Silence the Noise 10 Essential Lessons to Focus Better and Grow Faster

Silence the Noise: 10 Essential Lessons to Focus Better and Grow Faster

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 169 of the business development podcast. And if you're feeling overwhelmed by negative media and outside influence, this episode is a game changer. Stick with us.

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, capital bb.

1. Let's do it. Welcome to the business development podcast, and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 169 of the business development podcast. And today we're chatting all about what are you consuming? Is what you are consuming, consuming you? My gosh, in a time of media, social media. And negative politics.

It can be challenging for each and every one of us. And I can't wait to chat with you guys about that today, because guess what? You have a choice. And more than once in my life, I've had to pull myself back to get myself under control where I'm not getting influenced. And hopefully. I can help some of you with that today, but before we do, I wanted to start with a show update.

I want to start this out by giving two huge shout outs, a huge shout out to our newest sponsor, BizSync Solutions. And whether you need skilled trades, project management, executive roles, payroll, administration, or medical personnel. BizSync staffing solutions can help you guys out. And I wanted to give a gigantic thank you to Deanna Kean.

Deanna Kean was one of the very first guests on the business development podcast. And now she and her company BizSync solutions have chosen to sponsor us and we could not appreciate them more. So shout out to Deanna Keene. And I wanted to give one more shout out as well to Colin Harms and Hypervac technology for yet another sponsorship renewal with us guys.

Hypervac Technologies at this point has been our longest sponsor and we could not appreciate them more. They are the largest duck truck manufacturer in North America with their H2 truck and trailers. And if you are in cleaning and restoration business around the world and you're in search of any type of equipment, Hypervac Technologies has your back.

Give Colin and his team a call. They will look after you. They ship worldwide. They keep all items in stock for immediate worldwide shipping guys. So no matter what you guys are after, if you are in cleaning and restoration or abatement, they have your back. So big shout out to Hypervac Technologies. Thank you very much, Colin Harms and team for supporting us once again.

And guys, just a quick chat about sponsors. Sponsors are really the lifeblood of this show. They really do allow us to continue to grow this show and reach the show and and keep it getting better and better and better and to keep up obviously with the amazing talent that is popping up in the podcast industry.

The reality is we are one of many, many, many great shows. And in order to stay competitive, Having supporting sponsors helps a ton. So we appreciate our sponsors greatly. We are always on the lookout for new partnerships. So if you are interested in partnering with us, please feel free to reach out to us.

Podcast@capitalbd.ca. Always open to a conversation. Guys, we are sitting at 2, 664 followers on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and that is growing every day. Every single day. We absolutely love the BDP rockstar community. We could not do this show without you. If you've been listening to the business development podcast, whether this is your first show or your 169th show, and you have not yet given us a follow and a rating on your platform of choice.

My gosh, please do it. Please make today the day, because we definitely need to grow our followership. We definitely want to, reach new audiences. And that is the best way to do it. And not to mention, you'll always be notified when another business development podcast is available for your listening pleasure.

So please do give us a follow, whether you listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other listening app. We appreciate it greatly. And if you're really feeling ambitious, you can always tell a friend or family member. That is definitely another great way to spread the love. Also, I will be releasing a community questions episode next week.

And so if you have a question that you want answered, you could have it answered on next week's show. Feel free to send any community questions either LinkedIn via DM or podcast@capitalbd.ca subject line community questions. Shoot us what you got. And if I can answer it, I will. And if you want to be kept anonymous, you are automatically anonymous unless you give me permission to use your full name.

Otherwise we go first name only, and nobody will ever know that it is you. And yeah, we do that on purpose, guys. We do that on purpose. Cause I know you guys are professionals. There's a lot of professionals out there and you're worried about. You're worried about the way that you are perceived, and while there is no dumb question, I can understand how sometimes we are reluctant to ask the questions we need to ask in fear of looking bad.

And so, if that is you, don't feel bad, just let me know that you would like to stay anonymous for personal reasons, and we will handle that for you. And last but not least, guys, before we hit today's show, if you are in business development, if you are responsible for the growth of your company, whether you need a business development process, some weekly motivation, or you just need to make sure that you are doing the right thing, The Business Development Mastery Program is for you guys.

It is a three month program, it flies by, and we will be able to help you accomplish your growth goals here in 2025 and beyond. Feel free to book in for the Business Development Mastery Program, you can do that right from the Capital Business Development website, or from my LinkedIn, just click the Amplify Your Impact button and go from there, and we will catch you on a discovery call.

Okay, my gosh, let's just get into it. So today, guys, I wanted to spend some time chatting about the stuff that we are consuming in a world where we are being frankly bombarded by negative garbage on a daily basis. The question we have to ask ourselves is this is what we are consuming. Actually consuming us and man, this is a hard one every once in a while, guys, you know this.

I hit a topic that I'm like, my gosh, I don't know if I want to do this topic because I have ended up down this rabbit hole just the same as you guys. And I always end up having to pull my ass out of it. And so I just thought today I'm going to talk about it. Because it is something that I have struggled with immensely as someone who has listened to a lot of news who gets drawn into the political discourse and obviously the crazy stuff that happens with regards to the political situation in Canada and United States and whatever else is going on.

It's really easy to end up going down the rabbit hole. And then when you end up down the rabbit hole, especially as a business owner. Especially as somebody in business development or who is responsible for the growth of your company. It is easy to get into a really negative mindset that nothing is possible.

And why in the world even try? Because this is ridiculous. And you know, you can get into that, like that negative spiral, that negative spiral where it just keeps getting reinforced and reinforced and reinforced. And you literally end up having to dig yourself out of it or, or fail, frankly, or fail. And so, it's one of those things, guys, that I really wanted to chat about today, and you know, whether you know it or not, you are under attack, and if you do not take control of the media that you are consuming, it will destroy your ability to move forward and succeed in the way that you deserve to, and there's a lot of things in my life, a lot of negative reinforcement, a lot of things I used to tell myself that were impossible, and I think a lot of it at the time was just my belief that It was impossible, but that belief that it was impossible came from a lot of negativity surrounding me, whether that be in my Facebook feed or my Instagram or, you know, the stuff that I was consuming on YouTube or the stuff that I'm hearing endlessly on the news.

And it just can put you in this like crazy, negative mind loop that is really hard and really horrible, frankly, for your future success. And so sometimes in order to succeed in challenging situations. And I think, you know, we're in a time now where there's a lot of people telling us, Oh, we're in recession.

Business is bad. Business is not going the way that we wish it would. People are keeping their money tight. Well, when you're hearing that, what are you hearing? Oh, I can't do it. Nobody's going to spend any money. No one's going to buy this product and service. People are holding their money tight to their chest, right?

But guys, of course, if that's what you believe, it's going to be really hard for you guys to succeed, right? You have to always move forward like it is possible. Like, yeah, sure. Maybe that's happening, but there's a lot of people doing a lot of stuff. And you know what? That's true. Yeah. There's a lot of companies who are benefiting immensely from the economic situation that Canada and the United States are in at this very moment.

And so you have to remember that. You are not screwed. You're only screwed if you believe you're screwed. And so we need to chat about that today. We need to chat about taking our power back. Taking our power back is not just individuals or business owners or business development specialists, but as citizens of our countries, guys.

We have a lot of power here. You can choose what you consume and the way that you take that meaning to heart, which is really, really critical. Let's chat about what is happening to you right now. Let's chat about some of these sources of challenge, okay? When was the last time that you heard a news story that was amazing, that like put a big smile on your face, that you were just like, wow, I can't believe that such an amazing thing happened in the world.

Guys, if you're like me, It is few and far between if like, if ever at all, like, I think unless maybe your political party wins or something like that, there's, there's pretty little in the like good news department with regards to what comes from the news. Right? And it's designed that way. Why? Because negativity sells.

Because pain sells. And the problem with that is, is that if pain sells better than pleasure, you're gonna get a whole lot less pleasure. And news is a perfect example of this. And so, you can really end up, especially in a political campaign, especially right now, leading up to, obviously, the presidential election, or, you know, whatever's going on in Canada with regards to, like, You know, the parties are really falling apart.

It seems like, and you could really end up looking at this and be like, Oh my gosh, the world is going to end right guys. It's not going to end. No matter who wins, no matter what happens, the world is just going to keep on trucking with or without you and you get to choose. Is it going to truck on with you succeeding or is it going to truck on with you having to pick yourself up, dust yourself off?

And play catch up, right? And it really is going to come down to the meaning that you give any of these stories that you give any of these. You know, election wins or political situations, guys, we have to go forward. We have to go forward. Our businesses can't die because the wrong party gets elected. Our businesses can't die just because we're afraid of the current economic situation.

Guys, if we're afraid, you have a choice. You have a choice to take action. You can sit and let it happen to you, or you can sit and let the bottom fall out and make it impossible. Or you can choose to say, you know what? Yeah, maybe this isn't ideal. Maybe this isn't what I wanted. But I'm not going to let it destroy my business, but I'm not going to let it hold my sales back, but I'm not going to let the negativity bring me down.

If you allow it to kill you, it will. That's the thing. Nobody's going to pick you up. The news isn't going to come and pick you up. The political parties aren't going to save your ass, right? You have to save your ass, or you have to protect yourself from the negativity. And so it is important that we are going to take control of our lives and start to take action to protect ourselves from this negativity because You are under attack, whether you like it or not, whether it's fair or not, it doesn't really matter.

You are under attack by the media and the stuff that you are consuming. When was the last time that your news feeds on your Facebook Or something like that improved your day, I would actually argue that LinkedIn newsfeed is probably one of the best newsfeeds I've ever had. Why? Well, it's curated for me with a bunch of people doing successful, amazing things.

And to me, that's super, super motivating, guys. I would say that LinkedIn has probably been one of the best. Best news feeds that I could have ended up starting to follow because what am I seeing? I'm seeing a lot of amazing people doing amazing things, launching amazing products, having personal successes, overcoming personal challenges.

Pushing their own personal boundaries. Like, and it's amazing. I absolutely love hopping on LinkedIn and seeing kind of what's coming on. And I would say that nine times out of 10, if not 10 times out of 10, the stuff I'm consuming on LinkedIn is not negatively affecting me. Now let's transfer that over to Facebook or Instagram or something along those lines, guys, where there's just negative news, there's negative stuff.

There's horrible things happening. There's personal challenges. There's. All sorts of stuff that you can really end up down the rabbit hole of looking and being like, Oh my gosh, like, I can't believe this stuff is happening. You need to ask yourself, how is the social media that I'm either consuming, contributing to, or both negatively impacting my life?

And if the answer is you are getting more negative impact out of your social media than positive impact, you have a couple options here. But I would say it's probably a good time to take a break. Take 30 days, take 30 days off of that social media, whether that be Instagram, Facebook, wherever the negativity is flowing and impacting your day.

Try taking a little break, and I think what you'll find is the world is moving along just fine. The world is just fine. It's the same world it was before, but you're not being negatively impacted by a whole bunch of perceptions, or public news, or wars, or anything else that is frankly dragging you down, that is holding you back, that is limiting your ability to succeed, which you deserve.

To succeed, okay, by the way, you deserve to succeed. You deserve to have happiness. You deserve to come out the other side of this better than ever. And there's a lot of social media. There's a lot of media in general that is designed to bring you down, to knock you over, to make you feel like you are not good enough.

Like it is impossible to succeed. Why even try? Of course, of course, that's what it's designed to do. It's designed to make you stick around and keep consuming this crap over and over and over again. And even me, even somebody who is right now talking to you about it, falls prey. I fall prey. I even have moments where I start to go down the rabbit hole, especially with the news and whatever else is going on, because I do like to know what's going on.

I think the wars of the world are freaking me out, just like everybody. But at the same time, I can't let that Keep me down. I can't because I have to move forward. I have a family to look after. I have a career to build. I have a company to build. I have people to help. I have a podcast to run. I have educating and inspiring to do.

Okay, and it's really hard to do that if I'm feeling like crap. It's really hard to do that if I don't believe in the future, in a great future. And it's really hard to believe in a great future when you're so worried about today, okay? And so, one of the things that we really have to look at is what are we consuming and how can we improve that?

Remember guys, the politics, right? And I get it, we're in a political cycle, like we're leading up to elections, I get it, it's crazy. There's a lot of stuff, like, you know, I mean, Canada technically we're not heading towards the election, but my gosh, we could be heading towards the election here real quick.

There's a lot of There's a lot of stuff happening in Canadian politics right now that could lead us to a fall election. There's obviously a fall election for our friends in the United States, who you guys are gearing up for a presidential election that's super, super important. But guys, like, look at politics.

Just look at it as a whole. It's a flippin mess. It's it's just a bunch of people arguing negative gossiping. There's nothing. It's entertaining. Sure. It's entertaining. It might as well be reality tv. Like let's get real politics. Might as well be reality TV with the way that they treat it, the way that they look after each other, like, the lack of respect is just unbelievable.

But the point here is, guys, is that when has watching politics made your life better? At what point has tuning in to what's going on or what the latest argument is or what the latest gossip is, Improved your day. My gosh, that is a rabbit hole all on its own. But the point is, is that if you are super focused on politics and it is not your job, it is guaranteed negatively affecting the way that you handle your day to day operations.

It's negatively affecting your performance at work because it is super negative. It's hard to be part of a side or be partisan and not feel a way about what's happening. But at the same time, if you guys end up down this rabbit hole, it breeds a bunch of crap, frankly. It breeds a lot of unnecessary hate, first off.

And second off, it can always feel like something horrible is happening to you. And you know, if you're Canadian right now, you probably have felt like horrible things have been happening to you for a long time. But once again, if you sit and dwell On the economic situation on the situation within Canada, how are you able to focus on what you need to be focusing on, which is you, your family, your personal success, you have to focus on what's going to move the needle for you and you need to remove the stuff that is going to hold you back and guys.

If you are focused in on politics right now, and I get it, it's in all of our faces, there's a lot going on, but if you are really narrowing in on this politics and you are following it and you're keeping up with it every day, I can almost guarantee you, you feel like crap because there's not a lot of good stuff coming out of politics.

There's not a lot of pump me up, feel good stories coming out of the latest and the latest campaigns, right? Come on. We know this. We know this. So we have to take a break. We have to distance ourselves from this stuff. And I get it. We have a responsibility as citizens. I understand that. I take my responsibility as a citizen of Canada very seriously.

Okay. I understand the impact that we all have. And I understand the responsibility and the right that we have as voters to make a choice. And I will make my choice when that time comes. And I will make a responsible, educated decision based on. The platform guys, not the people, the platform that they are running on the things, the values that I believe in, right?

They can sit up there and they can blow their mouths or run their mouths all they want on stage. What I care about is what is the platform? What are they actually going to do? Because you see half the crap they're talking about. They're just slandering another person. How is that going to make your life better?

How is that going to improve your situation? My vote for you guys is Make your decisions based on the written platforms and hold them to it, but make decisions based on the written platforms when the time comes. And until then, focus on you, focus on your business, focus on the, focus on your active marketing, focus on growing your business, focus on growing your company.

That is what is going to move the needle for you, and that is what matters, okay? Remember that what you focus on and believe in will consume you and so we need to make sure that if we are going to be consumed by what we're putting all of our attention into, that we are putting our attention into the things that are going to improve our lives, that are going to make our lives better, that are going to move the needle for us and our businesses.

Okay, you can choose that. You can choose to focus on what will move the needle for you personally. And if you have to choose what you were going to focus on, Choose that. Choose yourself. Choose your family. Choose your business. These are the things that matter. These are the things that are ultimately going to move the needle for you.

It's polarization that sells media. They're not going to feed you. The good stories. They're not gonna motivate you. They're not gonna pick you up. They damn well should. Absolutely. I would buy that newspaper. I'll buy the newspaper that comes out and talks about the good stories. I get it. The world isn't always sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows.

I understand this. But guys, the news doesn't always have to be negative either. It wouldn't kill them to put in some like highlight stories of some great things that happened. You know, I kind of feel like they get lost in the mix or they get tossed to the morning shows. But it would be amazing if the news could start to focus more on the great things that are happening in the world, the inspiration, the motivation, the people that are making a difference, the companies that are making a difference.

My gosh, I would watch that news over the current news situation every single time. Remember guys, your feeds too, and like, this is just the world of social media. Your feeds will show you more of what you are consuming and so if you start to go down this rabbit hole of negativity and watching like what's going on with the wars or watching what's going on in politics, you're just going to keep getting hammered by negativity after negativity after negativity, it's going to create a negativity social media spiral for you with regards to the news and the stories that are coming to your pages and so Understand this, the further you go down the rabbit hole, the harder it is to dig yourself out, because all the algorithms keep feeding you the negative stuff.

It thinks that that's what you want. Why? Because it's what you were consuming. How do we fix this? Start consuming positive stories. Start clicking on the positive stuff. Start searching positive situations. Start searching self help. Start searching motivation, and then watch your news feed start to feed you positive information.

And the opposite of this, guys, is true. If you start to focus on positive stories, positive information, growing your business, you know, motivation, daily motivation, inspiration, these are the things that are going to populate your feeds. And I want you just to think for two seconds, what would your world be like if all of the news coming your way Motivated you, uplifted you, and inspired you.

It will change your life. Remember, what you consume controls what you think about. And so, if you've been struggling to stay positive, you have to turn off the negativity. And yeah, this can be hard. Sometimes this literally means we have to We have to distance ourselves from people in our life who bring us down.

Sometimes this means we have to take a massive break from social media. Sometimes this means we have to stop watching YouTube. Sometimes this means maybe we need literally a reset. Maybe we need a vacation. Maybe we need to go to therapy and start to deal with some of the challenges that we're facing.

Because maybe we're bringing some of that negativity from past experiences, right? But it's time to live a different life. It's time to live a positive life. And especially if your job is growing a business, if your responsibility is to either grow your business or a business for someone else. Guys, it's really hard to do when you're coming at it from a place of negativity.

And in a world that is trying to drag you down, it's a lot easier to go negative than it is to go positive. But it is not impossible. It's not impossible to flip the script. It's not impossible to turn that frown upside down. I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. It's not impossible. It's not. It's very possible.

It just takes conscious choice. And guys, the state of the world. State of the world. We've never lived in a time where access to news on the state of the world has been easier and I've struggled with this this year, guys, I have you know, the wars in Ukraine, the wars in Israel, stuff like that. It's really, really concerning.

It's concerning. For a lot of people and around the world, and it is hard to turn it off. We have to focus on what is going to improve our lives. We have to focus it in at home. It's never been easier to get pulled halfway around the world. But it is really, really important to focus in on what is important, which is our families, our lives, our businesses.

How do we improve these things and not get wrapped into the things? It's okay. It's okay to have your feelings about these things. I have my feelings about these things. I think war is horrible. I, I don't think that any of these wars should be happening, but I also have a family to look after here in Canada.

I also have a business to grow here in Canada. I have a life that has to move forward here and so I need to be focusing on what is going to move the needle here at home. And I think most of you need to be focusing on that as well. A lot of times in my life and probably in a lot of your life, social media takes more than it gives.

Think about it. If. Social media is free for a lot of people. Social media is free, but if social media is free, who's the product? You're the product, right? It's marketing to you endlessly. It's feeding you full of crap endlessly. A lot of the stuff on, you know, Facebook or Instagram and stuff. You're not even, you're not even choosing to see it.

It's literally being fed in front of you by advertisers, right? And so you have to think about this for a second. If you are not paying for the news or for the social media, you have to assume you're the product. It's being marketed to you. You're being sold by being there. And if you're being sold a bunch of negativity, My gosh, it just makes it that much worse, doesn't it?

It makes it that much worse. We all need to distance ourselves from stuff that is negative, or find ways to change the algorithm so that the stuff we're being fed is positive, right? We want to make sure that as much of the media that we are being exposed to or are consuming, is positive. is actually improving our lives is improving our mood is making us more successful.

And you know what, I'm going to put my hand way up right here and say that LinkedIn has done an absolutely outstanding job of doing this. I do not work for LinkedIn. I don't get paid by LinkedIn. I have zero affiliation with them other than I've been using them for a long time. The LinkedIn, I think, is that It does have a huge paid user base and so it doesn't have the same challenges that say a Facebook has or an Instagram has or something along those lines and I would say that a lot of my experience in working with LinkedIn has been an extremely positive situation where I'm seeing a lot of motivation.

uplifting, real supportive community. And that is something that has grown really well on LinkedIn. And I would say they've done an excellent job. And I would say if, if you do like social media, I imagine if you're listening to the show, you're probably already there. If you do like social media and you have to pick one, my vote would be to stick on LinkedIn.

Especially if you're looking to grow your businesses, you're looking to stay motivated. You're looking to stay inspired. LinkedIn is an amazing, amazing place for that. And guys, I just want to chat about fear for a second, because we live in a time where, frankly, there's a lot that it feels to be afraid of, right?

There's a lot of situations where, especially with the world, with wars, or with the economic situation, or with the upcoming elections, there's a lot of people who are really afraid. And if you're living in fear, it's really hard to make great decisions. It's really hard to do. The positive things that you have to do in order to grow your business to stay inspired to take things to the next level.

And so if you are living in fear right now, if you're afraid of the future, if you're afraid of the elections, if you're afraid of the wars, if you're afraid of these things, guys, it's time. You have to take that break. You need a degree of separation from the negative media that is impacting you. And, For everybody right now who's listening to this who say, yeah, that's me, like, I'm genuinely afraid of the future right now.

I want you to try a little experiment. Take 30 days. I don't want you to consume news. I want you to try to avoid negative social media. I want you to even try to avoid negative people, if you can. And I want you to recognize that life is going to happen either way. And you get to choose, you get to choose the meaning that you're going to give it, okay?

And I get that this can be hard, I get that this can be super challenging, but understand that sometimes Taking that little break and that step back from all that outside influence gives you a chance to get clear with what you want and what you believe and make sure that you're okay. Because a lot of us, we can get so overwhelmed by all these external influences that we start to forget like, what is our choices?

What is our real feelings? And what is being imposed upon us? And so, this might be a great experiment for you just to take a break, just sit with yourself for a month. You know, live life, do work, do all the things you need to do. But try to take that break away from being endlessly bombarded by negative media and just see how it, how it affects you.

But I think you're going to find that the effect is tremendous. Remember guys, you have a choice. You have a choice. And I think we forget that we can end up living and feeling like life is just happening to us. But we choose. We choose to turn on the news. We choose to hop on social media. I know it doesn't always feel like a choice, but trust me, it is a choice.

And you can choose to do that. What you're going to consume. You can choose what you're going to post. You can choose the meaning that you're going to give to any situation. Okay? And understand that you have a choice. And you can choose to consume news carefully. You can choose to turn it off. Okay? You can choose to take that break.

You can choose to consume something positive instead. You always have a choice. One of the steps that we can take in that choosing for listening. And I know for a lot of us, especially with regards to like Facebook or things like that, guys, you've probably not cleaned up your Facebooks in like, in some cases, 20 years.

Now, how much of the news feed that you're seeing every day, especially on your Facebook, and I know this is hard because I'm right there with you, is a bunch of negative people. They've always been negative, but they've always been there. It's like that constant thing that you've just been able to rely on.

Well, guys, maybe it's time to do a little purge. Maybe it's time to purge the negative people from your social medias because that little step can have a monumental influence on your future, on what you consume, on what you see, on your frankly future mood, on your mood in this moment, okay? And so maybe we have to Maybe we have to remove some negative people from our lives and from our social media.

But guys, every time we do this, we leave room for positive people to fill those gaps. We leave room for positive influence to change our worlds. When was the last time that you read a book? Right. And I know, I know there's a lot of you, you're listening to podcasts. You're like, Kelly, I just listened to podcasts now.

I get it. I get it. I pepper my books into you, but I totally understand. But guys, self help books can be super, super motivating. And some of the best lessons that I've ever learned as an entrepreneur came from reading, you know, and I hate to say it as a podcaster, he tries to motivate you guys and give you great business development information every week.

But yeah, books are amazing guys. There's still a lot of room for a book, an audio book, a physical book. Take your time. Find a great book, learn a new skill, and motivate yourself along the way, guys. Most self help books, super, super positive, have a great lesson, and leave you wanting more. Think about that.

Think about that. If you're going to consume something, why not consume something that is going to improve your life? And of course, we have to believe in ourselves, right? We have to believe in ourselves. You got this, right? You've gotten this far, right? I think most of you, if you're listening to this, you're probably somewhere between 20 and 55, and you've absolutely killed it in life.

You're doing great. You're listening to a show like this because you want to do even better. You're already killing it. Believe in yourself, no matter the market, no matter the wars, no matter the economic situations, no matter the president, prime minister, or anything else, guys. It is you. You can rely on you.

Don't let these outside influences change you. You can succeed in any economy, in any situation, at any business, at your business. You deserve success. Stop letting people steal it from you. Stop letting negativity get in the way of your future success. Remember that you get to choose the meeting. No matter what happens in your life, no matter what the economic situation, you get to choose how you're going to interpret it.

You can say, you know what? Yeah, that kind of sucks, but I'm going to make the best of it. I'm actually going to succeed even despite the economic situation. Yeah, we might be in a downturn. Who cares? I got this. I'll find a different type of client. I'll pivot my business. I'll find a way out. I'll find another solution.

Guys, that's the meaning you can give any negative situation in your life. You don't have to let it be the be all end all to your situation. You can choose both the meaning and the route of action that you are going to take. And guys, choose positivity. Choose positivity. It will be the right choice for you.

Don't forget to reward yourself, guys. Especially for the small wins, right? There's nothing tiny about small wins. Let's call it that. There's nothing. Tiny about small wins. Okay, every small win leads to a bigger win. So celebrate the wins. I know I'm horrible for this. We'll have little wins and I'll be like, I'll just forget that they happened or I'll just move on.

Like they never happened. But guys, if we take the time to just pat ourselves on the back and say, you know what? Yeah, we did it. We closed that deal. We booked that meeting. We killed that conference. We did that public speech and it was awesome. Celebrate the small wins. The small wins always lead to bigger wins.

Don't forget to reward yourself. Don't forget to pat yourself on the back. The small wins matter. Take action daily to move yourself forward. If you're feeling overwhelmed, take it one day at a time and just do one little thing that will take you to the next level. Okay? Take one little action, make five extra calls, send five extra digital introductions, create a new brochure, start a new advertising campaign, whatever it is.

Take one small action every single day, and all these little actions turn into massive, massive movement over time, no matter the political situation, no matter the economic situation, little steps, daily little steps. Lead to big movements over time. Surround yourself with great, motivated, and happy people.

And guys, this is where LinkedIn is absolutely amazing. I've met so many incredible people through LinkedIn, through this podcast, through community events. that are incredible individuals who are motivated, who are happy, who are positive. Those are the kind of people that you need to surround yourself with.

Because if you want to grow, you need to grow in an ecosystem of positivity. You need to grow in an ecosystem of inspiration. And there's nobody more positive or inspiring than other positive, inspiring people. Surround yourself by great people and watch yourself evolve to be just another great person.

Take care of yourself physically guys. You know, this is one we all struggle with. I know all of us entrepreneurs were killing ourselves day in and day out and, and we definitely neglect ourselves the most. I can almost guarantee it. Almost every entrepreneur I know, I, we neglect ourselves the most.

We're the last priority on our minds, but guys, if we don't take care of ourselves physically and we're feel like crap, it's really hard to stay motivated. And it makes the impact of those outside influences that much stronger. And so whether you need to take care of yourself physically. Whether you need to, you know, do a little walk, do a little workout, take a little break during the day, have a little happiness in your life, have a little fun in your life.

Make sure that it's not all just a struggle and toil for success, because what is all the success in the world matter if you're not able to enjoy your life? So remember that. Find time to look after yourself physically, because if we are physically good, it makes it a lot easier to turn down the negative influences of life.

Learn to look at the bright side guys. There is a positive spin to everything. Believe it or not, there is a positive spin to every single situation. And it just, it can take a frame shift, it can take a mind shift. But if you can start to look for the positive thing in every crappy thing that happens, You are going to be a lot happier and you're going to start to automatically see the bright side to life.

I was not always super positive. I was not always looking for the bright side of life, but I'll tell you what most situations, even though they can impact me really strongly, something horrible happens. I close, I lose a deal. Things don't go right when I take some time and I like reflect on that. I may, you know what I mean?

I go through phases. So what'll happen to me is I'll feel really crappy. And then it's like I get some time to actually reflect on what's happened. And over time, I'll start to kind of come back from that. And I'll see, Oh, you know what? But this outcome happened and now I can take on this project or this outcome happened, but it's amazing.

Like this just opened a new door for me. And what will end up happening is a bunch of positivity will flow my way because I don't dwell on the negative. I try to find the positive outlook. And what happens is over time, the positive outlook will just reveal itself to you. It's a really interesting thing.

Yeah. But try to find the positive in the negative situation. It's okay to feel crappy in the moment. There's, I'm not saying negate your crappy feelings or your bad feelings. You absolutely need to feel them, but understand you don't got to stay there. You don't got to stay there. You can choose to find the positive and pull yourself out.

And wherever you can do that. I highly suggest you learn to do it. Remember, guys, what you believe becomes your reality. What do I always say on this show? Whether you say you can or you say you can't, you're right, right? I'm typically saying that with regards to, you know, belief in yourself to accomplish some type of goal.

But this also applies To your belief about an economic situation or your belief about the success of your business or your belief that the next politician is going to destroy the economy or destroy your country or whatever it is. If you believe that, everything will start to prove you right. Every, every situation, your mind will put that shift on.

Well, oh, that's because that happened, or it's impossible because of this situation. It'll start to build your reality based on your beliefs. So you have to change what you believe. You have to believe in the positive things. You have to believe there's a good outcome for you here, that you can do it, that you can accomplish it, no matter what, no matter what the situation is, it's not going to drag you down, you're going to find a solution, you're going to find an outcome, remember, if you don't control the influences in your life, they will control you, take your control back, believe in yourself, believe in yourself.

Surround yourself in positivity and watch your world change. Shoutouts this week, Shawn Sooley, Deanna Kean, Tash Jefferies, Colin Harms, Rodney Lover, Faheem Khan, Ben Wise, Janice Baskin, Erin Holowach, Lauren Graff, Gary N, Kathleen Honeywell, Jamie Moffat, Fatima Zaidi, Shawn Neels, Susan Poseikaeka, Darren Chiu, Chloe Wu, Lucas Benjamin Schmidt, and Samantha Germain.

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. Sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

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