Weathering the Storms of Unplanned Events

Weathering the Storms of Unplanned Events

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 48 of the business development podcast. And on today's episode, we are talking about when things don't go to plan. I know it's a tough one. Stay tuned.

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

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

And now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello everyone. Welcome to episode 48 of the Business Development Podcast. Today's episode is an interesting one and I've mentioned it before that some episodes are more challenging than others. And today's episode is definitely one of them. Today I wanted to talk about something, a subject that we don't hit on a lot in business.

Uppity and optimistic and looking forward, but what do we do when things don't go to plan? When things don't go quite how we planned it all out, right? If we're in business development, sales, or any type of business for that matter, this, this happens and it happens more often than we'd like, right? And the reality is there's a lot of variables going on all the time.

You know, whether that be in our cold calls, we don't control how our customers react. We don't control when our products and services don't go to plan or don't work as expected. Sometimes we just don't control life when life comes up and kicks us in the butt, which it just does sometimes. And we're all trying to kind of juggle this.

We got it all figured out and it's going to work. With the reality that sometimes things don't always work. And I'm going to be candid with you, my lovely business development podcast, episode listeners, things didn't go to plan for me this week. This was not the episode that I had planned for that that I had scheduled.

Some things kicked up and it didn't work out. It didn't go to plan, but that's okay because we're going to make the best of it. Anyway, we're going to have a great show anyway, because life goes on, right? We have to just, we have to pick up the pieces and we have to find new options. And I'm very pleased to say that I'm very excited for our upcoming 50th episode.

I have a great show planned. I'm really excited to host this one with you guys. And I think you're really going to like it. But like I said, we're always looking forward. We're always trying to find kind of the next big thing. And Yeah, this week things didn't go to plan, but we are going to talk about that.

We're going to talk about it. We're going to address it. I'm going to list a few situations where things did not go to plan, but we figured it out anyway. And hopefully we inspire you guys to take the next step to move forward and to keep on trucking, even when it's tough, when things don't. Go to plan.

Okay. All right. So first off, before we kick off today's episode, I want to chat about community questions and thank you so much. If you have submitted community questions, they are coming in and I am greatly appreciative and looking forward to answering them for you on a future community questions episode.

I think right now. We're sitting at around, I think five or six questions. So need a few more. So if you're listening to this episode, shoot us a line podcast@capitalbd.ca subject line, community questions, that's podcast@capitalbd.ca subject line, community questions, and shoot us your business development and business growth questions.

And I will do my best to give you an answer, to help your business move forward, to help you move forward. And bring them on. I love great questions. I definitely have some hard ones. People have not been easy on me, but I am going to do my best and I am going to be honest and truthful and we will do our best to move these forward.

And like I said, They can be challenging. I have no issue with that. I love to have good questions. And if I have an answer, I will give it. And if I don't have an answer, I'll let you know, and I will try to answer it to the best of my ability. But you know, the reality is some of these questions are probably better answered by future guests.

And maybe that's something that I can do as well is try to convey some of these questions to future guests to try to for some of the more challenging ones or more subject specific where I don't may or may not have that background if I can have somebody else. Come on. Who's an expert to kind of maybe go over that question with them.

We might try to do that in future episodes. Okay. So once again podcast community questions, please shoot it over podcast@capitalbd.ca subject line community questions to shoot us all your business development questions for a future community questions episode. All right. So. Right? We got into it at the beginning of the show.

Things did not go to plan this week. You know what? I'll be straight. I had a really great week though. Right? We had some really great things happen this week. Both personally, in the business, we've gotten a new client at Capital Business Development. Very excited about that. I had some huge wins with some of my clients that I'm working with this week.

We had some really great meetings booked. Some really great meetings lined up. And some great RFQs and RFPs that came in. Which... Yeah, obviously I'm very excited about because they're great opportunities for my clients. And I always look at wins for them as wins for myself as well. And I think most of us business development people do, we always love to have some good wins under our belt, and I'm very excited about some of the opportunities that have kind of fallen into our lap over the last week, but there have definitely been.

situations where, you know, I feel like I, I fell short or that they didn't go to plan, you know, like I've struggled this week, frankly, as a parent, I've struggled as a boss, I've struggled as a podcaster. And like I said, don't get me wrong, we had some great successes this week. But yeah, things sometimes they just don't go to plan.

And It can be tough, but it is important that we're always looking forward, that we're finding the next opportunity, that, yeah, take your minute. Take, take your minute, right? But remember that you, you can't live in that minute. We need to take it to the next step. We need to rebook that failed meeting. We need to reschedule.

We need to pick up the phone and make another call. You had a bad call? Okay, I get it. It hurts. What happens if you don't pick up that phone and make the next call, right? What happens? You're not going to move forward. And it is important to pick ourselves up. Part of picking ourselves up is moving forward.

It's taking that hard step. It's making that hard phone call. It's apologizing in some cases, right? It's rebooking that meeting. It's doing the things that it's doing something. It's taking action to take us to the next step that we have to, we have to remember, even when we have something not go to plan.

We have to try to take action to move forward into that next step, right? Life happens, things don't always go to plan, but it is important that we try to keep a positive outlook to the situation, that we try not to let it bring us down or hold us back or, or stop us from making that next phone call, right?

You know, when you think about people and phone calls you know, we all struggle with cold calls. I've been in business development now for like 12 plus years and there are still days where I absolutely hate making cold calls. I struggle to pick up and make that first three or four calls. It's not unique.

It's not unique. It happens to everybody and it doesn't matter whether you're highly experienced in cold calls or whether you're making your first five. The nerves are there. The anxiety is there and sometimes it's like. Sometimes I even question what the fear is because I recognize in business development.

That, you know, the reality is I'm going to make those five calls, they're probably going to go great and I'm going to just continue to make calls and book meetings and life's going to be fine and dandy. But it's like, in my mind, there's still that, there's still that fear. That, that thing that holds us back from picking up the phone and making those first few calls, right?

And it's so funny because it's such like It's such an oh, what do you call it when a fear isn't really manifestable? Like, there's no hurt. I'm not going to die if I make these calls, right? There's pretty much no, no bad, bad thing that can happen to me if, by making these phone calls. But yet, yeah, it's still, it's still in my mind.

Like that fear of like, oh, what happens if they tell me no? Or what happens if I fail? They just tell me right off the bat, like. Oh, you, you know, we don't need your product or service, but like, it's so funny. Think about this for a second. The one thing holding you back from making more sales, from doing more business, from growing your business properly is probably making those 20 to 30 phone cold calls that you need to make.

Right. And yet, you know, you, you might be holding back because you're afraid that they're going to yell at you or they're going to tell you no, or they're going to tell you that your product or service is not what they need today. But like. Think about it. It has no physical ill effect on you personally, aside from like, yeah, it sucks to get yelled at, or it sucks that someone tells you no, right.

But you recognize that like you pick up the phone, you make that next call and they're going to be excited to talk to you. They're going to be happy you called and introduce them to your product or service. So it's like. It's so funny because we're fighting this like unrealistic fear of failure and we're really fighting it in so many areas of our life that like, it doesn't matter whether it's the cold calls, whether it's like asking for a raise, whether it's asking for a promotion, whether it's, you know, it's like anything that we have to ask for or like do, sometimes we just have that internal fear of failure that holds us back.

But the funny thing is when you really think about it. That fear of, like, the outcome is worse if we don't take those actions, isn't it? Right? The outcome is actually worse. If you don't make the cold calls and introduce your company to new companies, your company's gonna fail. Your company's gonna fail.

If you don't ask for that raise, or you don't ask for that promotion, or you don't show initiative, You're not going to move up in the company if like, if you don't ask for the meeting, they're not going to give it to you and you're going to, you're not going to get the meetings that you need to grow like the, the risk of not taking action, the risk of not putting yourself out there and facing your fear is actually worse.

It's actually worse. The likelihood of you failing is higher. If you don't take action, then it is if you take action and experience a little bit of failure along the way. So, I just like, I wanted to get into this today and say that like, yeah, things don't go to plan. There's lots of situations in your life where things are not going to go to plan.

You have to move forward anyway. You have to pick yourself up. You know, my dad gave me a great piece of advice when I was a kid. I, I had, I had a challenging youth. I did. I, I lost some people very close to me. I, I had some deaths of very, very close friends at a young age, and it hurt, and it hurt, and that still hurts.

There's still days where I think about them, and yeah, it's very, very painful. I think anybody who's lost close people to them, you know, whether it be family or friends. There's a hurt there. There's a hurt there that, you know, it's, it's so funny because you think it's all gone and then one day you'll think about them and it comes rushing right back.

And you know, I remember my dad telling me I was, I was, I was in my room and I was, I was struggling. And he came into my room and he said, Kel, I know you're hurting right now. But you need to go out and you need to do something that you would have done before, you know, whether I think what he meant at the time was like, you need to either go to a movie or like, go for a run or, you know, go rollerblading, just live life was what he told me he said, he said, Right now you're faking it to live life, you're faking it.

But one day you're gonna wake up and you're not going to be faking it anymore. You'll be back to life. And he was absolutely right. He was absolutely right. This is the best advice that my dad ever gave me and that was that, you know, even when things are hard, if you just, if you just move forward and you do the things you would have done anyway, yeah, they're really, really hard.

They're really hard. And maybe that is making those 10 phone calls for a while until until it becomes second nature, right? Maybe you are struggling with a loss. And maybe you are just coming back to life again. And part of that process is that you need to live life. And maybe it hurts for a little bit.

But one day you're gonna wake up and that hurt's gonna hurt a little less. And then a little less. And then a little less. And the next thing you know... You're living life again. You're living life again. And this is the same for just about anything, whether or not you're recovering, you know, you're having to do something that you're uncomfortable with, right?

It's imposter syndrome. We talk about this all the time, right? One day you wake up and you're no longer an imposter, but the secret to beating imposter syndrome is to do the thing that you feel like an imposter doing until it no longer, until you no longer feel like an imposter, right? And it's the same thing.

With when things don't go to plan, right? You just got to pick yourself up and live life, you know, keep going, keep doing the things that you would have done anyway, and the next thing, you know, that hiccup you're going to have overcome it and you're going to be moving forward to the next, the next step in your life, the next step in your business career, the next step in your sales career, whatever that might be, you're going to be on to the next step.

If we sit and dwell or we, or we don't take action, that's the situation that burns us. That's the situation. That truly causes pain for us. Okay. So even when things don't go to plan, there are always ways to find the positives. Okay. There are always ways to find the positives and I get it. I get it.

Sometimes they're really hard to see. I know, I know because I've been in business development a long time. I've worked some days. That I did not want to work. Okay. And I'm not saying that everyone has to push through. That's not what I'm saying here. What I'm saying is that for me, in my case, in my life, that has been the approach that I've taken most of the time.

And yeah, it's worked out for me. It really has. So there've been a lot of situations where, yeah, I had to push through, right? You know, like we all do, and I'm not alone in this. You know, there's a lot of business development people. There's a lot of salespeople. There's a lot of people in any profession that have crazy things going on in their life, in their personal life that, yeah, it's very hard sometimes to be able to show up to work when you're struggling in your personal life and believe me.

Believe me, if anybody knows this, it's me, but it is doable. You can do it. And yeah, maybe, maybe the job suffers a little bit for a little while, right? Maybe it does. And you know what? I've been guilty of this. I've been guilty of this where. Yeah, maybe I didn't give it 110% on that day that I was crushed internally for whatever reason.

But yeah, eventually, because I showed up to work, because I put in the effort, because I continued to do what I needed to do, because I was being resilient and moving forward, eventually, we were right back to normal and output was as normal and things kept coming along and life was good, right? There is something to be said about, about, continuing to do life, even when life is hard, because it really is the path forward.

It really is. You have to keep taking action to dig yourself out of the hole. You have to take action in your own life and responsibility in your own life for your own well being and your own. Business well being as well, right? And as business owners, yeah, this is tough because we're juggling a lot, right?

Most of us are working for our own clients. We're managing employees. Heck, we might even be doing a podcast, right? And it's a lot of life. And, you know, like, and we're parents, most of us. So, like, throw all of that in and expect us all to balance it perfectly. It's just never going to balance perfectly, right?

The myth of work life balance, like Tash blew it out of the water when we had that interview and just said, look, it's, it doesn't exist. There is no balance. There is no work life balance. You know, you're always either gonna be giving too much one way or another, and you gotta find what works for you. You gotta find what works for you.

But, trust me, if you are struggling, if you've hit a hiccup, heck, if you're having a bad day, remember, it's just one day. It's just one hiccup. It's one bad call. It's one bad meeting. It doesn't have to wreck. The rest of the day, it doesn't have to wreck the rest of your week. You can give it its moment and move forward.

You can give it the moment and move forward. But when things don't go to plan, it's okay. It's okay. Just move forward. Just find a way to move forward. Okay. I'm going to tell just a personal story to close off today's show. Because I remember it was so funny. I, this is actually fairly recent. Like this actually happened within the last year.

And there was a client that I was working with and we were scheduling a meeting with a company here in Edmonton. And it was one that I knew was important for my client. My client wanted it. And I, I called this client multiple times. And I kid you not. I would show up for the meeting. I was just outside of the restaurant that we were meeting this client at and they would call me not five minutes before the meeting and say, Kelly, I'm so sorry.

Something came up and I cannot make this meeting. And this happened not once. Not twice. Three times. This client cancelled me out three times. And I'd driven to the city, like, I'd probably put in like a hundred kilometres to go and see this client. And Yeah, it was super, super disappointing. Each time, each time, it was very disappointing.

And I remember calling my client and apologizing and saying, Sorry, like I, you know, I'm not sure they confirmed this meeting. We showed up and they're not here. And yeah, could I have, could I have let that burn me and like wreck my day and just say, You know what? No, not happening. No. Do you know what I did?

I text this client back and said, not a problem. I'm sorry that we weren't able to connect today. I look forward to the next meeting. And yeah, yeah, it was hard. I get it. Like, believe me, I was like, I could, I could, you know, I could break my own rules and I could be like, what the hell? Why? Why are you keep canceling this meeting?

But I didn't. No, I kept my cool. I I just, I thanked them. I thanked them for the opportunity. I said, I look forward to the next one. Let's line it up. I kid you not. I booked this meeting again. And yes, they showed up and we had an absolutely awesome meeting. This client was actually awesome. And unfortunately, yeah, there was some things that ended up coming up each time.

And yeah, could the client have done better? Probably, but whatever it worked out in the end, it worked out in the end, because I kept my hope up. I kept my optimism. I treated the client with respect, even though I was super disappointed personally. And when it came down to it, The outcome was great. The outcome was great.

We move forward as possible. Could I have, could I have let that meeting like wreck me and just like stop pursuing it? Of course, of course. Could I have, could I have let it wreck me and not make calls for yesterday? Of course, I could, but I didn't. I just, I, you know, I took it. I was disappointed for a little bit, but I moved forward, made the calls, moved to the next section.

And yeah, in the end, we had benefit. I've had tons. of meetings fall through. And yeah, they were super disappointing, right? It's super disappointing when you have a meeting all lined up and it falls through. What do I do in those situations? When I have a meeting fall through, usually what I do is I immediately move to rebook the meeting, right?

You know, I always give them the benefit of the doubt and I say, look, you know, I'm not sure what happened, but if it was my mistake, my apologies. I look forward to our next connection. Can we reschedule this meeting? And you would be surprised how many times a no show will still reschedule the meeting.

And you know what? Most of the time they show up the next time. So the secret is to stay optimistic. Don't get upset. Don't get disgruntled. Take action. Move forward. And, and, and in the case of something like this, rebook the meeting, rebook the meeting. And you would be surprised how many times when you take action and you rebook the meeting, things eventually go to plan.

Things do tend to work out in the end, right? The secret, just like anything else that we talk about on this show, is we have to stay positive. We have to be moving forward. We have to take action. And we always have to, we always have to do, we always have to do the thing that that's been holding us back essentially, right?

In the case of something like this, we have to, we have to rebook the meeting or we have to, we have to move to the next steps, right? But we always have to be looking forward. We always have to be reaching for the next step to be successful, okay? Clients cancel meetings all the time. Just reschedule it, reschedule it.

You would be surprised how often that works out for you. This has been episode 48. Thank you so much for sticking around with us today. Really looking forward to this next week. Have some big things coming up for us at Capital Business Development. I really appreciate you guys tuning into this show today.

And if you've enjoyed this show, please follow us, rate, subscribe on your platform of choice. And until next time. We will catch you on the flip side.

Outro: This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020, his passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development. The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your Business Development Specialists. For more, we invite you to the website @ www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.