The Journey to 100

The Journey to 100

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to milestone episode 100 of the business development podcast. And on today's show, it's a show about celebration. We're talking about the journey to 100 and what the future has in store. Stick with us. It's an absolutely amazing episode.

Intro: The Great Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.

And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world. You'll get expert business development, advice, tips, and experiences, and you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs, and business development reps. You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business brought to you by Capital Business Development, capitalbd.ca. Let's do it. To the Business Development Podcast, and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to Milestone episode 100. My gosh, can't even believe it for a second. 100 episodes of the business development podcast. At this point, we've even done 100 episodes in less than one year. It is December 22nd.

Everybody is kind of officially on break, but not us here at the business development podcast. We are recording episode 100, and I cannot be more thrilled. Could not be more excited about episode 100. I am on today with two people you have heard a ton about. Shelby Hobbs and Cole Chorney, my like, Two most important people in my life, appreciate them immensely.

They are the backside to this show. They really allow me to bounce great ideas and spitball ideas and figure out where we're going and help us with. Sponsorship programs and all this other fun stuff. I cannot do this alone. And I have my team with me today. And this show, even though it's episode 100, is not about me.

It's not. It's about all of us. It's about all of us as a team. And I cannot be more thankful to have you guys on. And I know our guests are excited to meet you. Shelby, why don't you start first?

Shelby Hobbs: Oh, thank you, dear. Well, yeah, I'm Shelby Hobbs, and I'm, I guess I'm your partner in crime and life and love and work a little bit more and more, I guess, on the work side, and yeah, I'm very honored to be here today, and if you'd asked me to do this a few months ago, I probably wouldn't have thought as hard about it, but now that you are at 100 episodes and have accomplished so much, I I really, I'm really just honoured to be here, and I know how important this space is to you and your listeners, so it's, I have immense gratitude, and I'm gonna be, be on my best behaviour to represent well.

Kelly Kennedy: This is not who she is. She is not on her best behaviour normally. If, if I'm in trouble, I know it. And I'm thankful that that is the person that she is because Shelby doesn't hold anything back and she doesn't pull punches and sometimes it hurts, but sometimes it's needed. And I love you, babe. And I appreciate it.

All right. And last but not least by any means, Mr. Cole Chorney, my right hand man at Capital Business Development, the backbone of this podcast. People have heard your name, Cole, a thousand times on this show. You might not have even heard your name on the show as many times as everyone else has. I'm sure you got a couple to catch up on, but you also live the life.

You live the business development life. You don't have to necessarily hear it through the podcast. You're right there through all major decisions with capital through all major decisions on the podcast. Not only are you right there, you're influential in making them and appreciate you, man. Thank you so much.

Cole Chorney: Well, thank you, Kelly. I appreciate that. And yeah, you know it's, it's been a journey to get here and you know, there's been ups and downs along the way, but we've been powering through it and we've been, you know, collaborating really well to kind of figure out where where the direction of the podcast is going and, you know, on the other front well, I guess just to back it up a little bit First off, I I work for Capital Business Development, which is, you know, the main company behind obviously the business development podcast and yeah, started there about a year ago now.

I'm sure you guys heard the story on one of the previous pods about showing up on Kelly's doorstep and kind of just, you know, really, really going for it. But you know, as with any kind of anything you want to do in life, you really got to. Be willing to put yourself out there and take risks. And that was one thing that I I really wanted.

So, you know, I put myself out there and it's, it's turned into something great. So I'm, I'm really grateful for Kelly and the business development podcast. Just how far we've been able to take it in a year is incredible. And we, we absolutely couldn't do it without you guys. So we really appreciate all your support.

It's, it's been awesome and we're, we're really looking forward to a great year next year as well.

Kelly Kennedy: Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, Cole, I have talked to them about the story, but you know what? It's funner to hear it from you anyway. You know, I'll be honest, it took a lot of courage for you to do what you did.

And I know right off the bat, you didn't know it at the time. So how the story of me and Cole came to be was I was hiring for capital business development. And instead of just sending his resume, Cole gave a really quick phone call and was like, Hey, I'm just in the area. Do you mind if I swing by, drop my resume in person, just make a quick introduction.

So like totally business developed his own hiring. And he came to the door and made an introduction was super kind and didn't take much time. It was just like, Hey, I just want to put a face to the name. I'm Cole and looking forward to whatever the next steps are. Canada's resume, I think I turned around when upstairs talked to Shelby.

I was like, yeah, I just found my employee.

Remember that Shelby?

Shelby Hobbs: Oh, I do. I remember it very well. And I remember just like the excitement and and nerves about hiring an employee. And there was You know, the nervousness around like, now I got to go through all these resumes and I need to like shortlist people. I have to do interviews. And all of a sudden Cole shows up on our doorstep and he just self selected right then and there.

It was like, Kelly turned around, came right to me. He's like, I'm going to hire that guy. He just came to our front door. Like it's a done deal. And yeah, it's been amazing. It's been amazing to watch the two of you. Just really collaborate so closely on a day to day basis. And I am also so, so grateful for you, Cole, because there's been, you know, heading into the podcast as well as, you know, capital business development as an endeavor, Kelly and I had to have a lot of conversations and brainstorming sessions about what this was all going to look like just to really conceptualize everything.

And ever since you've joined the team and been his right hand man, so much of that. Pressure kind of came off of our relationship in a way, and you really stepped into that role for him. And that's been a very healthy thing for our family and for the business as a whole, because of everything that you contribute.

So I'm also so, so grateful for you, Cole. And yeah, it was, it was a really cool journey.

Cole Chorney: Right on. Well, I really appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah, you know, with with that story there, I remember sitting in my car before I called you there, Kelly. And I noticed the address on there and I thought, you know, rather than showing up at your doorstep, I better give you a call first.

So it made that call and to be honest, I was pretty nervous about it. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but I thought, you know, Hey, this, this looks like something that you know, it looks like it has some promise there. So I, you know, I was like, you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to I guess, stick my neck out here and do something that has a little bit of a risk to it and show up at your door, hand you, hand you my resume and really make that impression.

Right. And they, the thing about that was I didn't really realize at the time that that was, you know, exactly what you need in business development. And I think looking back on it now, it's really kind of, it's almost funny to me to kind of look at that and be like, well, yeah, like that. That makes a lot of sense, but at the time I really had no idea.

It was just something that, you know, I wanted and I was willing to go after. And it's it ultimately went well. So I'm, I'm very, very happy with myself for making that decision. And I'm very grateful for for the opportunity and how it's how it's went so far.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, you know what I always say, Cole, you don't choose business development, my friend.

Business development chooses you and whether you knew it or not, you were being chosen. Absolutely. That's the truth. Man, you know what, you know, we don't talk about a lot and you know, this show does delve into entrepreneurship. It doesn't always delve into my entrepreneurship as much, but yeah, you know, Shelby, we had a lot of conversations before I went to market where I was ready to expand capital with capital.

You guys both know I've always wanted to do something big. I wasn't interested in doing something small. I didn't want to half ass anything. Whatever I was going to do was going to change the world. That was the goal of capital, and it still is. And it's the goal of this podcast, too. And so selecting somebody for that you know, came with two challenges, obviously a challenge internally to myself, where now it's like, not only am I just responsible for me and my family, but now the company is growing and I'm responsible for other people and their families and things along those lines.

But also, how do I make sure that I get somebody who is in line with with our values and with what we want to do? With capital. And it's so funny, Cole, because like you really were sent to us. Like I have no question. Like you're the best thing to ever just randomly show up on my doorstep. Put it that way.

Like the reality is I couldn't have asked for a better person to show up on my doorstep. And I truly mean that. Inside and out. You were the best person for the job. You continue to be the best person for the job and you continue to grow with me because I'm not done growing. I still have a lot of learning to do and I've gotten to do a lot of that learning with you by my side.

And like I said, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you. You know, I mean, you say that I'm a good boss, but I also say that, you know, I can't be a good boss without somebody like you to be able to help me become one. So appreciate it.

Cole Chorney: I really appreciate that Kelly. And yeah, no, you're an incredible boss.

I feel like not to go back and forth with this for too long, but Kelly's, Kelly's an incredible boss. Very understanding, very goal driven knows where this is going. And it's, it's very easy to work for you. You're very team oriented. It's, I can't say enough good things, honestly. It's, it's been incredible.

I've, I, my background is in sports, so I've, I've played for various different coaches, various different styles. And. You know, I like to think that I know what good leadership looks like, and you definitely got it, Kelly, so I'm very, very appreciative of that.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh, thanks, dude. No, it means a lot, and you being by me for this show means a lot, and you know, you've come up a lot on plenty of shows, because really A lot of this show, initially, I saw it as double edged, right?

Like, you had all, everything you needed. You just needed some fundamentals and some skills to work from. So, you know, we talked about this briefly, but a lot of the beginning of this show was really made with you in mind, where it's like, not only can I teach the world, but I can teach my employee how to do this job effectively.

And so it's funny because so much of our first shows on this podcast were inspired by you.

Cole Chorney: Yeah, absolutely there. And I think on the other end of that you know, being new to business development and kind of, you know, having some skills to refine and, and learn, frankly you know, that show really, or this show really helped me out.

Cause you know, there was, there was a lot of things that, you know, you don't exactly know off the hop and you kind of, you do your best to make sense of it all, but if someone really lays it out for you and what the process looks like. And I think more importantly to me, at least was, you know, some of the feelings associated with that, getting nervous.

sort of thing. Those are, those are all normal, right? And that was, that was something that was huge for me. Because I think, you know, if I would have stepped into the role, there's no podcast, you know, maybe we, we have our conversations here and there, but I don't know that they ever get as deep as you kind of, you know, you really speak to things on the podcast.

So I think that the podcast really, it helped me out in that sense. And it also helped me to get to know you as well. And I think it's a, it's supercharged our relationship where we got to know each other a lot quicker than. Perhaps we would have you know, if I, I didn't have the insight that came alongside the podcast.

Right?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. And so much of the beginning of the show was me and you talking, right? Like it really was, it was like, well, okay, what episodes should we come up with for this next couple of weeks? Because everything was kind of being planned a couple of weeks at a time, like in the beginning of the show, like for those of you who are either, either not.

Involved in podcasts or maybe hack your maybe you're thinking about it and you're like, Hey, like, what does it even take to launch a podcast? The beginning can be a really weird space because So much of it is just trial and error and learning, and especially if that's not your background. Like, remember everybody, I did not start out a podcaster at all.

At all. Not even remotely. I don't even think I'd recorded myself and listened to my voice before. That's how, like, that's how not a podcaster I was. But you know, you can ask Shelby. I love podcasts. My favorite form of entertainment is podcast. I've been listening to podcasts probably on a steady stream basis since about 2015.

What's super funny is and that, you know, most of you know, because I've said it, I'm actually not a huge consumer of business podcasts. I'm a huge consumer of business books and I listen to audio books all the time. But when it came to podcasts, podcasts was my entertainment space. It's our bedtime space.

Like we have rituals in our household. I listen to a podcast when I cook breakfast on Saturdays. I listened to, we listened to podcasts at night. We have like three that we love to listen to when we go to bed. But you know, podcasts for us have been something that I absolutely love. Did I ever think that I would have one?

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And definitely not one that was successful. I still, it still blows my mind, but in the very beginning of this show, so much of it was, you know, I don't want to say by the seat of my pants, but by the seat of my pants, like it really was because especially the first 10 to 15 episodes, they were very much topics that.

When I sat down initially, I wrote out about 50 show topics. They weren't necessarily in any order, but I did try to do them in a fairly consistent order, because if you sit down and you write show topics for a podcast, you're going to find that some of them they don't feel right in the moment. But, if you let that bite you every time, eventually you're going to have a list of shows that just never feel right.

And so what I recognized early on with podcasting is you have to record even on the ones that don't feel right. And not every single show is going to be a blockbuster show. And I'm saying that with like utmost kindness. I recognize that like, I wish that every single show I ever made, you guys loved it and you ate it up.

But I also recognize that I did this show, rain or shine, sick or feeling like a rock star. I have not missed an episode in a hundred episodes. And that meant that some days I was going through some personal problems. That meant that some days I was sick as a dog. And that meant that some days I felt absolutely amazing.

And I'm sure you guys Could pick up on that, at least on a subconscious level, and maybe not every show was the best show ever, but I think that that's just part of the journey. Podcasting is about reality, it's about real humanness. The reason that you guys connect with us, us podcasters, is because you're connecting with real people.

We're not a heavily produced TV program. We're not a heavily produced TV show or a radio show or the CBC where we're prim and proper all the time. That's just not who we are. You're getting the real deal. You're getting Kelly Kennedy when you listen to this podcast. If you meet me in person, I'm not that different.

The reality is you get, you get pretty much who I am through a podcast and. Sometimes that's the good, sometimes that's the bad, and sometimes that's the ugly, right? And Shelby can tell you that is very, very, very true. You know, babe, let's take them back to the beginning of the show. Let's go back. Let's go back a month before the show.

Do you remember what that process was like? Do you remember the conversations that we'd kind of been having at that time? Well, what I

Shelby Hobbs: recall is that We weren't having a lot of conversations about podcasting initially, just before you started the show. I think we had over the course of our relationship kind of joked back and forth being that we were and are.

Consumers of podcast content, as you pointed out on a regular basis. We like to kind of joke about it and talk about it. Like maybe one day we would be doing a podcast together and that was kind of the extent of it. And then you had bought me a, how to start a podcast book for Christmas. And. I don't think I've ever opened that book, but I still have that book.

And I don't think you ever read it either.

Kelly Kennedy: No, I never did.

Shelby Hobbs: But you know, as a partner, you've always been incredibly supportive and always like were kind of behind me if I had an idea, like you'd, you'd kind of spur me into action a little bit and support anything that I wanted to do. And so, you know, I guess over time you realize that.

It might be for you. And I, I think the way that it really happened was kind of through the entry point was like gadgets and, and technical softwares and things like that, because you're always researching and figuring out what the best of the best is. And this felt like another one of those areas where you're a very passionate person and you kind of dove into audio equipment and next thing you know, we had podcasts.

Level quality audio stuff showing up at our door and then kind of piling up in the corner of our living room like box after box of what looked to be like pretty expensive equipment and I'm like, Hmm, what are we doing over here? You know? What are we starting now? And yeah, it wasn't, you know, I guess that equipment kind of sat in the corner of our living room for about a month and kind of through the chaos of having our three boys and dogs and everything.

And I think one day it was just kind of like, Hey. What are you doing with all that fancy, expensive new stuff you got over there? Are you going to do anything with that? Yeah, I think, you know, there was maybe even a little bit of pressure or tension in that statement. Like, Hey, you know, you've invested all this time into researching this and, and clearly invested some money and.

What are you going to do? And it was kind of a challenge. I posed it to you as a challenge, I think, in that moment, and you really rose to the occasion. You were like, yeah, you know what? You're right. I'm going to go do something with it right now. And you kind of turned around, and the boxes went downstairs, and you went downstairs, and the door got locked, and you didn't emerge until you had recorded something.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, you know, like, yeah, absolutely. That, you know what I mean? That situation to me felt like you should probably do something with this or get rid of it because you just spend a small fortune on all this equipment. And you know, we need that money too. So figure it out. I feel like that's how it felt in the moment.

I'm not, I'm not sure what the day was, but you know, the truth is, the truth is Shelby, is that. I was scared to do this. I was. I was genuinely afraid to do this. I thought, yeah, I've been doing this a long time, but like, it's a whole nother thing to sit down in front of a mic and tell other people how to do it.

Not to mention, I don't know what I'm doing. It's kind of how it felt like, right? Like. The podcast journey, for those of you who maybe are looking at embarking on it, it's so much more than just coming up with content and talking to a microphone. There's so much to learn. There's so much more than you think.

Put it that way. There's so much more to it than you think there is. And to get to 100 episodes takes dedication, time, and like, frankly, another full time job. That's basically what it is. And the amount of learning that you need to do in order to get to a stage where you can put together a professional or highly, highly produced show, it's going to take you time because like I said, I, I first off had no experience doing this and speaking to a microphone.

I never had to really plan out a show before. So that was a learning experience. I had to learn how to use audio equipment, which I had no experience in produce shows. How do you edit out, you know, stuff that you don't like, how do you fix an episode so that you get rid of the horrible ums and butts and everything else that goes in there.

You know, what happens when you make a mistake? In the beginning, when I made a mistake, I just re recorded and then I realized how crazy that was. I had to like, okay, this isn't going to work. You can't just re record every time you make a mistake. You're going to be re recording all the time. But there was so much to learn.

But I remember that very first day where you, you know, I mean, this show wouldn't exist, Shelby, without you giving me that kick in the butt. I'm not sure that I ever would have. Sat down and recorded trailer episode that night. I'm not sure that I would have. I, you know, I mean, I don't know. I don't know what would have happened, but I think there's a high likelihood that the business development podcast maybe would have never existed without that kick in the butt.

So, I love you and thank you.

Shelby Hobbs: Well, thank you. And yeah, you've really, You really did the dang thing. Yeah, yeah. You've really impressed me and, you know, I haven't always, you haven't always had my buy in. I think, you know, even after that first day, it was like, okay, you recorded one episode, you know.

Congratulations, but, you know, whoop dee doo.

Just to be frank,

it was like, you know, and so even though I was super proud of you for getting started, you know, along the way to your point, it was kind of like taking on a second full time job and we do have a very busy and full life. And so at times, you know, I have to be authentic and say I was.

you know, frustrated by the amount of time that it took. And that was because there was so much learning. And so even when you weren't recording, you were learning. And that learning took a lot of time. And I really commend you for, you For, you know, digging your heels in and, and sticking to it and having such a, a deep level of commitment and passion for what you do, because it, it's required that to sustain and maintain the commitment that you made to your listeners, which was two episodes a week, you know, at the time, we didn't even know what that meant.

We didn't know how much time that was going to take, but it was like, you know, two episodes a week. And I remember thinking at the time, like I've always. in a little bit of a, are you sure kind of person that sounds like a lot higher on the side of everything is a lot of work. And I do that because I know that you are about quality.

And I know that if you're going to do something at high quality, that means high, time investment and time is all we have, you know, time is our most valuable resource. So I think it took some time for you to really prove to me and yourself that this was going to be worthwhile and this was really going to add value to our life and to you.

And I've watched you just really grow and sort of blossom into this. You know, this incredible speaker and somebody who is helping so many people and, you know, I'm a full on believer now in what you do and you do have my support and it means that, you know, we have to really work together on a day to day basis to.

To make our life run smoothly. It's a lot of juggling and balancing, but it's a, it's a hell of a lot of teamwork and we really rock it. We rock it on the teamwork front. And so do the two of you. And it's really cool for the three of us to kind of be here doing this and celebrating that because it is, it's so much teamwork and we're, we kind of do it, the three of us in a lot of ways without realizing it.

But yeah, it's. Thank you. And I, one more thing that you pointed out that I, that I just want to highlight as well as you said, you don't listen to a lot of business podcasts. And actually, I think that's really worked to your benefit because I think you're incredibly authentic and you didn't really let what other people were doing taint or influence what you've done along the way.

You've done this so much. Totally as you, as who you are, and this is a hundred percent who you are. How you show up on this podcast is who you are in life. It's who you are as a partner and, and now as a dad and, and as a leader. And so I think the fact that you've sort of steered clear the industry in that way has really worked to your benefit.

And I've always admired that because even as a, as a creative person, I know the. The pull sometimes of seeing what other people are doing, you kind of want to know, like, well, how is this person being so successful? And what is this person doing? But that can start to influence your work and who you are and kind of infiltrate that authenticity.

But you just haven't done that. And I think that's why people are so drawn to you. And that really comes through in your work.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, I think what I kind of recognized early on is that Business is hard, and it doesn't matter who you are, and having somebody, you know, I don't want to name names, but there are some really hardcore business coach people out there that really ram it down your throat that you have to show up and you have to do it this way, and if you don't do it this way, you should go whip yourself on the back because you're wrong and you have to change in order to get there, and I think what I really wanted to do was be authentic and be real, and kind of let people know that you know, there is hope here.

There's hope, and you don't have to kill yourself to get there. And you would do better to be yourself. You would do better to do it your way and bring yourself and your kindness and your authenticness into your business than to necessarily, yeah, take that really hard approach. And yeah, are there times where that hard approach is needed?

A hundred percent. But you'll know when that is. You'll know intrinsically when you need to toughen up and when you need to. You know, push through as opposed to being told to push through all the time because being told to push through all the time just isn't realistic. There are times when you can't push through and no matter what, no, like no business guru or super expert or, you know, hardcore ex military people are going to push you through it.

Like life is happening no matter and it's I think it's hard to like. It's hard to be that because I think sometimes I've felt that way, like I felt that way where it's like, okay, I need to just toughen up. I need to toughen up and I need to hammer through even though I feel horrible inside. I need to hammer through and I knew I needed to do that, but There are times when that doesn't work.

There are times when what you need to do is take a step back and breathe and say, I'm okay. I'm going to make it. I can get back to the fundamentals tomorrow, but today I need to look after myself. And I think, you know, one of, one of our close show friends and, and really big friend of the show and friend to me, has called what we do here on the business development podcast, Hope Dealers.

He said, Kelly, what you are is a Hope Dealer. And I love it because that's what I want to do. The reality is, is that business is going to happen. There's going to be good days. There's going to be bad days. But overall, we have to have hope. We have to be able to be inspired. And what I want to do on the show always is educate and inspire the next generation.

That's the right move forward, regardless of what business you're in.

Shelby Hobbs: Mm hmm. Yeah. And hope, hope has really been like the antidote to that burnout or to that exhaustion that you speak to. And you know, that's the other thing that the two of you have done incredibly well is you've celebrated all along the way.

And I think celebration and, and gratitude, that's the antidote to like those days when you You know, you were sick or we were having a fight that day or our dogs got in a fight that day, you know, we've had, we've had, we moved, we had a baby, we've had a lot of things go on. And I think that because you have really brought this community along for all of the wins, no matter how small you've, you've just.

You created that passion and that hope and that celebration that I think people are really looking for. And so, yeah, I think if the two of you could talk a little bit about how you've done that and how you've really made that central in your, in your community, I think that would be awesome.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, well, I think from the beginning, what I recognized getting into podcasting was there wasn't a lot of data and they're definitely or if there is, you know, I mean, actually, I got I had better wording.

I was at I was at one of my clients the other day and I mentioned, man, there's like not a lot of podcast data. And one of the people peeped up and they said, No, Kelly, there's a lot of data. You're just not given access to it. I was like, Oh, fair enough. You're right. There are people that hold a lot of podcast data that are holding it close to the chest and not telling people why because I think it's important.

There is a benefit to them in keeping us dumb when it comes down to podcast statistics and data. But the reality is, is that I recognized early on that data for a business podcast is going to be completely different than data for an entertainment podcast or any type of other self help podcast. You know, and so from the very beginning, I wanted to be transparent with this show.

And you guys have known that I've given you guys exact numbers. I've screenshotted our actual downloads, shared them to LinkedIn, shared them places, kept you guys in the loop about where we're at for followers, where we're at for downloads for that time. And when we hit those amazing milestones, yeah, I freaking shouted it out.

And it's so cool because I was looking back at just some of the data for this show. We crossed 500 downloads on March 6th, which was one month from the release of our very first show and I remember that being super exciting. I'm pretty sure that was our first guest episode as well with McKinley Hyland.

And yeah, I remember being super pumped and literally texting McKinley and be like, yeah, we just crossed 500 with your show like this is so exciting and it's You know, it's crazy to think now we're well over a hundred thousand, but at the time, that 500, it meant a lot. It really did. It meant like, when you think about it, and I think it's really important, it's easy to look at the numbers and for it just to be numbers, but I think, you know, and we've talked about this, every single number is a person.

It's a real person learning a real thing. Someone who's come for help trying to do better in their business life, trying to do better as a, as a business development specialist, trying to improve themselves. And it's, you have to celebrate every number, no matter how many it is, because even a room full of 500 people, even if every episode you ever put out only ever gets 500 downloads in the total length of time that you do a podcast for.

That's 500 people who learned something from you, right?

Cole Chorney: Absolutely, and I think touching on that a little bit more, I think it's important to celebrate all the wins you have along the way too, right? Like for your own kind of, you know, you look around, you looked on, you know, say LinkedIn or whatever it is and maybe you see there's another podcast and they have a million downloads or whatever the case may be and you look at your, your app and, you know, maybe you only have 500.

But you know what? It has to start somewhere, right? So the more you can take you know, take the good away from those small wins, the better off you're going to be. And I think that early on, like, like you spoke to it earlier, Kelly, it's like, we were thrilled to get our first hundred downloads, first 500 downloads.

And you know what, like getting from, you know, say off the ground to a thousand might be just as challenging 10, 000. Right. So the objective number doesn't really matter as much as the fact that you're, you know, you're pushing forward, you're putting out quality content and you're growing. Right. And ultimately, the biggest thing is that you're putting out, you know, that quality content, you're making a difference in people's lives, and that's, there's nothing better than that.

That's what's, that's what it's all about, right? It's about that, it's about the community, and it's about putting that information to them so that they can be successful in their own lives and in their own jobs, right?

Kelly Kennedy: Yes, and our community is absolutely awesome and I appreciate each and every one of you and so many of you reach out and have been encouraging along the way and have told your stories along the way of how the business development podcast has helped you or helped your business or that you tell, you know, we just got a message this morning from a gentleman in Ecuador who said that he's been translating the show and teaching it to his employees in Ecuador on a daily basis like Yes, absolutely.

Just cool stories like that, and they come from all over the world, and it's so cool that just a small show that started out, you know, in a basement in Edmonton can go to over 130 countries in the last year alone. We've reached over 130 countries in 10 months. Like where it just, it's honestly, it's astounding.

It's absolutely astounding. It's incredible. And you know, I, you know, one of the things that I learned too, is that there's so many more people listening than you think, like, sure. Okay, sure. You got your 500 downloads on your app and maybe you got your 20 followers who follow you on Spotify or wherever you post whatever Apple podcast.

But the reality is, is that it takes a really special person to even go that far and to rate your show and to leave a follow. And when the Spotify numbers came in, I almost, like, it almost knocked me out of my chair. Because we had, we were a number one show for over 7, 500 people. That means that, frankly, only, like, Maybe five to 10 percent of people who absolutely love your show even choose to follow it on a specific app or choose to reach out to you and send anything like you have such a larger following than you even are aware of, even when you only have a 500 download show.

I like I that's something that you really have to keep in mind is that your audience is huge and it's around the world. We were in top 10 show for I think it was 21, 000 people. We were in their top 10. Like, that's absolutely bonkers, and that was in, yeah, in such a short period of time, in just a 10 month span, we're not even at a year yet, even when this episode is dropping, we haven't celebrated our first year.

Our first year is celebrated on February 6th of 2024, that's our one year anniversary. And so, Yeah, you know, I want the takeaway from this episode today to be, heck, if you want to do something, you can do it. You just have to put your mind to it. You just have to show up. You have to provide good content.

And as long as you do that on a consistent basis, yeah, you'll change the world. You'll find a way to change the world. And it's, it's just so cool to think. And you know, now we're over 100, 000 downloads. I think as of this morning, we're at 108, 000 downloads. Yeah, and we're still, we're still not even at 11 months.

So like the show, you know, Cole, you made a, you made a mention that the hardest, you know, the hardest shows you're probably ever going to do will be, you know, your first 10, 000 downloads. And I think that's true because in that initial time is when you're setting. You're learning yourself. You're also setting your standards so that the listeners know what they can expect.

You're building your show and you're growing your show. And like, you know, my first shows are nothing like this show because I have learned and grown as a podcaster and as a speaker and as someone who's able to educate and inspire through audio. And I didn't start here. You know, it's been a learning journey and I had to get more comfortable with, with me and my voice and the way that I talk about things and my own idiosyncrasies and things that I don't like.

It's a growing experience. And so, you know what? You're absolutely right. Cool. I think the hardest shows that anyone will ever do is within their first 10, 000 downloads. And after that, I think us getting from a hundred thousand downloads to a million downloads will be easier than us getting from zero to 10, 000.

No question. No question.

Cole Chorney: Yeah. I mean, absolutely. And in the beginning there, I think another thing that it's probably pretty common for people you know, starting podcasts out is, you know, at this point now we have an incredible community and, you know, we're doing it to, you know, inspire them, teach them different things about business development provide access to all these cool stories from the guests that we have on all those sorts of things.

Right. But in the beginning, like, You're really doing it because of what you see that it could become, right? And that's, that's the challenge. You really have to have that vision and you have to hold that vision and know what you're doing it for. And, you know, maybe it's not clear out of the gate, but, you know, in a way, you know, why you're doing it.

Right. And that's, that's, I think that was a huge part to this and making it pass. I believe I don't have the staff top of my head, but making it past 20 episodes and podcasting is pretty rare. So if you can just keep pushing, just keep going with it. Be consistent. You're going to do well.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, I think it was only 1 percent actually, only 1 percent of podcasts get past 20 episodes and one of our amazing sponsors had sent that over to me, Colin Harms, super inspiring dude's been with us since the very beginning, long before he was a sponsor, he's been supporting this show.

And yeah, I think it was my 21st episode that morning. He'd sent me this amazing video that was super inspiring. And what it was talking about was that. Yeah, something like only 1 percent of podcasts even get past 20 episodes. So he was giving me a congratulations that morning. And yeah, it's you don't recognize it.

But it seems like a big world, the podcast community, right? And it is there's millions of podcasts. But most of those podcasts stop after like 10 or 15 episodes. That's all they got in them. They peter out and they're done. And so. Really, to end up in the top 1 percent of podcasts is really just a matter of sticking with it.

Like, that's it. That's really it. Provide good content, stick with it, and you will end up, yourself, in the top 10, top 5, top 1 percent of podcasts. And I think I recognized that early on, that That in the beginning, the thing that was going to make us the most successful was just to stick with it and continuously provide good, good content and you know, that's why I showed up.

That's why I showed up on shitty days and great days and sicknesses like my gosh, I had days where I could barely speak to this microphone, but I showed up and I did the show and I put it out because I recognize that right. The secret is just to do just to deliver great content over time. And that really is it.

And it's the two episodes a week was incredibly, incredibly ambitious. I'm not sure that if I was to do it over again, that I would start there. Like now that I know what I know, I'm not sure that I would have done it the way that I did it. Although I also don't think that we would have achieved the success that we have had I not done it at that level.

Had I not just jumped in head first and said, yeah, we're doing two week because There are shows out there that have been going for three years that are just accomplishing their first 100 episodes. And we're going to do it in less than a year. And hopefully we're going to hit 200 in less than two years.

And so, yeah. And so from like, from like a great content standpoint, being able to deliver and give you guys something great two times a week. And I really do think that that is a good cadence for business. And the reason that I think that is we need a pick me up. On Monday morning, which is why the business development podcast comes out on Sunday because you can get us on Sunday or I think a lot of you listen to us Sunday night or Monday morning and you need to pick me up in the middle of the week and so we have that show coming out on Wednesday that really just gives you that nice kick in the butt right in the middle of the week to help get you to the end and I think that that cadence has really helped us the Sunday, Wednesday, even though maybe it's not the ideal days to drop a show.

I think it has been ideal from a business standpoint, which is kind of why I want to go back to the beginning and say, Hey, Business podcasts are different. They just are. They're not a typical entertainment podcast, you know, over time. Will we hit millions of downloads? Absolutely. Will we hit it as fast as a comedy show?

Probably not because our audience is just not as big. It's not the world. It's not the complete world and anybody and their dog. It's a very specific demographic of high performance professionals. So there's just less of you. But the reality is, is that The content that we deliver is specific to you and over time, you know, we're going to hit those numbers anyway because we're providing high value.

Shelby Hobbs: Well, Kelly, it might be useful if you talk a little bit about the way that you actively, you know, promote and market and build your community, because the theory that I would pose as to the success that you've had and the growth of your community is that, you know, it's not only The high quality content.

It's the engagement with the community specifically. And the reason that I think that is that a lot of podcasts, you know, like you said, 1 percent won't make it past 20 episodes. And my theory would be that that's partially because. They haven't gotten any feedback or they haven't received the kind of validation they might need to keep going like you.

The reality is you need to feel inspired and accountable and like what you are doing is making a difference because it is a huge time commitment. And I think what you've done. You know, marvelously is you've involved your community so much that you have consistently had feedback. You've consistently had, you know, comments and and.

You know, people reaching out in private messages, you've had guests on your show, which really started to create a lot of community around what you were doing. And I think just built a lot of accountability into what you were doing and really propelled you forward week after week after week, because you felt responsible.

In some ways to both your guests and the people who have been reaching out to you and consistently listening. And all along the way, you know, you've talked about how surprised and how, you know, unbelievable and, you know, words like that in terms of the success that you've had. And all along the way, I've just kind of looked at you and been like, Yeah, not surprised.

I'm not surprised over here. The reason I'm not surprised is because I see the amount of consistent effort and the, the active way that you participate in the success of your show and the way that you are dedicated to the community that you're building. It's, it's for those reasons that I'm not even the slightest bit surprised every time, you know, Another day comes, another day of numbers rolls in and you're like, we did this and we did this and here's our numbers this week.

And I'm like, yep, that sounds right. That sounds like you're getting the output that you deserve because of the input that's going in. And so maybe talk a little bit about how you, how you really do that and how that has continued to inspire you to show up.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. That's. You say it like I did it, but I didn't.

Like, the reality is, is that the community started reaching out on their own. You know, I didn't entice any of them to reach out to us initially. I just started getting messages. Just found your show. It's changed my life. It's changed our business. It's changed everything. We're now teaching this to all these people.

We've had you know, amazing listeners. I'm not going to name them exactly. We've had amazing listeners out of Ontario who work for big, big banks. Who started sharing all of our information with all their clients? Because they said, this is just great information. You need to hear this the community really, yeah.

Okay. I've asked, I created this show, but the community itself has really reached out initially on their own and really started to kind of build that. But yes, you're absolutely right. There has been a community of people. And at this point there have been hundreds and hundreds of people. Who have reached out to the show and told us about, you know, they appreciate the show.

Thank you so much for what you're doing. It's changed my life. It's changed my business. It's changing everything for us. I don't know, babe. Like you act like I created this community. What I did was I created a show. The community was already there. I just gave them a place. I gave them a place of hope that they could go to and they could learn a tip.

They could learn something to just change things around for them. And we don't hold anything back here on the business development podcast. I tell it how it is. I teach you business development the same way I taught Cole business development. I teach you the same way, the same winning techniques that win for us at Capital.

And I get it, like, the reason I do this is, it's not proprietary information, it's information that's out there in the world. What I did is I took it and I created a process with it, and said if you follow this process, you'll find success, right? And I think so many people at this point have done that and have found success, and I'm happy for each and every one of them.

And I hope to continue to do that for people well into the future. And, you know, I'm speaking to you guys right now. The ones that have wrote to me and said, Kelly, thank you so much for doing this. I couldn't have done it without you. The reality is you did do it without me. You couldn't have done it without your own dedication, without saying, you know what, this makes sense.

I'm going to implement this in my business and watch my business turn around. So, you know, you guys have given me You know, the the recognition and the acknowledgement for this, but I want to turn around and I want to put that recognition and acknowledgement right back on each and every one of you because it was you who decided that you were going to change your business.

It was you who decided to enact the principles and the processes of business development to do it effectively in a way that's going to change your business. And if you've experienced change, it's because you did something about it. And so, yes, you're right. We have a great community. Although they wouldn't have accomplished what they've accomplished without taking the onus on themselves and doing it.

So Pat's right back on their back. I appreciate them immensely. You know, for those of you who reach out, it is, it is a driving force that has kept me going. It's put a smile on my face plenty of times. It's cool to see the change that we have enacted on the world, but. Each and every one of you are equally responsible for that change.

Each and every one of you are equally making it happen. And my processes alone don't work without you enacting them. So, you know, equally a pat on the back for each and every one of them. But yes, we talked about community Shelby. We talked about community and what we want to do in 2024. Is to build an even stronger and better community.

That is something that has been pretty important to us. I know we've had plenty of internal team conversations about how can we unite our business development podcast community. I know one of those ways was that the business development podcast community is a long bloody name. We need a better name for it.

And I know we've kind of had like. A few ideas and we've been going back and forth about it. You guys know that I love my rock stars. I feel like that. I really like that one. I'm not sure if that's necessarily the final one that we're going to go with, but, you know, just back and forth with you guys. Do you guys want to chat a little bit about the community?

Cole Chorney: One of the things we really kind of recognize is that, you know, a lot of the advice off of our show, it'll come from, you know, business development backgrounds, but we also have guest episodes and they bring on some really unique, cool perspectives and kind of touch on a whole bunch of different things.

And we kind of recognize that each and every one of our listeners has their own story and their own experience, right? So one of the things we really want to do is we want to. We want to, you know, unify that and bring everybody together. And, you know, maybe, maybe it's not something you learned from Kelly Kennedy necessarily, but maybe it's something that you learned from another person that also listens to the show.

Right. So we, we were looking at ways to try and bring people together in that sense. And really just, you know, make this knowledge flow freely, I guess, is at the end of the day, what we want to do. So yeah, that's, that's just one thing I had on you know, that aspect going into 2024. That's, that's one of the things we're looking to do.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. And so I want to touch on that quickly, Cole. And so kind of what Cole's suggesting is my gosh, you guys write into us with your community wins and we absolutely love them. We want to talk to you about them. We want to, we want you guys to broadcast your community wins to the world. And so if you guys are getting this episode today, there's a couple ways you can do that.

You can either record your own win. If you want to send it over to us via email, you can always send that to us at podcast@capitalbd.ca if you want it to self record. Your own story or your own business success that you've had with the podcast, which would be amazing. And I think there's a ton of people who would love to listen to your story.

The other way is if you, if you just want to do it simply, it's just really quick couple minutes. You're welcome to hop on our website now and you can leave a voicemail for us right on the website. And we want to do this both for community questions moving forward, but also just feedback on the show or your own real quick story, right?

If you guys have a win or a quick story or a community question, please send it to us on voice. We can share it then with the audience, with our lovely business development podcast world. And we can, we can do essentially Q& As that are like real people, which we're really excited about. So we want to incorporate a lot more of you.

Into 2024, 2024. We want our listenership, our community involved. And so anything you guys want to send us, I want to hear it. Send it over to podcast@capitalbd.ca or leave us a voicemail right on the website. The only caveat to the voicemail on the website is it's two minutes long. So if it's longer than two minutes, you'll have to leave two voicemails or it makes maybe more sense if it's a longer story to just rerecord your story on your computer and then send it to us as like a WAV file or something.

And we can take a look at it that way. But. We want to involve our community in 2024. You know, we didn't touch on it much, Cole, but you did talk about our guests. And I do want to spend a little bit of time there because this show wouldn't have made it where it is without the amazing, amazing guests we've had on this show.

And we have had so many amazing guests. Actually, as of this recording of this episode, We have 40 guest episodes 40 blows my mind that we have 40 guest episodes. And I especially want to reach out to our very first guests and very specifically to one specifically McKinley Hyland. My gosh. You know, McKinley and me had been talking briefly, lots of stuff regarding, you know, inspection services and stuff ahead of that.

McKinley is actually a sponsor of this show. He's also a client of, of Capital Business Development, but long before both those things, he was our very first guest on the Business Development Podcast. And my gosh, like what a risk he took. And the trust that it takes to come on to somebody's podcast in the very, very beginning, when, who knows, like it could have been the worst show ever.

It could have ended up just being a total bomb. And nobody listened. And heck, like, you know, just the faith that he had in me to do that. And you know, frankly, and I mean that for like probably our first 15 or 20 guests, who took a risk with the business development podcast and came on. They're amazing.

They're all amazing. Every guest we've had on the show. I appreciate you guys immensely. I know some of you are listening to this. I know also some of you might have thought this was going to be a different show. I had to change up our format for the, for the road to 100. I did originally want to involve more guests in it.

The ask was a bit too much to ask though, which is what, what kind of ended up happening. The conclusion that I came to at the end. And so yeah, in this particular case, I know some of them are like, ah, but you know, it's nothing against you guys. It's just, I recognize pretty quickly, it was going to be too much to ask all of our guests to contribute to this, not to mention trying to edit all that together would have been a total nightmare.

So there's a couple of reasons, but you're all appreciated immensely. The show could not be where it's at today. This is your win just as much as it's our win. This show would not be here without your expert advice and we look forward to having most of you back in 2024 as well for further episodes and for more great, great conversations and educational experiences for our listeners.

So to each and every one of the guests of the business development podcast, you guys know who you are. There's so many of you. I think there's at least 35 and you're appreciated immensely. And thank you so much for helping the show accomplish what it has and for teaching our amazing community through your own expert guest experience.

So, Just a little moment to our guests. Appreciate them immensely. I love them. They're amazing. And they have become, some of them have become like family to this show too. Like the reality is some of them have been on three, four times. We appreciate them so much. They're so kind, so supportive. Our community is not just our listenership.

It is a community of expert guests as well. And we could not have done this without them. So thank you expert guests for all you have done for us. And I guess for, you know, we're wrapping it up, we're coming to the end of of our journey to 100 and I hope that we, we've touched on everything that we wanted to.

One of the things that we wanted to talk about was, what about the next 100 episodes, right? Like, goals is a big thing. We talk about goals all the time on the show. You know, I like to set annual goals, I like to set monthly goals and figure out kind of where we're going to go. You know, it's it's funny.

There's something about goals that just tends to make them happen. There's something weird about writing down your goals and figuring out where you want to go. And so we did have a few Cole, I'd love to talk to you a little bit about this one. So obviously we talked about goals for the podcast in 2024, our next 100 episodes.

One of the goals we talked about was, I think we can hit 500, 000 downloads in 2024.

Cole Chorney: Yeah, no, I think we can too. I think it's going to take a big year, but I know we can do it. It's gonna, it's going to take a lot of to be honest with you guys coming up with show topics, isn't exactly the easiest thing to do.

No, but you know, it's. It's great when we have your involvement as well. Any, any recommendations or ideas? That's that's always welcome. Also to, you know, our guests are just, you know, notice respect to our early guests as we've, we've talked about before, but you know, our, our guests just keep getting better and better over time.

And it's, it's been awesome to see you know, all the guests obviously very valued. And like I said, no disrespect to the early ones, but you know, we're, we're having a waitlist now for the guests to get on our show. And that was early days. That wasn't always the case. Right. So it's really been great to see.

And I think definitely with, with those aspects, we're, we're in a good spot to make it happen. So now we just got to put the work in and keep putting out good content and we'll, we'll see what happens.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. And I think the reason that we have a waitlist call is that. With our, with our guests, this isn't about putting you on the spot or putting you guys, this is about a highlight.

You guys all have something to give back to the community. You have something to give back to the world. My CEOs, founders, presidents, experts in various fields, you didn't get there overnight. You all have amazing, amazing journeys and stories. And that's what we highlight on the Business Development Podcast, right?

And so we treat our guests with a lot of, of respect. That they, that they frankly deserve, they frankly deserve the respect that they get treated with on the show and that's why we have a waiting list call is that we treat our guests amazing, we make sure that their story is highlighted and we make sure that they're given the respect that they have earned and that they deserve to come on the show and I think the empathy and respect goes a long way.

I think they don't get that on every podcast. I think some of them get asked to come on podcast just to get hammered or to get slammed or to get put on the spot and made to feel awkward. And That's not the show we do. So I think that is a flip. That is the reason that we do have a waiting list now for guests.

And I think that as 2024 rolls on, those guests are just going to continue to go up in quality and up in quality and up in quality as they start to realize that the business development podcast is about them. It's about Their journey, and it's not about throwing them under the bus. It's about their celebration.

Cole Chorney: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more.

Kelly Kennedy: Not to mention, I think with the business development podcast, we've done a great job, especially about highlighting, not necessarily every super accomplished guest either. I think a big part of the show being successful is that we like to highlight people, even when they just have great ideas or great, or they're experts in various fields, right?

You know, we've had a lot of help from the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, and I do want to highlight them specifically Ken Gee and Amin Samji, really went out of their way to help grow this show. Each one of them went out of their way to help make this show what it is to help us to kind of get some of those initial guests, make those initial introductions.

And man, some of the guests we've had through the Edmonton chamber have been absolutely amazing and cool founder stories and just great people overall. And so we get to not just build the business community in Canada, but. I really like to highlight Calgary and Edmonton specifically, which is our home.

And we get to really highlight some cool founders that I'm not necessarily sure would have got the airtime without the business development podcast to be able to do that for them. So I think we get to do it on a couple of different levels. We get to highlight Canadian business and business in general, but we also get to help our own community, which is something that is a important thing here for the business development podcast.

Shelby Hobbs: The Alberta economy, I think just like you don't distinguish between your wins, you don't distinguish between your guests. You know, everybody has their, has their expertise and their value that they bring just like every listener does. And I think not distinguishing between them has been has been something that you've done really well.

Kelly Kennedy: Thank you. Yeah. And the reality is it's, you know, everybody starts somewhere and a good idea is a good idea no matter how long it's been around. So I like to, I like to highlight that because the reality is we have a lot of innovative young people here in Alberta. A lot of innovative young people across Canada, and you know, we want to hear from you guys, too.

You guys don't have to be around. You don't have to be the biggest success story on the planet Earth. You just, I love it when you guys shake things up and bring me in on it. So, you know, keep in mind, you know, we will, we love the great, the long time executives. We love the 20 year, you know, super, super people, but you know, we love the one or two year super people, too.

You guys are just as important. Your stories are just as important, and the work you're doing is going to shape tomorrow. And so, I'm, I'm game. I'm game either way.

Shelby Hobbs: So what else is, what else is next for your next 100 episodes in the business development podcast?

Kelly Kennedy: So we're going to continue to commit to two episodes a week.

I have zero reason to not want to continue doing that. I love the pace. It's the pace, frankly, at this point that I'm used to. So, you know, if you guys love our two episodes a week and you're like, I sure hope Kelly's going to keep doing it. I'm making a commitment to you right now. I'm going to keep doing it two episodes a week throughout 2024 of the business development podcast is going to keep coming to your inbox.

And we're excited about it. We have great guests, you know, like, like Cole said, we're booked right now. I think all the way to March, we have Fridays booked all the way to March for expert guest interviews. So we have a lot of cool guests coming on a lot of big companies coming on here in January of 2024.

Kind of getting the word out about some stuff that can help you guys out. So I'm excited about those shows. And yeah, the other thing that we've committed to is more engagement with our community. Obviously the first year was really about establishing this show and figuring out how we're going to run it.

Now that we've established it, we figured out how we're going to run it. We want more interaction with our community. Like Cole mentioned podcast episodes are, are, you know, they're driven by us, but they're also driven by what is it that our community wants? What is it that's going to be valuable? And so.

We're looking for feedback from you guys on what type of topics you would like us to cover in 2024. We've had a lot of feedback actually on the proposal playbook series which was one that kind of came out of left field and that one came out of left field for us because we were in the middle of revamping our own proposal structures at capital and so a lot of that came from hard lessons learned from other proposals and so proposal playbook was Was something that came out of left field.

And you guys know that because it kind of took up some of our Christmas stuff early that we weren't anticipating having to change. So but yeah, the proposal playbook has had amazing feedback. Lots of people reaching out saying they're going to implement it in their organization. That they've had some hard conversations internally after listening to it and realizing that, oh crap, now we got to revamp our proposals and make sure that we are providing value and we're showing it.

We're showing ROI and we're showing either, you know, a profit or a savings of some type. And so, yeah, that was a cool one came out of left field, but those are going to happen. And so. You know, we're that I'm looking for ideas kind of like that. If there are things that come up for you and your organization on the business development side, where you're looking for next steps, you're looking for what to do next or you're just looking for a specific set of guidance and help, please do reach out to the business development podcast, suggest some new topics.

I've had about five to 10 recently suggested that I've written down and we will be incorporating in 2024. But if you're hearing this today and you're like, yeah, I have a great idea for the business development podcast. We want to hear about it. So. Feel free to, like I said, either leave us a voicemail, shoot me a LinkedIn message, or just shoot us a, on the podcast email, and we'll make sure that we get back to you on it.

So that's another commitment. Definitely committing to our listenership over 2024. The other thing that I wanna make a commitment to, and it's gonna be fun, we're we're going to give you a name, . I promise. I love it. I love, I love the names that we get from, from other podcasts that I listen to, and I've been wanting to do it for a while, but it's a hard community to pick a name for, and so we're working on it on the backend.

But if you guys have any suggestions or like you like specific names, you're like, Kelly, come on. I know exactly what this should be. Reach out to us. Let us know. I would love to have a name for us. Hopefully by February of 2024 by our one year anniversary, I would like to maybe celebrate it by giving our community a name, a group, something that we can unite in.

And yeah, so that's another thing that I'm committing to here in 2024. We've talked about it internally. We're looking a little bit for feedback from our community. How would you guys feel about potentially webinars in 2024? This is something that we don't have a ton of experience in but, you know, we're definitely open to looking at it and learning.

Potentially, we could do an educational series of webinars that we invite our community to in various ways. We're still looking at how, how you even incorporate something like that on the backend. But I do think that we are committed to putting together at least one webinar for you guys in 2024, if not more, I guess we'll, we'll see what the feedback's like, but if you guys are interested in seeing a webinar, if that's something you guys think you would attend.

Feel free to just let me know because I think if we were to get like, you know, a hundred people reach out and say, yeah, we would love to maybe attend a webinar for the business film and podcast, maybe use something that's a very business development specific course. Let me know if I get like a hundred people reach out and say, yeah, it's something we would be interested in.

I think, I think we would take a look at putting it on. So I think a webinar is something. And then, obviously, we're committed to to keeping up with the level of guests we've been doing, right? So, obviously, we're always raising the bar with the guests and that's never going to stop. But I think 2024 that commitment is going to go above and beyond.

We are already getting some absolutely amazing guests and we're looking forward to kind of the next level, the next steps that we can take this. So, you can expect us to just keep raising the bar and making sure that we are getting you guys relevant. Great experts in various fields to be able to help you take your organizations to the next level.

And that's definitely a commitment that that we will make to you guys in 2024. We talked about it briefly series, obviously we did proposal playbook series. I think there will at least be one or two more series in 2024. I don't have them planned out yet. I don't, I'm not sure what they will be. Like I said, proposal playbook fell out of left field.

So who knows, maybe it's still waiting to fall out of left field. But I think you can expect at least another series in 2024, if not two. And then business development experts coming in on Wednesday episodes. So we've spent a lot of time here focused on, you know, other entrepreneur, executives, experts in other fields, we're in business development.

Right. And there are a lot of business development people who, frankly, just haven't had a chance to have their voice heard or haven't got the recognition for the amazing work that they are doing. And so, to my lovely business development people, I intend to, to do a sounding board and be able to have kind of a back and forth conversation with you on your stories.

And I think you can expect to see, I would like to do some of those on Wednesdays, I think moving into 2024. So we are looking for a list of expert business development people who've been around the block, know what they're talking about and want to come on and have a conversation. I think we can expect to do some of that in 2024.

So it's going to be a big year. We have a lot planned, a lot going on, and I'm really, really looking forward to it. Cole, do you have anything that you want to, you want to say as we wrap this thing up today?

Cole Chorney: It's been a really cool journey so far just from where it started to where it is now, and not to make it sound cliche or anything like that, but, you know, just showing up at your door, Kelly, and then seeing where it is today.

Like, it's, it's pretty incredible. You know, I'm really proud of you for the work you put into the show, and I know you expressed how thankful you are for both of us here in the community and whatnot, but. Definitely very proud of you for all the effort I've seen you put into this. And there's been a lot of you know, a lot of conversations we've had on the backend.

I've seen, you know, just how much work this takes and the effort that's required to do something like this. But yeah, that's, that's kind of the last thing I want to wrap this up on is congratulations, Kelly, like you really deserve this and I'm very proud of you.

Kelly Kennedy: Thanks, dude. Thanks. I really appreciate that.

You know, one of the things that I just wanted to touch on before we wrap up and you know, sponsorship is something that's come in very late in the show, but we have had the good fortune to have some pretty amazing sponsors step up. So I do want to thank atWork Office Furniture. I want to thank Hypervac Technologies, and I want to thank Maverick NDT Inspection for coming on early, taking a risk with us.

The reality is that At this point in the show, we really want to grow and reach a really large audience. And really these sponsorships, they don't just help us, they really help every listener of this show. They help us to take this to the next level, to be able to keep up the high levels of production, to be able to keep up the high levels of work that go on behind the scenes, and to be able to market this show to a really, really wide audience.

So sponsorship. helps us help you. And I appreciate them immensely. And I want to just thank them really briefly for stepping up and doing so much for us on the business development podcast. And we appreciate them immensely. So thank you so much for stepping up various sponsors of the business development podcast.

And then I wanted to wrap this up obviously just by saying a gigantic Thank you to my beautiful fiance, Shelby Hobbs, who is on the call with us today. And it is her birthday. It is her 32nd birthday. And instead of just celebrating with her lovely birthday cake and my beautiful son, she is on here conversating with us.

And I just want to say thank you, baby, for everything you do for me, for our family, and for this podcast and each and every one of their listeners. They owe, they owe you a debt of gratitude as well. Hmm.

Shelby Hobbs: Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah, this has been a lot of fun and I've hopefully been very quiet as I've been nursing a baby and bouncing a baby and burping a baby throughout this whole recording and no, it's been a really wonderful birthday so far.

I, we probably could have. Gone without sharing the exact number of the birthday, but no, it's been a really beautiful day so far. You got up early, made me breakfast, maybe some French toast. I had a present and I've got just so many blessings this year. And so I'm very thankful. This has been a really amazing way to spend a birthday.

We're baking some bread for our neighbors. Feels like a very. 32nd year old birthday, feels very grown up and very peaceful. And I'm just very thankful for, for you and for our boys and for this podcast and, and yeah, just thankful to be here.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes, yes. And you know, gratitude and thanks is definitely something that, you know, I've had a lot of this year, you know, could it be better?

Yeah, of course, always right. But the reality is, is that sometimes you just got to be really thankful for where you're at and for all the blessings that you have. And the reality is, is that here in the Kennedy household, we have a lot of blessings. And I'm thankful for each and every one of them. And I'm thankful that we have you.

Some, some four very beautiful, healthy boys that we have a roof over our head, that we have all the food we need, that we have family who love us. And then we have, you know, amazing employees such as Cole to work with us. And I couldn't be more grateful, even though it's like, yeah, are we ever where we necessarily want to be?

Not always, you know, and I have a conversation with an upcoming guest about that, where it's like, how do you know you're like where you want to be? But the reality is that. I think it's easy to always want to be someplace better and to be striving for that all the time, but I think it's equally important to just be thankful for where you are and all we have accomplished.

And, you know, the three people we have on this line today have accomplished a tremendous, tremendous amount in 2023, more than I could have ever imagined. And You know, I just want to say, you know, Cole, Shelby, I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you for everything you do. Thank you for your dedication.

Thank you for your help, your support, emotionally, and every other way. This this show wouldn't be what it is without you. And I wouldn't be who I am without you. And so, thank you for everything.

Shelby Hobbs: Thank you. Yeah, sometimes when you're Sometimes when you're climbing that mountain, you gotta turn around and look at how far you've come.

You can't always just be looking at the next peak. You gotta turn around and acknowledge the journey and, and every step you've taken to get here. So, I think it's equally important to stop and do that. And I feel like this is really one of those milestone moments for all of us. And just very thankful to share it with you guys.

And yeah, I'm gonna go punch down some bread dough now.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh, goodness. Well, here's to the next hundred everybody. Until next time, we'll catch you on the flip side.

Outro: This has been the Business Development Podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly has 15 years in sales. 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.

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