, Hey, you know, this is what I'm thinking.

Do you want to come down, hang out for a week, talk about it? I didn't want to just hire somebody and then say, okay, here's how it's going to go. Right. And so we did. And then. Yeah, I said, you know what, even as, as one of the owners, I'm the business developer and you know what, that it, that ties in with my blue sky thinking is I, I love that role.

Right. Director of business development. And that's why I'm that.

Kelly Kennedy: I love it. I absolutely love it because I always talk about how business development is totally one of the best jobs in any company and the fact that you own this company and you've still chosen to do the business development is like the perfect representation of that.

And I would also argue that any business owner, you are ultimately in business development, whether you like it or not, on one level or not, you need to get proficient on some level with business development because you are representing your company. Everywhere you go. And it's important that you know the steps.

Colin Harms: Well, and you know, even in my real estate business, which I still have, right. I took those same steps and implementing systems. And now I have a realtor working with me, right. So I can work on the business development. Yeah. Right. I no longer have to do, you know, all those evenings and weekends. It's, he's doing it learning.

So he's doing it and learning and I'm earning.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like your real estate. Do you do industrial real estate?

Colin Harms: Yeah. But that's, that's kind of my plan with the person that's working with me is taking over the residential that's very time and sent just a different business.

And then through my sphere of influence, I have, like, I thought, should I get out of it or should I keep doing it? And I have all these clients that want me to do it and I like doing it. And I enjoy it. But the commercial realm is more banker's hours, right? So I can fit it in, I can meet them for lunches, I can do it.

It's not the show and tell type thing. It's the ROI, 100 percent ROI.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah, and it's two different marketing ideas as well, right? You have B2B and B2C. What is, what is your experience in kind of navigating both of those spaces? Because they're quite different.

Colin Harms: They are different for sure. I, I find and maybe I don't know cause outside of Alberta that much, it's, it's 100 percent of mindset thing even there with your client, right?

Like, so business to business is one thing. It's not as personal, I guess. Yeah. But then now I have these commercial clients in real estate that it's personal. Right. And, and, and I've moved it to, I think a positive thing where if you were my client, you can text me or call me and, and it's more on a, Hey, yeah, no, yeah, right.

It's not this. I have to put a suit on and I have to look a certain way and I have to go to the country club versus the regular golf course. I think we've moved past all that where it's, it's, you know what, let's just do business and I have your best interest in mind and guess what, that, that's, what's going to feed my best interest.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. And I think like, you know, we didn't really touch on it, but you know, you're implementing a lot of the principles and it's awesome. And they do, they 100 percent do work, but I also want to kind of chat to everybody who's listening, who's, you know, implementing some of these things that we chat about on the show.

And it's that, you know, I chat about it all the time. I'm only an expert until yesterday. Like the, the landscape is changing all the time. And even in my time of learning business development, things have changed. You know, like when I started business development, texting a client was an absolute no, no, no.

You never ever did that. It was, that was their personal way. Everything was done formally. It was either direct email or phone call. You never texted. Now we text clients all the time, right? Like account management or texting clients is a bit like an everyday thing, right? So it's like the industry does evolve.

So like, you know, while we want to implement things, definitely use these things. Always keep your ears open for what's next. You know, the industry is going to change. I think a lot of things will stay the same. I think personal connection is always going to be important. You following the principles, making sure you're actually reaching out to people.

But remember that the industry does change and it's changed even in the time that I've been in it, you know, in my short 12 years in business development. And it will continue to change. So. Implement the principles, but keep your ears to the ground and be ready to evolve, because even if you're an expert, you're only an expert until yesterday.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Colin, it's been absolutely amazing. Tell us just, if someone wants to get a hold of you, they want to buy some vac trucks. Tell us a little bit about what Hypervac technology sells, just in case there's somebody listening that may want to reach out.

Colin Harms: Sure. We sell we manufacture air duct trucks.

What that is, is a vacuum truck designed to come to your business or your house and indoor air quality. Improve your indoor air quality. So our predominant customer is HVAC heating, ventilation, air conditioning customer. We see a lot of new people, janitorial cleaning companies, that type of thing.

Independence getting into the business. You know, sole proprietors and yeah, if you want to reach us Hypervac.com that's the easiest way and we're always available social media. We're like social media gurus we're all over it and we do an insane amount of business in North America because of it.

We had a lot of comments, like even our tick tock. We are a tick tock company. We, it's insane if you go on there and watch us, so just, yeah, look up Hypervac. I'll look myself up, Colin Harms you can call me my cell number's on there. You can email me. I will respond and even text me. I'll text you back.

Kelly Kennedy: Awesome. Awesome. So if they want to buy a complete back truck or if they just want to buy like the complete unit to put on a, on an existing truck, you can do that as well.

Colin Harms: Correct? Yeah, 100%. And we also have the number one and I'm not tooting my own horn, but it's validated the number one portable electric vacuum out there.

It's like a mini truck, if you will.

Kelly Kennedy: Very cool. Very cool. Check them out on our website. How big is it Colin? Can it fit in like a standard truck box?

Colin Harms: Yeah, a hundred percent. It's only five feet tall, weighs 150 pounds. And then there's some ancillary tools you'd need in a compressor, but most people will use a high top van or something like that.

You know, van or small vehicles, even our truck footprint it's a non PTO drive. So it has a secondary engine itself. And they're put into small, you know, 7 by 12 foot body. Which we make but yeah, it's a very small footprint and that's why they're the number one truck in North America by far.

Kelly Kennedy: Very, very cool. Very cool. So that is Hypervac.com. If you were interested in checking that out, this has been episode 70 of the business development podcast. We have been graced by Colin Harms, the owner of Hypervac Technologies. And it's been an absolute pleasure, Colin. Thanks for coming on the show.

Colin Harms: Thanks for having me. Thanks, Kelly.

Kelly Kennedy: 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 @ www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.